Welcome to Routine Moments in Baseball History, a running weekday feature that looks back at plays that have been ignored by the history books because history books only talk about things that are important or interesting. Today's installment is "Rocky Bridges Draws a Walk at the Polo Grounds."Rocky Bridges had a head like a concrete block, a gap between his front teeth, and a face that looked like it had been hit a few times after the mouth had downed a few too many drinks. He always had a big wad of chewing tobacco wedged in his cheek and the expression of a man bracing himself for bad news. He looked, in other words, like a ballplayer. "In fact, he may have looked more like a ballplayer than any other ballplayer who ever lived," is the description of him that comes from something called The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book by way of Wikipedia. He was a baseball lifer, a utility infielder who played on eight teams in 11 seasons and went to the All-Star Game in 1958. He batted .247 over his career and had an OPS of .623-basically, he was a Punch and Judy hitter with no power who knew his best shot at getting on the field and staying there was being able to play as many positions as he could. Just for fun, here's what he looked like as a player:
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And, much later, as a manager:
So you can guess the sort of figure he cut in the on-deck circle on July 30, 1954, at the Polo Grounds in New York. His Cincinnati Redlegs (the Reds had recently changed their name to avoid associations with the communist menace) were playing the Giants and behind 1-0 in the fifth inning thanks to a Wes Westrum home run. New York's pitcher, Ruben Gomez, was cutting through Redlegs batters with humiliating ease and had already struck out Bridges once. As he walked up and took his position over the plate, Bridges was probably doing that half-scowl, half-squint thing he did and spitting out brown spurts of tobacco juice every few minutes. The Polo Grounds crowd of 13,000 was sweltering in the late July heat and maybe shouting jeers down his way; more likely, they just didn't notice him. Their team had won four straight World Series and was in first place in the National League, as usual. Rocky Bridges did not inspire fear in the hearts of those fans.Bridges wasn't a very patient hitter (he'd draw only 37 walks during the whole 1953 season), and you can imagine him making quick, businesslike swings, just trying to make contact and hope the ball lands in play. He was up against pretty stiff competition in Gomez, who in his native Puerto Rico was nicknamed El Divino Loco, "the Divine Madman." That is a goddamn nickname right there. Everett Lamar Bridges, on the other hand, got dubbed "Rocky" by someone, probably some older male relative who watched approvingly as he got into some youthful scrape, and for the rest of his life he'd have a name that sounded transparently fake. Life ain't fair.For a single at-bat the Divine Madman didn't have his customary control, or Rocky suddenly learned how to restrain his bat, and the Redleg trotted to first. Not that it would make much of a difference: He got stranded, his team went on to lose 6-1, and the Giants would win the pennant and then their fifth straight World Series. Rocky Bridges's walk was just a tiny bump in the road.This has been Routine Moments in Baseball History. Follow Harry Cheadle on Twitter