Part of being a Red Sox fan these last few years is having a favorite fringe player. For some reason, Red Sox Nation has fallen in love with the Gabe Kaplers, Pokey Reeses and Doug Mirabellis of the world who could never crack a starting lineup, but earned everlasting affection for their hustle and quirks.

My favorite of these “where are they nows” was the Dominican Destroyer Wily Mo Pena, which is why I nearly jumped out of my carpet slippers Monday night when I heard a rumor he is trying out with our local Brockton Rox.

Even before he put on a Red Sox uniform, I always felt like I was the big guy’s only fan. Theo didn’t do him any favors by shipping off that guitar strumming chick magnet Bronson Arroyo and his cute little Rockette leg kick to get him in a trade that didn’t work out for anybody. But I tried my best to drum up some support for Wily Mo. I tried to get a Pena T-shirt three or four times from Twins before Sox games that year, but they never put his number on any merchandise. Undaunted, I used my Photoshop skills to create a Pena’s Posse T-shirt I intended to wear all year in the right field bleachers, but the Garment District wouldn’t print it because they said it violated Wily Mo’s trademark rights to his own face. Like he would have cared; he could have used the support.

If you don’t remember Wily Mo, every at bat was a nerve-wracking adventure in which one of two things would happen: he would either swing four feet over the top of a curve ball and strike out or he would hit the most spectacular home run you have ever seen. In Kansas City, he hit the second longest home run in the history of the ball park, and while he was with Cincinnati, tour guides mistakenly told people he was Ken Griffey Jr. while he took batting practice despite the fact the two hit from opposite sides of the plate.

Clearly, the strikeouts outnumbered the homers or he wouldn’t be in Brockton, but this is a golden opportunity to restart Pena’s Posse on the South Shore. No one in the Rox’s league can throw a good curveball, so can you imagine Wily Mo hitting at Campanelli Stadium? He could take out the DMV!

This is an opportunity to have a lot of fun this summer that we cannot afford to pass up. We need to go Betty White on this and get a Facebook group going or something to make sure Wily Mo gets a roster spot in Brockton. I want Pena’s Posse hanging out all summer in the grandstands making Wily Mo feel welcome on the South Shore. Who’s with me?