OAKLAND, CA - July 9, 1974
I’m on a quick virtual trip to Oakland, California in July, 1974, where last night I experienced a battle between the AL East 1st place Cleveland Indians and the AL West 1st place, and defending World Series Champion, Oakland A’s.
This was not just a battle of 1st place teams.
It was also a battle of 2 great pitchers - Gaylord Perry of the Indians and Vida Blue of the A’s.
And one of those pitchers, Gaylord Perry, was pitching with a chance to tie an ancient baseball record - the American League single season consecutive wins mark of 16.
Over 47,582 fans jammed Oakland Coliseum for the Monday night game, the largest crowd of the year so far here in the East Bay, for the chance to witness history.
The American League Single Season Consecutive Wins Record
Here’s a quick background on the record.
In the 1912 season, both Walter “The Big Train” Johnson of the Senators and “Smoky” Joe Wood of the Red Sox won 16 consecutive games to set the American League record.
22 years later in 1934, Elwin “Preacher” Rowe tied the record while playing for the Tigers.
For the next 40 years no other pitcher in the American League has reached the mark of 16 consecutive wins in a single season.
The Spitter
And here’s a little background on Gaylord Perry.
Gaylord Perry doesn’t have a fancy nickname.
But to most baseball fans he is known infamously as The Spitter.
Perry gained notoriety for being suspected of doctoring baseballs with a variety of substances throughout his MLB career which began with the Giants in 1962.
The spitball was banned from baseball in 1920. Spitballs give the pitcher a tremendous advantage because an adept spitballer can hurl their pitch at fastball speed, yet make the ball move in unexpected ways.
Although it had been widely suspected that Perry threw the spitter, he has never been caught.
But when Perry was traded from the Giants to the Indians in 1971 and won the AL Cy Young Award in 1972, it increased suspicion over his illegal methods.
This past April, he released a book in which he “fessed up.”
The book is titled, “Me and the Spitter.”
Perry admitted in the book that he used to throw spitballs, but that he stopped the practice in 1968 when major league baseball banned the practice of pitchers touching their mouth.
Many baseball players and managers do not quite believe everything in Perry’s tell all tale.
The Streak
This season, Gaylord Perry of the Indians lost his first game on opening day on April 6th.
It was the last time he has lost in over 3 months.
Going into last night’s game at Oakland, Perry’s record stood at 15 - 1.
Gaylord Perry had won 15 straight games, including 2 over the World Champion A’s.
Now he needed to beat the A’s again to tie the American League record.
The 1st Place Indians
Gaylord Perry won his 15th a few days ago on July 3rd. That win pulled the Indians, a team that had finished in the cellar, at 71 - 91, last year, in 1973, to just a half game out of 1st place in the AL East.
On Sunday, two days ago, Perry’s older brother Jim, who is also on the Indians, beat the California Angels to improve his record to 8 - 7.
That win catapulted the Indians to a 1.5 game lead in the AL East.
It’s the first time in 15 years that the Indians have held at least a 1 game lead after July 4th.
The Perry brothers have Cleveland rocking. Together they have a combined record of 23 - 8.
The rest of the Indians pitching staff is just 22 - 27.
That’s the background coming into last night’s sold out game at the Oakland Coliseum.
NOTE From The Sports Time Traveler™
I interrupt this article to demonstrate how big baseball was in the American psyche in 1974, and why the Oakland Coliseum was sold out on a Monday night, for a mid-season contest, 50 years ago.
3 months earlier on April 4, 1974, Hank Aaron hit his 714th home run, to tie Babe Ruth on the career HR list. That game took place during a Thursday afternoon in Cincinnati.
NBC did something they had rarely ever done before, for any news event, let alone a sporting event. They broke into the soap opera show, “Another World” at 3:05pm, for 4 minutes, to air the replay of Aaron hitting number 714 over the left field wall in Riverfront Stadium.
Rex Lardner, an NBC administrator, was quoted in the Palm Beach Post saying, “There must have been a sponsorship problem.”
But clearly NBC upper management did not care about their sponsors on that afternoon. They knew that most of America wanted to see the historic moment as soon as it happened.
And on July 8, 1974, most baseball fans in the Bay area wanted to see if Gaylord Perry could tie the American League single season consecutive wins record.
Indians at A’s - July 8, 1974
The game started with Vida Blue taking the mound for the A’s.
Blue set down the Indians in order in the top of the 1st inning.
In the bottom of the 1st, Gaylord Perry started his evening’s work by striking out the leadoff batter, shortstop Bert Campaneris.
