Chapter 24
The Hearst Sandlot Classic – 1960
U. S. All-Stars 6; Journal-American All-Stars 5
And the Save Goes to . . .
The Presidential election to choose a successor to Dwight Eisenhower was three months away, the spy trial of U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was making headlines, and newspaper readers were being urged to “picture yourself in a new slim, and stylish Corvair,” as young men from around the country descended on New York for the 1960 Hearst Classic. And the baseball news, especially in New York, included a reference to the upcoming decision on expansion, especially as there was only one team in New York. The kids’ agenda included three games at Yankee Stadium – a doubleheader on August 14 between New York and Washington and a contest between New York and Baltimore the following day. After that game, the Yankees took to the road and the kids had Yankee Stadium to themselves. Of course, the annual trips to West Point, where the players saw the Cadets Dress Parade, and Bear Mountain were on the agenda, for August 16. Radio City Music Hall beckoned on August 17. That year, the film was “Song Without End.”
The pre-game festivities on August 18 featured a softball game between ballplayers led by Joe DiMaggio and prize-fighters led by Jack Dempsey. Baseball clown Jack Price took to the field as well.
Manager Ozzie Vitt who unsurprisingly said, “I’m convinced this is one of the best teams we’ve ever had,”[i] was faced with a bit of a challenge as the selectors had gone for the best players from around the country, without regard to position. Hence, he had only one legitimate outfielder, Joel Tigett from Texas, on his roster. He also had only four pitchers.
In a thriller of a game, the United States All-Stars prevailed, 6-5. The New Yorkers had taken the early lead on a two-run inside-the-park homer by Rickie Stancavage, which U. S. All-Star pitcher John Vergare remembers was misplayed by one of his outfielders. Stancavage’s father had gained fame as one of the seven blocks of granite of the Fordham football teams of bygone days. Stancavage signed with the Cleveland Indians and spent four seasons in their minor league system. In his final minor league season, he batted .318 in 35 games at Dubuque in the Class-A Midwest League, but his dream was over at age 22.
Howie Kitt of Oceanside, New York, who had just completed his freshman year at Columbia University, was the starting pitcher for the New Yorkers. In his three innings of work, the left-hander allowed no hits. His seven strikeouts (six of them were consecutive) set a Hearst Sandlot Classic record. He so impressed the writers in attendance that he was named the game’s MVP. His only regret was that he couldn’t pitch longer in the Hearst game. He said, “I wish I could have pitched more than three innings. I thought I may go all the way for a no-hitter.”[ii]
Years before Kitt began to attract scouts, he attended a Little League Clinic, where scout Art Dede told Kitt, a left-hander, to try to be a catcher. Kitt, after hitting a batter when trying to make a throw to second base, decided to become an outfielder. As a young boy Kitt lived with his family in Brooklyn and attended P. S. 139 in Flatbush. The family was part of the massive migration to the suburbs of the early 1950’s and settled in Oceanside, Long Island. It wasn’t until his sophomore year at Oceanside High School that he became a pitcher. During his sandlot days, he hurled 15 no-hitters. Scout Dede followed Kitt’s progress and eventually inked Howie’s name to a contract.[iii]
Kitt was signed by the Yankees to an $80,000 bonus. Kitt’s Sandlot experience was with the Nathan’s Famous team. He had a 40-1 record in high school, and his senior year was legendary. He went 18-0, struck out 217 batters in 117 innings, walked 75, allowed 52 hits, and had an ERA of .05.[iv] After high school, he attended Columbia University and while a freshman at Columbia in 1960, he struck out 46 batters in 23 innings.[v] That summer, in the Queens-Nassau Alliance, pitching for Havenwood A. C., he posted an 8-0 record and did not allow an earned run. He returned to Columbia after the Hearst game, but left the school for the Yankees prior in his sophomore season, signing on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1960. At the time he signed, he said, “I’ve established certain ties here (at Columbia), and made some fine friendships. A degree would mean a great deal, but I feel that I’d get more compensation from playing professional ball, so I must make some sacrifices. I know that I am just a kid entering a man’s game and have a lot to learn. Although it’s flattering for others to compare me with Lou Gehrig, at present my major aim is to make the major leagues.”[vi]
He spent five seasons in the New York minor league system, but his wildness caught up with him at Triple-A, where he went 0-and-9, walking 65 batters in 53 innings.[vii] Yankee Scout Jim McElroy has another take on what caused Kitt’s career to be cut short. The way he tells it, Kitt was pitching in the minors and went to get a drink at the water cooler. There was an electric wire going from an outlet to the water cooler and it was lying across the floor of the dugout. Kitt stepped on the wire with his spikes; there was a spark; and Kitt had burnt his foot. The injury forced him to change his delivery and he never regained his form.[viii] Indeed, he developed bursitis and when the door to the big leagues closed, the door to a new career opened. He left baseball behind him with no regrets and forged a career as an economist.
During his off-seasons while in the minors, Kitt made his way to the classroom, graduating cum laude with a degree in economics from Hofstra University. In 1965, with his fast ball gone and his once great prospects but a memory, he accepted a fellowship from Columbia University and went on to earn his Ph. D. As he mentioned to writer Ira Berkow in 1972, “since my career was kind of shaky, I began to read more widely and began to become more introspective. I was no longer single-minded about baseball.”[ix] His career took him to the top echelons of antitrust and trade regulation matters. He was the founding chair of National Economic Research Associates’ (NERA) Global Antitrust and Competition Policy Practice and chaired its anti-trust, Trade Regulation, and Healthcare Group from its inception through 2004. He had taught industrial organization and intermediate price theory at Hofstra prior to joining NERA.[x] A generation later, his son Tom would get an economics degree from Columbia, but he would forge a separate and equally rewarding career path in music, receiving both a Pulitzer Prize and two Tony Awards for his musical drama “Next to Normal.”
