Welcome to another edition of This Week in Baseball History, where we cover the period June 7-13 and answer the burning question: Who is Bob Aspromonte, and why is he dominating this week’s events?
Pirates Reject Union
June 7, 1946: The Pittsburgh Pirates voted “no” to joining the American Baseball Guild, a labor union that sought to organize baseball players. With the spectre of a strike hanging over that night’s game with the New York Giants at Forbes Field, the players gathered in the clubhouse for a meeting, agreeing that it would take 24 votes to join the union. A man identified by the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph as a “bookie” told the paper there was more action on whether the game would be played than there was on the outcome of the game itself. Guild director Robert Murphy and the media were banished from the clubhouse by manager Frankie Frisch during the players’ meeting. Speakers included team president Bill Benswanger and field director Bob Rice, who (Surprise!) advised against organizing. A team spokesman emerged from the contentious meeting and reported that the final vote was 18-18.
One unnamed player complained bitterly to reporter James Donahue, “The hell with the bunch of them. They lost their guts.” Public opinion was against the Guild. Band leader Danny Nirella opined, “A baseball union could not be run like a musicians’ union.” Uh, OK. Who said otherwise? M.R. Berman, identified as a “businessman,” said, “It’s like a chorine in burlesque. If they’re worth more than $5,000 they’ll get it. If they’re good, they’ll get their share.” Players would have to wait 30 years to “get their share” after Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally challenged the reserve clause.
Game Delayed by Popcorn
June 7, 1974: Fans attending this contest between the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox at White Sox Park saw the home team score three runs in the fifth inning without a hit, thanks to four walks, an error, and a wild pitch. They had no idea how weird the evening would become. The game was delayed in the eighth inning when fire broke out at a popcorn concession stand behind right field. Strong winds carried thick smoke toward the seats. Nearly 3,000 fans were forced onto the playing field as the players scurried to their clubhouses while the fire was extinguished. When play resumed, the White Sox were victorious, 8-6. Dick Allen crushed a three-run homer in the third inning.
Behind the Wall of Sleep
June 8, 1920: With the Cincinnati Reds and the Giants tied, 4-4, in the bottom of the eighth inning at the Polo Grounds, the Giants’ George Burns ripped a double down the left field line and advanced to third on an error by left fielder Pat Duncan. Out of the Reds’ dugout popped manager Pat Moran, who argued with umpire Barry McCormick that the drive was foul. As the argument dragged on, Reds center fielder Edd Roush lay his glove on the grass and fell asleep. When the game was ready to resume, Roush’s teammates had a difficult time awakening him, so an impatient McCormick ejected him from the game. Burns eventually scored the winning run. Down 5-4, Roush’s replacement, Sam Crane, grounded out to end the game.
Drysdale’s Streak Ends as a Nation Mourns
June 8, 1968: President Lyndon B. Johnson declared this day a “national day of mourning” for New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who died from an assassin’s bullet two days previous. Commissioner William D. Eckert ordered the postponement of games in New York and Washington. Any other postponements were left up to the teams. There were only six major league games played on this Sunday.
One that went on was the game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium, despite the Kennedy tragedy having occurred in Los Angeles. The Dodgers beat the Phillies, 5-3, but winning pitcher Don Drysdale had his scoreless inning streak snapped at 58 when Howie Bedell’s sacrifice fly scored Tony Taylor in the fifth inning. Drysdale broke the previous record of 56 held by Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators in 1913. Speaking to the Associated Press, Drysdale was philosophical. “I think all good things have to come to an end,” said the big right-hander. “I knew it would happen sooner or later. I’m just happy I could break a record.”
June 9, 1968: On the day of Kennedy’s funeral, Pirates third baseman Maury Wills and two Houston Astros, third baseman Bob Aspromonte and right fielder Rusty Staub, declined to play in the game between the two teams in the Astrodome. There was no decision on whether the players would be disciplined for missing the game, which Houston won, 3-1. Wills spent the evening in the trainer’s room, listening to the game on the radio and reading Kennedy’s book, To Seek a Newer World.
