Sunday, September 10, 2023

How You Spell Relief

TRIVIA WINNER: The winner of this week's trivia contest is Tim Fealy of Punta Gorda, FL, who correctly answered the question correctly that Jim Spencer, Dick Stuart and Bob Chance were the three Angels 1B men from 1969. 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 his very last game, in his very last at bat Stan Musial got a hit. He was replaced in the game by who?

It has always amazed me in today's world a "relief" pitcher is usually a guy who can go one inning and throw 10 pitches averaging 95-miles an hour. Throw backs to the 1960's (and beyond) scoff at that. Take the fourth game of the 1962 season in Chicago as the Cubs squared off against the Cardinals. The Cubs, who would employ a rotating set of managers this season, were winless so far. The Cardinals had not lost. (YouTube interview with Lindy McDaniel follows below).

The key to this game was a pair of relievers. Lindy McDaniel of St. Louis and Bob Anderson of the Cubs. In fact, two different Anderson's would play a role in this game on April 13, 1962. It started with Ray Washburn facing Don Ellsworth. Ellsworth pitched into the ninth for the Cubs.Washburn was gone in the seventh.

Home runs were hit by Bill White and Lou Brock with key veterans Stan Musial, Billy Williams, Ken Boyer and Curt Flood doing damage with the bat. McDaniel took over in the eighth while Anderson was brought on in the 10th. They were both marvelous.

Each gave up a run in the 14th. However, the Cardinals broke through on Anderson in the 15th. Flood singled and moved to second on a Sac bunt by Julian Javier. One out later Boyer was intentionally walked to bring up Don Landrum. Landrum singled to bring home Flood and Anderson was gone. Morrie Stevens came in and White promptly doubled home two runs. The Cards led 8-5.

John Anderson relieved McDaniel for the final inning and got the Save to close it out. McDaniel's line looked like this all in relief; 7 Innings pitched, 1 Earned Run, 3 Hits, 4 BB, 5 K and a Win. Anderson in a losing cause went 5.2 Innings giving up 4 Earned Runs and while striking out 6 took the loss. Now that is giving relief.

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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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.

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Monday, September 4, 2023

The Angels: In Search of First Base

TRIVIA WINNER: The winner of this week's trivia contest is Robert Rivera of San Diego, CA, who correctly answered the question correctly that Bob Friend was the over 30 player on the 1966 Mets who would register the most career wins and Ken Boyer was the hitter with the most career home runs. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: By 1969 the Halos were again searching for their first baseman of the future. Who where the three first sackers on the 1969 club?

In the mid-1960's the Los Angeles Angels were desperately searching for their first baseman of the future. In 1965 they were sort of content to hang on through the season with a pair of 37 year old aging veterans while the search continued. Joe Adcock and Vic Power were at the end of their careers. Both had long track records and good ones, but the Angels were a team hoping to make a move and with developing youngsters and a solid pitching staff the club wanted to improve and develop. All three came with impeccable credentials. All three would fail miserably with time out for a hot streak or two.

Costen Shockley, one of the cooler names in MLB, was a school boy wonderkid who at 6'2", 200 pounds came to the Angels via a trade with the Phillies. The deal sent playboy Bo Belinksy (a player who had more fun, than wins at the major league level) to Philadelphia for the left handed slugging Shockley.

In the minors Shockley batted .360, .335 and in 1964 smashed 36 minor league home runs. The Phils thought he was ready. He started seven games but hit only .207 with one home run and was shipped back to the minors. At the end of the season he was sent to the AL.

In 1965 he started 30 of the 40 games he played but again failed to hit, batting only .187. He came to the plate 107 times registering 20 hits. The Angels wanted the youngster to go back to the minors for more seasoning and were sticking with Adcock and Power. Shockley refused and instead retired from the game. He went back home to Delaware, worked in construction, coached youth baseball and raised his family.

His 28 MLB hits included two doubles, three homers and 19 RBI. It wasn't enough to get him to stick in the bigs, but it was enough to get him inducted into the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame in 1998. Schockley died at age 80 in 2020.

Before Shockley the Angels tried a player who was seven years older; Charles Henry Dees. Dees came out of Alabama and was also a left-handed thrower and batter like Shockley. At 6'1" he was much lighter at 173 pounds. He came out of the Negro Leagues were he played in 1957 before signing with San Francisco.

Another stalwart in the minors, he had three .300 plus seasons and led the Texas League in 1962, batting .348 with 23 homers and 115 RBI. A TL All-star he was sold to the Angels. The Giants already had Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda competing for time at first base and there was no room for Dees.

The Big Club called him up early in the 1963 season and on May 26th in his first at bat he smacked a double off the A's Orlando Pena, picking up an RBI when Billy Moran came around to score. Over the next 20 games it looked like the Angels found their first sacker. He hit .382 and became the starter at first. It didn't last long. He fell into a long slump and by the end of July was back in the minor leagues. He was hitting .281 when they sent him back down.

