Who is the first Red Sox First Baseman you can remember?

charlieoscar

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And it is sort of sad that one name was missing from the thread-I am talking about Big Sam Horn
Sam Horn hit a monster home run in spring training that left the ballpark and hit about halfway up the outside of the football (?) stadium located next to it. This may have been after he left Boston and was with the Orioles. Anyone recall any more about that hit?
 

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Sam Horn hit a monster home run in spring training that left the ballpark and hit about halfway up the outside of the football (?) stadium located next to it. This may have been after he left Boston and was with the Orioles. Anyone recall any more about that hit?
I recall the legend, but I can't quite remember if it was when he was a member of the Sox or O's. But from what I can remember, it was an absolute bomb. Sorta like the one that Bo Jackson hit off Oil Can Boyd in Spring Training during the mid-to-late 80s.
 

ledsox

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1971 Boomer. My first Fenway game was in August. We got one of those big George Scott pins on the way out after the game.
 

charlieoscar

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I recall the legend...
According to an article in the Page 2 column written for ESPN by Bill Simmons, during spring break he and a buddy headed to Orlando to catch the Sox vs. Twins at Tinker Field. His buddy was driving and said they needed to leave after 7 because they had a dinner engagement with friends. In the 9th Sam Horn hit the ball out of Tinker Field that landed in the Citrus Bowl, located about 100 feet behind the right field wall. The article wasn't dated but Horn's home run appears to have happened in 1989 (there was a reference to the "new" Johnny Damon).
The tale is in a sidebar titled, "My Favorite Phenom": http://www.espn.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/020219

Simmons' friend, Gus Ramsey, posted his description here: http://gusramsey.blogspot.com/2011/04/simmons-sam-horn-and-picture.html

However, articles in the Orlando Sentinel (Mar 11, 1988 -- on Thursday) and the New York Times (March 13, 1988 --the other day) both describe it a little differently and have it occurring in March 1988. Both say that it hit the press box in the Citrus Bowl (90 feet high, almost 100 feet high), so the date appears to be March 10, 1988.
 

BuellMiller

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Yeah, i'd go ahead and guess that Bill Simmons was wrong about the date, since having an accurate memory has never been his strong suit. There would probably have been a little less excitement about Sam Horn in 1989 after he put up a .520 OPS in 1988, instead the year after an OPS of .945 in 1987.
 

Monbonthbump

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Now that the thread is winding down, can a mod or anyone in the know tell me if Big Sam Horn ever has received any sort of remuneration for the use of his name on this illustrious site-or if he ever acknowledged the lasting fame it brought to his name? Just wondering. By the way, I once heard Buck Showalter volunteer the information when he was an ESPN commentator that when a player strikes out five times in a game it is known as a "Horn". So I guess Sam has that going for him too.
 

54thMA

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George Scott in "67. Man, I'm getting old.
1967 Boomer for me too............was crushed when they traded him to the Brewers, so happy when they go him back. Played first base as a kid because I wanted to be like him.

I've told this story before, but years later while playing ball in the Yawkey League, I was in an All Star game and hit a double. He was coaching third base and during a pitching change, called me over to him and was telling me what to do on a ground ball, a fly ball, a base hit............I just stood there in awe as my childhood hero was literally standing in front of me, talking to me.

I honestly don't remember a word he said, I was caught up in the moment, a huge highlight of my life for sure.
 

Lose Remerswaal

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Now that the thread is winding down, can a mod or anyone in the know tell me if Big Sam Horn ever has received any sort of remuneration for the use of his name on this illustrious site-or if he ever acknowledged the lasting fame it brought to his name? Just wondering. By the way, I once heard Buck Showalter volunteer the information when he was an ESPN commentator that when a player strikes out five times in a game it is known as a "Horn". So I guess Sam has that going for him too.
Sam showed up for a couple Bashes back in the middle of the last decade. I know there was discussion of him getting something for the use of his name but I don't know if anything ever happened. We'd just change the name to Sons Of Scott Hatteberg (Shea Hillenbrand's a dick) and keep using the logo
 

etakbear

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Dalton Jones, 1967. And of course George Scott but for some reason Dalton Jones was my persona that fateful fall while playing catch with my brother, whose persona was Mike Andrews.
 

