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Patek briefly served as a part-time baseball analyst for NBC after his retirement. I've long held that the essence of the game is slow pitch softball, in which the pitcher facilitates getting the ball in play. Over the season’s final two months, Herzog led the Royals to a record – and fell in love with Patek. Among post-1900 shortstops, only Hall of Famer Honus Wagner had more consecutive years with at least 30 steals. “I think Gene Alley and I were a lot alike,” Patek told the Pittsburgh Press. “We both felt we were good enough to play, and it got to us when we weren’t in there.
Tobin was already acknowledged as an excellent hitter by pitchers’ standards. The next day, he was ready to turn the power switch on at full force. There are times, however, where the attention and fame of a three-homer effort is transcended by the unexpected nature of the accomplishment. It may have been achieved by a player known not known for going deep. Or it might have occurred in a difficult setting that would raise eyebrows.
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Batting leadoff, he stole 49 bases, beginning a string of eight consecutive years of 30 or more steals. He posted career highs in batting average (.267), at-bats , runs , hits , home runs , and triples . On April 30, he beat Baltimore with the first of six career walk-off hits. On July 9 at Minnesota, Patek became the first Royal to hit for the cycle.
At home one night he thought, “If I die right now on the spot, where would I go? … It was like God was saying, ‘This is your last chance, if you want eternal happiness in heaven, it’s up to you to go get it.’”35 Patek thought about quitting baseball after his spiritual epiphany but decided baseball was his way to do God’s work. He has embraced his Christianity ever since, but his faith would be tested over 20 years later by a family tragedy.
Leading Off Inning
In the final game, Yankees first baseman Chris Chambliss led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a pennant-winning homer. Despite the loss, the Royals were poised to control their division and return to the postseason. In up-and-down fashion, the Royals fell to fifth place in their division in 1974, their poorest showing since they began in 1969. Patek delivered another mediocre year with the bat, but did draw a career-high 77 walks along with his best hitting streak, 12 games. But team chemistry suffered between the players and manager Jack McKeon. Tension and conflicts foreshadowed a change to challenge the Oakland A’s dominance of the AL West.
Merv Connors had eight career home runs, the fewest career home runs by any player with a 3-homer game on their resume. Babe Ruth was the first player to hit three home runs in game at least once both leagues, once with the New York Yankees in 1930, and once in the National League, with the Boston Braves in 1935. Alas, McCullough’s shots, all solo, wouldn’t be enough for the Cubs, who lost 4-3. It was the first time—but not the last—in which a team lost while one player accounted for all of its runs on three solo homers. He had a .242 batting average, 1,340 hits, 41 home runs, 490 RBIs and 736 runs scored. Patek and the Bucs had to wait until December to find a trading partner.
Advanced Fielding -- SS
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.
Washington positioned as the Royals’ shortstop of the future, Patek maintained his regular role despite leading AL shortstops with 32 errors that season. Patek finished the 1970 season with a .245 batting average and eight steals over 84 games, helping the Pirates win the National League East title. But on Dec. 2, 1970, the Pirates shipped Patek to the Royals along with Bruce Dal Canton and Jerry May in exchange for Jim Campanis, Jackie Hernández and Bob Johnson. Born Oct. 9, 1944 in Oklahoma City, Patek was raised in Seguin, Texas. His mother and father were both softball players, and Patek starred on the baseball field while working for the family’s butcher shop before graduating high school and being drafted into the Air Force.
A Giant October Surprise
The Royals won their third straight division crown in 1978 and faced the Yankees again in the ALCS. This time, Patek had just one hit in 13 at-bats – a two-run home run in Game 2, the only contest of the series that the Royals won. The Royals did not come out of the gate quickly in 1975, however, and manager Jack McKeon was replaced by Whitey Herzog in July. Become a Stathead today and run queries with our Split Finders to put any player's or team's splits into context.
