September 1, 1961: New coach, new catcher, but still no victory for Cubs

When the Chicago Cubs took the field for their first game in September of 1961 they had a new manager – or as they called him, “head coach” – and a new catcher.

For the season, the Cubs had instituted a field management strategy that involved rotating a “College of Coaches,” each taking turn as the head coach.1 Vedie Himsl, Harry Craft, Elvin Tappe, and Lou Klein each had at least one turn as the head coach in the College of Coaches system. There were eight head coach changes during the season.

Tappe had the longest tenure at the helm, covering 78 games from June 9 to August 31. On Friday, September 1, with Chicago’s 54-73 record ranking seventh in the eight-club National League, Tappe was assigned to travel through the Cubs’ farm system and Klein took over. Klein had played in the major leagues for the St. Louis Cardinals, Cleveland Indians, and Philadelphia Athletics, but did not have any big-league managerial experience.

The new Cubs catcher was 29-year-old Facundo “Cuno” Barragan. He was playing in his first game at any level for the season. During spring training, the Sacramento, California, native, a veteran of six minor-league seasons, suffered a broken ankle. After a few months at home recovering, he rejoined the team and was outfitted with binoculars and placed in the scoreboard to steal signals from the opposing catcher.2 On September 1 he was in the number-eight batting slot in the Cubs’ lineup for his first major-league game.

The Cubs were 22½ games behind the first-place Cincinnati Reds. The visiting San Francisco Giants were in fourth place, seven games back. The previous day, the Cubs had defeated San Francisco, 6-1, giving the Giants their sixth loss in seven games.

Right-hander Glen Hobbie, in his fifth season with the Cubs, was on Wrigley Field’s mound for the home team. Rookie left-hander Dick LeMay, a replacement for former Cub Sam Jones, who was a late scratch due to a stiff neck, toed the rubber for San Francisco. LeMay, primarily a reliever, had not started since July 8.3

It was a warm and humid day with the temperature reaching 90 degrees at the start of the game. In the lineups were seven future Hall of Famers: three with the Giants (Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, and Willie McCovey) and four with the Cubs (Ernie Banks, Richie Ashburn, Ron Santo, and Billy Williams). First-base umpire Jocko Conlan also was inducted into the Hall of Fame. But in 14 innings, stretching for more than four hours, not one of the Cooperstown-bound players scored a run or batted in a run.

Right fielder George Altman led off the Cubs’ half of the second inning with a single to right and took second on Billy Williams’s groundout. After Williams, Santo also grounded out. First baseman André Rodgers – who had begun his major-league career with the Giants in 1957, when he became the first Bahamas-born player in the National or American League – came to the plate with two outs and gave the Cubs the lead with a two-run homer. It was Rodgers’ sixth and final home run of the season.4

With the small crowd of 5,427 still buzzing over Rodgers’ blast, Barragan entered the batter’s box for his first major-league at-bat. “I don’t remember the excitement of going to bat the first time because there was a home run hit right before me,” he recalled in 2017.5

On the second pitch from LeMay, Barragan slugged the ball toward the left-field seats.6

“I was running like it was going to be a double and when I saw the umpire signaling a home run I started laughing,” he remembered. “When I got to the dugout no one greeted me. I never did get the ball.”7

In the minor leagues, Barragan had hit only 17 home runs. Still, he became just the 33rd player in National or American League history to homer in his first major-league at-bat. The only previous Cub with a first-at-bat home run was Paul Gillespie in 1942.8

Hobbie took the 3-0 lead into the sixth, when Harvey Kuenn’s home run gave San Francisco its first run of the game. Giants catcher Ed Bailey was involved in the next two runs for the visitors. In the seventh inning he walked and later scored on a double play; and in the eighth he rapped a single to center to drive in rookie Ernie Bowman, running for Kuenn.

Before being replaced in the eighth inning, Barragan grounded out twice to shortstop. Surprisingly, in seven innings behind the plate he did not record a single putout since neither starter Hobbie nor reliever Bob Anderson had a strikeout with him catching.

Tied, 3-3, the game went into extra innings. San Francisco pitcher Stu Miller followed LeMay with five scoreless innings of relief. In the bottom of the 13th the Cubs threatened to score and win the game against Dom Zanni, the fifth Giants pitcher of the afternoon.

Santo led off with a walk and went to second on a sacrifice by Rodgers. Dick Bertell, who had replaced Barragan as catcher, popped up for the second out. Sammy Taylor, pinch-hitting for pitcher Barney Schultz, was given an intentional pass. Leadoff man Richie Ashburn, in the next-to-last season of his career, coaxed a walk to load the bases. Billy Loes replaced Zanni on the mound and got pinch-hitter Ed Bouchee to fly out to left field for the final out of the inning.

Don Elston came into pitch for Chicago in the 14th. He struck out José Pagán for the first out and followed that up with a strikeout of Loes. With two outs, Elston thought he had a third strikeout to end the inning, but home-plate umpire Ken Burkhart called the pitch a ball.9 Joey Amalfitano – later a Cubs player, coach, and manager – took advantage of the second chance and kept the Giants alive with a single to right field.

Bowman, who had entered the game in the eighth inning as a pinch-runner and scored the Giants’ third run, came up for his third at-bat. He had a .222 batting average and no extra-base hits for the season, but he lined Elston’s pitch deep into right-center field, scoring Amalfitano and landing himself at third base with a triple. It was the first of only two runs batted in by Bowman for the season. Felipe Alou ended the inning with a groundout to shortstop.

Elston, still upset over the strikeout that he didn’t get against Amalfitano, couldn’t resist a tirade against umpire Burkhart on the way to the dugout after the last out. Burkhart ejected him.10

Aside from a walk to Billy Williams, the Cubs went quietly in the bottom of the inning against Loes, and the Giants captured a 4-3 victory. The game lasted 4 hours and 5 minutes.

Klein served as the Cubs’ head coach through September 10, posting a 5-6 record. At that point, Tappe returned as head coach for the remainder of the season. The Cubs finished in seventh place with a 64-90 record. They continued with the College of Coaches for the 1962 season but returned to a conventional manager role with Bob Kennedy in 1963.

Barragan appeared in 69 games for the Cubs from 1961 through 1963, batting .202. His first-at-bat home run was the only homer of his major-league career.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Joseph Wancho and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Cuno Barragan, 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/CHN/CHN196109010.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1961/B09010CHN1961.htm

Notes

1 Richard Puerzer, “The Chicago Cubs’ College of Coaches: A Management Innovation That Failed,” The National Pastime, Vol. 26 (2006), https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-chicago-cubs-college-of-coaches-a-management-innovation-that-failed/.

2 Tom Crisp, interview with Cuno Barragan, February 28, 2017.

3 Associated Press, “Giants Win in 14th, 4-3,” Buffalo Courier Express, September 2, 1961: 12.

4 In 1962 Rodgers took over at shortstop when Banks moved to play first base.

5 Tom Crisp, interview with Cuno Barragan, February 28, 2017.

6 United Press International, “SF Bounces Back Into Third Place,” Sacramento Bee, September 2, 1961: B1.

7 Tom Crisp, interview with Cuno Barragan, February 28, 2017.

8 Ed Eagle, “Players With Home Run in First At-Bat,” MLB.com, June 26, 2024, https://www.mlb.com/news/home-run-in-first-at-bat-c265623820.

9 Richard Dozer, “Giant Sub Ends Game With Triple,” Chicago Tribune, September 2, 1961: 4,1.

10 “Giant Sub Ends Game With Triple.”