WORCESTER—Bronson Arroyo does not have The Glove but knows exactly where it is.
The historic artifact is on display in the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame, of which he is a member, and perhaps the Red Sox should see if they could make a trade with the Reds to bring it home where it belongs.
The artifact in question is the glove Arroyo was wearing on the night of Oct. 19, 2004, when the Red Sox were in the process of beating the Yankees, 4-2, in New York to even their ALCS matchup at 3 games apiece.
Arroyo was on in relief of Curt Schilling with Boston leading, 4-1, in the last of the eighth. New York had made it 4-2 and and Derek Jeter was on first with one out. Alex Rodriguez hit a weak grounder back to Arroyo, who went to tag Rodriguez out along the first base line.
He knocked the ball from Arroyo’s glove in a rather feeble, embarrassing even, attempt at creating an error and wound up at second base, where he was the potential tying run.
Here we go again, right? Here comes the 87th year of frustration for Red Sox fans.
Rodriguez was ruled out on interference, however. Arroyo stranded Jeter at third. Boston wins Game 6, then Game 7 to finish the historic comeback and set up a World Series sweep of the Cardinals.
Arroyo was at Polar Park Saturday to entertain Worcester Red Sox season ticket holders, the Royal Wooters, with stories about his career and music from his guitar.
“That glove was about a 12-year glove,” he recalled. “It became the thing that, like, I thought I needed it out on the mound.”
Arroyo is a Red Sox bookend player, part of one of Boston’s best roster moves, and one of the worst.
His arrival in Boston was so under the radar it was almost subterranean.
The Sox claimed him off waivers from the Pirates in February, 2003. The transaction merited five sentences in a this-and-that notebook in the Boston Globe.
Arroyo’s departure was lamented and, as it turned out, lamentable. He was traded to the Reds after the 2005 season for purported slugger Wily Mo Pena, who hit 16 home runs for Boston in 1 1/2 seasons. Arroyo hit six homers in nine seasons with the Reds.
Bookends? The Sox traded him for a player named Pena and cleared a roster spot for him by releasing a pitcher named Pena — Juan.
Arroyo was born in Key West and lived there for 10 years before the family moved north in towards Tampa. While he played baseball with Pedro Martinez, Arroyo never played guitar with Jimmy Buffett although he met the great musician backstage at a concert once.
Before becoming a permanent major leaguer in 2004 Arroyo spent parts of nine seasons in the minors, eight of them with the Pirates. His minor league record was 83-44 but Pittsburgh seemed unimpressed.
“It says something,” he recalled, “when your big league catcher won’t talk to you outside the ballpark.”
Boston was a new world that gave Arroyo a new perspective on his career.
“It made you feel like something could happen,” he said.
Something happened quickly. On Aug. 10, 2003, Arroyo pitched merely the fourth perfect game in International League history, a 7-0 win over Buffalo at McCoy Stadium. It is part of a what turned out to be a remarkable resume.
“The Pawtucket perfect game, from a personal standpoint, is probably about third or fourth on the list (of achievements),” he said.
Winning the World Series in 2004 is ahead of it, working the first six innings of Boston’s 8-6 victory over the Angels to clinch the Division Series at Fenway Park in the ’04 playoffs, and his 9-0 victory for the Reds over Nolan Baumgartner and the Giants in the 2012 NLDS are ahead of the Pawtucket game, but not by much.
“It comes just underneath,” Arroyo said.
His time in Boston was, as it turned out, too brief. It was unforgettable, though.
“I feel very fortunate to have been in the Red Sox organization at a time that felt so profound, and still feels so profound,” Arroyo said. “People will still come out and tell me a story, or tell me what they felt like, or tell me what their grandparents felt in those moments.
“You can never have dreamed that up.”
Arroyo turned 49 four days before his appearance at Polar Park. He is not ib uniform any more but makes appearances for the Red Sox similar to this one and also for the Reds.
He spends some time in the Cincinnati clubhouse playing the guitar, mingling with the players and talking with Terry Francona’s starting pitchers.
“If I could rip myself into three of me, one would be a big league pitching coach,” Arroyo said, “but the thing is I’m only one person.”
That one person was only with the Red Sox for three years but neither he nor Sox fans will forget those seasons.
