15. The Amazin' Mets

 "I don't know what's going on," Richie Ashburn said, "but I know I've never seen it before." "It" was the expansion Mets of 1962, who managed to lose 120 games under the bemused leadership of an aged Casey Stengel. Ashburn, as it happened, hit .306 that year, but no other regular topped .275. The team's best pitcher, Roger Craig, lost 24 games. The only category in which any Met led the league was errors. The Mets gave up a staggering 948 runs, some 322 more than the Pirates, who finished fourth. The team ERA was 5.04. And they concluded the season 60-1/2 games out of first place -- that is, two months out of first.

The paradigm of those Mets was Marvin Eugene Throneberry -- appropriately, his initials spelled "MET."

On June 17, 1962, Throneberry had his most memorable day in baseball. In the bottom half of the first inning in a game against the Cubs, he charged into third base with a triple, only to be called out on an appeal by the Cubs' Ernie Banks for not having touched first. That was when Casey Stengel, steaming out of the dugout to protest, was told by first-base coach Cookie Lavagetto that Throneberry had missed second, too.

It was in the top of the inning, though, that Marvelous Marv had established his pattern for the day. The Cubs' Don Landrum had led off the game with a walk, and then Al Jackson picked him off first. Landrum was caught in the ensuing rundown, but the call was negated when Throneberry was called for obstruction.

Finally, in the bottom of the ninth, with the Mets down 8-7, two men on and two men out. Throneberry came to the plate with the opportunity to redeem himself. Needless to say, he struck out.

At season's end, the Mets were 40-120. They had had losing streaks of 9, 11, 13, and 17 games. As he prepared to depart for his off-season recuperation, Throneberry asked, "You think the fish will come out of the water to boo me this winter?"

Leonard Shecter reported this exchange between Throneberry and Johnny Murphy, the old Yankee pitcher who negotiated salaries for the early Mets:

Throneberry: "People came to the park to holler at me, just like Mantle and Maris. I drew people to games."

Murphy: "You drove some away, too."

T: "I took a lot of abuse."

M: "You brought most of it on yourself."

T: "I played in the most games of my career, 116."

M: "But you didn't play well in any of them."

In a game against the Giants during the '62 Mets' 17-game losing streak. Roger Craig threw perilously close to Orlando Cepeda, and shortstop Elio Chacon took umbrage at a Willie Mays baserunning move. In short order, Mays took care of the tiny Chacon, and the 210-pound Cepeda disposed of Craig. The next morning, Newsday's coverage of the game began, "The Mets can't fight, either."

....After that first horrible season, the Mets announced they were calling up their three best minor league pitchers: Larry Bearnarth, who'd been 2-13 at Syracuse; Tom Belcher, 1-12 at Syracuse; and Grover Powell, 4-12 at Auburn and Syracuse.

Still the spring of 1963 dawned hopeful for the Mets, who were confident they were an improved team. Then the Cardinals beat them 8-0 an opening day at the Polo Grounds. Said Stengel, "We're still a fraud."
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Baseball Anecdotes, Daniel Okrent & Steve Wulf

Copyright 1989 by Daniel Okrent

Published  by Oxford University Press (New York), 1989

14. The Colors of Baseball

For many years baseball teams wore flannel uniforms with conservative markings -- white at home and gray on the road. But new materials and styles of the '60s -- especially public acceptance of men wearing bright colors -- returned the baseball uniform to the rainbow days of the 19th century.

The first uniformed team, the New York Knickerbockers of 1849, wore long cricket-style pants, but the first professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings of 20 years later, began the tradition of wearing shorter pants and long colored stockings.

In the National League's first year, the Chicago White Stockings had a different colored hat for each player, including a red, white, and blue topping for pitcher/manager Al Spalding.

At its winter meeting of 1881, the league voted to have its clubs wear stockings of different colors: Cleveland dark blue, Providence light blue, Worcester brown, Buffalo gray, Troy green, Boston red, and Detroit yellow. Position players had to wear shirts, belts, and caps as follows: catchers scarlet, pitchers light blue, first basemen scarlet and white, second basemen orange and blue, third basemen blue and white, shortstops maroon, left fielders white, center fielders red and black, right fielders gray, and substitutes green and brown. Pants and ties were universally white and shoes were made of leather.

The plan caused too much confusion and was quickly dropped, but color remained part of the game. The Chicago White Stockings wore black uniforms and white neckties under Cap Anson in 1888 and had daily laundry service. The weekly Sporting Life complained that the pants were so tight they were "positively indecent."

In 1889 Pittsburgh wore new road uniforms consisting of black pants and shirt with an orange lace cord, an orange belt, and orange-and-black striped stockings.

The St. Louis Browns, whose nickname changed to the Cardinals when their uniforms took on more red, wore shirts with vertical stripes of brown and white, complete with matching caps.

Pre-1900 styles dictated lace shirts with collars and ties, open breast pockets, and occasionally red bandana handkerchiefs as good-luck tokens. John McGraw, manager of the Giants, was the first baseball official to order uniform shirts without collars, and he also discarded the breast pockets, which sometimes served as a resting place for a batted ball.

