Andrew was a Californian, born to Elbert L. Andrew and Frances Schandel Andrew in Glendale on November 14, 1953. His mother was a homemaker, raising Kim and his three sisters, one older and two younger. Early on, Kim’s father had his own business, Andrew Signs, but he sold the company and went to work for the County of Los Angeles as a sign painter. After 15 years or so with the county, he went to work as an artist with one of the motion picture studios, working on sets and doing location work. One of his specialties was gold leaf sign work.

With his father busy working to provide for the family, Kim’s mother was more active encouraging her son in athletic pursuits. His father was more of an artist and his mother more the athlete in the family. She played a little softball and she tells Kim that from the time he was old enough to walk on both feet, he’d started picking up objects and throwing them. It was as an infielder, not a pitcher, though, that Kim made his mark. Even into the 21st century, Kim will spend more time watching a ballgame with his mother than even with his own two sons, Matt and Jason.

Andrew dates his own beginnings in baseball to Mission Hills Little League at age 9. “I still remember my batting average my first year was .538,” Andrew recalls. “From that point on, I excelled in each classification.”  He started out as a shortstop and played short right up through high school. It was only when the Dodgers drafted him in 1971 that they asked him to move to play second base.

It was indeed the Dodgers who first showed interest in signing Andrew as a pro. He played shortstop for James Monroe High School in North Hills. The same team produced two other major leaguers, Craig Cacek and John Flinn. Cacek was a first baseman who appeared in seven games for Houston in 1977, collecting one hit in 20 trips for a .050 batting average. Flinn was a pitcher, who appeared only briefly in three seasons with Baltimore and one with Milwaukee, finishing his career with a 5-2 mark and a 4.17 ERA. Though the Dodgers drafted him, Andrew did not sign with them and they elected not to redraft him in the winter draft. Kim played no ball that summertime, but entered Valley Junior College in the fall. He played ball there and ended up with five hitting records, hitting over .470 by year’s end. This attracted a visit from Orioles scout Ray Poitevint, who visited Kim’s parents in the stands right after he’d hit a grand slam home run and asked, “Why is it Kim doesn’t want to play professional baseball?”  They looked at him in surprise and asked what he was talking about. Poitevint said Kim hadn’t seemed interested in the Dodgers and the word was that he didn’t want to play pro ball. The Dodgers had offered him only $5,000 to sign, and it hadn’t been enough to secure him.

In truth, Andrew was a bit ambivalent. “I wasn’t completely serious in signing with the scout when he came to the house here,” Andrew explains. “In fact, I was interested in going into wildlife management so I continued my education. Once I tried combining the scholastic side at the college level with pursuing my baseball endeavors after school, I found it was quite a challenge.”  Poitevint made a substantial enough offer and Andrew signed with the Orioles in 1972 as an amateur free agent just two or three weeks before the draft. Andrew still wonders what he might have attracted had he waited for the draft.

The Orioles assigned him to rookie A ball in Lewiston, Idaho. Andrew played well, hitting .325 and making the all-star team. He had made the transition to second baseman, since the Orioles had the same sense that the Dodgers had expressed that second base would be his best position. Perhaps his legs weren’t long enough, he understood (Andrew was 5’10” and 160 pounds), or that he just didn’t have the “look” to be a shortstop. He had the winter off, though he did get in a couple of workouts during the winter months under Poitevint’s supervision, getting together with a number of other Southern Californians who were in the Orioles system. Kim stayed at home with his parents and worked a number of odd jobs, and took a few more courses in wildlife management. That field of work began to see some cutbacks, though, and he began to feel a bit more discouraged about prospects in the industry.

The following year, 1973, Andrew was assigned to the Single-A Miami Orioles in the Florida State League. He hit .336 with Miami, leading the league in hitting, and made both of the two all-star teams that were selected. He also led all second basemen in fielding percentage, beginning to establish more of a reputation as a fielder as well.

In 1974, Andrew moved up the ladder to Double-A, with an assignment to the Asheville (N.C) Orioles in the Southern League. Once again, he was named an all-star, this time placing fifth in the league in hitting, with an average of .317. He wasn’t protected, though. As he understands it, “after three years, if they don’t invite you to the major league camp or whatever, then you’re considered a free agent. That’s when the Red Sox drafted my contract for $25,000, and brought me to the Red Sox spring training down in Winter Haven, Florida.”  

He went to spring training with the Red Sox and hit .350 with just one error in the field. He shared “rookie of spring training” status with none other than Fred Lynn. “I like to say I forced Darrell Johnson to have to put me in the major leagues,” he laughs.

Kim Andrew made the team out of spring training and appeared in two games early in the pennant-winning season of 1975. He managed to hit .500, but he got only two at-bats in the majors. The Sox had finished third the year before, not much over .500 themselves, playing to an 84-78 record. His debut game was April 16, 1975. The Sox were just a week out of spring training. Playing in Yankee Stadium, Yaz greeted Pat Dobson with a two-run homer in the first. In the third frame, Fred Lynn led off with a solo home run. Later that inning, Yaz walked, stole second and then took third on Thurman Munson’s errant throw, but he jammed his left ankle into Munson’s shin guard trying to score later in the inning. He had it taped and stayed in the game. Doug Griffin, though, had a right hip which was bothering him pretty badly and he sat out the game.

Lynn led off the fifth inning as well, and hit another home run. The Red Sox won the game 4-2, with those three homers accounting for all the Sox scoring. Andrew came in to play second base in the ninth inning. Bob Heise, who’d been playing second moved over to third to take Petrocelli’s spot. Andrew neither batted nor had a fielding chance during his first game.

There was no game scheduled the next day. On the 18th, Doug Griffin played second and went 0-for-4. Rice hit two home runs in that game. The game on the 19th was rained out, so Griffin got another chance to rest his hip. On the 20th, Griffin played again and went 1-for-4.
 
Kim Andrew’s next appearance was in Boston on Patriots Day, Monday April 21. Bill Rodgers won the Boston Marathon with a record 2:09:55 race time. The Sox were hosting the Yankees, Dobson again getting the start for New York. Bill Lee started for Boston, but got hammered for four runs in the top of the first and was charged with four more in the fourth. Boston was losing, 11-0, after six. Griffin had started the game and went 0-for-2, but then left after the sixth inning and Andrew took his place at second. Lou Piniella walked to lead off the New York seventh. Second up was Graig Nettles, who grounded into a force play, second to short (Andrew to Burleson).
 
Andrew’s first at-bat in the major leagues came in the bottom of the inning. With one out, Burleson walked, but Andrew grounded to third, where Nettles fielded the play and returned the favor, forcing Burleson at second. Andrew stood on Fenway’s first base on the fielder’s choice but didn’t advance, as Heise hit into an inning-ending grounder to the pitcher.

Elliott Maddox lined out to Andrew in the top of the eighth, and Andrew had his first major-league putout. He was involved in no other fielding plays, but in the bottom of the ninth made his mark at the plate. The Sox were down 12-0 and at risk of being shut out before the holiday home crowd. Tim Blackwell, who’d come in to the game to spell Bob Montgomery, led off the top of the ninth with a double to right. Rick Burleson grounded out to Nettles, but then Andrew singled to deep short. Blackwell held at second. Bob Heise followed with a single to left, scoring Blackwell, and moving Andrew to second base. Bernie Carbo hit into a double play to end the game. The Sox lost, 12-1, but Kim Andrew was batting .500 – and that remains his lifetime average. With one putout and one assist, his lifetime fielding average was an unimpeachable 1.000.

Andrew never saw action in another major-league game, though at the time he wouldn’t have known it was his last game. Darrell Johnson told him, “You’re not a bench player” and sent him down to Triple-A Pawtucket so he could fine-tune his skills and play every day. After a couple of weeks in Pawtucket, playing under manager Joe Morgan, Andrew sprained his ankle pretty badly. He was sent down to Double-A Bristol for a while, but returned to Pawtucket. “You feel like you’re on a yo-yo string. It’s a hard life, face it.”  

Andrew was uncertain about his future. The big league club liked Denny Doyle a lot and he’d made his mark in the 1975 World Series. Andrew was more of a self-described “spray hitter, not a lot of power. Singles and doubles in the gap.”  In line with the times, team management wasn’t very informative about the role they saw for him. Andrew confessed to some uncertainty: “At that point, I really didn’t know what was going on. I’m not sure what they were thinking about me. … I talked to a couple of people, but at that stage and once you get up into Triple-A, it’s a business. You’re on your own. And they didn’t have agents in those days. You didn’t have an attorney.”

Players had to look out for themselves, even if the uncertainty might undermine a player’s determination in training. Andrew, who’d begun his career with a bit of ambivalence, was a bit adrift. He remembers his final stretch in professional ball: “If you’re in the minor leagues and you’re not progressing … I told myself early in my career that if I’m not progressing, it’s going to be a difficult road to hoe for me. It’s easy to lie to a young 21-year-old kid, you know, which direction should I go, if this organization is not particularly keen on me at this time. What are my options? My last year that I was with the Red Sox, I started at Triple-A and then they wanted to send me down, and I said, ‘No.’  I told them, I said, ‘There’s no way.’ I wasn’t going to [go lower in the system].” 

He knew it was the end of the road. “There was no way I was going to play for the Boston Red Sox. That was my last year. I ended up getting picked up by the Orioles. Then they let me go after three or four weeks, and at that point, I was disillusioned. I went back in the mountains in North Carolina and did some fly-fishing. And during that period of time, believe it or not, Bill Veeck of the White Sox called and left me a message. He wanted me to play ball for him; he was really keen on me. He left this long message for me. I was sitting there with my fly-fishing pole and I had this beard, just back in mountains. I said to myself I had no idea anybody would be interested in me, but I also had [heard from] the Pirates and I had one other organization that had called and left a message. I thought for sure I was going to get pretty much blackballed because I had pretty much told one organization ‘take a hike,’ and then the Orioles dumped me, and I said to myself, that’s probably it.

“I got disillusioned at that point and I was wondering if it was worth it. It’s one thing to go through all that mentally, and it’s another thing to have to physically throw everything together and … go to another place and start all over again. It really takes a lot to stick with it. You really do find out how much you really do want it. And I think at that stage … I wasn’t sure if I really wanted any more. With only two or three weeks left in the season after the call from Mr. Veeck and a couple of other organizations, I just said, you know what, I’m just riding out the rest of this season. Then I’ll take the winter off and see what I want to do.”

During the wintertime (1976-1977), Andrew was approached to play professional baseball in Italy. He took up the offer and played the 1977 season for Bollate, a well-established ballclub in Milano. The team played in a summer league, a season of 14 or 15 weeks, so Kim spent a summer playing teams in cities like Rimini, Florence, Rome, and Venice, before crowds ranging from 500 to 5,000.

Andrew recalls, “It was a pretty good experience, a cultural experience. I did my best to promote the game over there and at the same time make a few dollars… I think I led the whole league in hitting.”  The league fielded teams of varying talent — one maybe around Double-A level, but another being perhaps no better than a good high school team. “It was not actually a big challenge for me, but I was able to play shortstop again and I loved it. I played so well over there that when I came back after being over there, I contacted a number of organizations, and the Pirates invited me to spring training from one of the letters that I wrote to the organizations. About two, two and a half weeks prior to me reporting, I slipped off a ladder and sprained my ankle. I figured at that point maybe that was kind of a sign: your baseball career is done. Officially. So I called it a career.”

Kim returned to the United States and worked in sporting goods retail for a while, and then began working for the company he still works for in 2005: Federal Express. He has served the last 24 years as a freight driver for FedEx, marrying a year or two after his return and raising two boys. Both boys played baseball into their high school years, but neither pursued it further. Baseball still remains in Kim’s blood, though. As of late summer 2005, he was contemplating taking early retirement at age 55 and then musing about trying to become a minor-league batting coach.

Despite the way his career ended, in retrospect he sees opportunities perhaps missed. “I was watching a baseball game yesterday and there was a pitcher who’d been released three or four times. I said to myself, that’s amazing. And he’s pitching in the major leagues now. If I would have known that, I wouldn’t have been so disillusioned back then, probably. I realize [now] there’s always an organization that looks at you differently than the organization you’re with.” 

He recalls several of the players with the Red Sox in those days, and felt particular affinity to Jack Baker, Don Aase, and Jim Burton. As a young rookie, he didn’t have a lot of personal interaction with stars like Carl Yastrzemski. “I was the bottom man on the totem pole with that team and he had a lot of power, he had a lot of influence. I do believe he said a couple of things to me at one time or another, but I pretty much kept myself in line while I was with the time. Pretty much was there to do the job, if called upon.” 

Kim Andrew was remembered when it came time to distribute World Series shares, and received a check for $500. He hadn’t expected a thing and was pleased to receive it; while with the team, he says he’d been making the major-league minimum of the day.

A version of this biography appeared in “’75: The Red Sox Team That Saved Baseball” (Rounder Books, 2005; SABR, 2015), edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan.

Sources

Author interview with Kim Andrew, July 24, 2005.

www.retrosheet.org

John Thorn and Pete Palmer. Total Baseball.

Barr worked his way up through the Red Sox farm system, slowly at first, with a 0-4 record with Jamestown (New York/Penn League) in 1969, walking 30 batters in 28 innings pitched and posting an 8.36 ERA. The following year, 1970, he pitched for Greenville in the Western Carolinas League, posting a 3-4 record in 15 games and an ERA of 4.38. He was placed on the disabled list on June 26 with a season-ending injury. In 1971, after being suspended from the beginning of the season until July 9, he finished the season with Winter Haven (Florida State League) and appeared in 10 games (1-1, 6.00 ERA). Barr played in 19 games in 1972 with Winston-Salem (Carolina League), again with a losing record (8-9), with an improved 4.19 ERA. And he married Katherine Anne Krieger in December. The two had met in Winter Haven while Steve was in spring training with the Red Sox. The 1973 season was split between Bristol (Eastern League, 7-10 with a 3.20 ERA) and Pawtucket (International League, 1-0 in three games, 5.79 ERA).

Barr played the 1974 season with Bristol again, putting up a very good 16-8 record with a 2.45 ERA, leading the Eastern League in wins, being named the league’s Pitcher of the Year, and earning himself a shot in the big leagues. The tall and large (6-feet-4, 200 pounds) left-hander was summoned for his first start in the next-to-last game of the season, game number 161, on October 1, Boston hosting the Cleveland Indians.   

Barr hadn’t pitched for 36 days, so it wasn’t surprising that he was a little rusty – not to mention possibly a little nervous.  “He lost his composure,” Johnson said after the game. Barr got through the first inning OK but walked Johnny Ellis to lead off the second inning.  Ellis took second on a wild pitch that went into the seats. After inducing a grounder to third, Barr allowed singles to Rusty Torres, Dave Duncan, and Luis Alvarado. Duncan’s was an infield hit, and had Barr covered the bag, he might well have been out, though no error was assessed. He walked Buddy Bell to load the bases and walked Duane Kuiper, forcing in a run. “What impressed me most,” Johnson said, “is the fact that when we thought he was gone, he straightened himself out and came back.” Frank Robinson was up with the bases loaded, but he didn’t get much bat on the ball and Alvarado was forced out at the plate.  Charlie Spikes then bounced back to Barr, who threw him out easily.  Three runs on three hits and three walks, but he was out of the inning.

Barr settled down and threw a complete nine-inning game, giving up just three more hits and one more run, but Cleveland’s Steve Kline fared worse. Boston scored seven times and Barr earned his first major-league win, 7-4.  In all, he struck out three and walked six.  “He has the good fastball, the curve, a superb straight change,” Johnson noted. “The question has been his composure and his ability to get the ball over the plate. I know this, he’ll be given every opportunity next spring.”  Peter Gammons’ game account in the Boston Globe was headlined, “Sox rookie hums a few Barrs of 1975.”1 In 1974 Steve and Katherine had their one child, Christopher Tobin “Tobey” Barr. Tobey played baseball through junior high, but the sports he lettered in were soccer, tennis, and golf. There was another baseball player in the family, however – Ryan Madson, who pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies from 2003 to 2011. Madson is Barr’s nephew (Steve’s sister is Madson’s mother).2

Barr was back in 1975, but not at first.  He opened the year in the minors, and was called up from Pawtucket on July 1 after Red Sox right-hander Dick Pole was hit hard in the face the day before by a line drive off the bat of Tony Muser. Pole’s cheekbone was fractured and no one knew how long it might be before he could return to the rotation. On his first day back, Barr threw the ninth inning in a loss to Baltimore. Flirting with danger, he gave up a single and walked three batters; he was very lucky to escape without giving up a run, thanks to a runner caught stealing, a popup to right, and Bobby Grich’s grounder to short.

On July 5 in Cleveland, Barr had his next shot, but was bombed. Hegot through the first inning OK, but with one out in the bottom of the second, he surrendered a single to Charlie Spikes. He tried to hold the runner at first but his wild pickoff throw allowed Spikes to advance all the way to third. A sacrifice fly almost resulted in a double play at the plate, but Spikes was ruled safe. A single, an error by third baseman Denny Doyle, and a walk set up a grand slam to center field by Buddy Bell, and Jim Burton was brought in to relieve Barr.  One and two-thirds innings resulted in six runs, only one of which was earned. 

