'Twas Fifty Years Ago: Chicago Sports Memories of 1971

 In 1971, two of the all-time great Chicago athletes called it a career within three weeks of each other. Ernie Banks played the last of his 2,528 games for the Cubs on September 26, and Gale Sayers played the last of his 68 games for the Bears on October 17.

GALE SAYERS

 

 

Sadly, both players finished up as mere shadows of their former selves. Banks, 40, had only 83 at-bats for the season, hitting .193 with three homers and six runs batted in. Sayers, just 28, played in two games and rushed for 38 yards on 13 carries before conceding that his latest comeback from a succession of knee surgeries had run its course. Neither man would have to wait long for the call to join his sport's hall of fame. 

TONY ESPOSITO

The Blackhawks took an immediate liking to their new home in the NHL's Western Division, where they were the only established franchise among six four-year-old expansion teams. The Hawks won 26 and tied 5 of their first 37 games. They did not lose on home ice until January 6, compiling a home record of 16-0-2 prior to that. They ended up at 49-20-9, racking up 107 points to win the division going away. Mainstays of the club were goalie Tony Esposito, center Stan Mikita, forwards Bobby Hull and Dennis Hull, and defensemen Bill White and Pat "Whitey" Stapleton.
     In the playoffs, the Hawks dispatched the Philadelphia Flyers (four games to none) and the New York Rangers (four games to three) to advance to the Stanley Cup Final against the Montreal Canadiens. The Hawks won the first two games at home, dropped the next two at Montreal, then won again at home--in a 2-0 shutout by Esposito--to draw tantalizingly close to capturing the Cup. But the Canadiens won the next game in Montreal to even the series again.
     In Game 7 at the Stadium on May 18, Dennis Hull tallied in the last minute of the first period on a power play and Danny O'Shea lit the lamp seven minutes into the second to give the Hawks a 2-0 lead. The home team was closing in on the championship, and the old barn was rocking. Alas, the Canadiens scored three unanswered goals--two in the second period and one in the third--to win 3-2. As Montreal captain Jean Beliveau hoisted the Cup, the standing-room-only crowd of heartbroken Hawks fans politely applauded the champions. The trophy that Beliveau held in his hands would remain beyond the Hawks' grasp for 39 more years.
 

CHET WALKER

In their fifth year of existence, the Bulls had their first 50-win season in 1970-71. They played an intense, physical style of ball that mirrored the pugnacious personality of their coach, Dick Motta, and they had the Stadium turnstiles spinning. Forwards Bob Love and Chet Walker were All-Stars, guard Jerry Sloan was named second-team All-Defense, and Motta was voted Coach of the Year. Although the Bulls lost a hard-fought first-round playoff series to the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games, with the home team winning each game, the future was still bright. They won 50 or more games in each of the next three seasons, and they proved that a pro basketball franchise could not only survive but thrive in Chicago.

 

FERGIE JENKINS

The Cubs plodded to an 83-79 mark in Banks's 19th and final season, finishing tied for third place in the National League East, 14 games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates. The lanky 28-year-old righthander Fergie Jenkins went 24-13 with a 2.77 earned-run average and 277 strikeouts to earn the Cy Young Award. It was the fifth of six consecutive seasons in which Jenkins won 20 or more games. Jenkins was joined at the All-Star Game by second baseman Glenn Beckert, shortstop Don Kessinger, and third baseman Ron Santo. (Jenkins and Santo were among 19 future Hall of Famers who played in the ’71 midsummer classic, the most star-studded baseball game of all time.)

     A late-season clubhouse meeting almost turned into a free-for-all when manager Leo Durocher made some comments about Santo that caused the latter to attack him. After Santo was restrained and order restored, first baseman Joe Pepitone and pitcher Milt Pappas also got earfuls from Durocher, who then threatened to quit but was talked out of it by general manager John Holland.

