July 15, 1973: After long delay, Red Sox beat Rangers at rain-deluged Fenway

When the visiting Texas Rangers lost a rain-shortened and much-delayed game to the Boston Red Sox on July 15, 1973, they might have had the Detroit Tigers to blame – even though the Detroit team was nowhere near Fenway Park.1

The officially cited reason for playing the Sunday afternoon game in sloppy conditions, after a rain delay of almost three hours, was that the Rangers were making their last scheduled visit to Boston that season. The game, if canceled in Boston, would have to be made up in Texas.2

But one sportswriter suggested the decision might also have been influenced by the 1972 season, in which the Red Sox played one fewer game than the Tigers – and lost the American League East title to Detroit by a half-game.3 With an “every game is important” attitude, the Red Sox management would go to great lengths to ensure that each game was completed on schedule, especially when the Red Sox were playing the league’s cellar-dwellers and likely to win.4

Whatever the reason, almost everyone except the Rangers came out of the soggy afternoon with something. Luis Tiant got a win. Dwight Evans hit a home run. Carlton Fisk was given a buckskin jacket, while Bill Lee received a gift of Vermont maple syrup.5 The Jimmy Fund, the official charity of the Red Sox, received a generous donation. And the fans who bought tickets – 11,793 of whom showed up – were given free tickets to another game by the Red Sox as thanks for their patience.6

The jacket, the syrup, and the donation merit explaining, even if they didn’t factor into the game results. July 15 was Vermont Day at Fenway Park, with Governor Thomas Salmon, Rutland Mayor Gilbert Godnick, and busloads of Vermonters in attendance. New England’s only landlocked state had been devastated by river flooding earlier in the month, leading jokers to suggest that the Vermont contingent had brought the rain with it.7

Governor Salmon threw out the first ball, spent time in the radio broadcast booth, and presented the jacket to Fisk, a lifelong New Hampshire resident who was born in Bellows Falls, Vermont.8 A fan named Patrick Slattery gave Lee a jug of maple syrup, one of Vermont’s well-known exports.9 Salmon and Godnick also presented Fisk with a donation of $7,000 for the Jimmy Fund, which supports research into childhood cancer.10 Many in Rutland donated in honor of nine-year-old David McNamara, a local schoolboy who had died of cancer a few weeks earlier.11

Entering the game, Eddie Kasko’s Red Sox were locked into a tight race in the AL East. Their 47-40 record placed them second, one game behind the New York Yankees. The Tigers and Baltimore Orioles lurked just a half-game behind Boston, and the Milwaukee Brewers were just five games out of first.

The Rangers, playing their second season in Texas after moving from Washington, DC, held down the bottom of the AL West. Their 31-57 record placed them 18½ games out and equaled a .352 winning percentage, second-worst in the major leagues behind the San Diego Padres’ .344.12 Whitey Herzog led the Rangers in his first big-league managing job; he was fired in early September. As befitting the difference in talent between the teams, Texas went 3-9 against Boston in 1973.

Tiant started for Boston. The colorful Cuban righty had rejuvenated his career with the Red Sox in 1972, winning 15 games and leading the AL in ERA at 1.91. He was pitching well, if less spectacularly, in 1973, with an 11-8 record and a 3.69 ERA. In his only appearance against Texas in 1973, he’d pitched a complete game on May 2, scattering seven hits in a 6-2 win at Fenway Park. Tiant had completed five of his previous six starts, including a two-hitter against Minnesota in his most recent start, on July 10.

Opposing him was lefty Jim Merritt, who had won 20 games for the 1970 National League champion Cincinnati Reds but was hobbled by injury thereafter. He appeared in only four games in 1972. In his first season with Texas, Merritt split his time between starting and relieving, entering the game with a 3-4 record and a 3.70 ERA. He’d thrown complete games in his three previous starts, winning two of them. The July 15 game was his first appearance of the season against Boston.

The game, scheduled to start at 2 P.M., instead lurched under way at 4:52 P.M..13 – by one account, the longest rain delay in Fenway Park history.14 Rain continued throughout the game.15 Tiant retired the first three Rangers on grounders. Two were handled by Danny Cater, who started at third base, rather than first, in the absence of Rico Petrocelli.16 It was Cater’s first big-league appearance at the hot corner since September 8, 1971.17 He had an easy day, as no further fielding chances came his way.

