The 1970s

            Dock Ellis threw a no-hitter in San Diego on June 12, 1970, almost two years before this game.    Ellis is remembered now mostly for his often-exaggerated claim to have pitched the no-hitter while on LSD.   Within the baseball community, he is remembered for other things, like his friendship with Donald Hall and the time he opened the game by hitting the first three batters with pitches, and trying unsuccessfully to hit the next two.   And the fact that he was a damned good pitcher.

            The no-hitter was the first game of a double-header; this game was the second of a double-header.   Ellis departed after pitching 9 innings of 2-hit, shutout baseball.   The Pirates were doing much better; they had four hits off of Clay Kirby, but no runs.

            Ellis, D, was replaced by Giutsti, D, and then a string of pitchers in an anonymous-names competition: Bob Miller, Bob Johnson, Ramon Hernandez.    Which Bob Miller, which Bob Johnson and which Ramon Hernandez would probably take a half-hour to figure out, but they all pitched well, and they had to because Kirby wasn’t yielding.   Kirby made it through 13 innings and turned it over to Mike Corkins, who pitched four scoreless and then surrendered the game’s only run when, once more, the manager attempted the asinine maneuver of intentionally loading the bases, allowing the next hitter to drive in the run with a walk.

            This is how long this game lasted:   Willie Stargell had a fielding percentage for the game of .962.   Think about it.

            I’ve never taken LSD, but I asked several friends about Ellis’ claim to have pitched a no-hitter on LSD.   They all think it’s preposterous.   “If he pitched a no-hitter on LSD,” said one, “he ought to ask for his money back, because that was some sorry-ass LSD.”

            “If he says that,” said another, “he’s never taken LSD in his life.   You take LSD, you couldn’t walk to the mound without somebody holding your hand.   Literally.   It’s a ridiculous thing to say.”

            But actually, this somewhat misrepresents what Ellis said.  Ellis actually claimed that he took LSD in Los Angeles that afternoon, several hours before the game.   But even the watered-down claim is still likely an exaggeration, as it leaves un-explained how Ellis was able to process the information that he was expected in San Diego, get to the airport, get to San Diego and get to the ballpark while on an acid trip.   “The only way you could really do that,” my friend said, “is if the acid trip was over before you started.”

            Clay Kirby was a hard thrower who struck out 231 batters with a 2.83 ERA in 1971, but has disappeared from the nation’s collective memory.   In September, 1971, he pitched 15 innings in a game, striking out 15 batters.  By the middle of 1972 he had pitched 10, 13, 11 and 11 innings in various games.   This poses the question of whether Kirby’s manager shortened his career by pushing him beyond reasonable limits.

            Probably.

            MVP and Cy Young Award winner Vida Blue faced off against Pat Dobson, one of the Orioles’ four twenty-game winners that season.

            Vida Blue, although he had pitched a no-hitter late in the 1970 season without even using LSD, was essentially a rookie in 1971.   After losing his first start he pitched six shutout innings in his second outing, striking out 13, then pitched 7 consecutive complete-game victories.    In the fourth inning of this game, with Blue still working on a no-hitter, Frank Robinson reached on a three-base error by Sal Bando, presumably throwing late and wild.    Paul Blair then grounded to third; Robinson tried to come home and was out 3-2.

            Don Buford broke up the no-hitter in the sixth, but was forced by Belanger, who was caught stealing.   In the bottom of the sixth Blue—who was a terrible hitter—singled to lead off the inning.   Bert Campaneris bunted and reached.   Blue was then picked off second, but broke to third and was out at third, allowing Campaneris to move up.   Reggie Jackson then drove in Campaneris in with a single for the only run of the game.

            The three best pitching seasons of the 1970s were 1. Steve Carlton, 1972, 2. Ron Guidry, 1978, and 3. Vida Blue, 1971.

            Blass, a teammate of Dock Ellis’s throughout their best seasons, is a figure in baseball history a little like Ellis, with a singular, narrow identity.   In 1971 he pitched two complete-game victories in the World Series (2-0, 1.00 ERA), and in 1972 was the fifth-best starting pitcher in the National League, going 19-8 with a 2.49 ERA.    (1. Carlton, 2. Don Sutton, 3. Bob Gibson, 4. Tom Seaver, 5. Steve Blass.   Bill Virdon, Blass’ manager that year, said that Blass would have won the Cy Young Award were it not for Carlton, but I think this is unlikely.)

            Anyway, Blass totally, completely and suddenly lost the strike zone that winter, walking 84 batters in 89 innings in 1972, and became the archetype of the veteran pitcher who suddenly and inexplicably loses home plate.  A few months ago I got an e-mail from a reader in “Hey, Bill”, asking why Blass is always cited this way, although there are many pitchers who lose home plate in mid-career.   This answer is:  nobody else ever lost it like this.   No other pitcher in baseball history ever lost home plate so suddenly and so shockingly as did Steve Blass.

