RICO
Roger Kahn’s best-selling 1972 book “The
Boys of Summer” was a tribute to the Brooklyn Dodgers of the early 1950s. Think
Pee Wee Reese, Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson
and company. Kahn’s poignant paean captured how a baseball team became part of
his—and Brooklyn’s—identity.
Many New Englanders—including me—have our
own Boys of Summer. The Red Sox of the late 1960s revived baseball in Boston. Their
names included Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Lonborg, Reggie Smith, George Scott … and
Rico Petrocelli.
Brooklyn-born Rico was the All-Star
shortstop for the Impossible Dream 1967 Red Sox, who had to win the last two
games of the season at Fenway Park against the Minnesota Twins to advance to
their first World Series in decades. Led by Yaz, the Red Sox came from behind in
both games to win an improbable pennant.
Sportscaster Ned Martin’s call of the
final out that October 1 will forever resonate.
“The pitch … is looped towards shortstop …
Petrocelli’s back …he’s got it! The Red Sox win! And there’s pandemonium on the field.”
Seemingly every television and radio in
New England was tuned in to the game. That Boston victory, almost 50 years ago,
created our modern Red Sox Nation.
Petrocelli and Company lost a seven-game
World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals, although Rico helped force the
deciding game with two homers in Game 6.
In 1969 Rico hit 40 home runs and fielded
almost flawlessly while finishing 7th in the MVP voting.
After the Red Sox acquired Luis Aparicio
to play shortstop, Rico moved to third base. He batted .308 in the classic
seven-game 1975 World Series, won by the Cincinnati Reds. He retired after the
1976 season.
I write of Rico because, improbably, I was
invited to be a Leadership Development Conference panelist with the Red Sox
great last week in Salem, hosted by Methuen Construction Company. The other two
panelists included former State Supreme Court Chief Justice John Broderick and
Fahim Fazli, with whom I co-authored a book following our military service in Afghanistan.
We all talked about leadership
experiences, traits, principles, approaches and personalities. And of course we
talked about sports.
Rico: “I looked so bad trying to hit
against Bob Gibson in the ’67 Series that my own father called me a bum!”
Rico: “Dick Williams was what we needed as
a manger in 1967. But he later alienated almost everyone.”
Rico: “Yes, we should have left Willoughby
on the mound” (concerning the ninth inning pitching change during Game 7 of the
1975 World Series).
Knowing that Rico caught that final out of
the Impossible Dream season, I had to ask him what happened to the ball.
Rico: “I gave it to [pitcher Jim]
Lonborg.”
Moffett: “You realize that ball would be
worth many millions of dollars today if you’d have just hung on to it.”
Rico: “We didn’t think about that stuff in
those days. I think Lonborg lost the ball.”
Aye carumba!
At the end of the session I signed books
and Rico signed baseballs. It occurred to me that Roger Kahn met many of his
Boys of Summer because he wrote a book. And to have Rico Petrocelli ask me to
sign my book for him represented another Impossible Dream of sorts, at least
for someone who as a 12 year-old kid watched his hero hit those home runs in
the 1967 World Series.
