Fred Lynn Articles

American Way Magazine, A Perfect Game

A Perfect Game

By Adam Pitluk, Editor
This article was originally posted in American Airlines magazine, American Way Magazine.  This magazine is found on all American Airlines planes.

Even today, in this fast-paced, multitasking, optimize-production, if-you’re-not-first-you’re-last day and age, it’s nice to see that at least one sport continues to be slow and steady. It’s also nice to know that even today, in our multiplatform, surf-the-Web-with-your-phone, call-your-mom-with-your-tablet, take-a-picture-with-just-about-anything society, a simple game of catch with your mom or dad is still the most satisfying activity.
Professional sports seem to be in constant flux. The rules always seem to be getting tweaked, the players always seem to be changing shape, the fans always seem to be pushing the envelope of proper stadium/arena etiquette. Baseball’s not completely impervious to these athletic agitations, but they are decidedly less pronounced in America’s pastime. Perhaps it’s because the game is played at a slower pace. Or maybe it’s because in baseball, the fans and the players — especially in the post-steroid era — are so thoroughly committed to preserving the sport as a true bastion of American culture and recreation that trivial problems are not as amplified. Or maybe it’s because, regardless of the congressional-­testimony steroid sideshow, baseball was, is, and will always be, the perfect game.
That’s my thesis, and I’m sticking to it. But I don’t just want to privately think that baseball is the greatest game ever invented. I want to proselytize it; and I want you to believe me. To make my case, I checked in with two individuals who not only have definitive knowledge of the game, but who also can offer two perspectives that the casual fan can’t: the sage professor and the former player.
Leading off is Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism professor Michael Shapiro, author of Bottom of the Ninth and The Last Good Season. Shapiro is a baseball historian, which also makes him a truly dedicated, passionate fan. I start with a simple question: Is baseball still our national pastime? In true professorial fashion, ­Shapiro begins his lecture with a measurement:
In 1960, Gallup conducted a survey to determine the most popular spectator sports in the country. Baseball was No. 1. Ten years later, baseball was second to the NFL. Back then, people said that baseball was finished — that its golden years were behind it. “Absolute nonsense,” Shapiro says. “Attendance around the league is higher now than it’s ever been. Look at Wrigley, for example.”
The Chicago Cubs’ Wrigley Field (“Home-Field Advantage“), the second-oldest ballpark in baseball (1914), routinely­ attracted fewer than 12,000 people for home games in the mid-1950s, mid-’60s, mid-’70s and early ’80s. To wit, the Cubbies ranked either worst or close to worst in National League attendance during baseball’s “golden years.” These days, home games regularly are sold out, and the Cubs aren’t exactly doing any better than they were back then. They finished the 2012 season 61-101, second-worst in MLB. Yet they’re selling out home games.
“My theory is that baseball, which is different than any other American sport because there’s a game virtually every day of the season, is always giving you something to talk about,” Shapiro says. “What we love about baseball is the conversation. It’s never a stale conversation. You can talk about yesterday’s game; you can talk about your favorite player from the night before; you can talk statistics until you’re blue in the face. It offers a chance for strangers to talk about something that matters to them.”
Shapiro points out that everything about the rules of professional baseball, which are virtually unchanged after more than a century, is elegant. For instance, when a ground ball is hit to an infielder, he has to field it cleanly, and he’ll generally get the runner out by a step. Every time. One step. That’s not a lot of time. “It turns out that 90 feet is the perfect distance,” he says. “If it was 91 feet between the bases instead of 90, it’s a different game. Look at pitching: A curveball will break at 60 feet, 6 inches. It’s elegant and it’s scientific. Forget about fathers and sons playing catch. That’s a beautiful thing. But baseball is about the conversation, and that conversation helps define who we are as a society. It’s the perfect game.”
The perfect game. For a spectator, it certainly is. What’s better than spending a lazy summer afternoon at the ballpark, wearing the jersey of your favorite player (for me, these days, it’s Ian Kinsler of the Texas Rangers), eating some gourmet food (“The World’s Best: Ballpark Food“) and producing a consistently high energy level with 42,000 like-minded fans? Or what’s better than buying a plane ticket and flying to, say, Los Angeles to watch Ian Kinsler play against former teammates Josh ­Hamilton and C.J. Wilson, and AL Rookie of the Year Mike Trout of the Angels (“League of Champion“)?
But it’s also the perfect game from the player’s perspective, says nine-time All–Star and four-time Gold Glove winner Fred Lynn, who played center field for five major league teams from 1974 to 1990.
“Baseball is more personal than any other sport because you can see the players up close,” says Lynn, who was also the first player in history to win Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in the same year (1975). “In fact, if you want to, you can watch your favorite guy for nine innings and not miss the rest of the game. You can’t do that in football or basketball. This creates a bond with the fans, which is why you hear some fans say, ‘My guy had a good game today.’ There is no place to hide on a baseball field. We are very exposed, and I think that’s just the way the fans like it. I know that’s the way I liked it when I was playing.
“I loved playing in front of the hometown fans, especially when I was with the Red Sox. And I loved playing against the hostile New York fans at Yankee Stadium. In baseball, you can feel the ebb and flow of the game. It’s not a sudden rush. When we’re down by three in the eighth inning, and the first guy gets on, and then the second guy, and the fans get involved, you can feel the emotion start to factor in. It makes you a better player. That’s a strong force.
“On the other side, when I’m playing center field, I can hear individual fans cheering me on, or in New York, heckling me. Do you know how many times I have heard, ‘Come on! I could have caught that ball! What were you doing out there?’
“Personal.”
Welcome to the first baseball issue of American Way in our 47-year history. We take you around the league like no other magazine, highlighting the best players, stadiums, food … even one of the best announcers in the game (“For the Love of the Game“). And we have Harrison Ford on the cover, playing one of the toughest roles of his storied acting career (“Passionate Man“). We think it’s the perfect read to get you ready for the 2013 season of the perfect game.
Signature of Adam_ Pitluk Adam Pitluk Editor