The 2nd batter, was the DH, Claudell Washington. A 19 year old rookie, Washington was in the starting lineup for the first time in the majors. His first appearance in the big leagues had been just 3 nights ago when he pinch hit for Ted Kubiak and flew out to left field.
Now in his 2nd major league plate appearance Washington faced Gaylord Perry, and he struck out.
Perry then got Sal Bando to line out to 3rd base and a pitcher’s duel seemed to be on.
Indians 0 - A’s 0 - end of 1st inning
Vida Blue, looking sharp, got the Indians out quickly in the 2nd, allowing just 1 walk.
In the bottom of the 2nd, Perry got Reggie Jackson to ground out. Then he hit Joe Rudi. With 1 on and 1 out Gene Tenace, the hero of the 1972 World Series, came to the plate.
Wells Twombly of the San Francisco Examiner described what happened next. Perry “got a pitch so high up that Gene Tenace had no difficulty mashing it against the cold concrete facing of the left field pavilion.”
It was a 2-run homer and it gave the A’s an early 2 - 0 lead on Gaylord Perry.
After Angel Mangual grounded out, the next batter was 2nd baseman Ted Kubiak.
As Kubiak stands in the batter’s box, let’s go back to Twombly again for his account of what took place.
“Perry leaned forward and groped for the resin bag. For several seconds he squeezed it with all the intensity the man has always brought to his own personal art form. Then he dropped it and threw a slider toward Ted Kubiak of the Oakland Athletics. As it passed the batter there was a powdery puff.
The home plate umpire, Nick Bermigan, immediately suspected foul play.
Twombly described the umpire’s reaction.
“Whistles blew! Lights flashed! Sirens screamed! Umpire Nick Bermigan decided that he has witnessed a crime being committed.
Out to the mound he raced, his nervous system pounding. He had caught the notorious criminal, Gaylord Perry, in another nefarious deed.
Indians catcher Dave Duncan tried to serve as Perry’s defense attorney. He told the umpire, “You know he gave up throwing the spitter… he was getting tired of hearing he could only win by cheating.”
But Bermigan was not suspecting the ball had been a spitter. Twombly wrote that Perry was being frisked, “for an entirely different reason, one that was absolutely ludicrous. They thought he was using some kind of dry pitch.”
Nothing was found and the game continued.
But Bermigan could have thrown Perry out of the game and ended the streak right there.
When play resumed, Kubiak grounded out and Perry was out of the inning, but still in the game.
NOTE From The Sports Time Traveler™
I interrupt this article once more to share with you my correspondence with my friend, Ted Kubiak, yesterday back here in 2024.
I asked Ted if he recalled the incident with the home plate umpire rushing to the mound to inspect Gaylord Perry.
Ted focused on every moment of every game. Every movement by every player on the field went into Ted’s mental calculations as a player as he has described so well in his book “Old School” (available on Amazon and a great read for any baseball fan). It’s why Ted was able to seemingly get a jump on every ball hit to him in the infield.
And it’s why he was able to score from 2nd on a short liner to left-center to win game 3 of the 1973 World Series against “my Mets.”
Ted did not have a specific memory of this incident 50 years ago. But he did share an interesting insight about Gaylord Perry.
“I hit two of my thirteen homeruns off Perry, and I do remember swinging at one of his pitches one night and being amazed at how the ball "dipped" below my bat....I thought I was right on the pitch, but he made the ball do things, so the suspicion of the umpire that night was valid.”
Now back to 1974.
A’s 2 - Indians 0 - end of 2nd inning
The pitchers duel continued on.
Blue gave up his first hit in the top of the 5th when George Hendrick singled. That was followed immediately by another single by Buddy Bell.
The Indians loaded the bases with 2 outs when Frank Duffy walked.
And then the Indians got their 1st run of the game when Blue walked John Lowenstein.
Meanwhile Perry got through the 3rd - 5th innings giving up just 2 singles.
A’s 2 - Indians 1 - end of 5th inning
Both teams went down in order in the 6th.
In the top of the 7th, Blue gave up a single to Oscar Gamble. Dave Duncan then hit a home run to put Perry and the Indians back in front.
In the bottom of the 7th Perry was fantastic. He struck out the side.
In the top of the 8th, Blue came back strong with a 1-2-3 inning.
In the bottom of the inning, Perry got the first 2 batters out to give him 10 straight outs. Then he yielded a triple to Claudell Washington, this first hit of his career. But Claudell was stranded at 3rd when Sal Bando lined out.
