September 22, 1954: Karl Spooner strikes out 15 in Dodgers’ debut

It was the last week of the 1954 regular season, a disappointing one for the Brooklyn Dodgers. The archrival New York Giants were in town, grabbing the opportunity to clinch the National League title in the opener of the three-game series. They were going to the World Series and the Dodgers were going home in a few days’ time. After all, Dodgers fans expected their team to be in pennant contention and this was the earliest September date on which they had been eliminated since 1948.2

Now, the Dodgers’ job was to halt a season-high five-game losing streak after also losing the second game of the series. A sparse crowd of 3,256 fans decided to spend their afternoon at Ebbets Field, the smallest crowd for any Dodgers vs. Giants game this season. Perhaps they were intrigued by the pitching matchup. It is unlikely that they anticipated what was about to unfold in this bitter rivalry.

The Giants started their All-Star pitcher, Johnny Antonelli (21-6, 2.29 ERA). Desperate for pitching help before the season started, they had chosen “pragmatism over sentiment” and traded Bobby Thomson to the Milwaukee Braves for Antonelli.3 Antonelli, Billy Klaus, Don Liddle, Ebba St. Claire, and $50,000 went to the Giants for Sam Calderone and Thomson.

It was time for the Dodgers to bring up 23-year-old southpaw Karl Spooner from Fort Worth in the Double-A Texas League. Despite missing a month of the season with a right-knee injury, Spooner (21-9, 3.14 ERA) finished the season with 262 strikeouts (as well as 162 walks) in 238 innings, the most strikeouts in that league since Dizzy Dean‘s 303 in 1931.

The life in Spooner’s fastball was never a question, but his control was. In 1951 and 1952, as he worked his way up the Dodgers’ minor-league chain from Class D to Class B, Spooner walked roughly one batter per inning – 284 walks in 289⅔ innings pitched. A stint at Pueblo in the Class A Western League in 1953 showed some encouraging signs – 198 strikeouts and “only” 115 walks in 153 innings – and his pitching line (11-6, 2.53 ERA) included a no-hitter.4

The Giants’ starting lineup that faced Spooner for his debut was a reasonable match to their expected lineup for the World Series in one week’s time, but with little at stake, Giants manager Leo Durocher substituted freely beginning in the second inning.

Spooner’s first strikeout couldn’t have come at a better time to calm his nerves than in the tense first inning. Two walks and an infield single found him facing Bobby Hofman with two outs and the bases loaded. A swing-and-miss on a full count and the inning was over. Meanwhile, in the bottom of the first, the Dodgers scored the only run they would need. Don Hoak opened with a single to right-center and advanced to second on a groundout. With two outs, Gil Hodges was safe on a throwing error by Giants shortstop Alvin Dark, scoring Hoak for a 1-0 Dodgers lead.

The Dodgers added their final two runs in the third inning. Spooner’s first-pitch double to center field in his first major-league at-bat and Antonelli’s walk to Hoak started the rally. With one out, Sandy Amoros singled to right, scoring Spooner and advancing Hoak to third. He scored from there on Hodges’ double to right, and the afternoon’s offense was over for all practical purposes.

Meanwhile, Spooner was piling up strikeouts at an increasing pace as the game progressed. He struck out the side in the fifth, seventh, and eighth innings and at one point struck out six consecutive batters – Hank Thompson, Ray Katt, Marv Grissom, Joey Amalfitano, Billy Gardner, and Bill Taylor. In the ninth inning, after Eric Rodin grounded out, Spooner struck out Monte Irvin for number 14. His control had been exceptional and a walk to Hofman was Spooner’s first since the very first inning. Dusty Rhodes pinch-hit for Thompson having claimed “there isn’t a pitcher alive who can throw a ball past me.”5 Spooner’s 143rd pitch of the game got Rhodes swinging for strikeout number 15.

Eight of the last nine outs recorded by Spooner were swinging strikeouts. The final pitching line for Spooner’s major-league debut was impressive – three hits, three walks, and 15 strikeouts, 11 against right-handed hitters and four against left-handers. His performance beat the first-start record set by the Giants’ Cliff Melton, who struck out 13 Boston Braves in a losing cause on April 25, 1937.6

What did his catcher think? Roy Campanella was effusive in his praise of Spooner. “He’s the greatest young pitcher I’ve ever seen,” said Campy. “I couldn’t believe it and, buddy, I put him to the test. I didn’t let him rely on his fast ball. I called for the curve and the change-up and he fanned them on them, too.”7

On the day after Spooner’s stellar debut, both sarcasm and rhyme headlined the Brooklyn Eagle sports page: “When The Giants Were Doing Us Harm, He Was Down on the Farm. We Needed Spooner Much Sooner.”8 Dodgers general manager Buzzy Bavasi answered the obvious question: “In mid-season, we felt he wasn’t ready. He had as many walks as strikeouts. He just wasn’t the pitcher he is now.”9

The Dodgers sent Spooner to the mound again four days later to close out the season against the last-place Pittsburgh Pirates. Fred Haney wasn’t convinced by all the hoopla. “All right,” said the long-suffering manager of the Pirates, “he struck out 15 Wednesday. He’s just as likely to walk 15 today.”10 Spooner had the last word on this day with the help of Hodges’ 42nd home run of the season. It was another stellar pitching line for Karl Spooner – four hits, three walks, 12 strikeouts, and a 1-0 shutout.

