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1961 BOSTON RED SOX
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1961 was the year major league baseball expanded for the very first time. The current Washington Senators team moved to Minneapolis and changed their name to the Minnesota Twins. Two new teams were born in 1961, the Los Angeles Angels and a new replacement version of the Washington Senators. Tom Yawkey and his old cronies and drinking buddies continued to run the Red Sox organization and without Ted Williams, Yawkey lost interest. But Yawkey was the guy his players loved. He overpaid them and had expected little in return on the field. The Red Sox came into the new decade with nothing to motivate them and were boring, going about their business without purpose. Not only had Ted retired, but also did Sammy White, who decided to pursue a career in bowling. They had finished poorly with them and made no moves now that they was gone.
They were apparently satisfied with what was the poor product, sprinkled in with some new rookies. What young kids they had in their system in the 1950s were too often rushed up to the parent club, would not be welcomed and helped by those veterans, who just wanted to keep their cushy jobs. For the most part they all failed to produce. And so this was the atmosphere that greeted the rookies of the 1961 team. Those new rookies were Carl Yastrzemski, secondbaseman Chuck Schilling, and also pitcher Don Schwall. It's very hard to replace a legend and that is precisely the situation 21 year old Yaz found himself in. As the heir to Ted Williams, he stepped into the shoes of a retired hero, and was hyped up by the Boston newspapers all out of proportion. Infielder Billy Harrell had been picked up in the Rule 5 draft in November. Pitcher Frank Sullivan was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for Gene Conley in December. Don Buddin faced a challenge from both Pumpsie Green and Yaz for a berth at shortstop. Yaz had originally been signed by the Sox as a shortstop, but was soon definitively placed in left field. Buddin pulled a leg muscle in spring training and it hampered him badly. He came down with a virus and lost the Opening Day start to Pumpsie. When Pumpsie had an appendectomy in mid-May, Buddin took over again.
Spring training marked the return to the club of Jackie Jensen who spent the previous year dealing with family issues and an abnormal fear of flying. His flying dilemma had grown worse because the American League had a new team in Los Angeles, necessitating the addition of two long round-trip plane rides to meet the new schedule. The pressure to do well started the very first day of spring training for Yaz . But he had a great camp, knocking out seven hits in his first 16 plate appearances. Pumpsie Green had a spectacular spring training, batting .478 and earned the starting job at shortstop. Outfielder Rip Repulski went to spring training, but after participating in only 15 regular-season games, he was released. When the Boston Celtics wrapped up another NBA championship against the St. Louis Hawks at the Boston Garden, Gene Conley was quickly off to Florida for an abbreviated spring training.
Opening Day was at Fenway Park on April 11th, and although the Sox lost to the Kansas City Athletics, 5-2, Yaz, after making a hard charge to throw a runner out at the plate in the second inning, then came up and got his first major league hit in his first plate appearance. In the Los Angeles Angels debut at Fenway on April 15th, Ike Delock shut the new team out, 3-0, yielding only four base hits. Of the three Sox runs, Yaz knocked in two and scored once. Chuck Schilling opened the first inning with a double. Then after a walk to Gary Geiger and a strike out by Vic Wertz, Yaz brought home Schilling with a base hit. Then with two down in the third inning, Yaz tripled off the wall in left-center. He scored on Pete Runnels' double to center. The third run was brought in by Yaz with a sacrifice fly that scored Geiger from third base. A home run in the seventh inning by Geiger, proved to be the margin of victory as the Sox beat the Angels once again 3-2, on April 17th. On April 22nd, down 4-1 at Comiskey Park, the Sox battled back in the ninth inning to go ahead 6 to 4. Runnels started with a two-run homer. Pumpsie Green doubled and Rip Repulski scored him with the tying run with a single to center. Then Geiger's homer put the Sox out front 6 to 4. But a two-run homer in the Chicago's ninth, sent the game into extrea innings. Ted Wills was called on in the bottom of the ninth and retired the side. He pitched a scoreless 10th inning and in the 11th inning, Pumpsie knocked out a game winning homer to top the White Sox, 7 to 6.
