Los Angeles had surprised the experts in 1959 by finishing the regular season tied with the Milwaukee Braves for first place, winning a two-game playoff over the Braves for the National League pennant, and defeating the Chicago White Sox in the World Series, four games to two.2 

Chuck Essegian hit two pinch-hit home runs for Los Angeles in the 1959 World Series but wasn’t assured of a roster spot in 1960 until the end of spring training.3 The 28-year-old reserve outfielder wasn’t even listed in the opening game’s official program,4 yet when his manager needed a late-game long-ball threat on Opening Day, he turned to Essegian.

The Cubs had posted their seventh straight losing season in 1959, finishing fifth in the eight-team NL despite shortstop Ernie Banks’ second consecutive MVP performance.5 In the offseason Chicago added three veterans to their lineup, trading for left fielder Frank Thomas of the Cincinnati Reds, center fielder Richie Ashburn of the Philadelphia Phillies, and third baseman Don Zimmer of the Dodgers.6

Pregame festivities for Opening Day 1960 started the night before with the third annual Los Angeles Baseball Writers Dinner, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Emceed by comedian Jerry Lewis, the ballroom was at capacity with 1,200 attendees. After an awards ceremony, the players of each team were introduced. Zimmer, who had spent the past six years with the Dodgers, received a standing ovation from his former teammates.7

The next day the Dodgers were bused to a ceremony on the steps of City Hall, where Mayor Norris Poulson and city officials honored the champions in front of 2,000 fans. At 1 P.M. the players were loaded into convertibles for a ticker-tape parade through the city to the Coliseum.8

NL President Warren Giles attended the San Francisco Giants’ opener earlier that day, the first game played in Candlestick Park. Leaving in the seventh inning, he flew to Los Angeles and arrived at the Coliseum before the 8 P.M. start time to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.9

Los Angeles’ Don Drysdale (17-13, 3.46 ERA in 1959) was making his third straight Opening Day start and held the Cubs hitless in the first two innings.10 Leading off the top of the third, the Cubs’ Zimmer hit a 2-and-2 pitch over the left-field screen for a home run.11 One out later, a single, a wild pitch, and another single put runners at first and third. Tony Taylor lined a double to center, scoring starting pitcher Bob Anderson from third. After a foul out, Banks was intentionally walked, loading the bases. Drysdale struck out Frank Thomas, limiting the damage to two runs.

The Cubs threatened again in the top of the fifth. Two singles, a failed bunt attempt and a groundout put runners at second and third with two outs. Banks was again intentionally walked. Thomas grounded into a force out.

Anderson (12-13, 4.13 ERA in 1959) kept the Dodgers scoreless on two hits through the first four innings, striking out six, walking two, and hitting one batter.12 In the bottom of the fifth, he walked Maury Wills, struck out Drysdale, and walked Jim Gilliam. On a grounder by Bob Lillis,  Wills was caught in a rundown between third and home for the second out. With Lillis at first and Gilliam at second, Wally Moon doubled off the left-field screen, scoring both runners and tying the game, 2-2.13

Neither pitcher allowed another baserunner until Drysdale smashed a one-out, 410-foot triple to center in the seventh.14 He was stranded on third after a fly out to short left, a walk, and Moon’s groundout. Both teams failed to score in the eighth. John Roseboro, who singled with two outs in the bottom half of the frame, was the only baserunner either team could muster.

Zimmer reached base in the ninth on a one-out error by Gil Hodges, who had shifted from first to third after Norm Larker pinch-hit for Lillis in the seventh.15 Zimmer, the first Cubs baserunner since the fifth inning, took second on a groundout. Drysdale fanned pinch-hitter Irv Noren for the third out.16

Don Elston, the NL’s leader in appearances in both 1958 and 1959, replaced Anderson after 126 pitches for the bottom of the ninth. Wills doubled down the left-field line. Drysdale struck out. Wills held at second on Gilliam’s grounder back to the pitcher. Larker walked. Moon’s groundout sent the contest into extra innings.

Ashburn hit his third single to start the 10th, but the Cubs failed to capitalize. After a force out on a bunt and a fly out, Drysdale struck out Banks. Elston retired the Dodgers in order in the bottom of the inning.

Drysdale struck out Thomas for the fourth time in the 11th but walked the next two batters. Chicago’s Charlie Grimm – back in the Cubs’ dugout at age 61 for the first time since managing the team for 13 seasons between 1932 and 1949 – chose not to pinch-hit for either catcher Del Rice, who entered the game in the ninth, or Elston.17 Rice became Drysdale’s 14th strikeout victim. On Drysdale’s 164th pitch of the game, Elston hit a hard grounder to third that Hodges knocked down. The ball rolled to Wills at short, who threw out Elston at first.18

Elston retired the first two batters in the bottom of the 11th. If either had reached base, Dodgers manager Walter Alston would have sent Sandy Amoros19 to the plate to bat for Drysdale. With two outs and none on, the manager was looking for “the long shot” and called on Essegian.20

Essegian took the first pitch for a ball. He hit Elston’s second pitch, a slider, to deep left for a homer to win the game, 3-2.21 Drysdale, who had been headed down the ramp to the Dodgers clubhouse, raced back to the field to join his teammates’ celebration as Essegian touched home plate. His home run was his third pinch-hit homer in his last three official times at bat.22

Neither the Dodgers nor Essegian could duplicate their 1959 end-of-the-season magic beyond 1960’s opener. Los Angeles finished in fourth place, 13 games behind the first-place Pittsburgh Pirates.23 Essegian, used sparingly, hit only two more homers while posting a .215 batting average. He was sold to Baltimore the following February.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Chuck Essegian, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted 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/LAN/LAN196004120.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1960/B04120LAN1960.htm

Notes

1 Paul Zimmerman, “Essegian’s Homer in 11th Stops Cubs, 3-2, before 67,550,” Los Angeles Times, April 13, 1960: 1. The crowd was a National League record for a night game.

2 The Dodgers moved to LA from Brooklyn after the 1957 season. The 1958 Dodgers finished their first year on the West Coast in seventh place. The 1959 Dodgers turned out much better than expected, thanks to the addition of outfielder Wally Moon in an offseason trade with the St. Louis Cardinals and the midseason promotions from the minors of shortstop Maury Wills, starting pitcher Roger Craig, and reliever Larry Sherry. Craig had been with the Dodgers for four years, with World Series starts for Brooklyn in 1955 and 1956. He suffered arm problems in 1958 and started the 1959 season at Spokane in the Pacific Coast League. Sherry pitched in five games for the Dodgers in April and May of 1958 before being sent to the minors for the rest of the season. Wills had no major-league experience before being called up in 1959.

3 Bob Hunter. “Fast-Dealing Bavasi Shuffles Dodgers to Flag-Fighting Size,” The Sporting News, April 20, 1960: 11. The Dodgers assigned Carl Warwick, who was competing with Essegian for the last outfield spot, to their Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul at the end of spring training.

4 Braven Dyer, “What if Chuck Was Regular?” Los Angeles Times, April 14, 1960: IV-2.

5 Since 1946 the Cubs had managed to reach the .500 mark only once. In 1952 they finished fifth with a 77-77 record.

6 Chicago traded Bill Henry, Lou Jackson, and Lee Walls to the Reds for Thomas. The Cubs traded John Buzhardt, Al Dark, and Jim Woods to the Phillies for Ashburn. On April 8, 1960, four days before the season opener, they traded Lee Handley, Johnny Goryl, and Ron Perranoski to the Dodgers for Zimmer.

7 Bob Hunter. “1,200 Serenade Dodgers at L.A. Writers’ Dinner,” The Sporting News, April 20, 1960: 11.

8 Art Ryon, “Thousands Cheer Parading Players During Civic Salute to Champions,” Los Angeles Times, April 13, 1960: IV-4. In 1959 the Dodgers were greeted by over 5.000 fans at Los Angeles International Airport upon returning from Chicago after winning the World Series. Actor Desi Arnaz introduced the players and Mayor Paulson presented manager Alston with a proclamation from the City Council designating the occasion as Dodger Day. “5,000 Roar Welcome to Dodgers,” Los Angeles Times, October 10, 1959: 1.

9 Bob Hunter. “Giles Thinks Hungry Hurlers Can Fatten Up in Friendly ’Frisco,” The Sporting News, April 20, 1960: 10.

10 Drysdale had lost his prior two Opening Day starts; in 1958 at San Francisco, which was the first major-league game played on the West Coast; and in 1959 at Chicago. Bob Anderson, Drysdale’s opponent on Opening Day 1960, was the starter and winning pitcher for the Cubs in the ’59 opener.

11 Zimmerman, “Essegian’s Homer in 11th Stops Cubs, 3-2, before 67,550.”

12 Second baseman Charlie Neal was hit on the right wrist in the third inning and was replaced by Bob Lillis. Neal returned to the lineup the next day. Zimmerman, “Essegian’s Homer in 11th Stops Cubs, 3-2, before 67,550.”

13 “Essegian’s Homer in 11th Stops Cubs, 3-2, before 67,550.”

14 “Essegian’s Homer in 11th Stops Cubs, 3-2, before 67,550.”

15 Hodges played third in his first major-league game, in 1943, but he didn’t appear there again until 1957. In his 2,071 big-league games, he made just 32 appearances at third.

16 Noren was released on June 4 and he signed with the Dodgers three days later. This was his last big-league season.

17 “Tonight’s Line-Ups,” Los Angeles Times, April 12, 1960: IV-2. The Cubs carried five catchers on their 28-man roster. In addition to Cal Neeman, who started the game, Sammy Taylor, who pinch-hit in the ninth, and Rice, they had catchers Earl Averill and Moe Thacker on the bench. Rice had hit a combined .216 over the previous five seasons. Elston came into the game with a .181 career batting average. Grimm made it only 17 games into the 1960 season before swapping roles with broadcaster Lou Boudreau.

18 Richard Dozer, “Dodgers’ Essegian Ends Game Before Record 67,550,” Chicago Tribune, April 13, 1960: 59.

19 The seldom-used Amoros was traded away less than a month after this game.

20 Mal Florence, “Essegian Whiffs When It Comes to Smiles, but What a Socker!” Los Angeles Times, April 13, 1960: IV-3. Acquired from the Cardinals in midseason 1959, Essegian played in only 24 games for the Dodgers before hitting his two World Series home runs.

