Page 188 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 181
time. I was sort of the spark plug of the Tigers ... scoring a lot of runs and playing good defense.” Mickey Lolich was on the mound for theTigers,Tommy John started for the White Sox. McAuli e played second, and led o the bottom of the rst with a single. He scored on a Willie Horton single. “So [they must have] felt, if they were minus me, maybe John could hit me in the kneecap and I’d be out for two or three weeks, and they could catch up,“ Dick speculated.
e Tigers still led 1-0 when McAuli e came up with one out in the bottom of the third. He remembered what happened next:
“[T]he rst pitch at me was right at my head, and I mean right at my head. e catcher never laid any leather on it, and it hit the backstop. And I didn’t think too much of it. ... Tommy John has got some of the best control you’ll ever see, and he’s a lowball, sinker-slider type of pitcher with great control [and] not a great deal of velocity, but he was throwing the ball hard at me that day. So he threw ... the next pitch, he spun me down, threw it behind me. And I turned around to the umpire, Al Salerno, and I said, ‘Boy, if that thing hit me it would really put me away.’ Al didn’t say anything ... and I’ve got a glare in my eye then but I didn’t say anything. e count worked to 3-and-2, so I dug in, and there’s no way that John is going to throw at me again. e next pitch ... it hit the backstop again. And now I’m mad. But not mad enough to go out and charge him. So I take about two steps, and I’m glaring out at the mound at him ... and he starts popping o at me [saying] ‘What the hell are you looking at, you... ‘ or something like that. And all I saw were stars after that, and I just rushed out at him, and both benches emptied.”
Tommy John remembered the incident di erently. “I was 10 and 5 with a 1.98 ERA and pitching against the Tigers in August. A 3-and-2 pitch slipped out of my hand and sailed over Dick McAuli e’s head. I didn’t throw at him, but McAuli e was yelling at me as he went to rst, and he charged the mound. McAuli e drove his knee into my left shoulder and separated it.”4 John was out for the year; McAuli e was suspended for ve games and ned $250 by league
President Joe Cronin. “John hit us four times in Chicago in June,” said manager Smith. “ ey hit eight of our guys in the series there and we didn’t hit any of theirs.” Tigers G.M. Jim Campbell said “Cronin used bad judgment.”
ere was only one HBP in that entire four-game series and it was when the Tigers’ Pat Dobson hit Pete Ward. e John game was the last game of the series. So, it was not 8-0, but actually 0-1! John did hit four Tigers in a game on June 15, though he pitched against them again on June 30 and pitched a ve-hit shutout with no HBPs.
at season McAuli e reduced his errors from 28 in 1967 to nine. (He was shocked that he didn’t win the Gold Glove that year — Bobby Knoop, who made 15 errors, did. McAuli e hit 24 doubles, 10 triples, and 16 home runs, drove in 56 runs, and hit .249. His 95 runs scored led the American League. He played in his rst World Series, against the St. Louis Cardinals. His o ensive stats weren’t impressive, but he didn’t make an error in the Tigers’ seven-game Series win. And he hit a home run in a losing e ort in Game ree against the Cardinals’ Ray Washburn.
A knee injury and subsequent surgery derailed his 1969 season, limiting the 29-year-old McAuli e to 74 games. He still managed 11 homers and 33 RBIs. He matched 1968’s error total with nine. He would play four more years with Detroit, never reaching the heights of the 1960s. By 1973, he was a platoon player, sharing time at second with Tony Taylor. On July 15, 1973, the Tigers hosted Nolan Ryan and the California Angels. “Ryan was tough,” McAuli e said. “You couldn’t dig in against him back then as you could [later in his career.] at [day] was the best stu I’ve seen from a pitcher in my whole career.” So good that Ryan fanned Dick three times in three at-bats. Not that the rest of the Tigers fared better — Ryan threw his second no-hitter of the season that day.
McAuli e made one more postseason appearance, back at shortstop for four games and second for one in the 1972 ALCS against Oakland. He hit only .200 for the series, but hit a big home run o Cat sh Hunter