1967 Portrait of Willie Mays

[Mikey]

Any baseball fan will love this full hour special.
Mays was the best ever.
The commercials on this are pretty cool too.




Fucking Dodgers...

[Mace]

I've been a lifelong Cub fan but Willie has always been my favorite player of all time, and I consider him the best player I've ever seen.

[Mikey]

Hey Mace!

I grew up watching Mays, McCovey, Marichal, etc. Willie was simply amazing and a hero to every kid in the Bay Area at the time. My dad used to take me and a bunch of friends to Candlestone every year on bat day (the only promotion at the time) for my birthday. I must have had about half a dozen Louisville Sluggers from those days.

I'll have to say, Ernie Banks was right up there too. For both of those guys it was their attitude along with their skills that made them popular.

"Say Hey"
and
"Let's Play Two!"

[Goober McTuber]

My dad used to take me and a bunch of friends to Candlestone every year on bat day (the only promotion at the time) for my birthday.

Big fan of the Boulder City Giants are you?

[Mikey]

My dad used to take me and a bunch of friends to Candlestone every year on bat day (the only promotion at the time) for my birthday.

Big fan of the Boulder City Giants are you?

If you lived... in the world's greatest city...








Instead of being stuck in... the frozen tundra...



You'd know that "insiders"... often referred to Candlestick as "Candlestone"... for good reason...

But you don't...

Too funny...

[Mikey]

RACK the Flintstones, BTW...

[Go Coogs']

My stepdad grew up in LA and saw Koufax and Drysdale a few times. That's awesome.

[Mikey]

I actually saw Warren Spahn pitch once, when I was very young. Don't remember exactly when, but I do remember going to see Warren Spahn. It was probably in 1965, when he was with the Giants.

Spahn vs. Marichal on 7/2/1963, BTW, was probably the greatest pitching duel in ML history:

Spahn: 15.1 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO (L, 11-4)
Marichal: 16 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB 10 SO (W, 13-3)

Game won on a walk-off HR by Willie Mays in the bottom of the 16th, his 15th of the season.

Wish I had seen that one.

[Goober McTuber]

Always loved watching the Dominican Dandy pitch, back when I was a Giants fan.

My dad had a tryout with the Giants back in the mid-40s. Carl Hubbell was recently retired, probably around 42-43 years old, and was a coach with the Giants. Still had his wicked screwball when my dad stepped in against him, and he says he missed the first pitch by at least a foot. Catcher laughed and asked my dad if he wanted to get a hit off Hubbell. He said sure, and catcher said he'd tell him which pitch to hit. Sure enough, Pops got a base hit. Says Hubbell just glared at him.

Dad had tryouts with every National League team but the Cubs and the Phillies (there were 8 teams in the league back then). He was offered two contracts, one when he was still in high school, but his father refused to sign off on it. The other was when he was in college. I can't remember the team, but they found out he was in school and they pulled the contract. Dad offered to quit school, but the scout told him he was already playing the equivalent of class B ball. He never got another shot.

[smackaholic]

I actually saw Warren Spahn pitch once, when I was very young. Don't remember exactly when, but I do remember going to see Warren Spahn. It was probably in 1965, when he was with the Giants.

Spahn vs. Marichal on 7/2/1963, BTW, was probably the greatest pitching duel in ML history:

Spahn: 15.1 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO (L, 11-4)
Marichal: 16 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB 10 SO (W, 13-3)

Game won on a walk-off HR by Willie Mays in the bottom of the 16th, his 15th of the season.

Wish I had seen that one.

pitch counts are for faggots.

rack those old dudes.

[BSmack]

Spahn vs. Marichal on 7/2/1963, BTW, was probably the greatest pitching duel in ML history:

How about two guys throwing 25 innings with no hits?

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/9048 ... ll-history

[smackaholic]

Was watching this again. About half way through you see Drysdale throw one straight at Willie's head.

Nobody bats a fukkin' eyelash!

No stares, no ump warnings, nothing.

