2002 BOSTON RED SOX
REVERSING THE CURSE, PART 4 ...
THE HENRY, WERNER & LUCCHINO OWNERSHIP BEGINS ...
 

In the off-season before 2002, Dan Duquette remain at the helm of the Boston Red Sox. By December he added more than $30 million worth of contracts, picking up firstbaseman/DH Tony Clark on waivers from the Tigers, and signing free agents center fielder Johnny Damon and pitcher John Burkett, while dealing Carl Everett to the Texas Rangers for Darren Oliver. And in February he signed Ricky Henderson to a one year contract. Henderson had more stolen bases (1395) in his 22 year career, than the whole Boston Red Sox franchise (1382) had accumulated.

Duquette next sent out a letter to the season ticket holders trying to make the previous 2001 season sound like a success. Obviously he was trying to impress the new owners, whoever they would be, into thinking he was doing a good job.

John Harrington was mulling over bids from prospective new owners. At first it appeared that concessionaire, Joe O'Donnell and shopping mall developer, Steve Karp, both local successful business men, with ties to Boston, where the front runners. But there were many others who had local ties and were trying to make deals also.

Finally in November, the Sox announced that the cut down the number of bidders to six. O'Donnell headed one group and another was put together by real estate developer, Frank McCourt, who had waterfront land that could serve as a site for a new ballpark. There were also bids by cable tycoon Charles Dolan, by attorney Miles Prentice and by Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs. Former owner of the San Diego Padres and TV producer Tom Werner was in another group, headed by John Henry, chairman and founder of an investment firm specializing in commodities and derivatives. Henry had already owned the Florida Marlins and had just sold his interest to Montréal owner Jeffrey Loria. The sale to Loria happened to be a part of MLB's taking over of the Montréal Expos. MLB was in the process of discussing retraction by eliminating the Montréal franchise as well as the Minnesota franchise.

Ever since Harrington had taken over the Red Sox, he bowed down to commissioner Bud Selig, trying to be a part of his in crowd. It now appeared that Selig was interested in the John Henry group, who were known to support realignment of baseball in favor of revenue sharing between the franchises. The franchise that Selig once owned, the Milwaukee Brewers, were perhaps the most unsuccessful franchise in baseball, underfunded and mismanaged. Revenue-sharing would be a boon to the Milwaukee franchise.

The month of December unfolded like a giant game of poker. Bluffing and backstabbing, as well as BS, was dealt out in equal portions. McCourt, O'Donnell and Jacobs dropped out while Prentice and Dolan stayed in.

On December 20th, Harrington announced that they finally accepted an offer from the John Henry and Tom Werner group. Henry and Werner became officially known as New England Sports Ventures. The group included a healthy list of major players ranging from the New York Times which included the Boston Globe, as well as one time Baltimore Orioles executive, Larry Lucchino, and former Maine Senator, George Mitchell. The sale of the Red Sox went for $420 million and created a group with almost $1 billion in the bank.

After the sale was announced, Dan Duquette was still in charge and was saying that he expected to remain on, even though there was no notification from the John Henry group. Finally on February 27th, the 69 years of the failing Yawkey tradition came to an end as the sale was finalized. The new owners didn't wait around and on the last day of February they fired Duquette, naming assistant general manager Mike Port, the interim GM. Joe Kerrigan was fired as manager five days later and replaced for a few days by third-base coach Mike Cubbage, and then by former bench coach Grady Little.

The new ownership got high marks from the media and the fans for being straightforward. The ball club that they inherited, had already been built by someone else and so their inaugural season was spent in dealing with public relations. With Lucchino as president and CEO, Henry as principal owner, and Tom Werner as chairman, there was nobody who seemed to be clearly in charge. Also their ownership of the Boston Globe and NESN gave rise to questions about how tough their relationship with the media would be. Piece after puff piece was written by the Globe, with writers being required to make contractual appearances on TV. The season on the field would be played out as a rerun of the past two years, but the owners were given a mulligan by the fans and media.

After losing the home opener, the Sox went to Baltimore and Derek Lowe took a no-hitter into the eighth inning of a 3-0 victory over the Orioles at Camden Yards on April 5th.

The next night the Sox came from behind. With two out in the top of the eighth, the Sox broke open a 1-1 game and propelled the themselves to a 4-2 victory. Ricky Henderson, the all-time leader in steals, runs, and walks, started it by lashing an 0-and-2 slider for a single to left. Two pitches later, Henderson broke for second, opening up the right side of the infield for Johnny Damon to slap a single to right. That allowed Henderson to scamper to third. Nomar, who homered and drove in two runs in a 3-0 victory the night before, sent the first pitch soaring to the edge of the wall in left field. Melvin Mora leaped, felt the ball in his glove before his wrist hit the wall, and came down looking for the ball. As Mora fell to the warning track in despair, Henderson and Damon were hugging like school kids at home plate.

Pedro Martinez next proved that, for the first time in more than 10 months, he could win a baseball game again. Pedro was the first to note after he silenced the Orioles, 4-1, capping a three-game sweep by the Red Sox, that he may have miles to go before he completes his journey back. The win was his first in nine starts since last May 30th.

Returning back to Fenway, on April 9th, the Sox blasted four home runs and four doubles in their first three times through the order in an 8-4 win over the Kansas City Royals, with Nomar Garciaparra hitting his third homer in as many games. But they lost 2 of 3 and the Yankees were up next.

