60 YEARS AGO/155: ONE HUNDRED & SIXTY-TWO IS NOT ENOUGH...

Pitcher's duels were front and center on 9/30/62, the ostensible end of the baseball season that year. Things were wrapped up in the American League: the New York Yankees, after a period of sluggish play (and with less "slugg-ish" heroics from the "M&M boys"--63 homers between them, as opposed to 115 in 1961) had pulled things together once again...and, like everyone else, awaited the outcome of the Giants-Dodgers marathon.

The two Sunday afternoon games would take time to unfold, and would not be decided until the late innings. In San Francisco, Turk Farrell tempted fate and took the ball from Houston Colts' manager Harry Craft despite having already lost 19 times; the hard-luck hurler shrugged, suggesting that "20 is a nice round number no matter which side of the ledger it appears on." 

For the Giants, Billy O'Dell had a shot at winning his 20th. "Whatever happens, happens," he said to reporters before the game. "We just need to win, period."

Ed Bailey, part of the Giants' curious all left-handed catcher platoon, hit his 17th homer off Farrell in the fourth. Roman Mejias, Bob Aspromonte, and Jim Pendleton slapped together three singles off O'Dell to the game in the top of the sixth. 

O'Dell's chance for twenty wins ended when he was pinch-hit for by the other lefty-hitting catcher on the Giants, Tom Haller, with men on first and third and one out in the bottom of the seventh. Haller's fly to short right was too short to score the tie-breaking run, but Colts' right fielder Roman Mejias threw home anyway, allowing Chuck Hiller to scamper from first to second to put two runners in scoring position. But Matty Alou popped out to end the threat.

It was up to Willie Mays to push the Giants into place to lock down their 101st win: he left off the bottom of the eighth with his 47th homer of the year off Farrell, who kicked up some dust on the pitcher's mound as the ball left the park. Stu Miller retired the Colts in order in the ninth, and the entire city of San Francisco awaited the news from down south. Final score: Giants 2, Colts 1.

DOWN in LA, the Dodgers still couldn't hit worth a lick. But their veteran lefty Johnny Podres was matching pitches with the Cardinals' crafty southpaw Curt Simmons in a game that saw goose-eggs register on the scoreboard for seven consecutive innings. 

LA wasn't helping itself much when someone made a hit, either. In the second, Lee Walls ran his team out of an inning when he tried to stretch his bloop hit down the right field line into a double: Charlie James threw him out. In the bottom of the seventh, Tommy Davis was picked off by Simmons to foil another scoring threat. 

And then, in the top of the eighth, Podres left a 1-2 fastball up to catcher Gene Oliver, who launched a laser beam to left field that left the park like a lightning bolt. Though it was only the first run of the game, it somehow seemed definitive: Simmons retired the Dodgers in order in their last two turns at bat, and LA was on its way to SF. Manager Walt Alston wordlessly waved off reporters as the team boarded the bus that took them to the airport. They'd be playing the Giants in a best-of-three playoff series in less than twenty-four hours. Final score: Cardinals 1, Dodgers 0.

SEASON RECORDS: SFG 101-61, LAD 101-61