In 1975, for example, there were 49 extra inning homers hit. On two occasions the teams with the extra inning blasts lost; on two other occasions, both teams had extra inning roundtrippers.

Home runs have been hit in all extra innings up to and including the 22nd. On June 24, 1962, Jack Reed, a third-string outfielder with the Yankees, hit his only major league homer off Phil Regan of the Tigers in the 22nd inning, giving Jim Bouton a 9-7 win. On July 17, 1914, Babe Adams of the Pirates set a record by not giving up a walk in a 21-inning game; however, he did give up a 2-run homer to Larry Doyle of the Giants and lost 3-1.

You’d think a roundtripper in the 20th would be a game winner. Tommy Harper hit one for Seattle on July 27, 1969, but Joe Lahoud of the Red Sox hit one with a man on in the bottom of the 20th and they won.

Of the several other late, late home runs, two should be mentioned because they were hit by players usually identified as pitchers. On August 17, 1882, Providence beat Detroit 1-0 in 18 innings when Charles Radbourn, playing rightfield that day, hit one out of the park. Monte Ward pitched the distance and won. On May 24, 1918, Smoky Joe Wood, also playing the outfield, hit one in the 19th to give the Indians a 3-2 win over George Mogridge of the Yankees.

When it came to hitting grand slam home runs in extra innings, no player hit one later than the 16th. The only one to do that was Clyde Voilmer of the Red Sox in 1951. His was one of 73 grand slam homers hit in overtime since 1900. Four players did it twice: Cy Williams, Roger Mans, Tommy Davis, and Cookie Rojas. Here is the full list since 1900:

*Assisted by David Ross

Players Hitting Extra-Inning Grand Slams 

While some players scored a flock of overtime runs with grand slam homers, other players divided up the honors. On May 2, 1964, the Minnesota Twins bombed the Kansas City A’s into submission with 4 consecutive homers in the 11th inning. They were hit by Tony Oliva, Bob Allison, Jimmie Hall, and Harmon Killebrew. The pitching victim of the first three was Dan Pfister. On June 8, 1965, the Braves got into the act in the 10th inning with 4 homers against the Cubs. In that inning, Joe Torre, Eddie Mathews, Henry Aaron, and Gene Oliver delivered the goods.

There have been three occasions when players hit 2 extra inning homers in the same game. In 1943, Vern Stephens connected for the Browns in the 11th and 13th innings; in 1963 when Willie Kirkland was with the Indians, he hit homers in the 11th and 19th innings; and in 1966, Art Shamsky, inserted as a sub for the Reds in mid-game, hit one in the 10th and another in the 11th, to give him 3 for the game.

When it came to hitting fourbaggers in extra innings, the real star was Willie Mays. He connected in overtime in 22 games. His first was a 3-run shot in 1951 when Willie was a 20-year-old rookie and his victim was 42-year-old Dutch Leonard. In June 1967 Willie walloped a grand slam in the 10th at the Astrodome. His most memorable was a swat in the 16th off Warren Spahn in July 1963, which gave Juan Marichal a 1-0 squeaker over the Braves’ great southpaw.

Here is a rundown on all 22 of Mays’ overtime homers.  

Mays has a wide margin over other home run leaders when games go beyond the regulation 9. In comparison, Babe Ruth hit 16 in overtime, and Frank Robinson 15. Robby connected either in the 10th or 11th, while Mays was the only player to hit in each overtime frame up to the 16th. Here is a breakdown of the leaders.

Batters Hitting Most Homers in Extra Innings

*Leader

Pitchers have also joined in the act of hitting extra inning home runs. It has been done 37 times since 1900, occurring all the way up to the 14th inning. Two pitchers did it twice: In 1911 Jack Coombs connected once in the 11th inning and once in the 14th. Dizzy Dean put his bat where his mouth was and hit 10th inning homers in both 1934 and 1935.

When it comes to extra inning homers, however, pitchers are usually viewed from the other end of the delivery system. What pitcher served up the most extra inning homers? Was it Robin Roberts, who gave up a record total of 502 homers in his career? Or Warren Spahn? Or Early Wynn? It was none of these. Roberts gave up only 7 overtime homers; Spahn 6, and Wynn 5. In the first place, Roberts and Wynn were starting hurlers who did not pitch much in overtime. Spahn did pitch more in extra innings, but seemed to get stronger as he went along.

Who then pitches in extra innings? Relief hurlers, of course! The pitcher most frequently victimized by extra inning homers was El Roy Face. He is way out ahead of other pitchers with 21 overtime booboos. Here is the rundown on Face.

Although Willie Mays hit the most extra inning homers, 22, and El Roy Face gave up the most, 21, and they played against each other for 15 years, Willie never connected in overtime off the forkball ace of the Pirates.

Ranking some distance behind Face in giving up boundary belts in extra frames were Hoyt Wilhelm, Lindy McDaniel, Johnny Sam, and Dick Radatz. Radatz is the surprise, giving up 12 extra inning roundtrippers in his short career. Sam split his career as a starter and reliever. The only full-time starter on the list is Gaylord Perry, and he pitches more extra innings than any of the current starters.

Here is a breakdown of those pitchers who have given up the most home runs in extra innings.

While the 7-homer trick was turned as far back as 1886, the 1939 Yankees were the first team to have 8 home runs in one game. On June 28, 1939, Joe DiMaggio and Babe Dahlgren connected twice in the first game of a doubleheader and 4 other players hit one apiece. The Yankees hit 5 more homers in the 2nd game (scoring 23-2 and 10-0 wins) to set the doubleheader record of 13 homers. The Yankees, in the first game, became one of the 6 teams to hit as many as 7 homers and score 20 or more runs in the same game. The 8-homer feat has been performed 4 more times since then, by the 1953 Milwaukee Braves (3 homers by Jim Pendleton), the 1956 Cincinnati Reds (3 homers by Bob Thurman), the 1961 San Francisco Giants (4 homers by Willie Mays), and the 1963 Minnesota Twins.

Several different player-patterns are noticeable in the big team-homer games. The Baltimore 1967 game is the only major league game where 7 teammates homered in the same game – and each player hit exactly one! Ironically, Carl Yastrzeinski of the opposition Red Sox hit 2 home runs! A contrasting situation is the Pittsburgh 1947 game where Ralph Kiner hit 3 home runs and Hank Greenberg and Billy Cox had 2 apiece. Whitey Kurowski of the St. Louis Cardinals had 2 homers himself in the game to make this the only instance in major league history where 4 players hit 2 or more homers in the same ball game.

In 6 of the 28 games listed, a pitcher connected — the last being Ferguson Jenkins of the Chicago Cubs in 1970. Jerry Denny, a 19th century third-baseman, hit the only home run for the opposing team in each of the first two 7-homer salvos. Walt Dropo, an American League first-baseman in the l950’s, connected in 2 successive American League 7-homer games – for the 1950 Boston Red Sox and the 1955 Chicago White Sox. The two teams each scored 29 runs in the games — to share the modern major league record. Yogi Berra drew the short straw for the Yankees in 1961, when Mantle, Maris, and Skowron each had 2 homers in a game and poor Yogi had only one!

In another oddity, the 7-homer trick has never been turned in September or October, but no fewer than 10 of the 28 games have been played in June! The Washington Senators’ 7 homers in a 10-inning game vs. the White Sox in Chicago in May 1949 marked the only extra-inning game where a team reached the 7-homer mark. The Senators were helped by an artificially shortened fence installed by White Sox General Manager Frank Lane at the start of the1949 season. Two days after the Senators’ splurge, the fence was torn down, but not before White Sox third-baseman Floyd Baker looped one over the fence for his only major league homer in over 2000 lifetime at-bats!

A rule was then passed prohibiting the changing of home run distances during the season. As a result, the Pittsburgh Pirates were not permitted to remove their shortened fence when they traded Ralph Kiner to the Chicago Cubs in June 1953. The fence remained up in August 1953 to help the Milwaukee Braves to their 8-homer game, which was the first such game in National League history. The Pirates’ 7-homer tilt in 1947 (described earlier) had also been aided by that special fence (called “Greenberg Gardens” or “Kiner’s Korner”). New York’s old Polo Grounds and Chicago’s Wrigley Field each witnessed 3 ML games where a team had 7 or more homers, and Philadelphia’s old Shibe Park (later called “Connie Mack Stadium”) and Boston’s Fenway Park each witnessed 3 AL home run explosions of this sort.

The Giants hit 7 or more homers in one game the most times with 6 such games — with the last of those big games taking place after the team had moved to San Francisco. The 1939 Giants were the only team to do it twice in one season, with a pitcher connecting in each game. The Yankees were the only AL team with 3 such games – and they had different personnel each time (1932, 1939, and 1961). Surprisingly, the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950’s, one of baseball’s most authentic power-hitting teams, never hit as many as 7 homers in one game. In fact, the only time that the Brooklyn club hit 6 homers in one game was the night of June 1, 1955 at Ebbets Field vs. the Milwaukee Braves. Duke Snider hit 3 of the homers (before doubling off the fence in a narrow miss of #4) and Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, and Jackie Robinson had 1 apiece to lead the Brooks to an 11-8 victory.

The accompanying table lists the 28 games where a major league team hit 7 or 8 homers in one game. Included are the date, the opposing teams, the score, and all home runs hit by both teams.

NATIONAL LEAGUE TEAMS HITTING 8 HOMERS IN ONE GAME

AMERICAN LEAGUE TEAMS HITTING 8 HOMERS IN ONE GAME

The first home run was hit by Art Wilson of the Chicago Whales in a Federal League game on April 23, 1914. Wilson connected off Kansas City’s George (Chief) Wilson, sending the ball over the left-field wall with a man aboard in the second inning. The Whales went on to win 9-1 before 15,000 fans. It was the inaugural game at the Clark and Addison ballpark, which was constructed at a cost of $250,000 by Charles 0. Weeghman as a home for his Whales.

Two years later the Federal League folded and Weeghman headed a 10-man syndicate that purchased the Chicago Cubs. Gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. was a member of Weeghman’s group.

The Cubs moved from their West Side Grounds, located at Congress and Loomis, for their gala opener on April 20, 1916 at Weeghman Park. The team, managed by Joe Tinker, beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-6 on an 11th-inning single by Vic Saier. But the first National League homer at the North Side park was hit that day by the Reds’ John Woolf Beall with none on in the sixth inning off Claude Hendrix.

For the record, the first official Cub homer was hit by little Max Flack, who knocked the ball over the right-field wall off the Reds’ Gene Dale in the sixth inning with one on base on April 22, 1916.

Weeghman resigned after the 1918 season and Wrigley became the majority stockholder. Weegham Park then became known as Cubs Park. It wasn’t until 1926 that the stadium was renamed Wrigley Field.

Over the years, the most productive homer slugger at Wrigley Field was Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, with 290. Rounding out the top are Billy Williams, 241; Ron Santo, 212; Hank Sauer, 118; Gabby Hartnett, 115; Hack Wilson, 109; Bill Nicholson, 91; Rick Monday, 68; Andy Pafko, 67, and Jim Hickman, 65.

The longest homer at Wrigley Field? Roberto Clemente hit one to the left of the scoreboard, Bill Nicholson just off to the right, while Sauer and Randy Jackson both hit buildings across the street on Waveland Avenue. But our vote goes to Dave Kingman when he was a member of the New York Mets on April 14,1976.

It was the second game of the season and the Mets were leading the Cubs 3-2 with one on and two out in the top of the sixth inning. Cub manager Jim Marshall strolled to the mound to discuss strategy with reliever Tom Dettore. There was a 20-miles-per-hour jet stream blowing from the plate to left-center and first base was unoccupied with Kingman at bat.

Dettore insisted on pitching to Kingman. Marshall gave his OK, patted the hurler on the rump and departed for the dugout. Dettore worked the count to a ball and a strike. The next pitch was a fast ball. It exploded off Kingman’s bat and soared high into the wind. There was no question about it leaving the ballpark.

The usual gang of kids was waiting outside with gloves poised. But the ball sailed over their heads. They turned and started running north on Kenmore Avenue. The ball struck the porch of the third house from the Waveland Avenue corner and was caught on the rebound by Richard Keiber.

How far did the ball travel? Some say 600 feet. The Cubs went on to win 6-5, but Kingman’s king-sized blow took center stage. Many agreed it was the longest homer ever hit at Wrigley Field. Others say if Kingman could have straightened it out, the ball would’ve hit the scoreboard.

No. Nobody ever homered off the present-day scoreboard. But golfer Sam Snead once hit one over it. He teed off from home plate and sent a golf ball over the scoreboard moments before the Cubs’ 1951 season opener. While there is much debate over the longest homer, there is little doubt about the shortest. It was hit by Rocky Nelson of the St. Louis Cardinals on April 30, 1949. The ball traveled about 220 feet and was dubbed the “inside-the-glove-homer.”

The Cubs were leading the Cardinals 3-2 with two out and one on in the top of the ninth inning when pinch-hitter Nelson strode to the plate, facing Bob Rush. Rocky hit a sinking liner to short left center. Center fielder Andy Pafko ran in, dived for the ball and made a game-saving catch. The Cubs won.. . but wait.

Umpire Al Barlick, standing near second base, ruled that Pafko had trapped the ball. Andy came running in, holding the ball aloft in triumph, while the Cardinal runners raced around the bases.

Pafko then looked at Barlick in disbelief and started to argue. It wasn’t until Nelson was a few steps from home plate that Pafko threw the ball. Nelson was safe and the Cardinals won 4-3 on the shortest homer in Wrigley Field history.

Of the 19 World Series homers (six by the Cubs), none could equal Ruth’s “called shot” in the fifth inning of the third game of the 1932 classic. Ruth had already hit a three-run homer for the New York Yankees in the first inning when he stepped to the plate to face Charlie Root. The Cub bench jockeys were riding the Babe and that made him fume. With one strike on him, Ruth yelled to the Cub dugout that he was going to belt a homer. Root then fired another strike and the Cub players increased their heckling.

Ruth then pointed his bat toward the center-field bleachers, letting them know what he had in mind. Root wound up and delivered and Ruth connected. He sent the ball sailing high and far to the spot he had designated for one of the most dramatic homers in World Series history.

The Cubs’ most dramatic homer was hit by Hartnett on September 28, 1938. It was the famous “homer in the gloamin” against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates led the Cubs by a game-and-a-half when they opened a crucial three-game series at Wrigley Field.

In the first game, manager Hartnett went with sore-armed Dizzy Dean and he escaped with a 2-1 victory, cutting Pittsburgh’s lead to a half-game. The following day, the skies were cloudy and gray. And the outlook was gloomy as the Pirates led 3-1 after six innings and 5-3 after 7½. But the Cubs put two runs across to tie the score 5-5 after eight innings. It was growing so dark that the umpires had agreed to call the game after the Cubs had batted in the ninth. Burly Pirate reliever Mace Brown retired the first two Cubs. Hartnett was the next batter.

Brown whipped home two quick strikes and was gloating. Brown, figuring Hartnett couldn’t hit what he couldn’t see, wound up and let loose with a fastball. The pitch wasn’t seen by many, but it was heard as Hartnett rocketed the ball into the left-field bleachers for a 6-5 Cub victory.

Gabby had to fight his way around the bases and was greeted by hundreds at home plate. The Pirates were done, and the Cubs went on to clinch the 1938 pennant.

The new generation of Cub fans, however, rate Banks’ 500th homer over Hartnett’s as the most dramatic. On Saturday, May 9, 1970, Banks hit his 499th homer. That set the countdown for No. 500. The following day, a crowd of 40,000 jammed Wrigley Field to see Mr. Cub experience his magic moment against the Reds.

In his first at bat, Banks received a standing ovation. He responded by lining the ball off the top of the ivy vines in left field. Banks started churning the bases. He rounded third, but that was as far as his 39-year old legs would take him. He puffed back to third base as the ball was relayed home. He had to settle for a triple.

On Monday, Banks remained a triple threat with another three-bagger. And Tuesday hardly seemed like a day for heroics. A fog rolled in and out and was replaced by a morning downpour. The skies were murky and it was damp, but the show went on against the Atlanta Braves. This time there was only a smattering of applause from the slim crowd of 5,264 as Banks faced the Braves’ Pat Jarvis in the second inning.

With the count one-and-one, Jarvis delivered a fastball, chest high and a bit inside-and Banks swung. The ball was hit deep, but had a low trajectory. Would it clear the 12-foot high fence? Left fielder Rico Carty went back, back-and then stopped. The ball landed in the first row of the bleachers. Banks ran as fast as he could to first base before he stole a glance, heard the crowd noise and then broke into his familiar home run trot. He doffed his cap as he crossed home plate, and repeated his act as he headed towards the Cub dugout. Play was halted as the ball was retrieved and presented to Banks.

And, finally, here’s one for trivia buffs. In which major league ballpark did Lou Gehrig hit his first homer? Yankee Stadium? Guess again.

On June 26, 1920, Lane Technical High School of Chicago was playing the High School of Commerce from New York for the inter-city baseball championship at Wrigley Field.

The score was 8-8 and Commerce had the bases loaded in the eighth inning, when Gehrig, a high school junior, stepped up and hit the first ball pitched over the right-field fence for a 12-8 victory.

Although it wasn’t one of the official 6,905 Wrigley Field homers, it was a memorable one.

