Smoky Burgess

Elmo Plaskett getting into the Pirate lineup now.

Uh, Smokey Burgess and Pagliarone both ailing at this time and, uh, so he's getting a big chance.

Last year at Asheville in the Sally League, played everything but, uh, shortstop and, uh, pitcher, and he won the Sally League batting title and the Most Valuable Player award.

He belts this one deep to left.

That, for Brooks Lawrence, the first strikeout that he has recorded, and the batter will be Jim Gilliam.

[crowd cheering] Don Gross begins to loosen up now with Smoky Burgess down in the Cincinnati bullpen as Jim Gilliam is the batter.

Lawrence is due to bat second when the Redlegs hit in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Gilliam, oh for two, batting .248.

who had 81, and then the seventh man on the all-time list, Elmer Vallow, who had 81.

The leader, of course, is Smokey Burgess.

Smokey with 144 pinch hits and a .286 lifetime batting average as a pinch hitter.

On the year as a pinch hitter, Eddie Cranebrew now has 8 for 23 with two home runs.

So Mickey Lulich is gone at Detroit.

And Hicks will be replaced by Smokey Burgess.

Terry Fox coming on.

Boy, he's been brilliant, this guy.

Fox's base on ball strikeout ratio is not a good one for a reliever.

22 walks, 17 strikeouts, has thrown three gopher balls in 42 innings.

The Smokey Burgess.

The old Smokehouse is coming out.

There's a throw going to second base, and the tag is made, and Kubek is out at second base.

From Smokey Burgess to Bill Mazeroski, and they put it on Kubek for the first out of the inning.

And, of course, that brought a happy roar of approval from the Pirate fans who are here again this afternoon.

And the count now to Gil McDougald is three balls and one strike.

It's high and tight, and Skowron backs off a little bit.

One ball, two strikes.

Now Bob Fred looking down to Battery Maid Smokey Burgess for the sign.

He responds into the wine now.

One ball, one strike.

Veteran Smokey Burgess is the on-deck hitter.

He takes and hits over a fastball at the letters for a called strike.

One ball and two strikes.

He still had the bat handle in his hand.

The barrel of the bat, the big part of the bat sailed down towards first, and the ball also is fair, and it went down to Jim Harkness And nobody on now in the Pirates' second.

The hitter is veteran Smokey Burgess.

Smokey, a fine natural hitter, batting at 272, uses an open batting stance.

harvard proved unsuccessful because it caused a three-player move washington had to replace the man who got on first base and washington himself had to be replaced when the team went back on the field The only specialist that has existed in baseball throughout the years is the pinch hitter, the man who can come into the ballgame and change the outcome of the game with one swing.

Examples like Smokey Burgess and Manny Mota.

And today with the New York Mets, Rusty Staub.

Last week, Howard Cosell asked Detroit manager Sparky Anderson if he can platoon too much.