Lost Ballparks
Lost Ballparks with Mike Koser is a podcast that transports you back to the golden age of baseball—through the voices of those who lived it. Hear firsthand stories from players, broadcasters, batboys, clubhouse managers, groundskeepers, umpires, and fans who vividly recall what it was like to spend a summer afternoon at Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds, Forbes Field, Yankee Stadium, Comiskey Park, Crosley Field, and many more beloved ballparks now lost to time.
Lost Ballparks
Best of Lost Ballparks: Fred Lynn (Red Sox HOF)
Originally recorded in 2023.
We’re curating the most downloaded episodes for new listeners discovering Lost Ballparks. If you’re a longtime listener, thank you for being part of this incredible community!
Fred Lynn was a 9X All-Star and the first player in baseball history to win Rookie of the Year, MVP and a Gold Glove in the same year! He joins me on the season finale to talk about the first game he attended as a kid, all things Fenway Park, that special 1975 Red Sox team, his first All-Star game at County Stadium in Milwaukee, the crazy event that probably cost the Angels the '82 ALCS and much more!
I mean, it would be impossible to pick just one. There's no way. Fred Lynn had a career full of highlights at the plate. So many memorable home runs and big hits and key moments, but he also made the most incredible running catches that left you with your mouth wide open. September 21st, 1982, Anaheim Stadium. Kansas City Royal Amos Sotis hits a deep fly ball into the left center field gap, right upon the outfield wall, and Fred Lynn does the unimaginable.
SPEAKER_07:Go ahead, wiggle your toes, and we hope you'll have a cold shape or two throughout the evening.
SPEAKER_00:Fred Lynn was a nine-time All-Star, Rookie of the Year, ALM VP, four-time gold glove winner, and is a member of the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. He was the first player in baseball history to win Rookie of the Year, MVP, and Gold Glove in the same year. Fred Lynn, welcome to Lost Ball Parks. Thank you so much for doing this. No problem. When and where was the first major league game that you attended? Oh, that's a great question.
SPEAKER_01:I don't think I've ever been asked that. It was the Coliseum, and I'm trying to think how old I was. Seven or eight years old? My dad took me to see the Dodger game.
SPEAKER_07:This is Los Angeles, where a longtime dream of big league baseball suddenly came true. And here's the Coliseum where over two million fans visited the temporary home for the Dodgers as a testimonial to baseball's excitement and thrills.
SPEAKER_01:That was quite an experience to see a baseball field put in a stadium that was meant for track and field and football. Weird dimensions. And I can remember as a kid looking at left field and seeing that short porch. And of course, that's where Wally Moon became famous for the moon shot, hitting balls to left field. So I don't know with the year, late 50s somewhere, something like that.
SPEAKER_00:And those games, by the way, were well attended. You could have like 90,000. You could, yeah. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:It was huge. It was huge. There was I don't know how many people, you know, when you're a little guy, 50 people seems like a lot. So if there were 50, 60,000, you wouldn't even know it in that place because it held 90. Who were some of the players that you liked? Well, Wally Moon, I remember this when I was a kid going to the sporting goods store, they had a Wally Moon style bat. And I remember that the handle was really thin. I didn't have big hands. So it fit my hand pretty well. And when I got to the big leagues, I used to get my bats from Louisville and I'd I'd get these little shaver and I shaved down the handles to make them even thinner. So you know it started way back when with Wally Moon hit the ball in the left field.
SPEAKER_00:When you were 16, you played for a semi-pro baseball team, the Pasadena Yankees. I think you played at Brookside Park, which would have been right near the Rose Bowl. And your team would get to wear uniforms passed down from the New York Yankees. Didn't you get to wear one as well? I certainly did. Yeah, that's great intel.
SPEAKER_01:Uh that that stadium, by the way, was huge. And it was a cinder block wall. It's like 420 or 4125 to center. Uh, I don't think they expected it to run into those things. But yes, I had Moose Gowin's old uniform, and I knew that because his name was etched into the back of the uni. And I was what, uh 16, so I was probably, I don't know, 5'10-ish, probably 150. And you know, Moose Gowin was a big dude.
