May 24, 1963 - When the National League’s worst road club meets the worst home team, something is bound to give. That is the situation tonight when the New York Mets take a 4-18 road record to Busch Stadium against the Cardinals and their 7-8 home mark. No one is more confident than Ernie Broglio that the Cardinals finally will break loose on their home grounds. “We’ve got too good a club to be playing near .500 baseball,” said Broglio, who beat the Cubs in Chicago yesterday, 1-0, on a home run by Gene Oliver (pictured). Bob Gibson, a 6-2 pitcher at this point a year ago but now stuck at 1-3, will face the Mets’ Roger Craig tonight. Gibson could hardly improve on Broglio’s third shutout of a 5-1 season and his first 1-0 game since he came to the majors. Ernie had to be at his best because the Cubs’ Dick Ellsworth fell one pitch short of matching his performance. It was a good pitch, winners and losers agreed. “I don’t see how you got the ball into the air,” plate umpire Augie Donatelli told Oliver after the catcher blasted a full-count sinking fastball, low and away, into the left field catwalk in the fifth. There was one unhappy note about Oliver’s heroics. His father missed the game. “Dad thought Ellsworth was supposed to pitch Wednesday, so he worked from midnight to 7 in the morning at a factory in Rock Island, Ill., then drove to Chicago, about 180 miles away, for the game,” Oliver explained. “Dad’s getting too old to try that long drive two straight days right after work, so he stayed home for Ellsworth’s game."
Comments