1958 BOSTON RED SOX ...

This was Tom Yawkey's 25th year owning the club, and in 1958, Red Sox once again were in no position to ever threaten the Yankees. They acquired Pete Runnels, from the Washington Senators, to play second base on January 23rd for Norm Zauchin and Albie Pearson. Batting in front of Ted Williams, Runnels got to see a lot of good pitches and he challenged Ted all year long for the batting crown.

When the new year started, Will Harridge stepped down as president of the American League. At the end of January, Joe Cronin was hired to be his successor. To replace him as the general manager of the Red Sox, was Bucky Harris.

Under Cronin the Sox failed to generate a strong farm system, relying on trades for high-priced players who didn't pan out. He also did not pursue the growing wave of young black ballplayers entering the league. Unfortunatly, even with having the huge reserve of Tom Yawkey's money, the Red Sox had drifted toward the bottom of the American League under the poor leadership of Joe Cronin.

After what he accomplished the year before, Ted Williams became bulletproof. The Associated Press named him 1957's Male Athlete of the Year. Even though he was ill-mannered and self-centered, what he had accomplished amazed everyone. Now he was considered a principled non-conformist, who was willing to take the unpopular position and stand up for what he believed. On February 6th, Ted signed his contract for $125,00 with $65,000 in deferred payments.

MLB had now mandated the use of batting helmets or protect gear for the head. Ted refused to obey the new mandate but later would insert a plastic piece into his hat.

While fishing in Maine, Ted slipped on a rock and reported to spring training with a twisted ankle. He then missed opening day because he had some bad seafood and was suffering from food poisoning.

On opening day in Washington, the Sox put their 17th different infield, in the last 25 years on the field. They'd started 19 different right fielders, 15 thirdbasemen, 14 shortstops and firstbasemen, 13 catchers, 10 secondbasemen and nine centerfielders. The Sox lost 5 to 2.

April 14th was the season opener at Fenway Park and the Sox hosted the Yankees. Willard Nixon dueled Don Larsen in a scoreless deadlock for six innings, until Yogi Berra broke it up with a two-run homer and the Yanks won, 3-0. The next day, April 15th, Dave Sisler threw a six-hitter at the Yanks and won, 3 to 1. In the series finale on April 16th, Jackie Jensen launched his third homer of the season over the left field nets in the ninth inning, to keep the Yanks from shutting out the Sox in 3-1 rubber game which the Yanks won.

The Sox left town and lost two in Washington and two in New York, before taking two from Baltimore back at Fenway. On April 26th, Jensen's eighth inning single tied the game. Then in the tenth inning, with the bases loaded, Dick Gernert lined a single to left for a 4-3 walk-off win.

The only real bright spot in April for the 4-10 Red Sox, happened on the last day of the month. On April 30th, Ted Williams collected his 1000th extra base hit, a ninth inning homer against the Athletics, but the Sox lost 11-4.

On May 1st, the Sox were frustrated by leaving 11 runners on bases and leaving the bases loaded three times. Then in the ninth inning they came thru by scoring the tying run, before Jimmy Piersall ended it with a walk-off double high off the wall, for a 7 to 6 win over the Kansas City As.

Dave Sisler next shut out the visiting Tigers on May 2nd, 6 to 0, on seven scattered hits.

After losing a close first game of a doubleheader, 2 to 1, there was never a more unusual pitching duel in the second game. Frank Baumann bested the veteran Hoyt Wilhem, in a 12 inning battle that Baumann won, giving his Sox a split with the Indians, on May 4th.  Tied at 1-1, into the 12th inning the game went and Gene Stephens legged out a drag bunt to lead off. Billy Consolo forced him at second and went to second on a wild pitch. Then Frank Malzone lined a single, bringing Consolo home with the game winning run, 2-1.

On May 6th, the Sox scored three runs right off the bat on a walk to Ted Williams and back-to-back homers by Malzone and Dick Gernert, for a 7 to 5 decision over the White Sox at Fenway.

LEFTY GROVE, JIMMIE FOXX AND JOE CRONIN

Malzone's bat was hot. He was batting .192 on April 27th and in over the next seven games, he knocked out 16 hits in 37 at-bats for .432 average with nine RBIs and was batting .296 overall.

