1959 BOSTON RED SOX ...

After 24 years with the Red Sox, Joe Cronin left to become the president of the American League and Bucky Harris became the new general manager. With Cronin gone, Tom Yawkey's circle of friends on the team was shrinking. He was losing interest and seriously considering selling the team. He had no black ballplayers, having lost his chance to sign many of the baseball's current stars in years past. He also didn't take advantage of the departure of the Braves at the gate, fielding only mediocre teams since they left.

Yawkey, however, blamed his flat attendance on a lack of parking at Fenway Park. He came up with a plan to move the left field wall to the other side of Lansdowne Street, add stands and an access road right into an underground parking lot directly from the newly constructed Massachusetts Turnpike. He could have accomplished everything he wanted with his own money, but the state and the city were funding other major renewal projects in Boston and Yawkey thought they should fund his project also. The politicians had no desire to give money to a millionaire owner of the Boston Red Sox.

Yawkey also decided to move the Sox spring training site from Sarasota, Florida to Scottsdale, Arizona. His rationale was to attract some of Ted Williams' fans from his hometown area in San Diego. When spring training started, Ted was not there. He reported late and if fans wanted to see him actually play, they were soon disappointed. Ted played in very few spring training games and it irritated those fans, who had traveled a great distance to see him.

Frank Malzone's goal for 1959 was to hit .300. He didn’t make it and in fact, declined to .280, although he boosted his homers up to 19 and bumped his RBI total up to 92. He played in another All-Star Game and won another Gold Glove. He started out strong, and was over .300 through almost all of May, but then cooled off just a bit and was very consistent around .280 for the rest of the season.

Over the winter, a youngster named Carl Yastrzemski signed with the Sox for a $108,000 bonus. After the first of what would be many spring training camps, Yaz was assigned to the Raleigh Caps in the Carolina League, a Class B team.

There also was another fresh face at spring training, in a kid named Pumpsie Green. Ted Williams, who stood head and shoulders above everyone else in star power, went out of his way to take Pumpsie under his wing and invited the youngster to work-out with him. But because of racism in the area, Green lived an isolated existence, having to travel to stay in Phoenix each night, some 17 miles from Scottsdale.

Williams had a frustrating year due to a pinched nerve in his neck, which made it painful for him to swing a bat. He thought it was a condition he could work out in spring training, but it didn't come around. He flew back to Boston, was hospitalized for three weeks, fitted with a neck collar and started the season on the DL.

Green was considered the top rookie in camp, but he was a middle infielder. Pete Runnels, who had battled Williams down to the very end for the batting championship the year before, was their secondbaseman. And even though the Sox had the much maligned Don Buddin, who led all shortstops with 31 errors, Mike Higgins made no secret that he hated blacks and openly told writers that none would play for him as long as he was the manager.

Green did have a great camp, batting .327 with four home runs and was good enough to head north with the team. But when the Sox played their final exhibition game on April 7th, Higgins cut him and sent him back to Minneapolis. The move outraged members of Boston's black community.

Opening day at Fenway Park was on April 14th. Picketers were outside the park and there were complaints registered by the NAACP, charging racial discrimination over the way Pumpsie was treated. To make things worse, Don Buddin was loudly booed by the fans for his many frequent errors, when he was introduced as the Sox shortstop in the opening ceremony. The box score saw the Washington Senators give the game away to the Sox 7-5, on errors and a Dick Gernert homer.

In the next game, rookie pitcher Jerry Casale hit a three-run homer over the centerfield wall, to help him gain his first major league victory over the Senators, 7 to 5.

Frank Malzone came to bat in the last of the 12th inning and the score was tied at 4-4 on April 19th. Against the fastest pitcher in baseball, Ryne Duren of the Yankees, Frank drilled a ball on a line toward the top of the left field fence. It cleared by six inches to give the Sox a 5 to 4 walk-off win.

Jackie Jensen, who hardly had been hitting like the league MVP in the early season, had four hits against the Orioles on April 22nd, a game the Sox won 8 to 4.

