The death this week of the guy baseball fans remember as the second baseman for the Boston Red Sox in arguably the best World Series ever played brings back a multitude of memories for many Russellvillians.
Denny Doyle died in Florida Tuesday, He and his twin brothers, Brian and Blake, owned and operated Doyle Baseball, considered by many as the premier youth baseball training center in America.
For two years—1968 and 1969, he was head basketball coach at Russellville High School. He and his wife Martha Carol taught at Russellville Middle School and were very much a part of the community.
RHS was able to get him because of the close relationship of the Doyle and Reynolds families. Russellville’s principal was Roy Dickey Reynolds, who had taught and coached at Caverna High School while Dennis was a student and star athlete there. (We called him ‘Dennis,’ not Denny. I guess that’s what R.D. called him and we followed suit.)
If you’re in Cave City’s magnificent convention center, check out the Cave City Hall of Fame. The first two plaques are for Roy D. ‘Coach’ Reynolds and Dennis Doyle.
Personally, Dennis Doyle played a big role in my development in athletics as an adult. He sat me beside him on the Panther bench that season and included me in all the strategy. I learned a lot of basketball from him. I also learned what a professional competitor is like, just by playing ping pong with him many times. He, his close friend Larry Reeder, and I played golf together, and I saw that competitive nature personified.
A year after he left RHS, I became sports editor of the local newspapers, and he became the subject of many stories. One of the highlights for me was walking beside him on the playing field during spring training in Florida. He introduced me to some of his teammates. Yaz (Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski) was the one I cherished most.
Coach Doyle was already a professional baseball player while he coached here, but he was playing in the lower minor leagues then. The summer in between his years at RHS, he played for Class AA Reading (Pennsylvania). He planned to return to Pantherland for a third year in 1969-70, but when the Philadelphia organization moved him up to Eugene (Oregon) of the Pacific Coast League, he had to tell Mr. Reynolds and Superintendent Bob Stevenson that he would have to report to Class AAA and major league spring training before the high school season would end.
Middle school coach Wayne Mullen, who was a high school standout player at RHS while Doyle was playing basketball and baseball for Caverna in 1961, moved up to become the high school coach. Doyle left behind some talented players for Mullen, including Ronnie Kees, Hal Freeman, Virgil Benton and Keith Northern. Hal, Virgil and Coach Mullen are in the RHS Hall of Fame.
Dennis had a tremendous season at Eugene in 1970 and was named both Rookie of the Year and MVP.
The next year he and Reading/Eugene teammate Larry Bowa were called up to the majors and were the keystone combination for the Phillies for three seasons. Dennis was the second baseman and Bowa the shortstop. Doyle started with a bang in his first major-league game on April 7, 1970. He went 3-for-4 with an RBI triple against Cubs ace Fergie Jenkins, now a Hall of Famer. His offense slowed when he dislocated his shoulder in June while sliding into third base, trying to avoid a throw from the Braves’ Henry Aaron, arguably the greatest player ever. Doyle stayed in the lineup because of his defensive skills, but he still totaled 10 doubles, 7 triples and 2 home runs as a rookie.
During his three years in Philadelphia, Denny got the Phillies’ lone hit in a pair of near no-hitters. One of them was against Mets legend-to-be Nolan Ryan. When Hall of Famer Bob Gibson beat the Phillies on July 30, 1971, by a score of 4-3, he allowed just 6 hits — and Doyle got 4 of them, including a solo home run.
In the winter of 1973-74, he was traded to the California Angels where he played second base for owner Gene Autrey’s American League team in 147 games.
Then came the trade that cemented his legacy. In June 1975, he was traded to the Red Sox and immediately became the second baseman for an already talent-filled team. Teammates included BoSox legends catcher Carlton Fisk, outfielders Carl Yastrzemski, Fred Lynn and Dwight Evans, first baseman Jim Rice, third baseman Rico Petrocelli and pitcher Luis Tiant.
Dennis hit .310 that year for the American League champs in 89 games, including a league-high 22-game hitting streak.
Many Logan Countians were torn in that great World Series with their hometown hero going against their beloved Big Red Machine from Cincinnati. The Reds’ everyday lineup included stars Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, George Foster, Ken Griffey Sr., Davey Concepcion and talented defender Caesar Geronimo. Their manager was the legendary Sparky Anderson.
That 1975 Series is almost universally considered the greatest World Series of all time. The Reds won it in seven games. The sixth game, which was won by the Red Sox in extra innings on Fisk’s extra innings home run, has been chosen the greatest game played in the 50 years ending in 2011.
Dennis tied a World Series record that can never be broken by hitting safely in all seven games. He also had the second most hits with eight.
“Denny Doyle had a really good World Series,” Lynn said on a Major League Baseball Network re-broadcast of the game. “He got a hit in all seven games,” chimed in Bench in agreement.
Seated beside Bench in the latter part of the game, which was shown on MLBN Monday night, Dennis talked about a controversial play late in the game when he was thrown out at the plate by Foster with Bench making the tag on what would have been the winning run. Third base coach Don Zimmer said he was telling Dennis “No, No, No” while Doyle was hearing “Go, Go, Go!”
That winter of 1975-76, Dennis told me he knew what he heard, but he didn’t want to damage Zimmer’s dream of becoming a major league manager. He did and then became a beloved grandfather/godfather figure sitting next to Manager Joe Torre in the Yankees’ dugout for several years. Personally, I had trouble ‘beloving’ Zimmer for what he did to my friend’s reputation.
Overall, Denny Doyle played in 944 Major League games, finishing with a career .250 batting average with 16 home runs and 237 RBIs. Defensively, he finished with a .977 fielding percentage.
His twin brothers, Brian and Blake Doyle, led Caverna to a state baseball championship, just as Dennis had a decade earlier. They also played pro baseball. Blake was stuck at AAA Baltimore for a few years. Brian played for both the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees. He had a great World Series, too, playing for the Yankes in 1978. Brian is married to the sister of long-time Logan County High School office worker Marie Caudill. Dennis and the twins opened and ran Doyle Baseball Camps for decades.
The last couple of years, many of us were reminded of the Doyles when Dennis and Martha Carol helped Peggy Reeder through Larry’s death, and then not long afterwards were involved in making arrangements for Peggy’s funeral.
When we would go see Dennis and the Phillies play in St. Louis or Cincy, I was usually with the Reeders and the Reynoldses. Now Mark Reynolds, his sister Rhonda and I are the only ones still living,
When I watched Dennis sitting by Johnny Bench and talking about that World Series Monday night, it was difficult for me to think about his life having ended less than a week earlier. What I saw was his mischievous grin that bordered on a smirk, and I missed my old friend greatly.