“Why can’t we get gamers like that?”
It began with Jeff Bagwell.
Channel 4 anchor Bob Lobel supplied his historic “WCWGPLT” on-air lament every time Bagwell bashed one other house run for the Houston Astros. Bagwell was infamously traded by the Purple Sox in 1990, when he was nonetheless enjoying for Class AA New Britain, to the Astros in 1990 for reliever Larry Andersen.
Andersen helped the Purple Sox win the AL East that season. So did Tom Brunansky. Oakland summarily swept Boston from the ALCS in 4 video games.
Bagwell, in the meantime, ended up within the Corridor of Fame after a profession that included 449 steroid-free house runs, 4 All-Star Recreation nods, and 1994 NL MVP honors.
Lobel, and hundreds of thousands of his fellow New Englanders, by no means let then-Purple Sox GM Lou Gorman overlook about it.
Therefore, his ironic question.
Gorman had his personal manner with phrases. He bestowed one in all Boston’s all-time epic quotes upon the jilted plenty the day Roger Clemens walked out of spring coaching in 1987: “The solar will rise, the solar will set, and I’ll have lunch.”
Clemens finally got here again. And we had lunch at Chain O’Lakes Park.
Lobel’s seven phrases of eloquence, whose emotional roots return to Babe Ruth, has been a default exclamation any time an athlete who as soon as labored in Boston finds greener pastures elsewhere.
We heard “WCWGPLT” when Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski received a Tremendous Bowl with the Buccaneers.
We heard “WCWGPLT” when Wade Boggs received a World Sequence with the Yankees.
We heard “WCWGPLT” when Ray Bourque received a Stanley Cup with the Avalanche.
“WCWGPLT” doesn’t simply apply to gamers.
It was in all probability your second thought, or your first impulse appropriate for print, after Bruce Cassidy and the Las Vegas Golden Knights received the 2023 Stanley Cup.
This 12 months, we’ve got one other “WCWGPLT” Corridor of Fame inductee in Chris Sale.
Sale’s tenure with the Purple Sox was bittersweet.
Candy in that Sale was on the mound in 2018, corkscrewing Manny Machado for the ultimate out of the World Sequence at Dodger Stadium. In his first two seasons in Boston, Sale was a dizzying 29-12 with 545 strikeouts in 372.1 innings pitched whereas posting a 2.56 ERA.
It was essentially the most dominant two-year by any Purple Sox pitcher since Pedro Martinez.
Bitter in that his remaining 5 years with the membership have been bludgeoned by harm, on the sphere and off, frustration, and failed expectations. Sale missed all the COVID-shortened 2020 season. When he did pitch, he was extra day-old-baked-goods-stale than merely Sale.
In 4 seasons (2019 and 2021-23) with Boston, Sale totaled 298.1 innings, however he posted a pedestrian 4.16 ERA in 34 begins.
In contrast to the Mookie Betts “commerce,” dealing Sale was no wage dump. The Purple Sox paid the Braves $17 million this season to take Sale off their fingers. The Braves gave Sale an extension in January, however lowered his 2024 wage to $16 million. So the Braves made $1 million off the Purple Sox, and bought an NL Cy Younger Award season from Sale.
Boston bought Vaughn Grissom again in commerce. State Run Media hailed the deal as needed for all involved. In a lot the identical manner State Run Media lauded Boston’s “return” within the Betts wage dump – it informed us Grissom was Boston’s second baseman of the current and future.
This season, Grissom had performed in 26 video games earlier than Tuesday, posting a Stan Papi-like slash line of .146/.198./157.
The Purple Sox removed Sale simply in time for him to ship greater than 28 begins for the primary time since 2017.
Sale leads the majors in ERA, wins and strikeouts. He hasn’t allowed greater than two earned runs in 18 begins. No pitcher has achieved that since they started charting earned runs again in 1913, in keeping with USA Right now.
Now 35, Sale is pitching like somebody in his prime. He’s 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and 225 strikeouts over 177.1 innings.
His exit has been brushed apart far too simply. Positive, he was dogged by harm lately. However the opportunity of a wholesome Sale was all the time there. He’s confirmed it this season.
And for the reason that Purple Sox finally paid 106.25% of Sale’s 2024 wage, this was a uncommon transfer that was NOT about cash.
This was about baseball.
And Craig Breslow whiffed.
Badly.
Maybe Sale wouldn’t have put up such stellar numbers in Boston. The Purple Sox led MLB with 111 errors as of Tuesday. And are twenty ninth in general fielding proportion. However even when Sale went 13-8 in Boston, as a substitute of 18-3, it will have pushed the Purple Sox into Wild Card actuality.
The Braves are simply outdoors trying in for the ultimate NL postseason berth.
The 2024 MLB postseason will likely be loaded with “WCWGPLT” guys.
The Purple Sox have been reportedly “an actual risk” to signal Shohei Ohtani final fall. Outdated John Henry may need gone “full throttle” in bagging a once-in-a-century expertise like Ohtani. New John Henry was off attempting to save lots of golf from itself.
Mookie Betts, Ohtani and the Dodgers returned within the playoffs. Mookie is joined this postseason by Xander Bogaerts in San Diego, whose Padres maintain the No. 1 NL Wild Card spot. GM Dave Dombrowski has constructed one other winner in Philadelphia. His Phillies clinched the NL East on Monday.
Arizona GM Mike Hazen – Theo Epstein’s in-house protégé – and supervisor Torey Lovullo – John Farrell’s in-house protégé – have their reigning NL champion Diamondbacks within the playoffs as of press time.
(Sure, the Diamondbacks performed within the World Sequence final 12 months.)
Your Purple Sox?
Effectively, they clinched NOT ending in final place for the fourth time in 5 seasons Monday.
As Lobel would possibly say, “Why can we get gamers like that?”
Invoice Speros may be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com. He posts on X @RealOBF and @BillSperos
