GET ME REWRITE! Frank the Tiger-Killer

This feature is called upon when a replay game is a complete opposite of an historic game on a certain date, which on April 14, 1961, was a Frank Lary 1-hit masterpiece thrown against the Chicago White Sox. Turns out, a different Frank rolled his own history at the Corner formerly known as Briggs Stadium:

CWS 7-13-1 DET 5-10-2

Lary did start out strongly, retiring the Pale Hose 1-2-3 while rookie 2B Jake Wood hit a leadoff homer off Frank Baumann, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Then in the 2nd, Roy Sievers led off with a single, followed by a double by rookie 3B JC Martin. The runs scored on the first of 2 sac flies by Jim Landis and a single by Sherm Lollar. Frank Baumann could also hit too, giving the Sox their 3rd run with a triple and a 3-1 lead after 1-1/2. The score would be 4-2 Sox entering the 5th, which would help mark Lary's unexpectedly early exit.

It started with a one-out single by Minnie Minoso, followed by back-to-back singles by Sievers and Martin with the latter scoring Minoso. Al Smith then reached on the 1st of 2 errors by Chico Fernandez, loading the bases and setting up Landis' 2nd sac fly, extending the Sox lead to 6-2, ending Lary's afternoon. Lollar would greet Phil "the Vulture" Regan with an RBI single making the shocking score 7-2 after 4-1/2. 

Baumann would give up a pair of Tiger runs in the home half of the 5th but would give way to Turk Lown in the 6th as the tying run approached the plate with one out after Steve Boros reached on a 2-base error by Landis and Chico Fernandez singled Boros to 3rd. Lown got pinch-hitter Charlie Maxwell on a sac fly to cut the lead to 7-5. The Tigers got no closer as Gerry Staley secured the win for Baumann with 3 hitless innings of relief, save for a walk to PH Bobo Osborne in the 9th.

Baumann would go 10-15 in '61, while Lary would have a career year with 23 wins, but when the Strat dice are rolled, history can be rewritten. As for this Tigers fan, all I will say in conclusion is... RIGGED!

MORE REWRITE: Luis Aparicio went 0-6 for the Sox, making him 0-for-11 in 2 games. Jake Wood's lead-off homer was his 2nd homer in as many games.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

1973: LCS Game 3's

ALCS: Merv Rettenmund got things started for the Orioles with a lead-off homer off the HR check, but Ken Holtzman would keep the Birdmen of Baltimore in check the rest of the game as the A's went to the longball and the smallball to take a 2-1 series lead. The A's tied it in the bottom of the 1st on Sal Bando's round trip. The small ball came via Bert Campaneris, who drew a 1-out walk in the bottom of the 5th and stole 2nd. Joe Rudi chased him home with a 2-bagger, giving the A's a lead they would not give up. Reggie Jackson, Gene Tenace and Deron Johnson saw to that in the bottom of the 8th, chasing Mike Cuellar from the game with back-to-back-to-back home runs. Jackson's homer came with Sal Bando on base. Final: Oakland 6, Baltimore 1. A's lead series 2-1 NLCS: The series-trailing Mets did what they had to do to force game 4, putting together a 12-hit attack to stun the Reds 7-3 at Shea. The Reds jumped off to a 2-0 lead after 2-1/2, putting the Mets on early ...
Read more

AL SUMMARIES: 4-20-61

CLE 5-10-3 DET 4-10-1 WP-FUNK (1-0) LP-FOX (0-1) CLE-Walkoff sac fly by Don Dillard in 9th DET-Dick Brown homer tied game in top of 9th. NYY 10-11-1 LAA 4-7-0 WP-TERRY (2-0) LP-MCBRIDE (0-2) NYY-Homers by Berra, Kubek WSH 3-8-0 CWS 1-6-0 WP-MCCLAIN (2-0) LP-SHAW (0-2) WSH-2-run double by Danny O'Connell in top of the 9th.  
Read more

1973 WS G1: Picking up where they (and he) left off

  The thing about C&D replays, you expect to see a different outcome as determined by the dice. In the case of the Oakland A's (and Gene Tenace) it was picking up where one left off. After Cincinnati's 1st and 2nd start of back-to-back singles by Pete Rose and Joe Morgan blew up in a Tony Perez double play, the A's went right back to work, Bert Campaneris reaching on a Denis Menke error, followed by a 2-run homer by Joe Rudi. After Sal Bando struck out and Reggie Jackson flied to center, up came the hero of 1972, Gene Tenace. Before you can say deja vu, it was 3-0 A's on Tenace's 5th home run in 8 WS games, all against a bewildered Reds team. The A's would get additional runs in the 3rd and 8th, backing up a solid pitching performance by Ken Holtzman, who held the high-powered and certainly frustrated Reds to 6 hits. Holtzman also helped his own cause in the DH-less series by going 1-3 with a single and RBI sac fly. Don Gullett went 4 innings and was followe...
Read more