June 27, 1963: Phillies’ Johnny Callison hits for the cycle, sparking ‘merry-go-round of base runners’

The Philadelphia Phillies finished 81-80 in 1962, the franchise’s first winning season in nine years, but by June 23, 1963, they were nine games under .500. The ’63 Phillies’ fortunes turned, however, after a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field, highlighted by right fielder Johnny Callison’s hitting and throwing in a 13-4 rout on June 27.1

The Phillies arrived in Pittsburgh at the end of a 17-game road trip. Led by 37-year-old Gene Mauch, in his second season as a big-league manager, Philadelphia had dropped 10 of the first 14 games on the trip, scoring just 37 total runs and falling to eighth place in the National League with a 31-40 record. Only the second-year expansion New York Mets and Houston Colt .45s trailed the Phillies in the NL standings.

Don Demeter’s 10th-inning home run against Harvey Haddix gave Philadelphia a 5-4 win in the series opener on June 25, and Callison’s first-inning blast off Bob Friend put the Phillies ahead to stay in the next night’s 6-2 win, a complete-game victory for 37-year-old former Pirate Cal McLish. The Phillies were within a game of the seventh-place Pirates, who had lost 14 of their last 21.

A pair of right-handers started the final game of the series. For Pittsburgh, journeyman Don Cardwell took the hill. Originally signed by the Phillies in 1954, the 27-year-old Cardwell had been traded twice in the 1962-63 offseason: from the Chicago Cubs to the St. Louis Cardinals in October, then from the Cardinals to the Pirates in November.2 Primarily a starter, Cardwell had posted just one winning season in seven major-league campaigns. He brought a 3-8 record and a 4.02 earned-run average to the contest.

Opposing Cardwell was rookie Ray Culp. The Phillies had signed him in 1959. Although he struggled in three minor-league seasons,3 he came north with the team after spring training and did not disappoint. After four appearances out of the bullpen, Culp joined the starting rotation. By the end of June, the 21-year-old Culp had already thrown four shutouts, seven complete games, three three-hitters, and a two-hitter. With his 2.52 ERA, he was in search of his 10th win of the season.

The Phillies jumped ahead in the top of the first. As in the previous night’s game, the 24-year-old Callison, an All-Star in 1962, ignited Philadelphia’s attack. Callison, who had led all NL batters with 10 triples in ’62, launched his fourth triple of the season to right. Tony González’s groundout brought Callison home for an early Phillies lead.

Cardwell and Culp matched scoreless innings for a while after that. The Pirates threatened to draw even in the fourth when Bill Virdon batted with runners on first and second with two outs. Virdon singled to right, and 35-year-old catcher Smoky Burgess headed home from second. Callison gunned the ball to Clay Dalrymple to tag Burgess at the plate and keep the Phillies ahead.4

With the score 1-0 in the top of the fifth, Bobby Wine and Rubén Amaro opened the inning with back-to-back singles, putting runners at the corners. Cardwell appeared to settle things down; Culp popped up a bunt attempt, and first baseman Donn Clendenon fielded Tony Taylor’s grounder and threw home for Burgess to tag Wine out.

The left-handed-batting Callison, who had grounded out in the third, came up with two outs. He swung at Cardwell’s 1-and-0 pitch and sent the ball out of the park, over a steel exit gate in deep right-center. Callison’s ninth home run of the season gave Philadelphia a 4-0 lead.

Culp put up a one-two-three fifth inning, and the Phillies broke the game open in the sixth. On the first pitch of the inning, Demeter’s shallow fly ball to center dropped in front of a diving Virdon for a double. Frank Torre drove Cardwell’s next pitch to right and had another double when Roberto Clemente was unable to make the catch; Demeter, holding up until the ball fell in, took third.5

Cardwell intentionally walked Dalrymple to load the bases before being relieved by Vern Law. The 33-year-old Law had been hindered by injuries ever since he sprained his ankle during the team’s celebration of its 1960 NL pennant, a season in which he won two World Series games and received the NL Cy Young Award.6

In 1963 Law’s ailments kept him off a major-league mound until May 5,7 and after eight starts, he was relegated to the bullpen. This was his second relief appearance in as many days. The righty’s ERA was 5.95.

