A Hall of Famer's first win -- and home run
On May 16, 1965, the up-and-coming Orioles faced the New York Yankees at Memorial Stadium. Dave McNally was a 22-year-old pitcher already in his third season in the Birds’ starting rotation. He would finish his career as the winningest left-hander in club history, but on this sunny Sunday afternoon, after allowing back-to-back walks and three straight singles with one out in the third inning, Orioles manager Hank Bauer came to the mound and took the ball from McNally, with the Yankees having taken a 4-1 lead.
Entering from the bullpen came another product of the Orioles’ youthful pitching corps, a tall right-hander entering only his seventh big league game. Big things were expected of Jim Palmer, but as he arrived at the mound and took the ball from Bauer, he was just a 19-year-old rookie, a week removed from his last appearance and first big league start. He would be brought along slowly in his first season, related mostly to the long man and middle-relief role designated to eat up innings and hopefully keep the Orioles in the game long enough to get to the veteran pitchers of the bullpen: Stu Miller, Dick Hall, Harvey Haddix and Don Larsen. He had allowed runs in only two of his first six outings, pitching 16 2/3 innings without a decision.
Palmer entered the game with one out and Mickey Mantle on first base, and got the first batter he faced, Hector Lopez, to ground into an inning-ending double play. Norm Siebern homered in the Orioles’ half of the third to cut the deficit to 4-2, and, despite allowing a single and a pair of walks in the fourth inning, Palmer got another double play and escaped without allowing a run.
In the bottom of the fourth, Palmer came to the plate with one out and Davey Johnson on first via an error. In these pre-DH times, American League pitchers were expected to be able to execute with the bat, either by hitting or bunting. In his brief career, Palmer already had two singles in three at-bats, with a walk and an RBI. The athletic teenager stepped in against Yankees right-hander Jim Bouton. The Yanks expected a bunt.
Instead, Palmer swung, sending a Bouton fastball soaring high out to right field. The ball carried into the bleachers for a two-run shot that tied the game.
“It wasn’t until about 25 years later that I heard the radio call of that home run,” Palmer recalled. “Joe Garagiola was doing the games on radio for the Yankees back then. I was doing Bob Costas’ show and he played the tape of it on the show -- ‘Here’s 19-year-old Jim Palmer coming to the plate, he’ll probably bunt. [Joe] Pepitone moves in at first, [Clete] Boyer charges in from third. Palmer swings, the ball is headed to right-center field, Lopez goes back, back, and it’s gone for a home run …’
“The thing I remember about the call is Garagiola saying, ‘Boyer was so close at third base if he had pulled that ball, they’d be picking Boyer up with a spatula,’” Palmer said.
Palmer retired the side in the fifth, capping it by striking out Mickey Mantle in their first meeting (the Hall of Famer went 1-for-14 off Palmer in his career, with one solo homer and seven strikeouts). A pair of walks and a Tony Kubek single in the sixth inning, however, gave the Yankees a 5-4 lead, and the Orioles' bullpen was ready, with Palmer scheduled to bat second in the bottom of the inning.
After Russ Snyder pinch-hit for Palmer, the Orioles went ahead on Luis Aparicio’s two-run, two-out homer in the sixth. Larsen pitched a scoreless seventh inning and Miller pitched two scoreless innings for a save; the Orioles added an insurance run in the eighth to win, 7-5.
The victory went to Palmer, and it was the first of his Major League career. He would finish the 1965 season with a nondescript 5-4 record, leaving a handful of photos from a mid-May Orioles game looking very nondescript at the time as well.
More than six decades and 268 career wins later, and nearly 36 years after he threw his last pitch in a Major League game, however, it’s fun to be able to look back to Palmer’s arrival on the mound, to see him scoring after his first big league homer, and to see him pitching in his first Major League victory.
