Joe Bonikowski pitched in 30 games for the 1962 Minnesota Twins.
Joseph Peter Bonikowski was born January 16, 1941, in
Philadelphia, to Joseph and Elizabeth Bonikowski. In the 1950 census Joseph is
a city firefighter and Elizabeth is a beautician; Joe is nine and sister
Barbara is twelve.
Joe pitched and also played basketball at Father Judge High
School in Philadelphia, graduating in 1958. That September he signed with the
Washington Senators for a bonus estimated between eight and ten thousand
dollars; the Washington Evening Star reported on September 12:
Bonikowski, 17, is a 6-foot 175-pound righthander. He had a combined record of 21-3 in sandlot and American Legion ball around Philadelphia this summer.
For 1959 Joe was sent to the Sanford Greyhounds of the Class
D Florida State League, where he had a 7-15 record and 3.51 ERA in 159 innings,
walking 96 and striking out 91. On July 6 he filled out a questionnaire, giving
his nickname as “Bonnie,” his nationality as Polish, his hobby as fishing, his
occupation as none, and his ambition as “make majors as fast as possible.”
The Senators invited Joe to major league spring training in
Orlando in 1960. On March 26 he was sent to the minor league base for
assignment, and he ended up with the Wilson Tobs of the Class B Carolina
League. From the Sporting News, May 4:
Pop Watches Son’s No-Hit Masterpiece
By Earle Hellen
Wilson N.C.
Joe Bonikowski’s father made the long trip from Philadelphia to Wilson on Sunday, April 24, to see his son pitch for the Wilson Tobs in the Carolina League.
The journey turned out to be a historic occasion for the Bonikowski family as 19-year-old Joe pitched the Carolina League’s first no-hit, no-run game of the season. He stopped Greensboro, 6 to 0.
The Washington farmhand faced the minimum 27 batters in the nine inning game and came within one walk of hurling the Class B loop’s first perfect game. Bonikowski walked Catcher Boyd Coffie in the third inning, but the Gate City player was forced at second base by Pitcher Dooly [sic] Womack’s infield grounder. Womack was then picked off first base by Catcher Sam Mauney. Not another Greensboro player reached base.
This is Bonikowski’s second year in pro ball. He won only seven games while losing 15 at Sanford (Florida State) last season. His start against Greensboro was his second of the Carolina League season. He lost to Raleigh, 5 to 2, in his initial start.
Joe finished with a 14-11 record and 3.45 ERA in 242 1/3
innings, vastly improving his control with 74 walks, and striking out 131. He
got two votes for the league All-Star team. After the season he pitched in the
Florida Instructional League, leading it with a 1.58 ERA in 74 innings, and was
named to that league’s All-Star team.
In 1961 Joe was again invited to major league spring
training, now with the Minnesota Twins as the team had moved from Washington. This
time he made it to April 4 before being sent to the minor league camp. He spent
the season with the Syracuse Chiefs of the AAA International League. Sporting
News, August 16:
Clendenon Nips Bonikowski No-Hit Bid in Ninth Frame
SYRACUSE, N.Y.—Joe Bonikowski, Syracuse righthander, pitched no-hit ball against Columbus for eight and one-third innings, August 3, as the Chiefs defeated the Jets, 3 to 1. However, in the ninth, with one out, Donn Clendenon, the Jets’ leading hitter, singled, and when Larry Elliott followed with another safety, Manager Frank Verdi sent in Bert Cueto.
Roman Mejias singled against Cueto to fill the bases. Clendenon scored on an infield out, but Cueto struck out Jim Mahoney to end the game.
On August 30 TSN reported that Joe would be brought up to
Minnesota in September, but if he was he didn’t get into a game. With Syracuse
he had an 8-13 record and 3.20 ERA in 180 innings; he was one of the “others
receiving votes” in the balloting for the league’s most valuable pitcher. From the
November 1 Sporting News:
Twins Hailing Bonikowski as Hill Prize
20-Year-Old Hurls Blazer, Rated No. 1 Slab Prospect Among Farm Team Kids
By Tom Briere
Twin Cities, Minn.
The seventh-place Twins need more than one pitcher, but one man they’re counting on to help out next year is rookie Joe Bonikowski.
Bongo, a 20-year-old righthanded fast baller, came perilously close to making the major league roster last spring. Instead, he went out to Syracuse of the International League to master control and improve his breaking stuff, change-up, et al.
