The Worst Red Sox Team of All Time Pt. 5: Larry Boerner

Failure is often even more fascinating than success. I am definitely intrigued by the 1932 Boston Red Sox, the worst Red Sox team of all time. The team finished with a record of 43-111, for a winning percentage of .279 and very little went right.

This is one of the most obscure members of the team.  Larry Boerner does not have a single card because his Major League career consisted of just 21 games, all of them in 1932 with the Red Sox.  Boerner was 27.  

Boerner was a tall (6'4") right-handed pitcher who had been toiling in various minor leagues since the mid-1920's when the Red Sox signed him as an amateur free agent in June 1932.  The Red Sox pitching was struggling all season long and Boerner had had some success earlier in his career.  That would certainly not carry over into his Major League career though.

In his very short career, Boerner was 0-4 with a 5.02 ERA in 21 games, five of them as a starting pitcher.  He struck out 19 and walked 37 in 61 innings, giving up 71 hits.  Definitely not the kind of numbers you want to see.  He also did not collect a single hit at the plate, though he did have an RBI.  His first Major League start saw him pitch 10.2 innings of an 11 inning game, giving up just four runs, but getting the loss.  It was a decent first start, but it was his only somewhat successful start, and he still walked nine and gave up nine hits. 

Although he completed the 1932 season with Boston, that was his only shot at the Majors.  He was back in the minors the next season.  Larry Boerner is one of the many short-tenured players Boston picked up off the scrap heap with a hope at catching lightning in a bottle.  He was another in a long line of players who just did not work out for them that year.