1963 BOSTON RED SOX ...

In October, Tom Yawkey fired Mike Higgins only to make him the General Manager. Johnny Pesky was promoted from being the manager of the Triple-A club in Seattle, to lead the Red Sox. The Sox made some significant off-season moves that really didn't help the team. Pete Runnels and Carroll Hardy went to Houston for Roman Mejias and Dick Williams. Pumpsie Green and Tracy Stallard were traded to the Mets for Felix Mantilla. Then Dick Stuart and Jack Lamabe were acquired from the Pirates, for Don Schwall and Jim Pagliaroni.

Pesky was initially successful as the Sox manager. His enthusiasm and winning up-beat attitude got the team off the a good start through June. But by mid-season the team floundered.

DICK STUART & TED WILLIAMS

Dick Stuart would lead the league in RBIs and knocked out mammoth home runs. But unfortunately he committed 52 errors, earning the name "Dr. Strange-glove" for turning everything hit his way into an adventure. Pesky knew a good part of the reason for the team's lack of success was Stuart and told him flat out that he was losing more games for the team with his lackadaisical attitude in the field, than he was winning for the team with his bat. Stuart didn't care and battled Pesky as often as he could. He wouldn't go after ground balls just out of his reach and in the end, his selfishness undermined everything that Pesky was trying to instill. Stuart dragged everyone down and it didn't help that Pesky got no backing from the front office.

Because of his early exit from basketball in 1963, Gene Conley was able to participate in an entire spring training. The basketball injuries however, proved to be a major issue, as was the chronic shoulder injury. He was unable to pitch smoothly and without pain and struggled during the early going of the regular season, but came back late in the year. He did not know it at the time but when he started and won against the Twins on September 21st, it would be his last major-league appearance.

The combination of age, injury, and ineffectiveness finally took its toll on Ike Delock’s career in 1963, as he was released by the Red Sox on June 9th. Mike Fornieles was only 31, but 1963 was his 12th and last season in the majors. He made nine appearances for the Red Sox, all in relief, finishing six of them, and posted a 6.43 ERA. With the emergence of Dick Radatz, Fornieles pitched only 14 innings in 2½ months. With his best days seemingly behind him, on June 14th he was sold to the Minnesota Twins

Bill Monbouquette became the team's first 20-game winner since Mel Parnell. Earl Wilson, Monbouquette and rookie Dave Morehead were surprisingly a good trio of starters, while Dick Radatz continued his strong domination out of the bullpen. Radatz wasn't a closer by today's standards because he commonly pitched multiple innings. American League hitters fell to him and with every victory, Radatz would raise his arms in triumph.

Frank Malzone made another run at .300, batting as high as .345 on July 1st, before dipping in the final two months and finishing with a .291 BA.

Carl Yastrzemski won the American League batting title and led the league in base hits, doubles, and walks.  All the while, he was improving in left field, honing the solid defensive play that he is remembered for today. 

Two rookie pitchers, Dave Morehead and Jerry Stephenson were promoted to the club for the beginning of the season. Morehead rewarded his his team by pitching a shutout in Washington on April 13th, winning 3-0, and striking out 10 batters. Home runs from Stuart and Lou Clinton aided the young pitcher gain his first major league victory.

The Sox lost three of their five games on their opening road trip. Against the Senators on April 14th, Yaz (.400) had a big day, going 4-for-5 and Chuck Schilling got four hits in his last nine at bats.

The Fenway opener was a winner for the Sox. Bill Monbouquette shined, pitching a five-hit 6-1 victory, while Stuart lofted his first Fenway homer into the nets.

On Patriots Day, April 19th, the Sox swept a doubleheader from Detroit at Fenway, 3-1 and 5-1. In the first game Eddie Bressoud had two homers, and brought in a run that tied the second game. Gene Conley, in his first start, pitched 7 2/3 brilliant innings in the opener and then Ike Delock limited the Tigers to two hits, also in his first start of the year.

The Sox emerged as winners in the bottom of the 15th inning on April 20th. Roman Mejias turned on a pitch and slammed a double that produced two runs and gave the Sox a 5-to-4 walk-off win against Detroit.

Earl Wilson lost a game to the Cleveland Indians on April 24th, 2 to 0. He had now pitched three excellent games, but only had one win. In 23 innings pitched, he had a fine 1.96 ERA and walked only seven batters.

With Carl Yastrzemski slamming six hits, the Red Sox supported some excellent pitching with some timely hitting. The result was a doubleheader sweep of the Chicago White Sox by scores of 4 to 3, and 6 to 2 on April 28th. Yaz had four doubles and two singles for the day and it was his double, in the bottom of the 12th inning of the first game, that gave the Sox a walk-off victory.

