2013 BBS Awards: Lifetime Achievement Award

This award goes to someone who has distinguished themselves for more than a year, for more than a few years. It belongs to those who have built a career of achievement. People who you can't stop talking about what they've done. People you tell stories about. Previous winners include Red Auerbach, Jerry York, and Cam Neeley.

This year, this most coveted of awards goes to Pedro Martinez.

Pedro was the most dominant pitcher of his era, an era that was dominated by juiced balls and juiced hitters.

And speaking of PEDs, I think it's safe to say Pedro didn't use them. His muscle mass was too low, he was slow to recover from injury, and his performance deteriorated with age in a natural way.

In the year 2000, in the American League with DHs, off a 10 inch mound, when the league ERA was 4.91, Pedro challenged Bob Gibson's modern era single-season ERA record of 1.12. Pedro finished with a 1.74 ERA.

Pedro won 3 Cy Youngs, and he probably should have won more. He finished second in the 1998 AL voting to Roger Clemens. This is around the time that Clemens had begun to use PEDs. In 2002 Pedro went 20-4, led the AL with a 2.22 ERA, and 239 strikeouts, yet lost the Cy Young to Barry Zito. Zito had 3 more wins than Pedro.

Pedro was also robbed of an MVP Award in 1999, when he finished second in the voting to Ivan Rodriguez. Pedro actually got one more first place vote than I-Rod. He went 23-4 with a 2.07 ERA and 313 strikeouts. But some voters thought a power hitting catcher was more valuable.

Pedro never threw a no-hitter. Technically. On June 3, 1995, pitching for the Expos he threw 9 perfect innings. But it was a 0-0 game after 9 so it went into extra innings. He gave up a hit in the 10th and was relieved. The Expos would win 1-0. He didn't even get credit for the 'W.'

In the 1999 All-Star Game at Fenway Park, Pedro stole the show from the steroid enhanced sluggers. Pedro struck out 5 of the 6 batters he faced: Barry Larkin, Larry Walker, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Jeff Bagwell. Those batters have a combined 2,222 career HRs, by the way.

He led his league in ERA 5 times, in complete games once in 1997, in strikeouts 3 times, in WHIP 6 times, in K/9 5 times, in K/BB 4 times. He was an 8-time All-Star, he has the 6th best win percentage of all-time, the 5th best WHIP of all-time, the 3rd best K/9 of all-time, the 13th most strikeouts, the 3rd best K/BB ratio of all-time.

He was a key part of the 2004 World Series winning Red Sox.

He was an idiot before the Red Sox were Idiots.

He threw at batters when he himself had to bat in the NL (yet another reason he's superior to Roger "shrunken attachments" Clemens).

The day he pitched was an event. It had anticipation to it. The ballpark had a buzz. The City had a buzz. Days Pedro pitched were the most coveted of Red Sox tickets. Before the 2004 World Series run, Pedro was the Red Sox.

I would argue that he's the best pitcher in Red Sox history. He's a certain Hall of Famer, and the number 45 should be immortalized on Fenway's right-field facade.

Bruins Show Up Late, Leave with Win

The Bruins are in the middle of two things: a bad rash of injuries, and a relatively easy part of their schedule. So when the last place Nashville Predators come to town, even if half your roster feels more at home in Providence, you still have to take advantage.

Just like last night's snowstorm, the Bruins started slow then poured it on stronger and stronger as the night went on. Johnny Boychuk fired a patented rocket past Mazanec in the 3rd. Then Jarome Iginla drove to the net like Shaq, outmuscling a defender for position on his way to his 13th goal of the season. And in overtime Brad Marchand self-pased the puck between the defensemen's legs to give himself space to score the game-winner.

Niklas Svedberg started in goal for the B's. This was his first career NHL game. He played solidly. Nashville isn't much of a test (5th fewest goals scored coming into last night's game). The Bruins need a backup goalie who can be put into the lineup often enough to keep Tuukka Rask fresh. And the Bruins need to at least have a chance to win those games. Maybe Svedberg can give them that chance in the future. Not right now though, since he's already been sent down to Providence.

The Bruins host the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday afternoon. That's another bad team that the B's need to collect points against. Then the Bruins go on the road and play the top 3 teams in the Pacific division (Anaheim, LA, San Jose).

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Charles Krupa

BBS Awards: Red Auerbach Award for Best Coach/Executive

This award goes to the person off the field whose decisions and influence resulted in the most success on the field.

There were lots of great coaches and GMs in Boston this year. Obviously with a World Series winning team you have to consider Ben Cherington and John Farrell. With the Bruins going deep in the playoffs you must give Claude Julien and Peter Chiarelli some thought. With the Patriots doing well despite injuries, Bill Belichick deserves consideration. And Brad Stevens has gotten 110% from the Celtics.

