MLB Notebook: A look back at another "second spring training'' year; an All-Time Sox-only team

In a best-case scenario, baseball will resume from its stoppage and the 2020 season will be held, albeit shortened.

That will eventually necessitate a second spring training to prepare for the re-start. Best guesses are that MLB will hold an abbreviated "second'' spring training in order to get players back in shape, but mostly, to enable pitchers to rebuild arm strength.

All of which delivers a bit of deja vu. We have all been here before, remember?

Some context: The year was 1995. After a strike by the players wiped out the final two months of the 1994 season and the World Series, owners assembled replacement players for the spring of 1995. Players from independent leagues, some from the minors and others off the street cluttered rosters in February and March.

But just before the scheduled start of the season in early April, a federal judge (current Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor) ruled that the owners had operated in bad faith and ordered the striking players back to work. Thus. baseball hit the reset button and held a second spring training, this time with the "real'' players back in camp. The start of the season took place in late April and began an abbreviated 144-game schedule.

Then, as now, the Sox were run by a manager who was beginning his first season in the Boston dugout.



"We went full bore at first with the replacement players,'' recalled Kevin Kennedy from his home in southern California this week, "so when I started, I still hadn't met Roger Clemens and Mo Vaughn in person, the key guys. I remember we decided, as a staff, as we got deeper into that spring, we were going to open up in Boston with the replacement players. I remember, too, that Mike Easler, who we had hired as the hitting coach, refused to work with replacement guys, so we ended up hiring Jim Rice (for the position).

"Then the NLRB intervened and all of a sudden, we were going to have a short -- two-and-a-weeks or so -- spring training to get ready for the season.''

That put pressure on Kennedy and his coaching staff to get to know his team in a hurry, while also making sure the players who had been idle since the previous summer, were physically prepared for the grind of the season.

"For me, having managed in the big leagues (in Texas 1993-94), I think that helped me a lot,'' said Kennedy. "I had Jose Canseco, who I had managed in Texas and he was in my corner and told the players what I was about. But still, I had to make my own relationships with the guys. I tried to get with each guy one-on-one as much as I could to get to know them better. But we had a really shortened spring training and I knew we couldn't mess around. We had to get right to it.''

Complicating matters was Kennedy had to handle some lingering animosity between the regular players and a few replacement players who remained to provide roster depth. Some players bitterly resented the presence of the replacement players, whom they regarded as scabs. A few veterans refused to take ground balls with replacement player Randy Brown until Kennedy and bench coach Tim Johnson met with the regulars and urged team unity.

"We knew we had to address that and stop that right there,'' said Kennedy. "Basically, it was either you guys get together and we have some fun and win games or you can hang your head and point fingers. I think that really helped. After that little period of time, we kind of jelled.''

The talent was strong, though initially, there were some holes.

"We felt pretty good about the team we had,'' said Kennedy. "I knew the lineup was there, but we didn't have enough starting pitching, especially when Roger went down (with a spring training shoulder injury).''

The team plucked Erik Hanson from a Players Association spring camp for unsigned free agents and Hanson won 15 games. Weeks into the season, GM Dan Duquette plucked Tim Wakefield off the scrap heap, beginning a Red Sox career that would span 17 years and accumulate 186 wins.

The 1995 Sox began 24-11 and never looked back, cruising to the A.L. East title before losing to Cleveland in the first round of the playoffs.

"I think the guys were hungry, they were ready to play,'' said Kennedy. "The strong start helped.''

In the coming weeks or months, Ron Roenicke, also beginning his first year as Red Sox manager, will be tasked with the same challenge facing Kennedy in 1995: getting his roster ready, and doing so in a hurry.

Roenicke and Kennedy played together in the Dodgers organization in the 1980s and Kennedy served as a TV pre-game host with the Dodgers when Roenicke coached there.

"He's the perfect guy for them,'' said Kennedy. "Ron did a good job managing the Brewers and didn't deserve to get fired there. He'll have them ready. If they have a short spring training, he'll have them ready. He's been there, he's got a World Series ring and he knows most of those guys (from being on Alex Cora's coaching staff the last two seasons) and he knows the city.

"I was so happy Ron got that job. I was pulling for him.''

