Brian Daubach

Brian Daubach was a first baseman-DH who was trapped in the minor leagues from 1990 to 1998. In 1999 he played for the Boston Red Sox and became a 27-year-old rookie sensation, earning the nickname “The Bellville Basher.” From 1999 to 2002, Daubach hit 20 or more home runs for Boston in his first four seasons. After a year with the White Sox in 2003, he returned to the Hub and played 30 games for the 2004 Red Sox. His curse-busting teammates voted him a World Series winner’s share and the team gave him a World Championship ring.

Daubach was known as a 4A hitter – too good for Triple A but not good enough for the major leagues. A minor adjustment to his batting approach in his sixth pro season transformed him.

Daubach overcame two major knee surgeries. Forged by a long, difficult path to the big leagues, he has coached and managed in the minor leagues for the Washington Nationals since 2011 with a humble, relatable style.

Brian Michael Daubach was born on February 11, 1972, in Belleville, Illinois, to Dale and Angie (Frisch) Daubach. His father was a letter carrier and his mother was a bookkeeper. He has two younger brothers, Brent and Brad. Brian grew up a Cardinals fan and attended the 1982 World Series with his family at Busch Stadium, 16 miles from Belleville.1

As of 2023 Brad was a special-education director at a high school, and Brent worked in stadium construction and was given a 2004 NLCS championship ring by the Cardinals, his employer at the time.2

Daubach played baseball for the Belleville American Legion, the St. Louis Flames youth team and Belleville Township High School West. As a senior at West, he was selected for the St Louis Post-Dispatch’s All Metro first team,3 batting .462 with 12 home runs.4

After graduating, Daubach was taken in the 17th round of the June 1990 amateur draft by the New York Mets. He was scouted by George Walden and signed on June 15, 1990, receiving a $30,000 bonus. He passed on a scholarship to attend St. Louis University.

Daubach debuted in professional baseball with the Gulf Coast Mets. He started poorly, batting below .200. Then a 30-game tear, a precursor of future streakiness, helped bring him to a respectable .270 final batting average. He returned home and started classes at Southern Illinois University; his backup plan to baseball was teaching or coaching.5

The Mets kept Daubach in rookie ball in 1991 with Kingsport in the Appalachian League. He improved defensively at first base, batted .243, and recognized that he was prone to striking out.6

In November of 1991, Daubach heard a crack in his knee while playing racquetball. He tore several ligaments, including the anterior cruciate, and underwent surgery. The injury cost him six weeks of spring training in 1992 before he joined the short-season Class-A Pittsfield Mets.7 A year later, he had another knee surgery for a microfracture.

Daubach adjusted to playing first base with a knee brace in the cooler climes of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He found it challenging to hit in Wahconah Park with its outsized dimensions – 440 feet in right center – for instance. His home runs dropped from seven to two. He was third on the team in strikeouts.

Over the next five seasons, Daubach worked his way through the Mets system. By 1995 he had improved marginally. In the midst of the player strike, he agreed to be a replacement player in spring of 1995 if the owners decided to start the season without Players Association members, but they did not.8

In 1996, Daubach’s seventh professional season, he made a quantum leap, batting .296 with 22 home runs and 76 RBIs with Double-A Binghamton. The 24-year-old found his power stroke. But Daubach’s path to the big leagues got more complicated. The Mets placed first baseman Roberto Petagine ahead of Daubach in Triple A.9

In October 1996 Daubach was informed by Mets general manager Steve Philips that he was being left off the 40-man roster and was a free agent.10 

The Florida Marlins were the first to approach him. Daubach played winter ball for the Navegantes del Magallanes in Venezuela, where he batted .347 and, surprisingly, was among the league leaders in triples.11 The Marlins watched him excel in the winter playoffs and signed him. 

