A TALE OF THREE CITIES: NEW YORK, L.A. AND SAN FRANCISCO IN OCTOBER OF ‘62 (50 page)

Billy Pierce was already a veteran star pitcher by
1962.

"If he didn’t win, it didn’t quite cut him as bad as
it did people like Sanford," said O'Dell. Perhaps that was because
Pierce had never made a practice of losing much; not in Chicago,
certainly not with the Giants, and at Candlestick Park in 1962:
never. Twice a 20-game winner with the White Sox, he was a
seven-time All-Star and helped the Chisox to the 1959 American
League crown, only the second time since 1948 a team other than the
Yankees won the flag. He lost a perfect game with two outs in the
ninth inning against Washington in 1958.

At 35 the White Sox decided his best years were
behind him and he found himself San Francisco-bound. Pierce wanted
number 19, Dark's number. Dark said fine. In Spring Training,
however, Pierce was awful, and the Giants had second thoughts. When
the regular season started, however, Pierce won his first eight
decisions.

Pitching coach Larry Jansen was convinced that the
cool Candlestick weather was the key to Pierce's success. Chicago
was brutally hot in the summer and could wear a pitcher out. Dark
used Pierce as Casey Stengel used Whitey Ford, holding him out for
homestands.

"And the results were about as good as I could
expect because I won 13 in a row at home," said Pierce.

He missed a month of the season with a spike wound,
but that made him fresh late in the year.

The player who came over in trade with Pierce was Don
Larsen. He is a legend in New York because he pitched the only
perfect game in World Series history, but the native of Point Loma,
California near San Diego was a legendary drinker. His buddies were
Billy Martin, Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford, major drinkers all.
They called him "Goony Bird."

Mike McCormick said drinking was more common in
baseball then than today, but "even I marveled at how much he could
consume."

After the perfect game, great things were expected
of Larsen, but he never found his form in New York. He was traded
to Kansas City then went to the minors. In 1961 Larsen was 7-2 at
Chicago, giving life to his career. When the Pierce trade was
negotiated, San Francisco insisted on Larsen's inclusion. He
pitched effectively in 1962. Against Pittsburgh, Larsen came in
with the bases loaded and none out, striking out the side on nine
pitches. Larsen enjoyed frog-hunting in the Sacramento Delta and
cooked the delicacies.

Stu Miller never threw more than 85 miles per hour,
but his junk was effective as a closer.

"Stu had the best off-speed pitch of anybody in the
history of baseball," said Ron Fairly of Los Angeles.

Choo Choo Coleman went from the Phillies to the Mets
in 1962. He said when he swung at a Miller pitch "the ball was
THERE! I swung where it was. How could I miss it?"

They called Miller "the Killer Moth" because his
pitches resembled one. Dark had felt in 1961 that the staff relied
on Miller too much, and forced pitchers to go the distance instead
of bowing out in favor of the reliever.

Miller loved crossword puzzles. Miller and Mike
McCormick, a native of Los Angeles with great promise, were the
only former New York Giants on the staff. Bob Bolin was "the
hardest thrower on the staff," according to Bailey. Gaylord Perry
was a rookie from North Carolina. At 6-4, 205 pounds he was the
younger brother of Jim Perry, who was a star pitcher for
Cleveland.

Bob Garibaldi was a huge prospect from Stockton who
had starred at the nearby University of Santa Clara, where he
pitched the Broncos into the College World Series and earned Most
Outstanding Player honors. At the time of his signing, he was
considered "can’t miss."

Death struggle

"Man, that's what we're playing the season to find
out."

- Willie Mays, when asked who would win the 1962
pennant

When Spring Training broke up, the Dodgers boarded
their team plane for the flight west. They stopped for exhibitions
in Las Vegas and San Diego. On April Fool's Day in Los Angeles, the
annual Baseball Writers' Banquet was held at the Beverly Hilton
Hotel. Danny Thomas hosted it. Comedian Bob Newhart and singer Gogi
Grant performed. Maury Wills played banjo. He had already performed
on Dinah Shore's show in Vegas. Then Koufax, Drysdale and Tommy
Davis did some crooning. Walt Alston stayed in his seat.

The cover of the Dodgers' 1962 media guide
was the team plane. The minimum big league salary was $7,000; the
average was $16,000 per year. A gallon of gas cost $.21.

