Red Sox Fellowship of the Miserable: Luis Aparicio
By Rick McNair
Before the curse was broken for the Boston Red Sox it was both the little things and big things that haunted team failures. This is a little one based on one of the greatest baserunners in baseball history.
Just what is The Fellowship of the Miserable? The original term was coined by former (thankfully) Celtic coach Rick Pitino to describe the perpetually angry Boston fans who mount continual assaults via talk radio. The Boston Red Sox have a long and illustrious history of contributions to the Fellowship with displays over the years that brought forward a crescendo of negativity.
The start of the 1972 season was temporarily halted over a labor dispute – almost an annual event – before it finally resumed. This was the first time baseball would have games canceled and a schedule altered over labor issues and the keywords I just mentioned was schedule and altered.
The Commissioner was Bowie Kuhn for whom my respect meter is at zero. That, however, is another story, but Kuhn and baseball did make a costly bonehead move regarding canceled games – there would be no makeup games and hence an unbalanced schedule and that would be costly for Boston.
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The Red Sox missed the playoffs by a ½ game since they played 155 games to the division champion Tigers 156 games. No playoff. No anything. In retrospect, maybe they deserved to be on the outside looking in with a wretched 33-44 road record. There was one game late in the season with the Tigers that became crucial and the blunder of blunders happened on the bases with one of the most skilled baserunners I have ever seen – Luis Aparicio.
Just how good a player was Aparicio? Baseball Hall of Fame should give a bit of a clue to those that did not see “Louie” play in his prime or even his less than prime when he finished out an 18-year career by playing his last three major league seasons with the Red Sox.
If it is statistics that fascinate fans then Aparicio has a bundle of them starting with a Rookie of the Year Award in 1956. The diminutive right-handed hitting shortstop had nine Gold Gloves, nine straight stolen base crowns, and ten All-Star nods. Then there was his glove work.
Aparicio was another in a line of Venezuelan shortstops that came on the baseball scene in the 1950’s and fielding was exceptional. The movement to his right and left was smooth, ability to understand the hitter’s tendencies was excellent, an arm that was strong and accurate and ballet movements in the infield. With second baseman Nellie Fox – also in the HOF – this double play combo was the benchmark for baseball.
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- Red Sox World Series legends headline 2023 Hall of Fame ballot
Both Fox and Aparicio were the cement that held together the 1959 G-Go White Sox that disrupted the usual string of New York Yankee championships. Louie eventually moved on to Baltimore where he got a ring in 1966. Then it was back to Chicago and finally to Boston for 1971-73.
The last three games of 1972 were to be played in Detroit with the Tigers caressing a slim ½ lead. Boston faced off in an afternoon game against Tigers ace Mickey Lolich and lefty John Curtis taking the hill for Boston. The key was the third inning when Boston had a rally in the works with a 1-0 Tigers lead.
With one out Tommy Harper and Aparicio singled to bring up Carl Yastrzemski. Yaz hit a rocket for a sure triple as Harper easily scored and Louie was coming in behind him except he tripped over third base and rolled into foul territory. Aparicio scampers back to third only to find Yaz glued to the base. Yastrzemski quickly reverses direction and heads to second to be an easy out. Reggie Smith strikes out and the once promising eruption is now just a tie game. Eventually, Boston loses 4-1, but in the sake of honesty, it is not all Aparicio.
The next day a Boston victory could set up a winner take all for the last game, but the Tigers beat Luis Tiant and the Red Sox 3-1. The last game of the series became meaningless.
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This was an example of the misery that happened to follow the Red Sox around for decades like the dark cloud hovering over Al Capp’s Joe Btfspik who was misfortune personified. One of the great baserunners in baseball history becomes another footnote in the files of the Fellowship of the Miserable.