“Bonikowski has a big league fast ball,” pronounced Manager Sam Mele and President Calvin Griffith of the Twins.
Syracuse figures support Bonikowski’s feeling that “I can pitch in the majors.” He won eight and lost 13 with a last-place club. In 180 innings Joe gave up only 174 hits, walked 70 and struck out 62.
He showed a respectable 3.30 [sic] earned-run average.
Of all the rookies from down on the farm in the Twins’ system, Bonikowski is rated the No. 1 pitching prospect for 1962…
On January 19, 1962, Joe filled out another questionnaire,
this time giving his nickname as Bongo, his weight as 182, and his ambition as
“Reach Big Leagues and Stay.” His hobby is still fishing.
He went to spring training with the Twins again. On March 21
the Minnesota report in the Sporting News mentioned:
During the winter, 21-year-old Bonikowski daily rubbed the fingers of his right hand on the ground, a piece of stone or sand paper. “That keeps ‘em tough,” he said, “and I won’t get blisters from the seams on the ball.”
Joe had a 0.69 ERA in exhibition games and made the major
league roster—wearing number 33, though at some point in the season he was
switched to 48. On April 12, the third game of the season, he made his debut,
as described in the next day’s AP story, here as it appeared in the Baton
Rouge Morning Advocate:
Athletics Smacked By Twins
KANSAS CITY (AP)—Joe Bonikowski, a 21-year-old right-hander, pitched 5 1/3 innings of tight relief for Minnesota Thursday and the Twins backed him with timely hitting to take a 9-5 decision from the Kansas City Athletics.
The rookie hurler came on in the fourth inning after Dick Howser’s inside the park home run with two on base had tied the score at 4-4. With two more men on base following the home run, Bonikowski relieved starter Don Lee and walked Norm Siebern intentionally to fill the bases. Then he made Leo Posada bounce into an inning-ending double play.
He gave up only one run the rest of the way, battling his own control and a stiff wind blowing up to 35 miles an hour as well as the A’s hitters…
Joe led off the bottom of the fifth with a single, and came
around to score the go-ahead run on a single by Bob Allison—Allison being the
first batter faced by Diego Segui, making his major league debut.
Through May 8 Joe had a 2.40 ERA in relief, and he was
rewarded with a move to the starting rotation. Sporting News, May 23:
Confident Curver
Brash Rookie Bongo Blooms as Hill Blazer
Bonikowski Climbs to Berth in Big Time From Class D in Less Than Three Years
By Tom Briere
Twin Cities, Minn.
At 16, sleepy-eyed Joe Bonikowski couldn’t make his prep baseball team in home-town Philadelphia, Pa.
At 21, he’s a major league winner with the Minnesota Twins.
Bongo won his first American League start with an eight-hit, 10 to 3 performance against Kansas City at the Met, May 13.
“It gave me a good feeling,” admitted Bonikowski after he went nine innings to run his record to 3-1 with an ERA of 2.59.
Bonikowski, somewhat of a Joe Palooka character, doesn’t lack for confidence, a factor which impressed Manager Sam Mele in spring training.
“I don’t know the exact word to fit Bongo,” Mele groped for a word picture. “Not exactly cocky, or brash, but he’s confident of his ability. He proved to me in spring training he had the moxie.”
Mele has never lacked confidence in placing Bonikowski in tough spots. And Bongo has responded with a pair of victories over Kansas City, one in relief, and another relief triumph over Detroit…
The strong-armed lad throws a sinking fast ball—“one of the best among Twin pitchers,” according to Pitching Coach Gordon Maltzberger.
Bonikowski has sharpened his curve, slider and change-up.
“I have the best success with a change-up off the fast ball,” said Bonikowski. “Maltzberger told me the fast-ball change is better than the curve change-up, which is more apt to hang.”
Even Bongo admits he’s come a long way from Philadelphia. “As a junior in high school, the coach cut me from the squad,” he recalled. “I finally got a chance as a senior in relief one day. I protected a one-run lead, we won the game and I had it made.”
The next issue of TSN, dated June 2 because they
changed from Wednesdays to Saturdays starting that week, included this:
Bonikowski Battles Gotham Traffic in Race to Ball Park
Twin Cities, Minn.—New York traffic gave Rookie Righthander Joe Bonikowski of the Twins almost as much trouble as the Yankees were to give him on May 19.
A buddy chauffeuring Bonikowski to the game was driving in the wrong direction, when they were held up by an Armed Forces Day parade. Bonikowski then leaped out of the car, ran six blocks to a cab stand and rode to the nearest subway station.
