WhatIfSports is organizing a SimLeague Baseball tournament with rosters made up entirely of Red Sox players. We are seeking diehard Red Sox fans to join the league and are hoping to add a couple Boston celebrities or baseball writers as well.

To highlight the league, we’ll be creating some content pieces on FOXSports.com and will seek input from league members. Articles will likely focus on the draft, All-Star break, playoffs and World Series champion. We’re asking each owner to record a few thoughts as to the rationale of each pick, looking for both statistical and emotional reasoning.

If you are a diehard Red Sox fan and would like to join the league, please reply to this thread with your interest and your favorite Red Sox memory. We’ll be tapping into our connections, but if you personally know any notable Red Sox celebrity fans or beat writers that would like to join, we’re happy to extend an invitation.

Details about the tournament:

• 30 teams
• Boston Americans/Boston Red Sox players only, 1901-2015
• Live draft spanning several days using draft SLB tool
• $255 M salary cap
• No player season can be used more than once in the league
• No clones on same team (i.e. two versions of the same player)
• All teams will use a DH
• Ballpark must be Fenway Park or Huntington Avenue Grounds
• No AAA
• Trades allowed
• No waiver wire

Prize details will be forthcoming.

Oh you know I'm in on this one....I have too many favorite Red Sox memories to count, but I recounted one here:
https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?TopicID=490648&ThreadID=10853178#l_10853178

Why is this league at such a high cap?

My favorite memory as a child was being at Fenway quite a few times with my dad. That was when there were lots of sparsely attended weekday day games. He would pick me up at elementary school and tell the teacher I had an "appointment."  We would park near a large metal sign that once had read "TO LET APARTMENTS," but somebody had etched an "I" after the TO, so as a child I thought we always parked at the TOILET APARTMENTS. But I digress.... Perhaps my favorite Red Sox memory was in the summer of the Impossible Dream, on July 15, 1967, when a lefty named Gary Waslewski started the game and threw 11 straight balls. It seemed like it was going to be a bad day, and I was not looking forward to continuing my scorecard. The next pitch was lined to Joe Foy at third, who threw to Mike Andrews at second, who threw to George Scott at first. Inning over.

I'm in....

The obivous is the '04 playoffs.

But, I'll go with a game I was at, Summer of '01, in a game started by Hideo Nomo, Shea Hillenbrand hit a walk off HR in the 18th or 19th inning against the Tigers.   The game was running so late, they announced that the T was gonna close, and me and my buddies agreed we were staying.  We started the night with standing room only tickets, but by the time Shea hit it out, we were pounding on the Sox dugout roof.   It was a fun night.

I'm game.

Favorite Sox memory? How do I pick just one? My 1st game, watching Dennis Eckersley throw a complete-game 5-hit shutout of the Twins back in 1979. Being there to watch Pedro strike out 16 Atlanta Braves. Being at Fenway the night Nomar hit 3 homers and drove in 10.  Being at Fenway to watch Jed Lowrie send the Red Sox into the 2008 ALCS with a walkoff hit. Mark Loretta's walkoff homer on Patriots Day 2006. Mike Napoli's walkoff double on Patriots Day 2013 (which turned out to be the last good thing that happened that day). And that's just a few of the ones I've been to. There's been countless others - especially just about anything that happened in October of 2004.

I'm in.

As a Yankee fan I'd like to join the league to stick it to all you fools who root for Boston when I win the WS. But I don't like the high salary cap...never played in a cap more than $160 mil and most likely never will. And based on the rules, it doesn't seem like I'd truly be allowed to join anyway....since it explicitly states you need to be a Red Sox fan. :-)

Favorite memory is obviously '04.

My first ever game was June 26, 1988 ... We walked in late because my dad couldn't find a spot to park and then wanted us (my younger brothers came too) to walk up he concourse to see the Wall. As we emerged and I saw the Green Monster, the crowd erupted as Jim Rice belted one out.

I've attended many games and have a ton of great memories, but another that stands out was a masterpiece by Pedro against the Braves. He struck out 16 and allowed just one hit - a 303 foot HR to Ryan Klesko that juuuuuuuust curved around Pesky's Pole in right.

Watching Pedro get inducted into Cooperstown last year brought back many memories, as the crowd was waving the Dominican flag and singing songs ... It felt just like Fenway in 1999 and 2000.

Simmons's username was sptsguy33, not BosoxBill, but yes, I too hope he makes a return. 

