Gold Glove-caliber defense by Curt Blefary

[sakata_catching]

I hesitate to even post this, but ...

As I mentioned in the Don Stanhouse thread, I've been watching the '79 WS on DVD. Game 3, top of the 2nd, Gary Roenicke facing John Candelaria, Rhino dumps a long foul down the left field line into the bullpen, which prompts this exchange between Howard Cosell and Don Drysdale:


HC: That's the very spot at Memorial Stadium where Curt Blefary made an absolutely sensational catch against you guys in '66. Remember?

DD: I sure do.

:scratchchinhmm:
Could Cosell be conjuring memories of the magical catch that has become the yardstick against which all Orioles outfield defensive prowess must be judged? Careful, Howard, that there's powerful stuff.

Moreover, is OldFan Howard Cosell's grandson?

[Old#5fan]

I hesitate to even post this, but ...

As I mentioned in the Don Stanhouse thread, I've been watching the '79 WS on DVD. Game 3, top of the 2nd, Gary Roenicke facing John Candelaria, Rhino dumps a long foul down the left field line into the bullpen, which prompts this exchange between Howard Kosell and Don Drysdale:



:scratchchinhmm:
Could Kosell be conjuring memories of the magical catch that has become the yardstick against which all Orioles outfield defensive prowess must be judged? Careful, Howard, that there's powerful stuff.

Moreover, is OldFan Howard Kosell's grandson?

Interesting but the catch my now long deceased Grandad witnessed and I heard abouit as I was listening to the game on the radio called by Chuck Thompson was in a regular season game. My Grandad never made it to a WS game and neither have I.:( Anyway, I am not such a good speller myself, and stuff like this doesn't bother me that much but you might want to change "Kosell" to "Cosell, as that is Howard's last name.:)

[sakata_catching]

Duly noted.

[Roy Firestone]

I hesitate to even post this, but ...

As I mentioned in the Don Stanhouse thread, I've been watching the '79 WS on DVD. Game 3, top of the 2nd, Gary Roenicke facing John Candelaria, Rhino dumps a long foul down the left field line into the bullpen, which prompts this exchange between Howard Cosell and Don Drysdale:



:scratchchinhmm:
Could Kosell be conjuring memories of the magical catch that has become the yardstick against which all Orioles outfield defensive prowess must be judged? Careful, Howard, that there's powerful stuff.

Moreover, is OldFan Howard Cosell's grandson?

Russ Snyder made the great running catch for the O'S at Chavez Ravine. I dont recall Blefary ever making a great play in LF. And Im a big Curt Blefary fan! BTW he was nicknamed 'clank' for the sound of the ball hitting his steel glove.

[TGO]

This whole thread is confusing me.

Game 3 in 79 was played in Pittsburgh. Yet Cosell asked about a play that he thought was made in Baltimore?

But Roy says the play was made in LA! By a different guy.

And Drysdale of course doesn't dispute any of this.

It's really funny how the brain (mis)remembers things. This is why I love BB-Ref and Retrosheet so much.

[TGO]

Some more confusion: Russ Snyder made that catch while playing CF.

So I don't think that is the play Cosell was talking about.

[Old#5fan]

Russ Snyder made the great running catch for the O'S at Chavez Ravine. I dont recall Blefary ever making a great play in LF. And Im a big Curt Blefary fan! BTW he was nicknamed 'clank' for the sound of the ball hitting his steel glove.

Roy, I am a Blefary fan as well, and take my word for it he made one play robbing a home run that was so impressive that Chuck Thompson went ballistic about it as I listed to his call of the game over the radio. My late Grandfather who was at the game that day raved about it to me the next day when I saw him. So he may not have been a great defensive outfielder but he at least made one incredible play.

[sakata_catching]

This whole thread is confusing me.

Game 3 in 79 was played in Pittsburgh. Yet Cosell asked about a play that he thought was made in Baltimore?
Yeah, I know. It doesn't make much sense in the context of the play-by-play. But, yes, Cosell used the occasion of a long foul — upon which there was no play to be made — in Three Rivers in the 1979 World Series to bring up a play that may or may not have taken place in the 1966 World Series in a different stadium in a different city. Just how Howard's mind worked, I guess.