In the first game on April 12th, without Nomar nor Jason Varitek, and big roles from Jose Offerman, Carlos Baerga, Lou Merloni, and Sun Woo Kim, the Sox beat the Yanks 3-2.  In the second game on April 13th, Shea Hillenbrand pulled off the nearly unfathomable by slamming a two-out, two-strike, two-run homer off Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the eighth, to lift the Sox to an electrifying 7-6 victory. After losing the third game, the Sox bounced back behind Derek Lowe, to take 3 of 4. Lowe, who suddenly was ranked among the toughest in the game, delivered a powerful message of his own, by spotting the Yankees just one run on two hits over seven innings in leading the Sox to 4-3 victory.

In Toronto on April 16th, Shea Hillenbrand led the Sox in a 14-3 thrashing of the Blue Jays. Hillenbrand slugged his fifth homer of the season, a three-run bomb, as he maintained his torrid April pace by also doubling, scoring three runs, and improving his team-leading average to .413. The next night the Sox smashed the Jays again, 10-3. Manny Ramirez knocked in four runs as he thumped a two-run homer among his four hits.

The Sox went to Kansas City and with the Royals as his subjects, Pedro Martinez shut them out on one hit over eight innings. He walked no one and allowed only one batter to advance past first base, as he unleashed 94 pitches with poise and precision in a 4-0 victory. Pedro (2-0) had not allowed an earned run in 14 innings on the road, and his 22 strikeouts were third in the American League behind Roy Halladay (28) and Roger Clemens (26). Opponents were hitting only .188 against him.

The next day, on April 21st, the Sox swept a doubleheader from the Royals, 12-2 and 8-7, and it was noteworthy because the team was off to the best road start (8-0) and second-best overall start (12-4) in franchise history. After destroying his former team, with eight hits in the three-game weekend sweep, including a grand slam and two-run home run in his six-hit salute during the doubleheader, Johnny Damon was batting .354 in his first 16 games with the Sox.

Pedro picked up his third win in Baltimore on April 25th, shutting out the O's, 7-0.  After a second straight start in which he allowed the opposition just one hit, Pedro's no-hit bid lasted until Gary Matthews lined a two-out single in the sixth. He had strung together 18 1/3 innings in which he had allowed just two hits and struck out 22. It was first 10-K game of the season.

Back at Fenway on April 27th, Derek Lowe tossed the first no-hitter at Fenway in 37 years. Lowe allowed only one base runner in the third inning. So dominant was Lowe that the Devil Rays never came seriously close to mustering a hit. Ricky Henderson triggered the Sox attack in the 10-0 no-hitter, by booming one over the Green Monster to extend his all-time record for leadoff homers to 80. No one was even close to Henderson's mark, as Cleveland's Brady Anderson ranked a distant second with 44. The blast was Henderson's first of the year, giving him home runs in 24 consecutive seasons. That tied him with Ty Cobb for the major league record.

On April 30th, by blanking the Orioles, 4-0, the first-place Sox finished April with a record of 16-7. Nomar Garciaparra (2 for 4 with two RBIs) underscored the soundness of his surgically repaired right wrist. Johnny Damon, who reached on an error and stole second, scored the run in the latest reminder of how much his bat, speed, and enthusiasm energized the team. And Manny Ramirez, knocked in Nomar to remain among the league leaders in run production.

The Sox pitching staff had the best ERA (3.36) in the American League. They were first in the majors in shutouts (five), tied for first in saves (10), first in fewest walks allowing (55) and first in the AL in hits-allowed-per-nine innings (6.99).

To begin the month, on May 1st, with five RBIs and two homers, Manny, who was tied for the American League lead in RBIs (31), led the Red Sox to a 15-3 win over the Orioles, ending the homestand on a high note. Nomar had hit safely in 20 of the 22 games in which he had played, and was coming off a six-game home-stand in which he hit .450 (9 for 20).

In Tampa, trailing, 2-1, with two outs in the ninth, the Sox stormed back for a 3-2 victory. Then in the next game, on May 4th, a ninth-inning, pinch grand slam by Shea Hillenbrand gave the Sox a 7-5 win. After Nomar had doubled home a run with two out in the ninth and a walk to Manny that loaded the bases, Hillenbrand, who was in a 1-for-13 skid, responded with a towering fly ball to left that struck the C-ring catwalk in the domed stadium, 120 feet above the field. The ball bounced back into play, but under stadium ground rules, it was a home run. The slam was the first of Hillenbrand's career and first pinch slam by a Sox player since Rich Gedman hit one August 10, 1986.

In the third game of the Tampa series was won, 2-0, thanks to Frank Castillo. And with just one last thrashing of the Devil Rays, 5-3 on May 6th, in the finale of the four-game sweep, the Red Sox had zipped out to the second-best start in franchise history, a 21-7 record, eclipsed only by the '46 club that started 23-5 and just happened to win 104 games on their way to the World Series. The Sox widened their lead over the Yankees in the American League East to 5 games, their largest cushion since 1995.

On to Oakland, and the Red Sox maintained their sense of purpose with a 9-7 win against the A's. The Sox won for the 16th time in 19 games, despite an abbreviated night for Pedro. The next game was a 12-6 beating. By the third inning, Jason Varitek already had a three-run home run and two-run single, Nomar had a three-run double, and every Sox starter had been on base at least once and everyone but Nomar had scored. Ricky Henderson passed Willie Mays for eighth place on the all-time list of games played (2,993) and Wade Boggs for 22nd place on the all-time hit list (3,011), as he sparked the Sox by going 2 for 5, knocking in two runs and scoring one. The Sox were 9-1 in Henderson's starts.

Finally, the Sox stunned the A's, 5-1, to sweep the three-game series and improve their record to 24-7. By winning their ninth straight game, the Sox swept the A's in Oakland for the first time since May 29-31, 1995, which predates all but one current member of the club: Tim Wakefield. Wakefield finished off the A's by pitching a perfect ninth inning.

