Author Roger Kahn kindled renewed interest in the successful/tragic Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s with his classic, The Boys of Summer. However, one six-foot-one right-handed pitcher was conspicuous in his absence. Speaking to author Peter Golenbock in Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Kahn described Billy Loes as “a very strange guy” and “a flawed guy, a little bit of a stranger on the club.” Words repeatedly used to describe Loes, who collected comic books, were “eccentric” and “the street kid from Queens.” One can add “difficult.”
But Loes was indeed a “Boy of Summer,” playing for Brooklyn longer than some of the players featured in Kahn’s memoir. In 1949, Loes signed with Brooklyn for $21,000 under the “bonus rules” then in effect and had to be kept on the major league roster for the entire 1950 season, during which the 20-year-old appeared in just 10 games. He spent 1951 in the military and rejoined the Dodgers in 1952, where he remained until he was traded after pitching in one game in 1956. As a Dodger, he was 50-26 with a 3.86 ERA, 1.323 WHIP, and 105 ERA+. Over his 11-year career, which also took him to the Baltimore Orioles and San Francisco Giants, those figures were 80-63, 3.89, 1.307, and 100, respectively.
“I’m Consenting to Nothing”
If they didn’t know it already, the Dodgers were put on notice that they had quite a character on their hands in the spring of 1952. Since Loes hadn’t pitched in 1951, there was talk that starting the season in the minors would be the right course of action, although under the bonus rules, it required his consent. When asked about it, the Associated Press reported that Loes replied, “I’m consenting to nothing.” His manager, Chuck Dressen, seemed unconcerned, at least for public consumption. “He might win some games for us,” said Dressen. “He’s been firing the ball hard. . . and he has a heck of a curve.”
Indeed, in his rookie season, Loes turned in his best season in the majors, going 13-8 with a 2.69 ERA, 1.201 WHIP, and 136 ERA+. That earned him a start in Game 6 of the World Series at Ebbets Field against the New York Yankees. The Dodgers were ahead in the Series, three games to two, and had to win one of two at home to win the championship. Unfortunately, the Yankees stormed back to win both games amid circumstances that helped cement Loes’ reputation as a flake.
Here Comes the Sun
Loes entered the fateful seventh inning nursing a one-hitter and a 1-0 lead. Yogi Berra led off the inning with a long home run over the right field wall. Next, Gene Woodling hit a bouncing, seeing-eye single through the middle. With the next hitter, Irv Noren, up, Loes dropped the ball while standing on the rubber. The balk moved Woodling to second base. After the game, Loes told the assembled media, “The ball completely got away from me. My hands weren’t sweaty.” In subsequent retellings, Loes is reported to have explained it by saying, “Too much spit.” In any event, he retired Noren and Billy Martin without Woodling advancing, and only needed to retire his mound opponent, the light-hitting Vic Raschi, to escape the inning. Raschi hit what looked like an easy grounder to Loes, but it deflected off his leg. First baseman Gil Hodges cut the ball off before it got into right field, but he couldn’t prevent Woodling from scoring. Mickey Mantle homered off Loes in the eighth, and the Yankees won, 3-2.
After the game, Loes claimed to have lost Raschi’s grounder in the sun. Those remarks drew derision, but it was true. Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine told Golenbock years later, “In October the sun is right is right between the decks for probably no more than a couple minutes’ time. And that’s exactly when that happened, and when Loes said he lost it in the sun, everybody laughed, and the fact is, if you ever pitched in Ebbets Field, you know that’s possible in October with a ball that’s hit with a little bounce on it.”
Loes had another problem after the season, when he was named in a paternity suit by a 20-year-old woman. As Kahn told it to Golenbock, Loes and a Dodgers employee were living with her in a New Jersey apartment. The woman decided to go after Loes “under the advice of a brilliant counselor.” Loes told the AP that he didn’t know her. When the Dodgers traveled by train from Brooklyn to Philadelphia, Loes hid in the restroom as the train passed through New Jersey, in case a process server was aboard. The case was still pending in 1956, by which time the woman was facing charges for trying to rob a real estate agent’s office.
The Yankees in Six
In 1953, Loes achieved a career high in wins with a 14-8 record, but with a 4.54 ERA, as Brooklyn won another National League pennant and an opportunity for a rematch with the Yankees. Asked his prediction before the Series, Loes picked the Yankees to win it in six games. When confronted by Dressen about the matter, Loes said he was misquoted. He’d picked the Yankees in seven. With the Yankees ahead two games to one, Loes was tabbed to take the mound for Game 4 at Ebbets Field. He responded with a strong eight-plus-inning performance to even the Series. Loes took a 7-2 lead to the ninth inning, when the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs. Clem Labine relieved and retired two batters without letting a run in. Then Mantle drove in a run with a single, but the game ended when Martin stupidly tried to score and was thrown out. Afterward, the brash Loes told International News Services, “The Yankee hitters weren’t too tough. I wasn’t tired in the ninth. They just hit two good pitches.” The Yankees took that Series in six games.
