E-Mail This Article to a Friend Get outta Boston, get yourself a ring BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

As the old saying goes, some people are born to greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Well, in the world of Boston-area sports, some athletes have greatness thrust upon them here, while others have to find it elsewhere. Given the lengthy championship droughts — Celtics (18 seasons), Bruins (32), and Red Sox (86) — experienced by three of our four regional professional sports teams, it is not surprising that a lot of our favorite sons win their post-season glory only after leaving New England.

Recently, Dave Andreychuk of the Tampa Bay Lightning earned his first Stanley Cup after 22 seasons, 1620 games, and seven stops. For the Bolts captain, like the Bruins’ Ray Bourque before him, it had appeared that he would never get the opportunity to lift the silver chalice, but both ultimately did — after they left Boston. There’s a certain irony to the fact that Bourque and Andreychuk were briefly teammates in Boston, were traded as a tandem to Colorado, and temporarily became poster children for "Most Deserving Players Never To Have Won a Cup." Bourque played 21 seasons and nearly 1700 games for Boston (but lost in his two Cup Finals appearances as a Bruin); once he was traded, it took him only 128 as an Avalancher to get his ring.

On the flip side, winger Andre Roy played all of 13 games over three seasons for the B’s in the mid-’90s, but he too won a Cup with Tampa Bay earlier this month after just 300-plus NHL games. Another former Bruin who had to skip town in order to enjoy the fruits of his labors was veteran Dave Reid, who played over 400 games in two separate stints with the Black & Gold. It wasn’t until his 16th pro season and his third year in Dallas, however, that he finally won a title with the Stars. NESN hockey analyst Barry Pederson, who spent his first five seasons in Boston, probably wasn’t pleased to be traded to the Canucks for Cam Neely back in 1986. But he most likely did not complain about the trade that sent him to Pittsburgh in 1990, because he became a member of the Pens’ Cup-winning team a year later (Neely retired without ever having won it). Finally, Geoff Courtnall also spent his first five seasons with the Bruins, but the 1988 trade that brought Andy Moog to Boston sent Courtnall to Edmonton for the final 12 regular-season games. Nineteen playoff games later, the Oilers were champs.

Also in the news lately was the coronation of former Celtic Chauncey Billups as MVP of the NBA Finals. Billups, who won his first title last month as a member of the surprising Pistons, was drafted by Rick Pitino with his first pick as the Celts’ coach/GM/prez. However, Billups didn’t impress the C’s boss enough to keep him, and he was shuttled to Denver in a seven-player deal the following February. After further stops in Toronto and Minneapolis, Billups found a home in Motown and averaged nearly 17 points per game this season for the world champs. Other players who flourished mightily after escaping Pitino’s grip include Rick Fox (three titles with the Lakers), Travis Knight (LAL ’00), and Bruce Bowen, the defensive specialist who won a ring with the Spurs last season. In addition, former C’s draftee Brian Shaw won three NBA titles in LA, and journeyman center Joe Kleine was a member of the ’98 champion Bulls.

Moving outdoors, you can find a number of pro baseball players who exulted in world-championship glory once they split town. The two that are most memorable — yet generate the most venom for fans of the local nine — are arguably the town’s premier ballplayers of the years between 1984 and 1992. Wade Boggs had his pick after the Red Sox decided not to re-sign him in 1992, but instead of going just anywhere, the Chicken Man chose the Pinstripers, who at that time were coming off a 76-86 season and were immersed in a 15-year title drought. Coincidentally or not, Boggs’s first season in the Bronx helped ignite the Yankees’ eventual turnaround, and the ecstatic Boggs appeared on horseback in an exuberant post-game celebration when New York returned to baseball’s pinnacle in October 1996. Sox fans were even more revolted three years later, when the crowning achievement of outcast Roger Clemens’s career came with his world-championship season as a member of the hated Empire Staters — with another title to follow in 2000. Former Sox set-up man Mike Stanton, who was traded by Atlanta to Boston just three months before the Tomahawks won their lone world championship, in 1995, ultimately took solace in the fact that he won three rings as a member of the Yanks’ 1998-2000 dynasty.