“The Marlins were an expansion team at the time,” said Daubach, “but they were on their way and I was excited I was going to go to major-league spring training (with them) for the first time and they offered me $8,000 per month which was a whole lot of money to me back then because I’d never made more than $10,000 a year.”12

He was assigned to the Triple-A Charlotte Knights for 1997. Charlotte manager Carlos Tosca expressed confidence in him from the start.13

Daubach delivered for the Knights. In 1997, he batted .278 with 21 home runs and 93 RBIs. In 1998 he had a monster year: He hit .316 with 35 home runs and 124 RBIs. He led the International League in round-trippers, RBIs, and doubles (45). He was in the top six for batting average and hits.14 The word was that Daubach had learned to pull the ball effectively.15

Confirming that, Daubach explained “That is very true. … It was a minor adjustment I had to make in learning how to pull the ball. (I was) like a lot of the young players I work with now. Most of my HRs were opposite field (before I corrected) if I hit a ball to my pull side it would have topspin and be a double or the right fielder would catch it. I really believed I could do it the next year. I was happy to get a chance to come back to the Mets because one year I hit .240 or .250 with 10 home runs and as a first baseman, that doesn’t bode well usually. … I was able to turn the corner the next year. … Sometimes minor things go a long way when you talk about how really close hitting is … then you feel better. It frees up your swing. That was really the only adjustment I needed and I was off and running.”16

The humble Daubach deflected praise, adding: “Charlotte was a good place to hit. Small ballpark. I took advantage of it. And we had a great lineup around me, too.”17

Daubach played in 10 games for the Marlins in 1998, making his major-league debut on September 10. His first major-league hit – a double – and first RBI came on September 26 against the Phillies’ Curt Schilling.

Despite the outstanding season in Charlotte, Daubach was released by the Marlins on November 19, 1998. There were at least several possible explanations. He was going to be 27 years old in 1999. He was blocked from the Marlins roster at first base, where Derrek Lee was in place, and in the corner outfielder positions, where Mark Kotsay and Cliff Floyd were becoming settled in their roles. All three players were first-round draft picks.

“He was disillusioned when the Marlins released him. He was crushed. I think he was ready to go to Japan,” said Jim Brueggeman, an old friend and a teacher from Belleville.18

On December 18, 1998, Daubach broke off talks with a Japanese team. He had received a call from Boston’s general manager, Dan Duquette. The Red Sox signed Daubach to a minor-league contract and assigned him to Pawtucket for 1999. His contract called for $215,000. Since he had volunteered to be a replacement player, he did not receive the six-figure annual licensing pay that Players Association members get.19

Daubach’s chances to make the club in spring training were iffy. Duquette brought in competition for the first-base job that opened when Mo Vaughn signed with the Angels. The field included former Rookie of the Year Bob Hamelin, 1998 holdover Midre Cummings, and veteran Mike Stanley. Reggie Jefferson was the incumbent at DH.

After Daubach hit a home run in spring training, Boston writer Gordon Edes referred to him in print as the Belleville Basher, a sobriquet that stuck.20 (Tennis star Jimmy Connors was also from Daubach’s hometown, and was nicknamed the Brash Basher of Belleville.)

Daubach played well that spring. On March 11 he came off the bench in the ninth inning and hit a two-out, two-run home run to walk off a 3-2 Boston win.21 He tripled and notched two RBIs on March 13.22 On March 19, he broke a 2-2 tie with a towering home run in the sixth inning of a 6-5 Boston win. At that time, Daubach was batting .357 and tied for the team lead in RBIs. Some observers assumed that he had made the team.23

Daubach finished spring training with a .313 average, 4 home runs, and 12 RBIs in 48 at-bats. He did well, though not as well as Stanley and Jefferson, who were slotted ahead of him. His performance was good enough, however, to make the Opening Day roster.24

The 27-year-old major-league rookie got into his first game of 1999 on April 9 and collected a double and a triple. But he was in just two more games before being sent to Pawtucket as Jefferson came off the injured list. The change seemed to make sense. The team had player options left on Daubach. Jefferson was under contract for $3,400,000, compared to Daubach at $215,000. Daubach returned to Boston, getting two hits on April 28. His playing time grew.

