DK's Dugout

As much as we the fans grow attached to our beloved Boston athletes, ultimately the vast majority of them will end up leaving to go play for somebody else. It’s a simple truth of professional sports, and one I can’t stand. It’s tough, after having grown attached to these athletes, to watch them leave to continue careers elsewhere. To watch them wear another team’s uniform and be cheered (or booed) by another team’s fans. But (be it by trade, free agency or release) ultimately us fans are forced to see this occur all too often.

When these players we grew to love leave town we can’t help but be bothered a bit. It would be unnatural not to be. But some exits hurt more than the rest, and the ones that bothered me most of all have made it to “DK’s Most Disappointing Departures in Boston Sports”.

Before diving into the list, four quick qualifiers:

1. This is a list of players whose departures disappointed me personally the most. People who left Boston before I was born or when I was too young to grasp the magnitude of their leaving (Bobby Orr, Carlton Fisk) aren’t included here.

2. This is a list of the people I was most disappointed about at the moment I found out they had left. Poor performances elsewhere (see #6) or players we received in a trade working out well (see #10), might make their leaving not seem all that disappointing now…but hindsight is 20/20. This is who I was most upset to see leave at the time.

3. Deaths (Reggie Lewis) and premature retirements (Cam Neely) don’t count. The athlete needed to leave Boston and join another team.

4. There are players that it was known they were leaving long in advance (Ty Law), so when they did it softened the blow considerably. In contrast, other players leaving came so suddenly (Nomar) I wasn’t able to feel disappointed when they left…. I was too busy being shocked (I still don’t like seeing him in that Cubs uniform).

So, without further ado, the Top 10:

10. Jason Allison, Bruins – After sitting out the first three weeks of the season, Allison was traded on October 24, 2001 to L.A. Since Allison was Boston’s captain and most gifted offensive player it was natural he would expect a pay increase after an outstanding 2000-2001 season. He finished with 95 points (36 goals, 59 assists) tied for fourth most in the NHL. Certainly plenty of teams were willing to pay the “going rate” for such numbers, but the Bruins (as usual) were not one of them. Obviously when giving up such a valuable commodity (the Kings immediately gave Allison a 3-year $21 million contract) Bruins fans were expecting quality in return. What we got instead was two players, Glen Murray and Josef Stumpel, who already had stints in Boston, and disappointing ones at that. Not only were we losing our top scorer, but the new guys to get excited about were not really new and not really anything to get excited about. (At the time I obviously had no idea that Murray would go on to score 117 goals over his next three seasons while Allison would suffer injuries and play in only 99 of a possible 246 games over that same span). This was another example of the Bruins accepting their fate as a second-tier team because they were unwilling to pay top dollar for top-tier talent. Trading the fourth leading scorer in the NHL for two seemingly average players?

9. Curtis Martin, Patriots – On March 20, 1998 Martin signed an offer sheet with the New York Jets as a restricted free agent that the Pats did not match. CM followed Bill Parcells to the Meadowlands a year after the egomaniac coach had also fled for New York. Martin had rushed for 3,799 yards in his three seasons in New England, and at only 25 it appeared he’d be a productive Patriot for some time to come. But not only would Martin leave New England, he would be going to New York and joining Parcells. His departure would not only make the Patriots weaker, it would make the team I hated most (thanks in large part to Parcells’ presence) stronger. The Jets were on the rise and the Pete Carroll-led Patriots were apparently on the decline. The 1997 Patriots team that lost in the Super Bowl looked like they could be back many times, but as soon as CM signed with the Jets that seemed to change instantly. How could the running back that I had loved sign with the team I hated so much?

8. Danny Ainge, Celtics – From 1981-1989 Ainge was a member of the Celtics, and won two NBA titles (’84, ’86). In 1986 he was on the starting-five of perhaps the greatest Celtics team ever. He was the player opponents loved to hate, which made me love to love him. In 1988 Ainge had his best season and was named to the All-Star team. But just a year after his All-Star selection Ainge was sent to Sacramento at the trading deadline. I literally couldn’t believe it. We were giving up one of the most spirited players and deadliest 3-point shooters in the NBA. Losing a player that had been an All-Star only twelve months earlier! As disappointing as hearing Ainge was leaving was, I took some solace knowing Boston would have to be getting some major talent in return. Turned out that the major talent was coming in the form of Joe Kleine and Ed Pinkney, two players who wouldn’t even start for the Celtics, the trade went from disappointing to downright unacceptable. How could I, a 13 year old, know more than the people in charge of running the Celtics?

7. Mo Vaughn, Red Sox – Following the 1998 season, in which he batted .338 with 40 homers and 115 RBI, Mo became a free agent. Although it should have been more obvious to me that he may leave, somehow it wasn’t. And, I assumed, if Vaughn did leave Boston they would at least steal from the Bronx and sign centerfielder Bernie Williams, the other high profile free agent that off-season. When I walked into a bar the night that Mo Vaughn had finally determined his destination there was a TV on mute up in the corner. SportsCenter was on, and there were pictures of Mo and Bernie up in the top left corner of the screen. Both had made their decisions. “Which one did we get?” we all wondered. Soon we would realize the answer was neither. The 1995 MVP was headed to Anaheim and Williams would be staying in pinstripes. Dan Duquette had gotten neither big-name ballplayer to play in Boston. The group I was with all looked blankly at one another. “We’re screwed”. The Sox would settle for the next best player available…Jose Offerman. Ouch!

