Editor's note: Each Friday throughout the summer, The Eagle-Tribune will be doing short question and answer sessions with a member of the 1967 Red Sox, honoring the 40th anniversary of The Impossible Dream season. The interview will be shown in its entirety on our Web site, www.eagletribune.com.



Rico Petrocelli turns 64 on June 27.

That means two things. One of our most memorable Boston sports heroes is getting old. And two, 40 years ago, when this region of the country first started going bonkers about baseball, Petrocelli was in his early 20s.

I caught up with the longtime Nashua resident between several events involving the 1967 team the past two weeks and asked him many questions, all relating to the incredible 1967 season:

BB: It seems like it has been a never-ending party the last few weeks for the 1967 season. What has the experience been like for you?

Rico Petrocelli: "I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I can't tell you how much fun it has been with most of the guys. Everybody has stories. Honestly, other than going through it in 1967, I don't remember having this much fun. The fans and the Red Sox organization have been great to us. They've really gone out of their way to make us feel welcome. They've gone out of their way to make sure all of the guys came back, like Reggie Smith. ... It's been a joy."

BB: OK, let's get right to it - What was it like before the 1967 season around here?

RP: "You want the truth? It was bad, really bad. We weren't even close to a .500 team. Our manager was Billy Herman, and I don't blame him. He was a nice guy who knew his baseball. But we were a team built on one-dimensional players. We played for the big inning, the home run. And it seems when we didn't get it, we lost. We only had a few good pitchers, too. It seems like we lost a lot of one-run games, and that can be very depressing."

BB: Then comes the spring of 1967. Did you have any inclination in spring training that this team might be special?

RP: "No. I'd be lying if I said I did."

BB: The obvious biggest difference was general manager Dick O'Connell naming Dick Williams the new manager. What did you know about Williams before he was put in charge?

RP: "I first met Dick at spring training in Arizona in 1963. That again at the big league camp in 1964. He wasn't friendly at all. He kept to himself. He roomed with Billy Wagner back then, and Billy was the opposite of him. He was funny and talked all the time. Dick was serious. He had that look about him."

BB: What did you think of Williams?

RP: "The only thing I realized early on was that it was different. We never really focused on anything other than doing things the right way. Dick was tough. He didn't talk about pennants or World Series. If he did, we would have thought he was crazy. He was on us about hustling, hitting cutoffs, being at the right base, and so on. I just remember being as focused as I ever was on baseball."

BB: At what point of the season did you start wondering about where this 1967 team might be headed?

RP: "For me, everything changed after the All-Star break. We had won 10 in a row, which didn't put us in first place, but put us close. Remember, there were a lot of good teams in the American League back then. Minnesota won the pennant in 1965 and they had the same group of guys like Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew and Tony Oliva, and they had pitchers like Jim Kaat and Dean Chance. The Detroit Tigers were awesome on offense with Al Kaline, Bill Freehan and Norm Cash. And the Chicago White Sox, people forget about them, they had the best starting staff in the league. It was the four of us banging heads, one game at a time.

"The other great thing was Carl Yastrzemski was starting to get hot. He started hitting a lot of home runs and threw out a lot of runners on the bases. That's a big lift for a team. Everything, though, started coming together during that winning streak. We just started saying, 'Maybe we can do this.' "

BB: What do you recall about your play during the run in 1967, particularly after the All-Star break?

RP: "I got off to great start at the beginning of the year but got hit on wrist and missed a couple of weeks. Then I was out again and got out of my rhythm. But the last six or seven weeks I was in the lineup every day. I had 17 homers that year, which wasn't bad for missing the time that I did."

BB: You can't talk about 1967 without talking about Carl Yastrzemski. Books have been written about what he accomplished and how clutch he was. Do you have another memory about Yaz not often mentioned?

RP: "I have so many, but the one that really sticks out for me was the game in Detroit when Yaz was going up against Mickey Lolich, who was a very good pitcher. He always threw inside to Yaz. Well, this one game he almost hits Yaz in the face and knocks him down.

"So what does Yaz do? He just gets up and glares back. You could see he was ticked. On the next pitch, Yaz hit it nine miles to right field. I get chills just thinking about it. The whole bench went wild. The message was, 'You can't intimidate us.' He never threw at Yaz again after that."

Coming next week: Reggie Smith