How Boston's Mighty Have Fallen

That juicy 14-game Red Sox lead browned out

The crash was all the more humiliating, after the dizzying descent, because it came before their adoring fans, who came to cheer and stayed to boo. In Fenway Park, their beloved tiny gem of a stadium, the Boston Red Sox did the unthinkable: they lost four straight to the New York Yankees, their hated rivals, whiffing the breeze with their bats and booting grounders like soccer players. The tragedy had been unfolding for weeks, painfully, inexorably, the most fascinating horror story of the major leagues this year. The Red Sox had a 14-game lead over the Yankees just two months ago; and not since the Boston Braves of 1914 overtook the New York Giants had such a lead so late in the season been blown. The Red Sox had led the division from late May until last week; but as Yankee Star Reggie Jackson said, "It's where you are when the leaves turn brown, not when they are green." The browning of America has begun, and the end is a short two-week pennant race away.

Boston deserves better, and could, of course, still get it. The city is an old-fashioned baseball town, of the ilk of St. Louis, of old Brooklyn. The love affair is fostered by eccentric Fenway Park. The seats so embrace the field that the fans literally feel the joy and agony of each play. The fans come in all shapes and classes. They talk about the same plays on assembly lines, in shipyards, at academic meetings, during black-tie dinners on Beacon Hill, and at the stately clubs. Yale President A. Bartlett Giamatti wears a Sox cap. Humberto Cardinal Medeiros asked how they were doing just before the papal conclave. Senator Edward Kennedy upon his return from Moscow discussed with House Speaker Tip O'Neill the Yankees' four-game "Boston Massacre," an event that the Boston Globe's Washington bureau chief, Martin Nolan, called a "tracheotomy of the soul." Explains an M.I.T. psychology professor: "We are of Boston, and the Red Sox are our champions."

But not, alas, champions of much else. The last World Series they won was in 1918. They have won the pennant three times since World War II, only to lose the Series in seven games, and been run-ners-up five times.

This year the stumbling started at the All-Star break, when the Red Sox were 57-26. In a decline fueled by injuries, they since then have played below .500 ball. In early July, Shortstop Rick Burleson hurt his ankle and missed 18 games, twelve of which the team lost. The Sox doyen. Carl Yastrzemski. injured his nagging back, then his shoulder, then his wrist. Pepper-Pot Second Baseman Jerry Remy fractured his wrist last month, and is still playing with it taped. Dwight Evans was hit by a pitch and gets dizzy chasing fly balls. Add to that Catcher Carlton Fisk's broken rib, First Baseman George Scott's battered right middle finger. Third Baseman Butch Hobson's injured elbow and Centerfielder Fred Lynn's pulled stomach muscle, and you get a team that might be better off playing softball for Massachusetts General Hospital. Only this season's sensation, Jim Rice, has remained healthy.

By contrast, these are halcyon days for the Yankees, as their walking wounded of early summer are hale again. "It's not raining," declared Reggie Jackson as he stuck his head out into the mist before a game in Detroit earlier this month. Raising his arms above his head, he shouted, "The Bronx Bombers are in town!"

They have been going to town since mid-July, when Bob Lemon took over as manager for the outspoken Billy Martin. Says the modest Lemon: "I was just fortunate enough to come in at a time when all the injured players were returning ... I'm not a loud person. The more outgoing you are as a manager, the more players tend to have one eye on you and one eye on the game."

But Lemon deserves more credit than that for the Yankees' success, which is partly caused by the contrast between his calm and collected personality and that of the fiery man he replaced. Says Shortstop Dent: "He's come in, settled us down and got us playing baseball again." Most important, he has been able to handle and encourage the volatile Jackson. Says the slugger: "He's built my confidence up. I'm a believer. I'd like to see him here for as long as I am." And for the first time since Martin quit, the outspoken outfielder unloaded his feelings about his former manager to TIME's Paul A. Witteman: "It was miserable to be around him. Billy held a meeting and said that anyone who disagreed with him should stand up and I'll kick the shit out of them.' I don't need that crap. The guy hated me so much I couldn't play."

Martin, watching from afar, is reported to have said, "The New York newspaper strike has made the difference. There aren't any reporters about stirring up garbage and writing about what one player says of another." Perhaps Red Sox hopes lie in the fact that a newspaper strike is being threatened in Boston. If the Boston sportswriters actually thought it would help their beloved Sox, they might gladly go on strike. They know, like the rest of Boston, that Yogi Berra was right when he said. "It ain't over till it's over." qed

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