Message to Frederic: ‘Hunt and hit’
Big winger draws back into lineup
Trent Frederic did not have the training camp he would have liked. The same goes for new coach Jim Montgomery, who chose A.J. Greer to start at left wing on the third line over Frederic in the season opener.
But hockey being what it is, Frederic didn’t have to wait long for a spot to open up. When Jake Debrusk went down with an upper body injury in the season opener in Washington on Wednesday, it opened up a spot in the lineup for Saturday’s home opener against the Arizona Coyotes.
Craig Smith bumped up to skate in Debrusk’s spot with Patrice Bergeron, Greer moved over to play on the right side with Charlie Coyle and Frederic was set to slide into the left wing spot.
Frederic has admitted that he was a little too concerned with making mistakes in the preseason, playing too conservatively. As a result, he was a step behind.
“I felt like I was chasing a little bit,” said Frederic.
Montgomery had just two directives for him going into Saturday night — hunt and hit.
“For a lot of players when they’re thinking too much, you try and give them one or two things to think about,” said Montgomery after the B’s optional morning skate at the Garden. “And for him, I just told him to hunt and hit. Go hunting out there. That kind of mindset gets you on your toes, gets your feet moving. Usually you impact the game. And he’s had his best practices here the last three practices in a row, so I’m excited to see how he hunts and hits tonight.”
For Frederic, playing with Coyle represents a comfort zone of sorts. The 24-year-old played the best hockey of his young career in the second half of last season when he was playing with Coyle and Smith.
“I’m used to playing with Chuck. We’re good friends. He
Clemens struck out 20 batters the first time against Seattle in 1986, when Gary Gaetti of the Minnesota Twins started two aroundthe-horn triple plays in July 1990, when Carl Everett broke up Mike Mussina’s perfect game with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and when Jon Lester threw his no-hitter against the Royals in 2009.
Scoggins recalled the 20-strikeout game by Clemens.
“In those days, official scorer’s got a copy of the lineup. There were four copies and the two managers got a copy, the plate umpire got one and the scorer got one,” he said. “They stopped doing that a few years later. Anyway, I would just throw those scorecards away after the games were over. That night of the 20 strikeouts, I was in the press box and I thought it might be a good souvenir someday. I went
back and got it out of the trash. Later on I had Clemens autograph it and I still have it framed.”
Years later, Scoggins and Clemens forged an interesting relationship.
“I forget what year it was, but the team wasn’t going anywhere, so it had to be in the early 1990s, and Roger was going for the (American League) ERA title late in the season,” said Scoggins. “I called an error on Luis Rivera, who was the shortstop at the time. After the game, Clemens called me
over and said, ‘that play by Rivera, I think that should be a hit.’ I said, ‘Roger, if I change that to a hit, it’s going to cost you two earned runs’ and he said, ‘I don’t care, that should have been a hit.’ I did change it to a hit and he still went on and won the ERA title.
“Twice in the years that I was scoring, Clemens came to me and asked me to do that and both years he was going for the ERA title. In all of my years of scoring, he’s the only pitcher who ever came to me and asked me to change a call that would hurt his own stats. I always had a lot of respect for Clemens for that.”
During the 1992 season when the Red Sox finished in last place and Wade Boggs batted .259, Scoggins was involved in a controversy.
“It was a Saturday afternoon game against Detroit. Tony Phillips, a switch hitter, was batting from the left side for Detroit and he hits a ground ball to Boggs at third and he boots it and I called it an error and Clemens happened to be pitching that game, too,” recalled Scoggins.
“After the ballgame, Boggs called me over and said, ‘I think that is really an unfair error.’ And I said, ‘well, what do you mean’? He said, ‘well, it’s a day game, the ball came off the bat low and I lost it in the white shirts in the stands and I could never pick it up. I think it should be a hit.’ I thought to myself that he was having a bad year and he should just eat the error, because if it’s changed to a hit, it only hurts Clemens.
“Boggs gives me a compelling argument to change it to a hit and I did. Then all hell brooke loose for the next few days over that with Boggs being selfish and not being a team player and I’m caught in the middle of it. Everybody is mad at me on the team for having to change it and ESPN kept mocking me for a few days on Baseball Tonight.”
Today Scoggins can enjoy watching the Sox from the comfort of his home, while dabbling in other projects.
“I’ll spend more time writing fiction for pleasure — writing novels that never get published or never sell,” he said with a laugh.