There was one more start in Steve Barr’s Red Sox future. On July 10 Texas was in the Hub. Barr’s start lasted 4⅓ innings, in which he was touched up for three runs (one earned) on seven hits and two walks. He struck out two batters. After a double, a single, and a double in the fifth inning, Reggie Cleveland was called in to take Barr’s place and protect the Red Sox’ 7-3 lead. Cleveland just barely held on, giving up one run in the eighth and three more runs in the ninth, which tied the game, 7-7.  With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and nobody on, Doyle singled and advanced to second on a passed ball. Cecil Cooper, who’d come in to take over for Carl Yastrzemski at first base in the seventh, singled home Doyle with the winning run. Despite a 2.57 ERA for the season, Barr was sent south for more seasoning – south to Pawtucket, where he finished out the year.  

After the 1975 season, the Red Sox sent Barr and Juan Beniquez (and a player to be named later, who was named 25 days later and proved to be Craig Skok) to the Texas Rangers for Ferguson Jenkins. With the Rangers in 1976, Barr had a chance to stretch out a little more, getting into 20 games. His first of 10 starts came on April 13, a complete game 3-1 win over the Oakland Athletics at Arlington Stadium.  Barr was used intermittently throughout the season, ending up with a 2-6 record. There were a couple of tough-luck losses like the 3-2 defeat on May 16 at the hands of the same Athletics, but Barr’s 5.59 ERA betrayed a failure to perform as hoped for. Barr threw 67⅔ innings and surrendered ten homers and 44 walks in that time. After the season he was selected by the Seattle Mariners in the expansion draft (54th pick overall), but 1976 proved to be his last season in major-league ball.

At the end of spring training with the Mariners in 1977, Barr was assigned to Omaha (American Association) and went 4-8 with a 6.17 ERA in 17 games before the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate Toledo, “obtained pitcher Steve Barr on loan from Seattle organization.”3 Researcher Wayne McElreavy pointed out that the story might be more unusual yet, in that Omaha was a Royals farm club. At the time, the nascent Mariners organization shared a number of minor-league clubs. Barr’s record with Toledo was 3-1 in eight games, with an even 4.00 ERA.

The Los Angeles Times of October 29, 1977, noted that Seattle had traded Barr to Cleveland for a player to be named later. Barr was invited to spring training in 1978 by the Indians, but spent the year with Portland, Cleveland’s team in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, going 11-7 in 28 games, with a 5.77 ERA.

After baseball Barr pursued electrical contracting and ran his own business in Florida for 18 years, Barr Electric. In the early 1990s, he pitched in a senior league organized at Boardwalk and Baseball near Orlando, and was throwing in the upper 80s, the best pitcher in the league. After he was struck in the thigh by a hard line drive, he worried that he might get more seriously injured and be unable to work, so he gave up baseball. Tobey Barr added, “My dad has had both hips replaced; he was up and down ladders quite often in the contracting field, but I suspect being a pitcher contributed as well – he had a very high leg kick. My dad is still in the electrical field. He enjoys fishing and riding his motorcycle.”4

Steve Barr died at the age of 72 on January 31, 2024.

Notes

Juan Jose Beniquez Torres was born on May 13, 1950 in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico and signed with the Red Sox at the tender age of 18. He made his major league debut as a shortstop only three years later, on September 4, 1971, coming in to play in the eighth inning and grounding out in the ninth. But he had a great game the next day, in his first major league start, batting 3-for-4 with two doubles and driving in two runs as the Red Sox beat the Indians, 8-1.

Beniquez played a lot of shortstop for the rest of 1971, alternating with incumbent Luis Aparicio, but he didn’t make the team out of spring training in 1972. He was called up in June when Aparicio was disabled due to a broken finger, and played daily until he set a modern major league record with six errors in two consecutive games in July of 1972 (making it a total of seven for three consecutive games). Aparicio returned in August, and Beniquez rode the bench for the rest of the season. He did play in the 1972 season finale that the Red Sox won, leaving them a scant 1/2 game behind the division winning Detroit Tigers.

Beniquez was slated as the Sox utilityman for 1973, but Mario Guerrero’s strong spring training won him the slot, and Beniquez was assigned to Pawtucket where he started off at shortstop but was ultimately moved to the outfield. He spent the entire 1973 season at Pawtucket refining his outfield play. Though hitting only .298, he led the International League in batting.

In 1974 Beniquez was the Red Sox center fielder on Opening Day, and ended up sharing the position with Rick Miller, playing 106 games (91 in center field), and batting .267. He normally hit first or second in the batting order, though he did not get on base very often for a player with such a role.

The 1975 Red Sox outfield was a logjam from the start. To incumbents Beniquez, Miller, Dwight Evans, and Bernie Carbo were added rookies Fred Lynn and Jim Rice. Despite this, Beniquez won a job in the spring, starting the first four games of the season (two in left field, two in center field) as the team’s leadoff hitter. With the emergence of Rice and Lynn early in the season, Juan soon found himself in a reserve role. Manager Darrell Johnson used his entire roster, so Beniquez played a total of 78 games, mostly in the outfield (44 games), but he also filled in at third base (14 games) and at designated hitter (20 games). Despite his limited playing time, Juan had a solid .291 batting average, but a mediocre .760 OPS, reflecting his meager two home runs on the year.

With Rice hurt and inactive, Beniquez batted leadoff in all three games of the 1975 ALCS sweep against the Oakland Athletics, as the DH. He went 2-for-4, scoring one run and driving in another in Game One. He singled in Rick Burleson in the seventh, then proceeded to steal second, then third base; he scored after Billy North muffed Denny Doyle’s sacrifice fly. He ended up hitting .250 for the series.

In the World Series, without the designated hitter in effect, he appeared in just three of the games. He was a surprise starter for Game Four, leading off and playing leftfield, as Yaz moved to first and Cecil Cooper was benched. He managed one single in that game, but was held hitless in three at-bats in Game Five. His final appearance was as a pinch-hitter for Rick Miller, leading off the bottom of the ninth in Game Seven, where he flied out to right field as the Sox failed to overtake the Reds for the final loss.

After the 1975 season, it was clear that Beniquez would not have a big role in the future of the team. Right or wrong, he had also acquired the tag of having an “attitude problem.” In November he was dealt, along with Steve Barr and a player to be named later (which proved to be Craig Skok), to the Texas Rangers for future Hall of Fame pitcher Fergie Jenkins. For Texas, he was the biggest part of the deal, and he became the regular center fielder in 1976. He was a prototypical “all glove, no hit” player, as he was rewarded with the Gold Glove for his center field play in 1977, but he hit only .269 with ten home runs and 26 stolen bases.

After three years starting with Texas, in the winter of 1978 he was part of a huge multi-player deal, in which Texas sent him, Mike Griffin, Greg Jemison, Paul Mirabella, and hot minor league lefthander Dave Righetti to the New York Yankees in exchange for Domingo Ramos, Mike Heath, Sparky Lyle, Larry McCall, Dave Rajsich, and cash. After appearing in only 62 games for the Yankees, he was dealt the following winter to the Seattle Mariners. After one year and 70 games for the Mariners, he was granted free agency and signed with the Angels.

After a couple of tough years in California (including hitting a mere .181 in 1981), Juan finally found the hitting stroke he had shown as a minor leaguer, hitting over .300 every year between 1983 and 1986, the last of which was for the Orioles. During that single year in Baltimore, he had one of the more unlikely three-home run games, as he hit fully half of his six home runs on June 12, in a losing cause against the Yankees.

Dealt to Kansas City in December 1986, and then to Toronto in July 1987, Beniquez hit just .251 combined for the season.

In January 1988 Beniquez (and six other players) were granted free agency by a judge who ruled that the owners had conspired to hold down players salaries after the 1985 season. He elected to remain with the Blue Jays, but was released after just 58 at bats in 1988. His career over, he held the record for having played for eight American League teams.

After parts of 17 years in the big leagues, an American League championship ring, a Gold Glove, and experiences all over the country, Juan Beniquez could retire with a lot to be proud of. But he was not through. In 1989 he hit .359 for the St. Lucie Legends of the short-lived Senior Professional Baseball Association. With that league’s demise the following season, he was finally through.

Last revised: July 1, 2017 

Sources

Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, BaseballLibrary.com.

On June 4, 1970, the Boston Red Sox selected the infielder-catcher – properly Timothy P. Blackwell – in the 13th round of the amateur draft. Red Sox scout Ray Boone signed him. Blackwell was assigned to Jamestown (New York-Penn League). In 28 games, he batted .235, with 10 RBIs, hit three doubles, and stole one base.

Blackwell opened 1971 with Greenville (Class A, Western Carolinas League) and became a full-time catcher during that season. The next year he moved to Winston-Salem (Advanced A, Carolina League). In 1973 the Red Sox promoted Blackwell to Double-A Bristol (Eastern League), where he batted .283. He tied for the league lead in double plays by a catcher with 12. Next stop on the farm club express was Boston’s Triple-A squad, the Pawtucket Red Sox (International League).

At 1:00 A.M. on June 29, 1974, Blackwell got a very early morning wake-up call in Norfolk, Virginia. The 21-year-old catcher learned that the Red Sox’ Carlton Fisk had injured his knee and was out for the season. Blackwell had 12 hours to get to Cleveland for a game against the Indians. “When Pawtucket manager Joe Morgan told me about it, I was dazed,” said Blackwell. “I never thought I would be going up to Boston this soon. After all, Carlton Fisk is one of the top catchers in the major leagues.”1 In fact, Pudge, a future Hall of Famer, topped Boston in home runs and runs batted in and was second to Red Sox captain Carl Yastrzemski with a .299 batting average when a collision at home plate terminated his year. As further evidence that Blackwell had not expected such a move, the young man had paid rent through August for his apartment in Cranston, Rhode Island.

With Fisk now gone and Red Sox pennant hopes in the balance, the team’s plan to fix the backstop gap was to have Blackwell alternate with veteran Bob Montgomery.

So on July 3, 1974, before 27,730 in Boston’s Fenway Park, Blackwell made his major-league debut against the AL East Division rival Baltimore Orioles. He caught right-hander Reggie Cleveland. In the bottom of the third, Blackwell beat out an infield single in his first plate appearance and ended up on second base when Orioles third baseman Enos Cabell made an error. He singled again in the bottom of the fourth. In the seventh, Blackwell grounded out to second, and in the ninth he flied out to center fielder Paul Blair. The final score was Baltimore 6, Boston 4.

In August Blackwell turned 22 and Dave Langworthy of The Christian Science Monitor wrote that for the Southern Californian, “(S)itting behind the plate for the Red Sox is like playing catch with his baseball card collection. Luis Tiant and Juan Marichal, the two veteran right-handers who have accounted for over one-third of all victories in 1974, were both already started on major-league careers when Tim was 11 years old. And the young catcher remembers asking for outfielder-designated hitter Tommy Harper’s autograph when Harper played for the Padres in Blackwell’s home town of San Diego.”

How did he feel about “The Show”? “Actually, handling pitchers in the majors is a little easier,” Blackwell said. “Most of them are veterans and they know what they can and can’t do in situations. They usually stay with what works.” Blackwell told Langworthy that the big difference was the hitters. “They’re so much more aggressive than in the minors,” he said. “It’s unbelievable. They go after every pitch in the strike zone all out. As a catcher I have to be extra careful about things like where my target is. It’s so easy to get burned.”

Boston manager Darrell Johnson, a former catcher himself, said, “I knew that Blackwell had the defensive fundamentals. He catches the ball well, he throws well, makes contact. He’s never going to hit for big power, but he can hit for some average. What has impressed me most is the way he studies hitters and the game. He asks question after question. When he first got up here I might have had to task him about his calls on a couple of batters an inning. Now, it’s maybe two for an entire game. And the fact that he throws so well had kept people from running on us.”2 Blackwell closed the year with a .246 batting average, 8 RBIs, and a .971 fielding percentage.

Fisk returned in 1975. As a reserve catcher with the American League pennant winners, Blackwell got into 59 games and raised his fielding percentage to match the league average of .984. Yet, he battled just .197.These totals punched him a return ticket to Rhode Island to play in the minors at the start of 1976.

On April 19, 1976, Boston sold Blackwell to the Philadelphia Phillies, who sent him to their Double-A club in Reading (Eastern League).

A little over a year later, on June 15, 1977, Blackwell and right-hander Wayne Twitchell were traded by the Phils to the Montreal Expos for catcher Barry Foote and southpaw Dan Warthen. At the close of the season he had swung a dismal .091 in just 17 major-league games, all but one of which came as a member of the Expos. On January 14, 1978, Montreal released him.

Blackwell signed with the Chicago Cubs a month later, on February 10. The Cubs assigned him to Triple-A Wichita (American Association), where he regained form, batting, what would be for him a minor-league career high of .293 with 33 RBIs. The 25-year-old old was brought up to the parent club in July 1978. He had 103 at-bats in 49 games, hitting at a .223 pace.

The following year, 1979, Blackwell accumulated 122 at-bats but batted only.164 for Chicago, though he had an on-base percentage of .338. But then in April 1980, emergency sirens went off for the Cubs. At the Cactus League’s close and before Opening Day it was evident that first-string catcher Barry Foote, down with back injuries, would be on the pine for some time. Cubs general manager Bob Kennedy saw Blackwell as the obvious replacement. Early on, under hitting coach Billy Williams’s keen tutelage, Blackwell restructured his swing. “It’s like starting from scratch,” he said. He was prompted by bullpen coach Gene Clines to be more aggressive at the plate. “I can hear (Clines) all the way from the bullpen. He could be in the upper deck and I’d hear him,” Blackwell said.3 Clines agreed that he was pretty loud – “I could be on Lake Shore Drive and you’d hear me.” The 27-year-old Blackwell responded with a banner year, appearing in 103 games, with 320 at-bats. He batted.272 with 30 RBIs and 16 doubles. Defensively, he led National League catchers in double plays with 16. In an article in the August 30, 1980, issue of The Sporting News, Joe Goddard noted, “Blackwell put the ball on second base as no Cubs catcher has since Randy Hundley.”

In the 1981 season Blackwell, in 58 games, had 158 at-bats and hit .234 with 11 RBIs but lost playing time with the emergence of rookie catcher Jody Davis, whom the Cubs viewed as their receiver of the future. Chicago granted Blackwell free agency on November 13, 1981. The San Diego native returned to the National League’s Great White North outpost when he signed a three-year guaranteed million-dollar contract deal with the Montreal Expos on January 14, 1982, to be the backup for All-Star catcher Gary Carter. In his final major-league game, on May 17, 1983, Blackwell was called upon to pinch-hit in the 14th inning. He flied out to right. (Montreal won the game, 3-2.) Fourteen days later, the Expos released him. As reported in the Ottawa Citizen, Blackwell commented, “I’m only 30 years old I’m not through yet.”

Indeed he was not. On June 20, 1983, Blackwell put his John Hancock on a California Angels contract. The Halos placed him at Triple-A Edmonton (Pacific Coast League) for the rest of the season. For the Edmonton Trappers, Blackwell had 192 at-bats and hit .245 with 24 RBIs.

After 1983 Blackwell took up coaching as a catching instructor and minor-league manager. In 1985 he piloted the Clinton Giants (Midwest League), a San Francisco Giants Class A affiliate, to a 71-69 record. For the Mets, he steered the 1989 Pittsfield club (New York-Penn League) to the playoffs and garnered Manager of the Year hardware. In 1990 Blackwell directed the Mets’ Florida State League club, St. Lucie, to the playoffs with a 76-58 record. The following season he managed Columbia (South Atlantic League) to an 86-54 overall finish and won the playoff championship.

Manager Blackwell caught the eye of the independent leagues and in 1994 Mike Veeck’s St. Paul Saints (Northern League) hired him as their field chief. The ’94 Saints were playoff champs. After two seasons in independent ball, Blackwell resumed managing in the affiliated minors, in the Baltimore, Colorado, Milwaukee, and White Sox systems.

In 1995, with the Baltimore-affiliated High Desert Mavericks (California League), Blackwell’s team finished 10th with a 46-94 record. Yet in 1996 the Orioles assigned him as the skipper for the Class A Frederick Keys (Carolina League) and in the course of the season moved him up to their Double-A Bowie Baysox (Eastern League) club.

In 1997 Blackwell piloted the Colorado Rockies’ Arizona League club to a 22-34 record for a sixth-place finish. The Rockies in 1998 placed him with their Double-A New Haven Ravens (Eastern League). Blackwell steered the Ravens from the circuit’s basement with a 59-83 record for a ninth-place finish.

Blackwell landed in the Milwaukee chain courtesy of his old Red Sox teammate, Cecil Cooper. In 2002 Cooper, then a special assistant to the Brewers’ GM. successfully lobbied for him. Blackwell took the reins of Milwaukee’s affiliate in Odgen (Pioneer League) and brought them to the 2002 playoffs. In 2003 Blackwell managed the Brewers’ Class A affiliate, the High Desert Mavericks (California League).The club closed out the year with a 10th-place ranking and 42-98 record.

Blackwell returned to independent baseball in 2006 as the pitching coach for the San Diego Surf Dawgs of the Golden Baseball League. On January 19, 2007, the league announced that Blackwell had been signed by the Chicago White Sox to manage the Class A Winston-Salem Warthogs (Carolina League) for the coming season. Blackwell directed the team to a 64-74 record which tied them for fifth place in the Carolina League.

In 2008 he managed the Warthogs to a winning 71-68 record and fourth-place finish. Winston-Salem made it to the league playoffs but lost in the first round.

A version of this biography appeared in “’75: The Red Sox Team That Saved Baseball” (Rounder Books, 2005; SABR, 2015), edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan.

Sources

Thorn, John, Pete Palmer, and Michael Gershman, with Matthew Silverman, Sean Lahman, and Greg Spira, Total Baseball, 7th Edition (Kingston, New York: Total Sports Publishing, 2001.)

