"A future Hall of Fame player once told me, 'October can screw up an entire season.' He meant that all the good you've done, all the great stats you've put up, can be washed away with one bad playoff series. It made me understand why some guys fail in the postseason." Curt Schilling
Odd Baseball Facts
This item is a debunking of an alleged Odd Baseball Fact.
Scenes from the Odd Couple movie were shot on location before and during a Mets-Pirates game at Shea Stadium on June 27, 1967.
Felix Unger (played by Jack Lemmon) phones his roommate Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau), a sports reporter in the press box, to ask him what he would like for dinner. As a result, Madison misses seeing a game-ending triple play.
Originally, Roberto Clemente of the Pirates was designated to hit into the staged triple play. However, he kept beating the throw to first. After several takes, Clemente ran so slowly he appeared to be walking. So Bill Mazeroski took his place and fills the dubious role in the movie. (Some sources say Clemente refused to do the triple-play scene because of pride. However, that was not the case.)
One source says: "After the scene was shot but before the crew left the park, a triple play occurred in the real game being played as a backdrop to the scene." If true, this would certainly be an intriguing coincidence. Unfortunately, the box score for the game does not list a triple play nor was there one in the previous night's game nor the next day's game against the Phillies.
April 12, 1877: The first catcher's mask was used in a Harvard game.
Crimson player-manager Fred Thayer adapted a fencing mask for Alexander Tyng, his starting C. Tyng made only two errors in his first game with the mask, an exceptionally low number for even a professional in that era. Alex later became the first Harvard alumnus to play in a major league game (Boston Caps 1879).
Thayer received a patent for the mask in 1878. Later in the year, A.G. Spalding and Brothers Company, the leading sporting goods dealer in the country, began selling the Thayer Catcher's Mask for $3.00.
At first, catchers were slow to use the mask. However, sales took off in 1879 thanks to of a rule change that did away with the one bounce rule.
It was now necessary for a catcher to catch a two-strike foul tip in the air in order to record an out. With catchers moving closer to the batter in order to take advantage of this new ordinance, the catcher's mask became indispensible. (Reference below)
Before this invention, players used other means of protecting themselves.
Some catchers wore tightly wound rubberbands around their teeth to protect from getting them knocked out.
Cincinnati Red Stockings' founder-SS George Wright designed a mouthpiece in the 1860's. He patented it and sold it to other players.
Dizzy Dean, starting his third full season with the Cardinals, pitched the 1934 opener before a disappointing crowd of only 7,500 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.
Throwing harder in the ninth than in the first, Dizzy mowed down the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-1.
After the game, Diz was more interested in talking about his rookie brother Paul. "I guess the ol' flipper ain't changed none, but wait'll you fellas see my brother, Paul, tomorrow. He'll show 'em what this family has for breakfast."
Diz had so much faith in himself and his sibling that before the season he had promised that "me 'n Paul" would win 45 games.
Paul Dean was only 20 years old, two years younger than Diz. At 6' 175 pounds, he was also two inches shorter.
Paul started well against the Pirates. He struck out the first two batters, Lloyd Waner and Fred Lindstrom.
However, Lloyd Waner singled and Pie Traynor homered for a quick 2-0 lead.
In the second, Gus Suhr hit a lead-off HR and P Larry French doubled in a run to send the younger Dean to the showers.
The Cards rallied to tie the game at 6 only to lose on Cookie Lavagetto's eighth-inning HR.
Trying to cheer up his little brother, Dizzy said, "You didn't lose that game, boy. It ain't gonna count against you."
Player-manager Frank Frisch, who called all the pitches from 2B, told Paul afterwards, "You've got the speed, but it won't matter how hard you throw. If it's down the middle, these fellows are going to hit it." Frisch decided to use Paul out of the bullpen to take the pressure off him.
September 22, 2008: Cleveland Indians @ Boston Red Sox
Jamey Carroll
Situation: Bottom of the sixth. Red Sox have Jason Bay on second and Kevin Youkilis on first with two outs. Jeff Bailey at the plate.
Bailey smacks a shot just inside the 3B line that hits umpire Gerry Davis in fair territory. The ball stops just beyond the IF dirt while the runners circle the bases. Indians 3B Jamey Carroll picks up the ball, and catches Bay in a rundown between third and home. Bay is tagged out while sliding back to 3B with Youkilis on the bag.
Does anything that happened after the ball struck the umpire count?
For the 1957 All Star game to be played in Cincinnati, Reds fans flooded the ballot box and elected seven of their heroes to the eight NL field positions. Who was the only non-Red voted into the starting lineup and what position did he play? [Commissioner Ford Frick replaced two of the Reds in the starting lineup for the game.]
One
Great Year: Wally Bunker This
feature discusses a season in which a team finished much higher
than they did in the immediate past or future or a player far surpassed any other year of his career.
In 1964, 19-year-old rookie P Wally Bunker of the Baltimore Orioles went 19-5 to win the AL Rookie Pitcher of the Year award. All his stats were impressive that year.
2.69 ERA, 12 CG, 214 IP, 161 H, 96 K, 62 W
Throwing a great sinker, the Seattle native who grew up in California quickly became the ace of manager Hank Bauer's staff. Milt Pappas trailed Bunker with 16 victories while veteran Robin Roberts added 13 as the O's finished a surprising third, one game behind the White Sox and only two behind the Yankees.
Bunker's season had a number of highlights.
He scored his first big league victory over Washington, whose veteran players, especially Moose Skowron, rode him unmercifully. However, Wally soon earned their respect by the way he pitched. Around the sixth inning, Skowron told one of the Oriole coaches, "Tell the kid he's OK." OK indeed as he twirled a one-hitter.
That was the first of six straight victories for the rightie from Seattle.
In tribute to the instant fan favorite, the Baltimore mayor in June rechristened the pitching mound at Memorial Stadium "Baltimore's Bunker Hill" with a handful of soil from Boston's Bunker Hill. Wally thanked the big crowd, then pitched the Orioles into first place with a 6-1 victory over the league-leading White Sox.
Soon after that, he threw his second one-hitter.
Wally's success was destined to be short-lived.
While pitching on a cold September night in Cleveland, Bunker winced in pain. "I thought somebody had shot me in the shoulder with a .22 rifle," he says.
He probably suffered torn ligaments or tendons, but arm ailments often went undiagnosed in those days. He was never the same P again.
Bunker struggled through four more seasons with Baltimore.
He won 10 games in both '65 and '66 but only five in '67-'68 combined.
Wally did start and win Game 3 of the World Series, pitching a 1-0 shut out against the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of the Orioles' sweep.
He was taken in the 1969 expansion draft by Kansas City and threw the first pitch in Royals history.
After compiling a 14-25 record in three seasons with KC, Bunker retired after the 1971 season.
