Athletes - Ken Holtzman

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	Athletes - Ken Holtzman

Ken Holtzman (born November 3, 1945 in St. Louis, Missouri) was a Jewish-American major league baseball pitcher, mostly for the Chicago Cubs and the Oakland Athletics.

The lefty's early years were with the rising Cubs team of the mid and late 1960s. In 1967 he spent much of his time in the National Guard, pitching on the occasional weekend, in what turned out to be a storybook season for him, as he was a perfect 9-0 in the 12 games in which he appeared.

With his military obligations behind him, he became a strong second starter behind Ferguson Jenkins, and the Cubs began making noise, in the East Division of the National League, for the first time since World War II. In their famous and bittersweet season of 1969, Holtzman pitched a no-hitter against the eventual West Division winning Atlanta Braves before a packed weekday crowd at Wrigley Field on August 19. In the seventh inning, veteran slugger Hank Aaron hit a towering drive to left field, which would landed on Waveland Avenue on a normal day... but with a strong north wind blowing in, it was one of those "pitcher's days" at Wrigley, and the ball was barely kept in the park. Billy Williams leaped up at the "well" of the left field bleachers and snared the ball against the vines. Nowadays, a fly ball like that probably would land in the "basket" that was installed in the early 1970s to prevent fan interference. Radiocaster Vince Lloyd covered the play this way, in an amusing transition from despair to delight:

:(loud crack of the bat) Aaron swings, look out, that baby is hit... It is way back there... Billy Williams, back to the wall... back to the corner... HE GRABS IT!!!" (loud roar from the crowd)

Aaron also faced Holtzman in the ninth, and Holtzman got him to ground out to complete the no-hitter. Showing a knack for facing down powerful-hitting teams, Holtzman repeated the feat at Cincinnati in 1971, blanking the "Big Red Machine" during what would prove to be his final year with the Cubs. In 1972 Holtzman was traded to the A's just in time to ride the Oakland Championship freight train, as the A's went on to win 3 consecutive World Series championships. Holtzman would go 4-1 in his Series appearances, even knocking a home run in a key situation. During his 15-year career, he had only 2 regular-season home runs.

In the late 70s Holtzman bounced around the Bigs for awhile, finishing back with the Cubs. He went on to a successful business career.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Ken Holtzman ]

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