Page 216 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 209
of the World Series: “Johnson has been falling out of trees all summer and landing on his feet.”8
Nonetheless, the skipper had piloted the Red Sox deep into a World Series against the odds-on favorite, and few questioned his being named Manager of the Year, an honor also awarded him by United Press International. Johnson was given a new two- year contract.
He wasn’t allowed long to bask in the glory. In the early morning hours the next day after getting the new contract, he was arrested for drunk driving near his home in Pinole, California. But it was the following summer that the knives came out. Just 10 days after Boston’s longtime owner Tom Yawkey died, and with the Red Sox struggling with a 41-45 record, Johnson was red, on July 19, 1976. It was just six days after he served as AL skipper in the 1976 All-Star Game, a 7-1 loss at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Headlines in some papers reading, “Johnson Called Idiot” fol- lowed his choice of pitchers for the game. Jim Palmer was the reigning Cy Young Award winner and his Orioles teammate Wayne Garland had a 9-1 record at the time, but neither was selected, nor was Gaylord Perry. ( Johnson started the Tigers’ Mark Fidrych.) “He’s an idiot,” said Palmer, “and maybe this is why the American League seldom wins an All-Star Game.” Palmer also castigated Johnson for his handling of the Red Sox pitching sta in the ninth inning of Game Seven of the World Series.9 Columnist Dick Young replied to Palmer’s charge with a Knight Wire Service story headlined, “First of All, Darrell Johnson Is Not an Idiot.”Young’s assessment? “Maybe a little retarded.”
On the morning of July 19, Hartford Courant sports editor Bill Newell wondered whether Johnson would become the scapegoat for the plunge in Red Sox fortunes. We don’t know if GM Dick O’Connell read the paper and decided to act, but that very day, Johnson was red, which O’Connell explained in part by declar- ing,“We cannot blame everything on Darrell Johnson, but it’s easier to change managers than the team, which would be practically impossible.”10 Johnson was kept on as a Red Sox scout, and the managerial reins were handed to Don Zimmer. Boston nished in third
place, 151⁄2 games behind the Yankees and ve behind the second-place Orioles. Phil Elderkin’s explanation in the Christian Science Monitor as to why Johnson bit the dust: “No communication.”11 It wasn’t unexpected. Elderkin had heard rumblings a full year earlier from those in the Red Sox front o ce, concerned with his lack of player discipline. At the time, it had been said that unless the Sox won the pennant, he’d be out. ey won, but it had bought him only a half-season.12
e American League expanded for the 1977 season, adding two franchises and — looking ahead — Johnson was named the rst manager of the new Seattle team on September 3, even before the 1976 race was done. With a new franchise, one doesn’t expect much of a team in its rst season, but with 64 wins the ’77 Mariners nished a half-game ahead of the last-place Oakland A’s. Johnson, though, said he was happy. He’d felt really down with the way things ended in Boston, but now he was nding new life with a young, new team.13 He was rewarded early in 1978 with a pay raise and a two-year contract; the Mariners held down the cellar, but in ’79 improved signi cantly to nish 13 games ahead of Oakland. Johnson served as bullpen coach for the 1979 All-Star Game.
Johnson managed Seattle into the 1980 season. ough the team wasn’t faring well, he was given a vote of con dence by team president Dan O’Brien on July 5, 1980. But on August 4 he was replaced by Maury Wills, 105 games into the season, with a .375 winning percentage (or, perhaps more to the point, a .625 losing percentage). Back in Boston, Don Zimmer almost made it to the end of the season but had lost his job just a few days before. Zim promptly got the job managing the Texas Rangers. He hired Johnson as one of his coaches.
On July 28, 1982, Zimmer was red and Johnson was named interim manager. He said he wouldn’t even sit in the manager’s chair for the rst two days on the job, because he didn’t think it was right the way Zimmer was red. Oddly, Zimmer kept managing for three games after he was red; the whole story was an odd one.14 Johnson’s record at the helm in Texas was 26-40.