55 years ago Thursday, great grab denied Tuckahoe in Little League World Series (2024)

“He clutched the baseball to his bosom.”

Now there’s something a television broadcaster doesn’t often utter.

The 55th anniversary is Thursday, and team members try to get together every five years or so to watch video from that game, according to Gray Oliver, the first baseman for Tuckahoe Little League in that near-world championship, six-inning nail-biter.

Oliver said Wednesday that he hoped this might be one of those reunification years. But the guys who were 11 and 12, living in Richmond and hanging out together in 1968 are now in their late 60s, some residing outside Virginia, and occupied with various endeavors.

“We’ll try to do something somewhere,” said Oliver, who played baseball and football at the College of William & Mary.

The Saturday afternoon game was televised by ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” on tape delay a few hours after it started. This was long before cable TV and the internet. Jackson, in the early stages of a spectacular TV career, was joined by analyst Jim Piersall, a former outfielder in the big leagues.

Oliver calculated the odds of Tuckahoe Little League making that championship game at “a million to one.”

Tuckahoe won 13 consecutive postseason games in a single-elimination format to reach the championship game. In the postseason, Roger Miller pitched five no-hitters and averaged 12 strikeouts in six-inning games. Oliver recalled Miller having remarkable control with a strong fastball, a curve and a change-up.

On the morning of the championship game, rain fell in Williamsport, and the infield dirt was discolored with drying agent. Japan, the home team, wore white uniforms and red hats with blue beaks. Tuckahoe dressed in gray with blue hats that had red beaks.

“Hello, everybody, I’m Keith Jackson, and I’ll be calling the play today on ABC’s ‘Wide World of Sports.’”

He referred to the game as “the moment of truth” and introduced Piersall, who labeled the day as “the thrill of a lifetime” for the players.

‘We must have 15,000 people watching the ballgame’

Jackson noted that it was 46 feet from the plate to the pitching rubber, 60 feet between the bases, and then went over the outfield dimensions. “To put it in simple terms, it is two-thirds the size of a symmetrical major league ballpark,” he said.

The game started, and Jackson said, “the Japanese team, a very careful baseball team.” It was known for airtight defense, execution of fundamentals and hitters who choked up on the wood bats that all players used back then.

“Most of these Japanese players are more ‘punch’ hitters,” Piersall said. “They just try to get a piece of it.”

As cameras showed the crowd in the stadium, Jackson said, “We must have 15,000 people watching the ballgame.” Many were from Richmond.

The game proceeded, and Tuckahoe’s John Mizelle was hit by a pitch. “Off the mound, the (Japanese pitcher) bows to him, offers apologies,” Jackson said.

Piersall, who was involved in numerous scuffles as a player, said: “Never had anybody shake my hand when I got hit. I’m liable to deck him.”

A Japanese infielder cleanly dealt with a challenging ground ball, and Piersall said “he handled that like picking cherries.”

Hank Stoneburner came to bat for Tuckahoe and Jackson said: “You’ll find most of these young men want to be baseball players. This player wants to be a heart surgeon.”

Stoneburner became a heart surgeon in Richmond.

Japan’s pitcher consistently threw strikes, with fastballs and curveballs. Piersall called the breaking pitches “kind of a strain on these youngsters’ arms. I’d much rather see a young boy get a good fastball and change-of-speed (pitch) and come up with a curveball when he’s 13 or 14.”

That curve mastered some Tuckahoe batters.

“He’s backing out. He’s having trouble staying in there. Putting that foot in the bucket,” Piersall said of one Tuckahoe player. “They have to try to hit the ball to the opposite field.”

(Remember that for later.)

Miller experienced some control issues in the fourth inning. Jackson said Miller “finds the plate jumping a little bit.” Japan took a 1-0 lead as Tuckahoe experienced a defensive glitch.

“That one run looks awfully big,” Jackson said.

After every inning in the field, the Japanese players ran from their positions and huddled outside their dugout, hats off, heads down.

“Notice how the Japanese player bows to the (umpire),” Jackson said.

Miller died at 54 in 2010 at a hospice in Maine from the effects of hepatitis C, which he apparently contracted from transfusions in the 1970s while he was being treated for injuries he suffered in a car wreck that almost killed him, his sister said.

Miller lived with teammates during the summer of 1968 after his family moved to Connecticut while he remained in Richmond for baseball. Jackson said, “and don’t you know he’s glad he did.”

Miller regained momentum in the championship game after the control issue.

“He sawed that one off in his hands,” Piersall said after a Japanese player broke his bat swinging at an inside pitch.

‘And the ballgame is over’

Tuckahoe, trailing 1-0, came up for its final at-bat in the top of the sixth inning. Oliver singled. Jim Pankovits, who went on to play in the major leagues, reached on an infield single.

With two outs, up came the right-handed-hitting Mizelle, with the crowd buzzing and Oliver on second, Pankovits on first. Mizelle did as Piersall suggested, and hit the ball the other way on the first pitch he saw.

Jackson: “Hard shot to right field!”

Japan’s right fielder, Nobuhiko Funaoka, took three steps toward the line and made a sprawling grab.

“A great diving catch!” Jackson said. “And the ballgame is over!”

Oliver to this day feels very confident that if that ball had dropped, he would have scored easily and Pankovits would have made it home, too. Tuckahoe then would have had at least a 2-1 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth and Japan’s final offensive opportunity.

But Funaoka “kind of turned it into an ESPN play before there was ESPN,” Pankovits said. Each team finished with three hits.

Tuckahoe players immediately lined up for postgame handshakes with the Japanese players.

Of the victors, Jackson said, “they are accepting the congratulations of a fine group of young men from Richmond, Virginia.”