Blast From the Past: Tony Cloninger's Two Grand Slams

The first ballgame I ever listened to on the radio was in 1965, but it wasn't until 1966 that I started following baseball and listening to games on a regular basis. As I listened to Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons call the games, I slowly started to get a sense of the history of the game, the seasons, the rhythms and how it all fit together. The first time I had the sense that I was experiencing something special, something historic, and that it could happen at any moment, was on July 3, 1966.

My family lived way out in the mountains of Napa County. We didn't have TV, didn't get a daily newspaper, and my mother only listened to the classical music station on the radio. I didn't have my own transistor radio, but if I was lucky enough to know when a game was on, my parents would let me sit in an old car we had parked under a tree on our property and listen to games on the car radio. Yeah, I know it's weird but that's how it was. At other times, I'd take a bat and ball and head out to the oat field behind our property and hit balls to nobody. I'd hit it and then go chase it down, come back and hit it again. I'd pretend to be players on the Giants team and work my way through the lineup, hitting right-handed if it was Willie Mays turn to hit, and lefthanded if it was Willie McCovey's. Even though I never played organized baseball, I can still hit just as well lefthanded as righthanded, something I've always been proud of. But, I digress......

I don't remember how I knew there would be a game on Sunday, July 3, 1966, but I did and I was very excited. I wasn't allowed to go out to the old car and listen until the family had finished lunch, and lunch was a bit late that day. By the time I got out to the car, turned on the radio and found KSFO on the dial, I was dismayed to hear Russ announce the end of the first inning and say the score was 7-0 Braves. 7-0 Braves! The game was over before it got started, at least for me! I had been looking forward to this game, and I loved the sound of the announcers calling the game, and I wasn't about to be denied this opportunity, so I kept listening. Somewhere along the way, I picked up that Joe Torre had hit a 3 run homer in the first inning and the pitcher of all things, Tony Cloninger, had hit a grand slam! The Giants pulled most of their starting players early, and Ray Sadecki came in to pitch mom-up. I kept listening. In the fourth inning, the Braves loaded the bases again and who should come to the plate but Tony Cloninger. Blam! He hits another grand slam! The score was now 13-0, and Tony Cloninger had set a record by hitting two grand slam home runs in one game. I kept listening. Russ and Lon kept talking about the marvel of the two grand slams, probably because there wasn't anything else going on in the game to talk about. The Giants scratched out 3 runs and the Braves added 4 more including a RBI single by Cloninger in the 9'th inning. Another record, 9 RBI's in one game for a pitcher. Those records still stand to this day. The final score was 17-3!

Even though it was an embarrassing defeat for my Giants, that game is as vivid in my memory now as it was the next day. I have won several sports trivia quizzes by knowing Tony Cloninger's name as the pitcher who accomplished those feats that day. To this day, I absolutely hate arriving or tuning into a game even one pitch late. I am always uncomfortable leaving a game early even if the score is ridiculously lopsided. You just never know when history might be made in front of your eyes or ears.