The1967 Boston Red Sox season was the 67th season in the franchise'sMajor League Baseball history. TheRed Sox finished first in theAmerican League (AL) with a record of 92 wins and 70 losses. The team then faced the National League championSt. Louis Cardinals in the1967 World Series, which the Red Sox lost in 7 games.
Often referred to as "The Impossible Dream", this was the team's first winning season since1958, as the Red Sox shocked all ofNew England and the rest of the baseball world by reaching theWorld Series for the first time since1946.
October 21, 1966: The Red Sox release infielderEddie Kasko and outfielderLenny Green, 33.[2] Kasko, 35, will succeedDick Williams as manager of Triple-A Toronto.
The Red Sox entered the 1967 season as "doormats" of theAmerican League, with low expectations, low attendance to begin the season, and little known talent outside ofteam captainCarl Yastrzemski. They had had losing seasons for each of the previous eight years. Two years earlier, the Red Sox had finished the1965 season with 100 losses. In addition, the team posted ninth-place finishes in 1965 and 1966. Low expectations for the season were demonstrated by the measly 8,324 fans who attended Opening Day, which about matched their average attendance throughout the 1960s.[10]
Boston historians consider the 1967 Red Sox season as the "re-invention" of Boston Red Sox baseball.[citation needed] Every aspect of Boston baseball was transformed at the hands of this club. For instance, in1966, the Red Sox ranked eighth out of ten American League teams in home attendance (811,172). The 1967 season set aFenway Park record and the Sox finished first in the league in home attendance (1,727,832).Jerry Remy (former Red Sox television broadcaster forNESN) is quoted as saying, "1967 created the Red Sox craze and Red Sox Nation we have today. They re-invented baseball in New England."
In 1967,Dick Williams became the manager of the Red Sox. Previously, he had coached the Red Sox' farm club inToronto. Williams was a stern disciplinarian and enacted a get tough policy. He stressed the fundamentals. In spring training, he had calledGeorge Scott "Bomboclaat Scott".[11]
The Red Sox also made two major acquisitions down the stretch. The first came on August 3, when the Red Sox acquired catcherElston Howard from theNew York Yankees. Howard would hit just .147 while replacingMike Ryan as the starting catcher, forcing the Red Sox to turn to third-stringerRuss Gibson more and more often down the stretch.[12] While Gibson hit just .203, it was better than either Howard or Ryan (who hit .199) had managed during the season. The acquisition was more about Howard's experience: the Red Sox had a very young team, and Howard was a good influence on their pitching staff. The second was on August 28, when they signed outfielderKen Harrelson after theKansas City Athletics released him.[13] Harrelson replacedJosé Tartabull as the starting right fielder.[12] Tartabull himself had replaced the injuredTony Conigliaro,[12] who was out for the season after a brutalbeaning, detailed below.
With the players on their roster averaging 25.4 years of age, the 1967 Red Sox were the second-youngest team in Major League Baseball that season; only the cellar-dwelling Athletics (24.8) were younger.[14]
Throughout the season of 1967, the Red Sox were clicking offensively and defensively right from Opening Day. One of the keys to the Red Sox instant success was young, fan-favoriteTony Conigliaro. Entering his fourth season in 1967, Conigliaro set the bar for his personal success very high, as he achieved immediate success his first three years in the major leagues. In fact, Conigliaro slugged an amazing 24 home runs his rookie season in 1964, followed by an AL leading 32 home runs his sophomore season in 1965 and 28 in 1966. As the Red Sox showed promise in the early part of the 1967 season, Conigliaro's expectations from the fans rose exponentially.
Throughout Conigliaro's first three seasons, minor and typical baseball injuries struck the young player. He had broken his left arm his rookie season, broken his left wrist his sophomore season after being hit by a pitch, and missed day-to-day action on other various minor injuries. Nothing serious had prevented Conigliaro from bouncing back and continuing to see offensive success at an unparalleled rapid pace. Some Red Sox die-hards in fact predicted Conigliaro would finish his career with better numbers than the greatTed Williams.
