A Tribute to the Newest Red Sox Hall of Famers

Today the Red Sox induct Mo Vaughn, Mike Greenwell and Bill Lee into the team's Hall of Fame. If there's one thing that's changed more than any other during The Francona Dynasty, it would be the way you look back on these guys who played before ALCS appearances and Duck Boat caravans became annual events. You look at these guys that you used to worship and you realize that relative to the talented, clutch, versatile, championship-driven roster they have now, your old heroes were always a pretty flawed bunch. That's not to take anything away from them. I loved Vaughn, Greenwell and Lee, and spent a thousand hours of my life defending them against bomb tossers who knocked them and all Red Sox players as nothing more than a bunch of choking, overpaid losers. These guys weren't losers, and each of them belongs in the Sox Hall. But looking back through the prism of two championships, you start to notice how they maybe weren't as good as you thought they were. And you see that all former great Sox players had the same common attributes that simply don't apply to the ring-bearing current team. Namely:

A nickname:
Mo Vaughn: Hit Dog
Mike Greenwell: Gator
Bill Lee: Spaceman

Controversies:
Vaughn: A beloved, respected "role model" athlete flips his truck in a drunken stupor on the way home from a night at the Foxy Lady. This story had it all. It sat at the perfect intersection of celebrity, sports, crime and strippers and prompted more "Coming up tonight at 11..." mentions than any other news story that year.
Greenwell: Gator was one of the highest paid players in baseball. His contract had the usual boilerplate language found in all Major League deal prohibiting him from doing anything stupid, reckless, and dangerous. Specifically, racing cars because he owned a race track in Florida. Greenie stated publicly and repeatedly that he obeyed his contract and never, ever got behind the wheel. Right up until the time the Herald ran a front page picture of him doing exactly that. Because of course none of the thousands of NASCAR rednecks looking on would ever notice.
Lee: In a magazine interview, Lee admitted he used marijuana so commissioner Bowie Kuhn fined him $500 for conduct detrimental to baseball. In reaction Lee pointed out he didn't say he smoked pot, he only admitted he "used" it. "I sprinkle it on my pancakes in the morning," he said. Then he sent the commissioner's office a check for $512.37, "Just to screw up their accounting."

Postseason futility
Vaughn: Hit Dog played in 7 career postseason games. He had an RBI in exactly one of them. He and Jose Canseco once combined to go 0 for the series while getting swept by Cleveland.
Greenwell: In 17 career postseason games, he hit .177 with 3 RBIs.
Lee: Spaceman was the losing pitcher in Game 7 of the 1975 World Series. The key play of the game was a titanic, stratospheric home run by the Reds Tony Perez on a slow, rolling Eephus pitch from Lee. It came out later that the Sox advanced scouting warned against trying to sneak off speed stuff past Perez.

Quotes:
Vaughn: Mo's "It's not about the money" became an instant staple on WEEI.
Greenwell: "I'm a 4-wheel-drive pickup type of guy. So is my wife."
Lee: Spaceman ran for president once on the Bull Moose Party ticket. He was asked where he stood on the classic political philosophy question of whether a government should spend its money on guns or butter. "I'm against guns and butter," Lee said "because they'll both kill you."

Best fight:
Vaughn: Once Sox pitcher Aaron Sele buzzed a pitch under the chin of George Bell, who promptly dropped his bat and charged. Just as Bell reached the mound, Mo came across the diamond with a full head of steam and flattened him with a perfect, Denver Broncos-like crackback block and the fight was over before it began.
Greenwell: If Gator was taught anything under the old Red Sox way of doing things, it was that rookies should be seen and not heard. And only seen occasionally. That was how the Sox star system worked and always had. So when Greenwell found himself waiting for a young Mo Vaughn in the batting cage, he saw no reason he should have to wait and told the rookie to piss off. Mo refused. Words were exchanged. Then punches. In the fight to change the culture of the Red Sox clubhouse, these were the Shots Heard Round the Nation.
Lee: Possible no player in Sox history hated the Yankees more than Lee. In a 1976 game at Yankee Stadium, after legendary Yankee a-hole Lou Pinella plowed into Carlton Fisk at home plate, both benches emptied. Unlike most pitchers in baseball fights, Lee refused to be held back. He broke away from the peacemakers in the crowd and charged forward throwing punches. In the melee he separated his pitching shoulder, ending his season.

Problems with authority figures:
Vaughn: He complained openly and often about his contract negotiations and bad mouthed Dan Duquette on his way out of town.
Greenwell: He complained openly and often about his contract negotiations and bad mouthed Dan Duquette on his way out of town.
Lee: He walked off the team in midseason when they inexplicably cut Bernie Carbo. But Lee's badgering of Don Zimmer was his iconoclastic masterpiece. Lee famously nicknamed Zim "The Gerbil" and said of him "He's old, bald, ugly and can't managing a pitching staff" to which Zim replied "He's partially right. I am old, bald and ugly."

Obscure but interesting fun facts:
Vaughn: Even after the public relations nightmare of his Foxy Lady trip, he never quit hitting the strip clubs. A guy who works at George's Café in Brockton told my friend they have a chicken parm platter that's so huge, Mo is the only customer who ever finished it in one sitting.
Greenwell: Mike earned his nickname by wrestling alligators. He came in 2nd in the 1988 AL MVP voting to Canseco, who admits he won it by cheating.
Lee: Warren Zevon wrote song called "Bill Lee" in his honor.

Post Red Sox career:
Vaughn: Hit Dog signed a lucrative, long term deal with Anaheim. Shortly into his first season he blew his leg out jumping into the dugout going after a foul ball and was never the same. played for three different teams in his career, the Sox, Angels and Mets. All three had more success after he left.
Greenwell: None. After the Sox decided not to re-sign Greenie he moved down to Florida to run his family fun park.
Lee: After driving Zimmer to the brink of insanity with his nonstop insurrection, Lee was dumped to the Montreal Expos for the immortal Stan Papi. On the Lansdowne St. side of the Fenway facade, someone spray painted "Who is Stan Papi?" under which someone else wrote "The best head in town!" It was left up there for at least three years.

Like I said, these guys were great Red Sox, but perfect they were not. They might not have brought the championships the current crop of players have, but no one will ever accuse them of being boring.