In 1979 Patek started fewer than 100 games for the first time as a Royal. The 34-year-old lost a third of his playing time to youngsters U L Washington and Todd Cruz. On August 22 he suffered a sprained right ankle, putting him on the disabled list.
Murtaugh experimented with different lineup combinations throughout the summer, but when rookie Dave Cash took over the second base job Patek was largely relegated to a bench role. Darryl Strawberry homered and drove in the go-ahead run with his third hit of the game as New York dropped to 2-7 on its West Coast trip. Kent Hrbek's grand slam highlighted an eight-run second inning that led Minnesota at Yankee Stadium. Robin Ventura hit a two-out grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning, rallying Chicago over Texas for its seventh straight victory.
Then in December of 1980, the Angels acquired All-Star shortstop Rick Burleson from the Red Sox, effectively turning the 36-year-old Patek into a bench player. Over the ballpark’s remaining 12 years, only one other player, Jim Lemon in 1956, would park three over the fence—but that was after they had finally brought in the fences a great deal to promote more home runs. By mid-May of 1976 the Royals claimed first place in the division for the rest of the year. The team jelled with the emergence of future Hall of Famer George Brett, stars Amos Otis and Hal McRae, and pitchers Dennis Leonard and Paul Splittorff. Patek stole over 50 bases for the first time and six other players stole 20 or more bases for a franchise record .
The Royals obtained spot starter Bruce Dal Canton, catcher Jerry May, and Patek. Surprisingly, the Pirates offered the Royals a choice between Patek and Alley, hoping they would take the older, injury-prone vet.33 The Royals wisely picked Patek, who was pleased he could now bat leadoff and steal more bases. “I want to go someplace where I can utilize my speed,” he said. When I came to Pittsburgh from Columbus … I was aggressive. Everybody said I gave the club a big lift.”34 He soon gave a lift to the Royals with a career year in 1971. He played only one year in high school and caught the attention of scouts while playing ball in the Air Force.
Chances are if you’re a ballplayer who stands 5’5”, weighs 148 pounds and goes by the nickname “Flea,” no one’s ever going to bet on you to smash three home runs in a game. Freddie Patek identified with all of the above, playing 1,650 career games spread over 14 seasons with a mere 41 homers. On July 9, 1971, Freddie Patek hit a double in the first inning, then singled in the second, followed by a triple in the fourth frame. With the score tied 3-3, top of the ninth inning, Bobby Knoop on first base, The Flea hit a go-ahead / game-winning home run and became the first Royals player to hit for the cycle! Jim Perry, the All-Star pitcher who surrendered all four hits to Freddie, said, "I pitched Patek all over, in and out, up and down. He hit it wherever I threw it."
Game Outcome for Team
He left his mark on the diamond with a variety of unique records, ranging from stolen bases to defensive double plays and even home runs. Runs, stolen bases and caught stealing are calculated from the point of view of the player as the baserunner in a given situation rather than as the batter. For example, for the Runner on 3rd, less than 2 Outs split, Runs Scored indicate how many times the player scored while was a runner on base and there was a runner on third and less than two outs. Deion Sanders is beginning to make a habit of hitting home runs on his getaway day of the baseball season. But for all the big home runs Jack Clark had hit, he'd never done it. Until Wednesday night.Clark, who already had connected for a grand slam and a solo shot, homered with two outs in the 14th inning, lifting the Boston Red Sox over Oakland and stopping the Athletics' five-game winning streak.
Patek appeared in just 27 games in the strike-shortened 1981 season, hitting .234. On April 5, 1982 – the day before Opening Day – the Angels, who has acquired shortstop Tim Foli from the Pirates in the offseason, released Patek. “Looking back now, I sold myself short,” Patek told the Los Angeles Times in 1981, referencing offers from other teams he received following the 1979 season. In 1976, the Royals broke the Oakland Athletics’ five-year hold on the AL West, clinching the title on Oct. 1 when the A’s lost to the Angels.
