Doug Griffin

Doug Griffin’s professional baseball career comprised 13 years, beginning at Idaho Falls in 1965 and finishing with the Boston Red Sox in 1977. He spent eight seasons in the major leagues, seven of them with the Red Sox, and appeared briefly in the 1975 World Series.

Douglas Lee Griffin was born on June 4, 1947 in South Gate, California. He was listed as an even 6 feet tall, and his playing weight was about 160 pounds. At El Monte (California) High School, he achieved All-Pacific League, All-Valley, and All-California Interscholastic Federation honors. He also lettered in basketball, football, and track. He graduated in 1965.

Griffin was discovered by California Angels scout Tufie Hashem.1 He was drafted by the Angels in the 21st round of the 1965 amateur draft, and was assigned to Idaho Falls of the rookie Pioneer League, where he played 31 games, batting .200. In 1966, Griffin was sent to Davenport, Iowa, where he hit .276 with the Quad Cities Angels of the Class A Midwest League, and was named the league’s All-Star second baseman.

For the next two years, Griffin was in the Navy stationed at Pearl Harbor in the Submarine Service. While there, he played for military teams and the Honolulu Islanders, an amateur team of servicemen all-stars, which in 1967 participated in the semipro National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kansas. Honolulu placed second to the Boulder Collegians, who won the series with a 5-3 victory over Griffin’s club. Griffin received a first-team All-America selection, out of 520 players competing, by a board of major-league scouts attending that series.

He returned to the Quad Cities team in 1969, playing in 60 games and batting .250. That same season he advanced to El Paso of the Double-A Texas League, where he hit .308.

Griffin was elevated to California’s Triple-A club, the Hawaii Islanders for the 1970 season. He had an excellent year in Hawaii, batting .326 with 180 hits and slugging at a .437 pace. He was named the Pacific Coast League All-Star second baseman, won the Topps PCL player of the month award in July, and was named the league’s 1970 Rookie of the Year. The 1970 Islanders team is still considered one of the greatest minor-league teams of all time, with a 98-48 record under the leadership of manager Chuck Tanner.2 Spokane swept the best-of-seven PCL championship series in four games. Griffin was one of three Hawaii players to get five hits in the series, and his two-run homer knocked in the only runs Hawaii scored in the final game.

After the championship series, Griffin was called up to the Angels, making his major-league debut on September 11, 1970. He alternated between second and third bases, since he was competing with All-Star second baseman Sandy Alomar. He played in 18 games for the Angels, posting a .127 batting average with seven hits in 55 at-bats, but a respectable .970 fielding percentage.

Among his unique accomplishments, Griffin participated in two minor-league triple plays (for Idaho Falls in 1965 and Quad Cities in 1966). He tied a Hawaii Islanders club record in 1970 by scoring five runs in a game, and established a club consecutive hit streak record, hitting safely in 28 straight games.

“Big-Dealing Bosox Counting on Griffin,” said a headline in the December 19, 1970, edition of The Sporting News, highlighting the arrival of Griffin in Boston.3 Red Sox general manager Dick O’Connell made a block-buster trade with the California Angels on October 11, 1970, giving up Red Sox slugger and fan favorite Tony Conigliaro, catcher Jerry Moses, and pitcher Ray Jarvis for ace reliever Ken Tatum, outfielder Jarvis Tatum, and infielder Griffin. The key acquisition for the Red Sox was Ken Tatum. The Red Sox already had a solid second baseman in Mike Andrews, one of the 1967 “Impossible Dream” team, and gave no indication that they were ready to move him. In December 1970, however, Boston made another surprising move, trading away Andrews and shortstop Luis Alvarado to the Chicago White Sox for shortstop Luis Aparicio. This opened up the second-base spot and set the stage for Griffin.

Griffin was known for his glove and great speed, both factors that prompted the Red Sox to acquire him. Ken Tatum characterized Griffin this way: “He’s not big, but he’s a great competitor. He dives for balls, he can hit and run, and he will sacrifice himself to move along a baserunner. He has very quick hands and he can make the double play.”4 In the event, Griffin had more than his fair share of injuries, which without doubt served to shorten his career.

Griffin was an unknown before he set foot on Boston soil, with just 18 games of big-league experience. The refrain around Boston from fans and writers alike was, “Doug Who? Where does he play?”5 Griffin was the sleeper in the trade.

