Page 292 - 1975 BoSox

1975 American League Championship Series by Doug Skipper
IT WAS A SWIFT AND STUNNING drama, played out in just three acts. By the time the curtain dropped, the three-time
defending World Series champion Oakland Athletics had made their exit and the upstart Boston Red Sox stood in the spotlight, setting the stage for a fall classic that was among the most dramatic and com- pelling ever played.
e AL East Division champion Red Sox earned their rst appearance in the World Series since 1967 by sweeping the AL West champion A’s three games to none. Boston won the rst two games, 7-1 and 6-3, both weekend afternoon a airs at Fenway Park, and closed out the best-of- ve series on a Tuesday with a 5-3 early-evening win at the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum.
e Boston Red Sox
e Red Sox featured a mix of experienced veterans and talented youngsters, guided by e Sporting News Major League Manager of the Year Darrell Johnson, in the second year of a three-season stint as the team’s skipper. His weapons included future Hall of Fame left elder Carl Yastrzemski and shortstop Rico Petrocelli, both veterans of Boston’s 1967 World Series appearance, seasoned pitchers Luis Tiant and Rick Wise, and a corps of youngsters that featured Fred Lynn, the rst player ever to win both the American League Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards in the same season, and future Hall of Famers Jim Rice and Carlton Fisk.
e Red Sox won the AL East with a 95-65 record, nishing 41⁄2 games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles. e 23-year-old Lynn batted .331, second in the AL only to Minnesota’s Rod Carew (.359), with 21 home runs and 105 runs batted in, scored a league-high 103
runs, started in the All-Star Game, and earned a Gold Glove in his spectacular rst season. Rice, who had debuted in 1974 but still enjoyed rookie status, was the runner-up to Lynn in the Rookie of the Year race and nished third in MVP voting. He hit .309 with 22 home runs and 102 runs batted in, but his rst full season ended when he was hit by a pitch and su ered a broken left hand on September 21, and the Red Sox were forced to play the postseason without his potent bat. Fisk had missed the second half of the 1974 season after undergoing surgery to repair torn knee ligaments, su ered a broken arm in spring training, reappeared on June 23, and hit .331 with 10 homers and 52 RBIs in 79 games. Within days of his return, the Red Sox moved into rst place, a position they held the rest of the season. Another youngster, Cecil Cooper, batted .311 in his second full season. A designated hitter for most of the year, he took over at rst base when Rice was hurt and Yastrzemski moved to left eld.
Already worshiped by the Fenway Faithful, Yastrzemski was hindered by a sore shoulder in the 15th season of his 23-year career, and batted just .269. He spent most of the 1975 season at rst base, but returned to left eld when Rice was injured, wielded a torrid bat and played divine defense in the postseason. Petrocelli struggled at the plate in his nal full season, but he, Yastrzemski, and veteran second baseman Denny Doyle (acquired in a June trade) provided leadership for a lineup that included ve starters 25 years old or younger — Lynn, Cooper, Rice, right elder Dwight Evans, and shortstop Rick Burleson (after Rice was injured, Yastrzemski moved to left eld and Cooper from DH to rst base, and another youngster, 25-year- old Juan Beniquez, became the designated hitter.
While the lineup was youthful, the starting pitching was not. Tiant, the charismatic, cigar-smoking Cuban pitcher with the contorted, whirling windup and the
285