The Sox and White Sox split a doubleheader on April 23rd. In the opener, Tom Brewer was brilliant thru eight innings. He let only three baserunners get beyond first base in a 4 to 3 Red Sox decision. Eleven years after Gene Conley made his debut in a Boston Braves uniform and two weeks after shedding his World Champion Boston Celtics uniform, Conley appeared for the first time in a Boston Red Sox uniform on April 25th. The new Washington Senators got seven hits off him in eight innings and he left with a 6 to 1 win. (Conley is the only player to have played for three of Boston's major sports teams) Yaz made another highlight reel play on April 26th against the Senators. Harry Bright hit a liner down the left field line with Willie Tasby at second. As Bright made into second, Tasby turned at third and headed for home, Yaz picked up the ball in the left field corner and threw a 310 ft strike to Russ Nixon, who tagged out Tasby. The Sox only got three hits and Yaz got one of them, as the BoSox lost 2-1. On April 27th, Dave Hillman picked up his first win since 1959. Russ Nixon's homer in the fourth inning broke up a 2-2 tie game and Hillman pitched 6 2/3 innings of brilliant relief against the Tigers, winning 5 to 2, in Detroit. The Sox lost to the Tigers on April 29th by a score of 9 to 5. But Yaz was immense, knocking out three hits driving in three runs and made two "web-gem" catches. Thanks to a tie-breaking two run homer in the ninth inning by Vic Wertz, the Sox beat the Indians in Cleveland, 4 to 1, in the first game of an April 30th doubleheader. The Sox lost the second game to finish the month with a 7-7 record, three games out of first.
After losing the games to start the month, on May 7th, Chuck Schilling had a great day. At Metropolitan Stadium, Schilling came to bat in the top of the fourth inning. The Twins were leading, 3-2, and the bases were loaded. Schilling knocked out his first major league home run into the left field seats. The grandslam gave the Sox a 6-3 lead. Then, in the top of the eighth inning, with the Sox now leading by just a run, 8-7, Schilling doubled in two more runs and the Sox ended up winning 11 to 9. Hitting only .130 and despondent, Jackie Jensen left the team when they were in Detroit and took a train to Reno. His wife reportedly burst into tears when she saw her husband’s defeated face. The two drove to Las Vegas to see a noted nightclub hypnotist, Arthur Ellen, as a last resort. He re-joined the Red Sox in Los Angeles on May 8th, and hit his first home run of the year and then singled in the eighth. The Sox concluded their first trip to Los Angeles, losing two of the three games played with the expansion team. They won the final game on May 10th. Carl Yastrzemski, who had 15 strikeouts thus far and was hitting the ball hard, slugged a 400 ft two-run homer, the second in as many games, and it proved to be the difference in the 3-2 victory. Jensen had two more hits and was now batting .214. On May 12th in Washington, Bill Monbouquette struck out 17 Senators, breaking the Sox record of 15, set by "Smoky" Joe Wood in 1911. Monbo came within one strikeout of matching the major-league record at the time of 18, held by Bob Feller and Sandy Koufax. He would have had it if Jim Pagliaroni had not dropped a fouled third strike in the eighth inning. The Sox were slumping as they left Washington, having only scored three runs on 11 hits in their four games. They were shutout for 28 innings. They went 5-10 on their road trip, staring 2 1/2 games out of first and finishing 8 games behind. Tom Brewer was placed on the disabled list for the first time in his major-league career. On May 15th he started against the Cleveland Indians and lasted one pitch. Brewer had been nursing a sore shoulder since spring training and felt a sharp twinge on the pitch and that was it for the day. Rookie Don Schwall was promoted the next day from the Seattle Rainiers after Brewer went on the DL. On May 16th, the Sox banged out 16 hits and halted their four-game losing streak. Pete Runnels collected three hits and Frank Malzone knocked out his first homer of the year in his first trip to the plate. Jim Pagliaroni's two-run homer in the sixth inning, proved the be the decisive blow, in a game the Sox won 8 to 7 over Cleveland at Fenway. Bill Monbouquette (2-4) lost his fourth game to Washington, 2-1, on May 17th giving up only six hits. His 2.11 ERA was leading the American League however. Catcher Joe Ginsberg was signed to back up Jim Pagliaroni and Russ Nixon and Don Gile was optioned to Seattle to play under manager, Johnny Pesky. Against the Detroit on May 18th, Gene Conley pitched a four hit shutout that the Sox won, 1-0. Jackie Jensen rapped out two of the five hits the Sox made, but Don Buddin knocked in Pete Runnels with a slashing base hit down the first base line for the Sox only run. Jensen slammed a run-scoring single with two down in the bottom of the 10th inning in the series finale on May 20th. It provided the Sox with a 4 to 3 win over the Tigers.
