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Top 50 Sox Seasons: Honorable Mentions and Links

Well, the Top 50 Red Sox seasons are done, culminating some months of work. Thanks again for all the great feedback. Credits go to "Red Sox Century" by Glenn Stout and Richard A. Johnson, which provided many dead-ball era anecdotes, as did the New York Times and Sporting News free archives. Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs, of course, remain indispensable for their ability to sort and disseminate a large array of the statistics on which I based my list.

When I started this whole thing, I began by using the B-R Play Index to determine the Top 20 seasons in about 10 or so categories each for hitters and pitchers -- from batting average to OPS+ to runs created, or ERA to ERA+ to wins for pitchers. That gave me a total of 63 hitting seasons, 58 starting pitching seasons and 28 relief pitching seasons, or 148 in all. I whittled those down to a "final 89," which, as I ranked them, I was able to cut further to 75. I initially was going to write up a Top 75 list, but chose instead (out of laziness or perhaps realization that my time before Opening Day was running out) to write up only the Top 50.

Still, that leaves 75 honorable mentions, which I list below, in chronological order with the other 50. You can tell which are the honorable mentions because they don't have links to their individual posts, like the Top 50 do. Without further ado...

Top 50 Sox Seasons #1: Pedro Martinez, 2000

18-6, 1.74/0.737/.173, 217 IP, 284 K, 32 BB, 11.8 K/9, 1.3 BB/9, 8.9 K/BB, 5.3 H/9, 4 SHO, 291 ERA+
Cy Young, All-Star, Sporting News Pitcher of the Year, MVP -- 5

Some day, as ERA+ and OPS+ become more and more acceptable to the mainstream sports commentariat, 291 will be to pitching what .406 is to hitting. Had Pedro Martinez merely put up a 191 ERA+ in 2000, it would have been tied for the 52nd-best mark of all time. But he exceeded that by 100 points.

Let me state this unequivocally: Not only did Pedro Martinez in 2000 post the best season by any player in Red Sox history, he posted the best pitching season ever in the history of baseball. His 1.74 ERA, stripped of all context, is still in the top 100. When considering the league-average ERA in 2000 was 5.07, the mind boggles. No hitter has ever bested the league-average OPS by 190 percent – no one’s really ever come close.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #2: Ted Williams, 1941

.406/.553/.735, 1.287 OPS, 606 PA, 185 H, 147 BB, 37 HR, 120 RBI, 335 TOB, 12.3 AB/HR, 235 OPS+
All-Star starter, ML Player of the Year, MVP – 2

.406.

You know what it is. No labels. No context. You don’t even need to be a Red Sox fan or a particularly serious baseball fan. You hear it; you know it. .406. The magic number.

But 1941 was about so much more than just .406; one could say Williams was so good that year, he managed to overshadow even himself.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #3: Pedro Martinez, 1999

23-4, 2.07/0.923/.210, 213.1 IP, 313 K, 37 BB, 13.2 K/9, 1.6 BB/9, 8.5 K/BB, 6.8 H/9, 243 ERA+
Postseason: 3 G, 2-0, 17 IP, 6 BB, 23 K, 0.00/0.647/.089
CY Young, All-Star starter and MVP, MVP – 2

We all as Red Sox fans must have done something right to have been granted the privilege of watching this skinny Dominican throw a baseball.

From the beginning of the season, Pedro was a revelation – proving that his 1997 was no fluke, and that the tastes of dominance he’d shown us the year before were just that: Mere tastes. The main course was so much better. For the first and only time in my life, I remember commentators realistically wondering whether a pitcher could win 30 games. Through 79 games in 1999, Martinez had won 15, and he entered the All-Star game the unquestioned best pitcher in the game.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #4: Carl Yastrzemski, 1967

.326/.418/.622, 1.040 OPS, 680 PA, 189 H, 91 BB, 44 HR, 121 RBI, 360 TB, 79 XBH, 284 TOB, 193 OPS+
MVP, ML Player of Year, All-Star starter and MVP, Gold Glove

There’s a simple reason why this is one of the top two offensive seasons in Red Sox history – most of us are likely Red Sox fans because of it.

We all know the story. A dissatisfied Tom Yawkey, never recognizing the team-building flaws that continually thwarted his efforts to win a championship for Boston, is tired of losing money on the Red Sox. Attendance is sinking – Fenway draws just over 800,000 in 1966, an average of just more than 10,000 fans per game – as is the team, finishing ninth out of 10 AL teams. He begins thinking seriously about moving out of Boston, leaving the Hub of the Universe with no big-league teams.

Then came Yaz.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #5: Cy Young, 1901

33-10, 1.62/0.972/.236, 371.1 IP, 158 K, 37 BB, 7.9 H/9, 3.8 K/9, 0.9 BB/9, 4.3 K/BB, 5 SHO, 216 ERA+

There are plenty of reasons why Cy Young – the first dominant pitcher of the American League – is deserving of so high a rank for his 1901 campaign. The pitching Triple Crown (the first and only time he would manage that), the stratospheric ERA+ (fourth-highest in team history), the silly-low walk rate (which he would actually surpass three times in Boston).

But the real reason is because without Cy Young performing so well, American League baseball may never have survived in Boston. Granted, players like Buck Freeman and Eddie Collins also played roles, but Young was the fan favorite, and his 33 wins equaled 42 percent of the team’s total of 79 (in 2008 terms, that’s 94 wins, and a pitcher would have to win 39 games to equal Young’s percentage, which stood as a big-league record until Steve Carlton broke it in 1972). It should be no surprise that the pitcher whose blazing fastball was partially responsible for moving the mound back 10-and-a-half feet played such an important role in Boston.

Boston scored a coup, making headlines across the country when it signed Young on March 10 – something the Trenton Times called a “clever trick.” He opened the Huntington Avenue Grounds less than two months later with a 12-4 win. In July, he won 12 straight games, including his 300th. He won 20 games by his first start in August and 25 wins before September. Although the Americans slumped in August and fell from the race, Young was the Red Sox’ first superstar, enshrining Boston’s love with its superstar pitchers – those who won or contended for the award named for Young himself, from Lonborg to Clemens to Martinez to Schilling to Beckett.

Key game: Aug. 27. With Boston and Chicago fighting in the first American League pennant race, Young is lights out against Detroit, giving up just a first-inning run. But Roscoe Miller is just as good, allowing Boston to tie in the second but giving nothing more. They match zeroes for another 12 innings before Boston breaks through for a second run in the top of the 15th. Young retires the side in the bottom half, having managed to scatter 11 hits and two walks for his 25th win.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #6: Roger Clemens, 1990

21-6, 1.93/1.082/.231, 228.1 IP, 209 K, 54 BB, 8.2 K/9, 3.9 K/BB, 4 SHO, 213 ERA+
Postseason: 2 G, 0-1, 7.2 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, 4 K
All-Star, MVP – 3, CYA – 2

One need look no further than 1990 to understand Red Sox’ fans stormy relationship with Rocket Roger. On the one hand, his regular season was amazing – by many measures his best in a Boston uniform. He posted his lowest ERA, highest ERA+ (despite the lowest league ERA in his career), fewest walks and far and away the fewest runs. In his final 12 starts of the season, Clemens posted a 0.97 ERA with four shutouts, seven games with zero runs allowed and a 9-2 record. Only Bob Welch’s 27-win season kept Clemens from his third Cy Young in five seasons.

