Baseball in the 1960's: January 2022

Monday, January 31, 2022

Mays and Aaron Blast Six Homers in One Game

EDS NOTE: Last week's column on Frank Howard solicited more feedback and comments as well as great personal stories of meetings with Howard than any other column of the past four years. Thank you.

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Dylan Woodyatt, of Ontario, Canada, who correctly named Phil Ortega and Dick Nen as the only players in the Frank Howard trade who did not appear on a World Series roster. 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: Of the six players who hit four "consecutive" home runs only two of them are in the Hall of Fame, one from each league. Who are they?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Phil Ortega and Dick Nen were the only players in the Frank Howard trade who never appeared on a World Series roster.

It was April 30, 1961 when a mere 13,000 fans in Milwaukee County Stadium witnessed an historic yet bizarre game which saw Braves pitchers give up eight home runs to the Giants who scored 14 runs on those eight blasts. The historic part was Willie Mays had four of them! It was also the day the other "greatest" player of the era, Hank Aaron, blasted two homers in a losing cause. To be one of those 13,000 would have been a fans dream date.

Lew Burdette opened the game for the Braves and promptly served up a gopher ball to Mays hitting third in the inning. A blast to deep center. Billie Loes started for the Giants and gave up singles to Roy McMillan and Frank Bolling before Aaron took him deep for a 3-1 lead.

Things were quiet until the third when the Giants Jose Pagan lifted a Burdette pitch into the seats to make it 3-2. It was Pagan's first of two homers on the day as well. Three batters later and after Jim Davenport was hit by a pitch, Mays took Burdette deep again, to left-center. Giants 4 - Braves 3.

Leading off the top of the fourth Orlando Cepeda homered to send Burdette to the showers and bring on Carl Willey. Felipe Alou greeted him with a home run. Just a few batters later Pagan would stride to the plate and belt his second homer of the game. Giants lead 7-3.

In the fifth Moe Drabowsky was pitching for Milwaukee and was the only pitcher to get Mays out that day. Willie lifted a flyball out to center fielder Aaron in a scoreless inning. By the sixth Seth Morehead was hurling for the Braves and with two men on faced Mays. Again Say-Hey would go deep; this time to left field for a three run blast. Giants 11-3. In the bottom of the inning Hammerin' Hank would take Loes deep one more time to make it 11-4.

It was in the eight inning Mays would tie the record of four homers in a game and finish with eight RBI. This time with Don McMahon pitching Jim Davenport tripled in a run to bring Mays to the plate. Mays timed a McMahon pitch and again sent it over the left-center field wall. Final score Giants 14-Braves 4. Billy Loes went the distance for his second win.

In the end, who in the world would have ever guessed Hank Aaron and Jose Pagan hitting two homers in a game each, would be a footnote to history?

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.
                             SEND YOUR ANSWERS TO; brillpro@gmail.com
==========================================================
Need to get out of a baseball hitting slump, or a golf swing slump? Order my new book "Beating the Slump; An athlete's guide to a better career." See it on Amazon for only $5.99. That is for the Paperback, you can also order Kindle on that link. You can also order paperback copies directly from me via the email below for my other books.

You can get a signed paper back copy of the above book "Tales of My Baseball Youth - a child of the sixties"  for $15 Shipping Included

Use PayPal to brillpro@prodigy.net or contact us at the same email for other payment.

Thank you to those of you who purchased my book after reading this column.

Monday, January 24, 2022

Fear Equals Frank Howard - Ask A Pitcher

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Jack Webster of Derry, NH, who correctly named Roy Sievers as the player the Phillies traded for to replace Pancho Herrera who was traded to Pittsburgh. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

===============================================================
NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Of the seven players involved in the massive Frank Howard trade between Los Angeles and Washington, only two did not appear on World Series rosters during their career. Who were they?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Roy Sievers was traded to the Phillies to fill the role left void when Pancho Herrera was traded to Pittsburgh.

If 1968 was the year of the pitcher, and it was; how on earth did the Senators Frank Howard have one of his best years at the plate? Simply put; 6'7" 255 and a bat that looked like a tooth pick in his hands. While the rest of the Washington Senators were bumbling and stumbling around the .224 team batting mark, the 31 year old Howard was hitting .274. It had to be plain fear.