SPEAKER_00:So it was a little baggy on me. Speaking of the Yankees, you got drafted by the Yankees out of high school in the third round, but ended up going to USC. And then out of college, I think you had no idea you would be drafted by the Red Sox. Didn't that come as a complete shock to you? It was uh utter shock.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I had been scouted since I was 16 years old, playing in high school. And you start to see scouts, and they would come up to you and hand you a card and have you fill out some stuff, and you they'd introduce themselves. I never uh saw a Red Sox scout. They never introduced themselves to me, even in college. Now, in college, they were a little more standoff. You didn't see them all the time, you knew they were there. But um I was supposed to be a Dodger. My college coach, Rod Dato, had a great relationship with the Dodgers, knew Tommy Lassorda very well, knew the ownership very well, kept Panas, the GM. And I had a great relationship with a scout from the Dodgers. So, you know, I went to USC. It's right there. I was stunned when the Dodgers didn't draft me in the first round. And apparently the Dodgers and and Red Sox were coming up in the second round, and the Dodgers were right behind the Red Sox, and the Red Sox nabbed me. And I was just, wow, the Red Sox? Who are, you know, I had I started to ask my coach, what about the Red Sox? Pretty good organization. You know, I I was peppering my coach uh about them because I didn't know anything about it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, growing up on the West Coast. So you make it to the big leagues in '74, and I think it was it was extra special for you because you grew up a San Francisco Giant fan. And who was on that 74 Red Sox team but one of your childhood heroes? Yeah, actually two.
SPEAKER_01:Orlando Cepedos on the team and Juan Marshall. And so I was a really maze guy as a kid. Um, even though I grew up in LA, I I don't know why I had this affinity with the Giants, but I did. Maybe because they hit. Dodgers were all about pitching. You know, they had great pitching, played pretty good defense, and they win a lot of one-nothing two to one games. Uh Giants, on the hand, had a lot of guys that could hit. And you know, I love Marshall, the high leg kick. And there was one other guy on that team, you know, I was born in Chicago, uh, not raised there, but I was born there, and I had a lot of relatives there. My aunt was a big fan of Louis Aparisho. Oh, yeah. Well, Louis was on the team as well. You know, I'm 22, and you're seeing these guys, and they're my teammates, it's a very surreal experience because it is the guys I saw as a kid. You know, I'd go to the games and I'd see them. Now they're my teammates. Those kinds of things made a huge impression on me. And I just kept my mouth shut and I just watched. Yeah. These guys have been in the game a long time, and I tried to learn from them just by seeing how they did things.
SPEAKER_00:Your first game was September 5th, 1974 at Fenway. Take me back to that day. Remarkably, by the way, your career batting average at Fenway was 347. So this would become a ballpark that you would love and hit tremendously well in.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, when I got there, Darrell Johnson wasn't playing me. You know, the team was in a kind of a slump, and I don't know if he was just afraid to put a rookie in there or or not. But anyway, I finally get into a game as a pinch runner. Now, I've never done this in my life. It was third base, we're playing the Tigers, and I think there's one out, and Bonicus is the hitter. So I'm going on contact and he lays down a bunt. Now, I I've never seen this play. Um coming from USC, I'd never seen a guy bunt with a guy on third. But it wasn't a squeeze, it was a safety. You know, he was bunny for a base hit. So as soon as he bunts the ball, I take off. Bad move. Because really, or Rodriguez was their third baseman, he had the best arm in the league, and he threw a bullet to freehand. Uh he was the catcher, outweighed me about 40 pounds. And I was just dead meat. So here I am, you know, get thrown out the plate, you know. Welcome to the big leagues. Yeah, welcome to Fedway. So that, you know, and I pinched it, I think, a couple times. Uh and then I finally got to start, and it was on the road. My first game I started was on the road against uh Milwaukee. County Stadium. Yeah. That's correct. County Stadium. And Jimmy Slayton was pitching. And uh, obviously I don't know him. You know, I talked to the guys, but yeah, I didn't know anybody, I just knew their names. And uh I remember coming up and he threw me a fastball and I hit it pretty good down the left field line. He had home run distance, but it went foul. And I was thinking, oh wow, that would have been kind of cool. So uh he had a good curve ball and he threw me a next pitch was a crew ball, and I hit it out to right. So my first game that I started, my first bad eye Homer uh against Slayton, and then I doubled against him. And then they brought in a left, and Daryl took me out of the game. And I'm like, what? I just hit a Homer in a double and it just got taken out. And Tim McCarver goes, Hey night game, kid, it's like the fifth inning.
