McAdam: A look back at five seasons when the Red Sox turned out to be far better than projected

If there's a 2020 season -- hardly assured, of course -- the Red Sox will have the luxury of playing without having much much expected from them.

After all, the team traded its best player in February and lost its best pitcher until the middle of 2021 a month or so later. So much for being bullish on the 2020 season.

But as history reminds us, things don't always go according to plan. Sometimes a team woefully underachieves, failing to come close to what was predicted for it. And other times, a team pleasantly exceeds expectations, enjoying the kind of year no expert had forecast.

If the 2020 Sox are to fall into the latter category, they can take their historical cues from these five past Red Sox teams who were far better than anticipated:

1. 1967

This is the gold-standard for "Where did that come from?'' seasons. The 1966 Red Sox had finished ninth in what was then a 10-team league, and when new rookie manager Dick Williams proclaimed in the offseason: "I know one thing -- we'll win more than we'll lose,'' it sounded like the ravings of a madman, or at the very least, more than a bit of wishful thinking.

But a few months into the season, the prediction didn't look nearly as outlandish. Buoyed by the Triple Crown heroics of Carl Yastrzemski -- coming into his peak at 28 -- and Jim Lonborg, the Red Sox morphed into surprise contenders, winning games in dramatic, come-from-behind fashion and gaining confidence along the way.

From a four-team pack, they emerged on the final weekend of the season to claim the franchise's first pennant in 21 years and only the incomparable Bob Gibson -- and Lonborg being forced to start Game 7 on just two days' rest -- derailed their World Series hopes. But no matter: the Impossible Dream season turned a generation of casual fans into Red Sox lifers.

2. 1982

Unlike other entries on this list, this didn't result in a trip to the postseason, with the Sox finishing third in the AL East. But coming off a thoroughly mediocre year in 1981, a season torn in half by a strike, an 89-win season was far more than had been projected.

Dwight Evans (32 homers, 122 runs scored and a .936 OPS) led the offense, overcoming a mediocre pitching staff. As late as Labor Day weekend, the Sox hung in the race, sitting in second place in the division, just 3.5 games out. Over the final four weeks, however, the front-running Milwaukee Brewers rode the August acquisition of Don Sutton to the division crown.

3. 1988

The Sox were only two years removed from fumbling away the 1986 World Series, but a lot had gone wrong since. They suffered through the hangover of 1987 and were just a game over .500 at the All-Star break when the decision was made to fire John McNamara and promote Joe Morgan as interim manager.

While the Sox debated a number of permanent choices, the team inexplicably took off under Morgan's folksy persona, winning 19 of their first 20 games in the second half, three of them on walk-offs, and winning the job for Walpole Joe on a permanent basis.

From there, the Sox never looked back, capturing the AL East. Alas, Morgan Magic didn't translate to the postseason, where the Sox were thoroughly outclassed by the Oakland A's. But for a season that began with diminished goals and seemed lost at the midpoint, it was a successful year.

4. 1995

The Butch Hobson era has yielded three straight losing seasons for the Sox for the first time since the mid-1960s, and the 1994 strike, which carried into the spring of 1995, resulted in a shortened season. Then -- as is the case now, potentially -- the Sox had two different spring training sessions and were being led by a first-year manager, Kevin Kennedy.

The Sox capitalized on a strong start and never looked back. The left-right punch of Mo Vaughn and Jose Canseco supplied the power and two pitchers coming off the scrap heap -- Tim Wakefield and Erik Hanson -- combined to win 31 games.

All of which proved futile in the Division Series where the Sox were quickly dismissed by a far more talented Cleveland Indians squad. But coming on the heels of three consecutive sub-.500 years, this was a welcome return to the postseason....and relevance.

5. 2013

The disastrous -- though mercifully brief -- reign of Bobby Valentine begat the hiring of John Farrell. (It is a coincidence that four of the five teams here featured a manager new to the team?)

Anyway, this marked the first time in history that the team had followed a last-place finish with a first-place finish.

A roster of mid-priced free agents (Mike Napoli, Shane Victorino, Jonny Gomes and Koji Uehara) came together to result in a 97-win season (tops in the A.L.) and after being dangerously close to falling behind 2-0 in the ALCS, rebounded to earn the franchise's third World Series title in 10 years.

The following year, the team resumed occupancy of the A.L. East basement, making the 2013 season all the more surprising in retrospect.