April 10, 1962: Dick Donovan returns home, blanks Red Sox on Opening Day in Cleveland debut

Four days after the Cleveland Indians’ disappointing 1961 season ended, general manager Gabe Paul obtained right-handed pitcher Dick Donovan from the Washington Senators, trading starting center fielder Jimmy Piersall for Donovan, catcher-outfielder Gene Green, and infielder Jim Mahoney. Donovan was expected to give the Indians’ young pitching staff some veteran leadership.1

Piersall, who turned 32 in November 1961, had hit for a career-high .322 average and won his second Gold Glove that season. During the club’s second-half collapse, however, he clashed with Cleveland sportswriters and fans, calling both “bush.”2 When outgoing Indians manager Jimmy Dykes said, “There are too many ‘lawyers’ on the club,” most of the local sports media assumed Piersall was at the top of the list.3

Donovan, two years older than Piersall, had been part of the Chicago White Sox starting rotation from 1955 through 1959. Used primarily in relief during 1960, he was picked by the Washington Senators in that December’s expansion draft. Donovan lost his first five starts in 1961, including Opening Day, each by one run, but rebounded to finish with a 10-10 record for the last-place Senators (61-100), and led the American League with a 2.40 ERA.4

Mel McGaha, Cleveland’s new manager, selected Donovan to start the team’s opening game for the 1962 season against the Red Sox at Boston’s Fenway Park. Donovan grew up and still lived in Quincy, right next to Boston. As a kid he got autographs at Fenway Park from such Red Sox stars as Ted Williams and Jimmie Foxx,5 and his family and friends were in attendance to watch his Cleveland debut.6

Boston manager Mike Higgins named 26-year-old righty Don Schwall as his starter. The 1961 AL Rookie of the Year, Schwall had posted a 15-7 record (3.22 ERA) for the sixth-place Red Sox (76-86). Although it was his first Opening Day assignment in the major leagues, Schwall had started and won the opener in each of the past three seasons while pitching in the minors.7

Temperatures reached the upper 50s for the 2:00 P.M. game-time start.8 After the Harvard band performed for the 14,736 spectators, Massachusetts Governor John Volpe tossed out the first pitch.9

Neither team scored in the first inning. Leading off the second, Indians catcher John Romano singled up the middle, advanced to second base on a passed ball, and took third on a groundout to first. Bubba Phillips singled, driving in Romano to give Cleveland a 1-0 advantage.

Carl Yastrzemski, in his second season with the Red Sox, singled into center to start the bottom of the second. After two fly outs, Carroll Hardy grounded a single to left. With runners at first and second, a force out at third ended the threat.

Third-base umpire Ed Runge warned Donovan in the second inning about a potential rule violation. “I guess the Red Sox spotted it,” said Donovan. “They told me I was stepping off the rubber while in my windup. I was unaware of it … until they called my attention to it.”10

The warning did not seem to affect Donovan’s pitching: He did not allow a runner in either the third inning or the fourth, retiring the Red Sox on three groundouts, two fly balls, and a strikeout.

Schwall escaped a bases-loaded jam in the top of the third inning. With one out, Tito Francona singled and stopped at third when Chuck Essegian doubled to left. Willie Kirkland walked. First baseman Pete Runnels gloved Romano’s hard-hit grounder, made a quick throw to get the force at second, and scrambled back to the bag for the inning-ending double play.11

Schwall walked the first two Cleveland batters in the fourth but retired the next three to keep the score at 1-0. But he was not able to escape unscathed in the fifth inning. With one out he hit Essegian with a pitch. Essegian moved to second on Romano’s two-out single to center, and scored Cleveland’s second run on Woodie Held’s bloop single to right-center.12

Donovan, throwing mostly sliders and fastballs,13 kept the Red Sox scoreless in the fifth and sixth innings. Eddie Bressoud hit a two-out single in the fifth but was forced at second on Schwall’s grounder. Runnels walked to lead off the sixth but was erased one out later on a double play.

