by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN FRANCISCO–Pablo Sandoval had three official offers, one from the Boston Red Sox, one from the San Diego Padres and one from the San Francisco Giants. Pablo picked the Boston Red Sox. All three offers were believed to be for five years and at least $90 million.

The Giant Panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichaun province, but also in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, however this Panda, the one from Venezuela who plays third base is going to Boston, Massachusetts, to be more exact Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox, the same Red Sox team that finished last this season in the American League East, but won the 2013 World Series.

We can all speculate why Pablo and his agent chose Boston. Did he get tired of the same old-same-same-old story every year in San Francisco that the Giants wanted him to lose weight, but he did and he put it back on. Did he (and his family) just want a “change of scenery”, Boston is a beautiful city also, or the most obvious one (in my opinion) going to the American League he can extend his career and can always rest his legs by giving David Ortiz a brake as the Designated Hitter of the team, something he could never do with the Giants.

As good as Giants fans have been filling AT&T Park for years, Boston has the most passionate fans in all of baseball, and unforgiving fans also. Boston is a tough town to play, but if Pablo has the same regular season he had this year in Boston in 2015, the talk shows, the media, the fans in Beantown are sure to drive Pablo crazy.

On the other hand if the team makes it to the Postseason, then you have one of the best hitters in recent memory in a World Series. Pablo has an innate ability to “turn up the switch”in the postseason, and that is something that two of the biggest stars ever for these two franchises cannot say, Barry Bonds for the Giants and Ted Williams for the Red Sox; you are welcome to check Bonds and Williams stats in postseason, and they are not pretty.

So just like Panda picked the team he wanted to play, you are free to pick one of these scenarios, or maybe your own, maybe Pablo loves history and Boston has as much American history as any other city in the country. Maybe when the “dogs days of summer” arrive in Boston, with that humidity and he has a bad game, strikes out 3 times, leaves a ton of runners in scoring position, he can always go to the cemetery where Paul Revere is buried and think of American revolutionary history.

Pablo is leaving the Bay Area with three World Series rings (the third one he will probably get by courier to Boston next year) and leaves as one of the most popular Giants in recent memory; without a doubt since the 2000 season when the team moved from maligned Candlestick Park to comfy AT&T Park.

Pablo Sandoval is an easy going guy, affable with the fans and with teammates, and a guy that works as hard as anybody in baseball, you might think that is not accurate because of his weight, but it is a true statement. I have seen Pablo in Spring Training year after year. I have never heard anything negative about Pablo, from his teammates or from anybody in the media.

Boston is a different type of town for baseball, the Red Sox are more about baseball 100X100 than about mascots or Panda merchandise and souvenirs, the Red Sox fans live and die with their team, and they talk baseball all the time. With all respect to San Francisco, the Red Sox fans are way ahead of Giants fans when it comes to passion for the game. Unlike AT&T Park, there are no animal mascots at Fenway Park; as a matter of fact did you know who was the mascot of the Boston Red Sox? It is Wally the Green Monster! Now, how many people even knew that?

Common sense tells you that the Panda(nickname given to him from ex-Giants and A’s pitcher Barry Zito) would be happier in San Francisco, a city where he could do no wrong, but he has done it all in the City by the Bay, he has won enough hardware for his baseball showcase at home, as well sold enough merchandise and good will for the Giants, a team that is now advertising tickets for next season as a dynasty.

But who’s business is to say where Pablo should play? It is still a free country, and he was courted by at least the three teams that made very similar offers, and it is Pablo’s business and his family where he wants to play. As simple as that. So Giants fans, you do not have to complain from April to September anymore about the Panda anymore, but you will miss him if the Red Sox go back to the World Series next season, which for them would be their second World Series in the past three seasons.

So far the Red Sox are the big spenders this off season, also signing Hanley Ramírez from the Dodgers for 4 years and $88 million, and what I hear from Boston, is that they are not done yet with free agents. Jon Lester’s Red Sox jersey is waiting for him, just like he left it last season, nice and clean, at Fenway Park…

Felicidades Pablo y muy buena suerte!

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Museum and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com