Dave Sisler won his fourth straight on May 9th, by beating the Orioles 13-5 on May 9th. He banged out a pair of hits himself, driving in a run and Jimmy Piersall had three hits, including a double and three RBIs.

The Red Sox then lost four straight to fall 6 1/2 games into seventh place. But then they got hot, winning nine of their next eleven, moving up to second place, but falling even further behind the Yankees, now by nine games.

Pete Runnels, Dick Gernert and Jackie Jensen each collected three hits on May 13th in Washington. Runnels doubled and tripled and Jensen brought in five of the Sox runs in the 9-6 win.

Don Buddin's three-run homer gave the Sox a come-from-behind 7 to 4 win, in the afternoon game of a doubleheader, with the Orioles, at Fenway on May 17th.

One of the season's highlights came on May 18th when the Boston Sports Lodge (a unit of the B'nai B'rith Jewish service organization) presented the 25 outstanding Red Sox players of Tom Yawkey's first 25 years of ownership. As part of the festivities, the selected players took batting practice and fielded in front of the crowd before the regularly-scheduled Red Sox game against the Orioles. In the game that day, Jackie Jensen banged out a home run and three singles in an 8-4 Sox win.

Ted Williams however was in a slump and was batting only .225, for the worst start of his career. But at the start of a road trip in Cleveland, on May 20th, he helped the Sox beat the Indians, 6-1, with only his 4th home run of the season.

On May 21st, Jensen clubbed a low liner over the fence in Cleveland to tie up a game in the ninth inning, which the Sox lost in the bottom of the ninth.

On May 22nd, Ted hit the 16th grandslam homer of his career in Kansas City. It carried the Sox to an 8 to 5 win. The next day he went 4-for-4 with a double and a homer as the Sox won 9-1 over the A's.  Billy Klaus was the Sox hero in the series finale on May 24th. The Sox were tied with the Athletics in the ninth inning, with Jackie Jensen on second. Klaus' clean single brought him in for a 5 to 4 victory.

Frank Sullivan spun a 2-0, two hit shutout in Baltimore on May 30th, supported by a two-run homer off the bat of Frank Malzone.

Starting the month the Red Sox were 10 games out and in 5th place. Their game on June 4th against the Indians showed the Sox problems in microcosm. They blew a 3-0 lead, heaved a couple of wild throws into their dugout, forgot to back-up the plate and lost 7-5. Since winning three straight against the A's, the Sox had lost 7-of-10. They won four and lost nine by one run. They won six and lost seven by two runs. Pitchers were not holding leads and the hitters were not coming through with runners on base in the late innings.

The the Red Sox won nine of their next 11 games. On June 5th, the Sox won in an unusual way. With the score tied in the eighth inning at Fenway, Jackie Jensen hit a fly ball toward the "Pesky Pole". Dick Gernert was on second base and Gene Stephens was on third. Rightfielder Rocky Colavito raced toward the ball, extended his arm and caught the ball in foul territory against the wall. He spun around and fired toward the plate because Stephens had tagged up and took off. Because Colavito was off-balance the throw was weak enough for Stephens to score the eventual game winning. Sammy White next singled home Gernert for a 5 to 3 win.

Then sparked by Frank Malzone's leadoff homer, the Sox beat the White Sox, 3-2 on June 6th. The next day, with the bases loaded and the Sox down 5-4, Lou Berberet hit a wind-checked sinking liner to center that bounced away from the centerfielder and the Sox won, 7 to 6.

On June 8th, in the first game of a doublehreader, the Red Sox unleashed a barrage of homers, to come from behind and defeat the Chicago White Sox, 6-5, in extra innings. Down a run in the 10th inning, Jackie Jensen slugged a two-run homer, his second of the game, to decide the opener. The Sox then won, 4-1, in the second game of a doubleheader.

On June 9th, both Jensen and Malzone each banged out three hits in a 9-4 victory over the Tigers. Jensen homered again and drove home four runs. Then Jensen's eighth inning homer sealed the deal on June 12th, as the Sox beat the Tigers, 4 to 2.

Jensen was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in June, under the headline “Wheel Horse of the Red Sox,” but much of the story focused on Jensen’s frustrations with the life of a ballplayer.