The season marked the return of Clemens to dominance. After posting steadily declining numbers since his breakout 1986 campaign, Clemens opened a monster three-season peak with this, his highest ERA+ season until 1997. After 1992, no pitcher had had a better three-year peak from ages 27-29, and the only two to do it since are Greg Maddux and Pedro Martinez.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #7: Ted Williams, 1957

.388/.526/.731, 1.257 OPS, 546 PA, 163 H, 119 BB, 38 HR, 87 RBI, 67 XBH, 11.1 AB/HR, 233 OPS+ All-Star starter, Major League Player of the Year, MVP – 2

Those who look for career-year performances at an old age as an indicator of steroid use should beware the example of Ted Williams – who was 38 and 10 years removed from his last full 200 OPS+ season. In 1957, Williams was fighting off injuries and age. He hadn’t played 150 games since 1948, 145 games since 1951. After two years in Korea, he played only 117 and 98 games. In 1956, Williams played in 136 games, the most in five years. While he was excellent (175 OPS+), it did not portend the monster year that would follow.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #8: Pedro Martinez, 2002

20-4, 2.26/0.923/.204, 199.1 IP, 239 K, 40 BB, 6.5 H/9, 10.8 K/9, 6.0 K/BB, 202 ERA+
All-Star, CYA -- 2

Pedro Martinez had only himself to blame. Returning from an injury-plagued 2001, Martinez’s last two healthy seasons had been among the best in the history of the sport. Yet in 2002, he lost the Cy Young to Barry Zito, he didn’t manage to win any of the player or pitcher of the year awards given out by any other agencies, and the season on the whole is overlooked when considering Martinez’s dominance as a member of the Red Sox. This, obviously, is a disservice to the baseball history we witnessed.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #9: Babe Ruth, 1918

.300/.411/.555, .966 OPS, 380 PA, 95 H, 58 BB, 11 HR, 66 RBI, 48 XBH, 194 OPS+
13-7, 2.22/1.046/.210, 166.1 IP, 40 K, 49 BB, 6.7 H/9, 121 ERA+
Postseason Batting: 1-for-5, 3B, 2 RBI
Postseason Pitching: 2 G, 2-0, 1.06/1.176/.203, 17 IP, 2 ER, 4 K

He scoffs when he hits a single, merely lifts his eyebrows at a double, begins to take a little interest in life when he hits a triple, and only begins to have a good time when he slams out a home run. That’s George Babe Ruth, the caveman of baseball, who is whaling away to fame this season with the Boston Red Sox. – The New York Times, July 21, 1918.

Putting together arguably the most unique season in Red Sox history, Ruth divided his time as a pitcher and an outfielder and was phenomenal at both. Ruth’s abilities as a pitcher were clearly slipping – either because he was fading or because he was concentrating on his offense instead. Nevertheless, he had this final great year, one of the 10 best in the league.

Meanwhile, Ruth’s bat became a wonder of baseball. The Red Sox as a team hit 15 home runs – 11 of which were by Ruth. Eleven home runs were more than the Senators and Browns hit combined. On the mound, Ruth was second in WHIP and winning percentage and fifth in ERA. Ruth is certainly the only player to post OPS+ and ERA+ both over 120 while qualifying for the batting and ERA titles. Only two other full-time pitchers have ever also qualified for the batting title, with the Giants’ Doc Crandall in 1910 the only other player to even approach Ruth’s numbers at the plate and on the mound.

As Stout and Johnson note, Ruth’s remarkable 1918 season – which showed he was likely a better hitter than a pitcher – was only made possible by World War I, which left Boston short on players and forced manager Ed Barrow to try Ruth out as a hitter in spring training. Baseball would never be the same.

Key game: Aug. 24. Ruth the pitcher hurls a gem against St. Louis, giving up just five hits and one run, with two walks and four strikeouts. On offense, with Ruth at third and Jack Coffey on first, the Babe steals home on the front end of a double steal. The Red Sox win, 3-1.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #10: Ted Williams, 1946

.342/.497/.667, 1.164 OPS, 672 PA, 176 H, 156 BB, 38 HR, 123 RBI, 142 R, 338 TB, 83 XBH, 334 TOB, 215 OPS+
Postseason: .200/.333/.200, 5-for-25, 5 BB, 5 K, 1 RBI
MVP, All-Star starter

Oh, the eternal guessing game. It’s no surprise that we’ll rank Ted Williams’ 1941 as his personal best season. His 1942 is ranked 16th on this list. Then Williams and the rest of baseball’s stars went to war. When he returned, now 27 years old, Williams put up the line you see here, setting career highs in home runs, walks and total bases. The thought of a hitter like Williams playing the three seasons between ages 23 and 27 – considering he recorded an OPS+ of at least 200 in each of the two seasons before and after that – is indeed tantalizing. The subject has been hashed to death on any number of Web sites, but consider anyway the sheer ability Williams must have had to put up the above numbers after not playing competitive baseball for three full seasons.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #11: Joe Wood, 1912

34-5, 1.91/1.015/.216, 344 IP, 258 K, 82 BB, 6.8 K/9, 3.2 K/BB, 7.0 H/9, 35 CG, 10 SHO, 178 ERA+
Postseason: 4 G, 3-1, 4.50 ERA, 22 IP, 27 H, 3 BB, 21 K
MVP – 5

The two greatest pitching streaks in Red Sox history sit side-by-side on this list. Smokey Joe still holds the Red Sox record (and probably always will) for most wins in a season with the 34 he won in 1912 to help power the Red Sox to their second World Championship. For that reason – and as the best starter on the best Red Sox team ever to play baseball (their .691 winning percentage would be good for 112 wins today) – it stands to reason that Wood’s 1912 should rank highly on any list.

Indeed, never mind the lack of black ink. Wood, like many other great AL hurlers of his day, had the misfortune of playing in the same league as Walter Johnson, without whom Wood would have led the AL in ERA, WHIP, H/9, strikeouts, K/9, K/BB and ERA+. And although 1968 is considered the “Year of the Pitcher,” the 22-year-old Wood was involved in one of the most amazing pitching seasons in history when he became the third pitcher that year to win at least 16 consecutive games – tying in September the AL record Johnson had set one month earlier and falling three short of the big-league record set by Rube Marquard two months earlier. Both records have yet to fall.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #12: Roger Clemens, 1986

24-4, 2.48/0.969/.200, 254 IP, 238 K, 67 BB, 8.4 K/9, 6.3 H/9, 3.6 K/BB, 169 ERA+
Postseason: 5 G, 1-1, 3.97/1.382/.238, 34 IP, 28 K, 13 BB, 15 ER
MVP, Cy Young, All-Star starter, All-Star MVP, Major League Player of the Year, TSN AL Pitcher of the Year

There are many things that have sullied Roger Clemens’ reputation over the past 20 years, particularly among Red Sox fans. Those should not do anything to take away from the magic of those first special years in Boston. It was obvious even in 1986 that Clemens was a flawed personality; whether he could get past an injury-marred first two seasons and fulfill the potential that had caused the Red Sox to draft him with the 17th overall pick of the 1983 draft was a different story.