21 Florence, “Essegian Whiffs When It Comes to Smiles, but What a Socker!”

22 Dozer, “Dodgers’ Essegian Ends Game Before Record 67,550.” Essegian made four appearances in the 1959 World Series, all as a pinch-hitter. He struck out in the Dodgers’ 11-0 loss in Game One. In Game Two he hit a homer to tie the score, 2-2, in the seventh inning. The Dodgers won, 4-3, to even the Series. He did not play in either of the next two games, both Dodgers wins. He walked in Game Five, a 1-0 Dodgers loss. In the sixth and final game, he hit a ninth-inning homer as the Dodgers won, 9-3.

23 The Dodgers had a better Pythagorean Record in 1960 (85-69) than in 1959 (82-74), but their luck ran out in 1960. In 1959 they were 33-22 in one-run games, but in 1960 they were only 20-27.

Roberto Clemente on Opening Day of the 1960 season. (Courtesy of Dennis Morgan/Pittsburgh Courier Archives.)

An MVP, a Cy Young, two future Hall of Famers and a world championship, the Pittsburgh Pirates presaged all these honors by battering the Cincinnati Reds, 13-0, in their 1960 home opener. Pirates shortstop Dick Groat scored three runs on three hits including a double while initiating three double plays to spark his eventual MVP campaign. Right-hander Vernon Law launched his push for the Cy Young Award by spinning a seven-hit shutout without a walk. Future Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski opened at home with their best games of the season. Clemente, perfect at the plate, smacked three hits including two doubles, a sacrifice fly, and five RBIs. Mazeroski knocked in four runs with a double and tape-measure home run while adding three double plays to his career record. The Pirates’ 1960 home opener served as a harbinger for the team’s first World Series championship since 1925.

The Pirates had lost their season opener on the road to the Milwaukee Braves, 4-3. Two days later, on April 14, they opened at Forbes Field before 34,064 fans, the largest Opening Day crowd in 12 years.1 Pittsburgh Mayor Joseph Barr threw out the first pitch to signal the 1:30 P.M. start.2 An odd mix of weather greeted the teams. Days earlier snow covered the outfield, making it spongy and rutted with just patches of grass.3 Juxtaposing this marsh, an unseasonal 83 degrees created muggy conditions to start the game.4

Law, who won 18 games the year before, faced the Reds’ 19-game winner Cal McLish. Both right-handers pitched perfect first innings. In the second, first baseman Frank Robinson flied out to Clemente. Law then hit right fielder Tony Gonzalez, setting the stage for the first of three double plays by Groat and Mazeroski. Catcher Ed Bailey provided the grounder to Groat that ended the inning. McLish struggled in the bottom of the second, giving up three runs on three extra-base hits. Clemente hit a one-out double off the left-field wall. Catcher Smoky Burgess followed with a double to the right-field wall to score Clemente. After a groundout, Mazeroski came to bat and stroked a two-run shot that cleared the combined 41 feet of the Longines clock above the left-field scoreboard.5 A sportswriter later asked him if the blast was the best ball he hit all spring. “The best ball?” Mazeroski said. “It was the ONLY ball.”6 It would not be his last by game’s end.

Law protected his three-run lead in the third by stranding Billy Martin, who opened the inning with a double. In the bottom half, the Pirates continued to rain extra-base hits on McLish. Groat found the left-field wall with a one-out double. McLish hit left fielder Bob Skinner with a pitch. That bruise set the table for Clemente’s second double, scoring Groat and Skinner and extending the lead to 5-0. In 1⅔ innings, Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish yielded nearly as many runs as he had names. Right-hander Brooks Lawrence took over for his overdubbed teammate to end the inning on Burgess’s fly to center. Lawrence would retire the Pirates in order the next inning, but disaster awaited him in the fifth.

In the Reds’ fourth inning, Gus Bell hit a one-out single. The mild threat ended when Groat and Mazeroski erased him with their second double play. Lawrence easily ended the Pirates half of the fourth inning with a strikeout by center fielder Gino Cimoli and groundouts by Mazeroski and Law.

The Pirates closed out the top of the fifth inning with yet another double play. Gonzalez opened with a single to right field before Bailey fouled out to third. Martin then grounded to Groat, who fed Mazeroski to complete their third twin killing of the afternoon.

The Pirates unloaded on Cincinnati in the fifth inning. Lawrence faced seven batters; six of them scored. Third baseman Don Hoak opened with a walk and took second on another single by Groat. Skinner’s hit drove Hoak home and he took second on center fielder Vada Pinson’s failed throw to nab Groat at third. An intentional walk to first baseman Dick Stuart loaded the bases. Pinson then saved several runs with the best defensive play of the game. Clemente ripped a shot toward the 457-foot marker in left-center field. The area was so distant that the Pirates stored their batting cage there. Where the ball landed might have been a home run in most ballparks. Pinson raced to the cage. With his back to the plate, he made an incredible running catch over his shoulder. Pinson’s grab limited Clemente to a sacrifice fly that scored Groat.7 Lawrence loaded the bases again with a walk to Burgess. Cimoli’s double scored Skinner and Stuart, chasing Lawrence from the game. Ex-Pirate Bob Purkey took over in relief. Mazeroski greeted him with the team’s seventh extra-base hit, a double that plated Burgess and Cimoli and widened the score to 11-0. Law nearly continued the onslaught, but lined out to Martin at second base, after which Hoak ended the inning with a strikeout.

Law breezed through the Reds’ sixth inning, sandwiching a strikeout of pinch-hitter Whitey Lockman between fly outs by third baseman Eddie Kasko and shortstop Roy McMillan. In the bottom of the frame, the Pirates concluded the day’s scoring with two more runs. Right-hander Raul Sanchez replaced Purkey on the mound to start the inning. Groat singled to right field for his third hit and moved to second when Sanchez walked Skinner. Stuart’s weak tap to Sanchez moved both runners up a base. Clemente drove them home with his third hit of the day, a single to right field. As his fourth and fifth RBIs crossed the plate, Clemente tried to stretch the hit into a double. Gonzalez threw a strike to second, where McMillan tagged out Clemente with his only blemish of the day. Burgess ended the inning with a fly to Pinson in center.

With a 13-0 score, Law had room to allow multiple hits at the start of the next two innings. To open the seventh, Pinson and Bell singled, but Robinson forced Pinson at third. Law then stranded both runners, retiring Gonzalez on a pop foul and Bailey on a soft fly to Stuart. Sanchez pitched a perfect seventh for the Reds.

The Reds opened the eighth, again with two more hits. Martin sliced his second double and Kasko beat out an infield single. Once more, Law left both runners on base by retiring the next three Reds in order. The Reds sent out right-hander Ted Wieand, in only his second major-league game, to pitch the Pirates eighth. The fifth pitcher of the game for the Reds, Wieand sandwiched a walk between two strikeouts before retiring the final Pirates batter, Stuart, on a fly ball to left field.

Joe Christopher replaced Skinner in left field for the Pirates to start the ninth inning. Law easily retired the Reds in order. Christopher, in his brief appearance, caught the final out that mercifully ended the historical thrashing. Despite the lengthy fireworks, it took only 2:13 for the teams to sweat through the tropical afternoon conditions.

At the time, it was only the Pirates’ fourth Opening Day shutout in the twentieth century. The 13 Pirates runs scored were the second-most for any Opening Day, trailing only the 14 tallied in 1892 and 1953. The 13-0 score remains, as of 2020, the largest margin of victory in a Pirates opener.8

The 1960 Pirates produced a memorable season for their fans. From the first to the final game, the team transformed the city. The Opening Day play of Groat, Law, Clemente, and Mazeroski previewed their success during the regular season. Groat went on to win the NL MVP Award and Law captured the Cy Young Award. Clemente enjoyed his breakout season, making his first of 15 All-Star Games, hitting .314, driving in 94 runs and posting a 121 OPS+. As for Mazeroski, his Opening Day home run over the scoreboard clock provided the best omen of all. History records a similar home run over Forbes Field’s 406-foot marker to end the 1960 World Series. That walk-off home run claimed the Pirates’ first World Series championship in 35 years and made Mazeroski a Pittsburgh legend every October 13 at 3:36 P.M.9

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted B​aseba​ll-Re​feren​ce.​com and R​etros​heet.​org for play-by-play information and statistics.

h​ttps:​//www​.base​ball-​refer​ence.​com/b​oxes/​PIT/P​IT196​00414​0.​sh​tml

h​ttps:​//www​.retr​oshee​t.org​/boxe​setc/​1960/​B0414​0PIT1​960.​htm

NOTES

1 United Press International, “Happy Crowd Watches Buccos Bomb Reds in Opener,” Evening Standard (Uniontown, Pennsylvania), April 15, 1960: 14.

2 “Opening Day Ceremonies,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 14, 1960: 22.

3 Ray Kienzl, “Pirate Notes,” Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, April 15, 1960: 12.

4 David Kelly, “Mayor, Burgess Team Up at Opener,” Pittsburgh Press, April 14, 1960: 1.

5 David Cicotello and Angelo J. Louisa, Forbes Field, Essays and Memories of the Pirates’ Historic Ballpark, 1909-1971 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Publishing, 2007), 225.

6 Ray Kienzl, “Who Said Bucs Lack Power?” Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, April 15, 1960: 12.

7 Joe Reddington Jr., “Clemente, Maz, Groat Whip Up Wild 13-0 Win,” Indiana (Pennsylvania) Gazette, April 15, 1960: 14.

8 Pittsburgh Pirates Opening Day History on Baseball Almanac: b​aseba​ll-al​manac​.com/​openi​ng_da​y/ods​chedu​le.ph​p?t=P​IT.

9 Kevin Kirkland, “Game 7 Gang Gathers Again Sunday,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 11, 2013: 33. See also Joe Capozzi, “Back to the Wall,” Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Florida), October 13, 2000: 206. Each year, on October 13, Pirates fans meet at the remnants of the Forbes Field wall. At 1:00 P.M., organizers begin a loudspeaker recording of the entire game that ends with Mazeroski’s home run occurring at 3:36 P.M. It is a tradition that began slowly in 1985 by Saul Finkelstein and swelled to gatherings often over 1,000 each year.

A new decade of Pittsburgh Pirates baseball dawned in 1960. One couldn’t blame the team for bidding a fond farewell to the 1950s. From 1950 to 1957, Pittsburgh finished in seventh or eighth place in the eight-team National League. In 1958 the Pirates jumped all the way to second place, their 84-70 record trailing the pennant-winning Milwaukee Braves (92-62) by eight games. It was Pittsburgh’s first winning season since 1948.