In the April issue of the Saturday Evening Post, Jackie Jensen said he was unhappy in an article entitled, “My Ambition Is To Quit.” One photo accompanying the story showed Jackie departing for another long stay away, as his two children looked on unhappily.

Jensen also addressed his fear of flying, which he said he could handle only with tranquilizers and sleeping pills. In fact, Jensen often drove from city to city rather than fly with the team. For Jensen, flying had become not only terrifying, but also humiliating. His medication made him appear drunk and more than once he had to be helped on and off a plane while onlookers gazed.

In Washington on April 24th, Vic Wertz, the man who the Sox traded Jimmy Piersall to the Indians for in November, had a big day. The Sox won, 7 to 2 and Wertz drove in five of the runs. He doubled two runs in the first inning, and followed with a three-run homer in the third.

The Red Sox fought off eighth and ninth inning rallies in Chicago and aided buy homers by Pete Runnels and Jackie Jensen, Ike Delock beat the White Sox, 5-4 on May 2nd.

Against the Tigers, in Detroit on May 6th, Dick Gernert, Marty Keough, Frank Malzone, Jackie Jensen and Gary Geiger each slammed homers, to beat the Tigers, 17 to 6. The 18 hits, for 40 bases was the biggest offensive production for the Sox in three years.

Runnels and Jensen homered again on May 8th, helping Frank Sullivan win a 5-hit shutout of the Orioles 5-0, in Baltimore.

The Sox (12-12) broke even in their 14 game road trip. Malzone was batting .345 on the road, Jensen was hitting more homers than he did last year, Sammy White was batting .300 and Gary Geiger was showing some power when they returned to Fenway.

On May 10th, Don Buddin homered in the 10th inning to give the Sox a 3-2 win in Baltimore in the first game of a doubleheader. In the second game, Gary Geiger's seventh inning double broke a 1-1 tie as the Sox won 5-1.

But the Sox were terrible and lost 9 of the 13 games in the home stand were eight games out. Ted Williams made his return on May 12th against the White Sox, but then just was able to produce just one hit in his first 22 at bats.

On May 21st, there were only 2572 fans in the park, watching Tom Brewer shut out the Athletics, 5-0. The next day, there were 15,109 fans that saw Ted and Frank Malzone hit back-to-back doubles, to break a 3-3 tie and give the Sox a 4 to 3 victory over the Senators. Dick Gernert, who went 3-for-4, was the Sox batting leader, hitting .336

The Sox moved on to New York to face the last place Yankees on May 26th. With Ted (.159 BA) on the bench and Dick Gernert in left field, they pummeled the Yanks, 12-2.

On May 28th, Vic Wertz homered, with a man on in the eighth inning, breaking a 1-1 tie, as the Sox beat the Senators in Washington.

But pitching was the major obstacle. The pitching staff's ERA was 4.94, the worst since 1950. On May 29th, trailing 5-1, the Sox came back in Washington. Then in the top of the ninth, they tied the score at 6-6, when Jackie Jensen slugged a three-run homer. Unfortunately in the bottom of the ninth, Murray Wall walked three men, and then gave up a walk-off single to make it all disappear.

On May 30th, Ted Williams had to play both ends of a doubleheader. He rose to the occasion by belting his first home run of the year in the second game and sparking the Sox to their first doubleheader sweep of the season. The Baltimore Orioles were the victims, losing 5 to 4 and then 8 to 3. Williams' homer curled around the right field foul pole. He had hit longer homers, but few had been more welcome. It was Ted's first of the season, the 483rd of his career and 2499th lifetime hit.

The Sox started the month of June, in last place, eight games behind. In Kansas City on June 2nd, Ted Williams got his 2500th hit. In Chicago, against the first place White Sox, homers by Frank Malzone and Vic Wertz gave the Red Sox a come-from-behind, 4 to 2 win on June 6th.

