September 15, 1963 -The Day of a First

 

TRIVIA WINNER:  The first year the Oakland A's drew over one million fans was in 1973. Jerry Adami, of Los Angeles, had the correct answer. 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: What do Mel Rojas, Luis Rojas and Moises Alou have in common with the story below?

The date was September 15, 1963. It's a date of a first and to date a last event. 

Never before had three brothers appeared in the same line-up in the same outfield in baseball's nearly 100 year history. That day three brothers did. Not that there weren't three brothers or relatives in the bigs at one time, but this, this was rare, and to date, it hasn't happened since. 

Felipe, Matty and Jesus, the three Alou brothers all played in the Giants game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. They didn't start there. Felipe was the only one who started and he was in right, while Willie Mays was in center and Willie McCovey started in left. 

With San Francisco leading the Bucs 8-3 in the seventh Felipe moved from right to left and Jesus (the youngest brother at 21) took over batting third for McCovey and played right field. In the ninth, Matty came in for Willie Mays in left with Felipe again moving. This time to center field.  And there it was. All three in the line-up and all three in the outfield. In the game, Felipe had one hit but scored three runs, Jesus (known as Jay) went 0-2 and Matty did not bat.

It was a momentous occasion for the 18,000 fans (probably less by the ninth inning) who attended the game at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Many probably didn't realize the moment and it's spot in history. More fans likely remembered Mays homered and Billy O'Dell tossed a complete game win. Matty would eventually be a Pirate, traded for Joe Gibbon for the 1966 season, where the young outfielder would become a star and win a batting title at .342 his first season in Black & Gold. 

Pittsburgh would make it's own history in the 1970s when the Bucs became the first ever team to start an all-Black line-up with all nine players.

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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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.

 

When a Utility Player Leads in HR

 

TRIVIA WINNER:  The pitch count when Bill Mazeroski hit his walk off homer in the 7th game of the 1960 World Series was 1-2 and Rich Klein of Plano, TX, had the correct answer. 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: What was the first year after they moved to Oakland that the A's brought a million fans to their home games?

No one can accuse the 1966 Kansas City A's of being a power laden club. As a matter of fact, the team leader in home runs barely broke into double figures. Utility outfielder Roger Repoz smacked 11 in 319 At Bats to lead the club. You read that right; 11 homers led the team. Two A's pitchers gave up more home runs than Repoz hit. Jim Catfish Hunter with 17 and Paul Linblad with 14. The entire team smacked 70 Dingers while the pitchers gave up 106.

The A's were a dismal club. They were a young club with few aging veteran hold overs. The only position player over 29 was Ed Charles at 33. Charles at .286 trailed only Danny Cater who batted .292, while Repoz (one of a half dozen rotating outfielders) batted just .219. By mid season he was gone. Sent to the Angels for pitcher Jack Sanford and Jackie Warner. 

The A's were on the verge, just a couple seasons away from being contenders. On the 1967 team were futures stars Rick Monday, Ken Harrelson, Bert Campaneris, Dick Green, Sal Bando, Lew Krause, Jim Nash, Blue Moon Odom. A host of pitchers who'd made their mark in the previous 10 years were also on the roster. 

The highlight of the season was July 27th in Boston when KC bombed the Red Sox 14-2. Jim Gosger and Mike Hershberger each homered to back the 7-inning shutout pitching of Nash (4-0). Wes Stock shut the Sox down for the final two innings. Starting with 5 runs in the first and 7 more in in the fourth, the day was done early. Repoz had three hits.  

Only 12,000 people were at that game which the A's were used too. The club finished near the bottom at home with fewer than 800,000 fans on the season. That was good for 9th place for a team which finished 7th on the season in a 10 team league. Two seasons later they were playing in Oakland.  

 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.