6. Bruce Hurst, Red Sox – The lefty starter had been with the Sox for nearly a decade, but following his impressive ’88 campaign he became a free agent and signed with San Diego. In ‘86, had the Sox finished of the Mets in Game 6, Hurst would have been World Series MVP. 1988 was his finest season as he finished 18-6 with a 3.66 ERA, good for fifth in the Cy Young voting. But a big contract offer and desire to be closer to his home in Lake George, Utah lured Hurst away. The Clemens-Hurst, righty-lefty, 1-2 punch would give the Sox a chance at the pennant annually. When #47 signed with San Diego, those chances were almost instantly diminished.

5. Ray Bourque, Bruins – Bourque’s desire to be traded didn’t make this any less upsetting. It was still an “I’ll believe it when I see it” situation, and after I saw it I still had a tough time believing it. The reasons for Ray’s departure were obvious and open: He wanted to win a Stanley Cup and the Bruins didn’t appear to have any chance of doing so anytime soon. But unlike many others, I wasn’t happy for him and his newfound opportunity. I felt like Bourque had turned his back on Boston, and thus I turned my back on Bourque. Whether or not he would go on to win a Stanley Cup, or ten Stanley Cups, made no difference to me, I wouldn’t be rooting for him. I root for Boston, and I would continue to do so. Bourque leaving Boston meant Bourque would be going against Boston, and it meant I would have to start rooting against Ray. I was disappointed that he was making me do it. I was disappointed in the Bruins management for not surrounding him with a better supporting cast, but I was equally disappointed in Bourque. Maybe most disappointing of all was that the enduring memory many hockey fans would have of Bourque would potentially be him holding up a Stanley Cup…. and wearing the uniform of another team while doing so.

4. Pedro Martinez, Red Sox – Again I was duped, perhaps by myself, into thinking he would never leave. At his best he was the most dominating pitcher I had ever seen. Although some said he was on the downside of his career, it is tough not to go down when you have gone as high as any pitcher has ever gone. But Pedro was still not unproductive. In a much-scrutinized 2004 season, Martinez managed to go 16-9 with an ERA under 4.00. He still finished fourth in the Cy Young voting. He still managed to throw seven shutout innings against St. Louis in Game 3 of the World Series, his final outing ever for Boston. He was still good…very good. He still brought an excitement to the game each time he took the hill that I never felt watching another pitcher. And, suddenly, he was gone for good. I wasn’t a hundred percent shocked, but I was completely disappointed.

3. Lawyer Milloy, Patriots – After being drafted by New England in 1996, The Lawyer would play seven seasons without missing a single game. This included an impressive streak of 106 straight starts. When the Patriots upset the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI, it was Milloy who was the heart and soul of a Pats secondary challenged to stop the vaunted Rams’ offensive attack. He was a cocky, hard-hitting Pro-Bowl safety who made his presence felt all over the field. He was a team leader. While getting ready for the 2003 season, just 18 months after the improbable Super Bowl victory, suddenly he was waived. The Pats got nothing in return. I didn’t know at the time that Rodney Harrison would fill Milloy’s shoes so aptly or the Patriots would go on to win the next two Super Bowls. I only knew the season was beginning in less than a week and New England wouldn’t just play their opener without Lawyer Milloy, they would play it against him.

2. Antoine Walker, Celtics – Since he is now back I’m doing my best to pretend he never left, as if the ‘Toine-less year and half I endured was a bad dream. But I remember my immediate and unpleasant reaction to the news of the trade. I instantly called the Celtics ticket office, from which me and my friends had purchased 10-game ticket packages. I wanted a refund, and I wanted one quickly. After being told repeatedly that they did not offer refunds because of a trade fans didn’t like I screamed at the poor operator, “I didn’t pay my hard earned money to watch Raef F’n LaFrentz!” No trade has ever come close to upsetting me as much, and the emotions I felt then were only matched by the joy I felt at finding out we got Antoine back. This is the only one in my top ten that actually got reversed.

1. Dwight Evans, Red Sox – Dewey was my favorite Red Sox player of all-time, my favorite athlete of all-time and my childhood sports hero. When I got an autograph as a kid from Dwight Evans I studied the way he signed the “D” in “Dwight”, and sign my name with the same exact “D” to this day. On a team often filled with malcontents, crybabies, egomaniacs and surly Sox, Dewey Evans was also pure class. Yet, after 19 seasons in Boston, Evans was told to finish up his career by playing season number twenty elsewhere. Dewey and his 379 home runs (an impressive total pre-steroids), 8 gold-glove awards (a record for A.L. right fielders) and 2505 games played (still second to only Yaz in Sox history), signed on with Baltimore. This is my favorite athlete of all-time we are talking about…and he was going to be showing up in Fenway with a cartoon bird on his hat! The concept of Dewey Evans wearing another uniform is almost as unfathomable to me now as it was 15 years ago. This was almost like watching Bourque out of Boston, but even worse. Dewey didn’t want to go.

So there it is, “DK’s Most Disappointing Departures in Boston Sports History”. And as sad as it was to see these athletes leave, for the many reasons mentioned above, perhaps the most disappointing part is the realization that this list will likely be changing annually. Who will be the next athlete to join this list? Only time (or bad trades, cheap ownership, greed or stupidity) will tell.