RIP Jim Wynn

1967 is the year I started following the Giants and Major League Baseball in earnest.  I was 10 years old and spent my summer vacation listening to Giants games on a portable radio set up on our back porch while throwing balls at a pitchback.  We lived up in the mountains on the east side of the Napa Valley.  It used to get pretty hot in the early afternoons but then a nice westerly breeze would come up and cool everything down.  That's about as idyllic as it gets.  Talk about summertime and the livin's easy!  Evening games were harder to catch because evenings were family time and reception on the old radio tended to fade in and out.

I don't have a specific recollection of listening to a game between the Giants and Astros in Houston on June 15. I probably didn't because it was an evening game.  I do have vague memories of the Giants getting beaten up pretty badly in Houston by an Astros team that seemed to lose to everyone else in the NL.  I recall not understanding why the Astros were so bad because they had a couple of really good young hitters in Jim Wynn and Rusty Staub as well as an aging Eddie Mathews.  They also had a young lefthanded pitcher with a baffling screwball named Mike Cuellar.  This was the fourth game of a midweek set with the Giants losing 2 of of the first 3.  Juan Marichal was a late scratch and Bob Bolin took the mound for the Giants facing Cuellar.  Game details come from an account of the game written up on the SABR website.

The Giants managed an early 1-0 lead until Wynn led off the fourth inning with a drive to left that reached the second deck in the Astrodome, a truly prodigious blast.  In the sixth inning with the score tied 2-2, Wynn sent another Bob Bolin pitch into the bleachers.  Wynn came up again in the 8'th inning, this time facing lefty Bill Henry.  He lined a pitch over the left field wall to become the first player to hit three home runs in the Astrodome.  The Astros went on the win the game 6-2 and Jim Wynn ultimately hit 37 home runs that season to finish second to Hank Aaron for most in the NL.

Jim Wynn stood just 5'9" and weighed maybe 160 lbs but was wiry strong and a true 5-tool athlete.  Some sportswriter coined the nickname "Toy Cannon", a name he hated at first because he thought it called attention to his short stature, but later came to embrace.  He was a patient hitter at the plate who drew a lot of walks but when he did swing, he aired it out and tended to either hit it a long way or strike out.  His three true outcomes style would probably be more appreciated in today's game.  He also played most of his home games in the Astrodome which severely suppressed home runs.  Despite all that, he fashioned a fine career line of .250/.366/.436 with 291 career HR's and 225 SB's. My memories of him tormenting Giants pitchers are accurate as he hit more HR's off Giants pitchers in his career(37) than against any other team.   He was traded to the Dodgers for Claude Osteen before the 1974 season and led the Bad Guys to an NL Pennant, but a World Series loss to the A's.  His career tailed off after that and his MLB career was over by 1977.

Jim Wynn died yesterday at the age of 78.  RIP.