August 7, 1969: ‘Miracle’ finish lifts Red Sox above Pilots on Nun’s Day

When the Boston Red Sox scored three ninth-inning runs to walk off the Seattle Pilots on August 7, 1969, it probably wasn’t divine intervention at work; it was probably just a first-year expansion team frittering away a game, the way expansion teams do.

But with hundreds of nuns1 and one of America’s most prominent churchmen in attendance at Fenway Park that Thursday afternoon, the influence of higher forces couldn’t be entirely ruled out.

Cardinal Richard Cushing,2 archbishop of Boston, had inaugurated Nun’s Day in 1961 by giving his blessing to an invitation from Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey.3 His intent, Cushing said, was to show that nuns were not cloistered or secluded from society, but were “American girls who grew up with a knowledge and love of sports, including baseball.”4 It was a characteristic gesture from Cushing, a South Boston native who was not reluctant, on at least one visit to Fenway, to swap hats with the home team’s manager and pose for photographers wearing a Red Sox cap.5

The 1969 edition of Nun’s Day brought together two teams with no prayer in the pennant race. Dick Williams’s Red Sox entered the day in third place with a 58-51 record, 17 games behind the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East Division. A miracle would have been needed for Boston to climb back into the race, and it didn’t happen. The Red Sox finished 22 games back, still in third, with an 87-75 record. Williams, a hero of the 1967 “Impossible Dream” season, wasn’t around to see it: The Red Sox had fired him on September 22.6

Joe Schultz’s Pilots also held third place, in the AL West, but that was misleading. Their 45-62 record put them 21½ games out of first, even further from playoff contention than the Red Sox. The Pilots had gone 9-20 in July and would fare even worse in August, losing 22 of 28 games. They had, however, beaten the Red Sox at Fenway in the first two games of their series on August 5 and 6, and held a 6-5 season advantage over Boston going into their final faceoff.7

Red Sox rookie pitcher Mike Nagy entered the game with a reputation as a good-luck charm: Boston had won 14 of his 18 starts. Nagy had a 6-2 record with a 3.22 ERA coming into the game, including a complete-game victory over Seattle on May 17. The 21-year-old righty hadn’t pitched in almost two weeks, though, due to blisters on the fingers of his pitching hand.8

It appeared at first that Nagy’s good fortune had expired during his layoff. Leading off the game, Tommy Harper and Steve Hovley singled to left field. Then Wayne Comer and Tommy Davis singled to right, with each hit driving in a run. One out later, former Red Sox Jim Pagliaroni hit a sacrifice fly to center field. Reggie Smith’s throw might have caught Comer at the plate, but Comer jostled the ball loose in a collision with catcher Jerry Moses, giving Seattle a 3-0 lead.9 (Moses, appropriately enough, had been on the receiving end of Cushing’s ceremonial first pitch.10)

Here, Nagy and his teammates caught a break. The Pilots’ seventh hitter, John Donaldson, grounded to Rico Petrocelli at shortstop. The Boston Globe described Petrocelli’s throw to first as “a rainbow,” and said that by the time it arrived, Donaldson was “out in right field cleaning his spikes.”11 First-base umpire Jake O’Donnell called Donaldson out anyway. A furious argument ensued, but the call stood, and the rally ended.12 “It was a terrible, a brutal decision,” Schultz said. “The man made his decision before the ball ever got to first base.”13

From there, Nagy rediscovered his groove. “After [the first] inning, my pitches really moved,” he explained.14 Working six more innings, he handed the Pilots only one additional hit – a harmless third-inning single by Davis – and four walks, including back-to-back free passes to Hovley and Comer with one out in the fifth. He retired Davis on a fly and Don Mincher on a grounder to first to escape that jam. “I don’t know what it is, but it seems whenever he starts, we can come back and win,” Williams said later.15

The Boston comeback began in the second. Petrocelli led off with a double and, after Tony Conigliaro struck out, George Scott singled in Petrocelli to make the score 3-1. Despite his defensive lapse, Petrocelli was in the midst of a strong season that saw him hit 40 home runs, place seventh in the AL Most Valuable Player voting, and make his second and last All-Star team. Petrocelli and Scott both singled in the fourth, but Moses’ groundball to third ended the inning.

