Charlie Culbertson’s Walk-Off Homer Has Great Connection to Old-Time Baseball and “Marvelous Marv” Throneberry!

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“Marvelous Marv” Throneberry and 1962 Mets Photo Gallery
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Charlie Culbertson’s Walk-Off Homer Has a Great Connection to Old-Time Baseball And “Marvelous Marv” Throneberry!

I’m sure those of you who are Mets’ fans (including my Old-Time Baseball Photo’s partner Ron!) were probably really upset Monday when you heard about the Braves’ Charlie Culbertson hitting a pinch-hit, extra-inning, two-run walk-off homer to beat the Mets in the first game of their Memorial Day double-header. 

We’ve featured Charlie Culbertson here on Old-Time Baseball Photos before. After all, he’s related to former major leaguer Leon Culbertson, who played in the 1948 World Series for the Indians.  

Of course, when I heard about Charlie’s walk-off homer, my Old-Time Baseball Photos “wheels” started spinning. I was hoping I could find another reason to write about the wonderful Culbertson baseball family and their connection to old-time baseball. Well, after just a little digging, I almost fell out of my chair as I stumbled upon some real old-time baseball gold!

First a little background: It seems Charlie has a real flair for the dramatic. Even though he’s hit only seven career regular season home runs, three have been walk-offs. In addition to the one he hit on Monday, one came in Vin Scully’s last game (September 25, 2016). Another one, hit while with the Rockies and also against the Mets in 2014, was also a two-run, pinch-hit job.

Many major leaguers play years without a walk-off. For instance, Norm Cash hit 377 home runs over his 17-year career without one. Jose Bautista is the current active leader in this department with 333 home runs, none being walk-offs.

Digging a bit deeper, it gets even more interesting. In what has to be one of baseball’s most obscure records, I found that Charlie Culberson’s two pinch-hit walk-off home runs when trailing ties a major league record shared by five others:  Jason Giambi, Olmedo Saenz, Kirk Gibson, Roger Freed and…Are you ready for this?…The fifth is the Mets’ legendary first baseman,  “Marvelous Marv” Throneberry!

Yes…This proves beyond a doubt that major league baseball has a computer located somewhere deep in the bowels of their New York offices that keeps track of baseball’s most obscure and meaningless records. And if you dig deep enough into it, it will even eventually spit one out with “Marvelous Marv” Throneberry’s name attached to it. And boy, did I ever have to dig to come up with this one!

But maybe I’m being a bit hard on Marv. After all, he played eight years in the “Bigs,” hitting .237 with 53 home runs, 170 RBIs, Plenty of guys have worse career numbers worse than that. His “two pinch-hit walk-off home runs when trailing,” was not the only highlight of his career: He was also a member of the 1958 World Series champion Yankees. I guess it didn’t help his reputation that he was the starting first baseman on the 1962 Mets that lost 120 games. OK…so he made 17 errors with a lowly .981 fielding percentage. Nobody’s perfect!

Also, Marv had a penchant for self-deprecating humor, which probably didn’t help his reputation either. He later became a spokesmen for Miller Lite beer in the mid-1970s. His most famous line was: “If I do for Lite what I did for baseball, I’m afraid their sales will go down!”  In another popular ad, Marv quips at the end: “I still don’t know why they asked me to do this commercial…”

Here’s a great story involving Marv and Casey Stengel, two of baseball’s great personalities. In a game against the Cubs on June 7, 1962. Marv hit a triple, but was called out by umpire Dusty Boggess for failing to touch second base. Casey came out to argue the call, but Boggess told him: “Don’t bother arguing, Casey. He missed first base, too!” The next batter, Charlie Neal, then hit a home run. Marv’s miscue proved costly as the Cubs won the game 8–7.

Somehow I managed to come up with a neat story connecting Charles Culbertson to Marv Throneberry to Old-Time Baseball Photos. “Ahh…You can’t beat fun at the old ball park!” as Harry Caray used to say…

Gary Livacari

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Photo Credits: All from Google search

Information: Excerpts edited article on MLB.com on Charlie Culbertson; and from the Marv Throneberry Wikipedia page.

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