Through 14 games as of May 15, Daubach sported a .356 average and .431 OBP. He hit his first MLB home run, a dramatic one, on May 17. It was a two-out, three-run home run in the top of the ninth as Boston rallied for five runs in an 8-7 win in Toronto. (One sportswriter referred to Daubach in this game as Red Sox manager Jimy Williams’s secret weapon, even somewhat secret to Williams himself.)25

On May 26 Daubach hit another ninth-inning home run to help the team save face in a 9-3 loss to the Yankees. On May 28 he hit a first-pitch homer in a 12-5 drubbing of Cleveland. He hit home runs in back-to-back games on May 31 and June 1; the latter was hit in the eighth inning and was decisive in a 5-4 win over Detroit. That blast was his second game-winning homer of the season. Daubach modestly told the press, “I don’t know how I came through. I guess I’m just lucky in the clutch.”26

On June 5 Daubach had three hits off the Braves’ Greg Maddux and staked Boston to a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI single before the Red Sox bullpen blew it in the ninth. He was on an eight-game hitting streak with a .379 batting average.27

On June 7 Daubach hit his fifth home run in his last eight games.28 On the 25th his two-run home run helped Boston to a 6-1 defeat of the White Sox.

On July 15 Daubach hit a home run to give the Red Sox a 6-3 lead in a win over the Phillies. He homered again on July 16 and again on July 24.

Daubach remained hot as a new month began. On August 1 he tied the Yankees in the fourth inning with a homer, doubled in the sixth, then scored to break the tie. Both teams continued to battle, and Boston hung on, 5-4.29

On August 4 Boston defeated Cleveland, 7-2, as Daubach reached base four times with two hits and two walks, part of scoring rallies in the first, fourth, and sixth innings.

Daubach then beat down the Angels in a three-game series in Anaheim. On August 6 his two-run homer made it 2-0, giving Boston all the runs needed to defeat the Angels, 5-1. The next night he got three hits including a double and a home run as the Red Sox bashed the Angels, 14-3. The following night, he doubled and homered again in a 9-3 victory.

Adding to this blissful run, Daubach homered and doubled in the same game for the third time in four games on August 10, this time in Kansas City. And he tripled in the in-between game on August 9, to boot.

Daubach did not cool down yet. On August 13 he had five RBIs on two doubles and a home run in an 11-6 victory over Seattle at Fenway Park.

Daubach’s next game approached perfection. On August 14 he went 5-for-5 with six RBIs and his 19th home run of the season. That home run was his sixth in nine games; he batted .513 (20-for-39) with 20 RBIs in that span.

The lengthy streak was ending. As the season ground on, Daubach was tiring. He went 9-for-52 in September and October (.173). 

Daubach finished his rookie season with a .294 average, 21 home runs, and 73 RBIs in 381 at-bats. He told this writer it had been a wild ride and that he was spent when September arrived. It was a lot to process for someone who had spent nine years in the minors and been released after an MVP-quality season in Triple A.

“You name it, (I felt) all the emotions that year. From making the team in spring training, to being sent down very early. I look back now, I was one of the last guys on the roster that had options and our pitching had gotten really thin, our starters had a couple of tough starts, our bullpen was thin. They had to send me down but Jimy Williams gave me his word that I’d be back in 10 days and I’d only have to stay down if someone else got hurt and sure enough, by May 15 I’m getting playing time (in Boston). It was quite the ride. I was very tired by the end of the year for sure. The emotions. I really struggled in September. I was having just a crazy year until September. It was a very emotional year for sure and something that made me stronger. Not only in baseball but through my life, and still does.”30

The rookie was rewarded for his remarkable run when the Red Sox clinched the wild-card berth on September 29. They defeated Cleveland in the Division Series but lost to the Yankees in the Championship Series. He batted .212 in the postseason but hit a home run in each of those series.