The Giants and Phillies started the trend of wearing white at home and dark, solid colors on the road and, in 1911, the concept of whites and grays became mandatory -- partly because it was sometimes hard to tell the home club from the visitors.

In an effort to lure fans to the ballpark, Charles Finley outfitted his Kansas City Athletics in green, gold, and white suits in the '60s and invited the scorn of the baseball world. Some of his own players expressed embarrassment at playing in "softball unforms." Others likened the suits to pajamas.

But the Finley concept of color -- which included mix-and-match combinations of caps, shirts, and pants -- caught on quickly. In 1971 the Pittsburgh Pirates introduced form-fitting double knits, complete with pullover tops, and six years later designed three sets of uniforms -- gold, black and striped -- that could be worn in nine different combinations.
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The Baseball Almanac, Dan Schlossberg

Copyright 2002 by Dan Schlossberg

Published by Triumph Books (Chicago), 2002

13. "I Beg Your Pardon"

My first memory of listening to Herb Score was in my basement. Herb was on the radio telling me about an Indians spring training game from Tucson or Mesa or somewhere. [S]pring training games were tough on Herb. He can -- how can this be said kindly? -- become easily confused. In the spring there are different players going in and out of the game every inning ... but Herb doesn't notice because he likes to sit with his back to the field between innings, working on his tan. But I forgive Herb. He has made a million mistakes, and so have the Indians. The only difference is that Herb is good-natured about it. On the air he sounds like the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet. Then you meet Herb, and guess what? He just may be the nicest guy you've ever met.

Herb Score has seen more Indians games than anyone, so it's no wonder he has trouble keeping things straight. Herb pitched for the Indians from 1955 to 1959. He returned to the team as a TV broadcaster in 1964, and he moved into the radio booth in 1968. That's five years playing for the Tribe and thirty more as a broadcaster.

"Herb Score has probably watched more bad baseball than anyone in the history of the game," said Joe Tait, one of his partners on radio. Maybe that's why Score's descriptions are like no others. Try some of these:

"There's a two-hopper to Kuiper who fields it on the first bounce."

"Swing and miss, called strike three."

"There's a fly ball deep to right field. Is it fair? Is it foul? It is!"

He called pitcher Efrain Valdez, "Efrem Zimbalist, Jr."

Growing up listening to Herb, then working for him for five years, Nev Chandler is a Herb Score catalog.

"One game we were playing Boston at the Stadium, and the Tribe was losing 7-4 in the bottom of the eighth," said Chandler. "The Indians had the bases loaded, two outs. Andre Thornton hit a fly ball down the left field line. It appeared to have the distance for a homer. The only question was whether it would stay in fair territory. But Boston's Jim Rice went deep into the corner, timed his leap perfectly -- I saw him catch the ball and bring it back into the park. Suddenly Herb yelled, 'And that ball is gone. A grand slam home run for Andre Thornton. That is Thornton's twenty-second home run of the year and the Indians lead, 8-7.'

"As Herb was saying this, he wasn't looking at the field. He was marking his scorebook. I saw Rice running in with the baseball. Herb was still talking about the home run. I snapped my fingers, and Herb looked up to see the Red Sox leaving the field.

"Herb said, 'I beg your pardon. Nev, what happened? Did Rice catch the ball?'

"Trying to bail Herb out, I said, 'Rice made a spectacular catch. He went up and over the wall and took the home run away. It was highway robbery.'

"Herb said, 'I thought the ball had disappeared into the seats. Well, I beg your pardon. The Indians do not take the lead. After eight innings, it is Boston 7, Cleveland 4.'

"Then we went to commercial, and Herb acted as if nothing had happened. I would have been completely flustered. But Herb just corrects himself and keeps going."

That is why Indians fans love Herb Score. He is unpretentious, making his way through games as best he can. He's just Herb being Herb, and being Herb Score sometimes means taking strange verbal sidetrips. When Albert Belle hit a home run into the upper deck in left field that supposedly went 430 feet, Score asked, "How do they know it went 430 feet? Do they measure where the ball landed? Or do they estimate where the ball would have landed if the upper deck hadn't been there? And if there had been no upper deck, then how do they know how far the ball would have gone?"

Score answered none of those age-old questions of the baseball universe. He was just wondering about it one moment, and then it was forgotten by him the next.

But not by Indians fans. One of their favorite pastimes is to tell one another what Herb said the night before. One of my favorites:

CHANDLER: "That base hit makes Cecil Cooper 19-for-42 against the Tribe this year."

SCORE: "I'm not good at math, but even I know that is over .500."

Well, it's not quite. But I'll give Herb the benefit of the doubt.

