Striking a blow
Kurt Bevacqua’s play on the field didn’t earn him a bronze plaque in Cooperstown, but his expanding talents find him featured in a new Museum exhibit.
Sometimes, that’s just the way the bubble bursts.
A little more than four decades ago, Bevacqua, a quality utility man with the Milwaukee Brewers at the time, made a name for himself off the field by winning a nationally televised bubble gum blowing contest. As a result, a major trading card company produced a special card the next year commemorating this achievement. Today, that card as well as the competition’s official rules can be seen in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s exhibit Whole New Ballgame.
“It’s an honor, it really is, as silly as that contest was when it was first marketed,” said Bevacqua in a recent telephone conversation from his home near San Diego. “When you’re doing things like that, you don’t really think too much of it.”
Born and raised in Miami, Bevacqua was selected by the Reds in the 12th round of the 1967 MLB Draft. Primarily used as an infielder and pinch-hitter, his versatility allowed him to do everything on a baseball diamond except pitch and catch.
During a 15-season big league career, which ended in 1985, Bevacqua, who was traded six times, purchased twice, released twice and signed as a free-agent twice, suited up for six different big league teams: Indians, Royals, Pirates, Brewers, Rangers and Padres. A career highlight came in the 1984 World Series for the Padres when, serving as the team’s designated hitter, he swatted two home runs while hitting .412 in the five-game loss to the Tigers.
“Considering that the card is part of a Hall of Fame exhibit now and my two home runs in the 1984 World Series aren’t, then I guess it’s the highlight of my career. Maybe you guys just needed to fill some space or something,” the 69-year-old added with a laugh. “I certainly never imagined that it would be in the Hall of Fame.”
Whole New Ballgame, which opened to the public in November, tells the story of baseball history from 1970 through today.
“The curatorial team wanted Whole New Ballgame to be about so much more than memorable moments on big league fields,” explained Hall of Fame Senior Curator Tom Shieber. “We wanted to engage the fans. Those who sit in the stands, who watch the game on TV, who eat, drink and breathe baseball.
“Collecting baseball cards was and is such a big part of growing up a baseball fan, we knew that we had to include them in the exhibit. Personally, I’ve always loved the Kurt Bevacqua Bubble Gum Blowing Contest card because it was so unusual and so wonderfully evocative of the 1970s. And when I learned that we had a copy of the official rules of the contest, it was an easy call. We simply had to tell this story.”
The story dates back to August 1975 when it was announced that the “Joe Garagiola/Bazooka Big League Bubble Gum Blowing Championship,” sponsored by the Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., would be held that season as a way for Topps to remind customers they were selling bubble gum as well as cards.
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Ultimately, 22 of the 24 big league teams at the time had participants, which included four future Hall of Famers – Johnny Bench (Reds), George Brett (Royals), Bert Blyleven (Twins) and Gary Carter (Expos) – as well as such recognizable names as Doug DeCinces (Orioles), Rick Rhoden (Dodgers), Bill Madlock (Cubs), Bob Forsch (Cardinals) and John Stearns (Mets).
“We used to have little contests on the bench and Joe Garagiola just came down one day and said, ‘Would you enter if we got a bubble gum blowing contest going?’” Bevacqua recalled. “I said, ‘Sure,’ but I didn’t think too much of it. But there was a Brewers team competition and I won.”
Bevacqua blew past the competition to take the American League crown by topping Eric Raich (Indians), Mickey Scott (Angles) and Walt Williams (Yankees). His National League opponent in the finals was catcher Johnny Oates of the Phillies.
The finals were filmed for Garagiola’s pregame show, “The Baseball World of Joe Garagiola” and aired just prior to Game 3 of the 1975 World Series in Cincinnati. Umpire Dick Stello, assigned to that year’s Fall Classic, handled the specially built calipers to measure the size of the bubbles.
“I don’t think anybody really realizes that the final took place during the World Series, nor do they probably care,” Bevacqua said. “But they know it was 1975.
“And I remember that World Series like it was yesterday because they had given me tickets to all the games. I had gone from Boston to Cincinnati. We filmed the finals in Cincinnati underneath the stadium. It was a crazy time,” he added. “It was an iconic World Series. I saw the Carlton Fisk Game 6 home run in person, saw the Bernie Carbo home runs that he hit (a blast that ultimately sent Game 6 into extra innings), the great catches by Freddy Lynn, the whole thing. It was fun stuff.”
Bevacqua would win the gum blowing title with an 18 ¼-inch bubble, his second of three attempts in the finals. By taking the championship he earned $1,000 for himself, $1,000 for a charity of his choice, and a case of Bazooka bubble gum.
“That was BIG money for me. It was salary for probably a couple weeks back then,” Bevacqua said. “The charity money went to a children’s hospital.”
By 1976, Topps had produced a baseball card, no. 564, with an image of Bevacqua blowing his winning bubble, the calipers recording the historic size.
“I have the contest brought up all the time and I probably get that card asked to be signed more than any other one,” Bevacqua said. “It something that fans can come up with to say to me that kind of opens up the conversation for them, makes it easier. I hear lot about the bubble gum stuff. And I do have a couple of the cards from when people have sent them to me, saying that I can keep one if I sign one.
“I was in a bookstore one day and I used to like to thumb through the Guinness Book of World Records, never to look to see if I was in there, that never even entered my mind, but all of a sudden it was either on the inside cover or it was on the back of the book that I had the world record for a the largest bubblegum bubble,” he added. “That was pretty funny.”
These days, Bevacqua is broadcasting for the Padres as well as working for their flagship radio station. But he hopes to make it to Cooperstown in the near future to see his baseball card on display.
“I would love to come and see it,” he said. “That would be fun to be able to walk into the National Baseball Hall of Fame with my kid and see me. Even though there’s no plaque.
“Maybe someone can get a fake plaque and put it up there and then I can brag a little bit more.”
Bill Francis is a Library Associate at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
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