Page 204 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 197
Miller played without a contract in 1977 because he planned to become a free agent after the season. If he had signed a contract, the Red Sox would have been able to get compensation from whatever team Miller signed with. Since he was an unsigned free agent, should he go to another team it would not have to give up any players. After the season Miller signed with the California Angels, becoming the rst player to leave the Red Sox as a free agent.
With the Angels, Miller became an everyday out elder in 1978, playing 93 games in center eld and 36 games in right eld, and won a Gold Glove. He batted .263. In 1979 the Angels won the Western Division title but lost to Baltimore in the American League Championship Series. Primarily the Angels’ leado hitter that season, Miller batted a career-high .293.
After the 1980 season, in which he batted .274, Miller was dealt back to the Red Sox in a trade that also sent third baseman Carney Lansford and pitcher Mark Clear to Boston for shortstop Rick Burleson and third baseman Butch Hobson. “It was good for me,” Miller said of the trade. “I was happy to go back. Boston is a great place to play baseball. California was a little more laid back, and not as exciting.”
Miller was Boston’s regular center elder in the strike- interrupted 1981 season. His .291 batting average was his Red Sox high, .291. On May 11 he went 5-for-5 with a record-tying four doubles against Toronto. He was again named the “Red Sox Unsung Hero” by the baseball writers. He had another solid year in 1982, playing in center eld between Rice and Evans and batting.254 in 135 games
In 1983 the Red Sox traded for Tony Armas, who took over in center eld, and the 35-year-old Miller’s playing time began to wane. He played a little rst base and also had a few games as a designated hitter, but by his nal season, 1985, he played in only 41 games. (Miller also missed time with a hip injury that season.) Still, he had value as a pinch-hitter. In 1983, he was 17-for-36 (.472), and in 1984 was 14-for-53 (.264).
In his rst few years away from baseball Miller worked with his nancial adviser, then developed a promo- tional business dealing in autograph shows. en, he said, a serendipitous moment after his father’s death brought him back to baseball. “I was watching Field of Dreams and I had this revelation that my dad wanted me back in the game of baseball, teaching and coach- ing,” he said. “As I was watching that movie, I could almost hear my dad talking to me.”
In 2004 Miller began an association with Colby Sawyer College as a volunteer assistant baseball coach. He also ran baseball clinics for youth sports programs throughout New England, and did charity work. In 2008 Miller managed the Nashua Pride of the inde- pendent Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball. Former Red Sox rst baseman Brian Daubach was the team’s hitting coach.
Miller moved to Florida in 2010. He made occasional appearances as Red Sox fantasy camps. In 2012 he was named manager of the New Bedford Bay Sox of the New England Collegiate Baseball League, and still held that post as of 2014.
Looking back at a career that brought him a reputation as a solid left-handed batter and an exceptional de- fensive out elder, Miller said he knew exactly how he’d like to be remembered.
“I’d like to be known as somebody who gave every- thing, all the time, and was a complete player who did every phase of the game well,” he said. “I came in as a defensive specialist and left as an o ensive specialist.”
Note
A version of this biography was originally published in ‘75: e Red Sox Team at Saved Baseball, edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan, and published by Rounder Books in 2005.
Sources
Interviews by the author with Rick Miller on August 9, 2005, and June 17, 2014. All quotations from Rick Miller come from these interviews.