Read Online Summer of '68: The Season That Changed Baseball--And America--Forever by Tim Wendel - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Tim Wendel
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later told Drysdale that Dietz had said he was eager to be hit by the pitch. If that’s what it took to break up the scoreless streak, he’d pay the price.
Afterward, Franks called Wendelstedt “gutless,” while Dodgers manager Walter Alston said he “never saw the play called before. But then, it’s the first time I ever saw anyone get deliberately hit by a pitched ball.”
In 1968, football was positioned to supersede baseball as the most popular game in the land. What seems incredible looking back on things is that few saw this sea change coming.
Unlike baseball, football could be played in almost any weather. The 1967 “Ice Bowl,” the National Football League Championship game between the Dallas Cowboys and the host Green Bay Packers the previous December, solidified the game’s status among sports fans. With the gametime temperature of thirteen degrees below zero, on a field that had literally frozen overnight into the famed tundra, the Packers drove for the game’s deciding score. Despite the weather, a sellout crowd packed the stands at famed Lambeau Field. Public address announcer Gary Knafelc said it was like “seeing big buffaloes in an enormous herd on a winter plains. It was prehistoric.” And great television.
But one game doesn’t make a sport king of the hill. Other planets must fall into alignment and that’s exactly what was afoot in 1968. An integral series of events was set into motion when, after leading the Packers to another Super Bowl championship, Vince Lombardi stepped down as Green Bay’s coach.
“Historians should recognize that the first real superstar in modern professional football was not Jim Brown or Joe Namath, but a coach—Vince Lombardi,” Bill Russell wrote. “He was much more of a celebrity across the country than any of his players—in fact, more than anybody who’d ever played pro football.
“Lombardi was the military commander, the dictator of the Green Bay Packers, and the players were useful only if they fit into the machine he designed. It was a winning one, and he drove his men to the limits of their endurance. Stories circulated about how he scoffed at injuries and expected his players to keep going. He demanded that they eat, drink and sleep football, in complete submission and loyalty to his discipline.”
On the surface, losing a single coach, even a legend like Lombardi, doesn’t seem like a deal-breaker. After all, the National Football League (NFL) had plenty of great teams left, starting with the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Colts. Yet many in the rival American Football League, the upstarts who had been crushed in the first two Super Bowls by Lombardi’s Packers, recognized that they now had an opening, perhaps a real opportunity to run for daylight. Even though discussions continued about making it possible for two NFL teams to meet in the Super Bowl—the insinuation being that this would ensure a matchup between better teams—the American Football League (AFL) had nonetheless gained a growing following. How large? Early in 1968 nobody was quite sure. But events would soon conspire to underscore that it was in fact far bigger and more national than many in the sport realized.
Football was a different kind of game in the AFL. Players on the Buffalo Bills, Oakland Raiders, Kansas City Chiefs, San Diego Chargers, and New York Jets usually weren’t as big or as heavy as their counterparts in the more established NFL. The new league had more than its share of castoffs and misfits. It also emphasized offense, especially the long ball. While lacking at some positions, its cadre of quarterbacks—Joe Namath, Daryle Lamonica, Jack Kemp, John Hadl, Lenny Dawson—could throw the pigskin downfield.
“We knew we couldn’t just duplicate what the NFL was doing,” said Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt. “At least in part, we had to go in a different direction. Often that meant throwing the ball, the quick-strike offense. We had to
Afterward, Franks called Wendelstedt “gutless,” while Dodgers manager Walter Alston said he “never saw the play called before. But then, it’s the first time I ever saw anyone get deliberately hit by a pitched ball.”
In 1968, football was positioned to supersede baseball as the most popular game in the land. What seems incredible looking back on things is that few saw this sea change coming.
Unlike baseball, football could be played in almost any weather. The 1967 “Ice Bowl,” the National Football League Championship game between the Dallas Cowboys and the host Green Bay Packers the previous December, solidified the game’s status among sports fans. With the gametime temperature of thirteen degrees below zero, on a field that had literally frozen overnight into the famed tundra, the Packers drove for the game’s deciding score. Despite the weather, a sellout crowd packed the stands at famed Lambeau Field. Public address announcer Gary Knafelc said it was like “seeing big buffaloes in an enormous herd on a winter plains. It was prehistoric.” And great television.
But one game doesn’t make a sport king of the hill. Other planets must fall into alignment and that’s exactly what was afoot in 1968. An integral series of events was set into motion when, after leading the Packers to another Super Bowl championship, Vince Lombardi stepped down as Green Bay’s coach.
“Historians should recognize that the first real superstar in modern professional football was not Jim Brown or Joe Namath, but a coach—Vince Lombardi,” Bill Russell wrote. “He was much more of a celebrity across the country than any of his players—in fact, more than anybody who’d ever played pro football.
“Lombardi was the military commander, the dictator of the Green Bay Packers, and the players were useful only if they fit into the machine he designed. It was a winning one, and he drove his men to the limits of their endurance. Stories circulated about how he scoffed at injuries and expected his players to keep going. He demanded that they eat, drink and sleep football, in complete submission and loyalty to his discipline.”
On the surface, losing a single coach, even a legend like Lombardi, doesn’t seem like a deal-breaker. After all, the National Football League (NFL) had plenty of great teams left, starting with the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Colts. Yet many in the rival American Football League, the upstarts who had been crushed in the first two Super Bowls by Lombardi’s Packers, recognized that they now had an opening, perhaps a real opportunity to run for daylight. Even though discussions continued about making it possible for two NFL teams to meet in the Super Bowl—the insinuation being that this would ensure a matchup between better teams—the American Football League (AFL) had nonetheless gained a growing following. How large? Early in 1968 nobody was quite sure. But events would soon conspire to underscore that it was in fact far bigger and more national than many in the sport realized.
Football was a different kind of game in the AFL. Players on the Buffalo Bills, Oakland Raiders, Kansas City Chiefs, San Diego Chargers, and New York Jets usually weren’t as big or as heavy as their counterparts in the more established NFL. The new league had more than its share of castoffs and misfits. It also emphasized offense, especially the long ball. While lacking at some positions, its cadre of quarterbacks—Joe Namath, Daryle Lamonica, Jack Kemp, John Hadl, Lenny Dawson—could throw the pigskin downfield.
“We knew we couldn’t just duplicate what the NFL was doing,” said Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt. “At least in part, we had to go in a different direction. Often that meant throwing the ball, the quick-strike offense. We had to
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