Sox 67

The four games following Tony Conigliaro’s injury typified the 67 Sox run for the flag. In sweeping the troublesome Angels, the team showed they would not wilt down the stretch. In each of the contests, they found ways to win.

With Tony lying in the hospital Friday night in severe pain, the Sox eked out a 3-2 win featuring a Gary Bell complete game. Fittingly, it was Bell himself who drove in the winner, plating Jose Tartabull with a sixth-inning single for a 3-0 lead. Gary actually had a no-hitter for 6 frames, but a Jimmie Hall homer ended his hopes. Hall connected for another in the ninth, but Bell survived.

The next afternooon was a typical 67 Sox game- wild, crazy and a victory. The final was 12-11, and there were 29 hits, 17 for Boston. Jose Santiago and Rickey Clark started, but neither was effective. The turning point came in the eighth with the Townies ahead 10-7 and the bases jammed with one out. Newly-acquired Elston Howard skied one to left, and Carl Yastrzemski tried to score from third. The throw appeared to be in time, but Carl succeeded in knocking away not only the baseball, but also Bob Rodgers’ catcher’s mitt. As the ball went toward the backstop and the glove bounced away, relief pitcher Bill Kelso picked the ball up and threw home as George Scott streaked for the plate. One problem- Rodgers had no glove. Scotty scored what proved to be the winning run as the Angels rallied for 4 in the ninth off Bucky Brandon and Jerry Stephenson. It took a great play by Rico Petrocelli on a chopper by the unlucky Rodgers to get the third out.

The following day’s twinbill continued the spirit of the Cardiac Kids, as they were now being called. After easing to a 12-2 first game win behind a Lee Stange complete game, Boston fell behind 8-0 by the fourth inning of game 2. Having won the first three contests of the series, two of them tough one-run jobs, many Sox teams would have packed it in. But not these guys. Reggie Smith, who had already homered twice in game one, got a run back with his third of the day. You could almost imagine someone in the Sox dugout yell out “we can win this f_____in’ game!” When Yaz hit a three-run job in the fifth (number 31 for the year), you could feel the energy at Fenway. In the sixth, Boston erupted for 4 more, with Jerry Adair’s single off star reliever Minnie Rojas tying the contest at 8. Rojas was still out there in the eighth when Adair struck again, slamming one into the screen as the crowd erupted in ecstasy..

To their credit, California did not fold, and it took a fine play with the bases jammed by supersub Adair to nail down the final out. A four-game sweep. All of a sudden, everything again seemed possible.

As the Sox prepared to take on Gil Hodges’ improving Washington Senators in another four-game set, they trailed the Twins by 1 1/2 games. But it was still a five-team race, with the Angels only 6 out despite the sweep. Headlines were screaming about the Vietnam War and urban riots, but in Boston, only the Sox seemed on eveyone’s lips. Even the evening Globe was carrying first-page stories on the team’s drive to first place. The paper also announced that Yaz would soon be starting a thrice-weekly column with “candid opinions on the Boston pennant drive, the thrills and disappointments.” The column was said to be in Carl’s own words, but I’m sure he simply talked to a ghostwriter. But who cared? During one game, a fan named Duncan McKenzie ran onto the field and shook hands with every Sox player. The papers hailed him as a hero; he was arrested but soon released without even a fine.

Not everything was coming up roses and pennant hopes, however. A headline read “Conigliaro Seen Back in Action”. Tony was leaving the hospital, and three physicians “were very much pleased at his condition.” But the eye was so swelled that a thorough exam was not possible yet. The first full test lay ahead, and the news would not be good.