Just One Shy

Today (Sept 2) marks the 37th anniversary of Chicago Cub Milt Pappas' razor thin close call with perfection (in 1972 for those math challenged). After retiring the first 26 batters in a row and reaching a 3-2 count on the 27th batter (Larry Stahl of the San Diego Padres) Pappas was one pitch shy of perfection. Unfortunately the call was a ball (lets not over react to a correct call made by then plate umpire Bruce Froemming) and perfection was "ruined". Pappas did however retire the next batter to secure the no-hitter and an 8 - 0 victory at Wrigley Field. Still today, Pappas has the unique honor of being the only pitcher to have a perfect game "ruined" by a base on ball to the 27th batter.

{1973 #70 love those "earmuffs"}

Pappas's career began in1957 with the Baltimore Orioles appearing in only 4 games, yet 1958 began a string of eleven years in a row of double digit victories. Prior to that infamous day in 1972, Pappas was probably best known for being traded to the Cincinnati Reds during the off season of 1965 for the "old" superstar Frank Robinson.

{1958 # 457 "oh so young"}

Two and half years in Cincinnati and a couple of stints with the Atlanta Braves, Pappas was traded to the Chicago Cubs in June of 1970. Arguably, his finest year was in 1972 as Pappas compiled a 17-7 win-loss record and a top ten in the Cy Young award voting.

Pappas finished his career in 1973 with a 209 - 164 record, 3186 innings pitched and a better than 2 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio (1728 to 858). With 110 wins as an Oriole, Pappas came within one win shy of achieving 100 wins in the NL as well. Pappas would have been just the eighth pitcher to achieve 100 wins in both leagues joining; Cy Young, Al Orth, Jim Bunning, Gaylord Perry, Nolan Ryan, Ferguson Jenkins and Dennis Martinez.

Once again, Pappas was just one shy of being part of an exclusive club. So today I honor Milt Pappas and being just one shy . . .

Opening Day at Wrigley

Monday April 13, will mark the 73rd Opening Day baseball game at Wrigley Field as the Cubs will play host to the Colorado Rockies.

While I will not be able to be there, being as I live in Sarasota Florida . . . . I thought I would share a photo and recap of the very first Opening Day.

The Cubs won 4 -2 against the Cincinnati Reds. I find it interesting to see that the box score has the visiting team listed below the home team and that rbi's were not part of the box score, instead they highlighted the defensive moments of putouts and assists.
The article also says the Cubs "celebrated in grand fashion with a 4 - 2 thrashing" and that 33,000 were in attendance and the time of the game was 1:37. A fast paced game though the final score surely does not indicate a "thrashing".

The Cubs would end the season in fourth place with a 82-72 record, seven games behind the World Champion St Louis Cardinals.

I hope that Opening Day 2009 results are the same - with a Cubs win !

Reds' Heavy Artillery

In my last post I mentioned that the Cincinnati Red played their last spring training game in Sarasota and for those of us living in Sarasota it is front page news.

Now I really need to confess that while it upsets me that the Reds are leaving to go to Arizona and Sarasota will be void of spring baseball for the first time since 1924, I have never really been a fan of the Reds or attended enough games to complain. It is just a sad commentary of the times.

That being said, I went looking through my binders for a Cincinnati Red card that would make me happy and I found this one: this 1961 Topps # 25 titled "Reds' Heavy Artillery" !

Vada Pinson, Gus Bell and Frank Robinson; showing off their lumber, each with smiles on their faces. For the record, the combined numbers for these three "stars" were rather modest in 1960 but did produce excitement for the Reds for many years.

1960 numbers were:
Pinson (a hitting machine) batted .287 with 20 Hr's and 187 hits (sandwiched between his rookie year in 1959 where he had 205 hits and 1961 with his career high of 208)
Bell (the oldest of the three) batted .262 with 12 Hr's and 135 hits (though in 1959 had 115 RBI's) and then there is . . .
Robinson (the future HOF'er) who led the team in BA and HR with .297 / 31 while scattering 138 hits (and in 1961 would win the MVP)

Even though neither of these players ever hit a spring-time ball in Sarasota, their combined career numbers made me smile; collecting 7523 hits, 3924 RBI's and blasting 1048 homeruns; certainly heavy artillery back in the day.

