There are many reasons to like David Wells; there are many reasons to hate Wells. But in the end, this is a big reason why Red Sox Nation will love the man who will don the big number three this season:
This coming from the pitcher who wrote in his book (Perfect I'm Not: Boomer on Beer, Brawls, Backaches, and Baseball) that he was drunk when he pitched his perfect game on May 17, 1998 at Yankee Stadium.
Maybe he heard about the pre-game rituals involving a guy named "Jack," but whatever the reason may be, he's a Red Sox and there's a good chance we are going to love this guy. You can't compare him to former, classy Sox players like Jerry Remy or Jim Rice. But you can compare him to current teammates (and idiots) Kevin Millar and Johnny Damon. Is that a problem? Not one bit. Should it be? Not at all, because if we didn't have idiots, would we be the reigning World Champions?
Say what you want about Wells, because he's a Sox now and he's wearing the red and white this season. He may be a former Yankee, but don't we all have at least a little place in our heart for even those that used to wear the pinstripes? I do. I'll have a much bigger space in my heart for him if he starts more than 30 games and can produce a sub four ERA.
Let's just hope he can produce better than Ramiro Mendoza, a former Yankee (and strangely back with the Yanks) who was just completely terrible as a Red Sox. Conspiracy? Maybe. But I personally just think he was terrible and couldn't hack it in Boston. Just look at his ERA while in Boston: 5.75 ERA over the past two seasons. That's not even close to being stellar in the big leagues.
Let's not think about the past -- that horrible, horrible past. Mendoza is behind us, and the Wells era is in front of us. There are many things to look forward to: we can look forward to Wells taking the mound in his old home of Yankee Stadium, and firing that first pitch in a Sox uniform. We can look forward to the start of a new season where, for the first time in an extremely long time, we are defending World Champions. And, more importantly we can look forward to baseball.
Plain, old, ordinary baseball that I love.