Colt Stadium, back, was Houston’s fiery first MLB home from 1962 to ’64. The Astrodome replaced it beginning with the 1965 season. (COURTESY OF THE HOUSTON ASTROS)

BILL McCURDY holds degrees from Houston, Tulane, and Texas, but his baseball talent only made him a parochial school all-star. A member of SABR since 1992, Bill has served as Board Chair of the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame. He is co-author of “A Kid From St. Louis” with Jerry Witte, co-author of “Toy Cannon” with Jimmy Wynn, and initiator and co-author of “Houston Baseball: The Early Years, 1861–1961” with others from the Larry Dierker Houston Chapter of SABR, where he is historian.

Instead of using shovels, Judge Roy Hofheinz and other officials fire six-shooters at the ceremonial ground-breaking. (PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE HOUSTON ASTROS)

“Houston Astrodome or Bust”
—Tagline for Bad News Bears in Breaking Training

A highlight of the Astrodome was its 474-foot-long scoreboard, complete with a “seemingly endless repertoire of animated light pictures, story-board cartoons, or often simple one-word commands.” Here, the Astros congratulate Nolan Ryan on his 5th no-hitter in 1981.

Houston Astros manager Art Howe, left, presents catcher Craig Biggio with his 1989 Silver Slugger award at the Astrodome.

ERIC ROBINSON, a graduate of the University of North Texas, currently works in elementary education in Austin. He focuses his research on pre-MLB baseball history, Texas baseball history, and Central Texas blackball history, on which he has presented to local schools. Eric recently discovered his grandmother had a neighbor who played for the 1933 Brooklyn Dodgers. His website is www.lyndonbaseballjohnson.com.

The “Astros Better Halves” prepare to play their husbands under the Dome in the 1970s. (PHOTOS COURTESY OF HOUSTON ASTROS)

WILL FLAHERTY is a native Houstonian and life-long Houston Astros supporter. Will is a 2010 graduate in History and Political Science from Duke University. A SABR member since 2013, Will currently resides in New York City and works for SeatGeek, a search engine for live event tickets.

• It was held earlier in the year.
• There were three distinct price levels for draftable players.
• It was less cumbersome to implement.
• There were different draft selection requirements.
• It was held before the Rule 5 Draft.

As in the 1960 American League draft, the eight established National League teams were required to name 15 available players on their 40-man roster—including seven players from their 25-man roster.1 The due date for the National League lists was September 20 for the draft that would occur on the day after the 1961 World Series ended, more than two months earlier than the American League draft had taken place in 1960.

In the previous AL draft, all the players in the expansion pool were available for $75,000 each to the new teams. However, the National League draft had three prices for players: $50,000, $75,000, and $125,000. Each expansion team was required to select 16 players: two from each established team’s available player list at $75,000 (regular phase), then at most eight players, one from each established team at $50,000 (optional phase) from the players remaining. At that point, in a major departure from the AL system, each established team was to submit two additional names from their August 31 active roster: “premium players.” From this list of 16, each expansion team was required to choose four players at $125,000 each (premium phase), and no established team could lose more than one premium player.

If an expansion team purchased the maximum number of players—16 at $75,000 each, eight at $50,000 each, and four at $125,000 each—the total cost would be $2.1 million. That cost represented the team’s entry fee into the National League and was equal to the amount paid by the AL expansion teams for 28 players at $75,000 each. While these prices for players do not seem high in 2014, they were quite pricey in 1961 even after discounting the entry fee involved. The consumer price index was 29.9 in 1961, compared to 233.5 in 2013.2 Adjusting 1961-dollars to 2013-dollars at a rate of $7.81, would yield prices of $585,750, $390,500, and $976,250.3 The sale of players was a financial bonanza to each of the eight established teams.

The American League had required that each new team draft ten pitchers, followed by two catchers, six infielders, four outfielders, and then six players unrestricted by position. The NL draft did not have any position requirements. In the AL draft no established team was supposed to lose more than seven players and an expansion team could take no more than four players from any established team. Unfortunately Joe Cronin forgot about these requirements while he conducted the AL draft and the selections needed to be rearranged after the draft was seemingly over because the Tigers and Indians had lost eight players each!4 The NL draft did not make this mistake.

While these differences were significant, the most significant distinction was the date of the draft. The AL draft was held more than two months after the season ended. Thus before the 1960 American League expansion draft, the lists of available players had not been distorted by any of the following roster changes:

• Retirements (e.g. Ted Williams)
• Unconditional releases
• Sale and optioning of players to minor league teams
• Promotion of prospects
• Addition of players taken in the Rule 5 Draft held on November 28

After the 1960 season ended but before the 1960 draft, the Cleveland Indians had released Jack Harshman and sold Billy Moran to the International League, the Orioles had released Jim Busby, Del Rice, and Dave Philley, the Yankees had released Jim Hegan, and the White Sox had released Bob Rush and Mike Garcia and dropped Don Ferrarese, Jake Striker, Frank Barnes, and Al Worthington.5,6 With only eight days between the end of the season and the NL draft, no roster modifications by any of the eight established National League teams had yet taken place.

The greatest inequity of the NL expansion draft was that few blue chip minor league prospects were included on the 40-man rosters. Most promoted their top minor leaguers on October 17, 1961, seven days after the draft and the last day to modify the 40-man roster before the Rule 5 and Rule 3 Drafts. These players had been exempt from the expansion draft in October and now were protected in late November as well. A partial list of these prospects appears in Table 1.7

Table 1. Select Players Promoted after the 1961 National League Expansion Draft

Meanwhile, many “deadwood” players promoted in September to be showcased for the expansion draft, but not taken, were then shuffled off the 40-man roster to make room for superior minor league talent.

The list of players made available for the NL expansion draft appears in Table 2.8

Table 2. Players Made Available for the 1961 National League Expansion Draft

(Click image to enlarge.)

The general managers in Houston and New York, Paul Richards and George Weiss, were not happy with the players made available. Richards commented, “I figured the lists of players would be bad, but they’re worse than I thought they would be.”9

Thirty of the available players were 31 or older. Nineteen had eight years or more of major league experience including many with correspondingly high salaries. Of the 120 available players, 23 were rookies who ended their baseball careers without ever appearing in a single major league game—19 additional players never played at the major league level after 1961. Twenty-one were journeyman players who had spent seven or more seasons in the minor leagues.

At the AL expansion draft there were five coin tosses, one for each position category. At the NL expansion draft there was one coin toss with the winner selecting to go first in the regular-optional phase or the premium phase. The Colts won the coin toss and elected to go first in the regular-optional phase.

The Colts decided that shortstop Ed Bressoud of the Giants was the best player available and selected him. He had been the backup to Jose Pagan and played in only 59 games the past season while hitting a mere .211. On November 26 he was traded to the Red Sox for the erratic Don Buddin, another shortstop. After 40 games in 1962, Buddin was hitting .163 and was sold to the Tigers. They did well with their second pick, Bob Aspromonte, who had a successful career with Houston. Incidentally, his brother Ken had been selected by the Senators and traded to the Angels at the draft table in the AL expansion draft.10 Their third pick was light-hitting shortstop Bob Lillis, who did have a long Houston career as a player, coach, and manager.

Fourth and fifth picks, Dick Drott and Al Heist, were both from the Cubs and were both busts. Drott was called to eight months of active military duty on November 2 and appeared in only six games.11 Heist was on the disabled list for a month, played in only 27 games, and batted only .222.12 In 1963, Drott went 2–12 in his final year in the majors. Heist was in the minors all season.

Sixth pick Roman Mejias was a power hitting success in 1962 for the Colts and became one of their most popular players. In 1962, Mejias led the team in batting, home runs, runs batted in, runs scored, hits, and stolen bases. After the season he was traded to the Red Sox for the reigning AL batting champion, Pete Runnels. Unfortunately, Runnels lost his batting eye when he joined the Houston team and was released in early 1964.

Seventh pick George Williams, like Drott, was called to active military duty soon after the draft.13 Williams played in only five September games for the Colts in 1962, played in the minors in 1963, and was sent to the Cardinals after the season. Eighth pick Jesse Hickman never played in a major league game with the Colts. It is very likely that Paul Richards mistook him for Jim Hickman, who was also available in the expansion draft. It wasn’t the first time a GM made such a mistake: The St. Louis Browns took Garvin Hamner in the 1947 minor league draft, thinking that they were selecting his brother Granny.14 Ninth pick Merritt Ranew was a backup catcher for one season, then was traded away and spent most of his career in the minors. Their 10th pick Don Taussig hit only .200 in 16 games, but the Colts received part of their investment back when the Braves drafted him in the minor league phase of the 1962 Rule 5 Draft.

Their 11th pick Bobby Shantz started three games on the mound for the Colts before being traded to the Cardinals for Carl Warwick and John Anderson on May 7, 1962. Warwick became the Colts’ regular center fielder for 1962. Since the Washington Senators had selected Shantz in the 1960 AL expansion draft, Shantz bore the distinction of being the only player selected in both drafts.15

Their 12th pick was Norm Larker, who had lost the 1960 batting title by making an out in his final plate appearance. However, he hit only .263 for the Colts and was traded after the 1962 season. Their 13th pick, Sam “Toothpick” Jones, never pitched for the Colts. Jones was quickly traded on December 1 to the Tigers for Bob Bruce and Manny Montejo. Bruce pitched in the Colts starting rotation for five years. Jones won only four games during the remainder of his career. Their 14th pick was Paul Roof, who never played major league baseball, although his brothers Phil and Gene did. Again, perhaps he was mistaken for Phil who was also in the draft.

Their 15th pick was Ken Johnson who was a decent pitcher for Houston for several seasons during his 13-year major league career. His main claim to fame was pitching a nine-inning no-hitter for the Colts on April 23, 1964, but losing the game 1–0 when he and Nellie Fox made errors in the ninth inning. Their 16th pick, Dick Gernert, hit .208 in 10 games and was quickly released on May 17, 1962.

Their 17th pick and first $50,000, optional pick was Ed Olivares. Olivares was on the disabled list during the entire 1962 season and never played again in the majors.16 Eighteenth pick Jim Umbricht pitched effectively out of the bullpen for two years before he, unfortunately, died of cancer in 1964. Nineteenth pick Jim Golden was back in the minors in 1963 and traded for Nellie Fox after that season.

Golden was the last optional pick taken in the draft because Weiss and Richards refused to spend any more money. By leaving eleven optional choices unused, the Mets saved $300,000 and the Colts $250,000 on the anticipated $2.1 million expected expenditure by each team. Both general managers intended to use that money to develop their teams: Weiss to purchase retreads at his own price, Richards to acquire and develop young talent.

At that point a representative from each established team made known the identity of their team’s two premium players. Table 3 shows the 16 premium players, two from each established team, made available for the NL expansion draft.17

Table 3. Premium Players Made Available for the 1961 National League Expansion Draft

The premium player choices were marked by the presence of three “bonus babies” from the mid-1950s. Those three, Bob L. Miller (Cardinals), Joey Amalfitano (Giants), and Jay Hook (Reds), were the first three players taken in the premium phase. Since the Mets chose first in the premium phase, Miller and Hook became Mets. The Colts took Amalfitano with their first premium pick. Their original teams actually turned a tidy profit when they received $125,000 each! On the humorous side, when Amalfitano discovered that he had been purchased for that princely sum, he said, “I’ll have to go out and get another life insurance policy. I’m worth more than I thought.”18 Amalfitano lasted only one season with Houston but enjoyed a long career as a major league coach and manager.

Their second premium pick, Dick “Turk” Farrell, was an all-star pitcher for the Colts, and was their jewel of the draft. Their third premium pick, Hal W. Smith, was their regular catcher in 1962 and their third string catcher the next season, before he was released. Their final premium pick, Al Spangler, was a regular outfielder for three seasons before being traded away. Spangler had the distinction of being the final player taken in the NL expansion draft as well as the last player to bat in an eight-team National League. The regular, optional, and premium choices made by the Colts and Mets appear in Table 4.19

Table 4. Regular, Optional, and Premium Draftees of the Colts and Mets

(Click image to enlarge.)

After the draft, Paul Richards had changed his tune. Richards was quoted, “I was frightened a week ago when I did some talking, but had I known that we would get the team we did, I never would have opened my mouth.”20

George Weiss saw much work ahead saying, “We did as well as we expected to do, maybe a little better, but please don’t think this will be our starting club on opening day. We plan to purchase many more players and have some deals in mind.” 21

When the Colts and Mets left eleven optional choices at $50,000 each untaken, the players shown in Table 5 were still available who went on to play at least five years at the major league level after 1961.22

Table 5. Players Not Taken in 1961 National League Expansion Draft

(Click image to enlarge.)

Passing over Vic Davalillo is understandable since he had been a pitcher in the Reds’ organization through the 1961 season rather than an outfielder, the position he played throughout his 16-year major league carer. However, infielder Dick Allen became NL rookie of the year in 1964 and AL Most Valuable Player in 1972. In 1961, Allen was in his second year in Organized Baseball and had batted .317 with 21 home runs and 94 runs batted in as a second baseman at Magic Valley in the Class C Pioneer League. Allen finished his major league career with a .292 average and 351 home runs.

Also untaken was Eddie Fisher, a highly regarded 25-year-old pitcher in the Giants’ farm system who had posted a record of 47–28 with a 3.23 ERA in his four minor league seasons. Fisher became the main piece in the Giants’ November 30, 1961, trade with the White Sox for Billy Pierce and Don Larsen. Fisher followed with twelve successful years in the AL posting an 80-61 record with a 3.25 ERA. He was AL Fireman of the Year in 1965.

Other noteworthy names included Robin Roberts, Jerry Zimmerman, Jim Brewer, and Ray Culp. The Colts and Mets left some experienced talent and potential talent untaken.

The National League kicked off their first season as a ten-team league in 1962. The Houston Colts managed to duplicate the Los Angeles Angels’ feat of 1961 by finishing in eighth place but with only a 64–96 record compared to the Angels’ record of 70–91 in 1961. The Cubs, who lost 103 games, had the dubious distinction of finishing ninth, six games behind the Colts.

