Well, this didn’t go according to plan, at least through the first 11 games.

One-hundred wins? They’re going to have to play about .650 baseball the rest of the way to get there. A feared and relentless lineup? A rotation ranked among the league’s best?

Hmm …

OK, Red Sox fans, so the first two weeks of The Most Anticipated Season Ever didn’t go quite as hoped. Unless heavily medicated, most of the first 11 games were probably a bit too much to bear.

As the losses mounted — save for a series win over the Yankees and the last two over the Jays — so, too, did a few questions, including some that a few short weeks ago would’ve been too preposterous to ask.

Will the Sox finish .500? Will they finish .400? .300? Will they be (gulp) sellers at the July 31 trading deadline?

Is this the worst team in Red Sox history? Wait, what is the worst team in Red Sox history?

The answers to the first five questions can’t be answered today.

But the sixth — the worst team in Red Sox history — can.

That distinction belongs to the 1932 club, which finished an abysmal 43-111 for a .279 winning percentage.

They finished 64 games out of first — 64! — and failed to win more than six games in four months of the season. They allowed nearly six runs a game and were shut out 14 times. They never won more than three games in a row. In games decided by five runs or more, the Sox went 7-45.

Pathetic. Woeful. Deplorable.

They all apply to the ’32 club.

So as visions of yet another World Series parade begin to fade, here is a look at the famed 1932 team, which the one of today may just try to chase down.

The opening day second baseman, Marty McManus, would become the team’s manager just two months into the season. The Sox started 11-44 before manager Shano Collins resigned. McManus took over, and guided the team to a 32-67 finish.

The catcher, Charlie Berry, kicked a 30-yard field goal in 1925 to lead his NFL team, the Pottsville Maroons, past the “Four Horsemen” and Notre Dame 9-7, back when beating Notre Dame actually meant something. He also would become a Major League Baseball umpire as well as a head linesman in the NFL for nearly a quarter of a century.

The right fielder and cleanup hitter, Earl Webb, still holds the record for most doubles in a season (67). He set the mark in 1931. The third baseman, Urbane Pickering, would become a police chief in Modesto, Calif.

The center fielder, Tom Oliver, went 1,931 at-bats without a home run, a modern day baseball record that still stands today.

And the opening day starting pitcher, Danny MacFayden, started the season 1-10 and was promptly traded to the Yankees on June 5. Deacon Danny, naturally, finished the season 7-5 and won a World Series with the Bombers.

Sigh.

The 1932 Red Sox had plenty of interesting, if not bad, players en route to the worst season in the organization’s proud history.

And the worse part?

Even they started better — 3-8 — than the Sox, who were 2-9 through their first 11 games.

Bill Stewart — 621-5640

bstewart@centralmaine.com

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