May 13, 1967: Tigers’ George Korince earns first major-league win

May 13 was still early in the 1967 season. A sparse crowd of 9,606 was in attendance on a cool spring day in Boston’s Fenway Park with temperatures in the low 60s. Strong winds between 18 and 21 MPH were blowing from left to right field. The first-place Detroit Tigers were clinging to a half-game lead in the American League. Their opponents, the Boston Red Sox, were in eighth place, 5½ games back. For the latter, what would become the Impossible Dream was far from anyone’s mind.

Likewise, the two pitchers of record that day would likely not have envisioned their future fates. For the winning pitcher, George Korince, it proved to be his only big-league victory. The losing pitcher, John Wyatt, would in the next 17 months be a contributing member of the pennant-winning seasons of both of that day’s opposing teams. Wyatt’s relief appearance in this game became the subject of postgame controversy.

Both Boston and Detroit had begun the season with new managers: Dick Williams for the Red Sox and Mayo Smith for the Tigers. The two teams were headed in opposite directions. Boston had lost seven of its last nine games and had slipped two games below .500. Detroit had won six in a row and nine of its last 10.

The game itself was entertaining, a classic Fenway Park offensive display with 18 runs scored and the outcome remaining in question until the final at-bat. The Red Sox started the scoring in the bottom of the first. Detroit pitcher Joe Sparma entered the game with a 4-0 record. Sparma, who had frequent control issues throughout his career, had a shaky start. He yielded leadoff singles to José Tartabull and Joe Foy. After a fly out, Tartabull scored on George Scott’s groundout. Sparma then heightened the excitement with a wild pitch and two walks to load the bases. He escaped further damage by inducing a groundout to short.

The Tigers quickly retaliated against Boston starter Dennis Bennett, in the top of the second. Jim Northrup’s single to center was followed by a walk to Bill Freehan. Norm Cash was safe on an error to load the bases. Northrup scored on Ray Oyler’s groundout to second. Bennett then mishandled Sparma’s attempted sacrifice bunt to again load the bases. Further scoring was avoided with a popout and a strikeout.

The game remained tied until the bottom of the fourth, when Boston’s Tony Conigliaro singled to lead off. Rico Petrocelli’s single moved him to second. Mike Ryan singled, scoring Petrocelli. A leadoff home run by Foy in the next inning increased the Red Sox lead to 3-1. In the top of the sixth, the Tigers again rallied to tie the score at 3-3. Dick McAuliffe‘s bases-loaded single scored Freehan and Cash.

This tie score was short-lived. The Detroit bullpen faltered in the bottom of the fourth. Johnny Klippstein, a 39-year-old veteran, replaced Sparma. Petrocelli greeted him with a double. A groundout advanced Petrocelli to third. Boston catcher Mike Ryan walked. Manager Mayo Smith quickly replaced Klippstein with Larry Sherry. Dalton Jones, pinch-hitting for Bennett, then singled in Petrocelli. Ryan went to third and scored on Tartabull’s sacrifice fly. A groundout ended the inning with Boston leading 5-3.

Again, the Tigers responded in their next at-bat. Boston reliever Dan Osinski also faltered. Willie Horton led off the seventh with a double and Northrup doubled him home. Osinski got Freehan to fly out. Then, with a one-run lead, Boston manager Williams brought in veteran reliever John Wyatt, who had not yielded an earned run in nine appearances to start the season. Wyatt recorded two outs to end the inning with Boston clinging to a 5-4 lead.

The score remained the same for the next at-bats by each team. Sherry retired the Red Sox in order in the bottom half of the seventh. Wyatt yielded only a walk in the top the eighth.

Mayo Smith then called upon the young reliever Korince, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound, hard-throwing Canadian right-hander. The Detroit press had labeled him “the golden boy of the organization.”1 Korince was a strikeout artist who in the previous season made it to the majors in just his second season of professional ball at the age of 20. This was his third appearance in the 1967 season. Spanning the two seasons to date, he had pitched six innings with six strikeouts and no runs. Korince reflected years later, “We were losing at the time so I knew they were going to bring me in to get more experience.”2 He issued a walk, but held Boston scoreless.

