August 13, 1960: Clemente, Haddix, Groat lead Pirates over Cardinals

“There are many things we only see clearly in retrospect.”1

The quote from Japanese writer Haruki Murakami had nothing to do with the August 13, 1960, baseball game between the eventual World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals. However, in retrospect, the game proved to be important for both the Pirates and Cardinals, as well as Pittsburgh’s exciting right fielder, Roberto Clemente.

One week before, the first-place Pirates were playing at home against the San Francisco Giants. In the seventh inning the Giants’ Willie Mays ripped a pitch to deep right field off Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell. Roberto Clemente, in his sixth major-league season and soon to be a bona fide superstar, raced back to the concrete wall and with a one-handed grab snared Mays’s drive while crashing face-first into the outfield barrier. Clemente was “rewarded” for his spectacular catch with a hospital stay from an injured knee and a gash below his mouth. He received five stitches to his chin and missed the next six Pirates games.2

Clemente returned to the Pirates lineup on August 12, vs. Bob Gibson of the Cardinals. He went hitless as the Cardinals thrashed the Pirates, 9-2. The game was St. Louis’s second straight victory over Pittsburgh and 14th win in 16 games. The victory pulled them to within three games of the league-leading Pirates.

The next day, two left-handers faced each other in game three of the series. Cardinals skipper Solly Hemus selected Ray Sadecki as the starting pitcher. Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh countered with Harvey Haddix.

Sadecki was only 19 years old and in his rookie year when he took the mound. Just one week earlier, he had pitched a six-hit complete game against the Milwaukee Braves, thrusting the Cardinals into second place behind the Pirates.3

Haddix was facing his former team and still looking for a victory against them in 1960. For St. Louis, Haddix had been a three-time All-Star and was runner-up for the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 1953. He slipped to a 12-16 mark and a 4.46 ERA in 1955. The Cardinals shocked their fans when they traded him to Philadelphia during the 1956 campaign. After nearly two full seasons, Haddix was traded again, this time to Cincinnati. Haddix came to the Pirates for the 1959 season with Don Hoak and Smoky Burgess in exchange for slugger Frank Thomas and three other players. Haddix is best known for pitching 12 perfect innings in 1959 against the Milwaukee Braves.

With the matchup of southpaws, both managers loaded their lineups with right-handed batters. Consequently, left-handed batsmen, even fan favorites like Stan Musial and others, were relegated to the dugout. However, Musial was in the lineup the two previous evenings and demonstrated that after 18-plus seasons in St. Louis, he still had magic in his bat. He collected four hits against Pittsburgh in the two games, including a game winning 12th-inning two-run home run.

The Saturday afternoon game started ominously for the Pirates and Haddix. The first batter, Julian Javier, doubled and scored on a single by Bob Nieman. At the end of half an inning, the score stood 1-0, St. Louis. Little did the Cardinals know their lead would be short-lived thanks to Clemente and his teammates.

In the home half of the first, Pirates shortstop Dick Groat hit a line drive that eluded Cardinals right fielder Charlie James. The hit resulted in a triple for Groat, his fourth of the year. Clemente immediately knotted the score, 1-1, with an RBI single to left, his first base hit since his August 5 injury.

The second inning was a scoreless frame for both sides. However, the home half of the third resulted in tallies for the Bucs, thanks again to the duo of Groat and Clemente.

After Groat doubled, Clemente brought the more than 30,000 fans to their feet by driving a Sadecki pitch to deep left field.4 The two-run homer, which easily cleared the Forbes Field wall, was Clemente’s eighth of the season, surpassing his career high of seven in 1956.5 At the end of three innings, the Pirates were outpacing the Cardinals, 3-1.

The fourth inning was “curtains” for Sadecki. After walking Bill Virdon, Groat followed with a single that moved Virdon into scoring position. Clemente sent Sadecki to the showers with an infield single that scored Virdon. At this point, Clemente had three hits and four RBIs. After the fourth inning, the score stood 4-1 in the Pirates’ favor.

For the remainder of the game, scoring opportunities were scarce for both teams. After the first inning, Haddix settled down and scattered four harmless singles the rest of the way. He allowed only one runner to advance to second base. Cardinals relievers Ron Kline and Bob Grim were nearly as stingy, limiting the Pirates to third base only once.

