July 4, 1976: Basepath blunder costs Phillies’ Tim McCarver a Bicentennial grand slam

On July 4, 1976, the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, the bases were loaded for Philadelphia Phillies catcher Tim McCarver in the first game of a doubleheader at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium. McCarver drove Pittsburgh Pirates starter Larry Demery’s pitch over the fence for an apparent grand slam—but passed teammate Garry Maddox after rounding first base. The basepaths blunder shrunk McCarver’s Bicentennial blast into a three-run single in the Phillies’ 10-5 win.

McCarver, who debuted with the St. Louis Cardinals at age 17 in 1959 and became St. Louis’s starting catcher in 1963, was a credible power threat early in his career, ranking fifth among big-league backstops with 37 homers from 1965 through 1967.1 In 1964 McCarver won Game Five of the World Series with a three-run, 10th inning homer at Yankee Stadium; four years later, he provided the go-ahead runs in Game Three of the 1968 World Series with a three-run blast at Tiger Stadium.

By the time Phillies manager Danny Ozark inked him into the lineup’s eighth-place spot on Independence Day 1976, however, the 34-year-old McCarver had homered just once since June 1973, a span of nearly 600 plate appearances. Released by the Boston Red Sox in June 1975, McCarver had headed home to Tennessee, with a scheduled television audition in Philadelphia foreshadowing his post-playing future as a Hall of Fame-honored broadcaster.2 But the Phillies had instead offered him the chance to continue as a pinch-hitter and third-string catcher.3

As the 1976 season approached its midpoint, McCarver had assumed a unique niche: exclusive catcher for the ace pitcher on the majors’ hottest team.4 When Steve Carlton struggled in his first three outings of the season,5 Ozark had paired him with McCarver, a Carlton batterymate both in St. Louis and Philadelphia.6 All 12 of McCarver’s starts in 1976 had come with the 31-year-old Carlton pitching, and Carlton had gone 7-2 with a 2.54 ERA in those games.

Ozark again deployed his Carlton-McCarver battery in the opener of Sunday’s doubleheader in Pittsburgh. After splitting the first two games of their series, the Phillies—second place behind the two-time defending division champion Pirates in 1975—had a majors-best 51-21 record and a nine-game lead over Pittsburgh.

Facing Philadelphia was Demery, a reliever in 16 of his previous 18 outings. Manager Danny Murtaugh hoped the 23-year-old right-hander could neutralize the Phillies’ righty-heavy lineup.7

Demery’s first inning was perfect, but Philadelphia pounced in the second. Greg Luzinski’s leadoff drive landed just out of Dave Parker’s grasp in right; the beefy Luzinski reached third with what turned out to be his only triple of the season.8 Dick Allen walked, and Jay Johnstone’s double to right-center scored Luzinski and set up Maddox with runners on second and third.9

Murtaugh bypassed the .303-hitting Maddox with an intentional walk, loading the bases for McCarver, himself at .300 in part-time play.

McCarver swung at Demery’s first pitch and pulled it deep to right-center. The ball soared over the wall at the 375-foot sign.10 McCarver’s second homer in more than 1,100 days seemed at hand—and a grand slam at that.

But Philadelphia’s four-man Independence Day parade soon broke cadence. Third base coach Billy DeMars had been sidelined ever since Johnstone bruised his kidney with a batting-practice line drive in June,11 and regular first base coach Bobby Wine had moved to third.12 When Maddox reached first after the intentional walk, bullpen coach Carroll Beringer—coaching first in Wine’s place—had reminded the Phillies center fielder to tag up on a medium-depth fly ball.13

Dutifully, Maddox retreated to first as McCarver’s high drive sailed through the air. He started toward second once the ball was over the fence, but by then McCarver—“Into my Cadillac trot, head down,” he said afterwards—had caught up to him.14

“First time I notice Garry is when I’m even with him,” McCarver said.15

McCarver passed Maddox by about six feet.16 He attempted to backpedal, but it was too late. Second base umpire Ed Vargo called McCarver out.17 The seeming slam withered into a three-run single for a 4-0 advantage.

McCarver’s time behind the plate was considerably more routine. Carlton walked Frank Taveras to begin the first before turning NL batting leader Al Oliver’s one-out comebacker into a double play. The Pirates were retired in order for the next three innings in a row.

Another leadoff triple ignited the Phillies in the fifth. This time, it was former Pirate Dave Cash with a three-base-hit into the left-field corner.18 Larry Bowa’s single drove in Cash, and Philadelphia had at last attained the 5-0 lead that baserunning follies had denied three innings earlier.

