Much happened in baseball history during the period August 9-15. The 1981 baseball season resumed, the 1994 season ended, and the other seasons brought the usual joy, agony, suspense, and humor.
Welcome Back, Baseball
August 9, 1981: It may not have the same ring as Welcome Back, Kotter, but baseball was back after a player’s strike wiped out nearly two months and 712 games. If the fans were bitter, that wasn’t evident at cavernous Cleveland Stadium, where a record 72,086 fans turned out to witness the National League defeat the American League, 5-4, in the All-Star Game. In the year of Fernando Mania, Los Angeles Dodgers rookie pitcher Fernando Valenzuela tossed a scoreless first inning for the NL. The NL hit four home runs. There were two by the game’s Most Valuable Player, Gary Carter of the Montreal Expos. There was the game-winning, two-run blast in the eighth inning by Mike Schmidt. Additionally, there was a deep line drive homer by the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Dave Parker, after which my friend and I learned not to stand and applaud Parker while wearing Pirates gear the night after the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cleveland Browns in an exhibition game on that very field, unless one wants to get pelted by flying objects.
In their postgame comments, the players spoke of how thrilled they were to be back on the field. One exception may have been the California Angels’ Fred Lynn. In the bottom of the sixth, Lynn pinch-hit for Bucky Dent and hit an RBI single that sparked a three-run rally and put the AL ahead, 4-2. After that, however, AL manager Jim Frey couldn’t find him, and there wasn’t enough time to enlist the help of Leonard Nimoy. Frey wanted Lynn to remain in the game to play the outfield. Lynn reportedly didn’t want to play on a field torn up by the previous night’s football game, although the weather was dry. Instead, Frey had to insert his last position player, Tony Armas, into the game. That put the AL in an embarrassing situation in the bottom of the ninth, when Frey had nobody to bat for pitcher Dave Stieb with one out. Bruce Sutter struck him out on three pitches, then retired Dave Winfield to end the contest.
R.C., Phone Home
August 9, 2022: Just up from Triple-A Indianapolis, Rodolfo Castro was in the lineup for the Pirates as they took on the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field in Phoenix. In the top of the fourth inning, Castro drew a two-out walk, after which he provided the game’s most memorable moment, but not in a way that anyone would have wanted to. Oneil Cruz followed with a soft line drive single into center field. Castro rounded second base and made a head-first slide safely into third when his iPhone popped out of his back pocket. Of course, having a phone on the field of play is against major league rules. Castro, who forgot his phone was still in his back pocket, handed it over to third base coach Mike Rabelo.
Arizona won the game, 6-4. Castro would serve a suspension, and unfortunately, no endorsement opportunity from Apple was forthcoming.
373 for “Old Pete”
August 10, 1929: With his St. Louis Cardinals losing, 9-8, to the Philadelphia Phillies at the Baker Bowl, future Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Alexander entered the mound in the eighth inning. While he pitched four scoreless frames, the Cardinals rallied to send the game into extra innings and won, 11-9, in 11 innings. It gave Alexander the 373rd win of his career, surpassing Christy Mathewson as the winningest pitcher in the history of the NL. Although he pitched next season for the Phillies, this was also the final win of Alexander’s career.
What Might Have Been
August 10, 1994: At Three Rivers Stadium, the Expos defeated the Pirates, 4-0. The red-hot Expos were clicking on all cylinders. It was their 20th victory in their last 22 games. It raised their record to 74-39, seven games in front of the Atlanta Braves in the NL East Division. It had been a hard-luck franchise. Across 1979-80, they had the best record in the East Division at 185-137, but finished in second place each time. The first-place team went on to win the World Series in both years. In the Expos’ only postseason appearance, they lost the NL Championship Series to the Dodgers in 1981. It was the year of Fernando Mania, and Los Angeles, which would go on to win the World Series, seemed a team of destiny. However, with this win over Pittsburgh, it was the Expos that looked like a team of destiny. Indeed, they were everybody’s favorite to win the Series in 1994. “They’re real good. They’re very talented. They’re very impressive,” Pirates manager Jim Leyland told Paul Meyer of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after the game. Alas, the baseball season ended the next night after the Expos lost, 4-0, to the Pirates, and the Major League Baseball Players Association called a strike. Nobody knew it at the time, but the strike would cancel the remainder of the 1994 season, including the World Series. One wonders whether a championship season might have kept the Expos in Montreal.
If Ever There Was a Pitcher’s Duel. . .
