The Most Absurd Red Sox Moments You Probably Forgot About

The Boston Red Sox have seen it all over their long history: legendary championships, dramatic comebacks, star players, and nail-biting rivalries. However, alongside the triumphs are the oddities—moments so unusual that you might wonder if they really happened. While the Red Sox are known for their competitive spirit and die-hard fanbase, they’ve also been at the heart of some downright bizarre incidents. These are the stories that make you chuckle, shake your head, and occasionally question the sanity of everyone involved.

Below are five such episodes, each one proving that even when baseball gets serious, there’s still room for the offbeat and the hilarious.

Manny Ramirez Vanishes into the Green Monster
Manny Ramirez was never short of headline-grabbing behavior, but one of his most puzzling stunts came mid-game at Fenway Park. While stationed in left field, he strolled over to the iconic Green Monster, opened a scoreboard door, and simply disappeared inside. It wasn’t an official break, and he hadn’t signalled to his teammates—he just decided, apparently on a whim, to vanish for a moment. It was a classic example of Manny being Manny.

When Manny finally emerged, the crowd erupted in a mixture of cheers and astonishment. To this day, nobody really knows what he was doing in there. Maybe it was a spur-of-the-moment escape from the spotlight, or he just needed a quick minute to himself. Legend has it that he needed to answer an urgent call of nature, but that’s never officially been confirmed. Fans and commentators were left scratching their heads, but in Manny’s mind, it must have made perfect sense.

Manny’s Mid-Play High Five
Manny’s knack for the unexpected continued on another day when he chased down a deep fly ball, made a leaping catch at the wall, and then immediately turned around to high-five a fan before firing the ball back into the infield. Incredibly, the play ended with an out at home plate, proving Manny had the presence of mind to complete his defensive responsibilities in spite of the spontaneous celebration.

From a coaching standpoint, the high five was pure madness—how many times are players told to maintain focus from the moment the pitch is thrown until the play is over? Manny didn’t seem too worried. He acted as if a quick hand slap was just part of his routine. While teammates probably winced, fans loved it. This one play perfectly captured Manny’s carefree approach: combining jaw-dropping skill with an equally jaw-dropping disregard for convention.

Chris Sale’s Scissor Snip
Long before Chris Sale became a mainstay of the Red Sox pitching staff, he famously took issue with a set of 1976-style throwback jerseys scheduled to be worn by his then-team, the Chicago White Sox. Disgusted by their look and feel, Sale grabbed a pair of scissors and cut them to ribbons, forcing the team to switch jerseys hours before the first pitch. There are ways of expressing your distaste for such a garment, but Sale’s approach felt like a high-stakes gamble, and a one-off gamble at that – once you’ve put everything on a single spin, there’s no going back, and you have to live with the consequences. That’s a bad approach at top casinos, and it turned out to be a bad approach for Sale, too. He didn’t hit the jackpot that day.

Some labelled him a perfectionist; others thought he had thrown a childish tantrum. Whatever your perspective, it’s not every day you see a top-level athlete literally destroy team gear just because he doesn’t like it. The incident led to a suspension and a flurry of questions about Sale’s temperament. When he joined the Red Sox, fans couldn’t help joking about whether Boston’s own uniform designs were safe from his scissors. Though Sale remains an outstanding pitcher, that rebellious moment sticks in people’s minds almost as much as his pitching stats.

Wade Boggs and the Beer Myth
Wade Boggs was a hitting machine, stacking up batting titles and memorable seasons for the Red Sox in the 1980s. For many baseball fans, he’s also associated with one of the sport’s most notorious legends: his ability to consume staggering quantities of beer on flights. According to popular lore, Boggs could down 20, 30, or even 50 cans during a cross-country trip, which sounds enough to make most people keel over.

To this day, no one’s entirely sure where truth ends and exaggeration begins. Boggs himself has never gone into great detail (save for a single claim about drinking over 100 beers on a single trip), and stories about his beer consumption seem to grow with each retelling. Whether he actually drank the amounts claimed or not, the myth has become a permanent part of his lore—so much so that people discuss it almost as often as they do his Hall of Fame batting numbers. For a serious competitor with an impressive career, it’s hilarious that he’s also tied to one of the biggest beer-related tall tales in Major League Baseball.

Bill “Spaceman” Lee’s Cosmic Habits
If there was ever one Red Sox figure who practically invited oddball stories, it was Bill “Spaceman” Lee. During the 1970s, Lee carved out a reputation as a free-spirited pitcher who blended top-tier talent with outlandish ideas. He claimed to sprinkle marijuana on his breakfast cereal, publicly questioned conventional training routines, and relished giving irreverent quotes to the press.

“Spaceman” wasn’t just a nickname; it encapsulated everything about Lee’s public persona. He’d challenge coaches on strategy, poke fun at baseball traditions, and insist on doing things his own way. Fans loved him for his offbeat charm as much as his skill on the mound. While other players were content with routine bullpen sessions, Lee appeared to live in his own universe, hovering between comedic mischief and serious competitiveness. He may not have reached Hall of Fame status, but he’ll forever be remembered as one of the game’s most distinctive characters.

From Manny’s quirks to Sale’s uniform shredding, the Red Sox have supplied some of baseball’s most eyebrow-raising tales. For a team that’s enjoyed historic triumphs, it’s almost refreshing to remember they can provide an endless supply of weird moments, too. All these absurd moments, though unconventional, are a reminder of baseball’s human side. Sure, you’ll find rigorous training, meticulous statistics, and mental focus, but you’ll also find moments that look more like they came from a comedy sketch than a professional sporting event. Whether you view them as silly mistakes or amusing folklore, these incidents have become as much a part of the Red Sox story as any pennant or trophy.

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