By April 29, it was pretty clear he could fulfill that potential. Entering that start, his fourth of the season, he was already 3-0 with a 1.85 ERA. By the end of the night — 20 strikeouts later — he was a sensation, having set the big-league record for strikeouts in a game. He would win 10 more decisions before taking his first loss of the season. His 24-4 record – the second-best winning percentage in Red Sox history – could have been even better, but he lost a 1-0 complete game by giving up an unearned run and received a no-decision by pitching nine shutout innings of a 12-inning 1-0 loss. In the end, Clemens went at least eight innings 22 times, including 13 times in the 15 starts during which he compiled his 14 straight victories. Those are numbers we may never see again.

Clemens fell one short of the AL record of 15 consecutive victories to start a season, but he did set the Red Sox record (later broken) for opponents’ batting average. Perhaps most impressive – and least discussed – about Clemens’ 1986 campaign was how young he was when he managed it. He was just 23. Of the 413 pitchers to log 150 innings at age 23, Clemens ranks first in winning percentage, fourth in wins, second in fewest losses, second in WHIP, and in the Retrosheet era, fourth in opponents’ batting, first in opponents’ OBP and first in opponents’ OPS+.

Key game: April 29. Plenty has been written, particularly as the 20th anniversary of Clemens’ first 20-strikeout game has come and gone, about that amazing start. The game itself has been replayed numerous times on NESN. Little more can be said about it, although consider the feat this way: Clemens struck out two out of every three batters he faced, and recorded a K for nearly three out of every four outs. Yet his chances of setting the mark dropped significantly when he struck out just one in the third. With six strikeouts through three, Clemens needed to record 14 strikeouts in six innings (18 batters). Which of course is exactly what he did, striking out the side in fourth and fifth, then taking it easy by ringing up two each inning the rest of the way.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #13: Jimmie Foxx, 1938

.349/.462/.704, 1.166 OPS, 685 PA, 197 H, 119 BB, 50 HR, 175 RBI, 398 TB, 92 XBH, 316 TOB, 182 OPS+
MVP, All-Star starter

The Beast’s sudden collapse (139 OPS+ at age 33, 93 at age 34) robbed him of perhaps being at the forefront of the “greatest hitter” debate, up there with Williams and Ruth. It’s unfair, of course, because for 13 years, Foxx was utterly amazing – so amazing that his 1938 season (I have this as the fifth-best by a hitter in Red Sox history) wasn’t even one of his two best.

But it was far and away his best in a Boston uniform. In 1936, Foxx put up the first impressive season of the live-ball era in Boston. After 1938, it must have seemed like no one would ever put up as impressive a season as this ever again. The next year, Ted Williams made his big-league debut.

By the time 1938 drew to a close, Foxx held the following single-season Red Sox records (* still stands):

• Runs, 139
• Home Runs, 50
• RBI, 175*
• Walks, 119
• Slugging Percentage, .704
• OPS, 1.166
• ISO, .355*
• Runs Created, 183*
• Total Bases, 398
• Extra Base Hits, 92*
• Times On Base, 316
• Runs Produced, 264

Williams topped most of these marks within the next five years, which is why Foxx through no fault of his own tends to be overshadowed, particularly in the discussion of great Boston hitters. He's received more notoriety recently, when David Ortiz broke his home run record. Foxx's club total bases record stood for 40 years, until Jim Rice topped it in 1978. No one in Red Sox history has managed as many extra-base hits (Ortiz came within one in 2004), RBI (no one else has even tallied 160) or runs created. No one in the last 50 years has come within 40 of Foxx’s runs produced (RBI+R-HR), and Williams broke that record by only two in 1949.

No wonder, then, that on June 16, the St. Louis Browns walked Foxx all six times he came to the plate – a big-league record.

Key game: Sept. 24. With the Yankees and Red Sox knotted at six in the top of the ninth, Foxx caps a 3-for-3 day by crushing a home run into the left-field upper deck at Yankee Stadium, giving Boston a 7-6 win. It’s Foxx’s 48th of the season.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #14: Babe Ruth, 1919

.322/.456/.657, 1.114 OPS, 542 PA, 139 H, 101 BB, 29 HR, 114 RBI, 284 TB, 74 XBH, 219 OPS+

Many look at Babe Ruth’s first season in New York, 1920, as the year he redefined hitting in Major League Baseball. In fact, his first revolutionary season was his last with Boston. Ruth outhomered 11 of the other 15 teams in baseball in 1919. His 29 were nearly three times the total of any other AL player – no surprise then that he set the league records for home runs, slugging and OPS, all of which he shattered the next season.

1919 was also Ruth’s last as a pitcher. He started 15 games, but his pitching suffered as he concentrated on his hitting. Once the Red Sox slipped from contention in the middle of summer, Ruth’s hitting was the only draw to Fenway Park, and he was turned into a full-time outfielder. He’d never go back. One wonders how many home runs Ruth would have hit had he the benefit of the right field bullpens later built for Ted Williams. Less than a quarter of Ruth’s 49 home runs as a member of the Red Sox were hit in Fenway.

After the season, of course, Ruth was traded – a terrible move alternately blamed on the stinginess of Harry Frazee or the machinations of Ban Johnson. Ruth promptly hit 54 home runs with the Yankees – five more than he hit in his six years in Boston combined. Despite the offensive explosion that occurred over the following two decades, Boston wouldn’t have another batter hit at least 29 home runs for 17 years – until Jimmie Foxx hit 41 in 1936. That .657 slugging percentage remains the sixth-best in Red Sox history, topped only by seasons from Foxx and Williams.

Key game: Aug. 24. In a topsy-turvy contest against Ty Cobb’s Tigers, Ruth slams two home runs to help keep the Red Sox even with Detroit at five at the end of nine innings. In the 11th, with two runs already across, Ruth then singles home Harry Hooper with the Sox’ eighth run. When Detroit rallies for two runs in the bottom of the 11th, Ruth’s RBI turns into the game-winner. The home runs give Ruth 22 on the season, extending the AL record and coming within three of the all-time mark.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #15: Tris Speaker, 1912

.383/.464/.567, 1.031 OPS, 675 PA, 222 H, 82 BB, 10 HR, 90 RBI, 53 2B, 52 SB, 75 XBH, 310 TOB, 188 OPS+, 35 outfield assists
Postseason: .300/.382/.467, 8 G, 30 AB, 9 H, 2 3B, 2 RBI
MVP

The defensive cog of one of the best outfields of all time and the offensive cog of the best Boston ballclub ever, Speaker’s MVP season coincided with the peak of the Red Sox and the opening of Fenway Park.

Speaker was Boston’s first offensive superstar – combining speed, plate discipline and power in a combination the franchise has not seen again. His 53 doubles set an AL record that stood until he broke it with 59 in 1923. His 52 steals were a record that stood until Tommy Harper swiped 53 in 1973, and he still holds three of the top five stolen base marks in Red Sox history. Not even Babe Ruth during his magical 1919 season could top Speaker’s 75 extra-base hits. That club record stood for nearly 20 years. Only five Boston players have reached base more than Speaker’s 310 times in 1912.

