Category Archives: Famous doubleheaders

Double The Fun: Johnny Podres, Better Than You Think

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Editor’s note: “Any player/Any era” will be up by this evening.
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The 1961 Los Angeles Dodgers’ pennant hopes came to a crashing end on August 16 when they lost both ends of a rare Wednesday evening double dip to the Cincinnati Reds, 6-0 and 8-0.

The defeats were bitter for the Dodgers who had entered the season as favorites based on their roster that included Frank Howard, Maury Wills, Junior Gilliam, the Davis brothers Tommy and Will and Gil Hodges. The mound core included Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.

But in 1961, the future Hall of Famer hurlers weren’t as effective as one of the great (Brooklyn) Dodgers heroes of all time—Johnny Podres. Koufax and Drysdale had average seasons (for them) of 18-13, 3.52 ERA and 13-10, 3.69. Podres, although he absorbed the second game loss, racked up a 18-5, 3.74 ERA and led the league in winning percentage.

The problem, anticipated by some analysts in their preseason evaluations, was that except for Podres the Dodgers’ stars were past their prime. The Dodgers ended the season 4 games behind the Reds. Coincidentally, the Dodgers dropped both ends of two doubleheaders against Cincinnati—there are the four games.

Podres, who most casual fans associate with his dramatic seventh game 2-0 shutout of the New York Yankees in the 1955 World Series, in reality had a long and productive mound career. Only 23 when he bested the Yankees in the third and seventh games, Podres was the first winner of the Sport Magazine World Series MVP Award which was a red, two-seater Corvette. Sports Illustrated also named Podres its Sportsman of the Year.

During his 15-year career, Podres won 148 games, struck out 1,435, had an 3.64 ERA and threw 24 shutouts in 440 games. Podres saved his best for the World Series. After losing his first decision to the Yankees in 1953, Podres won four straight over the Yankees and Chicago White Sox during the next decade while allowing only 29 hits in 38-1/3 innings with a 2.11 ERA.

After retiring, Podres served as the pitching coach for 13 years for the Boston Red Sox, Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies. Frank Viola and Curt Schilling credit Podres with their success.

Podres said former manager Charlie Dressen taught him how to throw the change up that made him into a winning pitcher.

Recalled Podres:

Dressen spent months with me teaching me a change up. He told me ‘Throw a fastball. Then just as you release the ball—Zip! Pull down the shade.’


Dressen explained that the downward motion takes speed off the pitch while at the same takes increases the ball’s rotation.

Armed with that information Podres not only dominated the Yankees but also won the newly transplanted Los Angeles Dodgers’ first game on the road against the hated San Francisco Giants (actually the second game the Dodgers played) and started and won Dodgers’ first home game.

Along his way, Podres met and worked with every Dodger hurler from Dazzy Vance to Pedro Martinez and passed along his change up mastery to any of them who would listen.
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“Double the fun” is a Friday feature here that looks at one notable doubleheader in baseball history each week.

Double The Fun: Herb Score Wraps Up His Outstanding Rookie of the Year Season

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By the time Herb Score took the mound on September 24, 1955 to face the Tigers in the night cap of a doubleheader in Detroit, the Cleveland Indians season was over. The defending American League champions finished second, 3 games behind the hated New York Yankees. But Rookie of the Year Score, who along with the Yankees “Bullet” Bob Turley was one of the eras great power pitchers, dominated the Tigers. That afternoon, Score notched his 16th victory with a masterful 8-2 victory. Score’s pitching line: 9 IP, 7H, 0 ER, 2 BB and 9Ks.  The Indians swept the doubleheader by taking the night cap, 7-0 Score finished his year with a 16-10 record, a 2.85 ERA and 245 strike outs. The following year Score was even better: 20-9, 2.53 with 263 strike outs. To the delight of manager and former catcher Al Lopez, Score reduced his walks from 154 to 129 and his hits per nine-inning ratio to 5.85.

When Score was at the peak of his too brief career, Boston Red Sox  owner Tom Yawkey offered the Indians $1 million cash for the fire balling lefty. At the time, that was an unheard of sum to be paid to a baseball player—or for that matter, anyone else. The Indians turned Yawkey down cold.

