PHILADELPHIA -- Steve Carlton needed only four more minutes and 16 pitches to make history.
He stepped onto the Veterans Stadium mound in the top of the first inning on April 29, 1981, needing three more strikeouts to become the sixth pitcher in baseball history to record 3,000 career Ks. So, why make everybody wait? Carlton came out firing against the Montreal Expos. He struck out Tim Raines swinging on a slider. He struck out Jerry Manuel looking. He struck out Tim Wallach looking on a 3-2 slider.
It was over.
“The only thing that saved fans who got there a little late was having the two national anthems,” Pete Rose told the Philadelphia Daily News.
Carlton had joined Walter Johnson, Gaylord Perry, Nolan Ryan, Bob Gibson and Tom Seaver in the record books.
But Carlton was the only left-hander in that group.
That 3,000-strikeout club has since grown to 19 members, with Clayton Kershaw poised to become No. 20. Kershaw will take the mound at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday with 2,997 career strikeouts. With three more, he’ll join Carlton, Randy Johnson and CC Sabathia as the lone lefties to reach 3,000.
Odds are, though, that it’ll take Kershaw more than the four minutes it did Carlton to achieve the milestone.
“I really wanted to strike out three guys,” Carlton told Phillies broadcaster Richie Ashburn in a postgame radio interview back then. “When I went down to warm up, I was excited.”
Those were Carlton’s only words that night about the historic milestone. Carlton did not speak to the media. He still doesn’t.
But his manager and teammates were more than happy to speak for him.
“It’s incredible,” Phillies closer Tug McGraw told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “It makes a tremendous statement about the guy because it covers so many areas.”
“He went after it. He really did,” manager Dallas Green said. “He wanted to get it over with. He doesn’t look too much for the personal-type stuff. But I think this was one milestone he was very pleased to achieve.”
“The only left-hander in the history of baseball to do it,” shortstop Larry Bowa said. “Just think of all the great left-handers there have been, too. Just to say you’ve been a part of this, to say you’ve played with the guy, I think everybody on this team is going to be proud of that one day.”
“I think it will be good to look back and say I was there,” Del Unser said.
Wallach was a rookie then. It was the 11th game of a successful 17-year career in which he made five All-Star teams, winning three Gold Gloves and two Silver Slugger Awards. He thought the 3-2 slider was off the plate.
He might have been right.
“After, a fan in right field hollered at me,” Wallach told the Philadelphia Daily News. “He said I’d be a trivia question. That’s not a bad claim to fame for a guy who’s only been here 60 days.”