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.

Day 11...New York

Atop the Empire State Building

On Thursday, we had a big day filled not only with the sixth MLB game (and fifth stadium) of our trip, but with a day of seeing the sights as tourists in New York City. We took the train in from White Plains, disembarking at Grand Central Station. As we exited the station, we came outside to see The Empire State Building rising high above us. I remember that it looked like it was right in front of us, but in reality it was half a mile away. We decided that it should be our first stop, so we walked that direction, taking in the life and energy of the New York City streets. Once we reached it and rode the elevator to the top, we were definitely not disappointed by the views, even though it was a very cloudy day.

For lunch, we had made arrangements to meet with my aunt Sarah who worked in Manhattan. After meeting her at her office, she took us to Mickey Mantle's Restaurant. With not only the theme but the baseball memorabilia abounding, it was the perfect spot for lunch. 

After lunch, she showed us around a couple spots "in the neighborhood," like St. Patrick's Cathederal and Rockefeller Center. We hit a few other sights around town before catching the train back to White Plains. From there we got the car and drove to Shea Stadium to see the Cardinals face the Mets.

It was actually the second time I had been to a game there. In 1986 when my family was visiting my grandparents, we got tickets to a game. The Mets' phenom and reigning Cy Young Award winner, Dwight Gooden pitched on that occasion. He was disappointingly mediocre, allowing five runs in four innings before leaving the game. The Metropolitans would lose that day 11-1.

As for tonight's game, the home squad wouldn't fare much better. The Cards jumped on top in the first when Felix Jose singled in Bernard Gilkey. With two out in the fourth, the Cardinals rallied for three more runs when pitcher Omar Olivares doubled, followed by back-to-back RBI singles from Geronimo Pena and Gilkey, a walk to Ray Lankford, and an RBI double by Jose.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals got a great outing out of Olivares, who tossed two-hit ball over seven shutout innings. The Birds added four more over the final three innings to stretch their lead to 8-0, before closer Lee Smith yielded three meaningless runs in the bottom of the ninth.

After the game, we waited by the Cardinals dugout as they exited the field. I yelled out to Gilkey and got his attention as he approached, dropping the name of my uncle Dave who had played against Gilkey when they were both high schoolers in St. Louis. In fact, Dave struck out Gilkey three times in one game! It must have earned Gilkey's respect, because that night, a decade later, he stopped and chatted with me for a moment and told me to pass along his greetings to Dave. 

All in all, it was another great day on the trip!

Miles driven today: 68 miles
Total miles driven: 2,382 miles

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Manhattan: Twin reminders of how long ago this was

Rockefeller Center

Not a bad view from our seats...

...but an even better view later in the game!

Future Hall of Famer, Eddie Murray

Cardinal third baseman, Todd Zeile

Cardinal outfielders Felix Jose, Ray Lankford and Bernard Gilkey

"And that's a winner, folks!"

Shea Stadium, Attendance: 23,756

Cardinals 8 32-32 Won 1 2nd, 5½ GB

1  2  3   4  5  6   7  8  9    R  H  E                 -  -  -   -  -  -   -  -  -    -  -  - Cardinals       1  0  0   3  0  0   1  2  1    8 16  1 Mets            0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  3    3  5  0 W: O Olivares (4-3), L: P Schourek (0-3)

Mets 3 30-35 Lost 2 5th, 8 GB

BATTING

St. Louis Cardinals          AB   R   H RBI   BB  SO    BA   OPS  Pit   PO   A  Details

G Pena 2B                     6   1   2   1    0   0  .322  .990   22    0   6   CS

  B Figueroa 2B               0   0   0   0    0   0  .200  .400         0   0  

B Gilkey LF                   4   3   1   1    2   0  .339  .812   24    1   0   SB

R Lankford CF                 4   0   1   0    1   0  .283  .808   32    2   0  

F Jose RF                     4   1   3   2    1   1  .314  .860   20    0   0   2·2B,SB

T Zeile 3B                    5   1   2   2    0   1  .232  .671   24    1   2   2B

A Galarraga 1B                5   0   1   0    0   1  .161  .422    9   13   2  

T Pagnozzi C                  5   1   2   0    0   2  .291  .726   19    5   0   2B

T Jones SS                    4   0   2   1    1   0  .185  .418   18    3   2  

O Olivares P                  4   1   1   0    0   1  .280  .628   11    1   1   2B

  M Perez P                   0   0   0   0    0   0  .000  .000         1   0  

  G Perry PH                  1   0   1   1    0   0  .250  .647    1    0   0  

  L Smith P                   0   0   0   0    0   0                     0   0  

Totals                       42   8  16   8    5   6              180   27  13

BATTING

2B: O Olivares (1, off P Schourek); T Pagnozzi (13, off P Schourek); F Jose 2 (9, off L Guetterman, off W Whitehurst); T Zeile (10, off L Guetterman).