After Score’s sensational 1955 season his career took a bad turn. In an infamous incident, a line drive off the Yankees’ Gil McDougald’s bat struck Score’s eye. Then during Score’s comeback effort, he injured his arm. During the next five seasons with the Indians and the Chicago White Sox, Score won only 19 games.

In an interview years after he retired, Score said:

The last couple of years I pitched, I was terrible. I just couldn’t put it all together anymore. I went back to the minor leagues for a while and tried it there. Some people asked me why I went back to the minor leagues; they felt I was humiliating myself. But I never felt humiliated. There was no disgrace in what I was doing. The disgrace would have been in not trying.


After retiring Score became an Indians’ broadcaster and announced Cleveland’s radio and television games for nearly 30 years. In 1998, while driving to Florida after being inducted into the Broadcasters Hall of Fame, Score was severely injured in a head on collision with a tractor trailer and spent more than a month in intensive care. But Score recovered in time to throw out the Indians’ Opening Day pitch in 1999.

In 2008 Score, after a long illness, died at his home in Rocky River, Ohio.This Sports Illustrated cover is how I remember him.
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“Double the fun” is a Friday feature here that looks at one notable doubleheader in baseball history each week.

Double The Fun: Manager Joe Cronin Slams Three Pinch Hit Homers in Back to Back Double Dips

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According to one of baseball’s oldest unwritten rules, even though the manager doesn’t hit, field or pitch, he’s the one who gets the axe when the team falters.

But in Boston Red Sox manager Joe Cronin’s case, he did hit—and hit a ton.

In 1943 the Red Sox were, like many of the war years’ teams, awful. Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky were serving in World War II and adequate—or even inadequate—replacements could not been found.

Al Simmons, the once great Philadelphia Athletics’ slugger was too old. At 41, Simmons hit a meager .203. And George “Catfish” Metokovich (.243) was, at 22, too young.

So it fell to player-manager Joe Cronin to pick up the slack for the struggling seventh place Red Sox.

Shortstop Cronin, 37, appeared in only 59 games with 77 at bats. But he made the most of his limited playing time.

During back-to-back double headers against the A’s on June 15 and 17, Cronin pinch hit four times and slammed three home runs, all with two men on base. The Red Sox, however, dropped three of the four contests.

Cronin had one of baseball’s most productive careers both on and off the field. During his 20 years as an active player that began in 1926 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cronin batted .300 or higher eight times and knocked in 100 runs or more eight times. He finished with a .301 average, 170 home runs, 1,424 RBIs and 7 All Star Game selections.

Before Cronin managed the Red Sox (1935-1947), he piloted the Washington Senators from 1928-1934. Although Cronin led  the Senators (1933) and the Red Sox to the World Series his teams lost to the New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals.

In 1947, the Red Sox promoted Cronin to general manager where his aggressive trading brought the teams stars like Vern Stephens and Ellis Kinder to propel the team into contention. But the Sox never got past contender status. By the early 1950s, the Red Sox entered into a sustained slump. In retrospect, Cronin came under fire for passing up an opportunity to sign Willie Mays, never trading for a black player and for remaining baseball’s last all white team. Nevertheless in 1959, the American League elected Cronin its president, the first former player ever so honored. Cronin remained president until 1973.

The Hall of Fame inducted Cronin in 1956 and, in 1984, the Red Sox retired his uniform number 4.
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“Double The Fun” is a Friday feature here that looks at notable doubleheader in baseball history each week.

Double The Fun: Joey Jay Notches His First Major League Win

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With the Little League World Series drawing to a close, this is an opportune time to look at Joey Jay’s career (99-91, 3.77 ERA). Jay was the first Little League graduate to make the majors. And, as is often the case when I do my blog research, I’m surprised about what a grand career, both before and after baseball, Jay enjoyed.

Jay was 12 years old when Little League Baseball came on the scene in his hometown Middletown, CT. Originally, Jay played first base but he soon turned to pitching and dominated his opponents through high school. More than half a dozen scouts pursued Jay before he signed a $40,000 bonus in 1953 with the Milwaukee Braves at the tender age of 17.