52,562 attended the opener at Dodger Stadium, won by
the Reds, 6-3. San Francisco won their opener, 6-0, when Mays hit a
homer on the first pitch of the season off Warren Spahn of
Milwaukee.

On April 11 Los Angeles won its first-ever game at
Dodger Stadium, 6-2 over the Reds behind Koufax. On April 12 Pete
Richert struck out six straight to tie the big league record in an
11-7 win over Cincinnati. On April 16 the Giants won 19-8 over the
Dodgers in their first meeting of the season. Mays, Alou, and
Davenport homered. The next day Sherry pitched well in an 8-7
Dodger win, their first at Candlestick since March of 1961. On
April 24, Koufax struck out a Major League record18 (broken with 19
in 1969 by Steve Carlton, and 19 again by Tom Seaver in 1970) vs.
the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley, winning 10-2. On April 25 Bailey hit
his homer run after the knockdown from Bob Friend, spurring the 8-3
win over Pittsburgh. Four days later, San Francisco defeated
Chicago, sweeping two games of a double-header with shutouts by
Pierce and Sanford, 7-0 and 6-0.

On May 4 an emergency forced the Giants to land in
Salt Lake City, Utah, delaying their arrival into the Windy City
until 6 A.M. Groggy from a lack of rest, they still beat the Cubs
in an afternoon game at Wrigley Field for their 10
^th
victory in a row. On May 21 Los Angeles hammered San Francisco, 8-1
at Chavez Ravine behind three RBIs from Tommy Davis and a
dominating 10-strikeout performance by Koufax. Back in San
Francisco, the Giants swept the fledgling New York Mets, 7-1 and
6-5 at the 'Stick. On May 30 the Dodgers swept the Mets at the
"scene of the crime," in New York, by scores of 13-6 and 6-5. Wills
homered from both sides of plate. At the end of May the Giants were
35-15, the best record in baseball.

"Will the Giants, carving out a whirlwind, pell mell
early pace, as usual in the first month of the season, go
kerplunk
in June, as has been their pattern the last five
seasons, or are they going to prove the
bone fide
Yankees of
the National League?" wrote Jack McDonald of
The Sporting
News
.

They called it the June swoon. A cartoon in
the San Francisco newspaper depicted a smiling bride and said,
"June Bride Happy - What About Giants?" On June 1 the Giants beat
the Mets, 9-7 at the Polo Grounds behind two Willie McCovey home
runs and a solo shot by Mays, but the Dodgers swept Philadelphia,
11-4 and 8-5, igniting an eventual 13-game winning streak. San
Francisco's "swoon" started on June 6 when, after leading by two
games over Los Angeles they lost six straight, then went 6-6 over a
dozen games to fall out of first. Their sixth straight defeat was a
crushing loss at the hands of the Cardinals, by a score of 13-3 in
St. Louis. Jim Murray of the
Los Angeles Times
wrote a
scathing piece about the seemingly-annual June demise of the San
Franciscans, stating that "a business executive is standing in his
office looking down over the city and is chatting to his secretary.
Suddenly, a falling figure shoots past the window. 'Uh oh,' says
the man, glancing at his chronometer. 'It must be June. There go
the Giants.' "

On June 8 the Dodgers beat the expansion
Houston Colt .45s, 4-3 on the road, ascending to the top of the
National League standings for the first time all year. On June 12
San Francisco began a comeback, sweeping Cincinnati in a
double-header, 2-1 and 7-5. On that day, F L. Morris and two
brothers, John and Clarence Anglkin, used spoons to dig out of
Alcatraz Federal Prison, located in the middle of San Francisco
Bay. They were never found, probably drowned in the swirling, cold
waters, their bodies likely swept out to sea. Sanford begin his
16-game winning streak with a 6-3 win over the Cardinals on June
17. The next day, Koufax and young Bob Gibson of St. Louis dueled
for nine classic, scoreless innings in a game won by a Tommy Davis
home run, 1-0 in the 10
^th
inning. On June 29 O'Dell went
12 innings and struck out 12 in 4-3 win over Philadelphia. On June
30, Sandy Koufax threw a no-hitter, striking out 12 in a 5-0 win
over the Mets.