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Boston Red Sox legend Fred Lynn thinks Jackie Bradley’s time is now

By Gordon Edes | ESPNBoston.com

Originally Posted on ESPN BOSTON.

Jackie Bradley Jr., Fred Lynn
Getty ImagesCould Jackie Bradley Jr. make the same rookie impact as Fred Lynn did in 1975?

FORT MYERS, Fla. — He has yet to see him play, but the best Red Sox center fielder in the past half-century is hearing and reading the same things about Jackie Bradley Jr. that you’ve been hearing and reading.

And for Fred Lynn, who was the same age as Bradley in 1975 when he was named American League MVP and Rookie of the Year, there really should be no debate about where Bradley begins the 2013 season.

“There’s no erring on the side of caution,” he said by phone Monday night. “The kid’s got some ability. Throw him in there.”

Lynn laughed. “Throw him in there. He’ll do fine.”

The parallels are striking. Lynn turned 23 in February 1975. Bradley turns 23 on April 19. Lynn was the 41st player taken overall in the 1973 draft, a second-rounder. Bradley was the 40th player taken overall in the 2011 draft, a first-round sandwich pick.

Lynn went to USC, the one in Los Angeles. Bradley went to USC, the one in Columbia, Sotuh Carolina. While there, Bradley played on Gamecocks teams that won two College World Series. “One less than me,” said Lynn, who won all three years he played for the Trojans.

“The kid came from a big program and is used to winning,” Lynn said. “That’s all good stuff. That may not sound like much when you play in the pros and all, but it is a big deal. At that level and at your age, you’re playing the best people, and you won, and you know how to win. You’ve seen it done. You want guys like that on your club. Guys who have had winning backgrounds, I think that’s very important.”

Lynn made a dazzling first impression when he was called up by the Sox in September 1974, hitting .419 in 15 games and playing superb defense in center field.

Bradley Jr

AP Photo/Kathy WillensFred Lynn thinks a strong throwing arm is an “undervalued skill” among outfielders. It’s a skill Jackie Bradley Jr. has showed off this spring.

 

“That little cup of coffee meant a lot to me,” Lynn said, “not only because I got to the big leagues, but I was there with older guys and I learned a lot in a month. I also learned I could hit. I said, ‘You know what, I can do this. I can hang with these guys.’

“Spring training came around. I said all the right things and everything, but I knew I was going to make the club. I had no doubt in my mind that I was going to make the club.”