The Colts featured an everyday lineup of veterans. Norm Larker, Joey Amalfitano, Bob Lillis, and Bob Aspromonte covered the infield. Al Spangler, Carl Warwick, and Roman Mejias held down the outfield posts. Hal Smith was the regular catcher. All, except Warwick, were taken in the expansion draft. Dick Farrell, acquired in the expansion draft, and Bob Bruce, acquired from the Tigers in the December trade for Sam Jones, each won ten games. Don McMahon, purchased from the Braves on May 9, 1962, and Jim Umbricht, acquired in the expansion draft, anchored the bullpen.

The Colts had heavily invested in young talent. Waiting in the wings for the opportunity at the major league level were catcher Jerry Grote, outfielders Ron Davis and Rusty Staub, and pitchers Dave Giusti and Chris Zachary. The future looked bright for Houston.

STEPHEN D. BOREN, MD, MBA, FACEP is an emergency medicine physician, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and was stationed in the U.S. Army in Korea where “M*A*S*H” took place (but 20 years afterwards). In addition to multiple publications in the “Baseball Research Journal,” “The National Pastime,” and “Baseball Digest,” he has many medical publications.

ERIC THOMPSON is a two-time presenter at SABR national conventions concerning baseball’s first expansion between 1960 and 1962. A retired high school mathematics teacher, Thompson authored “Baseball’s LOST Tradition: Two Eight-Team Leagues.” Today Thompson plays softball in “The Babes of 1916” senior league in Solon, Ohio, where he lives with Colleen, his wife for 45 years. He has three grown children and five grandchildren.

Acknowledgements

Portions of the information used here were obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet. Interested parties may contact Retrosheet at www.retrosheet.org.

Sources

Rules governing the American League expansion draft of 1960:

Baseball Guide and Record Book 1961. Compiled by J. G. Taylor Spink. Charles C. Spink and Sons Published, St. Louis, 1961. Pages 110–12.

Rules governing the National League expansion draft of 1961:

Baseball Guide and Record Book 1962. Compiled by J. G. Taylor Spink. Charles C. Spink and Sons Published, St. Louis, 1962. Pages 119–20.

Daniel, Dan. “N.L. Execs Okay Grab-Bag Plan in Marathon Huddle.” The Sporting News, July 5, 1961, pages 5–6.

Statistical data for players included in all lists and for players drafted by Houston:

retrosheet.org and SABR minor league database included in baseball-reference.com

Description of 1962 Houston season compiled from retrosheet.org

Notes

1. The 25-man roster as of August 31.

2. www.bls.gov/cpi/tables.htm.

3. http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Calculators/Inflation_Calculator.asp.

4. Letter of May 13, 1973, from Hal Keller, farm director of the Texas Rangers, to Cliff Kachline, historian of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, on file in the 1961 American League Expansion Draft folder in

the A. Bartlett Giamatti Research Center at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY.

5. www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1960/YM_1960.htm.

6. Edward Prell, “In the Wake of the News,” Chicago Tribune. Part 4, 1, September 23, 1961.

7. List compiled from BASEBALL, Office of the Commissioner, Official Bulletin No. 23, November 14, 1961, 2–3.

8. List compiled from information in 1962 National League Expansion Draft folder in the A. Bartlett Giamatti Research Center at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY.

9. Clark Nealon, “Colts Get Frick Okay to Set Up 40-Man Roster,” The Sporting News, October 11, 1961, 15.

10. Letter of May 13, 1973, from Hal Keller, farm director of the Texas Rangers, to Cliff Kachline, the historian of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, on file in the 1961 American League Expansion Draft folder in the A. Bartlett Giamatti Research Center at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY.

11. BASEBALL, Office of the Commissioner, Official Bulletin No. 26, December 20, 1961, 2.

12. BASEBALL, Office of the Commissioner, Official Bulletin No. 14, August 15, 1962, 3.

13. BASEBALL, Office of the Commissioner, Official Bulletin No. 23, November 14, 1961, 3.

14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garvin_Hamner.

15. Shantz could not compare with former NBA player George Wilson. Wilson was selected in three NBA expansion drafts (May 1, 1967 by the Seattle Super Sonics from the Chicago Bulls, May 6, 1968 by the Phoenix Suns from the Seattle, and May 11, 1970 by the Buffalo Braves from the Philadelphia 76ers) www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/ wilsoge01.html.

16. BASEBALL, Office of the Commissioner, Official Bulletin No. 8, April 25, 1962, 3.

17. List compiled from information in 1962 National League Expansion Draft folder in the A. Bartlett Giamatti Research Center at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY.

18. Milwaukee Sentinel, October 11, 1961, 11.

19. List compiled from www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1961/10101961.htm.

20. Clark Nealon, “Colts Corralled Slick Infielders, Richards Chirps,” The Sporting News, October 18, 1961, 7.

21. Bob Burnes, “Draft Gives Colts, Mets Solid Send Off,” The Sporting News, October 18, 1961, 7.

22. List compiled from retrosheet.org.

Richard Joseph Farrell was born April 8, 1934, in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother, Mary, immigrated to the United States from County Mayo in Ireland during her teens, while his father, Tom, often referred to as Turk, was a grave keeper at Holyhood Cemetery. The family struggled to make ends meet during the Great Depression and then confronted illness when two-year-old Dick was diagnosed with polio. He was in braces until age six. His left leg remained shorter than his right and he walked with a slight limp the rest of his life.1

The health problems of his youth did not prevent Farrell from becoming an outstanding athlete at St. Mary’s High School in Brookline, Massachusetts, where he earned varsity letters in basketball, football, and baseball. He struggled academically, though, and was forced to repeat 11th grade. After graduation, Farrell signed a contract with the Philadelphia Phillies and used part of his $5,000 signing bonus to send his mother back to Ireland, where she saw her family for the first time in over twenty years. At age 19 he was assigned to the Schenectady Blue Jays of the Class A Eastern League. In two seasons at Schenectady, Farrell went 18–18 with a club that provided little offensive support. His 3.21 ERA in 40 appearances in 1954 earned him a promotion to the Triple A Syracuse Chiefs of the International League. Pitching as both a starter and in relief, Farrell won 12 games at Syracuse. While trying to break into the Phillies rotation, Farrell spent the 1956 season with the Triple A Miami Marlins owned by Bill Veeck. Despite missing time with a broken ankle, he won 12 and posted a 2.50 ERA before joining the Phillies at the end of the season.

Although Farrell had worked hard to make the big leagues, he was perceived as a free spirit and practical joker. He reportedly nailed the shoes of the legendary Satchel Paige to the clubhouse floor in Miami. Other tall tales abound. One that is oft-repeated is that in Schenectady Farrell stuck limburger cheese in the glove of catcher Clint Courtney, who was noted for his avoidance of showers, and bet his teammates that Courtney would catch at least one inning before noticing the smell. Unfortunately Courtney and Farrell did not actually play together in Schenectady. Another story has the 6-foot-4, 215-pound Farrell allegedly slugging Marlins teammate Ed Bailey for mocking his Boston accent. But Bailey did not play for the Marlins then. That such stories accrued to Farrell regardless of veracity only cements his reputation.2

Farrell enjoyed an outstanding rookie campaign in 1957, appearing in 52 games, winning 10 and saving 10. The following season, Farrell continued his excellent work and was selected for his first All-Star game appearance, in which he struck out four, including Ted Williams, in two innings. The Phillies, however, seemed to have overworked their young pitcher, who stumbled during the second half of the 1958 campaign, finishing 8–9 in 54 games with a 3.35 ERA and plagued with control problems. Control did not return in 1959, and Farrell was briefly demoted to the minor leagues. Farrell finished the season with the Phillies, going 1–6 (with 6 saves) and an ERA that soared to 4.74.

Farrell’s disappointing performance was also blamed on extracurricular activities with pitching teammates Jack Meyer and Jim Owens who became known as the Dalton Gang. In April 1959 Farrell was fined $250 by Phillies manager Eddie Sawyer for “conduct unbecoming a major league ball player” after smashing a mirror with his fist in a Milwaukee bar following a poor outing on the mound.3 In a profile for Sports Illustrated, Walter Bingham described the Dalton Gang as “hell-raisers” and “a wild bunch,” who came from diverse backgrounds. Meyer was from an affluent New Jersey family and attended such schools as Philadelphia’s Penn Charter School and Wake Forest University, while Owens was profiled as the product of a broken home where his father encouraged drinking at an early age. Farrell, on the other hand, was depicted as coming from a respectable family but Bingham wrote that he was unpredictable, “big and tough, occasionally unfriendly, occasionally abusive.” Following a record fine for Meyer early in the 1960 season for fighting and tearing up a Pittsburgh hotel room, Bingham concluded, “Unlike some of the storied hell-raisers of old, the members of The Dalton Gang aren’t really good enough to be so bad. Perhaps the fine Jack Meyer must pay will shock him and his friends into a more moderate way of life. If not, members of the Dalton Gang probably will find themselves riding elsewhere, and separately.”4

Farrell had little use for the Bingham article, but responded in a positive fashion both on and off the playing field. Displaying a sense of humor, Farrell described a visit to the Dalton Gang Hideout and Museum in Meade, Kansas, which led him to quip that the pilgrimage to the old stomping grounds “brought back memories” and encouraged him to reform the gang.5

Farrell returned to form in 1960 and enjoyed a fine season. The big right-hander pitched in 59 games, winning 10 and saving 11, with a 2.70 ERA—although the Phillies still lost 95 games.

When Farrell got off to a slow start the following season, the Phillies traded him to the contending Dodgers. A change of scenery, however, did not help Farrell get back on track. In 50 appearances with the Los Angeles club, Farrell struggled with his control, his ERA rose to 5.06, and the Dodgers failed to win the pennant. According to Farrell, Dodgers general manager Buzzie Bavasi blamed him for the club’s disappointing finish and falsely accused him of attempting to form another gang.6 Thus, it was not surprising that the Dodgers failed to protect Farrell in the expansion draft.

Houston planned to use Farrell primarily in a starting role after picking up relief pitcher Don McMahon from the Braves. He joined the Colt .45s with a positive attitude, but maintained his reputation for individualism. Taking a more disciplined approach toward spring training, Farrell told reporters, “I want to trim down to about 210. I went on a self-imposed diet. One poached egg for breakfast, fruit salads and cottage cheese the rest of the day. No more steaks.” He also insisted upon walking the two miles from the hotel to spring training facilities at Geronimo Park in Apache Junction, Arizona, every day. But Farrell found a way to make that trek a little more exciting by carrying a .22 caliber target pistol and shooting at rabbits along the way. Acknowledging that he was shut out by the rabbits, Farrell vowed to be more successful in hunting wild hogs. In addition, he reassured reporters that the Dalton Gang stories were exaggerated and that he and Jim Owens had reached an out-of-court settlement with Sports Illustrated.7

Houston manager Harry Craft was certainly appreciative of Farrell’s talent, noting, “He’s one of the few pitchers in baseball today who can overpower a hitter with his fastball.”8 Craft’s approach to managing also seemed a good fit with spirited players such as Farrell. In a profile for the Houston Chronicle, Craft was described as being “hired because of his ability to get along with players of all kinds and get the most out of each.” In support of this assessment, Craft proclaimed, “I don’t believe in belittling a player or tearing him down. Have confidence in your players and win their respect and you’ve taken a great stride in the direction of building a winning club.” Craft asserted that he would not allow gambling by the players as it encouraged dissension, but curfews after a day game would be at midnight or two hours after the conclusion of a night game. Concluding his interview, Craft told reporters, “I want my players in condition to play, but I will not treat them like they were children.”9

Craft’s style was a good match for Farrell, and the pitcher stayed out of management’s doghouse, focusing on his work on the mound. The Colts opened the 1962 season in Houston with a three-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs. In the second game, Farrell combined with Hal Woodeschick for a 2–0 shutout. On April 13 Farrell had an opportunity to pitch against his old teammates in Philadelphia. He responded with an excellent game, striking out nine while allowing only two hits in six innings of work. But the .45s struggled offensively and lost the game, 3–2.

