May 25, 1964 - It’s a funny thing about Ed Rakow’s sore arm — it hardly hurt at all tonight.
“Did you ever hear of a pitcher’s arm hurting him after he won a game?” Rakow grinned in the Detroit clubhouse at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium after he had cooled off the hottest club in the American League.
Rakow mixed his pitches with a devastating effect and led the Tigers to a 5-3 victory over the Orioles.
He relieved faltering Hank Aguirre and blanked the O’s on just two hits through the final 5⅓ innings.
It was an important feat for him — he’s been at his job for more than four months, and this was his first victory in a Detroit uniform.
“I’ve wanted to help this club so much that it has hurt,” said Rakow. And it has hurt.
From the very beginning, he has been handicapped by a sore arm. But he has continued to pitch with it. His philosophy has been: “If you can’t take a little pain for two hours a day, then you’re not worth much.”
Rakow’s arm hurt him as he set down the Orioles, but he shrugged it off as he always does. “I was pitching instead of throwing, and when you’re a pitcher instead of a thrower, it hurts only a little,” he said.
Tiger manager Charlie Dressen lifted Aguirre in the fourth tonight after the tall southpaw had balked home a run. The crowd gave Hank the raspberries as he left, and he gave it back to them — taking off his hat and yelling at the fans.
He was still yelling in the dugout, this time at the Baltimore dugout. The umpire finally told him to go to the clubhouse. So, in one night, he was knocked out and thrown out, which must constitute some sort of record.
Too bad he wasn’t around to see the finish; Rakow put on quite a show as he stopped the team which had taken three out of four from the thumping Minnesota Twins over the weekend. The O’s had pulled out two victories against the Twins with dramatic ninth-inning rallies. But Rakow stopped them in the ninth, and the crowd of 7,092 filed out silently.
Luis Aparicio upset the Tigers with his baserunning, stealing his 22nd base and forcing Aguirre into his balk. But in the end, one of Rakow’s arms was mightier than both of Aparicio’s legs.
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