So. Cody Ross is your new number 7. And JD Drew, rumored to be retiring, gets to wake up every morning, look himself in the mirror and say, “Man, I can buy anything I want today.”
For a quiet guy, Drew was perhaps one of the most polarizing players to wear the red hose over the past 10 years (with the possible exception of the notorious Bry Nelson). Folks either derided him for playing the game with all the intensity of a guy picking up a couple loaves of bread at the corner bakery, or swooned for his “numbers” that made him “the kind of player” only “smart baseball fans” can truly “know how to love.”
Myself, I’ll remember him as a good guy who never whined, kept his focus on the game, endured some personal issues that I’ll always give him a mulligan for, and managed to get overpaid–if such a concept even exists anymore in Major League Baseball–for some fairly decent years. Which clearly makes him the smarter fellow (even though his salary looks like a busboy tip compared to what Carl Crawford will have banked when all is said and done). But he did put the nail in the Cleveland Indians’ coffin in the 2007 ALCS, which I still argue would have made Drew as huge a figure in Red Sox lore as Dave Roberts if 2004 never happened. You follow me?
It was the biggest home run of his tenure in Boston and, in my opinion, worth every penny we paid him. What say you?
"SURVIVING GRADY is Red Sox Nation's 'Mystery Science Theater 3000.' Brilliant, irreverent, and merciless." -- Stewart O'Nan, author, 
No one even comments on what a great outfielder JD is. He wasn't flashy, but he didn't have to be when he was in the right spot to catch the ball 95% of the time. And the home run he hit ( I just knew is was going to be his typical fly out) in 07 was KILLER. And don't forget in 2008, when everyone else sucked- he was our man for a big part of the season. Hell, he was almost going to have to pitch an inning in the All Star Game. I for one, will miss JD Drew . I will not miss the Nancy Drew that showed up in our outfield now and then. Overall, I do not think he was overpaid, and he should be respected for what he did for us- not reviled for what he didn't do. JD- I salute you.
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