After Kitt left the Hearst game, the U. S. All-Stars mounted a charge and took a 4-2 lead, on a two-run homer by Joel Tigett of San Antonio. They never relinquished the lead and went on to win the game 6-5. Tigett had earned his way to New York by going long with a triple and a home run, driving in six runs, in the South Texas-San Antonio All-Star game in San Antonio, won by Tigett’s South Texas team, 9-3. This time around, the South Texas contingent was managed by former major leaguer Arthur “Pinky” Whitney. Tigett, after the Hearst game, went onto Rice University on a quadruple athletic scholarship (baseball, football, basketball, and track). After completing his collegiate studies at Rice, he signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964, but only got as far as Class-A in his one season of minor league ball, batting .251 in 51 games with Rock Hill in the Western Carolinas League.
But as far as the folks in Seguin, Texas were concerned, Tigett’s homer in the Hearst Game was Seguin’s Greatest Sports Moment. With the usual hyperbole surrounding the feats of a local hero, the Seguin Gazette proclaimed that “Tigett’s booming bat was heard throughout the entire U. S. during the All-Star game in New York last August 18. The fourth inning was the occasion when the entire baseball world stood up and took a startled look at Seguin and Joel. That’s when Joel simply strode up to the plate and blasted a 415-foot home run into the 20th row behind left field at Yankee Stadium.”[xi]
Tigett came east to the Hearst game with pitcher Bob Myer, who hailed from Harlandale, Texas. Myer had earned his trip to New York striking out five in three innings of work for the San Antonio team in the All-Star Game in San Antonio. Myer, who pitched the middle innings in the game in New York, was credited with the win. He signed with the Boston Red Sox and pitched in their system for six seasons, posting a 58-44 record, but could not make the jump from Class AAA Louisville to the majors.
The starting catcher for the U. S. Stars was one of three players representing the Detroit Times and his double drove in the first run for the visitors. The line shot was hit so hard that the left fielder couldn’t react. It was, as Dizzy Dean used to say, “a Blue Dogger.” Bill Freehan subsequently came around to score the tying run on a single by Baltimore’s Charlie Bree, who scored on Tigett’s two-run homer. Freehan, a native of Royal Oak, Michigan, had spent his high school years in St. Petersburg, Florida when his father bought a mobile home development in that area. He had starred in baseball, basketball football in high school, and during the summers when he was in high school, he returned to Detroit to stay with his grandparents and play sandlot ball. In the summer of 1960, he played on a team sponsored by Lundquist Insurance. He attracted the interest of scouts at an early age, and Tigers’ scout Louis D’Annunzio said that Freehan was the best sandlot catcher that he had seen.[xii]
Prior to the Hearst game, he had just completed his freshman year at the University of Michigan. At Michigan, he played linebacker on the football team, in addition to catching for the baseball team. Bill went one for two in the Hearst Classic, banging a single along with his fourth inning RBI double, and was signed by the Detroit Tigers for a bonus of $125,000 prior to the 1961 season. In his first year of Organized Baseball, he saw action in Detroit as a late season call-up. After a solid 1962 at Denver in the American Association, Freehan returned to Detroit to stay in 1963. In 14 full seasons with the Tigers, he was named to eleven All-Star teams, including 10 in succession from 1964 through 1973. He was also awarded five consecutive Gold Gloves (1965-69) and was a member of the Tigers’ World Championship team in 1968.
After his playing days, Freehan went into coaching and was the baseball coach at the University of Michigan from 1990 through 1995.
The Detroit Times sponsored three highly touted players. Two of the players, Freehan and Matt Snorton had spent the summer playing in the competitive Times-Hearst Summer League. The league had a 10-team Detroit Division and an eight-team Suburban Division. Freehan’s Lundquist team and Snorton’s Great Lakes team played in the Detroit Division. The third player, Mike Marshall, represented Adrian in the Outstate tournament.
In the early years of the Hearst program in Detroit, players for the New York trip had been selected from those who participated in the year end Detroit-Outstate All-Star game or were on teams that made it to the finals in the team competition. This time, the players were selected based on their overall performances during the season, not just one game. The judges did get a look at the best Detroit area players during an all-star competition at Briggs Stadium on July 12. The best sixty players from the summer program were selected and put on four teams for the doubleheader. They were divided into four 15-man teams. Freehan and Snorton were among the players selected and put on the teams that participated in the games on July 12. The star of the second game was a teammate of Snorton’s at Northwestern High School. Willie Horton, who went on to a great career with the Detroit Tigers, singled, doubled, and tripled and drove in four runs that day, as his team, Team Four, defeated Team Three, 7-3.[xiii]
League action resumed after the doubleheader and after the games of July 18, the top eight teams advanced to the playoff tournament. The last two surviving teams in the Detroit area playoffs, Modern Chrome, the city champion, faced R. G. Moeller, the suburban champion in a three-game series for the title. Modern Chrome swept the games on August 6.and August 8 to advance to the Times-Hearst State Championship game on August 12 against Adrian, whose lineup included shortstop Mike Marshall.
