114 replies to this topic

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

Man, I miss Reggie Smith. What a shame they traded him away. He should have been a lifetime Red Sox. I loved the guy.

Wasn't it because he had personality conflicts with Billy Conigliaro?

Smith had a fantastic career. Agreed, wish he had stayed here longer.

[Al Zarilla]

Wasn't it because he had personality conflicts with Billy Conigliaro?

Smith had a fantastic career. Agreed, wish he had stayed here longer.

Billy was gone from the team before the 1972 season, whereas Reggie played through the 1973 season with Boston. Reggie was surrounded with some controversy while in Boston, but I thought it was mostly, or all about Dick Williams, manager. Wiliams said some stuff about some players (familiar?), maybe one of them being Reggie Smith. "All star from the neck down", or was that about Yaz? Pre-internet, it was hard to get much info. Of course, Wiliams was gone from the Sox well before Reggie also. I don't remember any controversy about Reggie after his leaving Boston. Good teammate, good coach, all that.

[LahoudOrBillyC]

Reggie had some racial issues in Boston--not with the team but with the city and fans. There was a lot of soap opera to those teams. Billy C thought that Yaz and Reggie (who were tight) got away with too much. When Fisk was a rookie--1972--he called out the unnamed "leaders" of the team who were not focused on winning. Fisk got a LOT of great press out of the fact that he was essentially making himself the leader of the team as a rookie.

Reggie asked to be traded. They got Wise and Segui for him, both good pitchers who pitched well here. But Reggie had several All-Star level seasons after he left.

Edited by LahoudOrBillyC, 23 April 2012 - 10:58 AM.

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

Billy was gone from the team before the 1972 season, whereas Reggie played through the 1973 season with Boston. Reggie was surrounded with some controversy while in Boston, but I thought it was mostly, or all about Dick Williams, manager. Wiliams said some stuff about some players (familiar?), maybe one of them being Reggie Smith. "All star from the neck down", or was that about Yaz? Pre-internet, it was hard to get much info. Of course, Wiliams was gone from the Sox well before Reggie also. I don't remember any controversy about Reggie after his leaving Boston. Good teammate, good coach, all that.

Eddie Stanky, managing the White Sox, said that about Yaz.

[LahoudOrBillyC]

For those of you who might be interested in this sort of thing, many of the players who came out on the field (who might be unfamiliar to you) have detailed biographies at the Baseball Biography Project site. We have about 1900 bios (there have been 18,000 major leaguers) but there is a pretty heavy Red Sox bias since we have a couple of very prolific biographers who love the Red Sox. Anyway, a few of interest:

Harley Hisner: http://sabr.org/biop...person/af17e7b4

Lou Lucier: http://sabr.org/biop...person/ae37da99

Pesky: http://sabr.org/biop...person/23baaef3

Doerr: http://sabr.org/sear...lr_search/doerr

Reggie Smith: http://sabr.org/biop...person/29bb796b

The home page is here: http://sabr.org/bioproject

[LahoudOrBillyC]

I loved this ceremony, and wish I had been there or that there was a more elaborate introduction for each player. I could not ID many of the people from the video, as it has been so long. I loved watching the players greet each other, because there is a silly need that they are all happy and that they all like each other and have the warm feelings about their time together that I have. When I saw Joe Azcue and Tom Satriano chatting it up, I thought, "wait, you guys were traded for each other!"

Here is an interesting shot from Boggs26's wonderful collection. It shows Tommy Harper laughing at something Billy Conigliaro said to him. (In prior shots, Billy is covering his eyes, as if to say, "who is this man in front of me?") Whatever he said, Reggie is laughing. Billy C was traded in the deal that landed Harper. Billy C did not like Reggie (or Yaz) at the time, because he thought they got his brother traded. Whatever, they are all happy now.

[Al Zarilla]

Eddie Stanky, managing the White Sox, said that about Yaz.

Thanks. I thought Williams said that, but I had already moved to Cal., so hard to get stuff like that except through rumors or relatives still back East. Thanks to LahoudorBillyC also for the clarifications.

I was lucky to have lived in Boston in 1967 and attended 10 games at Fenway that magical year! Always remember, the first 4 games were losses, but the last 6 were wins. Thanks to all on this thread for the pix and words.

[LahoudOrBillyC]

Another cool picture (for me). In the center Carmen Fanzone (who later became an accomplished professional jazz musician) has his arm around Frank Malzone. He calls over Syd O'Brien to shake his hand, and Malzone has a look on his face like "oh, lord, I remember you... how the hell have you been?"

As Fanzone and O'Brien were both third base prospects in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and Malzone was the team's infield instructor, I suspect Malzone hit each of them about a million ground balls in those years. And here they are all are.

[LoweTek]

Lahoud, thanks so much for posting the bio links. Hisner's story is an interesting one. Looks like he was called up about two weeks before his start so he had in fact been on the field at Fenway five or six times before. The '51 RS were as many as 31 games over .500 as late as September 17th and were still 2.5 games back. Approximately the time Hinser was called up, they proceeded to lose 12 of their next 13 to fall far out of contention. I guess Hisner didn't bring them much luck.

[OttoC]

...The '51 RS were as many as 31 games over .500 as late as September 17th and were still 2.5 games back....

Being 31 games over only got them to third place.

[Zomp]

Watching it again, is every song from the field of dreams soundtrack? Or are there different ones?

[trekfan55]

Watching it again, is every song from the field of dreams soundtrack? Or are there different ones?

I recognized The Natural too.

[tims4wins]

And, ummmmm, Jurassic Park

[trekfan55]

And, ummmmm, Jurassic Park

Yes. Sorry. Even my wife recognized that one.

[JMDurron]

And, ummmmm, Jurassic Park

I know it was a John Williams thing and it's nice enough music, but it seemed like the camera was always on the older players while that music was playing. It was a slightly odd choice while several of the old timers were being helped onto the field.