{"id":1384,"date":"2026-05-28T09:03:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T09:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1384"},"modified":"2026-05-28T09:03:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T09:03:44","slug":"this-red-sox-team-makes-a-longtime-fan-yearn-for-home-run-bashing-editions-of-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1384","title":{"rendered":"This Red Sox team makes a longtime fan yearn for home run-bashing editions of the past"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<p><span>Let me tell you, reading about swell things that once happened at Fenway Park is more satisfying than watching what\u2019s going on with the resident team at the moment. Even when it adds emphasis to what\u2019s missing \u2014 and what we\u2019re missing \u2014 with the Red Sox.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1382\">Kuwait says it faces a missile and drone attack as shaky cease-fire in Iran war again challenged<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>During an opportune driving layover in Cooperstown, N.Y. \u2014 home of the Baseball Hall of Fame \u2014 I made a stop at Willis Monie Books, the kind of beautifully disjointed used bookstore where you\u2019ll probably find a baseball book you\u2019ve been looking for and almost certainly will come away with a couple more you didn\u2019t know you needed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>One of my bookshelf\u2019s worth of pickups during this recent visit was a diary of the enemy from my earliest days as a fan. Titled \u201cThe Best Team Money Could Buy: The Turmoil and Triumph of the 1977 Yankees,\u201d it was written by Steve Jacobson, a legendary longtime beat writer for Newsday.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><span>Get Starting Point<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><label>Enter Email<\/label><\/p>\n<div><button>Sign Up<\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>It\u2019s the book I went there searching for, and it does not disappoint. The access is unfathomable nowadays, and the pages are filled with stunningly candid contempt \u2014 with players, especially egomaniac Reggie Jackson and insecure Thurman Munson, aiming it at each other, their reckless manager Billy Martin, and perpetually bloviating owner George Steinbrenner. It\u2019s a breeze to read, a superb, overlooked historical companion to \u201cThe Bronx Zoo.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Sorry, didn\u2019t mean to go full book report on you there. There is a point to this, a contrast found in the book, that struck me as the opposite of what we\u2019re experiencing now with the Red Sox\u2019 punchless, inept, and likely irreparable offense.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The 1977 season did not end well for the Red Sox. Nothing really did in those days come autumn, no matter how fun the summer had been. The Yankees won the World Series, though they never really stopped bickering.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The best the Red Sox could was leave us with one of their more enjoyable what-ifs. The slugging \u201977 Sox bashed 213 home runs. Three players hit at least 30 \u2014 Jim Rice (a league-leading 39), George Scott (33), and Butch Hobson (30), while Carl Yastrzemski (28) and Carlton Fisk (26) got close to joining them. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Sixteen of the \u201977 Red Sox\u2019 homers came in a three-game sweep of the Yankees from June 17-19. \u201cThirteen of them,\u201d wrote Jacobson, \u201cwould have been home runs in any national park.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Great line, and one that again forced me to consider the contrast with the current Sox. Sixteen home runs in three games? I don\u2019t believe the Red Sox will hit 16 home runs all season against the Yankees.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And yes, wise guy, the 2026 Red Sox \u2014 who entered Thursday\u2019s series finale with the Braves with a 23-31 record, including a disgusting 9-18 mark at Fenway \u2014 do have more than 16 home runs as a team this season. They have 42, in fact. Willson Contreras has 11. Jarren Duran has eight. . The rest of the team has 23, or two more than the Phillies\u2019 Kyle Schwarber, whom I hear is quite popular in Waltham.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1380\">Wednesday\u2019s seven high school sports takeaways, with more brackets and a new North Quincy football coach<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>I\u2019m going to avoid chasing symmetry here and resist declaring that these Red Sox are the worst team money can buy, because it wouldn\u2019t be fair to what has been an excellent starting rotation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But I will say, without hyperbole, that this has to be the worst Red Sox offense I have seen in my nearly 50 years of following the team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The 1992 Red Sox, under Hobson, were the only other sad candidate. They hit just 84 home runs as a team, and batted .246 with a .668 OPS.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Tom Brunansky led the way with 15 homers, and also drove in a team-high 74 runs. Brunansky played his last game in August 1994, his career effectively ended by the players\u2019 strike. He\u2019s 65 now. So, no, I don\u2019t think it would be fair to ask him to bat any higher than seventh in this current lineup.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Sometimes I catch myself staring at the Red Sox\u2019 baseball-reference page and counting the markers of their ineptitude. Starting catcher Carlos Narv\u00e1ez has three RBIs . . . Caleb Durbin has a .479 OPS . . . Roman Anthony and poor, overmatched Durbin have the same number of home runs, one . . . Changeup-phobic Marcelo Mayer has a .301 slugging percentage . . . Trevor Story has 19 times more strikeouts (57) than home runs (3) . . . Before Wednesday night\u2019s eight-run outburst, the Red Sox were last in the American League in runs per game (3.77) and led only the Giants (3.67) among all teams . . . you know, upon reconsideration, Brunansky could probably hit sixth for this team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>During an appearance on WEEI\u2019s \u201cThe Greg Hill Show\u201d last week, Red Sox president Sam Kennedy said the team is already mining the trade market for a bat. \u201cThere\u2019s been conversations going on earlier than ever before on that front,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That\u2019s great. The problem is that they need three quality bats, minimum, to bump some of the underperformers, not-that-good veterans, and Quadruple-A types from the lineup. The Red Sox needed offensive help during their 89-win playoff season a year ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>They came back worse, much worse despite Contreras\u2019s efforts, and I fear it is not fixable this season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>So excuse me while I read about those bashing \u201977 Sox, which in turn jostles memories of other outstanding Red Sox lineups (2003, anyone?) that were built to bash, built for the ballpark, and most importantly, built to win.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1378\">Drake Maye, Mike Vrabel say Super Bowl champion Seahawks a tough way to start for Patriots, but also a great opportunity<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>What\u2019s that? Comparison is the thief of joy?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Yeah, have you been watching? So is this lineup.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes I catch myself staring at the Red Sox\u2019 baseball-reference page and counting the markers of their ineptitude. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>This Red Sox team makes a longtime fan yearn for home run-bashing editions of the past - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1384\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Red Sox team makes a longtime fan yearn for home run-bashing editions of the past - 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