This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/15/2008
It's much harder now to remember, after two world championships in four years and nightly sellouts at Fenway, that from 1961-1966, Boston Red Sox fans suffered through the most inept spell of "professional" baseball. The Sox finished 6th, 8th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 9th in successive seasons. Yet, on October 1, 1967, when Rich Rollins of the Minnesota Twins, using this Zoilo Versailles' signature model Louisville Slugger, popped out to Rico Petrocelli for the last out of the last game of the season and the Red Sox won their first pennant since 1946, a city was reborn. Change actually began in 1965, with the arrival of Hayward Sullivan as new GM. Not long after came George Scott and Reggie Smith, two very visible signs of a new attitude geared toward winning. While the Sox still lost 90 games in 1966, for the second half of the season they won more games than any other team except Baltimore. In 1967 Sullivan hired rookie manager Dick Williams to take over the team and transform them from a country club to a ball club. From July 14th-23rd, the Sox heated up on a ten game winning streak, beating the Orioles, Tigers at home and then the Orioles and Indians on the road. More than 10,000 fans met them at Logan, five times more people than saw Dave Morehead throw his no-hitter in 1965. From July-September, the Red Sox hop scotched between first and fourth, battling Detroit, Minnesota and the White Sox in one of the most exciting pennant races in baseball history. On the final weekend of the season, the Sox needed to win both games against the Twins. The first game they took at 6-4. In the second, they were getting beat 2-0 by 20-game winner Dean Chance against the Sox Cy Young award winner Lonborg, who had a miserable 0-3 record against the Twins. However, Lonborg beat out a bunt to ignite a rally in the sixth, where Triple Crown winner Yaz singled in two runs to tie the score. The Sox took a 5-3 lead into the ninth. Journeyman third baseman Rollins got up in the ninth inning with two outs and floated a gentle pop up to Petrocelli at short. As pandemonium erupted, Rollins tossed the bat to the consignor, who, like the other fans that stormed the field, wanted any souvenir possible. This lot also includes an LOA from Richard Johnson, curator of the New England Sports Museum and contributor to the 2007 book, "The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox, "Pandemonium on the Field." Johnson has studied the bat and viewed rare film footage from that day that gives an exact match to this bat. Condition: Overall very good condition, with tape and tar, the handle of the bat is cracked.
8,000 USD - 12,000 USD