A member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame, Dwight Evans was voted Red Sox MVP four times by the Boston Baseball Writers. It might not be a stretch at all to agree with Herb Crehan, who writes, "Dewey might be the most underrated player in the history of the Red Sox."

A three-time All-Star, Evans won eight Gold Gloves in the stretch running from 1976 through 1985. At one time or another, he led the American League in on-base percentage, OPS, runs, runs created, total bases, home runs, extra base hits, bases on balls, and times on base. He had a rifle of an arm, patrolling Fenway's capacious right field for 19 years from 1972 through 1990, and three times led the league in assists - but runners quickly learned not to try to score on Dwight Evans.

Born Dwight Michael Evans on November 3, 1951, in Santa Monica, California, his family moved to Hawaii when he was still an infant and spent his early years living in Hawaii, mostly before Hawaii was granted statehood on August 21, 1959. Hawaii was built on beach culture, and Dwight did not get involved with baseball until the family moved to the Los Angeles suburb of Northridge at the age of nine. He attributes his passion for the game to a Dodgers game his father took him to soon after they arrived in the area. Dwight joined Little League and both pitched and played third base, an all-star both at Little League and Colt League. At Chatsworth High School, though, "I tried out for the junior varsity baseball team and I didn't even get a uniform." He was determined, though, and not only made the team his junior year but made All-Valley in the San Fernando Valley League. He won the league MVP award his senior year and found himself being scouted.

He arrived on the big league scene like a bolt of lightning through the evening sky. Fred Lynn played in his first game on September 5, 1974 and proceeded to smash major league pitching to the tune of a .419 batting average and a .698 slugging average over his first 15 games. He followed that up with one of the greatest rookie seasons of all time, leading the Red Sox to the World Series and earning the Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, and Gold Glove awards for the 1975 season. Lynn was the first player to achieve this trifecta, an accomplishment matched by Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners in 2001.

Fredric Michael Lynn was born on February 3, 1952, in Chicago, Illinois, to Fred and Marie Lynn. At age one his family moved to Southern California. He was an only child, and after his parents' divorce in 1965 he lived with his father, a textile service executive. Lynn grew up in the Lutheran Church and remains a Lutheran to this day. He has a United Nations heritage: English, French, Spanish, Native American, Norwegian, German, and Bohemian.

As a youngster, he loved sports and enjoyed playing football, basketball, baseball, marbles, and track. Despite being raised in the Los Angeles suburbs, Lynn was a Giants fan and not a Dodgers fan. He did not like the great pitching/weak hitting Dodgers, but the big bats of Giants sluggers Willie Mays and Willie McCovey. His favorite players as a child were Mays and Roberto Clemente. He respected them as all-around players, with hitting ability, power, speed, defensive excellence, and a strong throwing arm.

He was one of baseball's freer spirits whose flakiness could drive management crazy. But Bernie Carbo's biggest legacy is hitting one of the all-time clutch home runs in World Series history, setting the stage for Carlton Fisk's more memorable blast that ended Game Six of the 1975 World Series.

Bernardo Carbo was born on August 5, 1947 in Detroit, Michigan. During his sandlot days, he developed the opposite-field batting stroke which would serve him well in later years. Carbo often played pick-up games at Edward Hines Park in the Detroit suburb of Nankan Township. As the only left-handed batter in games where the teams were often short of players, any balls hit to right field were deemed automatic outs. Thus Carbo was forced to develop his hitting ability to left field. Carbo described his first Little League hit to Herb Crehan: "First time up I hit a ball that went between the outfielders. I slid into second base, I slid into third base, and then I slid into home plate for a home run."

The first major league amateur free agent draft was held in June 1965. Rick Monday was the first player selected in the draft. The first player drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the first round was the seventeen year old Carbo, the 16th overall pick in the draft. To demonstrate what an inexact science the baseball draft is, the second round pick of the Reds was future Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench.

Steve Dillard was born in Memphis on February 8, 1951 but was raised -- and still resides -- in Saltillo, Mississippi, a town of around 3,400 people some 100 miles to the southeast of Memphis. Steve's parents were working in Memphis at the time, his mother for a catering cafeteria supply place named Vend-Foods and his father did a number of things, but eventually became tax collector for Lee County, Mississippi. Stephen Bradley Dillard was the oldest of four boys in the family.

Steve's father loved baseball and had played some in school, and played a little softball, but he really sparked his son's interest in it and encouraged him any way he could. His youngest three sons all played high school ball, but Steve was the only one to move into professional ball. "I started to play from the time I could walk, I guess," Steve remembers.

Dillard did well in high school, always playing shortstop, and Saltillo High won the state title his senior year. The summer before, the American Legion team from Tupelo, Mississippi on which Steve played won the Legion championship as well. Playing on a couple of standout teams like that, he got scouted a bit and attracted the attention of a bird dog scout in Tupelo, who recommended him to the San Diego Padres. His memory is that he hit around .520 for Saltillo High and he was drafted right out of high school by San Diego in the 13th round of the June 1970 draft, but had been granted a full scholarship to the University of Mississippi and elected to go to college instead.

Johnny Pesky's career got off to an unparalleled start, and could have propelled him into the Hall of Fame had World War II not pulled three prime years out. Pesky set a rookie record with 205 hits his freshman year (1942) but then served in the Navy for the next three years. When he came back, he twice more produced over 200 hits, in the Red Sox pennant-winning year of 1946 and in 1947. Had he managed over 200 hits for each of his three missing years, there is every possibility this lifetime .307 hitter could have made the Hall.

Born John Michael Paveskovich in Portland, Oregon on February 27, 1919, Johnny Pesky (he changed his name legally in 1947) was the son of Croatian immigrants. His father Jakov never did really understand baseball, but he and Johnny's mother Marija were both supportive of their middle of three sons when he took to hanging around the Portland Beavers ballpark located a few blocks from the family home. Johnny was just one of the kids around the park, but groundskeeper Rocky Benevento invited him in and put him to work. Before too long, Johnny was one of the visitors' clubhouse kids -- and clearly recalls hanging up the laundry of Pacific Coast League players only a year or two older than himself -- players with names like Ted Williams and Bobby Doerr.

Johnny had an older brother Anthony, a younger brother Vincent -- who spent a little bit of time in the Yankees' system -- and three sisters: Anica (Ann), Milica (Millie) and Danica (Dee.) Jakov worked in the sawmills until asthma forced him to retire. The older children took jobs; Vincent was the youngest and Johnny next-to-youngest. There was enough money coming in that it freed up the two boys to play some baseball.

Full name James Edward Rice
Born March 8, 1953, Anderson, South Carolina
First Game: August 19, 1974; Final Game: August 3, 1989
Bat: Right Throw: Right Height: 6' 2" Weight: 200

Selected to the Hall of Fame in 2009
Named AL Most Valuable Player by Baseball Writers' Association of America (1978)
Named AL Player of the Year by The Sporting News (1978)
Named Minor League Player of the Year by The Sporting News (1974)
Named outfielder on The Sporting News AL All-Star Team (1975, 1977 to 1979, 1983 and 1986)
Named outfielder on The Sporting News AL Silver Slugger Team (1983 to 1984)

James Edward Rice was born on Sunday, March 8, 1953, in Anderson, South Carolina, to Roger and Julia Rice. Residents of the town say that even as a lanky teenager, "Ed", as he was known to his friends, showed promise. He led his 1969 American Legion team to the State Finals. However, it was still a time of segregation in the south, and Rice, despite his promise, had to attend Westside High School--as opposed to the all-white T.L Hanna High. Sometime before Rice's senior year, when integration was mandated, Anderson's district board drew lines to decide who would attend what school. The resulting line was drawn so that the Rice household was included in the Hanna district. His engaging personality and gentle charm won over most of Hanna, and helped ease the racial tension that accompanied integration.

Rice's childhood hero was Westside alumnus and American Football League star George Webster, and Rice played football and basketball as well as baseball. In his senior year, Rice starred on Hanna's football team as an all-state kick returner, defensive back and wide receiver, and played in the North Carolina- South Carolina Shrine Bowl, leading South Carolina to victory. Baseball was by far his best sport, however, and when he was 18, the Boston Red Sox took him in the first round of the 1971 amateur entry draft (15th overall). [1]

After being drafted by the Red Sox, Jim played 60 games in 1971 for Single-A Williamsport in the New York-Penn League at the tender age of 18. He hit .256 with five home runs. In 1972 he was sent to Winter Haven in the Florida State League, where he continued to improve his skills, garnering 17 homers in 130 games. In 1973, the Red Sox promoted him to Bristol in the Double-A Eastern League, where he quickly flourished, winning the league batting title with a .317 batting average. He hit 27 homers and drove in 93 runs. Later that year, he joined the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox for the playoffs, and helped lead them to a Junior World Series championship over the American Association Tulsa team; in just 10 playoff games, he hit .378 with four homers. The next year, 1974, Rice played with the PawSox for almost the whole year, where he won the International League's Triple Crown, Rookie of the Year, and MVP (.337, 25 HR, 93 RBI). [2]

"He's the best I have" [1]. So said Cardinal manager Red Schoendienst when asked about Reggie Cleveland being traded to the Red Sox in the fall of 1973. High praise, especially considering the Cardinals staff still included Bob Gibson. Boston GM Dick O'Connell called Cleveland "one of the best pitchers around" [2]. In the winter of 1973, it was all upside for the 25-year-old Canadian, who had three solid major league seasons under his belt. Reggie Cleveland was poised to become a 20-game winner, if not the ace of a pitching staff, certainly a very valuable starter. Would he live up to the high praise and the equally high expectations?

On May 23, 1948, Reginald Leslie Cleveland was born in the small town of Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada. Swift Current, in the southwestern part of the province is situated 90 miles north of the Montana border, and 140 miles west of the provincial capital Regina, hard by the Swift Current Creek. It was a town of 6,000 or so when the future Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer was born to Gladys (Porter) and Bob Cleveland. It was the Porter side of the family that was athletic. Gladys played softball among other sports. Cleveland's grandfather, Leslie Porter, was scouted by professional baseball clubs but never signed because he could not be spared from the family farm [3]. Reggie Cleveland's father, Bob, was a ticket taker for the Canadian Pacific Railway but would soon rejoin the Royal Canadian Air Force (he had been a member during World War II) and move the family to the even smaller, more remote town of Cold Lake, Alberta near the Primrose Lake Air Weapons Range. Wherever the Air Force took him, Bob Cleveland would make sure there was organized baseball for his athletic son. The younger Cleveland played in small towns all over Alberta and Saskatchewan, usually playing with boys or men much older than he. In addition to baseball, Reggie Cleveland was a javelin champion who also lettered in curling and hockey for Beaver River High School, which is the Canadian Forces high school in Cold Lake.

It was baseball, however, where Cleveland was to make his career. After throwing a no-hitter for the Moose Jaw Phillies, Cleveland was discovered by Sam Shapiro, a diminutive carnival man and erstwhile "B-game" spring training umpire. While traveling with the carnival in 1965, Shapiro came upon the young righthander pitching in a semi-pro game and sent a telegram to his friend Red Schoendienst, then manager of the St. Louis Cardinals. Bill Sayles, Cardinal scout and former Red Sox pitcher, was dispatched to see Cleveland pitch, only to find he had worked a day earlier to help keep his team from being eliminated in a tournament. His next start was postponed by rain so Sayles asked Cleveland for a personal pitching demonstration. Sayles was impressed enough to offer Cleveland a contract with a $500 bonus. Cleveland was not impressed. Sayles raised the bonus to $1,000. Cleveland persisted and asked for more money but Sayles demurred. Later, the 17-year-old Cleveland reconsidered, called Sayles and signed the contract [4]. Reggie Cleveland was a professional ball player.

Some time during the 1975 season, pitcher Dick Drago stopped in a convenience store and was recognized by the counter clerk as a member of the Boston Red Sox. Not being familiar with Drago out of uniform the clerk asked the pitcher his name. Dick answered, "I'm Drago." To which the clerk responded, "Oh yeah, Drago Segui." [1]

That Dick Drago was mistaken for the older, Cuban-born, fellow reliever Diego Segui shows that Drago, while in Boston, played in the shadows of his more highly visible and more widely publicized teammates. Although never receiving the acclaim given to others, it is clear that he was a key player on his Red Sox teams; never was he more important than during the glory season of 1975.

Richard Anthony Drago was born in Toledo, Ohio on Monday, June 25, 1945. Of Italian-German descent, he had a typical middle-class upbringing in the medium-sized industrial city of his birth. Of course he played local youth baseball, culminating in being named a Connie Mack all-star. At Woodward H.S., Dick lettered in basketball and bowling as well as baseball. It was in baseball, however, that he truly excelled; his varsity record was 18-3, which included two no-hitters as a senior. Although he did receive some attention from scouts, Drago decided to accept a baseball scholarship to the University of Detroit. Although more known as a basketball or football school (the university dropped football in Drago's freshman year) it had recently produced a prominent baseball pitcher for the White Sox: Dave DeBusschere. Better known as a pro basketball player, DeBusschere was an eight-time All-Star in the NBA.

Full name Carl Michael Yastrzemski
Born August 22, 1939, Southampton, New York
First Game: April 11, 1961; Final Game: October 2, 1983
Bat: Left Throw: Right Height: 5' 11" Weight: 175

Selected to the Hall of Fame in 1989
Named AL Most Valuable Player by Baseball Writers' Association of America (1967)
Named Major League Player of the Year by The Sporting News (1967)
Named AL Player of the Year by The Sporting News (1967)
Named All-Star Game Most Valuable Player (1970)
Named outfielder on The Sporting News AL All-Star Team (1963, 1965 and 1967)
Won AL Gold Glove as outfielder (1963, 1965, 1967 to 1969, 1971 and 1977)

Saddled with the burden of replacing one of baseball's legendary players, Carl Yastrzemski carved out his own iconic Hall of Fame career, eventually escaping Ted Williams' extraordinary shadow enough to win 3 batting titles and 7 Gold Gloves, and earn 18 All-Star selections. In Boston, where he played the entirety of his 23-year career, he is remembered especially for his Triple Crown season that led Boston to its Impossible Dream in 1967.

Born August 22, 1939, in nearby Southampton, New York, Carl Michael Yastrzemski came of age in Bridgehampton, Long Island (population 3,000) where he often played alongside his father in local semi-pro games. Father Karol Yastrzemski (the name was Anglicized to Carl) and Yaz's uncle Tommy owned an inherited 70-acre potato farm, their work a "legacy from Poland, folks coming over here and doing what they knew from the old country." (1)

In his first of two autobiographies, Yaz wrote, "I'm told that when I was 18 months old my dad got me a tiny baseball bat, which I dragged around wherever I went, the way other babies drag blankets or favorite toys. I vaguely remember playing catch with him as a very small boy, but my first clear memory is hitting tennis balls in the back yard against his pitching after supper every night when I was about six. Later we played make-believe ball games between the Yankees and the Red Sox, my two favorite teams..." (2)

Bill Lee was one of those rare ballplayers whose off-field persona overshadowed his significant on-field performance. In baseball parlance, Lee is known as a "flake," a term that includes anyone who doesn't give pat answers to pat questions or dares to admit to reading a book without pictures. He was an original in a sport that often frowns on any show of originality. In fairness, Lee would have been an eccentric in almost any field he chose to pursue, but in baseball, he was considered positively certifiable. His often-outrageous statements and bizarre actions marked him as an oddity and ensured him a lasting reputation in the buttoned-down baseball world. They also earned him the nickname "Spaceman," a title he never fully embraced, arguing that his first priority was always Mother Earth. Nevertheless, Lee's record speaks for itself and places him in the company of some of the best pitchers in Red Sox history. 

Boston being a city where blue collar and scholar co-exist, a city of stark contrasts, it is not surprising that he would be embraced by some and derided by others. When he called the city racist for the opposition to forced busing of black students to white schools, he alienated a conservative element in the city. But he won hardcore baseball fans over with his solid work ethic while on the mound.
 
William Francis Lee III was born in Burbank, California, on December 28, 1946, the son of William Francis Lee Jr. and Paula Theresa (Hunt) Lee. His baseball lineage is impeccable. His father had played sandlot ball and later fast-pitch softball. His grandfather, William F. Lee Sr., was a highly touted infielder in the 1900s in Los Angeles. His aunt, Annabelle Lee ("the best athlete in our family", according to Bill himself), was a star in the Women's Semi-Pro Hardball League in Chicago. She too was a southpaw, and played with the Minneapolis Millerettes, the Grand Rapids Chicks, and the Fort Wayne Daisies, in the All-American Girl's Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). In 1944, Lee pitched a perfect game for the Daisies against the Kenosha Comets.

Nashville native and Red Sox catcher Bob Montgomery was born as Robert Edward Montgomery on April 16, 1944. He played his entire career with one major league team - the Boston Red Sox - a career that encompassed the 1970s, from his debut on September 6, 1970 to his final game on September 9, 1979.

Monty took a while to make the majors, initially signed as an amateur free agent by the Red Sox on June 9, 1962. Baseball ran in the family. His father played sandlot ball and was apparently pretty good. Bob's brother Gerald was also in the Red Sox farm system for a while. Bob himself played several sports for Central High School in the Tennessee capital, and was all-state in three sports, but it was always baseball that held the greatest appeal. For Central, he pitched, played first base, and played outfield. It was only later that he made the move to set up behind the plate.

After high school graduation, Red Sox scout George Digby got Bob Montgomery's signature on a contract and the 18-year-old was assigned to the Olean, New York team in Boston's farm system. There he played third base and batted .273, earning him a step up in the system in 1963. The new year saw Montgomery playing in Waterloo, Iowa under manager Len Okrie. Monty explained to author Herb Crehan that Okrie suggested he become a catcher. Okrie told him, "If you want to make it to the majors, you're going to have to make yourself into a catcher. You don't have the power to make it at the corner positions in the majors, but you could make it as a catcher." Monty got in a little backstop work late in '63, but the following year served as the full-time catcher for Waterloo and even made the league's All-Star team. He told Crehan that he'd found the transition a relatively easy one.

Rick Wise won 188 major league ballgames, threw a no-hitter (and barely missed three or four others), and was the winning pitcher in what many still say was the greatest baseball game ever played, Game Six of the 1975 World Series.

He had a lot of support from his family growing up.  Wise's father was a high school history teacher, who took a teaching job in Oregon after World War II was over and moved the family from Michigan to the east side of Portland in 1948 or 1949.  Rick was born on September 13, 1945, in Jackson, Michigan, but was raised in Portland. Rick's father had been a baseball pitcher under legendary coach Ray Fisher at the University of Michigan (going up against Michigan State's Robin Roberts). He'd also played football behind Tom Harmon. He had quite a sports background, and both he and Rick's mother worked with their son as he developed as a ballplayer.

Rick had two brothers and two sisters.  His youngest brother, Tom, played in the Astros organization.  Tommy Wise was about 10 years younger, and reached the Double-A or Triple-A level but had knee surgery on both knees.  He pitched some but was primarily a power-hitting third baseman/outfielder.  Rick and his wife have two children and four grandchildren. None of them have pursued sports professionally.

On October 16, 1975 in the eighth inning of Game Five of the World Series, the Red Sox trailed the Reds 5 to 1. In the bottom of the eighth, Dick Pole walked Johnny Bench and Tony Perez. Diego Segui, one of Boston's two Cuban pitchers, replaced him and inherited a tough situation with two men on, no outs, George Foster advancing to the plate, and a crowd of 50,000 not satisfied with the comfortable lead. Later, Dick Pole was asked what he thought about while out there during the few minutes of his World Series mound appearance. He said it was exactly what he didn't want to have happen, and he'd have to live with that memory.

No one asked Diego Segui about his own performance, how Foster, a formidable hitter during the regular season, hit a fly out to Dwight Evans, with Bench moving over to third and Perez waiting it out on first, and Dave Concepcion drove home Bench with his own fly to Evans, and Cesar Geronimo flew out to Fred Lynn to end the inning.

Yet there is little glory in it for the relief pitcher. Their brief mound appearances provide scant inspiration to reporters prowling for after-game stories. Diego Segui had traveled a long way in major league baseball before he found himself on the mound in his only World Series appearance, and yet there is a great story to be told about him.

Luis Clemente Tiant y Vega, a charismatic right-handed pitcher who Reggie Jackson called "the Fred Astaire of baseball," won 229 games over parts of 19 seasons in the major leagues. His mid-career comeback, dramatic family reunion and World Series heroics inspired a region, likely leaving him the most beloved man ever to play for the Boston Red Sox.

Tiant was born in Marianao, Cuba, the son of Luis and Isabel. His father, Luis Eleuterio Tiant, was a legendary left-handed pitcher, starring in the Cuban Leagues and the American Negro Leagues for 20 years. He was famous for a variety of outstanding pitches (including a spitball and a knuckleball), a tremendous pickoff move, and an exaggerated pirouette pitching motion. As late as 1947, at the age of 41, Luis put together a 10-0 record for the New York Cubans and pitched in the East-West All-Star Game. Monte Irvin claimed that the elder Tiant would have been a "great, great star" had he been able to play in the major leagues.

The younger Tiant was an only child, and grew up in a baseball-mad country. Luis was a star on various local youth teams, and as a 16-year-old played on an all-star club that traveled to Mexico City for an international tournament. His father did not encourage his making a career of the game, believing there was little chance of a black man being successful in baseball, but his mother was more supportive and carried the day.

James Arthur Willoughby was a right-handed pitcher perhaps best known for his contributions to the 1975 Boston Red Sox (including being pinch hit for in Game Seven of the World Series). Willoughby also pitched for the San Francisco Giants and the Chicago White Sox.

"Willow," as he was often called, was born in Salinas, California, on January 31, 1949 (the same date as Fred Kendall, briefly his Red Sox teammate in 1978). He has two younger sisters, Marcy and Beverly. Son of James Roger Willoughby, a noted scuba diver, and Marlene Dickison, and he takes pride in having three-eighths Pottawatomi blood in addition to British ancestry. His great-aunt Mamie Echo Hawk served as the tribe's chief lobbyist for years in Washington. (A later Red Sox hurler, John Henry Johnson, also had some Pottawatomi blood.)

Willoughby was raised in the San Joaquin valley town of Gustine, California, and grew up a Yankees fan because his mother came from Mickey Mantle's home state of Oklahoma. As a youth, Willow also particularly admired Jim Thorpe and Satchel Paige.

Before Curt Schilling and the bloody sock in 2004, one player who personified toughness in a Boston Red Sox uniform was Butch Hobson. Hobson's legacy is that of a power-hitting third baseman who brought a football mentality to the diamond in the way he played through pain and gave every ounce of effort on the field that his body could muster.
 