Farrell also got a pinch of revenge: On June 16, he allowed three hits while surrendering one run at Dodger Stadium. Houston, from whom little was expected, found themselves at the first All-Star game break in eighth place, ahead of the Cubs and Mets.10

Farrell was the only Houston player to be selected for the National League All-Star squad by Cincinnati Reds manager Fred Hutchinson. Hutchinson resolved to not use Farrell because the right-hander had lost both games of a doubleheader to the Reds on the weekend before the All-Star break. But Farrell did work in 1962’s second All-Star game and surrendered a three-run home run to Rocky Colavito. Farrell asserted that he was surprised at his selection, considering his modest won-loss record of 5–8. The anemic victory total was the result of little hitting support: Farrell had posted an ERA of 2.46 with four saves while working as both a starter and reliever.11

Farrell’s selection was also a surprise because many in Houston assumed that Cuban-born outfielder Roman Mejias, drafted by the Colts from the Pirates, would represent the franchise. Through games of July 2, Mejias led Houston with 19 home runs and 48 RBIs, and was hitting .311. When Hutchinson picked Richie Ashburn of the Mets and Johnnie Callison of the Phillies as reserve outfielders, a disappointed Mejias lamented, “How do you like dot [sic]? Well, nothing to do but jus’ keep swinging.”12 Mejias refused to pin this oversight on racism, but the Cuban outfielder was often portrayed by the press in stereotypical fashion. For example, in referring to Mejias’s language difficulties in being able to order food during his early days in the United States, reporter Mickey Herskowitz wrote in The Sporting News that the outfielder, who had a bit of the “gaucho” in him, had emerged as, “Houston’s ham, eggs, bread, butter, milk, and poultry man.”13 Mejias, however, was not in a position to purchase too many heavy cholesterol breakfasts. He was only making $12,500. In the era of the strict reserve clause and weak player representation, Mejias could not expect any mid-season correction to his contract. In addition, Mejias was concerned about his wife and two young children in Cuba, observing, “There is not much food there, and I worry if they are eating properly.”14 Whether from worry or exhaustion, Mejias did slump during the second half of the season, and that winter he was traded to the Boston Red Sox for first baseman and Texas native Pete Runnels—a transaction that did not work out well for either club.15

Meanwhile, Farrell continued to pitch well, albeit in hard luck, and avoid controversy…at least until a radio interview on July 21 with St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Harry Caray. He admitted that the day before he had attempted to get Stan Musial out with an illegal spitball, but the Cardinal great had connected for a base hit. The incident was reported to the National League office which refused to order a fine or suspension for a radio comment. Farrell apologized for raising such a ruckus with his confession, pointing out that many pitchers such as Lew Burdette of the Braves were guilty of employing the illegal pitch on a regular basis. Facing reporters in the Colts locker room, Farrell concluded, “The spitball isn’t a pitch of mine. I don’t throw the thing because I can’t control it. It would be easy to load ’em up out there. The sweat pours down your arm and into your palms. I could load up, but I don’t. I go to the resin bag all the time. The spitball is not part of my repertoire. I threw it to Musial just for fun.” The final word on the mini-controversy was left to Farrell’s catcher Hal Smith, who, observing that the right-hander had fanned twelve Cardinal batters, proclaimed, “Farrell doesn’t need the spitball, and you can quote me.”16

Despite the hard luck defeats that eventually resulted in a 20-loss season, Farrell kept his cool for the most part. On September 2, however, The Sporting News reported that Farrell was tossed by umpire Lee Weyer for arguing balls and strikes in a game that the Colts lost to the Cardinals, 3–1. The lone run scored by Houston marked only the second time that the club had plated a runner in over 32 innings with Farrell on the mound.17 Meanwhile, Willie Mays described Farrell as a good pitcher who was “bush” for plunking the Giants center fielder after he had struck home runs in two consecutive at bats against him. Said Mays, “He’s too good a pitcher to do that. He doesn’t have to do that. The guy was just trying to start something when there was no need to.”18

Mays would have the last laugh: on the final day of the 1962 season he hit a home run off Farrell that propelled the Giants into a playoff with the Dodgers and saddled Farrell with his 20th loss of the season. A pitcher must be fairly good to earn enough appearances to lose 20 games. Researcher David Skelton notes that of the approximately 500 pitchers who have lost 20 games in a season, Farrell’s earned run average of 3.02 remains the best since Hall of Famer Jessie Haines of the St. Louis Cardinals posted a 2.68 mark in 1920.19 The Colts were last offensively in the National League, yet they finished in eighth place ahead of the Cubs and Mets, with a 64–96 record.

Farrell’s contributions to the club’s success were certainly appreciated by management. Manager Harry Craft made it clear that Farrell was one of the few Colts off limits for trade offers. Craft asserted, “I don’t think any other team could afford to give us as much as we’d have to get for Turk. I’m not sure he’d be as valuable to another club as he is to us. We’ve had to use him both as a starter and reliever, and he has done just a marvelous job.”20 General Manager Paul Richards was full of praise for Farrell, noting that with a contender the right-hander would have won 20 games. “Farrell’s development was one of the most encouraging things in our building program, and he’s a major part of the nucleus around which we plan to build a championship team in the future.” Farrell’s efforts were also acknowledged by his teammates. Fellow starter Bob Bruce observed, “The slip pitch and curve have made Turk a new pitcher. He’s got such a great fastball, he throws the slipper and keeps the hitters off balance.”21

Farrell downplayed his partying image during his 1962 All-Star season in Houston, and he moved his young family to the Texas city following the season. In 1963, he won 14 and matched his previous season’s ERA of 3.02. The following year, after a start which seemed to offer the promise of a 20-win season, Farrell finished 11–10, 3.27. In 1965 Farrell surrendered the first home run ever hit in the Astrodome to Mickey Mantle of the Yankees in an exhibition game. He was selected for his fourth and final All-Star game appearance, winning 11 games, but he was beginning to lose something from his fastball. Following the 1966 season when his ERA ballooned to 4.60, the Houston Astros were open to trading Farrell, and early in the 1967 season they dispatched the former staff ace back to Philadelphia where he continued to pitch through the 1969 season.

After being released by the Phillies, Farrell tried to make it back to the major leagues with a number of teams, finally retiring in 1971 after a stint in the Mexican League. Beyond baseball, Farrell found employment with the Houston-based construction company Brown and Root. While working with the company on an off-shore oil rig in the North Sea, Farrell was killed in a head-on automobile crash in Great Yarmouth, England on June 10, 1977 at age 43. Obituaries in The New York Times and The Sporting News emphasized Farrell’s reputation as a member of the Dalton Gang rather than his impressive performance as the Houston franchise’s first All-Star. Columnist Dick Young of the New York Daily News wrote, “Fans who followed the Phillies Dalton Gang in the late ’50s were shaken by the news that Dick Farrell was killed in an auto crash in England. Turk was a charter member of that colorful team. His blazing fastball frightened batters. A foul ball off Farrell in the first inning of a relief appearance was considered a big achievement.”22 Farrell’s reputation as a character and charter member of the Dalton Gang tended to overshadow the legacy of his pitching performance, but there is little doubt that Houston’s first All-Star was always a competitor when on the mound, completing his 14-year career with 590 appearances, 106 victories, 83 saves, 1,177 strikeouts, and a 3.45 ERA.

RON BRILEY has taught history and film studies at Sandia Prep School in Albuquerque for 36 years. He is the author or editor of five books on baseball and sports history, including “The Baseball Film in Postwar America: A Critical Study, 1948–1962” (McFarland, 2011). He is a long-suffering fan of the Colt .45s and Astros.

Notes

1. For a biographical sketch of Farrell see David E. Skelton, “Turk Farrell,” BioProject, Society for American Baseball Research, http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/180d81d6 (February 19, 2014).

2. Robert Reed, Colt .45s: A Six-Gun Salute (Houston, Texas: Lone Star Books, 1999), 129.

3. “A Frolic with Farrell,” The Sporting News, June 8, 1963, 28.

4. Walter Bingham, “The Dalton Gang Rides Again,” Sports Illustrated, 12:24 (June 13, 1960), 24–6.

5. “A Frolic with Farrell,” The Sporting News, June 8, 1963, 28.

6. Reed, A Six-Gun Salute, 128-9.

7. Zarko Franks, “Righthander Farrell Talk of Colt Camp,” Houston Chronicle, February 25, 1962, section 8, 2.

8. Ibid.

9. “Craft Brings Out Best in Players,” Houston Chronicle, January 21, 1962, section 8, 1.

10. Clark Nealon, “Mound Stars Firing Bullets for Colt .45s,” The Sporting News, June 30, 1962, 10.

11. “Farrell First Houston Pitcher Selected on N. L. Star Squad,” The Sporting News, July 14, 1962. 20.

12. Reed, A Six-Gun Salute, 112–13.

13. Mickey Herskowitz, “.45s Change Puny Attack with Miracle Man Mejias,” The Sporting News, June 2, 1962, 23.

14. Zarco Franks, “Mejias’s Season of Milk, Honey,” Houston Chronicle, May 30, 1962, section B, 1.

15. For an overview of Mejias’s 1962 season in Houston see Ron Briley, Class at Bat, Gender on Deck, and Race in the Hole: A Line-up of Essays on Twentieth Century Culture and America’s Game (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2003), 250–65.

16. Clark Nealon, “Farrell Drops Bomb in Spitter Confession,” The Sporting News, August 4, 1962, 26.

17. “Farrell Thumbed from Hill after Beefing at Ump Weyes,” The Sporting News, September 1, 1962, 15.

18. Bob Odem, “Farrell Good Hurler but He’s Bush,” Houston Chronicle, July 25, 1962, section C, 1.

19. David Skelton, “Turk Farrell,” Bioproject, Society for American Baseball Research http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/180d81d6 (February 19, 2014).

20. Clark Nealon, “Ex-Hill Dud Brunet First Bullet Slants as Colt .45 Player,” The Sporting News, September 8, 1962, 14.

21. Clark Nealon, “Farrell Rated Double-Barreled Dilly by .45s,” The Sporting News, November 3, 1962, 7.

22. “Turk Farrell, “Ex-Pitcher, Killed in Auto Accident,” The New York Times, June 13, 1977; “Obituaries,” The Sporting News, July 2, 1977, 34; and Dick Young, “Young Ideas,” The Sporting News, July 2, 1977, 15.

In 1963 the Houston Colt .45s were relatively new to the baseball world and Pepsi Cola hoped to capitalize on the promotional value of that novelty. The company issued a set of 16 trading cards on relatively thin card stock. Each card measured 2 7/16 inches by 9 1/8 inches featuring a black and white picture of a Colt .45 player, a schedule, and ads in the form of tabs which are often cut off by collectors to make a more standard-sized card. These cards were distributed in the local Houston and Beaumont/Port Arthur area and possibly other local markets. This set has an American Card Catalog designation of F230-3 and was designed as an insert for six pack cartons of Pepsi Cola. They were free to kids who could talk their parents into buying Pepsi by the carton.

So why are some of these cards rarer than others? There is a clue to this in an article written by Mike Anderson which appeared in the April 12, 1985, issue of Sports Collectors Digest (SCD pages 144–5). Anderson states in his article that he was living in Beaumont, Texas in 1963, but there were cards he could never find in the Pepsi cartons. He eventually went to the distributor, where workers on the loading dock told him to go look in the dumpster. Pepsi relied on truck drivers to insert the cards into the cartons and the drivers found it much easier to just throw them away. If so, many more cards were printed than collected.

In the dumpster, Anderson found many copies of cards featuring 14 players, but not others—i.e. one Carl Warwick but no John Bateman. Assuming that this was common practice by distributors, all of these cards are likely relatively scarce, but not necessarily rare. It also suggests that not all of the cards were printed at the same time and some may not have ever made it to public distribution.

I have been able to find only two additional articles about this set after Anderson’s. His was accompanied by a picture of Bateman, but it was not a picture of the 1963 Bateman Colt .45 card. The featured set in the May 1, 1987, Sports Collectors Digest price guide section (page 110) states that the Bateman was apparently not distributed publicly and declared its value at $300. No picture of the Bateman card appears in that article either.

In the October 1988 Baseball Hobby News, Lew Lipset’s sale item number 26 is for a set of 15 of the 16 Pepsi Cola Colt .45 cards from Dick Reuss’s collection. Bateman is the missing card.

Bert Randolph Sugar states on page 14 of The Sports Collectors Bible that this card is “not seen frequently.” Today, most price guides acknowledge that the Carl Warwick card (one of which was found by Mike Anderson) is rare and the John Bateman card is extremely rare. When these cards occasionally come up for sale as a set, it is usually a set of 14 missing Warwick and Bateman, and once in a while, a set of 15 missing the Bateman.

I am often dismayed when I see modern day cards advertised for sale in publications or on auction sites described as “rare.” The word is misused in the hobby as much as “great” is by sportscasters. A good example of a truly rare find is the U.S. Caramel (R328) number 16 which was unknown until recently. The famous T206 Wagner card can legitimately be described as rare.

In the case of the 1963 Colt .45s set, their rarity equalled obscurity, even for me, a serious collector. I spent my entire life between Bay City and the golden triangle and I was never aware of this set. I had been a serious collector 1951–56 and from about 1974 until the present. Even though it was the only regional set issued in the area where I lived most of my life, and despite how active in the hobby I was—subscribing to trade publications, attending shows—I had never encountered or heard of it. That was about to change.

I moved to Houston in February 1979, before the age of the Internet and smart phones, to find my new office building had a bulletin board. Eager to tap into the big city market, I put an ad on that board: “I buy baseball cards.” I also advertised in local newspapers. It wasn’t long before I had bought a small lot of about a dozen nice U.S. Caramels. They were very desirable cards and I thought a nice find. My ad remained up and about May a fellow contacted me and said he had a sack of cards he wished to sell. He brought me a small brown bag about the size of a typical lunch bag full of cards. I was very busy and quickly scanned the cards. They seemed to all be 1961–64 Topps and I guessed there were about 300. I bought them without going through the cards in detail. He said he had acquired them all in Houston. He also had a friend who had some cards and he would let him know about me. His friend had lived in Houston, but was now in the Dallas area.

I took the cards home and put them aside until the weekend. Upon a closer look, I found 24 cards that I had never seen before. They were 1963 Pepsi Cola Colt .45s without tabs. I was disappointed. While I knew nothing about the set, there was a lot of duplication with only four different players. I had one Carl Warwick, two J.C. Hartmans, 11 Ken Johnsons, and 10 John Batemans. Within a month, I found a dealer in a local flea-market who had several different cards from this set and he was willing to trade me 2-for-1 for my doubles. He promised to hold the cards for me until I returned with my cards in two weeks. I dutifully returned, cards in hand to trade, only to find he had sold them 30 minutes earlier to a 12-year-old boy. I was irritated that the dealer’s word was not good, but since I was already there, I decided to tour the flea-market. I happened upon the boy who had bought the cards and offered to trade with him at two for one. He was tempted, but I was a grown man and he was afraid of me as I probably came on too strong out of frustration.

I put the cards away in June of 1979 and forgot about them for about six months. I was still unaware of the rarity of any of these cards or even how many were in the set. For Christmas my sister-in-law gave me a copy of Sports Collectors Bible. (This is now out of print. The last edition was likely published in 1984.) While thumbing through it at random, I opened to page 74 and began to read about the Pepsi regional set distributed in Houston. The phrase “not seen frequently and is very scarce” referring to the Bateman card caught my eye. It also estimated the value at that time at $275–350, similar to the Anderson article. This was the first clue that maybe I had made a good deal by purchasing the lot and also by not being successful in my trade efforts. Christmas that year was at my in-laws’ home so I had to wait until that evening to see if my memory was good. When I got home I immediately went to check and was pleased to find I had 10 copies of the very rare Bateman card.

