Good morning!
The New York Post is doing a Mount Rushmore of the city’s greatest athletes. Billed as Mt. Postmore, the four best Yankees of all time are Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Lou Gehrig, with regrets to Derek Jeter, Yogi Berra and Mariano Rivera.

The Post did the same for the Mets, Knicks, Rangers, even St. John’s, so how about we do a Fab Four for the Red Sox? No one would argue against Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski and David Ortiz being chiseled in granite on the side of a mountain, but who’s the fourth?

The first who comes to mind is left fielder Jim Rice, the better half of the Gold Dust Twins with Fred Lynn in center during their rookie season in 1975.

Rice had to sit out the 1975 World Series after his wrist was broken by Tigers pitcher Vern Ruhle. Later when Ruhle bumped into Rice shopping in a department store he said, “I thought I was Rice-a-Roni.”

Rice played his entire career with the Red Sox — 16 years and 2,089 games. He was a three-time home run champion and two-time RBI leader, but he didn’t hit 400 home runs or bat .300 (.298) and consequently wasn’t inducted into the Hall of Fame until his 15th and final time on the ballot.

Let’s consider two other Red Sox HOFers, Jimmy Foxx and Pedro Martinez.

Foxx hit 534 home runs but only 222 were with the Red Sox. A prodigious power hitter, Yankees pitcher Lefty Gomez said that when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon he found a baseball that Foxx had hit off him. (Gomez also said, “The strike zone goes from the top of the belt, to the bottom of the belt.”)

Boston GM Dan Duquette got Martinez from Montreal for Carl Pavano and Tony Armas Jr. after the Red Sox finished 78-84 in 1997. “We’re back in business,” said Duquette, and indeed the Red Sox went 92-70 in ’98.

Martinez was 117-37 for the Red Sox and led the league in ERA four out of his seven years with the team. He was Boston’s best pitcher since Luis Tiant won 122 games from 1971-78.

If I had my druthers, the fourth man on the mountain would be the only Red Sox catcher to be elected into the Hall of Fame. Carlton Fisk was born in Bellows Falls, raised across the river in Charlestown (pop. 2,077 in 1950) and played for Claremont Post 29.

He embodied what Red Sox want their players to be, and for that he deserves to fill out the foursome. He loathed the Yankees and brawled with Thurman Munson and Lou Piniella. “We don’t talk to them,” he told Jerry Remy after Remy joined the Red Sox in 1978.

Only 1,078 of the 2,499 games Fisk played were in Boston, but his Hall of Fame plaque shows him wearing a Red Sox cap, likely because his home run off the foul pole in the ’75 World Series “is one of baseball’s unforgettable moments.”

It was a sad day in 1981 when Fisk left Boston for the Windy City. The contract Boston mailed to him was postmarked a day late, enabling him to file for free agency and sign with the White Sox. “Loyalty’s a two-way street,” he said.

Like most New Englanders, Fisk was stubborn. He wanted a five year deal and was willing to move halfway across the country for it.

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The late Sylvia Hassett was a member of the Greenfield School Committee for 17 years, a guidance counselor and special needs teacher. In her other life she was a chairwoman of the Republican Town Committee and a delegate at the 2000 Republican Convention. 

She died unexpectedly in 2003 but would be proud of her son Kevin who is the director of the National Economic Council. “Kevin is a very talented guy,” Donald Trump recently told Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo.

Hassett didn’t go to NMH or Deerfield, he went to Greenfield High School where his teachers prepped him for higher learning at Swarthmore and Penn. Now he’s on the short list to replace Jerome Powell at the Fed, and perhaps on another short list to be next year’s graduation speaker at GHS.

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One of the town’s great characters, Jimmy O’Sullivan, passed away last month at age 87. O’Sullivan was a wisecracking barrister who hung out with a Greenfield crowd that made yearly jaunts to Cancun, the Dominican Republic, Old Orchard Beach, Saratoga, and the Fryeburg Fair.

Jimmy was blessed with the luck of the Irish. At Hinsdale one day he teased his cohorts he could hit a Pick 6 on a dollar bet. He went to the window, reeled off six numbers and won the bet.

In Florida he was sitting next to Artie Ackerman at a spring training game while the grounds crew watered the infield. One worker held the nozzle while the others stood behind him holding the hose. “Look Jim, it’s a state crew,” joked Ackerman. Now they’re both gone, perhaps reunited.

Condolences to Jimmy’s wife Sandy, son Sean, brother Fran and the rest of his family.

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Shelburne Falls author Terry McConnell spent years researching and writing Breaking Through the Line: Bobby Marshall, the NFL’s First African American Player. 

Marshall broke into the American Professional Football Association in 1920, two years before it changed its name to the National Football League. McConnell writes of Marshall’s journey, and next week will present his book to the Professional Football Researchers Association at the Drury Plaza Hotel in St. Paul.

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LOCAL SHORTS: Greenfield’s MacKenzie Paulin was named team MVP at the Agganis All Star Games at Fraser Field in Lynn last month. Paulin allowed no runs and two hits over five innings, fanning nine and retiring the first nine batters she faced. … West Springfield High School AD Glenn Doulette caught an omission in Mike Cadran’s rundown of WMass spring sports champions: “Mike missed Division 2 Boys Volleyball Champion Agawam High School. The West over the past couple of years has done very well in boys volleyball.” … Golfers have until Sunday to save money by registering early for the Mass. Collective Golf Invitational at Crumpin-Fox on Sept. 15. Coach Frank Martin will speak at 11 a.m. and the shotgun start is at noon. Complimentary mementoes include a 12” x 12” piece of the Curry Hicks Cage. 

SQUIBBERS: Memo to Chip Kalinowski — The Recorder’s Thomas Johnston reports that Josiah Little rushed for a career 5,182 yards at Tech. … The USHL’s two most penalized players will play in the Ivies this year, Guerin Slezak for Princeton and Michael Sandruk for Cornell. … The third-most penalized, Ritter Coombs, will play for Providence. … Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson played in his 704th consecutive game on Wednesday and had three hits and four RBIs in an 8-3 win over the Angels. … The Athletic’s reaction to the Bruins drafting James Hagens with the 7th overall pick: Bruins tank pays off. … At BC, Hagens scored one goal and two assists in two games against UMass. … The Daily FaceOff reports the Islanders are moving their AHL affiliate from Bridgeport to Hamilton, Ontario after next season. Bridgeport averaged 3,665 fans a game, half of what Springfield averaged. … Ever notice when you’re busy and trying to concentrate that houseflies sound a lot like Harley Davidsons? … Mike Francesa comparing baseball from then till now: “Go look at the way somebody from the ‘50s ran around the bases and look at these guys now. They got all kinds of hand gestures and they got signals and they’re waving and doing a dance. You need the Rockettes alongside them, it’s dinner and a show.” … The Salt Lake Tribune reported that UMass goalie Michael Hrabal turned down Utah’s offer to turn pro so that he can get his business degree in three years. “That, and he still has room to grow.” …  Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on the give-and-take of getting the spending bill through Congress: “Here’s the bottom line, in any legislation of this magnitude some people are just going to have to settle for a ham-and-egg sandwich without the ham.”

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@gmail.com