aybe you've read in recent days about the All-Star Game of 1946 at Fenway Park, in which a fella by the name of Williams ripped a couple of home runs, including one off a blooper pitched by Rip Sewell.
Did you know Rapid Robert Feller, starting on the mound for the Americans that day, was in a heap of trouble in the first inning? The National League had the bases loaded and Red Sox righthander Dave ''Boo'' Ferriss was warming up. But Feller got out of the inning, and Ferriss sat down and never got that close to an All-Star mound again.
And you likely know that the All-Star Game of 1970 ended with Pete Rose running over American League catcher Ray Fosse at home plate for the winning run in the 12th inning.
But were you aware that if Fosse had managed to hold on to the ball, but hadn't been able to continue, Red Sox catcher Jerry Moses would have made his one and only All-Star appearance?
Jump ahead to 1973 and the All-Star Game in Kansas City. Seven pitchers and 26 position players got in the game for the AL in a 7-1 loss. Red Sox lefty Bill ''Spaceman'' Lee was not one of them.
They are three of a Red Sox fraternity of 22: All-Stars in name who never got into the game. They got the call. They never got the ball. Among them are names most know - Lee, Pedro Martinez (who'll get his chance tomorrow), Jerry Remy, Jim Lonborg, and Bruce Hurst - as well as names many will struggle to recall - Moses, Ferriss, Oscar Judd, Eddie Bressoud, and Sonny Siebert.
Lee, to no one's surprise, has an interesting angle on why he spent the game in the bullpen. ''We had a team meeting before the game and Dick Williams was in there and he asked if there was anyone in here who is not 100 percent positive they can get those hitters out,'' he said. ''I raised my hand. He asked why and I said, `My dad said only fools are positive.' So I got to sit in the bullpen and watch home runs go over my head.''
It wasn't that Williams had anything against him, he added. ''Oh no, he brought me up to the Red Sox in '69,'' Lee said. ''Dick Williams liked me. He brought me to Montreal in 1979. I was probably one of the few ballplayers who ever got along with him.''
Lee, 52, lives way up north in Craftsbury Center, Vt., and says he will play 48 games throughout Canada this summer as a pitcher and outfielder with a Molson-backed touring team. He's excited about coming to Boston for the All-Star festivities and has clinics scheduled for this morning in East Boston and Cambridge, among other appearances.
Well before game time tomorrow, however, he will be back in the car, hightailing it to Burlington, Vt., to catch the end of his son Andy's game with the Lowell Spinners against the Vermont Expos. The young Lee, a lefthanded reliever, is a year out of Delta State University and has been with the Spinners for only a few weeks.
In a Red Sox All-Star connection, Ferriss - they still call him ''Coach Boo'' in the baseball offices - is a legendary coach at Delta State. It's ''Boo'' because he tried and couldn't pronounce ''brother'' as a child, and the nickname stuck. Ferriss, 77, coached at the Mississippi college for 26 years before his retirement in 1988, and now does fund-raising for the team. He was a pitching coach for the Red Sox in the late '50s.
Before that, he was one hot pitcher. Ferriss got an early discharge from the service because of asthma and joined the Red Sox in the spring of 1945. He shut out the Philadelphia Athletics and the New York Yankees and was up to 22 1/3 innings of debut shutout ball - a record that still stands - before the streak ended against the Tigers. He won his first eight starts, but there was no All-Star Game that year. He finished 21-10 his first year and was 25-6 and an All-Star the next. Then he hurt his arm.
''The first two years I pitched over 500 innings, and that might have taken a little out of it,'' Ferriss said from Cleveland, Miss.
Before long he was a spot starter and then a reliever, and then a minor leaguer.
Feller, by the way, recovered to go three scoreless innings that All-Star night, and Hal Newhouser and Jack Kramer completed a shutout.
''I was with some of the greats of baseball and it didn't bother me,'' Ferriss said of not getting a chance to pitch. ''They were setting them down. No runs. You can't argue with that.''
Times were good for Moses and his family early in the 1970 season. His first child had just been born, Eddie Kasko had made him the starting catcher for the Red Sox, he was hitting just over .300, and he was going to the All-Star Game.
Bill Freehan, who was not hitting nearly as well as Moses or Fosse, was a much bigger name and was picked by the fans to start. When Fosse replaced him, Moses knew that, since a team needs to keep a catcher around in case of emergency, his chances of playing were not good. ''I didn't want to see Fosse get hurt, but I kept thinking of ways I might get into the game,'' he said. ''And I couldn't see how it would happen.''
It didn't. But it was still a great week, ranking along with his first big-league home run at age 18 against Mudcat Grant and his one grand slam among his baseball highlights.
A couple of weeks after the All-Star Game, Moses broke his finger and was knocked out of the Boston lineup. At the end of the season, he was traded with Tony Conigliaro to California. It hurt to leave, but he has nothing but good things to say about the Red Sox. He lives in Ipswich and follows the team closely.
''To be selected was an honor,'' Moses said. ''I remember it as a real nice thing that happened to me.''