E5 Yaz

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Sam showed up for a couple Bashes back in the middle of the last decade. I know there was discussion of him getting something for the use of his name but I don't know if anything ever happened. We'd just change the name to Sons Of Scott Hatteberg (Shea Hillenbrand's a dick) and keep using the logo
No love for Sid Hudson or Slim Harriss?
 

E5 Yaz

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Dalton Jones, 1967. And of course George Scott but for some reason Dalton Jones was my persona that fateful fall while playing catch with my brother, whose persona was Mike Andrews.
You must have quite the selective memory. Jones play two innings of one game at 1B in 1967
 

ifmanis5

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Mo Vaughn was a force on and off the field for the Boston Red Sox and did a lot of work in changing the perception of both the city and the team. You can make the argument that while he wasn't a Hall of Famer by any means and might not have been the best player on his team, Mo Vaughn might be one of the most important athletes to come through Boston in the last 50 years.
Totally correct take. Mo moved the racial goal posts in a positive direction as much as anybody has in Boston.
I recall the legend, but I can't quite remember if it was when he was a member of the Sox or O's. But from what I can remember, it was an absolute bomb. Sorta like the one that Bo Jackson hit off Oil Can Boyd in Spring Training during the mid-to-late 80s.
Sam hit two notable bombs. The first was with Boston, the one in Spring Training that has been mentioned. The other was as an Oriole, where he hit a foul ball almost completely out of Memorial Stadium. Those two and the Bo Jackson jack are probably the longest Home Runs I've seen.* The hardest hit ball hit I can remember was a Manny laser in Tampa Bay, although legend has it that Ted hit balls like that with some frequency.

Anyway, probably Boomer II or Coop is my answer.

*McGwire's All-Star batting practice show not withstanding.
 

charlieoscar

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The hardest hit ball hit I can remember was a Manny laser in Tampa Bay, although legend has it that Ted hit balls like that with some frequency.
I recall Williams hitting a line drive single that struck the wall just to the right of the flag pole (when it was still on the field in left-center and there was no padding) that caromed so hard that an infielder handled it. No one would have gotten a double on it, ca. 1957.
 

ifmanis5

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I recall Williams hitting a line drive single that struck the wall just to the right of the flag pole (when it was still on the field in left-center and there was no padding) that caromed so hard that an infielder handled it. No one would have gotten a double on it, ca. 1957.
Wow. That's insane.
 

Lose Remerswaal

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Ball would need a whole lot of "English" to bounce to the infield considering the wall there is a continuation of the Green Monster and faces the RF Foul Line. Or, more likely, the 2B or SS fielded the ball well out towards center field, making it "handled" by an infielder.

Heck, with the shift they used on David Ortiz, an infielder was already standing in that position.
 

charlieoscar

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Or, more likely, the 2B or SS fielded the ball well out towards center field, making it "handled" by an infielder.
Sorry, I didn't mean to make it seem like it came all the way back to the infield dirt but it got a much further rebound off the fence than any other line drive that I have seen.
 

charlieoscar

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I tried looking at Retrosheet Game Logs for the 1950s but did not find that play; however, there are 18 games missing (but 8 of them were from 1950 while 4 were from 1957). Even if all the games were logged, there still is a problem because the Hit Location field was Null for all plays and in almost all cases the Batted Ball Type field was also Null: in other words, you could find singles listed as S6 but not know how the ball got to the shortstop. An alternative is that I misremembered but I don't think so because I basically didn't forgot anything.
 

