109 Reds At Giants, October 3, 1965, Waite Hoyt's Other Final Game

15 December 2025

Album art features Waite Hoyt, pitching in the 1920s

The SF Giants have just lost a place in the World Series, with arch rivals the Dodgers taking the National League's spot the previous evening. The Giants' 94-67 record with one game to go is not enough. Game 152 has become one to win for the pride of the club and to end the season with a W.

The Cincinnati Reds were even further back in the National League. The core trio of Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson, and a young Pete Rose was promising, but as a team, the Reds fell short of the Dodgers' power or the Giants' finesse. Coming into this final game at 89-72, the totemic 90-win mark is within reach and a chance to overhaul Pittsburgh to finish third in the NL.

High above Candlestick Park is another final moment, as Waite Hoyt prepares to call the game for the listening Reds fans back home. Following a career that included three World Series rings over twenty-one years and seven teams, he became one of the first players to transition into broadcasting. Now, after 24 years of calling strikes, balls and fouls, this would be Hoyt's commentating swansong.

Featuring around two-thirds of the game, today's classic game is not a complete record of Hoyt's last game, but it is a record. And with so much of the early days of broadcasting lost to time, it's an excellent record of a baseball legend

You can find the boxscore here.

This game was played on October 3, 1965.