Daubach was an important part of a joyous year. Fenway Park hosted the 1999 All-Star Game, when 80-year-old Ted Williams made a historic appearance. The team reached the postseason despite low expectations.31

Pedro Martínez struck out 313 batters and won his second Cy Young Award. Nomar Garciaparra batted .357 to lead the American League. The team advanced to the Championship Series for the first time since 1990.

Daubach contributed 31 multihit games. His 57 extra-base hits were fourth-best on the team despite his being a platoon player, getting 337 of his 381 at-bats against righties.

NESN, the TV network owned by the Red Sox, released a late-season promotional piece with a photo of Daubach that stated: “NESN delivers rookie sensation Brian Daubach and the Red Sox with 16 games in September!” In retrospect, Daubach thought that using him in this promotion was “crazy” given what Martínez and Garciaparra had done.32

The Belleville Basher finished fourth in the AL Rookie of Year voting and was one of only three players to receive a first-place vote. He was named to the Topps All Star Rookie team as its first baseman.33

Ironically, few in Boston had known who Daubach was before the season started. When asked if he had ever heard of him before the Red Sox signed him, manager Jimy Williams said, “To be very honest, no.”34

In 2000 Daubach was back in Boston and the Red Sox were a contender. Pedro Martínez won his third Cy Young Award and Garciaparra batted .372 for his second crown. The team spent 25 days in first place before June was done. They finished in second place, 2½ games behind the Yankees.

Daubach hit 21 home runs and batted .248. He was an important cog, often batting third, fourth, or fifth. He missed a week after a nasty brawl on August 29 in which eight Devil Rays were ejected, suffering a hyperextended elbow. The fight was sparked when Pedro Martínez hit Gerald Williams with a pitch, and Williams charged the mound. Teammate Lou Merloni maintained that Daubach had only entered the fray to protect Martínez.

After returning to the lineup, Daubach endured a 9-for-57 stretch at the plate.35 He had been on a streak before the altercation. There was some feeling that his injury broke his momentum and contributed to the team’s losing the division to the Yankees. Boston was eliminated on September 29.36

The 2001 Red Sox added Manny Ramírez and David Cone to a talented roster that included Jason Varitek, Martínez, and Garciaparra. The team started strong. On July 31 they were in second place, 3½ games out of first with a 60-45 record. But injuries took a serious toll with Ramírez (hamstring), Garciaparra (wrist),37 Varitek (elbow fracture),38 and Martínez (shoulder)39 the victims.

On August 16, after losing six of seven, the Red Sox fired manager Jimy Williams and replaced him with pitching coach Joe Kerrigan.40 The change didn’t help. Boston lost 15 of 21 games in September. They finished 13½ games behind New York.

Outfielder Trot Nixon spoke out about dysfunction within the team. “[P]eople not only disrespected the Red Sox uniform, they also disrespected themselves. …”41

Daubach manned first base in most of his 122 games that year. He quietly had a decent season with 22 home runs and 71 RBIs. He was given the Jackie Jensen Award for spirit and determination by the Boston Baseball Writers. While there was talk about a major overhaul being needed for 2002, retaining Daubach seemed a sound option were they unable to land a big free agent like Jason Giambi. (They were not.)

A new factor made Daubach and his teammates uneasy in late 2001. The Red Sox were for sale. Prospective buyers of the team were visiting Fenway Park to inspect the facility before submitting their final purchase offers. It was presumed that once a new owner was announced, general manager Dan Duquette would be fired and his replacement would orchestrate an overhaul.42

Duquette, however, was busy in December preparing to sign arbitration-eligible players, including Daubach. Up to that point, the beefy first sacker-DH had been a Duquette blue-plate special, a big bang for a cheap buck.43 He signed on January 22.44 His salary rocketed from $400,000 to $2,352,000 for 2002. Finally, in his age 30 season, he made serious money.