WILBUR WOOD

Having bottomed out with a 56-106 record the year before, the White Sox welcomed a new manager, Chuck Tanner, a new broadcaster, Harry Caray, and a return to respectability. The Sox finished at 79-83, and attendance at Comiskey Park nearly doubled. Tanner and pitching coach Johnny Sain converted knuckleballing lefty reliever Wilbur Wood into a starter, and the experiment proved a success, to say the least. Wood went 22-13 with a 1.91 ERA while logging 334 innings. He finished third in Cy Young balloting and established himself as the South Siders' ace for the next several years. Wood and 25-year-old third baseman Bill Melton, who led the American League (and tied his own club record) with 33 home runs, represented the Sox in the All-Star Game.

 

DICK BUTKUS

After several years of mediocrity, the Bears galvanized fans by winning six of their first nine games. On November 14 against the Washington Redskins, a 40-yard touchdown run by Cyril Pinder tied the score 15-15 late in the fourth quarter. On the extra-point attempt, the snap went awry, but holder Bobby Douglass (also the Bears' quarterback) picked up the ball, scrambled around a while, and then fired a strike to Dick Butkus (of all people) in the corner of the end zone to give the Bears a dramatic 16-15 win.
     At 6-3, the Bears seemed headed for the playoffs, but they lost the next five games--four of them by very lopsided scores--to finish 6-8. Head coach Jim Dooley was fired after compiling a record of 20-36 for four seasons. He was replaced by Abe Gibron.
     The Bears' game at Detroit on October 24 was marred by the on-field death of Lions receiver Chuck Hughes from an apparent heart attack.

 

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Tiger Conquers the Windy City

A lot of water has tumbled over the dam since Tiger Woods first tasted national and even international fame in 1997. His ups and downs, both professional and personal, have been well documented. While we don’t yet know what the consequences of yesterday’s serious auto accident will be, it seems like a good time to review a pleasant memory—Tiger's first professional appearance in the Chicago area.

 

TIGER WOODS HEADS TOWARD THE 18th GREEN AT COG HILL.

When Woods arrived at Cog Hill in Lemont for the 1997 Western Open, he was the biggest phenomenon not only in golf, but in all of sports. The 21-year-old prodigy was ten weeks removed from his astonishing triumph at the Masters—in which he’d become the youngest champion and recorded the lowest score (270 for the 72 holes) in tournament history, while enjoying the widest margin of victory (12 strokes) in any major tournament since 1870.

Woods’s presence swelled attendance at the Western to 199,955, breaking the old tournament record by 30,000. There were 156 players in the field, but the spectators seemed intent on watching only one. “I feel for the guys who play in front of me and behind me,” said Woods. “Their concentration sometimes is interrupted. As I always tell people, you’ve got to understand that not only myself but other players are out here on tour, and we’re actually trying to make a living here.”

 On Thursday, July 3, Woods shot a five-under-par 67 to trail his playing partner Mark O’Meara by a stroke after one round. On Friday, Woods’s 72 and O’Meara’s 73 were the worst scores among the leaders; they ended the second round tied with four others for seventh place—four strokes behind Justin Leonard, who had carded a 64 to go nine under par for the tournament.

O’Meara continued to slide on Saturday, shooting a 75 to drop out of contention. But Woods climbed back up the leader board. His 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th gave him 68 for the day and 207 for the tournament. It also triggered a deafening roar from the gallery. “Yeah, the people were going crazy,” Woods said. “It was kind of wild, especially since it’s late afternoon, and it’s kind of warm and they’ve been sipping.”

Woods was now tied with Leonard and Loren Roberts for the lead at nine under par. A crowd of 49,462 turned out for the final round on Sunday, erasing the single-day attendance record that had been established Saturday.

Sunday’s spectators saw just what they had come hoping to see—eventually. There was a touch of doubt early on: Woods shot even par for the first five holes, while Roberts carded two birdies to take the lead. On the sixth, a challenging 213-yard par three, Woods placed a four-iron within 12 feet of the cup and knocked it down for birdie. Roberts began to implode; he lost three strokes to Woods on the next four holes and gave up the lead for good.

