Wednesday, March 8, 2017

no. 636 - denny lemaster


Who is the man: After a couple of fairly productive seasons for the lowly Astros, Denny Lemaster fell off in 1970, posting a 4.56 ERA. He wound up in the bullpen and it would be his last season as a starter.

Can ya dig it: Sharp corners, but way off-center and also diamond-cut.

Right on: The signature is very informative. I assumed his full name was Dennis, but it's Denver.

You see that cat Lemaster is a bad mother: Lemaster's most noted game is a matchup against Sandy Koufax on Aug. 9, 1966 while pitching for the Atlanta Braves. Lemaster took a no-hitter into the 8th inning until the Dodgers' Jim Lefebvre hit a home run to tie the game 1-1. But Eddie Mathews made Lemaster a winner by hitting a one-out homer off of Koufax in the bottom of the ninth.

Shut your mouth: The left-handed Lemaster was often considered as the Braves' successor to Warren Spahn and was even referred to as the "Second Spahn" in the press.

No one understands him but his woman: When Lemaster returned home after the victory against Koufax, his wife was in labor. Their fourth child, a daughter, was born the next morning.


 (A word about the back): Lemaster's club record of 37 games started (which he shared with Larry Dierker) was broken by Jerry Reuss, who started 40 games for the Astros in 1973.

No comments:

Post a Comment