Clash of Titans: Jackie Robinson Faces Robin Roberts

 This article originally appeared in Here's the Pitch, the newsletter of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA). If you are interested in the group and/or would like to subscribe to the newsletter you can find more information here.

Jackie Robinson’s historic 10-year major league baseball career paralleled the best years of the dominant right-handed pitcher of the era, Robin Roberts of the Philadelphia Phillies. Robinson had more plate appearances against Roberts than any other pitcher, 176 to be exact. Robinson began his Brooklyn Dodger career on April 15, 1947, while Roberts was still pitching for Michigan State University. By June of 1948, however, Roberts had taken his place in the Phillies starting rotation. From that point on, Robinson and Roberts faced off from sixty feet six inches on a regular basis for the next nine years.

As Roberts remembered it, it was a tough competition based on mutual respect. Years later he told MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki, “We battled toe-to-toe many times. I had more respect for Jackie than virtually anyone I played against.” Many of those toe-to-toe battles came at critical times in crucial games. Robinson more than held his own against the future Hall of Famer, hitting .281, with 45 hits in 160 at bats (plus 13 walks and 3 sacrifices), including 5 doubles, 21 RBIs and 9 home runs, by far the most home runs he hit against any single pitcher. As Roberts would later say, “One thing I could do was give up home runs.”

The first time Roberts faced the Dodgers and Robinson was August 18, 1948. The Dodgers Rex Barney beat Roberts 1-0 with a one-hitter and Robinson introduced himself to Roberts by smacking two singles in four at bats.

By 1950, both the Phillies and the Dodgers were pennant contenders. In 1949, the Dodgers had won the National League pennant led by Robinson in his MVP season. In 1950, a young and improving Phillies team challenged the Dodgers for supremacy in the National League. Robinson had perhaps his best game against Roberts on May 30 that year, going 3-4 with a double, a home run, and three RBIs in a 7-6 Dodger win.

The1950 pennant race came down to the last day of the season with the Phillies and Roberts facing off against the Dodgers and Robinson at Ebbets Field with the Phillies once formidable lead down to one game. A Phillies loss would mean a playoff with the Dodgers. Roberts, pitching on two days rest, and the Dodger ace Don Newcombe, faced off in a classic pitcher’s duel. Roberts had held Robinson to 0-3, when Jackie appeared at the plate in the bottom of the ninth, with one out, the score tied at one, and the winning run on third base. Manager Eddie Sawyer called on Robinson to be intentionally walked. Roberts then worked out of the inning by inducing a pop-up and a fly ball. The Phillies, of course, won the game in the 10^th inning on a Dick Sisler three-run home run. Roberts got the Dodgers out in the 10^th and was carried off the field by his teammates.

After the game, Robinson, who, when he broke the color bar in 1947, had been the target of the most vile racist abuse at the hands of the Phillies and their then manager Ben Chapman, came over to the visiting locker room and wished the victorious Phillies well. He walked up to Roberts, put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Congratulations.” This magnanimous gesture impressed Robin and became a story he told to the end of his life. “Think about that,” Roberts told Sports Illustrated’s John Posnanski, “Think about how much class that took. I couldn’t have done it; I’ll tell you that.”

In 1951, Roberts and Robinson again faced off on the final day of the season with the pennant on the line. This time the Phillies were out of the pennant race, but the Dodgers had to win to force a playoff game with the New York Giants. Roberts, who had pitched 8 innings the day before, entered this game in the eighth inning and gave up a game tying single to Carl Furillo. He then proceeded to pitch five gritty shutout innings. In the 14^th, Robinson, who had just saved the game in the bottom of the thirteenth with a diving grab of an Eddie Waitkus line drive, smacked a Roberts fastball far over the left field fence in Connie Mack Stadium for a game winning home run. Robinson called it the biggest hit of his career.

The Dodgers then went to the playoff series with the Giants that concluded with "the shot heard round the world",  one of the greatest baseball games ever played. As Roberts tells it, “If I don’t give up that home run to Jackie, there is no Bobby Thompson home run. There is no playoff. It’s a good thing I gave up that home run to him, isn’t it?”

