Page 215 - 1975 BoSox

208 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
St. Louis Browns Fan Club of Chicago to perpetuate the memory of the Browns. At that point, Johnson was one of 11 former Browns still in the major leagues.
In the spring of 1962, the Reds moved Johnson to Baltimore for catcher Hank Foiles, though it was an unusual deal that saw Cincinnati releasing him on April 24 and Baltimore signing him on the same day.
Johnson was acquired to be a coach. O’s executive Lee MacPhail said he had always admired Johnson’s work while both were with Yankees, and thought he would be a good choice to manage the bullpen. In a pinch, he could always be reactivated.
Indeed, Johnson was activated, on May 22, after catcher Gus Triandos broke a nger. Johnson caught six games, batting .182, but resumed coaching after the Orioles acquired catcher Hobie Landrith from the New York Mets. Other than a brief, hitless appearance in one game while managing Rochester in 1965, that was the end of Darrell Johnson’s playing career.
Before the 1963 season, the Orioles named Johnson manager of the Rochester Red Wings, their top farm club, where he spent three seasons, winning the International League championship in 1964. After a disappointing fth-place nish in 1965, the Orioles promoted Earl Weaver from Double-A Elmira and gave Johnson the Elmira job, and the Pioneers team won the Eastern League pennant.
In November 1966 the Yankees hired Johnson as an area scout, and he served in that capacity in 1967. Beginning in 1968, he worked with the Boston Red Sox, as the big-league pitching coach under manager Dick Williams in ’68 and ’69, and as a minor-league pitching instructor and special-assignment scout in 1970.In1971and1972,JohnsonmanagedtheTriple-A Louisville Colonels; they nished rst in 1972 but lost in the International League playo nals. While at Louisville, Johnson looked over Luis Tiant and pitched him regularly to help him get his form back. Tiant had already been released by two other clubs. In many respects, he owed his later success to the opportunity under Johnson.5
In 1973 Johnson managed the Pawtucket Red Sox (the Louisville Colonels had moved to Pawtucket); the team nished second during the season, but won the league championship playoffs and the Little World Series.
Johnson was named manager of the Boston Red Sox for the 1974 season, replacing Eddie Kasko. Under Johnson the team was ring on all cylinders before a collapse in August and September, and nished up somewhat worse than its 1973 record; it hurt losing Carlton Fisk to knee surgery for half the season, but there had been an overall power outage during the stretch drive — Boston lost both halves of a September 2 doubleheader to Baltimore by identical 1-0 scores.
With the addition of the Gold Dust Twins (Fred Lynn and Jim Rice), the Red Sox won 11 more games and the pennant in 1975. Darrell Johnson was back in the World Series once again, this time at the helm of the Red Sox. e Red Sox lost a very dramatic World Series, by one ninth-inning run to Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine in Game Seven. is was the Series of the Ed Armbrister bunt, the Carlton Fisk home run in the bottom of the 12th in Game Six, and the question from the nal game: Why did Johnson take out Willoughby? Asked years later about having Cecil Cooper (1-for-19 in the Series) pinch-hit for Jim Willoughby, Johnson said, “I wouldn’t change a thing, except that I’d probably have Cecil hit a home run.”6
Johnson was named 1975’s Major League Manager of the Year by e Sporting News. And once again he was given the St. Louis Brownie of the Year Award by those who still kept the faith. Sportswriters covering the World Series noted that Johnson had become more bitter, was livid regarding the Armbrister inci- dent, and was observed as becoming “surly and quick- tempered in his relations with the World Series press.” Former Red Sox manager Dick Williams empathized with Johnson, noting the pressure, and called him an “intense, inward” but “outstanding” person who simply hadn’t adjusted as well to dealing with the press as Williams himself had.7 Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee had his criticisms, expressed in the immediate aftermath