Defensively, Speaker played center field like no player before or since. He still holds – and probably forever will hold – the single-season record for outfield assists that he set in 1912, thanks to his unique style of play that featured an exceptionally shallow positioning and took advantage of his strong arm. Speaker frequently turned routine singles into groundouts and doubled players off second base on shallow line drives. A player like Speaker had never been seen in Boston before his breakout season of1912. And one hasn’t been seen since.

Key game: April 20. A long time coming after bad weather canceled two straight games and the sinking of the Titanic overshadowed the festivities, Fenway Park opens with a game against the New York Highlanders. Rallying from four down to send the game into extra innings, the Sox walk off with the 7-6 win on Speaker’s 11th-inning single, one of his three hits during the game.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #16: Ted Williams, 1942

.356/.499/.648, 1.147 OPS, 671 PA, 186 H, 145 BB, 36 HR, 137 RBI, 338 TB, 75 XBH, 335 TOB, 217 OPS+
All-Star starter, ML Player of the Year, MVP – 2

What else can be said about Ted Williams beyond that this phenomenal season -- imagine anybody today (and nobody has) putting up these numbers without charges of steroids hanging over his head -- was only his fourth-best. Williams won the Triple Crown, led in all three major rate statistics, and reached base once in every two plate appearances – proving that the old saw about the best failing seven times out of 10 was simply rubbish where the Splendid Splinter was concerned.

Since nowadays everyone loves to cherry-pick a string of seemingly impressive counting stats and find out when players last reached arbitrary minimums in those stats, let's take a look at this: Williams in 1942 was the last player in baseball history to hit at least .350, smack at least 35 homers and drive in at least 135 runs -- while walking at least 145 times.  Babe Ruth in 1920 and 1921 was the only other player to do it.  Todd Helton (2000) is the only player to even fulfill the BA/HR/RBI portion of that requirement since 1942, and he only walked 103 times.

Yet Williams somehow finished second in MVP voting to the Yankees’ Joe Gordon, who had a fine season – but not this fine.  The Red Sox also were a good team in 1942, finishing second in the American League by nine games but winning 93 – equivalent to 99 wins in a 162-game season. So unlike in later years, when the Red Sox were putrid, voters did not have the “valuable” part of the MVP award to fall back on. The New York Times labeled it a “surprise selection,” and predicted that Williams and Red Sox fans would be “startled.” The award looked particularly silly after Gordon had batted 2-for-21 in the Yankees’ World Series loss, but -- according to "Red Sox Century" -- Williams had done himself no favors with the writers by appealing his draft classification twice so he could win a deferment before spring training.

Key game: June 24. With a classic pitchers’ duel between Boston’s Charley Wagner and Detroit’s Virgil Trucks, Williams hits a solo home run in the seventh to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead. It’s the only run either team will score, and Williams – with a double and single also – is the only batter in the game to record multiple hits. “Thumping Ted” as the Sporting News calls him, moves up to fifth place in the race for league batting title, at .330.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #17: Dutch Leonard, 1914

19-5, 0.96/0.886/.180, 224.2 IP, 176 K, 60 BB, 7.1 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 2.9 K/BB, 5.6 H/9, 7 SHO, 279 ERA+

Since the birth of the American League 107 years ago, only one starting pitcher has ever finished a season allowing less than one run per nine innings. And it was 22-year-old Hubert Benjamin Leonard – a dead-ball southpaw who would never again do anything remotely as extraordinary in his superb career as he did in 1914.

Leonard would later be known as the player who blew the whistle on Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb for betting on a fixed game in 1919, when the hurler was a member of the Tigers. Before then, however, he had won three World Series in Boston as part of some of the best rotations in baseball history, and in 1914 came up with an ERA so low that even when adjusted for the league average and park effects, it ranks as the second-lowest since 1901.

It’s easy to dismiss Leonard’s 1914, for two reasons – his .229 BABIP, 53 points below his career average, a sure sign that Leonard was amazingly lucky that season, and the era in which he played, when ERAs that seem impossible today were the norm.

But if Leonard was lucky, what of it? Whether through natural talent or blind luck, Leonard still allowed what he allowed; his results cannot be changed, and results are the heart and soul of this list, regardless of how they came about. The deadball argument is more cogent, but let’s say Dutch Leonard was throwing in 1930 – when the most runs per game were scored of any season in history. Let’s say he was in the NL, where scoring was higher. And let’s say he pitched for the Phillies, whose home park increased offense by nearly 10 percent, the most of any NL park – in other words, the most premier offensive environment in the history of the game.

In such an environment, all of Leonard’s numbers skyrocket, with no ERA lower than 4.32 – except 1914, when it’s a miniscule 1.86. How about something more modern, such as Coors Field in 2000: Leonard posts an ERA of 1.83. Fenway Park in 2007: 1.47 (with a 21-2 record, incidentally). Dutch Leonard in 1914 was as stingy or stingier than nearly any pitcher in the history of baseball, regardless of era, league or home park. Not surprisingly, his ERA+ that season was better than any pitcher’s except one – which we’ll discuss later.

Key game: July 27. For the second time in a month, Leonard shuts out the Cleveland Naps, this time an eight-hit, seven-strikeout gem backed by Tris Speaker’s three hits. The Red Sox win 3-0.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #18: Dick Radatz, 1963

15-6, 1.97/1.096/.201, 132.1 IP, 66 G, 25 SV, 83.3 SV%, 162 K, 51 BB, 11.0 K/9, 3.2 K/BB, 191 ERA+
All-Star, MVP – 5

Radatz is often considered Boston’s first true closer – he was certainly the club’s best over more than a single-season period until Jonathan Papelbon’s emergence the past two seasons. The Monster followed up a terrific rookie season with this one, which was even better. Averaging better than two innings and two strikeouts per appearance, Radatz won an astounding 15 games while never appearing as a starter, one of just 13 relievers ever to win so many (something no one’s done since 1976).

Exemplifying the dominance Radatz exhibited in his first three seasons, he did not give up a run in 14 appearances from May 13 to June 14, throwing 33 scoreless innings, striking out 43 and allowing just 18 baserunners. Of 13 runners inherited, only three scored. Amazingly, he recorded only four saves (though he did win four games) because eight times he was brought in with the Red Sox trailing or tied, and three times used with the Sox up by at least four runs.

Perhaps the biggest testament to the stamina a pitcher like Radatz needed in the early days of the relief specialist are the 28 games in which he pitched two or more innings, including 13 of at least three innings. Twelve times, Radatz was brought in to pitch extra innings. All 12 times, Radatz pitched through the end of the game, going 9-3.

Key game: June 11. The Red Sox lead 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh when Boston starter Wilbur Wood runs into trouble. Manager Johnny Pesky calls on Radatz – his 6-foot-5, 235-pound beast of a closer – to close the door for the final two-plus innings.

Radtaz instead gives up a run-scoring single to pinch-hitter Bill Bruton, blowing the save and tying the game. Radatz’s job is now to preserve the tie for the Red Sox bats. So he does. Radatz retires the side in order in the eighth, works around a single in the ninth, sets down six straight in the 10th and 11th, and after a 12th-inning leadoff single, retires another nine in a row.