SPEAKER_00:You're like, what's a guy got to do to stay in the lineup? That's right. I should have hit two homers or what? Yeah, right. In 1974, the outfield wall at Fenway was concrete, not padded. And didn't this change the way that guys played fly balls? I I mean the warning track was 20 feet wide, so it was wider than a lot of parks.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, most parks was about 10 feet, was average, I would say, for a warning track. And uh I think it kind of depended upon uh what kind of wall that they had at the that particular park. But Fenway was so unique, and you're right, the first uh probably 15 feet of that wall is concrete and the dirt, the the track, it was at least 20 feet. So players are taught that when their feet hit dirt, you got like two steps before you hit the wall. Right. So our guys knew better, but you'd see opposing clubs come in. I'd notice this right away, and the guy would run back, and as soon as he hit that track, he'd slow down. Instinctively, alarm bells go off and they slow down, and balls would fall in, wouldn't even hit the wall. And I'm watching this, I'm thinking, man, I gotta start hitting the ball the other way because I was a dead pull hitter. I never hit a ball to the left in my life. And then I figured out, well, I gotta start figuring out how to do that. And in batting practice, I kind of started pulling my hands in and hitting balls that were inside of the on the plate, I could hit them to left field or outside, either way. So it became a real weapon for me to be able to do that. Um, because now I have options. If the guy throws the ball in, I could hook it down the line, or I could go the other way with it. So that makes you a real dangerous hitter where you have more options than just one. And wasn't there part of the fence that had uh wrought iron spikes or something? Yeah, you've got the scoreboard, which jutted out because there were numbers being put up. You know, that's manual. There's a guy back there put numbers up, those things protruded out. There was a ladder that went up, oh well, all the way to the netting because the grounds crew during batting practice would scale that ladder and they'd pick the balls out of net and throw them back because we don't want to waste those balls, right? Right. So we'd use them again. They're like mush. And so that was there. And then you've got the doorway down the left field line with balls would ricochet off the wall into the doorway and go back and forth like a pool table. And lots of little things going on there. Uh, it was so much fun because it wasn't boring. You know, you had to learn all these caroms and things, and the wall was tin. Oh, that's right. The green monster was made of tin, right? That's correct. So when the a guy would hit a bullet off there, if it hit in between studs, so say the studs are 16 inches apart, it would come straight down. If it hit a stud, it would ricochet straight out. So my job as a center fielder, I don't know, it didn't matter who was playing left, they would try to scooch in and hopefully it hit come straight down. They could catch it before it hit the ground, keep the guy from getting a second. My job is if it did get behind him, then my job is to back him up. Yeah. Yeah, to keep the guy at least at second.
SPEAKER_00:In 1975, your first full year, you hit 331, 21 home runs, 105 RBIs. You're an all-star, a gold glover, rookie of the year, and AL MVP. Let's Fred, let's start with the All-Star game, which was played at County Stadium in Milwaukee at 75. You're now teammates with Rod Carew, Thurman Munson, Reggie Jackson, Jim Palmer, Nolan Ryan, Hank Aaron. Can you describe for me the moment the PA announcer calls out your name amongst the legends of the game?
SPEAKER_01:From the Boston Red Sox, outfielder Fred Lynn. Here's the deal. Back then, Monday was a workout. You have batting practice, and that's when you got to meet the guys. And I remember uh going up to Henry Aaron, I called him Mr. Aaron. You know, you know, he'd been around a while and he'd done a few things, and uh, you know, I introduced myself. He says, I know who you are, kid. And so he says, You can call me Henry, that'd be fine. But to be teammates with a guy like Henry Aaron as a rookie, it was a cool moment. I didn't really care about the game so much as being with these guys and introducing myself and being part of that group. Plus, I was uh a write-in candidate. I wasn't on the ballot. You know, rookies then they weren't on the ballot, they're just rookies. So people had to actually write my name down uh to get me into the game. So that's how I was voted in because fans wrote my name on the bottom of the ballot card.