Boston picked up another run in the seventh off Seattle starter Fred Talbot. Scott lined a hit off Harper’s glove at third, and when Davis took his time getting to the ball in left field, Scott reached second.16 Moses singled to center, then took second when the Pilots threw home to hold Scott at third. Joe Lahoud, hitting for Nagy, couldn’t drive in the run, but Mike Andrews did with a groundball to first. The Pilots led, 3-2.

Reliever Lee Stange worked a perfect eighth for Boston. He retired the first two Pilots in the ninth – and then Talbot, a .179 hitter coming in, hit a solo homer into the netting above the “Green Monster” in left field17 to give the Pilots an insurance run and a 4-2 lead. It was his fourth and final big-league homer in an eight-season career.

Heading into the ninth, the Pilots sent good-field, no-hit Ray Oyler out to play shortstop as part of a series of defensive changes. Talbot began the inning on the mound. But when Scott led off with a double for his fourth hit, Schultz called for reliever Bob Locker, usually a steady hand out of the bullpen.18

Moses flied to right field, moving Scott to third. Dick Schofield, hitting for Stange, singled Scott home to make the score 4-3. Andrews singled, sending Schofield to second and chasing Locker in favor of lefty John O’Donoghue, another of Seattle’s more reliable bullpen arms.19

Pinch-hitter Don Lock struck out and Carl Yastrzemski – hitless in four at-bats to that point in the game – tapped a 2-and-2 pitch to defensive sub Oyler for what appeared to be a routine, game-ending grounder. Oyler, caught in a mental debate over whether to throw to second or first, bobbled the ball and did neither. “I booted the damn thing. Just a plain lousy boot,” he said later.20

The end came quickly from there. Reggie Smith was looking for a curve, and O’Donoghue threw him one.21 Smith lined the ball between shortstop and third base, into left field, for a single. Schofield and Andrews scored, giving the Red Sox a dramatic 5-4 win. Stange got the win and Locker the loss, bringing both men’s records to 4-6. Nagy, who did not factor in the decision, finished the season 12-2 and was named AL Rookie Pitcher of the Year by The Sporting News.

Nun’s Day 1969 turned out to be the end of an era in two regards. It was the last time the Red Sox faced a Seattle-based team until May 3, 1977, when the Red Sox played their first regular-season game against the expansion Mariners. Scott and Yastrzemski were the only two Red Sox to appear in both games.

Also, while Boston newspapers are not specific, it appears to have been the final Nun’s Day attended by Cushing. The Red Sox held one more during his lifetime, on July 22, 1970, against the California Angels.22 But the cardinal, gravely ill, had significantly cut back his public schedule.23 The local newspapers that would usually have remarked on his presence at the ballpark made no mention of him in their game coverage.24 Cushing resigned as archbishop that September; made a final public appearance in October at the installation of his successor, Cardinal Humberto Medeiros; and died of cancer on November 2.25

Author’s note and acknowledgments

It appears that the last ’60s-style Nun’s Day held at Fenway Park occurred in 1972; a photo of the event appears in the 1973 Red Sox yearbook. The author, with research assistance from SABR member Bill Nowlin, was unable to find a specific reference to Nun’s Day in subsequent years. Nun’s Day was revived in the 2010s by Sarah Keaney McKenna, vice president of fan services and entertainment for the Red Sox, who arranged for 200 nuns from across Massachusetts to attend the game of June 26, 2013.26

This article was fact-checked by Gary Belleville and copy-edited by Len Levin. The author thanks Bill Nowlin for his assistance.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for general player, team and season data and the box scores for this game.

www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS196908070.shtml

www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1969/B08070BOS1969.htm

A photo of Nun’s Day 1969 can be seen in the 1970 Boston Red Sox yearbook.

Photo credit: Reggie Smith, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Clif Keane, “Smith’s Hit in 9th Saves Red Sox, 5-4,” Boston Globe, August 8, 1969: 21. Keane reported 200 nuns present. The Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript-Telegram added a zero, reporting 2,000 nuns in the ballpark in “Keats Kolumn,” August 8, 1969: 18. The 1970 Red Sox yearbook simply says “hundreds of nuns from all over Massachusetts” attended.

2 During Cushing’s lifetime, news stories commonly presented his name and title as Richard Cardinal Cushing, using the traditional format of the Roman Catholic Church. Style for news and general-interest writing in the twenty-first century now places religious titles before given names.

