A Look at Dominating Phillies Pitching Performances: Rick Wise No-Hits the Reds in 1971


With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Rick Wise faced the Reds’ right fielder for the final out.  Up until this point, the only blemish on Wise’s performance had been a sixth inning walk to shortstop Dave Concepcion.  In order to preserve the no-hitter, and make history, Wise would have to retire one of the most dangerous hitters, and indeed, the eventual Major League hit king, Pete Rose.

The Phillies led 4-0.  Three of those runs were driven in by Wise himself, with a two run home run in the fifth and a solo shot in the eighth.

But now Wise bore down on Rose.  With a full count, Rose hit a line shot, right at third baseman John Vukovich.  The date was June 23, 1971.  It would be another nineteen years before another Phillies pitcher would throw a no-hitter.

Despite an All-Star season, where Wise won seventeen games and posted a 2.88 ERA, he would not return to a Phillies uniform in 1972.  Instead, Rick Wise would forever be known as the answer to a trivia question for Phillies fans, namely, who did the Phillies trade in order to receive Hall of Famer Steve Carlton from the Cardinals.

And yet, being remembered only for the trade that brought the left-handed strike-out king to Philadelphia fails to do justice for a solid career. Wise made a second All-Star appearance in 1973 for the Cardinals, when he won sixteen games and struck out 144.  In 1975, Wise received votes for both the American League Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards, when he won nineteen games for the Red Sox.  Indeed, Wise was the pitcher of record when he came in relief in game six of the World Series, which the Red Sox won due to a Carlton Fisk home run.

After eighteen seasons, Wise ended his career with the Padres, having won 188 games and lost 181.  While Wise never posted Hall of Fame numbers, he still left an indelible mark in Phillies history having performed a most remarkable athletic feat one night in Cincinnati in 1971.
 
By:  William J. Kovatch, Jr.
 
References
 
Baseball Almanac, "Box Score of No-Hitter by Rick Wise," http://www.baseball-almanac.com/boxscore/06231971.shtml.
 
Baseball Almanac, "Cincinnati Reds vs Boston Red Sox October 21, 1975 Box Score," http://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=197510210BOS.
 
Baseball-Reference.com, "June 23, 1971, Riverfront Stadium," http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN197106230.shtml.
 
Baseball-Reference.com, "Rick Wise," http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wiseri01.shtml.
 
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dick Allen: Integrating Philadelphia’s Baseball Culture

Image
Much of what has hurt Dick Allen in reaching the Hall of Fame has been his reputation in the press of creating racial divisions on the teams for which he played. This is a reputation that has been perpetuated unfairly. To the contrary, Allen has been caught in a world where American society in general, and baseball in particular, has had to come to grips with racial discrimination. While white America preferred to sweep the problem of racial discrimination under the rug, players such as Allen were outspoken, refusing to let the issue be covered up. It is his outspokenness, when many Americans preferred to turn a blind eye to societal ills, that handicapped Allen’s chances of being inducted into the Hall, and which to this day haunts his candidacy.  Some have called Allen Philadelphia’s Jackie Robinson. And rightly so. Allen’s career was marred by racial discrimination by fans in Philadelphia. His endurance of this mistreatment, while acting as one of the greatest power hitte...
Read more

Unlikely Hero, Philadelphia Athletics’ Howard Ehmke Delivered in Game One of the 1929 World Series

Image
The 1929 Philadelphia Athletics boasted four future Hall of Famers: Jimmie Foxx, Robert “Lefty” Grove, Al Simmons and Mickey Cochrane. But the most unexpected hero of that season was a thirty-five year old right-handed pitcher with a submarine-style motion, Howard Ehmke.  Born in Silver Creek, New York, Ehmke moved to Los Angeles in 1913. The Los Angeles Angles of the Pacific Coast League signed him to a contract, and then sold his rights to the Washington Senators. Ehmke spurned the Senators in favor of signing with the Buffalo Blues of the upstart Federal League.  But Ehmke’s year with the Blues was disappointing. After the Federal League folded, Ehmke played with the Syracuse Stars, and was sold to the Detroit Tigers. However, the Senators claimed that they still owned the rights to Ehmke. AL President Ban Johnson agreed. The Senators then sold their rights to the Tigers.  Ehmke played six seasons with the Tigers, until he was traded to the Red Sox befor...
Read more

Caught Between Leagues: The Tragic Death of Ed Delahanty

Image
William J. Kovatch, Jr.             On July 9, 1903, the naked, mangled body of a man with his leg shorn off was fished out of the Niagara Gorge, downstream from Niagara Falls.   The body was identified as Ed Delahanty, outfielder for the Washington Senators and former offensive powerhouse for the Philadelphia Phillies.   Delahanty had last been seen on July 2, when a train conductor, John Cole, fed up with Delahanty’s drunken misconduct, threw him off of the train before crossing the International Railway Bridge.   A New York Times obituary reported that Delahanty had an open razor and was terrorizing passengers in a sleeper compartment.   Delahanty had been drinking too excess, and became confused and irate when he tried to enter a sleeper compartment that was already occupied.   Cole failed to follow proper procedures and simply left Delahanty at the Bridgeburg station, instead of leaving Delahanty...
Read more