It was heralded as the grudge match of the offseason: Mientkiewicz vs. Millar. The Gold Glove Kid with the mediocre bat pitted against the Clubhouse Cowboy, who seemed poised at any moment in the season to make the next Buckner-esque folly at first base. Separate they were forgettable; but together, they formed one of the best tandems in baseball. Terry Francona honestly must have gotten his first good night's sleep when he realized he was getting Millar's bat for six innings and Mientkiewicz's superior glove to end on. But we all knew it couldn't last.
Both are obviously starters, and last season was one of those miracle, once-in-a-lifetime years where guys like Pokey Reese and Dave Roberts are keeping the bench warm. That just doesn't happen every day. So someone had to go.
It's like asking a parent to choose who their favorite child is. Little Doug, little Kevin, they were part of the family. But Papa Epstein made his choice, and the wily Texan, the prodigal son, remains in his red socks, while Mientkiewicz has been exiled to a Mets team that, while no longer sharing the same aroma when they went full blast for Mo Vaughn several years ago, still has the potential for disaster.
Let's not think of it as losing a glove, but as gaining a bat. Millar is coming off a season where he batted .297, slugged .474, and had an on base percentage of .383, and besides slugging, all these stats were above his career averages of .292, .491, and .366, respectively. 74 RBI, 18 dingers, and 151 hits rounded off a productive season at the plate, and in a recent interview with Ian Browne of MLB.com, Millar claims he's in the best shape he's ever been in.
On the flip side, it's difficult to accurately judge Mientkiewicz because of both his short time in Boston and his little actual plate appearances. Career wise Mientkiewicz's numbers, besides slugging, are just slightly off from Millar, with a .272 BA, a .404 SLG, and an OBP of .363, but he does own a Gold Glove and a .996 fielding percentage.
The two sure didn't make it easy for themselves, forcing Theo to choose between a kleptomaniac who hijacked the ball that made the last out in the World Series, and a guy who has a better shot at checking into Betty Ford than he does of stealing second base. What it comes down to, what it always does, are the intangibles - the x-factor. Theo may subscribe to the bible of Bill James, but there's something to be said about a guy who livens up the clubhouse and inspires not one, but two different catch phrases. Players seemed to like both of them, but at the end of the day, you go with the guy who's still dancing at the end of the fight (and carrying the sports bottle full of JD).
Why the hell should any of us even care about these two players? It's not like we're giving away a stalwart figurehead of the Red Sox (in case you've forgotten, we already did that, twice); and we're certainly not investing in the next Jimmie Foxx. It comes down to World Series mentality. Whenever a team wins it all, no fan wants to see their favorite players shuffled around and traded away; but for Red Sox fans, losing anyone of these guys who made the impossible dream an unforgettable reality is heartbreaking. As my buddy and I agreed after Gabe Kapler left for Japan, we would have offered every player on that team a hundred million dollar contract, every year for the rest of their careers, and not a penny more.
We'll still have Curt Schilling and Johnny Damon, but Schilling's sound bytes will have lost some of their charge, and Damon's spiritual look probably won't resurrect itself this season. But I'm sure this new team will have its share of quirks and trends. How about when Trot Nixon strides to the plate or when Alan Embree comes out of the bullpen we play the banjo song from "Deliverance?" Or, maybe David Wells will go full blast into his bad boy persona and start wearing Buddy Holly glasses and force announcers to call him "Wild Thing." This year has the potential for excitement if I've ever seen one.
In truth, however, it's a bigger dream to have the same team back together going after another World Series title, let alone actually repeating. So D-Wells will become our new D-Lowe; and we'll wait for SportsCenter highlights of Pedro's outing the night before, (well, we would if we had ESPN) until Matt Clement makes us forget about Nelson de la Rosa once and for all; and we'll come up with some new nonsense nicknames for 2005, 'cause you know Chris Berman is in his den right now coming up with some new gems for this season.
But in the end we'll always remember the team that brought victory back to Boston, no matter how scattered they may get. And maybe we'll have a whole new group of idiots in 2005, forever remembered as the first Red Sox team in 87 years to win back-to-back World Series Championships.