The Pirates closed out the decade finishing fourth in 1959. Expectations were similar for 1960. Before the season The Sporting News published a poll of 11 New York beat writers. None of the scribes picked Pittsburgh to finish higher than fourth place. Five chose Pittsburgh to finish fifth, and two chose the Pirates to hold down sixth place.2

Danny Murtaugh was in his third full season as the Pirates’ manager, having replaced Bobby Bragan in August 1957. The former NL infielder had the Pirates trending in the right direction, finishing in the top half of the league two years in a row. While most prognosticators favored the Braves, who had won the pennant in 1957 and 1958, the youthful San Francisco Giants, or the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, Murtaugh would say only “[W]e have a chance” when asked about his team’s chances.3

General manager Joe L. Brown offered a bit more insight than his skipper, but his comments were hardly revolutionary: “We have a good defense, fine speed, and adequate power. If we can keep our starting lineup free from injuries, we’re going to please a lot of fans at Forbes Field this summer with our showing.”4

The Pirates opened the 1960 season on April 12 at Milwaukee. Blanked for seven innings by Warren Spahn, they tied the game with two eighth-inning runs against Spahn and Don McMahon. But fireman Elroy Face, who had won 18 of 19 decisions in 1959, surrendered a two-run homer to Joe Adcock in the bottom of the eighth, and the Braves held on for a 4-3 win.

The Pirates arrived in Pittsburgh to start their home season with a four-game series against the Cincinnati Reds beginning on April 14. In the opener, Pittsburgh hit six doubles and Vern Law hurled a seven-hit shutout in a 13-0 pasting of the Reds. After a Good Friday offday, the visitors evened matters on Saturday, defeating Pittsburgh, 11-3.

April 17 was Easter Sunday. A cloudy day was forecast. Although temperatures were predicted to reach the low 70s, the threat of rain and thunderstorms may have dampened outdoor plans. And that included those who may have considered attending a doubleheader at Forbes Field. A crowd of 16,191 showed for the twin bill.

In the first game, Bob Friend was masterful. The right-hander pitched a four-hit shutout, striking out six and walking three. Roberto Clemente and Dick Stuart each drove in two runs to lead the offensive attack in Pittsburgh’s 5-0 win.

In the nightcap, the starting pitcher for the Reds was Don Newcombe. The 1956 Cy Young Award winner and NL MVP was making his initial start of the season. Newcombe had started 29 games for the Reds in 1959, his first full season in Cincinnati after a June 1958 trade from the Los Angeles Dodgers, going 13-8 with a 3.16 ERA and 17 complete games.

Bennie Daniels started for Pittsburgh. Daniels was also making his first start of the season. He started 12 of his 34 games for Pittsburgh in 1959, going 7-9 with a 5.45 ERA.

The Reds wasted little time in scoring the game’s first run. With one down in the first, consecutive singles by Vada Pinson and Gus Bell were followed by a sacrifice fly off the bat of Frank Robinson that plated Pinson and gave Cincinnati a 1-0 advantage.

Two more Reds runs crossed the plate in the third inning. Again, the top of the batting order did the damage. Pinson led off with a walk. Bell singled him to second base and Pinson scored on a single to left by Robinson. Lee Walls singled to score Bell, making it a 3-0 game. That was the end of the day for Daniels. Murtaugh replaced him with southpaw Fred Green.

The Reds added two runs in the top of the fifth inning, both scoring with two down. After Green walked Walls, Murtaugh went to his bullpen again and summoned former Red Don Gross. Ed Bailey’s double to right field drove in Walls, and Billy Martin, traded from the Cleveland Indians to the Reds during the 1959-60 offseason, singled to left field to knock in Bailey. Cincinnati’s lead was up to 5-0.

Meanwhile, Newcombe was coasting along, as he set the Pirates down in order in the third and fourth innings. Leading off the fifth, however, Bill Virdon sent a line drive back through the box. The baseball struck Newcombe’s right wrist, and he was removed from the game. Ice packs were applied to the injured area and x-rays were negative.5

Raúl Sánchez was called into action by Cincinnati manager Fred Hutchinson. The Cuban native, in the majors for the first time since 1957, matched Newcombe, hurling four scoreless frames. With a 5-0 Reds lead through 8½ innings, it was beginning to look as if the Pirates would have to settle for a split of the doubleheader as well as a split of the series.

The bottom of the ninth approached, and Hutchinson replaced Sánchez with lefty Bill Henry. The Reds had acquired Henry from the Chicago Cubs in the offseason; in 1959 he had led the NL with 65 appearances, all in relief. He was making his second appearance of 1960. In his first outing, on April 12 against the Philadelphia Phillies, he also came in in the ninth inning with the Reds ahead by five runs and pitched a one-two-three inning. Could he do it again?

Clemente started the ninth by grounding out to the pitcher. Then Smoky Burgess, Virdon, and Bill Mazeroski singled. Joe Christopher, running for Burgess, scored on Mazeroski’s hit, putting the Pirates on the scoreboard.

Pittsburgh had runners on first and second base with one down, and Murtaugh went to his bench again. Relief pitcher Joe Gibbon was due up. He had pitched the last two innings for the Pirates. Murtaugh selected Hal Smith to bat for Gibbon. Smith, acquired from Kansas City in the offseason, was a capable pinch-hitter. In three seasons with the Athletics, Smith batted .345 in that role.

On Opening Day in Milwaukee, Smith, who started at catcher in that game, had spearheaded Pittsburgh’s rally by doubling and scoring in the eighth, then hitting an RBI double in the ninth. Here, he deposited Henry’s first offering over the left-center-field wall for a three-run homer. The Reds’ lead had dwindled to one run.

Hutchinson pulled Henry from the game and inserted Ted Wieand, making the third of six lifetime major-league appearances. The new pitcher seemed to restore order when Don Hoak grounded out to third base for the second out. But Dick Groat stepped to the place and laced a single to center field.

Bob Skinner was due up. The Pirates left fielder did not disappoint the home fans. He rifled a 1-and-2 pitch from Wieand into the right-field stands, delivering two runs and a 6-5 Pirates win.

“They tell me there were only 16,196 fans at the game yesterday,” wrote Reds pitcher Bob Purkey, a Pittsburgh native and former Pirate, “but after Bob Skinner hit that homer, it looked as if there were a million. Seemed as if people just bounced out of the ground. We had quite a job getting to the clubhouse.”6

“All I did was hit the ball and when it went into the seats, I knew the game was over,” said Skinner. “I put my head down and ran and when I looked up all I saw was kids. They seemed to come from all directions and converged on home plate. They just about carried Dick Groat and me into the dugout. Or maybe I was just walking on air.”7

Gibbon, who was making his major-league debut, was credited with the improbable win. The loss went to Wieand; it was his only major-league decision.

Nobody could predict what was in store for the Pirates in 1960. Six months later they won their third World Series, the first since 1925. All the hoopla and joy that came to the Pirates fans after Skinner’s winning blast would pale in comparison to Bill Mazeroski’s round-tripper to win the World Series on October 13, 1960.

But for now, the Pirates were content. “That sure was a thriller, a great one to win,” Murtaugh said.8

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mark Richard and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Trading Card DB.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com, and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent materials and the box scores.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT196004172.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1960/B04172PIT1960.htm

Notes

1 Les Biederman, “Skinner’s Beefy Bat Triggers Wide Grins Among Buccos Brass,” The Sporting News, March 16, 1960: 12.

2 Dan Daniel, “Five Out of 11 N.Y. Scribes Pick Yanks,” The Sporting News, April 13, 1960: 13.

3 Jack Hernon, “Pirates Open Season Against Milwaukee,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 12, 1960: 18.

4 Joe L. Brown, “Brown Sees Close Battle in National League,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 12, 1960: S4.

5 Earl Lawson, “Newk Won’t Miss a Turn,” Cincinnati Post and Times, April 18, 1960: 11.

6 Bob Purkey, “Happy Easter Becomes Sad,” Cincinnati Post and Times, April 18, 1960: 11.

7 Lester J. Biederman, “Skinner Carried Away in Twin-Bill Sweep,” Pittsburgh Press, April 18, 1960: 26.

8 “Bob’s Homer Described: ‘That Ball She Bent Bar,’” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 18, 1960: 23.

In late December 1959, it was widely published that Washington Senators owner Calvin Griffith “had looked one million dollars in the eye and expressed no interest.” It was an offer not for his Washington franchise but for just two of his ballplayers, first baseman Harmon Killebrew and pitcher Camilo Pascual. One of those published reports further explained the matter: “The bidder was Gabe Paul, vice president of the Cincinnati Reds. “I offered Griffith $500,000 each for Killebrew and Pascual and it was a firm offer,” Paul said. “I consider Pascual the best pitcher in the majors.”1

 “Frank Lane [Cleveland’s general manager] gave me a lot of breaks,” Miñoso said of the man who was Chicago’s general manager when he first played for the White Sox in 1951. “He’s a helluva guy. … Cleveland is all right and the fans are all right. But here, it’s like you’re home. … I’m comfortable here. I was here before and I feel like this is my home.”4

With the weather in the mid-60s for the 1:30 P.M. game, a new White Sox Opening Day attendance record was set.5 A crowd of 41,660 watched Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley throw out the first pitch.6 Club President Bill Veeck had added two wings to Comiskey Park’s scoreboard for 1960; one side showed lineups and batting averages, and the other displayed “Sox-o-gram” messages to the fans.7 Before the game, the “Sox-o-gram” side flashed: “Welcome Home Minnie, It’s Good to Have You Back.”8

Wynn, who won 22 games and the Cy Young Award in 1959, started the game for the defending American League champions, who had won their first pennant since the scandal-tainted 1919 Black Sox. The 40-year-old was the winningest active pitcher in the major leagues with 271 victories.9 He held Kansas City hitless over the first three innings, allowing only a two-out walk in the third to pinch-hitter Bob Johnson, who was making his first plate appearance in the big leagues.

A’s starter Bud Daley, a 16-game winner in 1959, was a victim of Kansas City’s poor defense in the early innings.10 Luis Aparicio led off the bottom of the first with a bunt down the third-base line for a single. Nellie Fox’s grounder to first was mishandled by Norm Siebern for an error. Miñoso bunted but was called out for running inside the baseline, with Fox and Aparicio ordered back to first and second.