Spooner became the first National League pitcher to strike out 27 men over a span of successive games.11 He also joined the Giants’

Al Worthington (1953), the Red Sox’ Dave Ferriss (1945), the Athletics’ Johnny Marcum (1933), and the Yankees’ Joe Doyle (1906) as the only pitchers to open their major-league careers with successive shutouts.12

What did those closest to the Brooklyn Dodgers make of Spooner after these first two starts? Rube Walker caught Spooner in his second start, remembering back that a Dodgers’ phenom of the 1940s, Rex Barney, was faster. “But this kid’s fast ball seems more effective because it’s so live,” Walker said. “It’s really active. Jumps right up on top of you.”13

The Dodgers’ front-office staff responsible for player development under Fresco Thompson were more guarded in their assessment of Spooner than the Dodgers catching duo. Dick Walsh, one of Thompson’s assistants, considered Spooner’s strikeout/walk ratio in his first two games. “We don’t expect that kind of ratio every time, but at the same time we don’t think bases on balls will run him out of the league.”14

It was a story to be pondered, discussed, and debated over the winter. Sportswriter Tommy Holmes, who covered the Brooklyn Dodgers for 33 years, put it best.15 “Perhaps something remains that wasn’t uncovered by the junior varsity Leo Durocher used Wednesday or the bold, bad Buccaneers, who are a jolly last in the race. But that will have to ‘wait ‘til next year.’”16 Wait ‘til Next Year! Indeed!17

AUTHOR’S NOTE

SABR author Richard Cohen opened his biography of Karl Spooner with a definition – “meteoric: transiently brilliant, as a meteoric rise to fame.”18 Spooner’s journey to major-league baseball fame was most certainly that. It was also short-lived. Barely a year passed and Spooner’s major-league career was over. He had sustained a shoulder injury in the early days of spring training in 1955. “I guess I just tried to throw too hard, too soon.”19

Spooner, 8-6 in the regular season, pitched a solid three innings of one-hit ball in relief against the Yankees in Game Two of the 1955 World Series. That performance earned him the starting nod for Game Six, needing only a Dodgers victory for Brooklyn’s first World Series title. It didn’t go well. In the first inning, Spooner walked two of the first three batters, yielded run-scoring singles to Yogi Berra and Hank Bauer and a three-run home run to Bill Skowron. He walked off a major-league mound for the last time having given up five runs and retiring only one batter.

SOURCES

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com for box scores/play-by-play information (baseball-reference.com/boxes/BRO/BRO195409220.shtml) and other data, as well as Retrosheet.org (retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1954/B09220BRO1954.htm).

Photo credit: Karl Spooner, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

NOTES

1 George Vecsey, “Instant Memories of a Dodger Phenom,” GeorgeVecsey.com, August 13, 2014, accessed September 3, 2019, georgevecsey.com/home/10.

2 “Dodgers’ Kayo on Sept. 20 Earliest for Club Since ‘48,” The Sporting News, September 29, 1954: 26.

3 Leonard Koppett, Koppett’s Concise History of Major League Baseball (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2004 edition), 266.

4 Richard S. Cohen, “Karl Spooner,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, sabr.org/bioproj/person/b6f00e89.

5 Dave Anderson, “Wasn’t Ready, Says Bavasi – He’s a Krazy!” Brooklyn Eagle, September 23, 1954: 19.

6 Roscoe McGowen, “Rookie Lifts Bums’ ‘Next Year’ Hopes,” The Sporting News, September 29, 1954: 26.

7 McGowen.

8 Brooklyn Eagle, September 23, 1954: 19.

9 Anderson.

10 Tommy Holmes, “Young Rookie Breaks Record, Ties Another,” Brooklyn Eagle, September 27, 1954: 14.

11 Holmes. The previous mark of 25 strikeouts was accomplished by Brooklyn’s Dazzy Vance in 1926 and again in 1928. Spooner fell one strikeout short of Bob Feller‘s major-league mark.

12 Bill Roeder, “Brooks Buzz Over Lefty’s Whiff Feats,” The Sporting News, October 6, 1954: 2.

13 Roeder.

14 Roeder.

15 Holmes was posthumously honored with the J.G. Taylor Spink Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980.

16 Holmes. It is worth noting that six position players who were in the Giants’ starting lineup against Spooner also started Game One of the World Series – Whitey Lockman, Alvin Dark, Don Mueller, Willie Mays, Monte Irvin, and Davey Williams. Spooner recorded only one strikeout (Irvin) against these players. The Pittsburgh Pirates’ batters led the major leagues with 737 strikeouts in the 1954 season.

17 The phrase became a euphemism for a baseball season gone awry and nowhere did it receive greater play than in the 1940s and 1950s with the Brooklyn Dodgers and their long-suffering fans.

18 Cohen.

19 Cohen.