In the top of the 14th, the Red Sox break through on back-to-back home runs from Frank Malzone and Dick Stuart. Radatz returns to the mound in the bottom of the 14th and again retires the side in order, striking out Bruton for the final out of the marathon game. Radatz picks up the win, having pitched 8.2 innings while allowing three hits and one walk, and striking out 11. He set down the final 12 batters he faced, seven via strikeout.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #19: Pedro Martinez, 2003

14-4, 2.22/1.039/.218, 186.2 IP, 206 K, 47 BB, 9.9 K/9, 4.4 K/BB, 7.1 H/9, 210 ERA+
Postseason: 4 G, 1-1, 4.76/1.27/.264, 28.1 IP, 23 K, 7 BB
CYA – 3

If only one could divorce the seventh and final season of Pedro Martinez’s historic run as baseball’s most dominant pitcher from the way the season ended in the seventh and final game of that season's ALCS. At the time Grady Little – too late, oh so late – trudged to the mound that second time to remove the ball from Martinez’s hand, we had no way of knowing that just one year later it would all be better. Not forgotten, but better.

Unfortunately, Little’s disastrous decision to leave Martinez in for 123 pitches (a total neared or surpassed just four times in his 29 regular-season starts) overshadowed what in fact was another dominant season for the aging ace. It was, indeed, the last time Pedro would be Pedro.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #20: Ted Williams, 1947, 1948, 1949

.343-.369/.490-.499/.615-.634, 1.112-1.141 OPS, 189-205 OPS+, 25-43 HR, 114-159 RBI

Ted Williams exhibited amazing consistency in these, his three second-tier years. 1947 (205 OPS+, Triple
Crown) was the best of the bunch, but not by much. In each, Williams racked up gaudy statistics that by this
time were routine for him – and were actually a letdown from what he had accomplished his previous two seasons.

Williams led the league in OBP, slugging, OPS, walks and OPS+ all three years, and in batting the first two. He led in runs, total bases, home runs, RBI in 1947 and 1949, and doubles in 1948 and 1949. He was an All-Star all three years, and won the MVP in 1949. He famously lost the 1947 MVP by one point to Joe DiMaggio when one writer left him off the ballot (though DiMaggio was left off three ballots that year in a set of results that was so screwy, some have suggested writers may have been placing bets on the final vote, then rigging the vote itself). Williams won The Sporting News’ Player of the Year
award instead.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #21: Ellis Kinder, 1953

10-6, 1.85/1.140/.218, 107 IP, 69 G, 51 GF, 27 SV, 39K, 38 BB, 227 ERA+, MVP – 11

The 38-year-old Kinder had one last salvo in his gun. The former 23-game winner had always split time between starting and winning, but by 1951 was relieving almost exclusively. In 1953, Kinder did not start a game for the first time in his late-blooming, war-shortened career (he started with the Browns at age 31 in 1946). Perhaps that’s because he made himself indispensable as the first true closer in Red Sox history.

Kinder is an unrecognized trailblazer. Although other pitchers had been used as relief aces throughout the Sox’ history (Carl Mays stands out), they were generally starters called upon to rescue games or pitch extra innings. But Kinder from 1951-55 worked as a full-time closer a full 10 years before Dick Radatz, and in 1953, he posted one of the best years ever by a Red Sox reliever.

Kinder’s 1.85 ERA remains the fourth-lowest season by a Boston reliever (minimum 50 innings), topped first by Calvin Schiraldi in 1986, then by Jonathan Papelbon in 2006 and 2007. It was no product of his era either, as his ERA+ trails those same seasons and none others in Red Sox history. Of those four seasons, however, Kinder’s was the only to top 70 innings, and he threw a workmanlike 107. When he retired after the 1957 season, Kinder was just the second pitcher ever to win 100 and save 100 games in his career. He’s still part of a select group of 15, and ranks fourth in ERA+ among them, behind Hoyt Wilhelm, John Smoltz and Rich Gossage.

Key game: May 15. With the Red Sox leading, 3-2, against the Browns, starter Sid Hudson runs into trouble in the seventh, loading the bases with one out. Kinder comes in – the second straight day in which he’s asked to extract the Red Sox from a bases-loaded jam – and quickly dispatches the next five batters for the save, preserving the win and a double-header sweep.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #22: Jimmie Foxx, 1939

.360/.464/.694, 1.158 OPS, 563 PA, 168 H, 89 BB, 35 HR, 105 RBI, 324 TB, 13.3 AB/HR, 188 OPS+
All-Star, MVP – 2

This was Foxx’s other great season in Boston – the one with the 12th-best single-season OPS+ in Red Sox history. The one tied for most runs created by any Boston hitter in a season. The one that ranks fourth in Sox history in slugging, 12th in OBP, 12th in batting and fifth in OPS. Coming off Foxx’s record-setting 1938, however, the season was destined to be overshadowed. And it was, even though he did finish second in MVP voting.

Foxx missed significant time with a stomach ailment diagnosed in September as appendicitis, for which Foxx underwent surgery and missed the final month of the season – likely costing him a 40-homer season, as well as the league leadership in runs, total bases and extra-base hits. The illness also likely cost him his fourth MVP, as news reports had pegged him the favorite in early August. Nevertheless, Foxx was still so dominant that he led the league in home runs with one to spare despite not hitting one after Sept. 1.

Key game: April 26. With one out in the bottom of the 11th, Foxx crushes Joe Krakauska’s first pitch over the left-field wall (not yet known as the Green Monster) for a 6-5 walkoff win over the Senators. The ball lands on a roof across Landsdowne Street, more than 450 feet away from home plate.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #23: Cy Young, 1908

21-11, 1.26/0.893/.214, 299 IP, 150 K, 37 BB, 4.5 K/9, 1.1 BB/9, 4.1 K/BB, 0.03 HR/9, 30 CG, 194 ERA+

Dead-ball era or not, a 1.26 ERA is still a 1.26 ERA, and it’s the 13th lowest in the history of the sport – yet wasn’t even the lowest in the league that year. The 41-year-old Young, in his last season with Boston, managed career lows in ERA, WHIP and opponents’ average, yet did so in a year when Addie Joss was blowing away opposing hitters at an even better pace.

Along with being his last season as a member of the Red Sox, 1908 was also Young’s last as a dominant pitcher. He would never again win 20 games, post an ERA under 2.00, post an ERA+ over 115, strike out as many as 150 batters or allow a WHIP under 1.00. He also allowed just one home run in nearly 300 innings of work that year, a club record for most innings while allowing one or fewer home runs that will certainly stand forever.

Key game: June 30. “Did you hear about what old Young did up at the American League Park yesterday?” The New York Times asks incredulously. Well, all “old Young” does is become the oldest player ever to throw a no-hitter, blanking the Yankees, 8-0. It’s Young’s third no-hitter, and his reign as the oldest to toss such a gem stands for 82 years before Nolan Ryan breaks it. Young also raps three hits and drives in four, a lone walk the only mark against his day.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #24: Carl Yastrzemski, 1970

.329/.452/.592, 1.044 OPS, 697 PA, 186 H, 128 BB, 40 HR, 102 RBI, 125 R, 335 TB, 315 TOB, 177 OPS+
All-Star starter, All-Star MVP, MVP - 4

Far less famous than his 1967 season, Yastrzesmki capped an incredible four-year peak with this tremendous campaign. It was Captain Carl’s last great season in Boston, but it ended a stellar run. From 1967-70, no one in the American League came within 20 OPS points of Yaz. He was also first in total bases, first in erxtra-base hits, first in times on base and first in runs produced in that span. By the end of 1970, Yastrzemski’s 168 OPS+ for ages 27 through 30 was the 10th-best in baseball history. Since then, only Manny Ramirez and Barry Bonds have done better during their prime years.

