From ninth place to the World Series
The 1967 World Series, played in October, was contested by the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League and the Boston Red Sox of the American League. The Cardinals won in seven games. The series is remembered mostly for the pitching of Bob Gibson, and for the story of the Red Sox, who had finished ninth in the ten-team American League in 1966 and were given very long odds at the start of 1967.
That turnaround is the origin of the nickname that fans still use for the season, the “Impossible Dream Red Sox”, taken from a song in the musical Man of La Mancha, which was then running on Broadway. The team won the pennant on the last day of a very tight race. Under their new manager Dick Williams, they finished one game ahead of both the Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers.
The Red Sox and their season
Boston’s season depended on a few players. Carl Yastrzemski had one of the best years in the modern game and is covered in his own article, so it is enough to say here that he led the team through the final weeks and into the series. Pitcher Jim Lonborg won the American League’s Cy Young Award, and he was the team’s main starter down the stretch.
The season had also been shadowed by an injury. In August, outfielder Tony Conigliaro was hit in the face by a pitch from Jack Hamilton of the California Angels and was badly hurt. He missed the rest of the season, and the incident is often cited as a turning point in the debate about batting helmets and protection.
The Cardinals
St. Louis, managed by Red Schoendienst, won the National League comfortably. First baseman Orlando Cepeda was the league’s most valuable player. Lou Brock was a base-stealing threat, and outfielder Roger Maris, known for his 61-home-run season of 1961, had joined the team. Catcher Tim McCarver was a regular. But the heart of the team was Gibson, a hard-throwing right-hander whose competitiveness was well known among players.
The seven games
The series ran as follows, according to the commonly cited scores:
| Game | Winner | Score | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cardinals | 2-1 | Gibson wins |
| 2 | Red Sox | 5-0 | Lonborg one-hitter; Yastrzemski hits two home runs |
| 3 | Cardinals | 5-2 | |
| 4 | Cardinals | 6-0 | Gibson wins |
| 5 | Red Sox | 3-1 | Lonborg wins |
| 6 | Red Sox | 8-4 | Forces a seventh game |
| 7 | Cardinals | 7-2 | Gibson wins, at Fenway Park |
Boston fought back from a 3-1 deficit to win Games 5 and 6, forcing a deciding game at Fenway Park in Boston on October 12. Lonborg started Game 7 on only two days’ rest, after pitching Game 5, a decision that has been discussed ever since. The Cardinals scored early against him, and Gibson, who also hit a home run in that game, kept the Red Sox in check.
Gibson’s series
Gibson won all three of his starts, in Games 1, 4 and 7, each of them as a complete game. His earned run average for the series was about 1.00, and he struck out 26 batters across his three starts. He was named the series’ most valuable player. That performance became part of his reputation, which grew over the following season, 1968, when he posted one of the lowest earned run averages in the modern era.
The Red Sox lost despite Lonborg’s two wins, and they would not win a World Series until 2004. The long gap led some fans to speak of a curse, a popular narrative that is not a serious explanation, but the 1967 near-miss is often treated as the start of its modern version.
A turning point for Boston
For Boston, the 1967 season has a status beyond the result. The team had been poorly supported in earlier years, and ballpark attendance rose sharply. The Red Sox became a central part of the city’s identity again. The year is also remembered alongside other sporting moments of the year, such as the Lisbon Lions’ European Cup win in Lisbon, in the sense that it was a year of unlikely sporting stories.
Baseball in 1967 was also at a pivot point. The pitchers’ advantage grew in the following years, which led to rule changes after 1968, including lowering the pitching mound. Gibson, Lonborg and their contemporaries pitched in a time when the sport was beginning to change.