The Sox put up their seventh win in their last 10 games on June 14th, by beating the Athletics, 7 to 1. In the last three games, Dave Sisler, Tom Brewer and Frank Sullivan had allowed only six runs in total. Malzone had knocked out 15 hits in his last 21 trips.

This streak put the Sox in second place, but eight games behind the Yankees. The Sox then lost seven of their next eight and on June 22nd were back in fourth place, ten games out.

Ted Williams homered after a 20 year absence, to put the Sox out front, but Pumpsie Green was the star in an exhibition game between the Sox and the Minneapolis Millers, the Sox AAA club on June 16th. Pumpsie's bases loaded triple brought the Millers from behind and ahead to stay, 14-10.

On June 17th, the Sox hit five homers, good for 36 bases. Rookie Marty Keough started by clouting his first major league homer into the right field upper deck at Comiskey Park, as one his three hits. Don Buddin, Jackie Jensen, Frank Malzone and then Ted all followed with four-baggers, giving the Red Sox a 13-9 decision.

Jensen slugged his 18th homer to break a 1-1 deadlock in Kansas City on June 20th, but the A's bounced back to win. The next day Jensen slugged another in another loss.

Ike Delock held the Cleveland Indians to just five hits, striking out 12 batters on June 26th. The Sox won the game in Cleveland, 2 to 1, thanks to Delock's solid pitching and Ted's ninth inning homer. Ted homered again the next night and again on two nights later.

In Detroit on June 28th, Jackie Jensen slammed two homers in a game the Sox won, 6-5, in 12 innings. Then in the next game, on June 29th, Jensen slammed a ball off the facade of the upper deck of Briggs Stadium. Not to be outdone, Ted Williams hit one on the right field roof and the Sox won again 10 to 7.

For the month, Jensen hit 14 homers and was batting .300, while Ted was now also hitting .300, up from .264 at the beginning of the month and up from .194 on May 1st.

July started, the Sox returned home and the homer binge continued in a 10-5 win over Washington. It was Williams and Jensen who homered again, with the fifth one for Jackie and the fourth for Ted in the last five games.

The next day, with the Sox down 5 to 1 going into the ninth inning, Ted smashed a two-run homer 15 rows up into the centerfield seats, but that was it. The Sox lost 5-3.

In the first game of the July 4th doubleheader, Jensen slugged a tie-breaking double and the Sox won 5-1, on a neat five-hitter by Frank Sullivan.

Jackie Jensen (.311 BA) won the starting spot for the American League All Stars in right field, along with Frank Malzone (.304 BA) who won the starting job at third base. Ted's numbers were not enough to make the starting AL All Star team, but he was named as a reserve by Casey Stengel.

The three Sox all stars combined to beat the Yankees in New York 10 to 4 on July 6th. Undefeated Ike Delock (7-0) was given a comfortable lead, as Malzone, Williams and Jensen accounted for eight hits. Malzone and Jensen knocked in three runs each while Ted (.314 BA) thumped his 14th homer into the right field upper deck, his third hit of the day.

In Washington, the All Star Game was won by the American League, 4 to 3. The National League were limited to four hits, all singles. Jackie Jensen grounded out in the fifth inning, but it allowed Mickey Vernon to come across with the run that tied the game at 1-1. Then Gil MacDougald hit a bloop single into right field to score Malzone, who had opened the sixth inning with a single, with the second and deciding run.

The Sox came back after the break and beat and the White Sox, 11 to 2. Gene Stephens was the star, hitting a double and a two-run homer, and also made a great defensive play in left field that cut down a run.

JENSEN HOMERS

Jensen (.319 BA, 76 RBIs) continued his great season the next game on July 11th, by hitting his 26th homer and drove in four runs, as the Sox beat Chicago, 6 to 1. Stephens also banged out a triple and a double.

After two errors led to seven unearned runs in the July 13th, against Cleveland, the “Fenway Park wolves” got on Don Buddin so badly that Mike Higgins had almost no choice but to bench him.

The Sox then put together a six game winning streak at Fenway, from July 14th thru July 19th. The first game was won on a bases loaded walk to Ted Lepcio in the 10th inning for a 4 to 3 decision. The next game was won on Jackie Jensen's three-run homer against the A's, winning 5 to 2. Jensen and Billy Consolo sparked a come-from-behind four run surge that gave Ike Delock his ninth win on July 16th, also 5 to 2.