PLAYERS WITH 20 OR MORE HOME RUNS AT WRIGLEY FIELD
(as Cub player or opponent; stats through 1978)

WRIGLEY FIELD HOME RUN FACTS (1914-1978)

• Total homers-6,905
• Total Homers by Cubs-3,427
• Total homers by Cubs opponents-3,396
• Total homers by Federal League teams-82
• World Series homers-19 (6 by Cubs, 13 by Cubs opponents)
• All-Star Game homers-5 (0 by Cubs, 2 by NL; 3 by AL opponents)
• Most homers in one season-201 in 1970 (Cubs 109, opponents 92)
• Most homers in one season by Cubs-109 in 1970.
• Most homers in one season by Cubs opponents-100 in 1966
• Most homers by a Cub lifetime-Ernie Banks 290
• Most homers by a Cub opponent lifetime-Willie Mays 54
• Most homers by a Cub in one season-Hack Wilson, 33 in 1930
• Most homers by a Cub opponent in one season-7
• Gene Oliver, St. Louis, 1965
• Johnny Callison, Philadelphia, 1965
• Mike Schmidt, Philadelphia, 1976 (4 in 1 game)

All-Time Cub Team

• Ernie Banks, 120   1B
• Rogers Hornsby, 29   2B
• Ernie Banks, 170   SS
• Ron Santo, 212 3B
• Billy Williams, 241   OF
• Hank Sauer, 114 OF
• Hack Wilson, 105   OF
• Gabby Hartnett, 115 C

All-Time Opponent Team

• Willie Stargell, 28
• Rogers Hornsby, 23
• Glenn Wright, 10, Johnny Logan, 10
• Eddie Mathews, 36
• Willie Mays, 54
• Hank Aaron, 50
• Mel Ott, 38
• Roy Campanella, 17

Note: Banks is listed at two positions; Hornsby made the Cub team and the opponent team; Stargell edged Gil Hodges and Orlando Cepeda by one homer at 1B; Johnny Bench has 16 homers and will likely replace Campy as the catcher.

*Assisted by John C. Tattersall

The 1964 Phillies enjoyed a six-and-a-half game lead in the National League with 12 games left in the season, proceeded to lose 10 in a row, and surrendered the pennant to the St. Louis Cardinals. The closing two weeks of the 1964 regular season inflicted psychic baseball wounds which began to heal after the Phillies’ 1980 world championship and have faded with the passing decades and recent string of Phillies successes, (which began with the 2007 Phillies overcoming a seven-game deficit late in the season).

This article looks at the minds of Phillies fans in the weeks leading up to the 1964 collapse. In the manner of G.H. Fleming’s The Unforgettable Season and Jean-Pierre Caillault’s A Tale of Four Cities, this story is told through contemporary newspaper accounts.

September 1

When you think of a baseball fan, the stereotype comes to mind: A noisy, pot-bellied guy, chest hair curling over a loud sports shirt, a torpedo-sized cigar in one hand and a six-pack in the other. He’ll roost on a taproom stool all night, telling you how Jimmy Foxx belted ’em out of Shibe Park, or arguing whether Tris Speaker, Joe DiMaggio or Willie Mays could go get the deep ball with more class.

That’s the old breed. It still flourishes, and Mr. R. R. M. Carpenter’s accountants are grateful. The Phils, however, are luring a New Breed which comes in more ornamental designs than the old model.

The new fan wears toreador pants, a “Go, Phils, Go” button attached to a frilly shirt, and smells of Arpege rather than Corona-Corona. Pennant fever has destroyed the reason of most of Philadelphia’s cupcake population. Chicks of all sizes and vintages are becoming wildly romantic about the Phils, of all people.

It is a little astonishing, as if Woody Allen suddenly began playing the hero in James Bond movies. Once the Phils were the objects of scorn, laughter and pity. Now they are cuddly, lovable, neat, fantastic and fab.

Nope, Connie Mack Stadium does not yet look like a run-down sorority house. If the Toreador Set is still in the minority, they are among the most intense loyalists in town. A word against John Callison will draw outraged screeches as fast—almost—as criticism of those furry cats from Liverpool, whatever their names are.

— Bulletin 1

September 2

You could look it up. Bunning is now 9–0 vs. the Mets and [Houston] Colts. He is 6–4 vs. the rest of the National League. That adds up to 15–4.

What that could add up to can only be guessed at, but Bernard Baruch might be needed to break it down to dollars and cents. It already includes a one-hitter—vs. the Colts—and a perfect game—vs. the Mets. It could add up to 20 wins. It could add up to a pennant. It could add up to the Cy Young Award. It could add up to the Most Valuable Player Award.

Before you know it, Jim Bunning will be able to write a check that can make a bank bounce.

— Daily News 2

September 4

The Phillies have reached the stage in their National League pennant quest where they win even when they lose.

That’s because the mathematics are all on the side of a front-runner when a flag race goes into its final stages. The league leader can lose games and still gain time unless the other contenders begin to move at a fast clip—which is exactly what the Phillies have been doing for the last week.

A week ago, a .500 pace by the Phillies in their remaining games meant that the Reds would have to play .622 baseball to take the pennant and the Giants would have to play .778 ball to do so. In this last week the Phillies have played .500 ball—worsening the position of both chief contenders because the Reds must now play .724 ball to win and the Giants .808 ball if the Phillies simply maintain that .500 gait.

— Daily News 3

September 5

Sure, I love the Beatles. But do you want to know something? I love the Phillies even better. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

— Daily News letter to editor 4

September 8

Probably the only Philly fan in Philadelphia who doesn’t show signs of pennant fever is manager Gene Mauch.

“He never mentions the pennant,” said his brunette wife, Nina Lee. “He only talks about today’s ballgame, and winning that.”

Her comments come as no surprise to sportswriters, who have wondered privately if Mauch knew how to pronounce “pennant”—they’ve never heard him mention it, either.

But baseball fans who crowd into Connie Mack Stadium not only know the word, they know the chances of calling it theirs—they know that the Phillies have won 60 percent of their games so far this season, and that if they win half the remaining games, the nearest challenger will have little hope of copping the National League flag.

And they know if that happens, fans can plan on seeing the World Series open here Oct. 7.

Right before he leaves for the ballpark, Gene Mauch has his favorite food, hamburger, and then makes sure that jingling in his pocket with his change is a silver medal, his good luck piece ever since a Catholic friend presented him with it years ago.

“Of course we’re not superstitious,” said his friendly wife, smiling as she knocked on the wooden porch post enroute to seeing her visitor to the car.

“But wouldn’t it be terrific if we did win the Pennant?”

— Bulletin 5

I think the Daily News ‘Go Phillies Go’ banners on the opening day of the season had a lot to do with giving our team the spark to go out and win the pennant.

— Daily News letter to editor 6

To the editor of The Inquirer:

I just came out of the desert to read in an Egyptian newspaper that the Phillies are leading the National League!

To a life-long Phillies fan this was so impossible that I had the French translated for me by an expert and he said, “In first place by seven games.”

I still believe this is a trick, but even so it pleases me so much that I am going right out to the temples to pray to Isis, Ptha (sic), Hathor and Horus that this dream may continue through at least early October.

— Inquirer letter to the editor from James Michener 7

“Probably the only Philly fan in Philadelphia who doesn’t show signs of pennant fever is manager Gene Mauch,” reported the Philadelphia Bulletin.

September 9

It would be a wonderful thing for baseball if the Phillies win the pennant because it took a phenomenon like the Mets to replace them in this land as a symbol of baseball’s culturally deprived.

It would be no less wonderful if they won it by six games— their present margin over the Giants, Reds and Cards—or by eight or 10 games, but it might be more wonderful if they won it by one or two. The Phillies are a team that has gotten to where it is by somehow getting one more run than the other guy, and that is how the race should go. The 1950 Phillies, to their everlasting credit, blew a bigger lead than the 1964 Phillies now have, prolonging the agony until the 10th inning of the last day of the season. In retrospect, that was their greatest triumph. THAT took talent.

— Daily News 8

Collectively and individually, the amazing Phillies are rewriting a lot of pages in the baseball record book this year as they make a valiant run for their first pennant in 14 years. In the process, they also are setting a new all-time attendance record—having exceeded, this week, the old mark of 1,217,205 which had stood since the 1950 season of those unforgettable “Whiz Kids.”

This satisfying statistic indicates popular support for the Phillies unprecedented in their long history. In underscores, also, the need for a new and larger stadium to accommodate the growing throngs who would like to see their favorite baseball players in action on the home diamond.

If there ever was any question about Delaware Valley sports fans backing enthusiastically a winning baseball team, the doubts have now been effectively dispelled. The new attendance record provides an additional argument for expediting a spacious new stadium for Philadelphia, with plenty of parking space and convenient to public transportation.

— Inquirer editorial 9

“WHICH OF THESE THREE FAMOUS PHILLIES MADE THE BIGGEST HIT?” asked a 1964 newspaper advertisement. “Is it Jim Bunning, who hurled a perfect game?”

September 10

I have been real nervous lately. Sharp-tongued, short-tempered. My old lady has been very nice about it, though. Oh, I haven’t escaped entirely unmarked. She hasn’t been that nice. A lump here, a lump there: about par for a married man.

I know what’s bugging me, but can’t do anything about it. You see, I’m a Phillies’ fan, yet I dread the thought of them winning the pennant—if they have to meet the Yankees in the World Series.

Too well do I remember the fiasco of 1950. I can still see those Yankees dashing around the bases and scoring runs like they were playing the Rover Boys. A traumatic experience, the head-shrinkers would call it. And, let’s face it, the same thing will happen again this year if the Phils and the Yanks meet in the Series.

No wonder people are starting to call me Shaky.

—Joe Martin

Forget it, Shaky, and think of how the Dodgers clobbered the Yanks in four last year. —Ed.

— Daily News letter to editor 10

Don’t tell Gene Mauch the Cardinals are coming. Don’t remind him St. Louis is five games back and rumbling through the final two months like a buffalo stampede.

“The only club in the National League that can beat us is the Phillies,” Mauch said. “We did that tonight, and it ain’t gonna happen any more.”

The Cardinals got 20 hits and beat the Phillies, 10–5, last night in 11 weird innings, to snarl to within five games of the lead. It was a big game because the Giants had lost in the afternoon, and the Reds had lost at night, and a Phillies’ victory would have meant a seven-game lead over the world.

“They might be peeking back at us,” Cardinal third baseman Ken Boyer suggested, after getting three hits and driving in three runs, including the tying run with two out in the ninth inning.

“If they win it, they break it open. A seven-game pad would have been tough. Especially the way the schedule is.”

Mauch sneered at Boyer’s suggestion. “If I’m peeking back,” he said, after a closed-door clubhouse meeting, “and we get one more out in the ninth inning, then I’m looking back seven games in front.

“Anyway, I’d rather be peeking back, than peeking ahead.”

— Daily News 11

Mayor James H.J. Tate more or less put the fate of the proposed stadium up to the Phillies Wednesday, stating if they did not win the pennant it would “seriously jeopardize” the sports bowl loan proposal.

“It will be a sad blow,” the Mayor said commenting on the possible double tragedy.

Barring the Phillies dropping from first place the Mayor said he expects the $25 million loan proposal to pass along with three other loans on the November ballot.

— Inquirer 12

The St. Louis Cardinals are in second place and they are coming. It is hard to see the Phillies blowing the pennant to the Reds or Giants, because the Reds and Giants don’t seem interested enough, but it is not hard to imagine them blowing it to the Cardinals. The Cardinals are interested: they have won 13 of their last 16 games.

Down the stretch, the Cardinals have a few important things going for them, if a team five games out of first place on September 9 can have anything going.

They have their boss, Augie Busch. Busch recently fired general manager Bing Devine because the Cardinals weren’t high enough in the standings for him. In other words, he didn’t think Devine had done a good job of building a contender. No group of athletes has ever had a better chance to embarrass their boss, an incentive that’s almost unfair to the Phillies.

They have this penchant for late-season heroics. A year ago the Cardinals won 19 out of 20 to project themselves into the big picture.

They have the Phillies. The Cardinals beat the Phillies. They have beaten them 10 out of 14 already. Three of the four remaining games are in St. Louis.

And they have Ken Boyer. He’s nice, too.

— Daily News 13

September 11

Nobody knew the advantage of Chris Short’s victory over the Cardinals yesterday more than Big Magic.

Big Magic now says that the Phillies have a 92 percent chance of winning the National League pennant.

Big Magic said the Phillies probably will face the White Sox in the World Series.

If you are wondering about Big Magic it is a huge hunk of metal. It can’t go to its left. It couldn’t reach the right field wall at Connie Mack Stadium if it tried until 1984.

Big Magic is a computer, a Honeywell 1400 computer if you please. It is housed at the Franklin Institute.

“This is the first time we’ve ever had the computer attempt to figure the pennant winner,” said Al Polaneczky who feeds the computer with data cards once a day and gets the probabilities for the National and American League pennant races.

Big Magic’s daily diet consists of the remaining schedules of each club against every other club. It digests the data, then gives its daily probabilities.

“The method we are using is much the same as we follow in computing sales,” Polaneczky added. “We call it the Monte Carlo technique because we are actually gambling with data. The operation is well proven. It has a solid basis in mathematics.”

Gene Mauch hopes so.

— Daily News 14

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (UPI).—The Phillies were such prohibitive favorites in the legal bookmaking establishments here that no bets were being taken today on their chances of winning the National League pennant.

With the Phillies listed as “out,” so far as wagering was concerned, the odds-makers in their day-to-day line posted the St. Louis Cardinals at 10–1 and the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants at 20–1.

— Daily News 15

NEW YORK (UPI).—An old-fashioned “quickie” World Series—the first since 1956 when New York and Brooklyn played their last subway series—will be in the offing this year if the Phillies face either the New York Yankees or the Baltimore Orioles.

The elimination of the travel days between games two and three and five and six should the series opponents represent cities 300 miles or less apart was announced yesterday by baseball commissioner Ford Frick. The travel days would remain part of the series schedule in the event of a series between the Phillies and the Chicago White Sox.

— Daily News 16

September 13

It is a cinch who will be the hero, the darling of the masses, as the Phils whip down the stretch drive. Names such as Allen and Callison and Short and Bunning pale into triviality, compared to the true idol of World Series time.

The Most Valuable Player around Connie Mack Stadium is sure to be Frank (Everybody’s Friend) Powell.

Powell cannot throw, run or hit. He has a graying thatch, thick specs and a comfortable girth. For the next three weeks, however, he will be the most popular Phillie in captivity—his fan mail will make the Beatles look like anonymous nonentities.

Powell is in charge of World Series tickets. His old title was Director of Sales. His new title is Big Chief With Heap Big Headache And Not Enough Pasteboards.

“Our first thought is to make sure the real Phillie fans, the ones who supported the club all year, get a chance at World Series tickets,” said Everybody’s Friend. “With a park this small (roughly, 34,000 seats), it’s going to be a real problem. We could probably sell it out five times.”

Letters asking to reserve Series tickets have hit Powell’s desk at a 20–30-a-day clip since early in the year. A form letter goes back to each fan. The Phils will give the green light for customers Wednesday to shoot in Series orders. Prices, as last year’s, will be $12 tops.

— Bulletin 17

Johnny Callison hit the game-winning homer in the All-Star Game and was named All-Star MVP, and was in the running for NL MVP honors, though he did not win.

September 14

WHAT COULD MAKE YOU HAPPIER THAN SEEING THE PHILLIES WIN THE PENNANT?

(Watching them take the Series on RCA Victor Color TV!)

Phillies fans, this is your year. Callison won the All-Star Game. The Phils must win the pennant. And who can argue that they’ll win the Series in a climax? Your only problem is: how do you get to see the Series? Connie Mack stadium [sic] seats only 33,608 and maybe 2 million of us want “in.” The answer is: at least see it in living color. And that means RCA Victor Color TV, the finest color available. It’s the finest because RCA Victor has spent 10 years in pioneering and perfecting it. Your dealer can put you in front of a set for only $399.95.

It’s worth the price just to see the whole Series in color—but, as a bonus, you can figure that there are 51 other weeks in the year of other great color TV shows as well.

P.S.: If the Phils don’t win the pennant … (bite your tongue!) color TV will not become obsolete. In fact, seeing the World Series, the NCAA football games and your favorite programs in color may help make life almost bearable.

— Bulletin full-page advertisement

SAN FRANCISCO, SEPT. 14— There are 20 sports writers in the United States who must decide whether Jim Bunning, John Callison or Rich (Don’t call me Richie) Allen is the National League’s Most Valuable player [sic] and Bunning, Callison and Allen won’t cooperate.

All three keep behaving like MVPs, making it impossible to separate their contributions to the pennant that is growing in Philadelphia.

Yesterday, for instance, the Phillies moved a win and a day closer to the World Series and it was Bunning and Callison and Allen who did most of the moving in a wind-aided 4–1 victory over the Giants.

Bunning muzzled the Giants for ten innings, the best performance in a hurricane since Humphrey Bogart made Key Largo. Callison broke open the shivering tie with his single in the tenth. Allen’s two-run homer followed—just in time to prevent 35,305 cases of windburn.

It was no way to help a sports writer make up his mind.

Somebody asked Gene Mauch what he would do if he was a sports writer and—before they carried the guy out—Mauch said:

“To tell you the truth, I couldn’t cast a vote. I’d have to pass…”

— Bulletin 18

Alvin Dark knows what made the Phillies tick like a time bomb.

Tick: Jim Bunning. Tick: Johnny Callison. Tick: Richie Allen. Boom.

Dark surveyed the wreckage of his battered pennant hopes yesterday after the Phillies whipped the Giants 4–1 in 10 innings.

Tick: Bunning pitched a gritty seven-hitter. Tick: Callison drove in the winning run with a single off lefthander Dick Estelle. Tick: Allen lashed a two-run homer off reliever Ron Herbel. Boom went the Giants, fluttering seven games back of the Phillies while the Cardinals stuck six games back.

“The Phillies couldn’t have won it without Bunning,” Dark said. “They couldn’t have won it without Callison, or without Allen.”

Not that Dark was running up the white flag. “The Phillies still have to win nine out of 19 to get to 95 games,” he said, and people wrote it down out of politeness.

— Daily News 19

September 16

DEAR PHILLIES, ‘UNCLE’

YOURS TRULY, GIANTS

— San Francisco theater marquee in photograph, captioned, “BY DAY IN ‘FRISCO— Theater owner in Giants home town concedes National League flag to Phils”(above a photo of marquee at Gimbel’s at 9th and Market in Philadelphia reading GO PHILLIES/WE’RE FOR YOU), Bulletin 20

The Phillies’ Magic Number is down to 12, which should mean things are getting better.

Big Magic, the Honeywell 1400 computer, sees it differently. It says the Phillies now have an 89 percent chance to win the pennant. The other 11 percent went to the St. Louis Cardinals in tests run this morning at the Computing Center of the Franklin Institute.

— Bulletin 21

HOUSTON, Sept. 15.—The Phillies announced plans to accept World Series ticket applications Tuesday, then played like future champions as they took another stride closer to the National League pennant in their 1–0 night-game victory over the Houston Colts.