“He Belongs with Mickey Spillane”
After the 1953 season, Dressen, who was always impressed by his own importance, got fired after insisting on a contract extension. He was replaced by long-time organization man Walter Alston. The veteran Dodgers, who were accustomed to autonomous managers like Leo Durocher and Dressen, thought Alston was a yes-man for the front office and didn’t like him. Dressen was a good manager for Loes; he didn’t mind that their pregame meetings often ended in shouting matches.
Even so, Loes was 13-5 for a Dodgers team that would finish in second place in 1954, while continuing to confound. In August, he bunted with nobody on base and jogged to first base. Loes was seen as a potential 20-game winner, but famously said he didn’t want to win 20. “I keep getting raised for winning 13,” he explained. He didn’t like being a professional baseball player. The hours and the travel kept him away from his family – or they would, if he ever decided to get married and start one. Yet, when Dressen foresaw a 15-year career for Loes and urged him to take better care of himself, Loes said he’d have enough money to last him after five years because he was never going to marry. (He did marry in 1984. He was separated from his wife when he died at age 80 in 2010.) “He should be a great pitcher. But I still think he belongs with Mickey Spillane,” said rival pitcher Robin Roberts of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Gossip columnists began to follow his off-field exploits as though he were Joe Namath before Joe Namath was Joe Namath. Indeed, they took to referring to him as “Broadway Billy.” Dorothy Kilgallen reported that Loes took his dates to noisy penny arcades. Walter Winchell wrote that Loes was seen escorting singer Patti Page to a party but leaving with French actress Denise Darcel. Winchell didn’t mention whether they were headed for an exciting evening with pinball machines.
Loes developed arm trouble in 1955 and appeared in just 22 games, posting a 10-4 record for the eventual World Series champion Dodgers. Loes was ineffective in his only Series start in Game 2, giving up four runs in 3.2 innings while showing frustration with the home plate umpire. Tommy Byrne pitched a complete game to defeat Loes, 4-2. Dressen, now managing the Washington Senators, couldn’t resist the offer to write a daily guest column for Scripps-Howard Newspapers and criticize Alston. He felt that Loes, who pitched in just five games in August and September, wasn’t in shape to pitch in the Series. Dressen was also happy to take credit for discovering Byrne.
“I’d Trade Him”
Loes’ sore arm was no better by spring training 1956. “It swells up just like last year,” United Press quoted Loes as saying. “I can’t throw and evidently there is nothing they can do about it here.” He was considering quitting and going home. He went north with the big club instead. In his 1956 debut on April 29, he gave up six runs in 1.1 innings to the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was also his last game as a Dodger. General manager Buzzie Bavasi called Loes into his office and asked what Loes would do if he were the GM and had a pitcher like Loes. “I’d trade him,” replied Loes. In May, Loes went to the Orioles on a waiver claim. Orioles manager Paul Richards justified the move, saying, “What we’ve invested in Loes is less than we might pay some kid to sign. Loes knows how to pitch. If his arm comes around – and I’ve seen sore-armed pitchers recover – we’ve got a bargain.”
When Loes reported to his new team, Richards asked him how his arm was. Loes’ reply: “Sore.” One night during the season, Richards called on Loes to warm up before a game and suggested he change his delivery and throw more overhand. The catcher’s mitt was popping. The Dodgers had wanted Loes to rely more on his fastball. Richards told him to pitch any way he wanted. “Bill is a smart pitcher,” Richards told Ernie Harwell, writing for Baseball Digest. “I’ve told him only a few things. Most of them he knew anyway.” “I like to pitch for this man,” Loes said. “He knows what he’s talking about.”
Loes was 2-7 for the Orioles in 1956, but in 1957, he had the second-best year of his career, going 12-7 with a 3.24 ERA, 2.81 FIP, 1.152 WHIP, and 110 ERA+, giving up just one home run every 18 innings and making his only All-Star Game, hurling three scoreless innings for the triumphant American League. The press gave Richards credit for Loes’ turnaround.