Bradley has made an equally dazzling first impression in his first big league camp, leading the team in batting average (.444), on-base percentage (.523), slugging percentage (.667), hits (24) and walks (8). And his defensive skills have been a source of wonderment for manager John Farrell, who says Bradley seems to be on the move even before the hitter makes contact.

Bradley did not make a single appearance in left field until sliding over from center in the seventh inning last Friday. He made a terrific catch and also threw out a runner at the plate.

“That’s nice to hear,” said Lynn, who won the first of his four Gold Gloves as a rookie and glided to balls with elegant, loping strides. “I love to hear about guys coming up who really can pick it. That’s an undervalued skill. And I really, really appreciate the guys who can catch the ball and throw it. There are some guys who can catch it, but to have a guy who can catch the ball and throw, that’s the combination I haven’t seen for a long time.

“DobbsIf I’m the GM, I want to build for the future and I want to make sure I’m not top-heavy on old dudes, but I want to win right now. Right now. If this kid can help me, bring him in. Pretty simple. That’s how I would run it.

”– Fred Lynn, on how Red Sox should handle Jackie Bradley Jr.

“Center field in Boston, you got a chance to throw people out. You got a chance to throw them out off the wall, and everybody wants to run on you from right-center especially, going first to third, and that’s what’s important keeping that guy off third base. Ellsbury doesn’t do that. He can run them down but he isn’t going to throw anyone out. You’ve got to keep that guy off third base. If you’ve got a guy who can do that, boy, he’s really important.”

It’s regrettable, Lynn remarked, how few homegrown center fielders the Sox have had since he broke in. There is Ellis Burks and Jacoby Ellsbury, but anyone else who lasted for more than a couple of years was an import, such as Johnny Damon and Carl Everett and Darren Lewis.

Lynn said he first heard about Bradley last summer in Portland, where Bradley had just been called up and Lynn was in town for a promotion. That also was the first he’d heard of another top prospect, shortstop Xander Bogaerts.

He knows that Bradley has not had the benefit of playing a year in Triple-A, the way he did. He knows he had 679 plate appearances to 615 for Bradley, only 271 of Bradley’s coming at a level as high as Double-A.

“I know where you’re going with this,” Lynn said to his caller. “Bradley’s age and lack of experience. Do you need experience to be better or is your talent going to push you to the forefront? I think it’s talent.

“He’s already got experience down below. Does he have major league experience? It’s the same game, just older guys doing it. Home plate’s the same; it’s not any bigger or smaller. If anything, conditions are easier in the big leagues because the parks are better.

“He’s already done well down below, and he’s risen up like a meteor. He knows how to play. I guarantee you, this kid knows how to play, and if he goes 0 for 8, OK, don’t worry, it’ll work out.”

Even after the passage of so many years, Lynn recalled a moment in spring training of his rookie season in which he delivered a powerful message.

Red Sox: Spring Training 2013

As all eyes turn to Fort Myers to watch the Red Sox prepare for the season, we have you covered. Red Sox blog »

“I forget where we were playing,” Lynn said, “but this right-hander was just bringing it. I had no idea who he was.

“People were still trying to figure me out — where are we going to hit him, what’s he going to do, where will we play him in the lineup? They knew I could play center, but they didn’t know what else to do with me.

“Well this guy threw one, to me it was 100 miles an hour, and I hit a rocket out of the park, off the top of the center-field brick wall and bounced back almost all the way to second base. I was standing on second base and guys were looking at me like, ‘Dude, who are you?’

“Things like that stick out in your mind when you’re trying to make the club and you’re trying to impress people.”

On Sunday, in his first start in left field, Bradley faced Cliff Lee, one of the best left-handers in the game, and homered.

“It doesn’t take too many things like that,” Lynn said, “to say, ‘Hey wait a minute, maybe this kid’s got something.”’

Lynn is acquainted with the argument that the Sox should not only send Bradley back to the minors for more seasoning, but to delay the clock on his potential free agency. If Bradley begins the season with the team and sticks the entire year, he would become a free agent after the 2018 season. If the Red Sox don’t call him up until April 12, or if Bradley spends 20 total days in the minor leagues this season, he doesn’t become a free agent until 2019.

That argument doesn’t hold for Lynn.

