May 4, 1973: Washington Huskies win thriller over Oregon State at post-Pilots Sicks’ Stadium

To casual baseball fans, the story of Seattle’s Sicks’ Stadium1 essentially ended on October 2, 1969, the day the ill-fated Seattle Pilots played the final game of their only season in the American League there.

But the park in South Seattle hung on until 1979 and continued to host professional and amateur teams for part of that time.2 The Seattle Rainiers of the short-season Class A Northwest League played there from 1972 to 1976, and the University of Washington Huskies baseball team also called the park home for a single season, 1973.

One exciting game played at Sicks’ in its post-Pilots era took place on Friday afternoon, May 4, 1973, when the University of Washington took on the Oregon State University Beavers. Down to their last four outs and trailing 2-1, the Huskies scored runs in the eighth and ninth innings for a walk-off 3-2 win. Only 200 to 250 fans turned out at a ballpark that, five seasons earlier, had once drawn more than 23,600 to watch the Pilots.3

The University of Washington was driven to use Sicks’ Stadium by ongoing problems with ground settling and poor drainage at its on-campus home park, Graves Field, named for longtime baseball coach Dorsett “Tubby” Graves.4 Before the 1973 season, Graves Field was graded and drainage installed, with additional planned improvements including expanded seating, a new scoreboard, and renovations to the clubhouse.5

But crews did not complete the work in time for the season’s start, so the university negotiated for the short-term use of city-owned Sicks’ instead.6 The minor-league Rainiers were no obstacle, as their season didn’t start until June 20.7 And the Huskies’ need was relatively modest: They booked the former major-league park for just seven dates — four weekdays and three Saturdays, squeezing doubleheaders into the Saturdays.8 (The Huskies already had opened their season with two “home” games against Pacific Lutheran University, played on the road in Tacoma.9)

Under first-year coach Bubba Morton, the Huskies had gone 13-18 in 1972 and finished last in the Pacific-8 North division.10 They continued to struggle in 1973, entering the May 4 game with a 6-9 record. That slate included three straight losses to Oregon State at the Beavers’ home field on April 6 and 7.11 The 41-year-old Morton, a former major-league outfielder who had played against the Pilots at Sicks’ in 1969, was the University of Washington’s first Black head coach in any sport when he was appointed in December 1971.12

Meanwhile, a dynasty was beginning at Oregon State, which had posted a 13-24 total record and a 2-15 conference record under coach Gene Tanselli in 1972. For 1973, the Beavers hired a new coach, 34-year-old Jack Riley,13 who’d been a minor-league outfielder in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ system and baseball coach at a small college in Washington state.14 Riley stayed at Oregon State through 1994, setting a new program record with 613 career wins and winning or tying for five conference titles.15 He was elected to Oregon State’s athletic Hall of Fame in 2015.16

While Riley’s future was bright, his first season was rocky. Entering the May 4 game, the Beavers had a 12-15-1 record, including losses in 10 of their previous 12 games.17 Oregon State also had gone eight league games without receiving a complete game from its pitching staff.18 Entering the May 4 game, Riley spoke bluntly about his team: “Some of the people are concerned about looking good themselves, and not how the team does. If we lose, but a kid goes three for four at the plate, he is satisfied.”19 Neither the Huskies nor the Beavers were in competition for the conference title, which already had been clinched by Washington State University.20

Neither team’s starting lineups at Sicks’ Stadium included any future major-leaguers, although both starting pitchers later attracted big-league attention. Oregon State left-hander Greg Jurgenson was a 10th-round pick of the Houston Astros in the June 1974 amateur draft and played a single pro season at Rookie level. Washington righty Raymond Price, also a basketball star at 6-foot-6,21 was chosen by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the fourth round of the same draft and pitched four pro seasons, peaking at Triple-A. The university’s student newspaper reported that he entered with a 2.49 ERA and had pitched well in recent starts.22