But it was Derek Lowe who set the stage with his sixth quality start in seven outings, as he restricted the A's to one run by scattering six hits and two walks over eight innings. He benefited from some solid defense and timely hitting. Lowe (5-1) was leading the league in batting average allowed (.165), and had pitched 66 1/3 innings over 10 starts since he entered the rotation last September and had posted a 1.90 ERA. He had not allowed a home run.

The Red Sox, who led the division by five games, had peaked out. They lost two in Seattle and on May 11th, the Red Sox trip was no longer a pleasure cruise. Manny fractured the index finger on his left hand with an ill-advised headfirst slide into home plate, that landed him on the disabled list.

Pedro (5-0) then temporarily took the sting out of Manny's absence, with a masterful effort against the Mariners. Pedro struck out 12 and allowed just four singles. He struck out the first four Mariners he faced and hit 96 miles an hour. He threw 116 pitches while going on four days' rest for the first time this season.

Back home on May 14th, the Sox outlasted the Oakland A's, 6-2, behind John Burkett's fifth strong start in as many outings and with an offensive flourish from Rickey Henderson. The Sox trailed, 1-0, in the fifth inning with two outs and runners on first and second. Henderson stroked a single to left that scored the tying run. His mere presence proved additionally disruptive as Terrence Long hurried his throw, that eluded third baseman Eric Chavez's backhand stab and allowed the go-ahead run to score. There was more of the same in the four-run sixth that put the game away. Again with two out, and this time with the bases loaded, Henderson hit a curlicue single to right, making it 5-1. And, the single was his 2,154th, tying Roberto Clemente for 26th on the all-time list, and the RBI was his 1,100th. And behind another superb performance by Derek Lowe (6-1), the Sox whipped Oakland, 8-2.

Then against the Mariners, Pedro led the Red Sox to a 4-1 triumph on May 18th. Pedro improved to 6-0 with a 2.80 ERA by scattering six hits, allowing only a single run and striking out nine over eight innings. He struck out the side in the first inning on nine pitches, becoming just the 35th pitcher in history to accomplish the feat. Jason Varitek threw out Seattle pinch runner Luis Ugueto for the final out of a 3-2 Sox win that gave the Sox the rubber game of a three-game set against the Mariners.  The win went to John Burkett (5-0).

Against the White Sox on May 20th, Derek Lowe (7-1) shutout Chicago, 9-0, and was in a zone. Opponents were hitting only .158 against him and his ERA was 1.90. He allowed an infield single in the first inning, and didn't allow another one until the eighth, another single. He surrendered two walks and struck out seven. He had won his last six decisions, and the Sox had won in his last seven starts.

On the downside, Darren Oliver had posted a 7.36 ERA in his last three outings, allowing nine runs on 15 hits and 12 walks over 11 innings, while Rolando Arrojo had pitched to a 7.72 ERA by yielding eight runs on 12 hits, five walks, and a hit batsman over 9 1/3 innings.

The Yankees came to Fenway for an early season showdown, only one game behind the Sox.  In the first game of the series on May 23rd, it was 3-1, Red Sox. Pedro showed all the spunk he displayed before he cursed the Bambino in the Bronx, and tamed the surging Yankees for seven innings. They also got nowhere against Tim Wakefield, who pitched a perfect eighth, and Ugueth Urbina, who finished them off in the ninth for his American League-leading 15th save and his fourth of the season against the Bombers.

In the following game, Roger Clemens had his shortest outing in more than two years. Carlos Baerga lined a sacrifice fly to shallow left-center with bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th inning to score Rickey Henderson, for a rousing 9-8 Sox victory.

In the third game, Jose Offerman's failure to advance two runners with none out in the eighth, by not being able to lay down a bunt, led to a Yankees win, 3-2. And finally, Darren Oliver got kicked around for seven runs in four-plus innings, as the Yankees pummeled the Sox, 14-5 in the last game of the series. Just 48 hours after the Sox were positioned to sweep the four-game series against the Yanks, the Sox landed in splitsville. They ended the 13-game homestand at 7-6, holding the one-game lead they possessed when the Yankees arrived in town.

Up to Toronto and on May 27th, for the 11th time in 13 tries, the Sox downed the Blue Jays on their home turf. Nomar delivered in the ninth inning, with a two-run homer to cap off a 3-for-4 night, with three RBIs. His blast made it 8-4, but the Sox needed the runs as Rich Garces allowed a two-run homer to Raul Mondesi in the bottom of the ninth. It finished as an 8-6 Boston win. Nomar (.319 BA) had 23 RBIs so far in the month of May.

Then Pedro dug the Sox a 4-0 hole after two innings and put himself in serious danger of losing his first game in 11 starts the following night. But in a scenario that was becoming familiar back home, the Sox notched their fourth come-from-behind win for Pedro (and seventh overall) by staging a ninth-inning rally to overcome the Blue Jays, 6-4.

In a most compelling performance, Brian Daubach in the next game, slugged a monstrous, three-run homer to snap a 4-4 deadlock in the seventh inning and send the Sox to a 7-4 triumph over the Jays. Starter John Burkett (6-0) pitched into the seventh inning. Burkett's 6-0 start was the second of his career (his first came in 1993). It was the fourth-longest span in major league history between 6-0 starts. Tommy John went from 1968-79; Warren Spahn from 1947-58; and Bob Walk from 1980-91.

The Sox victory completed a three-game sweep as the Sox surged to 20 games over .500 (35-15) and extended their franchise-best road start to 20-4. They remained, however, just one game ahead of the Yankees going into another showdown in New York.

The Sox closed out the month of May as Derek Lowe beat the Yankees, 5-2, in the opener of the three-game series, and improving their road record to 21-4, the best road start in major league history. Lowe, maintaining his startling early-season pace, led the way by shutting out the Yanks over six innings, improving to 8-2 with a league-best 1.95 ERA.