“He Can Trade Me”
By 1958, the relationship deteriorated. On June 1, Loes was on the mound at Memorial Stadium against the Senators. In the fifth inning, he fielded a ball near the mound and trapped Ken Aspromonte between third and home. Aspromonte dove for the plate as Loes tried to tag him and was called safe by umpire Larry Napp. Loes exploded, bumped Napp, and threw the ball to the ground in anger, allowing Julio Becquer to score from second as the ball rolled away. Napp ejected Loes, and Richards fined and suspended him indefinitely. In the clubhouse after the game, Loes told the AP, “If [Richards] don’t like me, he can trade me and I’ll go somewhere else. . . He don’t care whether you win or lose, just so you don’t make him look bad.” Two weeks previous, he was treated to a 30-minute lecture from Richards after pretending to load up a spitball in Boston. Loes was reinstated on June 10. “I’ll pitch because that’s how I make my living,” said the eight-year pitcher who needed only to pitch five years to be set for life, “not because I think Richards is the greatest guy in the world.” Loes was 3-9 for the 1958 Orioles.
The following March, Loes signed his contract with the Orioles, but reiterated that he wanted to be traded. The Orioles granted his wish – sort of. On April 1, they traded him to Washington for right-hander Vito Valentinetti. Eight days later, the Senators cried foul. Their team physician, George A. Resta, who apparently used his middle initial to avoid confusion with other George Restas, diagnosed Loes with “an incomplete rupture of the right shoulder muscle.” Loes spent all of 1959 with Baltimore, pitching strictly in relief, notching 14 saves in 37 appearances.
Loes finally got his wish on November 30, when the Orioles traded him and Billy O’Dell to the Giants for Jackie Brandt, Gordon Jones, and Roger McCardell. Giants manager Bill Rigney, who played for the New York Giants during their fierce rivalry with Brooklyn, was happy to get Loes. “I know our bullpen has been improved 100 per cent with the addition of Loes,” he told the AP.
“I Don’t Know Why He’s Starting Me”
In 37 relief appearances for the 1960 Giants, Loes had a 4.93 ERA and five saves. The Giants finished fifth in the NL, and Rigney was fired after 58 games. Meanwhile, in June, Loes tried to clear the air about his career when an AP reporter presented him with accusations that he’s been carefree and disloyal throughout his career. The scribe had to censor some of Loes’ remarks. Loes blamed the press for his reputation. “Sure, I said I didn’t want to win 20,” said Loes, “but I added, as long as the Dodgers win the pennant. Nobody bothered to quote me fully. I still say I don’t care if I never win another game this year as long as the Giants win the pennant.” Did he really pick the Yankees to win the 1953 World Series over his Dodgers? “Nah,” said Loes. I told some writer the Yankees should beat us in six but that we were going to win it in seven. Again, he used just one part of my quote.” Was Loes engaging in revisionist history? Yes, in my opinion, but it’s hard to tell.
The 1961 Giants’ new manager was another old rival from the New York Giants, Al Dark. He used Loes as a starter, and on April 12, Loes won his first start in three years, beating Pittsburgh, 2-1, with a fine eight-inning effort. “I always had a lot of respect for him when I faced him,” Dark told United Press International. “He’s a regular starter in my book.” Said Loes, “I don’t know why he’s starting me.” Loes was 6-5 in 1961 with a 4.24 ERA in 26 games, 18 of which were starts.
“I’m No Animal”
That was his final season in baseball. Loes was conditionally sold to the expansionist New York Mets, who signed several former Dodgers and Giants, hoping to capture former fans of the departed teams, for the 1962 season. He was excited about the prospect of playing in the Big Apple again. But his sore arm kept getting worse, and he retired in spring training. He was returned to the Giants, but that was a technicality. On the way out, Loes ripped Mets president George Weiss to the UPI. “I’m no animal. I’ve got feelings, too,” he said. “Do you know Weiss hasn’t even spoken to me yet? I guess he doesn’t care. It doesn’t surprise me. What is he, such a big deal? Am I so low he can’t even speak to me? What made him such a big man? He just sits behind his desk.”
In 1980, the UPI caught up with Loes and some former Dodgers teammates before an Old-Timers Game at Shea Stadium. After silently autographing a few balls, he addressed the quote attributed to him to the effect that he didn’t want to be a 20-game winner. “I never really said that,” said Loes, perhaps trying to amend the historical record once again. “It was just turned around. But I never bothered denying it. They were talking about records one day and what I said was I’d rather have a pitcher win 15, 16 games and lose five or six than one who won 20 and lost 13 or 14. To me, a good pitcher is one who doesn’t lose. The thing they quoted me on was a bunch of crap.”
One of Loes’ catchers with the Dodgers, Rube Walker, said, “He was no flake. He was anything but that. He had as good a fastball as anyone, his control was outstanding [his career walk rate was 8.3 percent], he knew what he was doing out there, and he had a bellyful of guts.” Said Erskine, “Billy always had a complete grasp of what was going on and was entirely professional out there on the mound.”
