PawSox honor Fisk
Catcher honored prior to home win
Carlton Fisk was honored Sunday in a pregame ceremony as the latest entrant in the Pawtucket Red Sox Hall of Fame.
PAWTUCKET – On an idyllic late-August afternoon that just so happened to be the final home game for the Pawtucket Red Sox, the franchise opened its Hall of Fame doors to a player who authored of the game’s most memorable postseason home runs.
“This is quite the honor for a small-town boy from New Hampshire,” said Carlton Fisk, who at 69 still looks very much fit and trim. “The stop I made in Pawtucket in 1970 [back when the PawSox were the Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox] was just as important as any of the ones I made along the way in my career.”
After taking his Hall of Fame bows during an on-field pregame ceremony, Fisk fielded questions from reporters for roughly 10 minutes. Fisk was part of the PawSox 2017 Hall of Fame class along with popular manager Joe Morgan and slugging first baseman Mo Vaughn. On Sunday, it was finally Fisk’s turn to receive enshrinement into Pawtucket baseball lore.
Fisk played 11 seasons for the Red Sox, with his greatest contribution coming in 1975 when he won Game 6 of the World Series with a walk-off home run. His tenure in Boston coincided with Tom Yawkey owning the club. Much has been said recently about the Red Sox possibly looking into renaming Yawkey Way, the area that welcomes fans prior to heading into Fenway Park.
“I’m not going to get into the politics of it. All I know is that Mr. Yawkey was a solid person. I don’t think they should take away anything to surrender to somebody’s political agenda,” Fisk said.
“What makes this nation great is acknowledging what happened along the way. That would be a shame if they change Yawkey Way to something else.”
Fisk labeled the concerns over the pace of play of today’s game as “overrated.”
“They always talk about the catcher going out there. I went out there a lot. To go out with a purpose is one thing. Going out for a conversation is something else,” Fisk said. “What has transpired over the years is that it’s become more and more rare to see a starter who goes at least eight innings. The last four innings, you could have five or six pitchers. That’s made the game longer as far as time is concerned.
“You mess around with the game too much and you’re not going to allure people in. You’re going to push them away,” Fisk added.
The McCoy Stadium that Fisk played in lacked in charm and ambiance, which he noted. He feels the PawSox would be best served to stay put in Pawtucket.
“The playing surface is perfect and all the amenities are so much better than when I played,” Fisk said. “The PawSox have become part of the landscape in Pawtucket. To move it would just alienate a lot of interest.”
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The pitching of Hector Velazquez, who took the mound sporting white cleats, and a three-run home run by leadoff hitter Tzu-Wei Lin helped the PawSox close out the home portion of the 2017 schedule with a 3-0 win over Lehigh Valley – the club’s franchise-record 17th shutout.
Velazquez (8-4) and reliever Edgar Olmos (S, 4) teamed up on a one-hitter with the IronPigs’ lone base hit coming in the first inning. The domination included Velazquez retiring 16 straight between the first inning and a leadoff walk in the seventh. Olmos struck out five over two innings.
“Outstanding,” Pawtucket manager Kevin Boles said about Velazquez. “Commanded the zone, efficient, and got our defense involved. Nice job by him, especially with this lineup. They’ve been scoring some runs. He’s unpredictable. He really doesn’t fall into patterns. He uses both sides of the plate. I liked how he just snuck some pitches on the inner half to lefthanded hitters just to get them off.”
All the offense the home team would need came in the seventh as Lin blasted a shot over the right-field fence for his second career Triple-A home run.
“He must have got that good. We saw some balls die out there,” Boles said. “That was nice to see.”
Pawtucket designated hitter Matt Dominguez (2-for-4), second baseman Mike Miller (2-for-3) and catcher Jake Romanski (2-for-3) each notched multi-hit efforts. The PawSox (63-71) finished with a 3436 record at McCoy.
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The paid attendance for Sunday’s home finale, which included a postgame helicopter flyover and pony rides inside Pariseau Field, was 8,207. That pushed the season total to 409,960 – up from 407,097 in 2016. This year’s average per McCoy date was 6,087.
Boles noted that the crowds picked up considerably as the season went along.
“Especially the last three to four weeks. At the beginning of the year, it was pretty thin. Weather was tough for everyone throughout the league,” Boles said. “Once it started to heat up and school was out, the crowds were very impressive. We enjoyed playing in front of these people.”
Looking ahead to 2018, the 46th season for the PawSox as the TripleA affiliate of the Red Sox begins on Friday, April 6 at McCoy. Next season’s tentative International League schedule has the PawSox beginning with a six-game homestand with three games against Lehigh Valley and three against Buffalo.
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Bryce Brentz was in the clubhouse but not in the lineup for the third straight game as a stomach bug continues to work through his system. Brentz still leads the International League with 30 home runs. He has also been named Pawtucket’s 2017 MVP. … Blake Swihart sat out his fifth straight game with lower back tightness. Swihart took some swings on Saturday. … Ben Taylor (intercostal strain) will continue his rehab assignment in Buffalo, one of two stops the PawSox will make before reaching the finish line in the 2017 season. … Marcus Walden 10-6, 3.84 ERA, 84 strikeouts) was named Pawtucket’s Most Outstanding Pitcher. The right-hander appeared in 27 games (15 starts). … For the four-game series against Buffalo, which begins Monday, the PawSox are scheduled to send out Kyle Kendrick (3-7, 6.42), Jalen Beeks on Tuesday (6-5, 3.45), Roenis Elias on Wednesday (1-4, 6.82), and Justin Haley (2-2, 3.15).