Center fielder Bill Tuttle dropped Ted Kluszewski’s fly ball, loading the bases. Gene Freese was credited with a single when his pop fly fell between shortstop Ken Hamlin and left fielder Bob Cerv, scoring Aparicio. Smith singled to right, bringing in two more unearned runs. Jim Landis struck out, ending the 34-minute half-inning with the White Sox up 3-0.11

The White Sox again capitalized on shaky defense to add to their lead in the second. Aparicio singled with one out, and A’s second baseman Jerry Lumpe booted Fox’s potential double-play grounder, with the runners advancing to second and third. After Tuttle made a one-handed, diving catch of Miñoso’s liner to center,12 Aparicio scored and Fox took third. Kluszewski lined a single to right, driving in Fox for Chicago’s fifth unearned run.

The A’s rallied against Wynn in the fourth. Lumpe singled to start the inning. After a foul out, Siebern walked. Singles by Cerv and Dick Williams scored two runs, cutting the deficit to 5-2.

With runners on first and second and one out, Harry Chiti singled to short left. Cerv rounded third, realized he could not score, and attempted to return to the bag. But Williams was already at third; Miñoso’s throw caught Cerv in a rundown between third and home, and Sherm Lollar tagged him out, stalling Kansas City’s comeback.13

Chicago quickly struck back. Wynn led off the bottom of the fourth with a single off Johnny Kucks, who had replaced Daley at the start of the third. Aparicio singled and Fox walked to load the bases for Miñoso.

Miñoso – who had homered in his White Sox debut in 1951 – followed with a grand slam to deep center. His fifth career grand slam put the White Sox up 9-2.

Staked to what appeared to be a comfortable lead, Wynn returned to the mound in the fifth, needing three outs to qualify for the win. But Whitey Herzog pinch-hit for Kucks to start the inning and homered to deep right. After Miñoso caught Tuttle’s low liner to left, Lumpe walked and scored on Hank Bauer’s double to left-center.

With the lead down to 9-4, that was all for Wynn; Mike Garcia came in to relieve, and Kansas City’s attack continued. Siebern’s single to right advanced Bauer to third. Cerv hit a short pop fly between short and left. Miñoso avoided a collision with Aparicio but dropped the ball for an error, as Bauer scored Kansas City’s third run of the inning.

Ken Johnson came in for the A’s and pitched three scoreless innings. He allowed only a one-out double by Landis in the fifth and a two-out single by Kluszewski in the sixth.

Kansas City continued to chip away in the sixth. With two outs, singles by Johnson and Tuttle put A’s at first and second. Lumpe’s double in the gap between center and right scored both runners. Turk Lown relieved Garcia and retired Bauer on a groundout. Chicago’s lead, which was seven runs at the end of the fourth inning, was now only two, at 9-7.

Miñoso’s defense kept the A’s from getting even closer in the seventh. Singles by Williams and Siebern gave Kansas City two runners on with one out. Chiti hit a drive to left-center, but Miñoso tracked it down with a running catch.14 The runners returned to their bases, and Hamlin’s fly out to center ended the A’s threat.

The bullpens kept the score at 9-7 heading to the top of the ninth. Lown, who had pitched scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth, remained in the game. But Siebern led off the inning by hitting a two-strike pitch into the right-center-field stands for a home run. It was a one-run game.

After Cerv walked on four pitches, Gerry Staley relieved and walked Williams. Chiti bunted toward first. Kluszewski appeared to have a play at third, but mishandled the ball. His toss to first pulled Fox off the bag, loading the bases.15

Hamlin singled to left. Cerv scored the tying run, but Miñoso came through on defense once again, throwing out Williams at the plate.

Frank Baumann relieved Staley and walked pinch-hitter Hank Foiles, loading the bases for the second time in the ninth. Ray Moore was brought in to face Tuttle, who grounded the first pitch up the middle. Fox fielded the ball, stepped on second and threw to first, ending the inning with the score tied, 9-9.

In the bottom of the ninth, Miñoso led off, facing A’s pitcher John Tsitouris, who had just entered the game in relief.

With the count 3-and-1, third-base coach Tony Cuccinello gave the hit sign. Miñoso drove the next pitch high and deep into the upper deck of the left-center-field stands for a game-winning homer.16

“With a guy like Nellie Fox or Luis up, little guys who probably would get only a single anyway, you’d let them take,” explained Cuccinello after Chicago’s dramatic 10-9 win. “But guys with power, who can reach the wall or hit it between the fielders, you have them swing. [The pitcher] has to throw a strike. He got it where the power was, and it was gone.”17

Miñoso gave credit to teammate Earl Torgeson for his two-homer, six-RBI performance. He had been using Al Smith’s bat during the spring, but it didn’t feel right on Opening Day so he borrowed Torgeson’s bat.18

“He made a helluva catch, do you know that?” said White Sox manager Al Lopez. “And a great throw, a real great throw. Miñoso was a big factor in that game.”19

“I was tense,” said Miñoso. “Like a kid just starting out. I had to make good and I’m glad I did.” After his game-winning home run, the new scoreboard again flashed: “Welcome Home Minnie, It’s Good to Have You Back.”20

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Evan Katz and copyedited 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/CHA/CHA196004190.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1960/B04190CHA1960.htm

Notes

1 Chicago sent first baseman Norm Cash, third baseman Bubba Phillips, and catcher John Romano to Cleveland in return for Miñoso, pitchers Don Ferrarese and Jake Striker, and catcher Dick Brown.

2 Harry Jones, “Indians Trade Miñoso, Get Romano, Phillips,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 7, 1960: 31.

3 Yogi Berra was the AL MVP in 1951, Al Rosen in 1953, and Berra again in 1954. Miñoso had the highest WAR (8.2) of any AL player in 1954. He finished second to Gil McDougald in the 1951 AL Rookie of the Year vote, the season Miñoso was traded to Chicago after playing eight games with Cleveland. Miñoso was a member of the AL All-Star team in 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, and 1957 while with Chicago, and in 1959 with Cleveland. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in December 2021.

4 Robert Cromie, “Miñoso’s Home and His 2 Home Runs Prove a Point,” Chicago Tribune, April 20, 1960: 55. While serving as Chicago’s general manager, Frank Lane had originally acquired Miñoso from Cleveland in 1951. When Lane became general manager of the Indians, his first trade was to acquire Miñoso from the White Sox. After Cleveland finished second to Chicago in 1959, Lane traded him back to the White Sox.

5 Edward Prell, “Wynn Opposes A’s and Daley in Opener,” Chicago Tribune, April 19, 1960: 53.

6 “Daley to Toss First Ball,” Chicago Tribune, April 18, 1960: 65.

7 Edward Prell, “Wynn Opposes A’s and Daley in Opener.”

8 “Favorite Park Helps Miñoso,” Kansas City Star, April 20, 1960: 58.

9 Edward Prell, “Sox Beat A’s, 10-9, on Miñoso Homers,” Chicago Tribune, April 20, 1960: 55.

10 In 1959 Kansas City had the second most errors in the American League and was tied for the worst fielding percentage.  

11 Edward Prell, “Sox Whip A’s on 2 Miñoso Homers, 10-9,” Chicago Tribune, April 20, 1960: 56.

12 Edward Prell, “Sox Whip A’s on 2 Miñoso Homers, 10-9.”

13 Joe McGuff, “Minoso Clout Foils A’s,” Kansas City Times, April 20, 1960: 22.

14 Edward Prell, “Sox Whip A’s on 2 Miñoso Homers, 10-9.”

15 Edward Prell, “Sox Whip A’s on 2 Miñoso Homers, 10-9.”

16 “Favorite Park Helps Miñoso.”

17 Robert Cromie, “Miñoso’s Home and His 2 Home Runs Prove a Point.”

18 Robert Cromie, “Miñoso’s Home and His 2 Home Runs Prove a Point.”

19 Robert Cromie, “Miñoso’s Home and His 2 Home Runs Prove a Point.” Miñoso led AL left fielders in assists five of the previous six years.

20 “Favorite Park Helps Miñoso.”

Two days before the season opener, the teams made headlines when they swapped All-Star outfielders. Cleveland general manager Frank Lane sent fan favorite Rocky Colavito, the reigning AL home-run co-champion,1 to Detroit for Harvey Kuenn, who led the league with a .353 batting average in 1959.

Detroit general manager Bill DeWitt had proposed trading Kuenn for Colavito in February, when both players were holdouts. Lane rejected the deal at the time. After both players signed contracts, Lane again turned down the proposed transaction.2 Believing Colavito’s late-season slump in 1959 had cost the Indians a pennant,3 however, he reconsidered. “The more I thought about trading Colavito for Kuenn,” explained Lane after the deal was announced, “the more I liked it. … Rocky could win a ball game for you with one swing and often did. But there was too long a period between home runs when he didn’t help at all.”4

The trade took the 26-year-old Colavito by surprise. “I heard a rumor Saturday that I might be traded to Detroit or Chicago, but still it came as a shock,” he said. “That’s baseball, I guess. There isn’t much you can do about it.”5 When asked about playing the opener against his old team, the 29-year-old Kuenn said, “[I]t has happened so suddenly it’ll feel strange for a while. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I had played a few exhibition games with the Indians before opening up.”6

A crowd of 52,756 was in attendance for the 3 P.M. start on a sunny but cool afternoon. The game quickly turned into a pitchers’ duel between Cleveland’s Gary Bell (16-11 in 1959) and Detroit’s Frank Lary (17-10). Bell retired the Tigers in order in the first, striking out Charlie Maxwell to end the inning. Lary responded by striking out Cleveland’s leadoff batter, Johnny Temple. Kuenn, batting second and playing center field for the Indians, reached first on an error in his first plate appearance with his new team, but an infield popup and a groundout ended the inning.

Al Kaline walked to start the second for the Tigers. Bell then struck out Colavito and Steve Bilko before Chico Fernandez hit a line drive that was deflected by Bell to shortstop Woodie Held, who flipped the ball to the second for the final out.7 In the bottom of the inning, Cleveland catcher Russ Nixon singled. Vic Power, after hitting a groundball to the shortstop, reached first on a fielder’s choice and stole second base. Woodie Held struck out. An intentional walk to Bubba Phillips brought Bell to the plate, and he grounded back to the pitcher to end the scoring threat.