Snorton and Freehan did not play on August 12. By the time the game was played on August 12, Snorton’s season in the Hearst program had ended. His Great Lakes team did not qualify for the eight-team post season tournament. Freehan’s Lundquist team bowed to Modern Chrome in the tournament. There were two games on August 12. One featured Modern Chrome against Adrian with Modern Chrome coming out on top, 8-0. In the other, the Outstate Stars Defeated the Detroit Area Stars 4-3.
The most promising, at the time, of the three-man Michigan contingent to the game in New York was Matt Snorton. The first-baseman stood 6’ 4” and tipped the scales at 225 lbs. In the game in New York, he started in the outfield, as manager Vitt elected to put Boston’s Bob Guindon at first base. Manager Vitt said, “Snorton is a great player. He’s powerful and he can whale the ball. But, he will probably play the outfield in the major leagues.”[xiv] In the game in New York, his sixth inning double keyed a rally that gave the U. S. Stars a commanding 6-2 lead. He didn’t sign a pro baseball contract and elected to continue his studies at Michigan State. He was drafted by teams in both major professional football leagues and played five games with the Denver Broncos at tight end in 1964.
There were some players who didn’t get selected to go to the Hearst Classic in New York yet made it to the major leagues. The star pitcher for Detroit’s Modern Hard Chrome team that defeated Freehan’s Lundquist team was Dennis Ribant. In the final game of the Detroit City Championship tournament, won by Modern Chrome, 1-0, Ribant hurled a no-hitter. His mates scored their one run on four hits off Fritz Fisher who toiled for Lundquist that summer.[xv] Ribant went on to make it to the major leagues with the New York Mets in 1964. He pitched for six teams during a six-year major league career. His best seasons were with the Mets in 1966 (11-9) and the Pirates in 1967 (9-8).
Showing a powerful bat for Brown Insulation in the tournament was Alex Johnson. Johnson’s homer was not enough, however, as his team lost 6-2 to Freehan’s Lundquist team and was eliminated from the tournament in an early game. Johnson played 13 seasons in the majors, winning the American League batting title in 1970 when he batted .329 for the Angels. A teammate of Johnson’s on the Brown Insulation team in 1960 was Willie Horton who had played with Johnson and Matt Snorton at Northwestern High School. Horton signed with the Tigers and was with them for 15 seasons during which he was named to four All-Star teams. He batted .304 in the Tigers’ 1968 World Series win over St. Louis and, at age 36 in 1979, with Seattle, he appeared in 162 games, hit 29 homers and had 106 RBIs. He retired after the 1980 season with 325 career homers. But his work in the 1960 sandlot season was hardly over when Brown Insulation was eliminated.
After the Hearst Classic, Lundquist Insurance recruited a couple of additional players. Willie Horton and Dennis Ribant joined the squad that already included Bill Freehan and Fritz Fisher, and the team participated in the National Amateur Baseball Federation Junior Tournament in Altoona, Pennsylvania. In a doubleheader win on August 25, Ribant won the first game with his arm, pitching a five-hitter with 15 strikeouts, and the second with his bat, hitting a pair of doubles. In the first game, Horton, provided the offense with four hits, including two doubles.[xvi] In the doubleheader on August 27, Lundquist won the National Championship.
The top team in the Suburban division during the regular season that summer was Dearborn Adray. One of their top players was infielder Carmen Fanzone. Fanzone, who had been on the winning city team in the 1959 all-star game, participated in the all-star doubleheader on July 12. He hit two homers in an 8-2 win by Adray against Moeller on July 25 that put Adray in the finals for the Suburban championship. After college signed with the Boston Red Sox. He made it to the majors with Boston in 1970 and was traded to the Cubs after that season. After being called up to the Cubs in September 1971, he homered in his first at-bat. The homer came as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning of a game in which the Cubs were hopelessly behind. They lost the September 8 contest against the Pirates, 10-1. In five major league seasons, Fanzone batted .224 with 20 home runs and 94 RBIs. During his time with the Cubs, he played baseball by day and looked for music gigs at night. A skilled musician, he got his degree in music from Central Michigan University and played two years with the Baja Marimba Band. Later in life, he took a position as assistant to the president of Professional Musicians Local #47 in Los Angeles.
Mike Marshall
The third Detroit Times representative wound up being the pitcher who closed the deal for the U. S. All-Stars in 1960. Mike Marshall, a natural shortstop, had entered the game in the sixth inning to play right field. He went to the mound in the bottom of the eighth with two outs replacing Boston’s Bill Harvey. The New Yorkers had already scored a run to make the score 6-5 and were threatening to do more damage. He secured the final out of the inning and retired the side in order in the ninth inning to save the win. It wouldn’t be the last time he finished up a game in relief.
For Mike Marshall, the road to the 1960 Hearst Classic began at a tryout in his home town of Adrian on July 8 when Times-Hearst tournament head Perry Deakin staged tryouts to select 15 players from communities west and south of Detroit for the outstate competition scheduled for Ann Arbor on August 6. They would be joined by teams from three other sections of the state. The winning team in the competition went on to play the winner of the Detroit-Suburban tournament in the state team championship game. The selection of the outstate player to go to New York was based on the performances in the outstate games on August 6 and announced, along with the Detroit area representatives, prior to the game on August 12.
The New York Yankees took note of Marshall’s pitching abilities and offered him a significant signing bonus said to be in the range of $60,000. However, his experience as a pitcher had been limited to his senior year in high school and he felt more comfortable at shortstop. Although the bonus was only in the range of $20,000, he elected to sign with the Philadelphia Phillies as a shortstop and spent four years working his way up the organization.
