June 20, 1960 & June 20, 1985

50 Years Ago Today:

DES MOINES DEMONS 4
FOX CITIES FOXES..6

Boog Powell 2-for-4, RBI, Chuck Symeon winning pitcher. Foxes are 25-20, in third place in the Three-I League, 1.5 games behind Sioux City.

Mike Drew of The Post-Crescent is going to take over here with his game story and historical perspective that weaves in another big sporting event from 50 years ago today.

The fifth stanza was a big one for both Floyd Patterson and the Fox Cities Foxes Monday night.

Just about the time that Patterson was putting the blocks to Ingemar Johansson in their heavyweight title fight in New York's Polo Grounds, the Fox Cities Foxes were doing the same to Des Moines at Appleton's Goodland field.

A huge crowd of over 35,000 fans saw Patterson regain his championship on a fifth round knockout. Only 176 of the faithful were on hand as the Foxes shot ahead 6-3 in a 5-run fifth inning.

Oh, there's more:

Fox Cities manager Earl Weaver was ejected after a big hassle in the fourth inning. The umpires had called batter [Pete] Johnson out when they ruled that Weaver - coaching at third - interfered with the Demons' Walters while Fred was chasing Johnson's pop foul.

Weaver objected strenuously, to both Rene Cote and George Sosnak, and was evicted. The Foxes then announced they were playing the game under protest. [Pat] Gillick took over Weaver's coaching duties at third.

MORE!

FOX TALES: [Jim] Youngdahl hit a ball a mile over the barrier in the fifth but the umpires ruled it foul...Whereupon sportscaster Bill Kiss hit a fibreboard wall in the radio booth with his fist so hard that it went right through the wall.

WOW!

25 Years Ago Today:
.............................R H..E
APPLETON FOXES 000 000 400 - 4 10 2
PEORIA CHIEFS..121 103 01x - 9 8..0

The winning pitcher for the Chiefs was Greg Maddux. He allowed four runs on ten hits over 6.1IP. The win ran his record to 8-4.

Manny Lezcano, the brother of Brewers legend Sixto Lezcano, hit a homer for the Chiefs in front of a crowd of 5,178 at Meinen Field.

There is a note at the end of the story about how the attendance in the Midwest League through May 31, 1985 was ahead of the attendance through May 31, 1984. Way ahead:

Attendance through 5/31/84: 229,639 (AVG: 1,039)
Attendance through 5/31/85: 325,832 (AVG: 1,189)

Springfield....SPRINGFIELD!....was the MWL Leader in attendance with 51,561 in 24 games. The Foxes were at 15,343 in 24 games.

It amazes me that it took them almost three weeks to tabulate and get this information out to the press. Different times.