Classic Baseball Radio

Bill James called him “the slowest man who played baseball,” yet his ten years with a batting average over .300 would make him attractive to any team. In his seventeen years, he was the first catcher to earn two NL Batting Awards.

He finished with a career .306, but it was one lapse of concentration in Game 4 of the 1939 World Series he would be remembered for. Taking a hard-hit ball without a protective cup in the tenth inning left him dazed while the World Series winning run stole home.

Rather than the fateful Game 4, let's step back a few days and remind ourselves that a World Series is more than a single play. Lombardi is still catching, Bucky Walters is his starting pitcher, and the game is in the oppressive and hostile Yankee Stadium.

The classic team of Red Barber and Bob Elson are behind the microphone.

You can find the boxscore here:

There are pitchers who have storied careers, workhorses who can support a team’s offence for many years, and pitchers who shine brightly and burn out in a single season.

Fritz Peterson was a workhorse. He had a winning record in seven of his eleven years in the Majors and posted a career 133-131 record. His time and productivity with the New York Yankees puts him currently in ninth-place in the all-time games started, and tent on innings pitched.

However, it was the year 1970 that truly illuminated his career. With a career-best winning percentage of .645, he reached the psychological milestone of 20 wins on the last day of the season. This was also the year he received his only call up to the All-Star Game, a testament to his exceptional performance. Yet, despite these achievements, he never had the opportunity to play in a post-season game.

As the Yankees visit the Athletics, Peterson holds a 2-2 record and he's looking to establish himself in the rotation. Frank Messer and Bob Gamere share play-by-play and color duties in today's classic game.

Legendary manager and player Whitey Herzog died this week at the age of 92. Here at Classic Baseball Radio, we'd like to take a moment to remember a career that caught fire after the playing ended, with one of his last appearances on the diamond.

Herzog made it to the majors, playing for the Washington Senators in 1956. He spent time with the Athletics, Orioles, and Tigers before retiring from on-field duty in 1963.

Only then, with his playing career no longer a hindrance, would Herzog and his bleached near-white hair find the place the Baseball Gods had carved out for him. Working through various backroom roles, from scout and coach to general manager and director, Herzog found his joy one step back from the diamond.

As a manager, he excelled, racking up six division wins, three pennants, and one World Series-winning team.

For today's game, we're returning to the dead-rubber days of September 1961. The New York Yankees have the pennant pretty much sewn up, and the Orioles have earned third place. Herzog bats in the heart of the order, facing Ralph Terry of the Yankees.

Phil Rizzuto takes you up to the sixth inning, with Mel Allen closing out the microphone game.

Imagine your playing career saw you selected seven times to play in the All-Star game, led the league in stolen bases, posted four seasons of .300 plus baseball, had a hitting streak of 34 games, and averaged over 100 runs per season throughout your career.

Yet his name is one that never stood out, partly because he's on a Red Sox team with the greatest hitter who ever lived… and his older brother was Joe DiMaggio.

This is the life of Dom DiMaggio, who spent eleven years of his eleven-year career in the Majors with the Boston Red Sox. As with almost every player in the forties, the prime playing career was given to service during World War 2.

David Halberstam called him "the most underrated player of his day”, and it’s not hard to see why.

Let’s remember Dom with today’s game, which is a classic. It's 1949, and the Red Sox are facing the New York Yankees. Boston's finest have posted a 96-57 season against the Yankees 96-57. Yep, it's a winner-takes-all game on the final day of the regular season. Dom is leading off for the Red Sox, with his brother Joe in the clean-up spot for the Yankees.

Speaking of legends… Mel Allen and Curt Gowdy will take you through this crunch game.

You can find the boxscore here:

Can you go through an entire season on First Base without having an error charged to you? Unless your name is Steve Garvey, the answer is no. As you might have surmised, Garvey did just that, posting his yet-to-be-equalled feat in 1984 with the San Diego Padres.

With a career .294 on 2599 hits and 272 home runs, Garvey's no slouch. A standout number, though, has to be his 1270 consecutive games played.

Let's rewind the clock to 1973. It's September 28th, and the Dodgers have sewn up the division and are in a dead rubber with the San Diego Padres. Garvey is camping out, as always, on first base. Years down the line, he’ll join the Padres from the Dodgers, but there were a few All-Star appearances and one World Series ring before that point.

