For as long as I can remember, I've always traveled in September. Whatever happens with the Phillies during my absence, however, will not go unnoticed because I read newspapers while on vacation. My thoughts and observations will return when I do.
The first trivia question this season was about the pitcher who started the second half of the doubleheader when Jim Bunning hurled his perfect game on June 21, 1964. The response was so overwhelming that I took the opportunity to reminisce with Rick Wise when he was in town for the Phillies' alumni reunion in August.
The two-time All-Star was happy to share his memories, even though he corrected some history. Some accounts list the Father's Day appearance as the rookie's first major-league start.
"It wasn't my first start," Wise said, "but it ended up being my first win. In my first start, I got knocked out in the fourth inning in San Francisco, and I remember (Willie) Mays hitting a home run off of me."
A check of the records indicates that the 18-year-old Wise went three-plus innings and gave up five hits and four runs during a 9-4 loss to the Giants on May 21. Mays homered twice in that game. Wise didn't get the decision, but the outing paid dividends in his next start.
"I listened and I learned (from the experience), and I felt good and threw the ball well (on June 21)," he said. "The Father's Day game was very special. Bunning pitched a perfect game, and I got my first win, and we were going for a pennant (that year).
"After Bunning's perfect game, the players came in (the clubhouse) screaming, and I remember asking somebody for a ball. I remember saying, 'We have to play a second game,' and I needed a ball to warm up."
The right-hander pitched into the seventh inning and gave up three hits and two runs (one earned) in the 8-2 decision in the second half of that twin bill.
Wise appeared in 25 games in 1964 and went 5-3 with a 4.04 earned-run average. He spent 1965 in the minor leagues but returned to Philadelphia for good the following year.
By 1971, his last season in red pinstripes, Wise was one of the best pitchers in the National League. He posted a 17-14 record with a 2.88 ERA for a wretched team that went 67-95 and finished last in the Eastern Division.
On June 23 of that year, Wise achieved one of the most remarkable accomplishments in baseball when he hurled a no-hitter and belted two home runs to beat the defending league champion Reds, 4-0, in Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium.
"It was the greatest game that I ever pitched," he said.
And Wise had to face the Big Red Machine, with future hall of famers Johnny Bench and Tony Perez in the lineup, on a night when he was not feeling his best.
"I was fighting off the effects of the flu, so I didn't feel strong at all," the pitcher continued. "I knew that I would have to place my pitches very well in order to have a good chance to win.
"I think I sweated out that virus that I had by the third inning because it was very hot. It was close to one-hundred degrees at game time and even hotter on the field. After I went through the lineup (once), I felt better, and I was making good pitches."
So good, in fact, that the game was played in under two hours, and Wise threw only 95 pitches. Future Phillie Pete Rose made the last out by smoking a line drive that John Vukovich snared at the hot corner.
During a contract dispute in the spring of 1972, general manager John Quinn traded the popular hurler to St. Louis for Steve Carlton. Wise made it to the World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 1975 and also pitched for the Cleveland Indians and San Diego Padres before retiring in 1982. He finished his career with a 188-181 record and a lifetime ERA of 3.68.
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