Larry Osterman Appreciation Society (1973)

The Red Sox hit early and often as they klobbered Steve Kline and the Yankees by a 13-6 score at Fenway Park .  The Sawx socked 22 hits off Kline and 2 other Yankee pitchers (Jim Magnuson, Fred Beene) and scored in every inning but the 4th, 5th and 8th. Luis Aparicio and Carl Yastrzemski paced the 22-hit attack with 4 while Orlando Cepeda and Carlton Fisk managed 3 apiece. The Sawx had 9 doubles all told, with Dwight Evans scoring Doug Griffin from 1st on one of those 2-baggers.  The Yankees managed a couple of homers off Sox starter Marty Pattin, Thurman Munson with 1 on in the 4th and Felipe Alou with 1 on in the 6th, cutting the Sawx lead to 7-5, before the Bostonians put it away with 4 in the 6th and 2 in the 7th. Not only was the Yankee pitching subpar, so was the defense, committing three errors, 2 by Graig Nettles including a 2-base bobble which may have ended up in somebody's baked beans.  Red Sox doubles: Aparicio (2), Fisk (2), Petrocelli *, Evans, Griffin,...

Don Money was just that, "Money" as the Milwaukee Brewers downed the Orioles by a 5-3 final at Memorial Stadium. The Brewer 3B slugged a solo homer in the 2nd and with the score tied at 3 in the 6th, belted a 2-run shot with George Scott aboard for the eventual final score.  Brewer starter Skip Lockwood fell behind early 2-0 but rebounded to limit the Birds to 8 hits in the complete game effort. Oriole starter had trouble keeping the ball in the park besides Money as John Briggs hit a solo shot in the top half of the 3rd to tie the score. Eduardo Rodriguez also drove in a run in the 2nd for the Brewers with a single. The bright offensive spot for the Orioles was Boog Powell, who doubled home a run in the 1st and singled home a run in the 2nd. Brooks Robinson also brought home a run with a SF in the 1st. Both teams are now 1-1 in the early stages of 73. -Brewers, 5 home runs in their 1st 2 games. George Scott (2) Don Money (2) John Briggs (1) MIL 1-1 BAL 1-1 WP-Lockwood LP-Cue...

The Dodgers rode the right arm of Don Sutton , who scattered 4 hits and the long ball of Willie Crawford and Bill Russell (!) to a 4-2 opening night win over the pesky Padres of San Diego in front of 30000 at San Diego Stadium . The Dodgers got a couple of doubles off the bats of Willie Davis and Ken McMullen for an early 1-0 lead in the top of the 2nd and picked up a couple more via the long ball in the 4th as Willie Crawford slugged a leadoff homer and an unlikely power source named Bill Russell slugged another solo to make the score 3-0.  Clay Kirby started for San Diego, struck out 8 in 6.2 innings but would be chased in the 7th when the Dodgers loaded the bases on a 2-out walk by Manny Mota , a double by Bill Buckner and an HBP by Willie Davis. Crawford coaxed a walk from Kirby to make the score 4-1, chasing the right-hander.  Don Sutton had better luck against the Padres, except for a couple of "hiccups," one being a solo homer by Dave Roberts in the bottom of t...

They retired Roberto Clemente's number on Opening Day, but turns out, Bob Gibson had the Pirates number, outdueling Steve Blass in a 2-1 thriller at Three Rivers. Despite recording 1 strikeout, Gibson induced 3 double play balls and withstood some late rallies, including 1 in the 8th when Al Oliver doubled with 2 outs and Willie Stargell bounced to Joe Torre. Oliver also doubled home the lone Pirate run early in the 3rd, scoring Rennie Stennett, who had walked.  Gibson also had control issues, walking 5, but so did Blass with the same number of walks, 3 of which came in the 4th. Ted Sizemore led off the inning with his 2nd of 4 hits on the afternoon. After Jose Cruz flied to Stargell in left, Joe Torre reached on a E-5, advancing Sizemore to 2nd. Ted Simmons walked to load the bases. then Ken Reitz hit a slow roller to 1st, scoring Sizemore with the tying run. Blass's wildness walked Bernie Carbo to reload the bases, then Ray Busse walked home what would prove to be the game-wi...