“I’m kind of like a ‘live for today’ kind of deal,” he said. “I want to win now, I guess. If I’m the GM, I want to build for the future and I want to make sure I’m not top-heavy on old dudes, but I want to win right now. Right now. If this kid can help me, bring him in. Pretty simple. That’s how I would run it.”

Lynn, who lives outside of San Diego with his wife, Natalie, makes about three visits a season to Fenway Park, making sure to catch at least one series against the Yankees. He and Natalie will be here in mid-April to see the Rays. He likes to get an early read on the team, he said, especially this year, when the club has undergone so many changes.

He hopes that means laying eyes on Jackie Bradley Jr.

“I think it’s wide-open for this kid,” he said. “Someone just needs to pull the trigger and say, ‘Let’s go do it.’

“Tell this kid when you see him, I told him, ‘Just keep your head down.’ Tell him I said, ‘You can play. You’ve proved it to yourself. Now go prove it to everybody else.”’

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MVP Award has evolved since Fred Lynn won it


    

originally posted on ComcastSportsnet
Like many baseball fans, Fred Lynn will be tuned in later today when the MVP awards for both the American and National Leagues will be announced on national TV, followed immediately by interviews by satellite, texts, cellphone calls, and postings on social media. It’s a far different scenario than when Lynn won 37 years ago.

“To be honest with you, it was a non-issue,” Lynn said Thursday morning by phone from his home in Southern California. “Because after the season was over I was so crushed that we lost the World Series that nothing really mattered to me as far as awards. And there was no ballyhoo. No one talked to me about it. It was really a non-issue.
“In fact, I don’t even remember when they gave me the Rookie of the Year award. When the MVP came down, I was driving across the country and I learned about by either seeing it on TV or reading about it in the newspaper and no one could even get hold of me to talk to me because I was en route from Boston to California in a car.

“It’s so different than it is now. You hear ‘You’re an MVP’ and I thought ‘That’s great’. There’s no interviews, there was none of that kind of stuff.”

Lynn, the 1975 Red Sox center fielder on the team that suffered a crushing loss to the Reds in the World Series, made baseball history that season becoming the first player to win Rookie of the Year and MVP awards in the same season. He won both in landslides. He beat out teammate Jim Rice for the Rookie of the Year, with 23.5 first place votes. In MVP balloting, Lynn took 22 of 24 first place votes, beating Royals first baseman John Mayberry, 326-157 – the 169-point margin of victory was the largest ever in either league.

A lot of things from that season stand out – playing in the World Series, coming up with Rice, playing with Carl Yastrzemski, Rico Petrocelli, Carlton Fisk. His three-home run, 10-RBI game on June 18 in Detroit. But as a rookie, Lynn, who played 17 seasons, was just trying to keep his head down and do his job.

But he wasn’t thinking about postseason awards at the time.

“No,” he said. “No one talked about it. [Not even] the media. We were so intent in getting to the playoffs. And you have to understand as rookies in those days you were seen but not heard. No one was going to ask our opinion about anything. They went to the veterans. It’s not like now.”

Lynn’s accomplishment didn’t really sink in until much later.

“For the first couple years after I had done that, we’d play on the road and they’d have a quiz for the fans, ‘What player was the first to win both?’” he said. “And my name would come up. And then I really didn’t understand what I had accomplished until my career was over. And you look back on it and you say ‘You know what, that was pretty groundbreaking.’ Because rookies in those days, we were second-class citizens, even on your own club. You had to prove yourself not only to fans and the media but to your own teammates. So it was much more difficult for rookies to do anything because a lot of times rookies didn’t even make the club.”

Thursday’s MVP announcements, especially that of AL MVP, will be accompanied by a great deal of national – and international — attention, along with much debate, discussion, dissection, and analysis over whether the right player won. Angels center fielder Mike Trout, who was named the AL Rookie of the Year earlier this week, has a chance to join Lynn and Ichiro Suzuki as the only players to win both awards in the same season.  Trout’s strongest opposition will come from Detroit third baseman Miguel Cabrera, who etched his name in the history books this season, becoming the first Triple Crown winner since 1967, when Carl Yastrzemski accomplished the feat.

Although Lynn lives in Southern California, and has ties to the Angels from his four seasons playing for the club, he hasn’t seen much of Trout.  Lynn got a chance to see the Angels phenom in August, when the Angels and Lynn visited Fenway Park at the same time.

