The Pennant Race
By Johnny Orsino

Now that the baseball season is half over, I'm sure there is a lot of speculation about which teams will win their division, win the playoffs, and finally play in the World Series for the championship of the world. It's a long hot summer.

I was very fortunate to play for the 1962 National League Champion San Francisco Giants. It was an exciting summer with so many ups and downs. We knew we had a great ball club when we broke spring training. Our expectations were sky high and rightly so with a line-up that included Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, Harvey Kuenn, Felipe Alou and others. Our defense was solid with Jose Pagan at shortstop and Jim Davemport at third.

I always felt that a team not only needed the physical ability to be great, but also there had to be that great chemistry and emotional closeness. The 1962 Giants had this closeness. Billy Pierce, Billy O'Dell, and Harvey Kuenn were from the American League, but didn't become good friends until they were on the Giants. There were three factions on this team: White players, Black players, and Spanish players. Alvin Dark, our manager, had a tough situation, but he handled it and it worked out fine. There was razzing on the team, but it never went too far.

Willie Mays was the super star, and Orlando Cepeda and Willie McCovey were just a little behind him. Mays was friendly with everyone on the team, but I don' think he associated with too many guys off the field. But I remember him inviting us to his place, and everything was white-gold. Mays and Cepeda were friends, but they were competitive. I think the press made it hard by getting down on one player while the other was doing good. With all the great players I have seen over the years there were very few like Mays in baseball history. In 1962 he hit nearly 50 home runs and drove in 140 runs. The one thing that surprised many people was his fielding. You knew he could rundown anything, but you had to watch him day after day to appreciate his anticipation. A batter would hit a shot to an unexpected part of the field and what normally would be a gapper, there would be Mays with his basket catch.

The Giants had an excellent pitching staff. Jack Sanford, my roommate, pitched great ball winning 24 games, including 14 in a row. Billy O'dell won 19 games. Billy Pierce went 16-6 and with the likes of Stu Miller, Bobby Bolin, and Don Larson in the bull pen our staff was very sound. Two youngsters, Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry, were only establishing themselves at this time, but when used pitched brilliantly.

We had so many guys having great years that it looked like we were going to win it early in the season, then we fell far behind, then we came back to win it. September was very exciting. Mays even collapsed from nervous exhaustion. We ran out of pitchers. Marichal had hurt his back, and Billy Pierce could only pitch every fifth or sixth day, leaving only Billy O'Dell and Jack Sanford. We were 4 behind the Dodgers with 7 games to play, and at one point Alvin Dark told some of the injured players if we lost one more game or the Dodgers won one more he would let them go home early. But we kept winning and they kept losing. We ended up catching the Dodgers on the last day of the season. Billy O'Dell started the final game against Houston and was relieved by Stu Miller. Mays's homer in the eighth inning off Turk Farrell gave us a 2-1 victory. Then we listened to Cardinals beat the Dodgers, 1-0 on a ninth inning homer by Gene Oliver off Johnny Podres.

The Dodgers and the Giants each finished winning 101 games, forcing a 3 game playoff. It was a long grueling tenseful season and after 162 games the team to play the New York Yankees in the World Series would be decided by a 3 game playoff. This brought up a whole new pressure for everyone. You didn't get paid for playing those playoffs, and if you lose, you don't get into the World Series. Look for a future article and relive those 1962 playoffs and the 1962 World Series with me.


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