Vin Scully has the microphone.

You can find the boxscore here:

899 games pitched, all in relief, with a lifetime 99-76 record; the delightfully named Sparky Lyle was an era-defining relief pitcher.

Take his 1977 Cy Young award, the first AL reliever to do so, twice picking up the AL saves record, and three all-star appearances. Then you have his back-to-back World Series in 77 and 78, plus writing the book on the 78 season ('The Bronx Zoo'). Lyle has the numbers, the prestige, and the passion to lay claim to being one of the most important relievers in the history of the game.

He found his grove with the Boston Red Sox before being traded to the New York Yankees… a move which boosted his career but on reflection one the Red Sox might have wished they could have taken back.

Let's unite the old and new for today's game as Lyle's Yankees welcome the Lyle-less Red Soxs.

You can find the boxscore here:

Apart from the occasional “one and done” years, the only team to have a winning record over .500 in every year they played is the Milwaukee Braves.

There were losing years under the Boston Braves and Atlanta Braves banners, but the thirteen years in Milwaukee stand apart not just in this franchise but in every franchise. From the pennant-winning streak between 53 and 59, through record-breaking appearances, to a World Series win in 1957, this is a storied part of the team's history.

Let's pick up one of those stories for today's game. It's May 1957; not only have the Braves rushed out to a 17-7 record, but their divisional rivals, the Dodgers, are struggling to find their footing. Visiting Country Stadium with a 13-10 record, the Dodgers are hoping the legendary Don Newcombe can pitch them into a winning streak.

And don't forget who's behind the microphone… an incredibly young Vin Scully.

Johnny Bench was the acknowledged leader of the Big Red Machine, the Cincinnati Reds’ era-defining team that won six divisional titles, four pennants, and two World Series.

A master of both offence and defence, Bench held the record for home runs by a catcher for over thirty years, along with two years leading the National League for home runs and three years leading with RBIs. Alongside those awards sit ten Golden Gloves, 100 games or more behind the plate for 13 straight years

Bench is arguably Baseball's greatest catcher.

Let's celebrate that with a trip to 1974, with Bench posting 108 runs, 33 homers, 129 RBIs, and 315 total bases. As always, the Reds are chasing the Dodgers. Behind 7.5 games at the start of Augst, the Reds are just two games behind as the Pittsburgh Pirates visit Riverfront Stadium

Nellie King and Bob Prince are your guides behind the microphone.

You can find the boxscore here:

Who’s the best pitcher baseball ever saw? There's a lot of names to cosndier. Who's the best left-handed pitcher baseball ever saw? That list is a lot shorter, and near the top - perhaps at the very top - is Lefty Grove.

There’s ’s no louder-than-life personality to help us remember him by; there’s no stunning images on early TV coverage, nor are there mythical stories to pass on. As the image of baseball moved on in the fifties, the exploits of Grove and many of his compatriots faded from sight.

Yet Grove's numbers show we're missing something. He has 300 career wins, four times annual winner in the American League, nine times the annual ERA leader, and seven times the strikeout leader. Throw in six All-Star call-ups, and you have a storied career.

We join Grove on the mound in 1936. He's moved on from the record-breaking days of the Philadelphia Athletic to the Boston Red Sox… and still breaking records. 1935 saw a 20-12 season a league-winning ERA of 2.90. 1936 is shaping up to be more of the same.

The Chicago White Sox welcome Grove and the Red Sox, and George Watson and Hal Totten are taking us through the plays.

You can find the boxscore here:

Eleven years after becoming the first expansion team in the American League, the Washington Senators left the capital, headed to Texas, and became the Rangers.

It wasn't an easy start, with 100 losses picked up in both 72 and 73. The Rangers would bounce back with 74 and 75's records above .500. Titles would take a little longer, with the franchise not picking up a league title until 1996, a first pennant in 2010, and a first World Series victory in 2023.

For this week's broadcast, we're returning to that turbulent 1972. Coming off the All-Star break, The Rangers are on the road and facing a doubleheader against the Yankees. With 40 games left in the season, the Rangers are 26 games behind .500, hoping for a streak to help them lift the spirits of its new fanbase. It would be a futile chase.

The Yankees' Frank Messer, Bill White, and Phill Rizzuto broadcast team take you through the game.

