But the 2002 Red Sox are coming north with not one but two bona fide leadoff hitters. They have young Johnny Damon, who manufactured runs at the top of Oakland's thumping lineup last year, and they have 43-year-old Rickey Henderson, a certain Hall of Famer and the greatest leadoff hitter in baseball history.

Damon and Henderson: Red Sox leadoff hitters. It's like Hunter Thompson suddenly showing up as a columnist for The New York Times or Eddie Murphy doing standup for a Hallmark prime-time TV special.

It feels strange to have these great leadoff men in Sox home whites, because for most of the 20th century the Sox discouraged a running game in favor of Wall Ball. Conventional wisdom is that you don't want to make an out attempting to steal when you have Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Dick Stuart, Tony Conigliaro, Ken Harrelson, Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk, or Manny Ramirez coming up.

Jerry Remy, a regular Sox leadoff hitter in the 1970s and '80s, and now a Sox broadcaster, said, ''When Don Zimmer managed, I remember I got thrown out trying to steal second at Fenway. I had Freddie Lynn hitting behind me and when I got to the dugout, Zim said, `Do you see which way the wind's blowing?' I said, `Yeah, it's blowing out. I'm not supposed to run if the wind is blowing out?' That's the kind of attitude it was. With the hitters we had, stealing bases wasn't a priority. I used to call it `running on a yellow light - run with caution.'

''I've always disagreed with the philosophy. What they would ask you to do - they didn't want you to run in Fenway, but when you went on the road, they wanted you to run. You can't do that. It doesn't work that way. Your timing's off and you always felt guilty if you got thrown out at second base because they had all these guys behind you.''

It wasn't always that way. The Red Sox' first leadoff hitter was Tommy Dowd of Holyoke. He stole 366 bases in his career, including 33 with the inaugural Boston American League team in 1901. It was Dowd's last season in the big leagues.

Hall of Famer Harry Hooper was the Sox' first great leadoff hitter. He held the spot from 1912-1920 and the Sox won four World Series with Hooper batting leadoff. Hooper stole 40 bases in 1910, which still ranks sixth in team history. Tommy Harper holds the Red Sox record for steals with 54 in 1973. Otis Nixon stole 42 in 1994. The other top 10 Sox single-season base thieves all played before 1915.

The '40s strategy

When Dom DiMaggio arrived in Boston in 1940, it was an established fact that the Sox did not run. They had the big wall in left and Hall of Fame sluggers named Foxx and Williams. For the majority of the decade (excluding when they went off to war), DiMaggio hit leadoff, Johnny Pesky batted second, and Williams hit third. Those Red Sox scored a lot of runs without stealing bases. DiMaggio never stole more than 16 in a season.

''Dominic knew how to get on base,'' said Pesky. ''He was a good hitter and he ran well. Anybody that runs good has got to hit in the top of your lineup. Hitting in front of Williams, even with two outs, we never wanted Williams to lead off. Dominic and I had a sign we used for six straight years. I'd get in the box and when I went to my nose, he ran, and I said, `Dom, if you miss that, I'll kill you.'

DiMaggio remembers the hit-and-runs with Pesky:

''We wanted to get on base and stay on base for Ted, so we didn't steal much. The part that I personally enjoyed, and I know Pesky did, was the manner in which we hit-and-ran so many times. The hit-and-run plays that we put on were unbelievable. It seemed to me that every time I was on first base I was ready to head for second. John's sign was rubbing his nose and they could never catch it. At times we would change it. We did the bunt-and-run, too. Johnny would give me the sign and he'd bunt down the third base line and many times I'd make it from first to third on the bunt. On occasion, Johnny'd beat it out and we'd have guys on first and third for Ted. The Yankees stopped that once when I ran into their catcher, Bill Dickey, at third base. He said, `Gotcha.' That kind of put the kibosh on that.

''The only year I didn't hit leadoff was in 1946. We had Wally Moses leading off and I batted third and that was the only year we won the pennant. I've always thought it was kind of strange. I was leading off all the time and we never won a pennant, then I batted third and we won a pennant, then I never batted third again.''

A .298 career hitter, DiMaggio batted .316 in 1946, the year he was in the third spot in the batting order, allowed to swing at 2-and-0 and 3-and-1 pitches. In 1948, DiMaggio knocked in 84 runs from the leadoff spot, which was then a major league record.

When DiMaggio finished in 1952, the Red Sox began a half-century search for a leadoff hitter, mostly with dismal results. Some of the miscast leadoff men they tried: Frank Malzone, Pumpsie Green, Chuck Schilling, Mike Andrews, Juan Beniquez.

Harper dressed up the spot from 1972-74.

