100 Greatest Red Sox >> #78 Tom Brewer
Tom Brewer, SP, #23 (1954-1961)
W-L 91-82 241 G, 217 GS, 75 CG, 13 SHO, 4.00 ERA
Born on September 3rd, 1931, Tom Brewer couldn't have had any clue about the future that lay ahead of him, as the best pitcher in Red Sox history to wear #23 who wasn't named Luis Tiant. I was desperately hoping that September 3rd of that year would be Labor Day, in order to procure cheap laughs. This did not end up being the case.
Brewer attended Elon College in 1951, but was signed as an amateur free agent by the Sox that same season. He would make his MLB debut with the Red Sox in 1954 as (mostly) a starting pitcher. He would be a useful and capable right-handed starter throughout his career, though none of the Sox teams of his era would finish higher than 3rd place.
His '54 and '55 seasons had mixed results, but he seemed to put it all together in 1956. He won 19 games, completed 15, pitched 4 shut-outs and made the All-Star team. In addition, he batted .298. Even on a 4th place team, all of these stats would garner MVP consideration. He would finish twenty-second in the balloting. Strangely enough, only future HOF Minnie Minoso would have had any cause to complain about the validity of the results. To this day, it is unknown whether Minoso's PR firm released a statement congratulating Brewer.
His 1957-59 seasons would see similar success. He never reached any of the relatively lofty stats of '56, though he did steal two bases in 1959 against zero times caught, even as he only reached base nine times. This is a remarkable number to consider if one doesn't care about wasting time.
His 1960 season was poor, with his ERA jumping to 4.82 (against a league average of 4.03). It would be hard to attribute his downturn to only bad luck, as his BABIP in 1960 was .307, being slightly above average. He would retire after only 10 games the following season, citing intense disappointment in Ted Williams' successor as the impetus.
Allen writes about the Red Sox in a self-important and pretentious way so that you don't have to. You can find him at Over The Monster.
10 comments:
Tom Brewer was miscellaneous crew on A Civil Action, with William H. Macy.
William H. Macy was in Mystery Men with Claire Forlani.
Claire Forlani was in Mallrats with Jason Mewes.
Boo-yah.
Oh yeah. Just forget that it's not the actual Tom Brewer.
That, and all my text ended up HUGE. I gotta go, so hopefully you or Tim can fix it. Sorry.
all should be fixed ;)
Tom Brewer was on the '61 Sox with Yaz.
Yaz was on the '83 Sox with Gedman.
Gedman was on the '84 Sox with Clemens.
Clemens was in Anger Management with Krista Allen.
Krista Allen was in Paycheck with Ben Affleck.
Ben Afflect was in Mallrats with Jason Mewes.
...I win.
P.S. Thanks for fixing the post Tim. :)
In your final sentence, are you implying he didn't like Yaz? Pretty vague, and without any backup means it's poor writing.
Anon- it's pretty clear that Brewer just didn't have it anymore and didn't want to keep embarassing himself.
I'll admit it's a poor joke, but I can't see where taken in its entirety (I cited his poor season) you can take away that he actually disliked Yaz.
Tom Brewer was my high school pitching coach for the Cheraw Braves. He is a freakin BEAST!
Is Tom Brewer still alive? I need to know if hes the same Tom Brewer that knew my birth mother in 1969.
I still fail to understand why Tom Brewer is not in the Red Sox Hall of Fame. BTW, he scored the winning run (PR for Vic Wertz)in the final game for Ted Williams. Red Sox still trailed Orioles after the farewell HR by the Splendid Splinter.
él realmente era un jugador fantástico. debería haber estado en el salón de la fama de los "calcetines rojos".
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