June 24, 1970: Bobby Murcer hits 4 home runs in a doubleheader, and much more

The morning after the Yankees hosted the Indians in a doubleheader on June 24, 1970, the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote, “Yankee Stadium was filled with trouble makers yesterday, but the biggest one, as far as the Indians were concerned, was New York center fielder Bobby Murcer.”1

Murcer led off the bottom of the ninth inning of the first game with a home run to right field, his 10th of the season and first in four straight at-bats for the day.2 It was one of the many unusual events that happened on that wild day in the Bronx.

Sam McDowell won the first game of the twin bill for his 10th win of the season in a complete-game five-hitter with Murcer’s solo shot making it a 7-2 final.

In the first of many occurrences that made this a special day, 6-foot-6 Yankees reliever Steve Hamilton came on in relief in the top of the ninth and unleashed his “folly floater3” against Tony Horton. The Indians first baseman had stroked a single off the pitch earlier in the season. After Horton fouled the first one back, Hamilton told Horton it was coming again, and Yankees catcher Thurman Munson caught the second foul pop after a long run behind the plate. Horton took it in good humor, crawling into the dugout after throwing his bat and batting helmet into the air.4 Later, he said, “I felt like crawling in a hole.”5 Some feel that was an early sign of Horton’s psychological problems, as he left the team two months later to seek treatment, and never played again.6

After retiring Ted Uhlaender with conventional pitches, Hamilton threw two more folly floaters to rookie Roy Foster. With two strikes Hamilton then threw the even rarer “hesitation hummer.” a pitch that started with the classic slow delivery of the folly floater but then was hummed in as a fastball.7 Munson caught the foul tip for the third strike “and Foster blew his stack as Ham walked off the mound to the thunderous applause of the crowd.”8

The fireworks continued in the second game, literally and figuratively. Again batting second in the order, Murcer started the game as he ended game one, with another homer to right field, off Indians starter Mike Paul to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Horton led off the fourth for the Indians with a monstrous shot off Yankee starter Stan Bahnsen that wound up behind the center-field monuments for a triple that could have easily been an inside-the-park home run, as Murcer had to run between two of the monuments to retrieve the ball while Horton made a wide turn around third.9 Horton scored on a sacrifice fly by Uhlaender, putting the Indians ahead 2-1. Murcer said, “[A]ll I was worried about was getting it over Babe’s head and hitting the cutoff man,” referring to the Babe Ruth monument, behind which he found the ball.10

Murcer walked in the fourth but got no farther than third as Gene Michael popped out to third baseman Graig Nettles to end the inning with the bases loaded. Cleveland’s Vada Pinson, playing left field, singled to right in the fifth and went to second on catcher Ray Fosse’s groundball to shortstop. He was tagged out at home for the third out by Bahnsen while trying to score from second on a wild pitch.

Pinson came in hard. After tagging Pinson out, Bahnsen slammed the ball down. It bounced and hit Pinson, who angrily challenged Bahnsen. The Yankees pitcher reminded Pinson he’d have to bat against him again. The two tangled briefly at home plate as Pinson landed a solid punch on Bahnsen’s jaw, leading to his ejection while Bahnsen remained in the game. This led to Tribe manager Alvin Dark playing the game under protest, a futile effort that was later dismissed. As players from both teams milled around after the fight, a cherry bomb was tossed on the field from the upper deck.

The crowd was riled up and, with Yankees third baseman Jerry Kenney at the plate, another cherry bomb thrown from the upper deck exploded at the feet of catcher Fosse, burning his right foot. Fosse stayed in the game after receiving first aid. According to Newsday, many people pointed out the perpetrator11 and Louis Espada, a 24-year-old Manhattanite, was arrested to the cheers of the crowd and was later held on $1,500 bail.12

When order was restored, Kenney led off the bottom of the fifth with a ground-rule double. With two out, Murcer launched his second homer of the game and third of the day deep into right field, putting the Yankees up 3-2. Starter Mike Paul got the final out but was replaced at the start of the sixth inning by Phil Hennigan. After walking Munson, Hennigan got out of the inning when right fielder Ron Woods struck out and Munson was thrown out trying to steal second.