A testament to Yaz’s remarkably underrated plate discipline was his line during an early season slump. On June 18, Yastrzemski’s batting average slid below .270, but he still reached base at a .420 clip, and his slugging was a healthy .510. Then he got hot, hitting .398/.500/.751 over 57 games through an Aug. 15 double-header. Between May 25 and Aug. 16, Yastrzemski reached base an amazing 76 games out of 78, including two streaks of 36 straight.

Key game:  Sept. 29. On the second-to-last day of the season, Yaz is locked in a close battle for the AL batting title, entering the day batting .326 to Alex Johnson’s .327. He helps his own cause by going 3-for-4 against the Yankees. He ties the score at two with a fifth-inning sac fly, then with the Red Sox having rallied from two down to tie the score in the bottom of the ninth, Yaz singles home Mike Andrews with one out to win the game, 5-4. He ends the day with a .329 average to Johnson’s .327, but  Johnson closes the season 3-for-6 in two games while Yaz goes 1-for-4 in his final game. Johnson wins the batting title, .3289 to .3286.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #25: Lefty Grove, 1936

17-12, 2.81/1.192/.249, 253.1 IP, 237 H, 130 K, 65 BB, 4.6 K/9, 2.0 K/BB, 6 SHO, 188 ERA+
All-Star

Grove followed his 1935 bounce-back year with one even better, featuring the second-best ERA+ ever in his career. Along with his league-leading ERA, WHIP, K/BB and shutouts, Grove finished second in fewest hits-per-nine and fewest walks-per-nine and added Top 10 finishes in wins, strikeouts, K/9, innings and complete games.

A notorious sore loser described in press reports of the day as “lean and dour,” Grove was the only AL pitcher to post an ERA under 3.00, an accomplishment labeled “a successful climax to his come-back climb” by the New York Times.

Key game: April 17. “The game Bob Grove pitched against the Yankees in the opener at Yankee Stadium reminded the critics of the same old Robert Mose before he injured his arm two years ago,” writes the Sporting News on its front page April 23. Grove throws a two-hit shutout, with Lou Gehrig collecting both hits. No Yankee reaches third base. The start is Grove’s first of the season, and “his showing was most reassuring,” as he strikes out four and walks one. The 8-0 win is Grove’s third shutout in four starts against the Yankees – all wins.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #26: Manny Ramirez, 2002

[We've decided to break this down into individual files, but I've also kept the running list of the Top 50 Red Sox seasons available here for quick reference].

.349/.450/.647, 1.097 OPS, 518 PA, 152 H, 73 BB, 33 HR, 107 RBI, 64 XBH, 184 OPS+
All-Star starter, Silver Slugger, MVP – 9

Although Ramirez’s counting statistics in 2002 finished in the bottom half of the Top 10 or out of it altogether, consider this: He managed them in just 120 games played, the result of a broken finger suffered May 11 that likely cost him another 40 home run season.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #27: Fred Lynn, 1975

.331/.401/.566, .967 OPS, 605 PA, 175 H, 62 BB, 21 HR, 105 RBI, 47 2B, 103 R, 161 OPS+
Postseason: .306/.350/.444, .794 OPS, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 3 BB, 5 K
MVP, Rookie of the Year, All-Star, Gold Glove

Not much can be said about this amazing season from Fred Lynn, who was the first and only (until Ichiro Suzuki) player to win the MVP and Rookie of the Year simultaneously. Although Lynn’s 1979 was statistically better than his 1975, to put up such numbers as a rookie is truly an accomplishment few have ever replicated.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #28: Wade Boggs, 1987

.363/.461/.588, 1.049 OPS, 551 PA, 200 H, 105 BB, 24 HR, 89 RBI, 70 XBH, 307 TOB, 108 R, 173 OPS+
All-Star starter, Silver Slugger, MVP – 9

For the first and only time in his spectacular career, Boggs found some power, tripling his previous career high in home runs and topping a .500 slugging percentage for what would be the only time in his 18 seasons. Added to his by-now ho hum .360/.450 batting line, the slugging created the best season of his career and easily the best ever by a Red Sox third baseman.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #29: Derek Lowe, 2002

21-8, 2.58/0.974/.211, 219.2 IP, 127 K, 48 BB, 5.2 K/9, 2.0 BB/9, 2.7 K/BB, 6.8 H/9, 177 ERA+
All-Star, CYA – 3

A lights-out closer in 2000, Lowe struggled in 2001, giving up runs in eight of his first 11 appearances en route to a 10-loss season and losing his closing job to Ugueth Urbina. He started his last three games of that season and began 2002 in the rotation. Not a bad move. He’s never gone back, and this Cy Young-worthy line is why. If not for teammate (and shoulda-been Cy Young winner) Pedro Martinez, Lowe would have led the league in ERA, WHIP and ERA+. He finished behind Martinez and Tim Wakefield in hits-per-nine, and finished behind only Barry Zito in wins.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #30: David Ortiz, 2006

.287/.413/.636, 1.049 OPS, 686 PA, 160 H, 119 BB, 54 HR, 137 RBI, 355 TB, 161 OPS+
All-Star, Silver Slugger, MVP – 3

The top 30 seasons are truly amazing – as evidenced by the fact that the season in which the all-rime Red Sox home run record is set can’t crack the 20s. That’s not a reflection on Ortiz’s season, which is his top-ranked campaign. It’s a reflection on the truly amazing seasons we’re about to look at.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #31: Carlton Fisk, 1972

.293/.370/.538, .908 OPS, 514 PA, 134 H, 52 BB, 22 HR, 61 RBI, 9 3B, 59 XBH, 162 OPS+
Rookie of the Year, All-Star, Gold Glove, MVP – 4

In modern baseball, only one catcher had put up a better season than Fisk did in his rookie season of 1972 – and that was his National League counterpart the same year, fellow 24-year-old Johnny Bench, whose 166 OPS+ held the modern record (with Fisk running second) until Mike Piazza broke it three consecutive years beginning in 1995.

Fisk unanimously won the Rookie of the Year award for this, still the best season ever by an American League catcher, ranked by OPS+. No Sox catcher ever had hit even 15 home runs in a season until 1972, when Fisk hit 22. Fisk remains one of just two Sox catchers to have hit more than 20 homers (Jason Varitek the other). His nine triples is the modern Red Sox catching record (Lou Criger hit 10 in 1903).

Although Fisk would top most of his 1972 numbers in 1977, that was thanks to an overall increase in offense leaguewide. Fisk put up his 1972 numbers in an atmosphere in which the average OPS was .649 (versus .735 in 1977).