Indians 3 - A’s 2 - end of 8th inning
Vida Blue set the Indians down in order again in the top of the 9th. Blue had now retired 8 straight Indians since the Duncan homer.
The A’s came up in the bottom of the 9th needing a run to prevent Gaylord Perry from gaining his record tying 16th consecutive win.
Reggie Jackson, the most dangerous hitter in the American League, and 1973 regular season and World Series MVP came to the plate. Jackson was having another MVP type season with 16 HRs / 51 RBIs / .328 average.
Perry struck out Reggie.
Perry was 2 outs away from tying the record.
Next up was Joe Rudi. Rudi got payback for being hit by Perry in the 2nd inning. He walloped a triple to right field.
Herb Washington was then brought in to run for Rudi.
Herb Washington is a world class sprinter who had been signed by the A’s owner Charley O. Finley this season, for this specific reason - to run.
2 years ago, in 1972, Herb Washington tied the world record in the 50 yard dash and set a new world record in the 60 yard dash.
NOTE From The Sports Time Traveler™
I interrupt this article a 3rd time (a new record) to inform you that Herb Washington still holds the record for the 60 yard dash. The race is seldom run any longer as track meets have adopted the metric system. But even Carl Lewis, winner of 4 gold medals in the 1984 Olympics, ran the 60 yard dash in his prime and could not beat Herb Washington’s time.
Now back again to 1974.
The Designated Runner
Herb Washington is unique in the annals of baseball.
He only runs.
In 49 games this season, Herb Washington has not had a single plate appearance. He only comes into games as a pinch runner.
With 1 out, and Herb Washington on 3rd base, Gene Tenace came to the plate. Tenace lifted a fly to left field. The ball was caught, but there was no catching the speedy Herb Washington from scoring to tie the game.
Herb Washington had done his job. The designated runner had tied the game in the bottom of the 9th.
After the run scored, Perry struck out Angel Mangual and the game proceeded to extra innings.
Indians 3 - A’s 3 - end of 9th inning
In the top of the 10th, Vida Blue continued on the mound for the A’s.
He got the Indians out in order again.
Vida Blue had now retired 11 straight Indians.
In the bottom of the 10th, Gaylord Perry also continued to hurl for the Indians.
The A’s Pat Bourque led off as pinch hitter for Ted Kubiak and drew a walk on a 3 - 2 pitch. Bourque told Ron Bergman in the Oakland Tribune after the game, “I’ve gotten a lot of hits off Perry and he didn’t want to throw me anything good.”
As soon as Bourque reached 1st base, “Blue Moon” Odom, a pitcher, was brought in to pinch run.
Tim Hosley came up next, pinch hitting for catcher Larry Haney. He bunted Odom over to 2nd base.
With 1 out and Odom on 2nd, Bert Campaneris grounded out, and Odom moved to 3rd base.
The rookie Claudell Washington came to the plate with 2 outs and Odom on 3rd.
Indians pitching coach Ken Aspromonte made a visit to the mound.
The words of advice didn’t work.
Claudell Washington hit the 1st pitch from Perry to left field and “Blue Moon” Odom came home with the winning run.
The A’s had won it 4 - 3.
Gaylord Perry’s consecutive win streak was stopped.
The 19 year old rookie, Claudell Washington, who got the winning hit in his first start, was as excited as could be. He told Bergman, “I know I won’t be getting any sleep tonight. I’m going to be on the phone with all my friends.”
Gene Tenace who had driven in the A’s first 3 runs told Bergman, “It was like a World Series game. The crowd, the noise and two great pitchers.”
A’s manager Alvin Dark was quick to credit his starting pitcher, Vida Blue for the win. Blue had given up just 4 hits in 10 innings. Dark told a UPI reporter in an article that appeared in the Napa Valley Register, “Sure the kid got the game winning hit, and I’m happy for him and the team that he did, but the first man I wanted to congratulate was Vida. Here we were with a packed stadium and everyone out to see if Gaylord could get his record, but Vida was the big man of the night in my mind. He just pitched a masterful game, the kind he had to, to beat Perry.”
In the same article an exhausted and apologetic Vida Blue had this to say, “I’m just glad it’s over and I’m glad we won. In my mind we should have won the game in nine, 2 - 1. I made the mistake (on the Dave Duncan homer) and we had to keep on going.”
Gaylord Perry had no comment about the game in the Cleveland Plain Dealer today.
And so all the hoopla around Gaylord Perry is over for at least a little bit.
Thanks for reading.
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