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Jim Lonborg Featured At Great Chefs' Gala At CBI

03/28/2009 9:11 AM

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Former Boston Red Sox Pitching Great Jim Lonborg
Featured at Great Chefs’ Gala at CBI

CHATHAM, Mass. – Former Cy Young Award winner and Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Lonborg will be featured at the 8th annual Great Chefs' Gala for the March of Dimes on Saturday, April 4, beginning at 5 p.m., at Chatham Bars Inn.

     The event will feature five of the top chefs in the United States, each of whom will present his specialty for this five-course gala, with paired wines for each course. Participating celebrity chefs include those from the Ritz Carlton in Palm, Beach, Fla., and the Bazaar SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills,, Calif. 

     There will also be raffle prizes available and a one-hour champagne reception, with passed hors d’oeuvres preceding the dinner.

     The Chefs’ Gala is a benefit for the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation and will include both silent and live auctions during the evening. Tickets are priced at $175 each. Last year’s Gala raised more than $92,000 for the March of Dimes

     “Gentleman Jim” was to pitching what Triple Crown winner Carl Yastrzemski was to batting for the 1967 Boston Red Sox. The two teammates were the American League’s premiere players on each side of the baseball, as Lonborg won the Cy Young Award and Yaz won the American League MVP. Their performances propelled the Red Sox to their first American League championship since 1946 and one game away from their first world championship since 1918. 

     Lonborg notched a league-high 22 wins, 19 hit batsman, 39 starts and 246 strikeouts with a sparkling 3.16 ERA for the Red Sox. In addition, he was the staff’s workhorse in the 1967 World Series, as he pitched heroically going 2-1 with a 2.63 ERA in a seven-game series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, including a one-hitter and a 3-hitter in games 2 and 5, respectively. 

     The hard-throwing, 6-5 right-hander made the Red Sox roster in 1965 and spent the first seven of his 15 Major League seasons in Boston. Over 204 games and 1,099 innings pitched, he compiled a Red Sox career record of 68-65 with a 3.94 ERA and 784 strikeouts, despite never being the same pitcher after injuring his leg in an off-season skiing accident during the winter of 1967-68.

     The California native was traded in 1972 in a blockbuster, nine-player trade (with Lonborg, Ken Brett, Billy Conigliaro, Joe Lahoud and George Scott going to the Milwaukee Brewers for Marty Pattin, Lew Krausse, Tommy Harper and Pat Skrable). 

     He signed with Philadelphia in 1973, where he spent the rest of his pitching career, including an 18-10 season in 1976. He retired from baseball in 1979 and returned to Boston to earn a dental degree. He has since established a successful dentistry practice in the Boston area.

     Lonborg was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2002.

     The March of Dimes Foundation was initiated in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to stop the polio epidemic in the U.S. Actor-comedian Eddie Cantor coined the title March of Dimes. Through the research funded by the March of Dimes, Dr. Jonas Salk developed his famous vaccine, which eradicated the initial onset of polio. 

     Upon that success, the March of Dimes turned its focus to birth defects and infant mortality with a focused campaign on pre-maturity during the past 15 years. Through March of Dimes Research, doctors save thousands of babies who earlier would not have survived at birth. There is now a neonatal intensive care unit within 75 miles of every baby born in the U.S. With the pre-maturity rate up a staggering 41 percent in the last decade in Massachusetts alone, increased funding is desperately needed for advanced research on the causes and treatments for those who are born so early, so sick and so vulnerable.

     Anyone wishing to attend the Great Chefs’ Gala at the Chatham Bars Inn should contact Diane Pratt at [email protected] or 774-313-6432 by Monday, March 30.

     There will be a press conference featuring Lonborg prior to the event at CBI from 4:30 to 5 p.m. Any media wishing to participate should contact Dick Sullivan by mail (Old Harbor Road, Chatham, Mass. 02633); phone (508-945-9131) or e-mail ([email protected]).

Joe Sherman, CCBL Public Relations Department ([email protected])

John Garner, Jr.
Director of Public Relations & Broadcasting
(508) 790-0394
[email protected] 

Joe Sherman
Web Editor
(508) 775-4364
[email protected]