Key game: July 12. Pudge breaks a 1-1 tie against Jim Lonborg and the Brewers by leading off the seventh with a home run over the Monster, then provides insurance by banging a double off it with the bases loaded to score Rico Petrocelli and Rick Miller in a 3-1 win.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #32: Jonathan Papelbon, 2007

1.85/0.771/.154, 58.1 IP, 59 G, 37 SV, 92.5 SV%, 84 K, 15 BB, 12.96 K/9, 5.6 K/BB, 256 ERA+
Postseason: 0.00/0.843/.135, 10.2 IP, 7 G, 1 W, 4 SV, 7 K
All-Star Papelbon’s gaudy 0.96 ERA in 2006 – as a rookie, no less – carried him very close to this list, but ultimately his season-ending injury must be factored in. Also factored in: Papelbon’s star turn in the 2007 postseason, including saving three of the four World Series games – all requiring more than three outs. Even without October, however, Papelbon simply was dominant as few others have been out of the bullpen for the Red Sox. In fact, only two relief seasons get a nod higher than this one.

How dominant was he? In 59 games, Papelbon gave up runs in just nine and more than one in just three. He never gave up more than two runs. Fifteen times he was called into a one-run game, and 15 times he left the mound with the lead intact. From Aug. 1 to Sept. 12, as the Sox fended off the Yankees for the AL East title, Papelbon appeared in 16 games and allowed seven baserunners – two hits, four walks, one hit batter – while striking out 25 and recording 12 saves and a win. That’s an opponents’ batting line in 15.2 innings of .041/.130/.041.

Key game: Oct. 25. Papelbon comes into the eighth inning of World Series Game 2 against the Rockies with two outs and the Red Sox leading by one. After allowing an infield single to Matt Holliday, the dangerous Todd Helton at the plate as the go-ahead run. Before even throwing a pitch to him, however, Papelbon picks off Holliday. He then comes out for the ninth and strikes out two of the game’s final three batters – including Helton.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #33: Jim Lonborg, 1967

22-9, 3.16/1.138/.228, 273.1 IP, 246 K, 83 BB, 8.1 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, 3.0 K/BB, 15 CG, 111 ERA+
Postseason: 2-1, 2.62/0.667/.163, 24 IP, 11 K, 2 BB, 14 H, 7 ER, 2 CG
Cy Young, TSN Pitcher of Year, All-Star, MVP – 6

Jim Lonborg’s out-of-nowhere 1967 season is statistically decent – his league-leading win and strikeout totals in no small part attributable to his hefty number of games started and innings pitched – but the context in which it occurred is priceless. Without Lonborg’s season in ’67, the Red Sox don’t enter the pennant race. And without the ’67 pennant race, the Red Sox likely would have left Boston.

More importantly, when the Sox were in the pennant race, Lonborg stepped it up – a 2.31 ERA in 10 games from Aug. 25, during which he averaged better than 7.1 innings per appearance and threw eight quality starts. During the World Series, he was simply dominant, throwing the fourth one-hitter in Series history and accounting for two of the Sox’ three wins by setting a Series record, still unbroken, for fewest hits in consecutive starts (four). He came up far short only when asked to make his 42nd start of the season on two days’ rest in Game 7.

Key games: Any of the Lonborg’s three career-defining starts – Oct. 1, Oct. 5, Oct. 9. First, Lonborg allows just one earned run in a complete-game victory on the season’s final game, clinching the Red Sox’ first pennant in 21 years. Then, with two outs in the eighth of World Series Game 2, Julian Javier ruins Lonborg’s no-hit bid with a double down the left-field line. A seventh-inning walk to Curt Flood is the only other baserunner marring the performance. On three days’ rest, Lonborg returns with the Sox against the wall, down three games to one, and three-hits the Cards, the only run coming on a ninth-inning Roger Maris homer.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #34: Keith Foulke, 2004

2.17/0.940/.212, 83 IP, 72 G, 32 SV, 82.1 SV%, 79 K, 15 BB, 8.6 K/9, 5.3 K/BB, 225 ERA+
Postseason: 0.64/1.071/.143, 14 IP, 11 G, 1 W, 3 SV, 19 K

The regular season aside, Foulke’s performance in the 2004 ALCS may have ruined his career and defined it at the same time. For his role in the 0-3 comeback alone, Foulke gets bumped up the list.

One of the Sox’ two major acquisitions after the terrible end of 2003, Foulke didn’t blow a save until May 30, then saved 16 straight over 25 games between July 20 and Sept. 20 as the Red Sox roared back to take control of the Wild Card race. Upon reaching the playoffs, Foulke was again intricately involved in the historic ALCS rally, throwing 100 pitches in five innings over Games 3, 4 and 5. Foulke then appeared in every game of the World Series, throwing another 85 pitches in another five innings, allowing just four hits, one walk and one run, while striking out eight.

Key games: Oct. 17, 18, 19. Coming into Game 4 of the ALCS with the Sox down by one in the seventh, Foulke allows just two walks in 2.2 shutout innings as the Red Sox come back to tie the game and send it into extras. Foulke is called on again during the eighth inning of Game 5, throwing 1.1 scoreless innings as the Sox again rally to tie the game. Finally, in Game 6, a clearly exhausted Foulke strikes out Tony Clark, representing the winning run with two on in the ninth, on his 100th pitch of the previous 36 hours.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #35: Ted Williams, 1939, 1940, 1951, 1956, 1958

Williams has 12 seasons in the Top 35, but wanting to avoid taking up more than a third of the entries with one player, I combined eight similar seasons into two groupings. Williams’ remarkable consistency as a hitter makes this easier. These five were Williams’ third-tier seasons, the level right behind the three seasons that were just off the four monster years we’ll see in the Top 20. Got that? Combining the worst of Williams’ rate stats of these seasons, he put up no worse than a .318/.436/.556, while topping out at a combined-best line of .345/.479/.609. He hit no fewer than 23 and no more than 31 home runs. His OPS+ bottoms out at 160 (1939) and tops out at 179 (1958).

Essentially, these seasons are the two leading up to his peak, and the final years as he came back down. Williams was an All-Star every year but 1939, he led the league in OBP every year but 1939, batting in 1958, slugging in 1951, OPS in 1951 and 1968, total bases in 1951, RBI in 1939, walks in 1951, OPS+ in 1951, extra-base hits in 1939, times on base in 1951 and intentional walks in 1956. Not bad, for Williams’ “bad” years.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #36: Bobby Doerr, 1944

.325/.399/.528, .927 OPS, 536 PA, 152 H, 58 BB, 15 HR, 81 RBI, 95 R, 165 OPS+
All-Star starter, MVP – 7

Undoubtedly helped by the diluted competition he faced as more and more of the league’s ballplayers fought in World War II, Doerr nevertheless took full advantage, posting the best season ever by a Red Sox second baseman, relative to his era. Though leading only in slugging, Doerr finished in the top three of each major rate stat, and second in OPS.

Never mind that, Doerr’s 165 remains the 20th best OPS+ posted by a second sacker in the history of baseball, and those 19 seasons were put up by four players – Hornsby, Lajoie, Morgan and Collins. In fact, since Collins in 1915, Doerr in 1944 has been the only American League second baseman to post a single-season OPS+ of at least 165. Bobby Grich in 1981 is the only other to come close. The Sporting News named Doerr the AL MVP and AL Player of the Year for the season (the BBWAA voted him seventh).

