1979 Boston Red Sox season

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1979 Boston Red Sox
LeagueAmerican League
DivisionEast
BallparkFenway Park
CityBoston, Massachusetts
Record91–69 (.569)
Divisional place3rd (11+1⁄2 GB)
OwnersBuddy LeRoux, Haywood Sullivan, Jean Yawkey
PresidentJean Yawkey
General managerHaywood Sullivan
ManagerDon Zimmer
TelevisionWSBK-TV, Ch. 38
(Ned Martin, Ken Harrelson)
RadioWITS-AM 1510
(Ken Coleman, Rico Petrocelli)
StatsESPN.com
BB-reference
← 1978 Seasons 1980 →

The 1979 Boston Red Sox season was the 79th season in the franchise's Major League Baseball history. The Red Sox finished third in the American League East with a record of 91 wins and 69 losses, 11+1⁄2 games behind the Baltimore Orioles, who went on to win the AL championship.

Offseason[edit]

On December 7, 1978, pitcher Bill Lee was traded to the Montreal Expos for infielder Stan Papi.[1]

Regular season[edit]

Record by month[2]
Month Record Cumulative AL East Ref.
Won Lost Won Lost Position GB
April 13 7 13 7 1st +1⁄2 [3]
May 14 12 27 19 2nd 2 [4]
June 20 8 47 27 2nd 4+1⁄2 [5]
July 15 13 62 40 2nd 7+1⁄2 [6]
August 16 13 78 53 3rd 8+1⁄2 [7]
September 13 16 91 69 3rd 11+1⁄2 [8]

The Red Sox only played 160 games, as a home game scheduled against the Milwaukee Brewers on August 12,[9] and an away game scheduled against the Chicago White Sox on August 29,[10] were rained out and not rescheduled.

Highlights[edit]

Fred Lynn had a league-leading .333 batting average and had 39 home runs and 122 RBIs, while Jim Rice batted .325 with 39 homers and 130 RBIs. On the pitching staff, Dennis Eckersley was 17–10, down from 20–8 the prior season, and Mike Torrez was 16–13, matching his record of the previous year.

The season also featured Carl Yastrzemski's 3,000th hit and his 400th home run. His 400th home run came off of Mike Morgan of the Athletics on July 24.[11] Yaz became the seventh AL player and 18th MLB player to collect 400 home runs.[12] He joined the 3,000 hit club with a single off of Jim Beattie of the Yankees on September 12.[13] Yaz was the 15th player to collect 3,000 major league hits, and the first AL player to have both 3,000 hits and 400 home runs.[14]

Season standings[edit]

AL East 		W L Pct. GB Home Road
Baltimore Orioles 102 57 0.642 — 55–24 47–33
Milwaukee Brewers 95 66 0.590 8 52–29 43–37
Boston Red Sox 91 69 0.569 11½ 51–29 40–40
New York Yankees 89 71 0.556 13½ 51–30 38–41
Detroit Tigers 85 76 0.528 18 46–34 39–42
Cleveland Indians 81 80 0.503 22 47–34 34–46
Toronto Blue Jays 53 109 0.327 50½ 32–49 21–60

Record vs. opponents[edit]

1979 American League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK SEA TEX TOR
Baltimore — 8–5 9–3 8–3 8–5 7–6 6–6 8–5 8–4 5–6 8–4 10–2 6–6 11–2
Boston 5–8 — 5–7 5–6 6–7 8–5 8–4 8–4 9–3 5–8 9–3 8–4 6–6 9–4
California 3–9 7–5 — 9–4 6–6 4–8 7–6 7–5 9–4 7–5 10–3 7–6 5–8 7–5
Chicago 3–8 6–5 4–9 — 6–6 3–9 5–8 5–7 5–8 4–8 9–4 5–8 11–2 7–5
Cleveland 5–8 7–6 6–6 6–6 — 6–6 6–6 4–9 8–4 5–8 8–4 7–5 5–7 8–5
Detroit 6–7 5–8 8–4 9–3 6–6 — 5–7 6–7 4–8 7–6 7–5 7–5 6–6 9–4
Kansas City 6–6 4–8 6–7 8–5 6–6 7–5 — 5–7 7–6 5–7 9–4 7–6 6–7 9–3
Milwaukee 5–8 4–8 5–7 7–5 9–4 7–6 7–5 — 8–4 9–4 6–6 9–3 9–3 10–3
Minnesota 4–8 3–9 4–9 8–5 4–8 8–4 6–7 4–8 — 7–5 9–4 10–3 4–9 11–1
New York 6–5 8–5 5–7 8–4 8–5 6–7 7–5 4–9 5–7 — 9–3 6–6 8–4 9–4
Oakland 4–8 3–9 3–10 4–9 4–8 5–7 4–9 6–6 4–9 3–9 — 8–5 2–11 4–8
Seattle 2–10 4–8 6–7 8–5 5–7 5–7 6–7 3–9 3–10 6–6 5–8 — 6–7 8–4
Texas 6–6 6–6 8–5 2–11 7–5 6–6 7–6 3–9 9–4 4–8 11–2 7–6 — 7–5
Toronto 2–11 4–9 5–7 5–7 5–8 4–9 3–9 3–10 1–11 4–9 8–4 4–8 5–7 —