The Red Sox collected a run in the first, starting with a one-out double that Luis Aparicio grounded down the third-base line and off third-base umpire Don Denkinger. The shortstop moved to third on Carl Yastrzemski’s tapper to the mound and scored on designated hitter Orlando Cepeda’s ground single to second base. On Cepeda’s single, Texas second baseman Dave Nelson made a good fielding play, but his throw pulled first baseman Jim Spencer off the bag.18

Several reporters noted that Tiant was not at his sharpest,19 and the Rangers took advantage in the second. The heart of the Texas order – Rico Carty, Jeff Burroughs, and Spencer – started the inning with singles, tying the game at 1-1 and putting runners on first and second with none out. But Tiant and Fisk conspired to snuff out the rally. Tiant got Jim Fregosi to pop out, Fisk picked Spencer off first, and Dick Billings flied out to center field. Spencer turned his ankle on the pickoff play, and Larry Biittner eventually took his place in the bottom of the fifth.20

Evans, Boston’s highly touted rookie right fielder, had struggled to a .233 average entering the game. With one away in the second, the 21-year-old got hold of a slow curve from Merritt and parked it in the netting above the “Green Monster” in left field to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead.21 It was Evans’s fifth homer of 1973 and sixth lifetime; he ended his 20-season major-league career with 385 round-trippers.

After starring at the plate, Evans showed off his defense in the third inning. Jim Mason drew a leadoff walk and moved to second on Nelson’s bunt. After a strikeout, designated hitter Alex Johnson22 singled to right field. Evans showed the form that later made him an eight-time Gold Glover, firing a perfect throw to Fisk at the plate.23 Mason slipped on the wet ground as he rounded third, and was easily tagged out to end the inning.

The game proceeded without major incident until the bottom of the fifth. Tiant found his rhythm on the mound with the help of a tongue depressor, which he kept in his pocket and periodically used to scrape the mud out of his spikes.24 Merritt also found a groove after Evans’s homer, yielding only a bunt single to Tommy Harper in the third inning. But in the fifth, the Red Sox touched him for one last run. With one out, Doug Griffin boomed a triple to right-center field and Rick Miller scored him with a long fly to Vic Harris, also in right-center field.25

In the sixth, Tiant gave up another single to Johnson, then retired Carty, Burroughs, and Biittner. Crew chief Frank Umont, umpiring at second base, ordered the game stopped and the tarpaulin rolled out. To no one’s surprise, Umont officially called the game a half-hour later. Ray Fitzgerald of the Boston Globe wrote, “Herzog and third baseman Jim Fregosi made a mild protest, but they knew the field was fit for only water polo and Mark Spitz’s wedding.”26 The game entered the books as a 3-1 Boston win.

Tiant, smoking his ritual postgame cigar in the clubhouse, said simply, “It’s a win, and I’ll take it.”27 As it turned out, every win in 1973 mattered for Tiant: He finished the season with a 20-13 record, his first 20-win season since 1968.

Tiant couldn’t keep the Red Sox even with Baltimore, which posted a torrid 42-20 record in August and September and ran away with the AL East title, eight games ahead of Boston. The team’s performance cost manager Kasko his job with one game remaining in the season.28 Texas ended the season with the worst record in the majors at 57-105 and Billy Martin as manager.

In addition to a Boston win and a free ticket, the Fenway Park fans also got a unique ringside seat to baseball history. During the rain delay, public-address announcer Sherm Feller gave the fans regular updates on a no-hitter being thrown that day by Nolan Ryan of the California Angels – his second of the 1973 season. The victims? The Detroit Tigers.29

Acknowledgments and author’s note

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Len Levin.

This article is dedicated to the memory of David McNamara, who played Mighty Mites youth baseball in Rutland, Vermont. He never got the chance to play his way into a SABR Games Project article, but the author of this one was honored to include him.

Sources and photo credit

In addition to the specific 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/BOS197307150.shtml

www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1973/B07150BOS1973.htm

Image of 1974 Topps card #351 downloaded from the Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 As is mentioned near the end of this story, the Tigers played at home in Detroit on July 15, 1973, falling victim to a no-hitter pitched by Nolan Ryan of the California Angels.

2 Clif Keane, “Sox Sink Rangers in 5½ Innings on Fenway Blotter,” Boston Globe, July 16, 1973: 19.

3 A players strike delayed the opening of the 1972 season until April 15. The leagues opted to cancel the unplayed April games, rather than reschedule them. This meant that major-league teams played anywhere from 153 to 156 games, rather than the usual 162. The Tigers played 156 games and finished 86-70; the Red Sox played 155 and finished 85-70. Lest anyone feel too much pity for Boston, it should be noted that the Red Sox and Tigers met head-to-head in a climactic three-game series from October 2 through October 4, and the Tigers won two of three to clinch the pennant.

4 An unbylined Associated Press story drew the connection to the previous season. It appeared in various newspapers under different headlines, including “Red Sox, Rain Arrest Rangers,” Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, July 16, 1973: 53.