Don Schwall made his first major league start on May 21st. He scattered six hits against the White Sox and won, 4 to 1, the second game of a doubleheader. The next day, Sox batters finallly hit for Bill Monbouquette, going the distance and beating the White Sox, 4 to 1 on May 22nd. He increased his record to 3 and 4, on seven singles, lowering his ERA to 1.93. It was his fifth complete game in seven starts and in 60 2/3 innings he had allowed only 13 earned runs. The Sox moved into Yankee Stadium and lost to the Yankees, 3 to 2 on May 24th. It was their 18th one-run game of the 34 games played, and the 10th they had lost. They lost to the Yankees again for the eighth time, in another close game, the next day. The difference was that the '61 Yankees were bombers and the Sox were slappers, who couldn't compete with this powerful team. But the Sox tied an AL record with their ninth consecutive errorless game. Don Schwall's second start came in Baltimore on May 28th, pitching his first shutout, getting his first hit and his first RBI. The Sox won 5 to 0, highlighted by Frank Malzone's three-run homer. The Sox returned to Fenway to play four games against the Yankees. In the first game, Ike Delock held down the power-house Yanks, 2 to 1, out-dueling Whitey Ford on May 29th. Delock allowed only five hits, striking out seven and walking nobody. Jackie Jensen homered in the second inning and Mickey Mantle homered in the seventh inning, the only Yankee to make it past first base. In the seventh inning, Ford gave up two walks and a single to Vic Wertz, that brought in the winning run. In the second game, on May 30th, the Yankees fell one home run short of the major league record for homers in a game. They slammed out seven. Four were hit off Gene Conley by Mantle, Maris, Skowron and Berra. Dave Hillman gave up another homer to Skowron and both Maris and Mantle homered again off Mike Fornieles. On May 31st, the Yankees were winning, 7-4 at Fenway. Carroll Hardy stepped in to hit for Yaz to lead off the bottom of the eighth. He bunted for a single, and three batters later came around to score. Hardy thus became the only man to pinch-hit for Ted Williams and for Carl Yastrzemski. Mantle and Maris both homered once again and the Yankees beat the Sox again, 7 to 6.
Then in the final game of the series on June 1st, Yazi homered and Wertz hit his first triple in six years to lead the Sox past the Yanks, 7 to 5. The split of the series, left the Sox in seventh place, nine games behind the Yankees. Don Schwall won his third start against the Orioles on June 2nd, 4-2, thanks to a ninth-inning walk-off homer by Wertz. Schwall had given up only three runs in 26 innings of pitching in the majors. Then, a pinch-hit single in the ninth inning by Joe Ginsberg, beat the Baltimore 6 to 5, at Fenway two nights later, on June 4th. Ginsberg, picked up as a free agent in May, got his first hit since joining the club and it was a game winner. Mike Fornieles shined in the opening game of a June 5th doubleheader against the A's at Fenway on June 5th. He beat Kansas City 6 to 2 in in his first start since April 28, 1958. The next night Vic Wertz homered in the seventh inning. His two run bash gave the Sox a 5 to 3 win over Kansas City on June 6th. The unbewaten rookie, Don Schwall won his fourth straight game, 6 to 2, the next night in the series finale. On June 8th, with the Sox down 4-3 in the bottom of the 11th inning against the Angels, Gary Geiger hit his second triple of the game off the wall in deep center field. It brought in Schilling, who had walked, with the tying run. Unfortunately for the Sox, Geiger might have scored also, because Ken Aspromonte had just gotten the relay about 15 feet behind second base, when Geiger rounded third. But Geiger then ran into the dugout, thinking the game had been won when Schilling scored and was tagged out to end the inning. The game ended in a tie after it was called in the 12th inning, when a thunderstorm soaked the field. The Red Sox lost 5-1, in the second game of a doubleheader on June 9th. If they had a power hitter, the might have been in the race. But they didn't and also suffered an embarrassment, when the Angels' Ryne Duren struck out seven Sox batters in a row, setting an American League record for consecutive strikeouts. Billy Muffett pitched a five hitter to win the first game, 5 to 3. Schwall won his fifth straight major league game by a score of 8-2, over the Minnesota Twins on June 11th. He had allowed only six runs in 42 innings, allowing only two singles thru six innings, until giving up his first home run to Bob Allison in the seventh inning. The Sox completed an 11-7 homestand finishing the same as when they started it, nine games behind. After losing two games in Detroit, they salvaged the finale on June 15th. Monbouquette silenced the Tigers, 10 to 1. The big blow came off the bat of Vic Wertz, who socked his 10th career grandslam. On June 16th the Sox erupted for their largest inning of the season, bringing fourteen batters to the plate, as eight runs were scored on five hits and five walks, beating Washington 14 to 9. Jim Pagliaroni's sixth inning homer gave the Sox a 6 to 5 win over Washington on June 17th.
