"Now Batting #19 Fred Lynn......" The USC Trojan star outfielder first bursted on the Major League scene in September of 1974. The following spring of 1975 everyone in the American League learned to know about the Red Sox rookie twin powers the other twin power was Jim Rice. Most of Fred Lynn's exploits during his rookie season were described 49 years later in a special insert set from Topps Heritage called "The Fred Lynn Files" a 10 card insert set. It was in 1975 on June 18th at Tigers Stadium Fred hit 3 Home Runs & a Triple just narrowing hitting 4 homers in a game just by few inches hence why he ended up at 3rd base for the triple he had 10 RBIs. A week later after the Reds beaten Fred's Red Sox in World Series Fred made history by winning the Most Valuable Player Award & Rookie of the Year Award (Later in 2001 another Rookie phenom did the exact same thing that Rookie was Ichiro Suzuki) Fred had won the R.O.Y. by earning 23½ 1st place votes the other ½ 1st place vote went to his teammate Jim Rice the story goes had Rice not been sidelined with a broken wrist due to being hit by a pitch by Vern Ruhle of the Detroit Tigers the voting might have been closer.
It was in 1976 when he was playing in Minneapolis against the Twins Fred made a catch off the bat of Dan Ford that caught the eyes of Warner Fusselle to talk about on a syndicated show making its debut in 1976 that host Mel Allen said about the Catch 'How About That' that show was "This Week in Baseball" for many of the early years of the show Fred Lynn's catch would be shown in the ending credits. Then in January of 1981 Fred found himself being traded to the California Angels for Frank Tanana & Joe Rudi. Fred struggled his first season with the Angels due to being limited to 76 games cause of a knee injury however Fred bounced back in 1982 where he would help the Angels make the playoffs unfortunately despite winning the 1982 ALCS MVP his Angels were eliminated by the Milwaukee Brewers in a best of 5 series. Fred found himself in the spotlight again in 1983 this time in Fred's hometown of Chicago at Comiskey Park for the 50th Anniversary of the Mid-Summers Classic All-Star Game on July 6th in the bottom of the 3rd Inning off San Francisco Giants pitcher Atlee Hammaker (It was the 54th edition cause between 1959-1962 cause they played 2 All-Stars games those seasons & there wasn't a game played in 1945 due to WWII) when on a 1-2 pitch he hit the first Grand Slam in All-Star Game history it was his 4th Home Run in All-Star play & helping breaking the American League losing streak of 13 games at the time again Fred was named MVP. 2 interesting things about that game Jim Rice his former teammate also homered in the game as I mentioned it was the 50th Anniversary of the Mid-Summer Classic Babe Ruth hit the 1st in All-Star Game play also at Comiskey Park but that was in 1933. After the 1984 season Fred filed for Free Agency & signed a 5 year deal with the Baltimore Orioles Fred played with them from 1985 until August of 1988 when found himself being traded to the Detroit Tigers in hopes that his mighty bat would return to help the Tigers to the pennant sad to say the Tigers lost the American League East Pennant by 1 game behind the Boston Red Sox. In the winter of 1989 Fred signed a year contract with the San Diego Padres after the 1990 season Fred retired from the game.
Fred was an 9x All-Star player 4x Gold Glove winner does he deserve to be honored to be in this set in my opinion even though he played the 2nd half of the 1970's & he was a star during those years I believe he earns the right to be included more so then someone like Bud Harrelson who was featured on the blog back on April 4th of this year. So what's your take on Fred Lynn's remarkable run in 1970s does he get your vote or not let me know in the comments below next up in our series is Eddie Murray until then I am reminded of Rogers Hornsby once said about signing autographs "Any Ballplayer who doesn't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American, He's a Communist."
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