“I always watch centerfielders, anyway,” Lynn said. “And I just said, ‘Wow, this is a big kid.’ He looks like he’s about 220. I played football. He looks like a fullback, almost like a middle linebacker, and with speed. So that’s a really, really rare combination. You don’t see it that often. You see one or the other, the size or the speed. He kind of reminds me of when Bo Jackson came into the league.

“He’s a fun player to watch. I watch defense. I don’t watch offense, because a lot of guys can swing the bat. And guys that size it’s no surprise that he can hit home runs. But I watch guys defensively. That’s what I’m noted for and that’s what I watch in other guys, and that’s pretty much how I judge centerfielders, not with their bat but with their glove. So he’s fun to watch, there’s no question about it.”

Asked if there was anything about Trout’s game that reminds Lynn of himself, he laughs and quickly replies, “No!”

“No, because of our size differential. At the end of the ’75 season, I was wearing down. There was no weightlifting in those days, you have to remember, and I was barely 6-feet tall and by the end of the season I bet I was about 170 pounds. This kid hits about 225.”

So, who does Lynn think should win the 2012 AL MVP?

“From what I’m hearing it’s going to be closer than I think it should be. But it’s Cabrera all the way,” Lynn said.

“Cabrera stepped up big time in September and he carried that club and all of a sudden he’s leading in every category. And you go, ‘Hey, wait a minute, we have a Triple Crown candidate.’ And not only did he carry that weight on his shoulders, he carried his whole team. You look at what he did in September, he hit [.333 with 11 home runs and 30 RBI in 31 games], whatever it was.  Men on base, ho got the big hit. Got the home run.  He did all these things. And his team won. And they won because of him primarily. So that was the deciding factor. As an ex-player — I played with the last guy to do it, Yastrzemski — so I know how difficult it is to achieve that feat. And to be able to say that you got your team to the playoffs, too. The other guy didn’t? I think it’s a no-brainer.

“In your lifetime you might not see it. And if he doesn’t’ win, it just shows me that these new sets of criteria or statistics have crept into our game that no player was a part of, no player thought of these things. It was a guy from MIT. If he doesn’t win, I’ll just say ‘What? How can you do that to a Triple Crown winner and a guy that got the team to the playoffs?’

“Plus the fact that – here’s another thing I’m not hearing much. He’s a first baseman by trade. So he was willing to move to third base. Obviously he knows he’s not Brooks Robinson. But he’s got pretty soft hands, he catches everything that he can get to, and he’s got a pretty good arm. He knows that their team is better with [Prince] Fielder over at first. So he’s willing to go to a new position. And when you do that, there’s a stress factor that you can’t even imagine. And no one’s talked about that. It’s stressful. Ok, I’m playing third, don’t screw up. These are things he wouldn’t think about if he was playing first. So that tells me he’s a real team-oriented guy. You love to have guys like that on your club. They’re willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of the team. That is points. Trout played better defensively. Well, OK, what if you put him at third base or someplace where he really feels naked out there? So that’s a big deal. This is a real team guy. I just like the guy a lot.”

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An Interview with Fred Lynn 8/29/12

By  on Nov 24, 2012 with Comments 0

Originally posted at Baseballreflections.com

Hey baseball fans!

Recently, I put up a blog about Fred Lynn and his All Star Game grand slam.  Here’s a video of the grand slam for those of you who were too young to watch it live on TV.  Fred was a great ballplayer on the field and is also very generous off the field, helping in the community, Little League Baseball and children’s causes. Because of all that he has done, I think he deserves to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. And if you want to learn more about what Fred is up to, check out his web site. Anyway, he read my blog and he agreed to do aninterview with me. Here’s what he had to say:

Matt: How did it feel to be the first player to win the MVP and Rookie of the Year (ROY) awards in the same year (see picture)?
Fred: I really didn’t think too much about it as there really wasn’t much press coverage in those days. I was more impressed with the feat after my playing days were over. I am proud to be the first person to have accomplished this feat.


Matt: Now that Ichiro Suzuki is also a member of the MVP/ROY in the same year club, are you guys buddies? If Mike Trout joins the club, is there a special handshake you guys will do?
Fred: I have never met Ichiro so we are not buddies. I have not met Trout either, but I love the secrethandshake thing.

