Baseball in the 1960's

Wednesday, August 3, 2022

A Man for All Ages; Vin Scully, "The Natural"

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Dan Taguchi of Los Angeles, who correctly identified Tom Candiotti as the player who portrayed Hoyt Wilhelm in the film "61*.". 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: Former Dodger pitcher and kunckleballer Tom Candiotti appropriately portrayed Hoyt Wilhelm in the film "61*."

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Who was Vin Scully's broadcast partner through much of the 1960's?

The dulcet tones fell silent one last time this week. For all of us who lived the 1960's and loved the game, Vin Scully continues to pull on our heartstrings as well as our ear drums. He taught us to love the game. He taught us how to love the English language, he taught us what we know about baseball. He taught us period.

(The moment on a transistor radio)

As I put together many radio tributes the night Scully passed away for KNX Radio and interviewed others who knew him better than me on a personal level, the more I was pulled into the world I always knew existed. I realized how much I learned just listening during those precious teen-age years of Dodger games.

Never a Dodger fan, always a Pittsburgh fan tried and true, I listened because of Vinny. Along with the Pirates' Bob Prince (the Gunner), I could not have grown up in a better era to shape my own career, my own life. It was the two of them, more Vin than Bob because of the many years growing up in Los Angeles, that I became a sports broadcaster. It was my passion because as a young child I realized if I couldn't play baseball for a living, I must stay as near to the game as I could; aka sports play-by-play. I got to do some PBP in my career before falling in love with the news business and moving onward. Still, sports and mainly baseball was and remains my passion.

Our lives are better because of Vin Scully. I realized that, not only because he signed a baseball for me which already had the names of great broadcasters including Russ Hodges ("the Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant"), but because the day I ran into him at a local shopping center parking lot (we lived a few miles from each other and shopped at the same stores), I realized at that moment when we chatted he really was "just Vin," the guy next door. The Bud you wished you could always hang out with.

His beauty was being able to realize when the game of baseball became boring to the fans as it often does, lets face it, the game can be slow. He knew when fans were losing interest and began to weave in a story you knew you had to hear to the end. Whether it was at the end of the inning or that familiar phrase "I'll finish that story when we come back," you had to hang on through the Union 76 commercials.

Today I remember some of the phrases he left me with as the Professor of the sports/English language and which left an undeniable mark on my own life. It was "Bob Gibson works so fast on the mound he pitches like he was double parked." It was "with the Dodgers leading 2-1 heading to the bottom of the ninth, stick around because coming up are Messieurs Mays, McCovey and Hart." It was "in an improbable year, the impossible has happened." It was a "high drive to deep right field," "strike three called," "it gets through Buckner," "of all the people who could have broken Don Drysdale's streak, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, it was a guy named Howie Bedell," "swung on and missed, the PERFECT GAME," and when Fernando Valenzuela pitched a no-hitter I was listening on my transistor radio as Vin said "throw your sombrero's into the air."

(Scully "For the Love of the Game")

There are too many moments, great moments and just daily, seemingly mundane moments which were great. As fellow broadcaster Charlie Steiner told me in an interview he was "the Babe Ruth of broadcasting and he was better than any of us. He was the best and none of us will ever be better, none of us ever."

I could only follow up with the immortal words of Roy Hobbs. He was "the best there ever was," because Vin Scully was truly "the Natural."

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Monday, July 25, 2022

Hoyt Wilhelm; Lots of Answers, Too Many Questions

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Ken Levasseur of Amherst NH, who correctly identified the Cubs' Billy Williams as the player who officially replaced the injured Pete Rose on the NL 1968 All-Star Roster. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: In the 1968 All Star Game Pete Rose was voted in as one of the three outfielders in the game. Due to injury he was replaced by Billy Williams officially.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: In the film "61*" a major league player actually played Hoyt Wilhelm on screen. Who was that major leaguer? (HINT: He was also a knuckle ball pitcher.)

In the era of the 1960's there probably was not a more dominant relief pitcher than Hoyt Wilhelm. Uncharacteristically he was also one of the most traveled pitchers of his era. During the 60's, he switched teams four times. During those years his ERA was under 2.00 six times and another three times it was less than 2.65.

Only in 1960 did he miss the mark with a respectable 3.31 ERA. Of course he tossed 147 innings, pitched in 41 games and started 11 of those. He was coming off a season where he led the league in ERA at 2.19, pitching a career high 226 innings. Who could blame him for being a bit tired?