Conversations with Cecil Cooper, June 8, 2005, Queens, New York, and John Kennedy, June 24, 2005, New Haven, Connecticut.

baseballlibrary.com.

mwlguide.com.

retrosheet.org.

thebaseballcube.com.

Notes

Bryant was offered a scholarship to play football at Georgia, and although his father wanted him to attend college, Don preferred baseball, and after listening to scouts from many teams, including Milwaukee, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh, his father agreed. Seventeen-year-old Donald Ray Bryant, a 6-foot-6 right-handed batter and thrower, signed with scout Bill Pierre of the Detroit Tigers in 1959. He felt fully prepared thanks to his high school coach, Don Cross, a former Giants minor leaguer, who was adamant about teaching the team fundamentals.1

Bryant had played first base in high school and on American Legion teams until one day, in need of a catcher, he volunteered and threw out three baserunners.2 Assigned to Detroit’s Class-D affiliate in Montgomery, Alabama, he was immediately struck by bad luck as he was hit in the right eye during infield practice, and for six months he could not see.3 For the next two years he battled in the low minors, moving from Montgomery to Decatur, keeping his batting average just above .200, while admittedly having trouble seeing the ball. Although his stock as a prospect may have dropped, he developed a reputation as a good game caller, including a perfect game in Decatur in 1962 by pitcher Vern Orndorff.

In 1962 Bryant had a healthy and productive year with Jamestown of the New York-Pennsylvania League, hitting .272 in 451 at-bats, and was rewarded with a promotion to Detroit’s Double-A affiliate in Knoxville. For the combined 1963 and ’64 seasons, he hit a respectable .260 in 427 at-bats. Bryant finished the 1964 season and began 1965 with Syracuse of the Triple-A International League. In midseason he was loaned to the Chicago Cubs’ Triple-A team in Salt Lake City and later recalled by Syracuse. After the season the Tigers traded him to the Cubs, who optioned him to Salt Lake City. Overall, it was a disappointing season, with Bryant batting under.200 between Syracuse and Salt Lake City.

In Tacoma of the Pacific Coast League, Chicago’s new Triple-A affiliate, for the 1966 season, Bryant started to impress. He threw out 10 of the first 14 would-be base stealers and batted .313 with an OPS (on-base average plus slugging average) of .869 in 80 games. In July the Cubs brough him up and the 24-year-old Bryant was finally in the big leagues after seven minor-league seasons. He was encouraged by his manager, Les Peden, who told him that “only the best play in the big leagues and now you’re one of them.”4 A barber in the offseason, he was missed by his teammates in Tacoma not only for his baseball skills but because he had been cutting their hair since spring training. Bryant would now bring his barbering skills to the Cubs.

But Bryant would see little playing time. After he was called up, manager Leo Durocher told him that Randy Hundley was going to break the record for games caught by a rookie.5 Bryant appeared in only 13 games for the Cubs, hitting .308 in 26 at-bats.

After a successful stint playing winter ball in Venezuela, where he was among the leading batters with a .322 average, Bryant reported to the Cubs at Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1967 as one of five catchers on the roster, including Dick Bertell, who was a sentimental favorite to make a comeback with the Cubs. Bryant was subsequently traded to the San Francisco Giants to complete the deal for Bertell. He was optioned to Phoenix of the Pacific Coast League, where he had an all-star season, hitting .292 with 7 home runs, 7 triples, and 57 RBIs in 442 at-bats, winning the team’s most-valuable-player award and a place on the Giants’ 40-man roster.

In 1968, after another solid season in the Venezuelan winter league, Bryant was optimistic going into spring training, but he was reassigned to the minor-league camp. Illness and injury took its toll in a lost 1968 season; after playing in only 46 games he was lost for the season after breaking a bone in his hand. Yet again Bryant played winter ball in Venezuela with hopes of making the Giants in 1969, but the Houston Astros, in need of a backup catcher, drafted him at the winter meetings. Mel McGaha, Houston’s first-base coach, was, not coincidentally, Don’s manager in Venezuela.

On May 1, 1969, after seeing little playing time with the Astros, Bryant was inserted into the starting lineup because primary catcher John Edwards was in a terrible slump. Don Wilson pitched a no-hitter that day with Bryant credited with calling a great game. Bryant added to the drama during the game by dropping a foul ball off the bat of Pete Rose late in the game. “The best hitter in the National League and I’d given him another chance to break up the no-hitter,” Bryant said after the game.6 Wilson rewarded his catcher with a watch to commemorate the no-hitter. The Astros followed the no-hit game with 3-1 and 4-3 victories, with Bryant contributing a home run in the latter game. Astros pitcher Larry Dierker quipped, “If he keeps this up, I’ll go better than a watch.”7

For the second time in two years, Bryant was selected in the major-league draft during the offseason ? this time by the Seattle Pilots, but he was later returned to Houston. Respected for his game-calling skill and ability to judge talent, he was asked to go to the Astros’ Double-A affiliate in Columbus (Southern League) to work with pitching prospects, including future major leaguers Ken Forsch and Larry Yount. He was recalled by Houston in May but played only sparingly until he was sent to Oklahoma City in August. He finished the year with a .208 average in 15 games with Houston.

In the offseason Bryant was purchased by the Red Sox and assigned to Louisville, where he began a friendship and professional association with manager Darrell Johnson. He joined past and future Red Sox favorites such as Jim Lonborg, Dwight Evans, Carlton Fisk, Cecil Cooper, and others over the next two years before assuming an additional role as a player-coach when the Triple-A team relocated from Louisville to Pawtucket. When Johnson asked him to coach, Bryant said he still wanted to play. Johnson bluntly told him that his playing days were numbered, but Johnson said that if he landed a big-league manager’s job he would have a coaching job for Don on his staff.8

Johnson valued Bryant’s opinion on young players, which no doubt contributed to the invitation to join his coaching staff. In 1971 Bryant was asked about Carlton Fisk. The plan was for Fisk to go back to Double-A after spring training, but Bryant thought that he was a solid receiver with a good arm and a strong bat. Johnson called Boston and asked to keep Fisk in Triple-A.9 Bryant also managed the Pawtucket Red Sox to a 6-2 record in 1973 after Johnson left following the death of his father, a season in which the Pawtucket Red Sox won the Junior World Series.

As a player, Bryant was used sparingly in Louisville and Pawtucket, appearing in 111 games over three seasons with a combined .227 batting average in 291 at-bats. Overall, his minor-league career spanned 13 seasons, and included 871 games, 3,008 plate appearances, and a .250 batting average.

In 1974 Darrell Johnson was promoted to manager of the Boston Red Sox and, true to his word, he invited Bryant to follow as bullpen coach. Aside from the job’s usual duties, Bryant often pitched batting practice. He helped Doug Griffin overcome anxiety after a Nolan Ryan beaning by purposely knocking him down during BP.10 On his first game back after the beaning, Griffin doubled and scored the winning run for the Red Sox.

The magical 1975 season and the heartbreaking (for Red Sox fans) World Series loss are well known. Bryant is proud to have been a part of the 1975 Red Sox team and especially of helping develop the great talents such as Fisk, Rice, Evans, Burleson, and Lynn who came up through the organization. When it was clear that the Red Sox needed a new second baseman because of Doug Griffin’s back problems, Bryant advocated for Denny Doyle even though the other coaches favored Tommy Helms.11 The organization listened and on June 14 the club traded to acquire Doyle from the California Angels. Bryant thought that Doyle was the missing piece to a great team.

After the ’76 season, which saw the Red Sox finish third in the division, Darrell Johnson was fired and Bryant followed him to the expansion Seattle Mariners. They both remained in Seattle until 1980, when Johnson was fired in midseason.

Bryant was hopeful for another coaching opportunity, but it didn’t materialize. Throughout his career during the offseason, he would return home and work in his father’s barbershop in St. Johns County, near Jacksonville. This time he returned home and took over his father’s shop. As of 2014 Bryant has been married for 38 years to his third wife, Judi. He thinks he got it right the third time, “If I messed up this time I’d be out – three strikes and you’re out.”12 He has a son and daughter by his second wife, Darren, born in June 1967, and Wendy born in October 1969. He also has a stepson, Darryl Taylor, following his marriage to Judi.

In 2014 Don retired from barbering. He passed away at Shands Hospital in Gainesville on January 22, 2015 at age 73 following a brief illness. He will be remembered as a quiet, kind-hearted man who stood tall, both on and off the field.

A version of this biography appeared in “’75: The Red Sox Team That Saved Baseball” (Rounder Books, 2005; SABR, 2015), edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan.

Notes

Richard Paul Burleson was born on April 29, 1951 in Lynwood, California. He was selected by the Boston Red Sox in the first round of the 1970 amateur draft, with the fifth overall pick, during the January secondary phase. He played for the Winter Haven Red Sox in the Florida State League (Single-A) in 1970, and split 1971 between two other Class A teams – the Greenville Red Sox (Western Carolinas League) and the Winston-Salem Red Sox (Carolina League). Rick moved up to the Pawtucket Red Sox in the Eastern League (Double-A) for the 1972 season. [1] Burleson made the Eastern League All-Star team while at Pawtucket; the all-star game was scheduled to be played on July 13, 1972 at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but was rained out. [2]

In 1973 Burleson went to spring training with the Red Sox, but was optioned prior to the season to Pawtucket, the Red Sox Class AAA farm club. [3] Burleson’s manager at Pawtucket was Darrell Johnson, who became manager of the parent Red Sox in 1974, and one of his teammates was Cecil Cooper, a stalwart on the 1975 Red Sox World Series team. Burleson’s fielding prowess, as a second baseman, was a vital part of teammate Dick Pole’s seven inning no-hitter pitched on June 24 against the Peninsula Whips. [4] Burleson led the league in games played.

The Pawtucket club finished second to the Rochester Red Wings during the regular season, but in the playoffs they dispatched the Tidewater Tides and Charleston Charlies to win the International League championship Governors’ Cup. This victory qualified them to meet the winner of the American Association championship, the Tulsa Oilers, for the Junior World Series title. In a best-of-seven series, the Pawtucket team defeated the Oilers to win the championship. In Game 2, Burleson drove in four runs with two singles and a two-run homer. In the third game, he had the game-winning hit, and in Games 4 and 5, he played a key role offensively. [5]

By spring training of 1974, it was apparent that Burleson was ready to make his move up to the parent club. Darrell Johnson, now the manager of the Red Sox, termed him “one winnin’ sonavagun.” [6] During the winter, Rick played in Venezuela for the veteran Luis Aparicio, who, along with Mario Guerrero, represented his main competition to win the starting shortstop job. In a prophetic moment before spring training, Burleson said “if they let me get the work in spring training, I’ll be the shortstop.” On March 26, Aparicio was released, reducing the competition to Burleson and Guerrero. It was announced that the two would alternate at shortstop and “get into 110 games apiece”. [7] Guerrero won the job outright, though, while Burleson was sent to Pawtucket so that he would able to play every day. [8]

While at Pawtucket, Burleson played well enough to earn a call up to Boston. In his first game, May 4, the Rooster committed three errors in a 1-0 loss to Texas, tying an American League record for errors for a player in his major league debut. [9] Unfazed by his inauspicious debut, Rick followed up by hitting a three-run homer in the second game of a doubleheader against the Rangers the following night. After an injury to second baseman Doug Griffin, Burleson got more playing time, platooning with Dick McAuliffe at second, and, by mid-July, when Griffin returned, Johnson felt confident enough in the Rooster’s .306 batting average to play Burleson full-time at shortstop. [10] By August, in the middle of a pennant race, Burleson had earned the admiration of teammates and coaches. Coach Don Zimmer remarked, “He hits pretty well because he hits like he plays. He’s a little bulldog up there.” [11]

The 1974 season ended in disappointment for the Red Sox, as they collapsed during the September pennant race. However, Burleson hit .284 for the season, playing in 114 games, earning the club’s rookie of the year award. He finished second to Bucky Dent for the shortstop nod on the Topps major league rookie all-star team. Yet, despite his rookie success, it was felt by some people in the Boston organization that, because of Burleson’s average range at shortstop, the Red Sox should deal for a veteran, established shortstop, such as Freddie Patek of the Kansas City Royals or Eddie Brinkman of the Detroit Tigers, so that Burleson could be moved to second. [12]

As spring training of 1975 approached, Burleson expressed a desire to play shortstop, although he felt that as long as he played, he would be happy at short or second and batting anywhere in the lineup. By the end of May, though, Burleson was firmly in place as the Red Sox starting shortstop. [13] His fielding was consistently good, and he was learning how to play hitters better. As the 1975 season progressed, Burleson, at shortstop, along with Denny Doyle, acquired from California, at second base, formed a slick-fielding double play combination. In addition, his hitting earned him the second spot in the batting order.

The Red Sox clinched the American League East title by 4 ½ games over the Baltimore Orioles. In the ALCS, their opponents were the Oakland Athletics, the three-time defending world champions. The Athletics were the favorites and featured an All-Star batting order including Reggie Jackson and Joe Rudi and a pitching staff led by Vida Blue and Ken Holtzman, with Rollie Fingers in the bullpen. The Red Sox swept the Athletics in three games.

If the series against the Athletics had loomed as difficult for the Red Sox, then the World Series looked to present insurmountable odds. The Cincinnati Reds, also known as The Big Red Machine, came into the 1975 World Series as the overwhelming favorite, based upon their powerful lineup, with 108 wins and only 54 losses. After an extremely competitive World Series, the Red Sox lost to the Reds in seven games. The final batting line for Burleson in the 1975 World Series was 7-for-24, a .292 average, with a double and two runs batted in.

Good things seemed to be on the horizon for both Burleson and the Red Sox in 1976, as outfielders Fred Lynn and Jim Rice had established themselves as young sluggers. Yastrzemski, Evans and Petrocelli were returning veterans, and Burleson, Fisk, and Doyle gave the Red Sox a hustling, aggressive presence up the middle. Lynn, Fisk and Burleson all had contract disputes, however, heading into the season, which ended up as a disappointing one for the Red Sox, with manager Darrell Johnson being replaced at mid-season by Don Zimmer, and the Yankees replacing them as A.L. East champions.

In 1977, the Red Sox presented a lineup that emphasized hitting the long ball. During a 10-game homestand in mid-June, the Sox hit 26 home runs. [14] Burleson had a 13-game hitting streak in April and May and, by the beginning of June, was hitting .341, as well as providing steady infield defense complimented by his rocket arm. This performance earned the Rooster a starting berth on the 1977 American League All-Star team, along with teammates Carlton Fisk and Carl Yastrzemski. [15]

The potent batting order returned for the 1978 season, but Burleson started slowly, and was hitting only .194 after 35 games. However, after getting untracked, Burleson finished third in the shortstop voting for the American League All-Star team, and he was chosen as an alternate. An injury forced Burleson out of the Red Sox lineup until mid-August and a once seemingly insurmountable Red Sox lead of nine games in the American League East had been reduced to 5.5 games by the beginning of August. Burleson’s worth to the team became apparent when he immediately went on a 17-game hitting streak upon his return. [16]

Still, the Red Sox led the Yankees by four games entering a September series at Fenway Park. [17] In the four-game set, the Bronx Bombers destroyed the Red Sox in all phases of the game, sweeping a series that became known as The Boston Massacre. In typical Burleson fashion after the debacle, he made no excuses saying that the Yankees were just better than the Red Sox and that it was now a 20-game race to the finish. The Red Sox and the Yankees finished in a tie for the American League East title to force a one-game playoff on October 2. Burleson was involved in a strange sequence in the ninth inning when, with the score 5-4 with one out, he walked. The next batter, Remy, then hit a line drive into right field. The Yankee right fielder, Lou Piniella, stabbed at the ball and guessed correctly which froze Burleson for a split second and kept him at second base. The next batter, Jim Rice, advanced Burleson to third with a fly ball, but he was stranded there when Carl Yastrzemski popped out to end the game. [18] Burleson batted .248 for the season in 145 games, and it was clear that his absence during July and August was the difference that swung the balance towards the Yankees in the tight battle for the division title.

After a vigorous off-season training program with teammate Lynn, Burleson and the Red Sox began 1979 with high hopes. The fiery side of Burleson’s personality was shown on May 16th when he was ejected and suspended for three games after he bumped an umpire while disputing a strike call. On June 4, Burleson hit the first grand slam home run of his major league career in a Red Sox win over the Rangers. [19] Despite a season which was disappointing for the Red Sox because of injuries and lack of key run production, Burleson again made the All-Star team for the American League. After the season, Burleson was awarded a Gold Glove for his fielding prowess and received the Thomas A. Yawkey Award as the team’s most valuable player. [20]

Burleson arrived early to spring training in 1980, but soon began to suffer from a sore shoulder. Additionally, the contract he signed in 1976 after so much rancor was coming to an end. In May, his frustrations with the team in his contract negotiations became apparent; as he told the club to trade him and that he would not play without a contract in 1981. At the end of May, Burleson had a torrid batting streak, raising his average from .203 to .277 in a six-week period, batting in both the leadoff and second spots in the lineup. He had also played in every one of Boston’s games through August 26th and led the team in putouts, assists, chances and double plays. He was quoted as saying that he would test the free agent market if the club did not sign him by the winter meetings. [21] Haywood Sullivan said that if he did not know that he could sign Burleson by World Series time, then he would trade him to avoid any more disruption to the team. The Sox were offering about $2.1 million over six years, while Burleson was asking for about twice that amount. Adding to the confusion in Boston was the fact that Lynn and Fisk were in similar contractual situations with management. Finally, on December 10, the Red Sox traded Burleson and Hobson to the California Angels for infielder Carney Lansford, pitcher Mark Clear, and outfielder Rick Miller. Prior to a grievance hearing regarding some contractual issues, Burleson agreed to a lucrative six-year, $4.65 million deal which made him the highest paid shortstop in baseball history.

