Invisible
You go back over the years and there have been players who were on Dodger winning teams, made a contribution, and never were heard from again. This one will take some research! Off the top of my head though, I can name 3 easily. 1959, Chuck Churn, 1963, Dick Nen, and Dick…
You go back over the years and there have been players who were on Dodger winning teams, made a contribution, and never were heard from again. This one will take some research! Off the top of my head though, I can name 3 easily. 1959, Chuck Churn, 1963, Dick Nen, and Dick Calmus.
Chuck Churn
Churn was born on February 1, 1930, in Bridgetown Virginia. He was signed as an amateur free agent by the Phillies before the 1949 season. He spent 7 years in the minors and 1 in the service. He finally made it to the majors in 1957. He made his MLB debut against the Dodgers on April 18th. He gave up 2 hits and 2 runs in one inning. He pitched in 5 games for the Pirates and was sent down. He had no decisions and a 4.32 ERA in 8.1 innings.
He was selected by the Red Sox in the Rule 5 draft that winter, but placed on waivers in spring and picked up by the Indians. He pitched in 6 games for Cleveland, had no decisions, and had a 6.32 ERA in 8.2 innings. The Reds purchased him in May and sent him to AAA Seattle for the rest of the season.
He was acquired in a trade by the Dodgers on May 6, 1959, for Dick Hanlon and assigned to Spokane. In August he was recalled to the big club. Churn would appear in 14 games for the Dodgers, all in relief, winning 3 and losing 2. He also had a save and all of this coming down the stretch when the Dodgers were locked in a tight race with the Braves.
Churn was unscored on his first 3 appearances, then on September 2nd, he earned his first MLB win with 4.2 innings of scoreless relief over the Cardinals, 9-6. He then came in for Sandy Koufax with the Dodgers down to his former team, the Pirates, 4-2. in the 8th inning. The Dodgers scored 1 in the bottom of the 8th, and then rallied for 2 in the 9th to hand Elroy Face his only loss in an 18-1 campaign.
Churn’s 3 wins and the save were crucial in the close race. Then in the second playoff game, Churn relieved Podres with the bases loaded and the Dodgers down 4-2. He retired Enos Slaughter to end the threat but then gave up what seemed to be the nail in the coffin run putting LA down 5-2. He was replaced in the bottom of the 8th for a pinch hitter. But the Dodgers rallied for 3 in the 9th, forcing extra innings, and then won the game in the 12th on a run-scoring single by Carl Furillo that scored Gil Hodges. And the Dodgers were on their way to face the White Sox in the World Series.
Churn pitched in game one of the 59 series, relieving Craig. He gave up 6 runs, 2 earned, in 2/3rds of an inning. He did not pitch the rest of the series which LA won in 6 games. Churn never pitched in the majors again. He pitched full-time in the minors until 1962. He then joined the Astros as a player coach and then player-manager through 1967. Churn, whose nickname was “Slim” died in Lady Lake, Florida in October of 2017. He was 87 years old. His photo on the 1959 team picture was superimposed over another player’s face.
Dick Nen
Richard Leroy Nen was born in South Gate, California on September 24, 1939. Nen graduated from Phineas Banning High School and attended Harbor College and Cal State Long Beach. The Dodgers signed him in1961 and sent him to the Class C California League in Reno where he had a very good first season, hitting .351 with 32 HRs and 144 RBI’s. He spent 62 and most of 63 with Spokane of the PCL. He did not show the same kind of power-hitting 6 and then 9 HRs. But in the heat of a pennant race, he was called up in September.
On September 18th, he was inserted into the game as a pinch hitter and lined out to CF off of Bob Gibson. He remained in the game at 1st and in the 9th, with the Dodgers trailing 5-4, he hit a HR over the roof in RF tying the game off of Ron Taylor. The Dodgers went on to win in extra’s, sweeping the series and increasing their lead to 4 games over the Cardinals. The Dodgers went on to win the pennant and beat the Yankees in 4 games in the series. That HR was Nen’s only hit as a Dodger in 7 at-bats.
