I'm too sad to be coherent so I'll just paste something I wrote 20 years ago:
Dave and I had a rocky start. He sort of fooled everyone by hitting like Manny Ramirez in spring training. He made the roster to be a bench player, but our insane amount of injuries pushed him into a more regular role as an outfielder and first baseman. Oh yeah, he also pitched mop-up after a disastrous opening day at Fenway. That's right, McCarty is old school. He can hit, field, and pitch.
But he didn't do much to start off, until a game against Seattle on May 30th. I was down at Brown, my college friend's sister was graduating, and I and another friend had gone down to hang out. They were doing family stuff that afternoon, so the other friend and I went to a bar and watched the game there.
The game started off promising, with Curt Schilling taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning, but after a blown save by Keith Foulke the game went into extra innings. My friend caught me griping about McCarty as he came to bat in the bottom of the tenth. I decided to give him a second chance, and said that I would start liking him if he got a game winning hit. If it was a walkoff home run, I would even buy his shirt.
He grounded out. "See?" I said.
But in the twelfth inning, after Varitek was hit by a pitch, Francona gave McCarty the green light on a 3-0 pitch and Dave launched it into the centerfield stands.
The MLB store didn't have his shirt, of course, but they let you put any name and number you want on them:
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I wore that shirt during every game the rest of the season.
Once Doug Mientkiewicz, a left-handed hitter with a bit of a better glove, showed up, McCarty didn't have much of a role, though he played in 91 games, the tenth most of any player that crazy year. But in his last appearance against Baltimore, a meaningless appearance in a meaningless game, he gave up one hit in two innings with three strikeouts, including one against future Hall of Famer Raphael Palmeiro.
I think he made the postseason roster for the ALDS and ALCS, but not the World Series. But he was there, and had one of my favorite moments during the ALCS celebration:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TO_-mG7_SE&feature=youtu.be
RIP Dave
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