Roberts won 28 games in 1952 and went 6-0 with six complete games against the Dodgers. Robinson, though, continued to be a nemesis, touching Roberts for six hits, including two home runs that season. The two continued to battle each other over the next several years as the Phillies faded from contention, due in no small part to their failure to recruit Black ballplayers like Robinson, and the Dodgers continued to thrive because they had. On September 26, 1956, Roberts and Robinson faced off for the final time. Robinson by this time was 37 and slowed by injuries and Roberts had lost some of the zip on his fastball. In this final encounter, Roberts held Robinson to an 0-4 with three strikeouts. Robinson would soon retire. Roberts would continue pitching for another ten years, although he would never again be the dominant pitcher he was throughout the early 1950s.

Robin Roberts later said, “I consider it a privilege to have competed against Jackie Robinson. A man I very much admired. He was a helluva ballplayer and an even better man.”

 

 

 

Baseball's Amazing One Home Run Wonders

This article originally appeared in Here's the Pitch, the newsletter of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA). If you are interested in the group and/or would like to subscribe to the newsletter you can find more information here.

Since the live-ball era began in 1920, 2,028 major league players have totaled 2,000 or more at bats. Of those 2,028 players every one of them has hit at least one home run, but only 7 of them have hit exactly one and only one home run. To get 2,000 at bats in a major league career, you must be a pretty good player. To have 2,000 at bats and only hit one home run shows a remarkable determination to keep the ball in the ballpark. I believe that this unique achievement should be recognized and that these punchless Punch and Judy hitters deserve to have their achievement memorialized. So here they are, the mighty clouts of the power challenged.

Duane Kuiper

Kuiper played 12 seasons as a second baseman for the Cleveland Indians and San Francisco Giants between 1974 and 1985. He holds the major league record for most at bats with only one home run at 3,379. On August 29, 1977, Kuiper stepped to the plate in the bottom of the first inning of a “Monday Night Baseball” game between the Chicago White Sox and the Indians. To that point, four years and 1,381 at bats into his major league career, Kuiper had yet to connect for a home run. In fact, he possessed the longest homerless streak for an active player at the time. Steve Stone was on the mound for the White Sox and Kuiper drove his 1-0 pitch two rows back into the right field bleachers to the cheers of the 6,236 in attendance and the delight of his teammates. Kuiper described the moment to Bob Sudyk of the Cleveland Press this way: “Me and Sadaharu Oh, huh. Actually, I didn’t think of anything rounding the bases. I think I hit a slider. When I got back to the dugout, I tried to think back. Did I touch all the bases? I knew it would happen. Eventually, it has to happen. It was a big thrill. You lose perspective sometimes, it makes for a lot of laughs and I might like to have kept my homerless streak alive. But a home run has to happen, even by accident.” Kuiper had 1,997 more at bats in the major leagues and the “accident” never happened again.

Emil Verban

Verban was a second baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs and Boston Braves from 1944 to 1950. On September 6, 1948 the Cubs were playing the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Verban had 2,423 at bats in the major leagues without a home run when he stepped to the plate with two out in the seventh inning against Johnny Vander Meer. The Cubs trailed 1-0. Verban sent one of Vander Meer’s offerings over the wall to tie the game. Thus ended the longest homerless streak to begin a career in major league history. Unfortunately, this story ends on a sad note as the Cubs eventually lost the game 3-1. Today, Verban has achieved celebrity status as the namesake of The Emil Verban Society, a group of dedicated, long-suffering, Cubs fans who chose Verban as a symbol of an “old, loyal, trustworthy, and plodding Cubs player.”

Floyd Baker

Baker was an infielder who played primarily third base for a number of teams between 1943 and 1955. He is certainly not to be confused with Frank “Home Run” Baker, the third baseman for the Philadelphia Athletics and New York Yankees from the dead ball era. Baker’s one and only home run came after 1,213 major league at bats while he was playing for the Chicago White Sox against the Washington Senators on May 4, 1949. Baker’s shot was a two-run homer that was part of a Sox seven run rally against Senator pitcher Sid Hudson. Whether we can call this home run a “shot” is open to question, however. As Bill Nowlin reports in his biography of Baker for the SABR BioProject, the game was played in Comiskey Park at a time that the owners had installed a “trick wire fence” that brought the fences in 20 feet. It is this fence that Baker’s home run cleared. The next day the trick fence had disappeared, perhaps spurred by Baker’s home run, but more likely because the Senators had hit two home runs over that fence in the ninth inning to win the game, 8-7.

