Three interesting baseball feats: Hard Luck, Wee Willie and Campy

By Jose “Pepitone” Reyes

I ran into three very interesting articles of three great baseball feats. One was done and has remained unsurpassed since 1959, one was the first time it had occurred, 1965 but was only matched twice afterwords and the other had a record that lasted for decades and was very recently broken. These three articles and baseball stories are based on three incredible and not so popular feats, so this is why I am posting it here. Although two of the three feats below have been overtaken, the three players here have been forgotten.


“The Greatest game ever pitched”

By Albert Chen

HARVEY HADDIX stepped onto the rain-softened mound and exhaled. It was May 26, 1959, nearing 10 o’clock on a muggy night in half-empty Milwaukee County Municipal Stadium. Dark clouds loomed overhead in the windswept sky, lightning flickered in the distance. There were two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, and the Pittsburgh Pirates lefthander tugged at the bill of his black cap, glared at his catcher from underneath and nodded. Not one player on the field had said anything to him that even hinted at what he was on the verge of accomplishing. Later, when Haddix stepped up to bat, Milwaukee Braves catcher Del Crandall would break the silence and state the obvious: “Hey, you’re pitching a pretty good game.”

All night long Haddix’s head had been foggy from a nasty cold and all the lozenges he’d been popping in between innings, but he was well aware he had a no-hitter going—he couldn’t ignore all the white zeros on the scoreboard below the COME TO MARLBORO COUNTRY sign beyond right centerfield. Haddix thought he had walked a batter earlier in the game, but he hadn’t. Facing one of the National League’s most feared lineups, the 33-year-old was one out away from pitching the seventh perfect game in major league history. By now radio stations across the country, as far west as Los Angeles, as far east as North Carolina, had picked up the broadcast…… Continue Here (4 Pages Long)

Harvey Haddix whose record still holds was challenged by Pedro Martinez. He went one batter into the 10th inning perfectly and gave up a lead off homer to lose the game. Not even close!



Here’s an article on Wee Willie Keeler by Hal Bodley:

Ichiro’s run rivals Wee Willie’s
Seattle star making bid to pass slight-of-frame Hall of Famer
By Hal Bodley

If Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki is really one of baseball’s best-kept secrets, what about Wee Willie Keeler?

As Ichiro becomes the first Major Leaguer to have nine consecutive seasons with 200 or more hits, he’s becoming a household name. At least among baseball fans.

So is Wee Willie.

It’s Keeler’s record achieved from 1894 through 1901 that Ichiro will surpass. At last glance Ichiro needed just four hits to reach 200 for the season. Wonder what the coverage was like when Keeler set the record? More about him later.

If Ichiro, 35, played most anywhere but Seattle, I’m certain he’d be in the news constantly. This may be unfair, but I believe many of his amazing feats since arriving from Japan in 2001 have almost gone unnoticed. Maybe not unnoticed, but certainly not given the importance they deserve… Continue Here
Wee Willie was in the news before when Pete Rose came close to tying his National league hitting streak of 45. Here’s a great fact which really helps you understand how hard Wee Willie was to strike out. He’s the reason why when you foul the ball while trying to bunt with 2 strikes was changed to an automatic 3rd strike and your out! He was so great at bunting and not striking out that they had to change the rule. He would just bunt it off over and over until be put it in play. Take a look at his strikeout totals, amazing! Look at his numbers ! Not bad for 5′ -4″, 140 Lbs. Talk about hitters! Also tells you how special Ichiro Suzuki is!


Finally, we have “Campy” Campenaris’ feat of playing every position on the field in “One Game.”

Great Article On Campy:

“Campy: More than Just a Bat Slinger”
By 67MARQUEZ

So I was watching MLB Network the other night, and they were highlighting unforgettable moments in playoff history. To my pleasant surprise the segment began with the 1972 ALCS. To my dismay, it neglected to mention that the five-game thriller between the A’s and Tigers put the playoffs on the map, following three seasons in which not one of the six championship series’ went the distance. In fact five of them ended in sweeps. Score one for the purists who felt there was absolutely nothing wrong with the previous format that sent the top team from each league directly to the World Series.

That all changed in 1972. Three games in the Oakland-Detroit series were decided by one run, and two went to extra innings. The other two games were sparkling shutouts by John “Blue” Odom of the A’s, and Joe Coleman of the Tigers.

But you wouldn’t know that had you tuned in Tuesday night (and for the record, the hour was pretty much dedicated to playoff “wars”, but it still would have been nice to give this series the credit it deserves)… Read the Rest


The Bat Throwing incident (Video)

Here’s more detail on how he fared on the field, playing all 9 positions: Another awful 59-103 last place season is highlighted by Bert Campaneris who plays all nine positions in a game on September 8th. The night was billed as “Campy Campaneris Night”, as 20,000 fans show up at Municipal Stadium to watch the A’s face the California Angels. Campaneris didn’t get a chance to field at his natural shortstop position in the first inning, but did assist on a pickoff as a 2B in the second inning. After an uneventful stay at the hot corner in the third, he moved to left field for the fourth inning, and caught a fly ball. Campy snared another in centerfield the following inning, then muffed a Jim Fregosi fly ball in rightfield in the sixth inning, but as a 1B managed to snag a pop-up in the seventh inning. Campaneris’ most challenging assignments came in the final two innings. When he took the mound in the 8hth he pitched as well as could be expected. After inducing a fly out from leadoff man Jose Cardenal, Campy allowed two walks, one hit and one run. However, he got a break when Angels 2B Bobby Knoop struck out and catcher Billy Bryan caught Fregosi trying to steal 3B to end the inning. Campaneris moved behind the plate in the nibth, and the Angels Ed Kirkpatrick took advantage by stealing second after a leadoff single. Three batters later, with Kirkpatrick on third and Tom Egan on first, California again tested Campy’s arm with a double steal. 2B Dick Green took the throw at second and quickly whipped it back to Campaneris in time to nail Kirkpatrick coming home. Kirkpatrick’s only shot at scoring was to crash into Campaneris and try to jar the ball loose. Even though Campaneris held on to preserve the 3-3 tie, the collision forced him to leave the field. After he headed off for X-rays, the two teams dueled long into the night. The game didn’t end until the 13th inning, when the Angels scored twice to win, 5-3. In another publicity stunt, Satchel Paige who stared 25 years earlier with the Negro League’s Kansas City Monarchs starts one game for the Athletics. Paige, whose real age is unknown, is believed around 60-years old. In his one appearance old Satchel goes three innings allowing one hit, and no runs….. From this page (1965)