It was in December or January that the Red Sox e-mailed their season ticket holders and asked for votes on which present or former players' photos should grace the 2011 tickets.
I voted for a bunch of my favorites, and with one exception they all made it. I picked up the season ticket package today at the Post Office (they tried to deliver last Thursday but a sig is required and both my wife and I were at work), ripped open the package, and they are: Ted Williams, Pedro, Jimmy Foxx, Papi (Big, not Stan), Joe Cronin, Jim Rice, Dick "Monster" Radatz, Pesky, Bobby Doerr, Rico Petrocelli, Pudge Fisk, Terry Francona, Bill Lee and Yaz.
All the retired numbers: 1, Doerr; 4, Cronin; 6 Pesky (also worn by Petrocelli); 8,Yaz; 9 Teddy Ballgame; 14 Rice; 27 Fisk. Also a few that probably should be at some point: 3 Foxx; 17 Radatz; 34 Ortiz; 37 Lee; 45 Pedro; 47 Francona (did you know that's his number?). The only one I voted for who isn't there is #24. No, not Manny...Dwight Evans.
It's a trivia question today, but the reference above to "Big, not Stan" is to a trade made in 1979. Bill Lee called Manager Don Zimmer a gerbil, and Zimmer responded by trading Lee to the no-man's land known as the Montreal Expos. In return the Sox picked up a backup infielder named Stan Papi, who amounted to very little but it taught Bill Lee a lesson about who's the boss.
Papi (#12, pictured above) hit .188 in 1979, and a whopping .000 in 1980. So his pic didn't make it onto the 2011 tickets.