TB: F Jose 5; T Zeile 3; T Pagnozzi 3; G Pena 2; O Olivares 2; T Jones 2; A Galarraga; R Lankford; B Gilkey; G Perry.

RBI: F Jose 2 (36); T Zeile 2 (23); T Jones (1); G Pena (10); G Perry (10); B Gilkey (8).

2-out RBI: F Jose 2; T Zeile 2; G Pena; T Jones; B Gilkey.

Team LOB: 12.

With RISP: 7 for 17.

FIELDING

DP: 1. G Pena-T Jones-A Galarraga.

E: T Jones (3).

BASERUNNING

SB: F Jose (9, 2nd base off P Schourek/C O'Brien); B Gilkey (7, 2nd base off L Guetterman/M Sasser).

CS: G Pena (1, 2nd base by P Schourek/C O'Brien).

New York Mets                AB   R   H RBI   BB  SO    BA   OPS  Pit   PO   A  Details

V Coleman LF                  4   0   1   0    0   1  .321  .775   17    1   0  

D Boston RF                   3   1   1   1    1   0  .248  .734   16    2   0   HR,SB

E Murray 1B                   3   1   0   0    1   1  .258  .764   18    9   0  

H Johnson CF                  3   1   1   0    1   1  .228  .721   23    4   0  

D Magadan 3B                  4   0   0   0    0   0  .303  .767   17    0   3  

B Pecota 2B-SS                4   0   0   0    0   0  .167  .433   16    1   4  

C O'Brien C                   0   0   0   0    1   0  .197  .657    8    4   1  

  M Sasser PH-C               3   0   1   2    0   0  .217  .493    8    2   0   2B

D Schofield SS                2   0   1   0    0   0  .218  .621    5    2   5  

  C Walker PH-2B              2   0   0   0    0   1  .210  .525    9    1   1  

P Schourek P                  1   0   0   0    0   0  .143  .286    3    0   0  

  W Whitehurst P              0   0   0   0    0   0  .167  .619         0   0  

  J Noboa PH                  1   0   0   0    0   0  .154  .387    3    0   0   GDP

  L Guetterman P              0   0   0   0    0   0                     0   0  

  B Bonilla PH                1   0   0   0    0   1  .275  .828    5    0   0  

  J Innis P                   0   0   0   0    0   0  .000  .000         1   0  

  D Gallagher PH              1   0   0   0    0   0  .281  .708    2    0   0  

Totals                       32   3   5   3    4   5              150   27  14

BATTING

2B: M Sasser (3, off L Smith).

HR: D Boston (4, off L Smith; 9th inn, 0 on, 0 outs to Deep RF Line).

TB: D Boston 4; M Sasser 2; H Johnson; D Schofield; V Coleman.

GIDP: J Noboa (2).

RBI: M Sasser 2 (6); D Boston (15).

Team LOB: 6.

With RISP: 1 for 10.

BASERUNNING

SB: D Boston (4, 2nd base off O Olivares/T Pagnozzi).

PITCHING

St. Louis Cardinals        IP     H   R  ER   BB  SO  HR    ERA   BF  Pit-Str   GB-FB  GmSc  IR-IS

O Olivares, W (4-3)         7     2   0   0    3   3   0   4.08   25   99-59    12-5     73    -

M Perez                     1     0   0   0    0   1   0   0.82    3   14-8      2-0          0-0

L Smith                     1     3   3   2    1   1   1   3.41    8   37-22     0-2          0-0

Totals                      9     5   3   2    4   5   1          36  150-89    14-7          0-0

New York Mets              IP     H   R  ER   BB  SO  HR    ERA   BF  Pit-Str   GB-FB  GmSc  IR-IS

P Schourek, L (0-3)         3.2   8   4   4    3   4   0   3.48   21   96-51     2-4     30    -

W Whitehurst                1.1   2   0   0    0   0   0   3.38    6   18-12     2-2          2-1

L Guetterman                3     4   3   3    2   2   0   8.78   15   55-34     3-3          0-0

J Innis                     1     2   1   1    0   0   0   3.47    5   11-8      2-1          0-0

Totals                      9    16   8   8    5   6   0          47  180-105    9-10         2-1

Balks: None.

WP: None.

IBB: None.

HBP: None.

OTHER

Umpires: HP - Jerry Layne, 1B - Paul Runge, 2B - Jim Quick, 3B - Kerwin Danley.

Time of Game: 3:31.

Attendance: 23,756.

Field Condition: Unknown.

Weather: 71° F, Wind 18mph from Right to Left, Sunny, No Precipitation.