SUMMER OF LOVE
In a scrapbook I started at age 11, there’s a faded news clipping from the Worcester Telegram that features a photograph I feel best captures the essence of the Impossible Dream Red Sox. It immediately encompasses the full spectrum of what endears them to Red Sox fans to this day. It shows Reggie Smith, Carl Yastrzemski, George Scott, and Mike Ryan stripped to the waist in the visitors’ clubhouse at Comiskey Park holding up teammate Joe Foy’s number one jersey to proclaim the Red Sox perch atop the American League.
They’d just beaten Joel Horlen and the White Sox on August 26th by a score of 6-2 to take sole possession of the American League lead for the first time that season.
This one image contains nothing less than the DNA of a winner, for here is a picture that depicts the soul of a franchise that changed for the better before our eyes. In an era before media scrutiny often distorted social norms, the ’67 Red Sox embraced integration in the spirit of winning. Their roster featured a lineup as diverse as any in baseball. Winning for these men broke down barriers and helped make the team a role model whose shining example continues to inspire some 56 years later.
Without the Possible Dream achieved by these men, there’d be no Red Sox Nation, no NESN, no Monster seats, no Fever Pitch, no fawning celebrity posse, no $100 grandstand seats, no Fenway Park and possibly no Red Sox.
To fully appreciate the stunning achievement of Dick Williams and Company, one must recall the circumstances from which they revitalized the franchise.
On the final day of the 1965 season, the Red Sox lost their hundredth game before a crowd of 487 as Whitey Ford won an 11-5 decision over Arnie Early. Such was the conclusion of the worst season for the team under the ownership of Tom Yawkey.
In the wake of this disappointment, Yawkey made the best move of his five-decade stewardship by hiring General Manager Dick O’Connell, and within 730 days the team was re-born, the Fenway stands full, and the franchise has never looked back.
The saga of this team is that of an unshakable brotherhood whose success was forged through a series of serendipitous events created by superstars named Yastremski and Lonborg, supported by a cadre of role players whose character and grace forged one of the most improbable and unforgettable seasons in baseball history.
This display honors the memory of Thomas Austin Yawkey and Jean R. Yawkey, whose love of the Red Sox was matched only by their far-reaching and endearing philanthropic legacy.
A Personal Remembrance
By Richard A. Johnson, Curator
The Sports Museum
“Nobody scared us.”
-Mike Andrews
This is the greatest moment of my life
-Tom Yawkey in Red Sox clubhouse after his team clinched the pennant
“We felt we could beat anybody.”
-Dalton Jones
“It was a great time. We brought baseball back to Boston.”
-Rico Petrocelli
“We’ll win more than we lose.”
-Dick Williams, within days of Jimmy The Greek releasing odds that had the Red Sox a 100-1 shot to win the pennant
“Billy Rohr was 1967”
-Peter Gammons
“The Impossible Dream was a shared dream for millions of people. What we all hoped for came true. How can we not think back and feel the idealism?”
-Ken Coleman
“Mike Andrews was the ultimate team guy. He did important things that don’t show up in the box score.”
-Russ Gibson
“Nobody ever loved baseball more than George Scott.”
-Historian Herb Crehan
“We were a team. Guys lived for one another and pulled for one another.”
-Darrell Brandon
“When in doubt – use forkball.”
John Wyatt Red Sox reliever’s Inscription on the fifth finger of his glove
“That year it felt like we had a different hero every day and we just kept winning.”
-Dalton Jones
“I can remember sitting in class as a youngster while the teacher let us listen to the World Series on the radio. Getting to play in a World Series was a dream come true for me.”
-Reggie Smith
“Thanks for not quitting. Thanks for giving me the thrill of my life.”
-Carl Yastrzemski to his teammates after the Red Sox won the pennant
We were a young team. Our average age was twenty-six. We needed someone like Ellie to show us the way.
-Reggie Smith, Red Sox center fielder
“I called down to Puerto Rico last night and told them, ‘Have faith in your boy. I’m going to do it tomorrow!’ I guess I did.”
-Jose Santiago following his victory in the second to last game of the regular season
“I’ve never enjoyed a telephone call more in my life. Mr. Yawkey said to me, ‘Elston, we want you in Boston.”
-Elston Howard, August 3, 1967
“How can you lose with people like this behind us?”
-Tony Conigliaro
“Hold your head up high; without you, we don’t win the pennant.”
-Tom Yawkey, October 1, 1967
“Jose Tartabull was one of those people you loved being around. You had a wonderful feeling being near Jose because he was always happy, upbeat, and singing.”
-Ken Coleman
“My only thought was, ‘pennant, pennant, we’ve got to win one for Mr. Yawkey.’ That’s the way the whole ball club felt. It kept us driving and pushing.”
-Carl Yastrzemski, Red Sox left fielder
“As the ball came down in Rico Petrocelli’s glove for the last-and-final out, the town went up in the air like a beautiful balloon.”
-Bud Collins, Boston Globe, October 1, 1967
“It was so great. It was the first time in my life I was carried off a field.”
-Jim Lonborg
“Nobody was cooler than Lonborg that year. He wanted to be the guy who was there in every key game, each big moment.”
-Carl Yastrzemski