The World Series Which Might Have Been

 

TRIVIA WINNER: The answer to last weeks question was Bob Brill hit one home run in his four-year Little League career. It was mentioned in my book (above) and more than one person said that is where they found the answer, while others gave it a good and proper guess. The Prize: 60 points toward the person's total.

NEW TRIVIA CONTEST: You will still be required to enter the drawing as usual. However,  through the end of 2024 you will get points depending on the complexity of the questions. Enter each week and correct answers will get those points-one guess per person per week. The reader with the most points after the years final column will get a $50 Starbucks Gift Card. Ties will be placed into a drawing. Questions will be worth anywhere from 10-25 points depending on degree of difficulty. Questions will be more difficult as the year goes on, so you are never really out of the mix. Tell your friends and sports fans who like trivia. We will keep track of your points. - YOU MUST ENTER VIA THE EMAIL AT THE END OF THIS COLUMN.

NEW TRIVIA QUESTION:  So you think you were pretty good at finding the answers when you can't Google it, here is another shot for you. In Bob Brill's first year in the Little League majors he came to bat 13 times for the San Fernando White Sox. How many times did he strike out as an 11 year old that season? Total 40 Points.

One can only wonder what 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; 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 the end of the calendar year based on the total points acquired via weekly contests.

                              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.

Wilbur Wood - Nuff Said

 

TRIVIA WINNER: The answer to last weeks question was Greenburg Gardens and Kiner's Korner. The Prize: 20 points toward the person's total.

NEW TRIVIA CONTEST: You will still be required to enter the drawing as usual. However,  through the end of 2024 you will get points depending on the complexity of the questions. Enter each week and correct answers will get those points-one guess per person per week. The reader with the most points after the years final column will get a $50 Starbucks Gift Card. Ties will be placed into a drawing. Questions will be worth anywhere from 10-25 points depending on degree of difficulty. Questions will be more difficult as the year goes on, so you are never really out of the mix. Tell your friends and sports fans who like trivia. We will keep track of your points. - YOU MUST ENTER VIA THE EMAIL AT THE END OF THIS COLUMN.

NEW TRIVIA QUESTION:  You guys have been so good at getting the trivia answers I've decided to go with one you can't Google or find on BB-Ref. In the 1960's Bob Brill (me) played four years of Little League Baseball. How many official home runs did I hit in those four seasons? Total 60 Points.

The decade of the 1960s must have been a blur for Wilbur Wood, and he must have thought about just hanging it up. Fortunately he didn't because it was after the decade where he became the most remarkable pitcher of his day and not without controversy. 

Wood came up with the Red Sox in 1961 and and after four seasons had still not won a big league game. He was 0-7 including the last two losses with Pittsburgh where he was sent in September, 1964 in a cash deal. By this time he had pitched in 39 games, tossing 104 innings and allowing 116 hits including 10 homers. Most pitchers would have given up by then. Not Wilbur. In a start and his first complete game, Wood pitched a nice game against the Braves but gave up the winning run in the ninth on a bases loaded walk to another Wood, Woody Woodward.

It was 1965 before he won his first game. It wasn't until August 29th Wood would see his name with a "W" next to it in the box score. In the 6th sixth inning and the score tied with Houston 2-2, Bob Friend allowed the first two batters to reach base. Harry Walker, the brash one, called upon the quiet man Wilbur Wood. Wood easily handled three straight hitters, Joe Morgan, Jim Wynn and Rusty Staub with a ground out, an intentional walk and a ground-ball double play. 

In the bottom of the inning, Bill Mazeroski led off with a single, Jim Pagliaroni doubled him home and Jerry Lynch pinch-hit for Wood and drew a walk. The Bucs scored one more in the inning and went on to win 4-2. Wood had his first win. 

One of the early cuts in spring training, 1966, Wood's wife, Sandra would later say he actually thought about quitting and he may have but she encouraged him to keep at it. With the Columbus Jets of the International League he was tremendous. He was 14-8 with a 2.41 ERA in more than 200 innings. The White Sox noticed him and sent former 19-game winner Juan Pizarro to Pittsburgh for Wood. One of the Bucs all time worst trades. Pizarro would win a total of nine games for the Pirates.

Wood meanwhile realized he needed to do something different, something bold. He'd experimented with a knuckleball while in high school. One of the best knuckleballers of all time was also with the White Sox and Wood approached Hoyt Wilhelm who agreed to help him. It changed Woods life forever. Using the weird pitch in 1967 he had a fine season, 4-2, 2.45. Then using it a lot more he broke out in 1968 the year of the pitcher and was named AL Fireman of the Year. He worked in a Majors leading 88 games, led the league in Games Finished with 46 for a 13-12 record and a 1.87 ERA. This was the start of the new Wilbur Wood.

The following season he closed out the decade strictly in relief again leading the AL with 76 games, 10-11 and a 3.01 ERA. At this point Wood had established himself and his knuckleball as one of the best relievers in the game. 

However, as anyone who follows baseball knows it was in the 1970s he became a phenomenon.  From 1971-1975 he never started fewer than 42 games in a season. He started 224 games during that time frame, each time either leading the AL or the Majors. He won at least 20 games for four straight years while winning 24 twice. He pitched over 300 innings each season except the last with 291. Twice he led the big leagues with 376 and 359 innings. He started 70 games on two days rest and even started both games of a double header.

He also had the dubious distinction of losing 20 twice during that span including in 1973 when he was 24-20. The latter a rare feat indeed. Wood finished his 17 year career in 1978 when he still pitched 168 innings with a 10-10 record but a 5.20 ERA. He entered Free Agency and when no one came calling he called it quits with a 164-156 record and a much fatter wallet. In 1967 when he came back to the majors he was making $12,000 a season. The year he retired he was making $140,000. Now that's progress.

TRIVIA CONTEST; 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 the end of the calendar year based on the total points acquired via weekly contests.

                              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.

TRIVIA CONTEST; 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 the end of the calender year based on the total points acquired via weekly contests.

                              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.