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ike one bench geared up now realizing that they were playing for real but he still couldn t catch up with gibson s heater as he smoked a second fastball past the swinging bench with two strikes on bench gibson did something that just wasn t very nice while bench prepared to finally catch up to gibson s fastball gibby instead through him an off speed pitch bench awkwardly offered an off balanced futile swing that basically made him look like the guy in the old cartoon batting off of bugs bunny not long ago i did a little research to try to verify that my recollections of the day s events were correct i am after all of such an age that sometimes i find that my adolescent memories aren t quite as i well remember them in doing that research i came across this picture from the st louis post dispatch yep that s pretty much the swing from bench i remember and that s the story of how i got to see bob gibson s 3 118th strikeout rip gibby related story the same day i saw gibby pitched i also saw a number of other greats and even got their autographs i wrote about that here posted by pete scribner at 10 05 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels bench cardinals gibson monday august 31 2020 now that s a pitching matchup my birthday is october 4th which means that while it usually is just after the season ends sometimes it falls on the final weekend of the season recently i was curious if there were any games played the day i was born so i did a little research it turns out that the only game played that day was game two of the alcs between a pair of 101 win squads the orioles and the a s baltimore won 5 1 behind mike cuellar with brooks robinson boog powell elrod hendricks hitting home runs the win pushed the o s to a 2 0 series lead and they would finish off the sweep the next day in oakland more interesting than that though was something else i noticed less than a week earlier at shea stadium in new york the mets hosted the cardinals in what was the second to last game of the season for each team with both teams already eliminated from pennant contention it wouldn t seem to be all that noteworthy of a game what made the game particularly interesting to me looking back at it almost 50 years later was the two starting pitchers starting for the cardinals was their big southpaw steve carlton going for the mets was their young flame throwing righthander nolan ryan it would be the last game either man would pitch for his team with both of them getting traded in the off season they would eventually become the two greatest strikeout pitchers in mlb history the cardinals would immediately regret trading carlton as the next season he would have one of the great pitching seasons in history assembling a 27 10 record for a phillies team that went 30 85 when he didn t pitch he won the cy young award with 310 strikeouts and a 1 97 era and even finished top 5 in the mvp voting all told post trade he would accumulate 252 wins and more than 3 000 strikeouts over the remainder of his career the results for ryan were just as quick and every bit as bountiful pitching for the angels in 1972 ryan would lead the american league in strikeouts 329 shutouts 9 and hits 9 innings pitched 5 3 on his way to a 19 16 record and a 2 28 era after leaving the mets ryan would win another 295 games strike out over 5 000 more batters and toss seven no hitters the one thing that would plague ryan especially in those earlier days of his career was wildness he would go on to lead the league in walks in six of the next seven years including two seasons where he walked over 200 batters on that day in september of 1971 this wildness reared its ugly head as he walked four of the five batters he faced before being pulled from the game without even retiring a batter carlton had more success that day picking up his 20th win of the season perhaps reaching that milestone gave him the confidence to ask for 5 000 10 000 reports vary more than the cardinals were offering on his 1972 contract cardinals owner gussie busch found such a contract dispute to be impertinent and had carlton traded to the last place phillies for hurler rick wise the rest as they say is history posted by pete scribner at 12 31 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels cardinals carlton mets ryan friday august 28 2020 the chicken as far as ttm requests go this one was definitely a little different though he never took a single at bat in the majors ted giannoulas was as big a part of my childhood baseball fandom as many players in his role as the chicken he starred alongside johnny bench in what was at the time my favorite tv show the baseball bunch each week a big league player would guest star on the show giving an instructional lesson to the kids on some aspect of baseball in those days nbc s game of the week on saturdays might be the only game you saw all week long and in that pre internet age players seemed so distant that they were almost like mythical heroes the opportunity to see them interacting with real kids just like me and giving a lesson that i could learn from was a treat beyond compare to add a comic element though the show included the chicken giannoulas played the mascot who had begun in 1974 as the san diego chicken sponsored by kgb fm a radio station in san diego he grew in popularity over the next five years but a series series of legal disputes and court proceedings between giannoulas and kgb culminated in the chicken flying the coup and setting out on his own on june 29 1979 the san diego padres hosted his grand rehatching in an event that can only be described as a spectacle giannoulas counts it as his favorite baseball memory giannoulas was very kind to not only sign my card but to also respond to my brief questionnaire i asked him what his favorite episodes of the baseball bunch and he responded that his two favorite were when ozzie smith and jim rice visited those two are included below one last thing about the chicken i was fortunate enough to see him perform in person once the week after i graduated from college a couple friends and i made a trip down to birmingham to see a certain basketball player take a crack at minor league back in 1994 though michael jordan was the reason for our visit it was a thrill to get to see the chicken perform as he was in classic form check out some of his greatest bits below posted by pete scribner at 11 53 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels autographs bench cards the baseball bunch the chicken thursday august 27 2020 wallace johnson trivia question what do wallace johnson and danny ainge have in common other than playing major league baseball for teams in canada and looking resplendent in powder blue answer below as i work on project87 wallace johnson recently got me to 230 cards that i ve gotten autographed from the 1987 topps set he also signed the 89 topps card for