Then, on June 18th, there were two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Red Sox were behind, 12 to 5, in the first game of a doubleheader with the Senators. Don Buddin was on first base, having lined a single to right. Nine batters later, Pagliaroni tied the score with a grandslam home run. Russ Nixon came then up as a pinch-hitter. He lined the ball past the dive of secondbaseman, Chuck Cottier and the Sox had miraculously won the game, 13 to 12. But that was just the first game of a doubleheader with Washington. The Sox were leading 5 to 4, in the top of the eight inning of the nitecap, when Willie Tasby led off and tied the score with a home run for the Senators. Fast forward to the 13th inning. It now had been a pitcher's duel between Mike Fornieles and Tom Sturdivant. Fornieles, pitched six innings without letting a runner get past second base. Sturdivant had pitched no-hit ball for six innings. Up comes Pagliaroni again and he smashes a 3-2 pitch from Sturdivant into the left field net for a walk-off, 6-to-5 Sox win. Schilling had one of his finest nights in Los Angeles on June 20th. He had three successive singles and two walks. He led the team with 35 runs scored, 68 base hits, 14 doubles, 41 walks and had four stolen bases. Yaz did fine as well in the game, knocking in three runs with a single and the unloading a home run, as the Sox outlasted the Angels, 11-8. Don Buddin had quietly been playing well. The Sox had gone 12-5 while his average climbed from .198 to .273 in the last 13 games, during which he batted .413 with three homers and three triples. Don Schwall won a game on June 25th in Kansas City, thanks primarily to Mike Fornieles. Fornieles came in during the sixth innings for Schwall, who was laboring. Mike went on to pitch shutout ball, allowing only one infield single. In his last 23 innings, Fornieles had given up only two runs for an ERA over that period of 0.75 The Sox won 7 to 4 and Schwall was 6-1. Ike Delock pitched a five-hitter, walking just one batter, to beat the Twins in Minnesota, 6 to 2, on June 27th. Both Gary Geiger and Frank Malzone belted homers that supported him. Rookie pitcher Arnold Earley's first game was on June 29th (he was called from Seattle up after Chet Nichols’ hand was broken on June 24th). That first game gave him his first big-league victory. The Red Sox had a 7-3 lead over the Twins in Minneapolis, but with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth, it seemed to be time to take out the starter, Don Schwall. Earley got them out of the inning and pitched the rest of the game, allowing just two runs, winning 9 to 5. 19-year-old knuckleballer, Wilbur Wood made his pitching debut for the Sox on June 30th. He pitched the final four innings in a game the Sox were blown out of against the Indians, 10-2, at Fenway. He turned back the Tribe in order for three innings, but gave two runs in another inning of work.
Against the Indians, in losing efforts, Carl Yastrzemski knocked out three hits on July 1st and tripled, doubled and singled in the next game. Yaz was leading the team with 43 RBIs, but only batting .244 Gene Conley led Sox pitchers in homers yielded with 19, but also homered himself and doubled on the July 2nd loss to the Indians. The Sox lost their first five games in July, finally winning the second game of a July 5th doubleheader, 8 to 3 over the Tigers at Fenway. But they lost their next four games, before beating the Yankees 9 to 6 on July 9th, just before the All Star break. Of the 11 games they played, the Sox only won two and fell to 15 games out of first. Malzone (.234 BA) and Jensen (.257), two of the Sox biggest bats had not been able to produce like they had previously.
