Sox 67 – Frank Malzone

Starting with this piece, I am changing my focus a bit. The 25th anniversary of the 86 Sox is almost over. I wish to concentrate now on an even more interesting season- it will soon be 45 years ago- the 1967 Impossible Dream.

If you check the Globe for the first week of 67, you see immediately that it was a different world. The Vietnam War was at its height, with rumors of ceasefires and negotiations which would never take place. The paper’s Society Section showed a dozen brides, all beautiful and Caucasian. The Confidential Chat, a favorite of my late mother, provided cooking and cleaning hints.

The sports sections were hugely different than those of today. On the one hand, the Sunday sports page was barely six pages long. On the other hand, there was both a Morning and Evening Globe, each with its own writers. Coverage was much more local than national- for example, high school basketball and hockey contests had not only results, but posted box scores and starting lineups for both teams. In pro sports, the Red Sox and Bruins had been terrible for years, the Pats had had a good run but were fading, and the Celtics were, well, the Celtics.

Even in the offseason, there was an almost daily Red Sox story, with Clif Keane the most prominent writer. There was little talk about new manager Dick Williams, except for the fact that he was on television a lot. There were feature stories on catcher Bob Tillman (who had a reputation of being perhaps the slowest runner in the majors), and pitcher Hank Fischer, who would be gone halfway through the season. But the most interesting piece was about a man almost forgotten today-Frank Malzone.

“Malzie,” as he was called, was one of my favorite Sox players in the dark days of the late 50’s and early 60’s. His statistics are impressive enough. An eight-time AL all-star at third base, three gold gloves. At his position, he became the first player ever to lead the league in games played, putouts, assists, errors (a misleading stat), double plays, and fielding percentage. In his rookie year of 1957, he drove in 103 runs. Over an 11-year career-10 with the Sox and one with the Angels- he batted .274 with 133 homers, 728 rbi’s, 647 runs scored, and 239 doubles.

Malzone was not a player blessed with great natural ability. But on a team of mostly uncaring, underachieving players, he hustled every day, even with his team in eighth place in late September.. Also, on a squad that some writers referred to as the “Ratpack of baseball”, he was obviously devoted to his wife and children.

The article, written by Keane, speaks about GM Dick O’Connell having a meeting with Malzone after the 1965 season. While informing him of his release as a player, O’Connell assured Frank that he would always have a job in the Sox organization. He kept his word. In early 1967, Malzone was hired as sort of an “organization troubleshooter”.Apparently not wishing to manage, he remained a Sox scout for the next 35 years. He is still active today at age 81 as a player development consultant. He is a member of the team’s Hall of Fame.

Keane summed up the situation well: “Malzone will hardly be a controversial man in Red Sox history. But he was one of the team’s  best for about 10 years. Who can help but recall the day he was sent back to the minors and Joe Cronin and Mike Higgins decided to keep (the infamous) Don Buddin here. How wrong can you be?