The casual baseball observer might be surprised at the way Josh Bard looks at his first failed stint in Red Stockings during the 2006 season.

Bard struggled while allowing 10 passed balls in his first seven games attempting to catch the wildly unpredictable offerings of knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, and the Sox acted swiftly in dealing the switch-hitting catcher to the San Diego Padres.

Boston went on to win World Series title in 2007 after Doug Mirabelli was reunited with Wakefield in the Bard deal and Bard hit a blistering .338 with nine home runs and 40 RBIs in 93 games with the Padres following the trade in 2006 – and Bard credits the Boston massacre with accelerating his maturity and improving him as a ballplayer.

“Looking back in hindsight, [the Sox] told me they regret that move and different things like that,” said Bard. “There’s never been a second of hard feelings from my end. I think it was the best thing that could have happened to me.

“I went to San Diego and was given a chance to play and got a chance to make the playoffs and was able to catch a Cy
Young Award winner [in Jake Peavy],” added Bard. “I was able to take those next steps and challenges. I look forward to going back into that fight with [the Sox] and with the other pitchers in Boston. You find out what you’re made of when you play in Fenway park [and] play in games that matter all the time.”

Bard said that he again looks forward to jumping and catching Wakefield next season, and is also looking to rebound from an injury-filled 2008 season that saw him a disappointing .202 with the Padres last season.

“With our catching situation open for the moment, we felt like ‘buying low’ on Josh Bard was a good opportunity.  He's someone we trust to call a game, to handle pitchers, to shoulder responsibility behind the plate and to grind his at-bats," wrote Sox GM Theo Epstein in an email. "We believe his health situation was the primary factor in his offensive and defensive performance last year, and we feel he is healthy and has a chance to bounce back.  Whether he catches Tim Wakefield or not -- and he certainly has conviction that he can -- he adds a lot to our catching corps, including the versatility to be a nice complement or more as the situation dictates.”