Lefty Dick LeMay had pitched creditably for the Giants in 1961, coming up in mid-season and creating a scrapbook memory for himself by throwing a complete game to beat Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals.
But he was the odd man out in '62 when the Giants acquired Billy Pierce, and found himself in the minors when rosters were cut down to 25 men. He returned briefly in mid-June, but pitched poorly and was quickly sent back to AAA.
He returned in September and pitched well in a mop-up role vs. the Pirates on 9/17 (the "Bury Me Elmo" game). On 9/20, the Giants found themselves in a tight game against the Cardinals, trying to hang on to a 4-3 lead that Bobby Bolin had just barely preserved in the bottom of the seventh, when Fred Whitfield sent Willie Mays to the center-field wall in Busch Stadium to haul in his long two-out blast with the bases loaded.
In the eighth, Bolin allowed a baserunner, and Cards manager Johnny Keane sent lefty masher Carl Sawatski to the plate as a pinch-hitter. Dark countered by bringing in lefty LeMay, prompting Keane to switch to a lesser hitter with the platoon advantage (Charlie James, who'll make a much bigger splash in tomorrow's entry). James hit the ball hard to center, but Mays snagged it in right-center. LeMay then induced Julian Javier to ground out to strand Gary Kolb (the potential tying run) at third base.
The Giants failed to score in the top of the ninth, and Dark decided to stick with LeMay instead of going to his inconsistent relief ace Stu Miller. First up for the Cards in the bottom of the ninth was Curt Flood, who slapped a 1-0 pitch into left for a single. Next up: Stan Musial. LeMay fell behind 2-and-0, then landed two screwballs to move the count to 2-2. He then tried to throw a fastball by Musial, but Stan was ready for it and lined a single to right, moving Flood to third.
Dark left LeMay in to face Bill White (platoon advantage still intact). But Dick picked the moment after he'd gotten ahead of White 0-1 to break his hands improperly when stepping off the rubber in an attempt to confuse pinch-runner Mike Shannon.
The balk allowed Flood to score the tying run and moved Shannon to second. Dark came to the mound immediately and removed LeMay. Don Larsen replaced him, and issued an intentional walk to White to create a force play at any base. But Ken Boyer, whose throwing error in the sixth had allowed the Giants to score two unearned runs, slapped Larsen's first pitch into left field for a game-winning single. Final score: Cardinals 5, Giants 4.
LeMay made one more appearance for the Giants in '62, when Dark had run out of pitchers during the second playoff game. He walked the only man he faced, and over the off-season, the Giants decided they wanted Joey Amalfitano back so that they could platoon him at second base with Chuck Hiller. They sent LeMay and a spare outfielder to Houston for him. That spare outfielder? Manny Mota.
Dick LeMay would bounce to the Cubs, where he'd be ineffective in '63 and would return to the minors, winding up in the Cardinals' system, pitching well for six years at the AAA level but never getting another shot in the big leagues.
THE Dodgers had an off-day on 9/20, traveling from Milwaukee to St. Louis, but they made some big news when it was announced that Sandy Koufax would start his first game since being sidelined by his finger injury the next night at Busch Stadium.