Notable transactions[edit]

Opening Day lineup[edit]

  2 Jerry Remy 2B
  7 Rick Burleson SS
19 Fred Lynn CF
14 Jim Rice DH
  8 Carl Yastrzemski     LF
15 George Scott 1B
  3 Jack Brohamer 3B
24 Dwight Evans RF
10 Bob Montgomery C
43 Dennis Eckersley P

Source:[17]

Roster[edit]

1979 Boston Red Sox
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

Coaches

Player stats[edit]

Batting[edit]

Starters by position[edit]

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Gary Allenson 108 241 49 .203 3 22
1B Bob Watson 84 312 105 .337 13 53
2B Jerry Remy 80 306 91 .297 0 29
SS Rick Burleson 153 627 174 .278 5 60
3B Butch Hobson 146 528 138 .261 28 93
LF Jim Rice 158 619 201 .325 39 130
CF Fred Lynn 147 531 177 .333 39 122
RF Dwight Evans 152 489 134 .274 21 58
DH Carl Yastrzemski 147 518 140 .270 21 87

Other batters[edit]

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Carlton Fisk 91 320 87 .272 10 42
Jack Brohamer 64 192 51 .266 1 11
George Scott 45 156 35 .224 4 23
Tom Poquette 63 154 51 .331 2 23
Stan Papi 50 117 22 .188 1 6
Jim Dwyer 76 113 30 .265 2 14
Ted Sizemore 26 88 23 .261 1 6
Bob Montgomery 32 86 30 .349 0 7
Larry Wolfe 47 78 19 .244 3 15
Mike O'Berry 43 59 10 .169 1 4
Frank Duffy 6 3 0 .000 0 0

Pitching[edit]

Starting pitchers[edit]

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Mike Torrez 36 252.1 16 13 4.49 125
Dennis Eckersley 33 246.2 17 10 2.99 150
Bob Stanley 40 216.2 16 12 3.99 56
Steve Renko 27 171.0 11 9 4.11 99
Chuck Rainey 20 103.2 8 5 3.82 41
John Tudor 6 28.0 1 2 6.43 11

Other pitchers[edit]

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Allen Ripley 16 64.2 3 1 5.15 34
Joel Finch 15 57.1 0 3 4.87 25

Relief pitchers[edit]

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Dick Drago 56 10 3 13 3.03 67
Tom Burgmeier 44 3 2 4 2.74 60
Bill Campbell 41 3 4 9 4.28 25
Jim Wright 11 1 0 0 5.09 15
Win Remmerswaal 8 1 0 0 7.08 16
Andy Hassler 8 1 2 0 8.80 7

Awards and honors[edit]

All-Star Game

Farm system[edit]

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Pawtucket Red Sox International League Joe Morgan
AA Bristol Red Sox Eastern League Tony Torchia
A Winston-Salem Red Sox Carolina League Bill Slack
A Winter Haven Red Sox Florida State League Rac Slider
A-Short Season Elmira Pioneers New York–Penn League Dick Berardino

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Winston-Salem, Winter Haven
Source:[18][19]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Stout, Glenn; Johnson, Richard A. (2005). Red Sox Century: The Definitive History of Baseball's Most Storied Franchise. New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin. p. 392.
  2. ^ "The 1979 Boston Red Sox". Retrosheet. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  3. ^ "Events of Monday, April 30, 1979".
  4. ^ "Events of Thursday, May 31, 1979".
  5. ^ "Events of Saturday, June 30, 1979".
  6. ^ "Events of Tuesday, July 31, 1979".
  7. ^ "Events of Friday, August 31, 1979".
  8. ^ "Events of Sunday, September 30, 1979".
  9. ^ "Red Sox look for clear skies". North Adams Transcript. North Adams, Massachusetts. AP. August 13, 1979. p. 19. Retrieved October 11, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Veeck Attacks New Postponement". Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. AP. August 30, 1979. p. 69. Retrieved October 11, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Another milestone for Yaz: 400th home run of career". Tucson Citizen. Tucson, Arizona. AP. July 25, 1979. p. 47. Retrieved October 10, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Boston Red Sox 7, Oakland Athletics 3". Retrosheet. July 24, 1979. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  13. ^ "The 3,000 Hit Club: Carl Yastrzemski". baseballhalloffame.org.
  14. ^ "Boston Red Sox 9, New York Yankees 2". Retrosheet. September 12, 1979. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  15. ^ Bob Watson page at Baseball Reference
  16. ^ Ted Sizemore page at Baseball Reference
  17. ^ "Boston Red Sox 7, Cleveland Indians 1". Retrosheet. April 5, 1979. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  18. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
  19. ^ Boston Red Sox Media Guide. 1979. p. 43. Retrieved March 14, 2021 – via Wayback Machine.

External links[edit]

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