Posted by cwillis802 on 1/29/2016 2:09:00 PM (view original):
As a Yankee fan I'd like to join the league to stick it to all you fools who root for Boston when I win the WS. But I don't like the high salary cap...never played in a cap more than $160 mil and most likely never will. And based on the rules, it doesn't seem like I'd truly be allowed to join anyway....since it explicitly states you need to be a Red Sox fan. :-)

This league will play like a 60-70M cap I would guess...look at dahsdebater's comments...we're going to exhaust the entire history of the Red Sox in order to field 30 teams.

Thanks for catching the typo, dahsdebater. The original post has been edited. No player season can be used more than once in the league and no clones on the same team.

I'd like to join. My favorite Red Sox memory was 8/18/13. Ryan Dempster had a long-running feud with A-Rod, and drilled him in the 2nd inning. Fenway crowd went nuts, and I was there. 

Next time A-Rod came up, he hit the ball about 450 feet for a home run against Dempster. The crowd didn't like that quite as much.There may have been some posing by A-Rod.

A-Rod's HR cut the lead to 6-3 Boston and started off a 4-run inning that saw the Yankees take a 7-6 lead that they wouldn't relinquish.

Oh, I should mention, I'm not really a Red Sox fan, but I enjoyed the hell out of that game, and I hope you'll have me anyway.

I'm totally in, but the live draft intimidates me!


Grady Little leaves Pedro in the game too long at Yankee Stadium in 2003.  He pitched great against Clemens, who at the time must have been pumped full of all sorts of juice.  Regardless, Pedro can't hold on.  In what felt like 5 hours later, Tim Wakefield takes the mound.
I am hanging out a bar with people who worked at the same restaurant as me.  The mix, like most Rhode Island establishments, was mostly Sox fans with Yankee fans scattered throughout.
My manager Carlos was there.  He was our group's token Yankee fan.  He stood 6'3'', with a body like Shrek.  I'm 5'6" built like Pedro.  Wakefield comes in the game and even though I love him, I get the special feeling in my gut that can only mean one thing... Dammit! Tim Wakefield is entering the game with his knuckleball!  Honestly, I love Wakefield, but I always hated seeing him pitch.
He floats a pitch in, Aaron Boone, swings with all his might and drives his fateful home run into the left field stands.  As mustachioed Yankee fans fight each other to grab the ball and high five each other's meaty, sweaty hands, I stand up to go cry in my car.
Carlos, standing in my way says something about how the Red Sox will never win... so I pushed him.  
It felt like trying to push a dead Honda up a hill in neutral.  Carlos tripped over the chair behind him into a table that had yet to be bussed.  In 2003, his words were so right.  The Red Sox will never win.  But I loved them too much.  As I stormed out of the bar (I really had to go cry in my car) I hear Carlos yell from on top of a table, "I'm still your boss you know!"  Not tonight.  Tonight you're a Yankee fan.  A MF Yankee fan.

Soxdoc and I are sitting in a Manhattan Bar about a year later.  Bronson Arroyo and Ramiro Mendoza share time throwing a batting practice to the Yankees in game 3.  We are sitting next to two comedians from Chicago.  They are in NYC working for late-night shows.  One is a White Sox fan, the other a Cubs fan.  Both just as diehard as we were for the sox.  The Cubs fan says we'll never see our teams win.  The White Sox fan, buys us all a drink.  19-8, the Sox lose.  They'll never win the World Series.  Neither will the White Sox.  In two years we are both wrong, and as for the Cubs?  Well, I sure love Theo.
 

Lastly, when I was a 9 year old camper at Mike Andrews' Baseball camp, I took a dare from my dad to get my teeth looked at by Lonborg at the cafeteria.  He looked in my mouth.  No cavities!

I'm in

1975 WS - my Dad let me stay up late and watch one of the best finishes when Fisk hits the ball just fair over the Green Monster.

Finally, Fisk faced Pat Darcy, the eighth pitcher that Reds manager Sparky Anderson used. Fisk took Darcy's second pitch and lifted a high drive down the left-field line. The ball struck the foul pole well above the Green Monster. In what has now become an iconic baseball film highlight, the NBC left-field game camera^[11] caught Fisk wildly waving his arms to his right after hitting the ball and watching its path while drifting down the first base line, as if he was trying to coax the ball to "stay fair". The ball indeed stayed fair and the Red Sox had tied the Series. (According to the NBC cameraman Lou Gerard, located inside the left field wall scoreboard, cameramen at the time were instructed to follow the flight of the ball. Instead, Gerard was distracted by a rat nearby, thus he lost track of the baseball and instead decided to capture the image of Fisk "magically" waving the ball fair).^[12] The game was ranked Number 1 in MLB Network's 20 Greatest Games.

I have the framed picture of Fisk waving his arms.