On July 18th, in the debut of pitcher Bill Monbouquette, Pete Runnels collected five hits while Frank Malzone hit a tie-breaking grandslam homer, that gave Red Sox another come-from-behind victory, 11 to 9. Runnels put together five hits to take over the American League batting leadership with a .334 BA. He banged out three doubles and two singles in six times up.

With the Red Sox one run behind in the 12th inning, Ted Williams blasted a two-run homer into the right field grandstand, to give the Sox a 7 to 6 victory over the Tigers on July 19th.

The Sox and Tigers finished their series at Fenway with a doubleheader on July 20th. Jim Bunning threw a no-hitter in the first game, beating the Sox 3-0 and striking out 12 batters. He became the third visiting pitcher to do so at Fenway Park. Walter Johnson did it in 1920, Ted Lyons in 1926, and George Mogridge threw one in 1917, but allowed a run. The fact that Ike Delock stayed undefeated, beating the Tigers, 5-2, winning his tenth game, in the nitecap was anti-climactic.

The Sox went on the road to visit the midwest cities at the end of July. In Detroit on July 28th, Pete Runnels was the star. Runnels had three hits an upped his batting average to .328 while Ted, who went hitless, was hitting to .304. Jackie Jensen was hitting .307, leading the league with 29 homers and 89 RBIs.

After losing 10 of the 12 games on the trip the press was calling for manager, Mike Higgins, to be removed. But the Sox then swept a doubleheader in Cleveland, on Labor Day, to salvage a piece of the trip. Ted Williams knocked out a two-run homer into the upper deck of Municipal Stadium, in the ninth inning, to give the Sox a 3-2 victory. In the second game, the Sox also won 4 to 2. Pete Runnels slashed a two-run double that tied the game and scored, what proved to be the winning run, on Marty Keough's single. Runnels got three hits in six trips during the doubleheader.

The Sox returned to Fenway in second place, 16 games behind the Yankees. Five teams trailed within three games of the Red Sox. Only the last place Washington Senators were far behind, and it was the Senators that the Sox took three straight from, when they came home.

In the first game of the series on August 5th, Bill Monbouquette won his first major league game, 7 to 1. In the second game, the Sox blasted their way to an 8-2 victory over Washington. Pete Runnels got three hits, including a triple, while Malzone and Jensen knocked out homers.

Tom Brewer threw a complete game three-hitter in the next game against the Senators on August 6th. In the finale against Washington, on August 7th, the Sox won 8 to 4. Ted homered, Malzone had three hits and Runnels had two and was now hitting .335.

Next, in Yankee Stadium on August 9th, the Sox beat up the Yankees, 9 to 6. It was "Old Timers" day and Hall-of-famer George Sisler watched his son, Dave, keep the Yanks quiet for five innings. Pete Runnels and Jackie Jensen doubled, and Frank Malzone had three hits including a homer.

When the Yankees came to Fenway, Runnels slugged a two run homer in the first inning that was good enough to put the Sox on top of the Yanks, 6 to 2, on August 15th. In the next game, Runnels had two more hits as the Sox won, 7 to 4. in the final game, Ike Delock was breezing along winning 6-2. Jensen had singled home two runs and Ted was 4-for-4 with an RBI double. But the Yankees came back and Delock held on for a 6 to 5 win. That was three straight wins over New York. Their A.L. lead was 13 1/2 games however.

PETE RUNNELS & TED

Pete Runnels was leading the league, batting .330. But Ted Williams was hot, had boosted his average to .316 and was hitting .433 over the past two weeks.

Dick Gernert homered on August 21st, to lead the Sox over the Indians, 8 to 6. It was his third home run in the last five games.

Frank Malzone powered the Sox to a 4-3 win over the Indians at Fenway on August 22nd.  It gave Ike Delock his 12th win of the season. Malzone powered a homer in the fourth inning and drove home Runnels, who had doubled, with the winning run in the eighth inning.

Jackie Jensen singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning to back up the brilliant relief job by Murray Wall on August 24th. It gave the Red Sox a sweep of the doubleheader with the Kansas City Athletics. Wall allowed only one runner to reach base in 7 2/3 innings of sharp relief and retired the last 14 batters to pick up his seventh win.