No More Spring Baseball in Sarasota !

That's right, Thursday April 2nd marked the last major league spring training game played at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Florida the now former home of the Cincinnati Reds, since 1988. Major League spring baseball had been a tradition in Sarasota since 1924 (when John Ringling of the circus fame, lured the New York Giants here) and next year will be quite different.

In the last couple of years this "little" town has lost the battle to retain the Reds (they will now make Goodyear Arizona their home) and our city never really made a strong enough case to win over the Red Sox, Orioles or Cubs (the only prospects on the immediate horizon).

The last game was quite the non-event; only 2935 people were in attendance (stadium capacity is 6500 and was the lowest of the spring). The Reds lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-5 and the game itself was overshadowed by the mixed emotions.

Our towns Mayor, Lou Ann Palmer presented the key to the city to Reds owner Robert Castellini, who inadvertently dropped it. There were many boos for our cities officials and much applause for the players.

While spring baseball may not be on the top ten list of attractions for Sarasota, it has been part of this city for 85 years (and no the average age of our residents is not 85 ! ). To be perfectly honest, since moving here, from Chicago, in 2002, I have attended less than ten games (family, work, school, life took precedence) but am sad that this town has lost some of its historical connection.

As an aside . . . we still have the whitest and bestest beaches, culture and restaurants, theatre and concerts, the history of the Ringling Bro's and the circus, not to mention our 350 days of sunshine and beautiful weather. I wake up every morning saying: "just another day in paradise" (with or without spring baseball).

Maybe within the next few years Sarasota can attract a new major league team to make their home here but for now . . . there is no more spring baseball in Sarasota.

Something is just not "right"

While I am not disappointed at all that Team USA lost in the semi-finals to Japan last night in the WBC, it just seems not "right" that this most North-American of games is now being "perfected" by countries that "we" taught. {It is like the French with their wines, the Irish with their Beer, Scotland with golf, Belgium chocolate, Russian Vodka, English soccer, China Gymnasts and Canadian Hockey.} It is just not "right" that the country who created and taught the world can now be considered second fiddle. Not being "right" does not make it "bad" . . .

I was happy that Team USA lost. Now lets get all those MLB players back in their regular team uniform, training with their "real" team and getting ready for the long 162 game season that will capture our attention for the next six months.

Speaking of cards that are just not "right" . . . I found this 1973 Frank Robinson.

No offense to my blogger friends who like the Dodgers, but Robinson does not look "right" in Dodger Blue - he looked much more "perfect" in Cincinnati Red or Oriole Orange. And another thing, his uniform # ! The only year in Robinson's HOF career he wore a number other than 20 - in LA with this # 36 (I know Don Sutton had uniform # 20 in 1972, but still - Frank Robinson had hit 500 HR's by this time in his career, 11 times an all-star, twice the MVP, ROY and Triple Crown winner in addition to being on his way to having # 20 retired by both the Reds and Orioles).

Another thing not "right" on this card, has the team of the California Angels listed below his name while he is wearing Dodger blue.

The world may not be "right" or perfect all of the time but that does not make it "bad".

1970 Topps: card # 3

Darrel Chaney, primarily a backup shortstop for the Cincinnati Reds (1969 - 1975) and the Atlanta Braves (1976-1979), was a solid defensive glove man and posted a career BA of .217.

This 1970 card # 3 is his official rookie card and Chaney did earn a World Series ring with the "Big Red " Machine of 1975 as he was the functional off the bench utility guy for Dave Concepcion. Interesting to note is that Chaney had more career triples (17) than homeruns (14). That is about the most "exciting" thing I could find about Chaney.

The top row of my first page of my 1970's binder is now posted. It really amazes me how "random" Topps was after card # 1 (World Champions) and then no rhyme or reason for the next cards, until the subsets of League Leaders (#61-72), League Playoffs (#195-202), WS (305-310)and All-Star cards 450-469). In some years to follow Topps used the first few cards for an exciting subset; (ie 1974 Aaron Special card, 1976 Record Breakers etc).

My journey continues on to my second row with guys like; Tom Egan, Wes Parker, and Grant Jackson and some "humorous" backs to follow.