August 11, 1961: The 20,941 who attended this game at Comiskey Park might have missed the entire game had they blinked at the wrong time. In one hour and 32 minutes, the Chicago White Sox defeated the visiting Kansas City Athletics, 1-0. Both starting pitchers tossed complete games in a battle of left-handers. For Chicago, Billy Pierce gave up five hits. Losing pitcher Jim Archer surrendered six hits, but one was a third-inning home run by Luis Aparicio, the future Hall of Fame shortstop known more for his speed. Neither pitcher walked a batter nor even went to a 3-2 count.
“Baltimore Actually Wins a Game”
August 12, 1888: That was the headline by the uncredited wire service reporter, and an unduly harsh headline at that. Perhaps he was suffering the same affliction as some of the players and was in a grouchy mood. The Baltimore Orioles had lost just two in a row coming into this American Association contest against the Louisville Colonels at Eclipse Park. The writer attributed their victory to the absence of several Colonels. Outfielder Pete Browning and first baseman Wally Andrews were “out on account of sickness,” and the writer was kind enough to inform the reader who was having breakfast while reading his morning paper that second baseman Reddy Mack “was taken with vomiting in the first inning and had to give place to [Jack] Kerins. This left [third baseman Joe] Werrick alone of the Louisville in [the] field in his accustomed place.”
Still, Louisville led, 5-4, going into the bottom of the ninth inning, with the visitors having the last at-bat under the rules of the period that gave the home team the choice. Baltimore runners reached on errors by Kerin and Chicken Wolf. Both were driven in by Mike Griffin, whose four hits were “a feature,” and the Orioles won, 6-5. What did this game mean, and why highlight it here among many other games that could have been chosen? It’s here because your correspondent is often amused by 19th-century sports reporting. Besides, what does any of this mean? I believe it was the former major league pitcher Bill Lee who once noted that nobody will care about any of this someday when the Earth disappears into a black hole in space. He had a point.
No More Mr. Nice Guy
August 12, 1950: Tempers flared in the game between the New York Giants and Phillies at Shibe Park. Giants second baseman Eddie Stanky had recently taken to stationing himself in the direct line of vision of the batter and distracting him by waving his arms as though he were a flag man at the Indianapolis 500. The practice was controversial because it was considered “bush league” and unsportsmanlike, even though it did not violate any rule. The matter came to a head two days earlier when the Giants played the Boston Braves and the umpires, uncertain of what to do, did nothing to stop Stanky.
Before this game, the umpires warned Giants manager Leo Durocher that Stanky would be ejected from the game if he continued his arm-waving tactics. However, in the bottom of the second inning, Phillies catcher Andy Seminick steamed toward third base and collided with the Giants’ Hank Thompson, striking him with an elbow and knocking several teeth loose. The Giants third baseman had to be helped off the field and was removed from the game. At that point, Durocher decided he was no more Mr. Nice Guy. (Was Durocher ever Mr. Nice Guy?) When Seminick came to bat in the fourth, Stanky resumed his arm waving. An angry Seminick threw his bat to the ground. The umpires ejected Stanky from the game, after which Durocher informed them that he was playing the game under protest.
With Bill Rigney replacing Stanky at second, Seminick reached first base on an error by shortstop Al Dark. When Mike Goliak followed by hitting into an inning-ending force at second, Seminick slid at Rigney with his spikes high. Rigney charged at him, leading to a bench-clearing brawl that lasted five minutes before police restored order on the field. Seminick and Rigney were each ejected. The Phillies went on to win the game, 5-4, in the 11th inning thanks to a sacrifice fly by Eddie Waitkus.
In No Mood to Talk
August 12, 1966: Cincinnati Reds left fielder Art Shamsky turned down an invitation to be interviewed on Cincinnati’s postgame radio show after a 13-inning, 14-11 loss to the Pirates at Crosley Field. “I just don’t feel like talking right now,” he said. “I don’t need the $25 [fee] that bad.” Shamsky entered the game in the eighth inning as part of a double switch and managed to hit three home runs and drive in five. It wasn’t enough in a wild game that saw the teams combine for 11 home runs. The other home run hitters were the Pirates’ Bob Bailey, who hit two, Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Jesse Gonder, and Jerry Lynch, and the Reds’ Pete Rose and Deron Johnson.
Shamsky homered in the eighth inning to put the Reds ahead, 8-7, and in the 10th and 11th to tie the game and keep it going. “I was just trying to meet the ball,” Shamsky told Lester J. Biederman of The Pittsburgh Press. “It was one of those days when everything I did was right.” Lynch’s ninth-inning shot tied the game and sent it into extra innings. Ironically, the game-winning hit was a 125-foot single over a drawn-in infield by the Pirates’ Manny Mota. Afterward, Pirates manager Harry Walker told Curt Block of United Press International, “I could have won an Academy Award. I was laughing one minute and crying the next. I’m going to keep the scorecard on this game for a souvenir, but I don’t think I could ever forget it.”