I'll have to dig through that Tom Adelman book on the '66 series to see if he makes mention of any special defensive play by Blefary.

However, I'm beginning to suspect that we all carry within our souls a memory of an apocryphal Curt Blefary defensive gem, just waiting to be aired to a disbelieving public.;)

[sakata_catching]

From Tom Adelman's Black & Blue, p. 173:


Reaching for it, [Willie Davis] just managed to slap it off the end of his bat. It sliced high down the left-field line.

The Baltimore left fielder, Curt Blefary, bolted toward the grandstand. He hadn't been positioned there at all; he'd been over toward center. Blefary was a slugger, not known for being particularly adroit with the glove. Now he turned, following the ball with his eyes, pursuing it with his entire essence. He had to a considerable distance. Blefary knew the retaining wall was approaching, but he wasn't thinking about running into it. He was thinking about quick Willie, who already was almost to second. The ball wasn't much more than a foot fair, and Blefary couldn't stop. He met the ball perfectly, making a fine running catch for the third out. Then he disappeared from the view of the TV audience, crashed into the edge of the grandstand, and rolled off. The wall was wood; he had hit plenty of harder things. It was easily the best defensive play of Blefary's career.

This was top of the first, game 3.

So, no, Cosell wasn't completely nuts. But from Adelman's description, it sounds to me like the Roenicke foul that drew the comment was only in the same general vicinity as the Davis-Blefary play in '66. A pretty tenuous comparison at best.

Still, I found it funny that he should mention it.

[MCL1021]

I hesitate to even post this, but ...

As I mentioned in the Don Stanhouse thread, I've been watching the '79 WS on DVD. Game 3, top of the 2nd, Gary Roenicke facing John Candelaria, Rhino dumps a long foul down the left field line into the bullpen, which prompts this exchange between Howard Cosell and Don Drysdale:



What DVD is this from? The Orioles World Series DVD?

[sakata_catching]

What DVD is this from? The Orioles World Series DVD?
This. (http://www.amazon.com/Pittsburgh-Pirates-1979-World-Collectors/dp/B000CRR3CY/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1235925120&sr=8-8)

I know the ending will leave me devastated like it did 30 years ago, but where else are you going to see this much footage from the Orioles magic years? To see Flanny and Singleton and a very young Eddie (only 23 at the time!) in their prime and to hear the universal praise heaped upon Earl and the organization as a whole ... this should be required viewing, especially for younger fans who can't remember the O's as consistent winners.

And knowing now what the Pirates organization had in store for it (80s cocaine trials, gut-wrenching loss to the Braves in the 92 NL playoffs followed by 16 years of losing and counting) softens the blow a little, too. It's a great irony of my life that in adulthood I've moved to Pittsburgh and consider the Pirates my default (and distant) second team. I hated them intensely after 1979.

I've been meaning to post more substantively about my impressions of each game, but so far haven't gotten to it.

[Roy Firestone]

So, no, Cosell wasn't completely nuts. But from Adelman's description, it sounds to me like the Roenicke foul that drew the comment was only in the same general vicinity as the Davis-Blefary play in '66. A pretty tenuous comparison at best.


But it wasnt in Baltimore. It was Chavez Ravine. And Russ Snyder DID make a great catch in that series. As did Blair . And for the losers, the goat of game two Willie Davis.
Still, I found it funny that he should mention it.[/QUOTE]

[Boy Howdy]

Could Cosell be conjuring memories of the magical catch that has become the yardstick against which all Orioles outfield defensive prowess must be judged?

I was negative 16-years-old at the time, so I'm hardly an eyewitness, but the gold standard play of supreme Orioles outfield defense may have been turned in by Chuck Diering way back in 1954.

This was before Memorial Stadium even had fences in the outfield, and Diering apparently went full speed into the bushes to run down a scorcher off the bat of Mickey Mantle. The 1974 Orioles yearbook said fans were still talking about it then.

I wrote to Diering last year, and he remembered it vividly, too. If I had a time machine, you wouldn't catch me going back to see how pyramids were constructed or see dinosaurs. No siree. First thing I'd do is zip back to Memorial Stadium in 1954 to see Chuck Diering do his thing.