In a special game that featured the best Latino players in the majors, Cardinals second baseman Julian Javier did as well as anyone on the field.
Sixty years ago, on Oct. 12, 1963, the last baseball game played at the Polo Grounds in New York was a charity event called the Latin American Major League Players Game.
Part of the proceeds from the game were targeted for the Hispanic-American Baseball Federation, a group committed to developing baseball programs for Spanish-speaking youth in the United States.
Growing market
New York sportscaster Guy LeBow was the director of the Latin American charity game. He hoped to make it an annual event, the Bayonne (N.J.) Times reported.
LeBow was a “schmaltzy, do-everything sportscaster,” according to Phil Mushnick of the New York Post. He called hockey, basketball and baseball games, boxing and wrestling matches, hosted a popular bowling show and was a local news TV sports anchor in New York. As a child, he was bedridden with polio for two years. He walked with a limp the rest of his life. LeBow also played a sportscaster in the Woody Allen film “Radio Days.”
(In LeBow’s online obituary, Mets radio broadcaster Howie Rose left this comment: “I learned a lot from you _ some of it has even been put to good use, and I say that lovingly. You were an original.”)
George Schreier, a former Jersey Observer sports reporter who was hired by LeBow to help promote the Latin American game, told the Bayonne Times, “A new crop of promoters has risen today, one very much interested in the Spanish language market, a tremendous one in the greater (New York) metropolitan area.”
The event organizers put together two teams _ one of Latino American Leaguers and the other of Latino National Leaguers. Each player was paid $175 to participate, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.
Though the game was not sponsored by Major League Baseball, it had the approval of commissioner Ford Frick.
The Polo Grounds, most recently the home of the New York Mets, was awaiting to be demolished and replaced by a housing project. Promoters of the Latin American event touted it as a chance to see the last baseball game played at the venerable ballpark.
Talent galore
Played on a Saturday afternoon, the Latin American game drew 14,235 spectators. They were treated to pregame entertainment from bandleaders Tito Rodriguez and Tito Puente, and singer La Lupe.
The starting lineup for the American League squad: shortstop Luis Aparicio, first baseman Vic Power, right fielder Tony Oliva, left fielder Hector Lopez (also the manager), catcher Joe Azcue, center fielder Roman Mejias, third baseman Felix Mantilla, second baseman Zoilo Versalles and pitcher Pedro Ramos.
(Vic Power “was a favorite with the fans because of his one-handed catches of pop fouls,” the New York Times noted.)
For the National League team: shortstop Leo Cardenas, third baseman Tony Taylor, left fielder Felipe Alou, first baseman Orlando Cepeda, center fielder Tony Gonzalez, right fielder Roberto Clemente (also the manager), second baseman Julian Javier, catcher Cuno Barragan and pitcher Juan Marichal.
Six of the players _ Aparacio, Oliva, Cepeda, Clemente, Marichal and an American League reserve, outfielder Minnie Minoso _ would be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. (Minoso, 39, a former Cardinal, “received warm applause” when introduced to the Polo Grounds crowd, the New York Times reported.)
Javier, the only Cardinals player in the game, was coming off a successful 1963 season. He was the National League starting second baseman in the All-Star Game, led the league’s second basemen in putouts, produced 160 hits and scored 82 runs.
Javier was in the mix when the Latin American National Leaguers scored three runs in the fourth against Ramos. With the National Leaguers ahead, 1-0, Cepeda and Gonzalez singled. Then Javier drove in Cepeda with a single. Later in the inning, Gonzalez and Javier scored on a single by Manny Mota, who was batting for Marichal.
Al McBean, who relieved Marichal, provided the most entertaining play of the game. Batting in the sixth, the pitcher from the Virgin Islands ripped a deep drive. “There was a Listerine sign in left field (422 feet from home plate) and that’s where I hit the ball,” McBean told Rory Costello of the Society for American Baseball Research.
As Minnie Minoso chased the ball in left, McBean streaked around the bases. He reached third safely as Minoso threw to shortstop Luis Aparicio. Trying for a home run inside the park, McBean continued toward the plate, but Aparacio’s relay to catcher Joe Azcue was strong and McBean was out by five feet.
The Latino National Leaguers won, 5-2. Javier was 2-for-2 with a RBI, a run scored and a stolen base before he was lifted for a pinch-hitter, Chico Fernandez, in the sixth. (The Polo Grounds often was a tough venue for Javier. During the 1963 season, he batted .194 in 31 at-bats in the Polo Grounds. For his career, Javier was a .200 hitter in 70 at-bats there.)
Others with two hits in the Latin American game were Mota and Gonzalez for the National Leaguers and Tony Oliva for the American League side.
Oliva, 25, a Cuban who was in New York for the first time, recalled to MLB.com, “I was very timid.”
He told Adrian Burgos of La Vida Baseball, “I think very fondly of that game because that was where I actually first met Cepeda, Marichal, Clemente and all the others, and we have become friends, like brothers, since then.”
Cepeda said to MLB.com’s Michael Clair, “I was very happy to all get together. For me to be able to participate and to spend some time together with so many great players like Roberto Clemente, Vic Power, Zoilo Versalles _ that was a great day.”
Gate receipts were between $25,000 and $50,000, according to the Society of American Baseball Research. Boxscore
Despite the goodwill generated, the game never was held again.