Burleson got off to a great start in 1981, but in May manager Jim Fregosi was fired and replaced by Gene Mauch. After a mid-season strike by the players’ union, the Angels, in the so-called second season, failed miserably, at one point, losing 14 of 15 games. As usual, Burleson led by example, batting in the .300s, but, despite the trades before the season, the Angels did not qualify for the playoffs. For his efforts, Burleson was named to The Sporting News American League All-Star team, batting .293 in 109 games, and also was named the Angels’ Most Valuable Player for the season.

At the start of the 1982 season, Burleson suffered a rotator cuff injury to his right shoulder, effectively ending his season and putting his career in jeopardy. Ironically, the week before his injury, the Rooster had set a record for the most assists by a shortstop in a game. After undergoing surgery, Burleson vowed that he would do all that he could to return. But, as of November, seven months after his surgery, he had yet to pick up a ball. Part of the problem was that some of his shoulder muscles had atrophied and needed to be strengthened.

Even the usually optimistic Burleson questioned whether or not he would be able to be in the 1983 Opening Day lineup. At the beginning of spring training, Burleson felt that he was throwing at “about 45 percent.”, and had every intention of being an integral part of the team, whether he was a starter or a utility player. New manager John McNamara expressed confidence in Burleson’s return, noting that “if he’s OK, he’s our shortstop”. Peter Gammons wrote, “One thing to remember. Never bet against Rick Burleson.” Burleson went to Edmonton, the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate to get back into playing shape. . The determination and perseverance of Burleson paid off handsomely, as he returned to the Angels’ active roster and had two or more hits in each of his first seven games, while making only one error. Despite Burleson’s heroics, the Angels floundered due to a combination of poor play and injuries. Although Burleson went back on the 15-day disabled list due to stiffness in his right shoulder, he batted .286 in 33 games.

Entering spring training in 1984, the jury was still out on how much Burleson could contribute to the Angels’ cause. In order to compensate for his shoulder, Burleson tried to change his manner of playing, by positioning himself differently in order to reduce the lengths of his throws. The discovery of another tear in his right shoulder, however, dealt a serious blow to his comeback as a shortstop, although returning as a second baseman was still a possibility. He returned to the Angels’ roster in September, but only to be used as a pinch-hitter and pinch-runner. Even in his limited role, Burleson proved to be feisty, criticizing management for failing to make moves that would keep the team in contention.

.In the off-season, Burleson slipped and dislocated his shoulder while lifting weights, causing nerve damage in his arm, and cost him the entire 1985 season. Undaunted, Burleson continued his rehabilitation, trying to return and reward the patience that the Angels had shown in him. Working with Dr. Arthur Pappas, he progressed to a point where, in 1986, he attempted in the final year of his six-year contract to come back as a second baseman. By March 9, he was able to play at second, attempting a relay throw from short center field in an exhibition game, with no ill effects. Burleson began the regular season hitting .318 for the first week, and played second, third and shortstop. Eventually, Dick Schofield, who had taken over as regular shortstop by 1984, returned to the lineup, taking Burleson out of the field and relegating him to designated hitter duties against lefthanders. Still, Burleson continued to make his presence known in the clubhouse and on the field when called upon, mostly as a late-inning substitute in the field. In the playoff series against his former team, the Red Sox, Burleson batted .273, hitting 3-for-11 while appearing in four games. Burleson’s performance earned him the American League Comeback Player of the Year award for 1986.

Burleson became a free agent and signed with the Baltimore Orioles on January 7, 1987, but was released on July 11th after playing 55 games at second base and seven games as a designated hitter. He’d batted just .209. It was the end of his 13 seasons of major league ball.

By 1989, Burleson had embarked upon a managerial career, becoming a part-time instructor in the Oakland Athletics system, a scout for the A’s in 1990, and then, in 1991, full-time batting instructor under manager Tony LaRussa. After the 1991 season, he left the A’s and took the batting coach job with the Red Sox under former teammate Butch Hobson. Former Red Sox manager Don Zimmer was third base coach, though Burleson replaced Zimmer there at midseason, when Zimmer became Hobson’s bench coach. Burleson continued as third-base coach for the 1993 season.

Burleson was the Angels’ third-base coach and base running in 1995 and 1996. He made his managerial debut in 1997 with Seattle’s Lancaster affiliate (California League), and the Jet Hawks went 75-66 in his inaugural season, improving to 78-62 in 1998, each year advancing to the league playoffs. Burleson joined the Dodgers’ organization in 1999, leading San Bernardino to an 80-61 record and the California League Championship. He was promoted to Double-A San Antonio (Texas) in 2000 and led the club to a 64-76 mark – the only sub-.500 record of his career. Burleson guided the Billings (Montana) Mustangs in 2001, 2002, and the first half of the 2003 season, where he compiled a 108-80 (.574) record, and helped the Mustangs to a pair of Pioneer League Championships (2001, 2003). He was promoted to manager of the Louisville River Bats for the second half of the 2003 season and the 2004 season. While, at Louisville, Burleson gave an insight into his managerial philosophy in an interview with Rick Bozich of the Louisville Courier-Journal: “When a guy needs a kick in the butt, he’s going to get it. And when he needs a pat on the back, he’s going to get that, too.” Burleson does not believe in an exceptional number of rules for his players, “except requiring them to be prepared and on time, avoiding mental mistakes, and playing hard. He was reassigned to the Billings Mustangs for the 2005 season.

Burleson’s reputation as a hard-nosed, aggressive player can be supported statistically, especially in the years 1975-1980, when he averaged over 150 games and over 600 at-bats per season, despite an ailing shoulder. His clutch performances in 1975 against Oakland, batting .500, and Cincinnati, batting .292, provided the spark for the Red Sox that almost broke their long championship drought. But perhaps the greatest compliment that has been given to Rick Burleson came from teammate Jerry Remy, when Remy was asked to read the starting lineup that day for a network broadcast. When he got to Burleson’s name, he said, “Batting second, the heart and soul of the Boston Red Sox, Rick Burleson.” To Red Sox fans of the 1970s, no better words could describe his contributions to those teams.

A version of this biography appeared in “’75: The Red Sox Team That Saved Baseball” (Rounder Books, 2005; SABR, 2015), edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan.

Notes

[1] “Class A Reports”, The Sporting News, May 23, 1970, p. 48.

[2] “Klein, Demeter Skipper Eastern All-Star Squads”, The Sporting News, July 22, 1972, p. 39. Regarding the rainout, see The Sporting News, July 29, 1972, p. 51.

[3] Deals of the Week, The Sporting News, April 7, 1973, p. 45.

[4] Trobennan, Bill, “Pawtucket’s Pole Speeds Progress With No-Hitter”, The Sporting News, July 7, 1973, p.36.

[5] Trobennan, Bill, “Pawtucket Defeats Tulsa for Series Crown”, The Sporting News, October 6, 1973, p.29.

[6] Gammons, Peter, “Hustling Burleson… New Red Sox SS?”, The Sporting News, March 2. 1974, p.18.

[7] Gammons, Peter, “Boston Massacre Throws Big Burden on Youth”, The Sporting News, April 13, 1974, p. 17.

[8] Gammons, Peter, “Transplanted Beniquez: Bosox Surprise”, The Sporting News, April 20, 1974, p. 4.

[9] A.L. Flashes, The Sporting News, May 25, 1974, p.28.

[10] Gammons, Peter, “Bosox Hitch Picnic Pants to Bernie’s Belt”, The Sporting News, June 24, 1974, p. 7.

[11] Gammons, Peter, “Rooster Giving Red Sox Plenty to Crow About”, The Sporting News, August 10, 1974, p. 23.

[12] Gammons, Peter, “Burleson Sure of Playing, But Where?”, The Sporting News, February 22, 1975, p.45. The Topps team designation appears in The Sporting News, November 16, 1974.

[13] Gammons, Peter, “Burleson Flicks On Stars in Bosox Eyes”, The Sporting News, May 31, 1975, p.8.

[14] “Boston Bomb Squad Makes Shambles of Homer Marks”, The Sporting News, July 2, 1977, p. 30.

[15] Kahan, Oscar, “Record Vote for Carew, Garvey as All Stars”, The Sporting News, July 23, 1977, p. 47.

[16] Whiteside, Larry, “Busiest Bosox Starter Torrez Loves Work”, The Sporting News, August 26, 1978, p. 12.

[17] Whiteside, Larry, “Remy is Mr. Consistency for Rollicking Red Sox”, The Sporting News, September 2, 1978, p. 24.

[18] Pepe, Phil, “Little Bucky is Yanks’ Mr. Big in Clutch”, The Sporting News, October 14, 1978, p. 23.

[19] Whiteside, Larry, “Red Sox Refuse to Worry After Yanks’ Blanks”, The Sporting News, June 2, 1979, p. 19.

[20] Giuliotti, Joe, “Bosox Collapse Dims Rice’s Swat Feats”, The Sporting News, October 6, 1979, p.9.

[21] Giuliotti, Joe, “Burleson Dares Bosox:’Go Ahead, Trade Me'”, The Sporting News, May 31, 1980, p. 32.

Sources

Adelman, Tom, The Long Ball, Back Bay Books/Little Brown and Company, 2003.

Lee, Bill and Lally, Dick, The Wrong Stuff, Viking Press, 1984.

Zimmer, Don and Madden, Bill, Zim: A Baseball Life, Total Sports Publishing, 2001.

Perfect execution usually equals success in baseball. For Jim Burton, one slider that dipped low and away sent him into the pantheon of World Series goats.

Jim Scott Burton was born to Hubert and Alyce Burton on October 27, 1949, in Royal Oak, Michigan, a suburb 15 miles north of Detroit. Hubert Burton was a plant supervisor when Jim was born. He later owned a tool and die business. Growing up in Michigan with two brothers, Robert and Jeffrey, Burton enjoyed playing team sports, particularly baseball in the summer and hockey in the winter, as well as hunting and trapping. He developed his arm strength by pitching a lot when he was young, though it was not his plan to become a major-league baseball player one day.

The young lefty won championships in Little League, Youth League, and American Legion. When his Detroit Federation team won the All-American Baseball Association tournament in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1969, Burton won recognition as the team’s most valuable player.

Burton was awarded six letters in football and basketball while attending Rochester High School in Rochester Hills, Michigan. But scouts began to take notice of Burton’s baseball ability and his hometown Detroit Tigers chose him with their 26th-round pick in the 1967 amateur draft. Still not envisioning a baseball career for himself, Burton declined the Tigers’ offer and enrolled in the University of Michigan. While playing in Ann Arbor, Burton shattered records and advanced from a middle-round pick to the head of the class.

By the end of his college career, Burton had struck out 288 batters in 228 innings, shattering the previous Wolverines record. He tossed a no-hitter against the University of Wisconsin in 1971, the first one thrown by a Michigan pitcher in 88 years. Burton graduated in 1971.

One of the biggest winners in college baseball in his senior year with a Michigan-record 1.48 earned-run average, Burton was named to The Sporting News’ 1971 All-American baseball team along with Ohio University’s Mike Schmidt and Burt Hooton of the University of Texas. With his record-breaking college career coming to a close, Burton was a highly-regarded prospect. The Boston Red Sox chose the Michigan hurler in the first round (fifth overall) in the 1971 secondary draft.

Burton kicked off his professional career later that month, pitching for Pawtucket (then of the Double-A Eastern League), throwing a three-hitter against Quebec City in a 7-0 victory. He retired the first 15 batters before issuing his only walk of the game. Burton kept his no-hitter into the seventh inning. He became a feared pitcher in the Eastern League, shutting down offenses and being called “Pawtucket’s prize southpaw” by The Sporting News.1

Burton’s scoreless streak stretched to 25 innings before Andre Thornton of Reading hit a two-run home run off a hanging curveball in the eighth inning to beat Burton and Pawtucket, 3-1, on July 5. Burton was undeterred and continued blazing a scorching path through the league for a team that sat near the bottom of the Eastern League. He finished the season 7-5. “I feel now like I’m starting to make progress,” Burton told The Sporting News.2

Burton remained in Pawtucket in 1972 and made the Eastern League All-Star team along with teammate Rick Burleson. He was the first Eastern League hurler to win 10 games and was rewarded in August with a call-up to Louisville of the Triple-A International League. While Pawtucket struggled at the bottom of the league, the Louisville club was fighting for a pennant. In his first start, Burton shut down Syracuse as Dwight Evans slugged his sixth home run in a month to give the Colonels a 6-1 win.

Though Burton was playing for a better team, the improved talent in the International League slowed the 6-foot-3-inch pitcher’s progress. Burton was 2-4 with a 4.78 ERA in six appearances for Louisville, which topped the circuit. After a stint in the Florida Instructional League, Burton’s 1973 campaign further delayed his rise in the Red Sox system. He played out the full year in Double-A and struggled with back injuries, compiling a 4-11 record with an ERA of more than five runs per nine innings. He gave up more walks than strikeouts and more hits than innings pitched.

After a slow start in 1974 with Pawtucket (now the Red Sox’ Triple-A affiliate), Burton resurrected his career, throwing a two-hitter and striking out 18 against Charleston in June. In Pawtucket, Burton was known as much for his community service as for his slider. Before an August game against Syracuse, the Big Brothers Association of Rhode Island honored Burton along with pitchers Craig Skok and Rick Kreuger and player-coach Tony Torchia. Frank Lanning, sports cartoonist for the Providence Journal-Bulletin, said, “These young men are just passing through this community, but whatever their athletic future, their sense of civic responsibilities will make them assets wherever they live.”3

The Pawtucket team suffered from a bipolar offense, even though it sported future superstars Fred Lynn and Jim Rice. The team led the league in home runs, but finished sixth (of eight teams) in runs. Burton’s final record in 1974 (7-13) did not impress, but his comeback in the second half placed him back into the major-league club’s future plans.

After pitching for Arecibo in Puerto Rico during the winter, Burton went to spring training with a chance to make the 1975 Red Sox. The baseball fields of Winter Haven, Florida, were an exciting place in the spring of ’75. The two young rookies Rice and Lynn showed promise and the Red Sox already enjoyed an experienced team that had recently fallen just short of the pennant.

Though the team was loaded both with offensive pop and experienced starters, the bullpen needed help and the team watched their young arms closely. Burton’s hopes of making the team were quickly squelched when he was sent to the minor-league camp in March. While playing for manager Joe Morgan in Pawtucket, Burton continued to advance. After six starts, he was among the league leaders in ERA (1.24). His injury problems seemed behind him and he told The Sporting News in May that he was effectively using the corners of the plate. “If I make a mistake, I want it to be called a ball. I don’t want to make mistakes over the plate,” Burton said.4

Burton’s wildness, which had been primarily responsible for keeping him out of the major leagues, seemed a thing of the past. He struck out more than double the number of men he walked. While Burton prepared for his June 8 start against Tidewater, Boston reporters wrote about the young lefty in Pawtucket. His recall seemed imminent.

“Sure it was disappointing,” Burton told The Sporting News about the wait. “But a lot of times things appear in the newspapers that don’t quite work out that way, so I just began to accept it. But with the way I’m pitching, I’m sure I’ll make it up there. It’s just not going to happen that quickly.”5

Burton was wrong. It would happen immediately after his masterpiece against the Tides. The lefty needed only 100 pitches to no-hit the Mets’ farm club. Only twice did he even go to a 3-and-2 count, showing his newfound control. For nine innings Burton kept the Tides guessing. Mixing his pitches well, Burton struck out ten before just 600 fans at McCoy Stadium in a game that took one hour and 45 minutes. The only baserunner was shortstop Mark DeJohn, whom Burton hit with a pitch in the fourth. The Sporting News reported that the Pawtucket twirler had “mastered the art of nibbling at the corners of the plate.” After the game, Burton said, “I feel like I’m ready to pitch in the big leagues. I have a good idea of what I’m doing out there on the mound and I feel like my concentration is better now.”6

Burton’s success was not lost on the Red Sox, who called him up the next day to fortify their pitching corps. After a one-two-three appearance as a reliever against Texas at Fenway Park on June 10, manager Darrell Johnson gave Burton his first start on June 12, and he lost to the Chicago White Sox, giving up six runs in 5⅓ innings. In another start four days later, he excelled while pitching 9⅓ innings against Detroit. Taking on another lefty, Mickey Lolich, Burton surrendered six hits and two runs in a game the Sox won 6-2 in 12 innings.

Burton was hammered in a June 23 start against Cleveland and didn’t get out of the first inning. He picked up a victory in relief on July 11 and got one more start, in August (a no-decision), but was otherwise used exclusively out of the bullpen the rest of the year. Burton shined as a reliever. In 25 relief appearances, his ERA was 2.58. His strikeout-to-walk ratio was almost three to one out of the bullpen. He gave up more hits than innings pitched, but the young hurler wriggled out of trouble because of his newfound control and pitch selection.

The Red Sox players understood Burton’s importance, later voting him a full World Series share. After the Red Sox swept the powerhouse Oakland A’s without Burton ever throwing a pitch in the American League Championship Series, they took on the Cincinnati Reds.

