All Star 99 banner
All Star 99 News, from Boston.comSponsored by GTE
History sectionNews sectionFanfest sectionPlayer sectionFenway sectionVisitor's Guide
Sox played starring roles

By Dan Shaughnessy, Globe Staff, 07/12/99

ighty ballplayers have been selected to represent the Red Sox in baseball's All-Star Game. Ted Williams provided the most memorable moments, but it hasn't been all Ted since the Sox were first represented in 1933.

Dick Radatz Dick Radatz

Other Sox have starred and struggled in the big game. Carl Yastrzemski won an MVP trophy in a losing cause and Roger Clemens won an MVP in an American League victory in 1986. Young Bill Monbouquette was roughed up by the National League when he started in 1960.

The Red Sox have had some unlikely All-Stars, such as Jerry Moses and Scott Cooper (twice). One player - Oil Can Boyd - bolted from the ball club because he wasn't selected to the All-Star team.

The Red Sox' top non-Ted All-Star moments:

1. Dick Radatz vs. Johnny Callison, 1964: Radatz was dominating the NL, fanning 10 batters in 4 2/3 innings in two games. At Shea Stadium, he was en route to the game's MVP Award when Callison stung him with a three-run, walk-off homer in his third inning of work.

Radatz: ''Callison was the only guy I faced twice in the game. He came up in the seventh and hit a pretty deep fly ball to Mantle in center field. I was throwing as good as I can throw. He got my attention. I asked Bobby Richardson, `Who was that?' The seventh and eighth were fine, and we had a 4-3 lead in the ninth. I walked Willie Mays on a 3-2 pitch. I had him struck out on ball three, but the umpire missed it. There were about 50,000 people at Shea, and I could feel the ground shaking behind the mound.

''I struck out [Henry] Aaron on three fastballs around his knees. Then there was an error and a couple hits and the score was tied and Callison came up again. He got halfway up to home plate and stopped and went back and got Aaron's bat, which was lighter. I tried to get the ball in on him and I got it over the inside part of the plate. When it left his bat, there wasn't any doubt. First pitch. And that MVP Corvette ... they pulled it right out of my garage and drove it into his.''

2. Clemens MVP in 1986: This was the year the Rocket swept the awards. He started the season 14-0, finished 24-4, and won the Cy Young and MVP trophies. It was only fitting that he won the All-Star MVP with three perfect innings in his hometown of Houston. He remains the only Sox hurler credited with an All-Star win, and in four appearances while with the Red Sox, he compiled a 1.50 ERA over six innings.

Clemens's nine outs in '86: Tony Gwynn, Ryne Sandberg, Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter, Darryl Strawberry, Mike Schmidt, Dale Murphy, Ozzie Smith, and Kevin Bass.

Clemens's outing was rare for a Sox hurler. Through the years, Boston's All-Star hurlers have struggled to the tune of a 1-7 record and 6.67 ERA against NL batters.

3. Yaz MVP in 1970: This game is remembered for Pete Rose's head-first smash of Ray Fosse with the winning run for the NL, but Boston's slugging outfielder was the MVP, going 4 for 6 with an RBI in the AL's 12-inning, 5-4 loss. Yaz played center field, left field, and first base for Earl Weaver and later donated his MVP trophy to President Nixon, who watched the game from a box seat at Riverfront Stadium.

4. Bobby Doerr hits a three-run homer in a 5-3 AL win in 1943: This was one of the non-classics of the war years. Most of the best players were missing, but that didn't stop Boston's Hall of Fame-bound second baseman from cracking a three-run blast off Mort Cooper in the second inning. This game also featured a homer by Vince DiMaggio, the ''other'' DiMaggio brother, plus 2 1/3 innings of stellar relief from Johnny Vander Meer - the man who pitched back-to-back no-hitters.

Doerr played 1,865 big-league games, all at second base, all for the Red Sox. He was a nine-time All-Star and started five times, but this was his only All-Star homer. It provided all the runs Dutch Leonard, Hal Newhouser, and Red Sox teammate Tex Hughson would need.

5. Yaz's three-run, pinch-hit homer in 1975: In 14 All-Star games, Yaz hit .294 (10 for 34) with two doubles and five RBIs. His shot off Tom Seaver at Milwaukee's County Stadium was his only All-Star homer. The AL lost, 6-3.

