I've got nothing. Let's just get this going. It is going to take awhile.
2. Tony Conigliaro. Conig was second in the league in RBIs in 1970. One season after his return to the Majors from being hit in the eye with a pitch, he had the best season of his career, reaching career highs in home runs (36) and RBIs (116). Unfortunately he was still having residual problems from his beaning and it was downhill from there.
3. Rick Burleson. Burleson was actually a very valuable player when he was healthy. Unfortunately, after he was traded to the Angels, that did not happen nearly often enough. He was a decent hitter, and a tremendous fielder.
4. Joe Sambito. Sambito had been a great reliever with the Astros for several years and spent his last two years in Boston. He had 12 saves in 1986, but with a 4.86 ERA and it ballooned to 6.93 in 1987.
5. Tony Armas/Jim Rice/Reggie Jackson. I am annoyed that this card has three players on it, including two Red Sox, and Reggie Jackson is the player that shows up in the scan. The purpose of this card was to show players with multiple AL home run crowns. Jackson had four, Rice had three, and Armas had two (one with the Red Sox).
6. Wade Boggs. This is from the Donruss All Stars set.
7. Bruce Hurst. Hurst finished in a tie for 4th place in the AL in wins (18) in 1988. And then he was gone to the Padres as a free agent.
8. Marty Barrett. This post will be full of holes that I was not aware of until I spent a week poring over checklists and my collection. This is one of those random holes I was not aware of.
9. Mike Greenwell. And here is another one.
10. Roger Clemens. Clemens probably should have won a couple more Cy Young Awards with the Red Sox. His 1990 and 1992 seasons should have given him five Cy Young Awards just with Boston.
11. Scott Fletcher. I apparently had the Museum Collection parallel, but not the base card.
12. Frank Viola. There was a lot of hope that Viola and Clemens would lead Boston to a pennant or two. But Viola was past his prime, though he did have a couple of decent seasons with Boston, and one really bad one.
13. Nate Minchey. I always like pitchers that used the high leg kick. Minchey was one of the players Boston received when Jeff Reardon was traded to the Braves but after winning his ML debut (complete game, one run, no walks, five strikeouts against the Indians), he didn't do much afterwards.
14. Greg Harris. Harris was one of my favorite underrated players early on when I started watching baseball. He had a great 1993 season that saw him set a team record for games pitched with a staggering 80. He pitched in almost half of the team's games that season. That is remarkable.
15. Roger Clemens. Studio has had some odd designs over the years and the credit card design was certainly one of them.
16. Troy O'Leary. Awesome throwback uniform on this card. This uniform was worn in 1908.
17. Michael Coleman. Coleman was a bust. He had a ton of talent and had some good years in Pawtucket, but could not do anything in the Majors.
18. Derek Lowe. Another card that I had parallels, but not the base card.
19. Curt Schilling. Based on early reports, it does not look likely that Schilling will be elected to the Hall of Fame this year. Disappointing, but not surprising.
20. Jon Lester. Lester is a player I feel is underrepresented in my collection. I will be working on that.
21. Manny Ramirez. Ramirez also looks unlikely to be elected this year. Again, disappointing but not surprising.
22. Tim Wakefield. I do hope that Wakefield gets one vote for the Hall. It would be a shame not to get a single vote.
23. J.D. Drew. Drew is yet another player on the ballot this year, though he seems unlikely to get any votes. He was a much better player than given credit for. I think people just thought he didn't care and he did a lot of things well that were not immediately obvious, like getting on base and playing defense.
24. Daisuke Matsuzaka. Dice-K is attempting a comeback this year. Might be something to watch out for.
25. Daisuke Matsuzaka.
26. Josh Beckett. Like Lester, I feel Beckett is underrepresented in my collection. I feel that way about a lot of starting pitchers. That will be my primary focus this next year.
27. Jacoby Ellsbury. I am only really disappointed that Ellsbury was not healthy enough to set a new Red Sox record for stolen bases in a career. The record was 300 by Harry Hooper and Ellsbury stole 241. He might have gotten close with full seasons in 2010 (18 games, 7 stolen bases) and 2012 (74 games, 14 stolen bases). His average when he was healthy in Boston was 53 stolen bases a season. Had he done that, he would have had the record.
28. Jacoby Ellsbury.
29. David Ortiz. Ortiz and Pedro Martinez are duking it out for the #3 most Red Sox cards in my collection. Ortiz pulls ahead, but Pedro comes charging right back.
