Issue date: 7/11/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: AP Photo

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Stu Miller wants to set the record straight. Despite the headlines, myths and stories, he wasn't actually blown off the mound at Candlestick in the All-Star game.

One of the most famous plays in All-Star history is a topic once again as baseball's midsummer classic returned to San Francisco for just the second time since that truly blown save in 1961. And the central figure in the play wants to clear some things up.

"The next day in the paper there was a banner headline: 'Miller Blown off Mound,'" he recalled. "They couldn't have made it any bigger. They made it out to be like I was pinned against the center-field fence. It wasn't about Mays scores winning run but 'Miller Blown off Mound.'"

Miller entered the game for the National League trying to protect a 3-2 lead with runners on first and second and one out in the ninth. With Rocky Colavito at the plate, Miller relieved Sandy Koufax _ "Take that hacker out of there," he joked.

A calm day had turned windy, some of the harshest gusts Miller saw in the three years that Candlestick was his home park while he played for the Giants. He remembered Harvey Haddix chasing his hat as it was buffeted around the infield and the flags nearly blowing off the poles.

"Just as I was ready to pitch, an extra gust of wind came along and I waved like a tree," he said. "My whole body went back and forth about 2 or 3 inches. The AL bench all hollered balk. I knew it was a balk, but the umpires didn't call it at first. I went ahead and threw the pitch and Colavito swung and missed. The umpire then took off his mask and motioned the runners to second and third."

An error by third baseman Ken Boyer allowed the tying run to score. Then the wind played havoc with another All-Star. Catcher Smoky Burgess dropped a foul pop by Tony Kubek before Miller recovered for a strikeout. Don Zimmer's error at second base loaded the bases before Miller escaped the jam by retiring opposing pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm.

But it's Miller's balk that became symbolic of the wind at Candlestick.

"If they played at 12 o'clock, there might not be no wind. Then by 1:30, all hell breaks loose almost every day. It was crazy," Zimmer said. "He was a little guy. He might have been lighter than a guy like (Greg) Maddux. I remember him going backward to throw a pitch and he just kept going. With the wind, Candlestick could do that to you."

Continued...

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