Matt: When you were drafted by the Yankees, how come you didn’t sign with them?
Fred: I was going to USC to play football and baseball for them and it was going to take a lot of money to make me change my mind. No one in my family had gone to college so that was important to my father and me. The Yankees didn’t offer what I wanted so I went to college and had a great time while I was there.

Matt: Why didn’t you try to go to the NFL after USC?
Fred: I played football my first year at USC and then committed full time to baseball. It was obvious to many that my future was going to be in baseball and not the NFL.

Matt: Are you in touch with any of your former teammates like Jim Rice, Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk or Rod Carew?
Fred: I see Jim Rice all of the time when I go back to Boston. The rest of the guys I see on occasion, but it’s usually at a golf tournament or a function of MLB.

Matt: I read that you are the main chef in your house. What’s your signature dish?
Fred: I am a cook, but not a chef. Like most guys, I’m pretty good on the grill, but my wife, Natalie, likes a pastadish that I make with garlic shrimp and broccoli florets. It’s pretty tasty.

Matt: On June 18, 1975, you had one of the greatest single game performances ever. Can you please tell me a little about it?
Fred: I had a 20-game hitting streak stopped the night before and went to the park early the next day for some extra batting practice. Its seemed to work pretty good as I hit two homers and a triple in my first three at bats. I lined out to second the next time and got an infield single the next trip and then homered again in my last at bat. We squeaked out a victory by 15-1. I drove in 10 runs and that was the most ever by a rookie at that time.

Matt: Since this is a baseball history blog, if you could have used a time machine when you played, which pitcher in history would you have liked to have faced? And which team would you have liked to have been on?
Fred: I would have been a Giant and would have wanted to face Sandy Koufax. He was the best lefty I ever saw and I would have loved to have battled him with the pennant on the line.

Matt: You are very involved with kids, charity and little league. How should MLB address the issue of teaching kids today about baseball history? Also, what would you advise kids today interested in becoming pro baseball players?

Fred: Kids have to want to learn about baseball history. You can only teach them if they want to learn and today’s kids learn either by watching on TV or DVD. ESPN has a Classic Channel that plays games of yesteryear. This is a very easy way to see how it was done in the “old” days. There are a lot of DVD’s out there as well that tell the stories of how it used to be. I would advise kids to play the game for fun when you are young. It’s fun to aspire to be a big leaguer but the odds are against it. So have fun in school, get your education and, if your talent dictates, you can pursue your dream.
Matt: I read that when you won the MVP and they misspelled your first name, you didn’t send it back to be fixed. How come?
Fred: I have an unusual name spelling. It is Fredric with no extra “e” or “k”. It felt more unique this way and I was afraid that they might lose the darn thing.
Matt: Who was the scariest pitcher you ever faced?
Fred: I was never afraid of anyone, but had serious respect for Steve Carlton and Randy Johnson. It was pretty tough to hang in there against their breaking pitches when their fastballs are whizzing by you at nearly 100mph.
Matt: Because you played for the Red Sox and Angels, who did you root for in the 2009 ALDS between the two of them?

Fred:   :) I root for the team that wins!

Thanks again to Fred for being such a great sport and for agreeing to answer all of my questions!! And if Fred needs some secret handshake suggestions, I am happy to help him.

And if there are any current or retired professional baseball players out there who want me to interview them, please shoot me an email at mattamdad@gmail.com.

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Former MVP saves FACE

A great article and news videoabout Fred Lynn and his involvement with the FACE Foundation.  Check it out at the link below.

San Diego, California News Station – KFMB Channel 8 – cbs8.com

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Fred Lynn on FOX Sports Radio with Rob Dibble 10-2-2012

Click on the link below and listen to Fred Lynn discuss Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout and coaching the Red Sox.

http://www.foxsportsradio.com/player/?mid=22497226

 

 

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The All-Fenway Team Video from Fenway Park

Enjoy the video for the introduction of the All-Fenway Team, which included our very own Fred Lynn.