In 1985 the friend of the man I had bought the cards from said he had found a shoebox full of cards and wanted to know if I was interested. We agreed to a price without me seeing the cards and he mailed them to me. In this box of cards were two more Batemans which brought my total to 12. In the interim between 1979 and 1985 I had seen one more of these cards at a Houston baseball card shop. This brought the total different Batemans I had seen with my own eyes to 13, all in the Houston area. All 13 were without the tabs. I have never found another one or even a photo of one since in the following 29 years of active collecting. It seems very likely that my 12 were all from the same source because I got them from two friends.

I believe the Bateman card may be the rarest baseball card issued since World War II. I would not venture a guess as to what it is worth, but would say it is certainly not the $300 put forth in the 1980s. Generally cards, like houses, are priced on the basis of comparable recent sales and there are no recent sales that I know of. If a Bateman card with tabs were to surface, I would venture that it would certainly be the rarest card since the war. And how remarkable that such a “rare” card was issued right here in Houston.

CHARLES HARRISON was born in Bay City, Texas, and graduated Lamar University in 1964 (BSChe) and University of Missouri in 1966 (MSChE). He works for Bechtel and lives in Houston. Relatively new to SABR, he is a lifelong baseball fan and considers anything played in short pants to not be a true sport. Joe DiMaggio retiring in 1951 was first thing he saw on television.

Author’s note

If any of you have or know of copies of this card I would appreciate you contacting me to help better establish the true number in existence. My contact information is as follows:

Charles Harrison
E-mail: charriso@bechtel.com

The details of the events I have outlined can be corroborated by a few individuals who were close to me and aware of the transactions, including wife Virginia, my son Brian, my cousin Vernon Harrison, and my friend Sam Cochran. Sam, Vernon, and Brian are also serious collectors. Each has laid eyes on the 12 that I owned, but none saw the 13th card which was sold to Will Weber. All 13 cards were without tabs and I have never seen or been aware of one with tabs. All 15 of the other cards in the set do exist with tabs. I would be very interested to know if anyone is aware of other Bateman cards from this set and if they have ever seen one with tabs. I would like to establish if any other examples exist so I can document how many exist. I would bet fewer than 20. It would be interesting to know if the 13 I am aware of were obtained by someone working for Pepsi or their printer and none were in fact ever released to the public.

At this time I still have 7 of my original 12. My son Brian has one so our family still has 8. I am not in contact with Will Weber, but suspect he still has his so that accounts for 9. What happened to my other 4? I sold one card to an Oklahoma dealer who bought it for a customer in Nebraska. I cannot remember the dealer’s name and I never knew the customer’s name. I traded two cards to Bill Heitman, a dealer/collector from California for, among other things, a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle. (Editor’s Note: The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle is described by Professional Sports Authenticators as “the most valuable post-war sportscard.” One in gem mint condition sold for $275,000 in 2001.) The last card was traded to a collector in the San Francisco area for, among other things, a Zeenut Joe DeMaggio (that is how it is spelled on the card).

The Sporting News

The Mets, managed by Gil Hodges, entered the early-season game with a record of 2–2, while Grady Hatton’s Houston team was 4–1. Sophomore Don Wilson of the Astros was tasked with facing Tom Seaver, who was coming off a strong and often dominant rookie season for New York. Given the quality pitching matchup, the 14,219 fans in attendance may have anticipated a low-scoring affair.

The first inning was uneventful: Wilson, with Hal King as his catcher, set down Al Weis, Ken Boswell, and Tommie Agee in order.2 Seaver then did the same, retiring Ron Davis, Norm Miller, and Jim Wynn. The second inning, however, was pivotal. Had things gone differently, the two teams might have avoided becoming the first teams to play at least 21 innings without scoring a run.3 Though the top half of the inning was scoreless, it included the first hit, a two-out single from Mets first baseman Ed Kranepool before Wilson could retire the side.

In the bottom half of the second inning, Seaver ran into the only real trouble that he would experience in the ten innings that he pitched. After Rusty Staub had flied out to right field, King doubled to left. A wild pitch moved King to third. A New York Times account described the play that followed: “Bob Aspromonte hit a sharp grounder to second. Boswell fielded it cleanly, took his time, and threw accurately to the plate. King, however, slammed into [Jerry] Grote, and although the Mets’ catcher fell, he made the tag and held the ball.”4 Julio Gotay then popped out to end the inning.

The missed opportunity for Houston would be the last time the team would get a runner to third base until the 22nd inning. The Mets also would get a runner to third three times without scoring (in the 12th, 17th, and 19th innings).

In the top of the third inning, the Mets got a runner into scoring position in an unconventional way. With two outs, Weis—playing at shortstop in place of Bud Harrelson, who was out with a sore arm—walked, and Boswell was then able to reach base on a wild pitch with two strikes.5 With runners on first and second, Agee was unable to deliver, flying out to right field to end the inning. After going 0-for-10 in this game, Agee’s batting average would fall from .313 to .192.6

Beginning with the bottom of the third inning, the two pitchers settled into a rhythm of retiring the side with relative ease or, as Vito Stellino described it, “matched scores for what seemed like forever.”7 Seaver retired the Houston batters in order in every inning from the third through the ninth. Wilson was less efficient, allowing a single to Art Shamsky in the fourth (and allowing him to reach second base on Wilson’s own errant pickoff throw) before retiring the side.

Oddly, in a game remembered for its lack of offense, Wilson gave up a single to Seaver in the fifth before retiring the side. Kranepool hit a leadoff single in the seventh and was sacrificed to second base before failing to advance further, even as Wilson walked Seaver in the meantime.

In spite of these blips, the Mets were never again close to scoring against Wilson, except perhaps in the ninth inning, when Kranepool reached second base with two outs, though that rally too was snuffed out by Houston. Once Lee Thomas pinch-hit for him in the bottom of the ninth inning, Wilson was out of the game, having faced 36 batters, given up five hits, and made two wild pitches. He obviously did not give up a run.

Seaver continued into the 10th inning, retiring Miller and Wynn before giving up a two-out single to Staub. Hodges left Seaver in the game with a runner on first and two outs, and the manager’s confidence was rewarded, as Seaver got King to hit a grounder which forced Staub at second to end the inning. As Joseph Durso noted in The New York Times, “Seaver…pitched ten innings this time, allowed no runs and only two hits—and still was 14 innings short of a decision.”8

In the meantime, John Buzhardt was quietly efficient in relief of Wilson, retiring the side in order in both the 10th and 11th innings, departing only when Doug Rader pinch-hit for him in the bottom of the 11th. (Rader, alas, flied to right.) Ron Taylor came in to pitch the 11th, replacing Seaver, and allowed only a single in his one inning of work.

The Mets made things interesting in the 12th against Danny Coombs, who had replaced Rader. The left-handed reliever began the inning by striking out Ed Charles, but Jerry Grote and Al Weis each singled around a Phil Linz popup, putting runners on first and second with two out. Ken Boswell then singled to load the bases, but Agee grounded out to second, thwarting the rally. Wrote Durso after the game: “One of the haunting memories of the night for the Mets was the hitting of their ‘big men,’ Agee and Swoboda, who hit third and fourth. Between them they went 0 for 20, with nine strikeouts.”9

Cal Koonce came in to pitch the bottom of the 12th inning for the Mets, but he had the shortest stint of the game (1⁄3 of an inning), giving up a single to Davis and retiring Miller on a sacrifice. Bill Short came in to put out that fire, yielding an intentional walk and then retiring both Staub and King. Coombs, having settled down after his bumpy entrance in the 12th, retired New York in order in the top of the 13th.

The bottom of the 13th inning offered more ups and downs. When Short gave up a single to Gotay and then walked Hector Torres, Hatton called on Dick Selma, who retired the only two batters he faced. Jim Ray took care of the Mets in order in the top of the 14th, while Al Jackson retired Miller, Wynn, and Staub on three groundouts to end the inning. Then both Ray and Jackson each retired the side again in order in the 15th.

After Ray retired the Mets in order (again) in the top of the 16th, Jackson received the benefit of good defense in the bottom of the inning. Torres reached base on a leadoff bunt single, and Ray attempted to sacrifice Torres to second. As Durso described it: “The Mets came up with the play of the night in the 16th. Hector Torres was on first base with Ray at bat in a bunting situation. So Hodges pulled the old Brooklyn shift. He called in Ron Swoboda from right field, gave him a first-baseman’s mitt and stationed him on first. Ed Kranepool moved way in toward the plate to field the bunt. The outfield was left to Tommie Agee and Cleon Jones. After that, Ray struck out.”10

Though Hatton may be faulted for not pinch-hitting for Ray with a runner on first in the 16th, Ray was likely the unsung hero of the game for Houston, pitching seven shutout innings and striking out 11 while allowing only two hits. The Mets touched him only for a double in the 17th inning, and, with a runner on third, Ray managed to get Harrelson to strike out on a squeeze attempt and then Weis to ground out.

After those struggles, Ray went on to strike out the side in the top of the 18th inning. The Astros, however, were unable to gain any traction against New York’s Danny Frisella, who retired the Astros in order in the 17th inning and gave up only a two-out single to New York in the 18th.

Another critical juncture occurred in the top of the 19th inning. Against Ray, who had been sailing along, Cleon Jones began the inning with a single and advanced to second on Kranepool’s sacrifice. Ray then walked Charles intentionally. According to the account in the Chicago Tribune, “Grote struck out. But Jones and Charles were running on the pitch and stole second and third. Since he was now running out of players, Hodges let pitcher Danny Frisella bat for himself and he struck out.”11 The Astros were out of the inning, and Ray stayed on to pitch one last scoreless inning before lefty Wade Blasingame replaced him to start the 21st.

Frisella stayed in the game for the Mets and pitched effectively. In the 19th, he got out of a jam with runners on first and second with two out; in the 20th, he got out of the inning when Gotay was caught stealing as Torres stuck out; and in the 21st, Miller was caught stealing to end the inning. Frisella remained in the game until Don Cardwell pinch-hit for him in the top of the 22nd inning, after which Les Rohr came in to pitch for the Mets.

With the exception of some struggles in the 22nd inning, Blasingame pitched well—and well enough to earn the victory. He faced the minimum in the 21st, 23rd, and 24th innings, running into trouble only in the 22nd, when he retired Weis with Grote on second base and two out. For the Mets, Rohr had an uneven time, walking two (one intentionally) in the 22nd before striking out Gotay with Staub, the potential winning run, on third base with two out.

The game was decided in the bottom of the 24th inning. Norm Miller singled to start the inning (and, surprisingly, got the only hit of the inning). Rohr then balked by “breaking his hands” accidentally, which moved Miller to second.12 Jim Wynn was walked intentionally, putting runners on first and second. A groundout by Staub moved the two runners into scoring position. With one out, Rohr walked John Bateman intentionally to load the bases. Bob Aspromonte’s grounder then went through Weis’s legs at shortstop, allowing the winning run to score and ending the marathon game.

According to Durso: “It might have been a double play grounder ending the threat and putting everybody into the 25th inning. But the ball skidded off the chemical carpet known as the Astroturf and went right through Weis’ legs into left field while Miller scored the only run of the night.”13 The Tribune account said, “When Norm Miller scored from third, he gleefully jumped on home plate and was mobbed by his teammates and Manager Grady Hatton.”14

The Washington Post noted the next day that “Weis had played brilliantly for 23 innings, but he sank to his knees from sheer exhaustion as the ball went through his legs. ‘I just plain blew it,’ said Weis.”15

Weis, as Stellino noted, was playing out of position when he made his critical error, as he was typically a second baseman who was forced to play shortstop due to Harrelson’s injury.16 Still, there was no denying that Weis’s error was the game’s consequential play.

“Baseball’s longest night was filled with moments of humor, drama, dullness, and frustration—but, most of all, it was a nightmare for Al Weis,” commented Stellino.17

Accounts vary regarding the number of fans there when the game ended at 1:37AM, six hours and six minutes after it began; estimates range from 1,000 to 3,000 fans remained.18 According to the Tribune, “The few fans who remained were noisy to the end despite a Texas state law which forbids the sale of liquors after midnight. Houston officials announced they were cooking breakfast for the press in the 23rd inning and said if the game lasted any longer, they would start preparing lunch.”19

At its conclusion, the Astros-Mets game was the longest game with a winner. (The 26-inning game between the Brooklyn Robins and Boston Braves played on May 1, 1920, ended in a 1–1 tie.) Since then, the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Mets in a 25-inning game on September 11, 1974, and the Chicago White Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers in 25 innings on May 8, 1984. The Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Athletics also played to a 1–1 tie in 24 innings on July 21, 1945.20

Arthur Daley of The New York Times outlined the poor regard in which the Mets were held following this loss, saying: “Maybe they’re trying to tell us something. The message has to be that they can’t hit worth a damn.”21

At the same time, Daley emphasized the striking way that the game ended on an error, commenting: “Historians used to say that ‘everything happens to the Dodgers.’ It certainly appeared that way, too. Let there be one wayward happening or unlikely incident and it was a cinch that the Brooklyns were involved in it. Now it has to seem that the Mets have inherited that dubious distinction….The Mets fancy up everything in a reverse alchemy that turns gold to dross.”22 On the other hand, the Astros were in first place following the game.

Stellino noted that the Mets caught a plane right after the game for New York—it had originally been scheduled to arrive in New York at four AM, but the game ended only 83 minutes before that.”23 Both teams, fortunately, had a day off on April 16.24 Stunningly, both catchers—Grote for the Mets and King for the Astros—caught every inning for their respective teams.

As Gil Hodges said following the game: “These long games can really be murder.”25

JOHN McMURRAY is Chair of the SABR Deadball Era Committee. He contributed to “Deadball Stars of the American League” and is a past chair of SABR’s Larry Ritter Award subcommittee. He has contributed many interview-based player profiles to “Baseball Digest” and also writes a monthly column for “Sports Collectors Digest.”

Acknowledgments

With thanks to the Baseball Hall of Fame for providing clippings of vintage articles cited in this piece.

