Page 39 - 1975 BoSox

32 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
yell, “Hey Charlestown!!” or “Hey, Pudgie!!” Carlton’s inevitable response would be to nd the source, since that meant there was a native in the midst. Both his high-school coach, Ralph Silva, and Legion coach, Tim Ryan, have recounted that if Fisk knew they were in the stands, he would invite them and their families into the locker room to chat and meet the other players.
Sources
In addition to the sources cited, the author also drew on materials provided by the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.
Notes
1 Interview with Ralph Silva, Claremont, New Hampshire, May 1998.
2 Ibid.
3 Interview with Ken Campbell, April 1998.
4 Manchester Union Leader, February 26, 1965.
5 Interview with Tim Ryan, April 1998.
6 Silva interview.
7 Ryan interview.
8 D.W. Roberts, New Hampshire Pro les, May 1987.
9 Bill Liston, Boston Herald Traveler, September 19, 1969.
10 Carlton Fisk with Lou Sabin, Boys Life, September 1973.
11 Larry Cla in, Boston Herald Traveler and Record American, July 14, 1972.
12 Larry Cla in, Boston Herald Traveler and Record American, November 25, 1972.
13 Peter Gammons, Boston Globe, December 8, 1973. 14 Ken Rappaport, Associated Press, August 2, 1973. 15 Roberts.
16 Bob Ryan, Boston Sunday Globe, January 22, 1978. 17 Silva interview.
18 Roberts.
19 omas Boswell, Washington Post, published in the Trenton
Evening Times, July 2, 1978.
20 e National, August 10, 1990.
21 Nick Cafardo, Boston Globe, June 24, 1993.
22 Dave Nightingale, e Sporting News, May 17, 1993.
23 Peter Gammons, Boston Globe, July 13, 1974.
24 Roger Angell, Season Ticket (Boston: Houghton Mi in Company, 1988), 40.
25 All quotations come from Larry Whiteside’s article in the Boston Globe, January 15, 2000.
26 Paul Ledewski, Inside Sports, August 1992.
27 Interview with Pam Kenn, Boston Red Sox, October 30, 2014.
28 omas Boswell, Washington Post, reprinted in Pittsburgh Post- Gazette, May 26, 1990.
After being hired by Duquette in 1999, Fisk remained a Red Sox employee, doing promotional and marketing work for the team. He is considered to be a terri c baseball ambassador by the club. But aside from his appearances for the Red Sox, Carlton’s most important, enjoyable and rewarding role is being a grandfather. If fact if you were to ask Fisk about his proudest ac- complishment, it would not involve baseball. To that question he once responded, “Probably to have a wife and kids who still call me ‘Dad’ and love me and kiss me when I’m going and kiss me when I’m coming.”26 Said Pam Kenn of the Red Sox, “He is the ultimate family man — he just adores his kids and grandkids.”27
ough Carlton Fisk will always be remembered for his dramatic home run in the 1975 Series, the incident that best de ned how he played the game came on an otherwise unmemorable night in 1990 when Deion Sanders, then a rookie with the New York Yankees, failed to run out an in eld popup. e next time “Neon Deion” came to the plate, the 42-year-old Fisk growled, “Listen to me, you piece of [recycled waste material]. Next time run it out.”28
Even though Sanders played for the opposition — and the hated Yankees at that—he’d violated the Fisk Code of Baseball Ethics. ou shalt hustle. ou shalt run it out. To Fisk, the proper way to play the game was always important — with passion, preparation, hard work, integrity, respect — and he constantly tried to inspire others to do the same. Traditional New England values, as taught him by his parents, were the source of Carlton Fisk’s motivation and the basis for his longevity and exceptional accomplishments. He acquired those values on the family farm in Charlestown, and they propelled him to Cooperstown.