Too many players from the 1967 Red Sox have died at too young an age. The passing of outfielder Don Demeter on November 29, 2021 brought the number of players we have lost to nineteen. Since there were 39 players who are included on the 1967 Roster for the season, 20 members of the Impossible Dream team survive.
In addition, we have lost the following non-player personnel:
General Manager: Dick O’Connell
Director of Player Personnel: Haywood Sullivan
Manager: Dick Williams
Third Base Coach: Eddie “Pop” Popowski
First Base Coach: Bobby Doerr
Pitching coach: Sal Maglie
Bullpen coach: Al Lakeman
Trainer: Buddy LeRoux
Catcher Jerry Moses, who died on March 26, 2018, was not on the official 1967 roster but spent September with the team, and the 1967 Red Sox players of record considered him to be a 1967 teammate.
The following is a complete listing including date of death and age at death.
|
PLAYER |
DATE OF DEATH |
AGE AT DEATH |
|
Elston Howard |
1980 |
50 |
|
Jerry Adair |
1987 |
50 |
|
Don McMahon |
1987 |
57 |
|
Joe Foy |
1989 |
46 |
|
Tony Conigliaro |
1990 |
45 |
|
John Wyatt |
1998 |
62 |
|
Bob Tillman |
2000 |
63 |
|
Ken Brett |
2003 |
55 |
|
Russ Gibson |
2008 |
69 |
|
Jerry Stephenson |
2010 |
66 |
|
Dennis Bennett |
2012 |
72 |
|
George Scott |
2013 |
69 |
|
Dan Osinski |
2013 |
79 |
|
Norm Siebern |
2015 |
82 |
|
Jim Landis Ken Poulson |
2017 2017 |
83 70 |
|
Lee Stange Mike Ryan Don Demeter |
2018 2020 2021 |
81 78 86 |
If I am lucky enough to live to be 100, the Impossible Dream team will for ever be my favorite! R.I.P. Thanks for the memories!
Thank you for bringing back greay memories
The ’67 team has made me a life long Red Sox fan . Thanks for the memories.
came home from the army in 1966,bad year don’t know why but I listened to ever game in67 I could,truly the cardiac kids. every move D.ick Williams made seemed to pay off.every game seemed to be a comeback,great,entertaining season.
All.the games were Always either on our TV or on my dad’s radio.in the car and I Loved listeng/watching the games! I cherish all the memories of the dream team and they shall last forever!!!
Correction—The impossible dream!
Only about 80 games were televised in 1967 plus 7 in the World Series. So, we had to rely on radio with Ken Coleman and Ned Martin on WHDH-850 Boston or WTIC-1080 Hartford for about half of the games. I was 17 that year and living with my parents and brothers in Hyannis. During the day, WHDH came in fine but at night their signal experienced a lot of interference from other stations so we often listened on WTIC. Today, of course, ALL games are televised and, here on the Cape, we have a local FM station, WEII-96.3, that comes in with a perfect signal day and night. The perfect radio signal is great but somehow listening to a fairly weak signal fading in and out added character to the whole Red Sox experience.
Well said Marc.
I was in the fifth grade during the 67′ season.
I remember in school listening to a Sox game
on our loud speaker!!Memories that i wouldn’t
trade for the World..1975 series was another
over the top series…A golden age for us Sox
Fans….We were robbed of the BEST years of
Tony C’s career…….I LOVE OUR SOX…CHRIS
SALE IS THE REAL DEAL…THIS COULD BE
OUR YEAR…GOOOO RED SOX..
Sick Williams was a hard nose in your face manager. He got the best out of you or you didn’t play for him. How he would handle a team today would be something..
The Year of the Yaz 1967
It was a season unlike any other, as we all know, and we will never see its like again. Four teams battling for the pennant, and for awhile it was five. I was there for a double header against the Angels in August. We won the first game 12-2, and came back from an 8-0 deficit in nightcap, capped off by Jerry Adair’s homer in the bottom of the eighth. It changed baseball forever in Boston. I mean, even the nuns let us watch the World Series games! And to cap it off, my friends and me played basball every night for that entire summer. 1967 will never fade, and NOT because of the alleged summer of love.
Well said, Tony! Very well said.
