Of getting over .500 and walk off homers…..

The Red Sox beat the Tigers yesterday 7-4 and for the sixth time this season they pulled even at 24-24. So tonight at Fenway Park, Daniel Bard will attempt, once again, to get the Red Sox over the .500 mark. In the way will be Justin Verlander who earlier this year allowed them two hits in eight innings.

Justin Verlander Justin Verlander #35 of the Detroit Tigers delivers a pitch in the first inning during the game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on August 13, 2009 in Boston, Massachusetts.

The good news is that the Red Sox, despite being forced to play their third line in the outfield, have won 11 of their last 16 games. The bad news is well, Justin Verlander.

They started to show some chipiness this weekend manifested in a late game group discussion with the Tampa Bay Rays.

And with their first walk off home run of the season by Jarrod Saltalamacchia. It was the first ever walk off home run by the Red Sox catcher and now places him in position to become only the sixth player in Red Sox history to hit more than one walk off Red Sox homer in a season.

David Ortiz

The king of the Red Sox walk off homer is “Big Papi” himself, who nine times has ended a game with a dinger. He is one of only two Red Sox players to have multiple walk off homers in more than one season. He had three in 2005 and a pair of them in 2006.

“Double X”

The other guy is Jimmie “The Beast” Foxx. The slugging first baseman, and my choice as the All Fenway first baseman, hit eight career walk off homers and in 1940 did it a season record four times. He also did it twice in 1938, the year he became the first Red Sox player to hit 50 homers in a season.

The Red Sox have had two shortstops who have had multiple walk off homers in a season.

“Junior” Stephens hit 122 home runs for the Red Sox in five seasons. Five of them were walk offs.

The first one was Vern Stephens, who twice in the 1948 season hit walk offs and 50 years later, Nomar Garciaparra hit a pair of them as well.

Nomaaaah, an all time favorite of the Fenway Faithful.

The fifth and last Red Sox player to hit more than one walk off homer in a single season is the most interesting. He appeared on these pages just last week and that’s because he is a pitcher who hit home runs.

Wes Ferrell (right) chats with Lefty Grove before a game in 1935. In 1935 he went 25-14, with a 3.52 ERA. He led the league in wins, starts, complete games and innings pitched. He also hit .347 with seven home runs and 32 RBI. Two of his homers ended games.

Wes Ferrell twice hit game ending home runs in 1935, Tom Yawkey’s second year owning the team. He also was the first Red Sox player to end a game with a home run, more than once in the same season. He finished second in the 1935 AL MVP voting behind the Tigers Hank Greenberg.

There are some pretty hefty Fenway names on the list of Walk Off leaders. Five of them have their numbers watching over Fenway Park from the venerable right field Fenway facade.

Number 9, three career walk offs.
Number 1, six career walk offs.
Number 8, four career walk offs.
Number 14, five career walk offs.
Number 27, two career walk offs.

Williams, Doerr, Yastrzemski, Rice and Fisk had a combined 20 career walk off home runs but never had more than one in a season.

There are 13 other Red Sox players with multiple career game ending home runs. Some are all time Red Sox greats and thus Fenway household names like, Jackie Jensen, Dwight Evans, Wade Boggs, Rico Petrocelli, Mo Vaughn and Frank Malzone. One is a recently retired soon to be named Red Sox all time great Jason Varitek and another is current player Kevin Youkilis. And then there are those who showed flashes of brilliance in the midst of good to average careers. Names such as Jimmy Piersall, Jim Tabor, Troy O’Leary, Gary Geiger, and Kevin Romine.

Quite a collection of names but none of them had more than one on a season.

“Salty” celebrates .

Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit his first career walk home run this past weekend. he is now in a position to do what only five players in Fenway Park history have ever done.

How bout tonight “Salty”, let’s get it over with!

And so it is on this day in Fenway Park history, May 29, 2012, getting over .500 day?

About fenwaypark100

Hello and welcome, my name is Raymond Sinibaldi. An educator for more than two decades, a baseball fan for nearly 60 years, I have authored four books about baseball and her glorious history; with a fifth on the way in late spring of 2015; the first, The Babe in Red Stockings which was co-authored with Kerry Keene and David Hickey. It is a chronicle of Babe's days with the Red Sox. We also penned a screenplay about Babe's Red Sox days so if any of you are Hollywood inclined or would like to represent us in forwarding that effort feel free to contact me through my email. In 2012 we three amigos published Images of Fenway Park in honor of the 100th birthday of Fenway Park. That led to the creation of this blog. The following year, 2013 came my first solo venture, Spring Training in Bradenton and Sarasota. This is a pictorial history of spring training in those two Florida cities. The spring of 2014 brought forth the 1967 Red Sox, The Impossible Dream Season. The title speaks for itself and it also is a pictorial history. Many of the photos in this book were never published before. The spring of 2015 will bring 1975 Red Sox, American League Champions. Another pictorial effort, this will be about the Red Sox championship season of 1975 and the World Series that restored baseball in America. I was fortunate enough to consult with sculptor Franc Talarico on the “Jimmy Fund” statue of Ted Williams which stands outside both Fenway Park and Jet Blue Park Fenway South, in Fort Myers Florida. That story is contained in the near 300 posts which are contained herein. This blog has been dormant for awhile but 2015 will bring it back to life so jump on board, pass the word and feel free to contact me about anything you read or ideas you may have for a topic. Thanks for stopping by, poke around and enjoy. Autographed copies of all my books are available here, simply click on Raymond Sinibaldi and email me.

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