Ticketstub to the Impossible Dream

[Kutcher55]

Was digging through my old ticket stub collection yesterday, which consists of mostly Red Sox and Celtics stubs from the 1980s, and I fell upon a nice little piece of history that I totally forgot I even had.



Back in 1967, the Sox were good for the first time in many years. My dad was in Europe that summer with his new bride (my mom) and a couple of other friends. In order to keep up with the pennant race he had to resort to buying the NY Herald Tribune which provided him with 3-day old recap of the American League standings. Most people over 40 here can relate. I had to do the same thing back in the early 90s when I was in Russia for a semester. My how things have changed.

When he got back to the states in August he immediately went to the nearest Filene's Department Store and bought a few tickets to the remaining Sox games. Back then, as you can see from the reverse side of this stub, the Red Sox would give Filenes a brick of blank tickets and when buyers came to Filenes, the Filenes ticket seller would call the Red Sox offices and ask them what tickets were available and actually hand-write the date and the ticket location! Hard to believe it used to be like this.



So Dad ended up at the final game of the famed '67 season, the 4-way pennant race between the Red Sox, the Pale Sox, the Tigers and the team they would face on October 1st, the Minnesota Twins. The game featured that year's Cy Young winner, Jim Lonborg facing the hard-partying socialite Dean Chance, who although now mostly forgotten was one of the best pitchers in baseball for a stretch in the 1960s. The Twins also had Rookie-of-the-Year Rod Carew (0-4 in that final game), Tony Oliva and of course the Killer Brew.

My Dad still has the program for this game. Because he was so nervous he rolled it so tightly into a ball that it remains in that shape to this day. I need to take a photo of it.

Sox won the game 5-3, with Lonborg aiding his own cause with a key hit and Yaz of course, in the prime of his powers, getting a tie-breaking bases loaded line drive hit up the middle. He was 4-4 in that game and most people know he carried the Sox in posting one of the best seasons a player has ever had in MLB history. According to my Dad, Yaz was so popular that summer that when he had his at bats there were news stories that the cars on the expressway headed to Logan airport would pull over and not enter the Sumner Tunnel so they wouldn't miss the action, thus causing massive traffic jams.

My Dad sort of teared up when he was telling this story because he had intended to go to the game with my Mom, but she insisted he take Gramps instead. When they got home they listened to the Angels beat the Tigers and then went out and celebrated.