Burton remained in the bullpen for the first two games, in Boston, but hurled in Game Three, more than three weeks after the last time he had pitched. He threw to two batters, Ken Griffey and Joe Morgan, after relieving Rick Wise in the fifth. He walked Griffey and Morgan hit a sacrifice fly. With that, Johnson yanked the lefty for Reggie Cleveland. Burton did not pitch in Games Four, Five, and the historic Game Six (Carlton Fisk’s dramatic home run), but the lefty reliever was summoned in Game Seven.

With the game tied in the top of the ninth and Jim Willoughby having been lifted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the eighth, Darrell Johnson chose the only lefty remaining in the bullpen, Burton, rather than stopper Dick Drago. Drago had thrown three innings in Game Six. Johnson saw the left-handed Ken Griffey and Cesar Geronimo, the first two hitters of the inning, and decided to play the lefty-versus-lefty percentages rather than go with Drago.

In Doug Hornig’s book The Boys of October, Burton relayed his feelings warming up in the Fenway Park bullpen. “Warming up, my whole body went numb. It was surreal, like an out-of-body experience. In those days, they’d send a golf cart to bring you in, and when it came for me, I knew I couldn’t ride in it. I had to trot in from the bullpen just to feel my feet on the ground. Otherwise, I might have floated away.”7

Burton’s arm was stiff and sore from cold and inactivity. “I wasn’t ready. I’d hardly pitched all the previous month. I was rusty. When I was warming up, I couldn’t get loose. I could tell I didn’t have anything,” he said.8 The two batters he faced in the third game represented his only work in 33 days, since September 20.

Feeling nervous and rusty is not the prescription for success and Burton promptly walked the leadoff man, Griffey. Expecting a bunt and trying to keep Griffey close, Burton threw over to first. When he finally delivered to Geronimo, the center fielder sacrificed Griffey to second. Dan Driessen grounded to second for the second out, sending Griffey to third. With the switch-hitting Pete Rose up next, Johnson visited the mound and advised Burton to keep the ball away from Charlie Hustle. Burton gave Rose a diet of curveballs that remained outside the strike zone and the Red ran down to first base with a base on balls.

With runners on first and third and two outs, Burton’s job did not get easier. Up stepped Joe Morgan, who would be named the 1975 National League Most Valuable Player. Morgan recalled in his book Joe Morgan: A Life in Baseball that he was working with Lew Fonseca on keeping his weight back as long as possible on breaking balls. With a 1-and-2 count, Burton and catcher Carlton Fisk decided on a late-breaking slider low and outside. The pitch was where Burton wanted it – a pitcher’s pitch. Against most players, the young lefty would have walked off the mound to a raucous ovation, but he was taking on the National League’s Most Valuable Player.

Morgan reached out with his bat, swiping at the sphere spinning down and away from him. “I knew I did not get good wood on the ball. I could feel the dead heaviness of the ball against the bat. I saw a blur of white heading toward center field and as I ran I watched it hit the ground,” recalled Morgan in his autobiography.9

Morgan told reporters after the game that he would not have hit the ball a couple of years earlier. Burton made his pitch and Morgan acknowledged that the late-breaking slider was nasty, but that brought little consolation to Burton or to Red Sox fans, who had waited nearly 60 years for a World Series title. The Reds had taken the lead and Johnson removed his young pitcher, who left the Fenway Park mound for the final time.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Burton tipped his cap to Morgan: “The pitch that Morgan hit was a very good pitch, a slider low and away, right where I wanted it. Give the man credit for hitting it. I don’t think I could’ve made a better pitch. I can’t say, ‘Gosh, I shouldn’t have thrown that pitch’ or ‘I should’ve thrown it to another location.’”10

In the high drama of the baseball clubhouse after the game, Burton placed his pitch and the ultimate result into perspective. “I’m not going around hanging my head about it. It’s not like I killed a person,” Burton told reporters.11

Looking back nearly 30 years later, Burton still believed he made the right pitch. “It was the best slider I ever threw. A great pitch. I put everything I had into it. Everything. It was right at Morgan, and you can see him initially bailing out on it. … Then, when he realized it was going to be over the plate, he just kind of threw his bat at it,” Burton told Hornig.12

Though Burton’s outing would be placed alongside other disappointing finishes for the Red Sox, the team publicly spoke in glowing terms about their 26-year-old rookie. “I know this,” Ed Kenney, the minor-league director, told The Sporting News after the World Series. “You haven’t seen what Burton can do yet. He’s a lot better than anyone gives him credit for.”13

There were trade rumors in the offseason involving Burton, but when spring came he was back in Winter Haven fighting for a job. The club figured Burton would either share left-handed bullpen duty with Tom House or possibly fill the fifth starter role.

While 21-year-old phenom Don Aase impressed in spring training, Burton struggled in Florida. The Sporting News said he “can’t seem to live down giving up the winning hit in the ninth inning of the World Series.”14 His struggle allowed 20-year-old Rick Jones to fill the second left-hander slot in the bullpen and Burton, who gave up 17 hits in three appearances, was assigned to Pawtucket.

Burton said he was surprised by the demotion. “The equipment manager at spring training took my stuff and put it into a cardboard box. I thought that epitomized me. One day you’re a celebrity, the next day you’re anonymous. One day you’re in the majors – all first class – then you’re here in the minors where it’s sort of dog eat dog,” Burton told the Washington Post in 1978.15

His struggles continued in Pawtucket and reporters openly wondered if Burton was done. “Physically, I’m really OK. It’s just a matter of some mechanical things that I have to get straightened out. Like on the curveball, I have to get more in a groove on my release point. The trouble is that all this should be natural and I shouldn’t really have to think about it. When you start thinking on the mound about exactly how you’re throwing, then you get into trouble,” he told The Sporting News.16 Burton led the International League in starts, but also struggled with his control, outpacing other hurlers in walks and runs given up while compiling a 5.59 ERA.

The next season, after pitching for Bayamon in Puerto Rico over the winter, Burton bounced back after being briefly sent to the Pawtucket bullpen because of wildness. He led the Pawtucket staff in innings, strikeouts, and fewest hits allowed per nine innings. Down the stretch, he went 4-1 with a 1.54 ERA as Pawtucket raced to the International League title. The Red Sox rewarded Burton with a call-up in September. Nearly two years after his career-altering pitch to Joe Morgan, Burton threw 2⅔ scoreless innings of relief against the Orioles in Baltimore on September 17, 1977.

Burton had clawed his way back to the majors, but his descent would not take nearly as long. He couldn’t know that the brief stint against the Orioles was his final appearance in the major leagues. The Red Sox traded Burton to the New York Mets for infielder Leo Foster during spring training in 1978. Burton was going from a team with talent to one that floundered in the aftermath of the blockbuster trade that sent the franchise’s best player, Tom Seaver, to the Reds.

The Mets transferred Burton to Tidewater where he struggled with his control. He was sent further down the ladder to Lynchburg in the Class A Carolina League. For Burton, this was a new experience. As a highly touted prospect seven years earlier, he had bypassed Class A and started in Pawtucket fresh out of college.

Speaking to the Washington Post in 1978, Burton acknowledged that he was concerned about heading to Class A because he had heard horror stories about players getting “buried down here.” “It was hard to come here, but not as hard as people might think,” he said. “It doesn’t matter that it’s A ball. What matters to me is how I’m throwing. I know what I have to do to pitch in the major leagues. I do feel I’m coming back. My confidence has been battered around a lot, and a lot of it is mental. It’s something that I can regain. I don’t think I’m that far from it.”17

Pitching in the low minors with guys who would never even have a sniff of the majors, Burton stood out – he was the guy who gave up the World Series-winning hit to Joe Morgan. Burton recalled warming up on the mound in Salem, Virginia, while the public-address announcer gave the crowd that day’s trivia question, “What pitcher in uniform tonight lost the seventh game of the 1975 World Series?”

“You hope that people will have a little sensitivity. But you can’t expect that. You can’t crusade for that because nobody wants to listen. That’s what being a professional is all about. You have to take the comments and the criticisms,” Burton told the Washington Post.18

Burton did get to pitch for a major-league team again, but it was for the Mets in an exhibition game against the Norfolk Tides of the International League. He went five innings and surrendered eight hits and four earned runs. Tired of ongoing physical difficulties, including an elbow problem, Burton hung up his spikes and returned to Michigan, retiring from baseball in 1978.

The transition from ballplayer to regular citizen was difficult for Burton, who spent four years trying to find his way. “A lot of athletes struggle with re-assimilating. And I did, too, in that my sense of identity and self-worth were tied up with athletic success,” he told Hornig.19 A friend told him about the possibility of opening a commercial printing business in Charlotte, North Carolina. Intrigued by the idea of running his own business, as his father had done, Burton moved south and found his place. “It wasn’t until I began running my own business that the separation became permanent. It’s so time-consuming that it finally forced the transition,” he said.20 He ran the business for more than 30 years.

In addition to spending time with his family, which included three daughters, and running his business, Burton spent time traveling to Haiti for missionary work. He helped open a print shop for locals and printed educational materials for the schools.

His time in Haiti also provided him with a different perspective. Giving up a game-winning hit in the World Series isn’t quite as important after one sees life in the Third World. “You look back and you realize that baseball is such a small part of your life, when you think about it. There’s so much that’s more important,” Burton told Hornig.21

Burton died on December 12, 2013. He was survived by his wife, Janet; their three daughters, Heather, Sarah, and Julie; and two granddaughters.

A version of this biography appeared in “’75: The Red Sox Team That Saved Baseball” (Rounder Books, 2005; SABR, 2015), edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan.

Sources

Hornig, Doug, The Boys of October (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 2003)

Morgan, Joe, Joe Morgan: A Life in Baseball (New York: W.W. Norton, 1993), 208.

Boston Red Sox media guides

New York Times

The Sporting News

Washington Post

baseball-reference.com

Notes

He was one of baseball’s freer spirits, whose flakiness could drive management crazy. But Bernie Carbo’s biggest legacy is hitting one of the all-time clutch home runs in World Series history, setting the stage for Carlton Fisk’s more memorable blast that ended Game Six of the 1975 World Series.

Bernardo Carbo was born on August 5, 1947, in Detroit. His father, Joe, was, in Bernie’s words, “an abusive and sadistic alcoholic” and his mother, Carmen, was a coal miner’s daughter who lost her father in the mines when she was 7. Bernie had seen his mother try to kill herself at least once. Joe had served in the US Air Force in World War II, worked as a fighter in the circus, and later found work in the steel mills, while Carmen worked on the assembly line for Cadillac.1 Bernie overcame an extremely stressful childhood, including child abuse, sexual molestation by another relative, and neglect. He became an alcoholic at age 16 himself and battled any number of demons throughout his life, as he detailed in his autobiography Saving Bernie Carbo.

During his sandlot days, Carbo developed the opposite-field batting stroke that served him well in later years. He often played pickup games at Edward Hines Park in Nankin Township, a Detroit suburb. Often the teams were short of players and right field had to be left unmanned, any ball hit there was deemed an automatic out. Thus Carbo, perhaps the only left-handed batter, was forced to develop an ability to hit to left field. He described his first Little League hit to Herb Crehan: “First time up I hit a ball that went between the outfielders. I slid into second base, I slid into third base, and then I slid into home plate for a home run.”

The major leagues’ first amateur free-agent draft was held in June 1965. Rick Monday was the first player selected. The first player drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the first round was the 17-year-old Carbo, the 16th overall pick in the draft. To demonstrate what an inexact science the baseball draft is, the second-round pick of the Reds was future Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench.

Carbo was slow to justify his selection as the first-round pick. His temper, combined with his failure to take the game seriously enough, retarded his progress, while Bench took the fast track to the majors, making his debut in 1967. Carbo’s teammates labeled him “The Idiot,” a title that would have probably made him feel right at home on the 2004 Red Sox. In 1965 at Tampa (Class A Florida State League), Carbo hit a mere .218 with no homers and only 19 RBIs. The following year, he demonstrated some pop in his bat at Peninsula (Class A Carolina League) with 15 homers, 57 RBIs, and a .269 batting average.

In 1967 at Knoxville (Double-A Southern League), Carbo’s average took a tailspin to .201 with just two homers and 27 RBIs. At Asheville (also the Southern League) the next year, Carbo was now known as “The Clown,” but it was at this stop in the minors that he began to put it together. Carbo became the rehabilitation project of his manager, Sparky Anderson, who moved him from third base to the outfield. Under Anderson’s tutelage, Carbo’s numbers improved to a .281 batting average, 20 homers, and 66 RBIs.

The next year in Triple-A Indianapolis, Carbo played for Vern Rapp. He hit .359 with 21 home runs and 76 RBIs and was named Minor League Player of the Year by The Sporting News. He earned a call-up to the Reds, and made his major-league debut on September 2. In an 8-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs at Crosley Field, Carbo pinch-hit for pitcher Dennis Ribant in the sixth inning against Ferguson Jenkins and was called out on strikes. He had two more plate appearances the remainder of the season as a pinch-hitter, going hitless, and one appearance as a pinch-runner.

Carbo and manager Sparky Anderson were both promoted to the Reds in 1970. Anderson platooned Carbo with the right-handed-hitting Hal McRae in left field. Carbo was the starter on Opening Day, April 6, 1970, against the Montreal Expos at Crosley Field, hitting seventh in the batting order. After grounding out in his first plate appearance, Carbo homered off Joe Sparma for his first major-league hit in the fourth inning. He later walked and singled in a 5-1 Reds victory. Carbo jokingly described the home run to Herb Crehan as “the longest home run in baseball history. I hit it out of the park onto Route I-95. It landed in a truck and they found it in Florida, 1,300 miles away.”

On April 21, 1970, Carbo had his first multi-homer game, swatting a pair against the Atlanta Braves. On July 27 he drove in five runs against the Cardinals, a career high in a game. He went on to enjoy a stellar rookie year for the Reds, hitting what would prove to be full-season career highs in all of the three major offensive statistics, batting .310 with an on-base percentage of .454, and slugging 21 homers while driving in 63 runs in 125 games. He was named The Sporting News National League Rookie of the Year but finished second in the BBWAA’s Rookie of the Year ballot to Montreal pitcher Carl Morton, who was 18-11 for the last-place Expos.

The 1970 Reds, led by rookie manager Anderson, won 70 of their first 100 games on the way to winning the National League West title. In a three-game sweep of the Pirates in the NLCS, Carbo appeared in two games, going hitless in six at-bats. In a five-game World Series won by the Baltimore Orioles, Carbo extended his hitless skein, going 0-for-8 in four games. He did, however, manage to involve himself in a Game One controversy. In the sixth inning, with the score tied 3-3, the Reds’ Ty Cline hit a chopper in front of the plate. Plate umpire Ken Burkhart had moved directly in front of home plate to call the ball fair as Carbo slid home, trying to score from third as catcher Elrod Hendricks attempted to tag him. Burkhart was spun to the ground, placing him with his back to the play as Hendricks tagged Carbo with an empty glove (the ball was in his bare hand). Burkhart incorrectly called Carbo out and left the score tied in a game that the Orioles would win 4-3.

After Carbo had begun to pay dividends in 1970 to the Reds for their first-round draft investment in him, he slipped in 1971. His batting average fell to .219 with 5 home runs and 20 RBIs in 106 games. He had held out for more money in spring training. Drug use began to take its toll on his body. “I was a drug addict and alcoholic for 28 years,” Carbo told The Sporting News’ Andy Clendennen in a 2001 interview. “I started drinking when I was about 16 or 17, started on marijuana when I was 21, did cocaine when I was 22 or 23, and got into crystal meth, Dexedrines, Benzedrines, Darvons, codeine. There wasn’t much that I didn’t do.” A holdout again in spring training 1972, Carbo was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for outfielder/first baseman Joe Hague on May 19 after hitting only .143 in 19 games. Carbo spent the balance of the 1972 and 1973 seasons with the Cardinals, hitting .258 in 99 games in 1972 and improving to .286 in 111 games in 1973.

On October 26, 1973, Carbo was again traded, this time to the Boston Red Sox along with pitcher Rick Wise, for Reggie Smith and Ken Tatum. Carbo had an awkward introduction to his new owner, Thomas Yawkey. As reported by Herb Crehan, “[r]ight after I joined the team I walked into the clubhouse and there was an older gentleman straightening things up. I gave him $20 and asked him to get me a cheeseburger and some french fries. When the clubhouse kid delivered the food, he asked me if I knew who I gave the $20 to I told him I didn’t.” It was Yawkey. Carbo appeared in 117 games in 1974 for a Red Sox squad that enjoyed a seven game lead in late August only to fade to third place at the end, seven games back of the division-winning Orioles. He hit .249 with a dozen round-trippers and 61 RBIs, serving as both an outfielder and designated hitter. After his mediocre 1974 season, Carbo became the first Red Sox player to file for salary arbitration against owner Yawkey and subsequently the first to lose.

During his first season in Boston, Carbo quickly became a favorite of both the fans and the press. His gift of gab made him the Kevin Millar of his time with the media. Scipio Spinks, a former Cardinals teammate, sent Carbo a stuffed gorilla dressed in a Cardinals uniform which Carbo traveled with and named “Mighty Joe Young.”