30. Dustin Pedroia. Pedroia was terrible in his first shot in Boston in 2006 and during the first month of 2007. But he has really come back to being a potential Hall of Famer.
31. Edgar Renteria. I feel like Renteria should have been given another chance. But the trade did bring Andy Marte, who was a top prospect at the time. Boston wisely flipped him to Cleveland. Marte never amounted to anything.
32. David Ortiz.
33. Pedro Martinez. And here comes Pedro, charging back.
34. Pedro Martinez.
35. Pedro Martinez.
36. Mike Lowell. Lowell really had a good career. I forgot how good he was in Boston, other than his great 2007 season. He had strong seasons every season except his last. In Boston, he hit .290/.346/.468 with 80 home runs and 374 RBIs in four seasons. He was also a good defensive third-baseman.
38. George Kottaras. Kottaras was acquired by the Red Sox for David Wells in 2006 and was the Red Sox backup catcher for the first part of the 2009 season. He had some decent seasons as a backup afterwards.
39. Joel Hanrahan. It is a good thing Brock Holt was also acquired in this deal, even though they gave up Mark Melancon. Hanrahan barely played for Boston and was shaky more often than not.
40. Dante Bichette. Bichette is a player who made his mark in the thin air of Colorado, but he did hit 19 home runs in 137 games with the Red Sox at the end of his career. I liked Bichette and had a mini player collection of him when he was with the Rockies.
41. Mookie Betts. Mookie is likely going to win the race to 100 against JBJ and X-Man. This is #99. Bradley is at 97 and Bogaerts is at 92.
42. Josh Beckett.
43. Yoan Moncada. I made this trade before the Sale trade. I am disappointed that Moncada is no longer in Boston, but I am excited about Sale joining David Price and Rick Porcello in the rotation.
44. Yoan Moncada.
45. Andrew Benintendi. And Boston still has Benintendi.
47. Michael Meyers. Meyers is still in the Red Sox system, but the story behind this card is that I really wanted a Blue Wave Refractor from 2012 Bowman Draft. I received a free five-card package of the cards from the Topps/Bowman promotion they had that year. No Red Sox in the pack. I did get a 2013 Blue Wave, but the card stock was thinner and I did not like it as well. The player did not matter here, I just wanted the card.
48. Josh Beckett.
49. Jon Lester.
50. Mark Loretta. I remember being disappointed that Loretta was not brought back in 2007, but Pedroia took over, so it worked out just fine. Loretta had a decent year and probably could have won a Gold Glove.
51. Julio Lugo. Lugo had a very good postseason for Boston in 2007, but was mostly forgettable the rest of his tenure. Bad hitting and bad defense and his speed abandoned him after stealing 33 bases in 2007.
52. Will Middlebrooks. Middlebrooks is one of just two Red Sox I have personally seen hit multiple home runs in a game. He hit two. Jason Varitek had a three-homer game.
53. David Murphy. A first-round draft pick, Murphy had some decent seasons after being traded to the Rangers for Eric Gagne.
54. Jonathan Papelbon. I was kind of hoping Papelbon would come back to Boston in 2016 when he was a free agent. He was not guaranteed to be a closer, and I think that was his reasoning for not coming back.
56. Edgar Renteria.
57. Dustin Pedroia. Pedroia is now the longest-tenured Red Sox and it is not at all close. Several players came up in 2013, while Pedroia has been there since 2006.
58. Billy Harrell. Harrell played in 32 games for Boston in 1961 as a backup infielder. He hit just .162/.184/.216.
59. Xander Bogaerts. Bogaerts needs to work on being a more consistent hitter. He had a great first half, but terrible second half. I still think we have not seen the best of him, and here is a player who finished second in the batting race one season and hit 20 home runs in another. He could be very, very good.
60. Vicente Romo. Romo had a couple of seasons as an impressive reliever in 1969-1970. This was well before relievers became even more specialized.
61. Bill Werber. I love these Yawkey Red Sox cards. A lot of the players were obscure. Werber was a very good player who I have talked about a number of times. But this is my first card of him.
62. Heinie Manush. The Hall of Famer spent just one season in Boston. I now have two cards of him.
63. Dennis Eckersley. Eckersley has been covered on this blog recently, and it looks like he will have another post soon.
65. Blake Swihart. One of the biggest questions for the next season is who will be the catcher. I am betting Swihart will eventually become the primary catcher.
66. Max Bishop. Nicknamed "Camera Eye" for his impressive ability to draw walks. He recorded eight seasons of 100 or more walks in a row. He spent his last two seasons with the Red Sox after the first ten with the A's.