As a youngster, he had been involved in an automobile accident and had sustained back injuries. As he played more and more at shortstop as a professional, he realized that he could not endure playing every day at that position for a full season and, in 1965, was agreeable when the decision was made to convert him to a pitcher. Just prior to the 1966 season, he was sold to the Detroit Tigers. He made his major-league debut in 1967, appeared in 37 games, mostly in relief with the Tigers, registered 10 saves and recorded an ERA of 1.98. Nevertheless, he was sent back to the minors in 1968 as the Tigers were looking to develop him as a starting pitcher. He recorded a 15-9 record that season at Toledo.
Marshall was put in the pool for the expansion draft at the end of the 1968 season and drafted by the Seattle Pilots, along with fellow Hearst alums Gary Bell, Tommy Davis, and Skip Lockwood. With Seattle, he was more effective than his 3-10 record would indicate. On May 9, against Washington, he pitched a two-hit shutout for his second win of the season against three losses, and his ERA stood at 2.68. Two weeks later, in Cleveland, he was accosted by thugs and took a beating. His injuries impacted his pitching and, in his remaining 11 games with the Pilots he went 0-5 with an 8.53 ERA. Before his season with Seattle ended on July 5, he posted a 5.13 ERA. After the season, he was sold to the Astros. He pitched very briefly and even more ineffectively with Houston and was sold again, this time in July 1970 to the Expos. Over the course of his career, he would play for nine major league teams.
Playing for manager Gene Mauch, Mike Marshall came of age in his four seasons in Montreal, saving 74 games and posting a 2.94 ERA. Then, in what amounted to a steal (he was obtained for an over-the-hill Willie Davis) for the Dodgers, it was on to Los Angeles and a share of immortality. Dodger manager Walter Alston bought in to Marshall’s desire to work often to maintain his strength, as had Gene Mauch in Montreal. In 1974, Marshall appeared in 106 games, posted a 2.42 ERA, was credited with 21 saves, made the All-Star team, and won the National League Cy Young Award. Marshall was far from finished. He pitched until 1981, and in 1979, at the age of 36, led the American League in appearances (90) and games saved (32), while pitching for the Minnesota Twins.
As an 11-year-old boy, Marshall was involved in the tragedy that changed his life. He was riding in a car driven by his favorite uncle when the vehicle was struck by a train. The collision killed his uncle and left Marshall with a severe back injury. Hospitalized for a lengthy stay, Marshall developed an interest in kinesiology, the study of mechanics in the human anatomy, and how the body worked. Marshall carried that interest into college. Attending classes at Michigan State University during the off-season, he majored in physical education, earning his Bachelor of Science degree in 1965.
Marshall applied his college course load to pitching and began to develop his own theories of pitching and pitching mechanics. Marshall believed that he could pitch more effectively by pitching almost every day. He continued his education, earning his Ph.D. in 1978. In his post-playing days, Marshall coached at several colleges, worked as an independent pitching coach and was a consultant for numerous athletes, preaching the theories of kinesiology.[xvii]
1960 was the last year that Detroit sent players to the game in New York. The rich legacy of the Motor City included not only Freehan and Marshall, but also seven other Hearst Sandlot Classic players who would go onto the major leagues.
One of the players who failed to make the cut in the San Antonio-South Texas All Star game was Chuck Hartenstein of Seguin, Texas. Hartenstein, a high school teammate of Joel Tigett, played for South Texas and pitched three shutout innings, allowing only one hit and striking out four in the game in Texas, but was bypassed in favor of Myer. He went on to star at the University of Texas and was signed by the Chicago Cubs in 1964. His first major league appearance was in 1965, as a pinch runner. He made his pitching debut in 1966 and pitched in the majors through 1970, by which time he was with the Boston Red Sox. He was sold by Boston after the 1970 season and spent the next six seasons in the minors for three organizations. He was acquired by Toronto prior to the 1977 season and appeared in 13 games for the Blue Jays, wrapping up his career. In parts of six major league seasons, he had a career mark of 17-19, all in relief. He was credited with 23 saves.
Also receiving a bonus after the game was center fielder Brian McCall of the U. S. All-Stars. The seventeen-year-old McCall had just completed his junior year of high school. Normally a first baseman, he was, like so many others, playing out of position in the game. The Long Beach, California lad signed with the Chicago White Sox for $50,000 in 1961, and first appeared with the Sox in 1962. McCall’s career was brief and mostly forgettable. In parts of two seasons, he got into seven games and had three hits. It was back to the minors for McCall after 1963, and he played his last game of minor league ball in 1966.
Brian’s family called him BAM (his initials) but to his followers at Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, California he was just Brian. Prior to the all-star game in Los Angeles from which players were chosen to go to New York, he received advice from his high school coach John Herbold. He was told to “get some hits and steal some bases.” Brian responded with a single, a homer, and a stolen base, and was on his way to New York. In the program handed out at the game in New York, it was said that McCall was a gifted cartoonist and illustrator and would be pursuing his education at USC.
He spoke to coach Rod Dedeaux of USC, and was told that, if the bonus offer was in excess of $35,000, he should consider it. Hence, he signed with the White Sox and spent the summer of 1961 enduring the long bus rides at his first minor league stop – Idaho Falls in the Class-C Pioneer League, batting .295. As for the bonus money, it was used to send his brother, a musician, to Julliard.
