Richard Leroy Nen (born September 24, 1939) is an American former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

. A

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

, Nen appeared in 367

games A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

) for the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

(), Washington Senators (–, ) and

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

(). He threw and batted left-handed, stood tall and weighed . He is the father of former major league

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue (medical), fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection (sports), ejection, or for other strategic ...

Robb Nen Robb Allen Nen (born November 28, 1969) is a former Major League Baseball right-handed relief pitcher. He spent most of his career as a closer. He is the son of former major league first baseman Dick Nen. He currently works in the Giants' front ...

Career

Nen was born in

South Gate, California South Gate is the 19th largest city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, with . South Gate is located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. It is part of the Gateway Cities region of southeastern Los Angeles County. The city was inco ...

, graduated from

Phineas Banning High School Phineas Banning High School is located in the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, and is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. History Banning High School was renamed in honor of General Phineas Banning when a n ...

, and attended

Los Angeles Harbor College Los Angeles Harbor College (LAHC) is a public community college in Wilmington, California. It is one of two community colleges serving the South Bay region of Los Angeles. LAHC serves mainly students from Harbor City, Carson, San Pedro, Ga ...

and

California State University, Long Beach California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...

. The Dodgers signed him in 1961, and Nen's first season in the Class C

California League The California League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in California. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A following Major Leag ...

was highly productive, with a league-leading 32

home runs In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

and 144

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

, along with a .351

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

. After two years with Triple-A

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

, the first-place Dodgers recalled him in September 1963 during the height of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

pennant race. In his major league debut September 18, 1963, he was inserted into the lineup as a pinch hitter in the top of the seventh

inning In baseball, softball, and similar games, an inning is the basic unit of play, consisting of two halves or frames, the "top" (first half) and the "bottom" (second half). In each half, one team bats until three outs are made, with the other team ...

against the second-place

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

Busch Stadium Busch Stadium (also referred to informally as "New Busch Stadium" or "Busch Stadium III") is a baseball stadium located in St. Louis, Missouri. The stadium serves as the home of the St. Louis Cardinals, the city's Major League Baseball (MLB) f ...

and lined out to centerfield off

Bob Gibson Robert Gibson (born Pack Robert Gibson; November 9, 1935October 2, 2020) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals (1959–1975). Nicknamed "Gibby" and "Hoot" ( ...

, the future

Hall of Famer A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or muse ...

. Remaining in the game as the first baseman, Nen batted again in the ninth with the Dodgers trailing 5–4. Facing right-handed relief pitcher Ron Taylor, Nen hit a game-tying home run "over the roof" in right field to send the game into

extra innings Extra innings is the extension of a baseball or softball game in order to break a tie. Ordinarily, a baseball game consists of nine regulation innings (in softball and high school baseball games there are typically seven innings; in Little Lea ...

Retrosheet Retrosheet is a nonprofit organization whose website features box scores of Major League Baseball (MLB) games from 1906 to the present, and play-by-play narratives for almost every contest since the 1930s. It also includes scores from every major ...

br>box score: 1963-09-18
/ref> The Dodgers won in the 13th frame to sweep the Cardinals in the three-game series, increasing their league lead to four games. They won the 1963 pennant by six lengths and swept the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...

in the 1963 World Series. The home run against the Cardinals was Nen's only hit as a Dodger; he batted .125 for them in 1963 and returned to Spokane for all of 1964. Traded to Washington that December in a blockbuster deal headlined by Frank Howard and Claude Osteen, Nen spent the bulk of his MLB service time with the Senators, getting into 279 games and hitting 18 of his 21 big-league home runs with them. His Washington tenure was interrupted in by a season as reserve first baseman for the

. All told, Nen collected 185 big-league hits, with 23 doubles and three triples accompanying his 21 homers. Ineligible for the 1963 World Series, he never appeared in a postseason game. He retired after the 1972

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

season.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nen, Dick 1939 births Living people Baseball players from California Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Chicago Cubs players Denver Bears players Hawaii Islanders players Long Beach State Dirtbags baseball players Los Angeles Dodgers players Major League Baseball first basemen People from South Gate, California Reno Silver Sox players Spokane Indians players Washington Senators (1961–1971) players