Today is October 27th, but you already knew that, as the date is automatically posted on every DOL blog. October 27th happens to be pretty significant day in the history of the Boston Red Sox; 16 years ago tonight they beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 to sweep the 2004 World Series and end the Curse of the Bambino.
In case you've never heard of baseball before, the Boston Red Sox used to have this guy named Babe Ruth on their team and made a grave mistake regarding his future with the organization. While in Boston, Ruth helped the Red Sox win three World Series (1915, 1916, 1918) and was widely considered one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Since the DH was still over 50 years away from implementation, the Babe could also swing the lumber; better than entire teams as a matter of fact.
Babe Ruth lead the American League in home runs with 11 in 1918, while still making 20 starts as a pitcher. The next season (1919) Ruth only made 17 starts, but led all of baseball with 29 home runs; the next closest batter had 10. The following season he was a New York Yankee because the Red Sox didn't like that he wanted to be a full time position player because why play the best player in baseball every day when he can pitch every three or four (pretty sure teams only had 2.5 men rotations back then)? When the Babe retired, he was the all-time home run leader. The Yankees would win 26 World Series in the next 84 years before the Red Sox won it all again (86 in total). 
When the Red Sox finally broke that curse in 2004 it was certainly a team effort; Curt Schillng, Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe, Manny Ramirez, Bill Mueller, Orlando Cabrera, Keith Foulke, Jason Varitek, Johnny Damon, Kevin Millar, fuck even Dave Roberts, Curtis Leskanic and Mark Bellhorn did their thing. That being said, I still think it's safe to say David Ortiz was a tad more responsible than other 24 guys on the playoff roster to make that a reality.
While there's no doubting that players like Ted Williams or Carl Yastrzemski were "better" overall baseball players, David Ortiz is considered by many to be the most important player in Red Sox history for the role he played in turning the culture around in Boston. The Red Sox went from Kings of "almost, but not quite there" club by losing Game 7 of the World Series FOUR times between 1946-1986 and the Grady Little game in 2003, to three World Series Championships before he retired in 2016.
Even though the 2016 Red Sox were swept in the ALDS by the eventual AL Champs (Cleveland Indians) and the face of the franchise retired, the future still felt super bright; Mookie Betts was the MVP-runner up and won the RF Gold Glove AND Silver Slugger. In 2018 Mookie helped lead the Red Sox to their 4th World Series title of the 21st century and won basically every award you can win along the way. Not only was he everything you wanted on the field, but he did everything right off it as well. You couldn't create a player in a video game who's more worthy of a long-term deal than Mookie Betts.
Not even a year and a half after literally the best season in franchise history, the food stamp Red Sox traded Mookie to Los Angeles for a bag of dirty laundry and a broken N64. The Boston Red Sox, who are one of the richest sports organizations on the planet chose to not pay a man who is literally a generational talent. ​
I have not taken the trade well.
-I Want To Believe It, But I'm Not Sure I Do (Yet)
-Not Only Do The Red Sox Suck at Baseball and Paying Generational Talent, but They Suck at Twitter Too! ​-It Looks Like The Dodgers Are About To Sign Mookie to a Giant Deal -Some Telling Stats About The Future of The United States of America -How to Induce Vomiting (in New England) -Mookie Betts Buys Groceries and Pizza For People Shopping and Working in Tennessee ​-John Henry FINALLY Addresses The Mookie Betts Trade (and I Address My Future as a Red Sox Fan) -After Nearly A Week of Hold Ups The Curse of Mookie Is Official (R.I.P. My Red Sox Fandom) ​-So You're Telling Me There's a Chance? -I Officially No Longer Love The Boston Red Sox
So on the day that the 2004 Red Sox should be celebrating getting their drivers license, the not-so-good people at FOX thought it was a good idea to have the face of that team interview the man who should've been the face of the Boston Red Sox until the 2030's. Thanks, bro! Really appreciate that salt in burst gusher that is my heart. In said interview David Ortiz asked Mookie if he ever thought he'd spend the next 12 years in a Dodger uniform and Mookie replied with this.
I don't need to pick at the "this is the worst move since selling Babe Ruth" scab or explain how shortsighted and stupid the Red Sox are for drafting and developing the 2nd best player in all of baseball only to trade him and a Cy Young Award winner to save money, only to use that money on inferior talent. I'm gonna have a fucking stroke dwelling on this shit.
Red Sox fans know this ownership group has zero plan for sustained success; that's why they finished in last in 2014 and won 24 less games in 2019 than they did in 2018. This is the same team who traded Jon Lester because he was too old (30) in 2014 and then signed David Price to a 7 year-217 million dollar deal in 2015 when he was you guessed it, 30...only to trade him away to save money after four seasons.
The big debate has been on whether or not Mookie actually wanted to stay in Boston. After watching that clip idk how you can think anything else? If the Red Sox gave Mookie a fair offer he'd still be here and I'm sorry, nothing they ever offered him was fair. Instead we have an ownership group who runs around like a chicken with its head cut off when it comes to decision making that then has the balls to defend this indefensible move because he won't be as fast in 2029.
Trading away Mookie Betts is inexcusable and will be the biggest mistake in the history of the Red Sox because at least when they sold Babe Ruth they didn't have the foresight to see how much a deal like that can set your organization back, but hey John Henry will miss his smile!
#NeverForget.
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