During the magical 1975 season, Carbo was a key bench contributor for the Red Sox. He appeared in 107 games during the regular season, playing the outfield in 85 games and serving as the DH in 13. Although he hit only .257, he amassed an on-base percentage of .409, drawing 83 walks. (Bill James, in the New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, lists Carbo as 19th lifetime on the list of the highest rates of walks per 1,000 plate appearances.) He hit 15 home runs and drove in 50 runs. He had two-homer games in each of the first three months of the season, including a one-man show in the leadoff spot on May 18 when he went 3-for-4, banging out two homers and driving in all four runs in a 4-2 win over the Kansas City Royals at Fenway. On April 27 he homered off Lerrin LaGrow and Tom Walker in a 5-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers. On June 10 he took Ferguson Jenkins deep twice in an 8-3 loss to the Texas Rangers.

While doing the job off the bench, Carbo continued to contribute to his developing reputation for eccentric and sometimes oblivious behavior in Boston. During the June 26 game at Fenway Park, Carbo crashed into the right-field wall while taking a homer away from the Yankees’ Chris Chambliss, in the process dislodging a chaw of tobacco in his mouth. Carbo is reported to have held up the game for 10 minutes while he searched for the missing chaw and then popped the same into his mouth upon discovering it on the warning track.

With Carl Yastrzemski, Fred Lynn, and Dwight Evans manning the outfield, and Juan Beniquez in the DH spot for all three games of the Red Sox’ sweep of the three-time defending champion Oakland A’s, Carbo failed to get up off the bench during the ALCS. His first postseason appearance came in Game Two of the World Series at Fenway Park. Pinch-hitting for Dick Drago, Carbo lined to left field in the ninth inning of a 3-2 loss that knotted the Series at a game apiece.

Carbo was again used in a pinch-hitting role in Game Three at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium and this time he delivered the first of his record-tying two pinch-hit homers in the same World Series. In the seventh inning Carbo hit for Reggie Cleveland. His solo shot narrowed the Reds’ lead to 5-3 and set the stage for Dwight Evans’ game-tying homer in the ninth. The Red Sox lost, 6-5, in 10 innings on a Joe Morgan single scoring Cesar Geronimo. Geronimo had advanced aided by the controversial no-interference call made by plate umpire Larry Barnett on Ed Armbrister.

Game Six was, of course, the game that turned this series into one for the ages. With the Red Sox trailing 6-3 and facing elimination in the bottom of the eighth inning, Fred Lynn singled and took second on a walk to Rico Petrocelli. Right-hander Rawly Eastwick entered the game in relief of Pedro Borbon. Eastwick struck out Dwight Evans and got Rick Burleson to line out to left. Carbo was sent up to hit for Roger Moret. Sparky Anderson, a stickler for playing the percentages, failed to bring in the left-handed Will McEnaney, suspecting that Red Sox manager Darrell Johnson would counter with the right-handed bat of Juan Beniquez. With two strikes on him, Carbo was fooled by what Peter Gammons reported as a “fastball that befuddled Bernardo as if it were the Pythagorean theorem.” Carbo believed that the pitch was a slider, coming in a spot in the count where he expected the fastball. Carbo barely managed to get a piece of the ball, fouling it off in what was later described by Carlton Fisk as possibly “the worst swing in the history of baseball.”

Carbo related to Peter Golenbock what happened next: “I stepped out of the box. I figured, ‘He’s going to be thinking I’m going to be looking slider, so instead I’m going to be looking fastball.’ Eastwick got the fastball up and away, where I was looking. I knew I would be swinging. I wasn’t going to be taking. I knew I would commit myself to where it would be difficult to stop my swing. I got the pitch, and I hit it. When I started running to first base, I didn’t know if the ball was going to go out of the park, because I knew that center field was a long ways. I figured it might be off the wall, and I ran to first and started for second, and I could see Geronimo turn his back, and that’s when I knew the ball was gone. The game was tied.”

“Bernie,” Bill Lee waxed eloquently in Gammons’ book Beyond the Sixth Game, “is the only man I know who turned fall into summer with one wave of his magic wand.”

After striking out in the 10th inning of Game Six, having gone into the field for the first time in the Series, Carbo was awarded a start in left in Game Seven. Hitting in his customary 1975 leadoff position in the batting order, Carbo doubled in the first off Don Gullett. In the third he drew a base on balls and scored the first Red Sox run on a single to right by Yastrzemski in a three-run third, the only runs the Sox would muster in a 4-3 Series clincher for the Reds. In the fourth Carbo grounded out to second. In the sixth he made his final Series appearance as he grounded out to first base and was replaced in the field by Rick Miller in the seventh. Carbo concluded a Series in which he hit .429 (3-for-7 with two big pinch-hit home runs). Carbo’s sixth-game heroic blast was commemorated by the Red Sox at their November 10, 2004, Hall of Fame induction as a memorable moment in Red Sox history.

The 1976 Red Sox got off to a start that was inconsistent with their status as defending American League champions. The team lost 10 in a row from April 29 to May 11. Things got so bad that a practicing witch from Salem named Laurie Cabot appeared at Fenway Park with two goals in mind: getting Carbo out of a slump and stopping the Red Sox’ losing streak. “I unhexed Bernie Carbo’s bat to end a 10-game losing streak,” she said, as reported by Bill Nowlin and Jim Prime in their book Blood Feud. On June 2 the team’s record stood at 19-23. After an 0-for-4 night against the Yankees, Carbo and his.236 average (13-for-55 in 17 games) were traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for pitcher Tom Murphy and outfielder/DH Bobby Darwin. He spent the rest of the 1976 season with the Brewers, hitting .235 over the full season.

Carbo’s former minor-league manager Don Zimmer (Knoxville) took over the Red Sox during the 1976 season and was instrumental in getting Carbo included in a December 6, 1976, trade back to the Red Sox along with former Red Sox fan favorite George Scott in exchange for Cecil Cooper. Carbo became a member of the “Crunch Bunch,” a loaded 1977 Red Sox offensive lineup that hit a then-team-record 213 home runs (the 2003 club is the current record-holder with 238). Five players hit more than 25 homers. Butch Hobson, who hit mostly in the seventh and eighth spots in the lineup, swatted 30. The club hit 33 homers over one 10-game stretch and 16 in three games against the Yankees.

They hit eight homers against Toronto on July 4, setting a Red Sox record for most homers in a game that still stood in 2014 and a major-league-record seven solo shots, and hit five or more homers in a game eight times. Carbo contributed 15 of the team’s then-record total and hit .289 with a .409 OBP in 86 games. Three of his homers came in pinch-hitting roles, further solidifying his reputation in the clutch. One came in the July 4 home-run derby. A two-run pinch-hit homer off the Angels’ Dyar Miller tied up an August 10 game won by the Red Sox. His third pinch-hit homer came at the end of the season against the Orioles. Carbo also homered in consecutive at-bats on June 18 against the Yankees’ Mike Torrez in a 10-4 Red Sox win that is better known for a dugout brawl between Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin broadcast on NBC television.

Carbo’s ability to come in cold off the bench and deliver a key hit, and his ability to do so without thinking too much about the game situation, served him well. Bill Lee, in Peter Golenbock’s Red Sox Nation, shared the following memory: “I remember in the Hall of Fame game at Cooperstown, Bernie was out behind the fence sleeping … during the game because it didn’t mean anything and he was getting some rest. Don Zimmer got really mad at him and tried to show him up. He woke him up and had him bat, figuring he’d do bad. Bernie walked up, hit a home run, ran around the bases, and went back to sleep. Managers hated that.”

Bill Nowlin and Jim Prime, in Tales From the Red Sox Dugout, describe an interview Carbo gave after hitting a grand slam off Mariners lefty Mike Kekich. Upon being asked about the grand slam, he said he had not been aware that the bases had been loaded. When served with a follow-up question asking him the last time he had homered off a left-hander, Carbo thought that the reporters had been playing with him. “Now I know you’re pulling my leg, because he was a right-handed pitcher. Zimmer would never let me hit against a left-hander with the bases loaded,” he declared.

Carbo was a member of an informal fraternity of fun-loving players, called the Buffalo Heads, who annoyed Zimmer, and also included Lee, Rick Wise, Ferguson Jenkins, and Jim Willoughby. The name had arisen from Jenkins’ unflattering nickname for Zimmer. In 1978 Carbo’s recurring pattern of arriving late to the ballpark, behavior often triggered by a slump and the resulting lack of playing time, according to Zimmer, was the reason he was sold to the Cleveland Indians on June 15. Carbo hit .261 in 17 games for Boston in his final 1978 stint in a Red Sox uniform. His sale to the Indians precipitated a one-day walkout by friend Bill Lee. Upon returning the following day, Lee was fined $500 by general manager Haywood Sullivan. Lee’s response? “Fine me fifteen hundred and give me the weekend off.”

Carbo hit .287 in 60 games with the Indians in 1978. On March 10, 1979, he signed as a free agent with the Cardinals, returning to the National League for the balance of his career. He batted .281 in 64 at-bats over 52 games for the Cards in 1979. His major-league career came to a close in 1980, when he played in 14 games with the Cardinals and seven with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Carbo finished his 12-year major-league career with a .264 average and a .387 OBP with 96 homers and 358 RBIs.

After his playing career, Carbo went to cosmetology school and operated a hair salon in Detroit for eight years. However, his longstanding substance-abuse problems led to a downward spiral that got so bad, as he related to Doug Hornig in The Boys of October, that he began to deal as well as consume the controlled substances. He reportedly hit bottom in 1993 after his mother had committed suicide, his father died, and his marriage dissolved. His ex-teammates and fellow Buffalo Heads Lee and Jenkins helped him find the Baseball Assistance Team (BAT), an organization that helps needy former players and was instrumental in getting Carbo into recovery from his addictions. In 1980 he began a baseball school for high school, college, and pro players. He formed the Diamond Club Ministry, in which he traveled around the country speaking to primarily young adults about religion, baseball, and the dangers of substance abuse. He has also served as a substitute teacher. He remarried and has one son from his second marriage and three grown daughters from his first marriage.

Carbo was the field manager of the Pensacola Pelicans of the Independent Central Baseball League from 2003 to 2005. As manager, Carbo’s record was 150-103. In 2006 he left the Pelicans to work full time for Diamond Club Ministry. In 2013 Carbo wrote Saving Bernie Carbo with Dr. Peter Hantzis. The book tells many stories of Carbo’s baseball career, his struggles with alcohol and drug addiction, and the Christianity he found later in life.

A version of this biography appeared in “’75: The Red Sox Team That Saved Baseball” (Rounder Books, 2005; SABR, 2015), edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan.

Sources

Adelman, Tom, The Long Ball (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2003).

Boston Red Sox 1976 Yearbook.

Boston Red Sox 1976 Press-TV-Radio Guide.

Boston Red Sox 2005 Media Guide.

Carbo, Bernie, and Dr. Peter Hantzis, Saving Bernie Carbo (Fort Pierce, Florida: Diamond Club Publishing and FBD Publications, 2013).

Clendennen, Andy, “Where Have You Gone, Bernie Carbo?” The Sporting News, October 26, 2001.

Complete Baseball Record Book, 2004 edition (St. Louis: The Sporting News, 2004).

Crehan, Herb, Red Sox Heroes of Yesterday (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Rounder Books, 2005).

Gammons, Peter, Beyond the Sixth Game (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1985).

Golenbock, Peter, Red Sox Nation (Chicago: Triumph Books, 2005).

Hornig, Doug, The Boys of October (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 2003).

James, Bill, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York: The Free Press, 2001).

Nowlin, Bill and Jim Prime, Blood Feud (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Rounder Books, 2005).

Prime, Jim, with Bill Nowlin, Tales From the Red Sox Dugout (Champaign, Illinois: Sports Publishing Inc., 2001).

retrosheet.org.

Smith, Curt, Our House (Chicago: Masters Press, 1999).

Stout, Glenn, and Richard A. Johnson, Red Sox Century (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000).

Thorn, John et al., Total Baseball, Sixth Edition (Kingston, New York: Total Sports, 1999).

Zimmer, Don, Zim (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 2001).

Notes

On May 23, 1948, Reginald Leslie Cleveland was born in the small town of Swift Current, Saskatchewan. Swift Current, in the southwestern part of the province is situated 90 miles north of the Montana border, and 140 miles west of the provincial capital, Regina, hard by the Swift Current Creek. It was a town of 6,000 or so when the future Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer was born to Gladys (Porter) and Bob Cleveland. It was the Porter side of the family that was athletic. Gladys played softball among other sports. Cleveland’s grandfather, Leslie Porter, was scouted by professional baseball clubs but never signed because he could not be spared from the family farm.3 Reggie Cleveland’s father, Bob, was a ticket taker for the Canadian Pacific Railway but would soon rejoin the Royal Canadian Air Force (he had been a member during World War II) and move the family to the even smaller, more remote town of Cold Lake, Alberta, near the Primrose Lake Air Weapons Range. Wherever the assignment took him, Bob Cleveland would make sure there was organized baseball for his athletic son. Reggie played in small towns all over Alberta and Saskatchewan, usually with much older boys or men. In addition to baseball, Reggie was a javelin champion who also lettered in curling and hockey for Beaver River High School, the Canadian Forces high school in Cold Lake.

It was in baseball, however, that Cleveland was to make his career. After throwing a no-hitter for the Moose Jaw Phillies, he was discovered by Sam Shapiro, a diminutive carnival man and erstwhile “B-game” spring-training umpire. While traveling with the carnival in 1965, Shapiro came upon the young right-hander pitching in a semipro game and sent a telegram to his friend Red Schoendienst, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals. Bill Sayles, Cardinals scout and former Red Sox pitcher, was dispatched to see Cleveland pitch, only to find he had worked a day earlier to help keep his team from being eliminated in a tournament. His next start was postponed by rain so Sayles asked Cleveland for a personal pitching demonstration. Sayles was impressed enough to offer Cleveland a contract with a $500 bonus. Cleveland was not impressed. Sayles raised the bonus to $1,000. Cleveland persisted and asked for more money but Sayles demurred. Later, the 17-year-old Cleveland reconsidered, called Sayles, and signed the contract.4 Reggie Cleveland was a professional ballplayer.

In 1966 Cleveland started his career with the St. Petersburg Cardinals of the Class-A Florida State League, managed by one George Anderson (who was known as Sparky).5 Also in 1966, Cleveland appeared in five games for the Eugene (Oregon) Emeralds in the Class-A Northwest League. It was back to St. Petersburg for two games to start the 1967 campaign. After recovering from an ankle injury, Cleveland was sent to the Northwest League again but this time to the Lewiston (Idaho) Broncs, where he led the league with 19 games started and tied for the league lead in complete games with 11. The Lewiston team was managed by former big-league pitcher Ray Hathaway. It is Hathaway, who would later become the Cardinals’ pitching coach, along with Billy Muffett, whom Cleveland credited with teaching him to pitch.6

Cleveland was back in St. Petersburg once more for the 1968 campaign, this time compiling a 15-10 record over 27 starts and an ERA of 2.77, striking out 135 in 185 innings. After growing up in the frigid Canadian prairie, St. Petersburg must have seemed like paradise. In 1968 he married St. Petersburg resident Kathleen Kubicki. The couple, who took up residence in sunny St. Pete, would collaborate on three children – Michelle, Michael, and Todd. The next year was Cleveland’s breakout year in the minors. He was 15-6 in 1969 for the Arkansas Travelers (Double-A Texas League) with an ERA of 3.39 in 23 starts. He tied for the league lead in complete games with 13. Cleveland moved up to the Tulsa Oilers in the Triple-A American Association for six games before making his major-league debut.

On October 1, 1969, in the next-to-last game in the 1969 schedule, the 6-foot-1, 195-pound right-hander made his debut for St. Louis with a start against the Philadelphia Phillies in Busch Stadium. While Cleveland did not pitch well (four innings, seven hits, four earned runs) the Cardinals won, 6-5. Cleveland started the 1970 season in the minors but after posting a 12-8 record in Tulsa, he was called up in August. He got into 16 games, including one start, for the Redbirds and was 0-4 over that stretch. Despite his record, there was one appearance, in Pittsburgh on September 9, that showed he could succeed in the majors. Cleveland had been working with Schoendienst and Muffett on his mechanics. He was not using his lower body effectively but was reluctant to make changes. Schoendienst and Muffett persisted, however, and through the use of movies, demonstrated his flawed delivery.

Cleveland told The Sporting News‘s Neal Russo, “I certainly found out what I was doing wrong. I wasn’t driving properly. When I corrected those things, I started to throw hard again and my control was a lot better. I had been doing things wrong like that all year and didn’t realize it.”7 In the September 9 game, the right-handed batting Cleveland got his first major-league hit (off Dave Giusti), and pitched 3? shutout innings, allowing three hits while striking out four and walking no one. Cleveland was impressive enough to stay with the big club for the rest of the season, and, as it would turn out, in the majors for good.

In his first start in 1971, on April 11, Cleveland pitched poorly and lost to San Francisco’s Juan Marichal. He bounced back in his next start but was on the short end of a 2-1 loss to Al Downing and the Los Angeles Dodgers. “I was beginning to think I’d never win a game,” said the Cardinals rookie, whose major-league record to that point was 0-6.8 Then, on April 20, Cleveland showed he belonged in the Cardinals rotation with Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, and Jerry Reuss. He got his first major-league win, against Marichal at Candlestick Park.

The Giants were in the midst of a nine-game winning streak when the Cardinals came to town. On paper it looked like a mismatch: Marichal with his 206 major-league victories versus 22-year-old Reggie Cleveland still looking for his first. But the game is not played on paper. Cleveland beat Marichal and the Giants, 2-1, giving up just the one run in 7? innings. He struck out Dick Dietz twice with a total of five men on base. He also got George Foster once and struck out pinch-hitter Willie McCovey, too. Cleveland went on to win 11 more times in 1971 and was named National League Rookie Pitcher of the Year by The Sporting News.