Johnny Bassler

Bassler was a fine hitting catcher for the Detroit Tigers from 1921 to 1927. On July 23, 1924 in his 499^th major league game, he launched the only home run of his career into the right field bleachers at Yankee Stadium. It was a solo shot off the Yankees’ Tom Shawkey. Unfortunately for Bassler, his big blow was overshadowed by an error he made in the ninth inning which allowed the Yankees to score the tying run. With two out in the ninth and the Tigers up 3-2, the Yankees Wally Schang nailed a pitch to deep left and not satisfied with a triple, tried to score. Bassler got the ball in plenty of time but dropped it as he applied the tag. The Yanks won the game, 4-3, in the eleventh when a guy more familiar with hitting home runs, Babe Ruth, led off with a blast of his own.

Woody Woodward

Woodward was a light hitting utility infielder for the Braves and Reds from 1963 to 1971. On July 10, 1970, Woodward hit his only major league home run in his 1,761^st at bat, a two-run dinger for Cincinnati off Ron Reed, his former teammate on the Atlanta Braves. According to The Sporting News, Woodward’s teammates met the occasion with the proper amount of levity. Pitcher Wayne Granger said, “We figured out if he keeps hitting home runs at this pace it will only take him 4,198 years to catch Babe Ruth.” Woodward’s power outburst was to no avail, however, as the Reds lost the game 11-9.

Freddie Maguire

A second baseman for the Giants, Cubs, and Braves from 1922-23 and 1928-31, Maguire also spent several of his prime years with Toledo of the American Association. He hit the only home run of his career on opening day 1928 while playing for the Cubs against the Reds at Redland Field in Cincinnati. Maguire’s solo home run to the left field bleachers off Dolf Luque was the only run the Cubs scored on the day in a 3-1 loss. Maguire came to the plate 2071 more times in his career without duplicating the feat.

Al Newman

The most recent member of this exclusive club is Al Newman, a utility infielder with the Montreal Expos and Minnesota Twins from 1985-1992. Newman got his only home run fairly early in his career, in his 136^th at bat. Newman then went on a memorable streak of 2,273 at bats without hitting another home run, a mark that places him just behind Verban for home run futility. Newman’s blast came on July 6, 1986 at Fulton County Stadium. Newman, playing second base for the Expos, connected off Zane Smith in the 4^th inning with a man on base as part of a six-run inning. After the game, Newman told the Associated Press, “I guess there’s one in everybody.” Little did he know how right he was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Jackson's Near No-No: Veterans Stadium, June 7, 1987

This past week marked the 50 year anniversary of the opening of Veteran's Stadium in Philadelphia. In 1971, Veteran's Stadium was one of those circular, multi-purpose, concrete and  Astroturf structures that were popular at the time. It was not an ideal venue for watching baseball (wherever you sat you were too far from the field), but I did get to see many great  baseball games there. One of the appealing factors of attending a game at the Vet was that there were always plenty of cheap seats. In the 1980s, as a newly divorced father of three on a limited budget, cheap seats were a real god send. On one memorable day, my birthday, June 7, 1987, I packed up my two younger children, Bruce 10, and Megan, 3, and headed down to the Vet to see the Phillies play the Expos. We parked on Pattison Avenue, blocks from the stadium, but free, and purchased general admission tickets, four bucks for me and 50 cents apiece for the kids. If we limited ourselves to one hot dog and one soda each, we could keep expenses under 20 dollars for the day.

We entered the Vet and trudged up ramp after ramp, me sometimes carrying, sometimes pulling Megan along, until we reached the top and took up seats in one of the top twelve rows reserved for the financially fragile. You could choose any seats up there and we got ours down the first base line, although the baseline was pretty hard to see from up there. The starting pitcher for the Phillies that day was a 22 year-old rookie with the familiar name of Michael Jackson. Jackson had come up through the Phillies system and made the team as a reliever, but was pressed into service as a starter when Joe Cowley proved ineffective. On this day, Michael Jackson would pitch the game of his life and very nearly hurl the first Phillies no-hitter at the Vet.