The second-place St. Louis Cardinals swept a twilight-night doubleheader with the Milwaukee Braves, reducing the Phillies’ league lead to six games. Nevertheless, this—their third win in a row—was an important triumph for the Phils.

It’s beginning to sound like a broken record, but it’s a fact—John Callison batted in the winning run. The star right fielder, making a strong bid for the Most Valuable Player Award, singled home Richie Allen, who had led off the sixth inning with a double, and that was all the scoring.

It was the third straight game in which Callison knocked in the winning run.

— Inquirer 22

WHO’S EXCITED?

Let’s be Phillies-sophical about it all…

How would this look at the Victory Ball?

Thirty days hath September but we need only four in October.

I’m the guy that picked them in spring training.

So what if it did take 14 years—it was worth it.

I can see it waving now.

They make me feel young all over.

— Captions of fan photos in a Ballantine Beer ad, Inquirer 23

September 17

“This club,” (Vic) Power said, “we’re relaxed. When I was in Minneapolis, everybody was tense. Everybody was afraid of something, somebody. I don’t know who. Maybe the owner. I know it wasn’t the manager because he was a nice guy.

“This club is so relaxed—they’re always jumping around, they play the radio real loud, they make jokes.

“When I was in San Francisco last week, I was almost going crazy—the radio was going real loud, they were making jokes, everybody was ribbing everybody.

“This club don’t care about nothin’.”

— Bulletin 24

This is the year for The Phillies. This is the time when the most thrilling sound in the air is the crack of a bat. This is the time when every baseball fan salaams his favorite star, rubs his rabbit’s foot and puts the double hex on every challenger. This is the time when you will want to decorate your den, office or club room with pictures of the 1964 Phillies players…

— Bulletin display ad

September 18

Through most of the 1934 season, the world champion Giants were virtually unopposed. On Sept. 7th, with three weeks to go, the Cardinals trailed by seven games. This was the old St. Louis Gas House Gang of Frisch, and Pepper Martin and Joe Medwick and Leo Durocher, with the Dean brothers, Dizzy and Paul, winning 49 games between them.

This was also the year Bill Terry, the Giants’ manager, asked at the wrong time and in the wrong tone: “Is Brooklyn still in the league?” On closing day the Cardinals led by one game, but in the ninth inning the Reds filled the bases against Dizzy with none out. Then the St. Louis scoreboard flashed the news: “Dodgers, 8; Giants, 5.”

Diz grinned and fired the high hard one. Two batters struck out. The third popped up. Dean had his 30th victory and the Cardinals had the pennant.

Is Gene Mauch, of the Phillies, listening? About three weeks ago the teams his club had to beat were Cincinnati and San Francisco. The Cardinals were fourth, 11 games off the pace.

A week ago Philadelphia’s lead was only five games, but it wasn’t the Reds or Giants who had closed the gap. The Cardinals were second, having made up six games in a fortnight.

They had almost a month to go. If they could pick up six more games in that space…

So far they haven’t done it. They were idle Thursday, six games back before the Phillies’ night game at Los Angeles. At that point each had 16 games to play. The Cardinals have five with the Mets, the Phils none with New York, Houston or Chicago.

Philadelphia starts the last week of the season with three night games in St. Louis, then finishes with a pair in third-place Cincinnati. After the confrontation with the Phillies, the Cards wrap it up at home with three shots against the Mets.

No, sorry. No forecasts, predictions, prophecies, prognosis or auguries.

— Inquirer 25

Vic Power described the Phillies’ winning attitude: “This club? We’re relaxed. When I was in Minneapolis, everybody was tense. Everybody was afraid of something, somebody. I don’t know who. Maybe the owner. I know it wasn’t the manager because he was a nice guy. This club is so relaxed.”

WHICH OF THESE THREE FAMOUS PHILLIES MADE THE BIGGEST HIT?

Is it Jim Bunning, who hurled a perfect game?

Or Johnny Callison, who slashed the crucial homer in the all-star fracas?

Or is it the new Phillies Tip?

Phillies Tips, like the Phillies team, is on everybody’s lips.

— Display ad, Bulletin 26

September 20

The city, stricken with pennant fever these past few weeks, has now come down with a delightful new ailment—the World Series virus.

Nearly everybody, or so it seems, has been infected by the bug as the Phillies, with only two weeks of the season left, drive for their first National League pennant since 1950.

“Go Phillies Go!” is the battlecry in every neighborhood, in every nook and corner of the metropolitan area—and even beyond.

The slogan, or some variation thereof, shines forth from bedsheet banners, flags and pennants, and from billboards.

Fans shout it. Signs in store after store proclaim it.

Pretty girls stroll about wearing five-inch buttons emblazoned with:

“Go Phillies Go.”

On a billboard on the eastbound side on the Vine St. extension of the Schuylkill Expressway near the 22nd st. off-ramp, the regular Strawbridge and Clothier advertisement has been replaced with:

“All the way! PHILLIES”

And there’s a story behind a huge Phillies banner outside the rail division of the Transport Workers Union, 1630 Arch St.

A union spokesman said John Mellon, president, and his staff were half an hour late for a meeting with management. They apologized, saying something important had come up.

They didn’t explain, the spokesman said, that hanging the Phils’ banner was the “important business.”

Official Philadelphia is also getting ready to honor the Phillies and take care of the World Series crowds that will flock here, if the Phillies take the pennant.

Mayor Tate is forming a “host committee” to make Philadelphia’s hospitality available to visitors to the fullest extent.

The members, to be announced tomorrow, include persons from the business, sporting and entertainment world as well as civic groups.

Some kind of big rally or demonstration is planned for after the Series—if the Phillies get into it—win or lose, a spokesman for the mayor said yesterday.

“We’re highly gratified,” he said, “about the number of organizations which have called in wanting to cooperate. It’s an outpouring of enthusiasm for the Phillies.”

A similar tale was told by a spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia.

“A lot of people are talking about doing something spectacular,” he said, “but nothing definite has been decided yet.”

Another source indicated that the Phillies’ management would like the players to concentrate entirely on winning ball games from here on in, instead of taking part in celebrations.

But the fans’ enthusiasm is unbounded.

Three empty three-story buildings at 11th st. and Ridge av. are decorated from top to bottom with Phillies’ slogans.

“Swing and stay all the way with the Phillies” and “You did it before; you can do it again” are a couple of them.

The bedecked structures are just opposite the Mummers Bar at 1105 Ridge av., sponsors of the Phillies’ display.

The bar people plan to stretch a sign across Ridge av. from the bar to the buildings reading: “Go, Phillies, Go. 1964 World Champions.”

A slightly more staid but just as enthusiastic salute to the home team are the 30 flags stretched along Chestnut st. saying: “Fight, Phillies, Fight.”

“We’re going to keep them up until the Phils win the pennant,” said Jack Pearson, president of the Chestnut Street Association.

— Bulletin, front page 27

Bucky Hoffman has been waiting for 14 years to get his right arm tattooed to match his left arm.

It looks as if this might be the year.

In 1950, Bucky had “Fighting Phillies 1950” tattooed on his arm.

“I got that done about two hours after Roberts beat Newcombe,” he told me, when I found him tending bar, as he usually is, at the Mummers Bar at 11th st. and Ridge av. “I went right from Brooklyn into Manhattan and had it done.”

Bucky has the design for his other arm drawn on cardboard and tucked behind the bar. It confidently says, “Phillies World Champs 1964.”

It will also have Pike’s name on it. Pike is a regular customer and buddy, and he made the design.

“That’s the way he wants it on,” Bucky said, “and that’s what he’s gonna get.”

(…)

“We got about 300 more feet of flags to put up,” Willy Kramer, Bucky’s co-fanatic, told me. “We gotta paint the street some more. We’ve invited the Phillies team to have a party here. We’ll get permission to close off the street and have string bands.”

Bobby Searles and his wife came in, and he rolled up his sleeve to show me a tattoo which says, “Fighting Phillies.”

“I got mine in 1943,” he said. “I’m a rabid fan.”

“If they blow the pennant,” Bucky said in a moment of sober reflection, “I got my suitcase right here. I’m blowing town.”

“If they don’t win,” one patron warned sternly, “this is gonna be a parking lot here, bud.”

— Bulletin 28

September 21

Neither the prospect of catching early morning school buses, trains after a few hours shuteyes, the chill weather nor the fickleness of chartered airline schedules dampened the crowd of 2000 Phillies fans who swarmed to International Airport early Monday morning to welcome their heroes home.

School children, collegians, and elderly fans, who have been hanging on every pitch for months, were darned if they were going to miss the chance to give their pennant-bound team a fitting welcome.

And as Mayor James H. J. Tate strode out to meet the team’s chartered American Airlines Boeing 707 Astro-Jet as it touched down at 12:30AM, bedlam broke out in the airport’s second-floor concourse.

The packed crowd, which had been waiting since late Saturday night, feverously wiped the fogged-up plate-glass windows with handkerchiefs and coat-sleeves to better see their “boys.”

Schoolchildren who had been industriously working on their homework threw their books down and cheered lustily as Manager Gene Mauch led the team off the ramp.

Although pennants and signs were not in abundance the noise emanating from the concourse left little doubt as to where allegiances lay.

— Inquirer 29

The throng let out a lusty welcome at 12:30AM. when the Phils, led by manager Gene Mauch, came own the ramp of the jet that had brought them from Los Angeles.

But the cheers quickly died as the Phils headed for the nearest exit.

(…)

Some fans, obviously “sign-stealers,” stationed themselves at exits where they could get a close up look at Rich Allen, Chris Short, Jim Bunning and others.

“Oh, they’re wonderful,” said Evelyn William, 35, a housewife, of 1724 N. Taney st.

“They’re marvelous,” commented Dorothy Falkenstein, of 234 Margate rd., Upper Darby.

Margie Connally, 19, of 235 Westmoreland ave., Hatboro, was breathless with joy.

But Mrs. Emma Bravo, 36, of 2308 Chestnut ave., Ardmore, wanted to know “Why they didn’t com[e] up that ramp where we all waited.” She came carrying a “Go Phillies Go” sign but left chanting “Down with the Phillies.”

Bruce Kesler, 13, of 1803 Glenifer st, had two “Go Phillies Go” buttons on his sweatshirt. Close to tears he said, “I haven’t missed a home game since July 28. I buy Phillies helmets, buttons, banners, everything with Phillies on it.

“But I didn’t get to see hardly any of them. And, now I don’t think I’ll go to any games any more—even the World Series.”

Even Bill Campbell, the radio announcer, caught a bit of the fans’ wrath. One guy yelled as Campbell walked by, “There’s another long ball that ain’t going nowhere.”

— Daily News 30

Although the scent of World Series was in the air, some of the Phils are keeping their fingers crossed. Bunning was one.

“Don’t forget,” he warned, “we still have 12 games to play.”

(…)

“I wanted to come here tonight,” (Mayor) Tate said. “I wanted to extend my congratulations to the team and I’m hoping the pennant will be safe in Philadelphia by the weekend.”

Mrs. Cookie Rojas was happy but calm.

“Yes, Sir,” she said, “the way I see it we’ll have it clinched by Thursday night.”

— Bulletin 31

ANDREW MILNER is a freelance writer has written for the “SABR Review of Books,” “The Cooperstown Review” as well as “Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game.” He has contributed to “American Sports: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas” (2013), “Sports in America from Colonial Times to the Twenty-First Century” (2011) and the “St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture” (2000).

NOTES

1 Sandy Grady, “Yes, Dear, the Phillies Are Cute and Cuddly,” Philadelphia Bulletin, September 1, 1964, 51.

2 Larry Merchant, “Banking on Bunning,” Philadelphia Daily News, September 2, 1964, 47.

3 “Phils Have Calendar on Their Side,” Philadelphia Daily News, September 4, 1964, 50.

4 Eileen, letter to the editor, Philadelphia Daily News, September 5, 1964, 7.

5 Eileen Foley, “Asks Wife of Phillies’ Manager: Pennant Fever…What’s That?” Philadelphia Bulletin, September 8, 1964, 60.

6 Leo O’Rourke, letter to the editor, Philadelphia Daily News, September 8, 1964, 35.

7 James A. Michener, Luxor, Egypt, letter to the editor, “Dazed Author Seeks Aid for Phils,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 8, 1964, 10.

8 Larry Merchant, “Two Big Lumps—One is Sugar,” Philadelphia Daily News, September 9, 1964, 57.

9 “Another Record for Those Phillies” (editorial), Philadelphia Inquirer, September 9, 1964, 34.

10 “Shaky Phils Fan Dreads the Yanks”(letter to the editor), Philadelphia Bulletin, September 10, 1964, 10.

11 Stan Hochman, “Mauch Says Phils’ Only Foe is Phillies,” Philadelphia Daily News, September 10, 1964, 52.

12 “Phillies Handed Stadium ‘Ball,'” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 10, 1964, 7.

13 Larry Merchant, “RBI: Runs Boyered In,” Philadelphia Daily News, September 10, 1964, 53.

14 Frank Bilovsky, “Computer Figures It’ll Be Phillies vs. White Sox,” Philadelphia Daily News, September 11, 1964,. 35.

15 “Las Vegas Takes Phils Off Boards,” Philadelphia Daily News, September 11, 1964, 53.

16 “‘Quickie’ World Series Likely,” Philadelphia Daily News, September 11, 1964, 55.

17 Sandy Grady, “The Phils’ World Series Ticket Nabob: He Doesn’t Have an Enemy in the World… Yet!” Philadelphia Bulletin, September 13, 1964, 2 (sports section).

18 George Kiseda, “MVP Election: Candidates Run a Hard Bargain,” Philadelphia Bulletin, September 14, 1964, 39.

19 Stan Hochman, “Phils Time Bomb Ticks… Ticks… Ticks,” Philadelphia Daily News, September 14, 1964, 47.

20 Philadelphia Bulletin, September 16, 1964, 69.

21 “Phils Flag Chances Rated at 89 Per Cent,” Philadelphia Bulletin, September 16, 1964, 69.

22 Allen Lewis, “Phils Score 1–0 Shutout At Houston,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 16, 1964, 1.

23 Philadelphia Inquirer, September 16, 1964, 41.

24 George Kiseda, “Phillies ‘Shoot’ Holes in Pressure Theory,” Philadelphia Bulletin, September 17, 1964, 37.

25 Red Smith, “Phils Reminded of Those 1934 Giants,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 18, 1964, 48.

26 Philadelphia Bulletin, September 18, 1964, 33.

27 Francis J. Burke, “Town Goes Wild as Phils Near Pennant; Innkeepers, Bars Ready for Series Crowds,” Philadelphia Bulletin, September 20, 1964, 1.

28 James Smart, “Go, Phillies! Bucky’s Arm is Waiting,” Philadelphia Bulletin, September 20, 1964, 4.

29 Dennis M. Higgins, “Tate and 2000 Greet Phillies After 3–2 Win Over Dodgers,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 21, 1964, 1.

30 Bill Malone, Daily News, “Dashing Phillies Leave Fans Miffed,” Philadelphia Daily News, September 21, 1964, 3.

31 “Phils, Orchestra Home in Triumph: League Leaders Are Greeted by 2,000 Fans,” Philadelphia Bulletin, September 21, 1964, 3.

On September 30, 1967, a Saturday afternoon, the Minnesota Twins played the first of a two-game season-ending series against the Red Sox at Boston’s Fenway Park. The Twins led the Red Sox and the Tigers (who had to play two doubleheaders) by a single game. A Twins victory would eliminate the Red Sox, while the Tigers had to win either three or (if the Twins beat the Red Sox in both games) all four of their games against the Angels.

On the pitching mound for the Twins would be Jim Kaat, who had already posted a 7–0 record with a 1.57 ERA in 63 September innings. If he could win on the 30th, he would become just the second pitcher since 1946 (joining Whitey Ford) to win eight starts in a single month. The Red Sox would counter with Jose Santiago, making just his 11th start of the season. The Twins had 20-game-winner Dean Chance available on Sunday, but they had to like their chances to finish off Boston on Saturday. Of course, the season had been nothing if not unpredictable.

Heading in to the 1967 season many observers had conceded the pennant to the powerful Baltimore Orioles. After romping through the AL in 1966, the O’s had summarily swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. The club had a few middle-aged stars—Frank Robinson (30), Brooks Robinson (29) and Luis Aparicio (32)—who had shown no signs of slowing down. The rest of the starting lineup was in their early 20s, and Steve Barber, at 28, was the old man of a deep and talented pitching staff.

The toughest challenge, it was reasoned, would come from the Twins, who had won the pennant in 1965, finished second to the Orioles in 1966, and had as much front-line talent as any team in the league. The Twins were led by two star hitters—third baseman Harmon Killebrew, who had already won four home run titles, and right-fielder Tony Oliva, who had two batting crowns—along with a deep and flexible pitching staff. 

The Twins regression in 1966—from 102 wins to 89—was completely due to a drop-off from their hitters. The team’s offense dropped by 111 runs, while their pitchers allowed 19 fewer runs, more than the league wide average drop of 11 runs per team. While Killebrew (39 home runs, 110 RBI) and Oliva (.307, 25 home runs) were among the best hitters in the league, no other regular was any better than league average for his position. Among many setbacks, shortstop Zoilo Versalles, the league’s MVP in 1965, dropped from 76 extra base hits to just 33 and provided very little offense from his leadoff spot. Meanwhile Jim Kaat won 25 games with a 2.75 ERA, and Mudcat Grant, Jim Perry, Dave Boswell, and Jim Merritt also provided solid starting pitching. 

Right after the 1966 season, Twins manager Sam Mele parted ways with pitching coach Johnny Sain, an innovative thinker who got results from his pitchers but generally did not get along with his bosses. Sain demanded complete control over the pitching staff, a power his managers were usually reluctant to surrender. Jim Kaat in particular loved Sain, and in response to his mentor’s dismissal wrote a critical open letter to the Minneapolis Tribune. The letter ran on page one, and said, among other things, “If I were ever in a position of general manager, I’d give Sain a ‘name-your-own-figure’ contract to handle my pitchers. (And, oh yes, I’d hire a manager that could take advantage of his talents.)” Not surprisingly, these comments did not sit well with Mele. Twins owner Calvin Griffith, who acted as his own general manager, spoke with Kaat and mostly seemed bewildered that Mele could not get along with his coaches.1 Clearly the pressure was on Mele, and new pitching coach Early Wynn, to succeed in 1967.

