Starting at Power Pitcher - Dave Debusschere

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Background on Today’s Article on Dave DeBusschere

Dave De Butcher

When I was a little kid, and I was a Knicks fan, I thought his name was Dave De Butcher.

My miss mispronunciation was fitting because DeBusschere played with a controlled ferocity inside.

He also had a sweet touch from far outside that would have made him a great power forward even in today’s game, in 2023.

I previously wrote about Dave DeBusschere in the spring, when he made a beastly play on a rebound against Wilt Chamberlain, late in game 4 of the 1973 NBA Finals, that was instrumental in the Knicks taking a commanding 3 - 1 lead en route to their 2nd title. You can read that article at this link:

The DeBusschere Debacle

For those who don’t know much about him, Dave DeBusschere is a hall of fame basketball player. At 22 years old he was the 4th pick in the 1962 NBA Draft. In 3 seasons at the University of Detroit he averaged 25 points and 19 rebounds.

But even for those who knew about him on the court, did you know that Dave DeBusschere was nearly as good on the mound?

DeBusschere De Baseball

Debusschere was a stand out baseball player in college.

At age 21, right after graduating, he was signed by the Chicago White Sox and went straight to the major leagues.

He played in his 1st professional baseball game for the White Sox, on April 22, 1962 in Kansas City, and in 1 inning he allowed no hits and no earned runs.

He had 6 more appearances, all 1 or 2 innings stints over the next 6 weeks and his ERA stood at 1.64.

Then on June 10th he was called in to pitch in the 8th inning against the Twins. He gave up 2 walks and a home run to Harmon Killibrew and he was yanked from the game without getting an out.

At that point the White Sox sent him to their single A team in Savannah to get experience as a starting pitcher.

In Savannah, DeBusschere started 14 games and racked up a 10 - 1 record with a 2.49 ERA.

The White Sox brought DeBusschere back up again in September and in 4 appearances covering a total of 7 innings he allowed no hits.

DeBusschere Decides to go back to Basketball

Shortly after the baseball season ended, DeBusschere started the 1962-63 NBA season for the Pistons. He averaged 13 points / 9 rebounds / 3 assists while playing in all 80 games.

In game 3 of the Pistons 1st round playoff series against the St. Louis Hawks, DeBusschere recorded his first 20 - 20 game in the pros, as he scored 23 points and pulled down 26 boards in Detroit’s only win of the series.

DeBusschere Determined to be a 2 Sport Pro

With the Pistons out of the playoffs before the end of March, DeBusschere went right back to baseball, and without a break, joined the White Sox for the start of the 1963 baseball season.

In his 1st 9 appearances he had a 2.74 ERA. That earned him a role as a spot starter on the White Sox staff. His 1st start in the majors was on June 23, 1963 and he let up just 2 runs in 7 innings, but lost the game 2 - 0.

Over the next 6 weeks he started 6 more games. By mid-August he had mixed success with a record of 2 - 4 as a starter, but he did have 3 starts in which he went 7 or more innings while allowing 2 or less runs. And in his last 14 innings covering his most recent 2 outings on July 30, 1963 and August 9, 1963, he had only 2 earned runs.

De Sports Time Traveler™ Has to See This

This was enough for me to decide to travel back precisely 60 years, to Chicago, to see Dave DeBusschere start against the Cleveland Indians on August 13, 1963. The White Sox were in 2nd place in the American League at 66 - 50 coming into the game, 9 games behind the Yankees. The Indians were a solid middle of the pack team in 5th place in the American League.

And now today’s article.

Starting at Power Pitcher - Dave Debusschere

CHICAGO - August 14, 1963

Last night I went back in time exactly 60 years to experience one of my favorite basketball players of all time take the mound as the starting pitcher for the Chicago White Sox at Comisky Park.

It was a pleasant evening in the high 60s at the old ballpark in Chicago’s southside at 35th street and Shields avenue. Just under 18,000 fans were on hand when Dave DeBusschere threw the 1st pitch a little after 8pm Central Time to the Indians Vic Davalillo.

DeBusschere got Davilillo to ground out to 3rd and he had a relatively easy inning after that allowing just one single.

In the 2nd inning, DeBusschere retired the side in order.

And he did the same in the 3rd.

Through 3 innings he had allowed just 1 hit and no runs. Meanwhile the White Sox had manufactured 1 run on a sacrifice fly.

WHITE SOX 1 INDIANS 0 - end of 3 innings

In the 4th inning DeBusschere ran into trouble. 3 singles loaded the bases with 2 outs. But DeBusschere got Max Alvis to groundout to get out of the jam and preserve his 1 - 0 lead.

In the 5th inning DeBusschere yielded 2 more singles and had runners on 1st and 2nd with just 1 out. But again he got out of the inning when the next 2 batters flied out.

In the bottom of the 5th, the White Sox padded the lead for DeBusschere, scoring 2 runs.

WHITE SOX 3 INDIANS 0 - end of 5 innings

Over the next 3 innings DeBusschere settled down. He let up a walk but no other batter reached base.

Going into the 9th inning the score remained 3 - 0 White Sox.

The 1st Indians batter in the 9th was catcher John Romano. He flied out to left.

The 2nd batter was right fielder Al Luplow. He popped up to short.

With 2 outs the next Indians batter was 3rd baseman Max Alvis. The 2nd year player was having a solid year with 14 HRs / 42 RBIs and was batting .400 over his last 5 games.

But on this night DeBusschere got him to go 0 for 4 as he flied out to left field to end the game.

Dave DeBusschere had completed a shutout!

The popular DeBusschere had a banner headline in all caps in the Chicago Tribune sports section today that read, “DEBUSSCHERE, SOX BEAT INDIANS, 3 - 0.”

In addition, DeBusschere got a headline on the front page of the Tribune too. A small article on the bottom of column 3 had the heading, “DEBUSSCHERE SHUTOUT INDIANS, 3 TO 0.”

POSTSCRIPT From The Sports Time Traveler™

There were no quotes in any newspapers from Dave DeBusschere about his first major league baseball shutout.

But the AP article on the game, that ran in newspapers around the country started with this, “Dave DeBusschere felt so tall today that he probably could rebound against Wilt Chamberlain.”

Little did they know that one of the biggest basketball plays of his career would come 10 years later when he wrested a rebound away from Wilt to ice the key game of the 1973 NBA Finals.

I believe that Dave DeBusschere is the only 2 sport player to ever record a shutout in a major league baseball game.

Thanks for reading!