He arrived at Yankee Stadium only one hour before game time, threw a six-hitter at the Bombers, but was on the losing end of a 2 to 1 decision.
His mother was up from Philadelphia to watch Bonikowski pitch for the first time.
Joe stayed in the starting rotation through July 4, when he
lasted an inning and two-thirds in the first game of a doubleheader in Boston,
then pitched an inning of relief in the nightcap. At this point his ERA was
4.11; his record as a starter was 3-6. He was replaced in the rotation by Dick
Stigman. Joe made three more relief appearances before a start on the 21st
in which he was removed in the fifth; the following week he was optioned to AAA
Vancouver of the Pacific Coast League.
With the Mounties Joe had a 5.83 ERA in 54 innings, mostly
as a starter. On September 8 he was recalled by the Twins, and he made four
scoreless relief appearances, winding up with a 5-7 record and 3.88 ERA in 99
2/3 innings in 30 games, 13 of them starts. His teammates voted him a ¾ share
of their second-place piece of the World Series money, netting him $1398.05.
The October 13 Sporting News included this item:
“Rookie Righthander Joe Bonikowski has two dates, one with a preacher and the
other with Uncle Sam.” (He got married and he entered the Army.) In January
1963 the UPI interviewed Sam Mele, who said in part:
“On [sic] the other pitchers, Joe Bonikowski was both a starter and reliever last year. He’s young and has good stuff. I might stick with him in relief this year—except when we get into a heavy doubleheader schedule.”
From the March 2 Sporting News:
Twins School Bonikowski, Stange to Solve Hill Puzzle
Pair Pegged to Join Pascual as Righthanded Starters; Improved Hill Staff Seen as ‘Must’ for Contender Role
By Arno Goethel
Orlando, Fla.
…Should their efforts to swing a trade fail, the only source left for the Twins will be within their own ranks. In this category, [executive VP Joe] Haynes rates Lee Stange and Joe Bonikowski as the most likely candidates to join [Camilo] Pascual as righthanded starters.
“Sam will try to work one or both of them in there,” Haynes said. “Bonikowski will help us, I know. His experience with us last year should improve him this season.”
Now in the Army but hopeful of being discharged before the season opens, Bonikowski was 5-7 in 30 appearances with the 1962 Twins and spent part of the season with Vancouver…
On March 9 Joe reported to Orlando for spring training and
signed his 1963 contract. An April 1 AP report said that “The Twins apparently
have just about decided to keep [Fred] Lasher for the season opening rather
than Joe Bonikowski, who got out of the Army late and needs work in the minors
to round into shape.” But, also from the AP, two days later: “[Jim] Manning had
been given a good chance of sticking, but lost out when the Twins decided to
keep Joe Bonikowski and Lasher.” However, on the 8th, the day before
the season opener, Joe was sent down to the Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers of the
Pacific Coast League.
On April 21 Joe filled out another questionnaire, now giving
his weight as 184. He is now married, and his hobby is still fishing. He spent
the season with Dallas-Fort Worth where he had a 5-10 record and 4.02 ERA in
112 innings in 34 games, 17 of them starts. After the PCL season he was called
up to the Twins’ roster, but was not to report until spring training. On
October 15, though, he was returned to the Dallas-Fort Worth roster.
That fall Joe returned to the Florida Instructional League,
where he had a 4.26 ERA in 19 innings, walking 13 while striking out seven,
before continuing on to the Venezuelan Winter League.
I don’t know whether Joe began spring training 1964 with the
Twins, but he ended it with the Atlanta Crackers of the International League,
replacing Dallas-Fort Worth as Minnesota’s AAA affiliate. In the regular season
he had a 7.71 ERA in seven innings before being moved down a level to the Charlotte
Hornets of the Southern League on May 13. The next day’s Atlanta Journal
said:
Players left Cracker headquarters at the Sheraton Hotel in wholesale quantities Wednesday. Departing were pitchers Ted Sadowski, Fred Lasher and Joe Bonikowski, the last two headed for Charlotte.
Lasher was anxious to leave. Bonikowski was disappointed, but said, “Maybe I’ll receive a good shot in Charlotte.”
In Charlotte Joe had a 5.82 ERA in 34 innings, with 22
walks, pitching mostly in relief. He returned there in 1965, and had a 5.40 ERA
in five innings, which concluded his professional career. He is now 82 years
old, but I have found nothing about what he has been doing since 1965.
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