But according to the bonus baby rules adopted that year by Major League Baseball , which were designed to keep teams from outlandish overspending, Jay was forced to stay on the Braves’ roster even though he rarely pitched.

Jay made a few inconsequential relief appearances before manager Charlie Grimm tapped him on September 20 to start the second game of a doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds. Jay responded in a rain shortened seven inning contest with a three-hit, 3-0 shutout.

For the next several years, Jay’s Braves career was a series of ups and downs. Finally, he was traded to Cincinnati with fellow pitcher Juan Pizzaro for shortstop Roy McMillan. With the Reds, Jay blossomed into a 21 game winner (twice) under manager Fred Hutchinson. In the 1961 World Series when the Reds met the imposing New York Yankees led by Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra, et al, Jay pitched the Reds to their only victory, 6-2 in the second game.

But Jay was quick to realize when his career was over. In 1966, Jay quit and never looked back. In an interview with my SABR colleague Joseph Wancho (read his outstanding biography of Jay here), Jay told of his post-baseball successes. At various times, Jay owned as many as 100 oil wells, taxi fleets, limousines and two building maintenance firms.

Jay keeps a low profile, refuses to do card shows or participate in fantasy camps and doesn’t wear his World Series rings. Jay said:

When I made the break [from baseball], it was clean and forever. It’s infantile to keep thinking about the game. It gets you nowhere. Most ex-ballplayers keep on living in some destructive fantasy world. Not me. I’m happier than ever since I left.


One last thing you should know about Jay. He doesn’t mind if you know that he resides in Florida. But Jay refuses to reveal which city he lives in.

Double The Fun: The Day Elroy Face Finally Lost

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In 1959, Elroy Face and his signature forkball dominated the National League. Face’s 18-1 record still stands as the best winning percentage (.947) in baseball history posted by anyone who had a minimum of 15 decisions. Face’s streak ended in Los Angeles on September 11 during the first game of a double dip. Beginning in 1958 and until his late season 1959 defeat, Face won 22 consecutive games.

In his interviews with Face’s teammates, Pittsburgh Post-Gazettereporter Robert Dvorchak got their perspective on the deadly forkball. According to catcher Hank Foiles:

It was very deceptive for a hitter. You couldn’t set for the forkball and you couldn’t set for the fastball. And every once in a while, Elroy would slip a curve or a slider in. Hitters knew what they were going to get because you got to go with your best pitch. But every once in a while, we’d show them something else. It wasn’t for sale but we wanted them to look at the merchandise.


Here’s how Face explained the differences between the splitter and the forkball. In both instances, the ball is held with the middle and index fingers spread far apart. A splitter is held with the fingers on the seams but Face put his fingers on the smooth part of the ball. To a batter, the pitch looked like a fastball but then dipped as if it was falling off the edge of a table. Depending on fingertip pressure, however, it could dart down left or right or even rise.

Face’s string ended during the bottom of the ninth inning while he was protecting a one-run lead in the first game of a doubleheader at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Maury Wills led off and singled. Jim Gilliam knocked him in with a game-tying triple. Then Charley Neal broke his bat on a forkball. But the ball dribbled between Don Hoak and Dick Groat and the streak was over. The Dodgers won 5-4. For the first time in 98 appearances, Face walked off the mound charged with a loss.

During his streak, Face rarely pitched only a single inning. In fact, in his 19 decisions in 1959, Face averaged 2-2/3 innings pitched. In one relief appearance against the Chicago Cubs, Face pitched five innings—nearly the equivalent of today’s “quality start.” And in eight games, Face pitched three innings or more.

Known as the “Baron of the Bullpen,” Face was the first of the full time relief specialists. Before Face, the bull pen was often staffed with marginal starters and mop up men. After Face, every manager in baseball wanted a closer. Face’s top salary was $42, 500. During his prime years, the Pirates paid $1 to park their cars at a gas station across the street from Forbes Field.

Today Face would be every bit the equivalent of the New York Yankees’ Mariano Rivera who earns $14.5 million.
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“Double the fun” is a Friday feature here that looks at one notable doubleheader each week.

