Bill Wasik
April 20, 2009
This first game of a Father's Day doubleheader helped launch two fabulous careers. As mentioned above, the first belongs to Marvelous Marv Throneberry. Although Marv was at the tail end of a mediocre career as a player, his "triple" on this date placed him squarely on a path that would lead to immortality with Whitey and the Mick in the Lite Beer Drinkers' Hall of Fame.
This game also had the distinction of helping the Cardinals become the 1960's National League Team of the Decade, when a second great career emerged on this date. This occured in the first inning, as Cubs rookie center fielder Lou Brock stepped in against Al Jackson - lefty versus lefty. At the time, Lou had only two things going for him in making the jump from Class C ball: more speed than Maury Wills and - unfortunately for Cubs fans - more straight away power than Frank Howard. In this game, as he faced Jackson with two out and a runner on third, the 5'9", 175 lb. Brock missed the first pitch on a bunt attempt, then took ball one outside. Waiting to unload on pitch #3, Lou may have thought back to a Sunday three months earlier in Mesa, when he faced another lefty breaking ball specialist in a Cactus League game, and drove Warren Spahn's screwball 500 feet through thin desert air.
Of course, that was spring training, and Spahnie wasn't overexerting himself as he prepared for his 18th season with the Braves. But on this hot and muggy June 17th in New York, Jackson, like Brock, was only a rookie, trying to close-out a first inning in which the Cubs already had scored two runs. Brock, however, did connect with his next pitch, driving the ball high above Richie Ashburn in center, just to the right of the clubhouse, where it hit the top of the 30 foot high Batter's Eye background, 475 feet from home plate. As it bounced another 20 feet into the stands, Lou became the only lefty hitter who would ever reach the Polo Grounds bleachers (other than Babe Ruth in 1920-22, when home plate was 20 feet closer).
That home run, Brock's seventh in just his first two months in the majors, brought Lou instant recognition as a power hitter, and very well could have sealed his fate as the Corey Patterson of the 60's, because it led him to swing more often for distance. He began to strike out regularly and, two years later, had managed to hit only 13 more home runs for the Cubs, while compiling a .260 lifetime batting average. Along with these numbers, Lou's play in right or center field was always an adventure, as he would sometimes break the wrong way on line drives, or let pop ups bounce off the heel of his glove.
Fortunately for Lou, his incredible shot to the Polo Grounds bleachers did not spell the end of his effectiveness as a hitter, nor did it remain the high point of his career. Teams in the NL other than the Cubs were not managed by an inept College of Coaches, and leaders such as Gene Mauch, Danny Murtaugh, and Johnny Keane quickly recognized what Brock's speed could do at the top of a lineup. All of them pushed their front offices to trade for him. The Cards, of course, won out, and Brock became an instant star in St. Louis, playing left field to limit his defensive shortcomings, hitting line drives or hard grounders through the infield, and literally stealing his way into Cooperstown.
Jim McEnroe
August 25, 2013
I was an 11 year old kid at this game, we sat on the third base side. I remember Throneberry's triple that wasn't because he missed touching the bases. I also remember Lou Brock's home run into center field. I remember someone in the crowd near us listening to a transistor radio at the time saying that no one else ever hit a homer into those seats. We were amazed because the stadium was old as the hills. I also remember the Cubs rookie 2nd baseman Kenny Hubbs. Before the first game the Cubs were taking practice. And a ball rolled near the stands and a mentally challenged boy, either ran a step onto the field or reached over and grabbed the ball. Either way, one of the users ran over and took away the ball. The poor kid was devastated. Kenny Hubbs saw this and pulled a baseball from his pocket and brought it over to the kid. I became a Hubbs fan from that day on seeing the nice thing Hubbs did for that poor kid. Unfortunately Hubbs died young, he died in the off season, learning how to fly a plane like Munson years later. His plane crashed and he was killed. I guess it's true the good die young. When you are as young as I was then, you remember everything. It was my first Mets game, a doubleheader. And the Mets were a lovable team even though they stunk. They probably would have lost to my little league team. But I had been a Yankee fan and they were perfect. Perfection is boring, it's like rooting for Exxon (in those days Esso). Those Mets were "our Mets" -- who else would want them?
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