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1997 Boston Red Sox season

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1997 Boston Red Sox
DivisionEastern Division
BallparkFenway Park
CityBoston, Massachusetts
Record78–84 (.481)
OwnersJRY Trust
ManagersJimy Williams
TelevisionWABU
(Sean McDonough, Jerry Remy)
NESN
(Bob Kurtz, Jerry Remy)
RadioWEEI
(Jerry Trupiano, Joe Castiglione)
WROL
(Bobby Serrano, Hector Martinez)
StatsESPN.com
Baseball Reference
← 1996 Seasons 1998 →

The 1997 Boston Red Sox season was the 97th season in the franchise's Major League Baseball history. The Red Sox finished fourth in the American League East with a record of 78 wins and 84 losses, 20 games behind the Baltimore Orioles. It was the last time the Red Sox had a losing record until 2012. The Red Sox had 5,781 at bats, a single-season major league record.[1]

Offseason

  • December 9, 1996: Bret Saberhagen was signed as a Free Agent with the Boston Red Sox.[2]
  • January 22, 1997: Steve Avery was signed as a Free Agent with the Boston Red Sox.[3]
  • January 27, 1997: José Canseco was traded by the Boston Red Sox to the Oakland Athletics for John Wasdin and cash.
  • January 31, 1997: Mike Benjamin was signed as a Free Agent with the Boston Red Sox.[4]

Regular season

Season standings

AL East
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Baltimore Orioles 98 64 .605 — 46‍–‍35 52‍–‍29
New York Yankees 96 66 .593 2 47‍–‍33 49‍–‍33
Detroit Tigers 79 83 .488 19 42‍–‍39 37‍–‍44
Boston Red Sox 78 84 .481 20 39‍–‍42 39‍–‍42
Toronto Blue Jays 76 86 .469 22 42‍–‍39 34‍–‍47

Record vs. opponents

1997 American League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Team ANA BAL BOS CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK SEA TEX TOR NL 
Anaheim — 4–7 6–5 6–5 7–4 5–6 6–5 7–4 4–7 4–7 11–1 6–6 8–4 6–5 4–12
Baltimore 7–4 — 5–7 5–6 6–5 6–6 7–4 5–6 10–1 8–4 8–3 7–4 10–1 6–6 8–7
Boston 5–6 7–5 — 3–8 6–5 5–7 3–8 8–3 8–3 4–8 7–4 7–4 3–8 6–6 6–9
Chicago 5–6 6–5 8–3 — 5–7 4–7 11–1 4–7 6–6 2–9 8–3 5–6 3–8 5–6 8–7
Cleveland 4–7 5–6 5–6 7–5 — 6–5 8–3 8–4 8–4 5–6 7–4 3–8 5–6 6–5 9–6
Detroit 6–5 6–6 7–5 7–4 5–6 — 6–5 4–7 4–7 2–10 7–4 4–7 7–4 6–6 8–7
Kansas City 5–6 4–7 8–3 1–11 3–8 5–6 — 6–6 7–5 3–8 3–8 5–6 6–5 5–6 6–9
Milwaukee 4–7 6–5 3–8 7–4 4–8 7–4 6–6 — 5–7 4–7 5–6 5–6 7–4 7–4 8–7
Minnesota 7–4 1–10 3–8 6–6 4–8 7–4 5–7 7–5 — 3–8 7–4 5–6 3–8 3–8 7–8
New York 7–4 4–8 8–4 9–2 6–5 10–2 8–3 7–4 8–3 — 6–5 4–7 7–4 7–5 5–10
Oakland 1–11 3–8 4–7 3–8 4–7 4–7 8–3 6–5 4–7 5–6 — 5–7 5–7 6–5 7–9
Seattle 6–6 4–7 4–7 6–5 8–3 7–4 6–5 6–5 6–5 7–4 7–5 — 8–4 8–3 7–9
Texas 4–8 1–10 8–3 8–3 6–5 4–7 5–6 4–7 8–3 4–7 7–5 4–8 — 4–7 10–6
Toronto 5–6 6–6 6–6 6–5 5–6 6–6 6–5 4–7 8–3 5–7 5–6 3–8 7–4 — 4–11
Red Sox vs. National League East
Team ATL FLA MON NYM PHI
Boston 0–3 1–2 0–3 2–1 3–0

Notable Transactions

  • July 31, 1997: Heathcliff Slocumb was traded by the Boston Red Sox to the Seattle Mariners for Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek.
  • August 30, 1997: Curtis Pride was signed as a Free Agent with the Boston Red Sox.[5]

Opening Day Line Up

  5 Nomar Garciaparra     SS
13 John Valentin 2B
42 Mo Vaughn 1B
20 Mike Stanley DH
11 Tim Naehring 3B
12 Wil Cordero LF
44 Rudy Pemberton RF
37 Bill Haselman C
24 Shane Mack CF
36 Tom Gordon P

Roster

1997 Boston Red Sox
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Wally the Green Monster

Wally the Green Monster
Main article: Wally the Green Monster

Wally the Green Monster is the official mascot for the Boston Red Sox. His name is derived from the Green Monster nickname of the 37-foot wall in left field at Fenway Park. Wally debuted in 1997 to the chagrin of many older Red Sox fans. Although he was a hit with children, the older fans did not immediately adopt him as part of the franchise. According to the Red Sox promotions department, Wally was a huge Red Sox fan who decided to move inside the left field wall of Fenway Park since it "eats up" hits that would easily be home runs at other parks in 1947. Apparently, he was very shy and lived the life of a hermit for 50 years. On the 50th anniversary of the Green Monster in 1997, he came out of the manual scoreboard and has been interacting with players and fans ever since.[6] Thanks to former Red Sox second baseman and current broadcaster Jerry Remy, those older fans have adored him.