Notes

1. Vito Stellino, “24 Innings, Six Hours, One Run,” The Sporting News, April 27, 1968.

2. Play-by-play of this game may be found via Baseball-Reference.com at www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU196804150.shtml.

3. “Astros Beat Mets, 1–0, in 24 Innings!: Longest Scoreless Game Ends on Error by Weis,” Chicago Tribune, April 16, 1968.

4. “Mets Lose in 24th, Longest Night Game,” The New York Times, April 16, 1968.

5. Stellino, “24 Innings, Six Hours, One Run.”

6. “After 24-Inning Encounter, Astros, Mets Glad for Rest,” Washington Post, April 17, 1968.

7. Stellino, “24 Innings, Six Hours, One Run.”

8. Joseph Durso, “Mets Will Oppose Giants in Home Opener at Shea Stadium Today,” The New York Times, April 17, 1968.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. “Astros Beat Mets, 1–0, in 24 Innings!: Longest Scoreless Game Ends on Error by Weis,” Chicago Tribune.

12. Durso, “Mets Will Oppose Giants in Home Opener at Shea Stadium Today.”

13. Ibid.

14. “Astros Beat Mets 1–0 in 24 Innings!” Chicago Tribune.

15. “After 24-Inning Encounter, Astros, Mets Glad for Rest,” Washington Post.

16. Stellino, “24 Innings, Six Hours, One Run.”

17. Ibid.

18. See Stellino and also “After 24-Inning Encounter, Astros, Mets Glad for Rest,” Washington Post.

19. “Astros Beat Mets 1–0 in 24 Innings!” Chicago Tribune.

20. “The 10 Longest MLB Games of All Time,” Yahoo Sports. Available at http://sports.yahoo.com/news/10-longest-mlb-games-time-204400545–mlb.html

21. Arthur Daley, “The Marathoners,” The New York Times, April 17, 1968.

22. Ibid.

23. Stellino, “24 Innings, Six Hours, One Run,” The Sporting News.

24. Ibid.

25. “After 24-Inning Encounter, Astros, Mets Glad for Rest,” Washington Post.

In the early 1960s, each of the recent expansion cities played host to the MLB All-Star Game, New York in 1964, Anaheim in 1967, Houston in 1968, and Washington DC in 1969.

The 1968 baseball season took place against a backdrop of racial violence. The late 1960s trembled with social and political turbulence, with the summer of 1968 at its epicenter. The season’s Opening Day games were postponed due to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral.1 Throughout the year, rioting took place in many American cities, including Detroit, Baltimore, Louisville, and Miami.2 The All-Star Game in Houston on Tuesday July 9 was a mere five weeks after the assassination of Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles and seven weeks before the violent demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Houston experienced some unrest, but less than many American cities. The Texas Southern University riot of 1967 and the 1970 shooting death of militant activist Carl Hampton stand as Houston’s two most noteworthy cases of racial violence during that era.3,4 Reflective of the city’s place in the political landscape of the time, in 1966 Houston had elected Barbara Jordan to the Texas State Senate. Jordan was the first African American since 1883 to serve in that capacity, and in 1973 she would become her state’s first woman and first African American since 1883 to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.5

On the professional sports scene, Houston had been the solution to a racial problem a few years earlier. In January 1965 the American Football League All-Star Game was scheduled to take place in New Orleans, but a player boycott in response to racial discrimination in the city threatened cancellation of the game. The game was instead played in Houston.6 Given the tenor of the times, Houston was a good place for Major League Baseball to showcase its talent in the 1968 mid-summer classic.

Starting position players were elected to the All-Star team by the leagues’ players in 1968. Fan voting had last taken place in 1957, the year of the Cincinnati ballot box stuffing incident, and would not be re-instituted until 1970.7 The AL player vote produced this starting roster:

• Bill Freehan (C, Det)
• Harmon Killebrew (1B, Min)
• Rod Carew (2B, Min)
• Brooks Robinson (3B, Bal)
• Jim Fregosi (SS, Cal)
• Frank Howard (OF, Was)
• Carl Yastrzemski (OF, Bos)
• Willie Horton (OF, Det)

Regular-season left fielders Yastrzemski and Horton started in center and right field, respectively. Robinson was the AL starter who was most experienced in All-Star competition, making the team for a twelfth time, while Howard, who led the AL in home runs at mid-season, was in his first All-Star contest.8

The NL voting resulted in this roster of starters:

• Jerry Grote (C, NY)
• Willie McCovey (1B, SF)
• Tommy Helms (2B, Cin)
• Ron Santo (3B, Chi)
• Don Kessinger (SS, Chi)
• Pete Rose (OF, Cin)
• Curt Flood (OF, StL)
• Henry Aaron (OF, Atl)9

Aaron, having narrowly edged Willie Mays (SF) for the third starting outfield position, was the only surprising selection.10 Aaron had struggled through May and June, batting only .195 for the two-month period, but he would return to form after the All-Star break, ending the season with 29 home runs and a .287 batting average.11 Rose suffered a broken thumb only days before the All-Star break and would be replaced in the starting lineup by Mays.12

AL manager Dick Williams of Boston assembled a pitching staff of Luis Tiant (Cle), Sam McDowell (Cle), Tommy John (Chi), Denny McLain (Det), John “Blue Moon” Odom (Oak), Mel Stottlemyre (NY), and Jose Santiago (Bos), with the injured Santiago later being replaced by his teammate, pitcher Gary Bell.13,14 Tiant and McLain were the league’s most dominant pitchers at mid-season, en route to their post-season honors, the AL ERA title for Tiant and the MVP and Cy Young awards for 31-game winner McLain. Although it would later become customary to rest All-Star pitchers on the weekend prior to the break, in 1968 this practice was not yet in place, limiting how Williams could deploy his pitchers for the game. McLain and Stottlemyre had each pitched complete games on the Sunday before the All-Star Game, and Tiant had gone 61⁄3 innings.

To complete the AL roster, Williams chose catchers Joe Azcue (Cle) and Duane Josephson (Chi), first basemen Mickey Mantle (NY) and Boog Powell (Bal), second baseman Davey Johnson (Bal), third baseman Don Wert (Det), shortstop Bert Campaneris (Oak), and outfielders Rick Monday (Oak), Ken Harrelson (Bos), and Tony Oliva (Min).15 All but Mantle and Oliva were first-time All-Stars.

NL manager Red Schoendienst selected a pitching staff of Don Drysdale (LA), Steve Carlton (StL), Bob Gibson (StL), Woody Fryman (Phi), Juan Marichal (SF), Ron Reed (Atl), Tom Seaver (NY), and Jerry Koosman (NY).16 Ninth-time honoree Drysdale and eighth-timer Marichal brought the most All-Star experience to the staff, while Carlton, Fryman, Koosman, and Reed were first-time All-Stars. Koosman and Seaver were the only NL hurlers who had pitched on the Sunday before the break, but they had not been taxed, combining for one relief inning to close out a Mets victory. Of greater consequence, a day earlier Gibson and Marichal had faced off against each other in a game at Candlestick Park in which both went the full nine innings. At season’s end, Gibson would be the NL’s MVP and Cy Young Award winner, with Marichal finishing fifth in the MVP voting.

The NL roster was filled out with catchers Johnny Bench (Cin) and Tom Haller (LA), first baseman Rusty Staub (Hou), second baseman Julian Javier (StL), third baseman Tony Perez (Cin), shortstop Gene Alley (Pit)—later replaced by Leo Cardenas (Cin)17—and outfielders Felipe Alou (Atl), Matty Alou (Pit), and Billy Williams (Chi).18 Williams was the roster replacement for the injured Rose.19 In contrast to their AL counterparts, the NL reserves were mostly an experienced lot, with only Bench and Matty Alou as first-time All-Stars.

The game was the first mid-summer classic to be played indoors. Calling attention to it also being one of the first All-Star Games broadcast in prime time,New York Times writer Leonard Koppett referred to the venue as “the world’s largest television studio and only indoor ballpark.”20 The Astrodome was in only its fourth year of existence, and the game would be the first chance that most of the AL All-Stars would have to play there. Schoendienst, the St. Louis skipper, denied that there would be a home field advantage for his squad of All-Stars. “Our club comes in here three times a year,” he noted, “and it takes us a couple of games to get used to it each time.”21

Play began auspiciously enough for the AL team. Fregosi led off the game with a double, but he would get no farther than third base, as Drysdale, starting his fifth All-Star Game, set down Carew, Yastrzemski, and Howard to quell the threat.22 The AL would not produce another baserunner until late in the game, as Drysdale, Marichal, and Carlton handcuffed the AL hitters through the sixth inning.

For the NL the opportunities came early and often. Mays led off the bottom of the first with a single. A series of missteps followed. Before offering another pitch, starter Tiant made two pick off throws to first base, the second of which caught Mays off base. He would have been out, except that the throw got past Killebrew. Mays advanced to second, and Tiant was charged with an error. Flood then walked. Two on, no out would have been bad enough, but to make matters worse, ball four was a wild pitch, advancing Mays to third. McCovey then grounded into a double play, scoring Mays. Tiant allowed another walk, to Aaron, but then ended the inning by inducing Santo to ground out. Mays’s run was unearned, and no RBI was awarded, but the damage was done. The NL led, 1–0.

As the game proceeded, the NL team threatened, but failed to build on their lead. Facing Tiant, Helms led off the second inning with a double to right field, but two strike outs and a fly ball ended the inning. Odom offered up walks to Santo and Helms in the fourth, but allowed no hits and no runs. McLain walked Flood in the bottom of the fifth, but allowed no further damage. A sixth-inning Aaron single and stolen base followed by a Santo base on balls made for the beginnings of another rally, but McLain worked out of the jam, retiring Helms, Staub, and Williams. The NL’s last base runners came in the bottom of the seventh, when Matty Alou beat out an infield single, and Santo singled in the eighth.

Meanwhile, it was the top of the seventh before the AL threatened to snap the shutout. Oliva touched Seaver for a double to left-center field. The ball struck high off the outfield wall, just shy of becoming a game-tying home run, but the rally ended as the next batter, Azcue, struck out. The AL managed another two-out double in the eighth, this one by Wert, but Seaver struck out Monday to end the threat.

To face the AL in the top of the ninth, Schoendienst chose Reed, who did not disappoint. The tall right hander retired Campaneris on a grounder to third and Johnson on a strike out. Koosman closed the game with a strike out of Yastrzemski to seal the 1–0 NL victory.

In the heat of battle, it is best to remember that the All-Star Game is an exhibition, the outcome of little consequence no matter how seriously the players might take it. The bottom of the third inning offered such a reminder. Fregosi’s throw to first on a Flood ground ball headed wide of the mark. Killebrew made an all-out stretch and successfully fielded the throw for the put out, but his maneuver left him with a torn hamstring, an injury that would keep him out of the Twins’ lineup until September.23 A less serious incident took place in the top of the seventh. Earlier in the plate appearance that produced his opposite field hit, Oliva let go of his bat on a wild swing, launching the lumber into the NL dugout. Fortunately, no damage resulted, just minor bumps to Schoendienst and Felipe Alou.24

From the historical perspective of a veteran sportswriter, Koppett saw an absence of star power on the 1968 squads.

It’s all a far cry from the first All-Star Game in 1933, whose cast included Babe Ruth, Al Simmons, Charlie Gehringer, Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey, Lefty Grove, Jimmy Foxx, Joe Cronin, Gabby Hartnett, Carl Hubbell, Bill Terry, Pie Traynor, Paul Waner and Frank Frisch–all subsequently elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.

It’s unlikely that 14 of this game’s participants will attain that honor.25

Time and the baseball writers have proved this prediction wrong, as the Hall of Fame has enshrined 17 players from the 1968 game. In Koppett’s defense, could anyone in 1968 have anticipated that first-time All-Stars Bench and Carlton would in time be considered among the game’s elites? Moreover, the notion that the 1933 game was populated with the greater number of all-time greats continues to hold true, as four more 1933 All-Stars have since been inducted as Veterans Committee picks, bringing those squads’ tally to 18. (17 who played: Bill Dickey did not get into the game.) Then again, Cooperstown might not be finished summoning 1968 All-Stars, as John, Staub, Tiant, and perhaps others continue to be candidates for enshrinement.26

The 1968 season has been tagged the Year of the Pitcher, and the All-Star Game in Houston was 1968 in microcosm. Precise and overpowering, the NL pitchers allowed only three base runners—all on doubles— while also striking out 11. The AL pitchers, giving up only five hits, replied with nine strikeouts of their own, but the Mays first-inning unearned run proved decisive.

BRENDAN BINGHAM was a contributing author to “Bridging Two Dynasties: The 1947 Yankees” and was a poster presenter at SABR 43. He currently works in the medical device industry. During a 25-year career as a research scientist, Brendan has published original work in genetics, endocrinology and neuroscience.

Notes

1. Leonard Koppett, “Baseball Season Opens Today With All 20 Clubs Listed for Action,” The New York Times, April 10, 1968.

2. “List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_civil_unrest_in_the_United_States, accessed February 22, 2014.

3. Brian D. Behnken, “Texas Southern University riot of 1967,” in Encyclopedia of American Race Riots, vol. 2, ed. Walter C. Rucker and James N. Upton, 635-636. (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007).

4. Martin Waldron, “Black militant slain by Houston police; gun fight injures 4,” The New York Times, July 28, 1970.

5. Francis X. Clines, “Barbara Jordan dies at 59; Her Voice Stirred the Nation,” The New York Times, January 18, 1996.

6. William N. Wallace, “Race Issue Shifts All-Star Game From New Orleans to Houston,” The New York Times, January 12, 1965.

7. “3 Dodgers Named to All-Star Team,” The New York Times, July 4, 1957.

8. “Howard Is Named to All-Star Team,” The New York Times, June 27, 1968.

9. “Aaron, at .236, Grote on All-Star Team,” The New York Times, June 25, 1968.

10. “Voting by Players,” The New York Times, June 25, 1968.

11. “Hank Aaron 1968 Batting Splits,” Baseball-reference.com, www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=aaronha01&year= 1968&t=b, accessed February 24, 2014.

