Cards from the Diamond

Tom House was one of several Dodgers hurlers congregating in the visitors' dugout at Fulton County Stadium when Henry Aaron cracked # 715, and he snagged Aaron's record-breaking home run off of Al Downing in the fourth inning of the game that night. House later recalled that when he ran to home plate and joyously presented Aaron with the precious orb that had just been blasted into baseball history, Aaron thought he was a batboy because he looked so young! For his trouble and generosity in giving up the ball, House was gifted with a television set donated by a local merchant.

House was part of a Dodgers team that remained a team for the better part of a decade, with the quartet of Steve Garvey at first, Bill Russell at second, Davey Lopes at short, and Ron “The Penguin” Cey at third anchoring the infield. Bill Buckner played left field for the Dodgers that season, and when Aaron hit his shot, Buckner literally tried to scale the bullpen wall to keep it from going over. You can see him in video of Aaron's shot leaping and straddling the wall, one leg dangling down on the bullpen side before he finally realizes his efforts are futile and hops off. (Twelve years later, New York Mets fans would thank Buckner for his decided decline in agility when he couldn't even bend over to field Mookie Wilson's ground ball as it rolled between his legs and down the right field line.) Reliever Mike Marshall, transplanted from the fabled Seattle Pilots and Montreal Expos, where he showed signs of the brilliance that would characterize his career as a Dodger, went on to earn the Cy Young award that season, the first time a relief pitcher had ever won it since its inception eighteen years earlier. After Al Downing surrendered the home run to Aaron, evening the score at three runs apiece, Marshall replaced him two batters later and pitched three strong innings before he himself was taken out in the seventh and replaced by knuckleballer Charlie Hough (remember him? The last of the the trio that would serve up Reggie Jackson's three consecutive dingers three years later, in the 1977 World Series?) Those were the days when players often stayed with the same team for years, not mere parts of seasons like they do now.

The reason I remember Tom House's moment of lasting fame so well is because my favorite instructor from umpire school, National League #23 Lee Weyer, was stationed at third base when Aaron struck his might clout; you can catch a glimpse of him when the two fans run past to join Aaron as he makes his famous circuit around the bases. Satch Davidson was behind the plate, and Ed Sudol and Frank Pulli rounded out the umpiring crew. Ed Sudol was probably the most patient man in the ballpark as the game was stopped for more than an hour while baseball officials and assorted luminaries congratulated Hammerin' Hank on his achievement; Sudol had been the plate umpire for two of the longest games in baseball history, one of them lasting twenty-six innings and more than seven hours, so he was used to slight game delays.

House went on to mentor Nolan Ryan, and was the pitching coach for many other major league hurlers here in the USA and in Japan. As always, thanks for the memories, Joe!

Ohhhhh! My bad – House of course pitched for the Braves in 1974, not the Dodgers. What a gaffe!

Even the trivia queen gets 'em wrong occasionally…

Hi Perry … Tom House is one of those players whose story extends beyond his performance on the field. I had someone on Twitter today talking about how he was known as being unorthodox for using footballs in his role as a pitching coach … and now you see many teams with pitchers tossing footballs!

Funny you bring up Mike Marshall, he has been prominent for me lately as I finished Ball Four. Jim Bouton brings up Marshall's theories on lowering the mound in 1969 and that based on geometry, pitchers are actually closer to the hitter!

Think I'll post a Mike Marshall card soon ….

Thanks for your comments Perry!

I've read in several different sources that House has basically repudiated his earlier teaching strategies using the football; maybe the news hasn't caught up to the acolytes who promote his theories.

And here's some interesting news regarding Mike Marshall; he was managing the Yuma Scorpions of the Arizona Winter League last month where two women pitchers, Eri Yoshida and Tiffany Brooks, were playing. Tiffany, who also plays first base, signed a pro contract last week with the Big Bend Cowboys of the independent Continental Baseball League, and Eri was offered one just last Friday by Mike Marshall, her manager on the Scorpions and her potential manager on the Chico Outlaws of the independent Golden League. Now if you're talking unorthodox styles of coaching pitching, Mke Marshall is the king! He has all sorts of interesting theories about the relationships between muscle and motion, and his degree in kinesiology, not to mention his own fairly impressive major league resume', lend his ideas, unorthodox though they may be, a lot of credence. It will be interesting to see how knuckleballer Yoshida develops under Marshal''s tutelage if she decides to sign with the Outlaws. She's considering the offer with her parents: she is, after all, still only a teenager!

Yeah Eri and Yeah Tiffany!! .. Perry, Mike Marshall is fast becoming one of my all-time favorite players

And I just found out I made error number two: the Mike Marshall who will be managing Eri Yoshida if she signs with the Chico Outlaws is the one who played outfield for the Dodgers, not the Cy Young award-winning pitcher. Sometimes I get so excited about any news of women in baseball that I go off half-cocked before I do my double-checking. Thanks for the chance to both comment and correct myself here on your site, Joe.

Ah .. funny, I thought about the “other” Mike Marshall when I was responding. I remember him ending up on the Red Sox at some point, but he wasn't an every day player then.

He did wind up in Boston – the same season he wound up in New York as a Met, 1990. According to Baseball Reference.com, he played 53 games for New York and then 30 more that season for Boston. He saw limited playing time with the Sox in 1991 before being traded to the then-California Angels, for whom he played in two games before hanging up his spikes for good. Now he's a mini-mogul in the independent league circuit!