Pete Daley's homer in the seventh inning broke a 1-1 tie in Kansas City, as the Sox went on to win 6-1, on June 13th.

On June 14th, Mike Higgins benched Ted (175 BA). When he came back in May, the Sox were 12-12 and in fifth place, three games behind. Since then they had played only four games without him, winning only 10 and losing 19.

Without Williams, the Sox swept a doubleheader from the White Sox on June 20th at Fenway. Tom Brewer pitched a six-hitter, winning 8-2 and Jerry Casale shut out Chicago, 9-0. The sweep gave the Red Sox their first three game winning streak of the season.

After winning 6 of the 13 games played at Fenway, the Sox headed to Detroit. Ted was back in the lineup, hitting a home run to go along with a single, raising his average to .202. Frank Malzone and Jackie Jensen also homered and  they beat the Tigers 10 to 4 on June 23rd.

On June 26th, Tom Brewer got beaten by the Tigers, 10-5. His ERA against the Tigers soared to 11.45 while against the rest of the league it was 2.39

Then the next day, June 27th, in Cleveland, Jackie Jensen hit a grandslam homer. He homered again the next game, as did Ted Williams. But it was Pete Runnels who was the only Sox player who wielded a hot bat with a .356 batting average. Over the past 17 games, Runnels piled up 33 hits for an average of .471, good for second place in the AL batting race.

But the Sox just were a team that floundered with occasional flash of brilliance. One of the reasons was because their power hitters weren't hitting the long ball or coming through with men on base.

The players were discouraged and tuned on Mike Higgins, who also was struggling with alcoholism. He had lost their respect and after losing six straight games, Bucky Harris fired him on July 3rd, with the Red Sox in eighth place, 10˝ games out of first place. Higgins was replaced with Billy Jurges.

Losing really irritated Jurges so he had his players hustling. They swept a doubleheader in Baltimore on July 5th, just before the All Star break. Don Buddin's homer in the seventh inning broke a 3-3 tie in the second game.

Jurges surprisingly started turning the team around. Sammy White’s batting average increased significantly immediately after Higgins’ dismissal. He went 44-for-135 (.326 batting average) over the next five weeks.

There were two All Star games played in 1959. The first was at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The National All Stars, behind Hank Aaron and Willie Mays beat the American Leaguers, 5 to 4. Frank Malzone, Pete Runnels and Ted Williams were named as reserves. Runnels and Williams appeared as pinch hitters, while Malzone split third base duties with Harmon Killebrew. None of them got a base hit.

After the break, the Sox returned home and, in their first game back, thumped the Yankees, 14 to 3, on July 9th. Williams and Vic Wertz homered, and Frank Sullivan limited the Yanks to six hits. They beat the Yankees again the next night, 8-5. Williams raided his average to .239, with a two-run double. In his last 13 at bats, Ted thumped out eight hits.

Don Buddin's best game came on July 11th. The Sox and Yankees were tied at 4-4 when Buddin came up in the bottom of the 10th inning and one out. He was 0-for-5, failed to get the ball out of the infield but Jurges stayed with him. He came through with a grandslam homer that won the game, 8-to-5.

The Sox made it five straight over the Yankees, winning 7-3 the next day, and then clobbered them, 13-3 on July 13th. Jackie Jensen was swinging a hot bat, accounting for 18 of the runs, going 10-for-19 with two homers.

Tickets to see the Sox under Jurges, became a hot commodity and Fenway filled up to see the first place Chicago White Sox. But the Red Sox came back to earth, losing 2 of 3, and then losing 3 of 4 to the Indians.

But they fought hard. On July 17th, the Indians were winning 8-1 after six innings. The Sox came thundering back with three runs in the seventh and three runs in the ninth, just falling short with the winning runs on base.

Then two days later, in the first game of a doubleheader on July 19th, the Sox were down 4-0, when Gary Geiger slugged a 3-run homer in the sixth inning to put them back in the game. Now down, 5-3 in the ninth inning, Frank Malzone rifled a double off the wall with two men on base, to give the Sox a 6 to 5 comeback walk-off win.

