Bo Belinsky

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Bo Belinsky bigraphy, stories - American baseball player

Bo Belinsky : biography

December 7, 1936 – November 23, 2001

Robert "Bo" Belinsky (December 7, 1936 – November 23, 2001) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball, who became an instant southern California celebrity as a rookie with the original Los Angeles Angels, especially when the fourth of his season-opening four straight wins was a no-hitter against his former organization, the Baltimore Orioles. Belinsky is one of only two pitchers in Angels franchise history to start his career with a four-game winning streak or better (the other being Jered Weaver).

Baseball career

Belinsky had a career record of just 28–51, but threw the first no-hitter in the history of the Los Angeles Angels and the first one at Chavez Ravine Stadium, beating the Baltimore Orioles 2–0 on May 5, 1962.

He was born in New York City, to a Polish-American Catholic father and a Jewish mother, but raised mostly in Trenton, New Jersey, where he became a "street rat" and one-time pool hustler. Belinsky was already notorious as a minor leaguer for his night life during several seasons in the Oriole farm system. His career and life changed when the Angels picked him in a minor league draft for the 1962 season. His pre-season contract holdout and charismatic personality made him a star before he’d thrown a single pitch in major league competition.

But the no-hitter — his fourth straight win at the start of his rookie season — would immortalize his name and, perhaps, mark the beginning of his long downfall. He would finish the 1962 season with a 10–11 win–loss record, a 3.56 earned run average and the league lead in walks (122), the only time Belinsky ever led his league in any pitching category.

Perhaps tellingly, however, after throwing the no-hitter Belinsky also said, "If music be the food of love, by all means let the band play on." The 1962 season was a raucous one for Belinsky in that he became glittering copy for southern California sportswriters with his wit and unapologetic womanizing. "Within days of his no-hitter Belinsky would be heralded as sport’s most original and engaging playboy-athlete," pitcher-turned-journalist Pat Jordan wrote in a striking 1971 Sports Illustrated profile. "His name would become synonymous with a lifestyle that was cool and slick and dazzling … But in time the name Belinsky would become synonymous with something else. It would become synonymous with dissipated talent."

In addition to pitching the first no-hitter in Angels’ history, Belinsky was also on the losing end of the first no-hitter ever pitched against the Angels — Earl Wilson’s 2–0 gem at Fenway Park on June 26 of the same 1962 season. The Boston Red Sox pitcher hit a home run in that game, one of four no-hit pitchers ever to do so.

Later life

Belinsky became a kind of protégé to fading but still influential and show business-connected newspaper columnist Walter Winchell. He was linked romantically, at one time or another, to such women as Ann-Margret, Connie Stevens, Tina Louise and Mamie Van Doren, the last his fiancee for a year. Contemporary player Mike Hegan once said, "Bo had more fun off the field than he did on the field."

Belinsky fell to 1–7 in 1963, and was sent to the Angels’ minor league team in Hawaii, where he pitched his way back and finished the year with a 2–9 major league record. A game he pitched and won for the Angels in Chavez Ravine set a record of sorts; the headline the following day, in the Los Angeles Times read: "476 – Count ‘Em – See Bo Stifle Orioles."

But Belinsky was 9–7 with a career-best 2.86 ERA in August 1964 when came the incident that ended his days with the Angels: a hotel room fight with elderly Los Angeles Times sportswriter Braven Dyer. He was suspended from the Angels, then traded to the Philadelphia Phillies after the season for Costen Shockley and Rudy May. After spending a little over a season with the Phillies, in which he was used mostly as a long reliever before his outright release back to the minors, he also pitched for the Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds before his career ended in the Cincinnati minor league system in 1970.