There were again two All Star Games played in 1961. The first was in San Francisco on July 11th and Fornieles was the only player picked from the Red Sox. The game was won in the 10th inning by the National League All Stars, 5 to 4, on a base hit by Roberto Clemente. It wasn't pretty as the All Stars made seven errors to break a record. Fornieles only lasted 1/3 of an inning. In the seventh inning, with the N.L. leading 2-1, leadoff hitter George Altman homered off him. After getting Willie Mays to fly out and after giving up a base hit to Frank Robinson, he was taken out. Yaz remained hot at the plate and in the field. In the game before the All Star break, against the Yankees, he had gone four-for-five. In the game after the break at Fenway, against the Orioles, he walked, singled and was hit by a pitch. The Sox won, 3-2 on July 13th, and a play Yaz made in the left field corner was instrumental in the win. Russ Snyder lofted a ball into the corner and Frank Robinson, who was on first, tried to make it to third. But Yaz threw a strike to Frank Malzone to get him. On July 16th in Chicago, in the 12th inning of the second game in a doubleheader on Carroll Hardy singled to center to score Yaz and Frank Malzone, giving the Sox a 5 to 3 victory. Yaz had four hits in the game. Geiger hit a pair of two-run homers in Cleveland on July 18th. The Sox beat the Indians, 9 to 2 and the Sox winningest pitcher, Don Schwall, won his 9th game. After losing five straight games, the Red Sox turned the tables on the New York Yankees on July 23rd at Fenway, by scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, and walked-off with a 5 to 4 victory. In the process, Schwall won his 10th game. The game had a double climax. The Yankees came from behind in the top of the ninth inning on a two-run homer off the bat of Elston Howard, putting them ahead 4-3. But Don Buddin started the bottom of the ninth with a base hit to left. Then Yastrzemski moved him up with a sacrifice bunt. Pumpsie Green, pinch-hitting for Schwall came up next. He pumped a curve ball off the scoreboard for a double, that enabled Buddin to romp home with the tying run. Finally, Geiger singled to right and Pumpsie jubilantly came across the plate with the winning run. The Red Sox hid not have a .300 hitter on the team. There was not one batter who had yet collected his 100th hit and the leading home run hitter only had 15. But the pitching was worse. In the middle of June the pitchers had a 3.87 ERA, now it was 4.59, one of the highest in the American League. They had lost 25 out of their last 32 games and nine of their last ten. They were 20 games out of first place. But they had Don Schwall and on July 28th, Schwall won his 11th game, by beating the White Sox, 8 to 3. It was his fifth straight win and he seemed to spark his teammates. Pete Runnels had three hits and Don Buddin and Yaz pulled off some great defensive plays. A seven run lead at Fenway Park can sometimes not be enough. On July 30th, the White Sox clubbed Gene Conley for six runs and added another off Fornieles. By the end of the third inning they had a 7-0 lead. But the Red Sox fought their way back inch by inch. Pumpsie gave them a kick start with a pinch-hit two run homer. However, the Red Sox still trailed until the last of the ninth inning, when Vic Wertz slammed a 400 ft solo homer to tie the game at 8-8. And with two men out, in the last of the 10th inning, Jensen got a base hit and made a vital steal of second base. Pinch hitter Joe Ginsberg next took a pitch and slapped it off the pitcher's mound, for a base hit that gave the Red Sox a 9 to 8 win.