The Sens clubbed 124 home runs in 1968 which was good for fourth in the American League. Howard would blast 44 of them. Only Ken McMullen (20) and Mike Epstein (13) also hit homers in double figures. Howard's 106 RBI accounted for almost 25-percent of the teams total. He was the only hitter with more than 20 doubles (28) far outdistancing the runner up, Del Unser with 13.

In a year when the league's batting leader hit .301, Denny McLain won 31 games and Bob Gibson's ERA was 1.12, Howard set marks which drove opponents crazy. Yet, only 12 of his 54 walks were Intentional. They could have pitched around him every time but maybe they feared this gentle giant of a man would just reach across the plate and send one into the Upper Deck. Maybe that's why he struck out 141 times but no one cared.

Never known for his speed he even had three triples although he didn't attempt to steal a base. Can you imagine the fear a shortstop might feel taking the throw with a lumbering Howard coming your way? It makes one cringe to think of such a career ending collision.

When Howard was traded from the Dodgers to the Senators everyone knew Los Angeles was giving up a slugger. What it got in return helped the Dodgers win pennants. It was expected to put butts in the seats in Washington. It never did. Washington was last in attendance in 1968 and many other of Howard's earlier seasons with just over 500,000 fans coming through the turnstiles. And Howard played in almost every game, 158 of the 162 in 1968. Of course winning only 65 games probably had something to do with it. In fact, it wasn't until 1969 the Senators even came close to One Million fans.

Monday, January 17, 2022

Pancho Herrera Made a Major League Splash

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Keith Walker of St. Peters, MO, who correctly named the three White Sox pitchers who won and lost games with the 1964 Tigers during Detroit's longest winning and losing streaks. They were Joel Horlen, Gary Peters and Juan Pizzaro.. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

===============================================================
NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Who was the first baseman the Phils traded for to replace Pancho Herrera in the off season?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: The three White Sox pitchers who won and lost three games with the 1964 Tigers during Detroit's longest winning and losing streaks were Joel Horlen, Gary Peters and Juan Pizzaro.

A former Negro League player, Pancho Herrera was the first black player to suit up in a Philadelphia Phillies uniform. That in itself was an achievement.

While you may never have heard of Pancho Herrera, he did something few people have ever done, sort of. He finished just ahead of Mickey Mantle in his two years in the big leagues. Of course, it was a standing neither player wanted and only the Mick can be overlooked for achieving it.

In 1960 the Cuban born Herrera led the majors in strikeouts, setting a then-NL record. No he wasn't a pitcher. He mainly played first base with an occasional stint at second. In his rookie season he even garnered some MVP votes and finished second to Frank Howard in the Rookie of the Year race. His .281 batting average along with 17 home runs in 145 games seemed pretty awesome to voters. He even drove in 71 runs.

Oh, but it was that strikeout thing which would do him in. His 13 errors at first base didn't help, although he cut that almost in half the following season. In his glowing rookie campaign Herrera struck out 136 times, besting Mantle who had 125. Of course Mantle did a little better at the plate. Mickey hit 40 homers, drove in 94 and scored 119.

The next season (his last in the big leagues) Herrera tailed off a bit, cutting his strikeouts down to 120, while Mantle had 112. Again Mantle had the better year banging 54 home runs and batting .317. Pancho hit 13 HR and his BA was .251. By then he was done in Philadelphia and they sent him packing to Pittsburgh along with Ted Savage for Don Hoak. Savage bounced around until 1971, Hoak retired after the 1964 season. Neither did much after the trade.

Pancho never appeared in a big league game again. He spent the rest of his career in the minors until 1974, capping several seasons over .300 and smacking homers in double figures. He was a player-manager during some of that time. His last stop was the Mexican League where at age 40 he had five hits in 15 at bats. His strike outs today would be nothing compared to modern day sluggers who achieve less at the plate than Pancho.

Pancho Herrera died at age 70 in Miami in 2005. He is in the International League HOF.

Followers