ANOTHER UPDATE (September 2003) - The Red Sox made the playoffs for the first time since 1999!!! The Curse of the Bambino will soon find itself in a haze and its daze are now numbered!!!!! Why do I think so? For one thing, the Red Sox clinched less than a month after Mars, the Red Planet made its closest approach EVER to Earth on my last birthday. When was that? On 8/27/2003 and 8 and 27 are two recently retired Red Sox uniform numbers, that of the last Triple Crown winner (1967) and of the hitter of the famed 1975 World Series home run. If you are a Yankees fan, be advised that Mars and Medusa are getting higher in the evening skies during playoff season. Stay tuned!!!

• The first game Hideo Nomo pitched as a Red Sox player in the 2001 season was a no-hitter - the first by Sox pitchers in over 35 years!! He has since pitched a one-hitter.
• 300 strikeouts during the 1999 season for Pedro - something Cy Young, Rocket Roger Clemens, El Tiante, Smokey Joe Wood, Babe Ruth or Jim Lonborg has never done.  Yankee batters faced a whY2 many Ks(?) crisis on Saturday, October 16, 1999 (12 Ks in 7 innings) when Pedro pitched Game 3 of the AL pennant playoff series !!:=)
• Have you noticed that McGwire and Sosa (both National League) did not exceed Babe Ruth's and Roger Maris' single season home run record totals until after Pedro Martinez got traded after the 1997 season to the Red Sox (American League) from the Montreal Expos (National League)?
• The Red Sox clinched a playoff spot for the second consecutive year in 1999 since their World Series victory days in the mid 1910s!!
• Nomar Garciaparra edged out Jeter for a spot in starting lineup for the 1999 All-Star Game at Fenway Park.
• Nomar has crowded the .400 mark for much of the 2000 season. New Red Sox player Manny Ramirez is making a similar run in 2001!! The last ballplayer to finish over .400 was Ted Williams. To find AL batters finishing above .400 before Williams, I think you'll have to go back towards the 1910's - when the Red Sox were in their salad days.
• Manny Ramirez is making a run for the Triple crown in 2001. The last one to succeed is Carl Yaz during the 1967 Impossible Dream Season. The Red Sox made the World Series but did not win in '67. If Dreamweaver and the Internet were around in '67 like it is in 2001, that might have been different!!:-)
• In 1999, there was a grand slam home run against the Cleveland Indians by Troy O'Leary - a Red Sox first for post season.  This means it was something Babe Ruth, Jimmy Foxx, Ted Williams, Carl Yaz, Carlton Fisk or Mo Vaughn has never done.

WHAT I NOTICED ABOUT RETIRED RED SOX UNIFORM NUMBERS

Carlton Fisk's uniform number 27 got retired at Fenway on September 4, 2000. A few observations:

1. Fisk's number is the first uniform number in double figures to be retired by the Red Sox. The other numbers were 1, 4, 8 and 9 for Bobby Doerr, Joe Cronin, Carl Yaz and Ted Williams.
2. The sequence of all uniform numbers retired by the Red Sox factor out as follows:
   1=2⁰ (Bobby Doerr)
   4=2² (Joe Cronin)
   6=2*3 (Johnny Pesky)
   8=2³ (Carl Yastrzemski)
   9=3² (Ted Williams)
   14=2*(3+4) or 14=6+8 (Jim Rice)
   27=3³ (Carlton Fisk)
   Anyone else noticed that? Could it be just a weird coincidence?? Also, If you add the uniform numbers up, the total is 49 which is 7².
   NEWER NUMBERS: Johnny Pesky's number 6(=2x3) has been retired in 2008. That number is also halfway between 4 and 8.
   Jim Rice's number 14 was retired July 28, 2009 after his Hall of Fame induction. His induction was cast on the 15th and final ballot - 14 years after his first ballot. 14 also happens to be the sum of two other retired numbers, 6 and 8.
3. Fisk's Red Sox uniform number number is two more than the number of years ago in which he hit his famous 1975 World Series home run.
4. September 4, 2000 is commonly written 9/4/00. Note that 4 and 9 are both retired uniform numbers.
5. Jackie Robinson's number 42 is retired by Major League Baseball. 42 = 6*7. Please note that 6 happens to be Johnny Pesky's number.
6. On Tuesday, July 28, 2015; Baseball Hall of Fame 2015 Inductee Pedro Martinez' number 45 is retired. 45 = 5*9. Note that 9 was Ted Williams' uniform number. I wish the ceremony was a day before because that would be July 27 and 27 was Carlton Fisk's number. 28 factors into 4*7 and 4 was Joe Cronin's number.
7. David "Big Papi" Ortiz' number 34 was retired during early 2017. 34 is (8+9)*2 with 8 Yaz' number and 9 Ted Williams' number.