Good morning!
The best baseball year of my life was 1975 when ticket prices were reasonable, nobody did the Wave or sang “Sweet Caroline,” and instead of having a Fenway Park code of conduct, there was an unwritten code of misconduct when the Yankees came to town.

Peter Gammons was the town’s best beat writer, Ned Marin and Jim Woods did the radio play-by-play, Sherm Feller announced the lineups and organist John Kiley played “Sweet Rosie O’Grady.”

Ah, what a year it was! The Red Sox finished 30 games over .500, swept the A’s three straight in the league playoffs, and losing in seven games to the Reds was tempered by Bernie Carbo’s pinch hit home run and Carlton Fisk’s blast off the left field foul pole.

Fisk, remember, was born across the river from Bellows Falls, in Charlestown, N.H., and the church steeple chimed at midnight.

In his annual MLB summary, the New Yorker’s Roger Angell led with a tip of the hat to the Beantown Nine: Tarry, delight, so seldom met. … The games have ended, the heroes are dispersed, and another summer has died late in Boston, but still one yearns for them and wishes them back, so great was their pleasure.

The series began on a Saturday afternoon before baseball was wed to prime time and the almighty dollar. For Boston fans the games were akin to the hockey showdown between Canada and the Soviet Union and the Super Bowl between Joe Namath’s Jets and the Baltimore Colts.

That morning I bought the Globe at Barrett and Baker and ran across Main Street to order eggs and homefries from my favorite waitress Terry at Carl’s Restaurant. In the sports section, cartoonist Larry Johnson had drawn caricatures of Redleg players spawled over the field like deflated floats at a parade. Off to the side, Luis Tiant was pulling the plug on the Big Red Machine.

The Red Sox mustered 12 hits off starter Don Gullett and two relievers while El Tiante pitched a five-hit complete game shutout in two hours, 27 minutes. You’d never have needed a pitch clock when Luis was on the mound.

Tiant was considered washed up when he got to Boston. I can remember driving through UMass listening to Calling All Sports on WBZ — the only Boston station you could get in those days— and a fan was griping, “All Tiant does is sit in the bullpen!”

It was true. Tiant was 1-7 his first year in Boston. He’d won 66 games in Cleveland but lost his mojo. In 1973 he got his groove back and won 20 games for the Red Sox and was 22-13 the following season. He’d reinvented himself into a junkballer with a twisting, gyrating, hesitating windup and a delivery that came from different arm angles.

The fans embraced him for his laconic smile and Cuban heritage, his Macanudo cigars and famous goatee. He was scheduled to pitch against the Yankees near the end of the 1977 season and on a whim I hopped in the car and drove to Fenway.

When I got there he was already in the shower, roughed up by the Yanks for seven runs. Our heroes are human, but none stood taller on the mound than El Tiante.

Apparently, TV producers think baseball is boring but as Red Smith wrote, “Baseball is dull only to those with dull minds.”

The sport is not broken, it does not need fixing or cameras stuck so close to the players’ faces your can see their nose hairs. Nor does it need managers and players being questioned while the game’s on. “Interviews during the games are completely out of place, imposing on the player and manager, and offer nothing,” says Mike Francesa.

Agreed. ESPN’s productions are uwatchable and FS1’s aren’t far behind. The solution? Turn down the TV and synch up the radio, it’s better that way.

It all reminds me of a time in the 1970s when Tony Kubek interviewed Red Sox shortstop Rick Burleson before a Yankees game. When Rooster returned to the dugout Don Zimmer asked him, “How much did they give you?”

“Seventy five bucks,” smiled Burleson.

“You giving it to your wife?” asked Zimmer.

“No! I’m keeping it!” exclaimed Burleson, and the whole dugout cracked up.

Phils color analyst Larry Andersen was pitching for Houston in 1990 when Red Sox GM Lou Gorman needed a closer and traded for the 6-3 right hander. The Astros weren’t sure who to take in return, so they asked scout Stan Benjamin, who coached at Greenfield High School and helped mentor players like Tom Suchanek.

Benjamin, who was bird dogging New Britain of the Eastern League, told his GM to take Jeff Bagwell. It was the right call, of course. Bagwell played his entire career in Houston and was enshrined into the Hall of Fame in 2017.

It’s been a quiet start to the UMass hockey season compared to last year when the Minutemen played back-to-back games against Michigan at the sold-out Mullins Center. UMass beat Bentley last week, 5-4, before an SRO crowd of almost 2,000 fans at Bentley Arena.

Sophomore goalie Michael Hrabal made 33 saves but let in two late goals after coach Andy Jones pulled his goalie. Winger Aydar Suniev had a hat trick and freshman defenseman Larry Keenan notched his first collegiate assist.

On Sunday, RPI came to town for an exhibition game and beat UMass, 2-1, in overtime in what was a penalty-filled contest in front of about 400 fans. Former UMass defenseman Elliott McDermott played the point for RPI and wore the “A” as the alternate captain.

UMass is currently in Las Vegas for the Ice Breaker Tourney. The Minutemen played Omaha last night and will play either Minnesota or Air Force tonight. The team’s home opener is Friday against Sacred Heart.

SQUIBBERS: Shout-out to my son Mat for winning the wood splitting contest at last weekend’s Festival of the Hills in Conway. Mat follows the NHL and his choice for the Utah Hockey Club’s nickname is either the Yetis or the Caribou. … One reason why Bill Belichick might wind up in Jacksonville is because the city is 240 miles up the coast from one of his favorite Florida haunts, Guanabana’s in Juno Beach. … Trivia: Name the oldest living baseball hall-of-famer. … Cynics (who me?) are calling Missouri’s 41-10 loss at Texas A&M a trap game ahead of today’s showdown at UMass. The Tigers are slight 27½-point favorites. … This season showed that O’s catcher Adlee Rutschman is no Pudge Fisk, and rookie Jackson Holliday is too cute and rosy-cheeked to play in the majors. … After the Phillies lost to the Mets on Wednesday, WFMZ-TV of Allentown caught up with distraught fan Courtney O’Neil who said: “I think I might check into AA or an institute of some sort because this is crap.” … Royals shortstop Bobby Witt wears No. 17 because his two favorite players, Derek Jeter and Dustin Pedroia, wore Nos. 2 and 15. … A.J. Pierzynski calls his new FS1 broadcast partner Adam Wainwright “Wayne-O.” … Regarding the paucity of choices for NY Giants throwback gear, Maggie Gray said: “Either it’s a Mark Bavaro jersey or you’re screwed. You got no Zubaz, you got no fun.” … Trivia Answer: 90-year-old Luis Aparicio, who wears a White Sox hat on his plaque in Cooperstown. … TMZ reports Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler had a $100,000 watch stolen off his wrist at Santa Anita Park last month. … Suzyn Waldman kidded John Sterling about watching Yankees games from his home. “You didn’t sit there saying, ‘That was the first walk, and it was brought to you by Birdbath Incorporated?’” … David Fry’s game winning home run for Cleveland on Thursday came with two out in the seventh inning, same as Bucky Dent’s in ’78. Here was Tom Hamilton’s radio call: “The 2-2 delivery… Swung on hit a ton! Deep! Left! Greene! Back! Track! Wall! Goooone!”

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com