Twenty-five years ago this week (July 14, 1988) the Red Sox fired manager John McNamara, and replaced him with Joe Morgan. Boston was 43-42 at the time, 9 games out of first place. What followed was dubbed “Morgan Magic,” as the Sox won 12 in a row and an American League record 25 straight home games. They would eventually win the AL East title before getting swept out of the playoffs by the Oakland A’s and their steroid “Bash Brothers” Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco (who now has a must follow twitter account).
After I was reminded of this I decided to look up what the Billboard #1 song was at the time in 1988, and discovered that it was “The Flame” by Cheap Trick. It honestly didn’t ring a bell until I played it on youtube, but as soon as I started listening I immediately realized it was one of my favorite 80’s hair band ballads.
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About Mark Vandeusen