Red Sox Catchers: A Fan's Notes

I saw a notice in the newspaper the other day that Carlton Fisk had just celebrated his 64th birthday. Hard to believe. One of the most indelible moments in all of Red Sox history and in my own baseball fan memory bank is Fisk's 12th inning home run against the St. Louis Cardinals in the sixth game of the 1975 World Series.  The ball seemed head for foul territory,  but the NBC camera was focused on Fisk hopping along the first base line trying to wave the ball fair. Thankfully for Red Sox fans, the ball hit the foul pole and the Sox won the game 7-6.

    It turns out that this memorable camera angle occurred because the cameraman was distracted by a rat scurrying by. The footage became a defining moment in how baseball games were televised.  Previously, camera operators always followed the ball.  Now much more attention is focused on the players themselves.

    Do you remember Fisk's backup catcher during the 70s? It was Bob Montgomery.  Many people may also remember him as one of the Red Sox television broadcasters from 1982 to 1995. One interesting note about Bob was that he was the last ML B player to bat without wearing a batting helmet when he retired in 1979. Though helmets became mandatory in 1971, players who began their career before the rule could go to the plate without one if they preferred.

   Another Red Sox catcher of note is Rick Ferrell who played for Boston from 1933-1937. He held the American League record for games caught until Carlton Fisk broke the record in 1988 and he currently ranks 12th all-time. He played in the first All-Star Game in 1933 and manager Connie Mack had him catch the entire game.  Interestingly, the Red Sox signed his brother Wes, a talented pitcher, in 1934 and they became one of the few brother-to-brother battery mates in the history of the game (catcher Alex Gaston was a battery mate of his brother Milt with the 1929 Red Sox).  Ferrell batted .302 during his stint with the Red Sox and throughout his MLB career he often led the American League in assists, putouts and runners caught stealing. His outstanding achievements led to his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984.

   One of Ferrell's backup catchers when he played for the Red Sox was Moe Berg.  Sometime referred to as the ‘brainiest guy in baseball, he appeared on a radio quiz show called Information Please!  In 1939, winning the admiration of baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis . His tenure with the Red Sox (1935-1939) was lackluster at best and he played in fewer than 30 games a season.  He coached for the team from 1940-1941 and then became a spy with the OSS (now CIA) at the onset of World War II.  His is the only baseball card on display at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency.  Though he turned down the Medal of Freedom during his lifetime, it was awarded posthumously. He was inducted into Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2000. The Shrine inducts individuals who have altered the baseball world in ways that supersede statistics.

  The most important Red Sox catcher, of course, is the one we have now: Jarrod Saltalamacchia. So far his biggest claim to fame is that his last name is the longest in Major League Baseball history.  But after a surprisingly good season in 2011, it might not be too much of a stretch to envision him as Red Sox catching standout in the years to come.

Robert MacGuffie

Bostonbaseballfan.com