In ‘67, Pitchers’ Umpire Stole Show From Stars

Right after the first few pitches were thrown--right after plate umpire Ed Runge started calling strikes--Bill Freehan sensed what was to come.

“I remember going into the dugout after the first inning and saying, ‘You guys better go up there swinging, because Mr. Runge has a wide strike zone,’ ” Freehan said.

After 30 batters had struck out, everyone knew what the Detroit Tiger catcher was talking about.

For Freehan and others who played in the major league All-Star game 25 years ago today at Anaheim Stadium, the memories of that frustrating afternoon revolve around those strikeouts.

Oh, they mention the home run by Cincinnati’s Tony Perez in the top of the 15th inning, deciding the longest All-Star game in history, a 2-1 victory for the National League. And they recall the 4:15 p.m. starting time that made it difficult for batters to see the ball when the shadows settled between the plate and the pitching mound.

But above all, they remember those darn strikeouts.

“That was the day Ed Runge struck everyone out,” said Bill Rigney, the former Angel manager.

Not everyone--just a third of them. Nineteen batters went down swinging, and Runge sent 11 others packing with called third strikes. The total remains an All-Star record, and it made for one of the dullest games ever--All-Star or otherwise.

For the 46,309 fans who crammed into Anaheim Stadium on July 11, 1967, setting what was then an attendance record at the 1 1/2-year-old ballpark, the exercise in futility by the American and National league batters was shocking; both rosters featured some of baseball’s greatest hitters.

The NL, managed by the Dodgers’ Walter Alston, had a combined .306 batting average and was looking to win its fifth consecutive game and 16th out of 21.

The roster included Pittsburgh right-fielder Roberto Clemente, who with a .352 average at the All-Star break was on his way to his fourth batting title (he finished at .357); Atlanta slugger Henry Aaron, who was batting .328 with 22 home runs; Cincinnati outfielder Pete Rose, who was at .325, and Chicago first baseman Ernie Banks, who went into the game at .299 with 15 home runs.

The American League, on the other hand, desperately wanted to stop the embarrassing losing streak and hoped to do so with some firepower of its own. Under Baltimore Manager Hank Bauer, the AL fielded a team headed by Boston left-fielder Carl Yastrzemski (.324, 19 home runs), Minnesota second baseman Rod Carew (.313) and Boston right-fielder Tony Conigliaro (.290, 13 homers).

Also on the team were three Angels--shortstop Jim Fregosi, first baseman Don Mincher and pitcher Jim McGlothlin. Pinch-hitter Fregosi singled for starting pitcher Dean Chance of Minnesota in the third and played the rest of the way at shortstop, and Mincher had a pinch hit for pitcher Gary Peters of the Chicago White Sox in the eighth. McGlothlin struck out two and gave up one hit in two innings.

As was the case that year in league play, Yastrzemski’s bat was consistently alive. Yastrzemski, who capped the season by winning the AL triple crown with a .326 average, 44 home runs and 121 runs batted in--the last man to achieve the feat--went three for four and earned the distinction of getting the only two walks--no small accomplishment considering Runge’s dugout-to-dugout strike zone.

“I was catching, and (San Francisco’s Juan) Marichal was the starting pitcher,” said Joe Torre, then with the Braves and now manager of the St. Louis Cardinals. “Runge called a pitch that far outside (six inches) strike one, then strike two, and I remember Yastrzemski complaining to him about a called strike, and he (Runge) turned to me said, ‘I don’t know why he’s complaining. He knows my strike zone.’ I spent the rest of the time I was catching not even behind the plate.”

He didn’t need to be. When the batters weren’t swinging and missing, Runge rung them out with incredible frequency. Clemente, for instance, struck out four times. Philadelphia third baseman Richie Allen, Pittsburgh shortstop Gene Alley and Minnesota outfielder Tony Oliva each went down on strikes three times. Right-hander Ferguson Jenkins of the Chicago Cubs enjoyed the enlarged strike zone the most with six strikeouts in three innings. The other six NL pitchers struck out 11 batters; five AL pitchers struck out 13.