On August 18, 1967, in the fifth inning of a mid-summer game between Boston and theCalifornia Angels at Fenway Park, Conigliaro was beaned by a pitch from AngelspitcherJack Hamilton right above the leftcheek bone. Conigliaro was immediately knockedunconscious and was taken off the field on a stretcher. It was later announced that the slugger had sustained severe damage to his cheek bone and theretina of his eye. Conigliaro missed the remainder of the 1967 season and, as Boston held its breath for their young phenom, memories of the long drought of being a winning team in baseball had crept over the Fenway crowd. (No mentions of a curse, however. The idea of the "Curse of the Bambino" would not be entertained for another 20 years.)
Though their young All-Star was out indefinitely, the Red Sox won the game and continued on to win theAmerican League Championship. However, faith from Red Sox fans had to be found without Conigliaro. He would return a year later, and earnComeback Player of the Year Award in 1969. In 1970, he would reach career-high numbers in HRs (36) and RBI (116). Problems with Conigliaro's eyesight returned in 1971 and he had to retire from major league baseball following a stint with the California Angels that year. His eyesight improved to the point that he attempted—and briefly succeeded—in a comeback attempt with the Red Sox during the spring of 1975. However following an early season injury he was replaced in the lineup by rookie and future Hall-of-FamerJim Rice, and was released shortly thereafter, never to return to professional baseball.
All of these team categories in which he led the club were overshadowed by his accomplishments in offensive statistics league-wide. Yastrzemski batted .326 on the season, slugged 44 home runs, and drove in 121 RBIs, which led the American League in all three of these main offensive categories (Yastrzemski was actually tied in the home run category withHarmon Killebrew of theMinnesota Twins). In leading the league in home runs, RBIs, and batting average, Yastrzemski achieved theTriple Crown. Only one Red Sox player in history had reached this milestone—Ted Williams, who did it twice, in 1942 and 1947. It was the second consecutive year that the Triple Crown was achieved in the American League,Frank Robinson having won the honor in 1966 during his first year with theBaltimore Orioles. It took 45 years before another triple crown was won, byMiguel Cabrera of theDetroit Tigers in 2012. In the scope of this season that had begun with low expectations for the Boston Red Sox, the leadership and outstanding batting by Yastrzemski added to the "impossible" feeling that the season overall had overwhelmed the New England region.
Yastrzemski ended the season with numerous awards and honors: 1967 All-Star, 1967 Most Valuable Player, 1967 Outfield Gold Glove, 1967 Major League Player of the Year. Statistically, Yastrzemski dominated the American League, as he had his own team. He led the league in: batting average, runs batted in, home runs, runs, slugging percentage, on-base plus slugging, hits, on-base percentage, and total bases.
Red Sox second basemanMike Andrews says of the times: "This chaoticwar was going on while we were playing baseball. To think that baseball could be meaningful to these wounded soldiers was unbelievable."[10] Four Red Sox players—All-StarsJim Lonborg and Tony Conigliaro, along withDalton Jones andBill Landis—were drafted for military service. The four served two-week stints in themilitary reserve.
As a 21-year-old rookie,Billy Rohr made his first start on April 14 atYankee Stadium facingWhitey Ford. He was one strike away from a no-hitter whenElston Howard, who would join the Red Sox later that season, hit a soft single into right-center field. Yastrzemski had saved Rohr's no-hit bid earlier in the game when he made an over-the-shoulder running-away catch deep in left field off the bat ofTom Tresh. Following Howard's single, Rohr proceeded to retire the next batter for a 3–0 shutout. Four days later atFenway Park, he beat theYankees again, 6–1.Mel Stottlemyre was charged with the loss. However Rohr only won one more major league game and was out of the majors after the 1968 season.
Right out of the gate, the Red Sox showed contender capabilities and entering August, were only two and a half games behind the league-leadingChicago White Sox and were eight games over .500. By month's end, the White Sox lost hold of first-place and on August 26, the Red Sox sat atop the American League at 72–56. A five-way race between the Red Sox, White Sox, Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, and theCalifornia Angels developed for the American League pennant. The Angels slumped in early September to fall out of the race, and the White Sox slumped in the next to last week of the season.
