Bob Welch dies at 57

Posted on June 10, 2014

Oakland A’s pitcher Bob Welch graced the August 13, 1990 cover of The National Sports Daily after winning his 19th game of the season in Oakland. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

Bob Welch, former Cy Young Award winner with the Oakland A’s in 1990, died Monday night of a heart attack at age 57. After breaking in with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a 21-year-old flame thrower in 1978, Welch became a Bay Area favorite in 1990 when he put together a remarkable season in Oakland. Welch went 27-6 for the pennant winning A’s in 1990, and is the last pitcher to win at least 25 games in the Major Leagues.

Welch gained national fame during the 1978 World Series when his Dodgers took on the New York Yankees in the Fall Classic. Welch struck out Reggie Jackson in a memorable 9th inning battle to end Game 2 of the 1978 World Series, clinching a Dodgers 4-3 victory. The nation might have learned about the rookie that night, but I learned about him a few months earlier.

The 1978 baseball season was a magical one for me and many other San Francisco Giants fans. I was 13-years-old and for the first time in my journey as a fan my team was in a pennant race against, you guessed it, the dreaded Dodgers. I will never forget the Giants being in first place most of that summer, and by the time our family took a vacation to my aunt and uncle’s cabin in Pine Mountain Lake, California in early August the race was really heating up. The Dodgers came to Candlestick for a four game series. It was time for the Giants to step up and defend their lead in the National League West. The Giants won the first two games in dramatic fashion as I struggled to get the radio signal from the Giants flagship station KSFO 560 up in the mountains. By the time Vida Blue beat Doug Rau 2-1 (time of game: 2:03!) on Friday night, August 4, 1978 in front of 47,944 lunatics at The Stick the Giants held a 4 1/2 game lead over the Dodgers.

Saturday, August 5, 1978 was a typical hot day up near Yosemite, but I would not be swimming in the lake that afternoon. That’s day’s Giants and Dodgers game was the NBC Game of the Week and I planned on watching every pitch of the 1:05 contest. I had high hopes when the game started as the Dodgers were throwing a young kid I had never heard of named Bob Welch. The Giants countered with the tall right-hander Ed Halicki, who was always one of my favorites. The game was scoreless into the 8th inning in front of 49,203 fans when the Dodgers broke through against Halicki by scoring two runs to take a 2-0 lead.

The 2-0 lead might as well have been 10-0 the way Welch was dealing. The young kid dazzled that afternoon on the faded AstroTurf at Candlestick by tossing a complete-game shutout, scattering 9 hits, striking out 3, and walking just 2. The Giants staged a late rally in the bottom of the 9th, but miracle man Mike Ivie had no magic in his bat during a pinch hitting appearance. By the time Heity Cruz flew out to Dodger left fielder Dusty Baker the Dodgers had won, and there was a new young sheriff in town named Welch. The rest of my day was pretty much ruined. You bet I knew who Bob Welch was by the time I turned off the television. To me this was the game that changed the Giants season as they could not hold off Welch and the Dodgers the rest of the way.

I photographed Welch many times during his stay in Oakland, and covered him extensively during his 1990 Cy Young year for The National Sports Daily. By the time Welch retired at the end of the 1994 season he compiled a 211-146 lifetime record. He will be remembered by family, friends, teammates, fans, and media today. All will have special memories of the kid from Michigan who will be forever linked with Reggie. To me he will always be linked with the Giants, on the fateful day in 1978. RIP Bob Welch.