Humphrey

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Vic Wertz, although the only reason I remember him is that the year I went to my first game was listed (1960) and I am 100% sure about that. (I know I saw Ted Williams play once). If I had to swear on a stack of bibles who the first baseman was I would have said Pete Runnels, who apparently played second that year. Pete's OPS must have been off the charts (in the negative direction) for someone that hit over .300...IIRC he hit a ton of singles.
 

Harry Hooper

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Ball would need a whole lot of "English" to bounce to the infield considering the wall there is a continuation of the Green Monster and faces the RF Foul Line. Or, more likely, the 2B or SS fielded the ball well out towards center field, making it "handled" by an infielder.

Heck, with the shift they used on David Ortiz, an infielder was already standing in that position.

Maybe the batted ball traveled just to the right of the flagpole and then caromed around the pole and back toward second base?
 

LoweTek

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However, articles in the Orlando Sentinel (Mar 11, 1988 -- on Thursday) and the New York Times (March 13, 1988 --the other day) both describe it a little differently and have it occurring in March 1988. Both say that it hit the press box in the Citrus Bowl (90 feet high, almost 100 feet high), so the date appears to be March 10, 1988.
I was there. It looked like it hit the press box but as I saw it, it actually bounced off the girders below. It was definitely a bomb. As I recall, the game was out of hand, one way or the other, at the time of the hit.

The stadium was not 100 feet from the outfield fence. It virtually abutted it. Maybe 20 feet back.

It's all gone now. Torn down to make way for the football stadium expansion. The NFL Pro Bowl is scheduled to be played there in a few weeks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker_Field
 

biollante

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George Scott. Seems like a different time and a different place. Big swing, lots of strikeouts, but fun too, played first well.

He died in 2013. I didn't know he was from Greenville, MI.
 

charlieoscar

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I was there.
Well, you were there: I wasn't. I recalled reading about it after it happened and reported what I found on the web.

However, the newspaper accounts that I cited said the ball hit 90 to 100 feet UP on the football stadium wall, not that it was 100 feet beyond the outfield fence. It was Bill Simmons and his friend, who left the game before the home run happened and were the source of 100 feet beyond the fence.
 

buckybleepenlittle

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Cooper and Yaz for me..

My first post all since 2004 "Win it For"! Lurking.since 04 chat back then too .Looking forward to this year. Don't know if any in here remember me
 

dwhogan

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Carlos Quinnnnnntannnaaa (I don't know if McDonough/Montgomery ever actually announced his name that way, but that's how i hear it pronounced). I have Buckner memories, but they're more in the "knowing that his name existed" than knowing him as a player. I remember thinking the Q was so awesome...and then he vanished.

Another random coming of age memory was being at a late season game in the RF box seats when young rookie call up named Phil Plantier smashed a home run. I remember the guys around me talking about how he was going to be a huge deal. He became the player i was most excited about, until he vanished into obscurity.
 
This thread doesn't seem to be going away, so I'll add. It really has been a fun off-season diversion. My answer was "George Scott" (2nd time around), but my memory has failed me a bit. I was eight in '75, so I remember hearing of the Sox making a run, and then learning about post-season games the following morning, but I wasn’t watching, and only knew a few players by name. I paid more attention in '76, but alas, Boomer was in Milwaukee that year. So really, Yaz was in fact the first 1B I remember. And I do remember him playing first, but my overall recollections of Yaz - and I was big Yaz fan - is as a LF. So I guess I wasn’t really watching games in earnest until '77.

That said, it's interesting that 1st basemen are marking the different eras (or at least different seasons) for so many posters. To me, the real definitive change was across the diamond. Folks just a touch older than I am watched the celebrated Rico Petrocelli. (Is "celebrated" hyperbolic? I think he was a guy that fans just took a liking to, deservedly.) I can't recall seeing much of him, although he split time with Hobson in '76. I never gave any though to which 1B I initially watched, but I remember - even as a kid - thinking that I had become a fan during “Hobson”, having missed “Petrocelli”.

