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Sunday, May 28, 2023

A New City and a Turned Corner

TRIVIA WINNER: For the first time there is NO WINNER in the trivia contest. There were lots of great guesses and lots of entries and research, but NO ONE was able to come up with the answer we sought. The MLB Record Bobby Tolan tied in the game highlights was the fact he made two of the three outs in an inning when the Reds scored multiple runs. No one in the modern era of MLB has ever made three outs in one inningThe Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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. Please put your mailing address in with the answer so if you win we can send you the gift card in the mail.

NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: The oldest player on the 1968 A's also played with one other team that seasons. Who was he and for which other team did he play in his final season in the big leagues?

It is a fact that the Kansas City Athletics never finished in the positive when it came to their seasonal record. In 1968 that all changed and for the first time since 1950 when they were the Philadelphia A's, did the Athletics get to .500. And they did it by two games.


 This was a team made up of newbies who would become great players and oldies who were average to decent major league players playing out the string. Danny Cater led the team in batting at .290 but Reggie Jackson led the club in homers with 29. He only hit .250 however. Jackson's 29 dingers was almost one third of the club total of 94. The team only hit .240 on the season. It no longer had a coach by the name of Joe DiMaggio either.

Youngsters Joe Rudi (.177), Sal Bando (.251) and Rick Monday (.274) would form the nucleus of a team which would win for years afterwards. However, this club also had Phil Roof, Jim Pagliaroni, a young Bert Campanaris, Dick Green, Tony La Russa and Floyd Robinson. It was basically the same team (give or take a few players) who lost 99 games in 1967.

They also had pitching. They had six pitchers under age 26 who would become household names. Starting with Catfish Hunter there was also Blue Moon Odom, Lew Krause, Jim Nash, Chuck Dobson and a 21 year old reliever named Rollie Fingers. 

They finished 82-80-1 and a sixth place finish in a 10 team league while they were in 8th place when it came to the 837,000 fans Charlie O. Finley watched come through the turnstiles. It was their first year in Oakland after finishing with only 62 wins and 99 losses in KC. They avoided a 5th, 100 loss season in Kansas City. They also lost 103 in the club's final season in Philadelphia.  

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.
  

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.

 

 

 

 

Sunday, May 21, 2023

The Day Two Offenses Went Wild


TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Butch Haber of Brooklyn, NY, who correctly identified Ron Hansen as the Orioles Shortstop who led his club with 22 homers in 1960.  The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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. Please put your mailing address in with the answer so if you win we can send you the gift card in the mail.

NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: What record did Bobby Tolan tie in the game highlighted below?

 If you enjoy offense in the game of baseball, August 3, 1969, was your day in the sun but only 13,181 fans were at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia that day. Those fans who were there were treated to nearly three-and-a-half hours of offensive baseball. When the sun set that Sunday night the Reds had beaten the Phillies 19-17.

The first casualty was the Reds Camilo Pasqual who got the initial batter he faced and no one else. Larry Hisle walked and then Dick Allen, Johnny Callison and Deron Johnson all doubled. Jack Fisher came in and got the final two outs. Both teams kept scoring runs here and there until the fifth. Then the roof caved in as Fisher couldn't get out of the inning. 


With the Phils leading 9-6 the fifth inning went like this. Chico Ruiz got on by an error, pitcher Clay Carroll singled, Pete Rose singled, Bobby Tolan flied out, Alex Johnson singled, Tony Perez Doubled, Lee May homered, Johnny Bench doubled, Woody Woodward and Ruiz both singled, Carroll struck out and Rose homered before Tolan flied out for the second time in the inning. The result; 10 runs on nine hits and a 16-9 lead. But it wasn't over.

The Reds scored two more to make it 18 and then in the sixth the Phils went crazy scoring seven runs and bringing the score to 18-16. Tony Perez and Dick Allen would add homers before the dust settled on a 19-17 win for Cincinnati.  Wayne Granger with three scoreless innings won it, Turk Farrell who gave up six earned runs lost it.

Tony Taylor had 5 RBI including a homer while Bench and Deron Johnson each had five hits but only 3 RBI between them. Lee May, Alex Johnson, Rose and Perez each homered for the Reds, while Phillies who went yard were Mike Ryan, Taylor and Allen. And no one hit for the cycle. It must have been fun!

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.
  

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.

 

 

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Gentile Not So Gentle on This Day

 

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Rich Klein of Grand Prairie, TX, who correctly identified the SAC FLY as the other stat Deron Johnson led the NL with during his best season.  The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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. Please put your mailing address in with the answer so if you win we can send you the gift card in the mail.

NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Which Orioles Shortstop who had only 106 homers in 15 seasons actually led his club with 22 home runs during a season in the 1960s, beating Gentile by a single homer?

 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.
                              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.
  

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.