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

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1960

Decade

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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:

Ted Williams

Second Basemen:

Carl Yastrzemski

Mike Andrews (9.99) - 20

Felix Mantilla (6.18) - 14

Rookie of the Year:

Chuck Schilling (1.1) - 9

Don Schwall (1961)

ShortStop:

MVP:

Rico Petrocelli (22.8) - 50

Carl Yastrzemski (1967)

Ed Bressoud (11.91) - 29

Don Buddin (2.32) - 12

Cy Young:

Jim Lonborg(1967)

Third Base:

Frank Malzone (8.4) - 24

Notable Events:

Joe Foy (8.52) - 23

Dalton Jones (2.79) - 8

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

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

Outfield:

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

Carl Yastrzemski (53.25) - 97

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

Tony Conigliaro (10.25) - 43

earlier. The World had progressed a bit.

Reggie Smith (12.79) - 37

Gary Geiger (7.12) - 32

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

Lu Clinton (4.57) - 16

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

Ted Williams (3.04) - 14

LeRoy Thomas (2.14) - 12

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

Hawk Harrelson (4.75) - 11

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

Bobby Thomson (0.72) - 0

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

Dave Philley (-0.33) - 0

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

Notable Events:

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

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

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

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

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

to have slowed his bat down a bit.

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

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

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

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

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

Twins owner Calvin Griffith left Washington with its large black population

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

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

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

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

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

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

the 1965 season.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by a Jack Hamilton fastball. Despite his absence over the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

a rookie and slugs thirteen homers, a number most shortstops

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

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

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

amateur free agent in 1961.

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

as he was already twenty seven years old.

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

signed by the Sox as an amateur free agent

1967 - Jim Lonborg wins the Cy Young award

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

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

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

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

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

off season and is never the same pitcher again.

he could run and was an exceptional defensive center fielder.

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

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

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

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

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

Scott slugs twenty seven home runs.

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

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.