Jurgenson and Price swapped zeroes for the first three innings, with Jurgenson setting down the first nine Huskies in order.23 Washington center fielder Mel Guy broke the tie in the bottom of the fourth, hitting a leadoff homer to give the Huskies a 1-0 advantage. Jurgenson shook it off and retired nine Huskies in a row, carrying him through the end of the sixth inning with only one hit allowed.24

One Oregon paper reported that the Beavers “had trouble” against Price, but they solved him for a run in the fifth.25 Catcher John Noel singled, moved to second and third on a pair of infield outs, and scored on shortstop Ken Bailey’s double to tie the game.26

Oregon State then pulled ahead with a run in the top of the sixth. Right fielder Dan Cunningham singled, moved to second on a sacrifice, and took third on a wild pitch. An error by Huskies second baseman Frank Plouf allowed Cunningham to score for a 2-1 Beavers lead.27

Huskies shortstop Ed Pasatiempo collected a single off Jurgenson in the seventh, but the pitcher picked him off. Through 7⅔ innings, Guy and Pasatiempo were the Huskies’ only baserunners:28 Jurgenson had allowed no other hits and issued no walks, and the Beavers had not made any errors.

Then, the bottom end of the Huskies’ lineup struck for a pair of hits and a game-tying run. First baseman and seventh-place hitter Mark Pease singled. Right fielder Dwight Carter, who later played four seasons in the Detroit Tigers’ organization as an undrafted free agent, lofted a long fly to right field that Cunningham couldn’t track. It fell for a triple, scoring Pease.29

Price worked a scoreless ninth, finishing with five hits allowed, two runs (one earned), two walks and four strikeouts. Jurgenson returned for the bottom half and again set down the first two Huskies.30

Plouf, whose sixth-inning error had handed Oregon State a lead, hit a last-chance single, then took second on a passed ball by Noel. Catcher Ron Gibson stung a hard ground ball to Beavers third baseman Mel Cuckovich. The ball rolled through Cuckovich’s legs for a single,31 and Plouf came home to score the winning run in a 3-2 game.

Jurgenson’s final pitching line was 8⅔ innings, six hits, three runs (all earned), no walks, and six strikeouts. The game ended in 1 hour and 55 minutes.32

The Beavers finished the season with a 15-20-1 record and the Huskies at 10-11.33 The Huskies played their final 1973 games at Sicks’ Stadium on May 12, splitting a doubleheader with Washington State.34

After the Rainiers’ final season in 1976, Sicks’ Stadium fell into disrepair. In May 1977, a group of parents attending a youth baseball tournament reported what the Seattle Post-Intelligencer summarized as “filthy, smelly, full and plugged-up toilets, dugouts that smelled like outhouses, a half-mowed outfield and dirty bleachers.”35

Despite a grass-roots effort to save the park, the city sold the property for industrial redevelopment. In February 1979, Seattle Mayor Charles Royer took the first few hacks at the park with a bulldozer, ending a chapter in Pacific Northwest history that included many seasons of Pacific Coast League ball; the Pilots’ ill-fated season in the AL; and, in the shadows of both, the Rainiers and the Huskies.36

Acknowledgments

This story was fact-checked by Gary Belleville and copy-edited by Mike Eisenbath.

Sources and photo credits

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for general player, team and season data.

Neither Baseball-Reference nor Retrosheet provides box scores of college games, but the Corvallis (Oregon) Gazette-Times and Portland (Oregon) Journal published box scores in their editions of May 5, 1973.

Image of 1969 Topps card #342 downloaded from the Trading Card Database. Advertisement for 1973 University of Washington Huskies games at Sicks’ Stadium taken from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 24, 1973: C2.

Notes

1 It has often been written that the Seattle ballpark—named for brewing magnate and minor-league team owner Emil Sick—was originally named “Sick’s Stadium,” and the spelling was changed to “Sicks’ Stadium” following Sick’s death in 1964, when his heirs took over his assets. But a search of Seattle newspapers in Genealogybank.com in February 2026 found that the “Sicks’” spelling appeared in print numerous times prior to Sick’s death, as did the simplified spelling “Sicks Stadium.” Seattle news coverage of the 1973 University of Washington Huskies baseball team used the spelling “Sicks’ Stadium,” and this story follows suit.