SPEAKER_00:I imagine you have a soft spot in your heart for Tiger Stadium on June 18th, 1975. You have one of the best games of your career uh at that ballpark. Three home runs, a triple and a single, and drove in 10 runs and a 15-1 beatdown of the Tigers.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that was a that was an odd game, obviously. Uh, I hadn't hit three home runs since I think the last game in Little League. And the previous night, I had a 20-game hitting streak stopped by Mickey Lowlich. And I was like 0 for 4, 0 for 5, something like that. I was really disappointed the way I swung the bat. So I came to the ballpark early, took some extra BP, Dwight Evans threw BP to me. And uh there wasn't a lot to do in Detroit anyway, so you'd go to the park. And so I ironed some things out. And Joe Coleman was their starter, and again, as a rookie, it's just a name. You know, if I'm hitting third or fourth in the lineup, I try to see how he pitches the guys preceding me and see what the ball's doing and that kind of thing. And until you get up there, you don't really know. And I think I hit a two-run homer in the first.
SPEAKER_09:Long drive to right field, that's gone. Upper deck, home run for Fredland.
SPEAKER_01:And uh like a two or three home run homer in a second, and then a tri I hit a triple in the third inning. So I after three at bats and three innings, I went homer, homer, triple. In the triple, I hit the left center. And I saw the replay of this many years later. The ball was like down and away like six inches off the dirt. I don't know how I hit it that far. It was just a line drive, but it just hit just almost at the top of the fence in in Detroit. So I just missed the fourth homer by about four inches. The only out I made was a line out to second. And well, my last bat, I come up, and everybody's gone for the ballpark, right? And uh most of the starters, the veteran guys are already out of the game. And since I'm having a pretty good day, I'm still in there. And I hit the last home run.
SPEAKER_09:There's a lot of home three hover in the office, pretty lane, team runs coming in. In the sixth half back, and pretty lane, and having a night that he will never forget.
SPEAKER_01:So there's nobody there. That ball still could be there. Some janitor at the end of the game said, Hey, what's this doing up here?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. So playing center field at Tiger Stadium, the flagpole was in play, right? That's right. Yeah. So did that change how you played fly balls, deep fly balls?
SPEAKER_01:No, because it's 440. And it's 440 to center. You know, these are big ballparks. That's one of the differences in today's game from the stadiums that I played in. I mean, it's 410 in the gap. That was 410 where that flagpole was. And you had to be aware of it, but I mean it had to be a just a bomb to get it out there. So I didn't really pay too much attention to it. Uh, you know, when you get in your normal position, uh the tendency is to play too deep because you the fence is so far behind you, you turn around and say, Man, there's a lot of space there. So you have to play your like your normal depth. Uh and you know, so you got a hundred feet behind you now. So it's it takes a a little bit of getting used to when you do those kinds of things. But uh, as a rookie, the first thing I did in every stadium that I played is check out what the wall was like. It was there a flagpole out there, what could hurt me? You know, what was the fence like? Well, number one, they were all hard, there was no padding, but you could have flagpoles and things like that in the bigger ballparks. Um, and those are the things you had to learn. And and so I'd go to the first time going into any city, I'd go to the park early and I'd just spend time out in the outfield to see what it was like. Most of them weren't even leveled.
SPEAKER_00:Tiger Stadium did get you one night in the ribs, though, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I was with the California Angels, and uh, I went over the wall in right center, and there's an exposed bar at the top of the railing. It's probably a one inch uh in diameter, and I went over the top and I caught the ball, but I hit that with my ribs and I cracked three ribs. And when I did it, it was kind of like a delayed reaction because it was the second out, and uh Reggie was in right.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that's right. Reggie Jackson played for the Angels that year.
SPEAKER_01:Correct. And I I go back to my position and I I don't know how I did, but I got there and all of a sudden it hit me. Boy, I couldn't even move. I'm going, Reg, Reg, I can't move. And fortunately, nobody hit me the ball. And they came out and they kind of walked me off the field and they had to cut the uni off me to get it off. But yeah, that that one that one definitely hurt.