Red Sox management focused on Griffin’s speed and his attributes as “a promising infielder,” and the young second-base prospect drew praise from manager Eddie Kasko who said, “Our scouting reports on Griffin indicate that he has exceptional speed. We can use all the speed we can get.”6

Griffin’s emergence onto the Boston scene was nearly as surprising as the departure of Conigliaro, having greater residual impact on the club than the arrival of Ken Tatum. Just before the trade for Griffin, utility infielder Dick Schofield had been dealt, and just after came the trade of the popular Mike Andrews. With All-Star and future Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio on board, discussion quickly centered on the new double-play combination of Aparicio and Griffin. During the winter manager Eddie Kasko said, “Our reports on the Griffin boy are excellent. He has excellent speed and they say he makes the double play very well. I plan to bat him second, behind Aparicio and in front of Yastrzemski.”7 Remarkably, this was Kasko’s plan even though Griffin was untested. One Boston sportswriter noted that the Red Sox double-play combination of Aparicio and Griffin was the lightest-weight in Organized Baseball. Each weighed 155 pounds. “The two of them just edge out Frank Howard,” smirked one Red Sox fan.8

“Dude” and “Griff” were nicknames given Griffin by his Red Sox teammates, though Luis Tiant called him “Skeleton” because he was so thin and lightweight. What he lacked in size, though, Griffin made up for in agility, quickness, and speed, and he had a sure glove. His bat remained a question mark, though, one that concerned the Red Sox brass. As spring training opened in Winter Haven, Florida, in 1971, once again Red Sox management emphasized “defense and speed,” in the words of manager Kasko.9 This approach was the brainchild of GM O’Connell, who sought to improve on the 1970 season, in which the Red Sox finished 21 games behind Baltimore. The die was cast: Doug Griffin was to be the starting second sacker on Opening Day.

An interesting twist to the Griffin rookie saga was announced by the Red Sox when spring training was barely under way; they named John Kennedy – the “Super Sub” – to spell Griffin when necessary. “John will get a lot of work this spring at second, just in case Griffin can’t do the job,” Kasko said.10 Kennedy, acquired by Boston in 1970, had played in 43 games filling in for George Scott at third base. Kasko held him in very high regard. Griffin was untried, which left Kasko a bit unsettled. He needed a backup plan and Kennedy was it.

Luis Aparicio took Griffin under his wing both before and during spring training, which seemed to reflect an understanding he had with Red Sox management when they acquired him.11 He accepted the role with great enthusiasm as did Griffin. It was a great match.

Former Red Sox great Ted Williams observed about the Conigliaro/Andrews trades bringing Griffin and Aparicio to Boston that he could not remember a Red Sox team trading for defense at the expense of power. This was indeed innovative for Boston and maybe even risky. Confidence in the plan was suspect.12

At the end of spring training, the Red Sox acquired power-hitting catcher Duane Josephson from the White Sox, with many expressions of enthusiasm from Sox management. Kasko reshuffled the batting order, moving Griffin from the leadoff spot to eighth in the batting order. Griffin responded with four hits in that spot just before the team’s departure from Florida.13

Griffin had a solid spring, living up to his reputation as a flashy fielder. The Red Sox were pleased to find he wielded a steady bat, too. The Red Sox were high on the rookie from California as the 1971 season opened. Sportswriter Larry Claflin reported in The Sporting News that “Griffin is playing sensationally in the field, giving the Red Sox exactly what White Sox manager Chuck Tanner predicted for them last winter when he heard of the Griffin trade.”14 Griffin made only one error in his first 18 games, but it was one that nearly cost the Red Sox the game. On the next play, however, he made a sensational maneuver as the middle man on a double play, eluding a sliding Joe Foy seeking to upend him, then throwing to first to end the game.“What impresses Red Sox players most about Griffin are his hands,” Claflin wrote. “He never seems to bobble a ball.”15

Griffin was going strong in the spring. He combined brilliant fielding with a respectable .261 average through May. Three times he had three-hit games. Through mid-June he made only two fielding errors in nearly 200 chances. The Fenway Park crowd took an instant liking to the new kid they called the Dude. Pitcher Sonny Siebert was impressed, noting that Griffin “made a difference” making more double plays, holding scores down and not giving opponents the extra out.16

Griffin was having such a good first half in his first year with the Red Sox that he received a credible number of votes by the players for their selections to the American League All-Star Team in a poll conducted by The Sporting News. He finished fifth in the players voting. Interestingly, Griffin received more votes than Sandy Alomar, who’d been the player in Griffin’s way the year before with California. The player poll had no effect on the official selections, as the All-Star voting remained a fan privilege. Rod Carew was the fans’ choice at second base. The player vote was nonetheless a mark of respect by Griffin’s peers.

