"You Keep Using That Word. I Do Not Think it Means What You Think it Means."

That quote of course comes from The Princess Bride, one of the few decent chick flicks ever.  But I am not talking about the meaning of "inconceivable" here, I am specifically calling Topps out on their Fan Favorites autograph insert set.  And my evidence is this:

That's right: Carl Everett.  This is the red parallel and is numbered to 50.  Everett is the only Red Sox card in the Fan Favorites autograph set.  I applaud Topps for thinking outside the box here.  I never would have guessed Carl Everett would appear in this set.  Nevertheless, it is a new Red Sox card, a player I don't see much on cardboard anymore, and therefore, I had to get something.  Still, I would have preferred to see someone like Jason Varitek.

Everett spent two years in Boston from 2000 to 2001.  I was early in my college years at that time and I remember his stint very well.  And I have to say, he was pretty much the exact opposite of a fan favorite.  Now, I was something of a Carl Everett apologist, but even I could not keep coming to his defense, because it seemed that every few weeks, something else was going on.  He was missing the bus in Spring Training, getting into fights with teammates, coaches, managers, or reporters, headbutting umpires, and just generally making an ass of himself.  All of that could have been forgiven if he was hitting, but apart from a terrific first half of the 2000 season which saw him named to the All Star team, Everett was not hitting enough to make up for the issues.  He was eventually traded to the Rangers in a trade of bad contracts for Darren Oliver, who could not even finish his one season with Boston.  Everett did have one good season in 2000, and that is how I prefer to remember him, but it is very hard to forget "Jurassic Carl".