Though the Twins had more pitching than hitting, this fact was largely misunderstood at the time due to the friendly hitting environment of Metropolitan Stadium. As an illustration, at the 1966 winter meetings the Twins traded Don Mincher and Jimmie Hall (likely their third and fourth best hitters), along with relief pitcher Pete Cimino, to the Angels for pitcher Dean Chance. After a brilliant 1964 season, Chance remained a good pitcher (12–17, 3.08 ERA in 1966), though not noticeably better than the five good starters the Twins already had.

To replace Mincher, Mele moved Killebrew to first base full-time (he had been playing there against left-handed pitchers), and returned Rich Rollins to full-time duty at third. To replace Hall, the Twins were counting on the return of Bob Allison from a broken hand, and were planning on playing the versatile Cesar Tovar in center field. With Earl Battey at catcher, the Twins hoped they could hit enough to make up for what they lost in the Angels trade.

On the mound, the Twins were set with Kaat, Chance, Grant, Boswell, and Merritt as starters, Jim Perry as the swingman, and Ron Kline and Al Worthington as the capable short relievers. It was a fine pitching staff, one of the best in the league.

When the season opened, the Twins played poorly for the first month. On May 15 Minnesota stood tied for eighth with an 11–15 record, 7 1?2 games behind the first-place White Sox. They could take solace in being tied with the defending champion Orioles, but the White Sox and Tigers (just one and a half games out) were good teams who were threatening to leave other clubs behind. Although there were many culprits, the biggest disappointments were Battey, Oliva (.183 through May 20), Jim Kaat (1–6, with a 6.66 ERA through May), and Grant (who lost his first three starts and was battling a sore knee).

The one Twins player who started the season hitting well was Versalles, hitting over .350 in early May and briefly among the RBI leaders. Unfortunately, this success proved fleeting, and his average steadily plummeted for the next five months until it fell to .200 at the close of the season. Versalles stayed in the lineup all year and provided a steady drain on the offense with a dreadful 52 OPS+. American League MVP just two years earlier, the 27-year-old Versalles was finished as an effective major league player.

On the other side of the keystone, Griffith had been an early proponent for the promotion of Rod Carew. “Carew can do it all,” said Griffith in March. “He can run, throw, and hit. He could be the American League All-Star second baseman if he sets his mind to it.”2 Pretty bold words about a 21-year-old fresh from the Carolina League. But Carew would fully justify Griffith’s confidence, and would do so immediately. Carew’s five hits on May 8 brought his average up over .300 for the first time, and he spent most of the summer among the league leaders. On June 15 his average reached .335, and he trailed only Al Kaline and Frank Robinson in the American League. It was therefore no surprise when Carew fulfilled Griffith’s prediction and started that summer’s All-Star game as a rookie.

The person most affected by the emergence of Carew was Cesar Tovar, who many observers felt would otherwise be the best all-around second baseman in the league. Tovar had won the job from Bernie Allen during the 1966 season, but with Carew on board Tovar was moved to center field to start the season. In the event, Tovar’s versatility and the struggles or injuries of many of his teammates caused the club to move him around the diamond repeatedly throughout the next few seasons. By mid-May of 1967 he’d already seen action at six positions. This likely did not help Tovar’s development, but he was a fine player, generally hitting at the top of the order and scoring 98 runs in 1967 (the third highest total in the league). 

Adjusting to the team’s slow start, Mele benched Battey in favor of Jerry Zimmerman, but the production from the catcher position remained inadequate. With Tovar moving to the infield to deal with slumps and injuries, Mele eventually played Ted Uhlaender full-time in center. He moved Jim Merritt into the rotation, turning away from Mudcat Grant. As for Kaat and Oliva, Mele kept playing them in hopes they would turn things around.

Meanwhile, the Twins managed to slog their way to .500 in mid-May and stay near that level for a few weeks. After a tough loss on June 8, when the Indians scored four runs in the ninth to win, 7–5, and drop the Twins to 25–25, Griffith fired Mele and replaced him with Cal Ermer, who had been managing their Triple-A club in Denver. The winner of four pennants as a minor-league manager, the 43-year-old Ermer’s major-league resume included a single game, in 1947, and a year as a coach with the Orioles in 1962. Griffith had expected the team to be contending for the pennant, not floundering in sixth place. After splitting their first 16 games under Ermer, the team got hot in late June and was back in contention by the All-Star break.

AL standings, July 10, 1967

With the Orioles nine games back, it looked to have turned into a three-team race, as no one expected either the Angels or Red Sox to be able to hang with the front runners. 

One Minnesota player who revived at about the time of the Mele firing was Jim Kaat, who had publicly called out his manager the previous winter. Coincidence or not, Kaat had been 1–7 with a 6.00 ERA at the time of the switch, but won his first three starts and pitched as well as ever under Ermer. His victory on June 10 was the 100th of his career but came after nine winless starts. “There never has been any bad feeling of any kind between Sam and myself this year,” Kaat said. Either way, with Chance, Boswell, Merritt and Perry, the Twins had an excellent starting staff the rest of the season.

The biggest change for Harmon Killebrew in 1967 was that the club stopped moving him around the diamond to accommodate other players. With Mincher traded, Killebrew was a full-time first baseman for the first time in his career, and he responded with an excellent season, even by his lofty standards. It took him a few weeks to find his power stroke, but he hit 12 home runs in June on his way to 44, his sixth season over 40, and he coaxed a league leading 131 walks. Also important was the comeback of Bob Allison, after his lost season in 1966. Allison hit 24 home runs and provided valuable production hitting fifth behind Killebrew and Oliva. “This club definitely has the feeling we had in 1965,” said Killebrew.3

As quick as the Twins had gotten hot, they lost six in a row in mid-July, just as the Red Sox were winning 10 straight and getting into the thick of the race. At the end of July, the Twins were five games back and looking up at Chicago, Boston, and Detroit. 

Tony Oliva was a remarkably consistent ballplayer over his first eight major-league seasons, but he never started slower than he did in 1967. Although Oliva’s hitting had steadily improved after his poor start, his average was still just .256 at the end of July. Fortunately, no one did more during the pennant race than Oliva, as he hit .333 the last two months with 6 home runs and 18 doubles. 

Although Mele made changes to his lineup and rotation, Griffith did not make any moves to fix the holes on his club. The Red Sox picked up Jerry Adair, Gary Bell, and Elston Howard, all quality veterans who played a large role in the team’s pennant drive, and then signed Ken Harrelson as a reaction to Tony Conigliaro’s August eye injury. The White Sox acquired Don McMahon, Ken Boyer, and Rocky Colavito, and all were given important roles. The Tigers obtained veteran Eddie Mathews, and he played a key role down the stretch at both third and first base. With the closeness of the race and at least two poor hitters in the lineup every day (at shortstop and catcher), the Twins could have used another bat. 

In early August, the White Sox went through their first rough patch of the season, and relinquished first place after two months at the top, the longest any team would hold the lead that season. All of the contenders went through a bad stretch at one point during the season, and as August ended it was difficult to separate the first four teams. 

AL standings, August 31, 1967

The standings for every day the rest of the season were a slight variation of the above, with the teams dropping from first to third or rising from fourth to second regularly. No first place team would lead by more than a single game on any day hereafter. On September 6, there was a virtual four-way tie at the top.

The Twins held at least a share of the lead from September 2 through September 14, and looked to be the favorite when they went to Chicago to play three games. They lost all three, including a crushing defeat on the 16th when Dean Chance entered the ninth with a six-hitter but allowed three hits and his own error and ultimately lost the game 5–4. Just like that, the Twins were tied for third place. Never fear: a four-game sweep in Kansas City and they were back on top with eight games to go.

The Twins’ outstanding pitching continued in September, with their third straight month with an ERA under 3.00. For the season, the team finished at 3.14, second best in the league despite playing in a hitter’s park. The reason the Twins did not run away with the pennant was their imbalanced offense, a problem which only grew worse in the final month. In September, Killebrew, Oliva, and Allison hit .317 with 17 home runs. The rest of the team hit .216 with four round trippers. Still, a pennant was within reach.

It is interesting to note how Ermer used his pitchers in September. Beginning on September 9, the day after their final doubleheader, he used Kaat-Boswell-Chance-Merritt in rotation four straight times. After Kaat’s seventh consecutive September victory on the 26th gave the Twins a one-game lead with three to play, Ermer switched up and went with Chance on two days rest on Wednesday the 27th. Dave Boswell, who was passed over, had not pitched well in his previous start but had three complete game victories in September. Chance, who had won his 20th game on Sunday, could not get through the fourth on Wednesday, and the Twins dropped the game, 5–1. This was huge, but then again, weren’t they all?

In the latter stages of this great pennant race, the Red Sox had become the dominant story. Everyone loves an underdog, and while the other contenders had been good teams for several years the Red Sox had finished ninth in 1966 and had not really been in a pennant race since 1950. It was the Red Sox, and their star Carl Yastrzemski, who were featured on the cover of Life and Newsweek that September. Their loss of local favorite Tony Conigliaro to a brutal eye injury in August only heightened the drama of their story.

The Red Sox and Twins would have two days off to prepare for their two-game series, while the Tigers and Angels were rained out on both Thursday and Friday, necessitating consecutive doubleheaders over the weekend. The White Sox, who had led the race for more days than any other team, finally dropped out with their loss on Friday night. The remaining three teams all had a shot at winning the league outright.

AL standings, September 29, 1967

Though the final games would be played in Boston, the two days off allowed Ermer to pitch Kaat (with seven September wins) and Chance (20–13, 2.62 ERA, 18 complete games) on their regular three days of rest. Though just 28-years-old, Kaat had been a dependable workhorse for many years, averaging 17 wins since 1962, including 25 in 1966. For good measure, he had already won five Gold Gloves, and was one of the game’s top hitting pitchers (nine home runs in the past six seasons). He was the man the Twins wanted on the mound.

As it happened, Kaat got through the first two innings, and led 1–0 heading into the bottom of the third. While striking out opposing pitcher Jose Santiago to lead off the inning, Kaat felt a “pop” in his elbow and had to leave the game a few pitchers later, a game-changing break for the Red Sox. After throwing a heroic 66 innings over 30 September days, with a 1.51 ERA for the month, Kaat was done. A succession of normally excellent Twins pitchers—Perry, Ron Kline, and Merritt—failed to shut down the home team, and Killebrew’s 44th home run in the ninth was not enough as the Twins fell, 6–4.

Heading into Sunday, the Twins and Red Sox were tied, while the Tigers were a half game back with a doubleheader to play. If the Tigers swept, they would tie the winner of the game in Boston, necessitating a three-game playoff series beginning the next day. The Fenway matchup featured two 20-game winners—Dean Chance and Boston’s Jim Lonborg, both of whom had pitched Wednesday on two days rest and lost. The Twins seemed to have the pitching advantage—Chance had been 4–1 with a 1.58 ERA against the Red Sox, including a five-inning perfect game, while Lonborg had gone 0–3, 6.75 against the Twins. 

The Twins scratched out unearned runs in the first and third innings, and led 2–0 after five. Chance had scattered four hits and looked to be cruising. Leading off the sixth, Lonborg dropped a perfect bunt down the third base line to reach first. Singles by Jerry Adair, Dalton Jones, and Yastrzemski tied the score, and the go-ahead run scored on a ground ball to Versalles that the shortstop elected to throw home rather than to second base to try for the double play. 

Al Worthington came in and threw two wild pitches, Killebrew contributed an error, and suddenly it was 5–2, Boston. The Twins managed a run in the eighth, but lost the game and the pennant shortly thereafter. In Detroit, the Tigers dropped the second game of their twin bill, giving the Red Sox their miracle pennant.

Forty-five years later, this remains one of baseball greatest and most historic pennant races. Many books have been written about the season, most focused on the winning Red Sox. Looking back, it is obvious that none of the contenders was a great club. The Red Sox’ winning percentage was the lowest ever for an American League champion prior to divisional play. Each of the teams had notable flaws, and the three teams that fell short could point to a game or two that should have been won and could have made a difference. For the Twins, Kaat’s injury on September 30 is the most common lament.

On October 1 the Twins boarded an airplane which took them back to Minneapolis and 1,200 waiting fans. Cal Ermer promised the gathered faithful a pennant in 1968. “We’ve got to give Boston credit,” said Kaat, “but I think the best team and the best fans will be watching the Series on television.”4

MARK ARMOUR is the author of “Joe Cronin: A Life in Baseball” (Nebraska, 2010) and the director of SABR’s Baseball Biography Project. He writes baseball from Oregon, where he resides with Jane, Maya, and Drew.

Notes

1 Max Nichols, “Sain’s Exit Puts Mele on Win-or-Else’ Spot,” The Sporting News, October 22, 1966, 15.

2 Max Nichols, “Rookie Rod Carew Stakes Out Claim To Twin Keystone,” The Sporting News, March 25, 1967, 27.

3 Max Nichols, “Allison Regains Hot Touch With Stick— Harvest for Twins,” The Sporting News, August 5, 1967, 9.

4 “1,200 Greet Twins, Hear Ermer Promise 1968 Flag,” The Sporting News, October 14, 1967, 27.

Players of note can be considered chronologically by order of their appearances on American League All-Star teams, although the first two individuals mentioned under such an approach failed to gain the stature of other men who would later display their talents in Griffith Stadium.

Cass Michaels was the lone player from the fifth- place team of 1950 to be selected to appear in the Midsummer Classic. Because he had been traded to the Senators by the Chicago White Sox only six weeks before the All-Star Game was played in his former stomping ground (Comiskey Park), Michaels was actually rewarded for solid play while with the Pale Hose. His batting average had been .312 in 36 games with the Chisox but dropped to .250 at season’s end, after donning Washington flannels. Following a respectable but less-than-sensational season in 1951, he was traded to the St. Louis Browns in May of 1952.

Connie Marrero was the only representative of the Washington franchise in the 1951 game. Less than four months’ shy of thirty-nine years old when his career as a major-league pitcher began, the 5′ 7″, 165-pound right hander from Cuba pitched for the Senators from 1950 through 1954, but was most successful in 1951 and 1952. He posted a record of 1 —9 and an earned-run average of 3.90 in 1951 with a supporting cast that finished the season in seventh place, and then won 1 and lost 8 in 1952 with an ERA of 2.88. His best performance? On April 26, 1951, a fourth-inning home run by Barney McCosky of the Philadelphia Athletics was the only hit he allowed in a 2—1 Washington triumph.

Jackie Jensen and Eddie Yost were named to the 1952 team. The promising Jensen had begun the season with the Yankees but was traded to Washington on May 3.  He proceeded to steal 17 bases as a National (he had swiped one sack as a Bronx Bomber) and trailed only Minnie Minoso and Jim Rivera among American League base thieves. He hit at a .266 clip the following season and stole another 18 bases (again finishing third in that category behind Minoso and Rivera) before being dealt to Boston on December 9, 1953, in exchange for Mickey McDermott and Tommy Umphlett. (That trade did not turn out well for the Nats!)

Eddie Yost is much more prominent in Senators’ history than Michaels, Marrero, or Jensen. Yost played in 838 consecutive games from August 30, 1949, until he was sidelined on May 12, 1955, with tonsillitis, tied the American League with 36 doubles in 1951, and topped junior-circuit third basemen in putouts a record eight times. But, despite his durability and dependability, Yost became best known for an exceptional ability to draw bases-on-balls—a skill that earned him the nickname of “The Walking Man.” (While with the Nats, he led the league in free passes in 1950, 1952, 1953, and 1956 and, with Detroit, in 1959 and1960.) His phenomenal talent for reaching first base without putting a bat on the baseball disguised his effectiveness as an offensive influence: his on-base percentage peaked at .440 in 1950 and was impressive throughout his stay in Washington.

Yost was a star of considerable magnitude, but when he threw the ball across the infield from third base, the man who caught it had an even longer resume. When Mickey Vernon—who had been the American League’s batting champion in 1946 with a .353 average—became the only Nationals’ player to travel to Cincinnati for the 1953 All-Star game, he was in the middle of a season that would culminate in a second batting title (albeit a controversial one, due to questionable and perhaps intentional base-running lapses by teammates Mickey Grasso and Kite Thomas on the final day of the season). He also produced 1 5 RBIs in 1953, one of eleven years in which he knocked 80 or more runs across home plate.

Vernon was selected to six All-Star teams (1946, 1948, 1953, 1954, 1955, and 1956), and he led the league in doubles in 1946, 1953, and 1954. In 1953, he ranked third behind Al Rosen and Yogi Berra in voting by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) for the American League’s “Most Valuable Player” award.

Vernon’s most memorable moments on a baseball field may have occurred on the opening day of the 1954 season with President Dwight Eisenhower in attendance. Having been held hitless in four plate appearances, Vernon came to bat against Allie Reynolds in the bottom of the tenth inning with the Senators and Yankees tied, 3—3. (Yost was on first base after having received—what else?—a base-on-balls.) Vernon delivered a Washington victory with a home run that became memorable in the city’s baseball history and gave new life to a popular belief that Vernon was Ike’s favorite player.

Vernon was not one of baseball’s most prominent long-ball threats (he pounded 172 homers in his twenty-year major-league career), but his 20 round trippers in 1954 established a new club record for left-handed hitters. Fellow infielder Pete Runnels was on base when he hit several of those four-baggers, and the line-drive-hitting Runnels—who took advantage of Griffith Stadium’s generous dimensions in the power alleys to record 15 triples in 1954—was an important contributor to solid Washington infields in the first half of the 1950s.

Vernon was accompanied by pitchers Dean Stone and Bob Porterfield to the “clash of the leagues” in 1954, and developments in the final two innings of that contest in Cleveland would ensure Stone’s place in trivia books forever. The 6 4, 205-pound rookie left hander received credit for the pitching victory without officially facing a single batter. When Stone was brought into the game to relieve Bob Keegan, with two out in the eighth inning and Red Schoendienst on third base for the senior circuit, the National League had hopes of increasing its tenuous 9—8 lead. After Stone had thrown only two pitches (a ball and a strike) to Duke Snider, Schoendienst attempted to steal home. Stone nailed him at the plate with a throw to catcher Yogi Berra and then became the winning pitcher when his teammates for a day scored three runs in the bot- tom of the eighth inning.

