So a recent email “fan” disagreed with an assessment this corner had made on his Boston Red Sox that they are built on money and will therefore be fine, even in 2019.

“Hector, you are the worst,” was his quote, forcing me to recall one of my great high school coach’s favorite lines: “Every knock is a boost.”

I had no idea what the heck he was talking about then, yet 30 years in the newspaper business have filled in the gaps for me. But I digress.

Since I am “the worst,” it forced me to conjure up this column idea, the “worst Hectors in the history of pro sports.”

Now look, I kept it to the big four sports, out of respect for the great boxer, Hector “Macho” Camacho (Sr. not Jr.), who for obvious reasons is one of my all time favorites.

Can you believe it? There has never been a Hector in the NBA? I take issue with that. Sorry, come on now. Not one Hector? Please.

Moving to the ice, Hector Marini, a journeyman winger who came up at the tail end of the New York Islanders dynasty, playing on one Cup champ, before one decent year with the New Jersey Devils, is the only Hector since Hector “Toe” Blake retired in 1948.

Blake is a Hall of Famer, so Marini takes home the NHL gold in a landslide.

Former Jet Johnny Hector is far and away the greatest Hector in NFL history.

He played from 1983-1992 when both the Jets and Patriots stunk, and we saw plenty of pathetic football from them weekly.

I still loved him.

I rule out Hector Cyre. I’m old, but I wasn’t around in the “Roaring 20s.”

A Hector I don’t recall, Hector Gray played three years in my prime, the early 80s, but even though he had two interceptions for the Lions, he doesn’t ring a bell.

So, I will project the worst Hector ever in the NFL as Bruce Hector, whose eight-game rookie stint with the Eagles in 2018 resulted in 0.5 sacks.

Bruce, according to some emailer here, you might want to try sports writing. He says you have to be better than me.

Baseball is where it gets cloudy.

A handful of times playing golf with him, former Red Sox manager “Walpole Joe” Morgan would always call me “Hector Spina,” who I looked up, never made the bigs. A longtime minor leaguer, Morgan said he was a former teammate in Tuscaloosa or Tacoma, Toledo or Terre Haute, some backwoods bush league town back in the 50s. It changed by the round.

Some of the solid Hectors in the bigs included Hector Cruz, Hector Lopez (I get called that one all the time, too), Hector Luna and Hector Torres. Hector Rondon is a pretty good modern day Hector, too.

But the worst? I had one criterion. I had to remember the guy.

So I came up with Hector Fajardo, a reliever from Mexico who somehow ground out four seasons in the majors, despite a 6.95 ERA. He was dreadful, doing much of his damage for the Texas Rangers from 1991-95.

By why did this guy irk me so much? The Red Sox hit .154 against him. Everyone else? They hit .304.

Fellas, sorry to bring up the negative. But the emailer demanded better from me.

I chose just to highlight the mediocre, so not to make the writer look so bad.

Contact Hector Longo at 594-1253 or hlongo@nashuatelegraph.com.

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