But Runge says his calls weren’t the only reason for all the strikeouts.

“I may have had a reasonably wide strike zone, but it was the same for both sides, and it was the same for .220 hitters and .350 hitters,” said Runge, an AL umpire for 17 seasons who worked in four All-Star games before mandatory retirement at 55 forced him out in 1970. He now works for the San Diego Padres’ Speakers’ Bureau. “The pitchers had pretty good control, and the hitters had a difficult time seeing the ball (because of the twilight).”

Besides Yastrzemski, St. Louis catcher Tim McCarver (two for two) and Oliva (two for six), only three other players--all third basemen--apparently saw the ball well enough to make a difference.

In the top of the second, Allen gave the NL a 1-0 lead with a home run off Chance. Four innings later, Baltimore’s Brooks Robinson tied the game, 1-1, with a home run off Jenkins. Finally, Perez, making his first All-Star appearance, won the 3-hour 41-minute game with his homer off a Catfish Hunter fastball in the 15th. It was, Perez says, his greatest single moment in baseball.

“I had many others where the team was concerned, but for an individual moment, that’s the best,” said Perez, the game’s most valuable player and now the first base coach for the Reds. “I was looking for something I could drive deep. All the players in the dugout were talking about someone hitting a home run to end the game.”

To some degree, those attempts to swing for the fences and wrap up the game probably contributed to the record strikeout numbers as much as Runge. At least that’s how Brooks Robinson sees it.

“Everybody was trying to jack one out of the ballpark,” said Robinson, a Baltimore area businessman and Oriole broadcaster. “Everyone wanted to end the game, be a hero and go home. . . . I struck out once myself. Mike Cuellar (Houston left-hander) got me. He later pitched with the Orioles and used to razz me about striking me out. I told him the only reason was that Runge was umpiring.”

Robinson was one of six AL players who went the distance. Bauer was determined to beat the National League and kept those he considered his best players in the game to the end, so Robinson was joined by Freehan, Minnesota first baseman Harmon Killebrew, Yastrzemski, Oliva and Conigliaro for all 15 innings. Freehan, for one, didn’t mind.

“Bauer asked me late in the game if I was OK,” said Freehan, the Michigan baseball coach the past three seasons. “It didn’t bother me to play 15 innings. I went out there to play ball. Shoot, I was 25-26 years old at the time. You don’t get tired at that age. I thought it was an honor he (Bauer) wanted me in there.”

Freehan struck out twice in five at-bats (no hits), but at least he walked away from that game with his name in the record book in more than one place. His 13 putouts tied an All-Star record for catchers set by Dodger Roy Campanella in 1950 and equaled by Smoky Burgess of the Pirates in 1961. Coincidentally, the three games were played on July 11.

Others who made what amounted to cameo appearances, however, didn’t have Freehan’s opportunity to forget about the strikeouts by playing defense. Yankee Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle, who played with osteomyelitis in his legs throughout his 18-year career, pinch-hit for McGlothlin in the fifth inning and struck out against Jenkins. That was the extent of Mantle’s participation, a quick hello and goodby that’s still fresh in the mind of former Red Sox shortstop Rico Petrocelli.

“I remember Mantle came in the clubhouse, and I was already there after playing the first three innings,” said Petrocelli, who was nursing a bruised wrist. He now manages Pawtucket in the International League. “They wrapped him up like a mummy, all the way up to the waist. It seemed like it took a half-hour to wrap him up. He went up, pinch-hit, struck out, came back, got unwrapped and left.”

Ten innings later, everyone else was able to go home, too. Perez’s blast over the left-center field wall actually gave Rigney, who coached third base for the American League, a sense of relief.

“I thought we were going to run out of pitchers or they were going to run out of pitchers,” said Rigney, now an executive with the Oakland A’s. “It didn’t seem like it was ever going to end.”

But it did, fittingly, on a strikeout when Met rookie right-hander Tom Seaver whiffed pinch-hitter Ken Berry of the White Sox to pick up a save. And Ed Runge was right there behind the catcher to make it official, picking up his arm again the same way he did at the start of the game.