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The Los Angeles Blue Sox
2005-12-18 14:37
by Bob Timmermann
Inspired by my work on ex-Giants who became Dodgers and the signing of Nomar Garciaparra, I've now started looking for ex-Red Sox have become Dodgers.

It's not nearly as long or as impressive of a list. In 2005, there were two: Derek Lowe and Jose Cruz. Cruz was a Red Sox player for about a week. Bill Mueller and Garciaparra will make the 2006 total four for the time being.

Since the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, the most former Red Sox on any one Dodgers squad was three. In 2003, there was Rickey Henderson, Hideo Nomo, and Paul Quantrill. And in 1992, you could go see Bob Ojeda, Todd Benzinger, and Matt Young. But in reality, would you have wanted to see any of those three?

Because the teams were in different leagues and because the Dodgers had a much better minor league system than the Red Sox for much of the post World War II-era, ex-Red Sox showing up on the Dodgers were few and far between.

After the war until divisional play started in 1969, only one player who had called Boston home played for the Dodgers: Dick Stuart in 1966.

The Dodgers team that had the most former Red Sox on it was also the same team that had the most ex-Giants, the 1932 squad. There were six former Red Sox on the team: Ike Boone, Fred Heimach, Waite Hoyt (Hall of Famer), Lefty O'Doul, Val Picinich, and Jack Quinn.

The first man to do it was a guy named Fred Mitchell who pitched for Boston in 1901-02 and for Brooklyn in 1904-05.

Comments
2005-12-18 16:36:13
1.   DXMachina
I mentioned to my Red Sox loving best friend that it seems as though Frank McCourt had instructed Neddy to reconstruct the 2003 Sox. We have their manager now, too.

Grady Little is the first man to manage the Red Sox who then went on to manage the Dodgers. Patsy Donovan did it the other way round, going from managing Brooklyn in 1908 to the Sox in 1910. There's also Glenn Hoffman, who played for the Sox before managing the Dodgers.

2005-12-18 18:21:45
2.   Bob Timmermann
All of those retreads helped the Dodgers out in 1932. They finished 81-73 and in third place.

They fell apart the next year and went 65-88.

2005-12-18 22:29:30
3.   dzzrtRatt
If there is such a thing as an opposite in baseball, a team that reflects a negation of the other, the Red Sox and Dodgers seem that way to me.

A stereotypical winning Dodger team succeeds due to great pitching, and just good enough hitting. A stereotypical winning Red Sox team has the leagues best collection of hitters, and just barely enough pitching--until '04 not enough.

The Dodgers, in their glory days, won by careful planning. They were owned by a pirate, yes, but a brainy one.

The Red Sox, whenever they're good, it has been due to accident.

The Dodgers were the first to integrate, and were the most culturally diverse team in baseball until recently.

The Red Sox were the last to integrate. Blacks and Hispanics felt uncomfortable on the team as late as the 1980s.

Dodgers have tended to be fleet of foot. Red Sox have tended to be flat of foot.

Fenway Park's unique dimensions tempt good hitters into bad habits. Dodger Stadium's uniform dimensions require hitters to develop good habits.

The only correspondence worth noting between the Dodgers and Red Sox was the presence of sabermetric GMs on both teams when that was still (is still) a novelty. But both have departed this winter.

Now the Red Sox still seem committed to a sabermetric course via the two GMs acolytes of Theo. The Dodgers are trying to erase most DePodesta traces. So, once again, the poles repel.

I bet the toilets flush counterclockwise in Fenway. That's how different the teams are.

2005-12-19 05:56:00
4.   jtshoe
New slogan for the Dodgers: Think Purple!
2005-12-19 08:56:18
5.   Bob Timmermann
I bet the toilets flush counterclockwise in Fenway.

That statement is wrong on so many levels if you've ever been to Fenway.

2005-12-19 11:54:25
6.   DXMachina
Ebbetts Field was sort of a mirror image to Fenway, with the high rightfield wall.

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