Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Carlton “Pudge” Fisk turns 65 today. Carlton Fisk played 24 years in the major leagues. He started with the Boston Red Sox 1969, 1971-80 and finished with the Chicago White Sox 1981-93. Fisk was an 11 time All-Star. He was the 1972 American League Rookie of the Year. He finished his career with a .269 career batting average, 376 home runs and 1330 runs batted in. His Red Sox #27 and his White Sox #72 are both retired. He is one of only a handful of players who are embraced by the fans of two different teams.

I always thought it was a shame that Fisk didn’t play his entire career in Boston. He was born in Vermont and grew up in New Hampshire. His game winning home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series was one of the great moments in baseball history and helped bring back the popularity of baseball in the mid 1970’s. Pudge Fisk LOOKED like a ballplayer.

One of my favourite Fisk moments was towards the end of his career with the White Sox. Yankee Deion Sanders was at bat and popped up and wasn’t hustling down to first base. Fisk took Sanders to the woodshed. He went up to him and told him “Run the bleeping ball out you piece of bleep” The next time Sanders came to bat Fisk told him “There is a right way and a wrong way to play this game. You’re playing it the wrong way and the rest of us don’t like it. Someday, you’re going to get this game shoved right down your throat”. Sanders wasn’t much of a baseball player. I loved how Fisk- who played the game the way it should be played, took him to school.

“Pudge works harder than anyone I know, because he sets goals for himself and then follows through. I think he’s the ultimate professional.”