{"id":3773,"date":"2010-03-28T12:36:46","date_gmt":"2010-03-28T19:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/?p=3773"},"modified":"2010-03-28T12:36:46","modified_gmt":"2010-03-28T19:36:46","slug":"touring-the-bases-with-frank-sullivan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/28\/touring-the-bases-with-frank-sullivan\/","title":{"rendered":"Touring the Bases With…Frank Sullivan"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the tallest pitchers in baseball at 6’7″, Frank Sullivan enjoyed immediate success upon earning a full-time spot with the Boston Red Sox in 1954, winning 15 games in his rookie season.\u00c2\u00a0 He tied for the league lead in wins with 18 in 1955 and paced the junior circuit in starts, innings, and batters faced.\u00c2\u00a0 His performance earned him a spot on the A.L. All-Star team and he pitched well in relief, throwing 3 1\/3 innings of shutout ball before surrendering a game-winning home run to Stan Musial in the bottom of the 12th.\u00c2\u00a0 Another behemoth, 6’8″ Braves hurler Gene Conley<\/a>, got the win.<\/p>\n

Sporting one of baseball’s best fastballs, Sullivan made the All-Star team again in 1956, then paced the A.L. in WHIP and walks per nine innings in 1957.\u00c2\u00a0 His last productive season came in 1958, however, and though he pitched for five more years, he never reached the heights he reached from 1954-1958.\u00c2\u00a0 Over those five seasons, only Early Wynn, Billy Pierce, and Whitey Ford won more games among A.L. hurlers, and only Ford and Pierce had a lower earned run average than Sullivan’s 3.13.<\/p>\n

Sullivan was recently inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame with Bill Lee, Mo Vaughn, and Mike Greenwell, and is the author of Life is More Than 9 Innings<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Click here to watch a video of a conversation I had with Sullivan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bob Lazzari is an award-winning sports columnist for both Connecticut\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <\/em>Valley Times<\/em> and NY Sports Day<\/a>, where his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sports Roundup\u00e2\u20ac\u009d column is featured weekly. He is a member of the Connecticut Sports Writers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Alliance and host of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Monday Night Sports Talk<\/a>,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a cable television show on CTV\/Channel 14 in Connecticut.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the tallest pitchers in baseball at 6’7″, Frank Sullivan enjoyed immediate success upon earning a full-time spot with the Boston Red Sox in 1954, winning 15 games in his rookie season.\u00c2\u00a0 He tied for the league lead in wins with 18 in 1955 and paced the junior circuit in starts, innings, and batters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":730,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5669,5664,589,4934,1671,280,4928,1677,5667,5666,5668,176,175,5662,4935,2488,4573,5657,2565,168],"class_list":["post-3773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-author-of-life","tag-billy-pierce","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-connecticut-sports","tag-early-wynn","tag-frank-sullivan","tag-gene-conley","tag-hurlers","tag-lee-mo","tag-mike-greenwell","tag-mo-vaughn","tag-night-sports","tag-ny-sports","tag-productive-season","tag-sports-columnist","tag-sports-writers","tag-stan-musial","tag-time-spot","tag-whitey-ford","tag-winning-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t