He spent the first part of the 1962 season in the Carolina League with Greensboro. He was on loan to the Yankees farm club for one month during which he roomed with Mel Stottlemyre. He spent the balance of the season with teams in the White Sox organization, and at the end of the season, got his first taste of the big leagues. He made his first appearance on September 18, striking out as a pinch hitter against Don Schwall of the Red Sox. He got another chance five days later in the bottom of the tenth inning. The Yankees had taken a four-run lead in the top half of the inning and, with one out, McCall was called upon to pinch hit for Early Wynn. The left-hander hit an offering off Bill Stafford down the left field line. The only thing in the way of McCall’s first major league hit was the Yankees’ third baseman, Clete Boyer. Boyer dived for the ball, came up throwing, and nailed McCall at first base. McCall was 0-for-2 in his first two major league at-bats.
On September 28, McCall was once again called on to pinch hit. The scene was Yankee Stadium, where he had singled during the Hearst game. In the game’s final inning, he pinch-hit for Luis Aparicio and singled off right hander Tex Clevenger of the Yankees for his first major league hit.
However, it can’t be denied that his next major league hits were productive. While the White Sox were in New York, McCall’s mother came to visit New York in hopes of seeing her son play. At breakfast on Sunday morning, September 30, prior to the final game of the season, McCall introduced his mom to a couple of the White Sox coaches, and they mentioned to Al Lopez, the Sox manager, that it would be good to give the kid his first major league start.
Not only did McCall start, but his mom got to hear the legendary voice of Bob Sheppard say, “leading off for Chicago, center fielder Brian McCall.” After grounding out in the first inning, he stepped up in the third inning with a runner on first and his team behind 2-1. His dinger off Bill Stafford was an inside fastball, and it put the Sox ahead to stay. His seventh inning homer off a Ralph Terry hanging curveball was the icing on the cake as the Sox won 8-4. The nineteen-year-old had become one of the youngest players to have a multiple home run game. This particular game was noteworthy for another reason. The Yanks had already clinched the pennant, but Mickey Mantle was sitting on 29 homers. Ralph Houk inserted Mickey in the leadoff spot to get him an extra at-bat. Mantle connected in the fourth inning and was immediately removed from the game. Brian remembers chasing the line drive for a few feet as it went into the right center field seats.
After the season, he went home to Long Beach and the local folks got a chance to see their hometown hero play in an exhibition on December 23 at Blair Field. The game matched the Long Beach Rockets, for who McCall played, with the Hollywood All-Stars, featuring the likes of Ernie Banks and Leon Wagner. McCall drove in a pair of runs as his team won, 11-2.[xviii]
McCall never had another major league hit and, after trying a brief comeback as a pitcher, was out of baseball after the 1965 season. He went back to school, studying art at the California College of Arts and Crafts. He embarked on a long career as an artist and his illustrations have appeared in many newspapers and magazines.
In the 1960 Hearst game, Bill Freehan was replaced behind the plate by Mike Ryan, who represented Boston. Ryan never competed in high school athletics of any kind. His family insisted that he went to Parochial School and he graduated from St. James High School in Haverhill, Massachusetts. St. James had dropped interscholastic sports in 1948. Ryan played his sandlot ball for the Haverhill team in the Northeast League,[xix] and was selected for the 1960 Hearst Sandlot Classic along with Bob Guindon and Bill Harvey. He played in three of the games in the final elimination series at Boston, going 3-for-7 with two RBIs. In the finale, he had two doubles. Boston was asked to send three players as the number of cities sending players had dropped to ten, and the quality of the players in the New England tournament had been consistently good over the years.
In New York, Ryan made a very favorable impression on his manager, Oscar Vitt. “If I were a (major league) manager, I could fall in love with a guy like this. He’s strong as a bull and I like the way he conducts himself. He’s a take charge type and that’s the kind you need, particularly when you are trying to make a team out of 16 strangers, every one of them from a different part of the country.”[xx]
Ryan signed with the Red Sox in 1960 and made his major-league debut on October 3, 1964. In his debut, he joined with two other Hearst alums in the Red Sox starting lineup. Bill Monbouquette pitched, and Tony Conigliaro was in right field. Ryan singled and had two RBIs as the Red Sox defeated Washington 7-0. During the “incredible dream” 1967 season with the Red Sox, there were five Hearst Alums on the roster (Ryan, Conigliaro, Gary Bell, Russ Gibson, and Joe Foy). After the 1967 season, he was traded to the Phillies, and finished up his career with the Pirates in 1974. After his playing days, he continued in baseball with the Phillies organization as a minor league manager and coach and longtime mentor to a sting of Phillies catchers. As noted by Al Pepper in Mendoza’s Heroes, “Though he failed to bat over .200 in seven of this eleven campaigns, Mike Ryan endured by virtue of his outstanding defensive skills.”[xxi]
For future Boston player Guindon, it was his second trip to the New York game, and he was selected to start at first base in the big game on August 18. Guindon had earned a return trip to New York by going 7-for 12 with four RBIs and two stolen bases in the four games at Boston. Bill Harvey was Boston’s third representative.
Harvey, a standout at Burlington High School, where he accounted for nine of his team’s 11 wins over a two-year period, struck out 11 batters in 11 innings during the tournament in Boston.[xxii] Manager Vitt toyed with the idea of starting Harvey in the game in New York but chose to use him in relief because, as he said, his team “needs a key kid to stick in there if the bases get loaded or we get into trouble. Harvey is the kind of player that can do it.”[xxiii] If the 1960, U. S. All-Stars had a class comedian, it was Bill Harvey. He kept everybody loose during the contest. He signed with the Cubs, but only got as far as Class A.
