On This Date in Sports October 1, 1967
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
The impossible dream comes true for the Boston Red Sox, as they win the American League Pennant on the final day of the season, winning a three-way battle with the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers. The Red Sox beat the Twins 5-3 at Fenway Park, as Jim Lonborg wins his 22nd game while the Tigers split a Double Header. At the same time, Carl Yastrzemski wins the Triple Crown, going 4-for-4 with two RBI.
Coming into the 1967 season, the Boston Red Sox were the doormats of the American League. They had not won a pennant since 1946 and not had a winning season since 1958. In 1965, they hit rock bottom, losing 100 games in 1966 they lost 90 and fans had lost faith at Fenway as just 8,324 fans showed up for opening day as the Red Sox entered the season with 100-1 odds to reach the World Series.
The Red Sox entered the season with a new manager, as Dick Williams who had been with the team’s top farm club in Toronto was hired to bring discipline to the clubhouse. The Sox showed early signs of magic as Billy Rohr, making his debut came within one strike of a No Hitter in a 3-0 win over the New York Yankees in the Bronx on the third day of the season as they played solid baseball in April posting a record of 8-6. The No Hitter was broken up by Yankees veteran Elston Howard, who would end the season with the Red Sox. Over the next two months, Boston played .500 baseball and were sitting in third place with a record of 37-34. As the weather heated up so did the Red Sox, as they posted a record of 19-10 in July. The Red Sox reached first place in August a month in which they won 20 games, despite losing slugger Tony Conigliaro to a beaning on August 18th.
The September race for the pennant was a thriller in the American League as five teams were in the thick of the race as last month of the season got underway. The California Angels were the first to fall out of the race with a slump at the start of September, while the Chicago White Sox fell out of the race in the next to last week of the season. On the final day of the season, it was as tight as can be in the American League, as the Red Sox and Twins were tied 91-70, while the Detroit Tigers at 90-70 were a half game back playing a doubleheader against the Angels in Detroit. The Tigers knew they needed to sweep the doubleheader to force a one-game playoff, while the Red Sox and Twins played their own one-game playoff with the winner at least getting a tie for first place in the American League.
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For the final game of the season, a pair of 20-game winners took the mound with Dean Chance of the Twins opposing Jim Lonborg for Boston. In the first inning, Tony Oliva gave Minnesota an early lead doubling home Harmon Killebrew. In the third inning, Killebrew made it 2-0 in favor of the Twins singling home Cesar Tovar. The Red Sox bats came alive in the sixth inning as Jim Lonborg started a rally with a bunt single, Jerry Adair, and Dalton Jones followed with singles to load the bases for Carl Yastrzemski who tied the game with a two-run single. Ken Harrelson gave the Red Sox a 3-2 lead as Jones slid ahead of a tag by Catcher Jerry Zimmerman. Yastrzemski would come around to score the fourth run on a pair of Wild Pitches by reliever Al Worthington. The Red Sox would later get a fifth run in the sixth inning on an error by Killebrew at first. The Twins would scratch a run across in the eighth inning on a ball off the Green Monster by Bob Allison, who is thrown out by Yastrzemski trying to stretch a single into a double. That would be all the Twins would get as the Red Sox won the game 5-3, with Jim Lonborg pitching a complete game, allowing three runs on seven hits to earn his league-leading 22nd win of the season. The Red Sox then gathered in the clubhouse and celebrated as the Tigers dropped the second game of their doubleheader to the Angels 8-5.
The Red Sox would go on to face the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, losing a seven-game heartbreaker as Bob Gibson won three games. Despite falling short of winning the Fall Classic, the Red Sox Impossible Dream drive had revived baseball in Boston and helped give birth to a new rabid fan base. Jim Lonborg, who posted a record of 22-9 with a 3.16 ERA and a league-leading 246 strikeouts would win the American League, Cy Young. While Carl Yastrzemski won the American League MVP, completing the Triple Crown, with a .326 average, 44 home runs, and 121 RBI. There would not be another Triple Crown winner in the majors until 2012.