''I led off the whole time here unless I was on the bench for not hitting,'' said Harper, now the Sox' first base coach. ''Fenway wasn't different for me. I'd been in the majors for eight or nine years. By the time I got to the Red Sox, I knew how to lead off. The fence didn't bother me. I didn't look at it. What we have to do as leadoff hitters doesn't involve hitting home runs. What we have to do as leadoff hitters involves getting on base. In late innings, you take a lot more than you swing. I'd have to take something I could hit to run the count deeper to give the pitcher every opportunity to walk me.

''[Then-manager] Eddie Kasko let me run on my own. Luis Aparicio hit behind me and he was great. We had our own hit-and-run signs. Luis was good. He'd put it on himself. Kasko let us do it ourselves. I had a sign with him. If I thought I could steal a base, I'd give him a sign and he'd let me have a pitch or two. If the first pitch was a ball and I didn't go, he'd give me another. If it was a strike, then he'd be swinging after that.''

Square pegs

When Harper left, the futility returned. Remy filled the position for a while, but only because Rick Burleson didn't want the job. And Burleson didn't want Remy running.

Even though he was a 6-foot-3-inch, 205-pound slugger who never stole more than eight bases in a season, Dwight Evans spent time at the top of the Boston lineup. Three times he was the Red Sox' Opening Day leadoff hitter (1981, 1982, 1986). Evans made some history in '86 when he smacked the first pitch of the season for a home run off Jack Morris in Detroit. It was the first pitch of any major league game that year.

''I actually had a dream I was going to hit a home run,'' said Evans, now the Sox' hitting coach. ''I came in and told Walt [Hriniak, former batting coach] and he was like, `Yeah, yeah, I don't want you thinking about home run.' I told a lot of guys I was going to hit a home run on the first pitch. When I was going up there, I told Walt I was going to hit a line-drive single to right-center. Then I told [Marty] Barrett, `I'm going deep first pitch.' I knew with 50,000 people there, he was going to try to throw a strike. The ball was up, it was a strike. Fastball. Chest-high. Center field. We hit five home runs [four, actually] that day and lost.''

Evans also led off for the Red Sox in the first game of the 1975 World Series against Don Gullett and the Cincinnati Reds. But when he talks about his days leading off for the '86 Sox, it's impossible to ignore Wade Boggs.

There was always a great deal of debate regarding Boggs and the leadoff position. Boggs was good for 200 hits a year. He also led the league in walks twice. In 1988, he cracked 214 hits and led the American League with 125 walks. He was easily the best on-base guy in baseball. But he hated to lead off. He wouldn't take those 2-and-0, 3-and-1 pitches if he could get easy hits off them. He was, in fact, too selfish and too slow for the leadoff position.

''I always thought Boggs was a good leadoff hitter, but he didn't like to do it,'' Evans said.

Remy added, ''He was a guy you wanted up there hitting first because he'd get up five times a game, but he was a terrible base runner. He wasn't real good at going first to third.''

Still, like it or not, Boggs was the Red Sox' Opening Day leadoff hitter seven times.

It's easy to forget that Nomar Garciaparra was the Red Sox' leadoff hitter throughout the 1997 season, his rookie year. He hit .306 with 30 homers and 98 RBIs from the top spot. Garciaparra's RBI total shattered Harvey Kuenn's 40-year-old record of 85 from the leadoff spot (Anaheim's Darin Erstad topped Garciaparra's record with 100 leadoff RBIs in 2000). His total of 30 homers from the leadoff spot ranks fifth all-time.

''That was thrown upon me, being the leadoff hitter,'' Garciaparra said. ''I'd done it before in college and in the minors. I had some experience with it. It's just a different mentality. I always say, the game dictates. In the first inning I'm a leadoff hitter, and then afterward I might be a No. 4 hitter. I might have to do something different and not think about drag bunting or something like that. The game dictates what you are supposed to do.''

Added dimension

Now the Sox no longer have to use hitters out of position at the top of the order. No more Evans, Boggs, or Garciaparra hitting first. Now they have two of the best in Damon and the ageless Henderson.

''It's a dimension,'' said Garciaparra. ''When you have a guy who can do both - get out there and swing the bat, get on base and run. That adds to it. In the past, a lot of us haven't been able to run. We've got guys hitting behind them now who can put the ball over the fence at any time. And we've still got that. But I think this adds another dimension to put the pressure on the other team's defense.''

Remy added, ''It's never been a priority with our teams, which I've never agreed with. We've seen plenty of stretches at Fenway when the team goes into a slump and you have trouble manufacturing runs.''

Now maybe they can manufacture a run when the sluggers slump. The Red Sox, of all teams, have two of the best leadoff hitters in the game.

This story ran on page D8 of the Boston Globe on 3/29/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.