LIHUE — Frank Sullivan, a two-time All-Star and a Red Sox Hall of Famer, passed away recently in Lihue due to complications from pneumonia at 85 years old. He was four days shy of his 86th birthday.
One of the Red Sox players immortalized in Norman Rockwell’s iconic 1957 painting, “The Rookie, “Sullivan had a 90-80 record and 3.47 ERA in eight seasons for Boston from 1953-60. Over his first five years in the Red Sox rotation from 1954-58, the right-hander was one of the top American League pitchers, ranking second with 153 starts, third with a 3.13 ERA, and fourth with 74 wins.
He led the team in ERA in four straight seasons from 1954-57, one of only five Red Sox pitchers ever to accomplish the feat.
“I was lucky as hell,” Sullivan told The Garden Island in a 2013 interview, looking back at the 10-year career.
Sullivan was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2008, 60 years after originally signing with the team in 1948. Following a two-year stint in the Army during the Korean War in 1951 and 1952, he rose from Single-A Albany to the Red Sox bullpen by mid-1953 for his big league debut. A year later, the 24-year-old rookie joined the rotation and was credited with a team-best 15 of Boston’s 69 victories.
The 1955 season saw Sullivan go 18-13 with a 2.91 ERA and earn his first All-Star selection.
“I wasn’t chopped liver. I was pretty good,” Sullivan told TGI. “Of course, the older I get, the better I was.”
Traded to the Philadelphia Phillies after the 1960 season, Sullivan left the Red Sox ranked fifth among pitchers in team history with 201 starts. His final stop was with the Minnesota Twins from mid-1962 to 1963, where he pitched under manager Sam Mele, a Red Sox teammate from 1954-55.
It was a heck of a time, he told TGI, all of it. And he wouldn’t trade any of it, not one stadium, teammate, strike or ball. Not that he’d trade his current spot, either.
“I always had the feeling when I’m in a big city that something’s going on that I’m missing,” Sully said. “When I’m on an island, I feel like nothing’s going on that I’m missing. I’m very content being on an island.”
Born in Hollywood, California and raised in nearby Burbank, Sullivan spent the last half-century living on Kauai, a Hawaiian island, and served as director of golf for a number of courses. His book, “Life is More than 9 Innings: Memories of a Boston Red Sox Pitcher,” was published in 2009 and contains a series of autobiographical short stories. He last visited Fenway Park in 2014.
Sullivan is survived by his wife Marilyn, son Mike, daughter-in-law Leihina, grandson Kapono, and granddaughter Kea, as well as his son Mark, and granddaughters Summer and Lauren.