On July 20th, the Braves came back to town to play in the second Jimmy Fund game. The Braves radio announcer, Jim Britt, took some bows before the game and Lolly Hopkins, the head of 24 gals dubbed the Lollipop Gang at Braves Field, was back. The game was called after five innings because of rain. The Braves with a three-run fourth inning on Del Crandall's three-run homer and four runs in the fifth inning, were leading 7 to 3. Pete Runnels' bases loaded single had chased home two of the Sox runs.

Jurges finally brought up Pumpsie Green, who was hitting .325 in Minneapolis, and named to the American Association All Star team for the second straight year, on July 21st in Chicago. A week later, another black player, pitcher Earl Wilson, who was 10-2 with Minneapolis, was also brought up.

The new manager's euphoria quickly wore off, as the Red Sox again went on another losing streak. The team lost six straight games, fell 16 games out, and Jurges thought the answer was to impose a 1AM curfew. A few days later, an unnamed player told the press that their manager was hurting the team and at that point, Jurges blew his top.

Earl Wilson's first appearance came in Detroit on July 30th and was something to remember. In the first inning he walked the first three Tiger hitters. And then, with his career hanging in the balance, he struck out Al Kaline, Lou Berberet and got Gail Harris on a grounder. He then walked the first two batters in the second inning and got out of it. In the third inning he walked the leadoff batter and then retired three straight. In the fourth inning, with two outs, he again loaded the bases on walks. At that point Jurges had seen enough and pulled him. The Sox went on to win, 6-5.

In Detroit on August 2nd, Jackie Jensen homered with two outs in the eighth inning, and the Sox trailing 4-2., The Sox beat the Tigers 5 to 4.

A second All Star game was played in Los Angeles on August 3rd. Pete Runnels was the starting firstbaseman for the American League and Frank Malzone started at third base The AL stars beat the National Leaguers, 5 to 3. Malzone was one of five players to homer. His came off Don Drysdale in the second inning and tied the game.

Pumpsie Green's first game at Fenway Park came on August 4th. He had two hits in six times at bat. On August 10th, Pumpsie went 4-for-5 against the Yankees, but his average declined after that, as the pressure began to affect him. He lacked the confidence needed to play full time and was relegated to a utility role for the rest of the season. He got into 50 games, batted .233 with a .350 OBP, and one home run.

On August 8th, Tiger pitcher, Frank Lary, was one strike from shutting out the Red Sox, 3 to 0, with two outs in the last of the ninth, the bases empty and he had two strikes on Vic Wertz. But Wertz singled to left and up came Sammy White. Lary had him down two strikes and hit him with a pitch. So, in came Dick Gernert to pinch-hit, with runners on first and second. He thumped Lary's first pitch off the left field wall for a double, scoring Wertz. Now it was up to Pumpsie. He hit the first pitch he saw into center field, scoring the two base runners and the game was tied, 3-3, sending it into extra innings.

In the 10th inning, Pete Burnside took the mound for the Tigers to face Gary Geiger, leading off for the Sox. The count went to 3-2 and Geiger hit Burnside's next pitch into the Red Sox bullpen, for a walk-off 4 to 3 victory.

In Baltimore, Geiger's ninth inning homer off Hoyt Wilhelm, won the game, 5-4 on August 12th. Then, in Yankee Stadium on August 14th, Vic Wertz hit a grandslam homer to tie the game. And Geiger hit another homer in a nine-run eighth inning, while the Sox went on to win 11-6. Geiger was responsible for winning the last three Red Sox games.

The next night the Sox posted six runs in the third inning, added four more two innings later, and went on to annihilate the Yankees again, 12 to 4. Sammy White had four hits, including a triple. He also had four hits the game before. The Sox then split a doubleheader in the finale with the Yankees, taking 3-of-4 games. Pete Runnels received nine walks in the series. White had banged out 10 hits in 16 trips.

