[msb-alumni] Carroll Hardy, 87, Athlete Who Went Down in History Pinch-Hitting for a Star, died on August 9, 2020
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2020 14:02:24 -0400
BlankCarroll Hardy, 87, Athlete Who Went Down in History Pinch-Hitting for a
Star. By
Richard Sandomir.
He was a college star in three sports and a successful N.F.L. executive. But he
was
better known as the only player who ever pinch-hit for Ted Williams.
Carroll Hardy, a reserve outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, was on the
visitors'
bench in Baltimore late in the 1960 season when Ted Williams, the team's
megastar,
fouled a pitch off his right foot during his first at-bat against the Orioles.
Hobbled, he left the field. Hardy was told by Mike Higgins, known as Pinky,
the Red
Sox manager, to pinch-hit for Williams. Hardy proceeded to loft a soft line
drive to
the pitcher, Skinny Brown, who threw to first base for a double play.
It was an ordinary play in a forgettable season for the Red Sox, except for one
detail. No one had ever -- ever -- pinch-hit for Teddy Ballgame. Eight days
later,
when Williams hit a long home run in the last at-bat of the final game of his
career -- a moment memorialized by John Updike in The New Yorker in the article
"Hub
Fans Bid Kid Adieu" -- Hardy showed up in another cameo: After Higgins sent
Williams
to left field in the top of the ninth inning to soak up the fans' cheers, he
sent
Hardy out to replace him.
"They booed me all the way out," Hardy told The Los Angeles Times in 2009, "and
cheered him all the way in."
Those two episodes overshadowed Hardy's more substantial achievements as an
athlete
and, later, a football executive. He was a football, baseball and track star at
the
University of Colorado, Boulder, then played one season in the N.F.L., 1955,
for the
San Francisco 49ers. After finishing his baseball career in 1968, he became
part of
the front-office team that built the dominant "Orange Crush" defense that took
the
Denver Broncos to Super Bowl XII in 1978.
Hardy died on Sunday at a memory care center in Highlands Ranch, Colo. He was
87. His
son-in-law, Bill Bissell, said the cause was complications of dementia.
Carroll William Hardy was born on May 18, 1933, in Sturgis, S.D. His father,
Walter,
was a rancher, and his mother, Hazel (Veren) Hardy, was a homemaker.
A gifted athlete with a square Dick Tracy jaw, Carroll rushed for 1,999 yards
as a
halfback for the Colorado Buffaloes; his average of 6.87 yards a carry is still
a
school record for players with at least 60 carries. He scored a touchdown on
his
first carry as a freshman in 1951 and rushed for 238 yards and three touchdowns
in
his final game, a 38-14 win over Kansas State in 1954.
In baseball, his .392 batting average remains Colorado's all-time best. He also
excelled at the 100-yard dash and the broad jump on the school's indoor track
team.
He was chosen by the 49ers in the third round of the 1955 N.F.L. draft, but he
also
signed to play baseball with the Cleveland Indians. He joined the Indians'
minor
league team in Reading, Pa., then, late in the season, left to play for the
49ers.
Playing alongside the great quarterback Y.A. Tittle, Hardy caught 12 passes for
338
yards and scored four touchdowns that season. It was a tough season physically
-- he
sustained numerous injuries -- and he returned to baseball in 1956, playing in
Indianapolis for another Indian minor league team.
Over the next dozen years he played for four other minor league teams and a
Venezuelan winter league team and, in the big leagues, for the Indians, Red
Sox,
Houston Colt .45s (now the Astros) and Minnesota Twins. He hit his first major
league
home run with Cleveland in 1958 in yet another cameo: as a pinch-hitter for
Roger
Maris, who three years later would hit 61 home runs for the Yankees, breaking
Babe
Ruth's single-season record.
Over eight seasons in the major leagues, Hardy had a career batting average of
.225
with 17 home runs and 113 runs batted in.
Near the end of his baseball career, he started scouting for the Broncos in the
off-season; in 1968, he managed the St. Cloud Rox minor league baseball team to
a
title. He started working full time for the Broncos in 1969, as an associate
ticket
manager. He was named director of scouting the next year and later held roles
in
player personnel, including assistant general manager.
The Broncos' Orange Crush defense that Hardy helped put together in the late
1970s
and early '80s included Tom Jackson, Lyle Alzado, Randy Gradishar, Louis Wright
and
Barney Chavous. He also helped assemble the Bronco teams that played in Super
Bowls
XXI and XXII, although they lost both times.
After retiring from the Broncos in 1987, he worked for a decade at the
Steamboat
Resort in Steamboat Springs, Colo., in the ticket office and as a golf marshal.
He is
survived by his wife, Janice (Mitchell) Hardy; his daughters, Jill Bissell and
Lisa
Wynn; his son, Jay; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Hardy was good-humored about being remembered mostly for his slender connection
to
Ted Williams.
"I'd like to have people remember me for hitting 400 home runs and a lifetime
batting
average of .305," he told The Denver Post in 1993, "but I didn't do that."
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