The 2002 Red Sox had a new look. Grady Little was the new manager. Johnny Damon was in center field. Varitek, Garciaparra, and Martínez were healthier and ready to go full-time. Ramírez was healthy enough to play 64 games in left field and those who otherwise filled in for him included Rickey Henderson and Daubach.

Ownership had changed, too. The John Henry group said it would try to eliminate the corrosive clubhouse atmosphere of 2001. They fired Duquette on February 28 and replaced him with Mike Port as an interim.

Daubach played in 137 games in 2002 at first base and the outfield, making but five errors all year. He filled the designated hitter role at times, too.

He hit 20 home runs and in doing so tied a team record shared with Ted Williams, Tony Conigliaro, Jim Rice, and Nomar Garciaparra. Those are the only Red Sox players to start their career with four straight 20-home-run seasons.

Although Daubach delivered his fourth straight decent season, Boston did not offer him a contract for 2003. There is some thinking that the Red Sox showed restraint because salaries were falling.45 It is also true that Daubach was entering his age 31 season. And he was going to be arbitration-eligible again if he stayed with the Red Sox.

Daubach signed with the White Sox for 2003 and took a pay cut, settling for $450,000. He played sporadically, stuck behind the well-established Frank Thomas (DH), Paul Konerko (first base), and Carlos Lee (outfield).46 He played in 95 games with Chicago, batting .230 with 6 home runs in 183 at-bats, largely as a part-time first baseman and outfielder. He was released after the season.

In 2004 Daubach returned to the Red Sox as a backup first baseman, outfielder, and pinch-hitter and appeared in 30 games. He batted .227, playing his last game with the Red Sox on June 8. Daubach also played 93 games for Pawtucket, batting .271 with 21 home runs. His curse-busting 2004 Red Sox teammates voted Daubach a World Series share. The owners gave him a championship ring.

“Yeah, the guys were good to me,” said Daubach. “And Mr. Henry and Larry (Lucchino) and Mr. (Tom) Werner appreciated the situation for what it was. A lot of players were on the Red Sox previously and part of the 86 years passed without winning. The Red Sox were gracious. To my knowledge they gave everybody a ring, no matter what role or job they had with the club.”47

Daubach remembered how he was welcomed into the Boston clubhouse after they won the World Series in St. Louis:

“My dad was able to scrape up tickets and we went to the ’82 World Series. The next time I was near the Busch Stadium field, I obviously wasn’t on the 2004 Red Sox (postseason) roster, but I was with all the guys in the clubhouse with the trophy. It was weird because I never played in St. Louis, one of the few places I never got to play. The first time I was on the field was with the trophy. It was amazing.”48

The Belleville Basher reached the end of his playing career in the minor leagues with the Mets in 2005 and the Cardinals in 2006. His last taste of major-league life was in 15 games in 2005 with the Mets, for whom he batted .120.

After taking extended time away from baseball at home in Belleville, Daubach launched his managerial and coaching career. In 2009 and 2010, he managed teams in the independent Can-Am League, the New Hampshire American Defenders and the Pittsfield Colonials, respectively. It was the 2007 Red Sox championship that pulled him out of Belleville and back into the baseball life in New England.