June began and Darren Oliver, Rich Garces, and Sun Woo Kim became co-conspirators in turning a tense 2-2 standoff against the Yankees into a brutal 10-2 defeat. All three pitchers had struggled badly in recent weeks, none worse than Garces, whose league-worst ERA among relievers soared to 11.77.

In the final game at Yankee Stadium on June 2nd, Frank Castillo (4-5) pitched craftily as the Sox struck early and often  en route to a 7-1 victory in the rubber game of a three-game series in the Bronx. Throwing a season-high 114 pitches, Castillo provided a badly needed respite for the beleaguered bullpen. The win gave the Sox a two-game lead over the Yankees in the American League East.

In Detroit, Pedro started the game by giving up home runs on consecutive pitches. He was able to hold the Tigers at bay after the first inning, striking out the side in the second inning, then pitching out of a bases-loaded, nobody out, spot in the fourth. The Sox actually had him in position to be 8-0 for the first time since coming to Boston, when they strung together five hits and a walk with two outs and nobody on to tie the score in the second, and went ahead, 6-4, in the fourth. But the Sox couldn't hold on and lost to the Tigers in extra innings, 7-6.

Then John Burkett made his record 7-0, with a 10-5 Sox win. It was the kind of start he last had back in 1993, when he won 22 games for the Giants. Johnny Damon had four hits, including his first home run since April and two doubles, four runs. Shea Hillenbrand collected four hits, including a double. Carlos Baerga, two hits and four RBIs, Lou Merloni, two hits and three runs. This was the fifth time in Burkett's 10 starts, that the Sox had scored seven or more runs.

Off the field, it was draft day, and the Sox first pick was Jon Lester, a 6-foot-4-inch, 200-pound lefthander from Bellarmine Prep in Puyallup, Wash. Lester acknowledged some disappointment at not being taken by the home area Mariners, but sounded eager to sign with the Sox.

Derek Lowe paced the Sox to a ridiculously easy 11-0 win over Detroit in the third game of the series on June 5th. Lowe ran his record to 9-2, abetted by a 16-hit attack that gave him a 9-0 lead after three innings. In six innings, Lowe gave up two infield singles. The Tigers hit just one ball to the outfield. Lowe threw only 69 pitches, 42 for strikes, and made it through another night without giving up a home run. It was now 84 1/3 consecutive innings this season, without a homer, the longest such streak in the majors that year, and 104 innings dating back to 2001.

In the final game of the series, Rolando Arrojo, spun seven scoreless innings, allowed just four singles and not only didn't walk a batter, but didn't have a single three-ball count. The Sox' offense, meanwhile, banged out another 14 hits, including 11 singles, to dispatch the Tigers for the third straight night. Johnny Damon capped a series in which he wore out the Tigers. He was 12 for 19 with two walks, scored seven runs, and knocked in seven. The Sox extended their lead in the AL East to 3 1/2 games.

Home to Fenway and the Red Sox began their usual midseason swoon. It started with the National League in interleague play.

Against the Arizona Diamondbacks, they lost the first game and the second one was a great pitchers duel between Pedro and Curt Schilling on June 8th. Pedro (8-1) was out dueled, 3-2, on seven hits and a pair of walks losing his first game of the year. Schilling (12-1) limited the Sox to just the two runs on six hits and two walks. He had not walked a batter in 44 innings before he threw four balls to Johnny Damon in the eighth. Schill got ahead in the count to 18 of the 26 batters he faced. The D'Backs swept the Sox with John Burkett (7-1) being handed his first loss of the season also. But even with the sweep, the Sox still were riding the best record in baseball at 40-20.

The Colorado Rockies next made their first visit to Fenway Park on June 10th. It was a 7-3 Sox win over the Rockies in which Derek Lowe (10-2) ended the team's first three-game losing streak of the season. The Sox split the next two games and left for Atlanta with a 1 1/2 game lead in the AL East.

On June 14th, Pedro found a way to hold off one of the hottest teams in baseball, battling the Atlanta Braves to a taut standoff until slugger Gary Sheffield deflected one of his final bullets for a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the eighth inning that felled Pedro and the Red Sox, 2-1, at Turner Field. The Sox dropped to 2-5 this year in interleague play.

The following night John Burkett was bested by Greg Maddux, 4-2, who allowed only two runs, by scattering seven hits and an intentional walk over six innings. Burkett, 2-2 with a 5.64 ERA over his last five starts, worked himself into several jams.

Stopper Derek Lowe led the Sox out of the darkness of the two dispiriting losses, as he outdueled Tom Glavine in a 6-1 victory to salvage the finale of the three-game series. Lowe (11-2), led the league in wins, ERA (1.85), and opponents batting average (.183), among several other categories, allowing the red-hot Braves to sneak only four balls out of the infield and hit only three in the air, as he befuddled them with his overpowering sinker for seven innings.

Thus far, Nomar had managed to place himself among the league leaders in batting (.326), RBIs (51), slugging percentage (.539), total bases (139), doubles (25), extra-base hits (36), hits (84), and on and on. Nomar also had produced in the clutch, which the Sox had sorely needed with Manny still out. He ranked among the league leaders in batting average with runners on base (.377), with runners in scoring position (.387), and, even more importantly, with runners in scoring position and two outs (.455).

On June 18th, with a large west coast contingent of Red Sox Nation cheering them on, the Sox made themselves right at home on their first-ever visit to the city in which Ted Williams was born, beating the San Diego Padres, 4-2, at Qualcomm Stadium. Shea Hillenbrand hit his 11th home run that erased a 2-1 Padres lead. Frank Castillo was ejected for arguing a balk call, in the second game, a 3-2 loss to the Padres.

