A Love Letter to the 1967 Red Sox

Al Zarilla

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Nice article TKAA. I went to 10 games at Fenway that year. The Sox lost the first four of them, but won the next six. My God, you could get great seats just walking up to a ticket window! Third base, first base, never anywhere near "squinting" territory.

I wondered, along with you, whether Killebrew's late home run would remove Yaz's triple crown. Thankfully, the rule is that he got it. That year was like the Patriots 01/02 season. You just couldn't believe the good guys were pulling it off. Damn Gibson, although I don't think I've ever respected an opposing pitcher more.
 

Saints Rest

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Did anyone else own the Impossible Dream Team record? Lots of Ken Coleman voice-overs, plus some version of "The Impossible Dream" from Man of La Mancha, plus some quirky song about "The Man They Called Yaz" (not sure if that was the song title or merely the chorus).
I used to play it a lot when I was about 7-8 years old, probably did as much for cementing my love of the Sox as anything else. I could recite pretty much the whole roster of that team, even though I only turned 1 on the day that "Pandemonium [was] on the field."
 

pk1627

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I had that record. I used it in a class presentation on the Sox.

Great article, TKAA. I hope you don't mind that I forwarded it to my wife. Might give her some further insight into this passion.
 

ToeKneeArmAss

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I had that record. I used it in a class presentation on the Sox.

Great article, TKAA. I hope you don't mind that I forwarded it to my wife. Might give her some further insight into this passion.
Of course Pete. Say hi to Christine for us. Did she mention I ran into her (literally) outside of Carnegie Hall the other night?
 

plucy

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I had that record. I used it in a class presentation on the Sox.

Great article, TKAA. I hope you don't mind that I forwarded it to my wife. Might give her some further insight into this passion.
I bought the CD several years ago.

The record disappeared when my parents belongings were distributed among the family.

And, my father played in the orchestra for the recording. He received small royalty checks for a number of years after the release.
 

jacklamabe65

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@ToeKneeArmAss - a wonderfully sagacious piece straight from the heart. Went to seven games that year including the now-legendary October 1 game against the Twins. 50 years later, and 55 years I first started following them on a pitch-by-pitch basis, 1967 remains my favorite time to be a Red Sox fan.
 

geoflin

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Great article, I enjoyed reading it. I went to over 40 games that year, sitting mostly in the bleachers which were $1 and always available. I also went to all 4 home World Series games. I had the Impossible Dream record which is long gone, I have no idea what happened to it.
There is supposed to be a 50th anniversary celebration of the team this year, players have been contacted, the last I heard it would be sometime in August but exact date not yet announced.
 

glasspusher

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Thanks, TKAA. My Red Sox awakening came when I was 13, in 1978. In early Aug, went to the completion of a game from the night before and a full game in The Toilet with my older bro, dad and uncle. Digging back a couple of months ago, I remembered the details- the sox won both games, Lynn and Rice both homered. My drunk uncle got his pocket picked on the way home and we ended up in a NYPD station until the wee hours and didn't make it home until about 7AM. I guess the rest of the circumstances cemented that night in my head as well.
 

pk1627

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Of course Pete. Say hi to Christine for us. Did she mention I ran into her (literally) outside of Carnegie Hall the other night?
She did mention running into some scruffy person of Canadian descent. Next time, give me a bit of warning when you're in the city.

What also strikes me about 67 was all three of your teams had great, great seasons. I suspect the next few years will bring a repeat.
 

richgedman'sghost

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My father will always have a special love for the 1967 Impossible Dreamers. As a college senior, he took the team's rise from worst to first as a metaphor for what he hoped would be his own rise from poverty to the American Dream. Growing up many years later, he would constantly tell me stories about how great Rico Petrocelli was. In his mind, there was no equal. Fast forward to 2007 when I find out that Rico will be at a local bookstore promoting a book. It just happened to be my father's birthday. When we went to the event, Rico was so gracious. He called my father to the front of the line and posed for a picture and talked with us for 20 minutes. It made my father's life to finally meet the star of his dreams and to find out that Rico was as nice in real life as my father imagined him to be.
 

canvass ali

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So much fun to hear other peoples' memories of the '67 season. I was eiqht and it was incredibly excitinq for my whole family...the biq moments of that season are burned into the family lore. And of course we had the record (I believe it was disc jockey Jes Cain who sanq "The man we call Yaz, we love him...").
 

LoweTek

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Thanks, Lee. It's nice to be reminded every now and then. It was an unforgettable year. Incredible comebacks seemingly every week. And the end was sweet, "Looped toward shortstop. Petrocelli under it..."

I was in a trivia contest once where Rico was the pro on the trivia team. It was funny because the question was which Twins pitcher started the second to last game in 1967? We knew it was either Kaat or Chance but Rico didn't remember! We went with Kaat, got the question right and won the contest. (Mostly because one of the guys on the team knew a later question: who made the last out in the Billy Rohr game - incredible to me at the time someone knew it).

