Baseball in the 1960's

Monday, August 15, 2022

The Super Duck

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Jim Blanken of Detroit, MI, who correctly found the Boston Red Sox hit the most AL homers in 1965 with only 165. 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: The Boston Red Sox led the AL in 1965 in homers with 165.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Which of the three Schofield clan who played in the majors hit the most home runs in one season?

If ever there was a super utility player in the 1960's, it was Dick Schofield, better known as Ducky, or just the Duck. He arrived in Pittsburgh from the Cardinals and before his 1960's career was over, he'd play for six different teams, while in his overall career; seven teams. He had three separate stints with the club which originally signed him; the St. Louis Cardinals.

Schofield's best season was 1960 when he filled in late in the season for MVP Dick Groat as the Bucs went onto win the National League Pennant. He hit .333 in just over 100 at bats. He matched it in the World Series, going one-for-three against the Yankees as Groat returned to start for the Pirates.

As a fielder during that memorable season he was adequate in 23 games at shortstop, committing six errors. However, teamed with all-star Bill Mazeroski he did participate in 16 double plays. The Duck fielded flawlessly at the other infield positions when he filled in.

In his only three seasons as a regular, 1963-1965, he batted .246 twice and .209 in the other lackluster year in which he spent most of it with the Giants, after having been traded for Jose Pagan in a swap of shortstops. Pagan would move to third base in Pittsburgh, Schofield remained mostly at short. He did continue to shift around the infield and actually in 1969 played a few games in the outfield.

San Francisco would sell him to the Yankees who traded him to the Dodgers for Thad Tillotson and after his release the Cardinals picked him up once again. In the same year St. Louis sent him to the Red Sox for Gary Waslewski before going back to the Cardinals for Jim Campbell. He finished out his career with Milwaukee.

Perhaps his greatest achievement in baseball, aside from his longevity and ability to be the Super Utility Player, was his linage. His son, Dick had a good major league career also as a shortstop, and his grandson Jayson Werth did as well. One of the now many three generation baseball families.

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
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Monday, August 8, 2022

The Red Sox Lose 100

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Scott Hitchcox of Portage, MI who correctly identified Jerry Doggett as Vin Scully's sidekick during the 1960s. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Jerry Doggett was Vin Scully's sidekick and broadcast partner in the 1960s.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: The 1965 Red Sox finished in 9th place out of 10 teams, but where did they finish in team Home Runs?

For the first time in 33 years the Boston Red Sox were to lose 100 games. It was 1965, just two years before the Sox with Carl Yastrzemski leading the way, won the American League Pennant. With a line-up of eight players 30 years old or more, it figured the team was going to need an infusion of young talent soon. Four players would fill that role.

(We could not find any "good" video of the Red Sox 1965 season so we went to 1980 for a "hit" by Yaz."

A 20-year old slugger named Tony Conigliaro was a perfect fit for the Red Sox. A youngster with an Italian surname who could easily challenge the Green Monster, he immediately became a fan favorite. Dalton Jones at 21 would prove to be a capable and clutch hitter and at 23 Jim Lonborg was just scratching the surface of his talent. Also at 20 shortstop Rico Petrocelli was emerging. And Yaz was only 25. The other youngsters didn't make a dent and many would be gone soon enough.

Lee Thomas, Eddie Bressoud, Felix Mantilla, Dick Radatz and Frank Malzone, all found their way through the early 1960s in Boston but as the middle of the decade approached, they would soon be all but forgotten. In a year when the club lost 100 games, it was to be expected. Earl Wilson may have been the exception at 30 and was sent to Detroit for Don Demeter and Julio Navarro which turned out to be a bad and wasted move by Boston.

(You can see how bad the Red Sox were by the 'other' player on this rookie card.)

How bad was it? GM Mike Higgins was fired two weeks before the season ended, replaced by Dick O'Connell. The club would finish ninth in a 10 team league, 40 games back of champion Minnesota. They never lost more than eight straight but they never won more than four in a row. They were consistently inconsistent winning 31 games before the All-Star Break and 31 after it. The worst was in June and July when they won 17 and lost 42 games. The club had a streak of 3-14 at the start of June. They would finish the season losing eight of 10.

One of O'Connell's first moves was to try and shore up the infield. He worked a trade which was a disaster. On October 4, 1965 he packaged a deal where George Smith was traded by the Detroit Tigers with a player to be named later and George Thomas to the Boston Red Sox for Bill Monbouquette. Detroit would later send Jackie Moore to Boston to complete the trade. Smith would barely hit .213 and was out of baseball at the end of the 1966 campaign. Monbouquette was out of baseball two seasons later. Dick Radatz was also sent packing in a deal which brought starter Lee Stange and Don McMahon to Boston.

In 1966 they would again finish ninth but with a couple of key acquisitions who would serve them well in the run for the pennant in 1967. The team improved by 10 games but saw manager Billy Herman depart late in the season. First baseman George Scott and third baseman Joe Foy arrived. Two others made their debut in 1966. Reggie Smith and Mike Andrews who would go on to be stalwarts got their chance to show the Red Sox faithful, what this club could do. All were either products of the Sox farm system or were drafted a few years earlier from other clubs.

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.

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."

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.
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