With the Senators, Stone registered more victories in his initial major-league season of 1954 than in any other, although he started only 23 games that His record dropped off in 1955 to 6—13, but it should be noted that seven of those losses came in games in which a zero appeared next to the word “Washington” in the final score. But Dean Stone was not the only Senators pitcher to suffer the fate of losing seven shutouts during the decade, for Bob Porterfield had been linked to the same dubious distinction in 1952! Porterfield, a right hander, was nicknamed “Hard Luck Bob” for good reason. He posted a record of 13—14 in 1952 despite an earned-run average of 2.72 that was the seventh-best in the American League. He hurled three shutouts that season, but his offensive support was often absent: Porterfield was the victim of a no-hitter by Virgil Trucks, a one-hitter by Mickey McDermott, two-hitters by Allie Reynolds and Billy Pierce, and three-hitters by Mel Parnell, Pierce, and Eddie Lopat.

Porterfield’s luck and record improved drastically in 1953. He won 22 games while losing only 10, leading the league not only in victories but also with a very impressive total of 9 shutouts. (Casey Stengel was criticized in many quarters for failing to include Porterfield when he chose pitchers for the ’53 All-Star team.) He then tied with Bob Lemon for the American League lead in complete games in 1954 and finished that season with a 13—15 record. A review of Porterfield’s statistics reveals that, while he won more than 13 games in only one season, he was usually effective on the mound and maintained an earned-run average of 3.14 during a three-year period extending from 1952 through 1954.

Any listing of Washington’s greatest baseball stars must include a slugger who represented the franchise on All-Star teams in 1956, 1957, and 1959. Roy Sievers was obtained from the Baltimore Orioles on February 18, 1954, and wasted no time in becoming a favorite in the District of Columbia. He tagged 24home runs in 1954 to break the previous club record, and drove in 95 or more runs in each of his first five seasons in a Senators uniform.

Sievers led the American League with 42 homers in 1957 and, with 114 runs batted in, became the first Washington player to top all sluggers in RBIs since Goose Goslin in 1924. He blasted a ball over Griffith Stadium’s fence in six consecutive games during that ’57 season and the sixth (off of Al Aber of the Tigers) won a 17-inning game on August 3. At season’s end, he finished third—behind legends Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams—in voting by the BBWAA for the American League’s Most Valuable Player. He maintained a similar level of performance in 1958, hitting 39 home runs despite an early-season slump. He slammed a total of 180 homers in six years as a Senator.

The slow start in 1958 cost Sievers a place on the All-Star team, and Rocky Bridges—who was hitting approximately .300 when selections were made—received the honor. (Bridges would ultimately post an unremarkable batting average of .263 in his only full season as a Washington infielder.) A colorful and quotable player who always had a big wad of tobacco in his mouth, Bridges possessed, on the field, ordinary ability.

Yet another member of the Senators generated quite a stir and plenty of curiosity during the ’58 campaign. Albie Pearson, standing all of 5′ 5″ and weighing 140 pounds, had a batting average of .275 and received 14 of the24 votes in the polling of BBWAA members for the AL Rookie-of-the-Year Award. But, unfortunately, Pearson’s tenure in Washington was brief; his batting average had tailed off to .188 by May 26, 1959, when he was sent up the road to Baltimore.

After the number of annual major-league All-Star games was doubled in 1959 to generate additional revenue, Sievers and a young Harmon Killebrew represented the Senators in the meeting in Pittsburgh of baseball’s best. And, with expansion of rosters permit- ted for a second game in the Los Angeles Coliseum, they were joined in Southern California by Bob Allison, Camilo Pascual, and Pedro Ramos.

Killebrew had been the first bonus player signed by Clark Griffith’s club, having placed his signature on a Nationals’ contract in June of 1954, ten days before his eighteenth birthday. His progress and assignments within the organization were affected not only by his ability but also by rules applying to “Bonus Babies” of his era. By 1959, he was prepared for stardom. He secured his spot in the starting lineup by knocking two pitches by future Hall of Famer Jim Bunning into the bleachers of Briggs Stadium in Detroit on May 1, 1959. (The second home run came in the tenth inning and gave Washington a 4—3 victories.) The very next day, he tagged two more homers in a 15—3 rout of the Bengals. “The Killer” went on to brighten the ’59 season by rapping 42 round-trippers and driving in 105 runs for his cellar-dwelling team. He would continue to mature as a player and enjoy a truly great career in Minnesota in the 1960s and 1970s after the Senators franchise had moved to the upper Midwest.

Bob Allison’s career followed a similar course. The big outfielder contributed to a productive offense for the hapless ’59 club, tagging 30 home runs and succeeding Pearson as Rookie of the Year. He slumped slightly in his sophomore season of 1960 but, like Killebrew and catcher Earl Battey (who played one season in Washington after being acquired by the Senators from the White Sox on April 4, 1960), became a dependable force in the league after the franchise left town.

Camilo Pascual and Pedro Ramos served as the foundation upon which Senators pitching staffs were built in the mid and late 1950s. The two Cuban hurlers were linked in the minds of many baseball fans especially young ones who obtained baseball card number 291 in the 1959 Topps set, which featured them side by side and dubbed them “Pitching Partners.” Pascual led the Washington club in appearances in his rookie year of 1954 with 48 games, and Ramos later recalled that “Camilo was a tough pitcher. He had a good fastball and one of the best breaking balls I’ve ever seen.”

By 1959, when he had mastered control of his two basic pitches as well as a change-up, Pascual had become one of baseball’s best. He posted a 17—10 record that year despite occasional discomfort in his right arm and, on opening day of the 1960 season (April 18), fanned 15 Boston Red Sox batters and threw a three-hitter as the Senators romped, 10—1. In recognition of such achievements, he was selected to the American League’s roster for the “second” All-Star games in both 1959 and 1960.

Ramos relied on a fastball, a “Cuban palm ball” (which he later admitted was actually a spitball), a curveball, and a sinker. A workhorse on the mound during his prime, he started more games than any other pitcher in the junior circuit in 1958 and tied for the league lead in that category in 1960. Ramos pitched 767 innings from the spring of ’58 until the curtain closed for the original Senators franchise in September of 1960, but that level of activity carried a cost. He became unjustifiably identified with failure throughout his early career: Mickey Mantle ripped one of Pedro’s pitches off of the right-field façade in Yankee Stadium on May 30, 1956; Ramos surrendered league- high home-run totals of 43 in 1957 and 38 in 1958. He led the league in losses from 1958 through 1961.

Despite these unfavorable marks, Ramos’ skill and the fact that he was severely handicapped by poor support were obvious. He never reached the heights attained by Pascual in terms of respect from hitters, but he complemented Pascual very capably.

Pascual’s manager in ’68 was Jim Lemon, another former Senators star who had been an All-Star player eight years before. Lemon’s record as a slugger was thankfully much more impressive than his tenure in the dugout: the club he managed finished last in a ten-team league during modern America’s most torrid summer.

Lemon displayed power at the plate, speed on the bases, and a strong throwing arm during his All-Star year of1960. Although he struck out more times than any other American Leaguer for three consecutive sea- sons (1956—58), the aforementioned qualities enabled him to rank high among his peers from 1956 through 1960 in-home runs, runs batted in, slugging average, and total bases. The 6′ 4″ free-swinger tagged three homers in consecutive turns at bat against Whitey Ford on August 31, 1956, and had two round-trippers and six RBIs in the third inning of a game with the Red Sox on September 5, 1959. He posted an impressive total of 30 triples between 1956 and 1960 and, as an out- fielder, participated in six double plays in 1956.

To the chagrin of fans typified by the fictitious Joe Boyd in Damn Yankees, the Senators finished in the second division of the American League every year from 1950 through 1960, while placing last in four of those eleven seasons. However, despite the club’s consistent futility, the men previously mentioned as well as several others—outfielder Jim Busby (a smooth-fielding out- fielder with base-stealing ability), southpaw pitcher Chuck Stobbs (who lost his first 1decisions in 1957 on the way to an 8—20 record), and manager Charlie Dressen (who led Brooklyn Dodger flag-winners in 1952 and 1953 before posting a 1 7—212 mark in slightly more than two seasons at the helm of the Senators)—gave their losing teams a certain “star quality” and enabled the Senators to remain relevant in individual categories even as the club dropped precipitously in the standings. Furthermore, as this article concludes like one of relief pitcher Dick Hyde’s 18 saves of 1958, it should be emphasized that not one of these faces from the past sold his soul to the devil in the process! 

Sources

Books

Allen, Maury. Baseball’s 100: A Personal Ranking of the Best Players in Base- ball History. New York: A and W Visual Library, 1981.

Aylesworth, Thomas, and Benton Minks Aylesworth. The Encyclopedia of Base- ball Managers: 1901 to the Present Day. New York: Crescent Books, 1990.

Deane, Bill. Award Voting: A History of the Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year, and Cy Young Awards. Cleveland: Society for American Baseball Re- search, 1988.

Dewey, Donald, and Nicholas Acocella. Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball Teams. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.

Edelman, Rob. Great Baseball Films: From “Right Off the Bat” to “A League of Their Own.” Secaucus, N.J.: Carol Publishing Group,1994.

Erickson, Hal. Baseball in the Movies: A Comprehensive Reference, 1915— 1991. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1992.

Gallagher, Mark. Explosion! Mickey Mantle’s Legendary Home Runs. New York: Arbor House, 1987.

James, Bill. The Bill James Guide to Baseball Managers from 1870 to Today. New York: Scribner, 1997.

James, Bill, and Rob Neyer. The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers: An Historical Compendium of Pitching, Pitchers, and Pitches. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004.

Lowry, Philip J. Green Cathedrals. Cleveland: Society for American Baseball Research, 1986.

McCaffrey, Eugene V., and Roger A. McCaffrey. Players’ Choice: Major League Baseball Players Vote on the All-Time Greats. New York: Facts on File, 1987.

Neft, David S., Roland T. Johnson, Richard M. Cohen, and Jordan A. Deutsch.

The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1974.

Peary, Danny, ed. We Played the Game: 65 Players Remember Baseball’s Greatest Era, 1947—1964. New York: Hyperion, 1994.

Reichler, Joseph L. The Great All-Time Baseball Record Book. New York: Macmillan, 1981.

Reichler, Joseph L., ed. The Baseball Encyclopedia. 6th ed. New York: Macmillan, 1985.

Rosenthal, Harold. Baseball’s Best Managers. New York: T. Nelson, 1961. Shatzkin, Mike, ed. The Ballplayers (New York: William Morrow, 1990). Thorn, John, and Pete Palmer, eds. Total Baseball (New York: Warner, 1989). Treder, Steve. “Cash in the cradle: The bonus babies.” Hardball Times, 1 November 2004.

Vincent, David, Lyle Spatz, and David W. Smith. The Midsummer Classic: The Complete History of Baseball’s All-Star Game (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001).

Wolff, Bob. It’s Not Who Won or Lost the Game—It’s How You Sold the Beer.

South Bend, Ind.: Diamond Communications, 1996. 

Periodicals and Websites

1953 Washington Senators Yearbook

1955 Washington Senators Yearbook

1966 Baseball Register (The Sporting News)

Retrosheet 

Sports Illustrated

The Sporting News

That alone would have been an impressive col­­lection of 27-and-under talent, but those four building- block players were also joined by 21-year-old rookie shortstop Zoilo Versalles and 22-year-old southpaw Jim Kaat. Of the 13 players to log at least 200 plate appearances or 75 innings for that first Twins team in 1961 six of them—Killebrew, Pascual, Battey, Allison, Kaat, and Versalles—went on to become among the 25 best players in Twins history.

One inner-circle Hall of Famer and five top-25 players in team history is one heck of a foundation for a franchise making a new start, but remarkably the Twins have continued to consistently stock the roster with star players ever since. Tony Oliva joined the mix in the Twins’ second season, followed by Jim Perry in 1963, Cesar Tovar in 1965, and Rod Carew in 1967. And it didn’t stop when the 1960s did.

In fact, at no point since coming to Minnesota in 1961 have the Twins gone more than five seasons without integrating at least one of the top 25 players in team history. Bert Blyleven, Dave Goltz, and Roy Smalley arrived in the 1970s, followed by Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, Frank Viola, Kirby Puckett, and Rick Aguilera in the 1980s, Chuck Knoblauch, Brad Radke, Torii Hunter, and Corey Koskie in the 1990s, and Johan Santana, Michael Cuddyer, Justin Morneau, Joe Nathan, and Joe Mauer in the early 2000s.

Not only is the steady stream of top-level talent unique, the Twins’ overall level of talent is well beyond the norm for a team with a relatively brief history. In their five decades of existence the Twins have had five Most Valuable Player (MVP) winners and three Cy Young Award winners (including Johan Santana, who won twice), and sabermetrically speaking their star talent is immense.

Wins Above Replacement (WAR) measures a player’s all-around contributions to determine how many runs—and in turn, wins—he was worth compared to a replacement-level player at the same position. For instance, during his MVP-winning 2009 season Mauer led the league among non-pitchers with 7.5 WAR, meaning he provided the Twins with nearly eight more wins than a replacement-level catcher—say one of the Buteras, either Sal or Drew—would have produced.

And to get a sense for what exactly a hypothetical “replacement-level player” looks like, consider that Denny Hocking, Danny Thompson, Luis Rivas, Pedro Munoz, and Al Newman have the most plate appearances in Twins history among players with a negative WAR.

Since moving to Minnesota the Twins have had seven different players accumulate at least 40 Wins Above Replacement while with the team. Of the nine other American League teams that were around in 1961, only the Yankees have more 40-WAR players during that time.

Players with 40+ WAR from 1961–2011

Source: Baseball-Reference.com

When only the Yankees have produced more superstars during a 50-year period, that’s a pretty amazing distinction. Those seven 40-plus WAR players are Carew, Killebrew, Puckett, Oliva, Mauer, Blyleven, and Radke. And all seven of them were originally signed or drafted by the Twins (or, as in Killebrew’s case, the Senators).

Here’s the same list, but with 20+ WAR players:

Source: Baseball-Reference.com

Whether you focus on superstars or above-average regulars, the Twins come out looking very good, with only the Yankees and Red Sox holding an advantage in churning out sustained talent.

WAR isn’t perfect, of course, but it provides a great framework for analysis that can be supplemented further with other measures both objective and subjective, such as Value Over Replacement Player (VORP), Win Shares, postseason performance, peak value, perceived impact, and tenure with the team.

How do you compare, say, Randy Bush’s fairly modest contributions during 12 years with the Twins to Jack Morris’s massive contribution during his one season in Minnesota? I’ve spent the past several years doing just that at my blog, AaronGleeman.com, and what follows is my sabermetric ranking of the top 50 players in Twins history.

• 50. Randy Bush
• 49. Rich Rollins
• 48. Francisco Liriano
• 47. John Castino
• 46. Denard Span

Bush was never flashy and more often than not filled a part-time role for manager Tom Kelly, but he spent a dozen seasons in Minnesota—only eight guys have played more games in a Twins uniform—and he was one of seven players on both the 1987 and 1991 championship teams. He earns a spot on this list, along with other longtime contributors, rather than stars like Morris or Chili Davis who made one- and two-year impacts.

Ranking active players like Liriano and Span alongside long-retired players like Castino and Rollins can be difficult because their cumulative value is always changing and it’s tough to put their impact into proper context without being able to look back. I’ve been somewhat conservative with active players throughout this list.

• 45. Jason Kubel
• 44. Scott Erickson
• 43. Eric Milton
• 42. Jimmie Hall
• 41. Steve Braun

Erickson’s career got off to one of the fastest starts in Twins history, but he went from 23-year-old ace on a championship team and Cy Young runner-up to winning a total of just 61 games in Minnesota. His overall Twins numbers (979 innings, 61 wins, 104 adjusted ERA+) are nearly identical to Milton’s (987 innings, 57 wins, 101 adjusted ERA+) and they also both threw no-hitters, but Erickson went 20-36 with a 5.40 ERA in his final three Twins seasons. [Note that the “+” after a statistic normalizes that statistic for the ballpark and offensive context of the season. A value of 100 is league average; higher is better, so in the context of ERA a value above 100 reflects an ERA below league average.]

Hall flamed out quickly, but his impact on the Twins was significant. He packed 98 homers into just four seasons in Minnesota despite playing at a time when big offensive numbers were rare, and played a passable center field while doing so. Braun is similarly underrepresented in team lore, but ranks sixth in Twins history with a .376 on-base percentage and his raw numbers are underrated by the low-scoring 1970s.

• 40. Dave Boswell
• 39. Matt Lawton
• 38. Greg Gagne
• 37. Al Worthington
• 36. Butch Wynegar

In many ways Lawton, along with Radke, was the bridge from the 1987 and 1991 teams to the current era, and because of that, his contributions are often lost in the Twins’ ineptitude during that time, but his .379 OBP is the fifth-best in team history and he also ranks eighth in steals.

Gagne’s hitting numbers look puny compared to modern shortstops, but he had plus power for the position in the 1980s and was fantastic defensively. Similarly, Worthington was the Twins’ first of many standout closers and because of the way relievers were used in the 1960s his save totals are underwhelming, but he actually led the league with 18 saves in 1968 and had the second-most saves in baseball 1964–1968.

Wynegar was Mauer before there was a Mauer, tearing through the minor leagues to debut at age 20. He made the All-Star team in each of his first two seasons, but unfortunately peaked by 22, was traded to the Yankees at 26, and retired at 32.

• 35. Jacque Jones
• 34. Scott Baker
• 33. Kevin Tapani
• 32. Tom Brunansky
• 31. Larry Hisle

Brunansky broke in alongside fellow rookies Hrbek and Gaetti in 1982 and his walks-and-power approach would have been much more appreciated by modern analysis that doesn’t focus on batting average. Dwight Evans, Eddie Murray, and Dave Winfield were the only AL hitters with more homers than Brunansky 1982–1987, and he smacked the ninth-most homers in Twins history before being traded to the Cardinals for Tommy Herr.

Hisle’s career with the Twins was short and sweet, with 662 games spread over five seasons, yet he’s all over the team leaderboard. Hisle ranks among the top 20 in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, homers, steals, and RBIs, with a top-10 mark in adjusted OPS+, and his 1977 is one of the top years by any outfielder in Twins history. And all that came in low-offense eras.

