Speaking of drafts, one of the most amazing feats to me - perhaps reflecting the fact that I became a baseball fan in the age of free agency - is that the Sox started all-homegrown lineups in games 1 and 2 of the ALCS in 1988. Here’s the game 1 and game 2 box scores:
Boston Red Sox AB R H RBI BB SO PO A
Boggs 3b 4 0 1 1 0 2 1 2
Barrett 2b 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 2
Evans rf 4 0 1 0 0 3 4 0
Greenwell lf 3 0 0 0 1 0 1 0
Benzinger 1b 4 0 0 0 0 1 10 0
Burks cf 4 0 0 0 0 1 3 0
Rice dh 2 0 1 0 1 1 0 0
Romine pr,dh 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Parrish ph,dh 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Reed ss 2 0 1 0 1 0 0 3
Gedman c 3 0 2 0 1 0 7 0
Romero pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Hurst p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
Totals 31 1 6 1 4 9 27 10
Boston Red Sox AB R H RBI BB SO PO A
Boggs 3b 3 0 0 0 1 1 3 1
Barrett 2b 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 2
Evans rf 3 1 0 0 1 0 6 0
Greenwell lf 2 1 0 0 2 0 1 0
Rice dh 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Romine pr,dh 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Burks cf 4 0 1 1 0 0 1 0
Benzinger 1b 3 0 1 0 1 1 6 0
Reed ss 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 3
Gedman c 4 1 1 1 0 1 9 1
Clemens p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Stanley p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Smith p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 30 3 4 2 5 4 27 7
(via the amazing Retrosheet)
Wade Boggs. Marty Barrett. Dewey. Mike Greenwell. Jim Rice. Ellis Burks. Todd Benzinger. Jody Reed. Rich Gedman (though technically he was an amateur FA, not a draftee). Bruce Hurst and Roger Clemens. Eleven players (9 hitters, 2 pitchers), all of whom came up through the Sox system. An amazing feat. Sorry, Evan, but the Sox could draft a bit back in the day, even if they did miss with a few #1 picks.
Of course, the results of the 1988 ALCS leave a lot to be desired…