I was excited and optimistic when Butch came back to manage. Oh well.

I also remember (growing up in New England on the front lines of The Rivalry) that kids would "debate" whether the Sox or yanks had the better player, position by position. Yaz (or Scott) vs Chamblis might be a heated verbal argument. Fisk vs Munson could lead to physical fights. I don't recall anyone taking a punch defending Hobson over Nettles. But I do remember Butch making some spectacular catches running into the dugout.

Boomer '77, final answer. Or Yaz.
 

keninten

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This thread doesn't seem to be going away, so I'll add. It really has been a fun off-season diversion. My answer was "George Scott" (2nd time around), but my memory has failed me a bit. I was eight in '75, so I remember hearing of the Sox making a run, and then learning about post-season games the following morning, but I wasn’t watching, and only knew a few players by name. I paid more attention in '76, but alas, Boomer was in Milwaukee that year. So really, Yaz was in fact the first 1B I remember. And I do remember him playing first, but my overall recollections of Yaz - and I was big Yaz fan - is as a LF. So I guess I wasn’t really watching games in earnest until '77.

That said, it's interesting that 1st basemen are marking the different eras (or at least different seasons) for so many posters. To me, the real definitive change was across the diamond. Folks just a touch older than I am watched the celebrated Rico Petrocelli. (Is "celebrated" hyperbolic? I think he was a guy that fans just took a liking to, deservedly.) I can't recall seeing much of him, although he split time with Hobson in '76. I never gave any though to which 1B I initially watched, but I remember - even as a kid - thinking that I had become a fan during “Hobson”, having missed “Petrocelli”.

I was excited and optimistic when Butch came back to manage. Oh well.

I also remember (growing up in New England on the front lines of The Rivalry) that kids would "debate" whether the Sox or yanks had the better player, position by position. Yaz (or Scott) vs Chamblis might be a heated verbal argument. Fisk vs Munson could lead to physical fights. I don't recall anyone taking a punch defending Hobson over Nettles. But I do remember Butch making some spectacular catches running into the dugout.

Boomer '77, final answer. Or Yaz.
Funny forgot Rico played 3rd. Always thought of him at SS. In 1971 when they got Aparicio he had an 0-40 or 44 stretch.
 

charlieoscar

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Maybe this should be its own thread but which Red Sox player hit the first home run that you remember?

I saw Ellis Kinder hit one in a televised game at Comiskey Park on August 6, 1950. And the first one I saw in person was hit by Hoot Evers at Fenway against the Indians on August 21, 1952 (Dick Gernert at 1B, George Kell at 3B -- Evers, Kell, Johnny Lipon, Dizzy Trout from the Tigers for Walt Dropo, Fred Hatfield, Don Lenhardt, Johnny Pesky, Bill Wight -- June 3, 1952).

The person who took me to that game worked with the brother of Cleveland's catcher at GE in Lynn. I sat in row three directly behind home plate with my baseball glove watching all the balls roll down the screen. However, I did learn to keep score, thus beginning my life-long love of baseball stats and I also got a baseball (that I still have) autographed by the Indians team that has five HoFers on it, including the first black to play in the AL.
 

Mike F

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Although only 6 I listened to games 6 & 7 of the 1946WS with my dad. Rudy York was my first. In 1947 a local radio station opened and featured Red Sox baseball. Clearly most games were day games so I could catch the ends after school and listen and score games all summer. So all the Dropo, Zauchin, Goodman and Runnels names are familiar. No one mentioned Harry Agganis, The Golden Greek. As a kid I thought he might follow the similar path as Lou Gehrig, college star to hometown pro hero. A truly sad story.
 

Bergs

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Maybe this should be its own thread but which Red Sox player hit the first home run that you remember?

