Category: June

June 27: HS to “the show”

JUNE 27, 1973 | ARLINGTON, TEXAS – The Texas Rangers had their biggest crowd of the season on this date in 1973 to watch an 18-year old pitcher make his major league debut. David Clyde graduated from Houston’s Westchester High School just a few weeks earlier. The last time he pitched, he was facing high school talent. On this night David Clyde was facing the Minnesota Twins.

He must have felt some butterflies pitching in front of 35,698 fans because he walked the first two batters he saw, but he struck out the next three swinging. Clyde pitched five innings, walking seven, but only giving up one hit, a home run to Mike Adams. He struck out eight and got the win. It appeared to be the start of a promising career after high school numbers almost beyond belief. In his senior year, Clyde went 18-0 striking out 328 batters in 148 1/3 innings, walking just 18.

Despite an auspicious major league start, David Clyde’s success was fleeting. He spent parts of just five years in the majors, finishing with a record of 18 wins and 33 losses. He played his last major league game in 1979 at the age of 24. Clyde bounced around the minors for a few years, giving it all up in 1982.

David Clyde wasn’t the first presumed star whose glow faded too soon, but it was sad because Clyde was hyped and rushed to the majors amid tremendous publicity to get fannies in the seats. He has since said the issue for him wasn’t so much talent, as confidence. He had talent, but was never given the opportunity to build up major league confidence.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCE:
“Sports of the Times; The mismanaged carerr of David Clyde” by David Anderson, The New York Times, June 23, 2003

David Clyde statistics from Retrosheet

June 30 in baseball history – It took balls

JUNE 30, 1959 | CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – On this date in 1959 St. Louis Cardinal slugger Stan Musial was called out on a play that, let’s say, it took balls. When nobody was looking two balls were in play at once during a Cubs-Cardinals contest at Wrigley Field.

According to Edward Prell’s story in the next day’s Chicago Tribune, Cubs’ hurler Bob Anderson walked Musial. Ball four got away from catcher Sammy Taylor. Rather than go after the ball, Taylor argued with home plate umpire Vic Delmore that the ball hit Musial’s bat.

While this was going on Musial, who was already at first, darted for second.

The ball that got away from the catcher was picked up by the batboy who was about to give it to field announcer Pat Pieper, who sat almost directly behind home plate. Piper was also in charge of the stash of extra baseballs.

Before the batboy could give Pieper the ball, Cub third baseman Alvin Dark, who had raced after it, grabbed it.

By now home plate umpire Delmore produced a new baseball and gave it to pitcher Anderson who had the same idea as Dark and fired it to second. Anderson’s ball sailed over the second baseman’s head into centerfield. Dark’s ball was caught by shortstop Ernie Banks on one bounce. Musial and stepped off the bag after seeing the first ball sail into center and was promptly tagged out by Banks.

After much consternation Musial was ruled out because the ball he was tagged out with was the one Bob Anderson threw for ball four and was never out of play. There would have been a protest no matter what the ruling was. As it turned out the call went against the Cardinals but St. Louis won the game. That was the end of it, but it took balls.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
Edward Prell, The Chicago Tribune, July 1, 1959
The Chicago Daily News, July 1, 1959

June 29 IN BASEBALL HISTORY – “Moonlight” Graham: The real story

JUNE 29, 1905 | BROOKLYN, NEW YORK – It’s the stuff of legend, except it’s true. In the late innings on this date in 1905, Archibald Graham made his major league debut in right field for the New York Giants. They were playing the Brooklyn Superbas (today’s Los Angeles Dodgers). The game ended a couple innings later with the Giants winning 11-1. Graham did not come to bat. He never got another chance. “Moonlight” Graham was sent down to the minors after the game, but he decided that at the age of 28 he had spent enough time in the minors. Rather than report to the Giants farm team, again, he called it a career. Archibald “Moonlight” Graham came oh so close to batting in a major league game, but it was not to be, until Hollywood came calling long after his death.

