A Darned Good Baseball Player

[DOUGHBOYS]

I remember his baseball card. 1961 Joe Adcock.
Living in the Bay Area at the time, it was not a 'had to have' card.
Adcock played for the Braves. Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn were the cards to get from the Braves.
Still, I liked the Adcock card. And thought he was a pretty good player.
And so did Topps. They gave Adcock a number ending with five.
If collecting baseball cards, you already know that Topps gave the great players card numbers ending with zero.
The good players ending with the number five.

On the back of that Adcock card was a cartoon reminding us that Adcock had hit four homers in one game in 1954.
14 modern day players have hit four homers in a game.
That's 14 players in 115 years. 264 players have hit for the cycle during that time.
Of all the players who have hit four homers in a game, Adcock, aside from Pat Seerey, is probably the least remembered.

As a kid, intrigued that this guy on card #245 did the same thing as Willie Mays.
And finding out later that Adcock, Mays, and Lou Gehrig were the closest to hitting five homers in a game. Adcock and Mays both had doubles off the wall in the same game, while Gehrig had a fly ball caught by a leaping outfielder at the fence. Gehrig hit the ball to the deepest part of the field and would say after the game that the fly out was the most 'well struck' of his batted balls.
On top of Adcock's four homers, I read on a 'Post Cereal' card of his, that Adcock had hit a ball into the Center Field seats at the Polo Grounds.
The Polo Grounds center field went forever. It was what made Willie Mays 'The Catch' so spectacular. He performed that back to the plate catch 445 feet away from the plate.
Only three players ever put a ball in the Center Field seats at the Polo Grounds.
Hank Aaron, Lou Brock, and Joe Adcock.

The four homer game came during an incredible weekend for Adcock. Ending in him being carted from the field on a stretcher. It was a series against the Brooklyn Dodgers. On Friday night, Adcock had hit a double, homer and had three rbi.
On Saturday, he hit his four homers and double. The seven extra base hits in two games also a record at the time.
Adcock had borrowed a bat from a backup catcher after breaking his bat the night before. He also hit the four home runs off four different Dodger pitchers.

After the game, Adcock told the press, "If I played for the Dodgers at Ebbets Field, I would hit 35 homers easy".
Maybe it was the comment, or that the Braves were killing the Dodgers in that series and again on Sunday, or that Adcock had hit another double that Sunday, it could have been all those things that led up to Adcock's last at bat of the series.
Adcock was struck behind the ear by Clem Labine.
He credited his helmet, an optionable piece then and not worn by most hitters, for saving extensive damage.
"When a pitcher throws behind your head, they mean business!", Adcock said after the game.
Labine said, "I was only trying to brush him back".

In 1959, something happened to Adcock that would have driven fantasy owners crazy nowadays.
Harvey Haddix had a perfect game through 12 innings.
12 INNINGS!
In the 13th inning, it was broken up by his own fielder. An error by third baseman Don Hoak.
Eddie Mathews, a future Hall of Famer and bopper of over 500 homers would sacrifice the runner to second base.
Then, an intentional walk to Hank Aaron.
Setting the stage for Adcock.
Adcock hit a homer that wasn't. In the bedlam that ensued after his ball reached the seats, Aaron, thinking the ball was off the wall, walked off the field once assured that the winning run scored. Adcock passed him.
A homer with three rbi, turned to a double with one rbi.

Adcock finished his career with 336 homers and over 1,000 rbi.
He also finished with the third highest fielding percentage all time among first basemen.
Adcock wasn't even the best or second best or third best player on the Braves.
And surely, not a Hall of Famer.
Still, to a kid from the Bay Area looking at card #245, Joe Adcock was a darned good baseball player.