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 19 of the 2009 baseball season
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 1 week of May.
May 3
1950 Yankees’ pitcher Vic Raschi balks four times in one game due to his failure to comply to the new one-second stop with men on base.
Victor John Angelo “Vic” Raschi, nicknamed “The Springfield Rifle” was born March 28, 1919 in West Springfield, Massachusetts.
Raschi was a big right-handed pitcher known as the Springfield Rifle, in honor of his hometown and his fastball, he was the keystone of one of the most acclaimed pitching staffs in the history of major league baseball. The Big Three of Allie Reynolds, Raschi and Eddie Lopat pitched the Yankees to six World Series championships over eight seasons in the 1940′s and the 1950′s.
Raschi was scouted by the Yankees as a teen-ager, and at the age of 14 signed a contract that guaranteed his college education. After starring in football, basketball and track in high school, he attended the College of William and Mary but was persuaded by the Yankees to drop out of school in 1941 to get some minor league experience before fufilling his military obligation.
After serving as a physical trainer for the Army Air Force in World War II, Raschi played minor league ball in Portland, Ore., and Newark before being called up to the Yankees at the end of the 1946 season.
Raschi was 28 when he broke into the Yankees’ starting rotation for good in 1948. He then ran off consecutive records of 19-8, 21 10, 21-8, and 21-10.
He had tremendous determination and a blazing fastball. His 6’1″ 205 lbs. size and the menacing scowl on his dark, unshaven face were helpful, too.
Former Yankee pitching coach Jim Turner recalled that Raschi was known both for his overpowering fastball and his surprising array of pitches, including an effective slider and changeup. Turner is quoted as saying, ”He had good control for a power pitcher.”
With the Yankees, Raschi was a big-game winner. He won the 1948 All-Star Game, driving in the winning run. And he beat Boston on the final day of the 1949 season to break a first-place tie with the Red Sox.
He then won the World Series clincher against Brooklyn, a feat he duplicated against the Giants in 1951.
He two-hit the Phillies 1-0 in the 1950 World Series, and won twice more against the Dodgers in the 1952 World Series.
Raschi was a fair hitter who had a .184 career average. On August 3, 1953 his seven Runs Batted In set an American League single-game record for pitchers.
But on February 24, 1954, Yankee fans were surprised to see him traded to the St. Louis Cardinals.
When he balked at taking a pay cut after winning only 13 games against 6 losses in 1953, Raschi, who had become expendable with the return of the young Whitey Ford from military service, was sold after the season to the St. Louis Cardinals for $85,000. Although he won his first five starts with the Cardinals, he ended the season with an 8-9 won/loss record.
Apparently the Yankees’ management knew what they had done, because in the remaining two years of his career, with the Cardinals and Kansas City Athletics, Raschi won only 12 games while losing 16.
On April 23, 1954, Raschi gave up the first of Hank Aaron’s 755 career home runs. Aaron had also notched his first career hit off Raschi eight days earlier.
He retired after the 1955 season. He finished his 10-year career with a 132-66 won/loss record and a 3.72 earned run average.
Vic Raschi died at age 69, October 14, 1988 in Groveland, N.Y.
In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary
Under the letter: E
Expand the strike zone
For an umpire to allow a pitcher to throw successive strikes further outside the strike zone.
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Well, that’s it for today’s game of Baseball History Podcast. I’ll see you later at the ballpark.