Double The Fun: Walter Johnson Debuts in a Twin Bill Opener

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When Walter Johnson took the mound for the Washington Senators on August 2, 1907 to pitch the first game of a double header against the Detroit Tigers, he embarked on a baseball journey that before it ended would see him win 417 games, 110 by a shutout including 38 by a 1-0 score, strike out 3,507 and post a 2.07 earned run average. But since 10 of Johnson’s 21 seasons were with losing Senators’ teams, his overall record was hampered by hard luck losses. On 65 occasions, Johnson and the Senators were on the short end of 1-0 scores.

Some of Johnson’s other outstanding achievements include winning five games (three shut outs) during nine days in 1908, recording 16 straight wins in 1912 and pitching 56 scoreless innings in 1913 when he went 36-7 with a 1.09 ERA.

About those nine days…W. W. Aulick from the New York Times, after Johnson’ third shut out, wrote:

We are grievously disappointed in this man Johnson of Washington. He and his team had four games to play with the champion Yankees. Johnson pitched the first game and shut us out. Johnson pitched the second game and shut us out. Johnson pitched the third game and shut us out. Did Johnson pitch the fourth game and shut us out. He did not. Oh, you quitter!


But, as witnessed by the 3-2 defeat Johnson suffered in his debut, he did not become an overnight success. Even in Johnson’s first game, however, his teammates and opponents recognized his greatness.

Before the double header began, and with Washington abuzz with baseball fever brought out by rumors of young Johnson’s wicked fastball, Senators’ manager Joe Cantillon went to the Detroit bench to boast that his starter was “a great big apple knocker” who would dominate the Tigers with his “swift”. That was bold talk since the Tigers, led by 20-year-old rookie Ty Cobb and future Hall of Famer Sam “Wahoo” Crawford, was the best hitting American League team and the eventual pennant winner.
According to the box score, Johnson allowed only six hits in eight innings before being taken out for a pinch hitter trailing 2-1. Three hits were bunts including two by Ty Cobb who felt that bunting was the only effective counter to Johnson’s blazing hard stuff. The Tigers also knew that Johnson, a raw rookie, would have a tough time fielding bunts.

Right after the game, Tigers’ manager Wild Bill Donavan predicted that within two years Johnson would be greater than the best pitcher of the day, Christy Mathewson. And years later Cobb admitted that the Tigers knew that Johnson would be one of the most powerful pitchers ever to enter the league. About Johnson’s “swift,” Cobb said: “The thing just hissed with danger. We couldn’t touch him.”

Tigers’ outfielder Davy Jones, the first batter to face Johnson, explained why. In an interview with Lawrence Ritter for The Glory of Their Times, Jones told the author that Johnson’s arms which “were the longest ones he had ever seen” and were “like whips” which helped his effective sidewinder delivery.

Although Johnson ended the 1907 season with a 5-9 mark, his 1.88 ERA was a sign of great things to come.

After Johnson’s career ended in 1927, he managed the Senators and Cleveland Indians before settling on his Germantown, MD farm where he raised purebred cattle and prize birds. Johnson also became a Dr. Pepper spokesman and in 1940 nearly a U.S. Representative. Only a FDR landslide kept Johnson out of Congress.

When at age 59 Johnson died an untimely death from a brain tumor, he had many friends in and out of baseball. The consensus among those who knew the “Big Train” is that he was the finest man to ever wear a uniform.
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“Double the fun” is a Friday feature here that looks at one notable doubleheader in baseball history each week.

Triple Your Fun: Pirates Play Three, Lose Two

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Every week in this space, I write about a doubleheader that either played an important part in a pennant race or had some other historical significance.

Today, I’m ratcheting it up a notch. My subject is the last tripleheader ever played. The amazing event took place at Forbes Field on October 2, 1920 when the Pirates hosted the Cincinnati Reds.

What forced the triple dip was a rain out of the Friday night game. Apparently, little was at stake. The Brooklyn Robins had sewed up first place, the Giants were comfortably in second ahead of the soon-to-be-displaced World Champion Reds with the Pirates in fourth trailing Cincinnati by 3-1/2 games.

