Friday, May 27, 2011

The Hard Knock Against Harvey Haddix

Harvey Haddix, by all accounts, had a better than average career. He won 20 games with the St Louis Cardinals in 1952, but otherwise was a win one, lose one pitcher.

On the night of May 26, 1959, Harvey Haddix was on the mound against the Milwaukee Braves. The Brave lineup included Hank Aaron (755 lifetime homeruns) Eddie Mathews (548 lifetime homeruns) Joe Adcock (376 lifetime homeruns).

Facing that would he Haddix, whose record at that point was  4-2, but he was coming off a game that, although he won, he was tagged for 10 hits in 9 innings. It was against his old team, St. Louis. His ERA was at 2.16 going into Milwaukee. 19,194 fans took this one in at County Stadium. The game got underway at 8:00 PM.

How did Harv fair?

Haddix came out smoking the ball to Smokey in the first 9 innings! The Braves kept striking out looking (two times), striking out swinging (six times) popping out (one time), flying out (eight times), grounding out (eight times), line out to the infield (two times) . You name it, the Braves couldn’t touch him.

Alas, Haddix's own Pirates did get the hits, but his team wasn't about to score, either. Oh, they had hits, hits and more hits. Eight by the end of nine innings. By the end of the day, they had twelve, but it wasn't enough. Lew Burdette kept pitching out of jams.

The Pirates actually got 3 of those hits in inning #3. Haddix himself getting one of those hits. Seems like Haddix could do no wrong on this night! But on Haddix's single, which was the second hit of the inning for Pittsburgh, Roman Mejias was out trying to go first to third on the hit. Dick Schofield stroked the Bucs' third hit of the inning. This time, the runner (Haddix), made it to third. But no further, alas. This would prove to be the Pittsburgh Pirates' best chance to win the game.

Burdette came up in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and the bases...empty, of course. He fanned. Haddix had the perfect game. But not the win.

With one out in the top of the 10th, Don Hoak singled, but was stranded right there, at first, as pinch hitter Dick Stuart (whose nickname was Dr Stangeglove, due to his poor fielding. That's why he's pinch hitting!) flied out and Haddix himself (Hey! They're not just gonna pull him when he has the stuff!) grounded right back to Burdette.

Joe Christopher, who would later play for the 1962 Mets, replaced Roman Mejias, (who Stuart had pinch hit for) in right for the bottom of the 10th. He got a view of a couple of close calls.

Del Rice came in to pinch hit for second baseman Johnny O'Brien. He lashed the ball to deep center. Bill Virdon made the catch.

Then Eddie Mathews came to bat. He lashed the ball to deep center. Bill Virdon made the catch.

Hank Aaron grounded out. Now 30 straight batters had been retired by Haddix.

In the top of the 11th, Felix Mantilla came in to play second base for the Braves. The inning got off to a promising start as Dick Schofield singled to left.

But once again, the Pirates could do little more. Schofield would be forced at second by Virdon. Then Burgess hit into an inning ending double play.

Haddix was equal to the task in the bottom of the frame, however. Adcock grounded out to Schofield. Wes Covington lined out to Virdon and Del Crandall flied out to Virdon.

The top of the 12th brought up Rocky Nelson, who went out on a fly to left. Bob Skinner then lined out to first baseman Adcock, but second baseman Bill Mazeroski finally got his first hit of the game, in his 5th trip to the plate. Hoak ended the inning by forcing Maz at second, alas!

Haddix made it 36 batters in a row when he retired Andy Pafko by taking his grounder and flipping it to Rocky Nelson at first. Johnny Logan flied out to center, and then Haddix covered first as Nelson took Burdette's grounder, and tossed to Harvey for the third out of the inning.

Top of the 13th! Superstitious time! Can this finally mean the Pirates break through?

Christopher grounded out to Burdette. Then Haddix was retired on a fly to center. Schofield kept the inning alive with a single to left, his third hit of the day and the Pirates twelfth overall in the game. Virdon grounded out to second. Couldn't the Pirates just get one crummy run for Harvey?

One of the reasons they couldn't was the conspicuous absence of two of the Pirates best players, Roberto Clemente and Dick Groat.

The reason was interesting. Clemente, was out with soreness in the shoulder. Groat, was in a bad hitting slump Coming into the game, he was hitting only .248. However, Groat would hit .283 the rest of the way, finishing the season at .275. The next year, Groat would become one of many Pirates to win a batting title when he hit .325.

Another key player for the Pirates, Dick Stuart, didn't even start the game.

Haddix’s perfect game suddenly ended in the bottom of the 13th inning. After getting two strikes on Felix Mantilla, Haddix poured on another pitch that looked like strike three. The umpire didn’t think so. Then Felix hit a bouncer to Hoak at third.

Hoak's throw went in the dirt to Rocky Nelson.

Realizing that they weren't about to get any hits, Mathews sacrificed Mantilla to second, bringing up Aaron. The Pirates would do the smart thing and walk him intentionally. That brought Joe Adcock to the plate.

It was 10:54 PM

Haddix had gotten Adcock out on some fine inside sliders. He threw him one outside for ball one. Then he threw Joe a slider that was too high.

Adcock blasted it out of the park. No-hitter over, game over. 3-0 Milwaukee. But wait a minute!

Aaron thought the ball had hit the ground on the outfield side of the fence, rather than the ground behind the fence. (County Stadium had those see-through chain link fences at the time) When Mantilla touched the plate, Aaron (who touched second) trotted across the field and into the dugout. The second Adcock (with his head down) touched third, he was declared out, his homerun changed to a double. And the final score was officially, 1-0. Haddix had pitched 12 2/3 of an inning in this game despite the fact that the winning run was scored with one out!


References


Web Sites

Chen, Albert. "The Greatest Game Ever Pitched." SI.com. Sports Illustrated, 1 June 2009. Web. 27 May 2011. <http://www.si.com/vault/2009/06/01/105819842/the-greatest-game-ever-pitched>

Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 27 May, 2011.

"Harvey Haddix." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 27 May 2011. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Haddix>


Books


Buckley, James Jr. Unhittable: Reliving the Magic and Drama of Baseball's Best-pitched Games. Chicago: Triumph, 2004, Print, PP. 64-67 Includes DVD, "No-Hitters, Perfect Games And Near-Misses."

Kaplan, Jim. The Greatest Game Ever Pitched: Juan Marichal, Warren Spahn, And The Pitching Duel Of The Century. Chicago: Triumph, 2011, Print, PP. 136-139.

Reichler, Joseph L. Baseball's Greatest Moments. 1985 ed. New York: Bonanza, 1981, Print, PP. 75-78.

Videos


Baseball's Greatest Moments. Major League Baseball Productions. VHS, 1991. 

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