I was there to. Lee Stange masterful in Game 1. Dave Morehead got knocked hard early innings Game 2.
Thank you for the kind words about Lee Stange, he was my brother and we miss him dearly.
I still remeber listening to the game when they came back from the 8-0 deficit with my dad on a transistor radio.
On Sunday August 20, 1967 in the second game they were down 0-8 and came back to win 9-8.
So many wonderful memories come back !
Actually have a lifetime of terrific Sox memories !
From Conigliaro to Boomer to Rico to Reggie Smith to Marty Pattin & Bob Veale to Siebert to Yaz to the gold dust twins & RemDawg to Buckner to Vaughn to Barrett to Youk , Foulke, Papi, Pedro to Bogey Betts Benintendi & sooooooooo many more !!!!!!
Great Memories I was in 2nd grade and a big fan going to a Catholic school and yes the nun’s even let us watch or listen to the games. I wore # 8 in little league. A true fan of the RedSox even today.
Those are great memories!
Thanks for sharing them!
In 1967 I was 9 years old living in Lowell, Mass. I attended Notre Dame de Lourdes parochial school, 3rd grade. When the Red Sox went to the World Series in 1967, the nuns refused to let the students watch the games in the classrooms, even though each classroom had a television. The school housed classes 1st through 8th grades. 1967 was a year when protests were common in America, and so it was when the 8th graders led a protest on the outside courtyard of the school, refusing to go back to class, unless the nuns televised the World Series. The protest cascaded down through every grade, every student refusing to go to class. The nuns, not knowing what to do, called the Monsignor of the parish to the school to force the students back to class. The students refused, till the Monsignor, and the nuns agreed to televise the World Series. The students won their protest, amid cheers from every student, returned to class, and the games were shown in every classroom. I lived and died with the Boston Red Sox that season, even sleeping in my number 8 white short sleeve Jersey with red sleeves. My mom, knowing how much I loved the team, and baseball itself, let me stay home “sick” from school to watch the 7th game. Thank you Mom, for loving me as much as you did.. R.I.P.
I was 12 yo going to St Joseph’s in Medford, Ma. The nuns let us watch the first few innings then I remember hurrying home to watch the rest
I was in Vancouver in 1986 and listened to the Red Sox-Angels playoffs everyday sitting in my rental car! Sorry, I know, wrong year!
Anyone, especially a Canadian 3,000+ miles from Boston, who will to the Red Sox on their car radio deserves a commendation!
A verbal high-five headed your way.
And thanks for the memories.
I was 11 years old and 67 was just so special. I can remember every player, their number and stats. It’s been over 50 years now and it seems like yesterday. So fearful memories. One other thing I noticed In reading the list of deceased players that Bobby Doerr the first base coach is missing.
Wonderful memories.
I met Jerry Moses at an opening day ceremony in a small town on the RI border many years ago. A real gentleman and class act.
Herb – This was such a remarkable year. I was able to procure a large number of the recordings (a 78rpm disc) which were done called, of course, The Impossible Dream. I had several hundred of them and our senior men’s hockey team had the rights to sell them at Opening Day in ’68 to raise money for our team’s future. Jay Riley and I were at Fenway and did our best to sell them – for I can’t remember how much. We had little success. The hockey team was called the Bud Kings, and I believe Budweiser was behind the production of the recording. Perhaps Budweiser could access a copy from their records.
However, the recording was truly a treasure, capturing the voices of Ned Martin et al as the action occurred during that marvelous season. Nothing like hearing it as it unfurled – and they were tremendous announcers.
For the life of me, I don’t think I have even one copy left of that recording. If you know of the whereabouts of one it, I would love to get ahold of one, even have it reproduced and put on the market as a nostalgic, historic piece. You really should have one as the historian amongst us.
Al the best, David G Morse
It was posted on YouTube
https://youtu.be/AASNajLVzVQ
Even with their 21st-century successes, 1967 remains THE great line of demarcation in post-WWI/Babe Ruth Red Sox history. There was the franchise from 1919 through 1966 and there’s the franchise during and after 1967. That season was the first one in any sport that I was sufficiently sentient to follow wire to wire; I still recall where I was on both days of that last weekend against the Twins on 9/30 and 10/1. Getting separated from my youth group in Fenway Park’s bleachers during a July game vs. the Angels was pretty memorable, too; I cried like a baby until I was found. My Victorian 4th-grade teacher wheeling a school-property TV into our classroom for a ’67 World Series game on an early-October afternoon was quite the surprise, too. All in all, what a great way to be introduced to the wide world of sports…….