He was sent to Spokane for all of 1964, and then that winter was sent to the Senators as part of the blockbuster trade involving Frank Howard, Phil Ortega, Ken McMullen, and Pete Richert for Claude Osteen and John Kennedy. He would play parts of 4 seasons for the Senators and 1 with the Cubs finishing with a .224 avg and 21 career homers. He retired after the 1972 season. His son is Rob Nen the former reliever who had a 10-year career and 314 career saves.
Dick Calmus
Richard Lee Calmus was born on Jan 7th, 1944 in Los Angeles. Calmus attended Webster High School in Tulsa, OK and was a teammate of future MLB pitcher, Carl Morton. He was Tulsa Worlds basketball player of the year in 1962. While on the baseball team there, they won 2 state titles.
He was signed as a bonus baby in 1963, and under the rules, required to spend the entire year with the major league team. Calmus appeared in 22 games, started 2, and had a 3-1 record with a 3.17 ERA. His loss was against the Braves in one of his starts. His 3 wins came against the Mets (1) and Giants (2). He did not see any action in the World Series.
He went to AAA in 64 but developed arm trouble and was eventually traded to the Cubs in April of 67 for Fred Norman. He appeared in one game for the Cubs and that was it. He retired after the 1969 season. He is the uncle of Rocky Calmus who played in the NFL after winning the Butkus Award at the University of Oklahoma in 2001.
I am sure there are others, and I will keep looking. But these 3 I remember vividly. I was listening when Nen hit his homer in St. Louis.
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Discussion (85)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Damn those Giants. Belt, Posey and Wade do it again.
* Orel and Joe always fail to point out where the infield is playing, so we can understand the strategies being employed. Other TV crews do it routinely, sometimes with an overhead shot of the infield positioning with the names above the infielders. Our broadcast folks apparently don’t think its important.
It was unique and risky last night to have the infield in with a runner on 3rd and no outs, in the 5th. Doc risked a big inning choosing to defend a possible contact play.
The 1st time that we know the infield was playing IN was when TT caught the bullet grounder off Vilade’s bat. Urias got a K and a pop-up to get us out of the inning and Doc’s positioning worked. Orel might stop talking pitch selection long enough to set up other parts of the game.
* Just as I was thinking how Muncy has looked tentative at the plate, he goes oppo for a double. Never mind.
* No Joseph last night. All Joe. I wish he would pick up the pace. The games stops like a crash dummy into a wall when he gets in his slow down mode. He puts everybody to sleep.
* The Treinen and Chuck Nasty battle in the 7th was Awesome.
* Raley has to move the runner to 3rd somehow in the 10th. Just do one thing to help us. Albert bailed him out with that timely single.
* Garrett Hampton is a rocket. But he cost the Rockies with his inability to sac bunt – twice. He failed to move 2 runners in the 7th and 1 again in the 9th with poor bunting attempts, ending in strikeouts. Thank You. He has 8 sac bunts in 4 years so Buddy might just let him swing away.
* Getting the “leading lady” is so important in close games. The Rockies had the lead off man on base every inning from the 4th through the 9th; 2 on lead off walks by Kelly and KJ, late in the game. We have to do better in that area.
* Honestly it doesn’t get better than this. There’s a playoff feel to every game. I love it.
Did I mention those damn Giants?
For anyone that has been to Dodger stadium lately:
How easy, hard, frustrating, is it to get a Taxi, Uber, Lyft after the game?
Ill be there next week for the last Pads game and the first Brewers game…Looking like could be Scherzer and then Kersh….
Thanks in advance.
At least we still have a chance to win the West. We wouldn’t be having this conversation without Scherzer and TTurner. We’d be about 8 games out of first. Big High Five to AF and the Washington Nationals for making such a one sided trade.
The Dodgers are doing what they can do. Over the last 30 games, they are 22 – 8 (the best record in MLB) and the Giants are 20 – 10. (2nd best) Last night’s win was a really good one, but the Giants pulled out another one.
