60 YEARS AGO/20: A TALE OF TWO BOBS

First things first: the complete April log for the Giants and Dodgers is at right. The Giants ended the month with a six-game winning streak that isn't going to end for awhile. The Dodgers ran into some issues with their offense toward the end of the month that caused them to lose ground. 

Going into action on Tuesday, May 1, 1962, the two teams' record in their previous ten games were as follows: Giants were 8-2; Dodgers 6-4. 

Your question to ponder as we move into May is as follows: the two teams lost on the same day three times during April. How often will they do so in May?

However many it might be, it didn't happen on May 1. The two games featured brief appearances from two very different players named Bob whose careers proved to be going in different directions.

Bob Veale, an imposing (6'6") but seriously wild left-hander, was the Pirates' starter against the Giants in San Francisco. He struck out the side in the first, and Pittsburgh bunched three singles from Donn Clendenon, Johnny Temple, and Bill Mazeroski to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the second. 

But the Giants would strike back for three runs in the bottom of the second, aided by a wild pitch from Veale. Orlando Cepeda would take Veale deep with his seventh homer of the year in the bottom of the third; the big bespectacled lefty would be knocked out of the game in the following inning. 

That was all Billy O'Dell needed, as he kept the Bucs at bay until the ninth inning, closing out the Giants' seventh consecutive win. Final score: Giants 4, Pirates 2.

Veale wasn't quite ready for the big leagues in '62, but he'd return the following year as a reliever and post a 1.04 ERA with his walk totals reduced in part due to the change in the strike zone. Starting in 1964, he would become one of the most imposing power pitchers of the decade, striking out 250 batters and winning 18 games. While his control remained spotty (he led the NL in walks allowed in four separate seasons), he would post a 120-95 record for his career.

DOWN in Los Angeles, the Dodgers and Cubs played deep into the night in a game that took sixteen innings and over five hours to complete. Legendary longtime Dodger announcer Vin Scully began a "curfew watch" in the fourteenth inning as the game advanced past midnight.

The Dodgers took a 2-0 lead when Andy Carey doubled in Willie Davis and starting pitcher Don Drysdale singled home Carey. But Big D gave back those runs in the third on a two-run single from Billy Williams.

In the bottom of the fifth, LA manufactured a run when Maury Wills, who'd hit into a force out (Drysdale's second hit--Big D could swing the bat), stole second and came home on a Jim Gilliam single to give the Dodgers a 3-2 lead.

The Cubs mounted a complex but ultimately fruitless rally in the top of the seventh that brought our "second Bob" into play. With one out and two men on base (singles from George Altman and Andre Rodgers), Dodger catcher Norm Sherry tried to pick off Altman--but the ball skipped past Maury Wills and into center field, putting two potential go-ahead runs into scoring position. The batter, pinch-hitter Moe Morhardt (who'd amass less than 40 lifetime plate appearances in MLB), hit a blistering one-hopper to first base that Wally Moon somehow snagged with his back to home plate: Dodger #2 broadcaster Jerry Doggett, upon seeing the play, blurted out "I don't believe what I just saw." The baserunners, apparently as stunned as Doggett, did not advance.

That was the second out. The Cubs then sent chunky, bespectacled outfielder Bob Will to the plate to bat for their starting pitcher, 21-year old Cal Koonce. Will, a Chicago native, had been ballyhooed for years after a splashy showing in a national high school playoff game in 1949, and was signed by the Cubs in 1955 after an impressive four-year career at Northwestern. A line drive .300+ hitter with excellent strike zone judgment in the minors, Will had famously struggled when brought up to the big club, finally turning in a passable season in 1960, only to be relegated to the bench the following year. (Perhaps the ongoing effect of Will's slow failure to thrive in the majors can be seen in the expression on his face in his baseball card photo.)

Runners at second and third with two out, with his team trailing 3-2: here was a chance to deliver a timely hit, and possibly escape the pinch-hitting ghetto into which Will had been relegated. But that open base beckoned to the Dodgers brain trust: Walt Alston ordered an intentional walk for Will, and his moment passed. Drysdale then faced rookie Lou Brock, younger (age 22), speedier, and ultimately a much more dangerous hitter. Drysdale got two strikes on Lou, then nibbled: on the seventh pitch, Brock flew out to left to end the Cubs' threat.

(Bob Will was sent to the minors the following year by the Cubs, never to return. He promptly hit .370 at AAA, but retired the following year after the Cubs threw him into a trade for the washed-up Lew Burdette. He landed on his feet back in Chicago, becoming the vice-president at a local bank.)

But the Cubs, en route to one of two dismal seasons they'd have in the 60s (103 losses in this year and in 1966), still had some fight left in them on May 1, 1962. When Willie Davis dropped Ernie Banks' pop fly in center field, allowing Mr. Cub to make it to second, George Altman--continuing to build on his breakout season in '61 (27 HRs, .303 BA)--promptly singled him home, tying the game at 3-3.

And that's where the game remained knotted for the next seven innings as a series of relievers pitched on into the night: Don Elston, Bob Anderson and Barney Schultz for the Cubs; Larry Sherry, Ron Perranoski, and Pete Richert for the Dodgers. It was Richert who weakened in the top of the fifteenth, his third inning of work: backup catcher Moe Thacker and the soon-to-be-starcrossed Ken Hubbs singled in runs to give the Cubs a 5-3 lead.

Which lecd to a furious-but-curious Dodger rally in the bottom of the inning--begun by the rhyming combo of Carey and Sherry--each singling, which sendt Schultz to the showers in favor of Tony Balsamo (making the seventh of his eighteen lifetime major league appearances). Balsamo comes within an eyelash of bringing home a win for the Cubs, but Maury Wills beats the throw to first on a double-play grounder, and promptly steals second, putting the tying runs into scoring position. After Gilliam walks to load the bases, Wally Moon hits Tony's first pitch into center field to tie the score at 5-5. (That first win in the big leagues would remain forever elusive for Balsamo.)

Exit Balsamo; enter struggling starter Glen Hobbie, who issues an intentional walk to Duke Snider, loading the bases (Gilliam at third, Moon at second). Frank Howard bats with the game on the line. Hondo, overswinging, flails at Hobbie's first two deliveries. Alston then has a moment of creative panic, and signals to have Gilliam steal home on the next pitch. But Gilliam is not Maury Wills, and is nailed at the plate...and the game moves on to the sixteenth inning.

Ed Roebuck takes over for the Dodgers and gets the Cubs out in the top of the inning. Hobbie starts the bottom of the sixteenth by getting into trouble (walk to Daryl Spencer, an infield topper beaten out by Willie Davis). He gets a break when Carey's bunt is hit too hard and Spencer is forced at third, but he then has to face the Dodgers' most secret of all secret weapons: third-string catcher Doug Camilli, a perfect 1-for-1 at the plate thus far in 1962.

Camilli stays perfect, slapping a single to center, scoring Davis, thus beating the curfew and the Cubs in one fell swoop. The Chicago brain trust--the bizarre entity known (and mocked) as the "College of Coaches"--reels one more time as the team's record falls to 4-17. Final score: Dodgers 6, Cubs 5.

SEASON RECORDS: SFG 16-5, STL 12-4, PIT 13-6, LAD 14-8, PHI 8-9, CIN 9-11, HOU 7-9, MIL 8-11, NYM 3-14, CHC 4-17