Page 177 - 1975 BoSox

170 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
Sox on June 5, 1969, in the third round of the amateur draft, 61st pick overall. Rick Miller was picked in the second round that year, and Dwight Evans was picked in the fth round. “I grew up a Yankees fan, but I got drafted by the Red Sox and kind of changed my al- legiance a little bit and now I hate the Yankees.”1
Hunter got a $15,000 bonus. “Bought a half a house with that,” he recalled. He was assigned to Double-A Pitts eld in the Eastern League, and played at Waconah Park. It was unusual to start in Double-A right after being drafted, but there were a number of injuries and the Red Sox felt he could ll in one of their holes at Double-A. It may have been an unfor- tunate decision, because Hunter found himself in a tough pitching league. “I should have gone to A ball,” he said. But roving Red Sox coach Sam Mele was pleased that the youngster could hit .244 in the league, facing pitchers like Ed Farmer and Skip Lockwood. e next year, 1970, Hunter played in Pawtucket, as the Red Sox moved their Eastern League a liate to that city from Pitts eld.
Pawtucket in 1970 was still a Double-A team. Hunter played in Pawtucket in 1970, then moved up to Triple-A Louisville in 1971 and 1972. In ‘72, Louisville won the pennant, thanks to the play of Dwight Evans and a number of other talented players. In the winter of ‘72, though, the park in Louisville was knocked down and made into a football stadium. e Red Sox transferred their Triple-A club to Pawtucket, where it was still located in 2014. For Buddy, it was like going from the big leagues back to the minors, because Louisville was “a great town” and then he was sent back to Pawtucket, which had been a Double-A town.
Hunter’s rst year with the big-league club in spring training was actually 1970, though there was never any thought that he would make the major-league team. He was on the 40-man roster, though, on a major- league contract. Hunter made his rst visit to the majors in 1971, debuting on July 1. Second baseman Doug Gri n had hurt his back, and the Red Sox wanted a little more depth behind veteran utilitymen John Kennedy and Phil Gagliano. Hunter didn’t get to play much, and said it was four or ve weeks wasted
sitting on the bench. But he did experience something that thousands of minor leaguers never have: the chance to get in a major-league game.
Buddy Hunter appeared in eight games in 1971, with a total of nine at-bats. He collected a single and a double, for a .222 average. And he got a taste of major- league ball. ere are a couple of interesting side stories about Hunter’s rst visit to “ e Show.”
In Hunter’s rst game, he ran for Luis Aparicio in the top of the ninth in Tiger Stadium, after Aparicio had been hit by a pitch. He moved to second on Reggie Smith’s single, then was able to trot home when Rico Petrocelli hit a three-run homer that lifted the Red Sox from a 7-5 de cit to an 8-7 score that held up for the game’s nal score.
It was in his second appearance that Hunter got his rst major-league at-bat. Way back in high school, playing for Omaha’s South High, the rst pitcher Hunter ever faced was a kid from the Council Blu s, Iowa, high-school team named Stan Bahnsen. Hunter was a freshman and Bahnsen was a senior. Buddy got a hit up the middle. When he entered the game on July 2 at Fenway Park, the starting pitcher for the Yankees was ... Stan Bahnsen. Hunter came in to sub for Aparicio to start the seventh inning, and got his rst at-bat leading o the bottom of the eighth. Bahnsen “threw me a fastball right down the can. And I popped it up. And I was looking for a fastball! I swing big-time. Major-league popup. It could just as easily have been a home run, but ...” It was not until his fourth game that Hunter collected his rst hit, in the eighth inning of a game in which he’d already worked two walks. He singled to Cleveland Stadium’s right eld o Ed Farmer.
When Hunter had rst arrived in Boston, he checked into the Fenway Motor Lodge (later the Howard Johnson’s on Boylston Street) and went over to the ballpark three hours before he was due to report, just to meet the batboys and clubhouse kids. “So I go over there and I meet them, and there’s this old guy and he picked up this towel. He’s got this white shirt on and it’s a real thin white shirt, and in his pocket he’s