Continued good fortune was not in the cards for the oft-injured Red Sox second baseman. While he chased a pop fly in short right field on June 28, Griffin’s back went into spasms and he left the game soon after. Griffin had experienced similar trouble with his back in the past but never this seriously. Ironically, this was the same game in which he hit his first major-league home run. And as was true at the time of most of his subsequent injuries, Griffin was playing very good baseball, both at bat and in the field. He was on the disabled list for nearly a month, from June 30 to July 27, missing 28 games.

The Red Sox were chasing the Orioles for the lead in 1971 but hitting was not their strong suit and that lack of offense kept them well behind Baltimore. Carl Yastrzemski was having an off-year and George Scott played hot and cold. Griffin was cited by the Boston brass as one of the few players who was hitting above expectations, this despite missing so many games due to injury.

Feuding among the Red Sox players was a factor in the slow demise of the Red Sox’ chances in 1971. Although it was felt that this was not a principal factor in the team’s collapse, it certainly damaged team symmetry and harmony. In the meantime, Griffin was hitting well after coming back from injury, though his back continued to bother him and required frequent treatments from trainer Buddy LeRoux.17

The Red Sox finished third in 1971, 18 games behind the AL East division-leading Baltimore Orioles. Griffin finished his season with a .244 batting average. Largely because of his slick fielding, Griffin became a candidate for AL Rookie of the Year, and placed fourth in the voting. Chris Chambliss of the Cleveland Indians won the award; the Boston baseball writers named Griffin the Red Sox rookie of the year.

For Griffin 1972 was a very good year. Once again he was placed on the All-Star ballot. He had a sensational spring, both with the bat and in the field. “I have ceased to be amazed at the plays he makes. He did something spectacular every day,” said manager Kasko.18 “He gets to balls I cannot believe he can reach,” added Luis Aparicio.19 “He’s positively uncanny at playing the hitters. When I saw him moving, I moved with him in right field, and you would be amazed how often Griffin moved the right way,” said Reggie Smith.20

Hard luck followed Griffin in 1972, just as it had the year before. He was benched early in the season due to a slump, but came back strong, and was hitting well until early August, when he was hit by a Gaylord Perry pitch that broke his hand. Griffin was on the disabled list from August 9 to September 1, missing 25 games. When he returned he had trouble gripping the bat, affecting his hitting.

Griffin won a 1972 Gold Glove award. And despite the broken hand, he improved his batting average to .260, and his 15 sacrifice hits tied him for third place in the league with three other players. In spite of turmoil in the clubhouse, the Red Sox finished second in the AL East, just a half-game behind the Detroit Tigers. If it had not been for the unbalanced schedule after the players strike at the start of the season, the Red Sox might have played the same number of games as the Tigers. Had they played one more game, and won, they would have been tied for first place.

The 1973 season was a year of promise for the Red Sox. They had a seasoned team returning, one bolstered by the pitching of Luis Tiant, Marty Pattin, John Curtis, and Lynn McGlothen. The infield was an established one with Gold Glove winner Griffin, Luis Aparicio, Rico Petrocelli, and Carl Yastrzemski. Griffin again appeared on the AL All-Star ballot, but back problems that cropped up during spring training plagued him throughout the year. On top of that, in May he was hit by pitcher Billy Champion of the Milwaukee Brewers and suffered another fractured hand, serving a stint on the disabled list from May 25 to July 13. It was a very unfortunate injury for Griffin, at a time when he was playing his best ball, batting .289 and only recently installed in the leadoff spot. His fielding had been superb.21

Griffin’s second broken hand had a deleterious effect upon the 1973 Red Sox. Neither John Kennedy nor the new sub acquired from the Yankees, Mario Guerrero, had the fielding range or prowess to compare with Griffin. Worse, the fracture may have been intentional; it appeared to have been the product of a feud between the Red Sox and Brewers, principally involving Bill Lee of the Red Sox and the Brewers’ Ellie Rodriguez. In the game at Fenway when Griffin was injured, three Red Sox players were hit by pitches, Carlton Fisk (helmet), Orlando Cepeda (shoulder), and then Griffin. It nearly led to a brawl on the field.22