Bowa stole second and continued to third on a throwing error by catcher Manny Sanguillén, whose defensive miscues had led to three Philadelphia runs in the series’ first two games, including Saturday’s winning run.19 Mike Schmidt walked, and Murtaugh went to the bullpen for Rick Langford, appearing in his fourth major-league game after a mid-June call-up from Triple A.20

As Langford warmed up, the afternoon again veered into absurdity. Security intercoms buzzed with reports of a fan on the field. Several members of the stadium’s security cadre sprung to action, decided that Vargo—a native of nearby Butler, Pennsylvania—was the fan, and apprehended him. It turned out that the “fan on the field” alert was a hoax, and Vargo returned to his umpiring duties.21 Luzinski’s sacrifice fly drove in Bowa for a 6-0 Phillies’ lead.

Willie Stargell walked to lead off the bottom of the fifth, but Richie Zisk grounded to third baseman Schmidt, who started an around-the-horn double play. At this point, Pittsburgh’s offense – branded the “Lumber Company” in the club’s promotional campaign22 – began to agitate.

Former Phillie Bill Robinson, who had won the series opener with a 10th-inning home run,23 homered for the Pirates’ first hit of the day. Parker followed with a single, and Sanguillén doubled him home. Tommy Helms pinch-hit for Langford and connected on his first home run since September 1974; the Pirates had turned their 6-0 hole into a 6-4 game in just four swings.

Murtaugh turned to Kent Tekulve to keep it close. In the series opener, the Phillies had ended the slender 29-year-old submariner’s 15⅓-inning scoreless streak.24 Here, Maddox led off with a single, and Sanguillén’s defensive struggles resumed. Maddox stole second and reached third on the Pittsburgh catcher’s second throwing error in two innings.

McCarver walked, and Carlton’s RBI single restored Philadelphia’s lead to three runs. McCarver went to third on the play and took off for home on Cash’s grounder to second baseman Rennie Stennett. Home plate umpire Satch Davidson initially ruled a sliding McCarver out, then changed the call to safe when the ball rolled free from Sanguillén’s grasp. Sanguillén had his third error of the game, and the Phillies’ lead was 8-4.25

The Pirates had two bids for late-game fireworks. Sanguillén’s two-out RBI single in the seventh knocked out Carlton, but Ron Reed retired pinch-hitter Bob Robertson for the final out. In the eighth, Reed set down the potent trio of Oliver, Stargell, and Zisk to quash a two-on, no-outs threat.

The late innings provided one touching moment, when the stadium’s electronic scoreboard displayed the words, “Welcome Back, Dee.” From a seat behind home plate, Stargell’s wife Dolores, hospitalized in May with a blood clot and aneurism on her brain, stood, waved, and blew a kiss towards Stargell.

“Tears scaled his cheeks, dripping into his bushy beard,” observed the Philadelphia Inquirer of Stargell.26

The Phillies made it 10-5 in the ninth on RBI singles by Maddox and Bob Boone—inserted at catcher after Carlton’s departure—off Ramón Hernández. Reed closed out the Pirates to earn the save.27

Pittsburgh’s 7-1 win in the second game left the doubleheader and series as splits. Philadelphia maintained a nine-game divisional lead.

McCarver’s moment was the target of good-natured postgame humor. He labeled it a “grand slob.”28 Teammate Tug McGraw called it a “grand sob.”29

“At first I was teed off,” Ozark said. “But pretty soon my sides were aching from laughing.”30

“You screw up right out in front of 30,000 people it’s kinda tough to hide,” McCarver said. “Besides, how can you dig a hole in artificial turf?”31

McCarver hit a homer that counted on August 4, a solo shot against Joe Coleman of the Chicago Cubs.

“When I hit that ball today,” he jested, “I said to myself, ‘Thank God there’s nobody on base.’”32

Two more home runs followed for McCarver in 1976. The Phillies won the NL East by nine games over the Pirates.33

On July 5, 1977, 366 days after his “grand slob,” the bases were loaded for McCarver in the sixth inning against the New York Mets, whose games he later broadcast for 16 seasons. He hit reliever Rick Baldwin’s pitch over the right-field fence at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium. All four Phillies circled in bases in due order, and McCarver received a standing ovation for the sixth and final grand slam of his big-league career.

“I should have had seven (grand slams),” McCarver laughed. “Except for Garry.”34

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Keith Thursby.

Photo credit: Tim McCarver, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT197607041.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1976/B07041PIT1976.htm

Notes

1 During those seasons, the only major-leaguers who were catchers in the majority of their defensive appearances and hit more home runs than McCarver were Joe Torre (83 home runs), Tom Haller (57), Bill Freehan (42), and Gene Oliver (39). (Rico Carty, who was primarily an outfielder but also played catcher, hit 40 home runs during those years.)

2 Frank Dolson, “Like Old Times for McCarver,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 2, 1975: 1-D.

3 Dolson, “Like Old Times for McCarver.” Right-handed batting Bob Boone and left-handed batting Johnny Oates were splitting catching duties when McCarver joined the Phillies in 1975.