Pete Daley (.455 BA) was the star when Baltimore visited Fenway on August 29th. He cracked a triple and a three-run homer to knock in four of the five runs the Sox scored in a 5 to 2 win. Daley had a winning percentage of .600 in the games he started as the catcher. In the next game, Daley had three hits, but the Sox lost to the Orioles.

The Sox ended August and their homestand with a 10-6 record, good for 3rd place, two games behind the White Sox and 12 1/2 games behind New York. Pete Runnels had a 10 game hitting streak snapped. Then he went 0-14, saw his batting average slip to .321, now behind Harvey Kuenn (.325 BA) in the A.L. batting race.

The Sox started September by losing three-of-four in New York, but the won three-of-four in Baltimore. On September 4th, the Sox beat the Orioles, 5 to 2. The win was propelled by Runnels, who broke out of a slump by doubling home the tying run in the fifth inning and singled in the winning run in the seventh.

The Sox walloped the Orioles, 10-2 on September 5th. Dick Gernert banged out four hits  and Jimmy Piersall had three. On September 7th, Runnels (.323 BA) had a two-run homer and a single, to regain the batting lead. The Sox won the game in the 10th inning, 6 to 5 when Frank Malzone doubled home Don Buddin.

The Sox continued the trip in Chicago and lost all three games. On September 9th, Ted Williams, who had been out for two weeks with a the flu, came back and laced out two hits in his first two times at bat. He hoisted his batting average up to .318 and was only three points behind the league leader, Pete Runnels (.321 BA). Two hits on September 11th pushed Ted's average up to .320, putting him into a tie with Runnels.

In Cleveland the Red Sox lost two, two in Detroit and two of three in Kansas City. With only so-so pitching, the Sox were eliminated from the pennant race, having won only five games and lost thirteen.

But the batting race grew tighter and tighter. On September 16th, Runnels still held the lead with a .319 BA. Ted stood at .316 as was Bob Cerv of the A's. Vic Power (Indians) and Harvey Kuenn (Tigers) were batting .315 Jensen and Malzone had slumped. Jensen's batting average went from .309 to .288. Malzone started at .306 and finished the trip batting .292.

At Fenway Park, the Sox Tom Brewer shutout the Senators, 2-0 on September 19th. Runnels knocked out two hits and Ted was walked twice. The next day Frank Sullivan shut out Washington, also by a 2-0 score. Jensen delivered the winning runs in the eight inning, brining his RBI total to 118.

TED'S TANTRUM

On September 21st, Ted Williams' temper again put him in serious trouble. Ted was in the middle of a 0-7 slump and made an out in his first plate appearance. He was called out on strikes his second time up. He became so upset that he flung his bat toward the Red Sox dugout, but because of the pine tar on it, he had lost control and the bat sailed seventy five feet into the box seats, striking a sixty year old fan. Gladys Heffernan, who was Joe Cronin's housekeeper, was struck on the side of her head and bleeding. A big fan of Ted's, she was taken off the field to the first aid room and was escorted by the visibly shaken Williams.

When the Sox retook the field, Ted was still in the Sox dugout in tears. When he finally pulled himself together and took his left field position, the boos rained down on upon him. Ted later gave Mrs Heffernan a $500 watch as an apology.

But as far as the batting contest went, Ted ripped a double his next time up after the incident, to boost his average up to .314. Runnels had a three-for-three day and was hitting .323.

With six games left, Runnels put on a spurt, but Ted was hitting .403 over his last 55 games of the season.  On September 23rd, against the Yankees, Ted (.317 BA) hit a two-run homer that tied the score. Then he doubled in the eighth, and Jensen followed with a single, to score the game winner, 9 to 8. Runnels (.325 BA) banged out two hits in four trips.

Three Sox errors gave the Yankees a 7-5 win in the final game at Fenway on September 24th. Ted (.320 BA) doubled and singled in three times up. Pete Runnels (.324 BA) was 1-for-4.

The Sox traveled to Washington to finish the season with four games. They swept a doubleheader from the Nats on September 26th. Ted had two hits in three trips in the first game, including his 24th homer but sat out the second game. Runnels was 0-4 in the opener and knocked out two hits in five at bats in the second game. They were both tied, batting .322 at days end.

