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Monday, June 13, 2022

There Are No Ties in Baseball - Well ---

 

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Ken Levasseur of Amherst, NH, who correctly stated Bob Gibson made 34 relief appearances in the 1960s. 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.  YOU MUST ENTER VIA THE EMAIL AT THE END OF THIS COLUMN. Don't forget to put your mailing address in with the answer so if you win we can send you the gift card in the mail.

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column:  Bob Gibson made 34 relief appearances in the 1960s. 

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.

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.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION:   How many Tie games did Casey Stengel manage in the big leagues?

The 1960 New York Yankees were known for scoring runs in bunches. With the likes of Maris, Mantle and the rest, they produced big time. Over the course of the season they scored in double figures 13 times and in the World Series in each of their three wins over Pittsburgh, they scored in double digits. However, it was in a mid-summer rainstorm the Yankees proved no match for mother nature; and the Kansas City Athletics.

Rain was in the forecast from the start on the night of June 15, 1960 at Kansas City's Municipal Stadium. And with a 28 mile per hour wind blowing and a light rain falling off and one and more promised, it is a wonder why the umpiring crew and home plate ump Joe Paparella chose to let this game go on. But go on it did.


Yankee ace Ralph Terry squared off against Dick Hall. Terry was his masterful self toiling more than eight innings and giving up four runs, only one earned. That coming on a Jerry Lumpe solo shot in the fourth. The unearned runs scored when relievers couldn't hold men on base after Manager Casey Stengel replaced Terry with one out in the eighth.

The Yanks had scored on power as usual. In the first Yogi Berra blasted a two run shot and after Bill Skowron drove home a run with a single in the eighth,  Clete Boyer took Marty Kutyna deep in the ninth. New York had a 4-1 lead going into the bottom of the eighth when Terry gave way to Bobby Shantz with the bases loaded.
Norm Siebern hit a Sac Fly to drive in a run and Dick Williams drew a walk to load them up again. Shantz then walked Harry Chiti sending Russ Snyder home making it 4-3. Johnny James came in to relieve and couldn't find the plate either, walking Danny Kravitz in his final year in the big leagues, to bring home Whitey Herzog to tie the game at four-all. Andy Carey struck out to end the threat and with no one scoring in the ninth and the rain coming down, the game entered extra innings.

With only 14, 418 people in attendance few were left at this point. Neither team scored in the 10th or 11th, but come the 12th, New York broke out. Ken Johnson started the inning by walking lead-off man Kent Hadley. Mantle came up to pinch hit and drew a walk pushing pinch runner Gil McDougald to second base. When Tony Kubek tried to sacrafice them over and beat out the bunt for a single, it looked like curtains for the A's.

Yogi Berra hit into a force play driving in the go ahead run making it 5-4 and Maris finished it off with a single, plating two more, before Skowron hit into an inning ending double play. Still New York had gone ahead 7-4 and the rain kept coming. The umpires looked to calling it but the A's had a final at bat. 

Ryne Duren took the mound for the Yanks and gave up a one out walk to Ken Hamlin. Pete Daley hammered a shot over the outfield wall and the A's were in business down a run 7-6. Duke Maas was brought into face Bill Tuttle and got him on a nearly game tying out to deep right. Lumpe singled to left and advanced to second when Berra's throw was off line.
The A's had the tying run in scoring position with two out in the bottom of the 12th in a game which had by now run 3:24 and with few fans in the stands, were probably wondering "what is the point?" as the rains came down. It was a wet and tired Russ Snyder who worked Maas at this point and he didn't disappoint, smacking a triple to drive in Lumpe. The A's could win it with a hit or an error.

Herzog drew a walk and Siebern was intentionally walked before Williams flied out to end the game. It was 7-7 and the umps had had enough. The game was called a tie and that was that. The Yankees would win the pennant by eight games so the tie did not matter.

 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.
                             SEND YOUR ANSWERS TO; brillpro@gmail.com  
 ==========================================================
Need to get out of a baseball hitting slump, or a golf swing slump? Order my new book  An athlete's guide to a better career." . That is for the Paperback, you can also order Kindle on that link. You can also order paperback copies directly from me via the email below for my other books."Beating the Slump;See it on Amazon for only $5.99

You can get a signed paper back copy of the above book "Tales of My Baseball Youth - a child of the sixties"  for $15 Shipping Included 
 
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 book after reading this column. 
 

Monday, June 6, 2022

Bob Gibson Breaks Leg - Keeps on Pitching

 

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Rich Klein of Grand Prairie, TX, who correctly stated in the 1959 season Nellie Fox had nine sacrifice bunts to his credit. 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.  YOU MUST ENTER VIA THE EMAIL AT THE END OF THIS COLUMN. Don't forget to put your mailing address in with the answer so if you win we can send you the gift card in the mail.

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column:  Nellie Fox had nine sacrifice bunts in 1959. 

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.

===============================================================
NEW TRIVIA QUESTION:   How many relief appearances did Bob Gibson make in the 1960s? 

In one of the most amazing feats of courage and strength the Cardinals Bob Gibson set a standard for gutting it out in baseball which may never be matched. It took place in the heart of mid-summer 1967 in St. Louis. The Cardinals were facing the Pirates on a Saturday evening at Busch Stadium. What the 39,000-plus fans were about to see they will never forget.

The Cardinals were in first place, four games up while the Bucs were struggling 7.5 back in sixth place. Coming off one of the most formidable hitting years in team history, the Pirates were just a shell of the previous season. Roberto Clemente, Matty Alou and Gene Alley were all running the lumber, but Donn Clendenon, Willie Stargell and a few others were struggling. The team had sent Bob Baily to the Dodgers for Maury Wills who was hitting .281 at the time but with little spark.  

The Cardinals meanwhile were sailing. Up and down the line-up led by Orlando Cepeda who was having an MVP season. Roger Maris, Lou Brock, Tim McCarver, Bobby Tolan, Julian Javier were all stroking hit after hit. The pitching staff led by Gibson, Dick Hughes and Steve Carlton was top notch. This club was World Series bound.

This day belonged to Gibson. In a scoreless game in the fourth, Clemente (who would have 3 hits on the day) came up to face Gibson. The Great One smashed a line drive back at Gibson caroming off his leg for a single. Gibson went down but in usual style got right back up. No one knew at the time but the drive broke Gibson's leg. It didn't matter. He wasn't coming out, not yet.

He walked Stargell, got Mazeroski to fly out and walked Clendenon before manager Red Schoendienst had seen enough. Al Jackson came in from the bullpen to take over and Gibby was through for weeks. He left with a record of 10-6 after pitching three innings, giving up one hit and the one run to Clemente. He would return to finish the season with a 13-7 pitching 175 innings with 147 strikeouts in 24 starts. 

However, it was in the World Series where he was the master. He won three games and even hit a home run. The following season, 1968 he had one of the greatest season ever in the history of the game finishing with a 1.12 ERA. 

 

 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.
                             SEND YOUR ANSWERS TO; brillpro@gmail.com  
 ==========================================================
Need to get out of a baseball hitting slump, or a golf swing slump? Order my new book  An athlete's guide to a better career." . That is for the Paperback, you can also order Kindle on that link. You can also order paperback copies directly from me via the email below for my other books."Beating the Slump;See it on Amazon for only $5.99

You can get a signed paper back copy of the above book "Tales of My Baseball Youth - a child of the sixties"  for $15 Shipping Included 
 
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 book after reading this column.