The '88 team had him (he was their Game 1 and Game 4 starter in the ALCS). It was also a different time back then. He didn't have "millions of dollars". His largest paycheck with the Red Sox was his 1988 salary of $900K. Closer to family or not, it's hard to knock a guy for taking a deal that paid him double what he'd already earned to that point in his career.
Yes, and it was in '88 that he pitched what for me is still the most transcendently brilliant pitching performance I've ever witnessed (yes, including any of Pedro's).
That's amazing. I love the rare 10 IP performance. I wonder who the last player to do it was and how I could search for that quickly. I remember Mark Mulder throwing 10 IP in maybe 2005 or 2006.
Cool. Mulder's 2005 game is eerily similar to Hurst's: a 5-K, 0-BB shutout (5 hits for Mulder, 6 for Hurst) in a game against their primary divisional rival's best pitcher.
I was on my senior class trip to this ranch place on in Western Mass by the Connecticut River on the day of the 1999 MLB Draft and Northbridge happened to be there that day, too. The ranch had a pool, mini golf, softball and a bunch of other stuff. We gathered a bunch of guys from our school and squared off against Northbridge. The game lasted a couple of innings until Asaadorian hit every flippin softball so far into the woods we had to stop playing. I still remember him getting notified that he got drafted by the Sox. He very obviously lost his shit, as did half the people there when the news spread. It was as close as most of us would have been to a pro athlete at the time.
Right, thank you. He certainly had millions after free agency, and would have under any of the offers he got. That was what I meant.