SPEAKER_00:I want to talk about 1975. That was such a magical year for you and the Boston Red Sox.
SPEAKER_04:On opening day, every seat in the park was jammed with the perennial Fenway faithful. But hope was their only ace in the hole. And few, if any, believed that the young hopes of April would survive and become the heroes of October.
SPEAKER_00:One of the things that made that Boston Red Sox team unique in 1975, you guys were young. I think you had four or five guys that were 23 or under. Even Carlton Fisk was only 27, I think, at the time. And Boston is a college town. You've got UMass, Boston College, Emerson, dozens more. So I bet Fred that those college kids were able to identify with your team. And Fenway that year, that summer was absolutely electric.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's a great point. The fans um definitely helped us out. In April and May, you know, it's cold back there, and the kids are still in school, so and nobody knew who we were. And we were playing okay, but we weren't setting the world on fire. But by the time end of May and early June rolled around, the team's playing really well. People start to look at us, and the fans, the kids, are all sitting in the bleachers, and they're basically the same age as me. So they really identified with the the group of guys that we had, like you said, a lot of young guys, and all of us were in Alpha. I mean, yeah. Dwight, uh, Jimmy, and me were all the same age. Uh you know, we're like 22, 23 years old. And most of those kids are high school kids, college kids. Uh I hear from all the time on Twitter about this. This very, this very point. And I think that's one of the reasons that made that 75 team so special is that we were so young. And that just doesn't happen in baseball where you get that many guys, big league level, and a city that wants to win and just just don't see it. Yeah, it was a real special team and year for sure.
SPEAKER_00:After sweeping the three-time world champion Oakland A's and the ALCS, you guys move on to face the big red machine in the World Series, which is arguably the greatest in baseball history. And game six, among the greatest single games, the first inning of game six, you come to the plate. You're crediting. Five hits of three. What do you remember about that at bat, that first at bat in game six?
SPEAKER_01:Well, the interesting thing about game six is that we had three rainouts. Rained so hard for three days. I don't know what the Reds did. I can't remember where they went to try to get some batting practice in. Probably some college nearby, but it just rained so hard. So we finally get to game six, right? But I got a little bit of a rest, and I felt pretty good. I just felt stronger.
SPEAKER_03:He's been in a little bit of a slump. He's had time to go under the stand in center field, make a lot of extra hitting practice trying to get back in the groove.
SPEAKER_01:And uh Nolan threw a ball right down the middle.
SPEAKER_05:And there's a hump beep from the field. Nobody back with beep for him.
SPEAKER_01:And I hit it, geez, I must have hit it 20 rows over the wall, over the bullpen wall. And I hit a ball that far since like May. So the extra days off helped me.
SPEAKER_03:Look at that polo throw. He worked at it yesterday and the day before, and it played off for him.
SPEAKER_01:And that put us right into the game right away. Because we had win. You know, we're down three games to two, got the crowd into it, and the place was just going crazy. And obviously, lots of great things happened during that game, but at least we got off to a really good start. Bottom of the 12th.
SPEAKER_05:And it'll be Fisk, Lynn, and Petrocelli against Pat Darcy, who has been very impressive in two innings.
SPEAKER_00:He has set down six Red Sox hitters. Carlton Fisk is hitting. You're on deck. What was your conversation, by the way? Because I think you had one before he goes to the plate. What do you and Carlton talk about? Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_01:We're watching Pat Darcy warm up. I don't think he allowed a base runner. He was a finkerballer. And we're just beating the ball into the ground. And Pudge says, you know, I'm going to hit one off the wall. You drive me in. I said, that sounds like a good plan to me. And so I had a great view of this, by the way. I'm I'm sneaking closer to the plate just so I can see the movement of the ball.
SPEAKER_05:And Fisk will lead it off as a single and has walked twice.
SPEAKER_01:Pudge is a low ball hitter. Uh, I don't know if the Reds knew that, but he'd love the ball down. Well, Darcy threw it down and in, and Pudge cut it off.
SPEAKER_05:There it goes! Along if it stays fair.
SPEAKER_01:And as soon as he hit it, I knew it had home run distance because it was just a bullet. And it just stayed fair. Just a fabulous moment.
