Overview
The title drought that would later come to be known as the
Curse of the Bambino was about to enter its seventh decade and yet, despite all those years of futility, heartbreak and despair, the members of Red Sox Nation were once again lining up at the Kool-Aid fountain with an unquenchable thirst ready to be slaked and a bottomless drinking vessel alloyed from the two materials in which the Boston area proliferates: hope and blind faith.
Yaz was gone, but in Wade Boggs, Jim Rice and Dewey Evans the Sox had the nucleus of a solid offensive group, which the retooling in progress had enhanced with the development of catcher Rich Gedman and 2B Marty Barrett (who had phased out stalwart Jerry Remy), along with the addition of veteran OF Tony Armas. Then, during 1984, they traded away pitchers John Tudor and Dennis Eckersley to the Bucs and Cubs, respectively, for DH Mike Easler and 1B Bill Buckner.
This offence was ranked 2nd in the AL for the 1984 season.
As had so often been the case with the BoSox, pitching was the problem. Which might at first make it seem odd that they traded away two of their big-name hurlers. On closer inspection, however, there’s method to their apparent madness. Eckersley was struggling as a starter, and was not far off the shift to the bullpen in Oakland that saved his career. And, yes, it was only a season later that Tudor led the Cardinals to a pennant with a career year. But he had never shown such stuff in Boston; nor would he in Pittsburgh, for that matter. Form is the most mercurial of concepts and hindsight is a miraculous thing that makes geniuses of us all.
Their exit freed up two spots in the Bruce Hurst-led rotation. One of them went to Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd.
The other, in May, went to a 21-year-old kid from Texas by the name of Roger Clemens.
The Rocket had been launched.
That said, it’s not as if Clemens’ rookie season blew everybody away. He went a relatively modest 9-4 / 4.32 (1.8 WAR as per BBRef) as the Sox finished 4th in the AL East at 86-76. But stats like 126 strikeouts in 133+ innings had the Boston faithful salivating all the same. He was the X Factor that had been missing from the squad. The final piece of the puzzle.
And so, a mere decade after one of the franchise’s most heart-wrenching losses in arguably the greatest World Series of all, hopes were once again high at Fenway that the Red Sox' time was nigh. They were due.
Roster
(1984 season stats displayed)