5 Dave Morse, “Red Sox Persevere on Vt. Day,” Rutland (Vermont) Herald, July 16, 1973: 15.

6 “Sox Reward Fans,” Boston Globe, July 16, 1973: 19.

7 Morse, “Red Sox Persevere on Vt. Day.” For more information on Vermont’s worst floods since 1927, see “Damage Assessment Begins in Wake of Disastrous Flooding,” Barre-Montpelier (Vermont) Times-Argus, July 2, 1973: 1. The flooding killed at least three people and caused extensive damage to property and roads.

8 According to Fisk’s SABR Biography Project article, written by Brian Stevens, Fisk grew up in Charlestown, New Hampshire, but was born across the Connecticut River in Bellows Falls, Vermont, because that’s where the nearest hospital was. Many years later, Fisk insisted that his Hall of Fame plaque be recast at a cost of $3,000 to remove a reference to his being a “native of Vermont.” SABR biography of Fisk accessed November 14, 2022.

9 A priceless photo of a sunglasses-wearing Lee cradling his jug of syrup can be seen in the Rutland Herald, July 19, 1973: 18. Lee’s choice of pancake toppings became part of his legend after he told sportswriters that he sprinkled raw marijuana on his buckwheat pancakes. Jim Prime, “Bill Lee,” SABR Biography Project, accessed November 14, 2022.

10 When the Red Sox won the American League pennant in 1967, the team – at Carl Yastrzemski’s instigation – voted a full share of the playoff money, about $5,500, as a donation to “Jimmy.” Saul Wisnia, “In 1967, Red Sox Honored Another Dreamer: ‘Jimmy,’” Society for American Baseball Research, The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox: “Pandemonium on the Field,” edited by Bill Nowlin and Dan Desrochers, 2017. Article accessed online November 14, 2022.

11 Morse, “Red Sox Persevere on Vt. Day;” “David M. McNamara” (obituary), Rutland Herald, July 2, 1973: 4. A photo of David McNamara wearing a Boston Red Sox T-shirt appeared in the Rutland Herald, July 14, 1973: 11.

12 The Padres’ won-lost record was 31-59.

13 Ray Fitzgerald, “A Day for Salmon, Spitz, and Science – But Not Baseball,” Boston Globe, July 16, 1973: 19. Retrosheet’s game summary also gives the rain-delay length as 2 hours and 52 minutes, which matches Fitzgerald’s listed starting time of 4:52 P.M. Other game stories cited here give a more approximate length of 2 hours and 50 minutes for the rain delay.

14 Harold McKinney, “Bosox Dunk Rangers,” Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram, July 16, 1973: C1.

15 Keane, in the Boston Globe, wrote that the rain “never let up a great deal at any time.”

16 Charles Scoggins Jr., “Evans Lifts Sox Again,” Lowell (Massachusetts) Sun, July 16, 1973: 17. Scoggins indicated that Petrocelli was hurting both physically and at the plate, with eight strikeouts in his previous 10 at-bats.

17 In his 12-year big-league career, Cater made 227 appearances at third base, as compared to 733 at first base and 291 in left field.

18 Keane, “Sox Sink Rangers in 5½ Innings on Fenway Blotter.”

19 Fitzgerald, “A Day for Salmon, Spitz, and Science – But Not Baseball”; Scoggins, “Evans Lifts Sox Again.”

20 McKinney, “Bosox Dunk Rangers.”

21 Keane, “Sox Sink Rangers in 5½ Innings on Fenway Blotter;” Scoggins, “Evans Lifts Sox Again.”

22 1973 was the first season in which the AL used the designated hitter. Cepeda hit .286 with 20 homers and 86 RBIs as Boston’s inaugural DH. Johnson hit .287 with 8 homers and 68 RBIs in the same role for the Rangers.

23 Scoggins, “Evans Lifts Sox Again.”

24 Fitzgerald, “A Day for Salmon, Spitz, and Science – But Not Baseball.”

25 Keane, “Sox Sink Rangers in 5½ Innings on Fenway Blotter.”

26 Fitzgerald, “A Day for Salmon, Spitz, and Science – But Not Baseball.” American swimmer Spitz won seven Gold Medals at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich, after winning two Golds, a Silver, and a Bronze at the Mexico City Olympics of 1968. Spitz was married (on dry land) in May 1973. “Bride and Groom” (photo and caption), Los Angeles Times, May 7, 1973: IV: 10.

27 Scoggins, “Evans Lifts Sox Again.”

28 Ray Fitzgerald, “Say This of Kasko: Nice Guy Who Lost,” Boston Evening Globe, October 1, 1973: 23.

29 Fitzgerald, “A Day for Salmon, Spitz, and Science – But Not Baseball.”