August 14, 200619 yr Alright folks... I am sure we have all heard about this amazing program that MLB is doing currently. We are going to decide on this board who is the hometown hero for all 30 MLB teams. I'd love for some amazing discussion on all of the teams in this great game of baseball. If you dont see your team today, dont worry, it will be up eventually. But please, give your input, this series of debates can be exactly what you make them, so make it awesome. So without further ado... The Boston Red Sox Hometown Hero Nominees: Roger Clemens Jim Rice Ted Williams Carl Yastrezemski Cy Young Make your choice, but also explain your reasoning, this should be fun, lets make it fun. Try to keep it serious and put some meat behind your selections, this is meant to be a fun debate, so let's make it one.
August 14, 200619 yr Ted Williams was the greatest hitter to ever play the game Clemens was the best postwar righthanded pitcher So essentially, it's between those two...since Williams played his entire career with them, my vote goes to him BTW, the fact that Jim Rice is one of the choices just shows how overrated this franchise is historically
August 14, 200619 yr Ted Williams was the greatest hitter to ever play the game Clemens was the best postwar righthanded pitcher So essentially, it's between those two...since Williams played his entire career with them, my vote goes to him BTW, the fact that Jim Rice is one of the choices just shows how overrated this franchise is historically It's not the greatest players in team history, that's not the criteria. That said, Jim Rice could still be a hall of famer. Sox are going to have two more hall of famers within the next 10 years anyways. It's Ted Williams, not really close.
August 14, 200619 yr Ted Williams was the greatest hitter to ever play the game Clemens was the best postwar righthanded pitcher So essentially, it's between those two...since Williams played his entire career with them, my vote goes to him BTW, the fact that Jim Rice is one of the choices just shows how overrated this franchise is historically And what exactly have the Giants done since they moved to San Fran? That being said, Ted Williams or Yaz are it. And it has to go to Ted just because he'd have a lot better numbers if he was not drafted for the war.
August 16, 200619 yr It's not clear to me how this is being judged. Probably well over 50% of the people in Boston right now weren't even alive when Ted Williams was playing. It would be weird, then, if he were their hero. Without any sort of objective criteria on which to judge, I have to go with a player who's more modern...someone who's at least played in the last 40 years. In fact, if Big Papi were on here, I'd probably go with him. Too many people hate Clemens still for me to choose him. So...yeah, I'm going with Jim Rice. I may have the totally wrong idea about this contest, but whatever...
August 19, 200619 yr It's not clear to me how this is being judged. Probably well over 50% of the people in Boston right now weren't even alive when Ted Williams was playing. It would be weird, then, if he were their hero. Without any sort of objective criteria on which to judge, I have to go with a player who's more modern...someone who's at least played in the last 40 years. In fact, if Big Papi were on here, I'd probably go with him. Too many people hate Clemens still for me to choose him. So...yeah, I'm going with Jim Rice. I may have the totally wrong idea about this contest, but whatever... I agree with the objectivity related to never having seen the guy play, but the man hit .406 at 22 years of age. Look at his lines from 1941 and 1942. (He also led the league in RBI's as a rookie in 1939.) Year .Ag Tm ..Lg .G... AB ...R ....H ..2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO ..BA .OBP ..SLG 1941 22 BOS AL 143 456 135 185 33 3 37 120. 2.. 4 147 27 .406 .553 .735 (first to hit .400) 1942 23 BOS AL 150 522 141 186 34 5 36 137. 3.. 2 145 51 .356 .499 .648 (won triple crown) Imagine how much better his career stats would have been if WWII hadn't been going on during his mid 20's. Remember that they didn't play from 1943-1945 because of the war, and he wasn't sitting at home reading about the war in the newspaper, he became a Navy/Marine Corps aviator. After the war he came back to the Red Sox in 1946, leading them to the world series and winning the MVP. In other words, he wins this award hands down. If Ted Williams is not a hero, I don't know who is. More on Ted Williams
August 19, 200619 yr In other words, he wins this award hands down. If Ted Williams is not a hero, I don't know who is. :thumbup
August 24, 200619 yr Ted Williams is clearly the best player for the Red Sox ever. I'm not arguing against that. I'm just saying that most of the people to whom he was a hero are, sadly, dead right now. Or close to it.
August 24, 200619 yr I was in Boston when Ted Williams died. Anyone who witnessed that and cares to argue against the man being larger than life in Boston is clearly insane. To me, there are only two should be unanimous choices: Tony Gwynn for the Padres and Ted Williams for the Red Sox.
August 24, 200619 yr Fair enough...it's hard for me to really to judge this since there are few comparisons in my own sporting life. We have few franchises here who were playing before I was born. I can only say that I care more about Cleo Lemon than Bob Griese; or, for that matter, I care more about Manuel Wright than any Dolphin whose career in Miami did not extend past 1982. Not sure how I'd feel about Ted Williams, but I think it would be more of the same. I'd appreciate the ballplayer, but I doubt that I'd consider him my baseball hero. Clearly, I'm insane.
August 26, 200619 yr While people in Boston may have not seen Ted Williams play, Boston is a city that certainly knows its baseball history and respects its legends. With that said, it's absolutely no contest, Ted Williams is one of the best hitters of all-time and the best player in Red Sox history. He also spent his entire career with the same organization.
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