June 25, 1972: Clemente’s two assists help Pirates win again at Wrigley

Over the course of his career, there were 14 games in which Roberto Clemente earned two outfield assists in the game. The Pirates lost the first 12 games. On September 14, 1971, he recorded two assists in a game the team won.

In 1972, which proved to be his last season, Clemente added another game during which he had two assists – and the Pirates won. They beat the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, 9-2, on June 25.

Neither assist was on a deep throw from right field to home or to third base. But Clemente still earned two assists. And his team won. The assists were in the sixth and eighth innings.

The Pirates were in first place coming into the game, 1½ games ahead of the New York Mets. The Cubs were in third place but only four games behind Pittsburgh. Leo Durocher was managing the Cubs. After winning seven in a row, they had lost their last three games. Durocher’s starter was 22-year-old Burt Hooton (6-4). Starting for Bill Virdon‘s Pirates was Dock Ellis (6-3).

The Cubs scored once in the first on a Don Kessinger double and a two-out single by Jim Hickman. They added another run in the bottom of the fifth after José Cardenal singled and Billy Williams tripled “high off the vines,” hitting maybe six or seven inches from the top of the center-field wall.1

The Pirates got their first run in the top of the sixth. With one out, Clemente singled to right field. He went to third base on a ground-rule double by Willie Stargell, a weird wind-blown hit of which Cubs left fielder Williams said, “The wind had it. It landed about a foot and a half fair, took one bounce, and spun into the clubhouse door.”2 The Associated Press said it “caromed off the left field wall and into the open door of the Cub clubhouse in foul territory.”3 Al Oliver grounded to short, but Clemente scored on the play.

In the bottom of the sixth, Ron Santo singled to left field with one out. Second baseman Paul Popovich popped up to second baseman Dave Cash. Santo was thrown out on the basepaths, in the books as Cash to Clemente to shortstop Gene Alley. Inning over. The 4-9-6 play sounds like a confusing one. The “wind blew” the popup “all over the place” with Cash “finally making a diving catch and throwing to second, where a confused runner, Ron Santo, was tagged to complete a double play.”4 The Chicago Tribune’s Bob Logan quoted Santo: “It was a hit-and-run play. I hurried back to first and then I saw Clemente trying to pick the ball out of Cash’s glove, so I thought he had dropped it. That’s why I went to second.”5

Neither team got the ball out of the infield in the seventh, three groundouts for the Pirates and two groundouts and a strikeout for the Cubs.

The Pirates scored four runs in the top of the eighth. Cash made the first out, but Hooton gave up a single to Richie Hebner, who was thrown out trying to stretch it to a double, an assist to right fielder Cardenal. “It was a big play, but the Bucs shook it off,” wrote Charley Feeney.6 Clemente singled to right, and so did Stargell, who took second base on Cardenal’s throw to third base hoping to get Clemente. Durocher replaced Hooton with left-hander Dan McGinn, who walked Al Oliver. He then replaced McGinn with Tom Phoebus, a right-hander, to pitch to catcher Manny Sanguillen, who hit a 1-and-1 pitch for a grand slam “into the wind in left center field.”7 It was the first grand slam of Sanguillen’s career. He came up with the bases loaded the day before, also in the eighth inning, and drove in two runs, breaking a 1-1 tie and producing a 3-1 Pirates win. The grand slam took him to 12-for-25 against the Cubs through this game. Having grown up in Panama, where there was no night baseball, Sanguillen said he liked playing at Wrigley. “When I come to Chicago, I feel like I’m in my home town. I like to play in the daylight.… The grass is beautiful here.”8

The Pirates were now sitting on a 5-2 lead, with Virdon giving the ball to Ramón Hernández. Kessinger popped up to second base. Billy Williams singled to right. Hickman came up and he hit the ball to right fielder Clemente, who decoyed Williams into thinking he was going to catch the ball, then let it bounce and fired it to shortstop Alley for a force out at second base, removing Williams – by far a faster baserunner than Hickman. Pittsburgh sportswriter Smizik credited the play to “the guile of Roberto Clemente.”9 It was Clemente’s second outfield assist in the game.

Rick Monday reached on an infield single. Dave Giusti relieved Hernández, and the inning ended as it had begun, with a popup to second base, off the bat of Santo.

The Pirates scored another four runs in the top of the ninth. Alley began the rally by drawing a walk. Giusti laid down a bunt and made it safely to first base. Cash singled to left, scoring Alley. Giusti was out trying to go first to third. Hebner singled to right; Cash advanced to third. Jack Aker took over pitching for Phoebus. Clemente reached on a fielding error by shortstop Kessinger; Cash scored while Hebner took third and Clemente took second. Vic Davalillo grounded out, Hebner scoring. Oliver singled back to the pitcher, and Clemente scored. Sanguillen struck out to end the top of the ninth.

In the bottom half, Giusti got Popovich to hit the ball back to him and then struck out the final two batters. He earned his 10th save of the season; he’d earned a save in each of the three games against the Cubs.

In the final standings, the Pirates (96-59) finished first in the National League East and considerably ahead of the second-place Cubs, who at 85-70 were 11 games behind. After the first 91 games, with the Cubs at 46-44-1, Whitey Lockman was brought in to replace Durocher as manager. Under Lockman, the team went 39-26.

The Pirates played the best-of-five National League Championship Series against the Cincinnati Reds, but lost the final game, 4-3, when the Reds overcame a 3-2 deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning. Johnny Bench led off the inning with a home run, tying the score. With two outs and runners on first and third, a wild pitch by Pittsburgh’s Bob Moose allowed George Foster to score from third base with the winning run.

In all, Clemente had 14 games in which he had two outfield assists. Working with Retrosheet data, SABR member Vinay Kumar compiled a list of all players from 1947 through 2020 showing the number of games in which a given outfielder had eight or more two-assist games.

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. Thanks to Gregory H. Wolf for supplying Pittsburgh newspaper accounts for this game. Thanks to Chris Dial and Vinay Kumar.

h​ttps:​//www​.base​ball-​refer​ence.​com/b​oxes/​CHN/C​HN197​20625​0.s​html

h​ttps:​//www​.retr​oshee​t.org​/boxe​setc/​1972/​B0625​0CHN1​972.​htm

NOTES

1 Richard Dozer, “Pirates’ Late Rallies Slam Door in Cubs 9-2,” ???? “on Cubs”???? Chicago Tribune, June 26, 1972: C1.

2 Bob Logan, “Monday Cites ‘Pride’ of Cubs, ‘A Good Team,’” Chicago Tribune, June 26, 1972: C3.

3 Associated Press, “Pirates Whip Cubs, 9-2 on Sanguillen’s Homer,” Hartford Courant, June 26, 1972: 31.

4 Logan.

5 Logan. Cash made the putout, with Clemente apparently taking the ball from him and throwing to get another out.

6 Charley Feeney, “Sangy/Giusti Duo Clinches Sweep of Cubs,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 26, 1972: 16.

7 “It was not a crushing wind,” wrote Feeney, “about six miles an hour. It couldn’t stop Sangy’s drive from carrying over the wall.”

8 Bob Smizik, “Manny Right at Home as Bucs Rout Cards,” Pittsburgh Press, June 26, 1972: 25. Clemente said, “He should have been the All-Star catcher last year. Nobody deserved it more.… But no matter what he does, he’ll never be the All-American kid. He’ll always be a black Panamanian.” Associated Press, “Sanguillen Loves to Play Day Ball,” Bloomington (Illinois) Pantagraph, June 26, 1972. B-1. The AP story noted that Clemente “always has held the black and Latin players never get due recognition.”

9 Smizik.