In the final game of the series, Pedro did his part to ensure a 5-0 Red Sox win, drawing a rally-starting, two-out walk, while pitching if not perfectly, then pretty darn impressively. Pedro (8-2) gave up just two hits in eight innings, retiring the last 17 Padres in order, and striking out eleven.

Then, facing the Dodgers for the first time in a game that counted since the 1916 World Series, the Sox had their best chance to seize the momentum in a taut pitcher's duel between John Burkett (7-3) and Hideo Nomo. But the Sox couldn't score when it mattered, and were left on the short end of a 3-2 loss on June 21st. Burkett was good enough to win on most nights, allowing three runs on five hits without yielding a walk over six innings. It was his third straight loss.

Even Derek Lowe couldn't get the job done the following night. The Sox failed again to hit in the clutch and catch the balls they needed to catch. Lowe (11-3) matched a season high of five earned runs, while the Sox had batted just .226 over the 14 interleague games they had played this year. The Sox had seized the lead on a solo home run by Rickey Henderson (his third of the season) and a two-run shot by Nomar. With his homer, Nomar drove in the 500th and 501st RBIs of his career.

Brian Daubach struck out as a pinch hitter with runners on first and third and one out in the ninth inning of the 5-4 loss. The strikeout was his ninth in 10 trips to the plate and extended his run of misery to 2 for 28 (.071). Daubach clearly had joined Jose Offerman (.225) and Tony Clark (.206) in slumpdom.

Interim general manager, Mike Port, acquired Alan Embree for bullpen help on June 23rd. It was a day that had marked 69 days since the Sox had held off the dreaded Yankees and retained the top spot in the AL East. But the sweet dream abruptly expired as the Dodgers steamrolled the Sox, 9-6, and pushed them into second place.

Back in the Hub on June 25th with Manny Ramirez there waiting to play against a rebuilding Cleveland team, who had the American League's worst batting average (.239). The Sox appeared primed to exorcise the nasty memories of their 3-6 interleague road trip, but rather than open their homestand at Fenway Park with a flourish, the once-mighty Sox batters continued to languish, falling flat before the Indians, 4-2, for their season-high fourth straight defeat. The Sox had lost 11 of their last 16 games. Even Manny couldn't save them, as he fanned on a high, 94-mile-an-hour fastball with runners at the corners for the final out. The count was 2 and 2.

Pedro picked up his 9th win the next night. He did not walk a batter and struck out nine, setting down nine of the last 10 batters he faced, and finished by whiffing the last two. He then turned the game over to Tim Wakefield, who struck out all three batters he faced in the eighth, and Ugueth Urbina, who ended the game by hustling to first on a game-ending double play, one that rewarded him with his 21st save, and a 7-4 Sox win.

The Atlanta Braves bounced the Red Sox out of first place for good on June 28th. The Sox unfortunately found themselves entangled year after year with the Atlanta Braves as their "natural" interleague rivals. And for all the warm memories of Sisti, Spahn, and Sain that lingered in some corners of the Hub, the current generation of Sox players paid a heavy toll for their legacy. The price rose again as Vinny Castilla blooped a two-out single to center off Tim Wakefield in the top of the ninth inning to drive in Gary Sheffield with the decisive run in a 4-2 victory for the Braves. The Sox mustered only five hits against Greg Maddux.

The Sox got good pitching from Derek Lowe the next night, and all it got them was another loss, this time 2-1 to the Braves. The Red Sox had lost 13 of their last 19, and closed the month of June (10-16) by being swept in the third game, 7-3.

July started with a win from Pedro, who was 10-2, joining Derek Lowe (11-4) as the first pair of Sox starters to post 10 or more wins before the All-Star break since himself (11), Tim Wakefield (10), and Bret Saberhagen (10) pulled it off in 1998. The Sox had won only three games in their last eleven, all with Pedro on the mound, and seven of the his last eight wins followed a Sox loss. The Sox went on to sweep the doubleheader by scores of 2-1 and 6-4, with newcomer Alan Embree picking up saves in both contests. The Sox beat the Jays again, 5-2 in the fourth game. And finally Derek Lowe improved to 12-4 despite matching a season high five runs (four earned). Nomar and Trot Nixon each homered and combined for seven RBIs, as the Sox completed the five game sweep of the Jays on July 4th.

The Sox had six All-Star representatives for the first time since 1978, when seven players represented Boston. Johnny Damon joined AL starters Shea Hillenbrand and Manny, as well as Derek Lowe, Pedro, and Nomar. Pedro, however, elected to rest his arm and was replaced by closer, Ugueth Urbina.

It was the first time in years that the Red Sox had gone through the season with a minimum of controversy. But on July 5th, one of the most bizarre stories in the history of the Red Sox organization, surrounded the death of Ted Williams. Ted's death cause every Red Sox fan everywhere to pause and reflect.

Teddy Ballgame died at Citrus Memorial Hospital, a few miles from his home in Hernando, FL. He suffered cardiac arrest upon arrival at the hospital, and doctors were not able to revive him. He had battled an array of ailments, including a debilitating bout of congestive heart failure. The Hall of Famer suffered two strokes in the 1990s that impaired his once-remarkable vision and sapped his energy. On July 6th, tears fell on Johnny Pesky's cheeks and welled in Nomar's eyes and from the quivering voice of public address announcer Ed Brickley. There was a collective sorrow that overcame the forlorn Fenway faithful when a lone trumpeter positioned at the base of the "9" emblazoned in the left-field lawn wailed a soulful "Taps" into the silent night.

