The Infield Foursome Got Their Start 39 Years Ago Today

Thirty-nine years ago today, June 23, 1973, Walter Alston put the following players on the lineup card together for the first time:

Steve Garvey 1B

Davey Lopes 2B

Bill Russell SS

Ron Cey 3B

It was the second game of a double header against Cincinnati at Dodger Stadium.  The Dodgers had lost game one of the double dip and Alston plugged in the final cog of the legendary infield foursome for the second game of the day.  He gave first baseman Bill Buckner the rest of the day off and Steve Garvey started at first.  

It would be cool to say that the change was a success with an immediate impact, but that wouldn’t quite be the truth.  The Dodgers did win the game, thanks to Ken McMullen’s homer after he replaced Cey, who was injured while plating a run on a scoring fly ball hit by Dodger backup catcher Chris Canizzaro.   McMullen hit a three run homer in the 6th to break the game open as the Dodgers won 5 to 1.  By the days end, the Dodgers were in first place and 7 games up on the Reds.

Reds

Batting       AB R H RBI BB SO

Rose LF 4 1 1 0 0 0      0

Morgan 2B 4 0 1 0 0 0

Bench C 4 0 0 1 0 0      0

Perez 1B 3 0 0 0 1 0

Concpcn SS 3 0 0 0 0 0

Kosco RF 3 0 1 0 0 0

Tolan CF 3 0 0 0 0 1

Menke 3B 3 0 0 0 0 1

Hall P 2 0 0 0 0 0

Borbon P 0 0 0 0 0 0

Gagliano PH 1 0 0 0 0 1

McGlothlin P 0 0 0 0 0 0

Dodgers

Batting      AB R H RBI BB SO

Lopes 2B 3 2 1 0 1 0 

Mota LF         4 1 3 1 0 1

WDavis CF 4 0 1 0 0 0

Cey 3B         1 1 0 0 1 0

McMullen 3B 2 1 1 3 0 0

Garvey 1B 4 0 2 0 0 1

Paciorek RF 3 0 0 0 1 2

Russell SS 3 0 0 0 1 0

Canizzaro C 3 0 0 1 0 1

John P         3 0 0 0 0 1

Reds 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0   1 3 0

Dodgers         0 0 0 0 1 3 1 0 X   5 8 0

Due to Cey’s injury, it took another seven games before Alston wrote another lineup card with that quartet in the infield.  This time it was against the Braves in Atlanta, a 12-9 Dodger win in a 12 inning affair.  Garvey was able to handle the 1st base bag and his batting average raised sixty-five points over  an 8 game stretch.  It appeared to Alston that he had found a successful combination.  Additionally, Buckner could play a solid left field, which would put Mota in the pinch hitting role, something he thrived at.  It was a winning combination all the way around.

This was not a “Wally Pipp” type of story though.  Alston mixed and matched lineups, starting Buckner at first base quite often during the next few weeks, but by mid July, the foursome was completely entrenched into their starting infield spots.  That Dodger team won 95 games in ’73, but the Big Red Machine was too tough, digging deep and overcoming a ten game deficit to finish with 99 wins.  The Reds ebded the regular season 3.5 ahead of that young Dodger team.

It was a bitter sweet finish because the Dodgers actually finished 12 games higher in the standings over the N.L. East champion New York Mets.  That said,  Dodger infield accomplished quite a bit in ’73.  At 95-66, they had the third best record in all of Major League Baseball.  Had the current post season format been in place, who knows how far they could have gone?