In the third game, Runnels tripled the first time up while Ted walked. The next time up, they both singled. In their next at bats, both homered. Unfortunately, that home run was Runnels' last hit of the season and they entered the final game, with Ted leading Runnels by three points, .327 to .324.

In the last game of the season, Ted popped in a double and slugged a home run, while Runnels went 0-for-4.

And so, Ted Williams won his sixth and final batting title, going 7-for-11 in the final series, finishing with a .328 BA, while Pete Runnels went 5-for-19, finishing the season batting .322. Runnels always regarded that batting race as the highlight of his career.

The Red Sox had the best home record (49-28) in the league but couldn't win away from Fenway Park. 

Jackie Jensen had his best baseball season in 1958. He slugged a career-high 35 home runs, drove in a league-leading 122 runs, and hit .286. Over the last five years, Jensen had amassed more RBIs than any active player in the American League. After the season he was named the league’s Most Valuable Player, receiving nine of 24 first-place votes to beat out Bob Turley and Rocky Colavito.

Frank Malzone was another offensive threat, batting .295 and did a great job of fielding at third base. Starting in 1958, each league awarded a Gold Glove and Malzone won for thirdbasemen.

Jimmy Piersall suffered through his worst season, hitting just .237 with eight home runs, as he battled a rib cage injury suffered when Tigers infielder Billy Martin landed on him after a slide at second base. He did win the Gold Glove award for centerfield.

Sammy White doubled his home run output to six and improved his batting average to .259, and he raised his slugging percentage by over 100 points to finish at .378. And no one ever questioned his value to the Red Sox pitching staff.

When the 1958 season began, Dick Gernert was once again involved in a struggle for a position. During spring training, the left-handed hitting Pete Runnels alternated at first with the right-handed Gernert. Runnels started the season at first and played 42 games at that position before Mike Higgins decided to move Runnels to second. Gernert played 114 games at first base that year and was able to show that he was more than a one-dimensional player by leading American League first basemen in several defensive categories including putouts (1,101), assists (93), and double plays (118). His power numbers were better and he finished the season with 20 home runs.

The Red Sox, reaped large dividends from Pete Runnels. Though he was not known to cover an immense amount of territory, he played all four infield positions for the Sox. Runnels batted second in the lineup, a table-setter for Ted. Under Ted’s tutelage, he waited for better pitches and started hitting to the opposite field, off the wall in left. Runnels came in second place to Ted with a .322 BA. But any sense of deflation was short-lived, as he was named the A.L. "Comeback Player of the Year".

Don Buddin’s too-frequent errors gave birth to the reputation that besmirched him. It is worth noting, though, that in 1958 he led the league in double plays. Buddin was distinctly better than average among shortstops offensively. Coming back after his time in the Army, he got off to a terrific start and led all American League shortstops with a .717 OPS (on-base average plus slugging).

Even with a great offense, the Sox pitchers were average at best. Only three pitchers won ten games. Ike Delock, who shuttled between starting and the bullpen, won 14 games, Delock did win 13 consecutive games, going back to 1957, until he was defeated by the White Sox in July. In spite of dropping five straight decision at the end of the season, Boston's baseball writers named Delock, the Sox "Pitcher of the Year".

Frank Sullivan won 13 and Tom Brewer had 12 wins. Sullivan had 10 complete games and tied Brewer for the team lead in that category. It was Sullivan's fifth straight season of double-digit win totals for the Red Sox.

A case of the mumps before spring training and a broken finger on Tom Brewer's pitching hand before one spring game, seemed to have lingering effects on him. He had a 3-6 record by the All-Star break, before finally getting going. He then went 6-0 over the course of seven starts.

When 1958 opened, Willard Nixon had the longest tenure with the Red Sox of any player other than Ted Williams. On July 4th, he lasted 2 1/3 innings because his arm troubles had returned. It was little consolation that he was hitting .294; it would turn out to be his last major-league game.

Ted Bowsfield's ERA for his first major-league season was 3.84 and the Boston Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America voted him Red Sox "Rookie of the Year".

Near the end of the season, Bill Monbouquette entered the United States Army and served in the 182nd Medical Unit at Camp Curtis in Mass from September 21st into July 1959, though he was able to appear in games throughout.