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Fred Lynn Named Top Centerfielder for the All-Fenway Team

On September 26, 2012, in celebration of 100 years for the Boston Red Sox, fans voted to name the All-Fenway Team. That team consisted of 12 players and a manager. Fred Lynn was voted by the fans as the greatest centerfielder in Red Sox history. Other members of the All-Fenway Team starting lineup were Carlton Fisk, Wade Boggs, Nomar Garciaparra, Jimmie Foxx, Dustin Pedroia, Ted Williams, Pedro Martinez, Lefty Grove, Dwight Evans, and Jonathan Papelbon/ Terry Francona was the manager. Fred Lynn was present for the ceremonies at Fenway Park.  Congratulations to Fred Lynn. What an honor.

Former Boston Red Sox outfielder Fred Lynn, left, greets current player Dustin Pedroia during ceremonies honoring the “All-Time Fenway Park Team” prior to a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park in Boston, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

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2004 Sox, All Fenway Team to be honored during last homestand

CSNNE.com STAFF REPORT, Originally posted on CSNNE.com
To conclude the season-long 100th Anniversary Celebration of Fenway Park, the Boston Red Sox will pay tribute to the 2004 World Champions and present the All-Time Fenway Park Team on September 25 and 26, respectively.  With not much to else celebrate during the dismal 2012 season, Red Sox fans will have the opportunity to honor the greatest players in Red Sox history during the last two games of the season.

The ’04 team will be presented before the game when the 2012 Red Sox play against the Tampa Bay Rays.  All uniformed personnel from that season have also been invited.

The All Fenway Team comprises the most idolized Red Sox players in Fenway Park history as determined by fans voting, historians, staff, and the club’s historical and archival consultants. Fans cast more than 120,000 votes in balloting this season.  Members of that team will be presented before the regular season home finale, which also begins at 7:10 p.m. against Tampa Bay.

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Lynn’s advice to Trout: Ignore the hype

By LANDON HALL / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

CARLSBAD — During the summer of 1975, Fred Lynn didn’t think much about winning the American League’s rookie of the year award. He gave even less consideration to who would be the AL’s most valuable player.
The 23-year-old Red Sox center fielder was too consumed with trying to help his team get past the New york Yankees and Baltimore Orioles to win the AL East.

Fred Lynn at his home in Carlsbad. Lynn retired from the major leagues in 1990 with 306 career home runs and a .283 lifetime batting average.

