April 22, 1956: Orioles’ Fred Besana settles down to beat Senators

On the first Sunday of the 1956 season, the American League’s two worst teams from the previous year met for a doubleheader. The temperature in Baltimore was pleasant enough – in the low 60s – but the sky appeared gloomy and a few raindrops fell during the 2 o’clock matinee.1 Nevertheless, fans continued to stream into Memorial Stadium. Other than the home opener two days earlier, the 21,797 who clicked through the turnstiles would mark the Orioles’ largest home crowd until the Yankees came to town in late May. Looking out from the press box in the top of the first inning, Orioles business manager Herb Armstrong said, “Isn’t this a fine turnout despite the threatening weather? This is a great sports town, and we’re going all out to reward these loyal people for their support.”2

At first glance, the visiting Washington Senators looked more like a team going all out to rebuild. After finishing last in 1955, the Senators solidified their status as the league’s youngest team by trading their lone .300 hitter (Mickey Vernon) and only double-digit winners (Mickey McDermott and Bob Porterfield) for 10 players aged 27 or younger, eight of whom were in uniform that day. In contrast, the Orioles lineup had relatively few new faces. There was 34-year-old Bobby Adams manning second base, and the rookie pitching the opener of the twin bill, 26-year-old Fred Besana.

After serving four years in the US Air Force, Besana’s professional record was 6-14 in the Pacific Coast League, with an average of 6.3 walks per nine innings. He was 6-feet-3 and left-handed, however, and showed enough promise to crack manager Paul Richards’ bullpen in spring training. Five games into the new season, however, veteran Bill Wight had already been clobbered so badly in two Baltimore defeats that Richards wanted to see how Besana handled starting.3

Washington’s Eddie Yost worked a base on balls to begin the game; no surprise since “The Walking Man” would draw 151 to lead the majors that year. But two more Besana free passes loaded the bases with one out, and first-time regular Jim Lemon ripped a two-run single off the glove of Orioles third baseman Fred Marsh to make the rookie pay.4 A third run scored on a fielder’s choice bouncer before the inning ended.

In the bottom of the frame, the Senators sent 25-year-old southpaw Bob Wiesler to the hill. Wiesler, making his second start since coming to the Senators in a February trade with the Yankees, had lost the first one to his former team by surrendering six runs in three innings. A single and a walk gave the Orioles quick hope, but Wiesler whiffed Dave Philley, and Gus Triandos grounded into an around-the-horn double play.

Besana set down three straight hitters after allowing an infield hit to start the second. When it was Baltimore’s turn to bat, the youngest player in either lineup, 23-year-old Jim Pyburn, sliced an opposite-field double into the right-field corner leading off.5 Pyburn took third on an infield out and scored the Orioles’ first run on a wild pitch.

Washington advanced a runner to within 90 feet of home plate in the top of the third, but Besana handled an inning-ending comebacker before walking in his first big-league plate appearance to start the bottom of the frame. After another base on balls and a sacrifice, Philley’s RBI single to right pulled Baltimore to within a run, 3-2 and Senators manager Charlie Dressen yanked Wiesler. Connie Grob, a right-handed Rule 5 draftee, relieved and walked the first batter in his major-league debut. Lefty pinch-hitter Tito Francona then smashed a potential double-play grounder, but the tying run scored when he beat the return throw to first with his hustle.6 Next, Baltimore seized the advantage on a double steal. When Senators catcher Ed Fitz Gerald tried to cut down Francona going for second base, Philley – the oldest man on the field at 35 – swiped home easily as the throw sailed into center field.

Pitching with a lead for the first time in the top of the fourth, Besana allowed a one-out double and saw one man reach on an error before handling another inning-ending grounder. The Orioles went quickly in the bottom of the frame, grounding out three times against Grob.

Besana walked a pair in the top of the fifth between a trio of fly outs. Grob made it eight straight Orioles retired in the bottom of the inning, inducing two more grounders and notching his first big-league strikeout.