2 “Vaughn Aids UW Win,” Bremerton (Washington) Sun, February 12, 1979: 21.

3 Attendance of 200 from box score published alongside “Huskies Nip OSU,” Portland (Oregon) Journal, May 5, 1973: Sports, 2. A box score in the Eugene (Oregon) Register-Guard of May 5, 1973, gave a slightly higher attendance of 250. Retrosheet’s game log for the 1969 Seattle Pilots indicates that the team’s top home attendance was 23,657, for a game against the New York Yankees on August 3.

4 Graves, a former minor-league baseball player, coached the University of Washington’s baseball team from 1923 to 1946, compiling a record of 233 wins, 167 losses, and 4 ties, along with seven first-place conference finishes. 2025 University of Washington baseball record book, downloaded from gohuskies.com in February 2026: 29.

5 Dick Rockne, “Husky Nine to Drill in Calif.,” Seattle Times, March 13, 1973: D3.

6 Associated Press, “Sicks’ Stadium Huskies’ Home,” Spokane (Washington) Spokesman-Review, April 13, 1973: 29. The city of Seattle took over ownership of the park at the start of 1966, as per Associated Press, “Seattle to Get Key to Sicks’,” Everett (Washington) Herald, January 1, 1966: 7B.

7 Paul Rossi, “Rainiers Fail in Openers,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 21, 1973: D1.

8 The agreement to use Sicks’ Stadium was announced on April 12. Page 34 of the 2025 University of Washington baseball record book, cited above, indicates that the Huskies played 1973 home games on April 17, 20, and 21 (doubleheader) and May 4, 5 (doubleheader), 11, and 12 (doubleheader).

9 Page 34 of the 2025 University of Washington baseball record book lists these games as occurring on March 30 and April 1. But contemporary news accounts specify that the teams met in a doubleheader in Tacoma on April 3, and that the games represented the start of the Huskies’ season. “Huskies Whip Knights Twice,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 4, 1973: F4; “U.W. Wins Twin Bill from P.L.U.,” Seattle Times, April 4, 1973: F3.

10 2025 University of Washington baseball record book: 34; Rockne, “Husky Nine to Drill in Calif.”

11 2025 University of Washington baseball record book: 34.

12 In three games at Sicks’ Stadium as a member of the California Angels, Morton went 2-for-10 with a walk and 5 strikeouts. The 1969 season was Morton’s last of seven seasons in the major leagues. Information on Morton’s status as the University of Washington’s first Black head coach from “Bubba Morton Gets Husky Baseball Job,” Tacoma (Washington) News Tribune, December 8, 1971: B14. According to the article, the university had two Black assistant coaches – including assistant baseball coach Bob Gillum – and a Black assistant athletic director at the time of Morton’s hiring.

13 “Riley Picked as OSU Baseball Coach,” Corvallis (Oregon) Gazette-Times, July 20, 1972: 17.

14 Ken Wheeler, “OSU Baseball Has Been the Life of Riley,” The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), April 14, 1994: B1; Capi Lynn, “Beavers’ Riley Gets 600th Win With WSU Sweep,” Salem (Oregon) Statesman-Journal, April 12, 1994: C1; Baseball-Reference page for Jack Riley (https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=riley-001jac), accessed February 2026.

15 2025 Oregon State University baseball media guide, History: Part 1 (pages unnumbered), accessed online in February 2026, https://osubeavers.com/documents/2025/7/22/8._2025_History_1.pdf. Riley retired with a record of 613-411-5. His record for wins was broken by his successor, Pat Casey, who won 900 games with the Beavers across 24 seasons.

16 “Jack Riley,” Oregon State University athletic Hall of Fame website, accessed February 2026, https://osubeavers.com/honors/hall-of-fame/jack-riley/52.

17 2025 Oregon State University baseball media guide, History: Part 1 (pages unnumbered), accessed online in February 2026, https://osubeavers.com/documents/2025/7/22/8._2025_History_1.pdf.

