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April 10, 2007
Just back from the interview room, where six members of the 1967 team -- Carl Yastrzemski, Reggie Smith, Dick Williams, Rico Petrocelli, Dan Osinski and Jose Santiago -- talked with two dozen media members for about 45 minutes.
''You guys are going to miss the first pitch!'' Yaz joked as they entered the room and assembled around the table. But, in actuality, we didn't; the room has a high definition television and the entire first inning -- Josh Beckett's efficient dispatching of the Mariners and Jeff Weaver's bloody mess of a 47-pitch, four-run disaster -- was wallpaper to three-quarters of an hour of fascinating Boston baseball talk.
Yaz eventually left early -- ''I want to go see the ballgame,'' he said genially as he stood up and headed out about half-an-hour into the conversation -- but the others were willing to talk as long as we had questions. They're all fully aware of their place in Boston baseball history and there's no question they appreciate the affection Boston fans have for them even after all these years. ''The best fans in the world are in New England, and maybe the best of them all are right here in Boston,'' said Williams, who ought to know. (He played in four other cities before arriving here as a player in 1963, and managed in five others after being fired as Sox manager in 1969.) ''They understand the game and they know who's putting out and who isn't.''
They were candid, almost extraordinarily so. Williams admitted he didn't get along with the late Tony Conigliaro, but had nothing but praise and admiration for Tony C.'s skills as a hitter. (''People said it was because I didn't like Italians,'' he added. ''Well, I've been married to one now for 52 years. And Billy Conigliaro'' -- who also was part of the ceremony, taking his brother's place in right field even though he didn't join the Sox himself until 1969 -- ''won the center-field job for me in Oakland [in 1973].'') Osinski, sitting two seats away from his old manager, said he and Williams weren't the best of friends, either. ''But no one could have come in here and did a better job than he did,'' Osinski added.
They remembered moments. Santiago recounted his surprising home run against Bob Gibson in Game 1 of the 1967 World Series (''He hung a slider''), and Petrocelli talked of the night that 15,000 people greeted the team at Logan Airport on a Sunday night after it had extended its winning streak to 10 games. But the most meaningful remembrances came from Smith, who had a bitter departure from Boston in 1973.
''To be standing in center field in Fenway Park, and wearing this uniform again for the first time in 34 years . . . it's very special,'' he said.
Bill Reynolds will have a column on the '67 Sox, and more from this press conference, tomorrow on projo.com and in The Providence Journal.
-- ART MARTONE
Posted by Art Martone 
at 2:43 PM to Martone
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