Followers

Monday, January 30, 2023

The Aged 1961 White Sox

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Steve Wade, of McKinney TX, who identified the answer we were looking for; The Giants Mick McCormick was the pitcher of record in the game where Dick Dietz was not awarded 1st base because he didn't try to get out of the way when being hit by Don Drysdale.  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.  Please enter via brillpro@gmail.com and please put your mailing address in with the answer so we can send you the gift card in the mail.

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Mick McCormick was the pitcher of record in the game where Dick Dietz was not awarded 1st base because he didn't try to get out of the way when being hit by Don Drysdale.

EDS NOTE; Since we are trying to expand our mailing list and readership we want to build our mailing list. Readers on our email list receive the column each Monday directly into their mailbox. Please help us out by sending your email to brillpro@gmail.com. We DO NOT SELL your emails.

NOTE; At the top right 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. 

===============================================================
NEW TRIVIA QUESTION:  Hoyt Wilhelm last started a game when he was 40 years old. How many games did he actually start in that year?

 Two years removed from a World Series appearance how did the Chicago White Sox drop all the way to fourth place in the American League. It wasn't that they were bad because they still finished 10 games over .500. It was that the competition got better and the Sox simply got old. Not just older, but old.

The youngest player in the 1961 starting line-up was 25 year old Floyd Robinson. Five of the starting eight had reached 33 with two of them at 36 and 37. Minnie Minoso would go on to play until he was 40 with single game appearances at 52 and 58 but you can't really count those for this story. The players who were past 30 were Nellie Fox, Roy Sievers, Sherm Lollar, and Al Smith while both Luis Aparicio and Jim Landis were 27. Six bench players were also well past 30 years old and Wes Covington was 29.

The pitching staff had two players at 40+ and seven more in their 30's. Gerry Staley and Early Wynn both had been on the planet for four decades and well past their prime while Billy Pierce, Cal McLish, Ray Herbert, Turk Lown, Don Larsen, Russ Kemmerer and Warren Hacker had all put their 30th birthdays behind them. 

Youngsters Joel Horlen and Gary Peters pitched only 27 innings between them in 1961. Meanwhile 24 year old Juan Pizarro showed promise with a 14-7 record as the ace of the staff.  None of the younger hitters would ever really make an impact. J.C. Martin would stick around for a few years as a light hitting defensive catcher. 

Not much would change the following season except for the continued development of Horlen and Peters and the arrive of a young outstanding defense outfielder, Ken Berry. A few other pieces came around as well but would move on to greener pastures before long. The club still finished above .500 by about 10 games but fell to fifth place in 1962.

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.
                              brillpro@gmail.com 
 ==========================================================
I've written more than a dozen books including at least two sports books. You can find these at my Amazon page or at my own website www.bobbrillbooks.com. Please take a look at the sports books, the western novel series or the "Tattoo Murder," which is a crime book set in Ventura, CA.

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 books after reading this column.
 

 

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Why Drysdale's Streak Was So Amazing

 

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to  Samuel Barrett of Phenix City, AL, who identified the answer we were looking for; Frank Lary led the AL in complete games with 22.  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.  Please enter via brillpro@gmail.com and please put your mailing address in with the answer so we can send you the gift card in the mail.

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Frank Lary led the AL in Complete Games in 1961 with 22.

EDS NOTE; Since we are trying to expand our mailing list and readership we want to build our mailing list. Readers on our email list receive the column each Monday directly into their mailbox. Please help us out by sending your email to brillpro@gmail.com. We DO NOT SELL your emails.

NOTE; At the top right 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. 

===============================================================
NEW TRIVIA QUESTION:  In the game where the pitch was called a ball because Dick Dietz did not make an attempt to get out of the way of a Don Drysdale pitch that hit him, who pitched for the Giants? 

Every once in a while a record breaking streak in baseball belies the fact that if the streak wouldn't have been broken, the player may have gone onto even more amazing heights. Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak for instance. While he did not get a hit in Game 57, he got a hit in every game from 58 to 74. Picture Don Drysdale's 58 inning scoreless streak. If it wasn't for Howie Bedell it would have continued, but to show how amazing he was pitching at the time, you have to look at the next five games.

Drysdale bested Walter Johnson's record breaking streak with a 5-0 shut out of the Pirates on June 4th. Pitching in a four man rotation he would allow two runs in the next game against Philadelphia (the Bedell game). Four days later he went eight innings against the Mets in a 2-1 decision. 