June 10, 1968: Astros general manager Spec Richardson announced that Aspromonte and Staub were fined a day’s pay for missing yesterday’s game. Richardson told United Press International, “After talking with the players yesterday, I am convinced that these two fine young men had very strong convictions and deep feelings for Senator Kennedy. Therefore, the penalty was not as great as it might have been.” Gee, the guy was all heart. Neither of the two “fine young men” was an Astro by the start of the next season. The Pirates took no action against Wills, at least not that was made public.
First to 3,000
June 9, 1914: On the day when the United States, France, and Germany joined forces to ban “wiggle dances” in their respective countries (Oh, no! Not wiggle dances!), Pirates shortstop Honus Wagner became the first player in major league history to reach 3,000 hits. He accomplished the feat in the Baker Bowl with a ninth-inning double off Phillies pitcher Erskine Mayer. Wagner thought he’d reached the milestone in the fourth inning, when he beat out a ground ball to shortstop Sherry Magee. So did the estimated crowd of 3,000, who gave him a standing ovation. However, official scorer George “Stony” McLinn ruled Wagner safe on an error. McLinn explained to James Jerpe of the Pittsburgh Gazette Times that No. 3,000 should be a hit of which Wagner “should not need to be ashamed.” Wagner’s hit was the lone bright spot for Pittsburgh, which lost the game, 3-1.
Cleveland Hops on the Big Train
June 9, 1933: Cleveland hired the aforementioned Senators great, Walter Johnson, to manage its team, effective the next day. He replaced an old Washington teammate, Roger Peckinpaugh, who was in his sixth season as Cleveland’s manager. Johnson had previous managerial experience with the Senators from 1929 to 1932. He then walked away from the game, intending never to return, but that changed when the Cleveland club contacted him.
Four for the Rock
June 10, 1959: At Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Cleveland’s Rocky Colavito broke out of a 5-for-41 slump in a big way by hitting four home runs in four at-bats. Cleveland, which also got homers from Minnie Minoso and Billy Martin, defeated the Baltimore Orioles, 11-8. Colavito homered in the third inning off Jerry Walker (“It was a slider down the middle. I didn’t hit it too good,” Colavito told the AP), the fifth inning off Arnie Portocarrero (“A slider or a curve, inside and up a little bit”), the sixth off Portocarrero again (“A sinking fastball, down and away a little bit”), and the ninth off Ernie Johnson (“A fastball, up and in.”). Asked whether Colavito would receive a bonus for his record-tying performance, Cleveland GM Frank Lane, who was as big-hearted as Richardson, said, “No, he’ll be paid on the first and the 15th of the month like anybody else. After all, we don’t cut them when they go zero for 18.” Would Colavito go for a record fifth straight home run during his first trip to the plate the next evening? “No, I think I’ll bunt,” joked Colavito.
6/10/1959: On this date in 1959, Rocky Colavito hit four consecutive home runs in Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium to lead the #Indians to an 11-8 win over the #Orioles. It was only the 8th time in MLB history that a player hit 4 homers in a game. #MLB #OTD #BaseballOTD #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/SLANRn4pRY
— Baseball History On This Date (@Baseball_OTD) June 10, 2024
Grand Slams Galore
June 11, 1963: It’s one thing when you’re Babe Ruth and you promise a sick child that you’ll hit a home run for him. It’s quite another when you’re Aspromonte, who at that point had hit 14 home runs in 272 career games. But when young Billy Bradley, who had been struck by lightning and was temporarily blind, visited the Houston Colt .45s’ clubhouse and asked Aspromonte to hit a home run for him, Aspromonte said he’d try. That evening in Colt Stadium, Houston and the Chicago Cubs were tied, 2-2, when Aspromonte came to bat in the bottom of the 10th with the bases loaded. Aspromonte connected off lefty Lindy McDaniel for a game-winning grand slam.
June 11, 1964: One year later, Aspromonte hit another grand slam at Colt Stadium, this time off the Reds’ right-hander John Tsitouris. This one wasn’t as dramatic as the last. It came in the fifth inning, and no promise to a blind child was involved, but it provided the margin of victory in the Colt .45s’ 5-3 win.