4 Allen Lewis, “McCarver Likes His Role and Plays It Like a Star,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 15, 1976: 1-D.

5 Bill Conlin, “McCarver’s Catching Helps Carlton Catch on,” Philadelphia Daily News, May 12, 1976: 75. Carlton was 0-1 with a 12.00 in his first three starts of 1976 before his first game with McCarver catching, a complete-game 4-2 win over the Atlanta Braves in the second game of a May 1 doubleheader.

6 They were Cardinals teammates from Carlton’s major-league debut in 1965 through McCarver’s trade to the Phillies after the 1969 season. The February 1972 trade of Carlton to Philadelphia for Rick Wise reunited them, but the Phillies traded McCarver to the Montreal Expos for catcher John Bateman four months later in June 1972. When McCarver returned to Philadelphia in 1975, he caught nine consecutive Carlton starts from July 12 through August 18.

7 Bob Smizik, “Surging Bucs Punctuated with Question Marks: Finish off Cubs, 7-5; Await Phillies,” Pittsburgh Press, July 1, 1976: 30.

8 Charley Feeney, “Pirates, Phils Split – But Nothing Is Settled,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 5, 1976: 31.

9 Feeney, “Pirates, Phils Split – But Nothing Is Settled.”

10 Bill Lyon, “Tim Enrolled on Trivia List,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 5, 1976: 1-C.

11 Tony Wood, United Press International, “Billy DeMars’ Hitting School,” Lebanon (Pennsylvania) Daily News, June 25, 1976: 7.

12 Allen Lewis, “Pop Fly Makes Giants Fizzle as Phillies Win, 9-3,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 7, 1976: 1-C; Barry M. Horstman, “Allen’s Homer, Double Help Phillies Win,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 25, 1976, 1-C; Lyon, “Tim Enrolled on Trivia List.”

13 Lyon, “Tim Enrolled on Trivia List.”

14 Lyon, “Tim Enrolled on Trivia List.”

15 Lyon, “Tim Enrolled on Trivia List.”

16 Feeney, “Pirates, Phils Split – But Nothing Is Settled.”

17 Lyon, “Tim Enrolled on Trivia List.”

18 Feeney, “Pirates, Phils Split – But Nothing Is Settled.”

19 In Pittsburgh’s 10-9, 10-inning win in the series opener, Sanguillén’s ninth-inning passed ball had allowed Mike Schmidt to advance to third, from where he scored the tying run on Terry Harmon’s pinch-hit single. The Phillies scored a sixth-inning run on Saturday after another passed ball, and Sanguillén failed to block home plate when Cash scored the winning run on Schmidt’s ninth-inning single. Bob Smizik, “Phillies Slide Past Pirates,” Pittsburgh Press, July 4, 1976: D-1.

20 Charley Feeney, “Bucs Promote Langford; Giusti Disabled for 21 Days,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 12, 1976: 6. Langford went on to pitch in 260 major-league games over 11 seasons with the Pirates and Oakland A’s.

21 Feeney, “Pirates, Phils Split – But Nothing Is Settled.”

22 “The Lumber Co.,” Pittsburgh Press, April 11, 1976: D-9.

23 The Pirates had acquired Robinson, a Phillie from 1972 through 1974, in an April 1975 trade for pitcher Wayne Simpson. Most often used as an outfielder, he was starting at third because of Richie Hebner’s back injury. Feeney, “Pirates, Phils Split – But Nothing Is Settled.”

24 Tekulve had pitched three scoreless innings in the series opener before leaving the game in the ninth with two Phillies on base, and both runners scored with fellow relievers Bob Moose and Ramón Hernández on the mound.

25 Feeney, “Pirates, Phils Split – But Nothing Is Settled.”

26 Feeney, “Pirates, Phils Split – But Nothing Is Settled”; Bill Lyon, “A Large Kiss for Stargell,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 6, 1976: 1-D.

27 Carlton’s record improved to 8-3. Demery dropped to 5-2. Reed was credited with his third save.

28 Dave Fink, “Sangy and McCarver: Tale of Two Players,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 5, 1976: 31.

29 Lyon, “Tim Enrolled on Trivia List.”

30 Lyon, “Tim Enrolled on Trivia List.”

31 Lyon, “Tim Enrolled on Trivia List.”

32 Tom Cushman, “Vintage McCarver Fills Phils’ Order,” Philadelphia Daily News, August 5, 1976: 50.

33 The Phillies lost the NL Championship Series in a three-game sweep by the eventual World Series champion Cincinnati Reds.

34 Bruce Keidan, “Four Phillie Homers Rout Mets: Carlton Is Superb in 12-1 Zip,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 6, 1977: 1-C.