The Boston Red Sox had a 2012 season that many would prefer to forget, but it still had some memorable moments.
The 2012 season was tumultuous. It was marred by injuries, controversy, and losing, lots and lots of losing.
The Red Sox finished the 2012 season in last place in the American League East. It was Boston's first last-place finish since 1992, and the team's 69-93 record was the worst regular season record since Boston lost 100 games in 1965.
It was a year that provided plenty of memories. Unfortunately most of them aren't so great, but here are 10 that stand out, arranged in chronological order:
10. Jacoby Ellsbury injures his shoulder
Yes, the 2011 season ended with a historical collapse, but even in the aftermath of that disappointment there was a silver lining to the season.
Ellsbury, one of the most gifted athletes to come up through the Red Sox minor league system, finally emerged as the five-tool, MVP-caliber player many thought he could be.
Ellsbury was the MVP runner-up in 2011 and entered 2012 with well-earned sky-high expectations.
But less than two weeks into the season, Ellsbury was injured sliding into second base against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The partial dislocation of the shoulder would sideline Ellsbury until just before the all star break.
It was only the beginning of a series of obstacles the Red Sox would have to deal with over the course of the 2012 season.
9. Bobby Valentine calls out Kevin Youkilis
The Red Sox were off to a rocky start and Kevin Youkilis was slumping. Manager Bobby Valentine went on WHDH's Sports Extra show and uttered the following words:
"I don't think he's as physically or emotionally into the game as he has been in the past for some reason."
The remarks ignited a massive clubhouse controversy. Dustin Pedroia told NESN's Tom Caron "that's not the way we do things around here."
Youkilis eventually received an apology from Valentine, but the relationship was never fully repaired.
8. Yankees ruin Fenway's 100th anniversary weekend
To honor the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park, the Red Sox put together an impressive set of festivities. Former Red Sox players old and young gathered to honor one of American's oldest ballparks.
The Red Sox were taking on their arch-rivals, the New York Yankees.
The Yankees honored the 100th anniversary of Fenway by humiliating the home team.
Friday's game was a blowout from the beginning, and the 9-4 final score does not accurately depict the lopsided contest.
Saturday was far worse.
The Red Sox took a 9-1 lead into the sixth inning but ended up losing the contest 15-9.
Bobby Valentine would claim the Red Sox had hit bottom following the debacle. Unfortunately he was quite wrong.
7. Will Middlebrooks makes his major league debut
Looking for some good news?
How about a promising young third base prospect arriving in the majors and immediately proving he belongs there?
That's what Will Middlebrooks did.
Middlebrooks was 2 for 4 in his first game, and in his third game he pitched in with a home run and four RBI.
By the time Middlebrooks' season ended prematurely with an injury on August 10th, he had seized the starting third base job from Kevin Youkilis, and established himself as an up-and-coming star in the American League.
6. The wheels come off the Daniel Bard experiment
The ideal seemed like a good one. Take a young, talented pitcher who had spent the bulk of his short major league career coming out of the bullpen, and move him into the starting rotation.
The pitcher was Daniel Bard, a 6'4", 26 year old right handed reliever who could throw a baseball up to 100 miles per hour.
Bard had spent three seasons dominating in the role of short-relief. Now he was going to be brought out of the bullpen and into the starting rotation. Expectations were high.
Bard not only failed to live up to high expectations, he failed to achieve even a marginal level of success as a starter.
After a series of inconsistent starts, it all came crashing down on June 3 against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Bard faced 13 batters. He allowed only one hit but hit two batters and walked six. In less than two innings, Toronto scored five runs and Bard's day was done before the second inning was over.
Two days later Bard was sent down to Triple-A Pawtucket, and his brief career as a starting pitcher was finished.
Daniel Bard's future is now a huge question mark, not just as a starting pitcher, but as a major league pitcher.
On July 16, 2012, the Boston Red Sox had one of their most dramatic wins of the season. A three-run home run by Adrian Gonzalez gave the Red Sox a 5-1 lead they would not relinquish over the then first place Chicago White Sox.
That was the good news.
The bad news was that while Ortiz strained his Achilles tendon rounding the bases on his way home after Gonzalez's blast.
The injury effectively ended Ortiz's season and the Red Sox went into a free fall. Boston limped all the way to the end of the season, going 23-49 the rest of the way.
The Red Sox were two games over .500 and in the hunt for the playoffs when Ortiz went down. They finished in last place, a whopping 26 games behind the division-winning New York Yankees.
4. Yahoo Sports reveals chaos in the Red Sox clubhouse
If things were already bad for the Red Sox, August 14 made them worse.
Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports broke a story that detailed a Red Sox clubhouse in a state of near mutiny.
The article detailed a series of incidents that culminated in a hastily called meeting between players and ownership while the Red Sox were in New York City playing the Yankees in late July.
The Yahoo Sports piece was not the only article or column that cast a light on internal problems with the Red Sox, but it was the most detailed one and the one that most baseball fans around the nation took notice of.
3. Red Sox purge themselves of long-term salary commitments
No single act in 2012 spoke more clearly to the Red Sox internal dysfunction and ownership's acknowledgement of a need for major changes than the massive trade that finalized on Saturday Aug. 25, 2012 between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers.
For the Red Sox, the trade represented a purge of mistakes past, and a new hope to make future transactions. For the Dodgers it was the ultimate win now, at all costs move.
The Red Sox sent Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Nick Punto to the Dodgers. In return they acquired first baseman James Loney, along with prospects Jerry Sands, Allen Webster, Rubby De La Rosa and Ivan DeJesus Jr.
In all the Red Sox were able to clear nearly $250 million in future payroll obligations while obtaining two well-regarded pitching prospects, along with Sands who could still become a serviceable major league player.
The move effectively raised the white flag of surrender on the 2012 season, but it won't be able to be properly evaluated until the prospects acquired by the Red Sox season.
2. Bobby Valentine erupts on WEEI
If the 2012 Red Sox season was a storm, then Bobby Valentine was the storm's eye. On Wednesday afternoon September 5th, Valentine exploded.
In a weekly radio interview with Glenn Ordway on "The Big Show," Valentine jokingly threatened to punch the radio host, and admitted that the 2012 season had been miserable.
The interview had its' lighter moments, and was not a total indictment of Valentine's stability, but it did shed light on a man who was clearly aware of the harsh spotlight he was under and well as its' potential future consequences.
1. Bobby Valentine fired
By the time it actually happened, it was almost anti-climatic.
The Red Sox had just ended the season by being swept in three games at Yankee Stadium. Boston, which had finished 2011 by going 7-20 in the month of September ended 2012 in an even worse manner.
The Red Sox were 7-22 from September 1st 2012 until the season's end.
A season that was intended to erase the awful memories of 2011's collapse, ended up making Red Sox fans long for the days when the team was at least in contention for a playoff berth.
Bobby Valentine was not the only one at fault for the terrible 69-93 record, but he didn't help. At best he was the wrong man at the wrong time, at worst he was a major contributor to a team that was disappointing on many levels.
It took less than 24 hours after the season's conclusion for Red Sox upper management to fire Valentine.
Valentine's firing alone won't change the Red Sox's course. Since his firing the team has hired a new manager, and made a series of offseason free agent signings.
Opinions differ on the wisdom of these moves, but until the team takes the field and starts playing actual games in 2013, the success of the offseason decisions can't be properly evaluated.