Sole MLB Alumnus From Enfield Hits Milestone Birthday

ENFIELD, CT — On the occasion of his 80th birthday, the only resident of Enfield to ever make it to major league baseball took a few minutes Wednesday to reflect on his brief moment in the sun.

Bill Spanswick, a standout baseball and basketball player at Enfield High School and a charter inductee of the Enfield Athletic Hall of Fame, was the Pacific Coast League pitcher of the year with the Seattle Rainiers in 1963, earning promotion to the parent Boston Red Sox the following spring.

He appeared in 29 games, including seven starts, during his lone big league campaign, but as a left-handed pitcher in hitter-friendly Fenway Park, he had his share of ups and downs. He posted a 2-3 record and struck out 55 batters in 65.1 innings of work.

Spanswick earned his first victory in his third start on May 8, 1964, hurling six innings of five-hit ball while striking out eight in a 9-3 win at Washington. In late June, he posted his second triumph, retiring the only batter he faced in a relief appearance during an 8-5 victory over the Cleveland Indians.

He fared well at the plate during his time with the Red Sox, collecting four hits in 14 at-bats for a .286 batting average. In an unusual statistic for a pitcher, he struck out just four times, equaling his hit total.

"Ted Williams liked the way I hit, and told me I should get a first baseman's glove," Spanswick recalled with a laugh in a phone interview from his home in Naples, Fla. "I was a decent hitter, but the pitchers just threw hard fastballs and thought I couldn't hit them."

During the 1964 season, Spanswick's image appeared on a Topps baseball card for the first time - a rookie card that also featured a teenage sensation and fellow New Englander named Tony Conigliaro. "Tony C." went on to become the youngest player in American League history to reach 100 career home runs and seemed destined for long-lasting stardom until a 1967 beaning effectively ended his career.

"For the last 10 years, it was like I was still playing. I must have gotten three of four autograph requests a week in the mail," Spanswick said, noting many of the requests were for signatures on that particular card.

Besides Williams, links exist between Spanswick and two other Hall of Fame left fielders. In 1959, he roomed in the minor leagues with Carl Yastrzemski and Russ Gibson in Raleigh, N.C., then 10 years after his big league days were over, Spanswick's uniform number 14, which prior to his arrival had been worn for nine years by pitcher Ike Delock, was handed out to a promising young slugger from South Carolina named Jim Rice.

At the gala celebration of Fenway Park's 100th anniversary in 2012, Spanswick was among 212 former Red Sox players, managers and coaches to attend pregame ceremonies. He entered the field through the center field door right behind Pumpsie Green, who in 1959 had become the first African-American player to don a Boston jersey.

As he walked onto the outfield grass, Spanswick glanced at the right field roof and saw his old number 14 among the collection of nine numbers permanently retired by the franchise. Remembering that moment, he quipped, "I wish it was up there for me. Oh well!"

Photos courtesy of Alex Jensen's collection

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