Bell struck out two of the three batters he faced in the third as Detroit again went down in order. Lary walked Temple to start the Indians’ half of the fourth inning but retired the next three hitters. Detroit’s Maxwell hit a one-out single in the fourth, and Kaline followed with a hard smash down the third-base line. But Phillips backhanded the ball, robbing Kaline of a potential double. His throw to second was off balance but accurate, and Temple turned the double play.8 Cleveland failed to score in the bottom of the fourth as Power’s one-out triple was wasted when he was thrown out trying to steal home.

As the game continued, neither team was able to push a run across in regulation. Neither starter allowed more than one baserunner in any inning until the bottom of the ninth. Tito Francona began that inning by hitting a fly to short right field. Colavito lost the ball in the sun and it dropped in for a single.9 A sacrifice moved Francona to second, and Lary issued an intentional walk to Power. With runners on first and second, Lary retired the next two Indians batters on a strikeout and a fly ball to left field, sending the game to extra innings.

Colavito walked with one out in the Tigers 10th, but Bilko struck out and Colavito was thrown out at trying to steal second to end the frame. Kuenn hit a two-out double in the bottom of the inning, but the next batter fouled out to the catcher.

Bell finally tired in the 11th. A one-out walk to Detroit’s eighth-place hitter, Lou Berberet, was followed by Lary’s single and a walk to Eddie Yost, loading the bases. Bob Grim relieved Bell. Pinch-hitter Neil Chrisley’s single to right field scored the first two runs of the game. Maxwell and Kaline both flied out to left, leaving Detroit runners stranded at first and second.

With the score 2-0 in Detroit’s favor and the Tigers three outs from victory, manager Jimmy Dykes inserted defensive replacements at catcher, first base, and second base. Lary stayed in the game and gave up a leadoff single to Francona. Russ Nixon followed with a double off the right-field fence. Francona held at third.

Jim Bunning relieved with the tying run in scoring position and Power hit a comebacker to the mound. Bunning’s throw home beat Francona for the first out, with Power making first base and Nixon advancing to third. Bob Hale batted for Held and walked, loading the bases. Don Dillard, pinch-hitting for Phillips, flied out to right field, with the runners holding. Jim Piersall, the Indians’ third straight pinch-hitter, singled to left field, driving in two runs to tie the game at 2-2. The potential winning run was now at second, but Temple popped up to end the 11th.

The Indians sent Jim “Mudcat” Grant to the mound for the top of the 12th, along with replacements at catcher, third base, and shortstop. A walk, an error, and another walk loaded the bases with two outs, but Grant retired Yost on a grounder to first. With Pete Burnside now pitching for Detroit, Kuenn beat out an infield single to lead off the bottom of the inning. He pulled a leg muscle on the play, but stayed in the game because Cleveland had used all of its position players.10 Three routine outs followed.

Neither team scored in the 13th or 14th inning. Cleveland did manage to put runners at second and third in the 14th after two singles and a stolen base, but Francona’s fly out to center ended the threat.

Grant walked Detroit’s pitcher, Burnside, on a 3-and-2 pitch to start the 15th inning.11 One out later, Red Wilson doubled to left; Burnside stopped at third. Johnny Klippstein relieved, but after walking Maxwell to load the bases, he was replaced by Bobby Tiefenauer. Kaline singled to center, scoring Burnside and Wilson. Colavito grounded into a double play for the final two outs.

Holding a two-run lead, Burnside struck out the first Tribe batter in the bottom of the 15th. Power doubled to right field. The pitcher, Tiefenauer, was due up next for Cleveland. With their bench depleted of position players, Indians manager Joe Gordon sent his best remaining hitter, pitcher Carl Thomas, to the plate. Burnside struck out Thomas and the following batter, Steve Demeter, to secure the 4-2 Tigers victory.

The 15-inning contest, lasting 4 hours and 54 minutes, was the longest Opening Day game in big-league history until 2012.12 The two starting pitchers did not give up any runs through 10 innings. Each was charged with two runs in the 11th. Over the first 10 innings, Bell allowed only three hits and struck out 12. Lary matched Bell’s performance, allowing five hits and striking out five before the 11th. Over the first 10 innings only one Indians baserunner made it as far as third.

Kuenn contributed a double and an infield single in seven trips to the plate, but the pulled leg muscle he sustained in the 12th inning limited him to two pinch-hitting appearance in the Indians’ next five games. Colavito struck out four times and hit into a double play in his seven plate appearances. “[I] know I never struck out four times in a game before — not since I started playing professional baseball,” he said. “I guess I was tightened up the first time I went to the plate. Maybe, I was pressing some every time I batted.”13

Detroit’s Kaline, who drove in the winning runs, felt that the circumstances of the trade put more pressure on Colavito than Kuenn, saying, “I hope it never happens to me.”14

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/CLE/CLE196004190.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1960/B04190CLE1960.htm

Notes

1 Colavito and Washington’s Harmon Killebrew each hit 42 home runs in 1959, tops in the American League.

2 Harry Jones, “Indians Get Kuenn in Deal,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 18, 1960: 33.

3 Gordon Cobbledick, “Colavito’s 1959 Slump That Cost Pennant Put Rocky on Lane’s Expendable List,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 18, 1960: 33.

4 “Indians Get Kuenn in Deal.”

5 Harry Jones, “Colavito Stunned by Lane Trade,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 18, 1960: 33.

6 “Colavito Stunned by Lane Trade.”

7 “Indians Game in Detail,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 20: 36.

8 Harry Jones, “Batting Around,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 20, 1960: 33.

9 Gordon Cobbledick, “Kuenn Easily Wins Opening Day Showdown with Colavito, Who Has a Miserable Day,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 20, 1960: 33.

10 “Kuenn Easily Wins Opening Day Showdown with Colavito, Who Has a Miserable Day.”

11 Harry Jones, “Indians Lose in 15th,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 20, 1960: 34.

12 Harry Jones, “Indians Beaten in Fifteenth, 4-2,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 20, 1960: 1. The Senators and Athletics played a 15-inning game on Opening Day in Washington on April 13, 1926, with Washington winning 1-0. However, that game lasted 2 hours and 33 minutes. The 1960 Tigers-Indians game lasted 4 hours and 54 minutes and remained the longest on Opening Day until April 5, 2012. On that date the Indians lost a 16-inning game 7-4 to the Toronto Blue Jays at Progressive Field. The game’s duration was 5 hours and 14 minutes.

13 Chuck Heaton, “Kuenn Is Injured,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 20, 1960: 35.

14 “Kuenn Is Injured.” Kaline got his wish: His entire 22-year Hall of Fame career was spent with the Tigers.

Retooling their lineup for 1960, the Yankees made the biggest trade of the offseason on December 11, sending veteran outfielder Hank Bauer, pitcher Don Larsen, outfielder-first baseman Norm Siebern, and first baseman Marv Throneberry to the Kansas City Athletics for outfielder Roger Maris, infielder Joe DeMaestri, and first baseman Kent Hadley.

Maris, who batted left-handed and threw right-handed, was an All-Star in 1959 despite missing a month after undergoing an emergency appendectomy in late May. In his third season in the big leagues, he was leading the AL with a .344 batting average on July 27 but slumped thereafter and finished the season at .273.1 He hit 16 home runs for the Athletics, but only two came after July.

Kansas City had discussed trading the 25-year-old Maris with several clubs, including the Cleveland Indians, Pittsburgh Pirates, and St. Louis Cardinals. After a deal with the Pirates fell through, the trade with the Yankees was made.2 Whitey Ford, the ace of New York’s pitching staff, was quoted later as saying, “I thought Roger Maris was the one guy we needed. He was a complete player who could field, throw and run.”3

The trade drew sharp reactions from the two teams that finished ahead of the Yankees in 1959. “It’s shocking that there should be so much traffic between two clubs,” said Cleveland general manager Frank Lane, who had dealt Maris to the Athletics in 1958. “This is their fifteenth deal [between the A’s and Yankees since 1955], and certainly you’d have to say that’s more than coincidental.”4

Bill Veeck, the president of the White Sox, considered asking Commissioner Ford Frick for an investigation of the “unhealthy alliance” between the Yankees and Kansas City.5

New York, after posting its worst-ever spring-training record (11-19), opened on the road, in Boston on April 19.6 The Red Sox had lost to the Washington Senators, 10-1, the day before in Washington, in the traditional start of American League play. As Washington’s Camilo Pascual set an Opening Day record with 15 strikeouts, Ted Williams provided Boston’s only run with a second-inning home run, the 493rd of his career, tying Lou Gehrig for fourth on the all-time list behind Babe Ruth (714), Jimmie Foxx (534), and Mel Ott (511).

On a clear but chilly Boston afternoon, a crowd of 35,162, the second largest for a Fenway Park Opening Day game, watched Boston Mayor John F. Collins, a polio survivor, throw out the first pitch from his wheelchair.7 Tom Brewer (10-12, 3.76 ERA in 1959) took the mound for the Red Sox. A 19-game winner in 1956, the 28-year-old right-hander had won 10 or more games in each of his six seasons with Boston.

New York manager Casey Stengel chose 27-year-old right-hander Jim Coates to start for the Yankees.8 Coates had posted a 6-1 record (2.87 ERA) in 1959, his first full season in the big leagues, but had started only four times in 39 major-league appearances.

Stengel also decided to stack his Opening Day lineup with right-handed batters to take advantage of Fenway Park’s close left-field wall. He shifted Maris, the lineup’s only left-handed hitter, to the top of the batting order.9

Maris doubled to left to start the game. Bobby Richardson walked. After Gil McDougald flied out to right, Héctor López grounded into a double play, ending the visitors’ scoring threat.

One-out singles in the home half of the first by Pete Runnels and Frank Malzone put Red Sox at first and third. Gene Stephens’ sacrifice fly to deep right gave Boston a 1-0 advantage.

Brewer kept the Yankees off the scoreboard the next two innings, helped by another double play in the second. Mickey Mantle and Bill Skowron had singled to put runners at first and second with no outs. Malzone fielded Elston Howard’s sharply hit groundball, stepped on the bag at third, and threw to second to complete the double play.10

Boston threatened to add to its lead in the third inning. Don Buddin’s one-out double and a single to left by Runnels put runners at the corners. Malzone grounded to third baseman McDougald, who threw Buddin out at home, keeping the score at 1-0.

The Yankees went ahead in the fourth. McDougald singled to start the inning. He scored one out later on Mantle’s double over the head of Bobby Thomson in center. After Skowron’s dribbler for an infield single, Mantle scored on Howard’s single up the middle for a 2-1 lead.11 Tony Kubek grounded into the Yankees’ third double play of the game, ending the inning.

