Page 45 - 1975 BoSox

38 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
When the 1975 season started, Gri n owned the second-base job. On June 13, however, the Red Sox obtained Denny Doyle, a journeyman in elder, from the California Angels. Manager Johnson platooned Gri n and Doyle most of the rest of the year. Doyle played in 89 games for the Red Sox, Gri n 100. Doyle nished the year batting .310, Gri n .240. Johnson said of Doyle, “I knew he was a good player, but I never realized how good. He’s simply uncanny at advancing runners.” Interestingly, after the platooning took e ect, by midseason Gri n was hitting close to .300 and having his best year since 1973.30
But it was clear that Denny Doyle had become Darrell Johnson’s man at second base, and by the division playo s with Oakland, Doyle had a corner on the second-base job. e irony was that 1975 was the rst year Gri n avoided injury in his ve full seasons with the club.
On August 31, 1975, Gri n was beaned again, this time by Oakland’s Dick Bosman. Gri n experienced hearing and equilibrium problems, but recovered very quickly. is time he had been wearing an ear ap with his protective helmet.
Gri n did not play in the ALCS against the A’s, and was not a factor in the 1975 World Series. He appeared only once as a pinch-hitter for pitcher Jim Willoughby in the eighth inning of Game Five, and lined out to second base.
By the following year, the in eld was felt to be the only possible weakness. Surprisingly Red Sox brass continued to talk about the Doyle-Gri n combination at second, but Johnson seemed settled on Doyle at that position in spite of his own and management’s representations to the contrary.
By the third week in June 1976, Denny Doyle had 171 at-bats and was batting .211 in 49 games. Gri n was hitting .215 with 65 at-bats in 25 games. Gri n was also being used e ectively as a pinch-hitter. Suddenly, on July 19, the Red Sox summarily red Darrell Johnson, and third-base coach Don Zimmer replaced him. Gri n nished at .189 in just 127 at-bats.
By the fall of 1976 there was talk of both Gri n and Doyle being on the trading block. Gri n was rumored to be going to Detroit, but this never materialized, and springtime talk quieted down to a “wait and see” attitude with Red Sox brass. Zimmer remained high on Denny Doyle, describing him as “the nest hit- and-run man on the club.”31 But in the next breath Zimmer reported that the “battle for second and third base is wide open, with Doug Gri n and Denny Doyle seeking one spot and Rico Petrocelli challenging second-year man Butch Hobson for the other spot.”32
Gri n played in only ve games of the 1977 season with six at-bats and no hits. He played his last major- league game on June 2, and a few weeks later was given his unconditional release.
Gri n did not continue a career in baseball after his release from the Red Sox. He worked brie y for his father in the construction trade in California in the late 1970s, and performed the same kind of work in the 1980s for Buddy LeRoux, who had a construction business in Winter Haven, Florida. Gri n is now retired and currently resides in Fresno, California.33 e Gri ns have two children, Natalie and Chad, and four grandchildren.
One could assume that had it not been for the numer- ous injuries that plagued Gri n throughout his major- league career, he most likely would be remembered as one of the premier second basemen of his time. He had exceptional skills in the eld, so much so that even when the Red Sox appeared to give up on him, he stuck with the team because they could not nd a replacement who could match his surehandedness, range and quickness. Perhaps the ultimate compliment was summed up by Gri n’s teammate, future Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, when he said, “No second baseman we have had in my time with the Red Sox can go get the ball like Gri n.”34
Note
A version of this biography was originally published in ‘75: e Red Sox Team at Saved Baseball, edited by