September 1, 1963: Yankees’ Tom Metcalf gets sole major-league win, aided by home runs

Tom Metcalf had been called up by the New York Yankees in early August of 1963 and had appeared in only four games for the league-leading Yankees during the month. Relief appearances were few and far between; the New York staff led the American League in complete games with 59. In fact, the Yankees used only eight relievers during the season in addition to relief appearances by starters. (In the 1960s it was fairly common for even star hurlers to sometimes work in relief.1)

As the calendar flipped to September, the Yankees found themselves 12 games up on the rest of the American League field and were going for a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles in a three-game road series.

The Sunday afternoon contest was scoreless until the home half of the third. Boog Powell grounded out, scoring Luis Aparicio. One batter later, John Orsino hit his 15th home run of the year, also scoring Russ Snyder to give Baltimore a 3-0 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, New York starter Ralph Terry loaded the bases with two outs before giving way to Steve Hamilton. The lanky southpaw struck out Jim Gentile to end the threat.

Tom Metcalf had worked six innings in his four games, without a decision but with a 4.50 earned-run average. He came into the game in the sixth inning and got a pair of groundouts and a strikeout while allowing a harmless two-out infield single to Bob Johnson. The seventh inning would be a little tougher for Metcalf.

Yankees center fielder Tom Tresh hit a solo home run in the top of the seventh to cut the deficit to 3-1. In the bottom half, Aparicio singled and moved to second on a groundout. A balk by Metcalf moved Aparicio to third and then Powell was intentionally walked to set up a double play.

Up to the plate strode Orsino, who not only had hit a home run in the third, but hit one off Metcalf in the right-hander’s first big-league appearance, in the first game of a doubleheader on August 4. (New York Daily News writer Joe Trimble called it a “horrendous debut.”2)

“I hung a curveball and he hit it down the line and just inside the foul pole,” said Metcalf of Orsino’s homer in the pitcher’s major-league debut.3

The pitcher got the better of the duel this day, with Orsino fouling out to first baseman Joe Pepitone for the second out. Gentile made up for his previous at-bat, singling Aparicio home to extend the Orioles lead to 4-1. Al Smith lined out to center, retiring the side.

“My idea at that time was that I’m going to get [Orsino] on my curveball,” said Metcalf. “I’m not going to pitch around him.” And Metcalf got his “revenge” on the Baltimore catcher with the popup.

Metcalf was due up third in the top of the eighth, but gave way to pinch-hitter Mickey Mantle. The slugger was in the midst of an injury-plagued season, playing in only 65 games. Mantle broke his left foot and banged up his left knee during an early June contest, losing a battle with the outfield wall in Baltimore.4

“I hear kind of a roar and I turn and look and Mantle is just stepping out of the dugout with his bat,” said Metcalf with a smile. “Mantle says, ‘Tom, how does it feel to have a drunk pinch-hitting for you?’ I figured he was coming in and I kind of laughed and headed for the dugout.

“The night before, he and [Orioles first-base coach] Hank Bauer and [Yankee pitcher] Whitey Ford were out all night. I don’t think he figured he would be playing the next day.

“Bauer called time out and went out to talk to [Baltimore pitcher] Mike McCormick,” recalled Metcalf. “He probably said something like ‘don’t give him anything off-speed. Bring the fastball.’ I’m pretty sure that’s what he said.”

With one man on, Mantle turned around on a first-pitch fastball and drilled a home run to left field, making it a 4-3 game. Mantle grinned as he rounded the bases. Afterward he said, “After not batting for a long time, and taking one swing, it has to be luck.”5

Three batters later, Tresh hit his second round-tripper of the game, a two-run blast to put the Yanks up 5-4, which is how the game finished after a six-up, six-down performance by reliever Hal Reniff. Metcalf got the win.

Metcalf pitched in three more games during the regular season, ending with a total of eight appearances, the one win, and an ERA of 2.77. He probably could have been credited with another win on September 7 in a game against Detroit in which the Yankees scored eight times in the fifth inning after trailing 6-3. He was the pitcher of record, but was pinch-hit for in the big inning. Wrote Trimble in the New York Daily News after official scorer Til Ferdenzi gave Reniff the win, as he pitched 3⅓ innings to close the game. “The scoring rules permit this elasticity of choice in a flappy game such as this.”6

“It was a brief appearance in the middle innings,” remembered Metcalf. “I saw the paper the next morning and thought they made a mistake. I was a rookie so I wasn’t going to complain to a writer. I thought I’d get my share of wins. I wasn’t worried about that. When I was done playing, I would get baseball cards and see the one win listed. Then it was kind of annoying.”

The Yankees finished the season with a record of 104 wins and 57 losses, 10½ games in front of the runner-up Chicago White Sox. But the World Series was a different story. The Los Angeles Dodgers swept New York behind the exquisite pitching of starters Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and Johnny Podres. Relief ace Ron Perranoski barely broke a sweat, pitching two-thirds of an inning while the three starters did all the rest.

As for Metcalf, he did not see any game action in the sweep.

“I felt going into that Series that I would not pitch,” recalled Metcalf. “I thought the only way I would get in is if the starter got lit up early, but that really never happened. In the last game, [manager Ralph Houk] had me warming up but I didn’t go in.

“We were overwhelmed by the Dodgers pitching staff,” said Metcalf. “We were just dominated.”

The next season Metcalf found himself in competition for a relief spot with Pete Mikkelsen. He also found that Houk had moved up to the front office and that Yogi Berra was taking over in the dugout. Berra preferred Mikkelsen, who threw the sinkerball. Metcalf was more of a fly-ball pitcher.

At that point, Houk told Metcalf, “Tom, I’m not in favor of this deal, but Yogi has the right to choose his players. Go down and do the best you can and I’ll try to get you back here.”7 So, Metcalf reported to Richmond, albeit a couple of days late, and started working on a sinkerball.

“And that’s when I hurt my arm,” said Metcalf.

Metcalf toiled in the minor leagues for two more years, never getting that call from Houk. In the spring of 1966, he decided to retire from the game.

“Sometimes I wake up at night and wish that I hadn’t ended my career so soon.”

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/BAL/BAL196309010.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1963/B09010BAL1963.htm

Notes

1 The top five Yankees starters worked in relief 24 times in 1963.

2 Joe Trimble, “Mantle Comes Back with Pinch HR,” New York Daily News, August 5, 1963: 40. Metcalf gave up five hits and three earned runs in two innings of work.

3 Interview with Tom Metcalf, September 1, 2022. Unless otherwise attributed, all direct quotations from Tom Metcalf come from this interview.

4 Jim Elliott, “Mantle Fractures Foot as Yankees Defeat Orioles, 4-3,” Baltimore Evening Sun, June 6, 1963: 33.

5 Gordon Beard, “Mick Hurtin’ Less, Wants in Lineup,” Baltimore Sun, September 2, 1963: B7.

6 Joe Trimble, “Yanks’ 8-Run 5th Smothers Tigers, 11-6; Rog Connects,” New York Daily News, September 8, 1963: 150.

7 Interview with Tom Metcalf, December 22, 2021.