The Great Bob Zupcic

My friend and blogger Jere put up a cool YouTube clip today on his site, A Red Sox Fan From Pinstripe Territory, of the great Bob Zupcic. You older Sox fans will remember him as the early '90s Red Sox outfielder and fan favorite. (Bob played with the Sox from 1991-94, and the 1992 team he played on in this clip may very well have been the weakest hitting Sox team in my memory. How weak? Tom Brunansky led the team in home runs with 15. The Sox finished dead last that year under the guidance of Butch Hobson. Yes, I've done my best to forget those years, too.)

This is a cool clip of Bob blasting a game-winning grand slam (the term "walkoff" had not come into the lexicon then, and since I hate it anyway, I won't use it) off Mike Henneman of the Detroit Tigers in 1992. What also struck me about this part of the clip was the reaction of the Red Sox players as Bob reaches the plate. They congratulate him, and there is none of that "we just won the World Series" crap that goes on today after someone gets a hit to win a game in the ninth inning. No one with any shaving cream in this clip.

And in the second part of the clip, Bob robs Mickey Tettleton of a home run, reaching into the Red Sox bullpen to pull it in. (When I saw that Tettleton hit it off number 49, my first thought was Tim Wakefield, but Timmy was in Pittsburgh at the time. That 49 was the immortal Paul Quantrill, who a dozen years later gave up one of the most famous home runs in Fenway history, to David Ortiz in the 2004 ALCS Game 4. However, Quantrill will NOT be the answer to the question, "Who wore 49 before Tim Wakefield?" That goes to somebody named Mike Hartley. No, I don't remember him either.)

Enjoy: