# 113 -- Rogelio Moret

Rogelio Moret








He's better known in later issues by the Americanized "Roger". I always connect he and Oil Can Boyd. Both were tall and thin. Roger was 6-4, 175 and The Can was 6-1, 150. They both pitched for just a few years with the Sox then went elsewhere and didn't do as much. They also each had pretty good winning percentages. Finally, they were each just a little nuts.



He was somewhat of a sidearming lefty. Not quite like Mike Myers, but he was probably more like Pedro Martinez in that he came from a lot of different angles. It must have been effective. From 1970-1975 he was 18-7 at Fenway, generally regarded as a place of death for lefties.



He was trying to get ahold of his control in the early 70's. He'd have probably stayed in the majors quicker, but he walked too many. For example, in 1971 he had a 4-3 record with a 2.92 ERA in 71 innings. Pretty good, right? Gave up only 50 hits and the league only hit .205 off him. That ought to work. He struck out 47, but walked 40. That won't keep you in the big leagues long.



He found his control in 1973 and went 13-2. In 1975 he helped the Sox to the World Series by going 14-3. There are references in the usually reliable Baseball Library and Baseball Reference Bullpen to him having a wreck at 4:30 a.m. on August 25, but going ahead and pitching that night against Jim Palmer. The game log shows Luis Tiant pitched (and lost) to Jim Palmer and that Moret didn't pitch between July 31 and August 11. Looks to me like he may have had the wreck, but didn't really pitch, simply missing that start.



He had 3 appearances in the 1975 Series. In the wild (that could have been said about many of those games) Game 3 in Cincinnati he came into a 5-5 tie in the bottom of the 10th with runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. It was that situation instead of a runner on 1st with 1 out (or nobody on and 2 out) because Carlton Fisk threw wildly to 2nd as Eddie Armbrister bunted. That was one of the most controversial plays of the Series, with Darrell Johnson certain that Armbrister interfered with Fisk. Moret intentionally walked Pete Rose to load the bases. He struck out pinch-hitter Merv Rettenmund and then Joe Morgan singled to center. Imagine. If the Sox had won this game then Fisk's Game 6 homer could have been a walk-off World Series winner.








The Red Sox sold high on Roger, trading him to the Braves for Tom House after the 1975 season. Turned out to be no big deal for either team. Moret then went to the Rangers where his career ended one day when he had something odder than a 4:30 a.m. car wreck 150 miles away keep him from a start. He was found in the locker room in a catatonic state holding a shower shoe outstretched in his arm. He never pitched in the big leagues again. He wasn't the same anyway. Still, I'll remember Moret as a skinny whip-armed pitcher that almost never lost.


1972 Feature
Juan Marichal fell to 2-10 on the season in a 4-0 loss to the Cubs. Who would have thought Marichal to have 10 losses 10 weeks into the season? Dick Drago shut out the Yankees 1-0. In the first game of a double header the Brewers and White Sox combined to hit 7 homers (2 by MVP Dick Allen) in a 6-4 White Sox win. Lots of solos that day. My Game of the Day will be the Tigers coming from behind with 1 in the 8th and 1 in the 9th to beat the A's.



Through 7 innings Ken Holtzman shut down the Tigers with 1 run on 2 hits. He'd retired 13 in a row since walking in a run in the 3rd. Aurelio Rodriguez tripled to lead off the 8th and scored on a sacrifice fly to tie the score. The A's get runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 out in the top of the 9th off Chuck Seelbach. Mike Hegan pinch hit for Larry Brown, but Seelbach picked Downtown Ollie Brown off 2nd to end the inning. Bill Freehan then sent everybody home with a homer leading off the 9th.


Billie Jean King's brother (Randy Moffitt) made his debut as a reliever for the Giants on this day. He had a pretty good career as the Giants' bullpen ace in the 70's.

#79 -- Red Sox Rookies (Garman, Cooper, Fisk)

Mike Garman

Cecil Cooper

Carlton Fisk

Here's one of the best multi-player rookie cards you'll find. All 3 had good major league careers, 2 were All-Stars and 1 is in the Hall of Fame.

Mike Garman didn't have a long Red Sox career. The Sox kept bringing him up but not for long, even in years like 1972 when they didn't have much in the bullpen. However he wasn't really putting it together. The minor league numbers on the back were also kind of unspectacular. However, when he was traded to the Cardinals, he put up a couple of good seasons and was the right-handed complement to Al Hrabosky. Then the Cardinals traded him for Don Kessinger. Whoops. However, Garman went downhill, too. He had another good year in 1977 and threw a scoreless 5 innings in the playoffs that year.

Cecil Cooper. What I remember most about him is a unique batting stance. It took him a while to establish himself as a semi-regular in Boston. Originally he would get platooned and not play against lefties. He was a great hitter. It didn't matter what anybody threw at him, he hit it. He got traded to the Brewers because there just wasn't any room for him, Jim Rice and Yaz in Boston. It opened up playing time for him and he finally got to play full time. He's 2nd or 3rd in most Brewers lifetime hitting categories. Of course, he's now the Astro manager.

Carlton Fisk. Everyone knows him for the big homer in the 1975 Series. He was a lot more than that. He was somewhat of a surprise as the Red Sox catcher in 1972. He hit 7th or 8th most of the year, despite winning the Rookie of the Year and finishing 4th in the MVP voting. He had early injury problems, but overcame that to be extremely durable. If it weren't for Yaz, he'd have been the face of the Red Sox franchise during the 70's. I have to say, I also remember him for the commercial where he was splitting wood in his flannel shirt hawking Skoal. I guess it was better than cigarettes, but looking back it's probably not the best product to endorse.

I have to show it:

#37 & 38 -- Carl Yastrzemski

Carl Yastrzemski

If Rico Petrocelli is a Red Sox hero, here's a guy who's in the Red Sox Pantheon of Gods. He’s a Hall of Famer, but on a back field in Spring Training in the main card. I think at this time the Red Sox were in Winter Haven, FL. (They shouldn’t complain….when Babe Ruth played for them, Spring Training was in Hot Springs, AR. Of course, that may have been so Mr. Ruth could play the horses.) Looks like the same dumpy place Rico Petrocelli was, without the other player in the background.

Yaz looks young on the main card. I remember him more from the mid-70's when he'd gotten the older and harder look to him. The card pose is the classic batting stance, which I like. The only complaint about the card is the cartoon on the back. If it's talking about him leading the league in assists, why does it show him making a catch? Would it have been too difficult to draw an infielder tagging a guy with the ump in the background making an out sign with the infielder having a word balloon saying something like, "Thanks, Carl!!"?

During a stretch in the late 60’s, Yaz was as good as anyone in the League. He was hitting .300 in 1968 when no one else in the AL could. He was hitting 40 homers when the mound was high and pitchers ruled. He was also the best defensive left fielder of his day and was remarkably consistent at the plate.

OK, the photo on the action card isn’t horrible. Looks like Yaz has smoked one on a hit and run. Is that Munson behind the plate? It looks like he's got dark Yankee colors, but that could also be Billy Freehan of the Tigers or Ray Fosse of the Indians.

Think about Yaz’ career. He replaced Ted Williams in left field for the Red Sox. How does it go replacing a legend? Ask Gene Bartow when he was at UCLA or Bobby Murcer following Mickey Mantle into centerfield. Sometimes no matter how great you are in your own right, it'll never be good enough.

Yaz was one of the few that could follow a legend. Then, Jim Rice replaced him in 1975, as Yaz moved to DH and play 1B until 1983. Just think, from about 1939 until 1986 the Sox had 3 regular left fielders and all of them were dominant MVPs during their career (Mike Greenwell was looking good to extend this. For a while). And now, they’re all in the Hall of Fame.

#30 -- Rico Petrocelli

Rico Petrocelli








Among those adorable Chowds, Rico is a folk hero. He was made for Fenway Park. I heard an interview last fall on XM’s Baseball Channel (before Sirius took over and ruined it) of he and Jim Lonborg talking about the Impossible Dream Red Sox team from 1967. He talked about how he tailored his swing for the Green Monster and the thrill of having the soft liner that was the last out in the pennant clincher land in his glove. He's written a book about that team called "Tales From the Impossible Dream."

He was a big part of their team, hitting 40 homers as a shortstop in 1969 while making only 14 errors. He started having injury problems in 1974 and was never the same after being hit in the head in 1975, although he fared well in the Series against the Reds.

Looks like a Spring Training pose on this card. George Toma sure wasn’t the groundskeeper here. That patch on the right side of the card looks about like some of the softball fields I’ve played on. I can’t figure out who that is in the background. I’m going to say it’s some pitcher, although there’s really no telling.

#2 -- Ray Culp

Ray Culp

Ray pitched in the Sox rotation the first half of 1972, but wasn’t consistent. His last start (and game) of the year was on July 13 when he was lit up by the Twins. Ray had arm troubles over his career, so I’m going to suspect he was hurting. After all, the cool cartoon question on the card back says he led the Sox in innings pitched in 1971 and he looks monkey-armed and exhausted. He was released at the end of the year and re-signed in 1973, only to prove he was out of gas. In his career he was a 2-time All-Star, pitching 2 scoreless innings and striking out Tony Perez and Randy Hundley. He finished a distant 3rd in the NL Rookie of the Year balloting behind Pete Rose and Ron Hunt.

1972 Feature

Baseball went to Spring Training in 1972 under a cloud. Marvin Miller and the Players' Association were talking about a strike. The owners didn't really think it would happen, but when April 1 hit, so did the first major league baseball strike. The players ended up getting $500,000 for the pension fund and a concession for arbitration, but nothing for free agency.

As 1972 started, Curt Flood's career was over, Andy Messersmith was coming off a 20-win season for the Angels and Dave McNally had four straight 20-win seasons under his belt. Every major leaguer who doesn't have to get an offseason job to make ends meet should look those guys' names up, read about them and send them and their family (Flood and McNally have passed away) a thank-you card every year.

The strike ended on April 13. Games started back up. However, the owners refused to pay the players for the 7-9 games they refused to play. The games were never replayed. That wreaks havoc on my 1972 Strat-O-Matic game because the players ended up with fewer innings and at bats, so they start running out of gas quicker. That wasn't all the havoc caused by the unplayed games, as we'll see later on.