Although three Boston players went to New York in 1960, two others with good credentials were not selected to go, and a third didn’t even survive the cut to get to the game at Fenway. Walt Hriniak, who played in the game at Fenway on August 6, went onto a brief career in the National League before becoming one of the game’s more respected hitting coaches. He signed out of high school in 1961with Jeff Jones of the Milwaukee Braves, and first made it to the majors in 1968. He was a disciple of Hearst alum Charlie Lau, for whom he played in the minors with Shreveport in 1968. It was Lau who converted him to catcher and told him to stop trying to pull the ball. At the end of the 1968 season, Hriniak was called up to the Braves and went 0-for-3 in his first game at San Francisco. The next day, he was not scheduled to start but just prior to game time, Joe Torre was scratched from the lineup due to injury and Hriniak started in his place. In each of his first two at-bats against Juan Marichal he singled to center field, for his first two major league hits. His first call after getting those hits was not to his father, but to Charlie Lau.
Hriniak started the 1969 season with the Braves but was traded to the San Diego Padres with two other players for Tony Gonzalez. The 1969 season was his last in the majors. He returned to the minors and in 1971, Jim Fanning, who had been his first minor league manager, hired him to work in the minor-league system of the Montreal Expos. He was a player/coach for two years at Class-AA Quebec and Class AAA Peninsula before joining the Expos coaching staff in 1974. He joined the Red Sox in 1977 as hitting instructor under manager Don Zimmer and was with the Red Sox for 12 seasons, guiding the likes of Dwight Evans and Wade Boggs. He then moved on to the Chicago White Sox where his top pupil was Frank Thomas. When Thomas was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014, he acknowledged the help he received from Hriniak.
Another player who did not make the cut for the Fenway game in 1960 would excel at Fenway the following season. Still Another Bostonian had to wait until 1962 and his third game at Fenway to get selected to go to New York. It was definitely worth the wait.
A New York catcher also cashed in after the game, signing with the Yankees for $25,000 in 1961. Frank Fernandez made it to the majors with the Yankees in 1967, getting a hit in his very first major league at-bat on September 12, 1967, and played six seasons in the majors, finishing up in 1972 with the Chicago Cubs. Fernandez was another of “Mendoza’s Heroes.” However, he had some pop in his bat. Although batting only .199, he had 39 homers in 727 major league at-bats. Of his 39 homers, seven were game winners. His best years were over a two-year span with the Yankees and Oakland (1969-70). During those seasons, he had 27 homers and 73 RBIs.[xxiv]
A last-minute roster addition for the New York All-Stars was young Jordan Gatti. In his senior year of high school at Brooklyn Tech, legend has it, he batted .464. Slow of foot and quick of mind, he elected not to sign with the pros out of high school and attended Long Island University. He left school to take a position as an apprentice in the electrical union. One last offer came from the Mets, but he turned it down when the union refused to guarantee him a position if things did not work out with the Mets. Eventually, he took a position with the Adco Electric Company from which he retired as a Vice-President.[xxv]
Of course, there was no shortage of ink when it came to the extolling of the virtues of players in newspapers back home. Steve Thomson represented Baltimore and was the U. S. All-Star shortstop, entering the game in the middle innings. He got a big write-up in the Evening Sun, published in Hanover, Pennsylvania, not far from the Maryland border. Thomson, who hailed from Hampstead, Maryland was hailed for three sparkling defensive plays at shortstop that saved the game for the U. S. All-Stars.[xxvi] As Steve recalls, one of those plays came with a runner in scoring position. A ground ball was scorched through the middle and he was able to stop the ball before it went into the outfield. Although he was unable to get the batter at first base, he kept the run from scoring at a pivotal point in the game. Although he had attracted the attention of Billy Hunter, who at the time was a scout in the Cleveland organization, the youngster was not offered a contract.
Thomson did not play high school baseball, as his school team did not field a baseball team. He did, however, excel in other sports. After attending Bethany College in Lindborg, Kansas, and receiving his master’s degree from Central Missouri State University, Thomson embarked on a career in coaching at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, where, in 1974, he was named the baseball coach of the year for District 16 by the National Association of Intercollegiate Activities. He returned to Maryland three years later and spent most of his four decades of coaching close to his boyhood home, mostly at Westminster High School, where he also served as Athletic Director. In 2016, was inducted into the Hall-of-Fame in Carroll County, Maryland, where he had grown up. Looking back at more than fifty years he said, “The experience I had in Yankee Stadium, up in New York City for about a week – that will always last in my memories.”[xxvii]
Tim Cullen
The last of the seven players from the 1960 game to make it to the majors is Tim Cullen. The graduate of Serra High School in San Mateo represented San Francisco and earned his trip to New York by virtue of his play in the regional City-County All-Star game that was held that year at the Big Rec’s Graham Field in Golden State Park on Sunday July 17. Oscar Vitt and his staff at the Examiner Baseball School conducted tryouts at seven locations in San Francisco and Northern California and selected 26 candidates to play at the Big Rec. The contest was won by the Northern California team, 7-4.
Prior to the game in San Francisco, awards were given to the two best overall high school athletes in San Francisco. Star football and basketball player Bob Garibaldi was one of the recipients. At the time, he was not on the baseball radar. Two years later, he signed with the Giants and spent four seasons in the major leagues.