6. Fred Lynn's homers in 1976, '79, and '80: Lynn played in six All-Star Games for the Red Sox, homering in half of them. He tapped three pretty good pitchers: Seaver in '76, Steve Carlton in '79, and Bob Welch in '80. The '76 home run came at a time when Lynn had slightly fallen out of favor with Red Sox Nation. On the heels of his magical rookie season, Lynn held out with teammates Rick Burleson and Carlton Fisk at the start of the '76 season and had only six homers at the All-Star break. The game was held in Philadelphia and Lynn stayed at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, which later phoned him to warn him about numerous guests who'd contracted Legionnaires' disease after staying there. Lynn's '79 shot was a first-inning Kingdome blast off Carlton. He tagged Welch at Dodger Stadium a year later. After he was traded to California, Lynn hit his most memorable blast, a grand slam off Atlee Hammaker at Comiskey Park in 1983.

7. Rookie Don Schwall pitches at Fenway in 1961: Schwall was en route to the AL Rookie of the Year Award and Paul Richards let him pitch three innings in his home park. In relief of Jim Bunning, Schwall gave up five hits in three innings and allowed the NL to tie the game on Bill White's sixth-inning infield single. He struck out two, walked one, and hit Orlando Cepeda. He would go on to become the Red Sox' first Rookie of the Year (the award originated in 1946), and was traded to the Pirates in 1963 in a deal that brought Dick Stuart to Boston. Schwall went 15-7 in his rookie season but never again won 10 games and finished 49-48 for his career.

8. Bill Monbouquette routed in 1960 start at Kansas City: White Sox manager Al Lopez tabbed Monbouquette to start the first of the season's two All-Star Games. The Sox were not known for their pitching, and it was an honor for a young righty from Medford to start. Unfortunately, Monbouquette surrendered five runs in two innings and took the loss. Four of the first five batters he faced (Willie Mays, Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron, and Ernie Banks) are members of the 500-homer club. Monbouquette surrendered homers to Banks and Braves catcher Del Crandell.

Monbouquette: ''I didn't pitch well. My location wasn't good. I tried to come up and in on Banks and left it out over the plate and he deposited it over the wall. I hung a curveball to Crandell.

''Still, it was quite a thrill to be selected to start. I found out the night before. I was only 23 or 24 years old. I guess it's not every day a kid from Medford gets a chance like that. Naturally, I was disappointed I didn't pitch very well. I remember that it was about 126 degrees on the field and somebody tried to make me feel better by telling me that Yogi Berra called the wrong pitches. We had the next day off and flew to New York, and I remember sitting in the hotel lobby and Stan Musial walked by and said, `Did you eat yet? Come on with us.' It was a great thing for him to do that.''

9. Three Sox start the 1967 game: It may not seem like a big deal today, but Red Sox fans took great pride in seeing Yastrzemski, Tony Conigliaro, and Rico Petrocelli all starting the All-Star Game in Anaheim in the summer of 1967. It had been more than a decade since the Red Sox were respectable, and seeing three Boston jerseys at the start of the game somehow legitimized the '67 Sox. Jim Lonborg also made the '67 All-Star team, but did not pitch because he'd hurled the Sunday before.

Yaz, who went 3 for 4 with two walks in the 2-1 loss, said, ''To have four Red Sox players there gave us a lot of confidence as far as the pennant race was concerned. It made us feel legitimate.''

10. Oil Can snubbed again: The Can got wiggy when he wasn't named to the All-Star team in 1985, then pulled a five-star nutty when the same thing happened in 1986. He threatened to kill Jim Rice and apeared on the cover of a local tabloid newspaper, tossing liquid at a photographer. The Can was 11-6 when he was snubbed. His tirade produced a suspension and resulted in Boyd checking into the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester when the Sox insisted he undergo drug testing. While the '86 All-Star Game was being played in Houston, Boyd was charged with complaints of assault and battery on a police officer in Chelsea. Charges were later dropped and Boyd came back to start the 1986 World Series.

This story ran on page C05 of the Boston Globe on 07/12/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.