You can find the boxscore here:

For the 1961 season, the Washington Senators moved out of the capital to play ball in Minnesota as the Twins. Marque names such as Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison, and Jim Perry helped the team make its mark in its new home. Four years later, the Twins would win the AL pennant and bring it to Minnesota for the first time.

As for Washington, the city would not be left without a baseball team. Immediately replacing the Washington Senators in 1961 were… the Washington Senators. The team with an old name was one of two AL expansion teams, and success did not come easy. The team's first pennant was in 2010, but by then, they had moved to Arlington as the Texas Rangers.

That first year saw them finish behind everyone else in the AL, posting a 61-100 record. 1961 was the year of a dominant Yankees team, finishing 47 and a half games ahead of the Senators. But what of their head-to-head?

We join the Senators at Yankee Stadium on 2nd July; the two teams’ record is 3-3, and we have Bob Delaney hosting, with Phil Rizzuto and Red Barber on the play-by-play.

You can find the boxscore here.

A gentleman in demeanour but a superman when slugging. That was Harmon Killebrew, Idaho's greatest home-run hitter and a legend at the plate. He was a 13-times All-Star, a 6-time AL home-run leader, a 3x AL RBI leader, and the 1969 MVP.

When he retired, he was fifth in the all-time Home Run record, and his 573 bombs are still enough to hold twelfth place today. He could easily reach the edge of the yard, notably being the first of only four players to ever bat over the left field roof of Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

The batting earned him the nickname of "killer" no doubt helped by his name, yet he was seen as one of the politest players in the game. And he's definitely not the slugger in the MLB logo.

We join Killebrew and the Twins as they welcome the Yankees to the Metropolitan Stadium. The twins have a commanding 53-29 record—they are on their way to a 102-win season and the first AL pennant for the Twins in Minnesota. Killebrew is in his beloved role as the cleanup hitter and is facing the Yankees Al Downing.

Jerry Coleman and Red Barber share the microphone for the Yankees Radio Network.

You can find the boxscore here.

The Designated Hitter rule was adopted by the American League in 1973. Nearly fifty years later, and with much debate that has started to quieten down, the National League followed. In that time leagues at every level around the world introduced the pitcher's replacement bat.

Somebody had to be first though. And the first was the New York Yankees' Ron "Boomer" Blomberg. It was April 6th, 1973, the wind blowing out to right field, and Blomberg faces Luis Tiant… five pitches later, Boomer walks to first base. All designated, no hits, but on base. That'll do nicely.

We don't have the actual game where Blomberg was the first DH, but we do have a game a few months later. The Yankees are visiting Memorial Stadium to take on the Baltimore Orioles. Boomer is fifth in the order, with the still-unusual DH letters beside his name.

Behind the microphone is the platoon of Frank Messer, Bill White, and Phil Ruzzuto.

You can find the boxscore here:

With MLB's changes to the 2023 season has seen a resurgence in aggressive base running and stolen bases. It's not yet back to the levels seen in the seventies and eighties, but a new dimension has returned to the diamond.

Which leads us to the Athletics' Bert Campaneris. 

In the eight years between 1965 and 1972, Campaneris led the American League in Stolen Bases for six of those years. When he retired, he was seventh in career steals with 649 and is currently sitting 14th in the all-time table.

Let’s not forget the records he holds at the A's, career games played (1795), hits (1882) and at bats (7180). A true legend.

Today's classic baseball game is early in the 1968 season, a season which would see the Athletics posting their first winning season since 1952. It's mid April as they welcome the Orioles to the Coliseum. Campaneris is happily playing at shortstop at the top of the batting order. 

Al Helfer and Monte Moore split commentating duties behind the microphone.

You can find the boxscore here.

The Knuckleball… a pitch that is turbulent, unpredictable, and rarely mastered. One player who did was Phil Niekro. With 318 career victories he currently sits 16th on the All-time Winners list, the highest of any knuckleball pitcher.

Of course the knuckelball is a fickle mistress. Niekro may have had three 20-win seasons, but he also had two 20-loss seasons as well; and to top it all off he is the sole MLB pitcher to pick up 20 wins and 20 losses in a single season, throwing 21-20 for the Atlanta Braves in 1979.

With 24 seasons under his belt, there's a lot games to choose from. For today's classic, we're heading back to 1967, as the Braves visit the Houston Astros.Phil Niekro is on the mound, facing a pitching duel with the Astro's Don Wilson

Behind the microphone are Gene Elston, Loel Passe, and Harry Kalas to take you through the game.