I suspect any ump warning consisted of the ump telling willie, he might wanna step back a bit in the box, next pitch.

That was baseball, back when it still had a cahk and balls.

[Goober McTuber]

That was baseball, back when it still had a cahk and balls.

[smackaholic]

Wow. Didn't know the dodger/giant feud was that serious. It was almost 70s raiders/steelers nasty. Marichal was one nasty fukker!

Not being quite as elderly as some of you fukks, I don't remember any of that 60s stuff. Earliest recollection of sports was early 70s.

[smackaholic]

So, who was the baddest mofo on the mound in the 60s? Gibson, maybe?

[The State]

Good friends with Chris Speier ...

Guys a freak of nature and played with Mays.





At around 65 years old... he's still in better shape than 99% of the high school kids today.


We went for a run in West Marin last year (which included 3 stories of stairs) and kicked my ass!

That old fuck keep going for 7 more cycles. Simply unreal. The only one that keep up with him was a ballet dancer from San Francisco and she bailed after 5 cycles.

Amazing athlete and good friend that still inspires me to this day.

[Goober McTuber]

As with all of your stories, doubtful.

[Mikey]

So, who was the baddest mofo on the mound in the 60s? Gibson, maybe?

Definitely Gibson.

Check out his line for 1968:

34 Starts
28 Complete Games
22-9
1.12 ERA
13 Shutouts
304 ip
268 SO
62 BB

All Stat, Cy Young, MVP, Gold Glove

[smackaholic]

How many hit batsmen?

prolly not really that many as everyone was already back on their heels, ready to hit the dirt.

i'll bet it wasn't much fun up there in the box on a 1-2 count.

[Jay in Phoenix]

Gibson is the reason I became a baseball fan. One of the baddest and most intimidating dudes that ever took the diamond. Just an absolute hard ass on and off the field.

[Mikey]

How many hit batsmen?

prolly not really that many as everyone was already back on their heels, ready to hit the dirt.

i'll bet it wasn't much fun up there in the box on a 1-2 count.

That was the same year Denny McLain was off the charts at 31-6, 1.96 and 28 complete games.

Prolly just a coincidence that MLB lowered the mound and shrunk (shrank? shrinked?) the strike zone for the 1969 season.

[smackaholic]

Did Denny do anything after that or did his arm fall off at the end of the season?

Dude prolly threw more pitches that year than a modern starter does in 4 years.

[smackaholic]

How the hell does someone go 28 full games, pre-DH? You would think they'd pull him regularly for another bat. MAybe he had a decent bat, or was just so far ahead every day that they didn't.

[poptart]

Definitely Gibson.

Check out his line for 1968:

34 Starts
28 Complete Games
22-9
1.12 ERA
13 Shutouts
304 ip
268 SO
62 BB

All Stat, Cy Young, MVP, Gold Glove

With those stats, it's amazing that he lost 9 games.

[poptart]

Good friends with Chris Speier ...

No, you're not.

[Mikey]

Apparently Mays played a somewhat obscure but important role in the making of "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb-news/46 ... ys-peanuts

[Mikey]

How many hit batsmen?

prolly not really that many as everyone was already back on their heels, ready to hit the dirt.

i'll bet it wasn't much fun up there in the box on a 1-2 count.

That was the same year Denny McLain was off the charts at 31-6, 1.96 and 28 complete games.

Prolly just a coincidence that MLB lowered the mound and shrunk (shrank? shrinked?) the strike zone for the 1969 season.

I actually got to see McLain pitch! First game my dad ever took me to. He was pitching with the Braves (this was '72). Didn't do much that game. I did get to see Roberto Clemente play that game, and almost caught a foul ball from Stargell. Bucs won. Poor Braves. They could score some runs, but their pitching was just awful back then...

First MLB game my dad ever took me to I saw Warren Spahn pitch. I don't remember (I was only 9 or 10) if he was pitching for the Giants (he ended his career there in 1965) or against the Giants. All I remember is that it was at Candlestick and Spahn was pitching.