Don Schwall
Two times in one day, on August 2nd, Chuck Schilling made the hit that won the game for the Red Sox. In the afternoon game of a twi-light doubleheader with the Los Angeles Angels, Schilling broke a 2-2 tie with an eighth inning single to center that scored Carroll Hardy from second and sent the Sox to a 7-2 triumph. Then in the twilight game, with the score tied at 7-7 in the last of the ninth inning, Schilling poked a home run into the left field nets that gave the Sox an 8-7 victory. In the final game with the Angels on August 3rd, Don Schwall (12-2) worked his second shutout of the season, a 4 to 0, three-hit win. His sinker allowed three Sox doubleplays. The Sox won their seventh game of their last nine played on August 5th. Against the A's, Vic Wertz drove home four runs with a triple, double and a single. Don Buddin homered and Carl Yastrzemski knocked home two runs, in the 10-4 victory. On August 7th, the Sox swept a doubleheader from the Twins by identical 5 to 4 scores. In the first game, Ike Delock and Minnesota's Don Lee dueled to a 4-4 tie until the ninth inning. Mike Fornieles relieved him in the ninth and earned the win with his double off the wall, followed by Yaz's game-winning line drive single to center. Schwall won his 13th in the second game and at Fenway Park his record was 9-0. Gary Geiger hit an inside-the-park grandslam the next night, on August 8th, only one of three Sox players to do so in Red Sox history. Jensen led off the third inning with a double to right center. Buddin and Pete Runnels were each walked to load the bases. Geiger next smashed the ball down the right field line. It bounced off the wall beyond the foul pole and eluded Bob Allison, ricocheting around and coming to rest in front of the Twins' bullpen. Allison finally caught up to the ball, relayed it to Billy Martin, whose throw was not in time to get the sliding Geiger at the plate. The Sox however, dropped a 6 to 5 decision to the Twins, after blowing a 4-0 lead.
In the series fourth game, the Sox beat the Twins in a 5 to 4 squeaker on August 9th. Frank Malzone was all smiles, having belted a pair of doubles, knocking in the game-winner and scoring another run. In his last 23 at-bats, he had 10 hits and driven in eight runs. The Sox swept the five game series with the Twins on August 10th, 3 to 2. Malzone had another big day. In the second inning, he doubled, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Jensen's double. Then in the third, Yaz singled, Wertz walked and Malzone doubled down the left field line to score Yaz. During the home stand, they had won 11 games and lost 4, to give themselves a 38-25 home record. Yet, because the Yankees were so hot, the Sox started their streak, 20 games behind and finished it 21 1/2 games behind. But the road trip that followed produced only one win in the next ten games played, leaving the team 27 games out. In their only win, which came in Cleveland on August 15th, Gene Conley threw a six-hit shutout, winning 8 to 0. The Sox thumped five homers and the big gun, once again, was Malzone. He knocked out two home runs and chipped in three singles. On August 19th at Briggs Stadium, in Detroit, Malzone homered in the top of the ninth to tie the score, but the Sox would lose 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth. Pumpsie Green (.228 BA) went 3-for-3 on August 20th, with a double and a triple, but the Sox lost to the Tigers, 7 to 6. A crowd of 19,773 went through the rain and raised between $50,000 and $60,000 for the Jimmy Fund, in welcoming the Braves back to Boston for at least one night. They booed the Red Sox and cheered the Braves who defeated their once cross-town rivals 4-1, on August 21st. The next night, August 22nd, against the Senators at Fenway, the Sox were given a gift win 3-2 in the 11th inning. With the bases loaded and two away, Jackie Jensen worked a game winning base on balls. to walk in the winning run. Jensen was wielding a hot bat. The next night on August 23rd, he homered against the Senators in a 9-4 victory. In the next game, on August 24th, he homered twice. He tied the game in the sixth inning and won the game, 5-4 with a 10th inning walk-off. But with the Red Sox scheduled now to make a second trip to Los Angeles, Jensen told the Red Sox he could not go, and instead joined the team in Kansas City, their next stop. His off-field struggles about flying were a serious matter. He thought he had beaten it once but it was apparent he hadn't. He played well but like a person with a huge weight on his shoulders. In Los Angeles, the Sox blasted four homers in a 12 to 6 victory on August 25th. Malzone drove in four runs with two doubles while Pumpsie homered twice. The topper was a grandslam from the bat of Carroll Hardy.