“You know, when you play baseball, especially straight out of high school, you’re not really sure what you want to do. I did reboot and recharge (after retirement). And what got me back to Boston and Nashua was when I went to Opening Day at Fenway in 2008. The Sox had won in 2007 and wanted members of the 2004 team to be present with the Celtics’ Bill Russell, Cedric Maxwell, the Bruins’ Bobby Orr and Ken Hodge, and Teddy Bruschi and Wes Welker and a bunch of other guys from the Patriots. You know most of the ’04 team was still playing. So I think it ended up being me, Curtis Leskanic, and David McCarty walking out on the field (on Opening Day). It felt great to be back in Fenway, so I just stayed there the rest of the year. I started working with WEEI and NESN. I started doing the radio show with Glen Ordway, The Big Show, two to three days of guest-hosting. Plus, I started doing pregame and postgames with NESN. It was pretty exciting so I stayed there the whole summer. The following year, 2009, I joined Nashua as a hitting coach, and the year after that as the manager. … I was ready to get back into baseball which was something I’ve done my whole life. I am really fortunate I got back in with an organization like the Nationals, where I am now.”49

In 2011 Daubach began a long career in the Washington Nationals system as the manager of the Class-A Hagerstown Suns, where he was Bryce Harper’s first professional manager.

In 2013 he managed Potomac of the Advanced-A Carolina League. In 2014 and 2015 he managed Harrisburg of the Double-A Eastern League. In 2016-18, he was the hitting coach with Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs of the International League. In 2019 he was the hitting coach with the Fresno Grizzlies of the PCL, then was off in 2020 as COVID canceled the minor-league season.

On a personal note, Daubach married Kimberly Zimmerman in 2021. He has a son, Caden, from a previous marriage, who was born in 2004.50

In 2021 he became the hitting coach for the Rochester Red Wings of the Internal League, a post he still held in 2023.

Daubach’s approach to leadership is nuanced. He said, “Managing in the minors is a little different from managing in the major leagues because obviously your prospects are going to play (a lot) … as far as on a daily basis, just be open with the guys, and teach as much as you can. I played 17 years and have coached another 14 or 15 years. I try to pass things along. But the big thing is I just try to be open. Some days it’s being a good listener. Others it’s being a good teacher. I think every guy is wired a little bit differently. It can change day-to-day. One day a guy needs an arm around him and another needs a kick in the butt. I think that’s the beauty of any management role, but especially in baseball, where there is so much failure on the hitting side. … So you just try to bring the kids up, especially the ones who were high draft picks, they have a lot to live up to. It’s a lot (of pressure). Especially with social media now. I try to be aware of everybody’s situation. And to be available when they need you.”51

Would he would like to manage again? Daubach had this to say:

“Yes. … I managed for five years, had some great players, at the time we were building up to (the Nationals’) first World Series run. It was exciting to have a lot of young players drafted in the early 2010s. I had a chance to manage in Triple A. I just love the game. Love teaching, especially loved managing younger players because you see big strides can be made quickly, and when they later turn into World Series champions it’s very rewarding. But Triple A is rewarding, too. Not only do you get to tell guys they’re going to the major leagues, you have a 34-year-old bat that’s trying to get back there. I’ve kind of been on both sides of that. I was a young guy coming up and trying to get there for the first time, and (I had to) go down to Triple A and fight my way back.”

“(Helping others get there) is the best thing about coaching in the minor leagues.”52

Notes

1 Phone interview, Brian Daubach with Karl Cicitto, June 2, 2023 (hereafter Daubach-Cicitto interview).

2 Daubach-Cicitto interview

3 Mike Eisenbath, “The Mighty from ’90,” St Louis Post-Dispatch, June 21, 1990: 6D.

4 Norm Sanders, “West Hitter Signs Contract with Mets,” Belleville (Illinois) News-Democrat, June 16, 1990: D1.

5 Norm Sanders, “Making the Grade,” Belleville News-Democrat, September 11, 1990: D5.

6 Norm Sanders, “A Year in the Minors,” Belleville News-Democrat, September 10, 1991: D5.

7 Norm Sanders, “Former Belleville West Slugger Works Way Back into Lineup,” Belleville News-Democrat, July 6, 1992: D2.

8 Gordon Edes, “Base Tour,” Boston Globe, June 11, 1999: E1.

9 Eisenbath, “In 7th Season, Daubach Still Optimistic,” St Louis Post-Dispatch, July 13, 1996: 17.

10 Edes, “Base Tour.”

11 “Batista Coquetea Con No-Hitter; Igor Debuta el Domingo con San Juan,” El Nuevo Herald (Miami), December 4, 1996: 6B.