I went to my first game that year too. It was September 1st against CHW. It was one of the first home games after Tony C. got hit. RF Ken Harrelson was a single shy of the cycle that day and became my new hero for a while.

I eventually had the privilege of meeting 9 of the 13 players who appeared in that game. It was a great thrill.

Nice work. I will always think of your Dad fondly. He was a great guy.
 

RoDaddy

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Rico was so gracious. He called my father to the front of the line and posed for a picture and talked with us for 20 minutes. It made my father's life to finally meet the star of his dreams and to find out that Rico was as nice in real life as my father imagined him to be.
Rico sure was. As kids, we used to go to the back parking lot and visitor team buses to get autographs after games. It was a big part of the game day experience. And you'd get a sense of what the players were really like. Rico stood out as one of the nicest and friendliest of all. Most players would walk to their cars without even looking up. Rico instead walked straight to the screen fence enclosure to start signing (lots of) autographs while talking and joking with the crowd. I still have his autograph, although I had to trade my George Scott one for it with a friend.

And I still have a copy of the Impossible Dream album, my favorite sports record at the time along with Johnny Most's "Havlicek stole the ball"
 

LoweTek

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I have a new, sealed copy of the Impossible Dream album and a cassette version given to me by Ken Coleman who owned the rights to the album at the time of his passing.
 

ledsox

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Really nice article. I missed that amazing season. The 1970 WS is my first real baseball memory, but I had the album and played it a lot. Just loved (who doesn't) Ned's "and it's pandemonium on the field, listen". For awhile I couldn't really understand what Coleman was yelling in his ecstatic call of the Yaz catch in the Roer game. Tremendous! Ned's Tartabull throw home call was the best. "Tartabull coming on, has a weak arm... " What a moment of many great ones. I got the lp from a cousin in Waltham who had an extra but no cover. I bought another copy at a record show about 10 years ago.
image.jpeg
 

Lose Remerswaal

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We invented a game called "Tartabull" based on that play. It was basically a 3 person game where the (1) catcher/batter would throw a fly ball to (2) outfielder, who would have to try to throw (3) runner stationed at third base out at the plate to the (1) catcher/batter.
 

fenwaypaul

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Thanks, TKAA. I never get tired of hearing stories about the '67 season and will share a few of my own.

But first, I would urge anyone here who hasn't yet read Bill Reynolds' Lost Summer: The '67 Red Sox and the Impossible Dream to seek out a copy. Highly recommended. Reynolds does a fine job of capturing the feel of that magical summer (yes, you really could walk down the street in Boston or Cambridge and follow the game by listening to the broadcast wafting from apartment windows and transistor radios).

I had just completed a year of grad school in the spring of 1967 and decided to break precedent by not returning home at the end of the academic year, instead remaining in my Cambridge apartment. I spent a few days pretending to look for a job, then devoted the rest of the summer to drinking, hanging with weirdos, chasing women, and progressing from casual to obsessive Red Sox fan. My first-ever visit to Fenway Park came in June, a win over the hapless Yankees. The second was just a few nights later: it was the game against the White Sox when with two down in the bottom of the 11th and the Red Sox trailing 1-0, Tony Conigliaro hit a two-run shot into the net above the monster. I'd never witnessed a walkoff home run before, nor had I ever experienced such a level of crowd delirium at a sporting event. I've seen at least half a dozen walkoff homers at Fenway in the 50 years since that night (including Manny's in the 2007 ALDS), but Tony C's is the one I'll always remember the most fondly.

There was a cab driver, big Sox fan, who would come into the Bick in Harvard Square every night at the end of his shift, 2 or 3 in the morning, and recap the day's baseball events. A gifted talker, he built up a modest following and held his nightly audience spellbound, the sober and the fucked-up alike.

I was in the bleachers on September 30 and October 1. As excitement built over the course of the season, the Sox decided to put bleacher tickets up for sale in advance -- previously only available on day-of-game -- and my roommate grabbed a few for the last two games, "just in case." We were part of the "pandemonium on the field" after Rico caught the popup. All the players had safely escaped to the clubhouse by the time we reached the infield, but fans were milling about, helping themselves to every imaginable sort of souvenir. Bases and pitching rubber were long gone, but I specifically remember people tearing off pieces of the green foam rubber coaching boxes.

The weather was sunny and warm, a beautiful fall day, for game 1 of the World Series. I had moved to Banks Street by then, in the shadow of Peabody Terrace (Harvard married students housing). I remember thinking it odd that the mailman, who normally arrived at about 3pm, delivered the mail at 10am that day. We decided to watch the game at Charlie's Kitchen in Harvard Square, because they had a color TV. We got there around 11:30 to make sure we'd get a spot with good TV sightlines. When we arrived, there, already seated comfortably at the bar, was our mailman.