The next year, Cleveland started like a Cy Young candidate. By the time he threw a complete game to beat the Atlanta Braves, 2-0, on July 13 (Cleveland had one RBI and Bernie Carbo the other), he was 11-4 with a 2.99 ERA. But he went 3-11 the rest of the way to finish 14-15 with a 3.94 ERA for the 75-81, fourth-place Cardinals. Not bad for a second-year man, but disappointing after the stellar start.

The 1972 season could be viewed as a microcosm of Cleveland’s career. He seemed to be in a constant cycle, with flashes of greatness followed by mediocrity or worse. He was frequently battling his waistline. His teammates gave him the nicknames “Double Cheeseburger” and “Snacks.” Management and the press could not understand how he could gain weight during the season. While listed as 200 pounds, Cleveland would often carry 230 pounds or more to the mound. He was also, as he would later admit, battling the “major-league lifestyle.” He kept his problem well hidden, however. As Cleveland would tell Dan Turner, he was “such a good drunk.”9

The following season proved to be Cleveland’s best year, at least statistically. He helped the 1973 Cardinals improve to a second-place finish at 81-81 with a 14-10 record, a 3.01 ERA, and three shutouts. He struck out 122, while walking just 61 in 224 innings (his third consecutive year of pitching 220 innings or more). His 14 wins were second only to Rick Wise‘s 16 on the Cardinals’ pitching staff. Repeating the pattern of the year before, Cleveland started hot. By the time he shut out the Expos and former teammate Mike Torrez 2-0 in Montreal on August 1, he had compiled a 12-5 record with a 2.94 ERA. After that Cleveland was 2-5. To be fair, Cardinals ace Bob Gibson had a lower ERA (2.77) but managed to lose 10 games as well in 1973. Cleveland was a rising star on the Cardinals staff and other teams were noticing.

On December 7, 1973, Cleveland was traded to the Boston Red Sox with pitcher Diego Segui and infielder Terry Hughes for pitchers Lynn McGlothen, John Curtis, and Mike Garman. Red Sox general manager Dick O’Connell was trying to acquire the 35-year-old Gaylord Perry from the Indians but could not get the deal done, and instead turned to the Cardinals. Truly, Reggie Cleveland, with his fastball, slider, and curve, was the marquee player of the trade. O’Connell completed what amounted to a 10-player deal with St. Louis, getting Rick Wise in a separate deal weeks earlier. After the trade for Cleveland, the Red Sox, who expected him to be a 20-game winner, thought they had “the best staff in baseball.”10

Cleveland had pitched very well for St. Louis and fully expected to be in the starting rotation for the Red Sox in 1974. It was not to be, at least not at first. He came into camp overweight and with a bum left knee suffered in winter ball playing for Las Aguilas in Venezuela. Not surprisingly, he had a subpar spring and did not earn a spot in the starting rotation. Cleveland was the long man out of the bullpen and a spot starter coming out of spring training. His poor spring and injury (later learned to be a torn meniscus) carried over to the regular season.11

Cleveland’s first start for the Red Sox may have been an omen of things to come. On April 15 he suffered a tough-luck 1-0 loss to Detroit. He struck out five, walked none, and allowed only three hits to the Tigers. Unfortunately for Cleveland, one of the hits was a Norm Cash home run in the fifth inning that snuck around the right-field foul pole. The Red Sox batters, for their part, could not muster any offense against Boston native Joe Coleman who gave up only three singles. The Cleveland-Coleman pitching match-up occurred once again, on July 26. In that game Cleveland pitched 10? innings and allowed only three hits and no earned runs, but still lost. An error by Boston third baseman Rico Petrocelli in the bottom of the 11th inning opened the door to a Jim Northrup game-winning single two batters later. Again, the Red Sox batters could do nothing with Joe Coleman, who pitched 11 innings of four-hit ball. Cleveland had a rather lackluster 1974 at 12-14 and it was not all the fault of poor offensive support. By early June his ERA was 6.30 though he finished with a 4.31 ERA as the Red Sox placed third behind the Orioles and the Yankees.

Cleveland was in the starting rotation along with Luis Tiant, Bill Lee, and Rick Wise to begin Boston’s 1975 season. His first start (and win) of the year, on April 12, was a memorable one. Cleveland pitched 12 innings and allowed only two runs to the Orioles in a game the Red Sox won in the 13th. The good times would not last, however. After losing to the California Angels on May 25, Cleveland with his 3-3 record and 4.76 ERA was back in the bullpen. Except for a start in the second game of a doubleheader on July 6, he was out of the rotation until July 20.

On June 29 the Red Sox beat the Yankees 3-2 to take back sole possession of first place in the American League East. Late that night Cleveland was driving, along with his best friend from high school through Boston’s Sumner Tunnel, hit a puddle, and rolled his car. Cleveland received 15 stitches around his right ear and eight in his mouth after being pulled unconscious from the wreckage.12 In those simpler days before 24-hour sports channels, this DUI incident went virtually unreported (there was a small story in Toronto’s Globe and Mail).13 Incredibly, Cleveland spent no time on the disabled list and pitched two days later (July 1).

While it would not have felt like it at the time, the July 6 loss to the Indians was the turning point in Reggie Cleveland’s season. After that loss, he went 9-3 the rest of the year, lowering his ERA from 5.31 to 4.43. Even in defeat, he pitched well. For example, one of his three losses in the second half came on August 8. Cleveland took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, when with two outs Reggie Jackson hit a home run. A Billy Williams single and a Gene Tenace homer made it 3-2 A’s. Oakland pitcher Ken Holtzman made it stand up as Cleveland was handed a tough loss in this 99-minute game.

His start against the Yankees in Shea Stadium (Yankee Stadium was being renovated) on July 26 was one of the Red Sox’ most important victories of the year. Cleveland pitched 8? innings and allowed only two runs on five hits as Boston beat New York, 4-2. This win set the stage for Boston’s shutout sweep of the Yankees the next day, when Bill Lee beat Catfish Hunter 1-0 in game one and Roger Moret beat Tippy Martinez 6-0 in the nightcap, dropping the Yankees firmly into third place, 10 games behind the first-place Boston nine. The Red Sox had some momentum.

In the last month of the season, the Sox were in a tough struggle with Baltimore for the AL East Division crown. When Bill Lee was ineffective due to elbow soreness in September, Cleveland stepped in and made a huge difference. He was 4-0 in the month with a 2.21 ERA in 36? innings (four starts and one five-shutout-innings relief appearance). He topped off his regular season with a shutout of the Indians on September 26, lowering the Sox magic number to two. In that game, Cleveland faced only four batters over the minimum. He finished the season at 13-9 with a 4.43 ERA. It was the tale of two seasons again but this time Cleveland finished strong after a mediocre start. The Red Sox finished first in the American League East and Cleveland was an important part of their success. The Sox were five games over .500 (16-11) in September and Cleveland was four games over by himself. He had earned at least one start in the postseason.

Cleveland became the first Canadian-born pitcher to start a postseason game when he started the second game of the ALCS against Oakland on October 5, 1975. Cleveland did not get a decision (allowing seven hits and three runs in five innings), but the Red Sox won the game, 6-3. Boston won the next game as well, completing a sweep and dethroning the three-time reigning world champions.

In the World Series, Cleveland made a little more history. He first saw action in the third game, on October 14 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. He came in to relieve Jim Burton in the bottom of the fifth with two outs, Ken Griffey on second, and the Reds ahead, 5-1. Cleveland struck out Tony Perez to end the threat. The Red Sox scored a run in the top of the sixth and needed Cleveland to keep the Reds from doing further damage in the bottom of the frame. He did exactly what was required, pitching a scoreless sixth by striking out Bench and then getting outs from George Foster and Dave Concepcion. It was an effective outing for Cleveland, who was removed for a pinch-hitter in the top of the seventh. The Red Sox tied it in the ninth only to lose in the 10th.

In Game Five, Cleveland became the first Canadian-born pitcher to start a World Series game. He pitched well, shutting out the Reds through 3? innings before surrendering a home run to Tony Perez. The sixth inning was Cleveland’s undoing. After walking Joe Morgan, he induced the perfect double-play ball from Johnny Bench (Morgan was still on first because Cleveland had thrown over to first 16 times during Bench’s at-bat), but second baseman Denny Doyle did not see the grounder. Right fielder Evans fielded the ball and overthrew third, leaving runners at second and third with nobody out. Tony Perez was up next, and drove a 1-and-2 pitch to deep left for his second homer of the night. The Reds won the game, 6-2.

Cleveland made one more appearance in the World Series. On October 22, in the ninth inning of the seventh game, he was brought in to face Johnny Bench with Pete Rose on third and Joe Morgan on second after Jim Burton had given up a run to put the Reds on top, 4-3. Cleveland walked Bench to load the bases. Next up was Game Five hero and new nemesis Tony Perez. This time, Cleveland got Perez to fly out to end the threat and was in line for the win if the Sox could score two runs in the bottom of the ninth. But the Reds held on to win the game, 4-3, and the Series.

The 1976 Red Sox looked to repeat as American League champions but could only manage third, more than 15 games behind first-place New York. Cleveland, mostly a reliever now, finished 10-9 but with an ERA of 3.07, nearly a half-run better than the league average. He pitched 170 innings and gave up only three home runs all year (all at Fenway Park).14

In 1977 the Red Sox won 97 games but finished in a tie for second with Baltimore. Cleveland’s won-loss record improved to 11-8 but his ERA ballooned to 4.26. He pitched 190? innings in 36 games with 27 starts and nine complete games. It was to be the last year Cleveland would have more starts than relief appearances. He did have a couple of historic appearances. On September 9, in the second game of a doubleheader against Detroit at Fenway Park, future Tiger institutions Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell made their major-league debuts and predictably both got their first major-league hit on the same day and both came against Cleveland (Boston won the game anyway, 8-6). Later in September, on the 25th, Cleveland “scattered” 18 hits as he pitched a complete game and earned a 12-5 victory over the Tigers in Detroit.

The 1977 Red Sox had three young starters – Bob Stanley, Don Aase, and Mike Paxton – who needed work to mature. Reggie Cleveland volunteered to go to the bullpen to allow the Red Sox the flexibility of getting more starts for the three young guns.15 It was a selfless thing to do. It was neither the first nor the last time that Cleveland, whom Don Zimmer called “a real pro,” put the team first.16

At the start of the 1978 season, Boston had 11 pitchers and Zimmer wanted 10. Twenty-seven-year-old rookie Jim Wright was out of contract options and Cleveland was the odd man out. His contract was sold to the Texas Rangers on April 18 for $125,000.17 Cleveland, for his part, was relieved. He told reporters, “Not knowing what was going to happen was driving me nuts. Now I know I have a chance to start. I’m very happy to go to Texas. It’s a good ballclub which can score runs and it’s a good place to play.”18

Cleveland was used exclusively in relief for the Rangers, appearing in 53 games. He got off to a slow start because he had not been used much by Boston. The turning point of his season came on April 28 against his former team. Cleveland pitched four solid innings, giving up only one unearned run, striking out three, and walking none. He earned his first victory when Richie Zisk hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 11th. Cleveland earned saves in his next three appearances, gaining self-confidence and the confidence of his manager. Cleveland ended the 1978 season just 5-8 but with an impressive 3.08 ERA and 12 saves. He was the best reliever on the team and earned the Rolaids Award signifying that accomplishment.

Although Cleveland was successful in Texas, his stay would be short. The cash-strapped Brad Corbett traded him after the season to Milwaukee for pitcher Ed Farmer, minor-league infielder Gary Holle, and $200,000.19 Brewers GM Harry Dalton, who once thought Cleveland “too fat to pitch in the major leagues,” had wanted him since at least the beginning of 1978.20 Dalton and the Brewers were high on Cleveland as a starter, at one point insisting he would pitch 200 innings for the team. But it was not to be. Cleveland, who had moved his family to Texas and bought into a farm there, was not thrilled to be traded. He let a bad attitude and his waistline both get out of hand. He had his worst year in the majors in 1979, 1-5 with a 6.71 ERA while pitching only 55 innings. Cleveland also had more walks than strikeouts for the first time in his career.

He came to spring training in 1980 with a new attitude and a new physique. A few of his teammates failed to recognize the new, svelte Reggie at the Brewers’ Sun City, Arizona, spring training facility.21 Cleveland reported a week early and 25 pounds lighter, telling manager George Bamberger, “You guys are going to be proud of me at the end of the season.”22 He pitched well in relief but still wanted to start. (Cleveland liked short relief. He once told The Sporting News‘s Tom Flaherty, “The idea is you go in with the game on the line. You either do it or you don’t. I like that situation.”)23 When his chance to start came June 16 in the second game of a doubleheader against Detroit, he made the most of it. Cleveland had a one-hitter through 7? innings before giving up home runs to Steve Kemp and Richie Hebner. Milwaukee won the game 5-3 with Cleveland getting the victory.

In his next start, Cleveland shut out Oakland on six hits and then followed with a 5-2 complete-game victory over California. On July 25 Cleveland won the 100th game of his career by beating Jim Palmer and the Baltimore Orioles with a four-hit shutout.24 He was flashing brilliant once again and, unexpectedly, leading the Brewers’ staff. He finished the year at 11-9 with an impressive 3.73 ERA. He pitched in 45 games with 13 starts, five complete games and two shutouts. Again he was recognized by Rolaids as the best reliever on his team.25

The next season, 1981, was a troubled one for baseball in general and for Reggie Cleveland in particular. For baseball, there was a two-month strike in the middle of the season. Players received only about seven days’ notice of the resumption of the season. Cleveland overtrained to get ready quickly and developed tendinitis in his right shoulder.26 In addition, the “major-league lifestyle” and family problems (Cleveland’s family was still in Texas) were starting to catch up with him. He was pitching poorly and the worse he pitched, the more he drank.

Eventually the 33-year-old Cleveland went to manager Buck Rodgers and said, “You’ve got a team in the playoffs [the Brewers were the second-half winners of the split season schedule], and you don’t have any confidence in me and I don’t have any confidence in me. Get somebody you’re going to be able to use because I got to get out of here or I’m going to end up in the tank.”27 Cleveland played in his final game on September 23, 1981, fittingly against the Red Sox. He pitched one-third of an inning, striking out 1975 World Series nemesis Tony Perez.

Reggie Cleveland’s 13-year major-league career spanned three decades with the birth of free agency right in the middle. He finished with 105 victories against 106 defeats, appearing in 428 games, striking out 930.28 He won at least 10 games in seven straight years (1971-77). At the time of his retirement, his 105 victories (Cleveland won another 53 games in the minors) were second only to Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins‘ 284 victories among Canadian-born pitchers. (He has been passed as of 2014 by Kirk McCaskill and Ryan Dempster.)

After his playing career, Cleveland moved to Calgary, Alberta, with his second wife, Charlene, and their two children. Son John became a three-time Olympic swimmer for Canada (1988, ’92, and ’96) and son Todd, played shortstop for the University of North Florida.29 Always affable, Reggie Cleveland put his personality to work selling cars for Shaganappi Chev-Olds in Calgary and, later, selling real estate. From 1991 to 1995, Cleveland worked for the Toronto Blue Jays as a pitching coach at their various minor-league affiliates, from the instructional league in Florida, to St. Catharine’s in the New York-Penn League, to Hagerstown (Maryland) in the South Atlantic League.30 Cleveland became a US citizen in 1980. He lived in the Dallas, Texas, area, and sold luxury cars for Park Place Lexus. As of 2014, he resided in Anna, Texas. He was inducted into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986.

A version of this biography appeared in “’75: The Red Sox Team That Saved Baseball” (Rounder Books, 2005; SABR, 2015), edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan.

Sources

Books

Adelman, Tom, The Long Ball (Boston: Back Bay Books, 2003).

Ambassador World Atlas (Maplewood, New Jersey: Hammond, Inc., 1988).

Honig, Don, The Boys of October (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 2003).

MacLean, Norman, executive editor, 1982 Who’s Who in Baseball (New York: Baseball Magazine Co., Inc., 1982).

Marcin, Joe, Chris Roewe, Larry Wigge, and Larry Vickrey, editors. Official Baseball Guide – 1976 (St. Louis: The Sporting News, 1976).

Shearon, Jim, Canada’s Baseball Legends (Kanata, Ontario: Malin Head Press, 1994).

Shury, Dave, editor, Saskatchewan Historical Baseball Review (Battleford, Saskatchewan: The Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Association, 1984, 1986, and 1990).

Turner, Dan, Heroes, Bums and Ordinary Men (Toronto: Doubleday Canada Limited, 1988).

Newspapers

Boston Globe 

New York Times 

The Sporting News

Websites

baseball-reference.com

baseballlibrary.com

minorleaguebasball.com

nationmaster.com

retrosheet.org

sabr.org

sports123.com

travs.com

Other

Interview with Reggie Cleveland on August 4, 1990, by Dan Dinardo for the SABR Oral History Project. The interview was transcribed by Joseph Hetrick.

Telephone interview with Reggie Cleveland on August 5, 2005, by the author.

Notes

As if that wasn’t enough, Tony Conigliaro was a bona-fide celebrity and singer with a couple of regional hit records to his credit.

