N.B. pitchers have always had golden arms
Published Wednesday November 25th, 2009
As far as can be determined, the most strikeouts in a nine-inning New Brunswick baseball game at any level in the last 60 years is 22.
The record-setting feat was performed by Dieppe Cardinals' Billy Harris, at the time an 18-year-old righthander from Dorchester, who recorded the 22 in the second game of the 1949 New Brunswick junior first round playoff series against Bathurst Cubs.
The Cards, behind Harris' four-hit pitching, eliminated Bathurst 2-0, winning the final game 14-0 after winning the opener 12-2 when Harris fanned the 22. The Cards then beat Fredericton 2-0 in games in the semifinals and Saint John Kinsmen 2-0 in the finals to win the N.B title. They then defeated the Charlottetown Knights 2-0 for the New Brunswick-Prince Edward Island crown and Halifax Nationals 2-0 for the 1949 Maritime crown. The Cards had lost to the Nationals in a controversial series in 1948.
Meanwhile, Harris -- who was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008 (he's also in six other sports shrines -- Baseball N.B., New Brunswick, Moncton, Sackville individually and with the Sackville Eagles hockey team, Dieppe and Washington State) -- signed a pro contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1950 and went on to play in the Major Leagues with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, 1957 and 1959, respectively.
Although he pitched in only two games (start and relief), Harris had an outstanding 15-season (1951-1965) pro career (170-131) with 1,373 strikeouts (the highest one game total, according to Harris, was around "14-15"). In his second pro ball season (1952), Harris posted an earned run average of 0.83 (a record for innings pitched). While hurling for Maracaibo against Hall of Famer Luis Aparicios's team in 1959, Harris set a Venezuelan Winter Baseball League record by fanning 19. "That's the year I hurt my arm," recalled the 78-year-old Harris from his home in Kenewick, Wash.
From 1951 to 1959, Harris recorded 1,035 strikeouts. In his first two seasons of pro ball, he fanned 309 batters (189 in 1951 and 120 in 1952) and had five more seasons (seven in all) when he recorded more than 100 strikeouts, including 120 in 1959 with the Montreal Royals of the Triple A International League. During his career, Harris also pitched a perfect seven-inning game; just missed a second one (nine innings) and had a no-hitter taken away by the scorer.
* The 22-strikeout feat was equalled by Fredericton's Scott Harvey Jr. when the hard-throwing righthander, pitching for the Edmundston Republicans, fanned 22 Grand Falls Cataracts in the early 1970s in a NBSBL game at Edmundston. In the previous game, the 60-year-old Harvey, who has been battling Crohn's disease and has had a number of successful surgeries, struck out 21 for a two-game total of 43.
The talented Harvey, who played all positions at one time or another, played parts of two pro ball seasons with the L.A. Dodgers (1967 and 1968) and St. Louis Cardinals (1970 and 1971) minor league teams. He was 15 when he started playing senior ball (Marysville Royals, 1965).
"I started out at second baseman and switched to short," recalled Harvey, who later played third and first "after my arm started to go." The Cardinals even tried to turn him into a catcher, "but I didn't like that," added Harvey, who is in the N.B., Baseball N.B. (individually and with the Marysville Royals, winners of the national title in 1981) and the Fredericton sports shrines. He's also in sports shrines with two teams -- the Saint John Dodgers, winners of the national title in the 1980s, and Edmundston, with the Republicans of the 1970s.
* According to Chatham Ironmen coach Greg Morris, the Ironmen's import pitcher, Ray Royce, matched the 22 strikeout number during a NBSBL game at Moncton's Kiwanis Park in the mid-1970s against the Moncton Avcos.
Among other N.B. team pitchers who recorded 20 or more strikeouts during their career are Shediac Bridge's Bob Fougere, Moncton's Eldon Hamilton and St. Stephen's Bob Pierce. They all fanned 21.
