Rick Wise

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Richard Charles (Rick) Wise (born September 13, 1945 in Jackson, Michigan) is a former right-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball for 18 seasons (1964, 1966-1982). He was the winning pitcher for the Boston Red Sox in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, considered by some to be the greatest Series game ever played.

[edit] Career

Rick Wise (1960s)

Wise was only 18 years of age when he debuted for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1964, his second professional season. He developed into a solid starter, winning 17 games with a 2.88 ERA for a sub-.500 Phillies team in 1971. The highlight of Wise's Philadelphia career occurred that year on June 23 when he threw a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds at Riverfront Stadium and hit two home runs – one of the greatest days any pitcher has enjoyed. Wise and Earl Wilson are the only two no-hit pitchers to hit a home run in the same game.

The following season, Wise became an unwitting participant in one of the most one-sided trades of the 1970s. The owner of the St. Louis Cardinals, August "Gussie" Busch, ordered his team to trade its star lefthanded pitcher, Steve Carlton, after a contract squabble. Because all of baseball knew of the trade mandate, teams drove very hard bargains, and the Phils' offer of Wise was the best St. Louis could do. Wise won a total of 32 games during his two seasons (1972-73) in St. Louis, but Carlton won 27 for the last-place 1972 Phillies alone and would go on to anchor their starting pitching staff for the next decade, ultimately winning 329 games and a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

After the 1973 campaign, Wise was shipped to Boston in the American League for outfielder Reggie Smith. His 1974 season was ruined by an arm injury suffered during a freezing April start at Fenway ^{[citation needed]}, but he rebounded in 1975 to win 19 for the Red Sox, winners of the AL East. He then won his only start in the 1975 ALCS against Oakland, and was the relief pitcher of record in Game 6 when Carlton Fisk ended the 12-inning game with his oft-replayed walk-off home run.

Wise was traded to the Cleveland Indians in spring training of 1978, and won 15 games for a poor team in 1979, before finishing his career with the San Diego Padres.

In an 18-year career, Wise posted a 188-181 record with 1647 strikeouts and a 3.69 ERA in 3127.00 innings pitched.

[edit] Trivia

On June 13, 1973, Wise, having already pitched one no-hitter against the Reds, narrowly missed joining Addie Joss as the only pitchers to throw two no-hitters against the same team (the Cleveland Indian pitcher threw no-hitters against the Chicago White Sox in 1908 and 1910; the former was a perfect game). This bid, however, was broken up by Joe Morgan's single with one out in the ninth.

Wise also had a no-hitter broken up against the Milwaukee Brewers in 1975 while with the Red Sox. In the first game of a July 2 doubleheader that year, former Red Sox George Scott homered off Wise with two out in the ninth to break up the no-hitter. Wise would have joined Cy Young and Jim Bunning as pitchers who had hurled no-hitters in both leagues; Nolan Ryan, Hideo Nomo and Randy Johnson had done it after Wise's bid was broken up.