Against the Triple-A Millers in Minneapolis the next night, Earl Wilson went the distance with an eight hitter, Vic Wertz clubbed two doubles and two singles, and both Gene Stephens and Dick Gernert homered, in a 9-2 victory.

The Sox were off to play in Kansas City on August 18th. With the score tied in the ninth inning, Frank Malzone doubled, was sacrificed to second and scored the winning run in a 5 to 4 game.

Earl Wilson picked up his first major league win on August 20th in Kansas City, 11-10. The slugging pitcher was 2-for-2 with a double and three RBIs.

In Detroit on August 22nd, Ted Williams made his presence known, hitting his ninth homer of the season. He later sliced an RBI single in the sixth inning, helping the Sox win, 7 to 1.

The Sox (58-69) concluded their first winning road trip of the season, going 8-7. Sammy White led the hitters with a .339 BA. He tied Malzone and Jackie Jensen with 9 RBIs, although Jensen only batted .188 on the trip. The Red Sox knocked out 8 homers, with Williams and Geiger hitting two apiece. Their opponents, however homered 13 times. The Sox returned home 19 games out of first.

At Fenway, Dick Gernert pumped his 11th home run, with a man on base, to give the Red Sox a 6 to 4 win, in a 10 inning thriller, against the Orioles on August 28th. Pete Runnels and Geiger accounted for seven of the twelve Red Sox hits in the game.

Runnels, who specialized in line drive base hits, slammed a homer into the Washington Senators bullpen to give the Red Sox a 4-3, 10th inning win on August 31st. But it was Jackie Jensen, who had the big game for the Sox. He smashed a two-run homer into the nets in the sixth inning, his 26th of the season, and also made two outstanding defensive plays in right field.  The Sox ended the month of August winning 18 and losing 12.

After the Sox lost five straight to start September, Tom Brewer had enough. On September 7th, in Washington, he took things into his own hands. He hit a home run, struck out 10 batters and beat the Senators, 2 to 1.

On consecutive pitches on September 7th, Don Buddin hit a three-run homer into the center field bleachers, Jerry Casale slammed the ball over Lansdowne Street and onto the railroad tracks and Pumpsie Green hit one into the bullpen. The three consecutive homers helped to give the Red Sox a 12-4 win over the Yankees.

A young 19 year old Sox prospect worked out at Fenway in early September, hitting three out of the park and then rushing out to take some balls at shortstop. He had batted .377 for Raleigh in the Carolina League, and was voted Most Valuable Player. His name was Carl Yastrzemski.

Against the Cleveland Indians, who were trying to chase down the White Sox in the AL pennant race, Tom Brewer pitched a 1-0 shutout. Malzone's single in the 9th inning, chased home Runnels from second, for the walk-off win on September 15th.

JACKIE JENSEN

As the season wore down, the only interest was the race for the AL RBI title between Jackie Jensen and Rocky Colavito. Going into the Sox final homestand, Colavito led by two RBIs, 108-106. Jensen brought in two runs with a double against the Orioles on Sept 23rd and one against the Senators on the 25th.

Then on September 26th, he doubled in the ninth inning to tie the score and slugged a walk-off homer in the 11th inning, to beat Washington, 5 to 4. Jensen finished with 112 RBIs, to lead the league for the third time. It went along with 28 home runs and a .277 average. He also won his first Gold Glove Award.

Rumors of Jensen's retirement had swirled all season, but he waited until the end of the year before officially announcing that he was through. He was unhappy and had a deep fear of flying. Jensen was just 32, and seemingly still at the top of his game when he quit.

And so, the Red Sox had swept their last five game homestand and finished by winning 13 and losing 10 in September. They played 45-35 baseball for Billy Jurges overall and although they played well, finished the season with a 75-79 record in fifth place, 19 games behind the Chicago White Sox.

Ted Williams, who was shackled all season with a long series of frustrating injuries, finished batting only .254, with 10 homers, failing to hit .300 for the first time in his career.