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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO ... October 12, 1967 ... The Red Sox woke up from the "Impossible Dream" and the reality was that Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals were the champions of baseball. It happened with a dominating 7 to 2 victory at Fenway Park. The dream grew day by day as the Red Sox kept coming back to post win after win, starting in April. It lasted through the frantic days of the pennant race, right down to the seventh game of the World Series. And what a beautiful dream it was. The Red Sox had waited 21 years to avenge the defeat at the hands of the Cardinals in 1946. They will have to wait longer.
Bob Gibson and Jim Lonborg each had two wins, but the difference was that Gibson had an extra day of rest. Gibson gave up only three hits in the game and Lonborg was knocked out after six innings, when he was tagged for 10 base hits, including a home run by Gibson himself and a three run homer by Julian Javier. Gibson gave up only one hit in the first seven innings, a line drive triple by George Scott in the fifth. The ball got by Curt Flood and bounced around the triangle at the 420 foot mark. Javier got the relay throw, but threw it into the Cardinals dugout allowing Scott to score. The Red Sox final run came in the eighth-inning. Rico Petrocelli doubled to start and went to third on a wild pitch. He scored on an infield out by Norm Siebern. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching Gibson work the Red Sox hitters over, inside and out, and up and down. While Gibson was silencing the Red Sox batters, Lou Brock spent the afternoon running around the bases. He had stole three bases in the game, two in the fifth inning and a third in the ninth, setting a World Series record with seven stolen bases. Lonborg warmed up in the bullpen before the game and said he felt great, making it through the first and second innings and just giving up one base hit each inning. But in the third inning, Dell Maxvill opened with a triple. His hit landed three quarters of the way up the centerfield wall. After the next two batters were retired, Flood hit a soft line single to center to score Maxvill with the first run of the game. Roger Maris then hit a hard grounder that got by George Scott for a base hit. It moved Flood over to third-base and he scored when Lonborg had a hard curve get away from him and bounce in front of the plate. In the fifth inning after one was out, Gibson smashed a ball to the right of the flagpole, that bounced into the bleachers, making it 3 to 0. Brock walked and stole second, waited until the count was 3-0 on Flood and then took off for third. Elston Howard bobbled the ball slightly and Brock had the base stolen. When Maris lined out to right-field, Brock trotted home with the fourth Cardinal run.
There was movement in the Red Sox bullpen in the sixth when Tim McCarver led off the inning with a double. Mike Shannon hit a hard one hopper down to Joe Foy at third, that handcuffed him and went for an error. Javier was next to come to bat and with a 1-2 count, he hit a deep fly ball into the left-field net for a three run homer. When Lonborg walked off the mound for the last time, tears were running down his face. The capacity crowd stood and gave their fallen hero a standing ovation. José Santiago pitched the seventh and eighth innings in fine fashion, but in the ninth Dave Morehead was on the mound. After striking out Gibson, he walked Brock. Brock stole second and Morehead issued two more walks to Flood and Maris, bringing on Dan Osinski. Osinski got Cepeda on a pop fly and Ken Brett came in to face McCarver, who grounded out. That brought some mild applause from the Red Sox faithful. But the real noise started when Yastrzemski came to bat in the ninth. The 35,188 fans showed no disgruntlement and Yaz received a standing ovation for everything he had done all season. He responded with a base hit to right-field. But Ken Harrelson and Yaz were erased on a doubleplay and George Scott went down swinging to end the Red Sox dream. The loss of the game may be pinned on Dick Williams for not going to his bullpen soon enough, but the loss is better pinned on circumstance, the hard pennant drive, and the lack of rest for Lonborg down the stretch. |
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