I saw Ellis Kinder hit one in a televised game at Comiskey Park on August 6, 1950. And the first one I saw in person was hit by Hoot Evers at Fenway against the Indians on August 21, 1952 (Dick Gernert at 1B, George Kell at 3B -- Evers, Kell, Johnny Lipon, Dizzy Trout from the Tigers for Walt Dropo, Fred Hatfield, Don Lenhardt, Johnny Pesky, Bill Wight -- June 3, 1952).

The person who took me to that game worked with the brother of Cleveland's catcher at GE in Lynn. I sat in row three directly behind home plate with my baseball glove watching all the balls roll down the screen. However, I did learn to keep score, thus beginning my life-long love of baseball stats and I also got a baseball (that I still have) autographed by the Indians team that has five HoFers on it, including the first black to play in the AL.
In person or on TV? If in person, I am also Dave Stapleton, which is profoundly fucked up.

Edit: It was this game, the Allenson walk-off bunt. Unfortunately, my dad decided we should beat traffic, so we listened to the walkoff in the car.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS198208280.shtml
 
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Monbonthbump

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I saw Ellis Kinder hit one in a televised game at Comiskey Park on August 6, 1950. And the first one I saw in person was hit by Hoot Evers at Fenway against the Indians on August 21, 1952 (Dick Gernert at 1B, George Kell at 3B -- Evers, Kell, Johnny Lipon, Dizzy Trout from the Tigers for Walt Dropo, Fred Hatfield, Don Lenhardt, Johnny Pesky, Bill Wight -- June 3, 1952).
Wow, a mention of Hoot Evers! He caused me to become a Red Sox fan because listening to the radio as a six year old, I imagined him looking like an owl. That was before I ever heard about Ted Williams! The rest of my family liked the Cardinals since that was the only team we could get on the radio (KMOX). My first live home run was hit by Dick Gernert in the old Kansas City Municipal Stadium on Brooklyn Avenue. Williams played in that game but could only manage a single.
 

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I've been enjoying the memories... and while the first first baseman I likely saw was Stapleton or Yaz... the first one that really connected with me was Wade Boggs in 82... where he played half his games at first and the other half at Third... it wasn't until the offseason that the Sox moved Carney Lansford to open up 3rd base for Boggs.
 

Al Zarilla

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Maybe this should be its own thread but which Red Sox player hit the first home run that you remember?

I saw Ellis Kinder hit one in a televised game at Comiskey Park on August 6, 1950. And the first one I saw in person was hit by Hoot Evers at Fenway against the Indians on August 21, 1952 (Dick Gernert at 1B, George Kell at 3B -- Evers, Kell, Johnny Lipon, Dizzy Trout from the Tigers for Walt Dropo, Fred Hatfield, Don Lenhardt, Johnny Pesky, Bill Wight -- June 3, 1952).

The person who took me to that game worked with the brother of Cleveland's catcher at GE in Lynn. I sat in row three directly behind home plate with my baseball glove watching all the balls roll down the screen. However, I did learn to keep score, thus beginning my life-long love of baseball stats and I also got a baseball (that I still have) autographed by the Indians team that has five HoFers on it, including the first black to play in the AL.
You don’t mean that Hoot Evers was the first Sox pitcher you saw hit a home run, do you? Evers was a career outfielder.
 

charlieoscar

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You don’t mean that Hoot Evers was the first Sox pitcher you saw hit a home run, do you? Evers was a career outfielder.
I said the first home run I saw hit by a Red Sox player was on television by Ellis Kinder in 1950 and the first home run I saw in person by a Red Sox player was by Hoot Evers at Fenway Park in 1952. I didn't say anything about a pitcher (but I'm well aware of the positions each played).
 

Al Zarilla

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I said the first home run I saw hit by a Red Sox player was on television by Ellis Kinder in 1950 and the first home run I saw in person by a Red Sox player was by Hoot Evers at Fenway Park in 1952. I didn't say anything about a pitcher (but I'm well aware of the positions each played).
OK, read it wrong. I Always thought Evers looked somewhat like a RHH Ted Williams, at least in their 1951 Bowman baseball cards.