Was my former favorite player worth my adoration?
If you were to ask six-year-old Juliet, in 2006, who her favorite Red Sox player was, she would not have said Big Papi, or Manny, or Wake, or even Craig Breslow. (He was on the 2006 roster! Hahaha!). Her answer would have been Álex González, whom she affectionately called Gonzally-Boom. She really knew him better from her 2005 Red Sox Uno deck than from his baseball play. She honestly didn’t know much about him at all, other than that he had a fun last name to make a nickname out of. But she was six! It makes sense. Granted, I didn’t know the Sea-Bass nickname was a thing until recently.
Well, I’m not six anymore, so I’m going to see whether or not he was a good first choice as my favorite player, or if I should’ve picked Papi or Manny like every other New England child.
A-Gonz, in 2006, was mid by his standards. It was a better season for him than some of his later ones, like his 2010 season in Atlanta, but not as good as his season the following year in Cincinnati, or his 2003 World-Series-season with the Marlins. Unlike Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell, who’d been traded from the Marlins, he signed on with the Sox as a free agent and it was only a one-year deal.
González only hit 9 home runs that whole year. In comparison, Papi hit 54 (Black ink stat) and Manny hit 35. A-Gonz’s average was .255, compared to Papi’s .287 and Manny’s .321. González’s hit total was 99, while Papi’s was 160 and Manny’s was 144. You get the point. Compared to those two juggernauts, Gonzally-Boom wasn’t doing much offensively. Even Julián Tavárez (who remembers HIM?) had 10 home runs.
However, González, at short, was a better defender than Manny in left, but that doesn’t come as a huge surprise. A-Gonz’s DRS score was at 4 for 2006, compared to Manny’s at -12. González’s fielding percentage at .985 was one of the best for the year statistically, across all of baseball.
But did little Juliet care about good defense? No! She didn’t know how any of that worked! So really, if she wanted to see offense, she should’ve picked an actual offensive powerhouse. But she picked him for the vibes. Because why not. At the end of the day, not everyone can get a cool nickname from me.
I understand why he didn’t really leave a legacy in Boston, even though he came back for another season in 2009. He was on one roster that got swept in the ALDS and one that didn’t make the postseason at all. He’s not really a character—or a player—that anyone remembers. But my insanely good long term memory is a blessing and a curse, and I remember. I remember you, Gonzally-Boom.