SPEAKER_05:We will have a seventh game in this 1975 World Series. Cumbling Pitt becomes the first player in the series to hit one over the wall, into the net. Red Sox win it seven to six in 12 innings.
SPEAKER_01:Didn't really know at the time how big a moment it was. I mean, yeah, got us to game seven, and it was very historic, but then years after the event, um, that was just an iconic moment in all of baseball.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you think about it, too. There is nobody in the world, Fred, who had a better seat and a better view for that home run than you being on deck.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that was very true. I could see the ball coming out of his hand, see where the location was going. I said Pud just cut it right off before it could get down and end. He cut it off in front of the plate. And he hit it so hard it didn't have a chance to hook foul. Yeah. Now, if Fenway, say was like 340 down the line, it would have been foul. But you know, it's only 315 there, so it stayed fair and just you know, I had a vertical leap about three feet that time.
SPEAKER_00:I was I was happy. I know this is gonna upset Reds fans, but two things. If the Red Sox have Jim Rice in that series, I think Boston wins. And also, if there hadn't been so much rain that week, I think you make the catch of Joe Morgan's bloop hit in the top of the ninth of uh game seven that put the Reds ahead for good. Am I wrong? No, no, you're not.
SPEAKER_01:And those are two great points. I told Bench we did a a thing for MLB Network about game six, and and I said, you know, if we have Jimmy, uh, you know, we win this thing. And I think we win in six games. Uh because the guy that replaced Jimmy, uh Bonicas, I don't think got a hit, maybe got one. Um but Jimmy's our number four hitter in our lineup. You know, it'd be like them not having bench. Do you think they're you're gonna beat us without you? And Jimmy's in the Hall of Fame. So yeah, you lose that caliber of guy right in the middle of your lineup, that's a big hurt, especially against a guy like Gullet, they're they're big lefty. So it's a big miss for us. And I I really think we beat them in six games with Jimmy. Uh now the other point that you made when Morgan hit that little blooper, if we're playing at their place, I catch that ball. If you watch any play in the outfield during game six and seven, it was splashing. I mean, uh, there was water over my shoe in right center. It's mush, right? Yeah, that's right. So it was a very, very slow track, and I only had two pairs of spikes then. You didn't have like a hundred pair like you do now. And so they were wet and soggy, leather bottoms. So they weighed a little bit more than they should have as well. So it was just slow and slow and slow, and I and I almost got to it anyway. But yeah, I got it on one hop. It is I would replay that a million times because Jimmy Burton threw a great pitch, and Joe just tried to get the bat on it. Yeah. And I can say if it's their place on turf, it's in my back pocket.
SPEAKER_00:By 1982, you're a member of the California Angels, and after winning 93 games in the regular season, you meet the Milwaukee Brewers in the 82 ALCS. You quickly win the first two games, the Angels do. But before game three, and a lot of people may not realize this, there was a fire in Anaheim Hills near your house, and it probably cost the Angels the series.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's that's uh forgotten footnote, except for the guys that played on the team. There were probably uh seven or eight guys that lived in that area. And the fire, we got word of it prior to the game. So we all knew what was going on. And my house was on top of the ridge, and the the fire was coming from the south, and my house was just sitting duck, and as were a lot of others, but my house, since it was on top of the ridge, was the most exposed. So uh I think I think Sutton was pitching for them. We were just numb. I mean we're playing, but our minds are at home. You're thinking we may not have a home to come home to. That's correct. That's very correct. Uh so yeah, we it was a severe distraction for uh a bunch of us. And then finally, about the fourth or fifth inning, we got a call in the dugout that the fire had moved towards Villa Park, which is a neighboring city, and vacated the area where we all lived. And so we said, whew, okay, let's play. And I remember coming up and I got a double as soon as we heard that. But we gave them too much of a lead and we couldn't come back. And we let them get a little bit of momentum. If that fire doesn't happen, we might sweep them. But that didn't happen. And you've just never that's uh that's a crazy thing that could happen that could affect uh outcome of a ball game, but it sure as heck did.
SPEAKER_00:In 1983, you made your ninth consecutive All-Star game. The 50th All-Star game was to be played at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
SPEAKER_08:The American League with Rod Carew and Manny Trio, Robin Young, and George Brett on the infield, Jim Rice, Freddie Lynn, and Dave Winfield in the outfield.