3 News articles from 1961 reported that Yawkey initiated the nuns’ first visit to Fenway by sending a letter to some 80 religious groups in the Boston area. Cushing bestowed his support on the event in highly visible fashion, joining the nuns at the ballpark and throwing out the first pitch.

4 Arthur Siegel, “Cheering Yes … Booing No for 700 Nuns at Fenway,” Boston Globe, July 4, 1961: 49.

5 A photo of Cushing wearing Red Sox manager Johnny Pesky’s cap, and Pesky wearing Cushing’s straw hat, can be seen in the Boston Globe, July 26, 1963: 15. A similar photo, also including pitcher Dick Radatz, appeared on page 3 of the 1964 Red Sox yearbook.

6 Ernie Roberts, “Red Sox Fire Manager Dick Williams,” Boston Globe, September 23, 1969: 1.

7 In their only season, the Pilots posted a winning record against one opponent, going 7-5 against the Washington Senators. The Pilots were .500 against Boston (6-6) and the California Angels (9-9).

8 Dave O’Hara (Associated Press), “Pilots Blow Final to Red Sox in 9th Inning,” Bellingham (Washington) Herald, August 8, 1969: 5.

9 Keane, “Smith’s Hit in 9th Saves Red Sox, 5-4.”

10 “Poor Pilots Snagged in Eastern ‘Storm,’” Tacoma (Washington) News Tribune, August 8, 1969: 19.

11 Keane, “Smith’s Hit in 9th Saves Red Sox, 5-4.”

12 The Boston Record American ran a front-page photo of Donaldson, neck muscles straining, being held back by Pilots first-base coach Ron Plaza in one of its editions of August 8, 1969.

13 Clif Keane, “Nuns, After Rally for Win, Should Visit Park More Often,” Boston Globe, August 8, 1969: 22.

14 Bill Keating, “Reggie Smith’s Big Hit Beat Pilots; Face Angels Tonight,” Holyoke Transcript-Telegram, August 8, 1969: 18.

15 O’Hara, “Pilots Blow Final to Red Sox in 9th Inning.”

16 Keane, “Smith’s Hit in 9th Saves Red Sox, 5-4.” Keane described Davis as “one of the league’s laziest outfielders.”

17 Keane, “Smith’s Hit in 9th Saves Red Sox, 5-4.”

18 Locker came to the Pilots on June 8 in a trade with the Chicago White Sox for Gary Bell. Locker pitched in 51 games with Seattle, fourth on the team. (In total, he pitched in 68 games that season – 17 in Chicago, 51 for Seattle.) He went 3-3 with a 2.18 ERA and six saves for the Pilots.

19 O’Donoghue appeared in 55 games with Seattle, going 2-2 with a 2.96 ERA and six saves.

20 Keane, “Smith’s Hit in 9th Saves Red Sox, 5-4;” “Poor Pilots Snagged in Eastern ‘Storm.’”

21 Keane, “Nuns, After Rally for Win, Should Visit Park More Often.”

22 United Press International photos of nuns watching the game were printed in various U.S. newspapers the following day, including the Jasper (Indiana) Daily Herald, July 23, 1970: 15.

23 An article on the occasion of his 75th birthday in August 1970 mentioned that Cushing had “struggled with ill health for many years” and “rarely appears in public.” Ann-Mary Currier, “Cardinal at 75: Dinner, No Fuss,” Boston Globe, August 24, 1970: 3. The Globe also mentioned that Cushing’s schedule “has been curtailed lately because of poor health” in “No Signs Yet of Cardinal’s Retirement,” August 3, 1970: 3.

24 The author visited the Boston Public Library in December 2022 to review the game coverage of the Boston daily newspapers not available through Newspapers.com (the Boston Herald Traveler and Record American). California newspapers available through Newspapers.com also make no mention of Cushing attending the game, although a Boston reporter would probably have been more likely to note his presence than an out-of-town correspondent.

25 George M. Collins, “Cardinal Cushing Dies at 75,” Boston Globe, November 3, 1970: 1.

26 Garry Brown, “Red Sox Bring Back Nuns Day at Fenway Park,” MassLive.com, June 24, 2013, https://www.masslive.com/redsox/2013/06/boston_red_sox_bring_back_nuns.html.