Al Downing Marquee

b. June 28, 1941 · New York Yankees 1961–1969, Oakland Athletics 1970, Milwaukee Brewers 1970, Los Angeles Dodgers 1971–1977

On April 8, 1974, in Atlanta, he threw a fastball down and in to Aaron in the fourth inning and it went over the left-field fence for the 715th home run, passing Babe Ruth. He said afterward that he had wanted to be remembered for something else and that he had made his peace with it, and he answered questions about it for fifty years without complaint.

There was a great deal else: he struck out 217 men in 1964 to lead the American League, at twenty-two, and was one of the first Black pitchers the Yankees developed. In 1971 he went 20-9 with a 2.68 earned run average for the Dodgers, led the National League with five shutouts and was Comeback Player of the Year.

Seventeen seasons gave him 123 wins against 107, a 3.22 earned run average, 2,268 innings and 1,639 strikeouts. He broadcast Dodgers games for two decades afterward. The 1983 ballot gave him no votes at all.

Honors

Award	Times	Years
All-Star selection	1	1967
The Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year	1	1971

Batting, season by season

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG
1961	NYY	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1962	NYY	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
1963	NYY	24	58	4	6	2	0	0	2	3	31	.103
1964	NYY	40	85	5	15	1	1	0	7	4	33	.176
1965	NYY	36	74	4	8	2	0	1	7	3	30	.108
1966	NYY	30	70	4	7	0	1	0	7	4	30	.100
1967	NYY	31	66	5	8	1	0	1	2	5	29	.121
1968	NYY	15	17	1	3	0	0	0	1	1	10	.176
1969	NYY	30	44	2	6	1	0	0	5	2	17	.136
1970	MIL/OAK	27	35	0	4	0	0	0	2	0	17	.114
1971	LAD	37	92	4	16	2	0	0	10	6	28	.174
1972	LAD	31	66	2	8	1	1	0	2	1	27	.121
1973	LAD	30	57	2	5	2	0	0	3	5	18	.088
1974	LAD	21	29	3	5	0	0	0	2	1	11	.172
1975	LAD	22	16	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	8	.000
1976	LAD	17	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	.000
1977	LAD	12	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Career	—	409	717	36	91	12	3	2	51	37	293	.127

Pitching, season by season

Year	Team	W	L	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
1961	NYY	0	1	5	1	0	9.0	7	8	12	12	8.00
1962	NYY	0	0	1	0	0	1.0	0	0	0	1	0.00
1963	NYY	13	5	24	22	0	175.2	114	50	80	171	2.56
1964	NYY	13	8	37	35	2	244.0	201	94	120	217	3.47
1965	NYY	12	14	35	32	0	212.0	185	80	105	179	3.40
1966	NYY	10	11	30	30	0	200.0	178	79	79	152	3.56
1967	NYY	14	10	31	28	0	201.2	158	59	61	171	2.63
1968	NYY	3	3	15	12	0	61.1	54	24	20	40	3.52
1969	NYY	7	5	30	15	0	130.2	117	49	49	85	3.38
1970	MIL/OAK	5	13	27	22	0	135.1	118	53	81	79	3.52
1971	LAD	20	9	37	36	0	262.1	245	78	84	136	2.68
1972	LAD	9	9	31	30	0	202.2	196	67	67	117	2.98
1973	LAD	9	9	30	28	0	193.0	155	71	68	124	3.31
1974	LAD	5	6	21	16	0	98.1	94	40	45	63	3.66
1975	LAD	2	1	22	6	1	74.2	59	24	28	39	2.89
1976	LAD	1	2	17	3	0	46.2	43	20	18	30	3.86
1977	LAD	0	1	12	1	0	20.0	22	15	16	23	6.75
Career	—	123	107	405	317	3	2268.1	1946	811	933	1639	3.22

On this day & linked events

1941

Born June 28, 1941

Trenton, NJ, USA

1961

Major-league debut: Al Downing

Al Downing made a major-league debut on July 19, 1961.

1974

Hank Aaron Passes Babe Ruth

Hank Aaron hits his 715th career home run off Al Downing at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, passing Babe Ruth to become baseball's all-time home run leader.

1977

Final major-league game: Al Downing

Al Downing played a final major-league game on July 13, 1977.

Image: Arnie Lee at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0