had become a friend of Yawkey's, staked out a position as the top "baseball man" in the Red Sox organization. The New York Times reported on October 1, 1960, that Higgins would assume responsibility for all player personnel decisions, Major and minor league, in the Boston organization, a role typically performed by a general manager. Indeed, the club spent the and seasons without a full-time GM. Although O'Connell is listed by the Red Sox media guide as de facto general manager, he retained the title of business manager and likely focused only on the administrative aspect of the job; it is unclear (and doubtful) that he had any baseball operations role. Higgins shed his on-field responsibilities and formally became executive vice president/GM at the close of the season. During the early 1960s, Boston overhauled its farm system and scouting operation and was beginning to produce outstanding talent, but the big league Red Sox continued to struggle and attendance dwindled. Finally, during the closing days of a dispiriting 100-loss season, Yawkey fired Higgins and offered the general manager position to O'Connell on September 16. Architect of 'The Impossible Dream' and 1975 AL champs Still seen as inexperienced in baseball operations and talent evaluation, O'Connell initially shared power with vice president, player personnel Haywood Sullivan, a former Major League catcher and manager recruited from the Kansas City Athletics in November 1965. They worked together to replace fading veterans with young players during another losing campaign in . But by O'Connell was in full command as general manager of the Red Sox. He promoted Dick Williams to manager and traded for players such as pitcher Gary Bell, infielder Jerry Adair and catcher Elston Howard. The Red Sox, led by MVP Carl Yastrzemski and AL Cy Young Award winning pitcher Jim Lonborg, stunned the sporting world by winning the AL pennant and pushing the powerful St. Louis Cardinals to seven games in the 1967 World Series. The team's home attendance rose by 113 percent, from 811,172 in 1966 to 1,727,832. In recognition of the dramatic turnaround, O'Connell was named Executive of the Year by The Sporting News. The Red Sox posted winning seasons from 1968 to 1974 and continued to rank among the AL leaders in home attendance, but could not match the success of the league's dominant teams of the era, the Detroit Tigers, Baltimore Orioles and Oakland Athletics. Nonetheless, Boston continued to