Those of us who complained about the losses in May and July kept saying that those games counted the same in the schedule as the games in September were told that it’s early and the Dodgers had plenty of time to come back. The problem is that this presupposes that the Giants were going to start losing at some point. Well, they didn’t.
Going forward, they can’t control anything except winning each day and hoping that the Giants finally lose a couple.
I watched the Pads-Giants after the Dodger game was over. Padres hit 4 homers including 2 by Machado. None with anyone on base. Musgrove blew a 4 run lead. In the 9th, none of the hits off of Melancon were hit hard at all. 2 barely made it to the outfield. Only Posey’s soft single to left was no where near a fielder. Just plain bad luck for the Padres. Giants incredible streak of winning games they should lose continues. And none of their remaining opponents, 5 with the Pads and then 3 each with Colorado and Az, are playing very well. Although they play the Rockies in Denver where they are a much better team as well the Dodgers know.
I think Gavin’s future is in the outfield.
Great article Bear, I remember Rob Nen and had no idea that his dad played.
The Padres are officially done, stick a fork in them. They get what they deserved by sending the clubhouse “town carriage” after Bauer. I hope she’s proud of herself.
Nice to see us have a little Giant’s magic last night. Thanks Tio for getting the job done. Vesia stepped up big time to earn his first save, I guess, while combining with Graterol for the bottom of the 10th.
Lux with another multi-hit game! He’ll be everyone’s favorite player in no time and will likely be TT’s double play partner next year. Can they get Mookie used to batting 3rd next year?
Melancon gave it up and the Padres rolled over for submariner Todd Rodgers to secure another Giant’s miracle win while getting Tatis to K and Manny to GIDP to end the game. What a sad ending for a sorry team.
Lux almost made a great play in LF last night. He was a little late on the jump and got the glove on the ball as it was hitting the ground, but just missed coming up with it to save a run. A little more experience out there and he comes up with that play.
It’s good and bad that Belli went on the IL yesterday. With all of his hitting issues, it was too much to ask him to play through the pain of a broken rib. His stay is retroactive and will miss this series and the D-Backs series, but will be back in time for a tune-up against the Padres and the Brewers.
With AJ coming off the IL on Thursday, I would put him back in CF where he’s at least comfortable so they can utilize Mookie’s arm in RF where it’s needed most and let Lux keep getting used to left field as opposed to moving him around the outfield to learn all the other angles specific to each position. Lux has never played any outfield growing up. I’m quite impressed with how he’s handled himself out there considering. Thanks to Zach Recks for donating his glove to Gavin!
Unbelievable how the Giants are doing it over and over and over again. Another 9th inning rallye for the W.
If hey would have only 2/3 of those insane wins the Dodgers would be ahead by 4-5 games.
Especially frustrating is when you look back at some of those head to head collisions. Jansen blowing 2 saves in a row , the Giants of who robbed Albert of the walk off homer, the botched call by the umpire on the check swing.
If only half of those games go our way we would be up 3 games.
Okay, enough with crying over spoild milk. Go get them today! Is Gavin on a tear or what ?!
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!
History is interesting. I can’t put my new book down. Read until 11 last night. Hard to get up at 4 when you don’t go down until 11.
I remember these names, though Calmus is a stretch. Some day a blogger might be writing about Raley and McKinney in this fashion. He goes full Brady and he could pass them all. I’d like to see it.
I think this is going to be a finish talked about for years.
I too think it fitting Pujols finish in St Louis. Agree about the crunches. His hand eye coordination is still there. A few less pounds would be good for him.
Equinox. Today is the day.
F’n Wade does again with a clutch winning hit for the Giants in the 9th in the Padres/Giants game last night.
The Giants are insane.
It was rumored that AJ Preller tried to fire himself after last night’s game, but he botched it!
Here were the Power Ratings on March 30, 2021:
Open on www.espn.comhttps://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31142014/2021-mlb-season-preview-power-rankings-best-worst-case-most-exciting-player-all-30-teams1. Dodgers
2. Yankees
3. Padres
23. Giants
The Yankees and Padres sure tanked, but the Giants?