Last season, two pitchers with contrasting careers in Boston ended up collecting an improbable World Series ring as members of the Marlins. In November 1997, the Red Sox gave the Expos the choice of either Brian Rose or farmhand Carl Pavano (plus a player to be named) in return for defending NL Cy Young winner Pedro Martinez; Montreal chose Pavano, and the rest is history — for both players. Martinez has obviously been stellar for Boston; Pavano was less so for the Expos (going 24-35) before being traded to the putrid Marlins in 2002. Surprise! Florida stunned the baseball world last fall by ousting the Yankees in the Fall Classic, and Pavano got his ring. Martinez, as you may or may not know, has not. Pavano, despite a 46-52 lifetime record, is off to a 7-2 start this year for the defending champs, while his closer from last year, Ugueth Urbina, ended up with the dreadful Tigers this season after opting for free agency. Urbina, like Pavano, got his start exiled in Montreal, but notched 49 saves for the Sox over the course of a season and a half upon his Boston arrival in 2001. He was a key member of the team’s meltdown that fall, and his refusal to talk to the media the following season didn’t make him too many friends either, despite his 40 saves. After pricing himself out of the Boston market, Urbina signed with the lowly Rangers in 2003, but unknowingly got the chance of a lifetime in late July when he was traded to the Marlins. Three months later, he watched from the bullpen as Josh Beckett completed the game-six triumph in the Bronx.

A pair of other former Sox farmhands who never reached Fenway Park were David Eckstein, who was one of the primary catalysts for the Anaheim Angels’ stunning championship in 2002 (pitcher Aaron Sele was also a member of that team), and Curt Schilling, who with teammate Randy Johnson shared the World Series MVP award as the D-Backs surprised the Pinstripers in seven games three years ago. (Arizona teammate and former Sox reliever Greg Swindell also benefited from the tandem’s efforts that fall, as did utility outfielder Midre Cummings.) Whether Schilling, now back in a Sox uniform, can duplicate that feat for the Olde Towne Team is wicked hahd to determine right now.

Traveling a bit further back in time, Todd Benzinger, one of the key components of Boston’s "Morgan’s Magic" squad of 1988, needed only to move to Cincinnati to garner a championship, in 1990. In addition, two members of the 1986 Red Sox — a team that often inspires, how shall we say, healthy discussion along with dubious nostalgia — got over the heartbreak of psoriasis and the infamy at Shea to emerge as world champions within a short amount of time. Don Baylor, the de facto captain and kangaroo-court chief justice of the 1986 Sox, was traded to the Twins the following September and immediately found himself as a member of a soon-to-be world champs. Dave Henderson — who would likely have a statue erected in Boston’s Faneuil Hall right now if not for the bottom-of-the-10th-inning events of October 25, 1986 — ultimately found peace and prosperity on the West Coast, where he enjoyed four productive seasons (and a ring for the ’89 A’s) patrolling Oakland’s center field. And it should also be noted that pitcher Bobby Ojeda, who spent his first five seasons in the majors for the Sox, was not only a member of those ’86 Mets, but also won the pivotal game three at Fenway that sparked the, uh, turnaround for the New Yorkers.

John Tudor also spent his first five years as a pro in Boston. After being a member of a Cardinals team that lost two World Series game sevens in a three-year period, Tudor finally found himself (after a mid-August trade) labeled a world champ when the Dodgers shocked the A’s in 1988.

Finally and fittingly, future Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley, who came to Boston from Cleveland in 1978, obviously earned his greatest accolades upon his departure from the Fens. After being traded to the Cubs in 1984 — for a little-used first baseman named Bill Buckner — the Eck would later get traded to the A’s, where manager Tony La Russa gambled that Eckersley could be an effective closer. You know the rest: 390 saves later — plus four division titles, two pennants, and a world championship in 1989 — the long-haired fireballer was deemed worthy of baseball’s ultimate honor, and will be inducted in Cooperstown next month.

For local stars with visions of championships in their heads, most need look no further than just down the road to Gillette Stadium, where the World Champion New England Patriots reside. Otherwise, given the recent history of the other local outfits and those players who have prospered in greener pastures, the words of Dorothy at the conclusion of The Wizard of Oz — "If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard" — may not necessarily be the best advice.

"Sporting Eye" runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com