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Steve Blass Photo Gallery
Ron Christensen returns today with a detailed account of his youthful hobby of collecting baseball cards…and his discovery that pitcher Steve Blass was from his home state of Connecticut. Even though a Yankee fan, this started Ron off on a lifelong connection to the Pirates’ ace. An unusual, often unexplainable attention to a certain ball player! We all have our favorites. Ron shares an interesting story to which – in many ways – we can all relate. -GL
Steve Blass:
One Kid’s Home-State Hero!
When I was a kid, I collected baseball cards, much like every other kid, I imagine. There was a pharmacy (then called a drug store) near the grammar school I attended, and it was there that I first discovered Topps Wax Packs, in a colorful box atop the checkout counter that stood as tall off the floor as I did at seven years old. I would save the nickel my mom gave me each morning to buy milk with, and each Friday, I would stop at the pharmacy on my walk home from school and buy five Topps wax-packs at five cents each, securing them safely in my ‘Gunsmoke’ themed lunch box. *
I couldn’t wait to get home with my cards, open them up, and discover the treasures that waited for me inside. There might be Yankees in there. Yankee team cards, Yankee player cards, maybe even the holy grail of all Topps cards – the Mickey Mantle card! And of course, the stick of pink bubblegum I could smell even before opening the first pack, and couldn’t resist chewing once I did open it. I kept three shoe boxes under my bed – one for Yankees cards that were only for me to look at, another for cards of popular players that I would use to trade with my friends – usually for more Yankees cards, and a third one for cards of players I didn’t much pay attention to that I would flip with friends or clothespin to the spokes of my bicycle wheels.
This was my first full year of card collecting. It was 1965, and to me, the Topps cards that year were works of art. To this day, I still think it’s one of the finest baseball sets Topps ever produced. There’s something special about that colorful pennant flowing out from the lower left of the card, with the team name and logo emblazoned on it. Truly eye-catching!
In my quest for Yankees cards, I did keep my eyes open for a few non-Yankees favorites as well. Willie Mays was one, as was Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson, and Casey Stengel, who I was aware had once been the Yankees manager.
And Steve Blass. Wait…Steve who? Truth was I had never heard of Steve Blass. But perusing the back of his card after pulling it from one of the packs, I happened to notice he was from Falls Village, Connecticut – the first major league player I’d ever heard of who was from Connecticut. Wow! Steve Blass was from Connecticut, and I was from Connecticut! Of course, I had never heard of Falls Village and had no idea what part of Connecticut it was in, but that didn’t matter. What impressed me, what I could identify with, was that we were both from Connecticut. It gave me hope that if he could make it to the major leagues from Connecticut, then maybe one day so could I. That first Steve Blass card, along with Mays and Gibson and Stengel, found its way into the hallowed confines of my Yankees-only shoe box, never to be traded, flipped, or clipped to bicycle spokes.
Finding Steve’s card that day and learning we shared a common state origin made me an instant Steve Blass fan. He was never exalted to Mantle status, but he was certainly a sentimental favorite, even though I learned later that he had relocated to Pennsylvania, which I suppose was inevitable, having spent his entire career in Pittsburgh.
Blass truly was an exceptional pitcher. He pitched five no-hitters in high school before being signed by the Pirates in 1960. In 1962 in the Class B Carolina League, Blass finished with a 17-3 record, a 1.97 ERA, 209 strikeouts in 178 innings, and made the All-Star team along with some notable teammates that included future major leaguers Mel Stottlemyre, Rusty Staub, Cesar Tovar, Tony Perez and Rico Petrocelli.
Blass had his first start with the Pirates on May 18, 1964, at Dodger Stadium and won a 4-2 decision against future Hall of Famer Don Drysdale. By 1968, Blass had established himself as a solid major league starter, finishing the season with an 18-6 record and a 2.12 ERA. His .750 winning percentage led the league, and during one stretch, he had nine consecutive victories. He also threw three shutouts in September.
Blass is likely best remembered for his performance in the 1971 World Series against the Orioles, winning games three and seven in leading the Pirates to their first World Series championship since 1960. Both were complete game victories in which he allowed only seven hits, four walks, and two earned runs over 18 total innings. He finished second in World Series MVP voting to teammate Roberto Clemente. Blass compiled a 15-8 record for the season with a 2.85 ERA, and his five complete-game shutouts led the league.