With one out in the top of the seventh, Essegian reached base for the fourth time in as many at-bats against Schwall, beating out the throw on a slow roller toward short. After an infield popout, he scored on Romano’s 420-foot triple to the corner in center. Held hit a ball high off the wall in left field, scoring Romano. Yastrzemski fielded the ball cleanly and threw out Held at second, ending the inning with Cleveland ahead 4-0.14

In the home half of the seventh, Frank Malzone hit the hardest ball by a Red Sox batter in the game. With one out and none on, Donovan, who had kept his pitches low at the knees for most of the contest, left a ball high and over the plate. The Red Sox third baseman drove it deep to center, but rookie Ty Cline, who replaced Piersall as Cleveland’s starting center fielder, made a leaping catch against the wall.15

Hardy led off the bottom of the eighth with an infield single that glanced off the glove of third baseman Phillips. After Bressoud grounded to second for a force out, Donovan needed only two more pitches to end the inning. Dave Philley, pinch-hitting for Schwall, popped up to the shortstop in foul territory and Runnels grounded out, each swinging at Donovan’s first offering.16

Dick Radatz, making his major-league debut, came in to pitch for the Red Sox in the top of the ninth. He struck out Cline, the first batter he faced in the big leagues. After a fly out to left, Essegian walked, his fifth time on base. Kirkland hit a hard shot past Radatz. Shortstop Bressoud, shading the left-handed batter toward the middle, fielded the ball on one hop behind second base and threw out Kirkland.17

With two out in the bottom of the ninth, Yastrzemski singled to center, his second hit of the game and the fifth hit yielded by Donovan, all singles. Malzone popped up to Held at short, securing Donovan’s shutout and Cleveland’s 4-0 win.

“Donovan was great,” said his manager, McGaha. “He moved the ball in and out and his control was just about perfect.”18 The only action in the Indians bullpen occurred when McGaha had  Gary Bell warm up briefly after Donovan issued his lone walk of the game to the leadoff batter in the sixth.19

Although Donovan struck out just two batters, only one Red Sox runner reached second base: Yastrzemski in the second inning. “I felt real strong,” the pitcher said, “and I had my control all the way.”20 The shutout was the first of his career at Fenway Park.21

“I am not going to alibi about the defeat,” said Schwall, who walked four and hit a batter. “The only thing that went wrong was my control.” In losing to the Indians for the first time (he had beaten them twice in 1961), Schwall struck out three while giving up four runs on nine hits over eight innings. “This was the time to have an off day,” he said. “We didn’t score a run off Dick Donovan.”22

One week later, Donovan shut out the Red Sox on another five-hitter, this time in Cleveland. He won his first eight starts as the Indians battled for first place during May and June. After he pitched his third shutout on July 2, a two-hitter against Baltimore that ended a team four-game losing streak, the third-place Indians (42-34) trailed the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels by only a half game. But a nine-game losing streak in mid-July effectively knocked the Indians out of the pennant race.

Donovan tossed his fifth shutout of the year on August 26, hurling a two-hitter in Cleveland against the Red Sox. He won his 20th game on September 19, halting a Cleveland five-game losing streak that had dropped the club to eighth place in the 10-team American League. The Indians won eight of their last 10 games to end the season in sixth place (80-82), three games ahead of the eighth-place Red Sox (76-84).23

Donovan closed the season at 20-10 with a 3.59 ERA, and his five shutouts tied for the major-league lead. He finished fifth in the AL’s Most Valuable Player voting. He was the top vote-getter among pitchers, ahead of fellow 20-game winners Ralph Terry (23-12, 3.19 ERA) of the Yankees and Camilo Pascual (20-11, 3.32 ERA) of the Twins, who finished 14th and 15th, respectively.24 The Sporting News named Donovan the AL Pitcher of the Year, describing him as “practically invincible over the first half of the season, striving vainly to drag the Indians along with him to the grand coup.”25

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Joseph Wancho and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources 

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. for box scores/play-by-play information, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other data:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS196204100.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1962/B04100BOS1962.htm

Notes

1 Hal Lebovitz, “ERA King Donovan Buffs Crown for Repeat Reign,” The Sporting News, April 25, 1962: 20. The five pitchers who started the vast majority of Cleveland’s games in 1961 (143 out of 161) were 25 years old or younger – Mudcat Grant, Jim Perry, Wynn Hawkins, and Barry Latman were all 25 in 1961, and Gary Bell was 24.