Fred Lasher replaced Hennigan for the seventh and struck out the side. With Fosse on first after a single in the Indians eighth, Nettles put the Indians ahead 4-3 with a homer. That set the scene for Murcer, up second in the bottom half of the inning. With one out he hit a homer in his fourth consecutive at-bat, and third of the game, this one off Lasher, to tie the game, 4-4. The homer came on a 3-and-2 count in an at-bat in which Murcer fouled off seven pitches, three after the count reached 3-and-2, and including a few into the stands that were just a few feet foul. As he crossed the plate, Murcer tipped his hat to the crowd. He said later he appreciated their ovation, that “you know they’re pulling for you as much as you are for yourself.”13

Roy White followed Murcer’s homer with a double and scored the go-ahead run on Danny Cater’s single to center. Dean Chance replaced Lasher and got the final two outs in the eighth when Cater was caught stealing and Munson struck out. Lindy McDaniel recorded his seventh save of the season with a one-two-three top of the ninth.

Reports of the games pointed out how special the day had been. Newsday’s Joe Donnelly closed his column saying, “Finally the crowd, too, went home. They had been given a lot to remember.”14 In the New York Post, Maury Allen said tongue in cheek, “[T]hose routine Wednesday afternoon doubleheaders with the Indians just wouldn’t be the same without (Murcer).”15

Manager Ralph Houk rewarded Murcer’s accomplishments with the number-three spot in the batting order the next night. After walking in his first at-bat, Murcer was unable to make history, popping out to second on a checked swing with the count 2-and-2 and two men on against Cleveland rookie Steve Dunning, who had been the club’s first-round draft pick out of Stanford three weeks before. The Yankees won that one 3-1 with Roy White garnering all three RBIs, giving Fritz Peterson his 10th win.16

Murcer ended the doubleheader with 13 homers and finished his second full season for the Yankees with 23 homers and 78 runs batted in. In the course of his 18 years in the majors, 13 of which were in two stints with the Yankees, Murcer hit 252 home runs. The 31,295 fans at Yankee Stadium on this day in 1970 saw four of them. And a whole lot more.

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/NYA/NYA197006242.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1970/B06242NYA1970.htm

Photo credit: Courtesy of Lew Insler.

Notes

1 Russell Schneider, “Murcer Hits Four as Indians Split,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 25, 1970: 1F.

2 Since walks do not count as at-bats, Murcer is considered to have homered in four consecutive at-bats.

3 Hamilton played for the Minneapolis Lakers in the 1959 finals against the Celtics, one of just two players to be in the World Series and the NBA Finals. According to Leonard Koppett, “[t]he Folly Floater is the direct descendant of Rip Sewell’s Ephus Pitch of the 1940’s and Satchel Paige’s celebrated Hesitation Pitch. Out of a jerky, delayed wind-up, Hamilton’s delivery makes a high, slow parabola and drops through the strike zone;” Leonard Koppett, “Hamilton’s Pet Pitch – The Folly Floater,” The Sporting News, September 6, 1969: 6. Hamilton is also remembered for once swallowing his chewing tobacco and getting sick while on the mound for the Yanks.

4 One can find the video and Phil Rizzuto’s call at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFvp7kMraAw, last accessed October 4, 2022.

5 Russell Schneider, “Batting Around,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 25, 1970: 2F.

6 Chris Jaffe, “15,000 Days Since Murcer’s Biggest Day and Tony Horton’s Declining Mental Health,” Hardball Times, July 19, 2011, https://tht.fangraphs.com/tht-live/15000-days-since-murcers-biggest-day-and-tony-hortons-declining-mental-heal/.

7  Paul Dickson, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, Third Edition (New York: W.W. Norton, 2009), 407-08.

8 “Murcer Hits 4 as Yankees Split,” New York Daily News, June 25, 1970: 122.

9 Recollection of author, who was at the game, confirmed by YouTube video of the event at https://www.pinstripealley.com/2017/3/16/14954770/my-favorite-yankee-stadium-memory. Last accessed October 4, 2022.

10 Larry Merchant, “Summer Festival,” New York Post, June 25, 1970.

11  Joe Donnelly, “Bronx Bomber Faces 2 Years, 7 Months,” Newsday (Suffolk edition), June 25, 1970: 49.

12 “Cherry Bomb Tosser Held in $1500 Bail,” New York Daily News, June 26, 1970: 86.

13 “Murcer Hits Four as Indians Split”; Pete Alfano, “Murcer’s Day of Greatness: 4 HR’s,” Newsday, June 25, 1970: 50.

14  Joe Donnelly, “Floaters, HR’s, Fights – The Stadium Had It All,” Newsday, June 25, 1970: 48.

15 Maury Allen, “Murcer Hits Glory Road,” New York Post, June 25, 1970.

16 Leonard Koppett, “Peterson Allows Indians 9 Singles,” New York Times, June 26, 1970: 49.