SPEAKER_00:And in the third inning, with the bases loaded, you make all-star game history. What do you remember about that moment? Lots of things. Preceding that moment, this was my ninth all-star game.
SPEAKER_01:We lost every one uh to the National League. It seemed like they had the same guys out there every year, and they pretty much did. In the American League, we had a group of guys that were in that 10-game losing streak, but we had a lot of new guys each year. And when you play your first All-Star game, you're nervous. I don't care who you are. So we had a lot to overcome, and we were a little tired of hearing about how the National League was better than we were.
SPEAKER_08:The American League has won one All-Star Game since 1962. What that means is the American League has won one all-star game since Kennedy was president, won one all-star game since Pete Rose broke into the majors. That really lets you know it's been a long time between wins.
SPEAKER_01:And this is my hometown. Uh, I got a lot of family and friends there. And uh Whitey Herzog walked Robin Yao to load the bases to get to me. So the last time somebody did that was in the College World Series, we're playing Texas, and Gustafson walks uh a guy named Eddie Putman to get to me, but they brought in a lefty, and I had a three-run homer to beat him and knock him out of the tournament, and then we went on to win. So I'm I'm recalling this, I'm thinking, okay, it's been a while since this has happened, but I remember. And so now we're facing uh Atlee Hammerker. I understand the strategy because he had the one of the best first halves of any pitcher ever.
SPEAKER_08:You know what he did in April, Joe? He was the pitcher of the month, and you know why? Very simply. In the month of April, from April the 13th through the 23rd, a little more than 10 days, 11 days, he allowed only five batters to get on base. He got 58 out of 63. I mean, it was totally unbeatable.
SPEAKER_01:It was a crazy stats in favor of uh Hamaker. Well, anyway, Count gets to two and two, and he threw me two curve balls, pretty good ones, and I missed them both. And I knew he was going to throw it again. And he did, and it was a decent pitch, but I was looking for it this time, and I didn't miss it. As I remember rounding first base, and I'm thinking, well, okay, that puts us up seven to one. We are finally going to win a game. And I was so happy, not just for me, but for the American League. Uh, we finally got off the snide. And if you check the record book, ever since that game, the American League has dominated the Nationals.
SPEAKER_00:It's just such a great moment to go back and watch that. Listen, Freddie, nine-time All-Star, Rookie of the Year, ALM VP, four-time gold glove winner, and a member of the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. What an honor to be able to spend a little time with you today and talk about this history. It's so much fun.
SPEAKER_01:Well, thanks for having me. I appreciate it very much. You did a great job. You knew more about some of the things that most people don't need to think about. That question about the fire, that was outstanding.
SPEAKER_00:Well, thank you so much. Hey, and continued healing. Um, I wish you and your knees and uh you and your uh sweet wife the best. Well, thank you very much. Appreciate it. If you follow Fred Lynn on Twitter, you know that he's been recovering from double knee surgery, which if you look back at his career highlights, it shouldn't come as a surprise that one day he would need that. He was not afraid to sacrifice his body to make a diving catch in the gap or to crash into an outfield ball. Fred Lynn gave you everything every time he was out on the field, and as a fan of the game. If you're a fan of the Red Sox, you can't ask for more than that. Hope you enjoyed season four of the Lost Ballparks Podcast. Season five will kick off in May. A reminder that Lost Ballparks Clubhouse and Box Seat members not only get every episode of the Lost Ballparks Podcast a week early and a limited edition Lost Ballparks t-shirt, but they also receive audio and video updates throughout our off season, along with premium video content and previews of all of our upcoming episodes in the new season. If you've ever wondered how we're able to bring you this podcast commercial free, it's because of these folks, because of our patrons. Their support makes this podcast possible. Visit Lostballparks.com for more details on how you can sign up. Lost Ballparks is produced by Octavia Guerra, Ryan Beard, Riggs Buckingham, Mike Dunn, John Carter, Mandy Zavlakis, Brian Binger, and Kyle Schmidt. Looking forward to being back with you in May for another season of the Lost Ballparks Podcast.