The rain out canceled one of the four remaining games on the schedule and meant that the Pirates were dead in their quest for third place: 3-1/2 games back with only three left to play.

But Pirates Hall of Fame owner Barney Dreyfuss recognized that third place was “in the money”.  If his team could sneak into third, his players would qualify for a small World Series share.

Dreyfuss appealed to National League president John Heydler who agreed, over the vigorous protestations of Reds’ manager Pat Moran, to replay the rain out.

Suddenly, the Pirates were alive again. The standings still showed the Corsairs 3-1/2 behind Cincinnati but now with four to play.

With three games on the bill, the opener started at the unusually early hour of 12 noon. Corsair manager George Gibson picked his ace and 24 game winner Wilbur Cooper for the crucial first game. The drama didn’t last long. The Reds bombed Cooper with 10 hits and 8 runs in 2-2/3 innings and won handily, 13-4 thus finally and officially locking up third.

Games two and three were frill. In the second, the Reds shellacked the Corsairs again, 7-3. As evidence of his indifference, Moran started four pitchers as position players. In the third and final contest, cut short by darkness after six innings, the Pirates finally prevailed, 6-0.

The game times are worth noting: the first, 2:03; second, 1:56; third, 1:01. Fans saw three games in exactly five hours or 1:39 less than the Pirates 19-inning marathon on July 26 in the team’s 4-3 loss to the Braves in Atlanta.

Double The Fun with Robin Roberts: His Yeoman Efforts Led the Phillies to the 1950 Pennant

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During the final days of the 1950 season, Robin Roberts carried the Philadelphia Phillies. The Whiz Kids had a seven game lead with nine to play. But suddenly, the Phillies were in Ebbets Field on the season’s final day needing a win to wrap up the title.

Critics claim that the Phillies wilted under intense Dodger pressure. But injuries to key players hampered the Phillies down the stretch. Roberts, the team’s salvation, started four times in eight days including the first game of the September 27 doubleheader at the New York Giants (no decision), the second game of the September 28 doubleheader also at the Polo Grounds (complete game 3-1 loss) and the pivotal October 1 finale, a 10-inning 4-1 masterpiece against the Dodgers wherein Roberts notched his 20th victory.

Before the Phillies finally salted away the pennant, Roberts had to survive the mother of all ninth inning rallies.

Here, as recalled by Roberts, is what happened. With the game tied 1-1, the Dodgers’ Cal Abrams walked. The next batter, Pee Wee Reese, twice attempted to bunt but failed. Then Reese singled to left field, “a real shot,” according to Roberts. Duke Snider walked to the plate. Roberts again expected a bunt. Instead, Snider singled sharply to center field. Because Richie Ashburn had a notoriously weak arm, the third base coach waved Abrams home. But Ashburn threw a perfect strike to Stan Lopata and, said Roberts, “Abrams was out by fifteen feet. It wasn’t even close.”

Now, however, Dodger runners were on second and third with Jackie Robinson up. Phillies manager Eddie Sawyer ordered Robinson intentionally walked. Next up came Carl Furillo, “a high-ball hitter”. Roberts fired an “eye-high” fast ball which Furillo popped up.

Gil Hodges represented Brooklyn’s last chance but he lifted a lazy fly ball to Del Ennis.

Roberts led off the top of the tenth with a single to center and Eddie Waitkus followed with another base hit. But Roberts was thrown out trying to advance to third on an Ashburn sacrifice bunt.

The rest of the game, according to Roberts, unfolded this way.

So now we had men on first and second and one out. Dick Sisler came up. He had already had three hits. Well, he tagged one very hard, a line shot into the left field seats. That put us up 4-1.

I still had to get three outs in the last of the tenth and there was no doubt in my mind that I would. I got them one, two, three and Philadelphia had its first pennant since 1915—thirty-five years.

Roberts had a long, fruitful life before and after the Phillies. We’ll examine it in my Wednesday blog next week.

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“Double the fun” is a Friday feature here that looks at one notable doubleheader each week.

