Boston Red Sox - The Psychedelic Era (1960-1969)

Boston
Home
Click
on Logo

1960

Decade

Click

100

on Logo

Titles:

Top Red Sox Players of the Sixties

1967 A.L. Champs (Lost to Cardinals in World Series)

Pitchers:

BallPark:

Bill Monbouquette (20.71) - 52

Fenway Park

Dick "The Monster" Radatz (18.29) - 38

Jim Lonborg (5.51) - 28

Team Name:

Earl Wilson (8.48) - 22

Red Sox

Ray Culp (5.54) - 21

Gene Conley (2.39) - 16

Owner:

Gary Bell (2.42) - 14

Tom Yawkey

Jose Santiago (5.4) - 14

Don Schwall (2.28) - 14

General Managers:

Lee Stange (5.76) - 13

Bucky Harris (1960)

Miguel Fornieles (2.19) - 11

Dick O'Connell (1961, 1962, 1966-1969)

Dick Ellsworth (2.4) - 10

Pinky Higgins (1963-1965)

John Wyatt (3.61) - 10

Sparky Lyle (5.48) - 9

Managers:

Tracy Stallard (0.69) - 0

Billy Jurges (1960)

Wilbur Wood (-0.37) - 0

Pinky Higgins (1961-1962)

Johnny Pesky (1963-1964)

Catchers:

Billy Herman (1964-1966)

Bob Tillman (0.43) - 13

Pete Runnels (1966)

Jim Pagliaroni (3.6) - 11

Dick Williams (1967-1969)

Elston Howard (-0.63) - 3

Eddie Popowski (1969)

First Basemen:

No Hitters:

George Scott (7.28) - 29

Earl Wilson (1962)

Pete Runnels (9.51) - 24

Bill Monbouquette (1962)

Dick Stuart (2.3) - 16

Dave Morehead (1965)

Vic Wertz (1.24) - 14

Tony Horton (-1.28) - 0

Hall of Famers:

Tom Yawkey

Second Basemen:

Dick Williams

Mike Andrews (9.99) - 20

Ted Williams

Felix Mantilla (6.18) - 14

Carl Yastrzemski

Chuck Schilling (1.1) - 9

Rookie of the Year:

ShortStop:

Don Schwall (1961)

Rico Petrocelli (22.8) - 50

Ed Bressoud (11.91) - 29

MVP:

Don Buddin (2.32) - 12

Carl Yastrzemski (1967)

Third Base:

Cy Young:

Frank Malzone (8.4) - 24

Jim Lonborg(1967)

Joe Foy (8.52) - 23

Dalton Jones (2.79) - 8

Notable Events:

Outfield:

1960 - By 1960, there were three blacks on the team (Pumpsie

Carl Yastrzemski (53.25) - 97

Green, Earl Wilson and Willie Tasby) with Tasby out in front starting

Tony Conigliaro (10.25) - 43

in Center Field. Despite the fact that the team was awful, Red Sox

Reggie Smith (12.79) - 37

fans did not bail as they had done to the Braves less than a decade

Gary Geiger (7.12) - 32

earlier. The World had progressed a bit.

Lu Clinton (4.57) - 16

Ted Williams (3.04) - 14

1960 - Ted Williams, age forty two, retires after the season.

LeRoy Thomas (2.14) - 12

He hit a home run his last time up and batted .316 his final year.

Hawk Harrelson (4.75) - 11

Bobby Thomson (0.72) - 0

1961 - Jackie Jensen, one of the two big Sox stars of the Fifties

Dave Philley (-0.33) - 0

retires at the young age of thirty four. He had retired in 1959

for one year and tried a comeback. He was still a good player

Notable Events:

alho' '61 was not a stellar year for him. Jackie had a fear of flying

and official word was that he retired in 1960 because of it. Rumor

1966 - Twenty three year old Third Baseman Joe Foy joins the

also has it that Jensen couldn't tolerate being around Ted Williams

Sox as a rookie and slugs fifteen homers. He had been stolen

and that was the real reason Jackie retired in '59. When Williams retired,

from the Twins in the 1962 equivalent of the Rule 5 draft. Foy,

Jensen came back for another go at it, but the year off seemed

at the time, looked to be as big a star as anyone on the team

to have slowed his bat down a bit.

would be, but it didn't turn out that way for him Talk about racism.