12. “Mays to Replace Rose in All-Star Line-Up,” The New York Times, July 8, 1968.

13. “McLain, Stottlemyre Named American League All-Stars,” The New York Times, June 28, 1968.

14. “Visitors Study Grass and Roof,” The New York Times, July 9, 1968.

15. “Mantle Named to All-Star Team 16th Year by American League,” The New York Times, July 2, 1968.

16. “Mays an All-Star for 19th Time As Schoendienst Fills Out Squad,” The New York Times, July 4, 1968.

17. “Reds’ Cardenas Replaces Alley in All-Star Contest,” The New York Times, July 7, 1968.

18. “Mays an All-Star for 19th Time As Schoendienst Fills Out Squad,” The New York Times, July 4, 1968.

19. “Visitors Study Grass and Roof,” The New York Times, July 9, 1968.

20. Leonard Koppett, “Drysdale and Tiant Chosen to Start in All-Star Game at Houston Tonight,” The New York Times, July 9, 1968. Two previous All-Star Games had broadcasts that overlapped prime time viewing hours in the East: Both the second game in 1959 and the 1967 contest started at 4:00 PM Pacific, so were “day games.”

21. “Visitors Study Grass and Roof,” The New York Times, July 9, 1968.

22. Accounts of the game action are from three main sources: “July 9, 1968 All-Star Game Play-By-Play and Box Score,” Baseball-reference.com, www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NLS/NLS196807090.shtml, accessed January 3, 2014; “All-Star Game Played on Tuesday, July 9, 1968 (N) at Astrodome,” Retrosheet.org, www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1968/B07090NLS1968.htm, accessed January 3, 2014; and David Vincent, Lyle Spatz, and David W. Smith, The Midsummer Classic: The complete history of baseball’s All-Star game (University of Nebraska Press, 2001).

23. Joseph Durso, “Baseball in Grip of a Power Failure,” The New York Times, July 11, 1968.

24. Ibid.

25. Leonard Koppett, “Drysdale and Tiant Chosen to Start in All-Star Game at Houston Tonight,” The New York Times, July 9, 1968.

26. John was listed on the Expansion Era ballot in 2010 and 2013 and Staub in 2010 (“Twelve Finalists Comprise Expansion Era Ballot For Hall of Fame Consideration in 2014,” National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, http://baseballhall.org/news/press-releases/twelve-finalists-comprise-expansion-era-ballot-hall-fame-consideration-2014, accessed February 24, 2014); Tiant ranks among the top five pitchers not in the Hall of Fame, according to one player ranking algorithm (“Hall of Stats,” www.hallofstats.com, accessed February 24, 2014).

Richard accomplished what Strasburg did not: striking out 15 batters to tie the 1954 debut record set by Brooklyn Dodger Karl Spooner—also against Mays’s Giants. Unfortunately, scant media attention, future pitching heroics, and well-chronicled personal tribulations shadowed Richard’s debut, obscuring an intriguing tale with its own Strasburg-like dominance.2

Richard’s path to Candlestick began in 1950, when he was born in rural Vienna, Louisiana. About growing up in a self-described middle-class black family, Richard reflected, “My father and I had a long talk one day and he said, ‘Have more for your family than I have for you.’ And somehow it came to me that I wanted to be the best at everything I did and never take nothing for granted.”3

Cemented with determination and athleticism housed inside a gangly frame—he graduated at 6’8″, 222 pounds—Richard took nearby Ruston’s basketball, football, and baseball teams by storm, earning multiple scholarship offers. Once drafted, Richard chose baseball, primarily due to receiving $100,000 bonus money. Astros player personnel director Tal Smith opined that Richard had an arm “a scout might see once about every 500,000 miles.”4

Richard progressed quickly through the minors, advancing to the Astros’ Triple-A Oklahoma City 89ers in 1971, where he led the league in strikeouts and ERA. Control issues occasionally plagued him, but with an impressive arsenal of fastballs, sliders, and curves, “J.R.” or “The Big Fellow,” as hailed by teammates, was promoted to the Astros on September 1. He later remembered it felt good to be in the majors, but “I didn’t feel a jolt or surge…. It wasn’t a big change because of my attitude. I just wanted to be the best.”5

He joined a team 16 games out of first, fighting for fourth place in the NL’s Western Division. Despite a league second-best 3.13 ERA, Houston was doomed to mediocrity by anemic offense, key injuries, and players’ contretemps with manager Harry “The Hat” Walker. Richard was informed the following day that he would start Sunday’s second game of a doubleheader against the Giants. Departing Houston that evening for a four-game series, the team arrived sleepily in San Francisco early Friday morning.

The club they encountered was formidable, spearheaded by four future Cooperstown inductees: 40-years-young center fielder Mays, first baseman Willie McCovey, and pitchers Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry. Right behind were five-tool star Bobby Bonds and rookie masher Dave Kingman. Although the team had cooled after a blistering 37–14 start, San Francisco maintained a large first-place lead en route to winning its division and compiling a second best 51–30 home record. The Giants were patient, too, as evidenced by leading the NL in walks. Spoiler alert: The Giants also led the major leagues in strikeouts.

The first match that Sunday set the table for the second. In the first inning, McCovey suffered a split left hand while attempting to field a vicious bouncer. With backup first baseman Kingman absent with appendicitis, the versatile Mays moved to first. Having few other options on short notice, manager Charlie Fox would be forced to play Mays there for both games. The Astros took advantage, squeaking out a 1–0 victory, emphatically stamped by starter Jack Billingham, who struck out a season-high 11. Keep that number in mind.

Around 3:00pm, Richard warmed up in the Astros bullpen along the left-field line. He would have been hard-pressed to envision a more alien landscape for his debut. Candlestick had bid adieu to the open outfield expanse of the 1960s, when Mays’s cap seemingly always fell to the grass as he snagged every fly ball. Instead, the football 49ers had recently abandoned cramped Kezar Stadium in favor of this automobile-friendly location on the city’s edge. The result? Goodbye baseball-only park, hello ongoing conversion to a multi-use stadium. Candlestick’s renovations included rock-hard AstroTurf, an enclosing outfield area negating visibility of the outside world, and unfinished construction along the upper deck resembling “a construction job deserted by the hardhats after a hot labor-management dispute.”6

The weather, too, contributed an otherworldly vibe. The previous day’s yearly high of 85 had fallen 19 degrees, as coalescing marine fog hovered along the Pacific, waiting to steamroll inland. With the fog came “The Hawk,” the nickname for gusts that frequently buffeted day games, the talons of which arrived habitually around three, turning the bullpen into a breezy swirl of food wrappers, plastics, and anything else lighter than a small dog.

Blessedly, the fog lingered somewhere beyond the upper deck overhang, permitting sunshine. Damningly, The Hawk was in flight, swirling at 10–20 mph, perhaps harder in unlucky microclimates. As the San Francisco Chronicle’s Bob Stevens acutely described, it was a “sometimes chill-blasted day.”7

Whether due to the Hawk, nervousness, or innate wildness, Richard captured Fox’s attention: “I watched him warm up in the bullpen. He threw at least a dozen balls that the catcher couldn’t reach.”8 After finishing, Richard returned to the dugout, then watched as Jim Willoughby, also making his debut, shut Houston down in the top of the first.

Switch-hitter Ken Henderson led off for the Giants. How did one of the tallest pitchers in history appear to him, catcher Larry Howard, and home plate umpire Billy Williams? Stevens observed Richard came off the mound “like a huge crane.”9 As Dave Parker would later describe: “When he…let the ball go, he look[ed] like he [was] 10 feet away from you instead of 60[, which caused] you to lean a little bit and [made] you think you [had] to swing the bat quicker.”10 Perhaps the Pirates’ Richie Hebner summed it up best: “He [was] so close to the plate when he finish[ed] his windup that I [was] thankful he didn’t eat onions before the game.”11

Somehow, Henderson stroked a single to center. Switch-hitting Tito Fuentes was not so fortunate, grounding out to advance Henderson to second. Next up, Mays: a god compared to the Astros neophyte. Lacking the bat speed of years past, Mays nonetheless entered the game at .294/.436/.521, eventually compiling the eighth-best wins above replacement (WAR) and best on-base percentage in the league.12 A storybook battle of youth vs. experience.

Youth won. Mays struck out swinging. Richard had little time to savor his first “K,” though. The strikeout-prone Bonds beat out an infield bouncer, then scored with Henderson on an RBI double by hot-hitting “Dirty” Al Gallagher for a 2–0 Giants lead.13

What ensued is a classic baseball legend in three acts. In act one, Astros first base coach Hub Kittle recalled, “The first time Mays came to bat, J.R. just threw that fastball by him.” As Mays returned to first for the second inning, he asked Kittle in a high-pitched voice, “Hubert! My Lord! Who was that? He nearly scared me half to death! Where’d you get him?”14

Leaving act one, after the Astros failed to score, Richard answered, issuing a walk but nailing Willoughby for his second swinging strikeout. In the third, the Astros discovered their bats. After Richard grounded out in his inaugural at bat, Houston tied the score on RBI singles by Cesar Geronimo and Cesar Cedeño. The Giants failed to respond in kind. Translation: Richard struck out the side of Fuentes, Mays, and Bonds, with Mays looking at a called strike three. At this point, turning to act two, Kittle recalled Mays shaking his head while returning to first.15

The Astros added another run in the fourth for a 3–2 lead on an RBI single by Howard, Richard’s former Oklahoma City batterymate. With that, Fox summoned rookie Jim Barr to successfully shut the door. Richard responded in the bottom frame by again allowing no runs. San Francisco achieved a moral victory, however: No Giant struck out.

Houston widened its margin in the fifth with its last two runs of the day on RBIs again by Geronimo and Cedeño. Armed with a 5–2 cushion, Richard took charge. Catcher Dick Dietz, inserted on a double-switch in the top of the inning, joined the strikeout club, going down swinging. After a Henderson out, Fuentes initiated a rally with a single to left-center, bringing up Mays. We will never know how vociferously Giants’ fans cheered for home run number 646 off his bat, but surely a collective groan escaped when Richard strangled hope, striking out Mays swinging.

Now comes act three. After striking out, Mays slowly walked to first, exclaiming, “Hubert! You know what! Nobody’s ever struck out Mays four times, have they? Well, I tell you what. That guy ain’t going to strike me out again, because I ain’t playing anymore.”16 According to Kittle, Mays then took himself out of the game at some unspecified point.17 Was Mays serious? More to be revealed.

San Francisco’s bats disappeared once more in the sixth as Richard navigated around his second walk by striking out Bonds again and light-hitting Jimmy Rosario, both on swinging third strikes. With no Astros runs or rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” or “God Bless America” to delay him in the seventh, Richard returned to the bump, sitting on nine strikeouts. Make that 10, as Dietz looked at a called third strike.

Rookie pitcher Steve Stone overcame a Mays error to escape damage in the eighth, bringing up the heart of the Giants order. Whether from newfound confidence or lacking an exit strategy, Mays grabbed his bat and opened proceedings with a walk. He advanced to second on a passed ball, and later scampered to third on a Bonds foul fly to first baseman John Mayberry—incredibly shrewd baserunning by the still-speedy veteran.18 Richard seized momentum by striking out Gallagher looking. Mays grabbed it right back, however, scoring when third baseman Denis Menke booted a Chris Speier grounder. After an infield single advanced Speier to second, Fox called catcher Fran Healy from the bullpen to pinch hit. Richard quickly fell behind 3–0 on two curves, “then went back to his hummer and simply blew the next three casts past [him],” the last strike looking.19 As an awestruck Healy recalled: “…I [came] back to the dugout and [Fox] said, ‘We have his pitches.’ (Richard was tipping off his pitches.) And I said, ‘So do I.’ Jeez, he was throwing a hundred miles an hour.”20

In the bottom of the ninth, pitching in shadows covering the infield, Richard stood on the cusp of history with 12 strikeouts. Mays was due up fourth.

First batter? Dietz, again. Result: same as it ever was, strikeout 13, swinging.

Second batter? Henderson. A contact hitter who would whiff only 76 times in 598 plate appearances, he hadn’t yet struck out that day. Result: strikeout 14, swinging.

Next potential victim? Subbing for Fuentes in the eighth, Hal Lanier was the quintessential 1970s punchless-hitting infielder, but entering the game with 24 strikeouts in 205 plate appearances, he was hardly a swing-and-miss machine. Plus, he was assisted by the distracting influence of Mays on deck. Or, had Mays quit?

No. Baseball writer Rob Neyer correctly observed in 2008 that with the Giants contesting a close game in a pennant race, the notion of Mays removing himself seemed “preposterous, at the very least.”21 Hindsight in 2014 conclusively reveals Kittle’s tale as a great fishing story, but a story nonetheless. First of all, Mays had struck out four times on April 24 and June 18, something he would easily remember. Second, no reporters mentioned another Giant waiting on deck, certainly a noticeable development given how Mays’s movements were analyzed like the Zapruder film. Lastly, if Mays departed and the game became tied, who would play first? McCovey and Kingman were unavailable. When asked afterward who would play first going forward, Fox answered Mays, griping “Who else is there who can play it?”22 Thus, a matchup for the ages waited in the wings.

Alas, Lanier failed to comply. Strikeout 15! Richard tied the record at the two-hour, 39-minute mark on his 155th pitch, a swinging third strike, “seemingly still throwing with the same power as in the early innings.”23, 24  As Lanier retreated to the dugout, the Astros “rushed out to congratulate their new, instant hero.”25 Billingham and Richard embraced, for their combined 26 strikeouts still ties the record for the most strikeouts thrown by a team’s starters in a twin bill: a safe standard given the modern disappearance of doubleheaders.

