June 2, 1969, Philadelphia: Padres 6, Expos Phillies 4 (box score)
The Padres and Phillies met Monday night in front of just over 3,000 fans at Shibe Park. Al Santorini, off to a great start for San Diego, faced sophomore right-hander Jerry Johnson.
The Phillies were led by the brilliant but bristly Dick Allen and a quartet of talented outfielders — Johnny Briggs, Johnny Callison, Deron Johnson, and rookie Larry Hisle. Due primarily to poor pitching, the Phillies entered Monday’s contest with an 18-25 record, good enough for fifth place in the National League East, 12 games back of the Cubs.
On this night, their pitchers would falter again. After the Phillies scored an unearned run in the second, the Padres notched two of their own on a Jerry John Sipin single and Nate Colbert two-out homer to left.
Then, in the sixth, San Diego parlayed two walks, two singles, and a double into four runs. Sipin capped the outburst with a sac fly to left that plated Santorini (who had singled home the inning’s first run).
The Phillies scored two runs in the home half of the sixth. But right-hander Gary Ross came in and stopped the bleeding, fanning Hisle and pinch-hitter Gene Stone to end the threat. The home team tacked on another run in the ninth, but Ross retired Cookie Rojas to preserve the Padres’ 6-3 victory and run their winning streak to four.
Trivia: Allen, Johnson, and Rojas all were involved in the trade that led Curt Flood to challenge baseball’s reserve clause.
I really hate to nitpick, especially in a first post, but this one’s driving me buggy. It’s John Sipin, not Jerry.
Jim, that’s not nitpicking, that’s correcting an error. Thanks very much for bringing this to my attention and apologies for the getting it wrong!
1 … bingo … way to go, Jim … if we don’t nitpick, who will!
http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/sipinjo01.shtml
1969 was all she wrote fro John Sipin … how/why do you remember him, Jim?
OT … a nice little rant … http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=sports&id=5361557 … i’m not getting audio … but the video is pretty clear …
I began following the Padres in May of ’69; I remember most of the players from that team, except for a few who were traded away before then. (My father knew a couple of them; he was a career Army NCO, and Larry Stahl and Billy McCool did their reserve time with his unit.)
5 … there we go … that’s what I’m talkin’ about … thanks!
And … I just gotta know … what were you doing in April ’69?
Didi posted this yesterday …
http://www.sportsline.com/print/mlb/story/10203587/1
… yet another good article about the impact Greg Maddux is having on the 2007 Padres … the one comment I wonder about, however, is when CY says that he’s getting advice from him about “holding runners” … huh?
#5: That’s awesome, Jim! Thanks so much for contributing — please feel free to drop in with any memories you might have from those days.
BTW, McCool plays a key role in tomorrow’s game…
6: Before that time I wasn’t interested in baseball much, but my sixth-grade teacher wanted to get us all to pay attention to the news. He assigned each of us our own beats, and we had to report on what was going on every day. I got the sports desk. The rest is history.
9 … if you don’t mind … what school were you at? That’d been cool to have “the sports desk”! I was in 4th grade at Sunset View Elementary out in Pt Loma in April-June, 1969 … my Dad had the good sense to take me to Opening Day … I wish I remember’d going … but that’s just too long ago, I s’pose … yup, too much “history”, as you say …
10: I went to Horace Mann Elementary. I think it was at 54th & El Cajon. (I live in the St. Louis area these days; I don’t even know if Mann still exists.)
11: I am losing it. It was Andrew Jackson Elementary; Mann was my junior high. (And I think it must have been fifth grade.)
It’s a small world, ain’t it … the other place I went to many games while growing up was St. Louis … had an uncle that worked in purchasing for a railroad … and, man, could that guy get tickets! 4 rows back of the Cardinal dugout … during the hey-day of Gibson and Brock and … well, you know … was at Busch Stadium the day Nate Colbert hit his 5 HRs in Atlanta … with Nate being from St. Louis (I think he was at the DH where Musial hit 5 HRs), it got a lot of coverage, on the scoreboard during the game, on the TV news that night, and in the newspapers in the days to follow …
12 … whew, it’s not just me then
11 … for a second there, I thought you were talking about “Terence Mann” … but I just looked up the difference in wikipedia