Haddix induced the Cardinals to go quietly in the ninth. The final tally showing on the scoreboard was Pirates 4, Cardinals 1. With the victory, the Pirates once again had a four-game lead over the Redbirds. The Cardinals loss snapped both their six-game winning streak and nine straight road wins.

Pirates shortstop Dick Groat ended his day with four hits and a walk. At year-end, he led all National League hitters with a .325 average.

Clemente, however, was the game’s hero. He collected three hits – two singles and a home run – and drove in all four Pirates runs. He was given due credit for the victory in the next day’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sports section. The headline proclaimed, “Clemente’s Bat Beats Cards, 4-1.” Also, the newspaper’s box score shouted the greeting, “Ariba, Roberto!”6

The Puerto Rican native, while leading his Pirates to victory, still didn’t have the type of high-profile game that sticks in one’s mind. For example, the game didn’t have an exciting finish like when Clemente slugged a walk-off inside-the-park home run against the Cubs.7 Or the Cincinnati Reds game when he blasted three home runs and knocked in seven runs.8 Clemente’s catch in Houston, when Astros manager Harry Walker called it “the greatest catch he ever has seen,” far overshadowed the excitement of August 13, 1960.9 No, the contest wasn’t remembered in the manner in which some games are easily recalled. A Pittsburgh sportswriter, after acknowledging the heroics of Clemente and Haddix, called the contest after the fourth inning a “seven-eleven game” (seven Cardinals hits and 11 for the Pirates).10

However, in retrospect, the game with St. Louis was quite important to Pittsburgh on that sunny afternoon in 1960. The Redbirds were hot and gaining ground on the Pirates, who faced the prospect of losing three straight to a team that was inching closer to their first-place position. “Stopping the bleeding” can be an overused phrase but it seems apropos for this game. Clemente, along with key teammates, “stepped up” and propelled the Pirates to victory over the Cardinals and eventually the NL pennant and World Series Championship.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The game on August 13, 1960, in Forbes Field, was the first major-league baseball game I ever attended. I was 8 years old.

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.

h​ttps:​//www​.base​ball-​refer​ence.​com/b​oxes/​PIT/P​IT196​00813​0.​sht​ml

h​ttps:​//www​.retr​oshee​t.org​/boxe​setc/​1960/​B0813​0PIT1​960.h​tm

NOTES

1 Haruki Murakami. h​ttps:​//www​.good​reads​.com/​quote​s/728​1105-​there​-are-​many-​thing​s-we-​only-​see-c​learl​y-in-​retro​spe​ct (Accessed December 2, 2021). Ironically, in 1978 Murakami was in Jingu Stadium watching a baseball game between the Yakult Swallows and the Hiroshima Carp. During the game, Murakami, for an unknown reason, suddenly realized that he could write a novel. He went home and began writing that night. Murakami’s first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, launched his writing career which as of 2021 totaled over two dozen titles. h​ttps:​//www​.haru​kimur​akami​.com/​aut​hor (Accessed August 22, 2021).

2 Les Biederman, “Corsairs Revive Merriwell Saga on Late Flurries,” The Sporting News, August 17, 1960: 13; Jorge Iber and Bill Nowlin, eds., Moments of Joy and Heartbreak: 66 Significant Episodes in the History of the Pittsburgh Pirates (Phoenix: Society for American Baseball Research, 2018), 272.

3 In 1964, Sadecki helped the Redbirds to a world championship as a 20-game winner.

4 The paid attendance was 24,620 plus 6,191 Knot Hole members. Jack Hernon, “Roberto Drives in Four Runs; Haddix Victor,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 14, 1960: 3, 1.

5 Clemente finished the 1960 season with 16 home runs.

6 Jack Hernon, “Clemente’s Bat Beats Cards, 4-1,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 14, 1960: 3, 1.

7 July 25, 1956.

8 May 15, 1967.

9 Charley Feeney, “Greatest Catch? This One by Roberto Will Do,” The Sporting News, July 3, 1971: 7.

10 Hernon, “Clemente’s Bat Beats Cards, 4-1.” Seven of the 11 Pirates hits were from the bats of Clemente and Groat.