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Red Sox: Top 10 most important home runs in team history

By Drew Athans

BOSTON, MA - OCTOBER 10: David Ortiz #34 of the Boston Red Sox bats during the final at bat of his career during the eighth inning of game three of the American League Division Series against the Cleveland Indians on October 10, 2016 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - OCTOBER 10: David Ortiz #34 of the Boston Red Sox bats during the final at bat of his career during the eighth inning of game three of the American League Division Series against the Cleveland Indians on October 10, 2016 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images) /
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SARASOTA, FL – MARCH 1954: Outfielder Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox takes batting practice during March 1954 Spring Training in Sarasota, Florida. (Photo by Kidwiler Collection/Diamond Images/Getty Images)
SARASOTA, FL – MARCH 1954: Outfielder Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox takes batting practice during March 1954 Spring Training in Sarasota, Florida. (Photo by Kidwiler Collection/Diamond Images/Getty Images) /

Ted Williams’ Final At-Bat

The next home run on the list is the only other one that didn’t win a meaningful game for the Red Sox, but it’s important for another reason. In 1960, Ted Williams was forty-two years old and in the last season of his career. After playing for the Red Sox since 1939 (with military stints during WWII and Korea interrupting his career), he was hanging it up.

Ted’s final season wasn’t bad by any stretch; he hit .316 with 29 home runs and 72 RBI. Still, the Red Sox were awful and as it had been for the entirety of the 1950s, Williams was the only reason for fans to come to the ballpark to see the team. They’d finish the 1960 season a dismal 65-89 and in seventh place out of the eight (at the time) American League teams.

Ted had one last thrill for the Fenway faithful though, when in his last ever game on September 28, 1960, he hit a home run in his final at-bat. It wasn’t the Red Sox final game of the season as they’d finish up with a series at Yankee Stadium, but Ted didn’t travel with the team for those games.

On a cold and damp day at Fenway Park, Williams hit a home run in his final at-bat and simply ran around the bases with his head down, running straight into the dugout without tipping his cap to the crowd. It was a fitting end to the career of the Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived and a moment that inspired a classic newspaper essay and is still talked about to this very day.

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