Ohtani’s greatest game of all-time stirs memories of a Slingin’ Red Wing | On Sports

Listen to this article

The Los Angeles Dodgers have decided that Shohei Ohtani’s playoff game last October in which he struck out 10 while also clubbing three home runs was so spectacular that it needed to be feted with not one, but two bobbleheads. The first will be given out to fans at Dodger Stadium Friday night. The second will be distributed at a home game on July 8.

Ohtani’s unprecedented two-way performance certainly is worthy of celebration. It’s been called the greatest in baseball history and it sparked debates as to whether it was also the greatest in sports history. There are many worthy candidates for that distinction, including the game Wilt Chamberlain had in 1962 when he scored an NBA-record 100 points and hauled down 25 rebounds. What made that prodigious feat even more impressive is that Wilt the Stilt – a notoriously poor free throw shooter – made 28 of his 32 foul shots to thoroughly thwart the New York Knicks’ hacking strategy.

One remarkable performance that often gets overlooked in these “greatest game” arguments was turned in by the only Rochester Red Wing to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

On Nov. 14, 1943 – just five years after wearing Wings flannels – Slingin’ Sammy Baugh put together what is arguably the most magnificent three-way play in NFL history, passing, punting and intercepting his way to victory as Washington defeated the Detroit Lions 42-20. In that game, Baugh threw four touchdown passes, intercepted four passes, and boomed four punts that traveled 54 or more yards, including one long-distance boot that sailed 81 yards.

Now, think about that for a moment. Imagine if Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady or Peyton Manning or Lamar Jackson were required to play not only offense and defense, but also special teams. Given his size, toughness, and freakish skills, I’d probably put my money on Allen pulling off something like this, though I don’t know how good of a punter the Buffalo Bills quarterback is.

Of course, football was a very different game back then, with rules mandating that guys play on both sides of the ball because teams, particularly during World War II, often suited up fewer than 30 players.

Because he last played 74 years ago, Baugh often gets forgotten in the debates about the greatest quarterbacks and all-around players. Though he wound up throwing more interceptions than touchdown passes, it bears noting that passing was a much tougher task back then. Rules didn’t protect quarterbacks or receivers the way they do today, when breathing on them gets you flagged for 15 yards. Footballs from that era were plumper and less aerodynamic, making throwing riskier. Plus, coaches were still operating under the belief that three things could happen when you put the ball in the air – and two of them (an incompletion or an interception) were bad.

All that being said, Baugh dominated his era. He led the NFL in completion percentage eight times and touchdown passes twice. During his mind-blowing 1943 season, he topped all quarterbacks in passing, picked off more passes than any defender (11) and finished with the highest punting average. He was so good he was named to the NFL’s all-time team as a quarterback and a punter.

Interestingly, after Ralph Wilson paid his $25,000 fee for an AFL franchise in 1959, Baugh was one of the first people he sought to coach the Buffalo Bills. Baugh declined his offer, choosing instead to coach the New York Titans who, a few years later, were renamed the Jets.

Thirty years ago I interviewed Baugh about his Red Wings days. He was a hoot: funny, profane, and with a Texas accent as thick as an armadillo’s shell. Baugh said he grew up a fan of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and dreamed about playing for the New York Yankees. “I’d always wanted to be a big-league baseball player,” he said. “Of course, things don’t always turn out as planned, now do they?”

No, they don’t. Though he didn’t become a big-leaguer, he did come within one rung of the majors. Baugh wound up catching the eye of St. Louis Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey, who offered him a minor-league contract for the 1937 season. But Baugh already had signed an NFL deal with Washington. Undaunted, Rickey inked him for the following year.

Baugh wound up leading Washington to a championship during his rookie season. Pro football salaries were paltry back then so, two months after winning-it-all, Baugh reported to the Cardinals spring training complex in Florida. He began the season with their Double-A team in Columbus, Ohio, and in mid-summer was promoted to Triple-A Rochester. He struggled mightily there, and finished the season with a triple, a home run, 11 runs batted in, and an abysmal .183 batting average.

“I didn’t exactly set the league on fire,” he said, chuckling.

His most memorable plays in Rochester occurred before games. Wings management occasionally staged throwing contests, pitting Baugh against the team’s catchers. A barrel was placed at second base, and Baugh would attempt to throw footballs into it from home plate, while the catchers usually tried to do the same using baseballs. To the delight of the fans and the chagrin of the Wings catchers, Baugh usually won.

After that season, Rickey attempted to sign him to another minor-league contract, but he declined. “It didn’t take no damn genius to make up my mind about which road I should travel,” Baugh said.

He chose the road that took him back to Washington and a football career that would include one of the most scintillating performances in sports history. A performance worthy of a bobblehead doll, or three.

Best-selling author and nationally honored journalist Scott Pitoniak is the Rochester Business Journal sports columnist.