By Jeff Stuart
After the Senators left Washington after the 1971 season, I had scant interest in baseball, though I made a few yearly trips up 1-95 to Memorial Stadium and tuned in at playoff time. The 1980 National League play-off series between the Phillies and Astros remains a personal favorite. It wasn’t because the Astros’ Terry Puhl batted .526 and the Phillies’ Pete Rose batted .400 and bowled over Houston catchers on several occasions. Nor was it because there were four extra-inning games among the five. What captured my attention was former Senator Del Unser‘s key pinch hits for the Phillies. He may have been a member of the Phillies, but he was our boy too.
In game five on October 12, 1980 at the Astrodome, Houston led 5-2 after seven innings. Nolan Ryan was still on the mound for the Astros in the top of the eighth, but the Phillies loaded the bases with nobody out. Ryan walked Rose to force in a run, and Keith Moreland’s groundout off reliever Joe Sambito brought home another. When Mike Schmidt took a third strike from reliever Ken Forsch for the second out, Phillie fans despaired. But I was glued to the TV set because Del Unser was now batting for the pitcher. He came through with an RBI single to right-center, tying the game at 5- 5. Manny Trillo, the series MVP, then put the Phillies ahead with a two-run triple.
The Astros promptly came back to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth. Neither team scored in the ninth, but Unser came through again in the tenth. He and Gary Maddox doubled to give the Phillies an 8-7 lead. Philadelphia’s Dick Ruthven retired the Astros in order in the bottom of the inning, and the Phillies had their first pennant since 1950.
In the World Series against Kansas City, the Phils won the first game at Veterans Stadium, but in game two they trailed 4-2 in the bottom of the eighth. Facing Dan Quisenberry, Unser knew the submarine right-hander hag a fastball that had great movement but was short on velocity. Unser got a hold of one and ripped it into left-center for a run-scoring double that tied the game. The Phillies went on to win. 6-4.
Unser’s fourth clutch hit came in the ninth inning of game five. The Royals had evened the series at two games apiece and were ahead 2-1 entering the ninth. inning. Mike Schmidt led off with a single. Unser faced Quisenberry again and doubled into the right field corner to score Schmidt and tie the game. He eventually scored the winning run. Back home at the Vet, the Phillies wrapped up the Series with a win in game six.
It all began for Del in Washington. He was originally drafted out of Mississippi State by the Minnesota Twins in the second round of the 1965 amateur draft. He was also drafted by the Pirates in the secondary phase of the 1966 draft but did not sign with either club. On June 8, 1966 he was drafted by the Washington Senators in the first round (18th overall) of the secondary phase of the amateur draft. He signed on June 28 for a large bonus.
After accepting congratulations on a successful 1967 season, Senators general manager, George Selkirk told sportswriter George Minot, “You ain’t seen nothing yet. There are talented youngsters down on
the farm.” According to Selkirk, the best outfield prospect was Unser. “He’s a fine fielder with a good arm and speed. He only hit .242 with five home runs – two on the last day – for York, but that’s as good as anyone down there. Unser does a lot better with his glove than anybody we’ve had, including Don Lock, and there’s no way he can strike out as much.”
But the club’s biggest need was for hitters, and there was doubt that he would hit. Selkirk and new manager Jim Lemon watched Unser play in the Florida Instructional League. He led the league with a .350average. “He changed our minds completely,” said Selkirk.
Del won the starting centerfield job in spring training, batting .375 and catching everything in sight. “The Senators are coming north with a centerfielder,” wrote Shirley Povich. “Young Del Unser can go get a fly ball in any direction and heave back when necessary. He hasn’t proven he can hit yet, but nobody who played centerfield for the Senators last season hit either. And with Unser they have everything to gain.”
In his opening day review, Povich mentioned Unser again. “The new boy, Del Unser, led off the fourth with a hit. It was not a loud hit, merely a deft bunt down the third base line that he beat out, but it was the first aggressive action of the day by the Senators. Nothing much came of it, however.” The Senators lost to Dean Chance and the Minnesota Twins, 2-0. That was on April 10, 1968.
The bunt became a valuable weapon for the speedy Del. With seven hits in his first three major league games, things looked bright for Unser, despite the fact that he committed an unexpected two errors in game three. He misjudged a fly ball hit by Oakland’s Reggie Jackson, allowing it to get over his head for a triple. He also booted a single allowing a runner to take an extra base in the previous inning, and his throw to second on a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the ninth allowed two runners to move up. Both later scored on an error by second baseman Frank Coggins. The A’s won 9-6.
He had four singles and a home run vs. Athletics on August 20, 1968, but his hitting tailed off. He established himself as second only to Paul Blair defensively, leading the AL outfielders in assists, double
plays and total chances per game. He finished just two putouts behind the league leader. Despite hitting a mere .230, Unser was. named The Sporting News AL Rookie of the Year.
“On a team like the Senators, Del Unser is a pure joy. He can run, hit, field and throw, and if the team had a few more like him they wouldn’t be a 200-1 long shot in the approaching American League pennant race,” wrote George Minot in the Washington Post, just prior to Opening Day in 1969. “A year ago, he led the American League outfielders in assists, embarrassed third basemen with his bunts, enraged pitchers with his handle hits, led the team in stolen bases and earned the gratitude of Frank Howard for playing half of left field for him.”