Cullen starred in the game in San Francisco, witnessed by 7,500 on an unusually warm summer day. It was a setting unlike that which most of the players would ever see. Bunting draped the filled stands, and the remaining fans were sitting and standing on the park grass as far as the eye could see. From foul line to foul line, a rope extended to cordon off the field and serve as an inviting target for the sluggers. Cullen went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles, one of which ignited a five-run fifth inning rally for the winning Northern California team. In the field, he was superlative. His best fielding play was summed up by Syd Russell in the San Francisco Examiner. “Catcher Bill Moe (Sacred Heart) smashed what gave every indication of being a clean hit. Cullen, who is extremely graceful for a big fellow, speared the ball – a scorching grounder – in Jimmy Davenport fashion and rifled the ball to first in plenty of time.”[xxviii]
At the Hearst Classic in New York, Cullen started the game at third base and batted third for the U. S. All-Stars, going 0-for-2, striking out and grounding out in his two trips to the plate. He had earned the starting assignment after hitting an RBI single in a warmup game between the U. S. All-Stars and the Yankee Rookies, a team of New York Sandlotters, on August 17. The U. S. team won the tuneup by a 3-1 score. Cullen had flown to the game in New York along with manager Oscar Vitt and teammate Frank Gable. In New York, Cullen met up with some friends and drove back with them. The San Francisco Examiner sent him a check for $150 to cover the road trip. He was courted by the San Francisco Giants and spent one summer working out with the team prior to games and serving during the games as their clubhouse boy. However, after High School, he elected to go to Santa Clara on a scholarship, and scout Ed Montague of the Giants lost interest.
At Santa Clara, he was on several great teams playing at times, alongside Hearst Alums Ernie Fazio and John Boccabella. He starred in the College World Series in 1962 as Santa Clara lost to Michigan in the title game. In his senior year, he was named to the second team All-America squad. After graduating college in 1964 with a degree in business, he was signed by Boston Red Sox scouts Bobby Doerr and Glenn Wright for a $15,000 bonus. His first stop in organized ball was in Seattle in the Pacific Coast League in 1964. Among his teammates were several Hearst alums including Joe Foy, Russ Gibson, Bobby Guindon, Billy Harrell, and Wilbur Wood. He made it to the majors with the Washington Senators in 1966 and played seven years in the majors, finishing up with the Oakland A’s in 1972. The infielder’s career batting average was .220. After baseball, he returned to the San Francisco area and worked in the securities industry selling stocks, eventually joining Morgan-Stanley.
Frank Gable also represented San Francisco in 1960. Gable had simply torn the cover off the ball at the game in San Francisco. He homered, triple, and singled, while scoring three runs and driving in two of his team’s four runs. In the field, he was flawless. He had five chances, throwing out four runners at first base and corralling a popup.[xxix] He was signed by the expansion Washington Senators. In 1966, he was promoted to Hawaii in the Pacific Coast League but would go no further. After batting .238 with Hawaii, it was back to the lower minors and he finished up with Class-A Burlington in the Carolina League in 1968.
Many of the New York All-Stars were sandlot heroes from Brooklyn’s Parade Grounds. Jack Tracy hailed from Staten Island, and his team would travel to Brooklyn by ferry boat. He attended college at Seton Hall University and signed with the Mets in 1964. He made it as high as Triple-A Jacksonville, but never played in the majors. After his time in organized baseball, he returned to Staten Island as a Physical Education teacher at Tottenville High School.[xxx]
One of Tracy’s teammates on the Staten Island Chiefs also played in the 1960 Hearst game. Larry Anderson did not play organized ball but went on to become chairman of the Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame.
Albany sent pitcher John Vergare to the game. Most cities had all-star games to select the players for the trip to New York. In Albany, it was different. Area writers and coaches would be polled, and they would select the representatives from the top players in the area. So it was that, when the letter came addressed to John Vergare, his father (also John Vergare) opened the letter and passed it on to young John, who was genuinely surprised.
John had been to New York before, with his parents, and had gone with them to games at Yankee Stadium. He had also been to Ebbets Field with his Little League team. But this would be the first trip without his family. He was accompanied on the New York Central train from Albany to New York by infielder Jim Peglow with whom he roomed at the Hotel New Yorker. Vergare was given the starting assignment and aside from the two-run blast by Stancavage had things under control. Freehan was his catcher and Vergare was not about to shake off the big guy from Detroit. John still remembers his walk from the clubhouse through the tunnel to the dugout and his first view of the field. It was a magical place. And then he took to the mound. It was like “climbing Mount Everest. It was much higher than the mounds I was used to.”
Vergare never played professional baseball and went on to a career with the United States Postal Service. After retiring from the postal service, he remained active with the Colonie (NY) Senior Service Centers, serving as a bus driver beginning in 2009 and, in 2013, being rewarded with the CCSC’s first ever “driver of the Quarter” award.
Milwaukee was represented by Terry Heinrichs who had been on the radar since 1957 when he had thrown a no-hitter while pitching for Washington High School. He was only a freshman at the time. In the Silver Slugger All-Star Game, Heinrichs played first base. Although he did not do well in the Silver Slugger game, he had excelled in the tryouts prior to the game and was selected for the New York trip based his showing in the tryouts and high school record.
Also representing Milwaukee was Johnny Krupski whose fifth inning triple in the Silver Slugger game had keyed his Metro team’s 9-8 win.
Neither Heinrichs nor Krupski played professionally, but one player from the Silver Slugger game was doing pretty well – until.
