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Sully's Sports: Saying good bye to The Boomer

Sully’s sports By ROB SULLIVAN It was a sad week for any member of Red Sox nation, or, for that matter any baseball fan, when the news that the great George Scott passed away last week at the far too young age of 69. The Boomer was loved throughout the country as a great baseball player and larger than life personality, but he was particularly beloved right here in New England. Scott was a great player and there is no argument about that. He won eight gold gloves at first base and belted 297 career home runs. He played most of his career with the Red Sox and Milwaukee Brewers and is a treasured part of both team’s histories. His best year came in 1975 with Milwaukee when he batted .285 and led the league in home runs (36, tied with Reggie Jackson) and RBIs (109). The Boomer was also a three-time all-star. Of course, George Scott didn’t ever to refer to his home runs as homers. In his jargon they were always “taters.” Yeah, he had an outsized personality. And he hit taters. The Boomer picked cotton in the fields of Mississippi as a youngster and was signed by Red Sox scout Ed Scott out of Coleman High School in Greenville, Mississippi in 1962. Ed Scott had also signed Hank Aaron and thought George Scott was a better hitter than Aaron. Although George Scott was an excellent hitter, he was somewhat streaky at the plat and never came close to Hammerin’ Hank’s level of play. The Boomer made the bigs in 1966 and had a superb rookie season. Smashing 27 taters and driving home 90 runs. But it was the summer of 1967 that made George “Boomer” Scott and his teammates legends in these parts. It was the summer of the Impossible Dream. It was the summer baseball returned to New England. The Summer of ’67 is still mentioned with  reverence by Red Sox fans of a certain age. Boston had consistently fielded one of the worst teams in the American League since the fifties and they finished in ninth place in 1966, Scott’s rookie season. But in 1967 Boston hired the fiery future Hall-of-Famer Dick Williams to manage the team and the Impossible Dream was born. Williams had been Boomer’s manager in the minors and he knew that Scott could hit and was probably already the best fielding first baseman in the American League. Yet, Williams didn’t spare his temper with Scott, frustrated by the first baseman’s happy-go-lucky nature and his tendency to, shall we say, pack on a few extra pounds from time to time. Whatever Williams did, though it worked.  Scoot, Yaz (also known as Carl Yastrzemski), Jim Lonborg, Reggie Smith; hell, everybody on the whole team had the season of their lives as the cellar dwelling Sox suddenly found themselves fighting for the pennant on the last weekend of the season. The Minnesota Twins came to Fenway and the Red Sox had to win both games to win the crown. They did. Spurred by a mammoth home run into the center field bleachers by the Boomer in the first game. The Impossible Dream had come true and they were champs. They lost in seven games to Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals but it hardly mattered. Baseball was back in Boston and all of New England and George Scott was a big reason. He finished the 1967 campaign with a .303 batting average, 19 taters and 82 RBIs. He was  traded to Milwaukee after the 1971 season and he became a legend there as well. As a Brewer he got into the habit of wearing a necklace made of very large, strangely shaped beads. When asked what the beads were made out of Boomer replied, “Second basemen’s teeth.” He was traded back to Bosom in 1977 and belted 33 taters. At spring training in Winter Haven, Florida the next year my late brother Jackie saw him and called out “30 this year Boomer?”, Boomer looked at jack and yelled back, “35 man.” He finished up with Royals and Yankees and was one of the first Yankees on the scene to congratulate Yaz when the legend delivered his 3,000th hit against New York late in the 1979 season. George Scott was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame and the Boomer was honored by the Brewers earlier this season with George Scott Bobblehead Day. He will be missed and he will never be forgotten. See you at the games.  

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