|
(Copyright, The Times Mirror Company, Los Angeles Times,
1991, All Rights Reserved)
Each spring, John Paciorek remembers.
He remembers a sweltering autumn day in 1963. He remembers a Colt
Stadium crowd in Houston that
cheered his every move, both at the plate and in the field. And he remembers
his own performance, one that might never be matched.
That day, 18-year-old John Paciorek made baseball history.
On Sept. 29, 1963,
during the final game of the season, Paciorek-in his major league
debut-stroked three singles, drove in three runs and scored four times for
the Houston Colt .45s. He also walked twice, made two fine running catches,
and showed Manager Harry Craft-whose club finished in ninth place in the
National League-there was reason for optimism in 1964.
In all, Paciorek-the brother of former Dodger Tom Paciorek-went three
for three. He had, it turned out, a career day. Literally.
That game, a 13-4 victory over the New York Mets, was the only major
league game in which Paciorek would play. He left baseball with a
"lifetime" batting average of 1.000-and the finest all-around
one-game "career" in major league history.
Each spring, when ballparks from Palm Springs
to Vero Beach, Fla.,
are teeming with excitement, John Paciorek, now 45, remembers. And he
wonders what might have been.
Why did Paciorek drift into baseball obscurity-and immortality-after
that brilliant debut?
Interviewed in San Gabriel,
where he now lives, Paciorek said a chronic back condition deteriorated
after the 1963 season. Though he was invited to spring training the next
season, severe pain limited Paciorek's success and forced him to undergo
back surgery. He never again reached the major leagues.
Even so, no one can take away The Game.
"It was like a dream-I couldn't believe it was happening,"
said Paciorek, who is billed as a "one-day wonder" in the 1990
Guinness Book of World Records.
"I don't know why, but everything seemed to slow down when I faced
major league pitching."
Paciorek's major league career can be traced to 1962. Born and raised in
Detroit, he earned high school
All-American honors in baseball, basketball and football. In 1962, during
his senior year at St. Ladislaus High, Paciorek signed a contract with the
Colt .45s, later to become the Astros.
General Manager Paul Richards had high hopes for the 6-foot-2, 210-pound
Paciorek. During his first spring training camp in 1963, Paciorek "hit
everything in sight." In an effort to facilitate his development,
Richards sent Paciorek to the club's Class-A team in Modesto,
where he played well until suffering the back injury that ultimately would
end his career. His intensity and obsession for exercise exacerbated the
injury, hastening his departure from baseball.
"I was always hustling," said Paciorek, now a teacher. "I
would sprint on and off the field. I would back up everybody. I played very
much like Pete Rose even before Rose became known for it.
"I didn't do it for show-I always wanted to be the best I could
be."
The season began with a disappointed Paciorek in Modesto
("I wanted to be like Al Kaline-I didn't want to spend a day in the
minors.") and the Colts struggling. As the months passed, the Colts
slid deeper into the second division. At the same time, Paciorek's physical
problems-he also had developed a chronically sore throwing arm-worsened. So
did his hitting.
With one game left on the schedule, Manager Craft-in an effort to
preview his young talent-decided to field a starting lineup that featured
eight rookies, including Joe Morgan, Jim Wynn, Rusty Staub and Chris
Zachary. Despite his slump, Paciorek-hurting but still hustling-was
selected to start in right field.
"They asked me if I wanted to play, and I said `yeah,' "
Paciorek said.
And play he did. He lined a single down the third base line, a single
between shortstop and third base and bounced a third single deep into the
hole. It seemed that every time the 3,899 fans in attendance cheered,
Paciorek was either scoring or driving in a runner.
"I don't remember any interviews after the game, but the next day
my name was plastered all over the news," he said. "They said,
`This guy's here to stay.' "
In its account of the game, the New York Times wrote that Paciorek
"found nothing difficult about the majors," adding, "(he)
doesn't yet know what it's like to make an out in the big leagues."
The only person not surprised by his performance was Paciorek, who
received a standing ovation before his final at-bat.
"I had hit way over .300 in spring training," Paciorek said.
"I always thought I belonged (in the big leagues)." Of the eight
rookies who started, only Paciorek and shortstop Glenn Vaughan never played
again. The others, including Ivan Murrell and John Bateman, had long
careers.
The next season, Paciorek returned for spring training. Still hurting,
he couldn't hit or throw effectively and the Colts sent him back to the
minors.
"I was terrible," he said of his 1964 spring training
performance. "I did nothing."
By midseason, Paciorek had undergone back surgery. He spent 10 months in
a back brace, then bounced around the minor leagues until Houston
released him in 1967.
"They gave me every opportunity to make the team," he said.
"They bent over backward for me."
The Cleveland Indians invited him to spring training in 1968, sent him
back to the minors, then released him in 1969. Paciorek's baseball career
was over.
Tom Paciorek, now a broadcaster for the Chicago White Sox, called the
short duration of his brother's major league career "sad."
"He was much better than I was," said the younger Paciorek,
who spent 18 years in the major leagues. "He could have had a long
major league career."
John Paciorek views his unusual big league career more philosophically
than plaintively.
"It's kind of a dubious honor," he said. "But I guess I'm
immortalized. I did something no one else has ever done."
Perhaps the Houston Post said it best in its account of the game. In
conferring upon Paciorek "the unofficial major league batting
title," the newspaper waxed prophetic.
"The rest of (Paciorek's) career," it declared, tongue in
cheek, "may be an anticlimax."
|
[Illustration]
|
|
PHOTO: John Paciorek, who ended up with a career
batting average of 1.000, displays enlargement of the box score of his
only major league game. / STEVEN K. WAGNER / For The Times; PHOTO: (A2)
One-Day Wonder: John Paciorek batted 1.000 in the only major league game
he played 28 years ago. He often wonders what his career would have been
like had it not been for a bad back.
|
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times
|
