Who is the man: Dave Giusti was in the middle of his second season with the Pirates when this card was issued. His first season was a smashing success. Converted to a reliever, he saved 26 games in 1970.
Can ya dig it: The mind reels over who the Pirates in the dugout might be. Sanguillen? Stargell? Clemente?
Right on: Whoever those guys are, I think one of their moms should show up and tell him to sit up straight.
You see that cat Giusti is a bad mother: Giusti led the league in saves with 30 in 1971 and got the save in Game 4 of the World Series that year. Between 1970-74, he finished in the top 10 in Cy Young Award voting three times.
Shut your mouth: Giusti was passed over for an All-Star berth by Reds manager Sparky Anderson in 1971. Anderson instead picked his team's reliever, Clay Carroll, saying, "My guys got me the job of managing All-Stars. Clay was one of them."
No one understands him but his woman: Giusti's wife, Virginia, said Dave's first word was "ball". Someone must have relayed that to her, as I don't think his wife was around when he was a year old.
(A word about the back): Giusti's Astros RBI mark lasted for 23 years. In that game, he also pitched a complete-game shutout.
Giusti was one of a bunch of good pitchers offered up in the 1968 expansion draft (discussed in other postings). One can criticize the Padres for letting go of someone who turned out to one of the best relievers in the early 1970's but the Cardinals who had him in 1969 gave up on him too.
ReplyDeleteRemembering Johnny Bench's home run off Giusti in the bottom of the 9th in game 5 of the '72 NLCS is still a punch in the gut for me. Everyone remembers Bob Moose's wild pitch to score the winning run later in the inning, but Moose inherited two runners from Giusti and almost escaped the jam.
ReplyDeleteI got an autograph from Dave Giusti in 1972. I couldn't read cursive then so I asked him to "print it." He handwrote it anyway. There were four other Pirates at that signing that night. Blass, Bob Johnson, Sanguillen and Rich Hebner. We couldn't get to Sanguillen or Hebner. The line for Sanguillen was waay to long. There was too much chaos around Hebner. We couldn't even see him. There were many young women and they were all screaming and jumping and trying to get to Hebner.
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