On June 9, in Bloomington, Minnesota, Unser’s 12thinning homer lifted the Nats to a 7-5 win over the Twins. It was his second homer in six days and the third of his major league career. “Ted Williams advised me to switch to a lighter bat so I could pull more,” said Unser, a punch hitter who usually hit to the opposite field. He discarded his bat which was modeled after coach Nellie Fox‘s bottle shaped bat and took a more whip-like Mike Epstein brand.
On September 7, in Boston, Del was scratched from the starting lineup because of an aching back. “I can still hit,” he said, and he was right. His tenth-inning pinch homer gave the Nats a 3-1 win over the Red Sox. It was his fifth of the year. Frank Howard had hit his 44th earlier in the game.
On September 29 at RFK Stadium, Unser hit another tenth-inning homer to give Washington a 7-6 win over the Indians. The homer was Unser’s seventh of the year. The Senators finished the season with a record of 86-76, and Unser improved his average to .286 and led the league with eight triples.
Unser was the right fielder in the Senators last game on September 30, 1971 at RFK Stadium. “I was hitless but there must have been some hard outs in there somewhere,” he said with a smile. “It was eerie and a little scary. I grabbed my hat and ran for the dugout. And it was broken field running too. They were taking light bulbs out of the scoreboard and smashing them. You just didn’t know what was going to happen. There was so much animosity toward Bob Short. The team had been run on a shoestring. He probably didn’t really want to succeed there because he knew he had a pot of gold waiting for him in Texas.”
While with the Senators, Unser completed a Master degree in Physical Education from the University of
Maryland. He was traded by the then Texas Rangers to Cleveland on December 2, 1971, along with Gary Jones, Terry Ley and Denny Riddleberger for Roy Foster, Ken Suarez, Mike Paul and Rich Hand. Selkirk, former Senators general manager and no longer with the club, lamented the trade. “I would have stayed with Unser. He was one of our brighter prospects and he lived up to his potential.”
In November, 1972, Del was traded with minor leaguer Terry Wedgewood to the Phillies for Oscar
Gamble and Roger Freed.
Lamenting Del’s fate, in March, 1973, George Minot wrote in the Washington Post: ”There were times covering the Senators when it appeared that only Unser and Frank Howard were putting forth maximum effort.
By being dealt to Cleveland, he went from a team suffering from a worse record. Then he was
sent to an even more woeful team, the Phillies.” Only the Texas Rangers, a team for which he never actually played, lost more games in 1972. Minot pointed out to Unser that he had been a member of three of the sorriest of baseball teams in as many years.
“San Diego would probably be my next stop,” joked Unser. The 1972 Padres finished in last place in the NL West with a record of 58-95. But he looked forward to playing in Philadelphia. “Because this isn’t a last place team anymore,” he said. “There is better pitching and I’ll be in center. Danny Ozark [the Phillies new manager] has promised me a chance and that’s all anyone can ask.”
On June 26, 1973, he hit a three-run homer off Bob Gibson of the Cardinals and a run-scoring single off AI Hrabosky. He had several 4-RBI games in his career.
Unser hit a career-best .294 for the Mets in 1975, but slumped in 1976 and was never an everyday player again. He was traded to the Montreal Expos with Wayne Garrett in exchange for Pepe Mangual and Jim Dwyer on July 21, 1976. Remembering the trade to Montreal, Unser said, “I spent a lot of time on the bench and that is where I learned patience. There was no way I was going to break into that outfield of Cromartie, Dawson and Ellis Valentine.”
Hoping to catch on with another club, he chose not to re-sign with the Expos in 1979. In the spring of that year, he was playing in a racquetball tournament in Las Vegas when Phillies general manager Paul Owens contacted him. He was’ at Phillies training camp the next morning.
That season, he tied a major league record by hitting pinch-hit homers in three consecutive at-bats – the final one a game-winning, three-run homer against Rollie Fingers of the Padres. Overall, he hit .304 as a pinch hitter in 1979. In the Phillies 1980 championship season, he hit .316 as a pinch-hitter.
After an 0-14 start, the Phillies released him on June 18, 1982, ending a 15-year career. He continued to work for the Phillies as a first base coach and in the front office. He is currently a scout on the west coast.
Unser was chosen to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for the Washington Nationals inaugural game against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on April 4, 2005. On a cool, windy afternoon, wearing an unbuttoned Senators jersey, Unser wound up and delivered a toss to Phillies catcher Todd Pratt, signaling the start of the 2005 season and a new era of baseball for Washington.
“I’m almost speechless about the situation. It makes me feel really good,” he said. “Washington is a fantastic place, and we’re going to find out it will be a great baseball city. Everything happens there. You’re on top of everything happening not only in the U.S., but the world. It’s a neat place, and I wish them the best.” Not on this day, however. “I work for the Phillies,” Unser said with a twinkle in his eye. “I want to see us win.”