Player stats

Batting

Note: G = Games played; AB = At Bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting Average; HR = Home Runs; RBI = Runs Batted In; SB = Stolen Bases

Starters by position

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI SB
C Scott Hatteberg 114 350 97 .277 10 44 0
1B Mo Vaughn 141 527 166 .315 35 96 2
2B John Valentin 143 575 176 .306 18 77 7
SS Nomar Garciaparra 153 684 209 .306 30 98 22
3B Tim Naehring 70 259 74 .286 9 40 1
LF Wil Cordero 140 570 160 .281 18 72 1
CF Darren Bragg 153 513 132 .257 9 57 10
RF Troy O'Leary 146 499 154 .309 15 80 0
DH Reggie Jefferson 136 489 156 .319 13 67 1

Other batters

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI SB
Jeff Frye 127 404 126 .312 3 51 19
Mike Stanley 97 260 78 .300 13 53 0
Bill Haselman 67 212 50 .236 6 26 0
Shane Mack 60 130 41 .315 3 17 2
Mike Benjamin 49 116 27 .233 0 7 2
Jesus Tavarez 42 69 12 .174 0 7 0
Rudy Pemberton 27 63 15 .238 2 10 0
Michael Coleman 8 24 4 .167 0 2 1
Arquimedez Pozo 4 15 4 .267 0 3 0
Jose Malave 4 4 0 .000 0 0 0
Walt McKeel 5 3 0 .000 0 0 0
Curtis Pride 2 2 1 .500 1 1 0
Jason Varitek 1 1 1 1.000 0 0 0

Pitching

Note: G = Games Pitched; GS = Games Started; IP = Innings Pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned Run Average; SO = Strikeouts

Starting pitchers

Player G GS IP W L SV ERA SO
Tim Wakefield 35 29 201.1 12 15 0 4.25 151
Tom Gordon 42 25 182.2 6 10 11 3.74 159
Aaron Sele 33 33 177.1 13 12 0 5.38 122
Jeff Suppan 23 22 112.1 7 3 0 5.69 67
Steve Avery 22 18 96.2 6 7 0 6.42 51

Relief pitchers

Player G GS IP W L SV ERA SO
Heathcliff Slocumb 49 0 46.2 0 5 17 5.79 36
John Wasdin 53 7 124.2 4 6 0 4.40 84
Butch Henry 36 5 84.1 7 3 6 3.52 51
Jim Corsi 52 0 57.2 5 3 2 3.43 40
Kerry Lacy 33 0 45.2 1 1 3 6.11 18

Other pitchers

Player G GS IP W L SV ERA SO
Chris Hammond 29 8 65.1 3 4 1 5.92 48
Vaughn Eshelman 21 6 42.2 3 3 0 6.33 18
Mark Brandenburg 31 0 41.0 0 2 0 5.49 34
Joe Hudson 26 0 35.2 3 1 0 3.53 14
Bret Saberhagen 6 6 26.0 0 1 0 6.58 14
Ron Mahay 28 0 25.0 3 0 0 2.52 22
Ricky Trlicek 18 0 23.1 3 4 0 4.63 10
Derek Lowe 8 0 16.0 0 2 0 3.38 13
Rich Garcés 12 0 13.2 0 1 0 4.61 12
Robinson Checo 5 2 13.1 1 1 0 3.38 14
Pat Mahomes 10 0 10.0 1 0 0 8.10 5
Toby Borland 3 0 3.1 0 0 0 13.50 1
Ken Grundt 2 0 3.0 0 0 0 9.00 0
Brian Rose 1 1 3.0 0 0 0 12.00 3
Mike Benjamin 1 0 1.0 0 0 0 0.00 0

Game log

Red Sox Win Red Sox Loss Game Postponed
1997 Boston Red Sox Season Game Log: 78–84 (Home: 39–42; Away: 39–42)

Reference:[7]

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball

This was the first season that the Red Sox fielded their own team in the Dominican Summer League.

Level Team League Manager
AAA Pawtucket Red Sox International League Ken Macha
AA Trenton Thunder Eastern League DeMarlo Hale
A-Advanced Sarasota Red Sox Florida State League Rob Derksen
A Michigan Battle Cats Midwest League Billy Gardner Jr.
A-Short Season Lowell Spinners New York–Penn League Dick Berardino
Rookie GCL Red Sox Gulf Coast League Luis Aguayo
Rookie DSL Red Sox Dominican Summer League Nelson Norman

[8]

References

  1. ^ "Team Batting Season Finder: For Single Seasons, from 1871 to 2018, At Bats>=5750, Standard statistics, Sorted by greatest At Bats". Baseball Reference. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
  2. ^ Bret Saberhagen Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com
  3. ^ Steve Avery Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com
  4. ^ Mike Benjamin Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com
  5. ^ Curtis Pride Statistics and History - Baseball-Reference.com
  6. ^ The Official Site of The Boston Red Sox: Community: Wally
  7. ^ "1997 Boston Red Sox Schedule". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  8. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
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