And then only a few days later, it began to seem like a morbid joke. His daughter Claudia and son, John Henry, wanted to place Ted's body in a cryonics facility known as Alcor, to be frozen. They produced a scrap of paper with Ted's signature on it, indicating that this is where he wanted to go. Williams' eldest daughter, Bobby-Jo Williams Ferrell, the most vocal opponent of the freezing plan, prepared a lawsuit, that would put the struggle in the courtroom. No funeral. No service.

On the field, with Red Sox manager Grady Little substituting as freely as if this were the All-Star Game, the Sox began the second half of the season by pummeling their favorite patsy from the first half, the Toronto Blue Jays at Skydome, who fell for the 11th straight time to the Sox, 10-3, on July 11th.

On July 13th, the Sox dressed in 1948 Boston Royal Giants uniforms to honor the Negro league. The team lost 3 of 4 up in Toronto and fell to 3 games behind the Yankees.

The Sox endured their fourth straight loss on July 15th and had plodded to a 29-30 record since they had started faster than any team in the majors, with a burst of 24-7. Underscoring how far the Sox had fallen, they dropped their sixth game in eight tries against the woeful Tigers and Blue Jays. But on July 16th, Trot Nixon, emerging from a 1-for-22 nightmare that served as well as any symbol of the team's recent futility, launching an eighth-inning grand slam to clinch a badly-needed 9-4 victory over the Tigers at Comerica Park.

Next to Tampa on July 17th, and Derek Lowe was indomitable, beating the Rays, 6-1. Getting all the offense he needed from Manny and Trot Nixon, he surrendered only two doubles and a walk over eight innings as he became the first 13-game winner in the American League and lowered his league-leading batting average by opponents, to .191. His ERA dropped to 2.45, also the league's best. The next night, the day after Manny had homered, doubled, and drove in two runs to help defeat the Rays, the slugger twice was struck by pitches without swinging. Lou Merloni homered to help the Sox come back from a 3-0 deficit and outlast the Rays, 4-3.

On to Yankee Stadium for an important series with the front running Yanks on July 19th. In a 4-2 defeat, what the Yankees got was a stark reminder of why Pedro not only owned the best road ERA (1.80) in the American League, but ranked as the only pitcher in major league history, to win as many as 78 of his first 100 decisions for a single team. Pedro, improving to 12-2 on the season, 6-1 on the road, and 79-22 in his Sox career, holding off the Yankees for 7 1/3 innings by scattering five hits and wriggling out of all but the final jam he created. He also struck out nine and walked three.

The euphoria was short lived as the Sox blew an 8-6 lead and squandered bases-loaded opportunities of their own in the ninth and 11th innings to lose the next game, 9-8. In the last game, by the time the Yankees had seen eight pitches from John Burkett, they were leading, 4-0, and went on to win by another 9-8 score, pushing the Sox to 4 games behind them. in the AL East.

Although Claudia and John Henry Williams wanted no formal memorial to be held for their father, the Red Sox did so on July 22nd. Many of Ted's long time teammates and other Red Sox players gathered in a dignified celebration of his life. Then Ned Martin, who broadcast Red Sox games on radio and television for 32 seasons and delighted New England with his erudition and gentle wit, died at the age of 78, one day after appearing at the tribute to Ted Williams.

On July 23rd, a makeup game between the Red Sox and Tampa Bay Devil Rays required a makeover of the record book before it was over, with Nomar hitting three home runs, two in the third inning, a grand slam in the fourth, and driving in eight runs in a 22-4 win. Two days later, nearly as many of Pedro's (13-2) pitches hit Tampa Bay batters as Tampa Bay batters hit his pitches at all. The result was a relatively phlegmatic surrendering by the Devil Rays as the Red Sox took a 6-0 victory.

Against the Orioles on July 27th, John Burkett (10-3) tossed a masterful complete-game 4-0 shutout. Trot Nixon, sparked the Sox with a double and triple as he increased his average on the homestand to a whopping .571 (12 for 21).  Manny was on an 18-for-51 run (.353) and the Sox led the majors with 13 shutouts.

The Sox won the last game of the homestand, one that broke out amid fisticuffs and fiery emotion, 12-3. The melee, which delayed the game nearly 15 minutes in the fourth inning, unfolded after Sox starter Derek Lowe plunked Gary Matthews on the hip as retribution for Oriole Scott Erickson hitting Manny on the shoulder with a pitch the previous inning.

Since the All Star Break, the Sox had played .500 baseball and lost two games in the standings to the Yankees. They left for the west coast on July 29th, four games behind. In Anaheim, the Angels scored twice in the eighth inning against Sox reliever Alan Embree, fresh off the disabled list, to beat the Sox, 5-4. Jason Varitek's single in the second inning extended his career-best hitting streak to 15 games. Varitek was batting .404 (21 for 52) during his streak.

In the second game of the series, Pedro (14-2) held the Angels to two hits in a 6-0 victory. He struck out nine Angels and retired the final 14 batters he faced before Ugueth Urbina pitched the ninth. Pedro was now 7-0 with a 1.28 ERA, in his last eight starts, dating back to mid-June. The opponents failed to score a run against him in five of those starts.

By making trades, the Yankees grabbed their needed replacement parts earlier in  the summer and positioned themselves for the stretch run. The Red Sox, true to form, waited until the last minute and snatched up Cliff Floyd and Bobby Howry at the trading deadline on July 31st. Jose Offerman was jettisoned to make room for Floyd. So now came the rest of a season, one that would see the Yankees stretch out their lead and the Red Sox fall further behind.

But Derek Lowe and Pedro stayed hot. In Texas, Lowe (15-5) lowered his league-leading ERA to 2.13, holding the Rangers hitless until spoiler Carl Everett singled up the middle with two outs in the fifth. Lowe allowed only three other base runners and did not permit a runner to pass second base in the 13-0 shutout on August 2nd.

