RetroSimba

Though Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry were the most prominent pitchers on the 1960s Giants, Bobby Bolin was an important member of those staffs, too.

A right-hander with a fastball rated among the best in the National League, Bolin was effective both as a starter and a reliever.

In 1968, when Bob Gibson led the league in ERA (1.12), the pitcher who was next-best was not Marichal or Perry or Ferguson Jenkins or Tom Seaver or any of the other future Hall of Famers pitching then. It was Bolin (1.99).

In the only game they started against one another that year, Bolin beat Gibson.

For his career, Bolin was 9-5 with a 2.75 ERA versus the Cardinals.

Country kid

Bolin was raised on a farm in Hickory Grove, S.C., a town of about 300 residents, located 55 miles from Charlotte, N.C. Years later, in a chat with the Rock Hill (S.C.) Herald, his mother, Blanche, said of Bobby and his two brothers, “It was hard to get any work out of those boys. They were either listening to a ballgame on the radio, or out in the backyard throwing rocks.”

Bolin switched from rocks to baseballs and became a pitcher. “Bobby played three years of baseball at Hickory Grove High School. The other year, when he was a junior, Hickory Grove had no team, so he pitched for York High School,” the Rock Hill Herald reported.

A gangly 6-foot-4, Bolin overpowered batters in high school and American Legion games with a fastball thrown from a sidearm delivery. His “big hand so completely covers the horsehide that you expect to see the stuffing fly out at any time,” the Charlotte Observer noted.

Herman Crump, Bolin’s American Legion coach, told the Charlotte newspaper, “It was hard to believe any 16-year-old could throw the ball as hard as Bobby did.”

According to the Rock Hill newspaper, the Pittsburgh Pirates signed Bolin, but the deal was voided because he was ineligible. Bolin was 17 when he signed with the Giants in December 1956.

Rookie year

Bolin, 22, reached the majors with the Giants in 1961 and was made a reliever. His first save came in his second appearance, on April 23, 1961, against the Cardinals at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

In the ninth inning, with the Giants ahead, 2-1, the Cardinals had runners on first and third, one out, when Bolin was brought in to work out of the jam.

The first batter he faced, Daryl Spencer, looked at a 2-and-2 pitch for strike three. Upset with the call by umpire Tom Gorman, Spencer slammed his bat to the ground and was ejected. “I thought the pitch was four inches inside,” Spencer said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Bolin told the San Francisco Examiner, “I thought it was a good pitch _ high enough and over the plate.”

The next batter, Mickey McDermott, lined a pitch foul before striking out swinging to end the game.

Noting that Bolin delivered only fastballs to the Cardinals, Giants catcher Hobie Landrith told the Examiner that the rookie threw “faster than anyone on our club can throw, and maybe as fast as anybody in the league.” Boxscore

Bolin said to the Charlotte Observer, “As my fastball goes, so go I.”

Two months later, on June 23, 1961, Stan Musial timed a Bolin fastball and belted it onto the roof of the right field pavilion “as Busch Stadium trembled with uproarious acclaim,” the Examiner reported. The grand slam was Musial’s ninth, and last, of his career and gave him seven RBI for the game. Boxscore

Learning on the job

The next year, Bolin (seven wins, six saves) helped the Giants win the 1962 pennant and pitched in two games of the World Series against the Yankees.

In 1964, Bolin appeared in more games as a starter than as a reliever for the first time since reaching the majors. In the first game he pitched that season, a start against the Cardinals, Bolin limited them to four hits in seven innings, but three were solo home runs _ by Johnny Lewis, Ken Boyer and Curt Flood _ and St. Louis won, 3-2. Boxscore

At the urging of his road roommate, pitcher Billy Pierce, 37, Bolin, 25, ditched the sidearm delivery and began throwing with more of an overhand motion. “As a result, his fastball moves _ and never the same way twice,” Pierce told The Sporting News.