It's hard to convey to those who didn't live through it just how crazy and wonderful that summer was.
 

ToeKneeArmAss

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@ToeKneeArmAss - a wonderfully sagacious piece straight from the heart. Went to seven games that year including the now-legendary October 1 game against the Twins. 50 years later, and 55 years I first started following them on a pitch-by-pitch basis, 1967 remains my favorite time to be a Red Sox fan.
Thanks Shaun - that means a lot coming from you. Much appreciated.
 

ToeKneeArmAss

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Thanks, Lee. It's nice to be reminded every now and then. It was an unforgettable year. Incredible comebacks seemingly every week. And the end was sweet, "Looped toward shortstop. Petrocelli under it..."

I was in a trivia contest once where Rico was the pro on the trivia team. It was funny because the question was which Twins pitcher started the second to last game in 1967? We knew it was either Kaat or Chance but Rico didn't remember! We went with Kaat, got the question right and won the contest. (Mostly because one of the guys on the team knew a later question: who made the last out in the Billy Rohr game - incredible to me at the time someone knew it).

I went to my first game that year too. It was September 1st against CHW. It was one of the first home games after Tony C. got hit. RF Ken Harrelson was a single shy of the cycle that day and became my new hero for a while.

I eventually had the privilege of meeting 9 of the 13 players who appeared in that game. It was a great thrill.

Nice work. I will always think of your Dad fondly. He was a great guy.
Just catching up - thanks so much Steve. Dad was one of the good ones. He always had a great time at camp - and pretty much anywhere else for that matter!
 

terrynever

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I watched some of the 1967 World Series on a two-day delay in the enlisted men's club at Cu Chi base camp, RVN. Knew I was missing out on some epic baseball drama.
 

scotian1

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Besides the wonderful stories and drama associated with the Red Sox that 67 season, I have another special memory associated with game 7 of the World Series that fall. Oct. 12, 1967 was Fall Convocation at the University of New Brunswick and I was a freshman watching the game at one of the residences. It was an unusually warm October day and we had the windows wide open. Robert Kennedy was being awarded an honorary degree something his brother John had received years previous. The graduates marched in a parade back then to the arena where the degrees were presented. When they passed our residence, Kennedy called out to us; "What's the score?" I replied; 7 to 1 in the 7th." He answered back with; " I guess I'm not missing much then." I will never forget my very brief moment with Senator Kennedy. It is still hard to believe he would be dead less than a year later.
 

rarob

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My grandfather had me memorize the Sox starting lineup before I knew the Lord's Prayer, so by 1967 as a 26 year-old Graduate student at B.C., I was a dyed-in-the-wool Sox fan. But the 1967 team was and will always remain my favorite. 1967, coincidentally, was the only year that I was privileged enough to attend the Opening Day game via complimentary tickets provided by George Scott to my favorite bartender. Now at 76, I can honestly say that 1967 was the pinnacle of the Sox delirium that I've enjoyed over the oh-so-many seasons of Sox ecstasy.
 

ledsox

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MLB network will be airing an hour long special on the '67 season. Looks like Yaz did a recent interview for this. It airs this Sunday, July 9 at 8 pm est.
 

bernardsamuel

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Jan 4, 2006
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Thanks for Lee's essay, for the comments so far which have all brought back fond flashes of memories, and for the alert regarding the upcoming Sunday night program. In Autumn 1967 at the age of 20, I was beginning my senior year at what was then called Bentley College of Accounting and Finance which was located across from the Prudential Center on Boylston Street, a short walk from Copley and the Library. Late in the baseball season, transistor radios were ubiquitous and even permitted in class upon occasion. Ken Harrelson really was an "us" rather than a "them" that season. Ken Brett was the youngest player on the team, and I was about thirteen months older than he was which made me a bit envious that my career hadn't yet even started.

I had been a Red Sox fan from as early as our first television, a Dumont, back in 1952, so I was accustomed to rooting for the Sox on a game-by-game basis rather than holding on to any hopes in regard to winning a pennant. It was a new experience to engage in scoreboard-watching, presuming we even could do that on a semi-current basis.

We lived in Brighton at the base of Nottinghill Road, which flows off from Wallingford, which connects to Comm Ave, so it was an easy streetcar ride to the game on the Boston College/Commonwealth line and an easy ride home on either that line or, if I felt like I wanted to walk, taking the Riverside line and getting off at Cleveland Circle. Speaking of Cleveland Circle, I don't recall if in 1967 there was yet/still some semipro league playing some games at Cleveland Circle, but those games were quite entertaining especially when a former Red Sox player was on the field (Mike Fornieles and/or Ike Delock?).

I'm not sure if there's a "message" in this note, other than I wish I would have maintained and retained a diary so that I could look back and "solidify" fractions and blurrings of memories. But again, thanks to those among my contemporaries who on this board bring back and fill in some of my blanks!