The Sox finished April in second place, only one game out of first. They headed to Minnesota and bombed the Twins, 14 to 5 on May 1st, knocking out 16 hits for a total of 26 bases. The assault was led by Eddie Bressoud, whose two-run homer tied the score in the second inning. Bob Tillman's two-run single put the Sox ahead in the third inning. Chuck Schilling, who had 12 hits in his last 21 trips, had four hits including a double and a homer, while Stuart and Yaz each banged out three hits.

Yaz's defense was outstanding. Against the Twins, with Rich Rollins on third, he caught a fly ball in center field and threw Rollins out at the plate. Then in Kansas City, with runners on first and third, George Alusik hit a smash to deep left. Yaz made the catch, back-handing the ball high over his head, only five feet from the fence. The runner on first had rounded second when Yaz caught the ball, and started to reverse his direction when he saw the catch. Yaz's throw was perfect strike to Dick Stuart, on one bounce, for a doubleplay. In the first 21 games, Yaz had thrown out six runners.

DAVE MOREHEAD

Dave Morehead won his second game, beating Kansas City, 3-2, on May 5th. He had allowed only three runs in his 23 1/3 innings of work, with 22 strikeouts.

Earl Wilson pitched the Sox into first place on May 7th. He retired 19 of the first 21 batters, allowing only a single and a walk, winning 5 to 1.

A combination of timely hitting by Frank Malzone and superb pitching from Jack Lamabe brought the Red Sox a 6 to 3 victory over the Senators on May 10th. A game tying base hit by Malzone in the sixth and his eighth inning double broke a 3-3 tie and gave the Sox a victory.

Dave Morehead threw a one-hitter in the second game of a doubleheader on May 13th. A first inning home run was the only blemish by Chuck Hinton of the Senators, in a game the Sox won 4 to 1. The Sox took 3-of-4 from Washington and won the last game, 8 to 5. They cut loose with 11 hits for 26 bases, including homers by Bob Tillman, Malzone and Stuart, triples by Yaz and Lou Clinton, and a pair of doubles by Chuck Schilling.

As the Red Sox were sweeping a doubleheader from the Angels, both Dick Stuart and Lou Clinton each had one of their biggest days of the season on May 15th. Clinton knocked out four singles and a triple, while Stuart blasted a grandslam homer in the first game and a three-run job in the second game. Malzone also collected four hits and Russ Nixon had three. The result was a 9 to 3 and 7 to 6 double victory. Stuart drove in seven runs in the two games.

Earl Wilson spun a beautiful 3-0 shutout to sweep the series with the Angels and it put the Sox in a tie for first place. On May 19th, Frank Malzone belted out two home runs and two singles, accounting for 5 RBIs in a the first game of a doubleheader against Kansas City, with the Sox winning 7 to 3. Then after losing two of three to the A's and three straight to the Twins, the Sox tumbled into fourth place.

In Detroit, on May 24th, Bill Monbouquette pitched a great game, striking out twelve and winning 5 to 2. The Sox struck out 13 times against four pitchers, led by Dick Stuart who struck out three times. The 25 strikeouts tied the major league record for strikeouts in a nine inning game. Stuart (.220 BA) had averaged more than a strikeout per game and as a result, was benched for four games.

The Yankees visited Fenway on May 28th and were beaten 11 to 6. Eddie Bressoud drove in three runs in this and also in the previous game. Gary Geiger had three hits, including a home run and Frank Malzone (.351 BA) had three hits. But the Sox finished the month of May losing 8-of-11 games and were in 5th place, five games behind.

The Milwaukee Braves came back to town to play the Sox in the "Jimmy Fund" game on June 3rd. They had beaten the Sox in all three previous exhibition games, but tonight the Sox broke the spell by beating them 5 to 2. Dave Morehead looked as impressive as he had in his first starts this year. For five innings he allowed only two hits. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Bressoud smashed a homer into the left field net for the Sox first run. In the seventh inning, four singles by Roman Mejias, Dick Williams, Lou Clinton and Bob Tillman, along with three walks, produced four more runs.

Gene Conley started the beginning of the end of his baseball career on June 6th. He was taken out after two innings in Washington and new he was not himself. The ligaments he had injured while playing basketball, were not healing correctly and he knew it.

When Monbouquette beat the Orioles, 7-1 on June 8th, he had pitched 88 innings and walking only nine men. It was the first time in 12 games, that a Sox pitcher had gone the distance.