If you were wondering how he did it, it was the famous knuckle-ball which led his repertoire. How many knuckler's he threw during his 1103 (2254 in his career) innings during the era, no one will ever know. The key here was he averaged 110 innings per season while four times eclipsing 130. All but three games were in relief and he never started after 1960. For the 1965 White Sox he went 144 innings, giving up only 88 hits and striking out 106 on his way to a 7-7 season with a 1.81 ERA.

In the midst of all of this was the fact Wilhelm was 37 years old when the decade of the 60's began. He was still five years younger than the newly elected President John F. Kennedy. Known as "Old Sarge," to really put it in perspective and indicative of Wilhelm's career was in 1968 he pitched in four of final six games in the White Sox season. It was Chicago's worst season of the decade, 36 games out of first place. What makes this short little string so amazing is; Wilhelm was 45 years old.

The only downside to his career came in 1961 and he really wasn't to blame. As Roger Maris was chasing the Babe on his way to 61 home runs, Wilhelm was brought in specifically to keep Maris from hitting the ball out.

It was game 154 for New York and Orioles manager Lum Harris brought in the knuckle-baller to pitch to Maris in the latter's final at-bat. Maris had 59 home runs. Commissioner Ford Frick had ordered that if anyone were to break Ruth's record it would need to be in the same number of games the Great Bambino had played in, 154. Not the 162 played in 1961.

In the film 61*, Harris orders Wilhelm to not throw anything but the wiggly knuckler. Hitting a knuckle-ball high and deep is tough enough but with the pressure building and the obvious move to stop Maris, all the Yankee slugger could manage was a weak ground ball. He would not "break" Ruth's record then, by Frick's rule.

During his career Wilhelm pitched for nine teams and was elected to the Hall of Fame. During the 1950's he tossed a no-hitter. Overall, he won 124 games in relief, saved 228, pitched in 1070 games, his lifetime ERA was 2.52 with a lifetime WHIP of 1.1. He led both leagues in ERA once, and the NL twice in Win-Loss percentage.

He also threw 90 Wild Pitches and due to the nearly exclusive use of the knuckle-ball the number of passed balls by catchers is far to many to count. His former catcher Gus Triandos is quoted as saying "Heaven is a place where no one throws a knuckle-ball."

When you figure he didn't enter the big leagues until he was 29 years old and retired at 50, it makes him one of the most amazing stories in baseball history. His only post season action was in 1954, pitching two scoreless innings for the Giants. In the 1960's his average salary was $28,000 a season.

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

The Most Boring but Nearly Tragic All-Star Game; 1968

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Marc Griffen, of Clinton, OK, who correctly identified Steve hamilton as the AL player who was traded with Don Rudolph and also played in the NBA. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Steve Hamilton was the player who was traded with Don Rudolph and who also played in the NBA.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: In the 1968 All Star Game Pete Rose was voted in as one of the three outfielders in the game. Due to injury he was replaced by whom, officially?

Since baseball fans were treated to another boring All-Star Game it brings to mind one of the worst AS games in big league history, but one of the most memorable. It was 1968, the year of the pitcher, when the AL Batting Average leader would hit .301, Denny McLain would win 31 games and Bob Gibson's ERA was 1.12 with a WHIP of .083. It was also the year a substitute player scored the only run of the game and was named MVP, and one of the all-time great sluggers of the AL nearly ended his career making a Defensive play.

Willie Mays didn't make the AS team in 1968, nearing the end of his career. He hit .289 with 23 home runs. He was fourth in the fan voting behind Hank Aaron, but he was selected. With players missing the game due to injuries or wanting days off, Mays was inserted as the lead off hitter for the game at Houston's Astrodome. Facing Luis Tiant, he singled to left. With Curt Flood at the plate Tiant picked Mays off first. However, Tiant mishandled the play for an error and Mays was safe at a second base.

Tiant then uncorked a wild pitch moving Willie to third. Flood walked putting runners at first and third. Willie McCovey grounded into a double play, scoring Mays and aside from one other nearly tragic, moment, that was it. The game would end 1-0 with Mays being named MVP.

However, in the bottom of the third with one out Flood hit a ground ball to deep short which Was handled cleanly and on to first. Harmon Killebrew stretched for the throw to get the fleet footed Flood and did the splits. Below is a link to the video.

https://gfycat.com/unpleasantgreendragonfly

"I heard it split like a rubber band," Killebrew said in a later interview. He had ripped his hammie away from the bone and was not only done for the game but for the season. He would come back in 1969 to belt 49 homers.

There is little much else to say about this game except it reflected the year of the pitcher. The two teams combined for 8 hits and ONE unearned run. Nuff said.

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