It's been almost 30 years since Carlton Fisk was unceremoniously let go by the White Sox in the summer of 1993, and he was age 45 at the time.
So, I shouldn't be surprised that a player I grew up watching is now 75 years old -- Fisk's birthday was Dec. 26. When I read Fisk's age the other day, my first thought was, "Geez, he's almost as old as Tony La Russa!"
My second thought: Fisk has to be on the short list of rare great Sox free agent signings. After Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn bought the team, they were looking to make some headlines, so they signed Fisk on March 18, 1981.
At the time Fisk came to the South Side, he was 11 years into a Hall of Fame career, with all of those seasons being spent with the Boston Red Sox. And he had been named to the All-Star team in seven of those 11 seasons.
The signing paid immediate dividends on Opening Day -- April 10, 1981 -- when Fisk hit a go-ahead home run in the top of the eighth inning in an eventual 5-3 Sox victory.
Fittingly, the home run came at Fenway Park against Boston. Harry Caray's call is now immortalized as part of the introduction to Chuck Garfien's White Sox Talk podcast:
For you kiddos out there, yes, Caray was once a Sox broadcaster.
This home run was the first of 214 Fisk hit over his 13 seasons with the White Sox. He made four more All-Star appearances with the South Siders (for a career total of 11) and was third in AL MVP voting in 1983, which is the first season of Sox baseball that I can remember.
That season, Fisk hit .289/.355/.518 with 26 homers and 86 RBIs. In 1985, Fisk hit 37 homers and 107 RBIs, both career highs. As late as 1991, at age 43, he made the All-Star team.
Sometimes it pays to sign a premium free agent, doesn't it?
Believe it or not, it's been almost 23 years since Fisk was inducted into Hall of Fame. He was elected in 2000. Time flies.
