The "57 Braves Were Just Special

 

TRIVIA WINNER:  Gordy Coleman was second on the 1962 Reds with 28 behind Frank Robinson. Dennis Romero of Santa Fe, NM, had the correct answer. 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 Milwaukee player scored the winning run in Game 7 of the 1957 World Series?

When you look at one of the greatest Braves' teams of all time you have to look back at some of the really curious things about the 1957 season. First of all the 95 win Braves hadn't had that many victories in the 20th century. The last times the club had such a season was twice when they won 102 games as the Boston Braves in 1892 and 1898! 

The "57 Braves had some clubbers. Hank Aaron's usual 44 home runs was a lock, Eddie Mathews banged 32, while Wes Covington had 21, Del Crandall with 15 and part timer Joe Adock added 12. Red Schoendienst batted .310 and had 122 hits in just 93 games. Both Aaron and Mathews (94 RBI) drove in around 100 with Hammerin' Hank at 132 and both scored over 100 times. Aaron's .322 led the club and was just two hits shy of the magic 200 mark. Frank Torre, Joe's older brother at first and Billy Bruton in center both hit just above .270, but were integral parts of the line-up.

With Johnny Logan and Red up the middle the defense was solid as was Crandall behind the plate. They had an amazing bench led by Adcock and little known Bob Hazle. "Hurricane" Hazle hit .403 with 19 extra base hits including 7 home runs in 155 AB. Hazle only played a couple years and just the one for the Braves where in 1957 he had half of the AB's he had in his entire career. Four of the "bench" players batted more than 200 times.

The pitching is where this club shined though. Dependable Warren Spahn won 21 games, while Lew Burdette and Bob Buhl were 35-16 between them. The big three each pitched more than 200 innings and completed 46 games. The interesting thing was the bullpen. Don McMahon was the ace you might say but the 27 year old only pitched 46 innings, finishing 19 games and Saving 8 with a 1.54 ERA. The rest of the pen was average or even below. 

Bobby Trowbridge and Juan Pizarro got their share of starts as well as doing some relief but when it came to the other guys; Ernie Johnson and Taylor Phillips got in some work when they were called upon.  It was a club which went on to defeat the Yankees in the World Series 4-3 but it wasn't too many years later they'd move on to their third city; Atlanta.

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 Long Lost Long Relief Game

 

TRIVIA WINNER:  The city where Billy Martin played in the minor leagues and managed in the big leagues was Oakland, CA. Billy Fraser of Las Vegas, NV had the correct answer. 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 1961 The Reds lost the World Series but came back with a pretty good year in 1962 where Frank Robinson led the team in homers with 39. Who finished second on that club in homers that 1962 season? 

The biggest change from 1960s MLB to today's game is in the pitching department. Today a club carries half a dozen pitchers who may pitch as long as one full inning. In the bygone era of the 60s, it wasn't crazy to see a reliever go three innings. Hal Woodeschick was one of those guys who had a reputation of going even longer when needed. In fact, he was a member of the 1963 NL All-Star team most likely based on his performance in a game which took 4:46 minutes to play. 

It was June 2, 1963. The "long" reliever for the Houston Colt 45's was called on to be a master of long relief and was rewarded for his efforts. The game at County Stadium in Milwaukee featured the powerful Braves and the barely born Houston club. Just over 8,000 fans packed the stadium for a club which was searching for a new home. Finishing 9th out of 10 teams in attendance the Braves would draw far fewer than a million fans on the season.  

The Braves would hit 204 homers this season but this game saw none by Milwaukee which featured Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Joe Torre and Lee Maye in their lineup along with Mack Jones. Denny Lemaster started against Bob Bruce. Both pitchers were masterful with the Colts scoring one in the second and the Braves their lone run in the third. That was it until inning no. 17. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

Bruce was masterful through 11 innings, allowing only one run on eight hits. Lemaster matched him pitch for pitch going 12.2 innings giving up only seven hits and striking out 10. He did walk seven and gave up the game's only home run to Carl Warwick.  

In the 12th inning, manager Harry Craft called on Woodeschick to replace Bruce. Three times over the next six innings the Braves went 1-2-3. Only in the 15th did the ace reliever get into trouble and it wasn't his fault. Bob Uecker pinch-hit and sent a ground ball to third which aging  Johnny Temple muffed.  Maye grounded into a force out and advanced to second on a passed ball (Jim Campbell couldn't handle it) with Mathews at the plate. Woodeschick struck out Mathews looking, intentionally walked Aaron and got Torre to ground out. Inning over, no runs.

In the top of the 17th after Ron Piche struck out both Temple and Howie Goss, Warwick singled. Rusty Staub singled putting runners at first and second. Campbell and Al Spangler both singled  driving in runs as the Colt 45's led 3-1. That was all Woodeschick needed. After a lead-off single to Roy McMillan in the bottom of the 17th, he got Maye, Jones and Mathews to earn the win. 

His stat line read six scoreless innings, allowing two hits, striking out three and only one walk which was intentional. A masterful performance and what did the power hitting top four in the line-up of Maye, Mathews, Aaron and Torre do that game? They went a combined 0-24! 

Woodeschick would have other solid years moving forward. This one he tossed 114 innings with 1.97 ERA. This was the first year he was converted to a full time reliever, having been a starter and swing man through out his previous big league years. Starting in 1963 he never started another game. It was worth it as he became an ace reliever, even leading the league in Saves with 23 in 1964. He retired after the 1967 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.