Latest / Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History / 1966 • Baseball Clip • Bob Feller on Warren Spahn's 300th win - Radio Show
Transcript
- 0:00This is Retro Sports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history.
- 0:09The turnstiles clicked a merry tune at Milwaukee's County Stadium on an August evening in 1961.
- 0:16The standing room only throng of 40,775 was the biggest stadium crowd in two years.
- 0:23Reserved seats had been sold out for weeks, and the fans lined up hours before the game at the bleacher entrances.
- 0:29The Braves were far off the National League pent-up base, and their rivals, the Chicago Cubs, were deep in the second division.
- 0:36But that didn't matter. Fans came from the city, the suburbs, Chicago, and even further.
- 0:42They came to see a pitcher bid for a victory that would put him in a charm circle.
- 0:47Lefty Jack Curtis was a Cub starter. He was only three years old when his pitching rivals started his pro baseball career.
- 0:54But that didn't make the Milwaukee pitcher's job any easier. For four innings, the two Southpaws racked up zeros on the scoreboard.
- 1:01The Braves pushed one run across in the fifth, and the Cubs matched that tally in the sixth.
- 1:06In the eighth inning, County Stadium came alive, and Geno Somoli walked a home run to give the Braves the lead.
- 1:13A hush fell over the crowd as the pitcher walked to the mound to start the ninth inning.
- 1:18He was only three outs away from victory. André Rogers was the first batter, and he was erased on four pitches.
- 1:25Only two hours to go. Jerry Kendall was the next, and he laced a low-liner to center.
- 1:31But Geno Somoli raced in and made a great sliding catch for the second out.
- 1:37Ernie Banks was in the bat rack for the Cubs. He had been benched for a couple of days, but was sent up as a pinch hitter.
- 1:44Banks grounded one hard to third, but a bad throw by Eddie Matthews gave Ernie a life.
- 1:50Another pinch hitter, Jim McAnany, stepped to the plate. He looked at a couple of balls and then sent a fly to right field.
- 1:58Hank Aaron moved over a couple of steps and pulled it in. A finisher story in 60 seconds.
- 2:04The game was over, and the pitcher, Warren Spawn, had reached a milestone in his long and meritorious career.
- 2:11Only a dozen pitchers before him had won as many as 300 games.
- 2:15Now Spawn joined a slight group of pitching greats, which include Cy Young, Christian Matheson, Walter Johnson, Eddie Plank, and Mephie Grove.
- 2:26But Spawn admitted later that it was the toughest game, even though not the most important game, he had ever pitched.