Longtime Kaua’i golf professional and former major leaguer Frank Sullivan might have lost vision in one eye, but he can still see the funny side of life.

“Now my golfing buddies are only half as ugly,” said the 78-year-old Sullivan, who will take one final bow in baseball later this year.

He is one of six players selected in the Class of 2008 for induction into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. He and his wife, Marilyn, whom he met on Kaua’i and married 42 years ago, will go to Boston for the ceremony on Nov. 7. He’ll be honored with pitchers Wes Ferrell and Bill Lee, outfielder Mike Greenwell, first baseman Mo Vaughn and shortstop Everett Scott, who played in three World Series during the early years of the franchise.

“I was totally surprised. It came out of the blue,” said Sullivan, who pitched 252 games for the Red Sox from 1953 to 1960, winning 13 or more games in five straight seasons. The first of his two All-Star Game appearances came in 1955 when he posted a career-high 18 victories and a 2.91 ERA.

Sullivan retired from baseball and moved to the Garden Island in 1964. And in an unbelievable harmonic convergence, he re-united with Sammy White, his batterymate for eight years with the Boston Red Sox, who was at Princeville.

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(Source: Bill Kwon, Honolulu Advertiser)