Page 202 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 195
elder. “ ey wanted me to pitch, but I wanted to play every day,” Miller said. “In fall ball as a freshman I went out and laid it in against the varsity and got killed, so (Litwhiler) made me a center elder.”
Miller won the Big Ten batting title with a .429 average in 1969, his junior year, and became the number-two selection of the Boston Red Sox in the June 1969 draft. Boston’s number-one choice that year, Noel Jenke of the University of Minnesota, nished second to Miller in Big Ten batting, but instead opted for a football career. He went on to become a linebacker with Minnesota, Atlanta, and Green Bay in the NFL.
Miller was signed to a Red Sox contract on June 19, 1969, by scout Maurice DeLoof. A 6-foot, 180-pounder, Miller reported to Double-A Pitts eld (Eastern League) and played in 77 games, batting .262 with six home runs and 32 RBIs.
In 1970, when the Pitts eld franchise was moved to Pawtucket, Miller joined many players who would one day become his Red Sox teammates, including Carlton Fisk, Ben Oglivie, Buddy Hunter, John Curtis, Lynn McGlothen, and Roger Moret. In 113 games, he hit .247 with 12 homers and 56 RBIs.
In 1971 with Triple-A Louisville, he batted .247 again but hit a career-high 15 home runs and drove in 58 runs. He led the league in walks with 106 and strike- outs, 117. “I was taking a lot of pitches, but I was actually swinging for the fences,” Miller said. “To hit 15 home runs, I’m not that big a guy. I was using a big bat, 33 ounces, way too big for me. I was getting in a bad position to hit.”
After Louisville’s season, Miller said, he was “an af- terthought to be brought up.” He added, “I was a very good defensive out elder. ey took Fisk because they needed catchers late in the season, but after our last game they said,‘Tell Miller to come up too.’ ey were a little weak in the out eld at the time and they knew what I could do defensively.”
Eddie Kasko managed the Red Sox at the time. Miller said Kasko was “the best manager I had in baseball.
He knew the game very well. He let you play, just go do your thing. He was a very good tactician.”
In the nal 15 games with the Red Sox that season, Miller played reserve roles in an out eld that had Carl Yastrzemski, Reggie Smith, Billy Conigliaro, and Joe Lahoud. In his rst game, on September 4, 1971, Miller swung at the rst pitch he saw from Cleveland hurler Phil Hennigan and lined it for a double o the left- eld wall at Fenway Park. “I came in late in the game as a pinch-hitter, and I was really nervous,” he said. “It was a high fast ball, rst swing and it went for a double o the Green Monster.” His home run was o another Cleveland pitcher, Rich Hand, in Cleveland Stadium. He wound up going 11-for-33 for the Red Sox.
In 1972, sharing time in an out eld of Yastrzemski, Smith, and Tommy Harper, Miller played in 89 games, usually as a late-game defensive replacement for Harper in center eld. He hit three home runs with a .214 batting average. He was also voted the Red Sox “Unsung Hero of 1972” by the Boston chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
By 1973 Yastrzemski had shifted to rst base. e out eld was intended to be Harper in left eld, Smith in center, and Dwight Evans in right. Miller played almost a full season, lling in for Smith after an injury and for Evans, who was in a slump. He batted .261 with career highs of six home runs and 43 RBIs in 143 games. He stole 12 bases, second on the team to Harper, who set a Red Sox record with 54 steals. e Red Sox Yearbook for the following season said Miller’s “emer- gence as a dependable hitter to go along with his outstanding defensive skills in center eld made it possible for Red Sox to trade Reggie Smith for pitch- ing help.” ( e Red Sox acquired Rick Wise and Bernie Carbo, major cogs in their 1975 American League pennant-winning season, in the trade with St. Louis for Smith and Ken Tatum.)
Miller said of his ability to play well in Fenway Park’s tough center eld: “I got great jumps, I knew how to play players, I would cheat, I knew the counts, I always moved on each pitch according to the count.“ urman Munson just hated me, because I would play him