New York broke the game open in the fifth. Coates blooped a single to right. Maris hit a drive 400 feet into the right-field bleachers for a two-run homer.

Two outs later, a two-base error, a wild pitch, and a walk put runners at first and third. Skowron doubled down the third-base line, driving in both runners and increasing New York’s lead to 6-1.12  Frank Sullivan relieved Brewer and got the inning’s final out on a drive to deep center by López.

Boston scored one run in the bottom of the fifth. Malzone’s two-out liner to left, misplayed by López,13 went for a double, scoring pinch-hitter Marty Keough, who had walked leading off the inning.

New York answered in the top of the sixth against Boston reliever Nelson Chittum. After Kubek’s single and a throwing error on Coates’ bunt, Maris singled, driving in Kubek to make the score 7-2.

Maris capped the Yankees’ scoring and his own big debut game in the eighth. Facing left-hander Ted Bowsfield, Boston’s fourth pitcher of the game, Maris hit his second home run, a one-out, bases-empty drive into the right-field bleachers. It was the third two-homer game of his career.

Williams came up to bat against Coates in the eighth with two outs and no one on base. He was 0-for-3 so far after grounding out in the first inning and flying out in the fourth and sixth. Despite the 8-2 score in favor of the Yankees, most of the fans stayed to see if he could pass Gehrig in career home runs. They were rewarded when Williams lined his 494th homer into the right-field grandstand.14

Williams was replaced in left field by Jim Busby to start the ninth. Many of the fans, having witnessed the future Hall of Famer’s historic home run, had left by the time the Red Sox added an unearned run in the bottom of the inning.15 Coates went the distance for the Yankees in their 8-4 victory, with Brewer taking the loss.

Skowron drove in two runs on four hits (three singles and a double), but Maris was the star of New York’s 17-hit attack. In six plate appearances he singled, doubled, homered twice, and walked, driving in four runs. “He’s doing so well in that spot,” Stengel said of his new leadoff hitter, “I’m going to keep him there.”16

Postscript

The 1960 AL pennant race was a three-team battle between the Yankees, a young Baltimore Orioles club, and the White Sox for most of the summer. New York pulled away from second-place Baltimore and third-place Chicago by winning its last 15 games of the season.

Maris was named the AL’s Most Valuable Player, leading the junior circuit with 112 RBIs. He hit 39 home runs, trailing only his teammate Mantle, who led the league with 40. The Yankees lost the World Series to Pittsburgh despite outscoring the Pirates 55-27 over seven games. Stengel was replaced by Ralph Houk after the Series.

In an article for Baseball America, baseball historian David Fleitz characterized the trade that sent Maris to the Yankees as “one of the most lopsided trades in history.”17 The 37-year-old Bauer, who had started the majority of games in right for the 1959 Yankees, was near the end of his career and hit only six homers in limited action during his two years in Kansas City. Larsen went 1-10 (5.38 ERA) for the A’s in 1960 and was traded the next year. Siebern had four solid seasons in Kansas City before being traded, but his 25 home runs in 1962 marked the only time he hit more than 20 for the A’s. Throneberry, after being traded by Kansas City during the 1961 season, became better known as “Marvelous Marv” with the 1962 expansion New York Mets. 

Maris won a second MVP award in 1961 with his record-breaking 61-homer performance. He played in five straight World Series as a Yankee (1960-1964). Traded to St. Louis after the 1966 season, he played in two more fall classics with the Cardinals before retiring after the 1968 campaign. Maris appeared in a total of 41 World Series games in his career, the most of anyone during the decade of the ’60s.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Thomas J. Brown Jr. 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/BOS196004190.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1960/B04190BOS1960.htm

Notes

1 Arthur Daley, “Maris, as Yank, Hopes to Shake Slump,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 15, 1959: 30.

2 Ernest Mehl, “A’s Lashed, Lauded for Swapping Maris,” The Sporting News, December 23, 1959: 5, 6.

3 David M. Kritzler and Alan P. Henry, “1959 – Winds of Change,” The Winter Meetings, Volume 2 (Phoenix: Society for American Baseball Research, 2017), 13.

4 Hal Lebovitz, “Frankie Fumes Over Bombers’ Swap for Maris,” The Sporting News, December 23, 1959: 6.

5 Jerry Holtzman, “Unhealthy Alliance, Snorts Sportshirt; May Ask for Probe,” The Sporting News, December 23, 1959: 6. A request was never made for a formal investigation of the NY-KC relationship.

6 “Yank Citrus Mark of 11-19 Poorest in Club’s History,” The Sporting News, April 20, 1960: 18. After leaving their St. Petersburg, Florida, training camp, the Yankees also lost two more exhibition games played in New York against the Red Sox.

7 John Drebinger, “Maris Sets Pace for 8-4 Triumph,” New York Times, April 20, 1960: 46.

8 Stengel saved the left-handed Ford for the home opener at Yankee Stadium on April 22, starting right-handers Bob Turley and John Gabler in the next two games in Boston. He made a similar decision in the World Series that fall against the Pirates, bypassing Ford in the first two games in Pittsburgh so the left-hander could pitch the third game at Yankee Stadium.

9 Rober Birtwell, “Stengel Has Reason to Use Maris as Leadoff Man,” Boston Globe, April 20, 1960: 34. Elston Howard started at catcher, the first time in 14 years Yogi Berra, a left-handed batter, was not New York’s Opening Day catcher.

10 “Opening Day Gate Near Record Mark,” Boston Globe, April 20, 1960: 34.

11 Joe Trimble, “17 Yankee Hits Win Hub Opener, 8-4,” New York Daily News, April 20, 1960: 80.

12 “17 Yankee Hits Win Hub Opener, 8-4.”

13 “17 Yankee Hits Win Hub Opener, 8-4.”

14 Hy Hurwitz, “Yankees Go Home,” Boston Globe, April 20, 1960: 33.

15 “Yankees Go Home.”

16 “Yankees Go Home.” Maris batted leadoff in the next day’s game, but spent most of the rest of the season in the third or fourth spot in the lineup.

17 David L. Fleitz, “The Yankees and the A’s,” Baseball America, accessed December 28, 2022, https://www.baseball-almanac.com/corner/c042001b.shtml.

Norm Sherry was born in 1931 in New York City; Larry was born four years later, after the family had relocated to Los Angeles. Larry made it to the majors first, in 1958, the Dodgers’ first season after moving from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. But a 12.46 ERA in five early-season appearances led to his demotion to Triple-A Spokane, where Norm was playing.1

Larry Sherry returned to the big leagues in July 1959. At Spokane, Norm had helped him develop a slider, which allowed Larry’s career to take off.2 Larry won his last seven decisions after his call-up in July and helped the Dodgers prevent a third straight pennant by the Milwaukee Braves. He went on to become the hero of the World Series, earning Most Valuable Player honors, as the Dodgers defeated the Chicago White Sox in six games. In four World Series relief appearances, Larry collected two wins and two saves, allowing only one run in 12⅔ innings.

Norm Sherry toiled in the minors for seven seasons before making his major-league debut on April 12, 1959.3 He was soon sent to Spokane, and his only other game with the Dodgers that year came in a late-season call-up.

The brothers were on the Dodgers’ big-league roster out of spring training in 1960. They appeared in the same major-league game for the first time on May 2, a 6-5 loss to the Braves, when Larry pitched 1⅔ innings of relief and Norm pinch-hit unsuccessfully for his brother.

On May 7 the Phillies and Dodgers squared off in the second game of a three-game series at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Dodgers’ first home after they moved west. The Phillies had won the day before by breaking a 1-1 tie in the 10th inning with a five-run outburst. Sandy Koufax pitched masterfully for nine innings, striking out 15, before giving up four of the decisive runs. In the season’s first month, the Phillies and Dodgers were lagging the National League-leading Pittsburgh Pirates and second-place San Francisco Giants.

Saturday night’s second game of the series involved another tight contest, before a crowd of 30,879, which included 6,797 women admitted free on Ladies Night.4

Veteran Phillies right-hander Robin Roberts took the mound against Dodgers right-hander Stan Williams. From 1950 to 1956, Roberts was one of the workhorses of the National League, averaging more than 300 innings per year. Now in his 13th season as a 33-year-old, he was on

the downside of his career, and he came in with a 9.51 ERA in five starts. Twenty-three-year-old Williams, who was making his first start of 1960 after four relief appearances, was already in his third major-league season.

After Williams retired the first two batters of the game, the Phillies loaded the bases on a single by Johnny Callison, an error by shortstop Bob Aspromonte, and a walk to Bobby Del Greco. But Williams recovered by inducing Ken Walters to ground out to second.

The game was scoreless through the fourth inning. Between Roberts and Williams, the batters had managed only four more singles and a walk.

In the fifth Williams continued his dominance by striking out the side for his fifth consecutive punchout and sixth for the game, his highest to that point in the season. Don Demeter then put the Dodgers ahead with a home run, his fifth of the season, in the bottom half of the frame.5

Alvin Dark knotted the score, 1-1, on a leadoff home run to deep center field against Williams in the sixth. Williams seemed to become unhinged afterward; he loaded the bases again on a single by Ed Bouchee, a walk to Del Greco, and a single by Walters. With one out, Dodgers manager Walter Alston went to reliever Ed Roebuck. Pinch-hitter Tony Curry lined a pitch to left field. Wally Moon made the catch, then threw to catcher John Roseboro, who tagged Bouchee out for the double play.

Roberts asked to be taken out of the game after five innings when his shoulder tightened up.6 Lefty Chris Short kept the Dodgers in check for two innings, while Roebuck retired all three batters in the seventh.

Alston had gone to his bench for two pinch-hitters in the seventh, sending up Norm Sherry to bat for starting catcher Roseboro and Chuck Essegian to hit for Roebuck. When the Dodgers took the field after the seventh-inning stretch, Norm Sherry was behind the plate and Larry Sherry was on the mound. It was the first time as major-leaguers that they appeared as batterymates.7

Larry Sherry had struggled in his previous five appearances,8 and he hit Dark with a pitch before giving up a single to Bouchee. Dark barely reached third on the hit, on a close throw from the outfield. Third baseman Jim Gilliam was ejected from the game by umpire Ed Vargo, who said Gilliam pushed him in the ensuing argument over the safe call on Dark.9 Larry ended up giving up the tiebreaking run when Dave Philley singled in Dark on a 250-foot fly-ball single that barely hit the left-field screen.10

The Dodgers countered with a run in their half of the eighth. With two outs, Short walked Moon and yielded a single to rookie Tommy Davis. Carl Furillo’s fly-ball single to center scored Moon and tied the game again, 2-2.