For many, Bob Feller is the fastest pitcher the baseball world has ever seen, with a reported 107 mph pitch once leaving his hand. And if Ted Williams says that's true, who is going to argue with that>

In an interrupted career, Feller posted a lifetime ERA of 3.25 on 266 wins from 570 games, including 44 shutouts, 12 one-hitters, and three no-hitters. On retirement, he was the number three all-time strikeout pitcher (with just Cy Young and Walter Johnson ahead of him).

Those records could well have been higher, but Feller volunteered for military service following Pearl Harbour, reaching the rank of Chief Petty Officer. On leaving the Navy at the end of the war, he started to make his way back to Cleveland… he was pitching two days later.

After hanging up his glove, Feller became the first President of the Major League Baseball Players Association and fought hard for a fairer deal for the Union's members.

To celebrate the life of Bob Feller, we're going back to 1948, and the first game of the World Series. Feller is on the mound for his beloved Indians, while Johnny Sain is pitching for the Boston Braves.

Behind the microphone are Mel Allen and Jim Britt.

For 1.944 games, Eddie Mathews played Third Base for the Braves; first the Boston Braves, then the Milwaukee Braves, and then the Atlanta Braves. Travelling for the team as it moved cities in the fifties and sixties. 

And he posted an impressive record; 12 All-Star appearances, two World Series victories, and nine consecutive season with thirty or more home runs. He retired with 512 homers, putting him sixth on the all-time home run record table… today he still sits in an impressive 23rd place.

Mathews is rightly regarded as one of the greatest third basemen of all time.

Let's join him in his golden years. It's 1962 and the Milwaukee Braves are in County Stadium welcoming the New York Mets to their home for the very first time. Mathews is the clean-up hitter, with his legendary team-mate Warren Spahn on the mound.

Sharing the microphone thorugh the game are Lindsey Nelson, Ralph Kiner, and Bob Murphy.

You can find the boxscore here.

Bill Singer picked up the first ever save for the Dodgers in their game against the Reds on April 7th 1969. Four more pitchers joined Singer on April 8th; the Red Sox's Juan Pizarro, the Expos' Carroll Sembera, the Pirates' Chuck Hartenstein, and the Pilots' Jack Aker.

It's to the Seattle Pilots' game we head to this week. Not only is it one of the first games to have a saving pitchers, it's also the very first game for the Pilots in their one and only season.

To keep the league numbers balanced, the team's introduction was brought forwards to bring them into America's game alongside Kansas City Royals. This caused significant problems on and off the field for the Pilots. The team would be declared bankrupt seven days before the 1970 season, a financial move which allowed the team to be acquired from the courts by a certain Bud Sellig; he relocated the team to Milwaukee, and renamed them the Brewers.

 That's for the future. Right now the Pilots are opening up the season against the California Angels, and while we're missing the third and fourth innings, let's head over to the booth with Dick Enberg, Don Wells and Buddy Blattner.

Games can be important because of the players, of firsts, of society, or more. Today's classic baseball radio broadcast features an important first for umpiring that reflects society.

In 1966 Emmett Ashford became the first African American umpire in the major league. Having umpired since the late 1930s  (by virtue of being the volunteer when another umpire failed to turn up to a game), he made a name for himself with his flamboyant style as he worked up through the league.

He made his debut on April 11, 1966. After a little bit of a search in our archives, we've got one of Emmett Ashford's earliest games in the MLB. Two months into the season Ashford finds himself manning first base in this mid-season clash between the Yankees (33-40) and the Senators (32-46)… and we're cutting straight to the first pitch.

You can find the boxscore here.

Jim Palmer won a World Series ring in the sixties. Jim Palmer won a World Series ring in the seventies. Jim Palmer won a World Series ring in the eighties… and Jim Palmer is the only pitcher win rings in three different decades.

It's also worth flagging up his six All-Star appearances, three Cy Young awards, a no-hitter in 1969, his career ERA of 2.856, plus the simple to say but hard to comprehend fact that nobody ever hit a Grand Slam from a Palmer pitch in the  majors. And all that while being loyal and sticking with the Baltimore Orioles for nineteen years.

