Brad Marchand begins his chase for another Stanley Cup tonight — with the Florida Panthers.
Thanks to his late-season surge with the once-dreaded Panthers after being exiled by the Bruins, Marchand is this year’s winner of the 2025 Lobel Prize.
The Lobel Prize goes to the athlete, coach, or executive who leaves Boston and finds success — or a championship — elsewhere, sparking bittersweet smiles and/or deep angst back home.
Former WBZ sports anchor Bob Lobel inspired the award with these seven infamous words: “Why Can’t We Get Players Like That?”
He’s even tweaked it of late, by asking “Why Can We Get Players Like That?” when discussing the Red Sox predicament with Raffy Devers.
With Bob’s blessing — and evolving rules — the Lobel Prize now includes coaches and executives. Some years boast multiple winners.
This year’s NBA Finals feature two more Lobel finalists. OKC head coach Mark Daigneault is a Leominster High grad who started coaching at Holy Cross. Indiana head coach Rick Carlisle played at Worcester Academy before joining the Celtics in the 1980s. (Larry Bird still draws a Pacers paycheck as a consultant.)
Lobel Prize winners from just the past 10 years form a brutal list:
* Mookie Betts: Two World Series rings and counting with the Dodgers.
* Tom Brady & Rob Gronkowski: Brady’s still hungover from the Buccaneers’ boat parade.
* Joe Lacob: The Golden State Warriors owner, New Bedford native, and former Celtics part-owner, got the 2022 Larry O’Brien Trophy handed to him on the TD Garden parquet.
* Nathan Eovaldi: 5-0 with a 2.95 ERA and 41 Ks in 36.2 innings in the postseason for the 2023 World Series champion Rangers.
* Bruce Cassidy: The Golden Knights should’ve sent a ring to Don Sweeney and the Bruins players who got him fired.
* Kyle Schwarber: 150 Schwar-Bombs, 346 RBIs, and an .848 OPS in 524 games with the Phillies.
* Dave Dombrowski: Since 2021, his Phillies are 390-317 (.551) in the regular season with three playoff berths, an NL East title, and an NL pennant. The Red Sox, not so much.
* Chris Sale: Boston paid him $16M (thanks to a restructured deal) in 2024 to win the NL pitching Triple Crown for the Braves.
* Jon Lester: Led the Cubs from their World Series desert in 2016, alongside David Ross and Theo Epstein.
* Chris Long: Played every Pats game in their Super Bowl LI season, then helped the Eagles throttle New England in Super Bowl LII.
Lobel’s famous line first aired while mocking former Sox GM Lou Gorman every time Jeff Bagwell starred for Houston. Bagwell (as a minor-leaguer) was famously traded for Larry Andersen in 1990.
“It was never malicious,” Lobel told me Monday. “The weakest form of humor is sarcasm. It was in good fun. Lou asked me to stop, but I couldn’t do it. I was having too much fun with it. And it grew exponentially from there. I can’t believe people still remember it. It’s going to be on my gravestone.”
The phrase – abbreviated as WCWGPLT – has shifted from snark to sting.
“Sometimes, people need to be reminded that some of these guys used to play here,” Lobel said. “It just grew. It was just a sarcastic, wise-ass comment. It’s not so innocuous now.”
Lobel says he – and many with whom he speaks – are rooting for Marchand to win a Cup, partly “to stick it to the local operation.”
“They love the way he plays and the way this Florida team plays. I’m rooting for him.”
Which Lobel Prize winner has hurt Boston fans the most of late?
“I never felt that Brady was in that category, because he left on his own. Mookie – by far – he’s the linchpin of the whole thing,” Lobel said.
Babe Ruth remains the original Lobel Prize winner, but space limits prevent a full recap of Boston’s many painful exits: Carlton Fisk, Sparky Lyle, Jim Plunkett, Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Ken Dryden (drafted by the Bruins), Curtis Martin, Mike Haynes, Wade Boggs and his horse, Roger Clemens, Johnny Damon, Ray Allen, Adam Vinatieri – and more – still scar our DNA.
“We never forget,” Lobel said. “What is wrong with us?”
Boston’s 13 major championships this century have, oddly, made things worse.
“That’s when the real ‘curse’ started,” Lobel said. “That’s when the expectations were created. And when the winning stopped – everybody turned on the teams. The Red Sox curse wasn’t losing 86 for years, it was winning those four World Series titles. It’s the expectations. That can be the killer.”
Lobel’s infamous “Panic Button” rests behind his office chair. It got some airtime during the Celtics’ struggles against the Knicks.
Lobel doesn’t see any panic with the 2025 Red Sox. “You have to care before you panic. And I’m not sure the care is in place with them.”
But he has gone full “Code Red” when it comes to the Celtics, Bruins and Patriots.
“Because we care – we’re more likely to panic. With the Celtics, it’s such an unknown commodity with the new ownership and the other changes coming,” Lobel said. “There is some degree of panic with the Bruins. Their fans are passionate. They have to be distressed. With the Patriots, that’s also a real issue.”
Finally, the Lobel Prize Irving Grousbeck Lifetime Achievement Award goes to … Irving Grousbeck. He traded the Celtics for $6.1 billion after buying the team for $360 million in 2002.
Make way, Mookie & Friends. Misery loves company.
Contact: Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos on X) at bsperos1@gmail.com.
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