Injuries were taking their toll on Griffin. It was becoming more a matter of how long he might last than how well he might play. After the 1973 season, Boston replaced Kasko with Darrell Johnson from their minor-league system. They also dealt young outfielder Ben Oglivie for seasoned utility infielder Dick McAuliffe of the Tigers, in order to spell the oft-injured Griffin at second. Peter Gammons wrote, “McAuliffe will fill in at third and second, where a backup job often is needed since Doug Griffin usually gets hurt and has trouble with several right-handed pitchers.”23

Griffin had played in 113 games for the 1973 Red Sox, batting.255, and may have had his best season in the field, making only six errors on 584 total chances, for a .990 fielding percentage, his best in the majors. He placed second to Bobby Grich of the Orioles for the AL Gold Glove award. Griffin ranked third in sacrifice hits with 13, and 10th in sacrifice flies with six. Boston finished second in the AL East again, eight games behind the Baltimore Orioles.

On April 6, 1973, Griffin participated in the first major-league game featuring a designated hitter, against the New York Yankees. Ron Blomberg of the Yankees established baseball immortality by being the first DH. (There were other designated hitters that day, but the Red Sox Game had the earliest start.) Griffin distinguished himself in that game with four hits, two RBIs, and a stolen base.

Griffin longed for an injury-free 1974 season, and was off to a tremendous start, but he pulled a muscle. Petrocelli was also hurt. Though the year started with great hopes, manager Darrell Johnson was soon forced into constantly juggling lineups to replace injured players. On April 30 Griffin was beaned by a Nolan Ryan fastball that knocked him unconscious. The beaning left Griffin with a concussion and temporary hearing loss, and likely caused the premature end to his career.

Griffin had been playing exceptional baseball before the beaning. He was on a tear, having hit safely in 15 consecutive games, and was batting at a .347 clip.24 The incident was a terrifying one, reminiscent of the Tony Conigliaro beaning in 1967, and it truly interrupted the rhythm of the surging Red Sox. “Griffin’s injury was the most serious blow suffered by the Red Sox in the first month. It capped a period when they played as though possessed by disruptive devils,” wrote Peter Gammons.25 Griffin was on the DL for two months, from April 30 to July 1.

The Red Sox were again faced with questions regarding players and field positions following the Griffin injury. Rookie Rick Burleson, a shortstop, was asked to platoon at second base with veteran Dick McAuliffe in Griffin’s absence. Before Griffin returned to action, catcher Carlton Fisk suffered a significant knee injury and was lost for the balance of the season.

Griffin returned to regular action in mid-July and in his first game back, he got a double and scored the winning run against Baltimore. The Orioles didn’t treat him lightly: he was crunched at second base by a Don Baylor slide, and was brushed back by a high, inside pitch from Bob Reynolds. He wasn’t affected by the brushback, he said. The following month, Griffin faced the man who put him on the DL, Nolan Ryan. Griffin got two hits off Ryan that day. But he may have lost a bit of his edge. Tim Horgan later reported, “To his everlasting credit, he dug right in against the Angels’ flamethrower as soon as he’d recuperated, but he never did regain the form that made him one of the few constants in the Red Sox infield.”26

The Red Sox finished third in 1974, seven games behind division-leading Baltimore and five behind the Yankees, with an 84-78 record. Griffin played in only 93 games of the injury-plagued season, but played well, batting .266, with another good year in the field.

During the offseason Darrell Johnson openly discussed possible trades involving several players including Griffin, but nothing materialized. Griffin was still suffering with back trouble and was heading for surgery, which made any trade talks involving him doubtful. Johnson had planned to move Burleson to second base and trade Griffin for a shortstop, but Griffin’s back injury made him “untradeable,” remarked GM Dick O’Connell.27

Various maneuvers were made by the Red Sox in the spring of 1975 to adjust for injuries. They continued to hope that highly regarded shortstop Steve Dillard would overcome his own injuries and be able to play regularly. Mario Guerrero’s name continued to come up, and Burleson appeared destined for second base. Griffin seemed not to have a place, although the message was unclear. Manager Johnson told Tim Horgan of the Boston Herald: “I wish I could say Doug is still our second baseman. But I don’t know myself where he stands. I’ve got to have a Burleson available. If Doug is all right, then it’s simply a matter of who’s the best man at the position.”28

