Page 198 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 191
had been given a “books and board” scholarship, but he got a chance to break into the lineup on the baseball team and as of his sophomore year, he was on a full scholarship. It paid o for Auburn, too. For three years, Andy was all-Southeastern Conference. He won the SEC batting title with a .400 average. He still holds one record in the conference, making six hits in one game.
Boston Red Sox scout Milt Bolling pursued Merchant and signed him with an $8,000 bonus after the Red Sox selected him in the 10th round of the 1972 amateur draft. He laughed about the bonus: “I went and bought myself a [brand-new] Monte Carlo and hit the road!” Before too long, he drove to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he played Single-A ball in the Red Sox farm system. In 121 at-bats, Merchant hit for a .339 average with four homers and 21 RBIs.
He got married the following year, and progressed up the ladder to the Double-A Bristol (Connecticut) Red Sox, where he roomed for a good while with Fred Lynn. In his 1973 season he saw some action as an out elder as well, accumulating 171 at-bats in all, with 24 RBIs but a dip in average to .269.
A groin injury at Bristol, incurred diving back into third,reduced Merchant’s playing time. e 1974 season saw him back in the Carolina League with Winston- Salem, where he got a lot more experience, 366 at-bats in 113 games, and an average of .292, with 62 RBIs.
e 1974 year earned Merchant a promotion to Triple-A Pawtucket for the following year, and he spent most of his professional career with the Pawtucket team, both before and after his brief stints with the big-league club in 1975 and again in 1976. His 1975 year with Pawtucket gave him 375 at-bats in 119 games, and a solid .280 average, and made him a candidate for the late-season call-up.
Of course, in 1975, as the Red Sox faced Oakland in the American League Championship Series and then the Reds in the World Series, Merchant was no longer on the playo roster. “I just went home and watched old Carlton on TV like everybody else.” He’d made
at least some small contribution, though. He threw a lot of batting practice while he was up and recalled throwing BP to players like Carl Yastrzemski as some- thing he would always remember. ough Merchant was a left-handed-hitting batter, he threw right-handed.
Merchant was pleased to receive a partial World Series share later in the year.
He appeared in 68 games with Pawtucket (renamed the Rhode Island Red Sox) in 1976. He hit .296 in 1976, and was up and down a bit with Boston during the course of the season, though he played in only two games with the big-league club. “I’d gone up several times,in fact. ey’d call when someone got an injury. ey’d call me up for a little while. I was kind of the next catcher in line. I was back and forth.” e Sox system had several good catchers ahead of Merchant — Carlton Fisk, Bob Montgomery, and Tim Blackwell.
Merchant got in two games in June. On June 2 at Fenway Park, he pinch-hit against Ed Figueroa of the Yankees, batting for Bob Montgomery in the bottom of the eighth, and was called out on strikes for the second out of the inning. Andy stayed in the game for the ninth, recording another putout on a Reggie Cleveland strikeout of Chris Chambliss. e Yankees won the game, 7-2, on the strength of a ve-run top of the second. Eight days later, Merchant got into another game, also in Boston, against the Oakland A’s. With two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the ninth, he pinch-hit for Doug Gri n, facing future Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers. Oakland was leading the game, 8-5, after scoring six runs in the top of the eighth. Fingers fooled him on a pitch, and once again Merchant struck out looking. As it would turn out, that was his last appearance in the major leagues. After batting .500 in 1975, he’d struck out twice in two at-bats in ’76 and been sent back to Pawtucket. “I was terrible then. I was sitting on the bench too long and I lost all my timing,” he recalled in 2005.
Back with the PawSox, though, Merchant did quite well. And he did earn a ring playing baseball, for the 1977 Pawtucket Red Sox, who nished rst in the