Philadelphia’s aggressive batting continued, as each of the next four Phillies made contact with Law’s first offering. Wine flied out, but Amaro lined a triple into the left-center gap, clearing the bases and making it 7-0. Culp grounded out, and then Taylor singled to left, plating Amaro. Callison joined the hit parade with a single to left, giving him a single, triple, and home run in four at-bats.

González grounded a single up the middle, and Taylor scored Philadelphia’s ninth run, ending Law’s day at 11 pitches, 6 batters, 4 hits, 3 inherited runners scored, and 2 runs allowed of his own. Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh brought in right-hander Tommie Sisk, who struck out Demeter to end the inning.

The visitors exploded for three more tallies against Sisk in the seventh, continuing what the Philadelphia Inquirer called “a merry-go-round of base runners.”8 Torre singled, Dalrymple walked, and both players scored on Wine’s double off the left-field wall. Two outs later, Taylor singled, sending Wine to third. Callison dropped in what the Pittsburgh Press described as a “pop fly” double to left.9 Wine scored, and Callison had hit for the cycle. It was a 12-0 game.

Meanwhile, Culp was cruising with the big lead. He had allowed just two hits – both groundball singles – through six innings. Burgess led off the bottom of the seventh with a walk but was erased when Clendenon hit into a double play.

At this point, the Pirates finally broke the shutout. Virdon and Johnny Logan both singled. Left fielder González fumbled Logan’s hit, committing his first error in 206 games,10 and Pittsburgh had two men in scoring position. Ted Savage, pinch-hitting for Sisk, walked to load the bases. Bob Bailey’s single drove in two runs, and then Culp yielded his sixth walk of the game, to Dick Schofield. With the bases loaded once again, Culp managed to induce a force out by Clemente to end the inning.

Second-year pitcher Bob Veale became Pittsburgh’s fourth pitcher in the eighth. With two down, Dalrymple crushed his fifth home run of the season, well over the right-field wall. The Phillies led, 13-2.

“[B]y this time most of the 9576 cash customers had departed [Forbes Field] although many of the original turnout of 4787 ladies still remained to cheer, silly as it sounded with the Pirates so far in arrears,” the Pittsburgh Press observed.11

Culp had thrown 105 pitches on a warm night,12 and Mauch went to the bullpen in the eighth. Pittsburgh scored twice against relievers Dennis Bennett and Johnny Klippstein to make it a 13-4 game, but that was as close as the Pirates came. Klippstein closed out the ninth inning to complete the sweep.

Culp earned his 10th victory,13 prompting Mauch to tell reporters, “I’d have to bet he’s on the All-Star squad.”14 Culp said, “I’m just glad to be up here, and I hope I can stay around a few years.”15 Culp became the first Phillies pitcher to win 10 games before the end of June since Robin Roberts did so in 1955.16 Despite all of the walks, the Pirates left a dozen runners on base.

The Phillies had scored 24 runs on 37 hits in the three-game sweep. The Pirates scored just 10 runs, despite banging out 34 hits in the series. Pittsburgh’s team was described as playing “the sorriest baseball they’ve played in years.”17 The Phillies and Pirates swapped positions in the NL standings, as Philadelphia was in seventh place by percentage points.18

With his four hits, Callison extended his hitting streak to eight games and raised his batting average to .263. “I’m seeing the ball better, that’s all,” he said after the game.19 He finished the 1963 season batting .284 with an OPS of .840, the second-highest mark in his career.

