The Boston Red Sox past have some interesting tidbits in their history and here are a few from my recollections of the past.
Legendary Boston Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams has a long list of accomplishments at Fenway Park. The notable Red Seat that supposedly was the depository of the longest home run hit at the park. But Teddy Ballgame clinched the pennant in 1946 with a home run that stayed in the park. The only career inside the park Williams ever hit. Alas – it was not at Fenway.
1953 was not a very good year for the Red Sox who hobbled to a fourth-place finish. There was a very good inning embedded in the season and it happened on June 18 when the Red Sox hammered out 17 runs in the seventh inning. Ellis Kinder had already blown a save opportunity but remained in the game to get two hits in that dreadful – for the visiting Tigers – inning. Final score: Red Sox 23, Tigers 3. Kinder got the win.
The Red Sox played a 15-inning game against the Tampa Bay Rays in mid-September of 2017. A contest the Red Sox won with a seven-run 15th. But buried within the box score is the one game humiliation of Dustin Pedroia. Petey took the collar with an 0-for-9, but it was worse. A team record with 13 left on base by Pedroia. Pedroia broke the old team record (and MLB record) of 12 set by Trot Nixon and David Ortiz.
Remember the song Monster Mash? In 1950, the Red Sox had a Monster Bash against the St. Louis Browns. On June 7, the Red Sox pounded the Browns 20-4. The next day the Brownies got pulverized 29-4. The Red Sox that season hit .302 as a team and scored 1,027 runs.
Just who was Clyde Vollmer? Vollmer a right-hand hitter played ten MLB seasons and hit a career .251. In 1950, Vollmer joined the Red Sox for four seasons and hit .262 but this is about the streak in July of 1951.
This is the summary: Vollmer collected 30 hits in 98 at-bats (.306); totaled 13 home runs and 38 RBIs; and smashed 74 total bases for a .755 slugging average. His 13 home runs contributed to 12 Boston victories, and his three-home-run game on July 26 made Vollmer only the fourth hitter in history to hit that many in one game at Fenway Park.
Vollmer’s streak became news when a Red Sox journeyman outfielder Lou Clinton who hit .527 (38 for 72) over a one month period in 1962. How good was it? Clinton had 20 extra-base hits and 29 RBI, but when it ended Clinton was back to being frostbitten and finished the season at a career-best .294.
The Red Sox never have been a team that focuses on the stolen base, but in 1950 Dom DiMaggio swiped 15 bases, the lowest total ever in MLB for a stolen base champion. Stan Hack had held the previous low water mark with 16 playing for the Cubs in 1938.
A Red Sox specialty over the years is hitting into double plays. This is usually the domain of the hard hitters and that shows with the MLB single-season record of 36 held by Hall of Famer Jim Rice. Rice is also in second place with 35. Rice broke the previous record of 32 which included Red Sox outfielder Jackie Jensen. Jensen broke the record set by Red Sox outfielder Tony Armas at 31 who had broken the record set by Bobby Doerr (30) in 1949. Albert Pujols (395) has a career record. The Red Sox have the MLB career record.
Fenway Park is a hitters park and noted for extra-base hits – especially doubles. Earl Webb holds the MLB record of 67 while playing for the Red Sox. As a team, the Red Sox have 31,580 doubles from 1901-2019. No other team is even close.
Burning down the house actually happened at Fenway Park in 1926. In July, the Red Sox were well on their way to a 46 win season when the left-field grandstands – all wooden – caught fire. To add to the misery a few weeks later a mini-cyclone further damaged the park and another 500 seats were gone. Unfortunately, the damaged area was never rebuilt over money issues until Tom Yawkey bought the team and reconstructed the park.
In 1947, Fenway Park became a night club but that was through the addition of arc lighting. Boston was almost last to adopt that feature of modern baseball life or was it? The House of David used to bring lighting on trucks when they barnstormed across America. Several Negro League teams did the same. It took a while for the majors to make this “innovation” part of the landscape.
Williamsburg is not that quaint historic community but the name that became synonymous with the addition of bullpens to Fenway Park. In 1939, the left-hand power of Ted Williams was on display with 14 home runs hit at home. How many more if the distance was a wee bit shorter? Tom Yawkey then had the bullpens added for 1940 and TSW responded by hitting just nine home runs at Fenway.