“Moonlight” Graham was a key character in the movie, Field of Dreams. The film was fiction, but the “Moonlight” Graham part, played by Burt Lancaster, was real. Well, most of it was real. Graham really did become a doctor in Chisholm, Minnesota, but the part about a young Archie Graham, played by Frank Whaley, living out his dream by coming to bat against the re-incarnated Black Sox remains a dream.

“Moonlight” Graham had a distinctly short, and let’s be honest, insignificant, stint in the major leagues, until author W. P. Kinsella came across his statistics:

Archibald Moonlight Graham:
Batting record
Year team G AB R H RBI BB SB AVE  OBP  SLG
1905 NYn  1  0 0 0  0  0  0 .000 .000 .000

Kinsella was intrigued about a man who came so close to living out his dream that he put the character in his book of fiction, Shoeless Joe, which the movie, “Field of Dreams” is based on. Unfortunately, Archibald “Moonlight” Graham never found out how well known he became. The Fayetteville, North Carolina native died in Chisholm, Minnesota in 1965.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
Archibald Moonlight Graham stats
Associated Press, June 25, 2005 Read more about Moonlight Graham
USA Today, June 25, 2005

 

June 28 in baseball history – Unusual place to play

JUNE 28, 1911 | NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A new Polo Grounds opened for business on this date in 1911. The “previous” Polo Grounds was severely damaged by fire two and a half months earlier. The Polo Grounds was one of the most unusual stadiums in a sport known for unusual venues. It was described as horseshoe shaped, some say it looked like a bathtub. To put a baseball diamond in such a structure meant the left and right field foul lines were extremely short, less than 280 feet, while center field was a country mile – more than 470 ft.

Another unusual trait was that the left field upper deck extended more than 20 feet over the lower deck, which meant an outfielder could be waiting for the ball to drop in his glove, only for it land in the upper deck for a home run.

So why was the Polo Grounds called “The Polo Grounds”? For the reason you’d expect, the original of four structures to occupy the site was made for polo.

Here are the four New York major league baseball teams that called the Polo Grounds home:
• Metropolitans 1883-1885 member of American Association, dissolved in 1887
• New York (Baseball) Giants 1883-1957 moved to San Francisco in 1958
• New York Yankees 1912-1922 moved to Yankee Stadium in 1923
• New York Mets 1962-1963 moved to Shea Stadium in 1964

The Polo Grounds was also home to a couple National Football League teams; the New York Giants and New York Bulldogs. It also housed the New York Titans (now the Jets) of the American Football League (now the NFL). For baseball, the Polo Grounds was a very unusual place to play.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
Giants history
Mets history
Yankees history
Metropolitans history

June 26 in baseball history – Kid named Gehrig offers glimpse into the future

JUNE 26, 1920 | CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – A 17-year old high school kid wowed fans and major league scouts on this date in 1920 by hitting a towering grand slam home run out of Cubs Park (now known as Wrigley Field). The blast sealed a victory for New York’s Commerce High School against Chicago’s Lane Tech 12 to 6. The Commerce HS kid’s name – Lou Gehrig. He offered a glimpse into the future.

Soon Gehrig would be terrorizing opposing American League teams while playing for the New York Yankees.

Gehrig was a force. He held the record for the most career grand slam home runs (23) for more than 50 years. He had a lifetime .340 average. He hit 493 home runs and drove in 1,995 hitting after Babe Ruth in the Yankee lineup.

Gehrig would hold the record for the most consecutive games played (2,130 – 14 years worth) until broken by Cal Ripken in 1995.

Sadly, the player known as the “Iron Horse” would succumb to the debilitating and deadly sickness that carries his name – Lou Gehrig’s disease. He played his last game on April 30, 1939. He was 35 years old.

But on this date in 1920, Gehrig was a wide-eyed high school kid offering a glimpse into the future.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCE:
“Luckiest Man: The life and death of Lou Gehrig,” by Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post, April 3, 2005
Lou Gehrig stats
Career grand slams