Woods bogeyed the par-four 10th hole to fall back into a tie with Leonard and Frank Nobilo. Thereafter he put on a clinic. On the par-three 12th, he sank a birdie putt from 25 feet out. On the 14th, another par three, his tee shot landed a mere foot from the cup, and he made birdie. He added another birdie on the par-five 15th for good measure. 

As Woods strode up the 18th fairway with victory securely in his grasp, hundreds of spectators broke through the ropes on either side and fell in behind him, their Pied Piper, and marched to the green en masse. “I really didn’t see them,” Woods claimed, “because I’m facing forward. I definitely heard them, but when I got up to the green, I was just looking at my putt.”

After Woods putted out, he hurled his ball into the gallery. His 34 on the front nine and 34 on the back gave him 68 and a four-day total of 275 (13 under par). Leonard managed a 72 to finish tied for third. Nobilo shot 70 to end up second, three strokes behind Woods.

Woods’s win was his sixth in less than eleven months since his graduation from the amateur ranks. He ended 1997 as the first golfer ever to earn more than $2 million in a single year. There was no telling how many more victories or dollars lay before him. “If I play my normal game,” he said, in a monumental understatement, “I should be able to win out here on tour.”

 

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Juan Pizarro, 1937 - 2021

Lefthander Juan Pizarro spent the prime years of his career, 1961 to 1966, with the White Sox, and pitched for the Cubs from 1970 to 1973. He tossed a one-hit shutout for the Sox on August 11, 1965, and repeated the feat for the Cubs on August 5, 1971. He passed away Thursday at his home in Puerto Rico.

 
    

     Pizarro was rather small for a pitcher, standing 5-feet-11 and weighing 170 pounds as a young man, but he had a very live arm that kept him in the major leagues for 18 seasons. He weighed at least 200 pounds in the latter part of his career. “I came to the end of the road a lot quicker because I loved to eat,” he said after retiring. 

     Pizarro came up to the major leagues with the Milwaukee Braves at the age of 20 in 1957. He played in the World Series in both 1957 and 1958, but never again. His career really took off when he was traded to the White Sox. “When Pizarro first joined the club in 1961,” manager Al Lopez said, “he was fooling around with a screwball. Here was a young pitcher with control trouble, so I told him to concentrate on finding the plate with his fastball and curve and forget about the screwball. He had enough stuff without it.” Pizarro led the club in wins, innings pitched, complete games, strikeouts, and earned-run average that year, then continued on from there.

     Pizarro worked over 200 innings in each of the next three seasons and was an All-Star in 1963 and 1964. He joined Gary Peters, Joe Horlen, and John Buzhardt to comprise the best starting rotation in the American League as the Sox contended for the pennant every year but never quite got there. Pizarro made only 18 starts in 1965, losing much of the season to a salary holdout and then a sore arm. In 1966, he was reduced to pitching in long relief and making an occasional spot start. He was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates after the season for Wilbur Wood, who (of course) ultimately became one of the greatest pitchers in franchise history. 

     Pizarro went 75-47 with a 3.05 ERA in 1,037 innings during his time with the South Siders. As it turned out, more than half of his career victories and innings were logged for the Sox. From then on, he bounced around to six different teams and spent a fair amount of time back in the minor leagues. Pizarro’s admitted love of the night life probably contributed to his uneven later career. “I only remember the parties, the women, the hot times,” he said in a candid post-retirement interview.

    

When Pizarro hooked on with the Cubs in 1970, manager Leo Durocher – quite a carouser himself – took a liking to him. But in those days of four-man rotations, the Cubs’ outstanding quartet of Fergie Jenkins, Milt Pappas, Bill Hands, and Ken Holtzman limited Pizarro’s opportunities. 

