Page 150 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 143
both already started on major-league careers when Tim was 11 years old. And the young catcher remem- bers asking for out elder-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 “ e 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. ey usually stay with what works.” Blackwell told Langworthy that the big di erence was the hitters. “ ey’re so much more aggressive than in the minors,”he said.“It’s unbeliev- able. ey 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 rst 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 elding percentage.
Fisk returned in 1975. As a reserve catcher with the American League pennant winners, Blackwell got into 59 games and raised his elding percentage to match the league average of .984. Yet, he battled just .197. ese 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. e 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. e 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.
e 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 o for the Cubs. At the Cactus League’s close and before Opening Day it was evident that rst-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.” e 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 e 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. e 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