September started with a loss in Minnesota, but on the 2nd Bill Monbouquette (11-12) won his third straight game. But the attention in baseball was the attempt by both Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris to beat the home run record of Babe Ruth. Maris pounded his 52nd and 53rd homers at Yankee Stadium against the Tigers. The Sox concluded their best road trip of the season with a victory over the Twins, 8 to 6 on September 3rd. Their 6-3 road record was their best of the season and only their second winning trip. Meanwhile, in New York, Mickey Mantle knocked out his 49th and 50th homers of the season. On September 5th, Mantle added number 51 against the Senators. On September 6th, Roger Maris hit his 54th homer in New York. At Fenway, Schwall won his 14th by a 9 to 4 score over the Indians. It was his 10th win without a loss at home. Roger Maris hit his 55th just as Vic Wertz was surprisingly sold by the Sox to the Tigers on September 7th. The move came as Detroit opened a series at Fenway Park, losing to the Sox 8 to 4. In the next game, on September 8th, Jim Pagliaroni had five RBIs, coming within a triple of hitting for the cycle, leading the Sox to a 9-2 win over the Tigers. Mike Fornieles entered a game against the Tigers in the fifth inning with the bases loaded, two outs, a run in, and the Red Sox ahead, 3-2. He worked out of the jam and when he came to bat in the bottom of the sixth he extended the Red Sox lead with a two-run homer. It was the only home run of Fornieles’ career, as he was a .169 hitter with a .208 slugging percentage. Pete Runnels had three hits. Maris banged out his 56th against the Indians on September 9th. The next day, Mantle slugged his 53rd and Carl Yastrzemski hit his fourth homer of the season at Fenway, and the first one he ever hit to right field. Don Schwall won his 15th game in Washington on September 11th, by a 14-4 score. The Sox posted eight runs in the seventh inning, breaking a 4-4 tie, sending 12 men to the plate. Yaz bombed a walk-off homer into Fenway's center field bleachers in the 10th inning, giving the Sox a 3-2 win over the Orioles on September 15th. Schwall lost his first game at Fenway, to the Orioles on September 16th. It was accomplished by another rare feat, an error by Chuck Schilling. In Detroit, Roger Maris, homerless in his last seven games, hit his 57th home run and the next game he knocked out his 58th. Monbouquette won a 1-0 thriller against Baltimore, on September 17th, allowing only three hits. The only run came on Pagliaroni's run-scoring double. Roger Maris added his 59th home run on September 20th in Baltimore. It was the 154th game played by the Yankees. Commisioner Ford Frick had ruled that Babe Ruth's home run record could only be erased if Maris did it within the 154 game time-frame as Ruth did. Meanwhile in Chicago, Chuck Schilling quietly set an American League and tied Jackie Robinson for the fielding record of fewest errors by a secondbaseman, also in the Sox 154th game. The Yankees came to Fenway to face the Sox for two games. On September 23rd, Maris walked twice and lined out a single. Mantle hit his 54th homer and Whitey Ford won his 25th game, beating Don Schwall, 8 to 3. In the second game, Monbouquette held Maris to a single, and the Yankees to just five hits, beating them 3 to 1, on September 24th. On September 26th, Maris finally blasted out his 60th homer at Yankee Stadium off Baltimore's Jack Fisher into the right field upper deck. It was the 159th game for the Yankees.
