In the Red Sox half of the fifth, Carl Yastrzemski was in the box. As Red Sox announcer Ken Coleman stated, “the man who had broken our hearts in April, made them soar in September.” The Red Sox acquired Howard on August 4, 1967. Howard would turn things around in August when he donned a Red Sox uniform and played a crucial role on their march to their Impossible Dream pennant. Howard delivered with a double giving the Yanks a lead they would never relinquish on their way to a 7-5 win. There were two outs, two on in the top of the fifth and the Yankees were trailing 5-4. On this day he was called upon to pinch hit for shortstop John Kennedy. The second came exactly a week later at Fenway Park when Howard again singled, this time in the eighth inning knocking in the only Yankee run of the day and ruining Rohr’s bid for his second shutout in as many big league starts. His first had come on the aforementioned debut of Gibson and Rohr at Yankee Stadium for it was Howard who had singled with two outs in the bottom of the ninth spoiling Rohr’s no-hitter. For on this day he would complete his own personal troika of dagger wounds inflicted on the Red Sox in their young 1967 season. It all unraveled in the fifth inning and the chief “unraveler” was veteran Yankee catcher and 1963 MVP Elston Howard. Russ Gibson countered with a clutch two out, two run double in the bottom of the third giving Brandon and the Red Sox a comfortable 5-1 lead. Local hero, rookie Russ Gibson had caught Billy Rohr’s one hitter in their big league debuts just nine days earlier.
Bouton did not get out of the second inning and an RBI single by Mantle in the third made the score 3-1.
Yaz homered after Dalton Jones doubled giving the Red Sox a 2-0 lead.Ī George Thomas single, scored first baseman Tony Horton and after the first inning the Sox had a 3-0 lead. It was Yaz who got em going on this day when he staked the home town team to a 2-0 lead with his second, first inning homer in as many days.
The aged Mickey Mantle made a great play at first on Reggie Smith tagging him out on the first Sox play of the game. Yaz had homered in the first inning, his first of the season. The day before, the Red Sox had come from behind to take a 5-4 win sparked by a three run fifth which saw Carl Yastrzemski single with the bases loaded to plate two runs and then steal second base. The book led to Bouton being blackballed from baseball. Revealed in his 1970 book, among other things was Mickey Mantle’s propensity to consume large amounts of alcohol on a consistent basis a well-known fact within baseball’s inner circle which had protected Mickey throughout his career.
#TERANCE MANN AUTHOR PRO#
It was the ninth game of the young season and it was the sixth time the Sox and Yankees squared off against each other.ĭarrell “Bucky” Brandon was on the mound for the Sox while knuckleballer and soon to be best-selling author Jim Bouton got the call for the New Yorkers.īouton violated the sanctity of the clubhouse with the first ever “tell all” book about the inner workings of a pro baseball team.
There were 18,041 patrons who made their way to Fenway Park on this Sunday afternoon, to watch the four and four Red Sox take on the New York Yankees. A chilly day in early spring in which the low temperature was 45 and although the thermometer would not get past the 52 degree mark, a brief thunderstorm appeared. It was an unusual day in Boston 46 years ago today.