It's time for another installment ("aka filler post") of 6 Degrees Of Raffy,
where I connect a beloved card from my collection and connect the player
depicted on it to
current Red Sox Designated Hitter Rafael Devers.
Mookie Wilson is a well known figure in Red Sox lore. He is the curse personified, and a hero of the New York Mets. This card is actually his sunset card, with 1991 being his final season.
Mookie's last season coincided with the rookie season of a young reliever in Toronto. Mike Timlin would go on to pitch over 1,000 games over 18 seasons. He won an amazing 4 World Series Championships, including the Blue Jay's back-to-back trophies in 1992 and 1993.
Well, that was unexpected. When I last did one one
these 6 Degree posts, Rafael Devers was in just the 2nd year of a 10-year, $313
contract he signed in 2024. He was a safe bet to be in Boston for awhile.
Lo and behold, he with the Giants now, leaving me with the task of finding
someone else to connect with.
The Red Sox are in a strange position right now. There are no mega-stars
on the team, and no one that is the obvious face of the franchise.
For what it's worth, I think Roman Anthony will be that guy, but he just
finished his rookie season and, although signed long -term, just doesn't
have the credentials yet.
There is another young player the Sox have locked up long term that just
so happened to win some hardware this month. Ceddanne Rafaela earned the
first of what I suspect to eventually be multiple Gold Gloves. As luck
would have it, he's also nicknamed "Raffy", making him the ideal pick for
the successor to Devers in this series, for however long that ends up
being.
We start with a randomly generated card from my collection:
Random TCDB Card:
1992 Fleer #347 Mookie Wilson
Mookie Wilson is a well known figure in Red Sox lore. He is the curse personified, and a hero of the New York Mets. This card is actually his sunset card, with 1991 being his final season.
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Teammates in the 1992 Fleer set |
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Mookie's last season coincided with the rookie season of a young reliever in Toronto. Mike Timlin would go on to pitch over 1,000 games over 18 seasons. He won an amazing 4 World Series Championships, including the Blue Jay's back-to-back trophies in 1992 and 1993.
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Teammates in the 2006 Topps set |
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The other two rings were earned in Boston during their championships in 2004 and 2007. Since I'm now featuring cards in Boston, you would think it'd be easy to just continue using former Sox until I got to Rafaela. I could have easily done this, but rather than continuously featuring long-time Red Sox like David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia, I decided to make a little detour instead...
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We're going to follow Manny to L.A.! Manny's trade to the Dodgers in 2008 put him on the same team with the recently retired great, Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw made his MLB debut that same season and got a first hand look at "Manny being Manny".
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Kershaw spent 18 years in the bigs, all with the Dodgers. I did the research, and Kershaw played with exactly 50 players who also spent time with the Red Sox. Lots of guys to choose from, and there were even a handful of guys that will help me complete the chain!
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Teammates in the 2024 Topps set |
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It seemed fitting that I go from one of the greatest starting pitchers in Dodgers history to one of the (if not the) greatest closers for the franchise. Jansen spent a couple years in Boston adding to his Hall-worthy resume, and that gave him the opportunity to team up with fan-favorite Rafaela!
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