Sports Final Web Extra: Mazz Reflects On 1986 Red Sox
BOSTON (CBS) -- It's been 30 years since Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs and Dwight Evans helped lead the Boston Red Sox to the the 1986 American League pennant, and within one strike of a World Series title.
The franchise will honor the team with a pregame ceremony on Wednesday night, welcoming back nearly 30 members of one of the great teams in Red Sox history.
"To me, it was a team that began a whole new era in their history," 98.5 The Sports Hub's Tony Massarotti said of the 1986 Red Sox. "Up until that point, the teams of the early 80's had a few years where they were entertaining under Ralph Houk, but they weren't very good. Clemens blossomed in '86, that's what sticks out to me more than anything else, and launched them into that next era."
A 23-year-old Clemens went 24-4 that season en route to his only MVP award and his first of seven career Cy Young awards.
The ceremonies honoring the '86 Sox will continue on Thursday night when the Red Sox retire Boggs' No. 26. The Chicken Man collected 2,098 hits over his 11-year career in Boston, but Mazz isn't so sure his number belongs up among other Red Sox greats in right field.
"I was never a huge Boggs guy. He was a fabulous hitter, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't put the number up there if it were up to me," said Mazz. "Years ago they had a really stingy policy, where you had to meet all this criteria and you had to finish you career with the team. That veered off the path when they retired [Carlton] Fisk's number, so now there is a different standard. I never thought of Wade Boggs as a great Red Sox. The individual totals were great and he used that wall better than anybody, but to me, I wouldn't put him up there with [Ted] Williams, [Carl] Yastrzemski, even Fisk. He just didn't do it for me.
"I never thought of Boggs as a team guy; I always thought Wade Boggs was about Wade Boggs," continued Mazz. "He was a fabulous hitter, but I think Fenway Park made him. Without it, he's not in the Hall of Fame."
Watch more of Mazz remembering the 1986 Red Sox in the video above, and catch him every Sunday night at 11:35pm on Sports Final on WBZ-TV!