The first of a new off-season series.
Thinking about another off-season series to do, I came upon this idea.
Position player pitching has become fairly common in modern baseball, so much so that MLB has codified when a position player is allowed to pitch. Now, a position player can only pitch if one or more of these criteria is met:
• Game is in extra innings
• Team trailing by at least eight runs at any point
• Team winning by at least 10 runs in ninth inning
Most of the time, even before 2023 when these rules were put in place, those criteria were generally in place. Position players would pitch in blowouts to save the bullpen.
In this series I am going to limit it to Cubs position players pitching in the divisional play era (post-1969). Before that, this sort of thing wasn’t really much thought of by most managers. There was always a starter who could eat up an inning or two in a blowout. But as bullpens began to get more specialized in the 1970s, managers thought they could help save arms by doing this.
And it’s this circumstance that led to Larry Biittner coming in to pitch for the Cubs in the first game of a doubleheader against the Montreal Expos on July 4, 1977. It was a blistering hot day at Wrigley Field, with the game-time temp reported as 90 degrees (and the Tribune reported the high that day was 96). The Cubs had already gone through three pitchers by the eighth and were trailing 11-2 with one out and two runners on when manager Herman Franks decided he’d save the bullpen for the second game by having outfielder Larry Biittner — who did not start that game — come to the mound.
I have been looking for video of this for ages. Finally found it, as part of a This Week In Baseball show from July 12, 1977.
Yes, that really happened — plate umpire Terry Tata, then in just his fifth year as a MLB umpire, actually issued warnings to both benches after one of Biittner’s offerings went over Del Unser’s head. Even back then, when pitchers did sometimes throw purpose pitches like that — that pitch wasn’t that, it was just an outfielder making a toss that got away.
Larry Parrish, Andre Dawson and Ellis Valentine all homered off Biittner, but he also struck out three Expos. The Cubs lost the game 19-3. And saving the pen didn’t help in the nightcap, because the Cubs lost that one 7-6 despite homers in the ninth by Bobby Murcer and George Mitterwald.
One thing that video clip doesn’t show, unfortunately, was a bit of humor by WGN, who inserted a graphic that read LARRY BIITTNER, PIITCHING during his outing.
Category: General Sports
