Everything happens for a reason, right? Just ask Kevin Millar.
There was a point nearly two decades ago when Millar didn’t know whether he’d be in the United States, let alone Boston. Yet his whirlwind arrival to the Red Sox before the 2003 Major League Baseball season ultimately helped shape both the organization’s trajectory and his own long-term future.
NESN announced this week that Millar will serve as a color analyst for select Red Sox games during the 2022 season. The new job represents a homecoming for Millar, who played three seasons in Boston from 2003 to 2005.
“It’s funny, because if I was smart, I would have stayed in Boston and lived in Boston,” Millar told NESN.com last week, reflecting on his post-playing days to date. “I call it my second home. I’ve raised my family out here in Austin, Texas, but Boston is still home and I love going back there.”
Boston wasn’t always “home,” though. In fact, it took a rather interesting sequence of events for Millar to end up in New England after five seasons with the Florida Marlins.
“It was crazy, because after the ’02 season, I was non-tendered,” he explained. “And back then, there was a cesspool of non-tendered players who were very similar — like a Travis Lee, a Robert Fick, a Kevin Millar, a David Ortiz, a Brian Daubach. We were all like these 20 home run-hitting first basemen. Not superstars, but sitting here and we were all non-tendered.
“And then the Marlins sell my contract to Japan. And at that point, I agreed in principle to go over to Japan on a two-year deal. And next thing you know, (former Red Sox general manager) Theo Epstein, my man, claimed me off waivers. It was the first time that a player has ever been claimed off waivers when you’re going overseas.”
Indeed, Epstein and the Red Sox saw something in Millar, and thus swooped in to block the two-year contract he had agreed to sign with the Chunichi Dragons. Ultimately, the Red Sox purchased Millar from the Marlins, with the Dragons receiving an undisclosed payment for their troubles.
Of course, that wasn’t the only franchise-altering move the Red Sox made that offseason, Epstein’s first as Boston’s GM: They also signed Bill Mueller, the eventual American League batting champion in ’03, and David Ortiz, a future Hall of Famer who won three rings over the next 14 years.
But the roundabout nature of Millar’s journey, in hindsight, perfectly embodied his persona — unique, unpredictable, captivating — that served him well in galvanizing Boston’s clubhouse, paving the way for a World Series title in 2004, and will further endear him to fans as a member of NESN’s broadcast booth.
“I’ve always been a very passionate person, even with the media while I played, and very honest and accountable,” said Millar, who has co-hosted “Intentional Talk” on MLB Network since the show’s inception in 2011. “I think a lot of that, being a player, you have to have accountability. Even the bad games, you have to sit in front of your locker, and there’s no doubt that the Boston media is as tough as there is and they’re solid. I always said, when you do well, you’re like Aerosmith. You’re on top of the world. And when you’re doing bad, they’re going to make you cry at times. But that’s part of the process. Because at the end of the day, I think the fans in Boston, the media in Boston, they expect you to respect 90 feet — and that’s hustle every day, do the best you can, and then you have a longer road when things aren’t going well.
“But I felt I was pretty accountable, on both sides, the good days and the bad days. So transitioning into the media, understanding that. And players are going to be edgy at times, but you give them the benefit of the doubt and understand what’s going on. This game is very tough. And so hopefully, I kind of play it down that line.”
To think, there was a time when Boston wasn’t even really on Millar’s radar. Now, one unprecedented transaction, a broken curse and nearly 20 years later, he’s very much part of the region’s fabric.
Funny how life works sometimes.