Wyatt remained in the game to face the Tigers in the top of the ninth. He had pitched two scoreless innings in the previous night’s 5-4 loss to the Tigers. Having already pitched 1⅔ innings, Wyatt faltered, yielding three runs before recording an out. He hit Horton to start the inning. Northrup doubled off the left-field wall. Freehan homered into the right-field bullpen. He later credited the home run to the strong wind, saying that without it the ball “never would have gone out of here.”3

Wyatt retired Cash, but Dick Tracewski doubled and pinch-hitter Earl Wilson homered. Suddenly the score was 9-5, Detroit, and the Tigers were not finished. Wyatt hit McAuliffe who scored on a double off the wall by Al Kaline. Kaline’s blast was, perhaps, the hardest-hit ball, as verified by outfielder Carl Yastrzemski who said, “The ball was actually out of the park and blew back in.”4

After the game, Wyatt told sportswriters, “It’s always embarrassing to get bombed. … I just ran out of gas. I looked into the dugout a couple of times, but the manager never came out.”5 The Boston newspapers were more caustic in their criticism of manager Williams. The Boston Record in bold print proclaimed, “The mystery of the game … was why Red Sox manager Dick Williams let Wyatt take so much abuse. … John deserves more sympathy than scorn.”6 Rookie manager Williams defended himself after the game, walking the press through his decision-making batter by batter. He concluded: “I have only one guess. The rest of you have a guess before and after.”7

Despite the Tigers’ five-run lead, true to Fenway’s reputation, the game wasn’t quite over.

Pitcher Dave Wickersham came in to close out the game for Detroit. With two outs and two Red Sox aboard, the wind carried a routine fly by Tony Conigliaro away from center fielder Mickey Stanley. Two runs scored and Conigliaro got a triple. Petrocelli then doubled him home, making the score 10-8. With the tying run at the plate, Wickersham recorded the final out by getting Don Demeter to ground out to third, ending a game that saw 18 runs and 24 base hits.

Korince was the pitcher of record when the Tigers scored the go-ahead runs and thus the winning pitcher. He did not receive a game ball. In 2012 Korince recalled, “There was nothing like that then.”8

Wyatt was the losing pitcher, but for the season he was a key ingredient in the Red Sox’ success. Wyatt finished the season 10-7 with an ERA of 2.60 and 20 saves. In the World Series he pitched 3⅔ innings, yielded two runs and earned a victory. During the offseason Wyatt was sold to the New York Yankees, who traded him to the Tigers on June 15, 1968. Wyatt contributed to the Tigers’ 1968 championship run while pitching in 22 games and logging a 2.37 ERA.

The winning pitcher, George Korince, was at the apex of his baseball career. He had just recorded his first win, but was soon back in the minors. In the second game of a doubleheader the day after his win, his scoreless streak ended. He yielded five runs in 2⅔ innings against the same Red Sox. Korince pitched in four more games with mixed results. On May 28 he was optioned to the minors with a 5.14 ERA. He never returned to the majors. Korince pitched three additional seasons in the minors before retiring at age 24.

Detroit had now won seven in a row and Boston slipped to 6½ games back. The Red Sox would hover around the .500 level through the All-Star Game. Then they reeled off 10 straight victories to climb back into the pennant race in what became a four-team battle for the AL pennant. The outcome was not decided until the final day of the season. Boston finished first with Detroit and Minnesota one game back. The Red Sox took the World Series to Game Seven but came up short, and did not win a World Series for another 37 years. In the 1968 season the Tigers were the World Series champs.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

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/BOS/BOS196705130.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1967/B05130BOS1967.htm

Notes

1 “4 Rookie Hurlers Rate Tiger Shot,” Detroit Free Press, February 22, 1967: 3-D.

2 Bernie Puchalski, “Merritton’s Moose Joins St. Catharines’ Sport Hall,” St. Catharines (Ontario) Standard, May 4, 2012: B2.

3 Lou Connelly, “Wind-Blown Home Runs Flatten House of Wyatt,” Boston Sunday Herald, May 14, 1967: 2C.

4 Connelly.

5 George Cantor, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 … Amazin’ Tigers Streak On, 10-8,” Detroit Free Press, May 14, 1967: 39.

6 Larry Claflin, “Wilson HR Ruins Sox 10-8,” Boston Record, May 14, 1967, 68.

7 Joe Cashman, “Williams Defends His Actions,” Boston Sunday Herald, May 14, 1967: 2C.

8 “Merritton’s Moose Joins St. Catharines’ Sport Hall.”