19-year-old Jerry Hummitzsch pitched in the Silver Slugger game in Milwaukee for the Upper Peninsula All-Stars. He and his teammates were sponsored by area newspapers. Hummitzsch was sent to the game by the Sheboygan Press. He did not disappoint, pitching three hitless and scoreless innings although his Upper Peninsula squad lost the game. Jerry was not selected to go to New York but did turn enough heads to be signed by the Braves. By 1963, he had worked his way up to Class AA Austin in the Texas League. That season, he went 10-9 with a 3.12 ERA, pitching four shutouts and striking out 126 batters in 144 innings. On June 7, he had pitched a no-hitter. The following season, he was 3-2 with a 1.22 ERA in his first five starts and appeared to be on a collision course with stardom, especially after pitching a ten-inning 1-0 shutout on May 21, allowing only three hits and striking out nine opponents. Unfortunately, fate intervened and in the early morning hours of May 22, 1964, he lost his life in an automobile accident that severely injured one-time Boston Hearst player and future major leaguer Walter Hriniak.[xxxi]
In Seattle, they staged their annual doubleheader on June 27 and the managers were Dick Sisler and Hall Jeffcoat, both of whom were with the Seattle Raniers of the Pacific Coast League. Sisler managed the city all-stars and was aided by Johnny O’Brien. Jeffcoat managed the State team and was aided by Edo Vanni. The opening game was a 3-3 tie, and in the nightcap, the State team won, 4-2. Harry Lambro of Renton High School led the State attack going 1-for-2 and driving in a run with a sacrifice fly. He scored his team’s final run as he was on the front end of a double steal in the sixth inning.[xxxii] He was selected to go to New York. In New York, he entered the game in the fifth inning and played center field. He went 0-for-2 at the plate, grounding out twice.[xxxiii]
Lambro, like most of the players from the Seattle game, did not play organized baseball. The most impressive minor league career of the six who signed was had by Lambro’s Renton High School teammate, Ric Evans, who singled and scored the first run of the opener in Seattle. Evans, after attending the University of Washington, signed with the Yankees as a pitcher and played nine minor league seasons in five different organizations getting as high as Class AAA.
[i] Rokeach, “Vitt High on U. S. Stars After Drill,” New York Journal-American, August 16, 1960, 25.
[ii] McSweeney. “NY Star Wins Gehrig Award,” Boston Evening American, August 19, 1960, 43
[iii] Jimmy Murphy, World Telegram (New York), 1961.
[iv] The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 26, 1960, 18
[v] Dan Daniel, The Sporting News, December 7, 1960: 5.
[vi] Lee Schwartz, “Lion Pitcher Accepts Yankees Bonus Offer,” Columbia Spectator, November 29, 1960, 8.
[vii] Bill Fox, Toledo Blade, April 8, 1965, 51-52
[viii] Mele, 264
[ix] Ira Berkow, “Ex-Bonus-Baby Works as Consultant, Remembers Headlines of Decade Ago,” Gadsden Times, June 7, 1972: 17.
[x] “Antitrust and Trade Regulation Specialist Howard Kitt Joins CRA International’s New York Office; Founder of NERA’s Antitrust Consultancy Offers Wealth of Experience,” Business Wire, June 2, 2005.
[xi] “Tigett Wallop Gives Seguin Greatest Sports Moment,” The Seguin (Texas) Gazette, 3 – 1.
[xii] Trey Strecker. “Bill Freehan”. SABR Bio-Project
[xiii] George Maskin, “Krause Sparks Juniors,” Detroit Times, July 13, 1960: 37.
[xiv] McSweeney, “Hub’s Guindon Opens in Hearst Tilt,” Boston Evening American, August 19, 1960, 49
[xv] George Maskin, “No-Hitter Wins Hearst Finale,” Detroit Times, August 6, 1960: 10.
[xvi] “Lundquist Remains Unbeaten,” Detroit Times, August 26, 1960: 20.
[xvii] Bruce Markusen, The Hardball Times, January 15, 1915.
[xviii] Chuck Medick, “McCall Hot as Rockets Romp, 11-2,” Independent (Long Beach California), December 24, 1962: 11.
[xix] Dave Williams. “Mike Ryan”. SABR Bio-Project
[xx] McSweeney. “Hub Stars Form Sandlot Battery” Boston Evening American, August 13, 1960, 16.
[xxi] Pepper, 129-132
[xxii] Jeff Cohen. “Hearst Catcher Beat All Odds,” Boston Evening American, August 8, 1960, 52.
[xxiii] McSweeney. Boston Evening American, August 19, 1960, 49
[xxiv] Pepper, 143-145
[xxv] Mele, 335-338
[xxvi] The Evening Sun (Hanover, PA), August 20, 1960, 12
[xxvii] Pat Stoetzer. “Carroll County Sports Hall of Fame: Thomson’s Sports Journey Bringing Him Home,” Carroll County Times, May 4, 2016.
[xxviii] Syd Russell, “Bal, Serra Stars Win N. Y. Trip,” San Francisco Examiner, July 18, 1960: C-1, C-3.
[xxix] Ibid.
[xxx] Mele, 182-184
[xxxi] St. Petersburg Times, May 23, 1964, 3-C
[xxxii] Emmett Watson, “State Wins, Ties City in P-I Games; Seattle Loses Second, 4-2,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 28, 1960: 18, 20.
[xxxiii] “U. S. Stars Whip New Yorkers, 6-5,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 19, 1960: 18