The Pecan Park Eagle

PERFECT
BY STEVEN K. WAGNER
(SEE PHOTO NOTE THAT FOLLOWS DIRECTLY)

PHOTO NOTE: We just learned of this book at publication time tonight. We have not read it, but plan to do so. It is available through Amazon in paper back for $9.70 and in Kindle for $6.15. As always, unless it’s one of our own, we have no stake in the sale of this book. We are simply interested in the subject and I’m willing to risk that much change to see if Steven Wagner may bring some new light to the John Paciorek story.

Here’s the Amazon link:

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Most of you know the story of John Frances Paciorek, the kid who played one game in the big leagues for the Houston Colt .45s at Colt Stadium back on September 29, 1963, the last day the city’s second season as a member of the National League, but it bears rears repeating for the sake f history and all the younger or transplanted new fans who never heard it. Paciorek did something in that one MLB game career that no one ever had done before. And it may be this side of the twelfth of never before it ever again.

In that single final game of the 1963 season, Houston Colt .45 right fielder John Paciorek registered a perfect day at the plate, gathering three singles and two walks in five times at bat. It was the first and, so far, only time that any major leaguer with a one-game career had recorded a perfect batting average for players with more than three times at bat to their credit. The two walks, of course, added to the luster, giving Paciorek a five-for-five perfect OBP for his one game MLB career.  He also scored four runs and totaled three RBI.

Paciorek began the day with a walk in the second inning. He followed that first trip with a two-RBI single in the fourth that scored a couple of base runners named Rusty Staub and Bob Aspromonte. Then he promptly followed that first hit with a second single in the bottom of the fifth that again found Bob Aspromonte for Paciorek’s third RBI of the game. Paciorek drew another walk in the sixth and then capped the day with a lead off single in the eighth. The deed was done – and with great support from our one-game big leaguer. Mr. Paciorek closed the sunset with a perfect day. The Houston Colt .45s had closed the 1963 NL season with a 13-4 win over the New York Mets.

Going into spring training, John Paciorek looked like a good bet to make the 1964 Colt .45s club roster, but it was not to be. He had some shining moments in ST, but his overall play on both offense and defense got him sent down to the minors, where he continued to struggle with a batting average that netted out at .135 games at Durham and Statesville. Spinal fusion surgery finally shut him down for the most of 1964 and all of 1965. After struggling to come back in the minors for both Houston and Cleveland from 1966-1968, further injuries and unimpressive performance finally shut out the light on John Paciorek’s determined effort to get back to that mountaintop that he found for a single game on September 29, 1963.

It just didn’t happen.

Here’s the link to the box score from Baseball Almanac on the 9/29/1963 game between the home team Colts .45s and the New York Mets:

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=196309290HO1

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Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas