Flips of Fate

[LeonardRachiele]

1. Move over Babe Twice

On the last Sunday of the 1961 season, Roger Maris of the New Yankees hit his 61st home run to break Babe Ruth's record of 60.  61 in 61.  One week later in the World Series at Cincinnati, Whitey Ford broke another of Ruth's records-pitching 29 consecutive scoreless innings.   Babe Ruth started out as a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox from 1915 to 1919.   In five years with Boston,  Ruth had a 94-54 record, a 2.28 ERA, and won 20 or more games twice.   As stated,  he also had the record for consecutive shut out innings in the World Series that Whitey Ford broke in 1961. .

2. Philadelphia Phillies and the Philadelphia Athletics.

Three players were on both the Phillies and A's.   Elmer Valo, Vic Power, Jimmy Foxx,  and Dave Philley.

3. Weeb Ewbank.

The Baltimore Colts, coached by Weeb Ewbank, defeated the New York Giants for the NFL Title in 1958.  This was the sudden death overtime game that started Pro Football being the number one spectator sport.   Baltimore Colts 23 New York Giants 17.    Ten years later in 1968, the New York Jets, coached by Weeb Ewbank,  defeated the Baltimore Colts 16 to 7 in Super Bowl III.   This gave the AFL parity with the NFL.

4. George Blanda

The second game of  the 1973 season.  The Oakland Raiders defeated the Miami Dolphins 12 to 7  breaking Miami's 18 game winning streak.  Blanda accounts for all of the points with four field goals.   The date was  Blanda's 46th Birthday and the 300th  game of his career.

5. Joe Adcock and Harvey Haddix

In 1955, Joe Adcock of the Milwaukee Braves hit a ball of the shins of pitcher Harvey Haddix of the St. Louis Cardinals.   After a brief respite, Haddix resumed pitching.  In 1959,  Harvey Haddix was with the Pittsburgh Pirates. On May 26,  Haddix turned in the greatest one game pitching performance in baseball history-12 perfect innings against the Milwaukee Braves at County Stadium.  The Bucs did not score either. Felix Mantilla, in the last of the 13th,  ended the perfect game by getting on with a two base error.   The Pirates decide to walk Henry Aaron to set up a force play at second.   Joe Adcock then hit a  ball that easily cleared the left field fence.  In the excitement, Adcock passed Aaron on the base paths.  The league rules that it is a double.  The Braves win 1 to 0.

Pittsburgh got 13 hits off Brave pitcher Lew Burdette but failed to score.  Haddix pitched the best game ever-and lost. Adcock was Haddix's Nemesis.

[RichardBak]

Are you sure you're on the right board? What do Babe Ruth, Elmer Valo, and Joe Adcock have to do with pro FB??

[JohnR]

In a flip of fate George was celebrating his 46th birthday but he looked 64.

[JuggernautJ]

Are you sure you're on the right board? What do Babe Ruth, Elmer Valo, and Joe Adcock have to do with pro FB??

Well.... when someone posts ten articles in six hours there are likely to be some mistakes...

[Brian wolf]

Haha ... I think Leonard likes practicing his writing skills, like I do, so I can finally write that elusive, screenplay ... Unless he is copying and pasting a lot ...