But Will He “Want to Win?”
August 12, 2017: Miami Marlins president David Samson signed a $1.2 billion agreement to sell the franchise to an investment group that included former New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. Hard-thinking baseball observers accuse low-spending small market teams of “not wanting to win.” Surely nobody will accuse Jeter, owner of five World Series rings, of “not wanting to win,” right? Right?
3,000 for Brock
August 13, 1979: As Rod Carew would do six years later, Cardinals legend Lou Brock achieved his 3,000th hit against the team with which he began his career. In Brock’s case, it was the Chicago Cubs. Appropriately, the speedster who compiled 938 stolen bases accomplished the goal with an infield hit in the fourth inning. Batting against the Cubs’ Dennis Lamp, Brock smacked a line drive that deflected off Lamp’s bare hand. Brock easily reached first as the ball bounced toward third base, becoming the 14th player to reach the 3,000-hit plateau. Lamp left the game in pain.
The 44,457 attendees at Busch Stadium stood and applauded as Brock waved his hat. The game was stopped for a brief ceremony. Brock received another standing ovation when he left the game in the fifth inning. After the game, he told the UPI, “I’m glad it happened here, and the fans got to see my 3,000th hit. I am extremely proud, and I’m glad my family was here tonight.” The Cardinals won the game, 3-2, on Garry Templeton’s sacrifice fly off Cubs relief ace Bruce Sutter in the bottom of the ninth.
Farewell, Mick
August 13, 1995: Has it really been 31 years? Yankees legend Mickey Mantle passed away at the age of 63 from liver cancer caused by alcoholism. The switch-hitting center fielder, who moved to first base in his latter years, had a combination of speed and power rarely seen. Every baseball fan knows his resume: a .298/.421/.557 slash line with 536 home runs and 1,509 RBI, the Triple Crown in 1956, three MVP Awards, seven World Series titles, 20 All-Star Games, and a Gold Glove Award. He devoted his final days to warning youth about the dangers of alcoholism. In his final press conference, he famously said, “This is a role model. Don’t be like me.” He was working on a book about his alcoholism but finished only one chapter before he died. His widow and three sons completed the book, A Hero All His Life. Many books showcased Mantle’s foibles in sad detail. This one shows a generous side to Mantle that few fans knew about.
The Act You’ve Known for All These Years
August 15, 1965: For better or worse (I say worse), the baseball stadium concert was born when the Beatles played to some 55,000 fans, mostly screaming teenage girls, at a packed Shea Stadium. Wrote David M. Alpern of UPI, “The sound was unbelievable and more than a little terrifying. What started as a joyful shriek quickly became a steady scream, then a deafening howl and finally an ear-splitting roar like the takeoff noise of a giant jet or the launching of a rocket.” He concluded that it was unlikely any in the crowd could actually hear the band sing or play, yet nobody seemed to mind. In attendance was Atlanta Police Traffic Superintendent James L. Mosley, who hoped to “learn what unusual things” Beatlemaniacs might do when the tour moved on to Atlanta. When the New York Mets returned on the 20th to begin a 16-game homestand, it appeared that the band left behind some Beatles magic when the Mets won seven of the first 10 games, including three against the eventual World Series champion Dodgers. Alas, they would revert to their expansionist Mets ways and finish 8-8 over that stretch.
Farewell, Earl
August 15, 1975: The ongoing feud between long-time Orioles manager Earl Weaver and umpire Ron Luciano was legendary. On this day, Luciano ejected Weaver from both games of a doubleheader at Memorial Stadium. In the first game, Luciano was umpiring at first base when Weaver came out to argue a close call. When Weaver threw his arms in the air in what Luciano called “an extremely poor Luciano imitation” in his book, The Umpire Strikes Back, Luciano ejected him. For the second game, Luciano was behind the plate. During the exchange of lineup cards, Weaver told Luciano, “Now, Ron, I want you to take this game seriously.” Luciano told him it didn’t matter what he wanted, because he wasn’t going to be around to see it, and ejected him from the second game as well.
According to Luciano, it was only the second time he ever ejected a manager before the game started. The first time was in the minor leagues, and Weaver was the manager then, too. The Orioles split the doubleheader with the Texas Rangers, losing the first game, 10-6, and winning the nightcap, 13-1. Wrote Luciano, “In the newspapers the following day Weaver was quoted as saying he was pleased with my performance [in Game 2], and claimed to have motivated me to take my job seriously. He was partially right – I was so glad he wasn’t around that I had a good time.”