All great stuff Don!! Herb Crehan
Many great memories. The last week-end against the Twins was something else. Yaz went 7 for 8 and baseball was reborn in Boston. We would never go to spring training thinking we never had a chance. I’ve always wondered what would have happened if Tony had not been beaned and Lonborg had not gone skiing.
Catcher Gerry Moses, who was brought up in September but did not play, has also passed away, approximate two years ago.
Gerry passed in 2018, at the age of 71.
1967 changed a lot of lives – including mine. I had no interest in the Red Sox until ’67, and the rabid interest which ignited in me by that season led to college in Boston (I wanted to be near Fenway Park!) and a career associated with sports. I owe a lot to that Red Sox team and the Yawkey Red Sox, in general.
A few notes:
==An earlier message posted here referred to picking up games on WTIC Radio, Hartford. WTIC has carried Sox games for approximately 60 continuous years and has long been the MOST important affiliate on the Red Sox Radio Network. Mr. Tom Yawkey picked up his team’s games on WTIC when at his retreat in South Carolina during the many weeks each season that he was not in Boston (usually April-May-early June). I have listened to the Sox on WTIC in dozens of states.
==Jim Landis was with the 1967 Red Sox for less than a week, as he was released after Ken Harrelson was signed. The Sox were the last of the six MLB teams Landis played for, five of them in 1965-66-67. He appeared in five games for the ’67 Sox and actually hit a home run (his only hit for them) in a victory. His son is sports agent Craig Landis who represented, among others, Paul Konerko – who played many years for the White Sox, as did Jim Landis.
==Isn’t it ironic that in BOTH the 1967 and 1975 World Series, the Red Sox were without their best righthanded hitter? Of course, Tony C. was out in ’67 and Jim Ed Rice missed the ’75 Series. I dunno who would’ve beaten Bob Gibson, overall, in ’67 but Tony could have made a difference in Game 1. In ’75, Rice very, very likely would’ve made a difference in at least one of the *three* one-run losses the Sox had in that series. Boston’s baserunning was terrible, by the way, some of due to horrible decisions by third-base coach Don Zimmer. Yes, Zimmer, the same man who cost the Sox division titles in 1977 and ’78.
==This 24-minute documentary on the Impossible Dream season is very good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l6f8zX7ghA
It was done by Red Sox Productions for the 40th anniversary. Among the new things in it which I hadn’t heard is Yaz’ selecting Gary Peters for an HBP by Jim Lonborg and the account by two of the cops who managed to get Lonborg away from the incredible mob of fans on the field after the game.
——
From a fan of the Yawkey Red Sox and of this excellent website (now living in Scottsdale, AZ).
Some great observations Massachusetts Man!
I hope we will hear a lot more from you in the future!!
Herb C
Thank you, Herb, for the compliment. I don’t want to monopolize your fans’ time but here is one more observation.
In the final five games of the ’67 season, Dick Williams went with Jerry Adair and Dalton Jones at 2B and 3B. Joe Foy started NONE of those games and Mike Andrews started only ONE, with Adair taking 3B that day. Williams’ gut was mostly validated as the Red Sox went 3-and-2 in those games (including the two wins vs. Minnesota on the final weekend), with Jones and Adair getting key hits and making key plays.
I bring this up because fate intervened in the RSox’ favor. On that final day, Adair was spiked at 2B in the eighth inning and Andrews replaced him. In the ninth, with the tying run at the plate and no one out, Andrews made a very, very good play on a 4-unassisted-to-3 double play as he tagged the runner and threw to 1B get a speedy rookie named Rod Carew. It was an extremely close play on both ends which I believe the much-older Adair wouldn’t have made because his range and agility weren’t as good as the 24-year-old Andrews. The RSox just happened to have the right guy in place at the right time.
Two notes on all this:
1.) When presented 51 years later with the idea that Adair wouldn’t have made the play, Andrews demurred, saying, “Jerry was a great glove man.” Andrews was not reminded of the difference in range and agility; his humility was not challenged. Mike Andrews is one of the finest people ever associated with the Boston Red Sox.