1972 was arguably Blass’s best season. He pitched in the All-Star Game, finished the year with a career high 19 wins (19-8) and a 2.49 ERA, and was runner-up in Cy Young Award voting to Steve Carlton of the Phillies. Then tragedy struck. On New Years Eve, teammate and close friend Roberto Clemente was killed in a plane crash while on a humanitarian mission to deliver aid to victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua. Steve Blass delivered the eulogy at Clemente’s funeral.
In 1973 the wheels came off the rails for Steve. Somehow, inexplicably, Steve Blass lost his control. This All-Star caliber pitcher, who had been so dominant over several seasons and who was now considered the ace of the Pirates staff, had difficulty finding the strike zone. His pitches seemed to have a mind of their own, because all too often they would sail over the catcher all the way to the backstop or fly completely behind the batter. Blass had become a stranger to the mound. His ERA ballooned from 2.49 to 9.85. He walked 84 batters in 88 innings and ended the season with a WAR of -3.9, the worst of any pitcher in the modern era. It was a nightmare that would ultimately lead to the end of Steve’s career.
This reverse in Blass’s pitching was so dramatic and so profound that it has since become known as ‘Steve Blass Disease,’ a diagnosis applied to talented players who inexplicably and permanently lose their ability to throw a baseball accurately, with no physical reason for doing so. Sadly, Blass is as much remembered for this as he is for leading the Pirates to a World Series championship.
Steve Blass finished his career with a 103-76 record, a 3.63 ERA, and 896 strikeouts in 1597 innings. He threw 15 career shutouts and 57 complete games.
And I still have his 1965 Topps rookie card…
Ron Christensen
*I wish I saved a few of those unopened wax packs. What I bought for a nickel in 1965 is now selling for thousands of dollars online.
SOURCE MATERIALS:
- Wikipedia – Steve Blass
- Baseball Almanac – Steve Blass
- org – Steve Blass, by Bob Hurte
- org – Pirates’ Steve Blass Loses Control
- com – Pitcher Gone To Pasture: The Incurable Mystery of Steve Blass, by Ethan Richardson
- Baseball Reference
Photo Credits: All from Google search
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Great story, Ron.
I too was an avid baseball card collector.
1965 was the only year that I was able to collect the entire 600+ collection via wax packs.
I spent every nickel I had throughout the summer and traded duplicates with friends
and miraculously had all by the end of the World Series.
I kept them in pristine condition and stored them in a Thom McCann shoe box. After keeping them for many years, I thought as I
was going to college, I had outgrown the hobby.
I gave them to one of my younger brothers and he ultimately destroyed and/or lost them within a year. I cringe when I see the value of a Topps 1965 set on eBay.
It would have paid the dental bills for all those pink sugary slabs of the gum that I chewed that summer. 😆
Haha! I hope you forgave your brother!
Thanks Paul. I appreciate the kind words. I too was able to complete the 1965 set, and fortunately still have it – it being one of the few treasures of my childhood that survived my mom’s purge of “childish” things when I went off to college. And like you I’m pretty sure at least one of my shoe boxes was a Thom McAn box (probably hush puppies!). I’m glad you enjoyed the essay. A fun trip down memory lane.
Others suffering from Steve Blass Disease were second basemen Chuck Knoblach and Steve Sax.
I, too, collected baseball cards. Like many others, my mom threw mine out at some point after I became an adult. When I mentioned to her that the cards were worth a lot of money, she reminded me that the cards that were worth something had to be in pristine condition which mine definitely were not. Still, I wish I had my cards. Thanks for the memories, Ron.
Thanks Vince. I appreciate your comment. And very true about Knoblach and Sax. In fact, I believe there are many who also refer to it as Steve Sax disease.
Like you, many of my baseball cards (and comic books) fell victim to my mom’s efforts to clean house after I left for college. Fortunately there were some that were hidden well enough to escape her efforts to downsize childhood room clutter, but not nearly enough. I’m happy with what survived, but heartbroken over what was lost. I guess she just didn’t share my enthusiasm for card collecting.
Glad you enjoyed the memories.