Page 178 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 171
got this card that’s a yellow card. You could see the yellow color through.... at’s how thin his shirt was. e next day, same old man, picking up the towels. I went to the clubhouse kid and I went, ‘Hey, who’s the old man over there, picking up the towels?’ He says, ‘ at’s Mr. Yawkey. He owns the team.’ So I went up to Mr. Yawkey, and he had the same white shirt on. e same yellow card in his pocket. I couldn’t believe it. I said, ‘Mr. Yawkey, I heard so many nice things about you. I just want to introduce myself. I’m Buddy Hunter from South Omaha,Nebraska.’He said,‘Well, Buddy, congratulations on making the Boston Red Sox. I hope you have a great career.’Two months later, I get called down to Louisville, and Dick O’Connell—he was the general manager, Dick O’Connell—he calls me in the o ce and he says, ‘Buddy, we’ve got to send you down. Doug Gri n’s coming o the disabled list. We’ve got to send you down to Louisville, and I don’t know what you said to Mr. Yawkey, but he wanted you to keep your major- league money and send you back to the minor leagues.’ And he said, ‘ at’s the rst time this has ever been done.’ I was making more than the managers were down there. It was only like $20,000 a year but still ... playing minor-league baseball. ose guys were only making around $1,200 a month, you know, at the most.”
at was 1971. As we saw, Hunter played in Louisville in 1972, and the team won the pennant. Starting the season with Pawtucket in ‘73, Buddy got another call-up to the Red Sox, when he was asked to join the team in Kansas City in late May. He took over de- fensively for Petrocelli at third base in the seventh inning of the May 27 game, and came up to bat in the top of the eighth. He hit a long single to left eld, scoring Carl Yastrzemski from rst base for his rst RBI — albeit it in a game the Red Sox lost, 13-3.
In 1973 Hunter appeared in 13 games, but garnered only seven at-bats. He did have one big game, on July 8 in the second game of a doubleheader in Chicago. e White Sox had won the rst game, 6-1, and the teams were tied 2-2 in the second game after nine innings. Before the game, outside the park the Wilson
Sporting Goods sales rep was there meeting some of the players who were signed to Wilson. As Buddy recounted the story, “ ere’s about ve guys, and myself, that were on Wilson contracts. Yaz goes up and he gets about three pairs of shoes and a glove. Aparicio goes up and gets about three gloves and a pair of spikes or two. After all of them were done, I went up to the guy and tell him,‘Buddy Hunter.’‘And can I help you?’ I go, ‘Yeah, I’m on a contract, too.’ He looks me up and he goes, ‘Oh yeah, Buddy, yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re on the contract. What do you need?’ I said, ‘I need one pair of shoes. Size 10.’ And he looked, and he goes, ‘Out of them. I’ll send you a pair.’ “
Dwight Evans led o the Boston 10th with a double, and Hunter singled him in with the go-ahead run. at was all it took, as the White Sox failed to score in the bottom of the 10th, but as it happened, the Red Sox scored nine times in the top of the inning. Hunter doubled his second time up. So, back to the Wilson rep. Hunter picks up the story: “I’m in the game. I win the game. I turn ve double plays that game. I had a great game. After the game, he comes up to me. After I get the game-winning hit and turn ve double plays in nine innings. ... I get the game-winning hit, and he comes in the locker room. He goes ... ‘Buddy ... uh ... I found two pairs of size 10s. ... ‘ “2 Buddy was up for about six weeks, then was sent back down, but meanwhile had gone 3-for-7 at the plate. His .429 average led the team in 1973 (but it was with only the seven at-bats).
At the very end of 1973, though, on December 10, Buddy Hunter was sold to the Kansas City Royals. He played the 1974 season in Omaha, of all places, for the Omaha Royals. It was his hometown, but as it happened, it was the worst year of his career. George Brett was on the team. So was Dennis Leonard. It was a great team on paper, but too many players were called up to the parent club. And Buddy had a bad year, batting just .216.
A funny thing happened on the way to the 1975 season. “In the spring, like in February when your contract comes out, all of a sudden I get a contract from Boston instead of the Royals. And I’m going, Wait a minute?