Posted on 05/24/2006 12:20:38 PM PDT by beyond the sea
I will never forget that night in late May of 1959................................. my mother was a big baseball fan and so were my brother and I. We were all sitting around late that night listening to the Pirate game on the radio in Pittsburgh................. as thunder was heard and lightening seen in the sky in the late innings at old County Stadium in Milwaukee. It was the night of (imo) baseball’s greatest pitching performance --- 12 perfect innings of pitching.
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/boxscore/05261959.shtml
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Thirty-six consecutive batters were retired by Harvey Haddix before the thirteenth inning — when it all ended on an error, an intentional walk of Hank Aaron, then a double.
Don Hoak, who was charged with the error in the thirteenth inning, said before the game, "That was a pretty good run down (pre-game discussion). If you pitch that way, you'll have a no hitter."
After the game, Lew Burdette (Milwaukee's pitcher) told the media, "I called Harvey that night in the visiting clubhouse. I told him 'I realize I got what I wanted, a win, but I'd really give it up because you pitched the greatest game that's ever been pitched in the history of baseball. It was a damned shame you had to lose.' "
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http://archive.sportingnews.com/baseball/25moments/19.html
Harvey Haddix had gone unto uncharted baseball territory. Haddix had pitched a perfect game for nine innings against Milwaukee, but the Pirates had failed to score against Braves starter Lew Burdette. The game went into extra innings and Haddix continued to set the Braves down in order. In the bottom of the 13th, Haddix's perfect game came to an end when Felix Mantilla reached on an error and Hank Aaron was intentionally walked. Braves first baseman Joe Adcock hit a 1-0 pitch from Haddix that just crept over the 375-foot mark in right-center. Haddix was the losing pitcher despite what many consider the greatest pitching performance in history.
Two balls hit by Milwaukee shortstop Johnny Logan were tricky. In the third inning, Pirates shortstop Dick Schofield robbed Logan with a leaping catch of a line drive. In the sixth, Logan's grounder into the hole took a bad hop, but Schofield reacted to the ball, caught it with his bare hand and threw out Logan at first.
Milwaukee's Del Rice and Eddie Mathews each sent center fielder Bill Virdon to the fence with long fly balls in the 10th.
The Pirates had Burdette in trouble the whole game but never were able to score despite 12 hits. In the third inning, the Pirates had three hits, but Roman Mejas was thrown out at third base. The Braves also turned three double plays.
Mother Nature had a serious impact on the game in the seventh inning. Pittsburgh's Bob Skinner hit a deep fly to right field that appeared to be a home run. However, a storm had been brewing beyond right field the inning before. During Skinner's at-bat, the wind picked up and knocked down his fly ball, allowing Aaron, the right fielder, to make the catch with his back to the wall.
The final score changed twice. When Adcock homered, it appeared the Braves had won 3-0. However, Aaron didn't think Adcock's hit got over the wall and when he saw Mantilla cross the plate with the winning run, Aaron touched second base and headed toward the dugout. Adcock, running with his head down, passed second base before frantic Milwaukee coaches could pull Aaron back on the field.
The umpires ruled Adcock had passed Aaron and awarded Milwaukee a 2-0 victory, nullifying a run. The matter was referred the next day to National League president Warren Giles, who changed the final score to 1-0, ruling that when Adcock passed Aaron, his potential home run became a double and only Mantilla's run counted.
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One heck of a night for a 12 year old boy..................... the greatest pitched game ever.
Two days from today will be the anniversary.
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Harvey Haddix (The Kitten)
............ and prayers for Bararo's health.
Nicknamed "the Kitten" at St. Louis for his resemblance to Harry "the Cat" Brecheen...
Ping
I was told over the years that he had that nickname because of his cat-like quickness on the mound! He was the greatest defensive pitcher in the league.
He never let a ball get back up through the middle for a hit.
You may be right about what you said about Brecheen, but Bob Prince (the great Pirate announcer) named him 'the kitten' in Pittsburgh because of his incredible quickness on the mound. Maybe he had that name for various reasons, though.
;-)
ahhh... you have to love the days when starting pitchers kept pitching regardless of the pitch count...
I remember back in the 70's... Nolan Ryan would throw 200+ pitches in a game. Nowadays, the starters get yanked after 100 pitches or so.
;-)
BTW. It was the same radio I would use the next year to listen to the World Series during class -- I shudder to think what those nuns would have done to me if they knew I had that radio hidden under my shirt with the wire going up my sleeve and the earphone hidden in my hand.
July 19, 1955: Pirate hurler Vern Law pitches 18 innings in beating Milwaukee 4-3, giving up just nine hits and fanning 12.
YOI!
LOL............... I think I had that same little black transistor radio in my hand in October of '60 when Maz smoked the homerun over Yogi's head. I was playing in a soccer game in Blawnox that memorable afternoon.............. transistor radio in hand and tightly up to my ear. The coach didn't mind!
LOL!
Resemblance in that they were both outstanding at fielding hard hit balls back to the mound. Two of the best fielding pitchers ever to play the game. Breacheen was a big guy who they said had the reflexes of a cat. Haddix was a small guy, hence the Kitten.
We were lucky. The nuns at my grade school were big baseball fans and allowed us to watch game 7 in the assembly hall.
I remember walking home from the ball fields and I heard the start of the game from someone's radio playing KDKA on their porch and so i hurried home to tune in.
I remember being in bed and calling downstairs to my dad that Haddix had a no-hitter after 4 or 5 innings. He said something like, "that's nice" and continued watching his TV program.
I called down a few innings later, and he switched over to listen to the game on his transistor radio .
Great memory. Thanks BTS.
Then they couldn't have been Dominicans. ;~))
They were Daughters of Charity. But don't let the name fool you. A couple of them were really mean. I live in Cardinal Nation, though, and we've always been big fans.
Where (and when) I grew up, radios were the main source for baseball games. One's imagination filled in for what the teevees would later reveal, and live games were considered too far away for the most part. My grandparents would have the family over for dinner, and three or four radios would be going at once. Heaven help the kid(s) who created a ruckus in the livingroom, where the radios were all set up!
Thanks for the ping, great article.
LOL ........ makes fine sense!!!
Yes, rwa265.
As I always say, "Back in the 50's and 60's ........ the rain delays during Pirate games were more entertaining than the game on the radio. Prince and Jim 'Possum' Woods and Nellie King were that incredibly funny tossing around old stories of baseball lore. I loved those rain delays.
Where was that...... may I ask?
Cool nuns.
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