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Freddie Patek was born on Monday, October 9, 1944, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Patek was 23 years old when he broke into the big leagues on June 3, 1968, with the Pittsburgh Pirates. On January 1, 1964, Patek joined the Air Force in San Antonio, Texas.14 At Grater Field on Randolph Air Force Base, he played a 140-game schedule for two years.
Unhappy in a utility role, Patek tested free agency for the first time.50 On December 5, 1979, he signed a three-year deal for $550,000 with the Angels.51 He started strong at the plate. By mid-June, his OPS surged over .800, including two four-hit games, the first of which shocked the league. On June 20 he led off the game against the Red Sox with a double off the top of Fenway Park’s left-field wall; it was his shortest hit that day. By the end of the 20-2 blowout, Patek had joined Ernie Banks as the only two shortstops at the time to slug three home runs in a game. “You know, the thing I remember most from that game,” Patek recalled, “is that the fans in Boston gave me a standing ovation after the third home run.
Merv Connors, September 17, 1938
And nobody helped himself more than the right-handed workhorse for the Boston Braves in an early season start against the Cubs at Braves Field. If you thought having Joe DiMaggio on this list was weird, you got to think we’re nuts including the Sultan of Swat—all 714 home runs of him. But in May of 1935, most everyone thought he was done at 711. Ruth was running on empty, sputtering on the fumes of a career spent far too long on a life of booze, broads and hotdogs. Clad in a Boston Braves uniform—intellectually a long, long way from the pinstriped preeminence of the New York Yankees—Ruth appeared to be showing up just to draw fans—and then striking out repeatedly. The largest crowd of the year showed up at Philadelphia to honor Mike Schmidt and watch his number become officially retired, and what happens?
Over the early years of his career in Oakland, the left-handed slugger from Minnesota was a promising force of power, showing off good home run muscle and a patient eye at the plate that led to many walks and not a ton of strikeouts. He descended back to minor league status, rarely popping up for major league duty; but he had this thing for season finale heroics. Patek was better known for his speed and his defensive abilities; former manager Whitey Herzog called Patek the best artificial turf shortstop he ever managed, ranking him even higher than Ozzie Smith.
THREE HOME RUNS IN A GAME
Glynn’s first round-tripper was a killer, a third-inning grand slam off of Detroit reliever Ralph Branca—three years removed from serving up a far more memorable homer to a guy named Bobby Thomson—that gave the Indians an 8-0 lead. But Glynn wasn’t done; he homered in his next two at-bats off different Tiger relievers, and had a shot at a fourth in the ninth—again with the bases loaded—but settled for a sacrifice fly when his deep drive was caught in center. As it was, Glynn finished the game with eight RBIs, easily a career high; in fact, only J.R. Towles has fewer lifetime RBIs among those who had eight or more in a game. Treadway would amass a mere 28 homers over 2,119 career at-bats, but three of them came on this night. What was left of the crowd of 56,789 at Veterans Stadium booed.
Baseball is a funny sport in that a lot of the athletes look somewhat like normal people. You can usually pick out football players due to the muscular builds and massive size. You can usually pick out basketball players by their height. Hockey players usually by their crooked noses and missing teeth. The Chicago Cubs were in town for a series and I happened to be staying at the same hotel as the Cubs. I found myself in the elevator with two young Cubs and for the life of me, I had no idea who they were.
CLARK RIPS 3 HOMERS AS BOSOX EDGE A’S
The increased thefts were part of an early version of Whiteyball, a strategy Herzog perfected later with St. Louis. He built the roster to fit Royals Stadium with its artificial turf and challenging fences. Speed, defense, and line drives played better on the Royals’ carpet than fly balls that wilted in its huge power alleys. Artificial turf demanded deeper positioning, greater range, and a cannon arm from a shortstop.
They did it so long that I went back out and tipped my hat. That’s really unique for a visitor, but Fenway and the Boston fans were special.”52 His outburst also produced a career-high seven RBIs. Days later, Patek talked about his playing bonus to manager Jim Fregosi, who reminded GM Buzzy Bavasi. “It was a $25,000 or $50,000 bonus and when I got close to 100 games, they sat me on the bench.”53 He realized that Bavasi had ordered his playing time to rookie Dickie Thon to save the bonus money.
Oakland’s streak spanned all five of Patek’s years as a Royal. Kansas City pushed them often, finishing second three times. But under Herzog’s guidance, the Royals were on the verge of controlling the AL West for the next three years. Patek was traded along with Bruce Dal Canton and Jerry May from the Pirates to the Royals for Jackie Hernández, Bob Johnson and Jim Campanis at the Winter Meetings on December 2, 1970. In his first season with the Royals, Patek hit for the cycle on July 9, 1971, and led the American League with 11 triples to finish sixth in A.L.
But he labored on, with nothing left to show, for the remainder of the road trip to satisfy fans and Braves management, for whom he was hoping to be promoted to the front office . Manning’s outburst didn’t help his Philadelphia Quakers —a terrible team in its second season—from losing to the Chicago White Stockings , 19-7. In fact, the 12-run was deficit was the worst by a team in which one of their players went deep thrice.
His play helped to elevate the Royals to second place in the AL West. On December 2nd, 1970, Royals General Manager Cedric Tallis pulled off one of his most brilliant trades, acquiring Patek from Pittsburgh along with pitcher Bruce Dal Canton and catcher Jerry May for Jim Campanis, Jackie Hernandez and Bob Johnson. The trade was a steal for Kansas City as those three players created 21 WAR for the Royals, most of that by Patek, while the three that Tallis gave up only gave the Pirates 2 WAR. Patek had played parts of three season’s in Pittsburgh, including 147 games in 1969, but found himself blocked by Gene Alley, a two-time National League All Star and Gold Glove winner. The trade paid immediate dividends for the Royals as Patek hit .267 with a league leading eleven triples and 49 stolen bases in 1971, which was good enough for a sixth-place finish in the American League MVP race.
Or it could have been done by one whose career was in the midst of a steep downslide. We dutifully went through the records and came up with 10 such three-homer games that nobody whatsoever saw coming. In the two prior ALCS meetings, the Royals lost in five games.
Patek was one of the fastest men in baseball and stole at least thirty bases every season between 1971 and 1978. He led the league in steals in 1977 with 53 and is still 83rd on the all-time major league steal list with 385. I still remember the first time I saw Fred Patek steal second base. When he went for the steal, he put his head down and ran full tilt, finishing with a hard slide. Born in Seguin, Texas , Patek was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 22nd round of the 1965 amateur draft. He made his pro debut the following summer, and with the Columbus Jets in 1967, he stole 42 bases to lead the International League.
Of all the performances on this list, most will know of Ruth’s the most. It happened out of nowhere on a cool Saturday afternoon when he magically awoke to vintage form before 10,000 at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field. Once at a charity basketball game in Independence, for Kim and another young lady who was also a quadriplegic, Fred gave his share of the benefit to the other family. "Her father’s insurance ran out, and he needs the money as much as I do," said Patek.
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