• 30. Eddie Guardado
• 29. Michael Cuddyer
• 28. Brian Harper
• 27. Shane Mack
• 26. Cesar Tovar

Guardado went from starter to left-handed specialist to closer, and then Everyday Eddie returned to the Twins for a second go-around as a middle reliever in 2008, finishing with the most appearances and third-most saves in team history.

Hitting was Harper’s specialty, as he batted .306 for the Twins and was arguably the best offensive catcher in the league 1989–1993, and the negative perception of his defense behind the plate isn’t fully supported by numbers. Teams ran on Harper a ton, but he threw out 31 percent of attempted basestealers for his career and often topped his backups (such as Tim Laudner) in throw-out rate.

A tremendous athlete who covered tons of ground wherever the Twins put him in the outfield, Mack hit for big batting averages with great speed and had overlooked power. Among all MLB outfielders to play at least 600 games 1990–1994, only Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr., Rickey Henderson, and David Justice had a better OPS than Mack, and his .854 mark with the Twins ranks fourth in team history.

While most fans have come to think of a “utility man” as someone like Denny Hocking or Nick Punto who’s a capable backup at multiple spots, Tovar was more like an everyday player who just didn’t know where he was going to play on a given day. And on September 22, 1968, he played literally everywhere in the same game.

• 25. Zoilo Versalles
• 24. Gary Gaetti
• 23. Camilo Pascual
• 22. Dave Goltz
• 21. Rick Aguilera

In recent years it has become fashionable to suggest that sabermetric analysis wouldn’t agree with Versalles winning the MVP in 1965, but one of the hallmarks of good sabermetrics is being able to adjust raw numbers for historical context, and once you do that, Zoilo led the league in WAR and VORP. Versalles’ career fizzled shortly after the MVP campaign, but his place in Twins history is only amplified by a deeper look at the numbers.

More than any other player, Pascual’s standing on this list suffers because his pre-1961 work with the Senators isn’t included. He debuted at age 20 and bounced back from some early rough patches to post ERAs of 3.15, 2.64, and 3.03 in his final three seasons in Washington, finishing with 14.4 WAR for the Senators and 16.1 WAR with the Twins. If combined, he’d likely rank in the top 10. Little Potato was a helluva pitcher and his .607 winning percentage ranked first in Twins history until Santana came around.

Aguilera lost his spot atop the Twins’ all-time saves list in mid-2011, but it’s worth noting that his saves were longer and more difficult than Joe Nathan’s. Aguilera inherited four times as many runners as did Nathan and recorded 55 more outs in his 254 saves than Nathan did in his first 254.

• 20. Earl Battey
• 19. Corey Koskie
• 18. Joe Nathan
• 17. Roy Smalley
• 16. Justin Morneau

Battey ranked among the AL’s top five catchers in VORP during each of his six full seasons with the Twins, but as good as his bat was, it couldn’t compete with his amazing arm. Battey allowed just 226 steals in 6,700 innings for the Twins despite playing in the run-heavy 1960s, throwing out 40 percent of attempted basestealers. He also led the AL in pickoffs four times, including 15 in 1962. That season Battey allowed only 34 steals and picked off or threw out 42 runners.

Koskie turned himself into a quality fielder at third after initially being banished to the outfield by manager Tom Kelly, and his combination of power and patience at the plate added up to an adjusted OPS+ of 115 that ranks ninth in Twins history among hitters with at least 3,000 plate appearances. Gaetti generally gets the nod when picking the best third baseman in Twins history, but a deeper look at the numbers suggests Koskie is a deserving pick.

Smalley was acquired from the Rangers for Blyleven and then, like Bert, returned to the Twins for a second go-around late in his career. His spot on this list is largely due to the six-season run he had as their starting shortstop 1976–1981. During that time he logged 3,330 plate appearances with a 104 adjusted OPS that led all MLB shortstops, with only Garry Templeton (104), Dave Concepcion (101), and Robin Yount (100) also above 100.

• 15. Jim Perry
• 14. Frank Viola
• 13. Torii Hunter
• 12. Jim Kaat
• 11. Chuck Knoblauch

Advanced defensive metrics aren’t nearly as kind to Hunter as his nine Gold Glove awards, and by the time he left the Twins his range and instincts had certainly diminished, but at his peak no center fielder was more spectacular and fearless. And he could hit a little, too, ranking among the Twins’ top 10 in homers, doubles, runs, RBIs, and hits. If you’re convinced that Hunter’s glove was truly spectacular rather than merely very good, he’d move up a couple spots.

Knoblauch left the Twins on horrible terms and remains hated by most fans, but during his seven seasons in Minnesota he ranked second among all MLB second basemen in WAR, between Craig Biggio and Roberto Alomar. His 1996 season—in which Knoblauch hit .341 with a .448 OBP and .517 slugging percentage while scoring 140 runs—is the second-highest WAR total in team history behind Carew hitting .388 and winning the MVP in 1977. Mauer (.403), Carew (.393), Knoblauch (.391), and Killebrew (.383) are the only Twins hitters with an OBP above .380 over their career with the Twins.

• 10. Bob Allison
• 9. Brad Radke
• 8. Kent Hrbek
• 7. Johan Santana
• 6. Joe Mauer

Radke was never perceived as a star, but better support from the lineup, defense, and bullpen on those awful 1990s teams would have upped his win totals enough to potentially change that. WAR cares about his performance rather than his win-loss record—or a raw ERA that was inflated by one of the highest offensive eras ever—and Radke joins Blyleven and Santana as the only pitchers in Twins history to top 5.0 WAR in at least three seasons.

Santana is the only pitcher in Twins history with multiple Cy Young awards, winning the honor in 2004 and 2006, and he deserved a third in 2005. That year Santana led the league in strikeouts, opponents’ batting average, and adjusted ERA+, yet Bartolo Colon won the award despite throwing 9 fewer innings with an ERA that was 0.61 runs higher. Santana is the all-time Twins leader in winning percentage, adjusted ERA+, strikeouts per nine innings, and strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Believe it or not, that number six ranking is conservative for Mauer. Not only did he lead the AL in WAR among non-pitchers during his MVP season in 2009, he also had the league’s top WAR in 2008 and finished second in 2006. Among position players Mauer already has three of the top dozen single-season WAR totals in Twins history, along with three batting titles, three Gold Glove awards, and an MVP.

• 5. Bert Blyleven
• 4. Tony Oliva
• 3. Kirby Puckett
• 2. Rod Carew
• 1. Harmon Killebrew

Blyleven played nearly half of his Hall of Fame career elsewhere, but still rates as the best pitcher in Twins history. He threw 325 innings with a 2.52 ERA in 1973 for the team’s best single-season WAR among pitchers and also holds the fourth, ninth, and 15th spots on that list. He’s the only pitcher to crack 45 WAR for his Twins career and also leads in complete games, shutouts, and strikeouts.

When it comes to choosing the greatest player in Twins history it’s tough to go wrong. Do you pick a Gold Glove center fielder with a .318 batting average and unforgettable postseason heroics? Or how about a .334-hitting second baseman with seven batting titles and an MVP award? Or maybe an MVP-winning, five-time home run leader who ranked among the AL’s top 10 in OPS for 10 of his 12 seasons in Minnesota?

Puckett is the clear-cut number three choice based on WAR, VORP, Win Shares, and various other metrics, although certainly it would have been a different story had his career not been cut short coming off one of his best seasons at age 35. There’s no shame in finishing behind two of the greatest hitters in baseball history, of course, and it’s possible that advanced defensive metrics underrate Puckett’s work in center field somewhat compared to his collection of Gold Gloves and sterling reputation.

Ultimately the choice between Carew and Killebrew is a toss-up. Their skills couldn’t have been any more different, but they each contributed massive value on a consistent and sustained basis. Carew was a second baseman for most of his career in Minnesota before shifting to first and a line-drive machine with great speed and bat control who rarely struck out but with only limited power. Killebrew was one of the greatest sluggers of all time and drew walks in bunches to go along with his high strikeout totals as a corner infielder.

Carew had a .334 batting average for his Twins career, while Killebrew hit .260, yet in terms of overall production Killebrew had a .901 OPS compared to an .841 OPS for Carew. Carew’s speed cancels out some of that OPS difference and he also had the edge defensively, although the size of that gap draws mixed opinions. Killebrew played 300 more games and logged 1,000 more plate appearances for the Twins, which was a big factor in my giving him the ever-so-slight nod.

Killebrew is the only player in Twins history to hit 40 homers in a season … and he did it seven times (plus one more when the team was in Washington). He also drew 100 walks seven times, while Allison is the only other Twins hitter to do it even once. He hit 475 homers in a Twins uniform, while no one else has 300. He drew 1,321 walks and no one else has 850. And he did all that mashing in the low-scoring 1960s and 1970s, producing an adjusted OPS+ of 148 that stands atop the Twins’ leader board ahead of Carew (137), Mauer (133), Oliva (131), Allison (130), Hrbek (128), and Puckett (124). In their fifty year plus history the Twins have turned out more than their fair share of talent, in particular among position players. While only one Hall of Fame pitcher spent an important portion of his career with the team, in Puckett, Carew and Killebrew the Twins could boast three of the best players of their eras, each of whom spent all, or at least the bulk, of his career in Minnesota.

AARON GLEEMAN is a baseball writer at NBCSports.com, a senior editor at Rotoworld, and a lifelong Minnesotan who has written about the Twins on a daily basis at AaronGleeman.com since 2002.

Early 1950s Japanese publication featuring Jackie Robinson. (Author’s collection)

There was a saying in Japan during the late 1950s: Kamisama, Hotokesama, Inaosama (God, Buddha, Inao). The 19-year-old Kazuhisa Inao was out there on the mound. The kid wasn’t that big, at least not by American standards – about 5-foot-9, 185 pounds. But he was strong – and fast. Stories claimed that his strength came from hauling nets on his father’s fishing boat from the time he was a young boy. Only a year earlier, he had been pitching for his high school and now had just completed his rookie season with the Nishitetsu Lions, winning 21 games and posting a league-leading 1.06 ERA.

Jackie Robinson strode to the plate, his familiar blue cap covering a head speckled with gray. At 38 he was thicker and moved slower than he had during his prime. But he was still the star, the reason many of the 12,000 Japanese fans had come out to Fukuoka Stadium on this cloudy Saturday in mid-November of 1956.

It was the final game of a long tour of Japan and an even longer, grueling season. The Dodgers had played 183 games since April; 154 during the regular season, 7 in the World Series, 3 in Hawaii, and another 19 in Japan. All season they had battled the Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds, winning the pennant by a single game on the last day of the season. For the second consecutive season and the sixth time in the past 10 years, the Dodgers had faced the Yankees in the World Series. The series went to seven games, ending with a 9-0 Yankees victory in the finale.

The morning after the devasting loss, the Dodgers straggled into Idlewild Airport in Jamaica, Queens, to begin a four-week tour of Japan. The subdued party of 60 consisted of club officials, players, family members, and an umpire. Although participation was voluntary, most of the team’s top players had decided to take advantage of the $3,000 bonus that came with the all-expenses-paid trip.1

After a one-day stopover in Los Angeles, the Dodgers spent five days in Hawaii, attending banquets, sightseeing, sunbathing on Waikiki Beach, and playing three games against local semipro teams, before bordering an overnight flight for Japan on October 17. They arrived in Tokyo at 3:25 P.M. the following day, five hours behind schedule after mechanical trouble forced a seemingly endless stopover on Wake Island. “Man, we’re beat,” Robinson complained as he left the plane. “We were on the plane, off the plane, on the plane, off the plane.” “We are all very tired,” Duke Snider added, “but we’re glad to be here. If we have a chance to shower and clean up, we’ll feel much better.”2

Japanese dignitaries and 40 kimono-clad actresses bearing bouquets of flowers welcomed the Dodgers as a crowd of fans waved from the airport’s spectator ramp. During a brief press conference, Walter O’Malley proclaimed that “his players would play their best … and hoped that the visit would contribute to Japanese-American friendship.” “We hope to give the Japanese fans some thrills,” said Robinson.3

Despite the delay and relentless drizzle, thousands of flag-waving fans lined the 12-mile route from Haneda Airport to downtown Tokyo, where the Dodgers stopped by the Yomiuri newspaper headquarters before checking into the Imperial Hotel. A few hours later, they were out again. Yomiuri hosted a welcoming banquet at the Chinzanso Restaurant followed by “a giddy round of parties.” Many players staggered beck to the hotel in the wee hours of the morning.4

Exhausted from the trip and the late night, the players struggled to get out of bed the next morning for a game against the Yomiuri Giants at Korakuen Stadium. The opening ceremonies began at 1 P.M. with the two teams parading onto the field in parallel lines behind a pair of young women clad in fashionable business suits. Each woman held a large sign topped with balloons, bearing the team’s name in Japanese. The players lined up on the foul line for introductions before Matsutaro Shoriki, the owner of the Yomiuri newspaper and father of professional baseball in Japan, threw out the first pitch.

The Giants jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead, but Brooklyn battled back to take the lead in the fourth on five hits, including homers by Robinson and Gil Hodges. But that would be all for Brooklyn as relief pitcher Takumi Otomo stifled the Dodgers on 10 strikeouts. Homers by Kazuhiko Sakazaki and Tetsuharu Kawakami in the eighth gave Yomiuri the upset victory. Since the major-league tours began in 1908, the game was just the third defeat by a Japanese team against 139 wins. (The other losses came in 1921 and 1950.) After the loss, manager Walt Alston made no excuses, “They just beat us. They hit and we didn’t.” “We’ll snap out of it,” predicted Robinson. Pee Wee Reese agreed, “We don’t expect to lose any more. But,” he added, “we didn’t expect to lose this one either.”5

As predicted, the Dodgers bounced back the next day, winning 7-1 behind Roy Campanella’s two home runs.6 But the next afternoon, 45,000 fans watched the All-Japan team – a conglomeration of the top Japanese professionals – send Dodger ace Don Newcombe to the showers after just 17 pitches as the Japanese scored four in the first en route to an easy 6-1 victory.7

The Dodgers’ malaise continued in Game Four against the Yomiuri Giants. Twenty-year-old Sho Horiuchi shut out the visitors for six innings before the Giants ace Takehiko Bessho took over with another two scoreless innings. Meanwhile Carl Erskine dominated the Giants, scattering just three hits. In the top of the ninth, Duke Snider homered off Bessho to salvage a 1-0 victory.8 “The Dodgers’ ‘old men’ are tired,” noted Bob Bowie of the Pacific Stars and Stripes. “Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson and Gil Hodges and Duke Snider and Roy Campanella are so weary it’s an effort for them to put one foot before another. It’s been a long season and they are anxious to get back home and relax before heading for spring training in February.”9

Indeed, the “Boys of Summer” were aging. The core of the team had been together nearly a decade. The starting lineup averaged 32 years old with Robinson and Reese both 37. Their weariness showed on the playing field. After four games, the team was hitting just .227 against Japanese pitching. Robinson was batting a respectable .250 but had not yet thrilled the fans with a stolen base while Reese, at .091, was stuck in a rut.

Both management and fans knew it was time to consider changes. The team had plenty of young talent. At the top of the list were power hitters Don Demeter, who hit 41 home runs in 1956 for the Texas League Fort Worth Cats, and his teammate first baseman Jim Gentile who hit 40. Outfielder Gino Cimoli had ridden Brooklyn’s bench in 1956 and was now ready for a more substantial role. Smooth-fielding Bob Lillis from the Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul seemed to be Reese’s heir at shortstop while his teammate Bert Hamric would fight for a role in team’s crowded outfield. On the mound, knuckleballer Fred Kipp had just won 20 games for the Montreal Royals and looked ready to join Brooklyn’s rotation. The tour of Japan was an ideal chance try out these players. As the tour progressed, Alston moved the prospects into the starting lineups.

In Game Five, held in Sendai, Alston gave Kipp the start and backed him up with Gentile at first, Demeter in center and Cimoli in left. For seven innings Kipp baffled the Japanese with his knuckleball – a pitch rarely used in the Japanese leagues, while the hurler’s fellow rookies racked up five hits during an easy 8-0 win.10

Another rookie, future Hall of Famer Don Drysdale, started Game Six in Mita, a small city about 60 miles northeast of Tokyo. For seven innings the promising young pitcher dominated the Japanese, before the Japanese erupted for three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, breaking a streak of 29 straight shutout innings by Dodger pitching. With the scored tied, 3-3, after nine innings, the Dodgers requested that they end the game in a tie so that the team could catch their scheduled train back to Tokyo.11 Although it was not a win, the Pacific Stars and Stripes called the result “a moral victory for Japanese baseball.”12 After six contests, the National League champions were 3-2-1 – the worst record of any visiting American professional squad.

Criticism came from both sides of Pacific. The Associated Press reported that “most Japanese fans have been disappointed in the caliber of ball played so far by the Brooklyns.”13 “The Dodgers are known for their fighting spirit,” noted radio quiz-show host Ko Fujiwara, “but they have shown little spirit in the games here thus far.”14 Masao Yuasa, the former manager of the Mainichi Orions, complained, “They are even weaker than was rumored … and we are very disappointed to say the least. It would not be an overstatement to say that we no longer have anything to learn from the Dodgers.”15

The US media picked up these criticisms, reprinting the stories in large and small newspapers across the country. “Japanese Baseball Expert Hints Brooks Are Bums,” screamed a headline in New York’s Daily News on October 23.16 Three days later, a Daily News headline noted, “Bums ‘Too Dignified, Say Japanese Hosts.” The accompanying article explained that some Japanese experts believed that the Dodgers were “too quiet and dignified on the playing field … and … were acting like they were all trying to win good conduct medals” rather than playing hard-nosed baseball.17

Despite the team’s poor start, about 150,000 spectators attended the first five games while hundreds of thousands more, if not millions, watched the games on television or listened to them on the radio.18 All of the sports dailies and many of the mainstream newspapers covered each game in detail – often including exclusive interviews and pictorial spreads of the players.

