Red Sox Random Facts: 2002

Remember 2002?

For no reason other than my never-ending digging through Red Sox data and statistical archives, I give to you some randomness from 2002. The season had the mighty combination of Brian Daubach and Tony Clark as your first basemen.

Rey Sanchez was the second baseman and Carlos Baerga was the DH. Really? Baerga? C’mon.

Don’t forget that 2002 had Mike Port as the team’s general manager after the Red Sox let Dan Duquette go. He was succeeded by Theo Epstein in November of 2002. Port is now the Vice President of Umpiring for Major League Baseball.

Also that 2002 team had Rickey Henderson. Why I don’t have a Rickey Red Sox t-shirt jersey is beyond me. Time to break out the obscure t-shirt jersey article.

How about some Jose Offerman, Cliff Floyd and Benny Agbayani? Yup. All part of that 93-win team that managed to finish 10 games behind the New York Yankees. At least Lou Merloni was still on the team.

Quick question; Who lead the American League in errors for shortstops that season? Nomar Garciaparra. Nomar was coming off his wrist injury and although he hit the ball well, he struggled with the glove, racking up 25 errors. He followed that up in 2003 with 20 more errors before being traded in 2004. What is it with playing defense at shortstop in Boston?

Despite some of the quirkiness in the lineup with the likes of Clark, Daubach, Baerga, etc, the Red Sox were still a potent offense powered by Nomar, Manny Ramirez, Shea Hillenbrand, Johnny Damon and Trot Nixon. The team scored 859 runs in 2002, second only to the Yankees’ 897.

On the mound, the Red Sox of course had Pedro Martinez and in 2002, Derek Lowe teamed with Pedro to rack up 41 wins combined. Lowe emerged as a top-flight #2 starter, giving the Red Sox their long-desired counter-punch to Martinez. The other two primary starters were John Burkett and Frank Castillo.

One of the best things the Red Sox did it 2002 was fire Joe Kerrigan. Pitching coaches should never manage teams.

How about Ugueth Urbina? The demonstrative Red Sox closer lead the team with 40 saves trailing the MLB leader, John Smoltz by 10.

2002 was the season that Manny broke his finger sliding head-first into home plate against the Seattle Mariners. Remember that? Manny missed 36 games and still hit .349 with 33 home runs and 107 RBI. I almost forgot the story about Manny where he was rehabbing the finger injury in Pawtucket and told the team he preferred to stay there instead of returning to the team. Hahaha, oh Manny.

And finally, the best thing to happen for the Boston Red Sox in 2002 was drafting Jon Lester in the 2nd round of the MLB Draft.

2002 was an interesting year. The Red Sox were just one season away from that heartbreaking Game 7 ALCS in 2003. It is probably the most overlooked year of the decade.

Maybe because it was the last year without Theo.

Darryl Johnston is the Red Sox correspondent for Fanball.com. He has many years of sports writing under his championship belts. Email him – redsoxdj@gmail.com</em>