Former Cubs and A’s pitcher Ken Holtzman dies at 78

By the time Cubs greats Billy Williams and Ken Holtzman reunited with the Oakland A’s in 1975, the glory years were mostly behind them.

Williams had only two years left in a Hall of Fame career. Holtzman had more time, but he’d already hit his career highlights: a pair of no-hitters thrown with the Cubs, in 1969 and 1971, and back-to-back-to-back World Series won with the A’s from 1972 to 1974.

Still, Williams remembers rides to and from the Oakland Coliseum with Holtzman with a special fondness. By then a designated hitter, Williams and catcher Ray Fosse would pile into left-handed pitcher Holtzman’s perfect-for-the-times vehicle — a Volkswagon Bus — and cover the 20 miles between Walnut Creek, where each of the three lived, and the ballpark with loads of laughter.

“Boy, we had some fun,” Williams recalled. “Kenny was a great pitcher and a good friend.”

Holtzman — a 174-game winner, the most in major league history by a Jewish pitcher — died Sunday at 78. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the St. Louis native had been hospitalized for three weeks as he battled heart trouble.

A 15-season major league career began and ended for Holtzman with the Cubs, who drafted him in the fourth round in 1965 after an all-Big Ten campaign in his only year at the University of Illinois. Three months later, he was in the big leagues at 19 years old, making three relief appearances as a September call-up. He joined the rotation the following year.

Late in the 1966 season, Holtzman outdueled the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax — the greatest Jewish pitcher of them all — in a 2-1 Cubs win at Wrigley Field. It was their only head-to-head matchup and the last loss of Koufax’s career.

On Aug. 19, 1969, Holtzman no-hit the Braves in a 3-0 win at Wrigley in which he didn’t retire a single batter by strikeout. In the seventh inning, he gave up a long drive to left by none other than Hank Aaron, who hit it so hard, WGN announcer Jack Brickhouse said, “There, I believe, goes the no-hitter.” But the wind blew it back into Williams’ glove inches in front of the wall. Had it been hit a year later, it almost certainly would have landed in the outfield basket that was installed in 1970. Aaron made the game’s final out on a grounder to second baseman Glenn Beckert.

On June 3, 1971, Holtzman no-hit the Reds in Cincinnati, scoring the game’s only run himself after reaching on an error. He was traded to Oakland for outfielder Rick Monday at season’s end, the Cubs having put together a fine team that just couldn’t get over the hump and into the playoffs.

“He had great stuff,” said Hall-of-Famer Fergie Jenkins, a Cubs teammate from 1966-71. “When he went to the American League, Oakland knew they were getting a great pitcher.”

Holtzman was an AL All-Star in 1972 and 1973, when he won a total of 40 games, and finished a tremendous four-year stint with the A’s at 77-55 with a 2.92 ERA. Most impressively, he started Game 1 of the World Series for three straight championship teams. In 1972, against the Reds, he won the franchise’s first World Series game in 42 years and its first since the relocation to Oakland in 1968. In 1973, against the Mets, he won Game 7 at home. Holtzman dazzled as a World Series pitcher, going 4-1 with a 2.55 ERA overall.

Holtzman pitched his last four seasons, beginning in 1976, for the Orioles, Yankees and Cubs. His final 26 starts were with the Cubs, with whom his career numbers were 80-81 with a 3.76 ERA, 988 strikeouts and 15 shutouts.

Williams really got to know Holtzman in 1967, when the latter was on Illinois National Guard duty and available to the Cubs only on weekends. Holtzman often met the team on the road and played poker with Williams, Jenkins, Beckert, Ron Santo, Ernie Banks and Bill Hands.

“It was just outstanding to be in his company,” Williams said.

When Jenkins joined the Cubs in 1966, he wanted to wear the same No. 30 he’d worn with the Phillies. “You can’t have it,” Cubs clubhouse manager Yosh Kawano told him. “No way.” It belonged to Holtzman. Jenkins would settle for No. 31.

“Kenny and I competed [with each other],” Jenkins said. “Pitching, hitting, poker, you name it.”

In ’75, Williams and Holtzman’s one season together in Oakland, a handful of the A’s players got CB radios in their cars. Williams’ handle was “Whistler,” a nod to his hometown of Whistler, Alabama. In the Bus, Holtzman went as “Ball Four.”

Williams laughed as he reflected.

“Oh, man,” he said. “I’m just so sorry to hear about one of my teammates, one of my friends.”