On Aug. 14, 1964, Bolin pitched a one-hit shutout against the Braves. “A blind hog will find an acorn once in a while,” he modestly told the Examiner. Boxscore

Eight days later, he struck out 11 Cardinals, including Lou Brock four times, and got the win. Down by three in the seventh, the Cardinals had the bases loaded with two outs when Bolin struck out Brock on three consecutive fastballs. “I don’t think anyone could have hit those pitches,” Brock’s teammate, Tim McCarver, told the Examiner. “They tailed away and caught a sliver of the back of the plate.”

Giants catcher Tom Haller told the newspaper, “He’s as fast as he ever was, but he’s hitting spots. He’s got to throw it there to be effective.” Boxscore

Different look

Even with his overpowering fastball, Bolin needed a breaking pitch to keep batters from digging in. After much tinkering, he developed a slider. 

Bolin had 14 wins (eight in relief) in 1965 and 11 in 1966 (when he made 34 starts and pitched 10 complete games).

In his first appearance at the Cardinals’ new Busch Memorial Stadium, on June 28, 1966, Bolin pitched a two-hitter for the win. His former teammate, Orlando Cepeda, grounded a single to right for the Cardinals’ first hit in the seventh and Charlie Smith got the other on an infield hit in the eighth.

“I was missing with the fastball the last couple of innings, so I threw mostly sliders at the end,” Bolin told the Examiner. “Both the hits were on good pitches. Cepeda hit an outside slider and so did Smith.” Boxscore

A year later, on June 29, 1967, Bolin pitched the equivalent of a complete game in a relief stint against the Cardinals at St. Louis. The Giants scored 11 runs in the top of the first, nine against Bob Gibson, but, when Giants starter Joe Gibbon allowed two runs without recording an out in the bottom half of the inning, he was relieved by Bolin, who pitched nine innings for the win. Boxscore

Classic duels

To his disappointment, Bolin was used mostly in relief in the first half of the 1968 season. Moved into the starting rotation after the all-star break, he prospered. Bolin was 8-3 in the second half of the season. In those three losses, the Giants totaled one run.

On Sept. 6, 1968, fans came to Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, hoping to see Juan Marichal and Bob Gibson as the starting pitchers in Game 1 of a doubleheader, but Giants manager Herman Franks had other ideas. He opted to start Bolin (7-4, 1.89) versus Gibson (20-6, 0.99) and save Marichal (24-7, 2.33) for Game 2 against Steve Carlton (12-9, 2.83).

Regarding his choice of Bolin to oppose Gibson, Franks told the Post-Dispatch, “I didn’t pitch any humpty-dumpty, you know.”

When the public address announcer read Bolin’s name in giving the Game 1 lineups, the crowd booed, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Bolin was up to the challenge. He limited the Cardinals to two runs (both earned) in 7.2 innings before Frank Linzy took over and provided scoreless relief. Gibson gave up three runs (two earned) in eight innings and lost for only the second time in his last 20 starts. Boxscore

(Neither Marichal nor Carlton pitched especially well in the second game, an 8-7 victory for the Giants. Boxscore)

Two weeks later, when the Cardinals were in San Francisco, Gaylord Perry pitched a no-hitter against them. The next day, the Cardinals’ Ray Washburn turned the tables, pitching a no-hitter versus the Giants. Bolin was the losing pitcher in that game. He shut out the Cardinals on two hits before they struck for a run in the seventh and another in the eighth. Boxscore

Changing leagues

In December 1969, Bolin was traded to the Seattle Pilots, who moved to Milwaukee before the start of the 1970 season and became the Brewers. He was sent to the Red Sox in September 1970 and became a relief specialist.

Bolin led the Red Sox in saves (15) in 1973 when Eddie Kasko was manager. Darrell Johnson, who replaced Kasko after the season, wanted to shake up the roster. In March 1974, in what Peter Gammons of the Boston Globe described as “the biggest single surprise of spring training,” Bolin, 35, was released. He opted to return home to South Carolina rather than try to extend his playing career.

He later quipped to the Rock Hill Herald, “I had to quit in 1974 for health reasons. The Red Sox were sick of me.”

In 13 seasons in the majors, Bolin totaled 88 wins and 51 saves. He three times finished in the top 10 in the National League in ERA _ 1965 (2.76), 1966 (2.89) and 1968 (1.99).