18 “Jurgenson Mound Effort Wasted in Beaver Loss,” Corvallis Gazette-Times, May 5, 1973: 13.

19 Bill Zens, “Diamondmen Try to End Pac-8 Losing Streak,” Barometer (Corvallis, Oregon), May 4, 1973: 18, accessed online in February 2026, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/zk51w855h. The Barometer is the student newspaper of Oregon State University.

20 Lynn Thompson, “Baseballers Unleash Latent Talent Against OSU?,” University of Washington Daily (Seattle, Washington), May 4, 1973: 6. The Daily is the University of Washington’s student newspaper. Accessed online in February 2026, https://newspapers.lib.uw.edu/?a=d&d=UWDAILY19730504.1.7&e=——-en-20–1–img-txIN——-.

21 Price captained the Huskies’ 1974 basketball team and was drafted by the New Orleans Jazz in the fourth round of that year’s NBA draft, though he did not play in the NBA. University of Washington men’s basketball 2009-2010 media guide, 153 and 184, accessed online February 2026, https://gohuskies.com/sports/2013/4/18/208218190. Price also played professional basketball in Europe and South America. Dan Raley, “Price is Right: It’s ‘Machine,’ Not Ray,” SI.com, posted January 15, 2020, https://www.si.com/college/washington/basketball/ex-huskies-standout-answers-to-machine-no-longer-ray.

22 Thompson, “Baseballers Unleash Latent Talent Against OSU?”

23 “Jurgenson Mound Effort Wasted in Beaver Loss” is the most detailed game story and serves as the main source for game action for this story, though other accounts contributed additional details. Game stories do not specify how many baserunners Price allowed Oregon State in the first three frames.

24 “Jurgenson Mound Effort Wasted in Beaver Loss.” Guy’s home run is also mentioned in other accounts, including “Huskies Beat Beavers, 3-2,” Seattle Times, May 5, 1973: B2.

25 “Jurgenson Mound Effort Wasted in Beaver Loss.”

26 Accounts of the inning’s events differ slightly. “Jurgenson Mound Effort Wasted in Beaver Loss” says that Noel advanced on a sacrifice and an infield out, while the sequence is reported as two sacrifices in Associated Press, “Huskies, 3-2,” The Oregonian, May 5, 1973: Sports:5.

27 “Jurgenson Mound Effort Wasted in Beaver Loss”; “Huskies, 3-2.” Available accounts do not specify whether Plouf’s error was of the fielding or throwing variety.

28 “Jurgenson Mound Effort Wasted in Beaver Loss.”

29 Bill Zens, “Diamondmen Drop Two with Silent Bats,” Barometer (Corvallis, Oregon), May 7, 1973: 8, accessed online in February 2026, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/zk51w8547; “Huskies Beat Beavers, 3-2.”

30 “Jurgenson Mound Effort Wasted in Beaver Loss.”

31 Zens, “Diamondmen Drop Two with Silent Bats.” “Jurgenson Mound Effort Wasted in Beaver Loss” described the winning hit as a “hard single through Mel Cuckovich at third base.”

32 Time of game from box score accompanying “Huskies Nip OSU,” Oregon Journal (Portland, Oregon), May 5, 1973: Sports:2.

33 2025 University of Washington baseball record book: 34; 2025 Oregon State University baseball media guide, History: Part 1 (pages unnumbered).

34 2025 University of Washington baseball record book: 34. Their final game there was a 9-2 loss. A search of Seattle newspapers from April and May 1974, conducted via Genealogybank.com in February 2026, confirmed that the Huskies returned to Graves Field the following spring.

35 Chris Swanson, “Sicks’ Stadium: ‘Filthy Mess’,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 24, 1977: C1.

36 Vince O’Keefe, “Ibar So. Africa-Bound; Sicks’ Issue Still Alive,” Seattle Times, November 26, 1978: D14; Charles Dunsire, “Sicks’ Stadium Takes Final Count,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 10, 1979: A12.