            Steve Carlton, a 20-game winner in 1971 but with a 3.56 ERA and 172 strikeouts, held out in the spring of 1972, refusing to sign his contract.   The Cardinals traded him to the Phillies because he would not sign, and Carlton had a monster season with the Phillies, who were otherwise a terrible team.  On this day Carlton pitched a 3-hit shutout, striking out 12.   Blass was good, but gave up an un-earned run in the second and a solo homer by Carlton in the third, and lost the game 2-0.

            I usually run some notes about the decade at the end of the comments.   I think I’ll break in here and do that.   The best pitching matchup of the 1970s, strictly in terms of the quality of the two pitchers on the mound, was on July 11, 1972, the Dodgers at Philadelphia—Steve Carlton against Don Sutton.   Hall of Famer against Hall of Famer; 329-game winner against 324-game winner.   Carlton was 27-10 that year with a 1.97 ERA; Sutton was 19-9, 2.08 ERA.   Carlton won the game, 4-1.

            The worst pitching matchup of the 1970s was on May 29, 1973, Cleveland at Texas, Dick Bosman against Lloyd Allen.   Bosman was 3-13 that year, 5.64 ERA; Allen was 0-6, 9.22 ERA.   The Indians won the game, 9-7.

            The best pitching performance  by two starting pitchers in the same game was in the game which ranks #1 on this list.

            The worst performance by two starting pitchers in the same game was also by two extremely good pitchers:  San Francisco at Los Angeles, May 31, 1979, Vida Blue against Don Sutton.   Blue and Sutton gave up 9 runs each in a game ultimately won by Los Angeles, 12-10.  

            Continuing on with the list:

            By mid-August, 1971, Vida Blue was 22-5.   Mel Stottlemyre had been the ace of the Yankee staff for seven lean years.  Blue gave up two hits in the first, allowing the Yankees to grab a 1-0 lead.   Although he gave up only two more hits in the game, struck out ten and walked none, he lost the game (dropping him to 22-6) as Stottlemyre pitched a 3-hit shutout. It was one of seven shutouts that Stottlemyre pitched that season.

            One of these two was the best starting pitcher in the National League in 1974, and it wasn’t Seaver.   Seaver had a poor year by his own standards, finishing 11-11 with a 3.20 ERA; Messersmith was the league’s top starting pitcher, although a teammate (reliever Mike Marshall) won the Cy Young Award.   Messersmith is like Ellis and Blass, in that he had a career of similar length and quality, in the same era, and like them is remembered now for one thing, in his case playing through his season without a contract, thus discovering the pathway to free agency.

            This game began with four and a half innings of very quick scoreless baseball, most of the innings going 1-2-3.  Steve Garvey homered for the Dodgers leading off the fifth, and Wayne Garrett homered for the Mets leading off the seventh.    Messersmith stayed in the game through 11 innings, Seaver worked 12 and left with the game still 1-1.   Seaver’s box score line was 12 innings, 3 hits, 1 run, 1 earned run, 2 walks, 16 strikeouts.   The Dodgers won it in the bottom of the 14^th, once more after an intentional walk to load the bases.   Garvey singled to bring home the winning run.

            Frank Tanana struck out 269 batters in 1975, when he was 21 years old, and 261 more the next year.    He walked 73 batters each season, had ERAs of 2.62 and 2.43, and was regarded by many people as the best pitcher in baseball at that time.   Vida Blue was “just” 18-13 in 1976, but with a 2.35 ERA.

            They hooked up on October 1, 1976, the opening day of the last series of the season.   Through 11 innings the game was 0-0, Tanana having struck out 14 hitters.    The Angels got a 12^th-inning homer (off of Blue) by Rusty Torres, an outfielder who hit .205 that season, .212 in his career, and won the game (1-0) with an inning of shutout relief from the bullpen.

            Three starts after the game on May 1 (#6 on this list) Messersmith hooked up with Phil Niekro, who was the National League’s second-best starting pitcher that season (20-13, 2.38 ERA.)

            In this game Niekro pitched 9 shutout innings, giving up 2 hits; Messersmith pitched ten shutout innings, giving up 4 hits.    Relievers Tom House and Mike Marshall (the Cy Young Award Winner) carried forward the shutout, House adding 3 innings and Marshall 2.    The Dodgers won it in the 12^th when Davey Lopes singled leading off, moved to second on a ground out, and moved to third when the next hitter hit a rocket off of Krausse’s mid-section, although Krausse was able to recover the ball and make the flip to first.   As he had done in the earlier Pitcher’s Duel, Steve Garvey then singled to win the game, 1-0.

