Ted Williams

Field of Dreams: James Earl Jones (Terrence Mann) to Kevin Costner (Ray Kinsella): "Ray, people will come Ray."

"They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. 

As the new year comes to a close with the Red Sox being a very early favorite for the American League, let's take a look back at one of the "greatest" trades that never happened.

The Yankees and the Red Sox rivalry is easily the biggest, and most heated in all of sports.

In the 1950s, Ted Williams, the greatest hitter of all time, was the "face" of the Boston Red Sox.

Trolling around a sports memorabilia shop during the Christmas rush, I stumbled across this photo of Ted Williams, at bat at Fitton Field on the campus of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. Fenwick Hall, the school’s flagship building, can be seen in the distance.

The photo caption was entitled: The Dawning of a Legend.

As the World Series continues, an east coast team prepares and hopes for future Fall Classics at their stadium: The Boston Red Sox are completing the final stage of renovations to Fenway Park.

New for 2011 will be the right field grandstand seats, an expanded concessions area, a renovated open will call and Gate D concourse. The highlight is the addition of three brand new HD video boards behind center field. Two of boards will be 100 feet wide.

Currently Albert Pujols and Joey Votto are locked in a battle for the coveted "Triple Crown" of hitters in the National League, while Miguel Cabrerra is chasing it in the American League. The hitters Triple Crown, for those that don't know, refers to leading the league in home runs, RBI, and average in the same season. It has been 42 years since anyone has won it at all, (Carl Yastremski for Boston) and it's been 73 years since anyone has done it in the National League (Joe Medwick for the Cardinals).

Ken Griffey, Jr. retired earlier this year. He was in the midst of the worst season of his career, failing to hit any of his career 630 home runs in 2010. Still he will go down in history as one of the greatest sluggers the game of baseball has ever seen.

But he left the game with one major accomplishment missing from his resume: a World Series ring.

And he’s not the only great player to retire without winning it all.

In a recent column, I set out to provide an Adjusted 400 Home Run Club , with alterations made based on era, missed time, and favorable vs. non-favorable home ballparks.

Humorously, this simply raised more questions about the 500 Home Run Club than it did answer questions about the 400 Home Run Club.

So, maybe we should adjust that club as well.

(Eek, eek. Twitch, twitch.)

I think we all know that Babe Ruth was probably the greatest offensive player in the history of baseball. Ted Williams was probably second, and Ty Cobb, Barry Bonds, and Lou Gehrig round out my own personal top five. The numbers these guys put up during their careers were astounding, but are sometimes difficult to fully appreciate out of context.

What's not difficult to appreciate is a truly great season. Last year, Albert Pujols led baseball with 47 homers. Joe Mauer led baseball with a .365 average, and Ryan Howard led baseball with 145 RBI.

I am an "Old School" guy, and proud of it most of the time. In fact, I go so far back, I can recall when rainbows were still in black and white, and televisions were run by gas.

When it comes to selecting All-Anything teams, I always catch it from some (usually young) brainiac who tells me that I can't compare Pete Rose to Ty Cobb or Chase Utley to Nap LaJoie.

Then I am presented with comparisons beginning with lower case letters followed by all caps:  wRC, wOBA, tRA, etc., ad nauseam.

In a list of greatest players in the history of one of baseball’s most storied franchise, the names at the top of Boston’s list are Hall of Famers.

Williams. Yastrzemski. Rice. Doerr. Young.

So it is not every day that a player comes along with enough caliber to crack the top part of such a list.

One such player did emerge in the summer of 1997.