Posted on 05/25/2018 12:15:08 PM PDT by a little elbow grease
In 1959 Harvey Haddix pitched perhaps the best game ever — and lost BOB DVORCHAK In his later years with the Pirates, after he was the pitching coach for the 1979 champions and before the baseball bureaucracy no longer recognized his game, Harvey Haddix reflected on the most extraordinary game ever pitched.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
I was 12 years old, my brother 14 years old. We were fans. This is what happened that night.
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In 1959 Harvey Haddix pitched perhaps the best game ever — and lost
BOB DVORCHAK
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Perfection then yielded to the bizarre in the unlucky 13th inning when an error broke the spell. Following a sacrifice and an intentional walk, Joe Adcock hit a high slider out of the park for Milwaukee's only hit. But what should have been a three-run home run morphed into a one-run double.
A script with such zaniness would be summarily rejected. Yet it actually was a dark and stormy night, with a surreal backdrop of jagged bolts of lightning and wind and rain. Suddenly, a perfect game broke out. And the ending was so flawed that the events of May 26, 1959, could only be called perfect theater.
"There's never been a game like this," said Bill Virdon, the Pirates center fielder that night.
As Mr. Haddix wove his masterpiece, Lew Burdette also went the distance, scattering 12 singles without walking a batter. He was bailed out by three double plays, which the participants say were induced by his spitball. ----- "I have to be the greatest pitcher who ever pitched," the Milwaukee pitcher would say in later years, "because I beat the guy who pitched the greatest game ever pitched." LOL
In pregame preparations, Mr. Haddix, 33, noted how he intended to pitch against a team that had won two consecutive National League pennants and that included Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron, Joe Adcock, Wes Covington, Del Crandall, et al.
"If you do what you say you're going to do, Harv, you'll pitch a no-hitter," said third baseman Don Hoak. ---- Laughter rippled through the clubhouse at the thought.
The Pirates would play without two future MVPs that night. Dick Groat was benched because he was slumping. Roberto Clemente, burdened with various ailments, didn't start a game between May 19 and July 9.
Pitch counts and radar guns had yet to invade the sport, but according to the Western Union account, Mr. Haddix threw 115 pitches -- 82 of them for strikes. The most he threw in an inning was 14 in the 12th when he was tiring.
Not a single Braves hitter could solve the lively fastball, sharp slider or deceptive curve being thrown with pinpoint control.
Teammates in the dugout were awed.
"He was like a machine. We were breathing with him on every pitch," said pitcher Bob Friend. "It was the best game I ever saw pitched."
"Harvey was magnificent that day. He was throwing strikes, getting ahead of the hitters," the Braves shortstop, Mr. Logan said. "Everybody on our bench wanted it to be a solid hit. We didn't want it to end on anything cheap."
Like his Pirate teammates, Mr. Schofield knew something special was unfolding. "It seemed like every time I'd glance up at the scoreboard, there were two strikes on the batter and there were two outs," he said.
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Baseball had its superstitions, and the closest anyone came to mentioning all the obvious zeroes on the scoreboard was when Mr. Haddix came to bat in the ninth. Through his catcher's mask, Del Crandall said: "Say, you're pitching a pretty good game." ---LOL
There was no TV that night, but Bob Prince gave hints all night. "Don't go away," he told a rapt radio audience. "We are on the verge of baseball history." Nine innings were complete when Mr. Burdette became the eighth and final strikeout victim. The County Stadium crowd of 19,194, which included a younger Bud Selig, the current commissioner of Major League Baseball, rose as one to salute Mr. Haddix. But it wasn't over.
By phone after the game, Mr. Burdette told Mr. Haddix he deserved to win. And in that droll manner that once defined baseball players, he told the man who had just lost a one-hitter: "You have to learn how to spread your hits out." LOL
God bless baseball.
Nothing like listening to our baseball team on the transistor radio. I was even intrigued getting far away games on the AM dial.
GREAT article. WOW! R.I.P. Harvey. Thank you, sir.
love (a kid in the ‘50’s rooting for the Tigers)
That was a terrific article! I’ve been a big baseball fan since 1961 and, of course, knew that Haddix had pitched a no-hitter for more than 9 innings and lost. I didn’t realize that he was perfect through 12, and lost it in the 13th. The writer did a great job in explaining what it would have been like to have been there, and it is a story for the ages.
Legendary, to be sure
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Thank you for reading it. It was a beautiful article and I am constantly happy that sportswriters referred to players as "Mr". quite often back then.
Such a difference to today.
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I hear you. Sometimes I think baseball is better listening to it on the radio.
Thank you for your input.
love (a kid in the ‘50’s rooting for the Tigers)
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William Earnest "Ernie" Harwell one fantastic announcer!!! You were very lucky to hear him all the years.
Good Grief!!!
Grats and all to Haddix, what a performance. Will never be dupllicated.
But did you notice....on May 26th of that year, May 26th!!-Hank Aaron was batting .453!
Baseball retroactively decided it was no longer a no-hitter.
I guess because eventually the Braves did get a hit and won the game. I think it was classified as a perfect game for many years because he was perfect for the first nine innings.
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Yes I did, Milwaukee had a hell of a lineup. They had won the N.L pennant the previous two years. They were loaded.
It was a magnificent night on the crumby little radio here in the "Burgh.
My mother...... a crazy fan ....... was down in the kitchen in our house the entire night trying to keep my brother and me upstairs ......... so as to not ruin the good VIBES.
LOL
In the early 60s a reporter asked Drysdale, who had gone ahead of the team to get ready for the upcoming road game, if he had heard about Koufax pitching a no hitter. His response? “Did they win?”
Nothing like listening to our baseball team on the transistor radio. I was even intrigued getting far away games on the AM dial.
I’m with you. As a kid growing up in Maryland, I tuned the AM radio every night during baseball season to listen to faraway games. I recall hearing the Reds on WLW, Tiger games on WJR, White Sox on WMAQ, Cubs on WGN, and Harry Caray on KMOX in St. Louis when he was still the Cardinals announcer. Good times.
I still sometimes listen to AM radio at night, to see what out of town signals I can pull in.
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Yes...... yes.............. making baseball nearly as ignorant then as the NFL is behaving today.
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LOL
Koufax and Drysdale were so great for a long time......... however I was at a twi-night double header at Forbes Field around 1967. Koufax and Drysdale pitched against the Pirates.
We (the Pirates) won both games. Our catcher Jim Pagliaroni smoked a ball off the scoreboard in left field to win the second game. Pretty cool.
Koufax's curveball that night was fantastic. We had seats about 11 rows back behind the Pirate dugout/first base line. That curveball was bizarre.
He was also a great pitching coach for the Cards.
Dick Groat is a Hall of Famer????
Oh, right,... shortstop.
Only shortstops with .282 averages and no power make it to the HOF. No-one else does. I’m not disagreeing with Groat; Rizzuto is also in the Hall of Fame, and their numbers are similar. I love Rizzuto for his broadcasting, but both are two old for me to have judged their play in person.
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We used to tune into them often ......... for some reason that station (KMOX) came in strong here in Pittsburgh.
A shortstop is the position most likely to get in the Hall of Fame, despite the fact that any player with any offensive numbers at all usually was moved away from shortstop for a specialist. (Since the 90s, this has changed.)
Cal Ripken, Jr. and Robin Yount were the first shortstops who could hit the ball AT ALL.
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