Page 268 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 261
didn’t make big mistakes, the sponsors and club liked us, and we were smart enough to play within ourselves.”
irty years later, Stockton became arguably Fox’s best ball-and-striker. Harrelson aired the Red Sox through 1981 and later the White Sox for more than 30 years. More veteran, the 1975 TV team would have been less chastised. Another video problem was special to New England. “Sox fans, perhaps more than any other team’s, are dependent on radio,” the Boston Phoenix’s Michael Gee wrote. “ e stations in their chain stretch from Woonsocket to Presque Isle, and there are uncounted Red Sox rooters for whom a trip to Fenway is an annual adventure.” e wireless fed small towns, back country, and burnt-orange hills. Like Dick, Ken knew the pecking order. “Much of the region is isolated,” he said. “No matter the an- nouncer, radio’d be top banana.” is did not stop TV from trying to climb Red Sox Nation’s tree.
Stockton’s leading problem was something he could not control — Sox radio’s tandem. In 1974, ageless 58-year-old Jim Woods joined Martin, 50, Boston’s 1961- wireless virtuoso, to become, as the Boston Globe’s Mike Barnicle wrote, a “Tracy-Hepburn of radio, the Gable-Lombard, Hunt-Fontanne, Redford-Newman, Fielder and e Pops kind of combo that lend class and style to the phrases that describe the perils of our Olde Towne Team.” Each knew the game, played o the other, and refused to toot his horn. Stockton knew the odds. “Ned was as good a radio broadcaster as I’ve ever heard, and Woods complemented him beautifully,” Dick said. Novelist Robert B. Parker agreed, saying “Martin reminded us that baseball is a game of wit and intelligence. Woods kept alive our sense of wonder. Between them they were perfect”—at least as good as the Sox’ nal 95-65 record, or 1975 attendance: 1,748,587.
In the last regular-season game Woods called Ned “Nedley” and Martin ribbed Woods about his ex-Bucs colleague Bob Prince’s booth as bar. “Did Budweiser sponsor you, or did you sponsor Budweiser?” Woods’s baritone was “literally whiskeyed,” said Ned, his Scotch-Irish tenor as old-shoe as a slipper. ey lasted through 1978, at which time each was red because
their radio agship wanted good company men — not good listening company. Till then the poet and peri- patetic — Boston was Woods’s sixth team — were pares inter pares: Latin for “ rst among equals.” Could the 1975 Red Sox be baseball’s? On Closing Day 1975 few cared that Cleveland beat the Townies, 11-4. e six- year-old best-of- ve prelude to the World Series, the League Championship Series (LCS), followed by the fall classic, were already on the mind.
Much later, when a campaign began to replace Fenway Park, former NBC and Red Sox Voice Gowdy said, “Keep it! Don’t change a thing!” Except for the Series nal, a New Englander wouldn’t change October 1975. It is true that Boston’s LCS rival Oakland had just won its fth straight AL West title, starred Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, and Joe Rudi, and was favored to shrink the Sox. It is also true that the Sox had Ancient Mariners averse to tension (Yaz, El Tiante, and Rico) and a Kiddie Corps too young to know what tension meant (Lynn, Burleson, Evans et al; Rice, injured, missed postseason). On cue, Tiant opened, winning 7-1: “ is was Looie’s place,” said Dick. “He made all of Fenway a participant, not spectator.” Reggie Jackson turned dance critic, terming Tiant “the Fred Astaire of baseball.”
A day later Yaz launched a fourth-inning net-detec- tor — an out anywhere but the Fens. “ ere’s a drive to left eld!” Stockton said. “Going back! Looking up! Good-bye!” For variety, in the seventh we turned to Poss: “Fly ball, left eld! ... And Rudi will watch it go into the screen for a [Petrocelli] home run! Boston leads, 5-3, and Fenway Park is an absolute madhouse!” e two homers U-turned the series. In Oakland, Yaz, playing left eld for the rst time in several years, nabbed one third-game runner and kept another from the plate. “Carl makes another diving stop,” said Dick, “this play o Reggie Jackson.” A 4-3 groundball ended the Townies’ 5-3 sweep. “Doyle throws to rst! It’s over! e Red Sox win the pennant! e Red Sox — no one gave a plug nickel for their chances in the spring — they de ed everyone — they won the division title — a team that never gave up.” Yaz hit an LCS- team-high .455. e calendar could have read 1967.