He was back up again in September and again went on a hot streak. He had six games with at least two hits and four times had three-hit games. He would finish his rookie campaign .307 in just over 200 at bats.

The 1964 season however was a complete turnaround. Starting less than a handful of games and used as a pinch-hitter the first couple of months he had only a pair of hits, batting .077. He was sent on loan to the Houston organization. He ended up back in the Angels system where he had his biggest success and took off again. He hit .377 at El Paso of the TL, and got another chance to return to the big leagues. After 12 games and a .156 BA he was sent back down where his career ended in 1966. Charlie Dees still lives in Birmingham, AL and is 88.

From the time Moose Stubing signed as an 18 year old first baseman back in the mid 1950's, it was clear he could hit. By the time the Angels called him up in 1967, he had slugged 192 minor league homers with a lifetime BA of .283. In 1964 in the friendly confines of the ballpark in El Paso, he slugged 35 homers, drove in 120 and batted .316. The Angels were salivating over the prospects of the 26 year old. By 1967 he was ready, or so it seemed.

The 1967 season was a big one for the Halo's who were in contention right down to the wire. However, by now they had found their slugging first baseman; Don Mincher. Mincher would hit 25 homers during the season but they hoped Stubing would provide some insurance down the stretch. Mincher died in 2012 at age 73.

The Moose came to bat five times and struck out four, failing to register a hit. His major league career was over at age 29. At least as a player. Years later he was offered a chance to manage in the Angels system and was named Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year in 1982 and won the championship in 1984. In 1988 he got the chance to manage the big club when Cookie Rojas was fired. He managed the final eight games of the season, losing all eight.

Stubing became a scout for the Angels and the Nationals. He died January 19, 2018, at age 79.

Sunday, August 27, 2023

The Year the Mets LOST Last Place

TRIVIA WINNER: The winner of this week's trivia contest is Chuck Riffee of Glen Allen, VA, who correctly answered the question the losing pitcher in Joe Nuxhall's first MLB win was Hoyt Wilhelm. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: At one time over the course of the 1966 season, nine players were on the Mets roster at age 30 or older. Which one had the most career home runs, and which other one had the most career wins as a pitcher?

Most people don't think of Ken Boyer as a New York Met, preferring his career with the St. Louis Cardinals, but he was a Met and also played with more teams including the White Sox and the Dodgers. However, it was as a Met where he made history. Few people remember but it was Boyer who drove in the winning run in a non-essential game in 1966.

(RARE Pregame Footage from Mets Inaugural Game in 1962)

It was a Tuesday night at Shea Stadium and the 14-thousand-plus fans in attendance would probably not even remember this one. The game had one significant factor; a Mets win assured they would NOT end up in last place for the first time in franchise history. The club was destined to finish near the cellar. In fact, the Mets had never finished out of the cellar in their history. They wouldn't the following year either.

In the four previous seasons the club had lost 120, 111, 109 and 112 games. In 1967 they again would lose 101. But in 1966 for the first time they would lose in double digits. The number nine grew large in New York and for the first time since the Dodgers and Giants fled the Big Apple, New Yorkers had a National League team which was not no. 10 in the standings.

The game on September 6th, would assure it. Reds ace Jim Maloney was facing off against Mets youngster, Dennis Ribant. Maloney was looking for his 15th win, Ribant hoping for his 11th. It was the latter's night.

Ribant made it through the first retiring the side in order. When the home town boys came to bat Maloney was wild. He walked lead off hitter Bud Harrelson who promptly stole second. Ron Hunt, as was customary with the second sacker, was hit by a pitch. He would go on to record 11 times being hit by the pitch that year, and would get hit 243 times in his bruised body career.

So with runners at first and second Maloney, K'd Johnny Lewis but walked Al Luplow. Ken Boyer came to bat. The aging Boyer's best days were behind him but he was still hanging on at age 35. Maloney uncorked a wild pitch scoring Harrelson and everyone else moved up ninety feet. Boyer then drove a single to left scoring both Luplow and Hunt and the Mets led 3-0.

The Reds would score two in the seventh; one on a Deron Johnson homer, but for the rest of the game it was all Ribant. The young righty went the distance giving up six hits while walking one and striking out three. Maloney took the loss. In six innings he walked seven, uncorked a wild one and hit a batter. All that came to unravel him in the three run inning.

The bottom line is that was win no. 60 for the Mets. The Cubs would only win 59. While Wes Westrum's team would go on to win 66 for New York, the key was finishing out of last place. And they did.

The win was Ribant's last for the Mets. They shipped him off to Pittsburgh after the season for Don Cardwell in a four player deal. Maloney would remain one of the aces of the Reds staff through the decade and Boyer would move onto the White Sox midway through the 1967 season before getting his release and ultimately finishing up with Los Angeles.

Baseball in the 1960's

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