The Red Sox fueled the fire further, if not adding to the dilemma, by mentioning a newly acquired player from the Baltimore farm system, Kim Andrew, as a possible replacement for Griffin. Player personnel director Haywood Sullivan, manager Johnson, and coach Don Zimmer were all very high on Andrew, a player more noted for his hitting than his fielding. As it developed, Andrew was used sparingly and never panned out for the Red Sox.29

When the 1975 season started, Griffin owned the second-base job. On June 13, however, the Red Sox obtained Denny Doyle, a journeyman infielder, from the California Angels. Manager Johnson platooned Griffin and Doyle most of the rest of the year. Doyle played in 89 games for the Red Sox, Griffin 100. Doyle finished the year batting .310, Griffin .240. Johnson said of Doyle, “I knew he was a good player, but I never realized how good. He’s simply uncanny at advancing runners.” Interestingly, after the platooning took effect, by midseason Griffin was hitting close to .300 and having his best year since 1973.30

But it was clear that Denny Doyle had become Darrell Johnson’s man at second base, and by the division playoffs with Oakland, Doyle had a corner on the second-base job. The irony was that 1975 was the first year Griffin avoided injury in his five full seasons with the club.

On August 31, 1975, Griffin was beaned again, this time by Oakland’s Dick Bosman. Griffin experienced hearing and equilibrium problems, but recovered very quickly. This time he had been wearing an ear flap with his protective helmet.

Griffin did not play in the ALCS against the A’s, and was not a factor in the 1975 World Series. He appeared only once as a pinch-hitter for pitcher Jim Willoughby in the eighth inning of Game Five, and lined out to second base.

By the following year, the infield was felt to be the only possible weakness. Surprisingly Red Sox brass continued to talk about the Doyle-Griffin combination at second, but Johnson seemed settled on Doyle at that position in spite of his own and management’s representations to the contrary.

By the third week in June 1976, Denny Doyle had 171 at-bats and was batting .211 in 49 games. Griffin was hitting .215 with 65 at-bats in 25 games. Griffin was also being used effectively as a pinch-hitter. Suddenly, on July 19, the Red Sox summarily fired Darrell Johnson, and third-base coach Don Zimmer replaced him. Griffin finished at .189 in just 127 at-bats.

By the fall of 1976 there was talk of both Griffin and Doyle being on the trading block. Griffin was rumored to be going to Detroit, but this never materialized, and springtime talk quieted down to a “wait and see” attitude with Red Sox brass. Zimmer remained high on Denny Doyle, describing him as “the finest hit-and-run man on the club.”31But in the next breath Zimmer reported that the “battle for second and third base is wide open, with Doug Griffin and Denny Doyle seeking one spot and Rico Petrocelli challenging second-year man Butch Hobson for the other spot.”32

Griffin played in only five games of the 1977 season with six at-bats and no hits. He played his last major-league game on June 2, and a few weeks later was given his unconditional release.

Griffin did not continue a career in baseball after his release from the Red Sox. He worked briefly for his father in the construction trade in California in the late 1970s, and performed the same kind of work in the 1980s for Buddy LeRoux, who had a construction business in Winter Haven, Florida. Griffin is now retired and currently resides in Fresno, California.33 The Griffins have two children, Natalie and Chad, and four grandchildren.

One could assume that had it not been for the numerous injuries that plagued Griffin throughout his major-league career, he most likely would be remembered as one of the premier second basemen of his time. He had exceptional skills in the field, so much so that even when the Red Sox appeared to give up on him, he stuck with the team because they could not find a replacement who could match his surehandedness, range and quickness. Perhaps the ultimate compliment was summed up by Griffin’s teammate, future Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, when he said, “No second baseman we have had in my time with the Red Sox can go get the ball like Griffin.”34

Last revised: November 3, 2014

A version of this biography was originally published in ” ‘75: The Red Sox Team That Saved Baseball,” edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan, and published by Rounder Books in 2005.

Sources

Bjarkman, Peter C., The Baseball Scrapbook (New York: Barnes & Noble Books/Brompton Books Corporation, 1995).

Cole, Milton, and Jim Kaplan, The Boston Red Sox (New York: World Publications Group, Inc., JG Press, 2005).

Neft, David S., and Richard M. Cohen, The World Series (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990).

Stout, Glenn, and Richard A. Johnson. Red Sox Century, The Definitive History of Baseball’s Most Storied Franchise (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000.)

Thorn, John, and Peter Palmer, editors, with Michael Gershman. Total Baseball (4th edition), (New York: Viking Press/Penguin Group, 1995).

Notes