Now, a quarter century later, Roenicke, minus the pesky labor issues, will try to match Kennedy's quick start -- whenever baseball returns.

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So perhaps you heard: Tom Brady will not finish his career with the Patriots.

It shouldn't be much of a shock. In the modern era, where free agency allows players to pick and choose when and for whom they'll play, the notion of a player remaining with one team for an entire career seems almost quaint.

Sure, it happens. But not often. And before the reserve clause was struck down and free agency introduced to baseball in 1976, it was still pretty rare. There weren't any no-trade clauses to prevent teams from dealing off even the greatest of players.

With that in mind, we thought it might be a fun exercise to name an All-Star team of players who spent their entire playing career with the Red Sox. Some positions were obvious; some were a challenge. Finding starting pitching, for example, was particularly difficult.

Here we go:

Catcher: Jason Varitek* Varitek was either the captain or de facto captain of two World Series teams and was an All-Star three times in his 15 seasons with the Sox, which included 11 years with double figures in homers.
*Admittedly, we bent the rules a bit here for Vartiek's inclusion. He was originally with the Seattle Mariners, but never played a game in the majors for them. Work with us. Otherwise, the all-time catcher would have been Christian Vazquez.

First base: Carl Yastrzemski Sure, Yaz would seem more qualified for an outfield spot, but he did play 765 of his career games at first -- nearly five full seasons worth -- so this isn't at all a stretch. The franchise leads in games played, hits, at-bats, total bases, RBI, Yaz was a no-brainer.

Second base: Bobby Doerr. A Hall of Famer with seven 100-RBI seasons, Doerr gets the nod over Dustin Pedroia.

Shortstop: Xander Bogaerts. I know, I know. He's "only''  played seven seasons with the Sox. But so many other candidates -- Nomar Garciaparra, Johnny Pesky, Rick Burleson -- played elsewhere. And given how he played in 2019 (.939 OPS, 140 OPS+) and his age (27) this might not seem so silly in a few seasons.

Third base: Rico Petrocelli. Petrocelli is known better to most as a shortstop, but it might surprise you to know that he split his 13 seasons almost equally between shortstop (774) and third (727). A fact you may not know: in 1969, Petrocelli posted a WAR of 10.0, a figure only Yaz and Mookie Betts have matched or exceeded among Red Sox position players since 1967.

Left Field: Ted Williams. Well, duh. You thought maybe there wasn't room for the greatest hitter who ever lived?

Center field: Dom DiMaggio. I never completely bought that argument that DiMaggio was a Hall of Famer. But there's no denying that he had an excellent career finishing with a .298 average and OPS of .802. It was his glovework, however, by which DiMaggio will always be known.

Right field: Jim Rice. OK, the notion of Jim Ed patrolling Fenway's vast right field on a regular basis is a little chilling. But there's no denying his offensive contributions. For about a decade, Rice was one of the most feared hitters in the game. (Like so many others considered here, Dwight Evans, who would have been the no-brainer pick for RF, isn't eligible because he played one season elsewhere).

DH: I'm leaving this vacant. It would be easy to pick a good offensive player from the 1940s or 1950s who could fit here, but since there was, of course, no DH in that era, that feels like cheating. And from the inception of the DH in 1973 to the present, no one really fits the bill.

LH starting pitcher: Mel Parnell. Parnell's career was relatively brief (10 years), but in that time, he fashioned a .625 winning percentage and won 20 or more games twice.

RH starting pitcher: Tex Hughson. All the greats -- Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, Luis Tiant, Cy Young -- all pitched in multiple spots, so we'll go with Hughson, who, in an eight-year career, won 20 games or more twice and finished with a fine 2.94 ERA.

Reliever: Bob Stanley. Stanley is criminally underrated in Red Sox history. He was incredibly durable and versatile. He's also the franchise leader in games pitched and games finished and is second in saves.

Manager: Bill Carrigan. Same rules apply here -- you had to have managed the Red Sox and only the Red Sox. Carrigan directed the Sox to three 90 wins-or-better seasons in his first four years, including two world championships in 1915 and 1916. Problem was, he returned for a second stint from 1927-1929, and the Sox never had a winning percentage better than .377! Still, two World Series is hard to beat. Honorable mention: Joe Morgan, who guided the Sox to two first-place finishes in 3.5 seasons.