me and i thought both looked great in blue what made the return even better though was the fact that he also filled out the short questionnaire that i ve been sending with recent autograph requests i generally ask players what their favorite baseball memory was and ask who their favorite manager and teammate s were and ask them about the toughest opponent s they faced johnson s most intriguing answer revealed his favorite baseball memory his team s 1979 mvc championship season of 1979 while he was at indiana state i found it incredibly interesting for a number of reasons first it surprised me that a guy who played in the big leagues for nine seasons and had one of the more memorable hits in expos franchise history more on that later would consider his senior college more worthy of such mention there was another thing though when someone mentions indiana state and 1979 you can t help but think of larry bird who led the sycamores to the ncaa championship game in basketball that year just an instant after that came to mind i recalled that i had once seen a picture of bird in an indiana state baseball uniform and i began to wonder if he and johnson had perhaps played together that sent me off on a spree of research that culminated in this blog post first the story behind bird s foray into baseball he did indeed play in a doubleheader for indiana state s baseball team against kentucky wesleyan on april 28th he struck out in his first at bat but later rapped out a 2 run single more to the point indiana state had by far their largest baseball attendance of the season trivia answer both ainge and johnson were at least for a time teammates with larry bird that wasn t the only memorable part of that season for johnson and the sycamores though individually johnson was one of the leading hitters in the nation batting 491 to set what still stands as an isu record his success wasn t just personal though he was captain of a sycamore team that had a great season going 41 11 winning the missouri valley conference championship with johnson as tournament mvp and advancing to the ncaa tournament johnson was inducted into the isu sports hall of fame in 1985 after being drafted in the 6th round johnson spent the 1979 80 81 seasons in the minors he started the last of those seasons with the aa memphis chicks before moving up to the aaa denver bears who were coached by felipe alou to an american association championship when mlb rosters expanded on september 1st johnson got the call to join the expos who were in the midst of a race for the second half nl east title in the strike split 1981 season he didn t see a lot of action only coming to the plate ten times but facing new york mets closer neil allen on october 3rd the second to last day of the season he hit a two run triple to put the expos ahead 3 2 on their way to winning 5 4 and clinching the only postseason berth in montreal expos history johnson would be added to the postseason roster and subsequently had an rbi single in one of his two pinch hit at bats johnson would go on to put together a solid nine year career as a pinch hitter spending his entire mlb career with the expos except for eight plate appearances with the giants in 1983 he retired as the expos all time leader in pinch hits with 86 after his playing days were over johnson spent a number of years coaching first in the braves minor league system from 1995 97 followed by a five year stint 1998 2002 with the chicago white sox as their third base coach one final thing i found interesting about johnson was from a newspaper article from all the way back in 1979 in it johnson stated i was a paper boy in gary when i was younger and sometimes when i d get enough money together i d go to see the cubs and white sox play in chicago johnson continued i still have autographs from ernie banks billy williams and ron santo how crazy is it that all these years later guys like me are still excited about getting his autograph posted by pete scribner at 7 04 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels bird expos indiana state johnson project87 ttm older posts home subscribe to posts atom welcome to polyester and astroturf i have been a sports fan in general and a baseball fan in particular for as long as i can remember one of my most distinct early childhood memories is of my mom taking me to busch stadium where we would sit in the left field bleachers and watch our favorite player lou brock sunday afternoon games were when they d have the giveway games for kids such as hat day ball day or bat day a lawsuit waiting to happen so that s when we usually went we would go to the 8 00 church service make a sack lunch and go wait for the gates to open so that we could be among the first to enter ensuring us a front row seat i suppose it was these experiences that birthed my love for baseball as well as my love for baseball memorabilia in later years as teenagers my friend craig and i would spend the entire day at the stadium getting autographs of players before and after the game we waited for the cardinals in the parking garage or we d go down the street and stake out the visiting team s hotel lobby over the years i added to these mementos various souvenirs and other items when my wife and i bought our first house i had a room in the basement that she graciously allowed me to turn into my sports room in it i displayed much of the memorabilia i had collected over the years most of it had only sentimental value but it was fun to relive the memories every time i entered the room in 2006 we moved to flint michigan unfortunately for me the house we purchased did not have an extra room for my stuff and as a result most of it has remained boxed in our basement ever since i started this blog as a means of remembering and sharing remembering what i had and remembering the events connected to those items and sharing in this space both those items as well as my thoughts about them the color scheme of the blog is very intentionally patterned after the cardinal road uniforms of the late 70s and early 80s for some reason baby blue was in vogue and the color always evokes memories of this era for me much the same polyester and astroturf were staples at the time hence the title of the blog i hope you enjoy my trip down memory lane i know i will and please feel free to share your comments as well blog archive 2025 2 june 1 the great baseball trip of 1992 march 1 2022 3 november 1 september 1 april 1 2021 2 october 1 february 1 2020 14 november 1 october 1 august 4 july 7 june 1 2019 4 august 1 july 1 june 1 may 1 2018 2 august 1 may 1 2017 36 october 3 september 2 august 5 july 3 june 18 may 5 2015 2 october 2 2013 1 september 1 2012 2 july 1 may 1 2011 14 october 1 july 1 april 5 march 7 labels 1956 1968 1982 1985 1987 1998 a s aaa acker aguayo almon alomar anderson ankiel autographs baines baltimore bannister bat bench 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