The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox: Pandemonium on the Field

When Jim Lonborg induced Minnesota's Rich Rollins to pop up, and shortstop Rico Petrocelli stepped back and cradled the softly-looped fly ball, the '67 Sox had done the impossible—they had overcome 100-to-1 odds, climbing out of ninth place the year before to capture the American League pennant. Dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of fans streamed out onto the Fenway infield mobbing Lonborg, who lost a shirt and his shoelaces as he struggled through the delirious crowd to get to the clubhouse. Two or three dozen fans climbed the backstop screen toward the broadcast booth. Others dismantled the scoreboard in left field. Many just tore out handfuls of grass and stuffed their pockets. It truly was, in the words of Red Sox radio announcer Ned Martin, pandemonium on the field. As Peter Gammons once wrote on this great season, The Red Sox were always New England's team, yes, but it took the Impossible Dream of 1967 to turn it into a romanticized mystique and keep the legion of fans coming by the millions.... It wasn't always the way it is now, and might never have been but for '67. This book is a tribute to the men of the Impossible Dream team, comprised of individual original biographies (many based on fresh interviews) of all 39 players that year, plus each of the four coaches, manager Dick Williams, and GM Dick O'Connell. The bios are supplemented with new appreciations of this remarkable season by Dr. Andy Andres, Fr. Gerry Beirne, Joe Castiglione, Peter Gammons, Dick Johnson, Jim Lonborg, Bill Nowlin, Harvey Soolman, Glenn Stout, Tom Werner, and Saul Wisnia. Contains a selection of over 100 rare photographs and memorabilia from this special Red Sox season. A project of the Boston chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research, this volume gathers the collective efforts of more than 60 SABR members and friends of the non-profit research society.