Garvey would be the MVP that season although other players clearly had better numbers, in part because of these late-game heroics.    Mike Marshall was also in the middle of a historic run which would culminate in his Cy Young selection.  On May 15 he pitched four innings in the first game of a double-header, earning a rare 4-inning Save.   He didn’t pitch in the second game of that double-header and the Dodgers didn’t play on the 16^th, but Marshall then pitched 2 innings on the 17^th, 2 innings on the 18^th (this game), an inning on the 19^th, an inning and a third on the 20^th, 2 innings on the 21^st, 3 and 2/3 on the 22^nd, and inning and 2/3 on the 23^rd, and an inning on the 24^th.    The streak ended, ironically, when the Dodgers played a 19-inning game on the 25^th, but Alston refused to put Marshall in the game.   Marshall told Alston later than he was fine, and that he could have pitched.

Just weeks later, Marshall would appear in 13 consecutive Dodger games, a record which still stands although it has been tied.   On the season he would appear in 106 games, a record which still stands, and would pitch 208 innings of relief, a record which still stands. 

            Dave Roberts in 1971 finished 14-17 with a 2.10 ERA—one of the greatest tough-luck seasons of all time.     What one could miss here is that Tom Seaver was also a tough-luck pitcher that year, finishing 20-10 but with a 1.76 ERA.   With that ERA—easily the best of his career--he should probably have been more like 23-7, 24-6.   He struck out 289 batters, also the best of his career, and walked only 61, which was his best-ever control rate.

            In this game Seaver gave up three singles and two walks in ten innings, striking out 14 (10   3  0  0   2  14), but left with the game tied 0-0.   Roberts pitched 12 shutout innings, and the Padres beat Dan Frisella in the 12^th on a double and a throwing error by the catcher.

            Lost in the smoke generated by Steve Carlton’s fantastic 1972 season was that Gaylord Perry pitched essentially the same number of innings with essentially the same ERA, also for a bad team.   Gaylord truly did have a fantastic season—not that there is anything wrong with a 24-16 record, but it doesn’t reflect how well he pitched.

            Mike Paul also had a 2.17 ERA that season, although he was hardly a great pitcher.   On this day, however, Paul was the better pitcher, pitching 11 innings of 3-hit, shutout baseball, striking out 10 and walking none.    Paul turned it over to the bullpen, and the Rangers made two errors after two out, nobody on in the 14^th, giving the Indians two runs.  Gaylord pitched 13 shutout innings, and was credited with the victory.

            Vida Blue came into the game 17-3—in early July—with an ERA of 1.51.   He pitched perhaps his best game of the season, 11 shutout innings with 17 strikeouts, leaving with a 1.42 ERA for the year but his won-lost record stuck at 17-3.

            Rudy May was just another pitcher, but on this day he was Vida’s equal, pitching 12 shutout innings, giving up 3 hits and striking out 13.    May turned the game over to knuckleballer Eddie Fisher, who added five shutout innings, while Blue handed it over to Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers, who pitched seven shutout innings, giving up 2 hits.   It was 0-0 through 18, new pitchers on the mound for both teams.   Bob Locker and Mel Queen made it 19.   Darold Knowles retired the Angels in order in the 20^th.

            Curt Blefary was hit by a pitch leading off the bottom of the 20^th.   With one out he moved to second on a single by Dick Green.   The A’s pinch hit Catfish Hunter, who hit .350 that year, but Catfish struck out, bringing up Angel Mangual, a rookie outfielder.   Mangual singled to end the game—1-0, 20 innings.

            A’s pitchers struck out 26 batters in the game, and walked one (17-0 for Vida Blue, 9-1 for the relievers.)   The aggregate batting average for hitters in the game was .133 (18 for 135).

            In the reader responses to the previous articles in this series, there has been the comment that my system “definitely favors extra-inning games.”    Well. . .the system “favors” long games because logically it has to.   As a pitcher’s duel, a 20-inning, 1-0 game featuring 26 strikeouts and 1 walk by one team is hard to beat.

            Look, is a six-inning shutout as impressive as a nine-inning shutout?   Of course it is not.   Well then, is a nine-inning shutout as impressive as a twelve-inning shutout?   Of course it is not.

            A nine-inning game in which one pitcher allows a run is simply not as impressive, other things being equal, as a 12-inning shutout by two pitchers which is then handed off to the bullpen.   A Pitcher’s Duel system that did not recognize this difference, in my view, would just be incorrect.

            This is how the Oakland/Angels game scores:

            46 points for the quality of the season of Rudy May

            94 points for the quality of the season of Vida Blue

            103 points for the performance of Rudy May in this game

            100 points for the performance of Vida Blue in this game

            86 points for the performance of all Angel’s pitchers in the game

            94 points for the performance of all Oakland pitchers in the game

            Minus 5 points for the one run that was scored.

            That a total of 518 points—52 more than any other game in the decade.   The margin between the number one Pitcher’s Duel of the 1970s and the number two Pitcher’s Duel of the 1970s is greater than the margin between #2 and #36.