The next night the Sox beat the O's, 3-1 in 14 innings. Radatz got the win, striking out 10 batters in the six innings he pitched. Only two of the other ten batters got the ball out of the infield. He then worked 8 2/3 scoreless innings in Detroit the next night, June 11th, winning that game also and striking out 11 batters. Radatz (0.92 ERA) had now made 13 relief appearances without allowing a run, covering 31 innings. It was a Red Sox club record that broke Ellis Kinder's streak of 29 consecutive scoreless relief innings, set in 1951.

One of Frank Malzone's more thrilling contributions of the year was the three-run homer he hit in the top of the 15th inning to give Radatz the win.

Three home runs, by Bressoud, Yastrzemski and Stuart enabled Monbouquette to win again on June 12th. He beat the Senators at Fenway by a score of 5 to 3, striking out seven in the first three innings.

Radatz added to his scoreless innings total on June 14th. He made his 21st appearance with the bases loaded and nobody out in the eighth inning of a game with the Orioles. With three pitches he retired the side and then saved the game on a dozen pitches in the ninth to extend his record to 33 shutout innings.

A big day for the Sox happened on June 16th, as they bombed the Orioles and swept a doubleheader. Roman Mejias banged out three homers as the Sox won 8-1 and 12-5. Monbouquette won the first game by pitching a complete nine innings. Dick Stuart also homered and knocked out five straight hits and Yaz had four straight hits. Unfortunately for Dick Radatz, however, his scoreless streak ended when he gave up two runs.

Bressoud and Stuart homered against the Tigers on June 18th. Lou Clinton had been hot and knocked out two hits, having now gone 8-for-14. Earl Wilson only allowed four scattered hits shutting out Detroit, 9 to 0.

Yastrzemski's two home runs, good for four RBIs, a two-run homer by Malzone, and a solo homer from Stuart, paced the Sox to a 9 to 2 victory on June 20th. In the process, Malzone (.341 BA) moved ahead of Al Kaline in the AL batting race and Stuart (17 HRs) went ahead in the homer derby.

The Sox hot bats continued against the Yankees at Fenway on June 21st. Malzone had a double and a homer, Gary Geiger slapped a triple and a homer, and Yaz a single and a triple, as the Sox bombed the bombers, 7 to 4. The Sox had won nine of their last ten games and Monbouquette became the first ten game winner in the American League. They were in third place and only two games out of first. But the Yankees took the next three and the Sox fell back to five games out.

Geiger broke up the "Family Night" game against the Cleveland Indians on June 24th, with a loud explosion in the ninth inning. The score was tied at 5-5, with Mejias on first base. Geiger, not known as a home run hitter, turned on a pitch and launched it toward center field. Centerfielder, Willie Kirkland, drifted back as though he had it in hand, but it sailed over his head into the centerfield bleachers. And that was that, the Sox won 7 to 5.

On June 26th, the Red Sox swept the Indians, 6 to 5, when Bressoud hit his second home run of the game in bottom of the ninth inning. The Indians' Joe Adcock smashed a two-run homer that tied the game at five apiece in the Indians half of the ninth inning.

In New York, on June 29th, Dick Stuart let a ground ball go threw his legs that gave the Yankees three runs and gave them the game. It was the second time in a week that Stuart had cost the Sox a game, and therefore he was benched for the second time this season.

The Sox ended up losing 4-of-5 in the series at Yankee Stadium and were 5 1/2 games behind as June turned into July.

Malzone's hot start saw him named as a starter over Brooks Robinson, to the American League All Star squad. Monbouquette, Yaz and Radatz were also named as All Stars in the game played in Cleveland on July 9th.

Malzone had an RBI single in three times up and Yaz was 0-for-2. Willie Mays drove in the winning run and set two All Star records, in the 5-2 win by the National League. But it was Radatz who would be remembered, by impressing everyone with the strikeouts of Mays, Dick Groat, Duke Snider, Willie McCovey and Julián Javier in the two innings he pitched.

Dick Stuart started the second half in Minnesota, on July 10th, by belting a three run homer that led the Sox to a 7 to 4 victory. It was his first homer in 21 games and he hadn't knocked in a run in 11 games. Of their 46 wins, 22 have been won on homers. Both Stuart and Malzone each had four game-winning home runs. Each had a game-winning RBI in seven games. Lou Clinton was the worst, having left 161 base runners stranded.

On July 21st in Chicago, Bob Tillman smashed a 10th inning homer that won the game, 3 to 2.

The team had played about .500 ball on the road trip after the All Star break. They then came home and were devastated in a home stand where they won only 2-of-11 games, and finished the month of July in 5th place, falling 13 1/2 games behind.

In Cooperstown, the Sox beat the Braves 7 to 3 in the Hall of Fame Game on August 5th. Russ Nixon drove home the winning run, Dick Williams provided a three-run homer for the Sox and Hank Aaron homered for the Braves.