In the sixth, Besana worked out of a jam after allowing Pete Runnels’ second double of the day and uncorking a wild pitch. Pinch-hitter Harmon Killebrew, 19, lined out to short, Yost struck out and rookie Dick Tettelbach made the last out of the inning for the third time in six frames. In its half, Baltimore notched two hits against reliever Pedro Ramos, but when Francona tried to race from first to third on Hal Smith’s two-out safety, he was cut down by Washington center fielder Karl Olson.

On cue, Olson led off the seventh and singled. When Roy Sievers followed by drawing Besana’s sixth walk, Richards called on veteran righty Fritz Dorish to protect Baltimore’s 4-3 lead and changed his entire outfield, shifting Philley from right to left and Francona from center to right, and summoning defensive whiz Chuck Diering from the bench to play center field. The Senators answered with a trio of left-handed pinch-hitters. Whitey Herzog made an infield out. Next, Baltimore fans razzed the appearance of ex-Oriole Clint Courtney, who pulled a sharp grounder toward first.7 Courtney lost a foot race to the bag to make the second out, but spiked Dorish on the right heel in the process. Dorish needed 12 stitches to close the wound but managed to retire Ernie Oravetz on a lineout to second before heading to Union Memorial Hospital.8 Ramos held Baltimore scoreless in the bottom of the seventh.

The Orioles’ new pitcher in the eighth was George Zuverink, who would lead the AL with 62 appearances that season. Future two-time batting champion Runnels greeted him with a single to complete a perfect 4-for-4 day. Another lefty pinch-hitter, Lou Berberet, grounded into a double play, and the inning ended when Yost struck out again.

Baltimore gained some breathing room in the bottom of the eighth. With a runner at second and one out, Francona hit a smash to shortstop Jose Valdivielso, who’d entered the game an inning earlier. Valdivielso booted it. When Francona was trapped in a rundown between first and second, Runnels’ throw hit him in the back and bounced into the Baltimore dugout.9 The Senators led the AL in errors in 1956, and their two miscues on one play (making three in the contest) allowed the Orioles’ fifth run to score. Smith’s RBI single tacked on another, and Willy Miranda – 1-for-20 to that point in the new season – singled as well to extend the lead to 7-3.

In the top of the ninth, Tettelbach fouled out to third, Olson singled, and Sievers fouled out to first. Zuverink then walked Herzog and hit Courtney to load the bases. Dressen sent up Herb Plews to pinch-hit, marking the second time that week that the Senators had used 19 players in a single game, a figure they would exceed only once all year. Representing the potential tying run, Plews grounded to Zuverink for the final out. In defeat, the Senators went 1-for-17 with runners in scoring position and left 13 on base. “More Washington men were left on base than peanut shells at a circus,” wrote Bob Addie in the Washington Post.10

Zuverink earned the first of his AL-leading 16 saves, while Besana notched what proved to be his lone career victory. “I thought Besana looked real good today,” Richards said.11 Columnist Gordon Beard wrote, “Richards was so impressed by Besana’s performance he said he intended to give him more starting assignments.”12 As it happened, Besana made only one more start. He was one of five members of the Orioles’ starting nine from the contest who’d be gone from the team for good by the end of May.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL195604221.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1956/B04221BAL1956.htm

Notes

1 Bob Addie, “Pascual Sets Down Orioles on Four Hits,” Washington Post, April 23, 1956: 11.

2 Jesse A. Linthicum, “Sunlight on Sports,” Baltimore Sun, April 23, 1956: S17.

3 Gordon Beard (Associated Press), “Rookie Fred Besana Shines in Major Loop Mound Debut,” La Crosse (Wisconsin) Tribune, April 23, 1956: 11.

4 Lou Hatter, “Birds Rally from 3-0 Deficit to Win Opener,” Baltimore Sun, April 23, 1956: S15.

5 Hatter.

6 Hatter.

7 Linthicum.

8 Hatter.

9 Hatter.

10 Addie.

11 Bob Maisel, “Bird Hurling List Revised,” Baltimore Sun, April 23, 1956: S15.

12 Beard.