Twins owner Calvin Griffith left Washington with its large black population

1961 - The team of Dick O'Connell as GM and Pinky Higgins as

for relatively white Minnesota. Interesting that he didn't protect

manager and later as GM joins the Sox. Two outstanding baseball

two of his best prospects, Joe Foy and Reggie Smith, who are black,

men, they build the foundation for the Boston success that starts

and let them get spirited away by the Red Sox in the Rule 5 draft.

later in the decade and runs thru the Seventies. O'Connell would do

most of the heavy lifting, however, as Higgins was let go after

1967 - Twenty two year old rookie Relief Ace Sparky Lyle joins the

the 1965 season.

Sox. He was picked up by Boston from Baltimore in 1964 in the

equivilant of the Rule 5 draft. That marked the third year in a row that

1961 - Carl Yastrzemski comes up as a rookie, replacing Ted

O'Connell / Higgins stole a future star player in that draft with Joe Foy

Williams as left fielder. This gives the Red Sox a Hall of Famer

grabbed earlier in '62 and Reggie Smith in '63, both from the Twins.

in left field from 1939 thru 1972, when Yaz moved to first base.

(Note that Jim Rice, Hall of Famer, would be the Sox left fielder

1967 - The Sox go from ninth place in 1966 to first in 1967

from '75 thru '88 thus giving Boston a HOF left fielder for 48 of the

improving twenty games in the process. No one saw this coming this

50 years from '39 thru '88 - Tommy Harper was LF in '73-'74)

quickly as Boston's starting lineup averaged twenty four years of age.

Yaz was only twenty one at the time and the only player on the

They also had a couple of top young pitchers in Lyle and Lonborg

latter successful Sox squads who preceded O'Connell and Higgins.

at Boston. He was also the first star player that the Sox had signed

1967 - Tony Conigliaro is blinded in his left eye after getting hit

and developed since the late 30's (Doerr, Pesky, DiMaggio, Williams)

by a Jack Hamilton fastball. Despite his absence over the

final sixty games, the Sox take the pennant. Tony was having a

1964 - Tony Conigliaro is a nineteen year old rookie and slugs

monster year to that point and he was still only twenty two years old.

twenty four homers. He looks like a sure fire future Hall of Famer.

Tony was a local kid out of Lynn, Mass who was an amateur free

1967- Boston picks up twenty five year old slugger Hawk Harrelson as

agent signing as a seventeen year outfielder old two years earlier.

a free agent. Serendipidously for Boston, he had become available

to replace Conigliaro after being released from the A's earlier in the year

1964 - In an odd move in the One That Got Away department, the Sox sell

due to a self destructive pique by A's owner Charlie Finley.

twenty two year old lefty Wilbur Wood to the Pirates. Wood will go on to

Harrelson picked up much of the slack left by Conigliaro's void.

win 164 games in his career, mostly with the White Sox.

1967 - Carl Yastrzemski leads the Sox to the pennant, winning

1965 - Twenty three year old ShortStop Rico Petrocelli comes up as

the triple crown. Just like the Sox, Yaz came out of nowhere to .

a rookie and slugs thirteen homers, a number most shortstops

have a remarkable year. No one saw Yaz's huge leap in power coming.

of the era couldn't dream of matching. He had been signed as an

as he was already twenty seven years old.

amateur free agent in 1961.

1967 - Jim Lonborg wins the Cy Young award

1965 - Jim Lonborg is a twenty three year old rookie. He had been

signed by the Sox as an amateur free agent

1968 - Things start going south from the title run pretty quickly as

the twenty five year old Lonborg breaks his leg skiing during the

1966 - Reggie Smith is a twenty one year old rookie and a future

off season and is never the same pitcher again.

star. He was stolen out of the Twins organization in 1963 via the

equivalent of the Rule 5 draft at the time. Not only could he hit, but

1968-1982 - The Sox are now a different class of team as they are a

he could run and was an exceptional defensive center fielder.

well above average club for the next fifteen years, winning another

pennant in 1975. It was the amazing run of young star quality player

1966 - George Scott joins the Sox as a twenty two year old

acquisitions in the early to mid Sixties that set up the core of the club.

rookie. He was signed by Boston as an amateur free agent in 1962

Scott slugs twenty seven home runs.

1969 - Tony Conigliaro is Comeback Player of the Year

hitting twenty homers despite being blind in his left eye.

Unfortunately, his comeback is short lived and the feel good story

of the year ends up with an unhappy ending.