67. David Ortiz. I love this picture.
68. Rocco Baldelli. Baldelli was a tragic story. His rare illness kept him from becoming the great player he could have been. He had a lot of natural talent.
69. Jimmie Foxx. The Beast wears a Red Sox cap on his Hall of Fame plaque.
70. Koji Uehara. I got this in a lot of six relic cards off of Ebay. Only the Koji card makes it into my personal collection.
71. Jason Varitek. I am considering pushing Varitek back over the top of Sandy Alomar Jr. That could be challenging. There simply are not that many Varitek cards out there that I need. I have 895 Varitek cards and 1,083 Sandy Alomar Jr. cards.
72. Curt Schilling/Jonathan Papelbon.
74. Jacoby Ellsbury.
75. Clay Buchholz. I worked out this trade before Buchholz was traded too. I wish him luck.
76. Pedro Martinez.
77. Daisuke Matsuzaka.
78. Carl Yastrzemski. His 1967 season is probably the greatest season of all time by a Red Sox player. It was a remarkable 12.4 WAR season.
79. Mark Loretta.
80. Jonathan Papelbon.
81. Kevin Youkilis. It's a shame his career wound down so quickly. His numbers with Boston were very impressive: .287/.388/.487 with 133 home runs and 564 RBIs. He was one of my favorites from 2006 through 2011.
83. Curt Schilling.
84. Luis Tiant. I am anxious to see if Tiant can make it in to the Hall of Fame via the Veterans' Committee, but none of those committees seem to be electing anyone. I am getting annoyed with them.
85. Manny Ramirez/Johnny Damon. Damon will have an interesting Hall of Fame case. If he had been more productive for another couple of seasons, he may have had a better chance.
86. Manny Ramirez.
87. Daniel Nava. Does anyone know if he has appeared on any cards since leaving Boston? I have not seen any.
88. Luis Tiant.
89. Tim Wakefield.
90. Tim Wakefield.
92. Rick Porcello. I had to get the Topps Now card for his Cy Young win.
93. David Ortiz. This was a free holiday bonus card. I'm just glad Ortiz is on it.
94. Bob Montgomery. I have been collecting a lot of backup catchers lately. Montgomery is a player I never saw, but I like getting cards of him. David Ross, Doug Mirabelli, and John Marzano are some of my other favorites.
95. Phil Gagliano. He had a very impressive 1971 season as a backup, hitting .324/.413/.397 in 47 games.
96. Mike Nagy. Nagy was great in his rookie season, going 12-2 with a 3.11 ERA. He only won eight games the rest of his five seasons in the Majors.
97. Duane Josephson. Josephson hit a career high 10 home runs for the Red Sox in 1971 as their starting catcher.
98. Reggie Smith. Smith is another player I think should be re-examined for the Hall of Fame. He was a terrific player that never really got the attention he deserved.
99. Bill Lee. Lee had a three-year stretch where he won 17 games each season. He was a very good pitcher for a number of years. I think that kind of gets glossed over because he was such an unusual character.
101. Doug Griffin. Griffin finished fourth in the AL ROY vote in 1971 and won a Gold Glove in 1972. I likely would have really liked him. Injuries unfortunately did the slick-fielding second-baseman.
102. Ken Tatum. Like Romo, Tatum was a pretty good reliever during his time with Boston. He was acquired in the trade that sent Tony Conigliaro to the Angels and then was traded away along with Reggie Smith for Rick Wise and Bernie Carbo. Two very important trades.
103. Luis Tiant.
104. Brady Anderson. Anderson was famously traded to the Orioles along with Curt Schilling for Mike Boddicker, a good trade for both teams. Anderson started the 1988 season with the Red Sox and played in 41 games, hitting .230/.315/.304. At the time he was more of a speed player and stole four bases with five doubles and three triples. It wasn't until 1992 when he became a good player.
105. Chuck Stobbs. A few weeks ago I was annoyed because a Chuck Stobbs card that I bought featured him in a Red Sox uniform but the card back identified him with the Senators. Despite winning more than 10 games in three straight seasons with the Red Sox he had no cards issued while he was active with Boston. I was worried that there were no Red Sox cards of Stobbs out there. I then found this one from the Boston Globe set of the early 1980's that featured almost every player that played with Boston during the 1950's and 1960's. I love this set and would like to find more of them.
Great batch of Bosox. The Milton Bradley cards with the stat line on front are from 1970. The others are either 69 or 72 . Used the same pics on most occasions
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