Palmer is rightly seen as one of the best pitchers in the history of baseball and his ERA - fifth overall in the live-ball rankings - stands as testament to that. Just ahead of him on that list with a career ERA of 2.76 is Sandy Koufax.

So how could we not head to Game 2 of the 1966 World Series. Sandy Koufax is taking his last start for the LA Dodgers, while Jim Palmer is in his second year with the Baltimore Orioles and his first World Series start.

Bob Prince and Chuck Thompson are behind the mics for what we now know is a historic game of career bookmarks.

You can find the boxscore here.

When someone picks up awards for Rookie fo the Year, Most Valuable Player, and the Cy Young Award during their career, you know they are something special. And yes, pitcher Don Newcombe was something special.

For today's classic game, let's go back to one of the many firsts that Newcombe had in his career, namely becoming the first black pitcher to start a game in the World Series. It's October 5th, and Newcombe is going to throw one of the memorable pitcher duels in the Fall Classic, as he faces the Yankees’ Allie Reynolds.

Red Barber and Mel Allen take us through nine innings towards history.

A key pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the late fifties and early sixties, Bob Friend still holds the Pirates' career records for innings pitched (3480), strikeouts (1682), and batters faced (14,644). 

The four-time All Star played with Pittsburgh for fifteen years, but the last year of his MLB career saw him play in New York… adding  delightful footnote. He played the first half of the season with the New York Yankees, and the second half of the season with the New York Mets. Truly a friend of the Big Apple. 

For today's classic game, the Houston Astros are visiting the Mets at Shea Stadium. Bob Friend is on the mound, and is preparing to throw nine straight innings. 

We join Mets Radio and the original team of Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy, and Ralph Kiner, for the second game in this double header.

Warren Spahn has finished out the 1958 season with 22 wins. That's an important stat, as it marks him out as the first left-handed pitcher to have nine 'twenty win seasons' in the Majors. He will eventually record 363 wins in his career.

It should come as no surprise that the best left-handed pitcher each year wins The Warren Spahn Award.

His 22 wins in the 1958 season have brought the Milwaukee Braves to the World Series. Facing the New York Yankees, both teams have a 92-62 record from the season. Spahn is set to pitch the opening game.

We join Bob Wolff and Earl Gillespie on NBC radio at the top of the first.

Founded by the American Actor Gene Autry, the Los Angeles Angles was one of the the first expansion clubs (the other being Washington). The first year they played at the Los Angeles Wrigley Field - home of the previous LA Angels who had played in the PCL league. Four years as tennants of the Dogers followed, before Angel Stadium was opened.

The team may not be as storied or as rewarded as the original teams (for example, the Angles are one for one in World Series apperances, the sole apperance and victory coming in 2002), but the their heart has aleays been in baseball, the 

And they've never forgotten their "26th man", the singing cowboy himself, Gene Autry.

So let's go back to the beginning, and the first game of the Angles. They were on the road and visting Baltimore. Opening the season, and opening the history books, Eddie Yost steps up to swing the Angels bat for the very first time.

Bob Kelly, with Don Wells and Steve Bailey, are on KMPC to take you through the game.

Milt Pappas made the All-Star Game three times, had a 10-year streak over .500 wins, an eleven year streak of double digit wins, pitched for 209 wins in his career… and never managed more than 17 wins in a season.

That might feel about right for a pitcher in 2023, but back in 1972 Pappas was the epitomy of a long, slow burn into the history books. 

June 17th 1972 saw the Los Angeles Dodgers are visting Wrigley Field, and Pappas is on the mound for the Cubs. We join the game during the top of the first innings. Pappas has struck out Billy Grabarkewitz, and Bobby Valentine steps up. 

As the MLB works to bring the stolen base back into the game, let's remember one of the great power hitters who combined the hits with the speed.

 Bobby Bonds was the first player have two season with 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases, setting the record of five thirty-thirty seasons… a record that has never been beaten, although he now shares the five season ticket with his son Barry Bonds. By the end of his career - a career that saw him play for eight different teams before returning to the Giants as a coach in 1993. - he had gathered 461 stolen bases.

We join Bonds on the field in 1972, a season that would end with 26 home runs and 44 stolen bases. Unsurprisingly, Bonds is batting third for the Giants.

Taking us through the game are Lon Simmons and Bill Thompson on The Golden West Radio Network

With the news that the Athletic are set to leave Oakland for the shiny bright lights of Las Vegas, it's worth remembering just how often the club has moved around.