Key game: April 26. Doerr smacks three doubles, including one in the top of the 14th of a 4-4 game against Washington. He scores the winning run on Roy Partee’s sacrifice fly.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #37: Rico Petrocelli, 1969

.297/.403/.589, .992 OPS, 643 PA, 159 H, 98 BB, 40 HR, 97 RBI, 315 TB, 74 XBH, 167 OPS+
All-Star, MVP - 7

No, Petrocelli didn’t lead the league in any significant category, though he finished second in extra-base hits. All he did in 1969 was set an AL record for home runs by a shortstop that stood for 29 years, shortstop OPS that stood for 27 years, and OPS+ by an AL shortstop that still stands.

Petrocelli actually was better than his final line let on – his OPS was below 1.000 at the end of just seven games all season; unfortunately, they were within the final eight games of the year. Likewise, his batting average dropped below .300 for the first time on Sept. 23 and his slugging below .600 on Sept. 22. A “bad” September in which Petrocelli’s OPS was just .840 marred a line at the end of August that stood at .304/.418/.615.

Key game: Sept. 5. In a game in which the Red Sox fell behind 7-0, Petrocelli’s three-run, two-out, seventh-inning homer gives Boston an 8-7 lead over Washington, then with the game tied in the bottom of the ninth, Petrocelli draws a bases-loaded walk to win it.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #38: Fred Lynn, 1979

.333/423/.637, 1.059 OPS, 622 PA, 177 H, 82 BB, 39 HR, 122 RBI, 116 R, 82 XBH, 176 OPS+
All-Star, Gold Glove, MVP - 4

Fred Lynn’s other season wasn’t too shabby – a Triple Crown of sorts, as he led the league in the three principal rate stats (a rarer feat than you’d expect) in what would prove to be his final healthy season in Boston. Lynn also set career highs in pretty much every offensive category in 1979 – hits, homers, RBI, walks, average, OBP, slugging, total bases. Lynn’s 1979 was the best season by a Sox center fielder since Fenway Park’s opening year.

Lynn began the season with a bang – a seventh-inning home run that helped fuel an Opening Day win. Then, already having a fine season as July wound to a close (.325/.415/.618), Lynn got hot. He would collect a hit in each of the next 20 games, his second such streak in his career. But this wasn’t just a hitting streak. Between Aug. 5 and Aug. 17 (12 days), Lynn homered 10 times. He strung together a seven-game two-hit streak. Before finally going 0-for-3 on Aug. 19, his averages sat at .346/.434/.678. His OPS had increased by .074. His .451/.530/.972 line over those 20 games marks the fourth-highest OPS in a hitting streak of at least 20 games over the past 50 years. Not until Larry Walker (him again) 20 years later did someone -- anyone -- better it.

Key game: Aug. 14. Lynn accounts for half the Red Sox’ 12 runs and four home runs by smacking two dingers and driving in six in a 12-1 romp over Minnesota. Lynn’s first-inning solo home run is the second of three in the inning for the Sox – a Jim Rice strikeout all that keeps Fisk, Lynn, Rice and Yastrzemski from hitting four straight homers.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #39: Jim Rice, 1978

.315/.370/.600, .970 OPS, 746 PA, 213 H, 58 BB, 46 HR, 139 RBI, 86 XBH, 406 TB, 157 OPS+
MVP, All-Star starter

Between Hank Aaron and the Steroid Era, only one player compiled more than 400 total bases in a season. It was Jim Rice in 1978. In the 60 years between Joe DiMaggio and Coors Field, Rice was the only player to do so while hitting at least 45 home runs. To cherry pick further, Rice was just the sixth player ever to collect 400 total bases, rap 200 hits and slam 45 home runs in a season (Larry Walker made it seven in 1997), and the first in 41 years. His 1978 season was that historic – an MVP masterpiece that is the beginning argument for those in favor of his Hall of Fame credentials.

Unfortunately, the Red Sox’ epic collapse of 1978 is equally (if not more) historic, and it’s difficult to discuss Rice’s season apart from the context of his club’s collapse. Not that Rice was responsible by any stretch. During Rice’s terrible slump in July, the Sox only lost two games off their division lead. In the 20-game stretch during which the Sox lost 8.5 games off their lead (culminating in the division-tying Boston Massacre), Rice’s OPS was over 1.000.

Key game: Sept. 11. With the Red Sox reeling after the Massacre, Rice carries the team to a 5-4 victory over Jim Palmer and the Orioles by hitting two homers -- including a game-winner in the eighth inning. According to news reports at the time, Rice just misses hitting four homers – instead flying out deep to right and singling off the Monster in his other two at-bats.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #40: Lefty Grove, 1935

20-12, 2.70/1.233/.259, 273 IP, 121 K, 65 BB, 4.0 K/9, 2.1 BB/9, 1.9 K/BB, 23 CG, 175 ERA+
All-Star, MVP - 14

Bob Grove’s career looked to be in its final stages – if not over entirely – when his arm went dead in 1934, just after being sold to Tom Yawkey’s Red Sox. Connie Mack even offered to take Grove back and refund Yawkey his money, but Yawkey declined. Good thing, as Grove rebounded in 1935, completing 23 of his 30 starts, leading the league in WHIP and ERA, and winning 20 games for the eighth time in nine seasons.

How did he recover to post three of the top 50 seasons ever in Red Sox history? Grove realized he could no longer rely on his fastball – one Hartford Courant headline from August 1935 proclaims: “Hurler Has Learned to Pitch, Not Just ‘Throw’”.

Key game:  July 5. Grove limits the newly Ruth-less (but not Gehrig-less) Yankees to seven hits in a 4-3 win in the first game of a doubleheader.

Top 50 Sox Seasons #41: Roger Clemens, 1992

18-11, 2.41/1.074/.226, 246.2 IP, 208 K, 62 BB, 7.6 K/9, 2.3 BB/9, 3.4 K/BB, 5 SHO, 175 ERA+
All-Star, CYA - 3

Clemens had one great season left in Boston, and 1992 was it. His strikeout rate declined, but his walks remained low, and as a result, Clemens led the league in ERA for a third straight year. He started strong out of the gate, throwing 20 consecutive scoreless innings in April, throwing another 19 in May that included consecutive shutouts on May 9 and 15. Later, on July 18, Clemens threw a two-hit shutout, the fourth of five times he would blank an opponent that season (and the second two-hitter). No Red Sox pitcher has matched that total since, and in all baseball only Randy Johnson in 1998 (six) threw more.

It was another season in which Clemens should have won 20 games. Though he received only three no decisions in his 33 appearances, each one was a quality start, as were six of his 11 losses. Meanwhile, only one of his 18 wins resulted in a Game Score lower than 50. Perhaps it was the frustration that led to Clemens’ increasingly antagonistic behavior – toward a Boston Herald columnist, at whom he threw food during a postgame media session; and toward Wade Boggs, who had requested that an error be rescored a hit in September.

Key game: Sept. 7. Clemens matches zeroes with Nolan Ryan for seven innings until the Red Sox strike for two in the eighth. Clemens finishes with nine strikeouts in eight innings as Sox win 3-0.