December 20, 1980: The Boston Red Sox Miss Their Deadline

December 20, 1980: The management of the Boston Red Sox inadvertently give themselves a public relations nightmare.

When Tom Yawkey owned the Red Sox from 1933 to 1976, he spent his vast fortune however he wanted, and gave his players nice salaries. When he died, his widow Jean inherited his fortune. She liked baseball, but liked Tom's money more. So she had her new general manager, Haywood Sullivan, lowball the players.

Unfortunately for Sox fans, Yawkey's death came just as free agency was taking shape in baseball. Big signings Bill Campbell (1976-77) and Mike Torrez (1977-78) didn't quite work out, and so Sullivan became reluctant to make any more big signings.

After the 1980 season, the contracts of catcher Carlton Fisk and center fielder Fred Lynn, both among the best players in the game, and key figures on their 1975 team that won the Pennant and their 1977 and 1978 teams that just missed Division titles, expired.

Sullivan mailed new contracts to them -- postmarked the day after the contractual deadline. In other words, they became free agents, not just because Sullivan and Mrs. Yawkey were cheap, but because Sullivan was spiteful. Fisk signed with the Chicago White Sox.

This came on top of a trade on December 10: The Sox traded shortstop Rick Burleson and 3rd baseman Clavell Lavern "Butch" Hobson, a former University of Alabama quarterback, to the California Angels for 3rd baseman Carney Lansford, center fielder Rick Miller (a former Red Sock), and pitcher Mark Clear.

On January 23, 1981, the Sox traded Lynn and pitcher Steve Renko to the Angels, for outfielder Joe Rudi, and pitchers Frank Tanana and Jim Dorsey. They thought they had bought Rudi (and Rollie Fingers) in the Oakland Athletics' 1976 fire sale, but the purchase was canceled by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn.

Lansford gave the Red Sox 2 .300+ seasons, but Rudi and Miller were done. Tanana had 1 awful season for them, and was traded, and won another 136 games in the major leagues. Dorsey was a throw-in, the remainder of his major league career consisting of 2 games each for the Red Sox in 1984 and '85.

Burleson had 1 more All-Star season. Lynn remained an All-Star for a few years, although injuries kept him from reaching the Hall of Fame as had been expected.

Lynn helped the Angels win the AL West in 1982, although Burleson was hurt and missed most of that season, ending the starting portion of his career at age 31. Fisk helped the ChiSox win the AL West in 1983, and ended up playing longer on the South Side than he did in the Back Bay. It would be 1986 before the Red Sox made the Playoffs again.

After Mrs. Yawkey's death, The Yawkey Trust straightened things out. Both players have been elected to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame, and Fisk's Number 27 has been retired. Since his Number 27 was not available on the White Sox, he reversed it to 72, and they retired that number. Fisk hit 376 home runs, formerly held the records for home runs and games played by a catcher, was named to 11 All-Star Games, and has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. A statue of him stands inside the White Sox' Rate Field.

Injuries kept Lynn from being seriously considered for Cooperstown, but he managed to hit 306 home runs and be selected for 9 All-Star Games.

It was bad management decisions like this one -- not any curse, real or imagined, placed on them by Babe Ruth or "the baseball gods" or anyone else -- that explains why the Red Sox didn't win a World Series between 1918 and 2004.

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December 20, 1980 was a Saturday. Soccer stars Ashley Cole and Martín Demichelis were born.

Baseball was out of season. There were 2 games in the NFL, both in Florida. The Chicago Bears beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 14-13 at Tampa Stadium. And the New York Jets beat the Miami Dolphins, 24-17 at the Orange Bowl in Miami. NBC experimented by broadcasting this game without announcers.

There was 1 college football bowl games played that day: Florida beat Maryland, 35-20 in the Tangerine Bowl at Orlando Stadium (now Camping World Stadium).

There were 7 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Denver Nuggets, 120-114 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 107-102 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Houston Rockets, 133-109 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Kansas City Kings, 107-103 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the expansion Dallas Mavericks, 101-98 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The San Diego Clippers beat the Utah Jazz, 103-91 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 122-119 in overtime at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. Eddie Johnson of the Hawks led all scorers on the day with 40 points.

And there were 10 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers and the Minnesota North Stars played to a tie, 3-3 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The New York Islanders beat the Quebec Nordiques, 5-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Boston Bruins and their fellow New Englanders the Hartford Whalers played to a tie, 4-4 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Washington Capitals, 5-2 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-2 at the Checkerdome, as the St. Louis Arena was known at the time.

* The Detroit Red Wings and the Colorado Rockies played to a tie, 3-3 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Calgary Flames played to a tie, 3-3 at the Stampede Corral in Calgary.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Los Angeles Kings, 7-4 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Vancouver Canucks were not scheduled.

And in English soccer, Arsenal defeated Manchester United, 2-1 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London.