Welcome to the Baseball History Podcast: Featuring This Week in Baseball History, baseball dictionary and a tour of baseball cities. I’m your game announcer Bob Wright.
This is game 44 of the 2007 baseball season
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 1 week of July.
July 3
1970 Using only 98 pitches, Angels’ hurler Clyde Wright no-hits the A’s 4-0 in one hour and 51 minutes.
Clyde Wright was born February 20, 1941 in Jefferson City, Tennessee. A left-hander, he was a star pitcher at Carson-Newman College in Tennessee. He went on to pitch the California Angels from 1966 through 1973, Milwaukee Brewers in 1974, and Texas Rangers in 1975.
Clyde was nicknamed Skeeter by trainer Freddie Frederico because he said, “You can’t call a major leaguer Clyde.” Clyde Wright is the father of Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jaret Wright
Clyde was drafted in the sixth round and zipped through the lower minors prior to his debut,
In 1965 he went 7-2 for the Quad Cities Angels and posted a 1.99 Earned Run Average. The next year he began the year with the El Paso Sun Kings and went 9-0 with a 3.41 Earned Run Average.
Clyde threw a four-hitter in his major league debut June 15, 1966, that was described by manager Bill Rigney as “the best start in the majors I’ve ever seen”. General Manager Fred Haney called him “a left handed Don Sutton.”
He was a spot starter for the Angels in his first two seasons, and in 1968 won 10 games while losing six, pitching mostly in relief. In 1968 he pitched 25 consecutive innings without allowing a walk, and combined with Ricky Clark to no-hit the Orioles on August 20.
In 1969 Wright won only one game with eight losses and a 4.10 earned run average; after the season, the Angels waived him. Teammate Jim Fregosi convinced Wright to accompany him to winter ball, where the pitcher experimented with a screwball and changeup.
Wright returned to the Angels in 1970 and had the best season of his career. He won 22 games to become only the second 20-game winner in franchise history and established a career-low 2.83 Earned Run Average, which earned him the American League Comeback Player of the Year Award.
Wright also no-hit the Oakland Athletics 4-0 on July 3 of that year, the first no-hitter ever pitched at Anaheim Stadium. He almost lost the no-hitter in the 7th inning on Reggie Jackson’s 400-foot shot to straight-away center field, which was caught by Jay Johnstone just in front of the wall.
Wright was selected to the All-Star team in 1970, the only All-Star selection of his career. He was the losing pitcher of the game, which was played at the newly opened Riverfront Stadium, giving up a single to fellow Tennessee native Jim Hickman in the 12th inning, which drove in Pete Rose for the winning run, Rose barreling over Cleveland Indian catcher Ray Fosse to score the run.
Wright went 16-17 in 1971, but with a respectable 2.99 Earned Run Average and a career-high 135 strikeouts. He followed it with 18-11 record in 1972 with a 2.98 Earned Run Average.
After slumping to 11-19 in 1973, he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in a nine-player deal. In 1974 he had the dubious distinction of becoming the first 20-game loser in the franchise’s history posting a 9-20 won/loss record, after which he was traded again, this time to the Texas Rangers. He pitched one season in Texas before being released just prior to the start of the 1976 season.
In his major league career, Wright won 100 games against 111 losses, with a 3.50 Earned Run Average and 667 strikeouts in 1728 2/3 innings pitched.
Not long after his release from the Rangers, Wright went to Japan and signed with the Yomiuri Giants. He pitched for them for three seasons, but his stay in Japan almost ended before the first season was over.
Early in that first season, the manager Shigeo Nagashima pulled Wright from a game tied at 1-1 in the sixth inning, after Wright allowed the first two batters to reach base. Wright refused to hand over the ball, then charged off the mound and fired the ball into the dugout. He then went into the clubhouse, where he tore off his uniform and threw it into a bathtub. Fans and sportswriters called for Wright’s release, but Nagashima defended his pitcher.
Wright eventually became popular by throwing baseballs into the stands for young fans. He went 8-7 in that first season with the Giants and won Game 5 of the Japan Series, hitting a home run in that game. However, he lost Game 7 on two late inning home runs.
Wright had a brief bout with alcoholism after his Major League Baseball days. He began drinking heavily while in Japan, and over the next few years the problem became worse. In 1996 he told the Los Angeles Times that in 1979, his wife Vicki gave him an ultimatum: stop drinking or she would leave him. “I went golfing one day and then drinking and when I came home, she was gone. When she came back, Jaret was in the van. I went to open the door and he pushed the lock down. He was 3 years old.”
Clyde currently lives in Anaheim CA and runs a pitching school.
In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary
Under the letter: C
catch napping
To surprise a less-than-alert baserunner with the result that he is picked off or suddenly caught between bases; also known as “being asleep at the switch” or “catch asleep.”
A quaint but accurate early definition of “baseball napping”:
It is described by Mrs. John A. Logan in the Home Manual, 1889. “When a player through carelessness or sleepy-headedness is caught off his base”
1st Use was 1861 in the Chadwick Scrapbooks, by Edward J. Nichols.
If you would like to a part of Baseball History Podcast, submit your written contribution for the tour segment. I will only be doing the tour when one is sent in by a listener. You can do the segment on any stadium or team; past or present; Minor League, Major League, Negro League or any league outside of the US. Write about 1 page in a conversational tone, send it to me, I will record it, and you will get the credit.
You can email me at baseballhistory@gmail.com. You can leave a voice mail at: 206-888-6506. If you need more baseball, I invite you to check out Just Baseball at justbaseballpodcast.com. Well, that’s it for today’s game of Baseball History Podcast. I’ll see you later at the ballpark.
TWIBH- Clyde
Wright
Dictionary- Catch napping
Tour- Schenectady Blue Jays
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