The Loss of the World Series by One Player

 

TRIVIA WINNER: The infielders who were the regulars for the Cardinals in Don Blasingame's 1958 season were Ken Boyer, Eddie Kasko and Stan Musial.  The winner Bill Worther of Pittsburgh, PA. 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: During the 1967 season the Boston Red Sox carried a total of four catchers. Three of them batted under .200 on the season. Who was the fourth who batted over .200?

The 1967 World Series would have been if not for one pitch. A pitch which hit Boston Red Sox slugger Tony Conigliaro in the face. It did not bring Tony C.'s career to a complete end, but it ended the dreams which could have been, not only for the player but for the Boston Faithful.

Conigliaro was having a fantastic year on a fantastic club, batting behind the ultimate player in Carl Yastrzemski. Yaz would go on to win the Triple Crown batting in front of Conigliaro. Conigliaro was on the rise, he had slugged 20 homers in just 95 games while driving in 67, and batting .287. 

Then on August 18th, the Red Sox were facing the Angels and Jack Hamilton. Conigliaro was hit by a pitch on his left cheekbone and was carried off the field on a stretcher. He sustained a linear fracture of the left cheekbone and a dislocated jaw with severe damage to his left retina. The batting helmet he was wearing did not have the protective ear-flap which has since become standard.  

The Sox were 10 games over .500 at the time after winning the game 3-2. Perhaps spurred on by the loss of their young slugger, the club went on a winning streak. They went on to win six in a row and 12 of the next 15 games. They led by 1.5 games and played outstanding baseball the rest of the season. So did the Minnesota Twins who faced the Sox on the final day of the season needing a win. Boston, behind Cy Young Winner Jim Lonborg beat the Twins and 20-game winner Dean Chance 5-3 to clinch the pennant.

They would face the powerful Cardinals in the World Series.  With Tony C., out, manager Dick Williams was forced to play Hawk Harrelson and Jose Tartabull in right field. In four games Harrelson had one hit in 13 at bats driving in one run and batting .077. Tartabull had only two hits in 13 at bats, scored one run and batted .154. They combined to go 0-fror-5 in Game 7. Certainly one would assume Conigilaro would have done somewhat, if not much better. Red Sox dreams would have to wait for nearly 40 more years.

Conigiliaro would not live to see a Red Sox championship. He died in 1990 at the age of 45. After sitting out the 1968 season he came back in 1969 and 1970 with two really solid seasons. He was named Comeback Player of the Year for his efforts in 1969 smacking 20 home runs and followed it up with 36. A year later with the Angels and back to Boston for the final season, he retired in 1975 at the age of 30.

Hamilton was traded to the Indians after the season and then to the White Sox, and retired after the 1969 season, also at the age of 30. He died in 2018. Neither one of them ever played in the post season. 

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.

 

The Journeyman

 

TRIVIA WINNER: While many of you had many different and good answers, the answer we were looking for from last week was the two pitchers had the same stat for the 1969 Royals were Dick Drago and Jim Rooker who both had 108 strikeouts.  The winner Joe Barimore of St. Louis, MO. 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: In 1958, the only year Don Blasingame made the All Star team, who were the other regular infielders on the Cardinals with him??

In baseball the term "journeyman" can be defined in many different ways. Maybe it's a player who plays for lots of teams and just hangs on. Maybe it's a guy who is the player brought in to fill a hole while the club develops a young player. Maybe it's a player who is very valuable in the clubhouse and on the field with versatility. Perhaps it's a player named Don Blasingame.

Don Blasingame was a pretty good second baseman during his time and it looked like he may have been getting ready to settle in after the 1962 season with the Cincinnati Reds. However, the Reds had other plans for that position; a kid name Pete Rose was about to make his MLB debut. It spelled the end of the line for Blasingame in Cincinnati. 

This wasn't the first time Blasingame would be moved because of a young kid coming up with high expectations, nor would it be the last. As a solid player in St. Louis, he was coming off one of his best seasons hitting .289. The Cards had an up and coming youngster at second whom they picked up in a trade with Pittsburgh. Julian Javier would enjoy a really nice career with the Cardinals for several seasons and was a defensive wiz. Blasingame was expendable and was quickly dealt to the Giants.

He only logged three games with the Giants before being dealt again, this time to the Reds. Joey Amalfitano was locked in at second base and was two years younger than the 29 year old Blasingame. The Giants simply didn't need him and it seems the Reds needed a stop gap player until Rose arrived.

When the Reds shipped him to the Senators he replaced Chuck Cottier and stayed at second base until the 1966 season when the Senators drafted 25 year old Bob Saverine from the Houston Astros and he replaced Blasingame who was now 34 and coming to the end of his career. Saverine turned out to be a bust. He hit .239 in parts of six seasons with several clubs.

It ended when after 68 games played with Washington he was sold to Kansas City in August, played 12 more games and was released in September.  The A's had light hitting Dick Green at second and perhaps were looking for a little insurance. Of course with Charley O. Finley running things you never knew what was going to happen. 

Blasingame's less than illustrious career seemed to chug along well until there was somebody waiting in the wings management felt was just a step better and a shade younger. It should be noted at this point, when he himself became a regular in St. Louis it was at the expense of future Hall of Fame second sacker, Red Schoendienst. Schoendienst was promptly traded to the Giants before going on to a career with the Braves.

Blasingame finished his career .251, 21 homers and 308 RBI and played in one World Series (1961). In his final appearance he got a pinch hit single off Minnie Rojas of the Angels on August 27th, 1966. He did not figure in the scoring. He ended his career the way he started it back on September 20, 1955 when as a lead off hitter for the Cardinals he got a first inning single off Sam Jones of the Cubs. He scored when Solly Hemus followed with a home run. The game ended 2-0.

His major milestone was in a statistic few people think about but it's important. He hit into fewer double plays (one in every 123 at-bats) than anyone in major league history except Don Buford.

There isn't much else to say about Don Blasingame except for these two points; He was not related to the Braves pitcher Wade Blasingame but he was the son-in-law of Walker Cooper. And the other point is probably only significant to this writer; the very first baseball glove I had when I started playing Little League was a "Don Blasingame" Signature Model. Now that is cool. 

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.