Clell Lavern (Butch) Hobson Jr. was born on August 17, 1951, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. An American Legion and Bessemer (Alabama) High School Most Valuable Player, he followed in his father's footsteps to play football and baseball at the University of Alabama. His dad, a three-year letterman at quarterback for Alabama, was Hobson's football coach at Bessemer High where Butch was named to the All-Jefferson County team as a quarterback. Hobson was a safety and backup quarterback at Alabama playing on the gridiron for legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. In the 1972 Orange Bowl national championship game won by Nebraska over Alabama by a 38-6 score, Hobson ran the "wishbone" offense for the Crimson Tide after starting quarterback Terry Davis was injured in the fourth quarter. Alabama's most successful offensive options in that game were the option running and draw plays executed by their quarterback tandem. According to Herb Crehan in Red Sox Heroes of Yesteryear, Hobson carried the ball 15 times, rushing for 59 yards in the Orange Bowl.
 
Entering his senior year at Alabama, Hobson decided to concentrate solely on baseball. As reported to Baseball Digest's Kevin Glew, "I told Coach Bryant my decision and he told me, 'Well, Butch from what I've seen of you on the baseball field, you'll be playing football for me next year'"   Hobson's choice proved to be a wise one. In 1973, he was the team leader in hits (38), home runs (13), and RBI (37), and tied for the team lead in runs (20). He set a new Southeastern Conference home run record. He was named to the ABCA All-South Region Team and was a First Team All-SEC selection. Hobson lettered in baseball at Alabama in 1970, 1972 and 1973, playing for coaches Joe Sewell and Hayden Riley. He hit .250 for his collegiate career (80-for-320) with 18 homers and 54 RBI. In 1993, Hobson was named to Alabama's All-Century baseball team in commemoration of the school's 100th anniversary of baseball.

Full name Carlton Ernest Fisk
Born December 26, 1947, Bellows Falls, Vermont
First Game: September 18, 1969; Final Game: June 22, 1993
Bat: Right Throw: Right Height: 6' 3" Weight: 200

Selected to the Hall of Fame in 2000
Named AL Rookie of the Year by Baseball Writers' Association of America (1972)
Named AL Rookie Player of the Year by The Sporting News (1972)
Named catcher on The Sporting News AL All-Star Team (1972, 1977, 1983, 1985 and 1990)
Won AL Gold Glove as catcher (1972)
Named catcher on The Sporting News AL Silver Slugger Team (1981, 1985 and 1988)

Born in Bellows Falls, Vermont, on December 26, 1947, Carlton Fisk embodies traditional New England values like pride, ruggedness, and individuality. That was what Boston Red Sox public relations director Dick Bresciani was trying to capture in 1997 when he wrote that Fisk was a "native of Vermont" on his original plaque for the Red Sox Hall of Fame. But the greatest baseball player ever born in Vermont -- and the man responsible for perhaps the most dramatic moment in New England sports history -- doesn't consider himself a Vermonter. Fisk grew up on the other side of the Connecticut River in Charlestown, New Hampshire, a town of less than 1,000 inhabitants - it just so happened that Bellows Falls had the nearest hospital. So in a display of traditional New England stubbornness, Fisk insisted that his plaque be re-cast (at a cost of $3,000 to the Red Sox) to delete the Vermont reference and reflect that he was raised in New Hampshire.

Fisk did play American Legion baseball in Vermont for Post Five in the town of his birth, and for years a simple white sign with an "X" marked the spot at the Bellows Falls field where one of his blasts landed. In fact, in his first at-bat for Bellows Falls back in 1965, Fisk crushed a home run at Cooperstown's famous Doubleday Field, on the site where baseball was supposedly invented. In storybook fashion, he returned to Cooperstown in 2000 for his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Carlton Ernest Fisk inherited his extraordinary work ethic and athletic talent from his parents. His father, Cecil, worked for 13years as an engineer in the tool-and-dye industry in Springfield, Vermont. A job like that would be enough for most people, but Cecil also worked the Fisk family farm. Often he dismounted from the tractor, raced to a local tennis match, soundly defeated his opponent, then returned to the farm to resume his chores. In addition to tennis, Cecil also was a superb basketball player. Carlton's mother, Leona, was famous in her own right as a champion candlepin bowler. Certainly the gene for coordination ran deep in the Fisk family.