The 1967 American League Pennant Race

In 1967, in the midst of a nail-biting six-week pennant race, the Red Sox, Tigers, Twins and White Sox stood deadlocked atop the American League. Never before or since have four teams tied for the lead in baseball’s final month. The stakes were high—there were no playoffs, the pennant winner went directly to the World Series.
Here, for the first time, all four teams are treated as equals. The author describes their contrasting skill sets, leadership and temperament. The stress of such stiff and sustained competition was constant, and there were overt psychological and physical intimidations playing a major role throughout the season. The standings were volatile and so were emotions. The players and managers varied: some wilted or broke, others responded heroically.

A lifelong sports fan, Cameron Bright lives in Freeport, Maine.

Cameron Bright
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 327
Bibliographic Info: 15 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2018
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7296-0
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3297-1
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments ix
Preface 1
Introduction 3
Prologue 7
1—“A bastard every day” 15
2—“Hairy-chested home run hitters” 23
3—“A bucket of warm spit” 30
4—“Watch where you are going, Bush” 39
5—“What are you crying for?” 46
6—“A great manager from the ankles down” 53
7—“I can win in the big leagues” 62
8—“Hope like hell it goes somewhere” 69
9—“The dry side of a fastball” 78
10—“Getting an alligator to play the piano” 86
11—“155,000 rounds of ammunition” 95
12—“The dumbest pitcher I ever caught” 103
13—“Sometimes you wonder what these kids are thinking” 112
14—“Die right here in the dirt” 121
15—“A menace to baseball” 126
16—“That runt” 136
17—Four-Way Tie 147
18—“That friggin’ skinny, shallow body” 154
19—“A ­well-mannered colored boy” 164
20—“Too big for us” 176
21—“Short-winded” 186
22—“$10,000” 196
23—“We are now out of tomorrows” 204
24—“Black Wednesday” 212
25—“I’ll make sure I hit one for you” 225
26—“It was a dumb play” 236
27—“Surprised the hell out of me” 243
28—The Last Game 256
The 1967 World Series 263
Epilogue: After 1967 275
Chapter Notes 287
Bibliography 303
Index 309

“Excellent”—The Guy Who Reviews Sports Books; “History is often written by, or to honor, the winners. There have been a dozen books on the 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox, the team that prevailed in that year’s pennant race. Cameron Bright takes the story further and shows us just what a race it truly was, giving equal time to the four teams that battled down to the final weekend. Filled with portrayals of the players and managers involved, his book enriches our appreciation for one of the hardest-fought drives in baseball history.”—Bill Nowlin, author of Tom Yawkey: Patriarch of the Boston Red Sox