Page 294 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 287
Beneath the facial hair and the garish uniforms, the A’s were also very talented. Jackson clubbed 36 home runs and drove in 104 runs to provide the power in 1975; left elder Claudell Washington and center elder Bill North provided the speed, combining for 70 stolen bases. Gold Glove winner Joe Rudi at rst base, veteran Bert Campaneris at shortstop, and team captain Sal Bando at third base had started for the previous three world championship teams, as had catcher Gene Tenace (although some had started at di erent posi- tions). Second baseman Phil Garner, nicknamed Scrap Iron because of his persistent play and Yosemite Sam because of his short stature and bushy red beard, had been added to the in eld before the 1975 season. e other newcomer was designated hitter Billy Williams, acquired in a trade after 16 seasons with the futile Chicago Cubs. e future Hall of Fame out elder slugged 23 homers and drove in 81 runs.
Another Cubs casto , Ken Holtzman, posted an 18-14 record with a 3.14 ERA to form a solid 1-2 punch with fellow lefty Vida Blue, who nished 22-11 with a 3.01 ERA. Both started 38 games, both completed 13, and both tossed two shutouts. But Dick Bosman, with 11, was the only other starting pitcher to post double-digit wins. Rollie Fingers, the slender stopper with the dapper handlebar mustache, saved 24 games, a career high at the time, but a number the future Hall of Famer would later eclipse four times. Jim Todd (8-3, 2.29 ERA, 12 saves) and Paul Lindblad (9-1, 2.72 ERA, 7 saves) back-ended a strong bullpen. On the nal day of the regular season, Blue, Glenn Abbott, Lindblad, and Fingers combined to pitch the major leagues’ first-ever four-pitcher no-hitter, against the California Angels.
Other Key Players
Curt Gowdy, the longtime voice of the Red Sox on radio and TV, who had served as NBC’s primary announcer for its Baseball Game of the Week for more than a decade, teamed with longtime partner Tony Kubek for Games One and Two at Fenway Park. Joe Garagiola and Maury Wills announced Game ree. Gowdy was also a member of the Red Sox radio team, along with Ned Martin and Jim Woods. Dick
While Holtzman and Blue and the bullpen were solid, the rotation had been diminished by the departure of Jim “Cat sh” Hunter, granted free agency before the 1975 season because Finley had manipulated payments to the future Hall of Fame pitcher for tax purposes, allowing Hunter to sign with the New York Yankees.
While the A’s were able to overcome the defection of Hunter to repeat as AL West champions, his loss would play a major role in the ALCS. Manager Alvin
Dark, acting as always under Finley’s orders, started Holtzman in Game One and Blue in Game Two. Trailing two games to none and trusting none of the other starters, Finley directed Dark to use Holtzman in Game ree. Working on just two days’ rest, the veteran surrendered just one run in four innings, but tired and couldn’t make it through the fth, and ab- sorbed the defeat. After the series-ending loss, a writer asked Bando if allowing Hunter to leave was the biggest blunder ever made by a major-league franchise. Oakland’s team captain replied, “If it wasn’t the biggest, I haven’t heard of any bigger.”
After the 1975 ALCS defeat, Finley continued the dismantling of the A’s that had begun with the defec- tion of Hunter. He red Dark and released out elder Tommy Harper after the season. On the eve of the 1976 campaign, Finley traded Jackson and Holtzman to the Orioles. In June he sold Fingers and Rudi to the Red Sox and Blue to the Yankees, but Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who openly disliked the Oakland owner, voided the deals in “the best interest of baseball.” Oakland managed to nish second to the Kansas City Royals in 1976, nishing just 21⁄2 games out, but Tenace, Rudi, Bando, and Campaneris all became free agents on November 1, 1976, and all departed, and Billy Williams was released eight days later. Garner and Washington were traded and Bosman was released before the 1977 season and the A’s slumped to the bottom of the AL West race, 381⁄2 games behind di- vision-winning Kansas City and just a half-game behind the expansion Seattle Mariners. Blue and North were traded away the following year. Not until 1988 would Oakland return to the postseason.