Many features focused on Jackie Robinson – revered in Japan for both his aggressive style of play as well as his historic role in integrating the major leagues. “Japanese fans want to see Robinson steal bases and steal home,” noted Tetsu Yamaguchi of the Pacific Stars and Stripes.19 Robinson appeared on the covers of magazines and in full-page newspaper pictorials. A shot of an airborne Robinson as he turned a double play dominated the cover of a 16-by-11-inch, eight-page booklet on the Dodgers tour inserted into the October 19 issue of the Yomiuri newspaper. At the ballparks, he often “received the biggest ovation when he was introduced during the pre-game ceremonies.”20

Even in Japan, Robinson was more than just a ballplayer. Prior to the trip, a governmental official told him, “Your own presence in Japan will make a contribution [to international diplomacy], the value of which cannot be estimated.”21 During the tour, Jackie met with officials and diplomats and even spoke about race relations in the United States at Tokyo’s American School. “I hope,” he told the audience, “people will look back at the success in baseball [integration] and realize that what can happen in baseball can happen anywhere.”22

Perhaps sparked by the ongoing criticism, perhaps finally rested, the Dodgers began winning in late October as the rookies led the way. On October 27 in Kofu, Gentile hit two home runs and Demeter and Cimoli each hit one out during a 12-1 romp over an all-star squad of players drawn from the Tokyo-area professional teams. The following day Gentile went 5-for-5 with another home run as the Dodgers beat All-Japan 6-3 in Utsunomiya. On October 31 Kipp pitched two-hit ball and Gentile and Demeter each homered to pace Brooklyn to a 4-2 win over All-Japan. During these games the players began showing a little fighting spirit. Somehow, they learned the Japanese word “mekura,” meaning “blind,” and began shouting it at the umpire after questionable calls.23

On the evening of October 31, the team arrived in Hiroshima. The next morning the Dodgers visited the Peace Park and in a solemn ceremony before the start of the 2 P.M. game, presented a bronze plaque reading: “We dedicate this visit in memory of those baseball fans and others who died by atomic action on Aug. 6, 1945. May their souls rest in peace and with God’s help and man’s resolution peace will prevail forever, amen.”24

The emotion from the morning boiled over during the game against the Kansai All Stars. In the bottom of the third inning with the Japanese already up 1-0 and one out and a runner on second, future Hall of Fame umpire Jocko Conlon called Kohei Sugiyama safe at first on what looked to be a groundout. Incensed, Jackie Robinson walked over to first to protest the call. “Everybody knew Jocko had missed the play because he was in back of the plate and couldn’t see clearly,” Robinson explained.25 Conlon, of course, did not reverse his decision so Robinson persisted, eventually arguing “so loud and so long” that Conlon tossed him from the game. “I never told him how to play ball,” Conlon said after the game, “and he, or anybody else, can’t tell me how to run a ball game.”26 Kansai would pad its lead to 4-1 before Brooklyn tied the game in the sixth on Roy Campanella’s three-run homer and went ahead in the seventh on a steal of home by Gilliam and another home run by Gentile.27

After the Dodgers won 14-0 on November 2, the Japanese squads rebounded. On the 4th the Dodgers and the All-Japan team entered the eighth inning knotted 7-7 before Brooklyn erupted for another seven to win 14-7. The following day, Japanese aces Takehiko Bessho and Masaichi Kaneda held the Dodgers to just one run for eight innings as the hosts entered the ninth winning 2-1. The Dodgers rallied in the ninth as Snider led off with a 480-foot home run to tie the game. Two outs later with the bases loaded, Robinson tried to steal the lead with a surprise two-out squeeze play. But Jackie missed the bunt and Demeter was tagged out on his way to the plate. In the bottom of the inning, Tetsuharu Kawakami, the hero of the opening game, came through again with a bases-loaded single to win the game.28

After a day of rain, the Dodgers squeaked out a 3-2 win over the All-Japan squad in Nagoya. Gil Hodges, however, stole the headlines. Alston started the normally staid first baseman in left field and to keep himself amused Hodges “pantomimed the action after almost every play for five innings. He mimicked the pitcher and the ball’s flight through the air, the catcher and the umpire. When a Dodger errored, Hodges glowered and pointed his finger. He made his legs quiver, shook his fist, stamped on the ground, swung his arms, frowned and smiled in the fleeting instant between pitches.” The fans loved it, cheering him so loudly as he left the game in the eighth inning that “(y) ou would have thought it was Babe Ruth leaving.”29

During the game, Jackie Robinson entertained a special guest. Twenty-three-year-old Shigeyuki Ishikawa had been writing fan letters to the Dodgers for five years in an effort to improve his English. The team’s front office read and responded to each of his 24 “adoring letters and notes of advice.” Robinson invited the Nagoya native to sit with the team during the game even through spectators were usually barred from the dugout. “We’ve got to get him in or it will destroy his confidence in us,” argued Robinson. “Baseball is built on guys like him.”30

Robinson was enjoying Japan and the Japanese people. Rachel Robinson told her husband’s biographer Arnold Rampersad, “What was unusual about Jack in Japan was that he tried new things eagerly, which was not always the case at home. There he was, dressing up in kimonos, trying gamely to eat all kinds of unfamiliar food. We had a lot of fun watching the geisha girls try to make him comfortable, because he literally could not sit down with his legs out, his leg muscles were so tight and large. But he tried; he was in high spirits most of the time. I think he saw the tour of Japan as a culmination of his Dodger career, especially after the World Series victory the year before. I think he knew the end was in sight.31

The Dodgers and All-Japan met again on November 8 at Shizuoka, a small town at the foot of Mount Fuji, where 22 years earlier, 17-year-old Eiji Sawamura no-hit Babe Ruth and the All-Americans for five innings before losing 1-0 on Lou Gehrig’s seventh-inning home run. Once again, the Japanese team thrilled the fans of Shizuoka, this time breaking a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the ninth for a walk-off victory.32 With their fourth loss, criticism of the Dodgers’ performance continued. An International News Service article headlined, “Fans Debate Reasons for Dodger Losses” asked, “Are Japanese baseball teams improving, major leaguers getting careless or the Brooklyn Dodgers just getting old?”33

A day later, the Dodgers returned to Tokyo for a rematch with their hosts the Yomiuri Giants. Once again the game was tight. With the score tied, 2-2, Gilliam led off the bottom of the 11th with a single and two outs later stood on second base as Robinson strode to the plate. Robinson had not hit well during the tour. He had started slowly, hitting just .214 (3-for-14) after the sixth game, but he had improved to .278 (10-for-36) with just one home run and no stolen bases at the start of the game against the Giants. So far that night, he had walked and scored a run but otherwise had been hitless in three at-bats.

On the mound Takehiko Bessho stared in for the sign. Bessho had been one of Japan’s top pitchers since his debut as a 19-year-old in 1942. Unlike many Japanese pitchers, who nibbled at the corners of the plate with pinpoint control, Bessho was aggressive, coming straight after hitters with a blazing fastball and biting curve.

Catcher Shigeru Fujio flashed the sign for an intentional walk. Bessho shook his head. The catcher trotted out to the mound to explain that the order came from manager Shigeru Mizuhara. Bessho refused, sending Fujio running to the dugout to relay the pitcher’s message. After “a hurried conference with the manager, the catcher dashed back to the mound.” Bessho still refused. A reluctant Fujio moved back behind the plate.34

Jackie jumped on Bessho’s first pitch, pounding it foul “far over the left-field stands.” On the next offering, he “drove a hot grounder through the pitcher’s box,” bringing Gilliam home to win the game.35 The win seemed to energize both the Dodgers and Robinson. They won the next two games easily, 8-2 and 10-2, as Jackie went 2-for-5 with two runs and two RBIs. After the game in Tokyo on November 12, the Dodgers flew to the southern city of Fukuoka to make up a game that had been rained out on October 30.

Fittingly, the final meeting of the 19-game series was tight. Kazuhisa Inao and Kipp dueled for eight innings, each surrendering one run. The score remained tied as Duke Snider led off the top of the 11th with a groundball to first, which the usually sure-handed Tokuji Iida muffed, allowing Snyder to advance to third base.

Robinson strode to the plate – unknowingly for the last time in his professional career – and readied himself for Kazuhisa Inao’s pitch. Jackie swung, grounding a single between third and short to score Snider and give the Dodgers the lead. After two outs and a walk, Don Demeter singled and Robinson crossed home plate for the final time. Immediately after the 3-1 victory, the Dodgers flew back to Tokyo and after a day of rest, returned to the United States. Within a month, Robinson decided to leave baseball.

Back in the United States, Robinson praised the Japanese as ballplayers and hosts. He told reporters that he was “dead tired” but he “enjoyed every minute of the trip.” “The All-Japan team would do quite well in the Pacific Coast League. … (T)hey have good control pitching and they know how to pitch.” The Japanese people “did everything pleasantly and went all out to make things comfortable and pleasant for us.”36

“I know I gave it all I had over there,” he told The Sporting News. “And I think that goes for every Dodger player. We lost more games than the Yankees, but if our record in Japan suffers by comparison with theirs, I think the credit should go to the Japanese for their big improvement in all-round play and baseball techniques. I looked at some pretty good pitching over there. In fact, it amazed me.”37

Jackie’s brief visit to the Land of the Rising Sun left a lasting impression. United States ambassador John M. Allison thanked him for “what you have done while in this country,” noting that his “magnificent sportsmanship” helped strengthen the ties “between the people of Japan and the people of America.”38

Notes

1 “All Dodgers’ O’Malley Gets Is Ride,” New York Daily News, October 13, 1956: 36.

2 Associated Press, “Bums Arrive in Tokyo,” Herald-News (Passaic, New Jersey), October 18, 1956: 46.

3 “Japanese Fans Defy Rain to Hail Dodgers,” New York Daily News, October 19, 1956: 155.

4 Vin Scully, “The Dodgers in Japan,” Sport, April 1957: 92; Bob Bowie, “Actresses, Flowers, Cheers Welcome Tourists to Tokyo,” The Sporting News, October 24, 1956: 9.

5 SP3 Mel Derrick, “Alston Explains ‘They Hit, and We Didn’t,’” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 20, 1956: 23.

6 Bob Bowie, “Dodgers Belt Central Loop Stars 7-1,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 21, 1956: 23; Japan Times, October 21, 1956.

7 Bob Bowie, “All-Stars Rout Brooks 6-1,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 22, 1956: 23-24.

8 United Press, “Brooks Nip Giants 1-0 on Snider’s Home Run,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 24, 1956: 24.

9 Associated Press, “Sportscaster Disagrees with Yuasa, Japanese ‘Can Learn from Brooks,’” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 24, 1956: 22.

10 “Brooks Whitewash All-Kanto Nine, 8-0,” Japan Times, October 25, 1956: 8.

11 Associated Press, “Kanto All-Stars Tie Dodgers 3-3,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 27, 1956: 24.

12 “Kanto All-Stars Tie Dodgers 3-3.”

13 Associated Press, “Japanese Can Learn from Bums,” Hawaii Tribune-Herald (Hilo, Hawaii), October 23, 1956: 7.

14 United Press, “Dodgers’ Good Behavior Mystifies Japanese Fan,” Honolulu Advertiser, October 26, 1956: 14.

15 United Press, “Banzais Changed to Brickbats for Dodgers on Japanese Tour,” New York Times, October 23, 1956: 42.

16 United Press, “Japanese Baseball Expert Hints Brooks Are Bums,” New York Daily News, October 23, 1956: 124.

17 United Press, “Bums ‘Too Dignified,’ Say Japanese Hosts,” New York Daily News, October 26, 1956: 125.

18 Bob Bowie, “Gates Spin as Bums Battle for Wins in Japan,” The Sporting News, October 31, 1956: 7.

19 Bob Bowie, “Japan’s Big Welcome to Make Dodgers Feel Like Champions,” The Sporting News, October 17, 1956: 13.

20 Pfc. Frank Morgan, “Booklyn Tops All-Japan Stars 6-3,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 29, 1956: 24.

21 Arnold Rampersad, Jackie Robinson (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1997), 300-301.

22 “Robinson Predicts Dixie Gains,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 18, 1956: 16.

23 Associated Press, “Japan’s Pitchers Surprise Brooks,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 30, 1956: 19.

24 Associated Press, “Dodgers to Dedicate Game to Bomb Victims,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 29, 1956: 24.

25 “Dodgers vs. Kansai All Stars at Hiroshima Stadium, Hiroshima – November 1, 1956. walteromalley.com/en/dodger-history/international-relations/1956-Summary_November-1-1956. Retrieved October 25, 2020.

26 “Jackie Drops Verbal Bomb at Hiroshima – Gets Thumb,” The Sporting News, November 14, 1956: 4.

27 “Dodgers vs. Kansai All Stars at Hiroshima Stadium, Hiroshima – November 1, 1956. walteromalley.com/en/dodger-history/international-relations/1956-Summary_November-1-1956. Retrieved October 25, 2020; United Press, “Dodgers Top Kansai, 10-6; Robby Chased,” New York Daily News, November 2, 1956: 175.

28 Associated Press, “Bums Win 14-7 Before 60,000,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, November 3, 1956: 11; Associated Press, “Labine of Dodgers Loses in Japan, 3-2,” New York Times, November 5, 1956: 44.

29 Associated Press, “Hodges Delights Fans with Baseball Performance,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 8, 1956: 22.

30 Associated Press, “No. One Japan Brooklyn Fan Sits in Dugout,” Hawaii Tribune-Herald, November 7, 1956: 7.

31 Rampersad, 301.

32 United Press, “Dodgers Downed by Japanese, 3-2,” New York Times, November 9, 1956: 37.

33 International News Service, “Fans Debate Reasons for Dodger Losses,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 8, 1956: 19.

34 Associated Press, “Dodgers Win in Eleventh by 5-4 as Tokyo Hurler Shakes Off Sign,” New York Times, November 10, 1956: 22.

35 United Press, “Dodgers Edge Tokyo Giants 5-4,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 10, 1956: 24.

36 Kenny Haina, Dodgers Tired on Japan Trip, Alston Lauds Isle Player,” Honolulu Advertiser, November 17, 1956: 11.

37 Jack McDonald, “Bums Back Tired, but Glowing Over Reception in Japan,” The Sporting News, November 28, 1956: 9.

38 Allison quoted in Rampersad, 301.

The Tigers had been around since the turn of the 20th century and had been playing baseball in the same location at Michigan Avenue and Trumbull Street for more than 30 years. It was really the Tigers’ World Series championship, along with the rise of boxer Joe Louis, which was at the center of the claim as City of Champions. The Tigers had Hank Greenberg, who was a source of pride for Detroit’s Jewish community. Louis was gaining notoriety throughout the nation, particularly among African Americans living in Detroit. Both men faced their share of bigotry on the road against opponents. In Detroit, however, a city with an ailing economy and a strong need to pull together behind a common fandom, the Tigers and Joe Louis created a wide sense of belonging. Tiger manager Mickey Cochrane feigned sparring with Joe Louis in a memorable photo from 1937. Detroit was fighting through the Depression, but its citizens pulled for all of their athletes to do well.

The Detroit fans and players knew that Cochrane was the missing ingredient when his contract was acquired in December of 1933. Charlie Gehringer said of him, “Mickey Cochrane was the second hardest loser I ever saw (Cobb was the first), and the smartest manager. When he managed from the bench, he never made a mistake, never! And he was tough behind the plate. He’d throw the ball back to Schoolboy Rowe harder than Rowe threw it to him. Schoolie would get a little lazy out there but Cochrane would wake him up every time.”1 In 1934 the Tigers won the American League pennant, but lost in the World Series, to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Tigers won the World Series the following year, defeating the Chicago Cubs.

Joe Louis himself was a huge baseball fan. The Tigers were the inspiration for many of Detroit’s successful athletes of 1935. In boxing promoter Mike Jacobs’ New Jersey office, there was a conversation among his staff: “(Joe) Louis is nuts about the Tigers. He plays catch out at (boxing) camp every chance he gets. Gerald Walker is his favorite Tiger. He’s postponing his honeymoon so he can see the Tigers in the World Series.”2 Jacobs heard this conversation and ordered Louis’s handlers to put a stop to this threat to his payday, a coming fight with Max Baer. The fight with Baer in late September was one of Louis’s two huge fights that were received by telegraph from Yankee Stadium in staccato fashion, and tapped out by reporters in Detroit. Like a Hollywood movie, the newspaper came off the presses and was folded, stacked, bundled, and loaded onto trucks. “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” was the newsboy cry heard all around Detroit the next morning as the papers were sold to workers throughout the city. Mass transit was still employed to move the workers. Street cars gave way to trolley buses that could provide curbside pickup and negotiate traffic in the increasingly congested Motor City.

Louis’s other Yankee Stadium victory had been in June against Primo Carnera. As the world’s heavyweight boxing champion for a record 12 years (1937-1949), Joe Louis was more universally admired than any African American man before him. Known as the Brown Bomber, he dominated prizefighting and forced America to re-examine its segregationist policies and attitudes. His fists destroyed the myth of white supremacy and his quiet dignity and exemplary patriotism opened the door for the wave of black athletes who followed.

Joe Louis Barrow, the son of an Alabama sharecropper, came to Detroit in 1926 at the age of 12. At 20 he quit his assembly-line job and became a professional fighter. During a 17-year career he compiled a 68-3 record, with 57 knockouts.