Two nights later, like clockwork, Pedro took his 23rd turn of the season, and for the 11th time in 12 decisions after a Sox loss, the ace delivered, this time by shutting out the Rangers for seven innings to gift-wrap the Sox a sorely needed 11-3 triumph. Pedro (15-2) lowered his ERA to 2.25 and his opponents' batting average to .191. Both were second in the league only to Derek Lowe's 2.13 ERA and .190.

Johnny Damon hit .421 (8 for 19) in the series, Shea Hillenbrand (3 for 5 with a homer) hit .526 (10 for 19) in the series, Cliff Floyd hit .538 (7 for 13) with five doubles, three walks, and only one strikeout in the series, and Nomar hit .556 (10 for 18) in the series. The Sox were four games behind the Yankees in the American League East and a half-game behind the Angels for the wild-card lead as the returned to Fenway on August 6th.

There was a potential players' strike on the horizon in 2002. Issues were revenue sharing and the owners' desire for an increased luxury tax. The sides already had made progress on the owners' desire to have a worldwide amateur draft replace the current system, which covered only players in North America and Puerto Rico. On August 7th, in a major concession aimed at advancing talks and avoiding a work stoppage, the Players Association dropped its longtime opposition to steroid testing and proposed testing all players as early as next spring.

On August 8th, Derek Lowe who was cited in a poll by Baseball America as the league's third-best pitcher after Pedro and Barry Zito, outpitched Zito, scattering five hits and a walk over seven innings as he propelled the Sox past the A's, 4-2. Lowe extended his streak of scoreless innings to 29, the longest in the majors since Greg Maddux pitched 39 1/3 straight scoreless in 2000.

Against the Twins on August 10th, Pedro showed why he was somewhere between better than ever and the best ever. He held Minnesota to four hits and no walks in eight innings, made third base a no-fly zone, and struck out eight, retired 11 in a row in one stretch, then set down the last seven batters he faced. He ran his record to 16-2 and had a 31-inning scoreless streak. The next night, Tim Wakefield befuddled the Twins, rationing them only four hits, walking none, and striking out seven, in a 3-1 win that gave him his 100th career victory.

In Seattle on August 13th, the Sox fell five games back in the AL East, losing 10-3. Manny went 3 for 3 with a homer, a walk, and two RBIs for the Sox, but the Mariners got to starter John Burkett early and coasted to the victory.

Next, Derek Lowe emerged as the first American League pitcher to win 17 games despite surrendering as many runs (five) in 6 1/3 innings as he had yielded over his previous 36 innings. But the Sox offense erupted for a 12-5 win. Lowe, who led the AL ERA race most of the season, let his ERA rise from 2.09 to 2.29, ceding the lead to Pedro (2.14 ERA).

As the Sox returned from a 2-4 road trip, on August 19th, it had been a full month since they had won three games in a row. The Red Sox bats were quiet on the road trip in which the team scored just 25 total runs. Johnny Damon, who was hitting just .239 since the All-Star break, was just 7 for 35 (.200) in his last nine games, and hadn't homered in his last dozen games. Trot Nixon was batting just .210 in August, and was just 7 for 37 (.189) in his last 10 games. Nomar, who began the month with a 10-game hitting streak, was 4 for his last 23 and had just one RBI in his last seven games. Jason Varitek, who was at .120 (6 for 50) this month after a 16-game hitting streak, the best of his career. The Yankees, meanwhile, won their sixth in a row, one reason they were now 7 games ahead of the Sox in the American League East.

Manny Ramirez exploded for four hits, including a two-run homer and a three-run shot, as he drove in six runs and propelled the Sox past the Rangers, 12-3, on August 22nd. The homers left him one shy of 300 for his career, which mattered as much to him as his 1,000th RBI ... not at all.

The 1967 Red Sox were honored at Fenway on August 23rd on their 35th anniversary. Pedro led the celebration with his trademark mastery, all but silencing the surprisingly powerful Angels for eight innings as he led the Sox to a 4-1 victory. Pedro (17-3) scattered six hits and walked none to lower his ERA to 2.15, overtaking Derek Lowe (2.19 ERA) for the league lead. He also narrowly maintained the league lead in opponents' batting average, with a .193 mark to Lowe's .194. Pedro improved to 8-1 with an 0.67 ERA in his 10 starts since July 1. He was 5-0 with an 0.25 ERA at Fenway over that stretch.

Little more than a week after signing for a $1 million bonus, lefthander Jon Lester endured a rocky welcome in his professional debut. Lester surrendered six runs on five hits and a walk in a start for the Red Sox' rookie team in the Gulf Coast League that lasted just two-thirds of an inning.

Just when the Red Sox looked as if they were absolutely going no place, trailing the Angels, 9-5, in the ninth inning, they suddenly and remarkably exploded. In a last-gasp sensation, the Sox stormed back to force extra innings and shocked the Angels, 10-9, in the 10th when Johnny Damon led off by swatting a 2-and-2 inside fastball into the right-field seats for a walk-off home run on August 26th.

The Yankees came to town the following night for a make-or-break series. In the first game, the Sox went stone-cold, transforming the vibe at Fenway Park in a mere 24 hours from unbridled joy to raw resignation. The team turned punchless against lefthander David Wells and went down quietly, 6-0. In the second game, the Sox were shut out by the Yankees for a second straight night, 7-0, and the bedraggled Red Sox fell a season-worst nine games behind the Bronx Bombers in the American League East.

On August 30th, Major League Baseball owners and players, bitter adversaries in labor negotiations that had produced eight work stoppages in 22 years, came to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement, averting the threat of the strike just hours before games would have been affected. The sides compromised in reaching agreement on revenue sharing.