Callison became the first Phillies player since Chuck Klein in 1933 to hit for the cycle.20 Callison’s teammates combined to add a “team cycle”: In addition to Callison’s feat of four different hits, the Phillies hit a homer, a triple, two doubles, and nine singles. Philadelphia’s 18 hits were a high to this point in the season.21

From the sweep in Pittsburgh through the end of the season, the Phillies went 56-35. Their .615 winning percentage over that period was second-best in the NL to the pennant-winning Los Angeles Dodgers’ .641. Philadelphia finished fourth with an 87-75 record, 12 games behind the Dodgers.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin. Thanks to John Fredland for his pertinent suggestions.

Photo credit: Johnny Callison, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT196306270.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1963/B06270PIT1963.htm

Notes

1 After June 24, only the Los Angeles Dodgers among NL teams (59-33) and the New York Yankees among AL teams (64-32) had a better winning percentage than Philadelphia (56-35) to finish the season.

2 Cardwell was traded by the Chicago Cubs on October 17, 1962 (with George Altman and Moe Thacker), to the St. Louis Cardinals (for Larry Jackson, Lindy McDaniel, and Jimmie Schaffer). The Cards dealt Cardwell a month later, on November 19 (with Julio Gotay), to Pittsburgh (for Dick Groat and Diomedes Olivo).

3 Mark Armour, “Ray Culp,” SABR Biography Project.

4 Philadelphia Daily News coverage also credited first baseman Frank Torre’s play earlier in the inning, turning Burgess’s bouncer into a force at second base, with helping to keep the Pirates scoreless in the fourth. Stan Hochman, “Torre Play Made 13-4 Win Easier,” Philadelphia Daily News, June 28, 1963: 69.

5 Jack Hernon, “Phillies Drop Pirates to 8th, 13 to 4: Callison’s Triple, Homer Help Chase Cardwell, Law,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 28, 1963: 18.

6 C. Paul Rogers III, “Vern Law,” SABR Biography Project.

7 “Bucs Recall Vernon Law from Kinston Farm Club,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 1, 1963: 22.

8 Allen Lewis, “Callison Socks Single, Double, Triple, Homer,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 28, 1963: 36.

9 Lester J. Biederman, “Pirates Hope Luck Changes With Mets: Third Straight Loss to Phils, 13-4, Drops Bucs to Eighth Place in NL,” Pittsburgh Press, June 28, 1963: 22.

10 González had set the major-league mark for nonpitchers the day before by going 205 games without a miscue. This record has since been broken, again and again. As of the beginning of the 2024 season, Robbie Grossman held the record, with 440 consecutive games without an error, in a span of five seasons (June 14, 2018, to July 8, 2022).

11 Biederman, “Pirates Hope Luck Changes With Mets.”

12 “[A] combination of the heat and too many pitches took [Culp] out of action in the eighth inning,” reported the Pittsburgh Press. Biederman, “Pirates Hope Luck Changes With Mets.”

13 Even though he recorded only four outs and Philadelphia held a nine-run lead when he entered the game, Klippstein is credited with his second save of the season by both Baseball-Reference and Retrosheet. The save did not become an official statistic until the 1969 season.

14 Hochman. Culp was indeed selected to the senior circuit’s squad. He pitched one inning, allowing a hit but no runs, as the National League defeated the American League, 5-3. Culp was the lone Phillies player to appear in the game.

15 Hochman. Culp stayed for in the majors for 11 seasons, yet he made only one other All-Star team (while pitching for the Boston Red Sox in 1969).

16 Lewis. 1955 was Roberts’ last 20-win season.

17 Hochman.

18 The Phillies were 34-40 (.459), while the Pirates were 33-39 (.458).

19 Hochman. This was Callison’s longest hitting streak of the season. He went hitless the next day against the Chicago Cubs. He matched the streak of eight games with a hit August 4-10. (This stretch included two doubleheaders.)

20 Klein’s second career cycle, against the Cardinals on May 26, 1933, was the Phillies’ most recent before Callison’s.

21 The Phillies had 19 hits in a 12-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 28, the next to last game of the season.