Catcher witnessed plenty of 500 history
Hiatt, who spent 5 years with Giants, saw 4 men hit that milestone HR
Mike McCormick was known for a lot of things in his 16year career, including winning a Cy Young Award with the Giants in 1967.
McCormick, who died June 13 at 81, also gave up Hank Aaron’s 500th home run. Which Jack Hiatt knows all too well.
Hiatt was the Giants’ catcher July 14, 1968, when Aaron turned on a McCormick fastball and sent it to the deepest regions of Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. It was a threerun homer, and the Braves won 42.
“Not a highlight of my life,” Hiatt said in a recent Chronicle interview, “but a moment in my life I will never forget.”
Hiatt, 77, has the distinction of being in uniform the day four players hit their 500th home runs — in fact, four of the first nine in history. The other three were hit by Willie Mays, Ernie Banks and Eddie
Mathews.
In 2015, David Ortiz became the 27th player in the 500 homers club. In the ’60s, when Hiatt played, the club was tiny. Babe Ruth (1929), Jimmie Foxx (1940), Mel Ott (1945) and Ted Williams (1960) were the first four to hit 500.
From there, it seemed to have been reached only with Hiatt in the house. Hiatt was in his first season with the Giants in 1965 when Mays, the National League’s MVP that season, became the fifth player to hit 500 homers, off Houston’s Don Nottebart at the Astrodome.
Hiatt missed Mickey Mantle’s 500th on May 14, 1967. But exactly two months later, Hiatt witnessed No. 500 by Mathews, the seventh man to reach the milestone during his brief time with Houston, and it came off Juan Marichal at Candlestick Park.
Then came Aaron’s homer
off McCormick.
“Curveball low, screwball low, fastball that he hit 9 miles foul,” Hiatt said. “Mike’s best pitch at the time was his screwball. So I come back and called for a screwball. No (McCormick shook him off ). Curveball. No (another shakeoff ).
“Mike? Fastball? It’s tough to sneak a fastball past Aaron. He threw a fastball, and boom. He was thinking along with Aaron, who was thinking soft and not hard. But it’s hard to throw a fastball by that guy. That was Mike, he was going to challenge you. Aaron could’ve popped it up, but he whacked it.”
Banks was the ninth to hit 500, and this came on Hiatt’s first day with the Cubs. Montreal traded him to Chicago on May 12, 1970.
“The Expos were in New York, and (manager) Gene Mauch calls me into his room early in the morning and says, ‘You’ve been traded to Chicago, and they want you there now,’ ” Hiatt said. “Geez, I hustled to get a plane and cab and got to Wrigley in the second or third inning.
“I’m sitting in the bullpen with the pitchers and pitching coach, and here comes Ernie to the plate. He hits a home run, and the place goes absolutely nuts. I’m going, ‘Geez, he’s hit home runs before.’ I asked someone about the reaction and he says, ‘Hey, idiot, that’s his 500th.’ ”
Hiatt played nine seasons in the big leagues, five with the Giants, and worked in the Giants’ minorleague system for many years, including 16 as director of player development through 2007.