60 YEARS AGO/9: DISASTER AT CROSLEY FIELD + "HALLER v. BAILEY"

After splitting their initial skirmishes at Candlestick Park, the Giants and Dodgers moved east. For Walt Alston's team, it was a reminder that the back end of their starting rotation was more than a bit shaky.

19-year old Joe Moeller got the start at Cincinnati's Crosley Field, which had a "terraced outfield" capable of more than occasional mischief, particularly for visiting players. For young Moeller, however, the outfield wasn't really the problem--it was a combination of his shaky control and Vada Pinson. The "teenage monster" issued two walks before Pinson slammed a three-run homer in the bottom of the first. 

It wasn't until the second inning when the slanted outfield came into play, when Frank Howard misplayed Johnny Edwards' liner into a double. Things fell apart rapidly for Moeller, who got little help from Ed Roebuck, who proved incapable of stranding the men Moeller had left on the basepaths when Alston gave him a not-quick-enough "quick hook." It was 6-0 Reds after two innings, and things went further downhill for Roebuck and his successor Phil Ortega.

Tommy Davis' two errors in center field convinced Alston that he needed to put the other Davis--Willie--back into the field. (Willie was still being held out against lefties at this point, and the Reds had started southpaw Jim O'Toole, who was mowing down the beleaguered "boys in blue" on this evening.) Tommy would start only three more games in center field during the course of the '62 season. 

O'Toole wound up with nine strikeouts and allowed only four hits. Final score: Reds 14, Dodgers 0.

THE Giants were in Milwaukee, where Henry Aaron emerged from his slump (his second HR of the year) and Willie Mays continued to struggle (0-for-4, hitting just .219). Still, the Giants had a 4-3 lead going into the eighth thanks in part to a two-run homer by rookie catcher Tom Haller, who would emerge as manager Al Dark's favorite over the course of the season.

But Stu Miller, who'd been virtually invincible in 1961 (14-5 record in relief, 2.66 ERA, 12th in MVP voting), had a nightmarish eighth inning, finally surrendering the go-ahead runs via a single from light-hitting second baseman Frank Bolling. Final score: Braves 6, Giants 4.

Dark's championing of Haller over veteran Ed Bailey is one of those hard-to-explain "insider baseball" scenarios that would seem to defy any form of analysis. Despite a poor year in 1961 split between the big club (where he hit .145) and AAA (where he hit .205), Dark kept Haller as his #2 catcher in '62 ahead of another seemingly more promising prospect (Johnny Orsino, who'd hit over .300 in AAA). 

But whatever Dark saw in Haller panned out, at least offensively: he would massively exceed expectations at the plate in '62, winding up with a OPS just under .900, and he would supplant Bailey as the starting catcher, despite the fact that the Giants won much more frequently in '62 when Bailey was the starting backstop. Consider: in Bailey's 69 starts at catcher during 1962, the Giants posted a 51-18 record; with Haller as the starting catcher, their record was just 44-39. (Bailey would have one of his best seasons in 1963, only to get traded to the Braves along with Felipe Alou as part of the systematic self-sabotage that would plague the Giants in the mid-to-late 1960s. It's even more bizarre to note that Bailey was actually reacquired by the Giants after the '64 season, only to be jettisoned again in mid-1965 after a slow start.)

As my old pal Gary Daer would say: go figure.

SEASON RECORDS: SFG 6-3, LAD 5-4.