In the clubhouse, reporters flocked to Richard like a new Hollywood star. Stevens observed, “…very few Giants…dared dig in on him, and you certainly can’t fault them for that.”26 The San Jose Mercury News and Houston Chronicle both marveled how Giants batters took many called strikes while stepping away from the plate.27 The Houston Post even compared him to fellow Louisianan Vida Blue, the 1971 American League Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Award winner.28

Mays chimed in less enthusiastically. Concurring with Bonds’s postgame assessment that Richard was not quite as fast as anticipated, he dryly credited Richard with always being around the plate.29 His subdued remarks remain incongruous with his three-strikeout workday and whatever joke or threat he may have offered to encourage Kittle’s storytelling abilities.

Postgame sabermetric insights were non-existent at the time. Current tools rate Richard a 75 game score, which tied Strasburg’s effort, primarily since The Big Fellow pitched a complete game, while Strasburg’s was a pitch count-limited seven-innings, with 94 pitches and no walks.30 Both trailed Spooner’s 93 game score for a three-hit shutout on 143 pitches. Spooner’s 1954 performance, while impressive and historic, slightly trails Richard’s accomplishment in two key respects. First, he pitched at home in Brooklyn before a spring training-like 3,256 crowd. Second, the Giants had clinched the NL pennant on September 20, just two days earlier. As 1971 Giants pitching coach Larry Jansen recalled after watching Richard’s performance, “We had quite a party the night before Spooner pitched. There weren’t too many regulars in the lineup that day.”31

As for Richard’s reaction, he was as cool as the proverbial other side of the pillow: “I wasn’t keeping track of the strikeouts. I didn’t think a lot about facing Mays, Bobby Bonds and other good hitters. I just felt if something was going to happen, it was going to happen.32

“There wasn’t anything to get nervous about. They gave me the ball. After that there was nothing to do about it but to pitch…. I wasn’t thinking strikeout today. Actually, I just tried to get the ball over the plate,” he politely added, agreeing with Howard that he did not have the elite fastball he had that day in Oklahoma City when he struck out 17—with 16 in the first six innings before developing a finger blister.33 As for comparisons to Blue, he refused to take the bait: “Others have done that, not me.”34

Richard explained laconically that he threw fastballs and sliders to Mays, and offered no clichés then or now about tying the record of, to him, an unknown ballplayer from a time when baseball was in black and white, literally and figuratively.35 Yet the memory of stifling Mays, the connective tissue between the two events, still remains.36 As Richard observed years later, “My biggest game was my major league debut…. I didn’t realize what was going on until it was over…. All I could remember was Willie Mays going down swinging. My slider moved this much (holding his hands about five feet apart).”37

The promise Richard demonstrated that day slowly flowered. Overcoming wildness, inconsistency, and injuries, he finally secured a rotation spot in 1975, won 20 games in 1976 and struck out over 300 batters in 1978 and 1979. In 1980 he started the All-Star Game for the NL. On the mound, he “went out there with the mentality if you beat me I’m gonna die trying. I was willing to give my life for it.”38

He very nearly did. Days after the All-Star Game, Richard suffered a stroke. His reputation was smeared in a miasma of medical complications and media-fueled accusations of malingering: at best inaccurate, at worst racist. After failed comeback attempts, he was cut by the Astros in 1984. A downward personal spiral ultimately left him homeless at times under a bridge in Houston.

Then, at his nadir, came redemption. With help from friends and religious inspiration, he recovered, and he began counseling in Houston-area churches and mentoring youths on baseball and life. In 2012, he was inducted into the Astros’ Walk of Fame. At peace, he is now “peacock proud and honeymoon happy” enough to say with levity and Southern sass, “I’m the only man in the world who [could] throw a ball through a car wash and never get it wet.”39

DAN VanDeMORTEL became a Giants fan in Upstate New York and moved to San Francisco to follow the team more closely. He has written extensively on Northern Ireland political affairs, and his Giants-related writing has appeared in San Francisco’s “Nob Hill Gazette.” He is currently writing a book on the 1971 Giants and welcomes feedback at giants1971@yahoo.com.

Sources

All statistics are cited from or calculated from Baseball-Reference.com (http://www.baseball-reference.com) unless otherwise noted. The Sporting News Official Baseball Guide (1972) also provided helpful background.

Notes

1. Pitch speeds are the consensus from various referenced speeds spanning Richard’s career.
2. The New York Times recorded “Jim” Richard’s accomplishment in one paragraph sans headline: The New York Times, September 6, 1971. The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times ran brief wire service accounts sans quotes from participants: “Astros’ Pitchers Stop Giants Twice,” Washington Post, September 6, 1971; “Astros Sweep Giants; Rookie Strikes Out 15,” Los Angeles Times, September 6, 1971.
3. Blake Jackson, “The Collected Wisdom of James Rodney Richard,” NewsOK, June 18, 2006, http://newsok.com/the-collected-wisdom-of-james-rodney-richard/article/1875003.
4. Wil A. Linkugel and Edward J. Pappas, They Tasted Glory: Among the Missing at the Baseball Hall of Fame (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1998), 145.
5. Jackson, op. cit.; Dave Hollander, “J.R. Richard: The Human Condition,” Houston Press, September 2, 2004, www.houstonpress.com/2004-09- 02/news/j-r-richard-the-human-condition/.
6. Charles McCabe, “The New Candlestick,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 13, 1971.
7. Bob Stevens, “Giants Lose 2; McCovey Hurt,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 6, 1971.
8. Bucky Walter, “15 Strikeouts in Astro’s 1st Start,” San Francisco Examiner, September 6, 1971.
9. Stevens, op. cit.
10. Ron Reid, “Sweet Whiff of Success,” Sports Illustrated, September 4, 1978, http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/
MAG1135814/index.htm.
11. Harry Shattuck, “King Richard a Real Highness in Houston,” The Sporting News, May 26, 1979.
12. Mays struck out a career-high 123 times in 1971.
13. Bonds set a then major league record with 187 strikeouts in 1969 and broke it with 189 in 1970. He was on pace for an improved total of 137 in 1971.
14. All Kittle quotes are from SABR’s BioProject: Hubert Kittle, http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/4d152362 (see fn 129). Phil Pepe, Talkin’ Baseball, An Oral History of Baseball in the 1970s (New York: Ballantine Books, 1998), 53–4 contains a similar version. This article opts for SABR’s version over most, but not all, of Pepe’s, being that it is an earlier version with more detail, taken from a 1992 television interview.
15. SABR BioProject: Hubert Kittle, op cit.
16. Ibid.
17. Pepe, op. cit., 53-54.
18. Baseball-Reference.com indicates Howard was responsible for two passed balls in this game. However, all newspaper box scores indicate only one; no game account mentions a second.
19. Stevens, op. cit.; Pepe, op. cit., 53.
20. Pepe, op. cit., 53.
21. Rob Neyer, Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Legends (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008), 141–2.
22. Dick Friendlich, “Mays Back to First,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 6, 1971. Fox alluded to the possible future deployment of backup catcher Russ Gibson or Lanier to first: Dick O’Connor, “Giants, Dodgers Clash Tonight,” Palo Alto Times, September 6, 1971. But, Gibson had already been replaced by Dietz and Fox’s options for replacing Lanier at second were limited. Recent triple-A callups infielder Chris Arnold and outfielder Bernie Williams were the only available position players. Using either in some convoluted switch to honor a Mays request to leave the game would have weakened the lineup offensively and defensively, and given Fox even fewer bench options in the event of extra innings or injuries.
23. An exact pitch count is not available. This approximation was derived via Tom Tango’s Basic Pitch Count Estimator, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_pitch_count_estimator.
24. John Wilson, “Richard Fans 15 in Sweep,” Houston Chronicle, September 6, 1971, www.astrosdaily.com/history.
25. Joe Heiling, “Richard Fans 15, Ties Rookie Mark for First MLB Start,” September 6, 1971, www.astrosdaily.com/history.
26. Stevens, op. cit.
27. Jack Hanley, “Twin Loss for Giants,” San Jose Mercury News, September 6, 1971; Wilson, op. cit., “Richard Fans 15 in Sweep.”
28. Heiling, op. cit.
29. O’Connor, op. cit.
30. Game score is a metric devised by sabermetrican Bill James to numerically evaluate the strength of a starting pitcher’s performance. The higher the score, the more successful the performance. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_score.
31. O’Connor, op. cit. Left fielder Monte Irvin was the only Giants starter to play the entire game; all others rested or were confined to two or fewer at bats. Jansen’s recollection on timing of the Giants celebration(s) could be slightly off, but even The Sporting News cautioned that Spooner benefited from facing a weak lineup and a Giants team “bound to be more or less indifferent” after clinching the pennant, with some batters possibly “swinging at the first pitch to get [the game] over with.” Bill Roeder, “$600 Dollar Spooner Looks Like Million in Fall Debut,” The Sporting News, Oct. 6, 1954. Sadly, Spooner’s career abruptly ended the following season due to a throwing-shoulder injury.
32. Pat Frizzell, “Giants Lose Mac for One Week,” Oakland Tribune, September 6, 1971.
33. Walter, op. cit.; John Wilson, “J.R. Gives Astros Happy Expectations,” The Sporting News, November 27, 1971.
34. Heiling, op. cit.
35. Walter, op. cit.
36. Mays singled in two at bats versus Spooner with no strikeouts.
37. Jackson, op. cit.
38. Wesley Wright, Past Meets Present Interview of J.R. Richard, MLB.com, August 6, 2012, http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/0/v23666167/past-meets-present-jr-richard-and-wesley-wright.
39. Zachary Levine, “J.R. Richard Appreciates Astros Honor But Wants More,” Ultimate Astros, May 31, 2012, http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2012/05/31/j-r-richard-appreciates-astros-honor-but-wants-more; Darryl Hamilton, Joe Magrane, and Paul Severino Interview of J.R. Richard at 2013 Urban Invitational, MLB.com, February 23, 2013, http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/15886078/v25615153/jr-richard-on- importance-of-having-a-good-mindset.

After his 1972 ouster, Leo and his wife Lynne began making arrangements for a USO junket to the Far East. The Durochers received their travel vaccines, updated their passports, and were planning their itinerary. Around midnight on the evening of August 25–26 their plans changed when Durocher received an unexpected telephone call from Spec Richardson, a longtime friend and the general manager of the Houston Astros. Richardson had just fired manager Harry Walker and was calling to see if Durocher was interested in the job. Leo politely declined and hung up. Richardson called back five times that night before Durocher finally said yes.

When asked about hiring the 67-year-old Durocher, Richardson told the United Press International, “Leo’s age didn’t bother me, I thought our club ought to be doing better, and Leo might fire ’em up.”1

The Astros’ new skipper was a light-hitting infielder who played for the Yankees, Reds, Cardinals, and Dodgers. As a player, he won a World Series with the New York Yankees in 1928 and another with the St. Louis Cardinals Gashouse Gang in 1934. Durocher took over as player-manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1939. He remained at the helm until July 1948 when he left to manage the New York Giants. In 1947, he was suspended for the entire season by baseball commissioner “Happy” Chandler for several reasons including allegedly consorting with known gamblers. Durocher managed the Giants 1948–55, winning two National League pennants and a World Series. He was named The Sporting News manager of the year three times. He later coached the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Astros GM Harold B. “Spec” Richardson began his career in baseball in 1946 as the concessions manager for the Columbus Cardinals in the Class A South Atlantic League. He became the team’s business manager in 1949. In 1953, Richardson was hired as the general manager of the Jacksonville Braves, the Milwaukee Braves affiliate in the South Atlantic League. Jacksonville finished in first place three times under Richardson’s guidance. In December 1959, Richardson was named GM of the minor-league Houston Buffaloes. In October 1961, he became the business manager of Houston’s fledgling National League franchise, the Colt 45s. In 1967, Richardson was promoted to GM of the renamed Astros. The press occasionally referred to the Astros as the “Glasshouse Gang,” alluding to the skylights in the Astrodome roof.

With Durocher at the helm, Houston reeled off five straight victories. The club’s new skipper predicted that his Astros would catch the first-place Cincinnati Reds, who were 8 games up in the standings when he took over. It didn’t happen, and on September 22 the Reds defeated the Astros, 4–3, to clinch the National League West Division. That same night, Durocher pulled pitcher Larry Dierker in the first inning after he gave up two earned runs. Dierker was visibly upset over his removal, which angered Durocher. After the game Durocher told The Sporting News, “I told my players that I will not show them up on the field or in the dugout and that I expect the same of them.”2

Durocher benched Dierker for the remainder of the season but insisted there would be no future repercussions over the incident.

Houston finished the 1972 campaign 16–15 under Durocher. When the season ended, Durocher fired coaches Salty Parker and Buddy Hancken. They were replaced by Preston Gomez and Grady Hatton. Gomez, an infielder with the Washington Nationals in 1944, had been let go by the San Diego Padres after managing the team 1969–72. Hatton, another former major league infielder (1946–60), had worked for the Houston organization in a number of high profile positions, including manager, since 1961. Gomez was Durocher’s choice but Hatton was Richardson’s man, placed to monitor the unpredictable Durocher.

Things got off to a bad start in January when Dierker underwent surgery to remove a calcium deposit at the base of the index finger on his pitching hand. His recovery was delayed when the sutures used in the procedure grew back into his hand, requiring a second surgery.

The Astros held their spring training at Cocoa, Florida. The 52-acre site had four practice fields and a 5,000 seat stadium. The complex was located in the backwoods, five miles inland from the town of Cocoa. Most of the baseball writers who covered spring training normally by-passed the facility, but now that Durocher was managing the Astros, the place was a hotbed of activity.

In early March, Marvin Miller, the Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, began visiting spring training sites to brief the players on the new three-year deal with the owners. According to Miller these meetings were legally necessary in order to ratify the agreement. Spec Richardson was livid when he learned that Miller scheduled the Astros meeting on March 12 before a game with the Texas Rangers at Pompano, 165 miles away.

On March 11, the Astros played the Minnesota Twins at Orlando in a game that was televised in Houston. Durocher wanted the Astros fans to get a good look at his team so he played his starters all nine innings. When Durocher posted the list for the traveling squad that was going to Pompano the next morning it was made up of nearly all non-starters. He put up a second list for any of his regulars who wanted to take another bus that would leave an hour earlier (6:30AM) in order to make Miller’s 10:30AM meeting. A couple of players volunteered to take the early bus then changed their mind when none of the other regulars signed up.3 It would’ve been a seven-hour round-trip bus ride. Richardson felt that Miller could’ve come to the Astros spring training facility or met the club a few days earlier at Daytona Beach, only sixty miles away.