Way back in 1901, a new Philadelphia team was founded, and it joined the nascent American League, winning the Pennant six times and the World Series three times in the first twelve years. Their next period of dominace was during the Great Depression, with three Pennans and two more World Series. But that was the last glory for the Athletic in Philadephia as a lack of finance and poor management saw success fade away.

The Athletic then moved to Kansas City. The move did not change the fortunes of the team with their best year a 73-81 record. A new owner, Charlie Finlay, bought the team in 1960 with grand promsies, but was quick to start shopping the franchise around.  After thirteen years (and an overal .404 record), the Athletic moved once more ahead of the 1968 season.

Oakland was its new home and the team broke .500 in that first year, and the early seventies saw success return, with a World Series win in 1973. The franchise was linked with moves to Chicago, Denver, and New Orleans in the 70s. 

As the 21st centruy dawned, the Athletic contineud to look to move out of the Oakland Colosseum and into San Jose, but that territor belonged to cross-bay rivals the San Francisco Giants, and the Giants were never ready to accommodate a move. So we come to 2023, and the Athletic are ready to move again. A new stadium will be built in Las Vegas, and Nevada will have a new baseball team in 2027. 

With such a long history, let's go back as far as we can in the current archive to listen to the Philadephia Athletic take on the Chicago White Sox. It's 1936, and the Athletic are in the first years of a decades long slump. Russ Hodges is in the studio, and we join the game early in the top of the first.

If you wanted someone who could hit for power in the expansion era, you wanted Orlando Cepeda. The so-called 'Baby Bull' would be in contention for the leading batting, home run, RBI, slugging, and total bases awards every year for his first five years. He would alos be the first Puerto Rican All-Star, taking to the field in 1959.

His first nine years saw him play first base for the San Francisco Giants (at the same time as Willie McCovey was also staking his claim to the same position). At the time he was second in the Giants' all time right-hand slugging list, just behind Willie Mays. The forever Giant saw his #30 retired  in 1999, and he is one of only four Giants immortalised with a bronze statue at Oracle Park.

He wasn't always on the Giants roster though, having played for six different teams. Following injuries in 1965, he was traded to the St Louis Cardinals. Once settled, it was time to rack up some more records. 

1967 saw Cepeda unanimously voted the National League's MVP. He was only the second player to achieve this distinction following the New York Giants' Carl Hubbell achieving a clean sweep of the votes in 1933; he's also one of only five players to win both the Rookie of the Year and the MVP unanimously; and the first Latin player to win RBI and Home Run titles.

For today's classic, we join Cepeda early in that key 1967 season. The Cardinals are visiting Shea Stadium to take on the New York Mets. Cepeda is batting fourth, and he's going to have a rather productive game. So will the Mets…

The team of Lindsey Nelson, Ralph Kiner & Bob Murphy take you through the various innings on the Mets Radio Network.

Elston Howard was the first African American player on the New York Yankees roster, he was the first black player to win the American League MVP award, and he held the fielding percentage record as a catcher (a career .993) for seven years.

He also invented the batter's donut.

The now ubiquitous warm-up aid debuted in 1955 - with the St Louis Cardians the first to invest in it. Unfortunatly a lack of funds meant Howard and his partners struggled to combat copycat manufacturers.

The Yankees retired Howards' #32 jersey in 1984 in honor of his playing career in the pinstripes, but aslo for his ten years as first base coach (the first black coach in the AL) and then working for the clubs adminsistration. 

But let's go back to 1955, and Elston Howard's debut in the majors. The Yankees have welcomed the White Sox, and our donut making legend is playing in right field - his time as catcher will come. Besides, nobody's moving Yogi Berra away from the plate until Berra's ready.

Bob Elson takes you through the first half of the game for White Sox Radio, with Don Wells on microphone clean-up duty.

Ron Hunt can rightly be described as loving the ball more than any batter in the 1971 season, when he became the first batter to be hit by fifty pitches in a single year. It wasn't an aberration either; in the last seven years of his twelve year career he led the Hit By Pitch counter in the National League. 

His all-time count of 243 HBPs was the record in the live-ball era, and would not be overtaken for sixteen years.

We join Ron Hunt as he leads off for the Expos as the Dodgers visit Canada for a double-header.

Behind the microphone, who else, but Vin Scully.