😥 Boston’s lost superstars

Good Morning, Boston.

😂 The Celtics get in touch with their feminine sides. Watching C’s players trying to identify women’s cosmetic products in their latest TikTok video confirms two things: Jrue Holiday’s one of the best girl-dads out there, and Al Horford truly pays attention to his wife. You have to respect it.

🎂 Happy 43rd Birthday to … Patriots legend Vince Wilfork! The All-Pro nose tackle anchored two Super Bowl-winning defenses in Foxborough and has one of the best “big-man” interceptions you’ll ever see. 

What’s on tap today:

• Drake Maye (almost) plays the hero

• Celtics humble Grant Williams

• The Sox’s “three kings”

Let’s get into it …

LEADING OFF

The ones who got away

The Mookie Betts trade keeps looking worse for the Red Sox. Four years ago, Boston shipped the 2018 AL MVP to the Dodgers after failing to sign him to a long-term extension. Sox chairman Tom Werner even justified the move at the time by pointing out the Dodgers hadn’t won a title during a two-decade stretch where Boston won four Fall Classics. Betts and his new squad have now won two World Series championships, including one in his first season with L.A., while the Sox have missed the playoffs four times in five years.

Losing Betts wasn’t Boston’s only hardship in 2020. Mere weeks after the Sox dealt Betts, the Patriots set the city up for an even bigger loss: letting Tom Brady leave town in free agency. Like Betts, Brady immediately won a title with his new team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Meanwhile, the Pats haven’t won a playoff game since his departure. Both situations recall the ominous blunder that started the Curse of the Bambino: the Sox selling the rights of burgeoning star Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920.

Letting star players go has repeatedly bitten Boston. The losses of Ruth, Betts, and Brady are in a class of their own. But the city has also lost other important players who thrived elsewhere. Even worse, they helped hated rivals:

• The Sox let Hall-of-Famer Wade Boggs and former MVP Roger Clemens go after “slumping” seasons only for them to both return to form and win rings with the Yankees.

• The Bruins traded recently drafted goaltender Ken Dryden to the Canadiens in 1964, where he became a Hall-of-Fame goalie and won six Stanley Cups in eight seasons in the ‘70s. If he donned a black-and-gold sweater, those Bobby Orr-led teams might’ve won more than two Cups.

Boston must do better at keeping its stars ... The Sox’s choice to prioritize payroll over Betts backfired. Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft betting on Father Time over Tom Brady missed badly. But the common problem in many of these situations? The players earned the right to stick around and were still productive, and business got in the way. While it’s true that you can’t keep everyone, superstar players are hard to find. That’s why they cost so much, but it’s also why you keep them around.

… And they’re learning from their mistakes. Three years after the Betts trade, the Sox made sure to retain Rafael Devers on a 10-year deal. The Celtics chose not to separate Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, signing both to $300 million contracts – the richest in NBA history. The latter have been rewarded with an NBA title. Devers will be the cornerstone of a Red Sox renaissance in a few years. Hopefully, the ghost of Betts doesn’t linger over that franchise the way Ruth did for decades.

🤔 Which Boston sports departure hurt the most?

BOSTON SPORTS

Quick hits & headlines

🦸 Drake Maye’s superhero effort falls short against Titans. The rookie QB did everything humanly possible to beat Tennessee on Sunday, including forcing overtime with this unbelievable scramble play to tie the game at the end of regulation. But his three turnovers, including a game-sealing interception in overtime, helped the Titans clip the Patriots, 20-17. Still, Maye’s competitiveness and pure playmaking (206 passing yards, 95 rushing yards) kept New England in the game when nothing else could. It wasn’t perfect, but it was still promising.

🤫 The Celtics put Grant Williams in his place. Williams trucked former teammate Jayson Tatum on Friday and was ejected for the flagrant foul late in Boston’s 124-109 win over Charlotte. Fortunately, Boston had an immediate chance at revenge against Williams and the Hornets on Saturday and took it, winning, 113-103. Maybe Williams didn’t appreciate his doppelganger getting dunked on in Tatum’s new children’s book and wanted to send a message. But when even noted troublemaker Draymond Green calls you out, you’ve gone too far.

🙄 The Red Sox plan to “check on” Juan Soto. Insider Jon Heyman reports the Red Sox will be among the teams gauging the market for Yankees’ impending free agent Soto, who will hit the market after putting up MVP numbers in his first year in the Bronx. The Athletic reportedly describes the Sox as a second-tier suitor in the “rich, desperate, aggressive” category. Just what we need this winter: another report of the Sox being “in the mix” for a big offseason move right up until the Yankees, Mets, or Dodgers get him instead.

BEYOND BOSTON

Out-of-town report

The Dodgers head back to L.A. in style. Robert Kraft and the Patriots sent their private jet to escort the World Series victors back home in a brilliant display of pettiness. Boston fans don’t love L.A. either, but everyone outside of New York loves to see the Yanks lose.

NFL fines Jamien Sherwood for hit on Drake Maye. The Jets linebacker earned a $6,324 penalty for drilling Maye in the back of the head two Sundays ago, knocking the rookie QB out of the game with a concussion. Thankfully, Maye was able to return this week, but the league still needs to do better at penalizing those plays in real time.

Tyreek Hill praises the Patriots’ young cornerbacks. After lauding Christian Gonzalez after the second-year CB locked him up at Gillette Stadium, the Dolphins' star receiver shouted out tough-as-nails slot CB Marcus Jones on Snapchat this week as well. Game recognizes game.

ON THIS DAY | NOVEMBER 4, 2007

Pats keep perfect season rolling

Patriots win the Battle of Unbeatens. The Colts denied New England a chance at the Super Bowl in January of 2007, but the Patriots wouldn’t be stopped when the two squads met later that year. Jarvis Green forced a late fumble on Peyton Manning that Roosevelt Colvin recovered, and New England escaped Indianapolis with a 24-20 win to improve to 9-0 en route to their perfect regular season.

THE BEST THING I SAW IN SPORTS

Boston’s Three Kings

👑👑👑 Watch the Globe’s “Three Kings” documentary about the Sox. Or should we say “Tres Reyes”? This short film focuses on how Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez ignited Boston’s vibrant Dominican community during the 2000s. Martinez saying he’d stare down Babe Ruth and plunk him to send a message is peak entertainment on its own. Now, fellow countryman Devers is carrying on their star-studded legacy.

🗞 That’s a wrap. I’ll be chuckling at Devers’ career statistics versus Gerrit Cole again.

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