The Astros arrived in Pompano around 10:45AM and joined the Rangers who were meeting with Miller in center field. The players had listened to Miller for about 30 minutes when Durocher came out and broke up the gathering, saying,“Come on, let’s go, it’s 11:30. We hit in ten minutes.”4 Miller and his attorney Dick Moss were furious, saying the Astros violated the agreement, which specified that each team be available for a 90-minute meeting.

This wasn’t the first time that Durocher ran afoul of organized labor. In 1936, the Central Trades and Labor Union threatened to boycott St. Louis Cardinals games after Durocher sided with his wife when she crossed the picket line during a garment workers strike. He later apologized and the boycott was lifted. In the spring of 1946, Durocher and Branch Rickey banned union organizer Robert Murphy, founder of the ill-fated American Baseball Guild, from Dodgers camp.

Durocher’s actions that day in Pompano drew the ire of National League president “Chub” Feeney, who fined him $250. Durocher said he would retire before he’d pay the fine. Richardson backed his manager, telling The Sporting News, “Leo was right. Thirty-eight ballplayers, every man on our under-control-roster, have said that they didn’t want to meet with Marvin Miller—not in Pompano. That’s a heckuva blow to him. I think his pride is hurt. I think Durocher is the only man in baseball with the guts to do this and I think he is right.”5

In order to keep the peace, a check was sent to Feeney, but in his autobiography, Nice Guys Finish Last, Durocher asserts it was never cashed.

Excitement was growing in Houston over the upcoming season thanks in part to the slogan “1973—The Year of The Astros” that was posted on billboards all over the city. Durocher felt that his infield of Lee May (1B), Tommy Helms (2B), Roger Metzger (SS), and Doug Rader (3B) was the best in the National League. The outfield was set with Cesar Cedeño and Jim Wynn. Newly acquired Tommie Agee would fill the final outfield spot if Bob Watson was able to make the transition to catcher. If not, Watson would play the outfield and Agee would come off the bench. The other catching candidates were John Edwards, Larry Howard, Cliff Johnson, and Skip Jutze. There were a number of reserves who would see action including Bob Gallagher, Hector Torres, Jimmy Stewart, and Jesus Alou.

Durocher was a proponent of the four-man rotation. With Dierker sidelined, he went with Dave Roberts, Ken Forsch, Don Wilson, and Jerry Reuss. The rest of the Astros staff consisted of Fred Gladding, Tom Griffin, Jim Ray, Jim Crawford, Jim York, Mike Cosgrove, and Doug Konieczny. Juan Pizarro and Cecil Upshaw were acquired during the season and rookie J.R. Richard was called up later in the year.

Durocher told the Associated Press,“We have one of the best balanced ballclubs I have ever seen. We are set at seven positions and there aren’t any players in the National League who can beat out our players at their positions even if they played for us. I’ve got power, I’ve got speed and I have a good defense. What I’m looking for is pitching. That’s what we’re looking for more than anything this spring is pitching. I know the arms are there it’s just the question of finding the right ones. I know our pitching wasn’t what it is was supposed to have been last year but I know these pitchers and I’m confident that they are much better than what they showed.”6

In a move that caught many of the Astros by surprise, Durocher fired pitching coach Jim Owens the day before the season opener. He filled the vacancy on the staff with former Astro Bob Lillis. Richardson spoke to the Associated Press about the move, “Durocher said he wasn’t completely happy with the pitching staff and thought a change was in order.”7

Houston started out the 1973 season playing good ball, posting a 14–10 record in April and 15–12 in May. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. The same problems that plagued Durocher in Chicago arose again in Houston. Durocher wrote in his book Nice Guys Finish Last that he tried a new approach with the Astros: The dictator would become one of the boys. He’d play cards with the guys and share stories in an attempt to gain their friendship. This new tactic failed miserably. He felt that it undermined his authority in the clubhouse, causing him to lose the respect of the team. Durocher lamented that the modern players’ high salaries gave them too much leverage with management. He also noted that Richardson was too close to the players, who complained to him whenever they felt slighted.

Dierker and Durocher were never on the same page. Dierker developed shoulder problems when he returned to the team and was used sparingly. He would later tell the Associated Press what is was like playing for Durocher. “I did not say anything to the press or make any complaint about it. But frankly I was afraid of what that guy in there would do. You couldn’t tell what he’d do. He might have given me the ball and told me to pitch and left me in there until my arm fell off. I know myself well enough to know that if he kept giving me the ball I’d take it. My arm had been hurt seriously a couple of times and I did not want to jeopardize my whole future in the hands of Durocher. I figured it would be better to sit and wait and hope he was fired or that I was traded.”8

Durocher had a well-publicized argument with pitcher Don Wilson on the team bus. Wilson was fined $300 and later apologized. When comparing Durocher to his eventual successor Preston Gomez, Wilson told The Sporting News, “I like what I’ve seen of [Gomez]. He doesn’t do things on impulse or superstition, like the last guy. Every move he makes is on sound judgment. Preston thinks about winning. He’s not like Leo who just thinks about getting his name in the paper.”9

Pitcher Jerry Reuss, who called Durocher “the dummy we had (in the dugout)” got into a heated argument with his manager after he was removed in the fourth inning while leading 7–3 with two outs and two men on base.10 Durocher explained to Reuss why he took him out, saying, “I didn’t want the married men in the infield killed. They were hitting bullets off you.”11 Later in the season, Reuss was getting hit hard again. This time Durocher gave him a chance to work out of the jam. Unable to stop the rally, he was finally taken out. When Reuss sat down in the dugout he looked at Durocher and asked, “What the hell took you so long?”12

Durocher also had problems with catchers Larry Howard and Skip Jutze. Howard was traded to the Braves after incurring Durocher’s wrath for lackadaisical play. Jutze briefly quit the Houston organization after refusing a minor-league assignment. He would eventually report and was called up in May 1973.

When Durocher joined the Astros he compared Cesar Cedeño to a young Willie Mays. Cedeño put together a fine statistical season in 1973 (.320 BA, 25 HR, 70 RBIs). However, his inability to play through injuries coupled with his unwillingness to take coaching advice was a source of consternation for both Durocher and Richardson.

The experiment of using Bob Watson behind the plate didn’t pan out, which relegated Tommie Agee to a back-up role. An ankle injury affected Agee’s overall play and he never got on track. He was traded to the Cardinals in August. Watson (.312 BA, 16 HR, 94 RBIs) went on to have an excellent year.

No season would be complete without Durocher battling with umpires. On May 15 the Astros played the Braves at the Astrodome. The fireworks started when umpire Bruce Froemming ruled that Hector Torres didn’t touch second base while turning a double play. The second part of the controversy occurred when first baseman Lee May, thinking the inning was over, flipped the ball to umpire Paul Pryor. With the Braves Dusty Baker running around the bases, Pryor dropped the ball on the ground. Durocher accused Pryor of throwing the ball away from May, allowing Baker to score. Because of Froemming’s call and Pryor’s actions, Durocher informed the umpires that he was playing the game under protest. Richardson, still upset over a disputed home run call by Augie Donatelli two days earlier, instructed the Astrodome scoreboard operator to post the following message,“Manager Leo Durocher has announced the game will be played under protest. Umpires Froemming and Donatelli have blown two decisions in the last three days.” Richardson was fined $300 by the league office but remained unrepentant. On June 26, Durocher was ejected and fined $150 after he kicked a batting helmet into the shins of umpire John Kibler while arguing a call.

Durocher also fell ill twice during the year with diverticulitis of the colon. He was hospitalized in late April through early May and again in August. The team went 16–5 under interim manager Preston Gomez during his absence.

The Astros finished the 1973 season in fourth place with a record of 82–80. Richardson summed up the year in an interview with The Sporting News: “This team is a lot better than it has shown in the standings. They’ve not lived up to their potential. They’ve been a big disappointment to me. The bullpen has been here a long time… the whole pitching staff practically for that matter. Wilson, Dierker, Ray and Griffin… and pitching has been a problem. The staff has a good year one year and is lousy the next. I expect to make changes. You can take every position on the field except shortstop (Roger Metzger) and second base (Tommy Helms) and have something critical to say about it. Wynn started good and went into a long slump and has never gotten out of it. Cedeño got hurt and stayed hurt the rest of the year. He can’t play with any pain. Despite his statistics its been a disappointing year for Cedeño in my book. He hasn’t done all we expected of him. Lee May? He’ll end up with around 30 home runs and 100 RBIs but that doesn’t give a true picture. He started out slow—just like Rader—and didn’t do much early in the year. Watson dropped off late. Metzger is probably the best player I’ve had all year. As far as consistency is concerned, if I was voting for the most valuable player on our team, I’d vote for Metzger.”13

Richardson remained with the Astros through the 1975 season. From there he moved on to the San Francisco Giants where he was named executive of the year in 1978. In 1994, he was inducted into the South Atlantic League Hall of Fame.

Late in the year, Durocher informed some of the veterans on the club that he was retiring at the end of the season. He wrote in Nice Guys Finish Last, “It isn’t the game I used to know. In the first place there are the players. They’re a different breed. They’ve got a union, headed by Marvin Miller, and they’re carting their money off in bushel baskets. You can’t tell them what to do. They have to be consulted; they want to know why. Not how but why. The battle cry of today’s player is: I don’t have to.”14

Some Astros never respected Durocher or his past accomplishments and felt he was a relic from an era that was no longer relevant. On October 1, 1973, Durocher resigned, telling the United Press International, “Baseball has been 45 years of a wonderful life. But I have a lot of things to do now. I’m going out to Palm Springs and I’m going to tee it up and play a lot of golf.”15

In 1976, the Taiheiyo Club Lions of the Japanese Pacific League offered him a reported $150,000 to manage the team for one season.16 A slow recovery from heart surgery along with a recent bout of pneumonia precluded him from taking the job. Leo Durocher never managed again, passing away in 1991. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame three years later.

JIMMY KEENAN has been a SABR member since 2001. His grandfather Jimmy Lyston and other family members were all professional baseball players. A frequent contributor to SABR publications, Keenan is the author of “The Lystons: A Story of One Baltimore Family and Our National Pastime” and a 2012 inductee into Baltimore’s Boys of Summer Hall of Fame.

Sources

Online

Baseball-almanac.com, www.baseball-Almanac.com/players/awards.php?p=durocle01, accessed December 12, 2013.

Baseball-reference.com, www.baseball-reference.com/managers/durocle01.shtml, accessed January 10, 2014.

The Official Site of the Class A South Atlantic League www.milb.com/content/page.jsp?sid=l116&ymd=20080228&content_id=352571&vkey=league3, accessed December 23, 2013.

Books

Eskenazi, Gerald. The Lip: A Biography of Leo Durocher (New York: William Morrow, 1993.

Durocher, Leo with Ed Linn. Nice Guys Finish Last (New York: Simon & Schuster), 1975.

Wynn, Jimmy and Bill McCurdy. Toy Cannon: The Autobiography of Jimmy Wynn (Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland and Company 2010).

Lowenfish, Lee. Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2007).

Newspapers

Bend (Oregon) Bulletin

Lewiston (Maine) Daily News

Miami News

Montreal Gazette

(Connecticut) Morning Record

Nashua (New York) Telegraph

Sumter (South Carolina) Daily Item

The Sporting News

(North Carolina) Times-News

Tuscaloosa News

(Texas) Victoria-Advocate

Notes

1. Edwin Shrake,“I Talk Real Polite And Nice,” Sports Illustrated, August 13, 1973 volume 39, issue number 7.

2. John Wilson,“A Durocher-Dierker Feud?” The Sporting News, October 14, 1972, 13.

3. The Sporting News gives two different accounts of which players volunteered to take the early bus to Pompano. One account listed Larry Dierker, Jerry Reuss and Cliff Johnson. The other lists Dierker and Cesar Cedeño. Dierker reportedly wanted to speak with Marvin Miller about resigning as the team’s union representative. Cedeño wanted to visit his friend Rico Carty who was playing for the Rangers. There were no reasons given as to why Johnson and Reuss wanted to make the trip. (Joe Heiling,“Here Comes Leo- Quick Astros Exit,” The Sporting News, March 31,1973, 30.)

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. “Durocher Picks Excellent Year for Well-Balanced Astros,” Associated Press. Quote excerpted from the (Connecticut) Morning Record, March 13, 1973, 9.

7. Hersche L. Nissenson,“Durocher Shuffles Staff, Fires Owens,” Nashua (New York) Telegraph, April 14, 1973, 14.

8. Joe Heiling, “Dierker Ready to Go, Jubilant Astros Claim,” The Sporting News, February 23 1973, 27.

9. Joe Heiling,“Low Key Gomez Strikes High Note with Wilson,” The Sporting News, January 5, 1974, 27.

10. “Reuss Criticizes Trade–Durocher,” Associated Press, Quote excerpted from the Victoria (Texas) Advocate November 3, 1973, 3.

11. Leo Durocher and Ed Linn.“The Old Way is Dead,” Sports Illustrated April 28, 1975 volume 42, issue 17.

12. Ibid.

13. Joe Heiling,“Faded Astros Face Pruning by Fed-Up GM Richardson,” The Sporting News, September 22, 1973, 17.

14. Leo Durocher with Ed Linn. Nice Guys Finish Last (New York: Simon & Schuster), 1975. 410.

15. “Durocher Resigns, Astros Hire Gomez”, United Press International, Quote excerpted from the Montreal Gazette, October 2,1973, 25.

16. The Sporting News of January 3, 1976 (7) listed Durocher’s salary offer from the Taiheiyo Club Lions as $150,000. The Sporting News of April 3, 1976 (47) noted the salary offer had risen to $220,000. This article notes that Durocher signed the contract but it was later voided due to his health issues.