The final series of the season came in New York against the Yankees. In the first game, on September 29th, the Sox lost 2 to 1, with Maris scoring the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning. He hadn't homered but with the score tied at 1-1, walked to lead off the inning, went to second on a grounder and scored the walk-off run on a single. The loser was Bill Monbouquette who had given up only three runs in his last three games. The Sox lost the second game, 3 to 1. Schwall was the losing pitcher, but he blanked Roger Maris, who could only manage a single in his last plate appearance, after walking and grounding out two times to Schilling. And so, the season came down to the final game on October 1st. The Sox lost 1-0 to the Yankees and it was the best game Tracy Stallard had pitched all year. He held the Yanks to five hits in seven innings, striking out five and giving up just a single run on one of the most famous home runs in baseball history. With the count at two balls and no strikes, Roger Maris flicked his powerful wrist and the ball sailed over Lou Clinton's head, settling into the right field grandstand. It was Maris' 61st homer and the most ever hit in one season. As for the Red Sox of 1961, Carl Yastrzemski's rookie season earned him only a .266 batting average, with 11 home runs and 80 RBIs, only leading the team in doubles (31) and total bases (231). However, Yaz after getting off to a slow start, struggled, and the Sox asked Ted to interrupt his fishing and come pay a visit. Ted complied, visited, and watched Yaz take extra batting practice. He told Yaz he had a great swing and to just go out and use it. Yaz hit over .300 over the last two months. Chuck Schilling's offensive stats at years end were comparable to those of Yaz. He batted .259 with 62 RBIs. His OBP was .340 and he scored 87 runs. Schilling set the major league record for second basemen by making only eight errors and his .991 fielding average led everyone at that position. The Boston Baseball Writers named him the Sox MVP. It was the first time a rookie had achieved the award. Gary Geiger led the punchless team with 18 home runs. On the surface, it appeared to be an outstanding season for Geiger, since he played in 140 games with a career-high 64 RBIs, 87 walks (10th in the league), and 16 stolen bases (eighth in the league). After a fast start, Geiger’s batting average dropped below .200 in mid-May and then, after it steadily rose, he slumped badly the last two months and ended the season at .232, a 70-point drop from 1960. Jim Pagliaroni (.242 BA) trailed Geiger for the team lead in homers with 16 despite 161 fewer plate appearances. The only blemish to his season was a league-leading 10 errors, one more than Russ Nixon. Nixon appeared in 87 games, with 263 plate appearances, and hit for a .289 average but only managed a meager 19 RBIs, down from 33 the year before. Yet his hitting was ranked higher than his work as a catcher. An ankle injury hurt Frank Malzone, but he still knocked in 87 RBIs, seven more than Yaz, the next-closest Red Sox hitter. Pete Runnels continued to produce, batting .317. Don Buddin raised his average to a career-high .263 and he cut his errors dramatically, down to 23, though that was in part because Pumpsie Green played in some 57 games at short. Pumpsie wound up getting into 88 games, closing out the season with a .260 BA, six home runs and 27 RBIs. Jackie Jensen made it through the season. Over four months (May through August) he hit .287 with 12 home runs, not terribly below his previous standards, but faded in September. But his off-field struggles continued . He failed to show at Logan Airport for a flight to Cleveland, and instead drove the 650 miles himself and got to the game on time. He finished with just 13 home runs and 66 RBIs, well off the numbers he had posted annually for so many years. After the season, he retired again, this time for good. At the end, Jensen could claim a .279 career batting average with 199 home runs and 929 RBIs in 1,438 major-league games. Carroll Hardy played in 85 games and had his best season. He played all three outfield positions (center field more than the others) in 85 games, accumulated 312 plate appearances, and had career bests in batting (.263 BA), on-base percentage (.330), and 36 RBIs. Don Schwall went 15-7 and finished with a 3.22 ERA (2.72 at Fenway). Schwall took the United Press International A.L. Rookie of the Year Award, and won the Baseball Writers Association A.L. Rookie of the Year Award, getting seven of the latter’s 20 votes. Schwall completed 10 of 25 starts, had two shutouts, and had a 3.22 earned run average. He allowed only eight home runs, including five at Fenway, where his ERA was 2.72. After just a few games into the pain returned to Gene Conley’s pitching shoulder. He kept the recurrence of the rotator cuff injury to himself and continued through the season, pitching lust shy of 200 innings and winning 11 games. Mike Fornieles went 9-8 for the year with a 4.68 ERA in 57 games. He threw 119 2/3 innings and made two starts, one of them a complete game. Fornieles was victimized much of the year by the long ball, surrendering a career-high 18 homers. He finished 42 games and amassed 15 saves, which was a career high and was tied for the third highest total in Red Sox history to that point. Bill Monbouquette went 14-14, but six of his losses were one-run games, four of them before the end of May. Dave Hillman (3-2, 2.88 ERA) was struck by a batted ball and suffered a broken left thumb, ending his season in August. Vice President Dick O'Connell, who was achieving his place through hard work and not cronyism, was working hard to build a good farm system. Yaz would go on to become as big an icon to the new generation, as Ted was to the older generation of Red Sox fans in the 1940s and 50s. Just as the turbulent culture of the 1960s emerged, so would a team led by it's new leaders on the field and behind the scenes. Things were going to eventually change, but it wouldn't be an easy task.
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