Fougere was pitching for the Maritime junior champion and N.B. Sports Hall, Baseball N.B. Wall and Moncton Sports Wall of Fame Lewisville Keefe Cubs when he mowed down 21 Bathurst Cubs in 1954 at Bathurst as Lewisville swept the best-of-three N.B. semi-finals 2-0. In five playoff games, Fougere fanned 77 (21 vs. Bathurst in the N.B. junior semi-finals; 14 vs. Amherst Blue Jays during the Westmorland Baseball League finals; 17 vs. Marysville Braves in the N.B. junior finals; 12 vs. Summerside Curran & Briggs in the final game of the N.B.-P.E.I. junior championship and 13 vs. Glace Bay Antonians in Game 3 of the Cubs' 4-0 sweep of the best-of-seven Maritime junior championship finals.
Hamilton's 21-strikeout performance came on July 23, 1970, against the Milltown Bisons in a NBSBL game at Kiwanis Park. Hamilton, who was recently inducted into the Dieppe Sports Wall of Fame as a member of the 1960 Maritime juvenile baseball champion Dieppe Red Sox, fanned the side on third strike calls in the seventh, eighth and ninth and the second. "It's about time I won one (game)," said Hamilton afterwards. "Major leaguers would have had trouble hitting him last night," commented Coach Garneau Seaman. "I've never seen anything like it," added manager Armand Brun. "He was marvelous. I know it's a league record and most likely a provincial senior record."
Meanwhile, one of Hamilton's best seasons on the mound was 1966 when he led the Moncton Schooners to the Maritime senior championship with an 11-1 post-season record and an unofficial ERA of 1.65. After losing the first two games (3-2 and 5-4) of the best-of-five N.B. senior semifinals against the Chatham Ironmen, the Schooners won Game Three, 7-2. With elimination facing the Schooners, Hamilton choked off a ninth-inning Ironmen rally after delivering the tying run in the top of the ninth with a line-drive single, leaving the teams tied at 10-10 in the fourth game, which was called because of darkness. The Schooners squared the series at two, winning the replayed game in Chatham with Hamilton picking up the victory in relief of Norm (Red) Mullins. Phil Doiron's homer in the top of the ninth gave Moncton a 6-5 win. The Schooners completed the series comeback with a 5-1 victory at Albert Street Park with Hamilton pitching a six-hitter. Then, in the four-game sweep of Marysville, Hamilton won twice and helped Doug Smith win the other two games. Hamilton was also the winner in the first and deciding games against Halifax in the Maritime finals.
Pierce, pitching for the Fredericton Vikings, matched the 21 strikeout number in 1970 in a NBSBL game in Grand Falls against the hometown Cataracts. The lefthanded Pierce also struck out 18 Vikings while pitching for the Moncton Avcos in a N.B. Senior League game at Moncton's Kiwanis Park in 1974.
Import Dick Farahm, playing with the Marysville Royals in the 1980s, fanned 21 Saint John Dodgers in NBSBL action.
Hall of Fame righthander Norm "Red" Mullins, playing for the Dieppe Royals, fanned 20 in New Brunswick Intermediate playoff action against Blacks Harbour in the late 1950s. (Note: If other pitchers have struck out 20 or more in a game, please contact this columnist at sports@timestranscipt.com)
* Notes: Sackville journalist Wally Sears, 80, is recuperating at home following a quadruple heart bypass in Saint John last week ... Former Moncton and Boxing Commission judge Danny Marcotte, 65, is recuperating at home following a triple heart bypass three weeks ago ... Football official Jack Anderson, 62, recently had a double heart bypass and is recuperating at home ... N.B. Sports Hall of Famer Scott Pellerin of Shediac Cape, an assistant coach with Manchester, N.H., Monarchs of the American Hockey League, was in the city recently visiting his 96-year-old grandmother, Evelyn McManus, in hospital.
* Eddie St. Pierre is a retired Times & Transcript sports editor. His column appears Wednesday.
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