     Late in the 1971 season, Pizarro finally was given a regular turn in the rotation, and he took full advantage of it. His first five starts in August yielded four complete-game victories, including the one-hitter mentioned above. In mid-September, he pitched back-to-back complete-game shutouts. In the second of these, a home run by Pizarro himself accounted for all the offense in a 1-0 win over Tom Seaver and the Mets at New York. It was later suggested that this game and Pizarro’s 3-2 victory against Seaver on August 1 cost “Tom Terrific” the Cy Young Award and clinched it for Jenkins. 

     After his big-league career ended in 1974, Pizarro pitched in the Mexican League for several years and continued pitching in the Puerto Rican Winter League, as he had done since 1955. For his entire professional career, he won about 400 games. His regular season count of 392 includes 197 in the U.S. (131 in the majors and 66 in the minors), 38 in Mexico, and 157 in the winter league. He also won an undetermined number of postseason and exhibition games in Puerto Rico. Pizarro was elected as a charter member of the Puerto Rican Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991. 

 

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Minnie Minoso

On May 1, 1951, Orestes “Minnie” Minoso made his debut with the White Sox, thus becoming the first black player to appear in a major-league game for a Chicago team (almost three full seasons before Ernie Banks and Gene Baker joined the Cubs). 

 

 

MINNIE MINOSO

 

“I’m the first guy to bat,” Minoso recalled years later. “First pitch comes right over the plate and I hit a home run to center field. The people who wanted to boo me didn’t get a chance. But later they got a chance. The bases were loaded and I was playing third base. A hit bounced off the bag and hit my ankle, then went through my legs. I was charged with an error, and two runs scored. My first game on the White Sox I was at the top and then sunk to the bottom. Same day, good and bad.”

As time went on, there was a lot more good than bad. In his first seven years, Minoso hit over .300 five times, knocked in 100 or more runs three times, and led the league in stolen bases three times. His aggressive style ignited the Go-Go White Sox, and he became the most popular player on the South Side. But then he was traded to Cleveland, and he missed the pennant year of 1959.

Minoso returned to the White Sox in 1960. A record opening-day crowd of 41,661 at Comiskey Park gave him a hero’s welcome, and he gave them their money’s worth. A more eventful day would have been difficult to imagine.

In the first inning, Minoso beat out a bunt for an apparent base hit but was called out for running outside the baseline. A lengthy rhubarb ensued.

In the second, he hit a screaming liner and was robbed on a circus catch by Kansas City center fielder Bill Tuttle; he was credited with a sacrifice fly when Luis Aparicio scored on the play.

In the fourth, Minoso hit a grand slam. In the fifth, playing left field, he narrowly missed colliding with Aparicio as both men chased a pop fly; he dropped the ball for an error.

In the seventh, he raced into the left-center field gap to spear a line drive that would have scored two runs.

In the top of the ninth, with the score tied 9-9, he threw out the go-ahead runner at the plate. In the bottom of the ninth, he belted another home run to win the game. 

Minnie was back, as his two home runs, six runs batted in, two sensational defensive plays, and countless ovations from the crowd amply demonstrated. “I’m comfortable here,” he said after the game. “I was here before and I feel like this is my home.” 

 

Born in Havana, Cuba, Minoso was the first significant Latin American star in major league history. He finished second in voting for the American League Rookie of the Year in 1951. He finished fourth in voting for Most Valuable Player in 1951, 1953, 1954, and 1960. He won three Gold Gloves and was a nine-time All-Star.

Minoso played for the White Sox from 1951 through 1958 and 1960 through 1961 before seemingly ending his career back with the South Siders in 1964. But Bill Veeck, ever on the lookout for marketing stunts, put Minoso on the active roster in his second go-round as Sox owner from 1976 to 1980. Minoso got one hit in eight at-bats in 1976 at the admitted age of 50 (many people suspected that he was older), and he went o-for-2 in 1980.

Minnie remained a constant presence at White Sox home games through the 2014 season. He passed away during spring training in 2015.

 

  

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