Some of Louis’s most famous bouts carried political overtones in the years before World War II. As Hitler and Mussolini seized power in Europe, Joe Louis destroyed their “master race” theories by defeating Italian giant Primo Carnera and German “superman” Max Schmeling. Columnist Jimmy Cannon immortalized Louis as “a credit to his race – the human race.”3

So to make the claim City of Champions, Detroit had to have champions in the most popular sports of the age, baseball and boxing, as well as champions in other sports that were just coming to Detroit. Football was well established at the University of Michigan, which was recognized as national champion in both 1932 and 1933. However, before 1934 there was no well-established professional football team in Detroit. Detroit’s National Football League franchise, after moving from Portsmouth, Ohio, as the Spartans, took the nickname Lions, in counterpoint with the Tigers, acknowledging that Detroit was “baseball crazy” for the other big cats. George Richards, owner of radio station WJR, led the effort to get an NFL team in Detroit. The Lions hosted their first Turkey Bowl at the University of Detroit Stadium. WJR radio broadcast the “clash of the titans” between the Lions and the Chicago Bears coast to coast. In 1935 WJR broadcast from “the golden tower of the Fisher Building” and become a 50-kilowatt station. This power level allowed the station’s signal to be heard all over the state of Michigan. Much like cable and satellite television today, radio brought fans to the sports teams and heroes of Detroit like never before. Earl “Dutch” Clark, the Lions’ first quarterback, led them to the NFL championship in 1935. After losing against the Green Bay Packers, 31-7, in their eighth game, the Lions found themselves in last place in the Western Division. The next week at home in Detroit, they beat the same Packers 20-10 with Clark leading the way as passer, punt returner, and kicker. The next two weeks saw the Lions tie the Bears in Chicago, and beat them convincingly on Thanksgiving Day in Detroit. The Lions finished their championship run against the New York Giants on December 15 with a 26-7 victory. The players were rewarded with Honolulu Blue parkas and a trip to Hawaii. However, they had to play publicity games in Denver and against all-star teams on their way to the islands. Calendar year 1935 was nearly over, but Detroit sports champions were still to be crowned.

The Detroit Red Wings were also crowned champions at this time. Detroit hockey teams first came to Detroit and played in Olympia Stadium in 1927 as the Cougars, then the Falcons, and finally the Red Wings, when the iconic winged-wheel logo was adopted in 1932. James Norris bought the team and stabilized its finances by limiting player salaries, and recognizing the hard-working and loyal hockey fans of Detroit in quelling any salary protests. Olympia remained the hockey venue until the opening of Joe Louis Arena in 1979.

The sport of hockey was a Canadian import of Charlie Hughes, a 1902 graduate of the University of Michigan and a sportswriter for the Detroit Tribune. He helped create the Detroit Athletic Club, and in 1926 he persuaded the club to pay the $100,000 franchise fee that started professional hockey in Detroit. In their first year, the National Hockey League’s Detroit Cougars lost $84,000 and finished with only 12 wins out of 44 games. Hughes decided to hire Jack Adams as general manager and coach. Adams remained GM until 1962.

The first few years were rough for the teams assembled by Adams because the majority of the fans attending the game in Olympia Stadium came over from Windsor, Ontario, and they had the bad habit of cheering for the Canadian visiting teams. In 1932 James Norris bought the team, the arena, and the club’s minor-league team, the Olympics, for the same $100,000 original entry fee. He renamed the Cougars the Red Wings, and designed the iconic winged wheel logo, in order to identify them as the “Motor City’s team.” The shrewd business sense of Norris and the eye for talent of Adams firmly established the Detroit hockey franchise as one of the strongest in professional sports. Ebbie Goodfellow was the Wings’ first superstar. He joined Detroit in 1929 and played for 14 seasons, and Jack Adams said of Ebbie, “He was Gordie Howe before there was a Gordie Howe.”4

The Red Wings won their first Stanley Cup at the conclusion of the 1935-36 season. When they clinched the Stanley Cup in Toronto, a heroes’ welcome awaited them at the Windsor train station, Michigan Central Station, and a procession to Olympia Stadium. To top it off, the Detroit Olympics won the International Hockey League Championship in October 1936, making the Tigers, Lions, and Red Wings hat-trick a grand slam of Detroit sports team victories.

A semipro sport that provided another champion to Detroit was bowling. Like Little Caesars Pizza founder (and future Tiger owner) Mike Ilitch’s softball team in the 1970s, in the ’30s the breweries sponsored bowling teams and leagues. The citizens and patrons of the beer industry treated the move of a good bowler from one sponsor to another as just as important news as a new beer or a new player for the Tigers. In 1933 Detroit’s Stroh Brewery, which provided beer at the Tigers games, backed a bowling team with Phil Bauman, John Crimmins, Cass Grygier, Walter Reppenhagen, and owner Joe Norris. The five had between them bowled 47 perfect games. Stroh’s team won the ABC National tournament in 1934 and the first five World Match Game titles in the 1930s. Beer and pizza are important to all sports fans, but especially Detroit.

Although Joe Louis was by far the most famous of the individual Detroit champions, he was by no means the first. Other emerging boxers from Detroit were Al Nettlow, the AAU 126-pound champ, and Dave Clark, the AAU 160-pound champion.

“Gar Wood is to the speedboat what Lindbergh is to the airplane,” said Bob Murphy of the Detroit Times.5 Wood had won the coveted Harmsworth Trophy five times over 15 years and pushed the world record for speed on water from 61 miles per hour in 1920 to 124 mph in 1932. He financed his dominance in the sport by profits from his mechanical inventions.

Detroit was home to legend of golf Walter Hagen, who captained the American Ryder Cup team to a victory over the British in 1935. Hagen won 11 major championships between 1914 and 1929, which as of 2014 still places him third behind Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. In 1935, however, he was the greatest in history.

Detroit Cass Tech high-school graduate Eddie Tolan won the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Tolan was the first black athlete to win two Olympic Gold Medals, preparing as a member of the University of Michigan track team. In nearby Ann Arbor, Jesse Owens set three world records and tied another as a sophomore at the 1935 Big Ten Conference Championships held at the University of Michigan’s facility. Tolan won his Olympic Gold before Hitler’s 1936 Berlin games that made Owens so famous.

On April 18, 1936, a City of Champions Testimonial Dinner was held at Detroit’s Masonic Temple and was hosted by the Detroit Times. The cost of a ticket was $3. Letters of congratulations from the City Council and from the governor of Michigan declared it a Day of Champions for the 600 who attended.

Invited to the honors were many locally-based champions of their respective sports and games. Stanley Kratkowski was already the national middleweight lifting champion. The roll call of champions continued. Constance O’Donovan and Esther Politzer, national doubles tennis champions, and Katherine Hughes-Hallett, the Michigan and Midwest fencing champion, were present. Jake Ankom, the national amateur three-cushion billiards champion, and Newell Banks, who won the World’s Match Checker Championship, were both parlor-game champions who were recognized. Tom Haynie, the national medley swim champion, and the AAU national swimming champions from the Detroit Athletic Club were also there. Dick Degener of the University of Michigan was considered the top diver in the world and would win a Gold Medal in the three-meter springboard competition at the 1936 Olympic Games. Walter Kramer was the number-one badminton player in the United States in 1935 and would win the singles championship in 1938. Bill Bonthrom, who held the world record for the Olympic 1,500 meters, joined fellow track star Eddie “The Midnight Express” Tolan. Harry Joy, the national 20-gauge shotgun skeet shooting champion, and Tommy Milton, a two-time winner of the Indy 500, took bows. Another speedboat champion, Herbert Mendleson of Detroit, joined Gar Wood and his legendary mechanic Orlin Johnson at the testimonial.

Over the course of the evening, Potsy Clark, coach of the Lions, called his 1935 squad the greatest team ever assembled in football. Mickey Cochrane promised to fight for another championship, and Jack Adams introduced the Wings with a similar vow. The Wings actually delivered on another repeat championship, against the New York Rangers in 1937.

Finally, all the athletes praised the extraordinary fans of Detroit, who supported them despite the challenges of the Depression. Detroit fans have taken a strong sense of pride from their sports teams, and in return the athletes received that extra boost when playing at home.

LARRY and ROB HILLIARD were first told about Detroit being the City of Champions by their dad, Frank Hilliard, who was 24 years old in 1935. Detroit sports teams were an important part of their relationship growing up as brothers. Larry has great memories of the 1968 and 1984 Tigers teams, of Dave Bing (before he became the mayor of Detroit), of Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns, and of throwing the octopus onto the ice at old Olympia Stadium. These days Larry roots for the Tigers, Red Wings, Pistons, and Lions (especially OT Corey Hilliard) from his home in Maryland. He works at NASA as an electrical engineer. Rob, a retired welder in the auto industry, lives in Garden City, Michigan. His Detroit sports era featured Gordie Howe and Terry Sawchuck for the Red Wings, and Bobby Layne and Terry Barr for the Lions. While the Tigers were his favorite baseball team, his all-time favorite ballplayer is Ted Williams. The Detroit boxer that Rob admired was Sugar Ray Robinson.

Sources

Dyrson, Mark, and J.A, Mangan, eds., Sport and American Society (New York: Routledge, 2007).

Macdonnell, Leo, “Wings Rookie Scores After 176 Minutes,” Detroit Times, March 25, 1936.

Shaver, Bud, “Birth of a Fight Extra,” Detroit Times, June 26, 1935.

Guest, Conrad J., “When Detroit Was Known as the City of Champions,” Detroit Athletic Co., blog.detroitathletic.com/2012/12/20/when-detroit-was-the-city-of-champions/, accessed February 4, 2014.

“How the Great Depression Changed Detroit,” Detroit News, blogs.detroitnews.com/history/1999/03/03/how-the-great-depression-changed-detroit/, accessed September 14, 2013.

Windsor Daily Star

Aaregistry.org

Detroithistorical.org

Mgoblue.com

Notes

When Hank Greenberg, the Detroit Tigers slugger and baseball’s first Jewish superstar, decided to sit out a game in the midst of the 1934 pennant race because it fell on the most solemn day on the Jewish calendar, Edgar Guest penned a poem to mark the occasion. Guest ended his tribute, “Speaking of Greenberg,” which appeared in the Detroit Free Press a few days after Yom Kippur, with the lines:

Greenberg played in an era when anti-Semitism was rife in America, thanks to people like Henry Ford—also a key figure in Detroit—and Father Charles Coughlin, a prominent radio preacher, so this acknowledgment of his courageous stance in the general media was most welcome.

A generation later, another Jewish superstar chose not to not pitch in baseball’s fall classic because it fell on the Day of Atonement.

Sanford Braun was born on December 30, 1935, in Brooklyn. His parents divorced when he was 3 and his mother married Irving Koufax when Sandy was 9. Unlike Greenberg, who grew up in an Orthodox home where the family kept kosher and regularly attended synagogue, Koufax had comparatively little experience with such traditions.

His early struggles with his command on the mound are well-documented, as are his arm problems. He came into his own in 1961, finishing with an 18–13 record. The following year began a streak of five ERA titles, even though he appeared in just 28 games in 1962 and 29 in 1964. Despite his health issues, Koufax tossed 658⅔ innings in his final two campaigns.

The 1965 season would be the penultimate for Koufax, the fourth in a string of five dominant years that would cement his place in the Hall of Fame. For the second time in three seasons, he won the pitcher’s triple crown, leading the majors with 26 wins, 382 strikeouts, and a 2.04 earned run average. (Amazingly, he would close out his career by repeating the feat.) And let’s not forget the 1–0 perfect game against the Chicago Cubs on September 9. His opponent, Bob Hendley, allowed just one hit and the only runner to cross the plate did so on an error. That was indicative of how little offensive support the Los Angeles Dodgers gave their pitchers as they finished eighth in the 10-team league in runs scored. They only clinched the pennant on the next-to-last day of the season. Care to guess who was on the mound for that one?

The Dodgers would face the Minnesota Twins in the 1965 Series. Formerly the Washington Senators before relocating to the Twin Cities in 1961, the Twins were a powerful club featuring the likes of Harmon Killebrew, Bobby Allison, Tony Oliva, and Jimmie Hall; shortstop Zoilo Versalles hit career highs in several offensive categories, led the league in doubles, triples, total bases, and runs, and would be named the AL MVP.

The Twins climbed into first place to stay on July 3 and clinched the flag on September 26 with a 2–1 win against their replacements, the expansion Washington Senators, finishing with a record of 102–60, seven games ahead of the second-place Chicago White Sox.

The Dodgers, on the other hand, had to wait until the 161st game of the season to clinch, beating the Milwaukee Braves, 3–1, with Koufax on the mound for the complete-game victory. Their record of 97–75 was just two games better than the second-place San Francisco Giants. Although they spent most of the campaign at the top of the standings, LA dropped into second place on September 9 and had to battle the rest of the way.

According to a UPI brief that appeared in the New York Times on October 5, “The Los Angeles Dodgers planned to open the World Series without the services of Sandy Koufax in the first game next Wednesday if they win the National League Pennant. … Koufax has always been excused on the Jewish holy day. It is written into his contract that he needn’t suit up on that day. The Dodgers owner, Walter O’Malley, said he would not let the 25-game winner pitch ‘under any circumstances,’ even if he could receive a dispensation.”2

The word “dispensation” is interesting because Greenberg actually did receive one when he decided to play on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, in 1934. In an interview for the Detroit News, “Rabbi Joseph Thumin, the religious leader of the city’s Temple Beth Abraham…explained that according to the Talmud— the discussion and interpretation of Jewish law—Rosh Hashanah was a day of celebration, so it was permissible for Greenberg to participate in those games” while Yom Kippur was much more somber and introspective.3

Unlike Greenberg, Koufax came of age in the post-World War II era, when anti-Semitism was less overt. Jews sought to assimilate more into American society, removed by a generation from parents who might have come over from the “old country.” In his autobiography, Koufax, written with Ed Linn in 1966, he devoted a scant two paragraphs to his abstention, which, he wrote, he thought was “played all out of proportion.”

“I had tried to deflect questions about my intentions through the last couple of weeks of the season by saying I was praying for rain,” he wrote. “There was never any decision to make, though, because there was never any possibility that I would pitch.… The club knows that I don’t work on that day.”4

Many fans don’t realize that this was not the first time Koufax sat out on Yom Kippur. It was just the most noteworthy because of the World Series implications. He pointed out in Koufax that in previous years, when Yom Kippur had fallen during the season, it had been easy enough to reschedule a start. But in the heated atmosphere of the World Series, it took on more prominence.

In a biography published in 2000 and also titled Koufax, author Edward Gruver writes, “Though he has never talked extensively about his decision, newspapers reported that he spent the day of the opener attending services in a synagogue in St. Paul.”5

Jane Leavy was the more decisive in 2002 in Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy, asserting: “He was apocryphally seen at synagogues throughout the Twin Cities—and even in Los Angeles. … In fact, he did not attend services …that day or anywhere else.”6

Given his secular connection with Judaism, not to mention his affinity for privacy, it seems unlikely that he would go out of his way to attract attention. If he did attend services, it probably would have been at the Temple of Aaron Synagogue, the closest one to the hotel, but it’s most likely that Koufax simply remained in his room at the St. Paul Hotel, where the Dodgers stayed while in Minnesota.

Don Drysdale got the nod for the opening game but proved to be no match for the Twins batters. He left the game after just two and two-thirds innings, shelled for seven runs, including homers by Versalles and Mincher. When manager Walt Alston came out to give him the hook, Drysdale said to him, “Hey, skip, bet you wish I was Jewish today, too.”7 Final score: Twins 8, Dodgers 2.

According to a story in Sports Illustrated in 2015 marking the 50th anniversary of that fateful choice, Koufax was visited the following day by Rabbi Moshe Feller, an emissary of the Chabad movement, a subset of Hasidism, who reportedly gave him a set of phylacteries, or tefillin, which Jewish men traditionally don during morning prayers.8

Was it divine intervention that put Koufax in position to be the World Series hero? He lost Game Two, the day after Yom Kippur, 5–1, although he performed well, allowing just two runs, one unearned, in six innings while striking out nine. He may well have been weakened from fasting on the holiday.

Koufax returned to dominant form with a 7–0 victory in Game Five in front of the Dodger faithful on October 11, allowing just five batters to reach base on four hits and a walk while fanning 10. That gave the Dodgers a 3–2 series lead. The Twins came back to beat Claude Osteen, 5–1, to take Game Six, setting up the dramatic finale.

Pitching on just two days’ rest in enemy territory, Koufax was overpowering once again. The Dodgers scratched out two runs in the fourth inning and were never in any real trouble. The lefty gave up just three hits and walked the same number while once again striking out 10 in the complete game.

In the final frame, an understandably weary Koufax faced the heart of the Twins lineup. Oliva grounded out to third to start things off but future Hall of Famer Killebrew, who led the team with 25 home runs despite appearing in just 113 games because of various injuries, singled to bring the tying run to the plate. Catcher Earl Battey took a called third strike, setting up a showdown with outfielder Allison, who’d finished the regular season second on the Twins in home runs and third in RBIs.

When Allison struck out swinging on a 2–2 count to the end game, there was no chest-thumping or screaming by the victorious pitcher or his teammates. Just smiles and handshakes. To no one’s surprise, Koufax was named MVP of the Series, an apt reward for the sacrifice he’d made and the meaning it had for Jews of all ages, baseball fans or not.

Did Koufax join his fellow Jews in prayer in a formal setting? In the end, it doesn’t matter. Either way, dayenu—it would have been enough—that he took a stand not to play in one of the most important games of his career. It sent a message to Jewish youth (as well as their elders) that they could engage in all things American while at the same time—to paraphrase Guest’s tribute to Greenberg a generation before—being true to their religion.

One rabbi recalled a conversation he had with Koufax about the question of playing on Yom Kippur. “He said to me, ‘I’m Jewish. I’m a role model. I want [Jews] to understand they have to have pride.’ Not being observant and feeling a connection with his people, it’s an even greater sacrifice.”9

RON KAPLAN has been a member of SABR for more than 30 years. He is the author of 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die and Hank Greenberg in 1958: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War. He is a former sports and features editor for the New Jersey Jewish News, where he created Kaplan’s Korner on Jews and Sports, which won the NJ Press Association’s award for best blog in 2014. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey, where he hosts Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf, a blog about the literature and pop culture of the sport (RonKaplansBaseballBookshelf.com).

Notes

1 Edgar A. Guest, “Speaking of Greenberg,” Detroit Free Press, October 4, 1934, 6.

2 “Koufax Out Wednesday,” The New York Times, October 2, 1964, 10.

3 Ron Kaplan, Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War (New York: Sports Publishing, 2017), 147.

4 Sandy Koufax and Ed Linn, Koufax (New York: Viking, 1966), 252.

5 Edward Gruver, Koufax (Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company, 2000), 52.

6 Jane Leavy, Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy (New York: Harper Collins, 2002), 184.

7 Leavy. There are numerous variations of Drysdale’s comment.

8 John Rosengren, “Myth and Fact part of legacy from Sandy Koufax’s Yom Kippur Choice,” Sports Illustrated, September 23, 2015, https://www.si.com/mlb/2015/09/23/sandy-koufax-yom-kippur-1965-world-series.

9 Leavy, Koufax, 183.