Starting September—the last month of the season—the Red Sox sat atop of the American League, but were caught in a dog-fight with Chicago, Minnesota and Detroit. The four teams were separated by half a game and all jumped between first to fourth sporadically. The pennant race was coming down to the last weekend of the season. Unfortunately for the White Sox, a three-game sweep at the hands of theWashington Senators left Chicago three games out of first place and the pennant scramble a three-team race. The Red Sox faced the Twins in a two-game series at Fenway Park on that last weekend. The Twins were in first place, ahead by one game over the Red Sox.[13] To win the pennant, The Red Sox had to sweep the Twins while the Detroit Tigers, playing the California Angels, would have to lose at least one more game.
Carl Yastrzemski, vying for the triple crown, led the American League in batting average and RBI, and shared the home run lead withHarmon Killebrew of the Twins. Both players hit one home run in the series, so Yastrzemski won the triple crown. Yastrzemski went 7 for 8 with a home run and 6 RBI in the two-game series. In the last game of the season, 21-game winnerJim Lonborg got the start for the Red Sox vs. the Twins' 20-game winnerDean Chance. The Red Sox won the game 5–3 with a five-run sixth inning, and Lonborg finished the season with 22 victories. Afterwards, the Red Sox were forced to watch the second game of the Tigers-Angels doubleheader in the clubhouse. In Detroit, the Tigers won the first game of a double header vs. the Angels, and needed to win the second game to tie the Red Sox for first place. But their bullpen failed, and the Angels'Rick Reichardt hit a home run in an 8–5 Angel win. The Red Sox had won their first American League pennant in 21 years.[13]Mayor of BostonJohn F. Collins declared October 3, the day before the start of the World Series, as "Boston Red Sox Day".[15]
Although the Red Sox did not complete the unbelievable task and lost to theSt. Louis Cardinals in the1967 World Series, the overachieving club is considered among the greatest Red Sox teams in club history. Beyond Yastrzemski completing one of the best single season offensive campaigns, Red Sox players dominated the American League across the board. Pitcher Jim Lonborg won theCy Young Award. The two SoxAll-Stars, joined byTony Conigliaro andRico Petrocelli, comprised the four Red Sox named to the American League All-Star team.
August 22, 1967: OutfielderJim Landis, 33, released by theDetroit Tigers four days earlier, is signed as an emergency replacement for the injuredTony Conigliaro, placed on thedisabled list for the remainder of the season.
August 25, 1967: OutfielderKen Harrelson is signed as a free agent and Jim Landis is released.[20] Harrelson, 25, was summarily released by theKansas City Athletics on August 22 for publicly calling ownerCharles O. Finley a "menace to baseball".[22]
The2007 season marked the 40th anniversary ofThe Impossible Dream, which was honored and marked withOpening Day ceremonies featuring members of the 1967 Red Sox team and an hour-long documentary onNESN (a regional sports network part-owned by the Red Sox) calledImpossible to Forget.[99] The Red Sox went on to win the2007 World Series, a four-game sweep over theColorado Rockies as well, to earn their second title in four years.
^Lamberty, Bill (June 1, 2019)."Amos Otis".Society for American Baseball Research.Archived from the original on February 6, 2023. RetrievedJune 10, 2023.
^Nowlin, Bill."Ed Connolly Jr".Society for American Baseball Research.Archived from the original on February 5, 2023. RetrievedJune 10, 2023.
^Skelton, David E."Ed Rawkow".Society for American Baseball Research.Archived from the original on October 1, 2022. RetrievedJune 10, 2023.
Crehan, Herb (2016).The Impossible Dream 1967 Red Sox: Birth of Red Sox Nation. Summer Game Books.ISBN978-1938545689.
Petrocelli, Rico; Scroggins, Chaz (2007).Rico Petrocelli's Tales from the Impossible Dream Red Sox. Sports Publishing LLC.ISBN978-1596701915.
Petrocelli, Rico; Scroggins, Chaz (2017).Tales from the 1967 Red Sox: A Collection of the Greatest Stories Ever Told. Sports Publishing LLC.ISBN978-1683580508.
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