Phillies right-hander Rubén Gómez, who had entered the game to record the last out of the eighth, held the Dodgers scoreless for the next two innings. Sherry didn’t allow any runs over the next three innings, although the Phillies threatened with two walks in the 10th.

Gómez returned to the mound in the bottom of the 11th and retired the first two batters on fly outs. Norm Sherry worked the count to 3-and-1 before hitting his walk-off home run over the 40-foot-high screen in left field. It was the first of 18 home runs he hit in his career.

After the game, Norm said, “It has to be my biggest thrill. Winning one in the majors for my brother was really something.” He added, “I knew it was hit well enough, but I was afraid it might curve foul. It was a slider inside. I wasn’t looking for anything especially. I was just trying to get a hit.”11

Larry evened his record at 3-3, while giving up two hits, three walks, and a run in four innings and striking out four. In addition to his home run, Norm reached on an error and a single. It was the third straight extra-inning contest for the Dodgers, who finished the season fourth in the NL, 13 games behind the Pirates. The Phillies ended up last for the third consecutive season.

Sharing closer duties with Roebuck, Larry had a career-high 14 wins in 1960. He is retroactively credited with seven saves, also a career best at that point in his career.12 Norm served as a capable backup to Roseboro, batting .283 with 8 home runs and 19 RBIs in 39 starts.

The Sherrys appeared as batterymates 30 times during their careers, the last time on June 28, 1962.13 It took almost 60 years for the next set of major-league brothers to play as batterymates. On August 12, 2021, Andrew (pitcher) and Austin Romine (catcher) appeared as batterymates for the Chicago Cubs. Andrew, normally an infielder, was called on to pitch in the ninth inning of a blowout game that the Milwaukee Brewers won, 17-4.14

Acknowledgements

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Norm and Larry Sherry, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources listed in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org and the following:

Lewis, Allen. “Norm Sherry HR in 11th Gives Larry 3-2 Win Over Phils,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 8, 1960: Sports, 1.

McElreavy, Wayne, and Lyle Spatz. “Brother Batteries,” in “The Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers, http://bb_catchers.tripod.com/catchers/brother_batteries.htm. Accessed May 15, 2024.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN196005070.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1960/B05070LAN1960.htm

Notes

1 As a sidebar to their playing as teammates with Spokane in 1958, the Sherry brothers’ daughters were born on the same day. Jack Murphy, “Smart Pills for Cheerleaders, Too,” San Diego Union, June 20, 1958: B-4.

2 Ralph Berger, “Larry Sherry,” SABR Biography Project, accessed May 23, 2024, https://sabr.org/biopr.oj/person/Larry-Sherry/. Norm was also credited with helping to turn around Sandy Koufax’s career during 1961 spring training. Edward Gruver, Koufax (New York: Taylor Publishing: 2000), 124-127.

3 Having started his professional career in the Dodgers organization in 1950, Norm Sherry competed with Roy Campanella and John Roseboro, who were entrenched as catchers with the Dodgers.

4 Frank Finch, “Sherry Act Lays Phils in Aisle, 3-2,” Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1960: H-1.

5 There is a discrepancy as to where Demeter’s home run landed. Baseball-Reference says it was hit to center field. The Los Angeles Times (Finch) reported the home run was hit over the left-field screen. The Long Beach (California) Independent reported the home run was hit to left-center. George Lederer, “Sherry Boys Beat Phils, 3-2,” Long Beach Independent, May 8, 1960: C-1.

6 Dan Hafner, “Homer Norm’s Big Thrill,” Los Angeles Examiner, May 8, 1960: 2, 2.

7 The Sherry brothers were the first Jewish batterymates in the majors. Peter Horvitz and Joachim Horvitz, The Big Book of Jewish Baseball (New York: S.P.I. Books, 2001), 172.

8 After pitching a complete game in his first appearance of the 1960 season, Larry struggled in his next two starts and three relief appearances, resulting in a 5.68 ERA and 1.98 WHIP to that point in the season.

9 Hafner.

10 The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, originally built for football and track and field, was pressed into service as a baseball stadium while the Dodgers were building a new ballpark after their relocation from Brooklyn. Because of its short left-field fence (250 feet), a 40-foot screen was installed to require longer distances for home runs hit to left field.

11 Hafner.

12 Sherry’s seven saves were retroactively calculated because saves didn’t become an official statistic until 1969.

13 Recent brother batterymates before the Sherrys included Jim and Ed Bailey, who appeared together with the Cincinnati Reds on September 10, 15, and 20, 1959; Bobby and Billy Shantz, who appeared together with the Kansas City A’s in 1955 on April 14 and 29; May 7, 15, 21, and 29; June 3 and 23; August 9 and 14; and September 11 and 20. The batteries with the most time together in the majors were Wes and Rick Farrell (in the 1930s) and Mort and Walker Cooper (in the 1940s).

14 Richard Cuicchi, “Romine Brothers Form Rare Battery.” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/august-12-2021-romine-brothers-form-rare-battery-for-cubs-in-blowout-game/. Accessed May 5, 2024.

The Millers, Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, had a habit of shooting themselves in the foot whenever they played the Colonels, the Milwaukee Braves’ Triple-A affiliate, committing 15 errors in four games, and they did it again in the first game of the doubleheader when they made five more miscues in a 7-4 loss. Making matters worse was that they blew a late 4-1 lead by allowing three runs in the eighth inning and three more in the ninth. The latter trio came after third baseman Marlan Coughtry dropped a perfect throw by center fielder Dave Mann that would have gunned down the runner and given the Colonels a runner at second with two outs.

Instead, Tracy Stallard intentionally walked Joe Morgan to load the bases and set up a force, but Earl Hersh singled over the drawn-in infield to score two, and Morgan scored the third run of the inning on Hawk Taylor’s sacrifice fly. The Millers’ highlight came in the bottom of the seventh when Mann doubled and was sacrificed to third by Chuck Schilling, and Carl Yastrzemski was intentionally passed. With Stu Locklin at the plate, Mann, a journeyman speedster, took off for home and Yastrzemski lit out for second. While the Colonels focused on Mann, Yastrzemski continued to third and got credit for two stolen bases on the play.1

In addition to sloppy play, the Millers’ offense had stalled and their four runs in the first game gave them only six in three games heading into the second game of their doubleheader with Louisville.

Starting for the Millers was 24-year-old, 6-foot-6 prospect Don Schwall, a former basketball star at the University of Oklahoma whom the Red Sox lured away from Oklahoma with a $65,000 bonus in 1957.2 Schwall followed a 7-5 rookie season with Waterloo of the Class D Midwest League in 1958 with a breakout campaign in which he went 23-6 with a 3.36 earned-run average in 30 games with Alpine of the Class D Sophomore League in 1959. Promoted to Minneapolis in 1960, the righty fireballer was 1-2 going into his fourth start of the season.

Louisville sent right-hander Don Nottebart to the mound to face Schwall. Like Schwall, Nottebart was a 24-year-old former high-school star, but he signed with the Braves right out of high school and had been pitching professionally since he was 18. The Massachusetts native, who grew up idolizing Braves legend Warren Spahn and fancied himself a right-handed version of his idol, had all the makings of a star.3 After a rocky start following his high-school graduation in 1954, Nottebart fashioned three straight 18-win seasons from 1955 to 1957, moving his way up each year from Class D Wellsville to Class B Evansville to Double-A Atlanta.

After a dismal 1958 with Triple-A Wichita of the American Association, Nottebart enjoyed his fourth 18-win season in five years, going 18-11 for Louisville in 1959. Having won three of his first four decisions in 1960, Nottebart went into his May 8 start against the Millers boasting a minor-league record of 87-52.

Little did he know he would run into an unexpected buzz saw that sent him back to the dugout not long after he left it. Mann started the onslaught with a checked-swing blooper that dropped safely inside the right-field line, and he sped around the bases for a leadoff triple. Schilling sent Mann home with a sacrifice fly to left to stake the Millers to a 1-0 lead, then Yastrzemski walked and went to second on a single by Locklin.

Bob Lawrence singled Yastrzemski home with the Milleers’ second run and Walter Brady followed with a hit to center that plated Locklin and sent Nottebart to the showers. Louisville skipper Ben Geraghty turned to bespectacled right-hander Howie Koplitz, a Wisconsin native who signed with the Detroit Tigers out of high school in 1956 and was in his first season with the Colonels. Koplitz’s day was even shorter than Nottebart’s, and he left the game after walking Coughtry and Jim Mahoney, forcing in Lawrence with the fourth tally of the frame.

That brought Frederico “Chi-Chi” Olivo into the fray. Olivo had spent much of his 20s playing in his native Dominican Republic and in Puerto Rico before signing with the Braves in 1955 at the age of 27. Olivo kicked around the minors and found some success with Class A Jacksonville in 1957, going 16-12, and pitching to a 15-11 record and a 2.64 ERA in 1958. Olivo began the 1960 season with Double-A Austin of the Texas League and went 2-1 in eight games before moving up to Louisville.

Olivo had already come through in his first appearance for the Colonels when he tossed two scoreless innings in the first game of the doubleheader to earn the win. Nevertheless, not only did he fail to stop the first-inning bleeding, he contributed to it. Schwall dropped a squeeze bunt in front of the mound and Olivo’s errant throw got past catcher Bob Uecker for a two-run error that also sent Mahoney to third and Schwall to second.4

Mann tallied his second hit of the inning and plated Mahoney and Schwall to extend the Millers’ lead to 8-0, then Mann stole second and scored the ninth run of the inning on Yastrzemski’s single to center. The Colonels finally got out of the inning, but the hole they dug was too deep to escape from. Of course, that didn’t stop the Millers from lending a hand by committing more errors.

In the top of the fifth, Mahoney booted Amado Samuel’s grounder,and Locklin dropped Taylor’s fly to right for a two-base error that put Colonels on second and third. Mahoney made his second error of the inning when he threw wildly to first after corralling Howie Bedell’s grounder and Samuel scored to give Louisville its first run of the game. Mahoney then started a 6-4-3 double play, but Taylor crossed the plate to make the score 9-2.5

The Millers scored their 10th run of the game in the sixth, only the second time in the season they had reached double digits, thanks in part to the Colonels’ comedy of errors.6 Yastrzemski’s second hit of the game, two fielder’s-choice outs, an error, a walk, and a wild pitch increased Minneapolis’s lead to 10-2. Schwall completed the seven-inning game without allowing a run in the top of the seventh and evened his record at 2-2 with the victory.7

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, and SABR.org.