We had barely settled into our seats, if you can ever really settle into seats when you have three year-old in tow, when Jackson set the tone for the day. He struck out Casey Candaele and Mitch Webster and got Tim Raines to fly out to Milt Thompson in centerfield, all without throwing a single ball that was not a strike. In the Phillies half of the first, Juan Samuel brought us out of our seats cheering with a triple down the right field line that scored Thompson who had singled leading off the inning. 

Jackson mowed the Expos hitters down in order in the second and third, nine up, nine down to start the game. In the bottom of the third, Thompson extended the Phillies lead to 2-0 with a home run to right. In the fourth, the first blemish appeared on Jackson's record when he walked Webster and wild pithed him to second. But he retired the dangerous Raines on a ground ball to Samuel and got Tim Wallach to fly out to right. By this time the kids were getting a bit restless so we went down to a concession stand for our hot dogs and sodas. We ate them down on the concourse and then I let Megan run around the stadium, it was circular remember, to get some exercise. Megan, who at three cared nothing about baseball had done a good job of being patient with her baseball fanatic brother and father, but a little walk around the park seemed prudent at this time.

By the time we climbed back to our seats, it was clear that something special was brewing. The Phillies were batting in the bottom of the sixth, the score was still 2-0, but I pointed to the scoreboard and said to Bruce, "Jackson hasn't given up any hits yet." On the scoreboard it showed the Phillies had committed an error (by first baseman Von Hayes on a ball hit by Tim Raines), but where the space was for Expos' hits it still read "0." Jackson got the Expos out without incident in the seventh and then helped the Phils extend their lead, when he sacrificed Steve Jeltz to second base, from where he scored on another Milt Thompson hit. 

At this point, manager John Felske seemed to acknowledge something special was happening when he made a defensive substitution in left field, bringing in Chris James for Mike Easler. The large "Bat Day" crowd of 42,000 plus was also getting into it, cheering Jackson with each out. But Megan had had enough of sitting. She pleaded to go down to run around the concourse again. I had to acquiesce. She had done very well sitting patiently and enough was enough. Bruce protested, "But Dad, it's a no-hitter." But we left our seats and took Megan down to run off some energy. As we circled the stadium for the second time that day, Bruce would run up an entrance ramp with each new cheer to see what was happening. With this relay method, I learned that Jackson's no-hitter was intact through eight innings. 

Through some cajoling, and the added inducement of some ice cream, we got back to our seats for the ninth inning. By this time the crowd was cheering every pitch. The first Expos batter in the ninth was Tim Raines and everyone in the ballpark knew he was the biggest threat to the no-hitter. Sure enough, Raines lined a Jackson fastball off the right field fence for a double and the no-hitter was no more. The crowd let out a collective moan.  Raines eventually scored and Steve Bedrosian came in to save the game for Jackson. The Phillies had a 3-1 win, the fans had had plenty of excitement, and Megan had gotten some ice cream, but Veteran's Stadium would have to wait a few more years for a no-hitter by a Phillies pitcher.*

Coming into this game, Jackson had been hit around in four previous starts. For this game he told the Philadelphia Inquirer's Frank Dolson, "Hey, I am just going to go out and throw my fastball. That's my best pitch. - just try to get guys out." That is what he did. Mike Jackson developed into a very reliable reliever in his 17-year major league career. Most of that, however, was with teams other than the Phillies. After his rookie season, the Phillies traded him to Seattle. Jackson had his best years with San Francisco and Cleveland. In 1998 with the Indians he had 40 saves and a microscopic 1.55 ERA. He retired with 142 Saves, 96th on the career Saves list.