12 Daubach-Cicitto interview.

13 Earl Gault, “Marlins Spending Spree Could Make Tosca’s Job Easy,” Rock Hill (South Carolina) Herald, February 6, 1997: 1B.

14 Stats Crew, accessed May, 23, 2023: https://www.statscrew.com/minorbaseball/leaders/l-IL/y-1998.

15 Edes, “Base Tour.”

16 Daubach-Cicitto interview.

17 Daubach-Cicitto interview.

18 Edes, “Base Tour.”

19 Edes, “Daubach an Able Replacement,” Boston Globe, May 27, 1999: C6.

20 Edes, “With a Deep Impact Garciaparra Is Back,” Boston Globe, March 27, 1999: G6.

21 Larry Whiteside, “Saberhagen Strong in Mind, Body,” Boston Globe, March 12, 1999: E2.

22 Whiteside, “Portugal Tuning Out the Negative,” Boston Globe, March 14, 1999: E1.

23 Edes, “Gordon Shows No Signs of Strain in Hitting 92 MPH,” Boston Globe, March 20, 1999: G3.

24 “How Red Sox Line Up for Opening Day,” Boston Globe, April 5, 1999: D3.

25 Edes, “A Little Daubach Does It,” Boston Globe, May 18, 1999: E1.

26 Edes, “Sox Go Long Way Around,” Boston Globe, June 2, 1999: F1.

27 Rupen Fofaria, “No Minor Contribution,” Boston Globe, June 6, 1999: D15.

28 Edes, “Rookie at Home Together,” Boston Globe, June 8, 1999: E5.

29 Michael Smith, “Sox Rookies Rise to Occasion,” Boston Globe, August 2, 1999: D5.

30 Daubach-Cicitto interview.

31 “1999 Season Predictions,” New York Times, April 2, 1999. https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/sports/baseball/040499bbo-season-predictions.html.

32 Daubach-Cicitto interview.

33 Edes, “Gordon to Have Elbow Surgery,” Boston Globe, October 28, 1999: E6.

34 Edes, A Little Daubach Does It,” Boston Globe, May 18, 1999: G1.

35 Bob Hohler, “Brawl Set Off Some Bad Vibes,” Boston Globe, September 29, 2000: F5.

36 Hohler, “Sox Slim Shot Slips Away,” Boston Globe, September 30, 2000: F1.

37 Holhler, “These Parts Couldn’t Drive the Red Sox Engine,” Boston Globe, October 7, 2001: C14.

38 Hohler, “Curtain Cal: Team, Fans Send Ripken Off,” Boston Globe, September 28, 2001: E3.

39 Hohler, “No Quick Return for Ace,” Boston Globe, July 5, 2001: C6.

40 Hohler, “Duke Talks, Jimy Walks,” Boston Globe, August 17, 2001: A1.

41 Hohler, “Nixon Has Few Regrets,” Boston Globe, January 11, 2002: E4.

42 Hohler, “Duquette Wants Role Expanded,” Boston Globe, October 9, 2001: F5.

43 Gordon Edes, “Base Tour,” Boston Globe, June 11, 1999; E1.

44 “One-year Deal for Daubach,” Boston Globe, January 23, 2002: F2.

45 Edes, “Less Dollars, More Sense in New Market,” Boston Globe, December 22, 2002: C13.

46 Associated Press, “Daubach Returns to Red Sox,” Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, Massachuetts), March 17, 2004: D1.

47 Daubach-Cicitto interview.

48 Daubach-Cicitto interview.

49 Daubach-Cicitto interview.

50 Daubach-Cicitto interview.

51 Daubach-Cicitto interview.

52 Daubach-Cicitto interview.