In Cleveland, Derek Lowe improved to 6-1 with a 1.87 ERA over his last nine starts, as the Sox thrashed the Indians 15 to 5.

The Sox finished a dismal 12-15 in August. But Manny Ramirez led the Sox regulars by hitting .373 in the month. He and Trot Nixon led the team with seven home runs each, while Nixon drove in a team-high 22 runs, just ahead of Manny, who knocked in 20. The other leading hitters among the Sox regulars were Nomar (.330), Floyd (.325), and Shea Hillenbrand (.314). At the other end of the spectrum were Jason Varitek (.183), Daubach (.203), and Nixon (.204). Lowe went 4-1 with a 2.69 ERA to lead the team in victories, while Pedro (3-2) posted the best ERA (1.69). Then there was John Burkett, who went 0-4 with a 9.60 ERA for the month.

Off to Yankee Stadium on September 2nd, and the Sox routed the Yankees, 8-4. Clutch hitting, a gritty contribution from starter Casey Fossum, sturdy relief and Nomar banging out three hits, including the 1,000th of his career, and driving in three runs. But the Sox lost 4-2 the next night. In the final game of the series, the Bombers  sent the Sox one day closer to winter, beating Derek Lowe, 3-1. The Sox, after a break-even 3-3 road trip, returned home 8 1/2 games behind in the American League East and 6 1/2 games in the wild-card race to the Angels.

After splitting a series with the Blue Jays, the Sox headed south to Tampa on September 9th. The Devil Rays were reminded that Manny Ramirez can crush a ball, as he brutally reminded his critics, when he launched his 15th career grand slam to propel the Sox to a 6-3 victory in the third game of the series. Manny's slam lifted Pedro to his 150th career victory as the Sox ace returned from a 13-day absence because of soreness in his left hip and groin region. The suddenly-surging Sox climbed out of a 3-2 ninth-inning deficit for a 6-3 victory and a series sweep, in the final game. It all would mean precious little in the end, even though the Sox won a fourth straight game for the first time since July 3 and still languished light years behind the Angels in the wild-card chase.

On September 14th, Derek Lowe won his 20th game. Manny socked a pair of homers and improved his RBI total to 96, in a  6-4 win over the Orioles at Fenway. But the Sox gained no ground in their hunt for a wild-card berth and were still 8 1/2 games in the American League East.

In a doubleheader split with the Indians at Fenway on September 16th, Nomar had his fourth four-hit game of the season. The four hits bumped his average to .313. It was his 53rd multihit game of the season and his fourth with two doubles. Pedro (19-4) spun five shutout innings in the first game, before the rains came, and Manny slammed a two-run home run.

In the next game, a 4-2 Sox win, Manny knocked out three hits against his former team, including a 430-foot home run that rainbowed over the left-field wall. It was his seventh home run in 11 games and raised his batting average to .344, which put him in the AL lead. Tim Wakefield won for the 8th time in 10 decisions, including four wins in a row, while holding the opposition to a single earned run for the seventh straight start (6-1, 1.24 ERA in that span). Wakefield was honored before the game as the Sox winner of the 2002 Roberto Clemente Award.

On September 21st, Pedro posted his 20th victory in a 13-2 thrashing of the Orioles at Camden Yards. Pedro had won nine straight decisions from June 20 to August 10, tying a career-best run from 1999. He also strung together a streak of 35 scoreless innings from July 25 to August 16, the longest streak in the majors since Greg Maddux pitched 39 1/3 scoreless innings in 2000 and the longest for the Sox since Luis Tiant threw 42 straight in 1972.

Pedro and Derek Lowe became the first Sox teammates to win 20 games since Mel Parnell (25-7) and Ellis Kinder (23-6) in 1949. They became the first pair of Sox right-handers to accomplish the feat since Dave Ferriss (25-6) and Tex Hughson (20-11) in 1946.

In the final game of the season, Manny Ramirez made a seventh-inning cameo, drawing a bases-loaded, pinch-hit walk to end the year at .349 and easily outdistanced Kansas City's Mike Sweeney (.340) for the Silver Slugger Award. Manny batted .396 in 27 games in September, with nine homers and 31 RBIs as he became the first Sox player to knock in 30 or more runs in September since Jim Rice drove in 30 in 1980. Overall, he slugged 33 homers with 107 RBIs. He also led the league in on-base percentage (.450), batting with runners in scoring position (.435), and batting against lefthanders (.438), among other categories. And he became the first batting champion in the majors to play with two 20-game winners since Hank Aaron won the NL crown in 1959 for the Milwaukee Braves with Warren Spahn (21-15) and Lew Burdette (21-15).

The Sox managed to finish out of the money again. The 2002 Sox finished one game better than the Impossible Dreamers of 1967, yet would go down in local history as one of the most puzzling and maddening editions in Fenway history. There was none of the bad karma that polluted the Fenway clubhouse so many times in other years. The players just seemed to lack urgency and accountability.

The Red Sox finished second in the league in batting and third in ERA, yet they were not one of the final four in the American League. They were 40-17 June 6th, but went 53-52 the rest of the way. Playing one game over .500 over the final 105 games.

One could talk about the inconsistent bullpen, Manny's six weeks on the shelf, the black hole at first base, the one-run losses, an inability to beat the National League, and the curious aversion to playing at Fenway. Still, it's difficult to define exactly why this team wasn't playing in the playoffs.

But the new ownership had done something right, and were making friends and influencing people. They were visible, responsive, and even a little creative as they quieted the top of the new ballpark and did some tweaking to Fenway Park itself like sticking in a few more rows of field seats. They talked the place up, made players give out autographs, let kids run the bases, and generally were nice to everybody. They didn't win, but then again, it hadn't been their team. They knew however, that they would be held to a different standard in 2003.