In the world before Ohtani

Ken Brett

A generation-plus before anyone knows of Shohei Ohtani, one of baseball’s best dual pitching-hitting threats is Ken Brett, who in 1974 with the Pittsburgh Pirates enjoys his one and only All-Star season during 14 years in the majors.

Brett punctuates that season 50 years ago today with a two-hit, 6-0 shutout of the San Diego Padres in the first game of a doubleheader before a Memorial Day Monday afternoon crowd of 15,367 at Three Rivers Stadium.

Brett takes a perfect game into the ninth before Fred Kendall leads off the inning with a single to left.

Brett eventually allows a two-out double to left by Derrel Thomas before retiring Enzo Hernandez on a game-ending grounder back to Brett.

  “I was thinking about a no-hitter after the fifth inning,” Brett later tells The Associated Press. “You sit on the bench and think about what it means. You realize what you’ve got to do to get it.”

Then along comes Kendall’s history-spoiling single that falls in front of Pirates left fielder Richie Zisk.

“I just told myself, ‘Forget it, that’s all you can do,’ ” Brett says. “That’s a shining achievement. But I didn’t get it, and I can’t do anything about it now.”

Brett needs only to wait until the next game for another “shining achievement.”

This time, in the second game of the doubleheader, Brett pinch-hits for light-hitting shortstop Frank Taveras in the seventh inning and promptly delivers a two-run triple to tie the score of a game the Pirates eventually win 8-7 in the bottom of the ninth on a two-run homer by Richie Hebner off Padres reliever Jim McAndrew.

The pinch-hit triple in the seventh inning lifts Brett’s season batting average to .435.

Brett – the older brother of Hall of Famer George Brett, one of the game’s greatest hitters, period – finishes the 1974 season with a .310 batting average.

For his career, Brett hits .262 over 373 plate appearances with 10 homers and 44 runs batted in.

Four of those homers come in 1973 as Brett hits them in four straight starts – a record for a pitcher as a batter – during his lone season with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Would have a fifth homer in as many games, too, if not for second base umpire Dick Stello missing a call and ruling a ground-rule double for Brett instead of a home run in the sixth inning of Brett’s 5-4 loss to the Giants on June 3, 1973 in San Francisco.