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Tuesday, August 22, 2023

A Very, Very, Old, Old School Contest

 

TRIVIA WINNER: The winner of this week's trivia contest is Jerry Jackson of Clinton, OK, who correctly answered the question of Maris/Mantle Retirements in 1968. 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: Joe Nuxhall broke into the big leagues in 1944 but did not win his first game until 1952. Who was the losing pitcher in Nuxhall's first win?

 As a respecter of some of the early sportswriters who covered the game such as Ring Lardner, Grantland Rice and Damon Runyon, I occasionally like to pay tribute to them by writing a column in the style of the day. This is one of those columns about an average game between two of the oldest franchises in 1965. The Cincinnati Red Legs and the Pittsburgh Pirates. I hope you enjoy it.

The contest began as to what looked to be a barn-burner with both the home town Red Legs and the visiting Pittsburgh club scoring in the first frame. It however, ended up as a duel between aging moundsmen in a close ball game. As night fell on Crosley Field in Cincinnati on this Monday July 19, the barely more than 11,000 fans would be seated for only 2:18, and would be home in time to watch the highlights on the 11:00 news.

                                                        (Documentary Film on Vernon Law)

Pittsburgh came into the mid-July summer battle with a 46-47 record while the Cincinnati club was rolling along at 52-39. They were resting in second place in their league. They had won nine-of-13 games to this point. The Pirates had lost 11 of 15 coming in. In the words of a local broadcaster, the club which got it's name nearly 100 years ago by "pirating" a player from another team, couldn't steal a win during the stretch. That was when the Senior Circuit was dealing with more issues than just bases and balls, and when Barney Dreyfus' club absorbed the Louisville nine, including players such as Honus Wagner.

Facing the 37 year old Joe Nuxhall, who broke into the big leagues as a 15 year old kid in 1944, Bucs outfielder Manny Mota managed a one-base hit. He was followed by his Latin teammate, Bob Clemente who smacked a double to bring the speedy Mota around to score. The 1-0 lead was all Pittsburgh could manage at the time.

In the latter half of the inning, Vernon Law who is known as the "Deacon" due to his affiliation with a certain Utah church, didn't need too many tosses before seeing the scoreboard light up with a tie score. Red Legs lead off batsman Tommy Harper sent an early offering by Law into the right field seats for his 11th home run of the campaign. The score was tied but Cincinnati could manage no more off the former Cy Young Award winner.

Law was spectacular at age 35 setting down the next 12 Cincinnati batsmen in order before giving up a one-base hit to opposing third baseman Deron Johnson. Johnson was quickly erased as Tony Perez smashed a hard ground ball to shortstop Gene Alley, who flipped it to Bill Mazeroski who completed the double play with a quick toss to first sacker Donn Clendenon. It was a good thing too because Johnny Edwards followed with a single but was left stranded as Law retired the side.

The Pittsburgh club was not idle. In the fourth frame, lanky 6'4" Clendenon drove a Nuxhall pitch deep into the crowd to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead. Clendenon, who was recruited to play professional sports in football as well as basketball, at this point was happy baseball was hit choice of profession. Law and Nuxhall continued their mastery through seven innings of play. At that point, Pittsburgh took advantage. 

In inning number eight, after Mota was retired, Clemente added a second hit on the day by reaching first base. Clendenon followed with the same before defensive wiz Mazeroski plated the final run of the game with his second one base hit. Clemente's run made it 3-1 Pittsburgh to close out the scoring.

Law however, was not done. Aside from getting two hits himself in the contest, the smooth sailing right hander closed down the Red Legs on two more hits over the last two frames and picked up his ninth win of the year. The Deacon tossed a complete game giving up only six hits, striking out four and did not offer a base on balls to any batter. After only winning 29 games in four years since his 20-9 Championship season of 1960, Law is well on his way to a Comeback Player of the Year Award as his ERA is flirting with 2.00 on the season.  

The Pirates showed off why they are one of the best batting teams in the Senior Circuit, managing 12 hits off Nuxhall with five players getting two each. Nuxhall did keep the powerful Wilver Stargell from the basepaths. Stargell got the collar in five at-bats.

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.

 

 

Sunday, August 13, 2023

The Mick or Roger? The Best of 1961!

    

TRIVIA WINNER: The winner of this week's trivia contest is Dennis Cympl of Wauwatosa, WI, who correctly ID'd Lee Maye as the player who released the 1964 song "The Breaks of Life."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 what year did Mantle and Maris hang up their cleats?

There were so many phenomenal things about Roger Maris' 1961 season, to lump them all into 61* just isn't fair. When you look at the right-fielder's stat line it defies the odds. However, when compared to his slugging mate Mickey Mantle, there are fans who still argue who should have been MVP. 

Maris could have hit for a higher average but Yankee brass discouraged it, choosing to get him to pull the ball for home runs into the short right field porch. That was the plan. Let the others get on base and have Maris take it deep. It was never done better, in that regard, than 1961.

Maris only hit .269 in 1961. Not much in comparison to Mantle's .317 and it should be noted The Mick did hit 54 homers compared to Roger's 61. He also missed the latter part of the season due to an injury. Let's look at what Maris really did accomplish though. Maris played in 161 games to Mantle's 153.

Maris scored 132 Runs to lead all major league players. He led the AL with 142 RBI. He led both leagues in Total Bases with 366 and of course did the same with 61 home runs, in being named the AL MVP. Let's look at what he didn't do however. He didn't strike out. He took the "K" only 67 times and added 94 walks. Mantle on the other hand struck out 112 and walked 126. He scored nearly as many runs (131) and drove in 128 Runs. 

Maris was never walked intentionally (Mantle was usually batting behind him) where as Mantle drew 9 such walks. The big difference next is pretty amazing. Maris grounded into 16 Double Plays. Mantle hit into just two. And Mantle stole 12 bases to zero for Maris.

All this would lead you to believe, as many fans do, it was Mantle who should have received the MVP Award and not Maris. The voting was close, 202-198. And there in lies the bottom line.

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.

 

Sunday, August 6, 2023

The Ace is the Reliever

 

TRIVIA WINNER: The winner of this week's trivia contest is Tom Fraser of Pittsburgh, PA who named three of the four 1969 California Angels who had sons who also played in the big leagues. We asked for three but there were four; Sandy Alomar, Clyde Wright, Pedro Borbon and Ruben Amaro. 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 Braves player recorded a song in 1964 called "The Breaks of Life"?

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.