2.) Separately, Williams’ managing style still rankled players decades later. One of them told me that the only way Foy and Andrews knew they were not starting in that final week was by looking at the lineup card. Of course, we should still be grateful to Williams for skippering the “Impossible Dream,” but he should have taken Foy and Andrews aside and at least told them he was going with the hot hand in Dalton Jones and the veteran experience and glove of Adair.
From a fan of the Yawkey Red Sox and of this excellent website (now living in Scottsdale, AZ).
You can post everyday if you want! Your posts are that good MaMan! Of couse the publisher would have to check more than once a week but I would be delighted to that.
Those are fascinating observations.
Your good memories reminded me I had interviewed former Red Sox player Sam Mele who had also managed the Twins from 1962 until owner Calvin Griffeth fired him in early June 1967. Mele had managed the Twins to the 7th game of the 1965 World Series against the Dodgers, had winning teams in four of his five full years at the helm, and the Twins were 25-25 when he was fired, very much in the hunt. I tried to get him to say whether he thought he could have managed the Twins to the ’67 pennant but he wasn’t taking the bait! All he said was, “In his book Tony Oliva, [star outfielder for the Twins from 1962 to 1976], said we would have won in 1967 if they hadn’t fired me. That was very nice of him.” “Nuf ced!
Wow, great stuff from Sabbath A. “Sam” Mele. That might be another example of the Red Sox’ luck in 1967, Calvin Griffith’s idiotic change of managers. The Twins had actually had a super last 10 weeks of the 1966 season under Mele and, as you correctly say, 25-25 in June had Minnesota definitely in the hunt.
I am not surprised Sam was humble years later and merely cited the Tony Oliva book. Sam was such a wonderful presence in the Fenway Press Box in the late 1970s-early 1980s. I worked there and talked with him a LOT. Great person, he was.
Ya know…prior to the 1967 “Impossible Dream,” the “experts” in the Boston press expected Sam Mele to be the Red Sox manager in 1968. They figured rookie skipper Dick Williams would fall on his face and then Mele (by then reconnected with the Red Sox after the dumb Twins fired him) would take over. Ha! Dick Williams had other ideas….
From a fan of the Yawkey Red Sox and this fine website,
Massachusetts Man
Good stuff MaMan, as always!
Herb
Behind the mystery of Jerry Moses being on the 1967 team – he had been up for a “cup of coffee” in 1965, but did serve as a bullpen catcher at the end of the 1967 season and into the World Series.
Thus, he was with the team, but non-roster.
Next to 1975 Sox team was the 1967 team with Tony C. as my 2nd favorite as my 4th son was born in august great memories with one of best managers ever,Dick Williams pushing right buttons but the Cards with the best(I think) pitcher in baseball Bob Gibson beat us,big Jim just ran out of gas in final game bless.his heart. I’ll never forget that season.
Wow, what a season. I had 2 jobs in Boston summer of 1967 before heading off to Army basic training at Ft. Lewis, Washington. During the day, I drove a taxicab drive for Town Taxi (For the best in town, call Town) and worked in a sort of skid row liquor store on the east side of the Prudential Center, I believe on Huntington Avenue long before it was gentrified.
I didn’t have a radio in my cab and whenever I’d stop at a red light when a game was on the radio, I’d roll down my window and ask a person in the car next to me, “How are the Sox doing?” Everyone was listening to the Red Sox games that summer and I almost always got a score update in answer to my question. Impossible Dream mania swept the city.
When I worked in the liquor store, I had a transistor radio on which I could listen to the games. There were a lot of what we used to call “winos” in the area who would come in to buy a pint of the cheapest wine available and I vividly remember their asking me the score when they came in with their dimes, nickels and pennies to buy a pint.
Such incredibly great memories of the season. The emergence of Joe Foy, Jim Lonborg and Boomer Scott, signing Hawk Harrelson, the tragic beaning of Tony C, etc. I don’t think the World Series had half the drama of the pennant drive. Unfortunately I had to report to basic training in September, so I missed the incredible drama of the final weekend of the regular season, but wonderful memories of The Impossible Dream!