Tony C was born on January 7, 1945, in Revere, Massachusetts, a few miles north of Boston, and grew up both there and in East Boston, where he first played Little League ball at age 9. Tony and his younger brother Billy (b. 1947) were obsessed with baseball, playing it at every possible opportunity, usually with the support and guidance of their uncle Vinnie Martelli. “He used to pitch batting practice to me for hours, till my hands bled,” wrote Conigliaro in his autobiography Seeing It Through.1  In his very first at-bat for the Orient Heights Little League team, Tony hit a home run over the center-field fence. He credited coach Ben Campbell for giving him tremendous encouragement in youth baseball.

Tony confessed that at a very early age, “I discovered how much I hated to lose.”2 His teams didn’t lose that often. By the time he was 13 and in Pony League, they were traveling out of state in tournament play. Tony went to high school at St. Mary’s in Lynn, where his father, Sal, was working at Triangle Tool and Dye. Sal and Tony’s mother, Teresa, were very supportive of his athletic endeavors and were a fixture at Tony’s various ballgames.

As both a shortstop and pitcher, Tony had already come to the attention of scouts like Lennie Merullo and Milt Bolling, and by the time he graduated claimed to have had as many as 14 scouts tracking him. In his final couple of years, he recalled batting over .600 and having won 16 games on the mound, and remembered his team winning the Catholic Conference championship.  He played American Legion ball in the summers, with the same .600 batting average. The Red Sox asked Tony to come to a 1962 workout at Fenway Park, where both he and Tony Horton showed their stuff. When the Legion season ended and Tony’s father courted bids, Boston’s Milt Bolling and Red Sox farm director Neil Mahoney made the best bid at $20,000 and Tony signed with the Red Sox.3 He was sent to Bradenton for the Florida Instructional League.

It was Conigliaro’s first time far from home, and he didn’t stand out that well at winter ball. In the spring of 1963, he was invited to the Red Sox minor-league camp at Ocala. He did well there, and was assigned to Wellsville in the New York-Penn League. Before he reported, he went home to see his girlfriend, got in a fight with a local boy, and broke his thumb. He wasn’t able to report to Wellsville until the end of May. That was the end of Conigliaro’s pitching career, but the scouts were looking at his hitting more than his pitching anyway. Tony did well at Wellsville, batting .363, hitting 24 homers, and winning the league’s Rookie of the Year and MVP awards. He played that autumn at instructional league in Sarasota and was added to the Red Sox’ 40-man roster. The next spring, 1964, the Sox brought him to their big-league spring-training headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Boston’s manager was Johnny Pesky who, as it happened, lived on the same street in Swampscott to which the Conigliaro family had recently moved: Parsons Street. Pesky saw the fire in Tony Conigliaro and played him that spring; Tony hit a monster home run off Cleveland’s Gary Bell on March 22, the first day his parents came to visit him in Scottsdale. Ted Williams admired Conigliaro’s style and told him, whatever he did, “Don’t change that solid stance of yours, no matter what you’re told.” Ted told reporters, though, “He’s just a kid; he’s two years away.”4 

Johnny Pesky saw otherwise. Tony C was 19 and only in his second year in Organized Baseball, but he made the big-league club as the center fielder for the Red Sox. Pesky was taking a chance on a relatively untested player, but the 1964 Sox, frankly, didn’t have a great deal of talent.

Conigliaro’s first major-league game was in Yankee Stadium on April 16. In his first major-league at-bat, against Whitey Ford, he stepped into the box with men on first and second and grounded into a double play. His third time up, he singled and finished the day 1-for-5. The next day, April 17, was the home opener at Fenway Park. Tony was batting seventh in the order, facing Joe Horlen of the White Sox. He swung at Horlen’s first pitch and hit it over the Green Monster in left field, and even over the net that hung above the Wall. Tony Conigliaro, wearing number 25, took his first home-run trot. Tony told writers afterward that he always swung at the first good pitch he saw. “I don’t like to give the pitcher any kind of edge,” he said.5

In that same spirit, Conigliaro crowded the plate. And pitchers, quite naturally, tried to back him off the plate. He was often hit by pitches, and suffered his first injury on May 24 when Kansas City’s Moe Drabowsky hit him in the left wrist, causing a hairline fracture. Fortunately, Tony missed only four games.

Back in the lineup, back pounding out homers, Tony hit number 20 in the first game of a July 26 doubleheader against Cleveland. In the second game, he got hit for the fifth time in the season, by Pedro Ramos. It broke his arm. This time he missed a month, out until September 4. Conigliaro finished the season with 24 homers and a .290 average.

In 1965, under manager Billy Herman, Tony played in 138 games and hit 32 more homers, enough to lead the league, though his average dipped to .269. During the June free-agent draft, there was more good news for the Conigliaro family: The Red Sox used their first pick to select Tony’s younger brother, Billy. Tony was struck yet again by a ball on July 28, when a Wes Stock pitch broke his left wrist. It was the third broken bone Tony had suffered in just over 14 months. He simply refused to back off the plate. Orioles executive Frank Lane intimated that Red Sox pitchers could defend Tony a bit better by retaliating.

Suffering no serious injuries in 1966, Tony got in a very full season, seeing action in 150 games. He banged out 28 homers and drove in 93 runs, leading the league in sacrifice flies with seven. His average was .265 and the Boston writers voted him Red Sox MVP. The Red Sox as a team, though, played poorly in these years. In 1966 they were spared the ignominy of last place only because the Yankees played even worse. Boston ended the year in ninth place, 26 games out of first, and the Yankees ended in tenth, 26½ games behind the Orioles. In his first three years in the majors, the highest that one of Tony’s teams finished was eighth place in 1964.

Tony C’s brilliant play shone all the more because of the colorless team around him. The local boy made good was a teenage heartthrob and the 6-foot-3 handsome star attracted a lot of attention from local girls, and girls on the road. Assigning older players as roommates to provide a stabilizing presence didn’t do the trick. Dick Williams wrote in his autobiography, “I never saw him. Not late at night, not first thing in the morning, never. I was providing veteran influence to a suitcase.”6 In the early part of 1965, Tony Conigliaro the pop star released his first recording. He recorded a couple of singles and might have developed a career in this area, but kept his focus on baseball.

Billy Conigliaro joined his brother as the two traveled together to spring training in 1967. Tony was hit by a fastball in early workouts and he hurt his back as well. Billy was sent out for more seasoning; he first made the big-league club in 1969. Tony got off to a slow start, batting well enough but without much power. He didn’t hit his third home run until June 11. And he still crowded the plate. Johnny Pesky told author David Cataneo, “He was fearless of the ball. He would just move his head, like Williams did. A ball up and in, Tony would just move his head. He thought the ball would never hit him.”7

The Red Sox surprised everyone with their play in 1967. Conigliaro contributed as well. One game that stood out was an extra-inning affair at Fenway on June 15. Boston was hosting the White Sox and the game was scoreless for 10 full innings. Chicago took a 1-0 lead in the top of the 11th, but Joe Foy singled and then Conigliaro hit a two-run homer off John Buzhardt for a walkoff win. The win moved the Red Sox up by percentage points to put them in a tie for third place, just four games out of first, and the next day’s Boston Globe referred to the “Impossible Dream” season the Red Sox team was having for itself.

It was on July 23 that Tony hit the 100th and 101st home runs of his major-league career. The Red Sox were just a half-game out of first place. It was a tight race, with Boston hanging just out of first, but never quite making it to the top. As late as August 14, the Red Sox were in fifth place – but only three games out.

On the 17th, Tony’s partner in the music business, Ed Penney, was visiting his sons at the Ted Williams Baseball Camp in Lakeville, Massachusetts. Ted warned Penney, “Tell Tony that he’s crowding the plate. Tell him to back off.” He said, “It’s getting too serious now with the Red Sox.” Penney remembered, “I told him I would. I’d see him the next night. When we were walking across the field to get the kids, and Ted was going up to the stands to make some kind of talk, he turned around and yelled over to me and said, ‘Don’t forget what I told you to tell Tony. Back off, because they’ll be throwing at him.’”8 Penney did tell Tony, before the game the very next night. Tony was in a slump at the time, and told his brother Billy he couldn’t back off the plate or pitchers wouldn’t take him seriously. If anything, he was going to dig in a little closer.

The Red Sox were facing the California Angels the next day – August 18 – and Jack Hamilton’s fourth-inning fastball came in and struck Tony in the face, just missing his temple but hitting him in the left eye and cheekbone. Tony later wrote that he jerked his head back “so hard that my helmet flipped off just before impact.”9 He never lost consciousness, but as he lay on the ground, David Cataneo wrote, Tony prayed, “God, please, please don’t let me die right here in the dirt at home plate at Fenway Park.”10 Tony was fortunate to escape with his life, but his season – and quite possibly his career – was over. Conigliaro had been very badly injured.

The 1967 Red Sox made it to Game Seven of the World Series before the bubble burst. It had nonetheless been a tremendous year for the team, and reignited the passion for the Sox in the city of Boston. Since 1967, tickets for Fenway Park have been hard to come by. Tony, however, felt he’d let the team down. He was down on himself and downplayed his contribution in the drive to the pennant. His teammates were the first to reassure him that they never would have reached the postseason had it not been for his contributions early on. There is little doubt, though, that Conigliaro was missed in the World Series itself. George Scott was unambiguous in his assessment: “I’ve said it a million times, if Tony had been in the lineup, we would have won. He was one of those guys. Reggie Jackson was a big-game player. Tony was that kind of player.”11

There was concern that Conigliaro might lose the sight in his left eye. He tried to come back in spring training, but there was just no way. His vision was inadequate, and his doctor told him, “I don’t want to be cruel, and there’s no way of telling you this in a nice way, but it’s not safe for you to play ball anymore.”12 Tony C wouldn’t quit, though, and against all odds, his vision slowly began to improve. By late May he was told he could begin to work out again. Tony also learned new ways to see the ball. When he looked straight on at the pitcher, he couldn’t see the ball, but he learned to use his peripheral vision to pick up the ball and was able to see well enough by looking a couple of inches to the left. Tony wanted badly to get back into baseball. He spent a good amount of time in the late summer of 1968 trying to learn to become a pitcher, and started several games in the Winter Instructional League for the Sarasota Red Sox beginning on November 4, but he rolled up a record of 0-3, giving up 15 runs in one game, and developed a sore arm as well. He played in the outfield on the days he wasn’t pitching and he began to connect for a few solid hits. He gave up the idea of pitching, emboldened to try to come back as a hitter in spring training 1969.

Not only did Tony make the team in 1969, but he broke back in with a bang, hitting a two-run homer in the top of the 10th on Opening Day in Baltimore, on April 8. The O’s retied the game, but Tony led off in the 12th and worked a walk, eventually coming home to score on Dalton Jones’s sacrifice fly to right. Tony delivered the game-winning hit in the fourth inning of the home opener at Fenway Park on April 14, though admittedly it wasn’t much of a hit. He came up with the bases loaded and wanted to break the game open. Instead, he sent a slow dribbler toward Brooks Robinson at third, and beat it out as Ray Culp scored from third. Tony C was back. It was never easy, and the various books on his struggle document how hard he had to work at what once seemed so effortless, but Tony played in 141 games, hit 20 home runs, and drove in 82 runs. Tony won the Comeback Player of the Year Award. There wasn’t any question who would win it.

The 1970 season was Conigliaro’s best at the plate, with 36 homers and 116 RBIs. He also scored a career-high 89 runs. Brother Billy had made the Red Sox, too, in 1969, getting himself 80 at-bats and acquitting himself well. Billy became a regular in 1970, appearing in 114 games and batting .271. Add his 18 homers to Tony’s 36, and the resulting total of 54 set a record for the most home runs by two brothers on the same major-league club. On July 4 and September 19, they each homered in the same game.

In October the Red Sox traded Tony. Stats aside, they knew that Conigliaro was playing on guts and native talent, but may have sensed that his vision was still questionable. His trade value was as high as it likely ever would be. Not even waiting for Baltimore and Cincinnati to finish the World Series, they packaged Conigliaro with Ray Jarvis and Jerry Moses and swapped him to the California Angels for Ken Tatum, Jarvis Tatum, and Doug Griffin. Even years later, Red Sox executives neither explained nor took credit (or responsibility) for the trade. The news stunned the baseball world – and Red Sox fans in particular. As author Herb Crehan wrote in Red Sox Heroes of Yesteryear, referring to Boston’s then-mayor, “it was as if Mayor Menino were to trade the USS Constitution to Baltimore for the USS Constellation.”13 Ken Tatum may have been the key to the trade; the Sox were after a strong reliever and he’d done very well for California.

Tony was crushed, and as Crehan noted, he “never adjusted to life as a California Angel.” David Cataneo wrote, “Tony C and Southern California just didn’t happen.”14 Conigliaro batted just .222 in 1971, with only 4 homers and 15 RBIs just before the All-Star break. His headaches had returned. He wasn’t feeling well. Cataneo mentioned a string of ailments, from a bad leg to a pinched nerve. Tony even put himself in traction for an hour before every game. Some of the Angels lost patience with him and began to mock him. Finally, fed up, he packed his bags and left the team after the July 9 game, announcing his retirement. He told reporters that he simply couldn’t see well enough, but took the Red Sox off the hook for having dealt tarnished goods. “My eyesight never came back to normal. … I pick up the spin on the ball late, by looking away to the side. I don’t know how I do it. I kept it away from the Red Sox. … I had a lot of headaches because of the strain to see. … My search for that damn baseball.”15

When he heard the news that Tony had left the Angels, Billy Conigliaro exploded in the Red Sox clubhouse, telling reporters that the reason for the trade to California in the first place had been Carl Yastrzemski, that Yaz had all the influence on the ballclub. “Tony was traded because of one guy – over there,” he charged, indicating Yastrzemski. Yaz “got rid of Pesky, Ken Harrelson, and Tony. I know I’m next. Yaz and Reggie [Smith] are being babied, and the club better do something about it.”16

Billy was part of a major 10-player trade with Milwaukee, but the trade was not made until October. Billy never rejoined the Red Sox. Tony did, but it took a while.

An eye exam Tony underwent after returning to Boston showed that the blind spot in his vision had grown considerably; his vision was deteriorating once more. Tony hadn’t given up yet and in October 1973 talked about wanting to mount another comeback with the Angels in 1974. It appears that the Angels wanted him to play for their Salt Lake City affiliate, to see how he worked out, but Tony was past wanting to play for a minor-league team and so stayed retired. Late in 1974, he wrote to the Red Sox asking for another shot at a comeback and GM Dick O’Connell said he could come to spring training, but not at financial cost to the Red Sox. If he was willing to pay his own way, he was welcome to give it a try. The Angels graciously granted Tony his outright release in November 1974. The Red Sox offered him a contract with the Pawtucket Red Sox, which he signed on March 5, 1975.

Tony took up the challenge, and he had an exceptional spring. On April 4 he got word that he had made the big-league team. Opening Day 1975 was four days later, at Fenway Park on April 8, and Tony was the designated hitter, batting cleanup. With two outs and Yaz on first, Tony singled and Yaz took third. The crowd gave Tony C a three-minute standing ovation. Perhaps Milwaukee pitcher Jim Slaton and his batterymate, Darrell Porter, were caught a little off-guard; the Red Sox scored a run when Tony and Yaz pulled off a double steal. 

Tony’s first home run came three days later, off Mike Cuellar in Baltimore. With a first-inning single the following day, he drove in another run, but his .200 average after the April 12 game was the highest he posted for the rest of the season. He appeared only in 21 games, for 57 at-bats, and was batting just .123 after the game on June 12. He was hampered by a couple of injuries; it just wasn’t working out. The Red Sox needed to make room on the 25-man roster for newly acquired infielder Denny Doyle and they asked Tony to go to Pawtucket. After thinking it over for a week, he agreed to and reported, traveling with the PawSox, but getting only sporadic playing time. Manager Joe Morgan said, “He had lost those real good reflexes,” and teammate Buddy Hunter told David Cataneo, “Any guy who threw real hard, he had trouble with.” Hunter added, “He was dropping easy fly balls in the outfield.”17 In August Tony Conigliaro finally called it a day, and retired once again, this time for good. “My body is falling apart,” he explained.18

Before too long, Tony found work as a broadcaster, first in Providence and then in the San Francisco area. He lost a nice gig in the Bay Area in early 1980, but filled in with other stations. In a life full of setbacks, even the health-food store Tony owned in California was lost to mudslides in December 1981. 

In early 1982, though, Tony learned that Ken Harrelson was leaving his job as color commentator with Channel 38 in Boston, the Red Sox station. Now there was a job with appeal! He interviewed for the position on the day he turned 37, January 7, 1982. The audition went very well, and he was told he’d got the job. Tony had a couple of other stops to make, and then planned to return to the Bay Area to pack up his gear for the move back to Boston.

On January 9, 1982, Billy Conigliaro was driving Tony to Logan Airport when Tony suffered a heart attack in the car. Though rushed to the hospital, Tony suffered irreversible brain damage and was hospitalized for two months before being discharged into the care of Billy and the Conigliaro family. He lived another eight years before succumbing at age 45 on February 24, 1990.

A version of this biography appeared in “’75: The Red Sox Team That Saved Baseball” (Rounder Books, 2005; SABR, 2015), edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan.

Sources

Cataneo, David. Tony C. (Nashville, Tennessee: Rutledge Hill Press, 1997).

Conigliaro, Tony, with Jack Zanger. Seeing It Through (New York: Macmillan, 1970).

Crehan, Herb. Red Sox Heroes of Yesteryear (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Rounder Books, 2005).

Williams, Dick, with Bill Plaschke. No More Mr. Nice Guy (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990).

Thanks to Wayne McElreavy for considerable assistance with this profile. 

Notes