But I think only one person had the most work to do, yet still reached the maximum level of success. He had to rebuild a broken team.

The winner of the Red Auerbach award for 2013 is Ben Cherington, GM of the Boston Red Sox.

The other guys I mentioned have all done great jobs. However none of their jobs were as difficult as Cherington's. Cherington had a blank team. There were no stud free agents available to bring in. As Cherington put together his team of decent, experienced players, I remember talking to my brother about how the Red Sox were "buying second place." I thought the Sox were trying to build an 85 win team, compete for a Wild Card spot, and keep the fans' hunger satisfied with snacks instead of a full course meal.

How wrong I was.

Ben Cherington took a last place team and gave it a chance. He added the right mix of veterans, leaders, followers, and solid ballplayers. And the team won.

BBS Awards: Game of the Year

This award goes to the most memorable, thrilling, important game in Boston sports in 2013. And this year had no shortage of great games. Obviously there was the Red Sox World Series run, and the Bruins went deep into the Stanley Cup playoffs. But one game stands apart for its drama, its impact, its thrill-factor, and its lasting imagery. It's a game that all I have to do is post one picture, and you'll know which game I'm talking about...

Game 2 of the ALCS between the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers.

Detroit had a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the 8th. There were 2 outs and the bases were loaded for David Ortiz.

He hit a Grand Slam that none of us will ever forget.

And in the 9th Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a single to left to win the game.

The game not only had excitement and memorable imagery, it had impact. The Tigers were 4 outs away from going up 2-0 in the series, sweeping two games in Fenway. Who knows how the series would have gone had the Tigers taken such a commanding lead.

Instead, David Ortiz tied the game and the Sox tied the series. They won 2 of 3 in Detroit, then clinched the series in Fenway.

And the rest is history.

2013 BBS Awards: Bloody Sock Award for Toughness

This award goes to a tough athlete, one who has come back from injury, or played through injury, or some other kind of adversity, and sometimes a life threatening illness. Previous winners include Jon Lester, Wes Welker, and Mark Herzlich.

This year the winner is Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins.

Bergeron played the toughest games in the toughest sport (Stanley Cup Finals) with a broken rib, torn cartilage, and a separated shoulder. That broken rib would eventually puncture a lung. This award and this blog are named after Curt Schilling's bloody red socks from the 2004 playoffs, and Bergeron's injuries were much more severe. Maybe I'll rename the blog to Bergeron's Ribs, or Boston Lung Punctures.

He made you proud to be a Boston sports fan. And even though the B's lost the series, they left everything on the ice.

2013 BBS Awards: Special Award to John Lackey for Being an Athlete We Hated then Becoming One We Liked

This is a special award. This doesn't happen very often. John Lackey won the award for 2011 Goat of the Year. We hated him. He was one of Beckett's fried chicken crew. And in 2013 he completely redeemed himself. He got in shape, he put in the effort, and it showed on the field. So congrats, John Lackey.

2013 BBS Awards: Tom Brady Award for Biggest Surprise Out of Nowhere

This award goes to the athlete who performed in an outstanding fashion in 2013, even though we barely knew who he was, or at least had no idea he could play so well. Previous winners include Brad Marchand, Danny Woodhead, and Hideki Okajima.

The winner this year is Koji Uehara of the Boston Red Sox.

Honorable mention to Torey Krug of the Bruins, Shane Vereen of the Patriots, Mike Napoli, Shane Victorino, and John Lackey.

Uehara came out of nowhere. The Red Sox were in need of a closer, and he took the job. And he did so with style. In 74.1 innings he struck out 101 batters. He only walked 9. He converted 21 saves, 13 holds, and only blew 3 saves. His WHIP was 0.57. He finished 7th in Cy Young voting and won the ALCS MVP.

My favorite stat is that 74% of his pitches were strikes. He faced 265 batters, and only threw 274 balls, or about 1 ball per plate appearance, and only 3.7 balls per inning pitched. He just threw strikes.

Strikes and high fives.

2013 BBS Awards: Ted Williams Award for Red Sox Player of the Year

This award goes to the best player from the 2013 Boston Red Sox season. And what a season to look back on and remember.

The winner of this award is someone who in 2013 rallied both the team and the City.

The winner of the Ted Williams award is David Ortiz.

Honorable mentions to Jon Lester, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Koji Uehara.

Ortiz led the team in batting average (.309), homeruns (30), RBI (103), OBP (.393), SLG (.594), and OPS (.959). He was third on the team in runs (84), third in hits (160), and third in doubles (38). And that was just the regular season.

In the playoffs, he led the team with a .353 average, hit 5 homeruns, knocked in 13 RBI, got on base 50% of the time, slugged .706. All those numbers led the Red Sox. He scored the second most runs (12), and had the second most hits (18).

In an amazing year for an amazing team, he was the most amazing player.