One of my memories of the 1987 season was the Red Sox playing an exhibition game against the New York Mets that May. Several teams would play an exhibition against an opponent from the other league as part of a fund raiser during one of the off days during the days before interleague play. I believe that may have been the 2nd or 3rd time for the Sox and Mets. Anyway, it was down in Shea, and, of course, Bill Buckner got a standing ovation.
That season was a disaster from the start. You had the Gedman contract fiasco, which tied into the entire collusion crap that never should have happened. Clemens held out and missed most of spring training, and didn't start until the team's 5th game, a game that was essentially Clemens warm up. The Sox lost 11-1 to the Jimmy Key and the Blue Jays.
The season was marked by the age related decline of many of the team's key veterans from the prior season: Jim Rice (100 point drop in OPS), Don Baylor (half as many HR's during a year that Boggs hit 24), and Bill Buckner. Dave Henderson was limited to 75 games before being traded at the waiver deadline. Gedman was awful, but his numbers looked Piazza-like when compared to Marc "Thanks Dad" Sullivan and Danny Sheaffer. The team slumped at the plate during April and May, by which time they were already 9 games back and essentially out of the playoff picture. However, thanks to the contributions of the young studs later in the season, the Sox ended the season as one of the top hitting teams in the AL, despite being 9th in home runs. I loved that picture of Greenwell, Benzinger, Horn, Burks, Marzano, and Reed on the 1988 schedule.
The pitching was another story. Oil Can Boyd, a decent mid-rotation starter, suffered the first of his career ending arm injuries and appeared in only 7 games. Al Nipper was never the same after being spiked in the leg early the prior season. Tom Seaver had retired after hurting his knee the prior September. Bob Stanley would be the team's starter on Opening Day. And the bullpen was a total dumpster fire. Stanley had actually been decent in 1986 as a "utility reliever", but he was starting (and performing miserably). Schiraldi started to succumb to the wildness that would affect him the rest of his career, and for obvious reasons had lost the trust of the fans in Fenway. By the end of the season, Wes "The First Way Back" Gardner would assume the closer role with predictable consequences. The one pitcher besides Hurst that had won a game in the '86 World Series, Steve Crawford, put up a 0.910 OPS against. Joe Sambito, who had 12 saves early in the 1986 season, was at the end of the line at age 35. As noted above, even Bruce Hurst regressed a bit.
Gedman: I still remember that swing. I also remember when he got into some controversy with the fans when he backed Roger Clemens, who was complaining about carrying his own luggage. The media jumped on his quotes (I can't recall exactly) and the fans crucified him. Didn't really deserve it, in retrospect.