The Sox lost three of four games in Washington and were swept in three games by the Tigers in Detroit. Dick Radatz blew three straight saves in six games. In Minnesota, after losing another three of their four games played. They had lost 14 of their last 16 games, and found themselves, 20 games behind the first place Yankees.

It was the Yankees who came to Fenway to play the Sox when they came home. After getting rained out, the Sox swept the Yanks in a doubleheader on August 14th. In the first game the Sox won 14-7. The fourteen runs were the most the Sox had scored all season, and the 19 hits they knocked out were also their best. The win went to Monbouquette who now had 15. In the second game, the Sox survived a Yankee rally in the ninth inning and held on to a 5-4 win.

DICK STUART

Dick Stuart went 6-for-10, with a home run, to push his league-leading total to 30. His seven RBIs pushed him up to 85 and were also tops in the American League. On August 19th, he hit two homers against the Indians. One of them was an inside-the-park homer.

Stuart and Yaz (.328 BA) were the only ones who were hitting well. On August 21st, in a losing effort against the White Sox at Fenway, the had three hits apiece. The next night Stuart knocked out his league-leading 33rd homer to go along with his league-leading 93 RBIs.

On August 25th, the Sox split a doubleheader in Cleveland. That day a record was set for strikeouts in a doubleheader. Bob Heffner struck out 12 batters, Monbouquette - 11 batters, Radatz - five batters, and the Indians' pitchers struck out 17 batters. The two-team record breaking total was 44 strikeouts. Dick Stuart also established a dubious Red Sox record for strikeouts in a season. He struck out six times in the two games, bringing his season's total to 123.

Stuart slugged his 35th homer against the Yankees on August 29th, tying him with Hank Aaron for the MLB leadership. In doing so, he became the fifth Sox player to reach that mark. Jimmie Foxx reached it twice, Ted Williams five times, and also Jackie Jensen and Vern Stephens.

The Red Sox fell back to 24 games behind the Yankees as the final month of the season commenced. Down on the farm, Tony Conigliaro (.356 BA, 20 HRs) was chosen as the Rookie-of-the-Year In the NY-Penn League.

It was Eddie Bressoud who delivered the key blows in a 4-3 walk-off win against the Senators on September 1st. Bressoud started a rally in the ninth inning. He then scored the tying run and the singled home the clincher in the 10th inning.

The Sox swept a doubleheader from Baltimore at Fenway on September 2nd. Bressoud knocked in the winning run in the first game, a 4-3 victory. In the second game, he scored the first run and it proved to be the game-winner in a 2-0 shutout by Bob Heffner. Bressoud had hit safely in the last eight games, going 12-for-27. Yaz (.318 BA) collected three hits in seven at-bats, tying him with Al Kaline in the AL batting race.

Aided by Dick Stuart's 39th and 40th homers, Bill Monbouquette notched his 20th win against the Athletics on September 14th, by a score of 6-to-4.

On September 21st, Rico Petrocelli was the starting shortstop. It was his first major league game and he went 1-for-4, driving home Russ Nixon, with a double off the wall in his first at bat.

Carl Yastrzemski had hit safely in 20 of his last 21 games, as the Sox split a doubleheader on September 22nd. Harmon Killebrew smashed his 45th homer to go three up on Stuart in the AL home run derby.

The Sox finished in seventh place (76-85). it was the hitting that carried the club. Yaz blossomed into the hitter they hoped he'd be and won his first batting title, hitting .321. Stuart led the league with 118 RBIs and knocked out 42 home runs. Eddie Bressoud had 20 homers and the streaky Lou Clinton banged out 22 HRs.

Monbouquette's record was 20-10, fourth in the league in wins, with a 3.81 ERA. On the downside, he led the league in base hits allowed (258) and earned runs allowed (113).

Morehead’s final numbers in his rookie campaign were 10-13, 3.81, with 136 strikeouts and only 137 hits allowed in 174 2/3 innings. He threw six complete games and one shutout. It was an excellent start for a 19-year-old rookie on a poor team.

Radatz embarrassed the whole league, as he saved 25 games and went 15-6 with a 1.97 ERA, 132 IP and 162 K, becoming the first pitcher in history to have consecutive 20-save seasons. He finished 5th in MVP voting despite the Sox' poor finish.

The season attendance sagged to 750K fans and Yawkey blamed the ballpark and it's lack of parking as the problem. He therefore agreed to allow the Boston Patriots to use Fenway Park, thinking both he and the Patriots' owner, Billy Sullivan, through their combined strength, could pressure the city into building a new stadium. Both Yawkey's plan and the Red Sox went nowhere.