Pitcher Bob Welch Dies at 57

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Imagine being 21 years old, a rookie pitcher playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and you're in the World Series against the New York Yankees.

That was the situation in which Bob Welch found himself on the night of Wednesday, Oct. 11, 1978, when he came in to close out a 4–3 victory for Los Angeles. Starter Burt Hooton had gone six innings and staked the Dodgers to a one–run lead when he left; then reliever Terry Forster pitched 2⅓ solid innings but left after serving up a single and a walk in the ninth.

In came Welch.

In front of more than 55,000 fans in Dodger Stadium — and millions more watching on TV — Welch nailed down the save. He got Thurman Munson to fly out to right, then won an epic showdown with future Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson. Jackson had driven in all of the Yankees' runs that night, and he came to the plate with two outs and runners at first and second.

This was at the time, it should be noted, that Jackson was gaining his reputation as "Mister October." A year earlier, he hit three consecutive home runs to lift the Yankees to their World Series–clinching triumph over those same Dodgers and won the series MVP in the process.

He could have evened the game with a well–hit ball, but the young Welch gunned him down. Jackson struck out swinging, and Welch had preserved the victory for the Dodgers.

Los Angeles would lose the next four games — and the Series — to the Yankees.

The Dodgers ended up trading Welch to Oakland following the 1987 season. The A's faced the Dodgers in the World Series in 1988, and Welch pitched in the only game Oakland won. He didn't get the win — another ex–Dodger, Rick Honeycutt, got the win in relief after Mark McGwire hit a one–out home run in the eighth.

A couple of years later, Welch won the Cy Young Award. He won 27 games that year and remains the last pitcher to win 25 games or more in a single season.

Welch died yesterday at the age of 57. At this point, his cause of death remains undisclosed.

One For The Ages

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Gosh, you know, it seems like only yesterday that Jayson Stark of ESPN.com was saying that this year's World Series was going to be must–see television ...

Wait a minute. It was only yesterday. And Stark was writing in the context of the first two games, which were low–scoring nail–biters. Each was decided by a single run.

That really seems remarkable to me in hindsight, though, because Stark wrote that before Albert Pujols did something that no other non–New York Yankee had ever done.

He hit three home runs in a single World Series game.

Babe Ruth did it twice for the Yankees in the 1920s. And Reggie Jackson did it once for the Yankees in 1977.

Ruth, of course, achieved it in the days before television — so, other than the fans sitting in Sportsman's Park on Oct. 6, 1926 or the fans sitting in Sportsman's Park on Oct. 9, 1928, no one saw it.

I suppose the people of that time might have been able to witness either of those accomplishments on the newsreels at their local theaters — except they didn't really come along until a few years later.

Consequently, Ruth's achievements — which sandwiched his historic 1927 season, in which he hit 60 home runs and set a record that stood for more than 30 years — were seen by a comparatively tiny sample of America's population.

Any baseball fans who were not fortunate enough to be in Sportsman's Park (which, ironically, was in St. Louis) on either of those days had to wait nearly 50 years to see that accomplishment matched.

What viewers saw last night is something exceedingly rare, something that sports fans have witnessed en masse only once before — on Oct. 18, 1977, when Reggie Jackson hit three home runs and drove a huge stake through the hearts of Dodger fans (and I know because I am a Dodger fan).

Needless to say, I guess, Game 3 of this year's series wasn't as close as the first two games were.

Well, the experts were saying that the warmer temperatures and the hitter–friendly park would lead to more runs.

Maybe that is what it was.

But I'm more inclined to think it was Albert being Albert.

He's a difference maker.

A Starry Night

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If you have ever watched a major league baseball all–star game (including the one that was played last night), you are sure to have seen the clip of Pete Rose ripping into Ray Fosse like a chainsaw to score the winning run in the 12th inning of the 1970 All–Star Game.

I remember watching that game. I was heavily into baseball card collecting in those days, but, with the exception of Saturday afternoon baseball broadcasts and the playoffs, I seldom saw a major league game.

I remember listening to St. Louis Cardinals games on the radio when I was a child (and picturing in my mind the faraway stadiums in faraway cities), but nearly all of the pro ball games I saw in person before my teenage years were played by the minor league team that was based in Little Rock.

Cable began to change all that a decade or so later, but the All–Star Game was always a big deal to me when I was growing up. No matter how infrequently I saw major league games, I always knew that the guys playing in the All–Star Game were all but certain to wind up in the Hall of Fame.

The teams that met in Detroit's Tiger Stadium 40 years ago tonight were loaded with guys who were destined for Cooperstown. Eleven of the guys on the National League roster, and nine players on the American League roster have made it so far.

One of those players was Reggie Jackson, who was playing for the Oakland Athletics in those days. He didn't start that All–Star Game, but he came in after a few innings and, in the third inning, he hit a home run that propelled the American League to its only All–Star victory between 1962 and 1982.

Every run in the American League's 6–4 triumph scored on home runs that came from the bat of a future Hall of Famer. Other than that, there was nothing especially noteworthy about them — except for Jackson's. It was a towering shot that covered more than 500 feet — and might well have gone farther had it not hit some lights.

I was reminded of that home run several years later when I saw nearly the same thing (albeit with quite a bit more of a pyrotechnic effect) dramatized in the film "The Natural."

(The other future Hall of Famers who drilled homers in that game — setting an All–Star Game record for home runs by both teams that still stands, I believe — were Johnny Bench, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew and Roberto Clemente.)

There were other things that made the '71 Midsummer Classic memorable.

For one thing, it was the last All–Star Game ever played at historic Tiger Stadium. When the All–Star Game returned to Detroit in 2005, the Tigers were playing in a different facility.

It was also the last time Clemente appeared in an All–Star Game. An All–Star selection 15 times in his magnificent career, Clemente actually was chosen again in 1972 but was injured at the time of the game and unable to play.

He died a few months later in a plane crash while taking relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

Clemente's solo home run in the top of the eighth was the last run scored in the 1971 All–Star Game — and Clemente's final All–Star at–bat.

I suppose it foreshadowed, in a way, the conclusion of his regular–season career a year later. On the last day of the 1972 season, in his last at–bat, Clemente got his 3,000th hit.