The Curse of Rocky Colavito, Terry Pluto

Copyright 1994 by Terry Pluto

Published by Fireside (New York), 1995

IMAGE: Herb Score chatting with a fan

12. They Played the Game (1)

Babe Adams
(1906-26)
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Except for a single game he lost for St. Louis in 1906, Adams pitched his entire major league career with Pittsburgh. After a brief stay with the Pirates in 1907, the quiet Hoosier rejoined the team as a 27-year-old rookie in 1909 and helped them win the pennant with a 12-3 mark. The Pirates went into the World Series against Ty Cobb and the Detroit Tigers with staff ace Howie Camnitz laid up with tonsilitis. Even though Adams ranked fifth on the club in wins, manager Fred Clarke chose him as the opening game pitcher....Adams won Game One 4-1, Game 5 8-4, and, on two day's rest, clinched the series 8-0 to become the first pitcher to win three games in a seven-game series.
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Over the next half-dozen years, Adams was the Pirates' ace, winning 22 games in 1911 and 21 in 1913. A sore arm threatened his career in 1916, and he returned to the minors. He was 34-16 in less than two minor league seasons before the Pirates brought him back. In both 1919 and 1920 he posted 17-win totals. He led the NL with eight shutouts in 1920. In 1925, when he was a 43-year-old reliever, he made another World Series appearance, pitching one scoreless inning against the Senators.
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Adams was never a hard thrower and his sore arm cost him what speed he had, but he could put the ball exactly where he wanted to. In 1920, he walked only 18 men in 263 innings. He allowed a mere 430 bases on balls for his career.

BORN 5.18.1882, Tipton, IN.     194-140, .276

Fred Dunlap

(1880-1890)
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In ten NL seasons, the slick-fielding Dunlap at various times led NL second basemen in all fielding categories and twice batted over .300. But his greatest year was 1884 when, playing for powerhouse St. Louis [Maroons] in the short-lived Union Association, he led UA second basemen in all five fielding categories while leading the league in BA (his .412 was 52 points above that of the next-best hitter), slugging (.621), runs (160), and HR (13). His 160 runs scored set a new ML record, and still rank fourteenth-best of all time. [Nicknamed "Sure Shot"]
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BORN 5.21.1859, Philadelphia, PA     .292, 41, 366

Frank Selee

(1890-1905)
..

A balding little man with a modest demeanor and a formidable mustache that gave his face a melancholy cast, Frank Selee compiled the fourth-best managerial percentage, .598, in baseball history. His Boston teams won five pennants. In a sixteen-year career he never finished lower than fifth. Twelve of his players are in the Hall of Fame. A good case can be made for five or six others....
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His teams were expert at such maneuvers as the hit-and-run, the 3-6-3 double play, and defensive shifts and signals. Yet his most remarkable talent was recognizing not only a player's potential, but the proper position for him to play. He converted, among others, catcher Frank Chance to first base, shortstop Johnny Evers to second base, and third baseman Joe Tinker to shortstop.
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In 1905, desperately ill with tuberculosis, he surrendered the team to Chance. Chicago won pennants of the four next five years. Of thirteen key players on Selee's squad Chance inherited, eight still were regulars in 1910. [Selee was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999.]

BORN 10.26.1859, Denver, CO     Managerial record: 1284-862

George Foster

(1969-86)
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Foster excelled in track, football, and baseball at El Camino College in California, drawing the attention of the Giants, who made him their third pick in the January 1968 draft. It took seven seasons in the majors and minors, with two organizations, before Foster arrived in Cincinnati. The 6'1" 180-lb outfielder soon became an important cog in the Big Red Machine of the 1970s.
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Foster became a regular in 1975. A mediocre fielder at best, Foster had a strong but inaccurate arm. He was a better than average baserunner. But he made a name for himself as a powerful, productive hitter who had five of the best seasons of any player of his time. Foster's three consecutive RBI championships (1976-78) tied a ML record. In 1977, his MVP year, he hit .320 with 149 RBI and 124 runs and blasted 52 HR to become only the seventh NL player to hit 50 or more in a season. He hit three straight homers in a July 14 game that season, and his 31 road homers set the ML record for righthanded batters. In 1978 Foster again led the NL with 40 HR.
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After eleven seasons and three World Series with Cincinnati, Foster was traded to the Mets in 1982....He hit just 13 HR that year, 28 the next, and was considered a disappointment. Word got around among NL pitchers that he wouldn't lay off low curveballs, and he regularly struck out on curves in the dirt. Foster was released by the Mets in August of their World Championship 1986 season. The struggling veteran, hitting .227 at the time, claimed he was the victim of racism, but he failed to regain his stroke after the White Sox picked him up. He retired tied for tenth in career grand slams with 13.

BORN 12.1.48, Tuscaloosa, AL     .274, 348, 1239     All-Star 1976-79, 1981
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Owen Friend

(1949-50, 53, 55-56)
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Friend was a utility man whose early ability prompted comparison to Rogers Hornsby at the plate and Eddie Stanky in the field. He modeled himself after Joe Gordon. The result was still Owen Friend, and that was less than major league caliber.
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BORN 3.21.27, Granite City, IL     .227, 13, 73


The Ballplayers, Mike Shatzkin (ed)

Copyright 1990, Mike Shatzkin & Jim Charlton

Arbor House/William Morrow, New York