Should the Red Sox retire No. 24 for both Dwight Evans and Manny Ramirez?
Perhaps the most fitting scenario for this is to retire it in Evans’s honor, then have Manny show up and crash the party.
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What do you think of the Red Sox retiring No. 24 for both Dwight Evans and Manny Ramirez, similar to Cubs with Greg Maddux/Fergie Jenkins (No. 31) and Yankees with Yogi Berra/Bill Dickey (No. 8)? I am all for it and think both are deserving (despite Manny’s antics). – Jay L.
I am with you 100 percent, Jay. I mean, I’d be fine with retiring it solely for Evans, who hit 379 homers with an .842 OPS and won eight Gold Gloves in 19 seasons with the Red Sox. He is a franchise icon, not in the Teddy/Yaz sense, but in the next tier. He should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame, he will be someday, and no matter what you have heard, he definitely did not play a final season in Orioles orange. We just imagined that.
But the Red Sox still do give out his number – David Price wore it the last four seasons – and another legend happened to have it for 7 ½ years from 2001 until the July 2008 trading deadline. In 1,083 games with the Red Sox, the one and only Manny Ramirez hit 274 homers, posted a .999 OPS, batted .312, won a World Series MVP award, and hit a baseball off of Francisco Rodriguez that may someday be discovered by the Space Force. Yes, his defense was adventurous, and he bordered on the insubordinate at times, but Red Sox history would be so much duller without him.
Perhaps the most fitting scenario for this is to retire it in Evans’s honor, then have Manny show up and crash the party. No. 24 should be on that right-field facade, and for more than one reason.
What does everyone else think? Should the Red Sox retire No. 24 for Dwight Evans and Manny Ramirez? I’ll hear you in the comments.
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