2 Gordon Cobbledick, “Piersall for Donovan Trade Is Giant Step Forward in Tribe Rebuilding Program,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 6, 1961: 29. The 1961 Indians were tied with Detroit for first place with a 39-22 record on June 16, but went 39-61 thereafter to finish in fifth place with a 78-83 record, 30½ games behind the pennant-winning New York Yankees.

3 Bob Dolgan, “Fired Dykes Hits ‘Lawyers,’ Says Club Needs Rebuilding,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 2, 1961: 33. Dykes, fired with one game left in the 1961 season, said the Indians needed “a big rebuilding job.” In addition to Piersall, Cleveland traded starting second baseman Johnny Temple, age 34, to Baltimore in November. Starting first baseman Vic Power, 35, was traded to Minnesota one week before the beginning of the 1962 season.

4 Hy Hurwitz, “ERA Title ‘Sure Is Great Thrill,’ Says Donovan,” The Sporting News, January 3, 1962: 18.

5 Bob Dolgan, “Donovan Wins for Indians, 4-0,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 11, 1962: 1.

6 Lebovitz, “ERA King Donovan Buffs Crown for Repeat Reign.”

7 Roger Birtwell, “Season Opener Schwall’s Dish,” Boston Globe, April 10, 1962: 35. Schwall pitched the opener for the Alpine (Texas) Cowboys (Class D) in 1959, Minneapolis Millers (Triple A) in 1960, and Seattle Rainiers (Triple A) in 1961, winning all three games. He was called up to Boston in May of 1961.

8 “Official U.S. Forecast Boston and Vicinity,” Boston Globe, April 10, 1962: 2.

9 Birtwell, “Season Opener Schwall’s Dish.”

10 Hy Hurwitz, “Home-Bred Boys Fens Standouts,” Boston Globe, April 11, 1962: 45.

11 Roger Birtwell, “Sox Blanked on 5 Hits in First Game,” Boston Globe, April 11, 1962: 1.

12 Birtwell, “Sox Blanked on 5 Hits in First Game.”

13 Dolgan, “Donovan Wins for Indians, 4-0.”

14 Birtwell, “Sox Blanked on 5 Hits in First Game.”

15 Dolgan, “Donovan Wins for Indians, 4-0.”

16 Birtwell, “Sox Blanked on 5 Hits in First Game.”

17 Birtwell, “Sox Blanked on 5 Hits in First Game.”

18 Dolgan, “Donovan Wins for Indians, 4-0.”

19 Dolgan, “Donovan Wins for Indians, 4-0.”

20 Hurwitz, “Home-Bred Boys Fens Standouts.”

21 It was the only shutout Donovan pitched in Fenway Park during his career. While with the White Sox, he shut out Boston three times, all in Chicago. During the 1962 season he shut out the Red Sox twice more, both in Cleveland. On April 11, 1962, Cleveland’s Ron Taylor, in his major-league debut, followed up Donovan’s Opening Day shutout by keeping Boston scoreless for the first 11 innings, stretching the Red Sox’ scoreless streak to 20 innings to start the season. Carroll Hardy hit a 12th-inning grand slam to break the streak and give Boston a 4-0 win.

22 Hy Hurwitz, “Tribe Tomahawks End Schwall String of Opening-Day Victories,” The Sporting News, April 18, 1962: 24. Schwall did not duplicate his rookie success in his second season, going 9-15 with a 4.94 ERA. In November the Red Sox traded him, along with catcher Jim Pagliaroni, to the Pittsburgh Pirates for first baseman Dick Stuart and pitcher Jack Lamabe.

23 Both the Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles (77-85) were 19 games behind the AL champion New York Yankees. However, Baltimore had a slightly higher winning percentage (.4753 vs. .4750).

24 In the American League, Pascual and fellow Twins pitcher Jim Kaat each had five shutouts. Pittsburgh’s Bob Friend and Bob Gibson of the Cardinals topped the National League with five shutouts.

25 Joe King, “Wills, Mantle Cop Top-Player Trophies,” The Sporting News, September 22, 1962: 1.