Remembering when an Impossible Dream was forged at Fenway Park

Fifty-three years ago today, the Boston Red Sox franchise was transformed when the Sox beat the Minnesota Twins 5-3 to clinch a tie for the American League pennant in the next-to-last season before baseball started its playoff system and created divisions. (In 1967, there were 10 teams in both the American and National leagues, with the two pennant-winners meeting in the World Series.)

Later on Sunday, Oct. 1, 1967, the California Angels --- who were at one time in the thick of what had been a five-team pennant race  also involving the Twins, Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox besides the Red Sox --- beat the Tigers in the second game of a doubleheader to make the Red Sox American League champions.
The Red Sox winning the American League pennant after 21 years of futility, mediocrity and several losing seasons completed the team’s Impossible Dream season of a team that in 1966 had finished in ninth place, barely out of the cellar, and before spring training in 1967 had been dubbed 100-1 shots to win the pennant.
Especially following this extremely disappointing 2020 season in which there were no fans at games because of the coronavirus pandemic, and in which the Sox finished 24-36 and last in the American League East for the fifth time in the last nine years, I thought it’d be fun to share this column, which was originally published March 8, 2017, in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA.
Enjoy.

IMPOSSIBLE DREAM COLUMN FROM MARCH 8, 2017

(To honor the 50-year anniversary of “The Impossible Dream” team, this is a letter from my 64-year-old self in 2017 to the 14-year-old Red Sox fan in 1967. I turned 15 in August, in time for the stretch run.)

The year is 2017. I’m all grown up, but I’ve never forgotten what you’re about to experience: the most magical, pivotal year of the Red Sox franchise up to that time.
The memories have kept me going and make me feel young, even though I’m feeling my age lately.  But you’re a baseball-loving teenager, thanks to Dad, who took you to Fenway Park for the first time in 1957. There was a thunderstorm, and you cried, the first of many times that the Sox made you shed tears. Now, you might wonder why the Sox will do well after finishing a half-game out of last place in 1966, but this year will be different.
For starters, though it’s become legend in the decades that followed, you probably missed hearing manager Dick Williams promising in spring training that the Red Sox, 100-1 shots to win the American League pennant, “will win more than we’ll lose.”
But they will do that, and from going to games with Ike and listening to them on the radio with Ken Coleman and Ned Martin., I want you to savor every moment, because the season will change the franchise. People will start caring about the team again, and in the days when what we now call the New England Patriots are the vagabonds of the AFL, the Red Sox will be the talk of Boston’s sports world. In the end, the season will be dubbed “The Impossible Dream,” and even though some cynics maintain that (spoiler alert), the Sox failed to win the World Series, the fact they won the pennant after an improbable race – five teams battling most of the year, four into September and three on the final weekend (1967 was the next to last year without divisions and playoffs) -- will make it an historic year.
You’ll enjoy the entire ride, but pay attention to these highlights:
* April 14, the no-hit bid: You’ll be shooting hoops by yourself in the backyard of your Dorchester apartment house, when the Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium becomes interesting when “the kid pitcher from Toronto knocked on the door of fame.” You’ll  hang on to every word out of the small transistor and you’ll never forget the call when Yaz “dives and makes a tremendous catch” to preserve rookie southpaw Billy Rohr’s no-hitter until catcher Elston Howard (“the man who broke our hearts in April, lifted them in September”) busts it up.
July: The Red Sox will come home to Logan Airport riding a 10-game winning streak, and a crowd of thousands will greet them.
* Aug. 18, the beaning of Tony Conigliaro: This balmy Friday night, the Red Sox will start a four-game series with the California Angels, and you’ll be in reserved seats on the first-base side when the thud of Jack Hamilton’s ball hitting Tony C’s helmet silences a sold-out crowd at Fenway. Tony C will be done for the year, but the Red Sox will just be getting started.
* Aug. 20, the comeback: You’ll listen to a doubleheader at the beach on the Cape, but you won’t believe what you’re hearing. Trailing 8-0, the Sox will roar back to win 9-8 on a homer by Jerry Adair, who will be one of the many smart utility pickups by General Manager Dick O’Connell.
* Aug. 27, the throw: Jose Tartabull will pull off what could be called the “immaculate double play.” The Sox will be up 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth at Comiskey Park with one out against the White Sox when Duane Josephson hits a fly to shallow right, which should have been a sacrifice fly to tie the game. But Tartabull, who had a weak arm, will throw a bullet to catcher Elston Howard, who will block the plate and tag Ken Berry out to preserve the win.
Summer-long traffic jams: There will be jams every time the Sox have men on and cars approach the Sumner and Callahan tunnels. The Red Sox are hot – but no one is hotter than Carl Yastrzemski, “the man they call Yaz.” His defense and his timely offense are otherworldly.
* Sept. 30 and Oct. 1: I won’t spoil it, but make no plans for the last two games against the Minnesota Twins. You’ll never forget them the rest of your life.
* World Series: It will be one of the most enjoyable World Series that the Sox have lost.
* Bottom line: Relish the season; you’ll keep it close to your heart your whole life.