Page 272 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 265
hammered Jim Palmer for ve dingers. e “Crunch Bunch” hit a team-record 213 home runs; set 12 home- run marks, and tied 70 more. A year later brought “the apocalyptic Red Sox collapse,” said the Globe’s Dan Slaughnessy, “against which all others must be measured.”
In every sense, ’78 became a term that stood alone, needing no embroidery. Boston took rst place in May, leading New York by 14 games in July. To Jackson, “if the Sox keep playing like this, even [racing’s Triple Crown champion] A rmed won’t catch them.” e Yankees aped contender Alydar — until the Townies reached the backstretch.. In early August, the Sox lead dripping like a faucet, the Globe’s sports TV critic, Jack Craig, wrote a column or hit job, depending on your view. Titled “Stockton’s eternal optimism is getting deadly dull,” it termed Dick “a homer,” not unusual except that “Stockton seems so sincere about it.” Boston’s Frank Du y’s “nervous hands and rainbow tosses were blamed on his inactivity.” Bill Campbell’s arm “that left no lead safe was treated as a twinge.” As bad, Craig said, Dick “never shuts up,” citing a sea of disconnected “players’ ages, minor-league creden- tials, high-school achievements, who was involved in trades, and assorted items that pass for coincidence and irony.” Each, the critic mused, showed proof of Dick’s coming late to baseball, “insensitivity to [its] timing.”
All week letters ooded the newspaper, creating “ e DickStocktonIssue”inthenextSunday’sGlobe.One reader termed “criticism long overdue.” Another: “Dick Stockton should stick to basketball. Martin or Woods, or the Hawk alone, do your job much better.” By contrast, a Portsmouth, New Hampshire, reader said Craig should have attacked the Hawk: “Harrelson is the one who bores me out of my skin.” From Kittery, Maine, a Stocktonphobe dubbed “his bias abominable.” Locally, a Dick defender called him “the best baseball announcer in the country.” To a Plymouth resident, he was not as sturdy as its Rock: “[Craig’s piece] was a scathing review, but ... impersonal, professional, and, to my mind, totally accurate.” In four years in Boston, Stockton had become a neutral-free zone.
Dennis Eckersley and El Tiante nished 20-8 and 13-8 with a top- ve-AL-ranked 162 strikeouts and ve shutouts, respectively. Jim Rice was voted MVP: 46 homers, 139 RBIs, 15 triples, 213 hits, .315 average, and 406 total bases, a wrecking machine and Renaissance Man. “ ey talk about leading by example,” Stockton said one day. “ e captain, Carl Yastrzemski, 39 years old, playing in left-center eld, chased a ball that seemed certain to be an extra-base hit and a run”because the Yankees’ urman Munson had been running on the pitch and the wind propelled the ball to the corner. “Yaz took o , caught the ball, braced himself against the Wall, and threw the ball quickly toward rst,” amazing everyone by doubling Munson. Unlike much of the club, Yaz seemed immune to overuse and injury.
Before long the 1978 Red Sox braved a 2-8 road trip; then, a Boston Massacre vs. the Stripes, losing a rst- place lead, 15-3, 13-2, 7-0, and 7-4; meanwhile, a 3-14 September swoon in which Boston fell 31⁄2 games behind; then perversely won its nal eight. On closing day the Sox had to beat Toronto to force a one-game AL East playo in the Fens. “Here it is!” Stockton said of Luis Tiant’s last game in a Boston uniform, blanking Toronto, 5-0 — “[ Jack] Brohamer in foul territory! We go to tomorrow!”— game No. 163, against the Yankees: combat the hard, which was the Red Sox, way. “As the[ir] broadcaster, you woke up scream- ing in the middle of the night,” Dick said in 2003. “But enough time has passed that now I’m much calmer.”
In the second inning of the playo Dorian Gray faced New York’s Ron Guidry: “Drive to right eld! is is deep! And this ball is gone! A home run by Yastrzemski!” said Stockton. e noise was insupportable. Hawk added: “God bless him. is man is unbelievable.” Soon up, 2-0, Boston starter Mike Torrez faced Bucky Dentinatwo-outandtwo-onseventh.“Adrivetoward left!” said Woods, like Stockton doing his Sox nale. “Yaz will watch it go into the Screen and the Yankees lead, 3 to 2! ... Suddenly, the whole thing is turned around!” In the ninth, behind, 5-4, Yaz faced the Yankees’ Goose Gossage: again two out and two on. “And he pops it up! Graig Nettles at third base, backs