“Not only was there no time, but no one cared,” Lynn said.
The only real chance to watch baseball on TV came on NBC’s Game of the Week. Statistics weren’t parsed over and collated. The newspapers printed them in the Sunday edition, but even players didn’t really know what their batting average was on a day-to-day basis. The era of big-scoreboard statistics at the ballpark, instantly updated, didn’t really begin until the late 1970s.
Lynn did win both RoY and MVP in ’75, at the time an unprecedented achievement. But he didn’t celebrate. The Sox had lost Game 7 of the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds, following the delirious drama of winning Game 6.
There was no hullaballoo for awards, no news conference. Lynn, who made about $20,000 in salary that rookie year, plus a $9,000 bonus for being on the World Series losing team, got into his new Buick Regal (a Red Sox team award) and drove cross-country back to his offseason home in Alhambra.
The Red Sox tried to find him to tell him about the MVP award, but he didn’t learn of it until he saw a headline in a newspaper during a stop in Arizona. “It wasn’t an earth-shattering thing,” he said.
Angels center fielder Mike Trout, 21, has a chance to duplicate Lynn’s feat and become the third player to win his league’s top rookie and MVP (Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki did it in 2001, just shy of his 28th birthday). If it happens for Trout, you can guarantee a level of media attention that would be orders of magnitude higher than in the ’70s.
This is one reason Lynn, 60, has such regard for Trout: his consistency in the face of both scrutiny and pressure, from having to perform (as Lynn himself did) at such a young age while fighting for a pennant.
“It can be a little overwhelming for a rookie, because everything’s new,” Lynn said. “You go 3 for 4, go to a new park, here’s another Hall of Famer you’re facing. You’ve got to do it all over again. So there’s no time to think about what you’re doing. At least for me, it was all about what we were doing as a group.”
Comparing stats
Playing between Red Sox left fielder Jim Rice and right fielder Dwight Evans, Lynn played some of the best center field of his era. After his superlative debut season (when he hit .331/.401/.566 with 21 home runs and 105 RBIs), the former USC star topped himself in 1979, when he hit .333/.423/.637 with 39 homers and 122 RBIs, finishing fourth in the AL MVP race behind the Angels’ Don Baylor, Ken Singleton and George Brett.
Lynn was traded to the Angels after the 1980 season and played four seasons before moving on to Baltimore and Detroit, then winding up his career with the San Diego Padres in 1990.
He lives in Carlsbad with his wife Natalie, and he doesn’t get the Angels on TV (it’s Padres country).
The first time he saw Trout play at all this season came during the Angels’ series in Boston last month. Lynn threw out the first pitch (with ex-outfield mates Rice and Evans) before one of the three games, and spent the series entertaining Red Sox clients in a team skybox.
“I told everybody, ‘Listen, when this Trout kid comes up, I want to see him.’ I wanted to see what he was made of.
“First thing I saw, he’s a big kid. He’s powerful, looks like a fullback. And the ball jumps off his bat. I can imagine if I weighed 220 pounds (instead of 170), what it would do if I hit the ball. He’s got big hands, looks like he’s an anvil salesman.”
Another observation: Sooner or later the Angels have to move Trout down in the order to No. 3 or 4.
“Leadoff guys don’t hit 25 homers. That’s what (Barry) Bonds did, then they moved him down. And he’s way bigger than Bonds was when he was a leadoff guy, stealing bases. So I think his evolution has got to go down. I can’t see him being a leadoff guy. He’s just too big and strong to be in that position.”
Defense first
Lynn says he identified more as a player with the generation that came before him than the one that followed him: Players who were defenders first, and hitters second. He grew up idolizing versatile players like Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente.
“They were flashy and flamboyant, and man, they could do anything they wanted to do. As a kid that’s very appealing.
“Even as an older guy, I still like guys who can do everything and make it look like it’s pretty easy. That’s a special talent to make it look effortless.”
Trout’s electrifying speed and leaping ability in the outfield is one of the reasons he’s a lock to win rookie of the year. But his MVP credentials are slipping. He’s hitting a merely-good .284 in August after hitting .392 in July and .372 in June. Meantime, Detroit slugger Miguel Cabrera is coming on strong, overtaking Trout in the batting race, .33015 to .32976 entering Friday’s series opener between the Angels and Tigers in Anaheim.
Lynn wore down during the second half of 1975: After hitting 16 homers and 71 RBIs before the All-Star break, he had 5 and 34 after. He thinks Trout will bounce back, though.
“He’s a big strong kid, so he ain’t gonna wear out like I did, but this is the time. Fortunately, the team’s in the hunt, which will keep him going, keep him mentally stimulated, because if you get mentally tired along with physically tired, that’s a bad thing. But I don’t think that’s gonna happen to this kid.”
Career shortened
A series of injuries probably kept Lynn from getting into the Hall of Fame, as Rice was in 2009. A nine-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner, Lynn became known for diving onto the grass (or turf, in the old multi-use stadiums) and into walls made of concrete, with only the thinnest veneer of padding.
In 1982, with the Angels, he leaped to grab a ball at Tiger Stadium and slammed into the metal railing atop the fence.
“I started to walk to my position, I couldn’t even yell to Reggie. … And they cut my uniform off; I couldn’t lift my arm. I had broken three ribs. And that put me out for a bit, but we were in a pennant race, so I tried to get back in ASAP.”
Lynn told manager Gene Mauch he could hit. “I said, ‘I just can’t miss. It hurt too much to swing and not connect. “So my concentration level went way up. Like three straight games I got winning hits.”
After the 1975 near-miss, Lynn had assumed he and the rest of the Red Sox’s young nucleus would appear in the World Series year after year, but it never happened. By 1982 Lynn was 30, a veteran on a veteran team. And that made it hurt so much worse when the Angels went all the way to the ALCS, won the first two games against Milwaukee, then lost the next three.
The feeling was worse than in ’75, “because the older you get, you know these opportunities aren’t gonna be around. When you’re a kid you think they’re gonna happen all the time.”
His advice to Trout? Don’t take anything for granted.
“And just have fun with it. Don’t let all this talk about MVP and rookie of the year get to you. That’s for other people to decide. You don’t have any control over that kind of stuff. Your main concern as a leadoff man is to get on base and score runs, play a good center field, help your team win. That’s it.”

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