Red Sox Nation as we now know it was born on the weekend of July 22 and 23,1967. On those two days, the entire New England region took the Sox info their hearts. Through many ups and downs, it has remained that way to the present.
On Friday the 21st, Boston topped the fading Indians 6-2 for their seventh in a row. The sometimes shaky Bucky Brandon was getting into the act, pitching a complete game to run his mark to 4-8. He allowed 8 hits and only a two-run homer by Leon Wagner spoiled the shutout. Torrid-hitting rookie Joe Foy gave Brandon all the runs he needed by smashing a three-run homer in the third. Later int he inning, Bucky helped himself with a double and later scored on a wild pitch from former Soxer Ed Connolly. Since midseason, the streaky Foy had gone 14 for 36 with 9 rbi’s For the first time since Opening Day, a Sox headline appeared as a “kicker” at the top of page 1 of the Globe: “Sox in 2nd Place: Top Cleveland for Seventh in a Row.
Interest was growing at a very rapid rate. After Lee Stange shut out the Indians 4-0 on the 22nd, three stories appeared on the front page of the Sunday Globe: “Sox 1/2 Game Out of First Place” ( a short piece about the victory) “The Secret: Confidence” ( a Clif Keane piece speculating on how the streak began) and another by longtime columnist Harold Kaese: Win Surge Best Since ’48-’49 Era (chronicling Sox runs of the past, most of which had ended unhappily.)
But it was the doubleheader sweep of July 23 that started the explosion. The scores were 8-5 and 5-1 and featured complete game victories from Jim Lonborg (now 14-3) and Gary Bell (now 6-4). Both were fairly easy. Foy’s grand slam in the second innng of game 1 gave Lonny a 6-0 lead, and he would breeze, walking 2 and fanning 11. Bell, traded earlier in the year, was greeted by some boos from the small Cleveland crowd. He surrendered a run in the first, but a Tony Conigliaro homer and some shoddy play by the Tribe led to 5 runs in the middle innings. Bell was even better than Lonborg, pemitting 5 hits, walking none and striking out 5.
No one could have predicted what happened when the Sox, winners of 10 in a row and 12 of 13, landed at Logan Airport that Sunday evening. Globe staff reporter Kevin Walsh described the scene: “At the jammed United Airlines freight terminal 5000 fans created mild bedlam welcoming the team back from its most successful road trip in many years….’they told us on the plane there’d be fans at the airport’, said Dick Williams as he tried to push his way through the large crowd.”But I never expected anything like this. It’s really something.” Lower on page 1 was the headline “Pennant Hopes Soar After Clevelend Sweep.” Boston now trailed Chicago by half a game. Only a few months before, the word “pennant” would have produced laughter at Fenway. Williams still remained cautious, however, conservatively restating ‘”we will win more than we lose”. Nationally, it had been a wild weekend of rioting in Detroit that included many deaths, but that was furthest from the minds of Sox fans.
After an off-day, Boston prepared to entertain the Angels. Despite the hoopla, only 21,000 fans showed up for the first game, won by the Angels 6-4. Perhaps the rest were still out celebrating. Following the contest, California manager Bill Rigney said sarcastically “we derailed the Boston juggernaut. It really wasn’t so tough after all.” Before the series was over, Rigney would deeply regret that statement. Red Sox fever was everywhere.
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