DHL Dan CLXXX - Big Returns

With Mookie Betts having returned to Boston this weekend, Shank looks back at other former Boston athletes who've come back to Boston on another team:

Recalling some memorable Boston ‘comebacks,’ and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while trying to navigate Apple TV+ …

▪ With Mookie Betts in town for the weekend, it’s fun to look back at other celebrated returns to Boston.

The legendary Babe Ruth, who was sold to the Yankees 100 years before Betts was salary-dumped to the Dodgers, launched the greatest dynasty in the history of American sports for New York City … but he didn’t hurt the Red Sox when he first returned to Fenway. Playing center field and batting cleanup in April of 1920, the Bambino went a tepid 3 for 12 with two singles and a double in three losses at Fenway.

Unlike Ruth, Tom Brady, Roger Clemens, and Carlton Fisk got revenge in their first trips home.

In October of 2021, the much-decorated Brady — who was allowed to walk by Bob Kraft and Bill Belichick — triumphantly returned to Foxborough as Super Bowl champion quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brady was cheered with gusto when he ran the length of the Gillette Stadium field (his signature entrance in the glory days here) before the start of the game.