Bill Monbouquette

William Charles Monbouquette

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 195 lb.
• High School Medford (MA) High School
• Debut July 18, 1958
• Final Game September 3, 1968
• Born August 11, 1936 in Medford, MA USA
• Died January 25, 2015 in Gloucester, MA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Bill Monbouquette was an eleven-year major leaguer with a record of 114-112. Most of his career was spent with the Boston Red Sox, and he won 20 games for them in 1963.

In 1961, he struck out 17 batters in a game, a Red Sox record that stood until Roger Clemens struck out 20 in a game in 1986, setting a new major league record. On August 1, 1962 he pitched a 1-0 no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox. His 96 wins for Boston are the 7th most in team history.

Born in Massachusetts, Monbouquette was pitching in Boston by the time he was 22. Prior to breaking in with the Red Sox, he was on the AAA Minneapolis Millers, where hitting coach Jimmie Foxx befriended him. When Monbouquette made it to the Red Sox in 1958, it was the time of the aging Ted Williams, of Pete Runnels, Jim Piersall, and Jackie Jensen in Boston. The Red Sox were not contenders while Monbouquette was in Boston, waiting until 1967 to go to the World Series. But by that time Bill was gone.

He was traded after the 1965 season to the Detroit Tigers. 1966 was not a successful season and after a couple of appearances with the Tigers in 1967, he was released. He caught on with the New York Yankees, and pitched well for them, with a 6-5 record and a 2.36 ERA in 33 games in 1967. It was the depths of the second deadball era; Al Downing had a 2.63 ERA for the team, Mel Stottlemyre had a 2.96 ERA, and Dooley Womack had a 2.41 ERA in relief. In spite of those glittering ERA's, the team finished in 9th place.

The next year, 1968, Monbouquette struggled in 17 games with the Yankees, and was traded to the San Francisco Giants, where he had a 3.65 ERA in 7 games. It was the end of his major league career. Between the two teams in 1968, Monbouquette had appeared with both the 36-year-old Mickey Mantle in New York, and the 37-year-old Willie Mays in San Francisco.

Monbouquette managed the Johnson City Yankees in 1969, the scouted for the Yankees from 1970-1974. He managed the Wausau Mets in 1976, then was a minor league pitching instructor for the Mets from 1977-1981. Monbouquette was then pitching coach for the New York Mets in 1982 and 1983. He would also serve as the New York Yankees pitching coach in 1985 after serving the Yankee as pitching coach in the Instructional League in 1984. Monbouquette then returned to the minors coaching with the Albany-Colonie Yankees in 1986 and 1987. He then jumped to the Toronto Blue Jays organization coaching with the Myrtle Beach Blue Jays (1988-1989), Dunedin Blue Jays (1990-1994), Syracuse Chiefs (1996), St. Catharines Stompers (1997), and Knoxville Smokies (1998). He later was a coach for the Oneonta Tigers from 2000-2005 [1].

In 2000, he was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame.

On July 27, 2006, he came out of retirement to join the Single A Lowell Spinners coaching staff for one night, and officially retired within the Red Sox organization. He died in Boston in 2015 at age 78, from complications from leukemia.

The day he signed with the Red Sox, he and his family were sitting in the stands, and a couple of fans spilled beer on his mother. Words were exchanged and an altercation ensued, with the result that Bill and his father ended up in a holding cell with cuffs on, until the Red Sox Farm Director got involved. [2]

Notable Achievements

• 3-time AL All-Star (1960, 1962 & 1963)
• 15 Wins Seasons: 2 (1962 & 1963)
• 20 Wins Seasons: 1 (1963)
• 200 Innings Pitched Seasons: 6 (1960-1965)

Further Reading

• Bill Monbouquette (as told to Tom Capezzuto): "The Game I'll Never Forget", Baseball Digest, February 1984, pp. 98-101. [3]

Related Sites

• Bill Monbouquette at the SABR Bio Project
• Obituary