Page 90 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 83
another pinch-hitter, Ken Singleton. at loaded the bases. ere were still no runs scored. Next up was Tony Muser (once a Red Sox farmhand) and he changed Dick Pole’s life forever, driving a ball hard and right up the middle — a line drive right o Pole’s face. It hit so hard that it ricocheted o his face and soared over Rico Petrocelli at third base. Two runs scored and Muser was credited with a double. But Dick Pole lay crumpled on the ground. His cheekbone was broken and his retina damaged as well. e nal score was 5-2. Pole earned the win. But the e ects of the injury may have permanently a ected him. Garry Brown of the Spring eld (Massachusetts) Union later wrote, “He recovered to pitch again, but was never quite the same.”2
After missing two full months, Pole was reactivated on September 1 and got in four more starts in September, throwing three scoreless innings in relief against the Yankees on September 1, and winning a 3-1 game against the Orioles on September 4. Pole surrendered 11 home runs in just 892⁄3 innings of play.
Pole’s only appearance in postseason play came in Game Five of the 1975 World Series. Both the Reds and the Red Sox had two wins. After seven innings at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium, the Reds held a 5-1 lead, all charged to Red Sox starter Reggie Cleveland. Jim Willoughby threw two scoreless innings and Sox manager Darrell Johnson sent Pole in to pitch the eighth. He faced two batters — Johnny Bench and Tony Perez — and walked both. Johnson came out with the hook and brought in Diego Segui. On back- to-back y balls, Bench took third and then scored. Pole’s postseason ERA is thus in nity; he is charged with one earned run in zero innings pitched. It could have been worse: Perez had already homered twice earlier in the game.
In 1976 Pole got more regular work, appearing in 31 games, starting 15 of them. He threw one complete game, on June 17 in Oakland. It was his rst start after being bombed for six runs in the rst inning six days earlier in Minneapolis. He got an 8-3 win, up against A’s starter Mike Torrez at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. He also got his one and only major-
league at-bat. After seven full innings, the Red Sox had an 8-2 lead. First baseman Carl Yastrzemski was taken out of the game to give him a little rest, and Cecil Cooper took over at rst base. Cooper had been the DH. With the move, the Sox lost the DH and Pole was put in Yaz’s spot in the lineup. His one time in the batting order and he was batting cleanup in place of Carl Yastrzemski! Come the top of the ninth, and Dick led o . He put wood on the ball, grounding back to pitcher Stan Bahnsen, who threw him out at rst. 0-for-1 lifetime.
As a elder himself, Pole made only four errors — one each in 1974, 1975, 1976, and 1977. at he accumulated only 95 chances in his six seasons, though, left him with a modest .958 elding average
One of his better performances in 1976 came on May 22, facing the Yankees at the Stadium. Pole started the game and pitched 81⁄3 shutout innings, holding New York to just four hits. He was tiring, and Tom House came on in relief, with House nally losing 1-0 in the bottom of the 11th. Pole’s year-end ERA was a respectable enough 4.33.
After the 1976 season, it was expansion time with both the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners entering the American League. ough he’d skippered the Red Sox to a pennant and into the seven-game World Series in 1975, manager Darrell Johnson hadn’t lasted much more than half the ’76 season. On July 19 Johnson was red and replaced by Don Zimmer. But Johnson was hired as the rst manager of the Mariners and when it came time for Seattle to pick in the November 5 expansion draft, Pole was one of the players not protected by the Red Sox. He was selected by Seattle as its seventh pick overall.
Pole began the 1977 season on the disabled list. His rst appearance came in Boston on May 4, when he was brought in to relieve Stan omas with Boston holding a 4-1 lead. Pole walked the rst batter he faced, former batterymate Carlton Fisk. Dwight Evans bunted Fisk to second, and Fisk advanced to third on a wild pitch. Bernie Carbo walked and then Butch Hobson singled Fisk home. Pole got the next two