June 12, 2010: Red Sox left fielder Daniel Nava, making his major league debut, hit a grand slam on the first pitch he saw, leading his team to a 10-2 win over the Phillies. Batting ninth in the order, Nava hit his historic home run off Joe Blanton in the second inning. Nava became just the fourth player in major league history to hit a grand slam in his first at-bat, and the second to do so on the first pitch. Cleveland’s Kevin Kouzmanoff also accomplished the feat on September 2, 2006.
Rhoden is First
June 11, 1988: On a nationally televised NBC Game of the Week, the New York Yankees’ Rick Rhoden became the first pitcher to serve as a designated hitter, as the Yankees defeated the Orioles, 8-6. Rhoden thought it was a joke when he was informed by pitching coach Art Fowler that he’d be serving as the designated hitter. Manager Martin thought that, due to injuries to the right-handed batters on his bench, he had no other choice against Orioles lefty Jeff Ballard. Going into the season, Rhoden was a .239 career hitter with nine home runs. He grounded out and hit a sacrifice fly in his two plate appearances on this day. By the time his third turn came around, the Orioles had pulled Ballard in favor of right-hander Doug Sisk, and Martin sent Jose Cruz to bat for Rhoden.
The LSD No-Hitter
June 12, 1970: Dock Ellis woke up in Los Angeles after a night of partying that involved LSD, booze, and marijuana, and dropped another tab of acid. Ellis was born and raised there and decided to take advantage of an off day during a West Coast road trip to visit some friends. A friend rushed into the room with a newspaper after he’d read that Ellis was scheduled to pitch for the Pirates in San Diego in four hours. Ellis thought he’d taken a mere cat nap and didn’t realize he’d slept into the next day.
Throwing an estimated 150 pitches in the pre-pitch count days, Ellis tossed a no-hitter in defeating the San Diego Padres, 2-0. He struck out six batters, walked eight, hit another with a pitch, but worked out of several jams and didn’t allow a Padre to reach third base, needing just three extraordinary defensive plays behind him.
In 1984, Ellis first revealed he was on LSD that night when speaking with columnist Bob Smizik of The Pittsburgh Press. He said that he couldn’t always see his catcher, Jerry May. “I can only remember bits and pieces of the game,” said Ellis. “I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria. I was zeroed in on the glove. But I didn’t hit the glove too much.” At various points, he thought Richard Nixon was the home plate umpire and Jimi Hendrix was the batter, swinging a guitar. Later, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Bruce Keidan contacted Ellis’s teammate, Bill Mazeroski, for his memories of that evening. Mazeroski had “no idea” whether Ellis was on LSD during the game. “He always seemed weird to me,” said the great second baseman.
Interleague Play is Born
June 12, 1997: Interleague play was born in Arlington when the San Francisco Giants rallied to defeat the Texas Rangers, 4-3, before a sell-out crowd of 46,507. Stan Javier was the Giants’ hitting hero, with a home run and a tie-breaking double. Mark this reporter down as one who feels that interleague play has taken the mystique out of the All-Star Game and the World Series, but Major League Baseball didn’t ask me before pressing on with the idea.
Three for Ted
June 13, 1957: Red Sox great Ted Williams hit three home runs at Cleveland Stadium, becoming the first player in American League history to hit three in a game twice in the same season, leading Boston to a 9-3 victory over Cleveland. Williams victimized Early Wynn in the third and fifth innings and Bob Lemon in the ninth. Previously, he accomplished the feat on May 8 at Comiskey Park against the White Sox. Wrote Williams in his book, My Turn At Bat, “When they told me it was a record it surprised me. ‘You mean Ruth never did it? [Lou] Gehrig never did it? [Jimmie] Foxx?’”
My good friend, the late Tom Findlan, was at that game with a group of paper boys, and recalled it to me vividly in 2022. He remembered Cleveland lefty Hank Aguirre striking Williams out in the seventh inning. He also remembered after batting practice, Williams put his bat between his legs on the way to the dugout, about 15 feet in front of young Tom, and threw the bat high in the air, spinning like a baton as he headed to the clubhouse. When it came down, it nearly hit teammate Jim Piersall, angering the volatile center fielder. There were two brawls in two separate major league games that day. Whether a third may have broken out in the Boston clubhouse is lost to history.