Notes 

1 Dave Mann began his professional career in 1952 at 19 and played for four different franchises before joining the Boston Red Sox’ Triple-A team in 1960. He was coming off seasons in 1958 and ’59 in which he stole 66 and 65 bases, respectively, and he finished the 1960 season with 50. The May 9, 1960, Minneapolis Star (Page 33) and Louisville Courier-Journal (Page 19), and the May 18, 1960, edition of The Sporting News (Page 30) either reported or listed in their box scores that Yastrzemski had two stolen bases on the double steal. The Minneapolis Tribune (Page 25) listed in its box score that he had one.

2 Curt Smith, Don Schwall biography at SABR’s BioProject, sabr.org/bioproj/person/don-schwall.

3 Bob Wolf, “Admiration for Spahn Drew Nottebart Into Braves’ Chain,” The Sporting News, December 4, 1957: 20.

4 The Louisville Courier-Journal reported that Olivo’s throw got past catcher Hawk Taylor, but Taylor didn’t enter the game until he pinch-hit for Olivo in the fifth inning.

5 With nine more errors in the doubleheader, the Millers ran their total to 24 miscues in their first six games against Louisville.

6 Minneapolis beat Dallas-Fort Worth 10-0 on April 23.

7 Minor league doubleheaders at the time typically featured a nine-inning game and a seven-inning game, but not always in that order and some went a full nine innings and beyond. For instance, Charleston and Buffalo met for a doubleheader the same day Minneapolis played Louisville and the first game went 10 innings before Charleston scored the winning run. Regardless of extra innings, the teams played all nine innings in the second game as well.

The 1955 AL Rookie of the Year, Score led the league in strikeouts in each of his first two seasons and won 20 games in 1956. After being hit in the eye by a line drive and missing most of the 1957 campaign, the 27-year-old southpaw struggled with various injuries. Score posted a record of 9-5 in the first half of 1959, but was 0-6 for the rest of the year. “He showed us nothing during spring training to make us feel optimistic,” said Cleveland general manager Frank Lane after the trade.1

The deal reunited Score with Al Lopez, his manager in Cleveland during 1955 and 1956. Lopez admitted he wanted Score on his team ever since he had left the Indians to manage the White Sox in 1957. “I think he still is a fine pitcher,” said Lopez, “and we plan to work with him in the hope that he will return to the form he had when I was his manager in Cleveland.”2

Latman was 8-5 with a 3.75 ERA in 1959, his first full season in the big leagues. “I said last winter that the White Sox could win the pennant again only if Latman and Bob Shaw came through,” observed Lane. “I felt their pitching was too questionable otherwise. Now we’ve got Latman and maybe he’ll help us win it.”3

When the White Sox visited Cleveland in mid-May for a four-game weekend series, Score was scheduled to pitch against his former team on Saturday. “It may seem a bit strange for a few minutes but then it will be just another ballgame,” he said about his first appearance at Cleveland Stadium since the trade.4

Indians manager Joe Gordon had originally planned to start Dick Stigman on Saturday, but changed his mind before Friday’s series opener and picked Latman instead. “I’ll pitch Stigman Sunday and keep him in the bullpen tonight,” explained Gordon. “If he started Saturday, I couldn’t use him to relieve in this series. Besides, it’ll be fun to see how Latman does against Score.”5

After retiring the first Chicago batter he faced, Latman hit Nellie Fox with a pitch. Minnie Miñoso singled to center, but Fox was thrown out trying to reach third. Ted Kluszewski’s two-out double to right field put runners at second and third. Billy Goodman walked to load the bases. Al Smith’s single to left scored two runs. Jim Landis flied to left for the final out, with the score 2-0 in Chicago’s favor.

Score retired Cleveland’s leadoff batter on a flyball to right. Jim Piersall bunted toward first for a single. He stole second on Score’s ball-three pitch to Harvey Kuenn. Piersall stole third on the next pitch, ball four, scoring when the catcher’s bad throw bounced past the third baseman.6 With Kuenn on first, Score walked Tito Francona. Landis made a diving attempt at Vic Power’s fly to center, but the ball got past him for a double.7 Kuenn scored on the play, with Francona advancing to third. Woodie Held fouled out to second baseman Fox along the right-field line. Francona scored after the catch and Power took third. John Romano ended the inning with a fly out to center.

Cleveland’s 3-2 advantage did not last long. Latman retired the first batter he faced in the second inning, but walked Score and Luis Aparicio. Fox singled to right, driving in Score and advancing Aparicio to third. Latman hit Miñoso in the back of the neck to load the bases.8 Carl Thomas, a right-hander in his first major-league season, relieved and retired the next two batters on fly balls to end the threat with the score tied, 3-3. It was Thomas’s fourth appearance. He had 5⅓ innings under his belt.

Score walked Bubba Phillips to start the bottom half of the inning. A sacrifice by Thomas moved Phillips to second. Johnny Temple grounded to shortstop Aparicio. Phillips tried to advance to third, but Aparicio’s throw beat him for the inning’s second out. Temple, on first after the fielder’s choice, stole second. With the count 3-and-1, Piersall hit a drive to deep center. Landis attempted a leaping catch, but crashed into the center-field fence. The ball bounced off his glove and dropped over the fence for a two-run homer.9 Landis suffered a mild concussion and was replaced by Joe Hicks. Don Ferrarese relieved Score and, after Kuenn singled, the inning ended on a groundout, as Cleveland took the lead, 5-3.

Thomas held Chicago scoreless in the third, allowing only a one-out walk. Power walked to start Cleveland’s half of the inning. One out later, Romano hit a two-run homer to deep left. Phillips fouled out, but after Thomas singled and Temple walked, Ferrarese was replaced by Ray Moore. Piersall grounded into a force out to end the inning.

With Cleveland ahead 7-3, the White Sox failed to score in the fourth after a walk and a bunt single put runners at first and second with no outs. Miñoso flied out to left and Kluszewski hit into a double play. In the bottom of the inning consecutive singles by Kuenn, Francona, and Power loaded the bases with no outs. Moore retired Held on a pop foul, but Romano’s sacrifice fly scored Kuenn, making the score 8-3.

Thomas walked Goodman and Smith to start the top of the fifth. A sacrifice by Hicks moved the runners to second and third. Dick Brown fouled out to first. Earl Torgeson, batting for Moore, walked, but Aparicio popped out to Thomas for the third out.

Mike Garcia walked Thomas to start the Indians’ fifth. Thomas took second on Temple’s sacrifice and scored on Piersall’s double to center. Kuenn’s single scored Piersall. Cleveland now led by a score of 10-3.

Fox, leading off the sixth for Chicago, walked. One out later, Kluszewski walked. Goodman bunted for a single. Phillips’s throw was late and wild,10 scoring Fox and putting runners on second and third. Smith’s groundout to short scored Kluszewski, and Goodman scored on Hicks’s single. Thomas threw a high curve on his first pitch to Brown,11 who hit a two-run homer to deep left. With the score 10-8, Johnny Klippstein relieved Thomas. Jim Rivera, batting for Garcia, struck out.

Turk Lown pitched the bottom of the sixth for Chicago. After a leadoff single by Romano, he retired the next three Tribe batters. Lown held Cleveland without a hit in the seventh and eighth innings, allowing only a two-out walk in the seventh.

Miñoso hit a two-out solo homer in the top of the seventh to cut the Indians’ lead to one run. Klippstein walked Goodman to start the top of the eighth, but retired the next six White Sox batters to secure the Tribe’s 10-9 victory.

Thomas was the winning pitcher despite allowing five runs and walking seven over 4⅓ innings. His performance in what turned out to be his only big-league victory did not impress his manager, who was upset with the rookie pitcher’s wildness. Commenting on Klippstein’s relief work, Gordon said, “Johnny may be the stopper I’ve been looking for … he gets the ball over.”12

The matchup of traded pitchers was brief. Latman lasted 1⅓ innings, allowing three runs on four hits, three walks and two hit-batsmen, with no strikeouts. He faced 12 batters and only 24 of his 46 pitches were strikes. Score, who gave up five runs on three hits and three walks in 1⅔ innings of work, was the losing pitcher. He did not strike out any of the 11 batters he faced, with just 23 of his 45 pitches thrown for strikes.13 “I was simply too wild,” said Score after the game. “Most of the time I wasn’t even coming close. I seemed fast enough when I could get the ball over.”14

Postscript

Latman posted a 7-7 record (4.03 ERA) for Cleveland in 1960 as the Indians dropped to fourth place, 21 games behind the pennant-winning Yankees. He compiled a 35-37 record (4.27 ERA) for the Indians before being traded to the Angels after the 1963 season.

Chicago placed third, 10 games behind New York. Score finished 1960 at 5-10 (3.72 ERA). He pitched parts of the following two seasons for Chicago and retired in 1963. He never pitched again in Cleveland Stadium after his matchup with Latman. His only victory during his final two years with the White Sox came against his former team in Chicago on May 6, 1961, when he pitched a complete game to beat the Indians 4-2.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky 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/CLE/CLE196005140.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1960/B05140CLE1960.htm

Notes

1 Harry Jones, “Indians Trade Score for Latman of Chisox,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 19, 1960: 31.

2 “Indians Trade Score for Latman of Chisox.”

3 “Indians Trade Score for Latman of Chisox.”

4 Chuck Heaton, “‘Just Another Game,’ but Score Would Like to Beat Tribe Today,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 14, 1960: 23.

5 Harry Jones, “Batting Around,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 14, 1960: 23.

6 Edward Prell, “Sox, Score Lose, 10-9,” Chicago Tribune, May 15, 1960: A1.

7 “Sox, Score Lose, 10-9.”

8 “Sox, Score Lose, 10-9.”

9 “Sox, Score Lose, 10-9.”

10 “Sox, Score Lose, 10-9.”

11 Chuck Heaton, “Gordon Finds a Stopper,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 15, 1960: 1-C.

12 “Gordon Finds a Stopper.” This game was Thomas’s last game in the major leagues. The next day, he was optioned to the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians.

13 Harry Jones, “Batting Around,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 15, 1960: 3-C.

14 “Gordon Finds a Stopper.”