The streak almost ended at 44 innings when Giant's catcher Dick Dietz decided to NOT avoid a Drysdale inside pitch with the bases load. It would have forced in a run and the streak would have been over. Originally, as heard by Vin Scully's call in the above video, it was thought to hit his bat. However, Umpire Harry Wendlestedt ruled it did hit Dietz but since he made no effort to get out of the way, the pitch was ruled a ball, running the count to 3-2. Dietz flied out to end the inning and the streak was alive.

June twelfth, four days later, he went eight innings against the Mets in a 2-1 decision. On June 18th Drysdale went seven innings giving up just a solo (unearned) run due to an error against the Pirates. On June 22nd he again faced the Mets, went just under seven innings and allowed one earned run. The real heart of the following power innings came on June 26th against the hated Giants.

Drysdale would go nine innings, nearly shutting out San Francisco. He gave up just one (unearned) run which came on a throwing error by third baseman Ken Boyer. It wasn't until July 1st (or six games after the streak ended) against St. Louis that Big D actually gave up some earned runs in a bunch. And that wasn't until the seventh inning when he was relieved by Jim Brewer.

In all from the start of the streak on May 14th, thru the June 26th game, Drysdale pitched 95 innings, giving up 8 runs, but only 5 were earned, with a record of  9-1 for an ERA of 0.47. And before the streak started he'd pitched a 1-0 shutout earlier in the season. Now that's amazing.

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.
                              brillpro@gmail.com 
 ==========================================================
I've written more than a dozen books including at least two sports books. You can find these at my Amazon page or at my own website www.bobbrillbooks.com. Please take a look at the sports books, the western novel series or the "Tattoo Murder," which is a crime book set in Ventura, CA.

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 books after reading this column.
 

 

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Tigers vs. Indians - A Most Boring Twin Bill

 

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to  Bill Jackson of Memphis, TN, who identified the answer we were looking for; Chris Short.  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.  Please enter via brillpro@gmail.com and please put your mailing address in with the answer so we can send you the gift card in the mail.

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Chris Short was the pitcher who ws with the 1961 Phillies and who would go on to win 20 games for the club.

EDS NOTE; Since we are trying to expand our mailing list and readership we want to build our mailing list. Readers on our email list receive the column each Monday directly into their mailbox. Please help us out by sending your email to brillpro@gmail.com. We DO NOT SELL your emails.

NOTE; At the top right 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. 

===============================================================
NEW TRIVIA QUESTION:  In the second game of the double-header mentioned below Frank Lary won his 9th game of the season. In 1961 in what pitching category did Frank Lary lead the major leagues?

 Sometimes the better pitcher just doesn't have the better luck. Such was the case on June 8, 1961 in Detroit. The Cleveland Indians had come to town with a very similar record with the Tigers. Detroit was 34-17, the Indians were 33-19. The Tigers were middle of the order heavy with Al Kaline, Rocky Colavito and Norm Cash. The Tribe not quite so heavy with Vic Power, Johnny Romano and Jimmy Piersall. Only one of whom would figure in the scoring.


The starters were Jim Perry for the Indians and Don Mossi for Detroit. The Indians second baseman, Johnny Temple would lead off the game with a double. Piersall flied out and Tito Francona struck out. But Power delivered another double and Temple scored. Indians 1-0 before the Tigers could get to bat. But it didn't matter because that was all the scoring there was. 

Somewhat anti-climatic except for the fact Jim Perry tossed 7 innings, giving up 9 hits walking one and striking out 2. Mossi on the other hand also went 7 innings, giving up 5 hits, walking one and striking out three. Mossi had three up and down innings, Perry had two. Both gave way to relievers who finished the job scoreless. Mossi with the Loss and Perry with the Win.

Tiger batters left 9 men on base, the Tribe left 6. Five of the seven hits Detroit pitchers allowed were Indians' doubles. The Tigers did not get an extra base hit. The 2:21:00 game was the first of a double header which had been rescheduled and played on wet grass.

The second game wasn't much more exciting as the Tigers evened it up with a six-hitter by Frank Lary going the distance 2-1, with Cash getting the day's only home run, a solo shot. The winning run was scored by Lary himself who had two hits and he came home on a hit by Charlie Maxwell.  Wynn Hawkins took the loss.

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.
                              brillpro@gmail.com 
 ==========================================================
I've written more than a dozen books including at least two sports books. You can find these at my Amazon page or at my own website www.bobbrillbooks.com. Please take a look at the sports books, the western novel series or the "Tattoo Murder," which is a crime book set in Ventura, CA.

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 books after reading this column.