*Terry Mulholland pitched the first no-hitter by a Phillie at Veteran's Stadium on August 15, 1990 against the San Francisco Giants

Granny Hamner's 7 RBI Day: July 17, 1948

In 1969, one year before Larry Bowa took over as the starting shortstop for the Phillies and 32 years before Jimmy Rollins began his tenure at short, Granville Wilbur Hamner was voted the greatest Phillies shortstop of the teams' 100 year history. And while both Bowa and Rollins would eventually surpass Hamner as all-time greats at the position, Hamner did manage one feat that neither Bowa nor Rollins ever achieved. On July 17, 1948, Hamner drove in seven runs in an 11-10 Phillies win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Sportman's Park. Ironically for the man who ranks third all-time in games at shortstop for the Phillies, Hamner was actually playing second base on this day as he did for most of the 1948 season, before establishing himself as a the star shortstop and fiery leader of the Whiz Kids.

Hamner had been up briefly with the Phils from the time he was a 17 year-old in 1944. After getting more experience in the minors and after a stint in military service in World War II, Hamner finally established himself as a regular as a 21 year-old in 1948. The Phillies, however, had traded with the Cincinnati Reds for veteran shortstop Eddie Miller during the off season, so Hamner was slotted in at second base. He was never comfortable there, feeling he was too slow at turning the double play. His solid, clutch hitting, however, kept him in the lineup.

On a warm, muggy Saturday afternoon in St. Louis the young Hamner played the hero for the Phillies. The Phils got off to a fast start in the top  of the first, when after two were out, Cardinal pitcher Al Brazle walked Johnny Blatnick and Del Ennis. Dick Sisler followed with a double to score Blatnick and move Ennis to third. Eddie Miller was then intentionally walked and Hamner, batting seventh in the lineup, made the Cardinals pay for that strategy by sizzling a line single to center to score two runs. In the second inning, now facing pitcher Ken Burkhart, the Phillies piled on more runs. Richie Ashburn led off with his second walk of the game. After Bert Haas popped out, Blatnick singled and Ennis drove home Ashburn with a double. Sisler was walked intentionally and Miller struck out, leaving the bases loaded and two out for Hamner. Granny drove a Burkhart pitch into left center, clearing the bases with a long double.

Hamner now had five RBIs in two innings, but he was not finished yet. Phillies starting pitcher Blix Donnelly managed to give most of the 7-1 lead back in the bottom of the second inning, an inning that included a Stan Musial grand slam home run. By the time the smoke cleared, the score was 7-6 and Donnelly had been replaced by lefty Ken Heintzelman. Heintzelman could not hold the lead. He gave up a tying solo home run to Nippy Jones in the third, and the Cardinals took an 8-7 lead in the fourth on a couple of walks, a wild pitch, and a ground out.

The Phillies roared back in the sixth inning, however. Haas and Blatnick opened with singles and scored on another Ennis double. Sisler walked, Miller popped out and Hamner came to the plate with runners on again. This time he smacked a  double to right field, scoring both Ennis and Sisler and giving the Phillies an 11-8 cushion. As it turned out they would need everyone of those runs. In the seventh the Cardinals made it close scoring two runs on singles by Erv Dusak and Ralph LaPointe and a  Bill Baker double. 

Phil reliever Monk Dubiel quieted the Cards in the eighth and ninth with the help of two double plays, both started by, you guessed it, Granny Hamner. As the Philadelphia Inquirer's Stan Baumgartner described the plays, in the eighth Hamner made a "magnificent one hand pick-up of Nippy Jones hard rap, stepped on second and then relayed the ball to first." In the ninth Hamner "scooped pinch-hitter Terry Moore's rap over the keystone, tossed to Eddie Miller who relayed to Dick Sisler for the twin killing." Baumgartner concluded it was "[Hamner's] greatest day in the big leagues."

Hamner's box score line for the day: 5 ABs, 3 H, 2 2b, 7 RBI, 8 assists, 3 put outs, and 3 double plays started.

Granny Hamner would go on to have many more fine days in the big leagues and would be named the captain of the Whiz Kids team that won the pennant in 1950. Each year from 1949 to 1954 he played in 150+ games for the Phillies and was named to the National League All Star team three times. Knee and shoulder injuries slowed Hamner in his final few years and he ended his career as a knuckleball pitcher, of all things, for the 1962 Kansas City Athletics. After his career was over, Phillies owner Bob Carpenter would remember Hamner as the "best clutch hitter we ever had."