TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Thomas Brazendorf, of Billings, Montana, who correctly stated Bill Virdon originally signed with the NY Yankees. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.
NEW TRIVIA CONTEST: By answering the TRIVIA QUESTION CORRECTLY you are automatically entered into a weekly drawing for a Starbucks Gift Card. YOU MUST ENTER VIA THE EMAIL AT THE END OF THIS COLUMN. Don't forget to put your mailing address in with the answer so if you win we can send you the gift card in the mail.
Just a note to add; If you look at the top right hand corner of the side bar you will see a link to daily sports scores. We made an agreement with Baseball 24 in a mutual sharing situation. Hope its helpful to fans of several sports.
===============================================================NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: While Jim Gentile spent most of his career in the American League he did spend parts of four years in the National League. Which pitcher gave up Gentile's first homer in the NL? Hint: He is in the HOF.
ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Bill Virdon originally signed with the New York Yankees, but never played in the big leagues before moving to St. Louis where he won the NL ROY and then was traded to Pittsburgh.
Jim Gentile spent nine seasons in the big leagues and had a lot of big games, but none bigger than against the Twins on May 9, 1961. It was one of those games the Baltimore Orioles slugger would remember for the rest of his life. It put him into the conversation for the best in the league and the MVP award.
He was batting clean-up that day, behind all-star Brooks Robinson. The Twins sent Pedro Ramos to the mound against Chuck Estrada. It was early in the season but neither team was playing impressive baseball. The Twins were at .500 and the O's were just two games over.
The game had a great start for Baltimore. The 4514 fans at the game were frustrated right off the bat. Whitey Herzog opened with a walk and Jackie Brandt followed with a double. Robinson walked to load the bases, bringing up the slugging Gentile. Gentile, who would finish with 46 homers that year, sent a Ramos pitch to deep center and over the wall at Metropolitan Stadium to clear the bases. The Grand Slam gave the O's an instant 4-0 lead.
The Twins failed to score in the bottom of the inning but the top of the second it was more of the same for the O's including more Gentile. Marv Breeding opened with a fly out but then Ramos did the unthinkable. He gave up a single to the opposing pitcher, Estrada which was followed by a walk to Herzog. That was enough for Ramos who was replaced by Paul Geil.
Brandt then hit a ground ball back to Geil which could have been a double play, but the pitcher made an errant throw and Estrada scored to make it 5-0. Robinson walked again, again bringing up Gentile with the bases load. For the second straight inning Gentile blasted the ball into the seats. This time to right for his second straight grand slam and a 9-0 O's lead.
The rest of the game was pretty much uneventful. Gentile would draw a walk and go down on a strikeout in two subsequent at bats, but in the eighth he came up with a runner on third. A sac fly gave the slugging first sacker nine RBI on the day and the Orioles defeated Minnesota 13-5. It was a day the left handed hitting Gentile would never forget. Two grand slams in consecutive innings and a sacrifice fly to boot.
He'd
finish the season with 46 homers, a league leading 141 RBI, a .302
batting average and a .646 slugging percentage. He would finish third in
the MVP voting behind Roger Maris who hit 61 home runs and Mickey
Mantle who belted 54. His outstanding defensive skills helped him be
involved in 129 double plays which was good for second in the American
League.
With
179 homers in his career, 1961 was far and away his best season. The
Orioles that season would finish third despite winning 95 games. They
closed the season 14 games behind New York as the Yankees went on to
have the second greatest Yankee team of all time.
But on this day, Jim Gentile ruled the baseball world.
TRIVIA CONTEST; After reading this column you can enter the weekly trivia contest for a chance to win a Starbucks Gift Card. Enter via the following email. Send 1) your answer to the trivia question at the top of the column, 2) your name, address and email so where we know where to send the card if you win 3) any
comment you have on the column. One winner will be selected at random
each week based on correct answers with the odds being based on the
number of correct entries. Please cut and paste or enter the following
email into your email system.