Double the fun: Doubleheaders Were Yogi Berra’s Thing; He Caught Both Ends 117 Times

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On May 15, 1948, the Philadelphia Athletics took on the New York Yankees in a doubleheader. What’s significant is not that the A’s, who finished a surprising fourth in the American League, swept the Yankees in New York, 3-1 and 8-6. After all, the Yankees were in a down year and finished in third place.

On that Saturday afternoon before 69, 416 fans, Yogi Berra caught both ends of the double dip for the first of what would eventually be 117 times. Berra had an atypical offensive day. He went hitless in 9 trips.

Since doubleheaders are now rarely played and today’s conventional wisdom would keep the first game’s catcher out of the second game, Berra’s record will stand forever.

In a 1956 interview with Sports Illustrated, Berra explained how he gets tapped for so much double duty. Said Berra: “I don’t know how to say ‘no’”

In 1947, Berra’s first season save for 22 at bats the previous year, Yogi played a little left field and occasionally spelled catchers Ralph Houk, Aaron Robinson or Sherman Lollar. But by 1948, the catching job belonged to Berra. Before he retired in 1965, Berra played 1,699 games behind the plate.

For all the millions of words that have been written about which of the great New York centerfielders Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle or Duke Snider were the best during baseball’s Golden Era, the more compelling debate among  the scribes at the time was who was better, Berra or his Dodger counterpart Roy Campanella?

In his Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James ranks Berra first and Campanella second with Johnny Bench sandwiched between them. While Campanella never played a position other than catcher, Berra during 19 seasons had stints in left and right field as well as at first and third base.

Choosing between them is a toss-up. Here are their managers’ evaluations.

Walter Alston:

They’re two great guys and they can do everything. They’re both great hitters and receivers and their arms compare favorably, one with the other…I’d say Campy is the best at blocking the low pitch. It’s hard to pick between those two guys.”


Casey Stengel:

Berra is an amazing players and a splendid hitter. Although he’s not built as a track athlete, he’s a very fast player. Campanella is more graceful behind the plate, more adept in handling his glove. But while Berra isn’t as graceful, he has so many points. He’s younger than Campanella and may become greater.


I give a slight edge to Berra, the more durable of the two (2,120 games to 1,215), a better hitter for both average and power (.285 to .276/358 HR to 242).

Except when they went head-to-head in the World Series, Berra and Campanella were each other’s biggest fans.

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“Double the fun” is a Friday feature here that looks at one notable doubleheader in baseball history each week.

Double the Fun: Believe it or Not: A 51 Minute Complete Game!

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In the mid-1920s, Pittsburgh Pirates’ pitchers Carmen Hill and Lee Meadows made baseball history when they became the first two twirlers to wear glasses while on the mound. Their glasses must have helped since both notched 20 game winning seasons with the Bucs. In 1926 Meadows’ 20 victories led the National League and in 1927 Hill topped all hurlers with 22.

In May 1923, the Pirates traded for Meadows who won 88 games for the Corsairs until a nagging sinus infection and a sore arm forced his 1929 retirement.

Nicknamed “Specs,” the nearsighted Meadows ranks sixth on the All-Time Pirates list with his .629 winning percentage. Meadows, a pivotal part of the era’s National League dominating Pirates, appeared in the team’s two World Series, 1925 and 1927. During his 15 year career, Meadows won 188 games for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Pirates.

Meadows most memorable baseball moment came with the Phillies when during the second game of a 1919 double header in the Polo Grounds against the New York Giants, he absorbed the 6-1 loss in baseball’s shortest ever nine inning game: 51 minutes.

Unfortunately for Meadows, despite his efficient pitching that day, he suffered his 20th set back. Meadows’ Giants’ opposite Jesse Barnes out pitched him to rack up his 25th win. Barnes’ pitching line: 9 IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO.

The Giants prevailed in the nightcap, 7-1. The doubleheader had little significance in the standings. The Giants finished a distant 9 games behind the first place Reds; the Phillies ended up dead last with a 47-90 record, 47.5 games behind.

Meadows died in Daytona Beach in 1963 at age 68.

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“Double the fun” is a Friday feature here that looks at one memorable doubleheader in baseball history each week.