Early March in the Upper Valley gets people thinking about the coming weeks—stuff like town meetings, muddy side roads, pussy willows, taking down bird feeders, and first peepers singing in the swamps. And for a lot of folks, it’s baseball spring training, likely the Red Sox and the first sounds of game-day broadcasts of meaningless contests in Florida flowing from radios and TVs.
Forty years ago, it was a little different: chances seemed good for West Lebanon pitching phenom Rob Woodward making it to the starting rotation with the Sox after five years working up the ladder of minor league ball. People who had followed Woodward since he led Lebanon High to a 1981 state championship, along with many average baseball fans, were anxious to hear if Woodward was going to move up from Triple A Pawtucket to Fenway Park and the Bigs.
It had become a large enough deal that the legendary Valley News sports editor Don Mahler was able to convince the paper’s management to spring for the cost of sending staff to Florida to cover what was expected to be Woodward’s ascent to the Bosox. The wily Mahler even won approval for in-person coverage of the Master’s golf tournament, a feat unimaginable today when newspapers are operating in straitened times and even papers like the New York Times and Washington Post have slashed or eliminated their entire sports departments.
Jim Kenyon, a general assignment reporter, got the order to head to Florida to report on Woodward’s progress at the Winter Haven spring training venue. The location at the time was set amid orange and grapefruit groves and semis with dump trailers piled high with fruit headed to processing facilities were regular sights on the surrounding roads.
Kenyon today relishes talking about Red Sox spring training in 1986 compared to the uptight atmosphere at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers today. “The players all stayed at a Holiday Inn, you could talk to them. I stood behind the batting cage in the minor league complex and talked with Ted Williams, who was watching guys hit. Never happen today.”
Williams appraised the young New Hampshire right hander as he threw, Kenyon wrote, quoting Williams: “He’s a great looking kid. Oh, he’s a little wild, but I understand that. If he’s from New Hampshire that can happen. Boys up there don’t get a chance to play many games, and when they do, it’s snowing. It’s just going to take him a little longer than those kids from California who play ball all year round.”
Back in the Upper Valley, readers were treated to a daily string of reports on Woodward’s performance on the mound against major league and aspiring-major league talent. Hopes were high among fans back on his home turf.
Woodward had been watched by famous Red Sox New England scout Bill Enos and he was drafted in the second round of the 1981 amateur draft right out of Lebanon High School. His pro baseball odyssey began at Elmira, N.Y., in the short-season New York-Pennsylvania League, where he achieved a 4-3 record and a 3.39 earned run average and a spot on the league’s all-star team. The next season was spent with the Winter Haven club In the Florida State League, compiling a so-so 7-9, 5.12 ERA record. In 1983, he fared better at Winston-Salem of the Class A Carolina League, going 13-11, 4.14 ERA.
He threw his first pitch against a major league batter in spring training 1984, then spent that summer with New Britain of the Double A Eastern League, going 10-11, 3.96 ERA. Woodward began the 1985 season at New Britain and then was promoted to Triple A Pawtucket in the International League, the top Boston farm team.
Woodward was called up to Boston Sept. 1 and got some limited action in relief before notching his first major league victory against Detroit and then a no-decision against Milwaukee to finish his season at 1-0, 1.69 ERA.
Excitement would build in the Upper Valley as it became apparent the West Lebanon boy had a good shot at going to the parent club and getting regular work.
Woodward began the 1986 season at Pawtucket, looking stronger and earning a league player-of-the week honor, then he got called up May 21. Three days later, he pitched a solid seven-inning no-decision at Texas, then got knocked around in Minnesota. On June 4 in Cleveland, he outpitched 300-game winner Phil Niekro for his first major league victory.
Back home in West Lebanon, there was a group of regulars who gathered every morning at the Dunkin’ Donuts shop at the foot of Seminary Hill. Rob Woodward and his doings were the prime topic of conversation, with pride in his achievements swelling by the day.
Somebody said maybe they should start a Rob Woodward fan club and have some T-shirts made up to proclaim its existence. Then came another, more ambitious, suggestion: Let’s get a banner and have it strung up over Main Street in time for the West Lebanon High School Alumni Association’s reunion parade.
Money was solicited from businesses around the village sufficient to pay for a 15-foot nylon banner proclaiming “Home of Rob Woodward—Boston Red Sox.” The Lebanon Fire Department brought in its big ladder truck and firefighters put the banner up amid cheers from onlookers.
But it didn’t stay up for long. Shirley Gaudreau, one of the banner organizers, was out for a walk at 5:30 a.m. and noticed the banner was gone — it looked like it had been cut down and stolen. Police had no leads until the banner showed up at Woodward’s mother’s house. A Sharon man on his way home from work late at night saw it crumpled along the streetside and retrieved and returned it — a fierce windstorm two nights earlier had apparently ripped it down — and it went back up in time for the parade.
An editorial in the Valley News the morning before Woodward had his first start of the 1986 season, a game against Texas, wished him “good luck and the outside corner.”
After beating Niekro June 4, Woodward would get roughed up in two games against the Yankees and was sent back down to Pawtucket where he spent the summer rolling up impressive numbers. His demotion had been to make roster space for 300-game-winner Tom Seaver, acquired from the White Sox to shore up Boston’s starting pitching. Woodward was called back up for September but did not pitch.
His last appearance in the major leagues was Sept. 26, 1988, with two-thirds of an inning of mop-up relief in an 11-1 loss to Toronto. Woodward was released after nine years in the Boston organization. He signed as a free agent and spent two seasons with the Orioles’ Triple-A farm team in Rochester, N.Y.
Out of professional baseball, he returned to his hometown, where, among other endeavors, he’s coached youth sports and teamed up on a long-running radio talk show gig.
Rob Woodward baseball cards are rare but quite collectible, according to experts in the field. Arthur Pease, Lebanon historian and collector of arcana, has what he believes is a complete set of Rob Woodward cards, a cache that numbers 15 and he believes represents all the cards ever published bearing Woodward’s image.
After four decades, Rob Woodward’s days in professional baseball remain a source of pride for many who were around during his days in “The Show” or when he was close to it. The advent of spring revives memories of the time for some.
Steve Taylor of Meriden is a lifelong baseball fan who occasionally contributes to the Valley News.