Devers still delivers a daily delight
Rookie’s energy in stark contrast to departed Panda
On the very day that poor, misunderstood Pablo Sandoval published some smack in The Players’ Tribune about how uncomfortable he was in Boston, another third baseman, a 20-year-old kid named Rafael Devers, continued to treat this grumpy old town like an amusement park.
Big league baseball agrees with Raffie. Boston agrees with little Raffie. Fenway Park agrees with Raffie.
And can we all agree this kid is exactly what the too-often, too-serious Red Sox could use right about now?
Fresh off his dramatic, ninth-inning, game-tying home run off lefty flamethrower Aroldis Chapman Sunday night at Yankee Stadium, Devers returned to old Fenway last night and stroked two more home runs in the Sox’ 7-3 loss to the Cleveland Indians.
It’s funny how things work: Though the Sox beat the Yankees Sunday night, much of the day-after talk was over how manager John Farrell left his rule book back in his hotel room and botched an attempt to remove reliever Addison Reed from the game. Yet while the Sox fell to Tito Francona’s Indians last night, you can bet most fans were talking about Fort Devers on the way home.
To some, Devers’ breathtaking, outof-the-gate play with the Red Sox serves as a painful reminder of what a spectacular bust Sandoval was during the bits and pieces of three seasons he played in Boston. But that’s the wrong way to look at it. Sandoval, after all, is all about yesterday, while Devers has the look, the feel, the smile, the bat, of a kid who plans on staying around for a while.
Sandoval, who is trying to resurrect his career with the Giants, attached his name to these words, filed at theplayerstribune.com:
“At the end of the day, I just never felt comfortable in Boston. It had nothing to do with the organization, or my teammates, or the fans, or the city. Everybody was great to me. I think it was just something that happens sometimes — you don’t feel comfortable somewhere, or you don’t fit in, even if you’re in a place you chose to be. “In Boston, I was lost. It just never felt like home.”
Funny, but early in the 2015 season I asked Sandoval precisely that question: Are you comfortable in Boston?
His response: “Yeah, I feel comfortable. Why do you ask me that?”
Because you don’t look comfortable, I told him.
“I look comfortable,” he said. “I’m comfortable. So you feel the way I am feeling? No . . . You know how I feel, right? No, that is not the right question.”
It was the right question. It was the wrong answer. But the Red Sox kept covering for Sandoval, kept making excuses for Sandoval, along with telling you that, no, no, no, you’re wrong, he’s not overweight at all.
To watch Sandoval “play” baseball in Boston was to dip your toes in a campfire built from the millions of dollar bills the Sox burned on him. He wasn’t the least bit comfortable, and I’m guessing you weren’t comfortable watching him. But while ownership is probably still smarting over the dough that had to be forked over to get him out of town, Devers represents a fresh start at third base.
He seems to be playing baseball for baseball’s sake. You’d think all rookies would be like that, and I’m sure deep down many of them are. It’s just that with Devers the pure joy of the game seems to scream from him, as though he was sitting in the bleachers one night and his name was picked from the big drum as winner of the “Be a BigLeaguer Contest” being held by the BoSox Club.
Whatever the level of play (MLB), whatever the expectations (winning the World Series), whatever the scrutiny (two all-sports radio stations, a six-state media contingent, nightly sellouts), you should still be able to have fun when you’re 20 years old and playing baseball.
Look at it this way: Devers is probably younger than 80 percent of the players on the McKay Club of the Yawkey League.
From where we sit, Fort Devers is having a blast. And speaking of blasts, last night he became only the third player in Red Sox history to register a multi-home run game before his 21st birthday, joining Ted Williams and Tony Conigliaro.
That’s special company. But not half as special as the 37,430 fans who were keeping him company last night.