There Was a Catch in Bobby Richardson’s Cinch for .300 Season

Bobby Richardson swears it’s a true story. The former second baseman for the New York Yankees told Herman Helms of the State, a newspaper in Columbia, S.C., how the Baltimore Orioles conspired to help him hit .300 in 1959.

“It was getting late in the game, and I needed one hit, but they assured me I had nothing to worry about,” Richardson said.

“Joe Ginsberg, an old hunting buddy, was catching, and he said he could tell me in advance what each pitch would be. Billy O’Dell, who was pitching, said that wouldn’t be necessary ‘because I’m not going to throw anything but fastballs right down the middle.’

“Ed Hurley, the umpire at first, said if I’d just make it close, he would call me safe. Brooks Robinson, the third baseman, promised to play deep and told me ‘just bunt it and you’ve got it made.’

“My old pal Albie Pearson was playing center field, and I knew if I hit anything out there he would let it fall in. Sure enough, O’Dell threw me a fat fastball over the heart of the plate, and I hit this wicked line drive to center field.

“Albie Pearson charged it and made one of the doggonedest diving catches you ever saw.”

The sudden decision by Dick Williams to pull up stakes in San Diego recalls the classic quote by Eddie Sawyer when he quit after one day at the helm of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1960.

“I’m 49 years old,” Sawyer said, “and I’d like to be 50.”

Sawyer was succeeded by Gene Mauch, who said years later: “Those days I lived in hope--in the hope the other teams would get worse.”

Trivia Time: The only player who was not a consensus All-American in the season he won the Heisman Trophy was Paul Hornung of Notre Dame in 1956. Who was the consensus choice at quarterback that year? (Answer below.)

Cincinnati Manager Pete Rose, taking his cuts in the batting cage at Tampa, Fla., was examining his bat after every pitch. He is known to do that to check for ball marks, to determine where the ball is striking his bat.

Later, someone examined the bat and found that Rose had written on it: “Hit the ball.”

From Seattle Mariner President Chuck Armstrong, denying that the owners are in collusion to hold down salaries: “I’ve been to the last two owners’ meetings, and these guys can’t decide where to go to lunch together.”

Gene Michael, coach and former shortstop for the Yankees, told Tom Verducci of Newsday that he was the first member of the club to go to arbitration.

“It was after the 1973 season,” he said. “I was asking for a raise of something like $5,000, or $7,000 tops. I was making $55,000 and I was the highest-paid shortstop in the game. I had just come off my best year. I had a lot of key hits and drove in 47 runs, the best in my career. I really just went through it for the heck of it, to see what it was like.

“Tal Smith was one of the guys arguing against me. He didn’t say anything the whole time. Then at the end he stands up and says, ‘Mr. Michael’s fielding percentage dropped one one-thousandth of a point.’ I knew then I was in trouble. I figured if he said that, the arbitrator must not know much about baseball. I was right. I lost. I got the same salary I made the year before.”

Trivia Answer: John Brodie of Stanford. Note: Hornung had been a consensus All-American the previous year, in 1955. Quotebook

Bob Martin, longtime oddsmaker in Las Vegas: “A successful bettor has knowledge, patience, selectivity, willpower and a rich wife.”