July marked mid-season, and on the second
Los Angeles swept Gene Mauch's Phillies, 5-1 and 4-0. Podres
retired the first 20 batters he faced, setting a record (broken
with 10 in 1970 by Tom Seaver) with eight consecutive strikeouts.
On the fourth of July both Los Angeles teams, the Dodgers and the
surprising Angels, were in first place, but San Francisco,
recovered from the "June swoon," continued to hang tough. Two days
later Juan Marichal's 12 strikeouts keyed San Francisco to a 12-3
over Los Angeles. On July 8, the two rivals played a classic
October-style game. Koufax, with Don Drysdale coming on in relief,
shut out San Francisco, 2-0. L.A. held a slim one-half-game lead at
the first All-Star break. They would hold that lead until the last
day of the regular season. On July 10, Maury Wills singled, stole
bases, and scored twice in leading the Nationals to a 3-1 triumph
over the Americans. Marichal was the winning pitcher. On July 17
Koufax was forced to sit down when his mysterious finger ailment
became too much for him to bear, but the Dodgers were hot without
him.

In late July before the second All-Star
break, the Dodgers led by one game.162,000 fans packed Dodger
Stadium for a monumental three-game series that had the whole
sports world buzzing with excitement and anticipation. Certainly,
it appeared that Walter O'Malley and Horace Stoneham were geniuses,
the move to California a 20
^th
Century successful beyond
all previous conception. Milton Berle joked that he was going to
fly to San Francisco so he could watch the games on TV, avoiding
the congestion but also getting in a backhanded swipe at O'Malley's
no-home-games-on TV policy. Frank "Hondo" Howard hit three home
runs and drove in 12 runs as L.A. swept their rivals; 2-1, 8-6, and
11-1. Howard was the hottest hitter in baseball, having driven in
47 runs since June 28. The Dodgers were a perfect 5-0 at home vs.
the Giants and had split the first six games in San Francisco,
which accounted for their essential edge so far. On July 29 the
Dodgers were threatening to pull away, now up by four games at the
break.

The Giants were hoping that the "dog days" of August
would favor them; that the cool summer weather in Frisco would
refresh them while the desert heat would tire out their rivals.
After all, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San
Francisco," Mark Twain had once said.

"San Francisco isn’t a city - it's a no-host
cocktail party," wrote Murray. "It has a nice, even climate: it's
always winter."

The onset of August had the effect of heightening
pennant race sensibilities. First, it was impossible not to compare
this with the 1951 drama, but the 1959 race was also fresh in the
minds of all concerned. The players, the fans and the media began
to view the season in larger than life terms. With the Dodgers now
playing in their new stadium, there was a distinct sense that 1962
was truly a "big league" season, a debutante ball of sorts for the
West Coast. John Wooden's UCLA Bruins had not yet won an NCAA
basketball championship, but in 1962 they had come close and were
obviously on the verge of great things. The Lakers and Trojans were
all the rage.

Los Angeles seemed to have everything that San
Francisco lacked. The former Los Angeles area Congressman, Richard
M. Nixon, looked to be an obvious favorite over the old style San
Francisco pol, incumbent Governor Edmund "Pat" Brown. Nixon was the
former Vice President and standard bearer of the Republican Party.
Democrat-heavy San Francisco hated the idea of losing to Nixon and
voter-rich, still-Republican L.A.

The Giants were their last, best hope, and if they
failed a sense of inferiority would infect the "superior" San
Franciscans with a sickness that would be hard to heal. The college
teams, Cal and Stanford, were dominated by their Southern
California rivals and it had, for the most part, been that way for
at least a decade. The north-south rivalry took on political and
cultural overtones that surpassed the New York years. The papers,
particularly the provincial San Francisco dailies, began to give
the pennant race front page space alongside a huge stock market
crash, the Israeli execution of Adolf Eichman, the Kennedy
Administration's obsession with Fidel Castro, and the Mercury
astronauts.

"You can talk all you want about Brooklyn and New
York, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Dallas and Fort Worth, but there
are no two cities in America where the people want to beat each
other's brains out more than in San Francisco and Los Angeles,"
said American League President Joe Cronin, a native of The
City.

The writers started to get personal, with particular
jealousy and vitriol aimed at the Southland by San Francisco's
scribes. The
Chronicle's
Art Rosenbaum called the Dodgers
"Smodgers," sniping that L.A. was a "city whose women would attend
the opera in leopard shirts and toreador pants if indeed they
attended the opera at all."

"Isn't it nice that people who prefer Los Angeles to
San Francisco live there?" wrote
Herb Caen, as bitter and spiteful a man as has ever abused the
privilege of a free press.