The History Of Red Sox Coming To The Evil Empire

Kevin Youkilis signed a one year deal worth $12 million to be with the New York Yankees in 2013 after spending his last nine seasons with the rival Boston Red Sox. Youkilis joins a pretty short list of former formidable Red Sox to join the Yankees, a list that includes Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens, Johnny Damon, and Babe Ruth to name a few. I thought it would be interesting to look at these guys first seasons and careers with the Yankees after coming over to the dark side. For simplicity sake I am going to keep it to the bigger acquisitions and the most recent signings so this list will not include the likes of Herb Pennock or Waite Hoyt, sorry guys.

Mike Stanton

Mike Stanton, the left handed reliever that Joe Torre tried to run into the ground not the man now known as Giancarlo Stanton, spent the 1995 and part of the 1996 season with the Boston Red Sox before making the switch over to the Yankees and the Joe Torre led bullpen. In his time in Boston he would put up a combined 5-3 record with a 3.56 ERA in 82 games with a 1.366 WHIP. Mike would come over to the Yankees before the 1997 season and would spend the next six consecutive seasons with the Yankees and seven overall, three of them being World Series Championship seasons. In seven seasons in pinstripes Stanton would have a 31-14 record with a 3.77 ERA in 456 games and 448.1 IP. He would also be named to the American League All Star team for the only time in his career in 2001 along with Yankees starters Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens. He was a huge part of the dynasty Yankees bullpens and was beloved by all, especially Joe Torre.

Johnny Damon

Johnny Damon spent four seasons with the Boston Red Sox but will forever be remembered for his caveman hair do and beard, his group of "idiots", and reversing the curse in 2004 by winning the World Series with the Boston Red Sox. All told in four seasons Damon put up .285/.363/.458 triple slash with 56 home runs and 299 RBIs including two All Star game appearances and two seasons where he garnered MVP considerations. He would come over to the Yankees in the off season before the 2006 season and would spend the next four seasons with the Yankees including the 2009 World Series run. Damon had a triple slash of .285/.363/.458 with 77 HRs and 296 RBIs and one huge double steal in the 2009 playoffs that he will be forever remembered for. The Yankees fans embraced Johnny Damon and accepted him as their own from day one it seemed and most even wanted him back for the 2012 season before we signed Raul Ibanez for the DH spot.

Wade Boggs

Wade Boggs spent his first 11 seasons with the rival Boston Red Sox before leaving for the Yankees before the 1993 season as a free agent. Wade Boggs would spend the next five seasons with the New York Yankees including four All Star Game appearances, two Silver Sluggers, two Gold Gloves, two times garnering MVP votes, and a World Series ring and a horse back ride in 1996. Boggs first season in pinstripes was 1993 and saw him put up a triple slash of .302/.378/.363 playing in 143 games. All told Boggs career Yankees line, which is abbreviated due to the 1994 Players Union work stoppage, was .313/.396/.407. Most importantly, especially during and after 1996, Wade Boggs was beloved by Yankees fans and embraced as a member of the pinstripe family.

Roger Clemens

Roger Clemens started his career with the Boston Red Sox and spent the first 13 seasons of his Major League career there. In his Red Sox career, you know before he was in the "twilight" of his career, Roger Clemens had a pitching line of 192-111 with a 3.06 ERA while pitching to a 1.158 WHIP and 144 ERA+. Roger would win the Rookie of the Year award while in Boston along with three Cy Young Awards and being in the top six of voting three other times. Roger also garnered MVP votes in five times including winning the MVP award in 1986. Roger would leave for the Toronto Blue Jays for two seasons, and two more Cy Young awards, before coming to the Yankees before the 1999 season. Roger would spend the next five seasons and spend six seasons overall with the Yankees before hanging up the spikes. His combined Yankees record was 83-42 (including his 300th win in pinstripes) with a 4.01 ERA with a 1.307 WHIP and a 114 ERA+. The Yankees and their fans adored Roger Clemens and this would be obvious when George Steinbrenner allowed Roger to announce from his personal luxury box that he would be making a come back in the 2007 season at a Yankees home game. Roger would win two World Series rings while in New York, one of which might still have a bat splinter in it after he threw it at Mike Piazza, and will always be known as a Yankees player.

Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth is the man that started it all when it comes to the Yankees and Red Sox rivalry and the subsequent curse that followed that saw the Red Sox go 80 some years in between World Series victories. We all know the story about how the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees and the "Curse of the Bambino" and yada yada yada so I won't get into it for the 19085765th time. Babe Ruth would spend the first six years of his career with the Red Sox splitting time between pitching and hitting and putting up a hitting line of .308/.413/.568 with 49 HR's and 239 RBI's. George Herman Ruth did not come into his own until he came over to the rival New York Yankees where he spent 15 years of his career playing for. In his Yankees time Babe Ruth hit .349/.484/.711 with a mind boggling 1.195 OPS with 659 HR's and 1971 RBI's. Ruth would win the MVP in 1923 and would garner votes in two other seasons. Babe Ruth would win seven World Series with the Yankees and would have Yankees Stadium loosely named the "House that Ruth built" and will forever go down in history as a New York Yankee

Kevin Youkilis

Kevin Youkilis did not exactly start out his tenure as a Yankee on the right foot when he made comments, however intended, about always being a Red Sock. If your heart is in Boston I do not think that anyone would have a problem with it but it does not mean you have to put it in our face either. I always said that Kevin would not win over any Yankees fans with his mouth and would only be able to do it with his bat and on the field performance. I intend on cheering on Youk all season long like I would any Yankee not named Andruw Jones and by looking at this list I think he can win over the fans. His only disadvantage is that he only has one season where these men had multiple seasons but if anyone can do it I think the fiery and intense Paul O'Niell Kevin Youkilis can.