Day: June 28, 2020

Heading into the 2000s, the Red Sox were locked in an 80-plus year curse where they failed to win the World Series. After their World Series victory in 1918, the Red Sox failed to make it back to the promised land until 1946, then again until 1967, then again until 1975, and then again until 1986. Each time they made it back, they came up short. After their 1986 heartbreaking World Series loss to the Mets, the Red Sox fortunes started changing. They began making the playoffs more often, earning playoff berths six times from 1986-1999. However, the team knew they couldn’t stop at just making the playoffs, and when the 2000s hit, the Red Sox turned their 1900s misery into a 2000s dynasty.

Of course, the Red Sox had plenty of help along the way. With players the likes of David Ortiz, Nomar Garciaparra, Manny Ramirez, Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez, Pedro Martinez, Jon Lester, and Chris Sale on their roster at one point or another, it’s no surprise that the Red Sox made the playoffs ten times and won four World Series titles since 2000. Despite a ton of big-name talent, the Red Sox also got help from a few other sources that don’t get talked about often.

The Padres have a relatively short history as a National League expansion team in 1968 and because of that, they don’t have too many memorable players. Given that, since they did have obvious iconic players, their short history makes it fairly easy to make this list. The Padres have yet to get over the hump of winning their first World Series and the only two times they made the Series, they lost in five games to the Tigers in 1984 and got swept by the Yankees in 1998. Nevertheless, the players below certainly made their mark on San Diego and the league. Let’s get into it.