Moving stories are recollected

In the final game of the 1985 season, Montreal Expos manager Buck Rodgers asked his 26-year-old first baseman/outfielder to start in a new position.

"I actually played third base," Terry Francona recalled. "Flawlessly, might I add."

Francona, who later in his career threw one perfect inning against the Oakland A's, successfully handled his three defensive chances. But his confidence waned late in the game when Rodgers summoned closer Jeff Reardon. Reardon was one save away from activating an incentive clause in his contract.

"I asked out," said Francona, now the Red Sox manager. "I didn't want to [mess] up and cost someone $200,000, so I sat out the last two innings."

These days, Francona's team doesn't have that luxury.

Because of their spate of injuries, the Red Sox have had to improvise so much that players are jokingly wondering aloud where they will be positioned. Before last night's game against Toronto, Manny Ramirez made cracks about playing second base. Catcher Jason Varitek joked he would be in center field.

First baseman Doug Mientkiewicz became the latest player to switch, making his debut at second base for the Sox Tuesday.

"We didn't do that to be funny," Francona said. "I knew there were probably a lot of people just waiting to see something happen."

Nevertheless, Red Sox players know funny things can happen when players venture into unknown territory.

Outfielder Dave Roberts was with the Los Angeles Dodgers last season when his team was blowing out the Diamondbacks. Late in the game, Arizona manager Bob Brenley brought in a tall lefthander with a loose delivery named Mark Grace.

"He was a comedian out there, imitating Mike Fetters, doing the head turn and stuff," Roberts said.

Facing a repertoire of pitches Roberts described as "slow and slower, a bunch of slop," the Dodgers managed to stop laughing long enough to hit a homer against Grace, a career first baseman.

Red Sox outfielder/first baseman Kevin Millar remembers catcher Doug Mirabelli's adventure at first base last year.

"I think he made his first play on a ground ball and he came in talking a little smack," Millar said. "Then he booted two balls."

It wasn't the first time Millar had seen a backup catcher make the seemingly easy 90-foot move from behind the plate to first base.

With the Florida Marlins, Millar watched teammate Mike Redmond attempt the switch. Like Mirabelli, Redmond voiced his confidence. And as with Mirabelli, the experiment was rough.

"It was kind of a circus," Millar said. "Backup catchers like to talk a lot."

Varitek said baseballs seem to find the players in unfamiliar territory. That was the case when he had to make a drastic switch with Seattle's Double A Port City team in 1996.

"There was one time when all our outfielders went down, and we're playing the second half of a doubleheader," Varitek said. "I caught the first game then ended up having to play the second half in right field."

Varitek had not played in the outfield since high school.

"I got three semi-line-drive fly balls in the game that I had to go run down and catch," Varitek said. "The ball found me right away."

Sometimes, those making a switch look at home at their new positions. Outfielder Gabe Kapler certainly did when he found himself playing third base during spring training. "He made an absolutely phenomenal barehand play on a full-swing bunt," Varitek said. "I thought there was no play, but he comes in barehanded and guns [the runner] out."

One of the more interesting things Kapler has seen in his career involved a notable position-switcher.

Kapler's 2000 Texas Rangers were hopelessly out of contention by September. With his team trailing, 10-1, in the third inning of a meaningless game at Chicago's Comiskey Park, manager Johnny Oates figured it would be a good time to give third baseman Scott Sheldon a chance to make big-league history.

Sheldon switched positions every inning and became the third major league player to play all nine positions in the same game, joining Cesar Tovar and Bert Campaneris.

"He did it kind of as a novelty," Kapler said. "Everybody was excited about it. It was pretty cool."