The A's faithful would've made home by eleven except for one thing: Bert Blyeven . The Twins RHP struck out 15 A's batters in 12+ IP , then his teammates batted around in the top of the 14th, scoring 6 times in a 9-3 Twins killing of the defending World Champs at the Coliseum . It started out as a duel between Blyeven and Catfish Hunter and pitched that way for the most part with the ice broken in the bottom of the 2nd by World Series MVP Gene Tenace , who picked up where he left off with a solo homer giving the A's a 1-0 lead after 2. That's the way it stood until the top of the 5th when Jim Holt slugged a leadoff homer tying the score at 1. Larry Hisle and Rod Carew slugged back-to-back singles putting Twins at the corners when Bobby Darwin lined to SS Dal Maxvill for a 6-3 DP. Tony Oliva singled Carew to 3rd, but Steve Braun popped to 3rd ending the inning. The A's struck for 2 in their half of the 5th on s leadoff single by Dick Green, Green advancing t...

Tom was "Terrific" through 8. Felix Millan had a 4-hit day. Only one thing wrong with these 1st 2 sentences, the Mets were slammed in the 9th. The Metropolitans had a 3-0 lead, Tom Seaver limited the Phils to just 2 hits, a post-game celebration was in the works. Leading off the 9th, Larry Bowa casually dropped a fly ball in front of Willie Mays for a single. Del Unser then made Seaver "pull out the string", drawing a walk. Willie Montanez then lined a single to load the bases, suddenly making it a ball game. Yogi Berra wanted to take Seaver out, but the Met skipper thought Seaver had enough to get batter Tommy Hutton out before bringing on Tug McGraw. Hutton struck out, #8 for Seaver, then Yogi went with Tug. What happened next was another chapter in the Mets checkered history. McGraw faced Greg Luzinski, only to have "The Bull" "pull the string and put the Phils on the board with a bases-loaded walk. Up stepped PH Deron Johnson and " You ...

Editor's Note: Back in the 1970's, people in Chicagoland would stay up and watch the WGN late-night newscast Night Beat. One of the highlights during baseball season would be the day's Cubs highlights, complete with play-by-play. Here's how a typical highlight package would've appeared on 4/6/73, opening day at Wrigley Field:   MARTY MCNEELEY: "A crowd of over 40000 gathered at Wrigley Field to usher in the 1973 baseball season as the Cubs hosted the Montreal Expos. It all started out with a great big bang!" JACK BRICKHOUSE: "Torrez fires, the pitch is on its way to Rick Monday, it's hit to right field, back goes Singleton, back-back-back. HEY-HEY! HEY-HEY! Leadoff home run for Rick Monday, Cubs lead it 1-0 in the very first inning! Whoo boy!"  MCNEELEY: "The Cubs would add to that lead in the 4th when Joe Pepitone singled with 1 out. Ron Santo walked, then was forced out on a Glenn Beckert force out with Pepitone moving to 3rd. Then cam...

President Nixon "helped" a recently returned POW throw out the ceremonial 1st pitch of Opening Night at the Big "A," but The Ryan Express came out a bit uneven as the Royals put a little tarnish on the Halos, 4-1. Ryan pitched 8 innings, striking out 8, but missed the zone quite a few times for the uneven 8 K/7 BB line, with the brunt of the damage in the 4th, as the Royals scored 3 times with Freddie Patek chasing home 2 on a bases-loaded single and Cookie Rojas bringing in one more to give the Royals a manageable 4-0 cushion after 3-1/2. Beautiful Downtown Burbank native Steve Busby made sure the Angels wouldn't be "Laughing-in" as he throttled the Halos for 8 scoreless innings with 3 strikeouts before giving way to Bruce Dal Canton in the 9th, who allowed the lone Halo run on a 2-out single by Vada Pinson before getting would-be tying run Frank Robinson to bounce to Paul Schaal at 3rd to end the game.  KCR 4-9-1 CAL 1-11-0 WP-Busby (1-0) LP-Ryan (0-...