___________________________ Funny thing about that old "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain" refrain........There was another pitcher on those staffs,Vern Bickford- and he was a pretty good pitcher who sometimes had better numbers than Sain.
Sudden Sam was a physcially BIG pitcher. Sam Towered on the mound for his era, tho' Drysdale seemed BIG too. Sam was listed in the program as 6'5" and 190 lbs. No way was he a ounce under 250+ lbs. Sam's long stretch and 100 mph smoking fastball, sounded like a cannon in the Catchers mitt. I saw him pitch 5 innings of an exhibition game versus the SF Giants, Luis Tiant threw 3 innings for the Tribe. J. Marichal and G. Perry threw for the Giants. Marichal's high leg kick was unbelievable in person. G. Perry had a very good fastball, decades prior to his spitter. All 4 were true legends in the making, or already at the top of their game. McDowell gave up 2 mistakes, jacks-a solo Mays HR through the wooden scoreboard, I kid you not, thru the board, the crack of the board was louder than that of Mays bat. The next inning was even more incredible, when Sudden Sam gave up a Grand Slam to Willie McCovey. I never saw that ball come down, seriously. Last I heard, from JPL, the Voyager Satellite, showed pictures of McCovey's moonshot, heading past Pluto......... The game was played in Shreveport, LA. at the SF Giants, then AAA Minor League Affiliate Field. Dad got seats directly behind the Giants dugout, and I got away with climbing atop the dugout laying flat like a fish, reaching out over the edge into the dugout, scorecard and pen in hand, when the team came in from warm ups, allowing me to a acquire autographs on the scorecard I still have. Autogrpahs of: Mays, McCovey, Lanier, Marichal, Perry, J.Hart, and a few other Giants. As soon as I got back in my seat, approx. a dozen or more kids were coming down the steps to try the same thing, but were turned away by Ushers. I was never told don't do that, or get off there. Not in those days. Today I would of been thrown out on my nose. 13 yrs old. During warm ups, alongside the fences, I managed to obtain Rocco Colavito, Sudden Sam, L.Tiant, Joe Adcock (Tribes Manager) and R.Fosse autographs.
Sam McDowell career completely blew up after the Indians traded him to MY San Francisco Giants for one of my favorite players Gaylord Perry. I think he bounced to 3-4 different teams after that including a stint with the Yankees. Before being finished in his early 30s. Perry went on to win the 1st of his 2 cy youngs. I believe to date Perry is the only pitcher to win the Cy Young in both leagues. Here's a bit of trivia info for you. The character Ted Danson played on the TV show Cheers as a former alcoholic pitcher was based on the life of Sam McDowell.
...there's really no way to compare the players of long ago to the players of today...it's just not the same. ...the players haven't really changed that much, but the game has. ...the players didn't lower the mound, or implement the DH, or relief pitcher, the game did.
I was going to say, McDowell had a severe drinking problem when the Tribe shipped him off. Sad, wonder what demons haunted him to turn to drinking so much? To much talent gets wasted these days and those days too. Sudden Sam's only workout was lifting gallon jugs of booze, sad. That guy had a talent he squandered.
Lost his wife kids & his home due to his demons before he completely turned his life around.. It seemed like every year he would lead the league in strike outs.
Yes, Sam's life story was a sad one, losing so much to booze. but boy could he throw as hard as Koufax back then.
I remember him well. And speaking of Koufax, I STILL can't believe he retired when he did due to a bad arm. I mean when you look at what he did in his final season, you just have to ask, "My god if he could put up those type of #s in his final year, just how bad could his arm have been"? BTW: His final season was................................................ * = led league 27* - 9, !.73 ERA*, 27 CGs*, 317 strike outs*, & 323 IP* And he won his 3rd cy young. And he was only 30 years old. Just incredible. The greatest pitcher I've ever seen. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/koufasa01.shtml
...from what I remember, he retired because he was concerned about his health and particularly his arm...and having to take so many cortisone shots.
...he was in agony most of the time that final year...and was only able to overcome the pain through all those cortisone injections, and was genuinely concerned about possibly of actually losing the use of his arm later in life. [video=youtube;VcPRANzZbb4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcPRANzZbb4[/video]
Really a shame that they didn't have Tommy John surgery available back then. He would have had some AMAZING numbers had he been able to continue his career.
...yeah, and the thing with Koufax is that he was once close to washing out as a pitcher because he was so wild and walked so many hitters. Norm Sherry told him that he didn't have to throw so hard to get people out. Sandy then concentrated more on control and became a monster. But as good as his FB was, his breaking ball made it even better. ...I seem to remember his striking out 14 or 15 Yankees in a WS game in the 60's...and I remember Mantle's look when Koufax fanned him looking...Mantle was like "WTF...how am I supposed to hit that?"
