Wise was a tremendous high school athlete in Portland, Oregon. He was an all-city basketball and football player and was all-city and all-state in baseball. He was signed by the Phillies when he was just 17 for $12,000. The MLB minimum salary that year was $7.000.
The 18-year-old Wise made his first appearance for the Phillies on April 18, 1964. He pitched 3 innings of relief against the Cubs, and gave up 1 run on 3 hits with 3 walks and 5 strikeouts. He got his first start on May 21 against the Giants and lasted 3 innings, allowing 4 runs, including a home run to Willie Mays.
Wise got his first win on June 21 in the second game of a doubleheader against the Mets. It's usually a big deal when a rookie gets his first win, but a guy named Jim Bunning pitched a perfect game against the Mets in the opener, overshadowing Wise's fine 6-inning, 2-run, 3-hit performance.
On June 23, 1971, Wise pitched a no-hitter against the Reds. The only blemish of the game for him was when he walked Dave Concepcion in the bottom of the 6th. Wise homered twice in the game–a 2-run shot off Ross Grimsley in the 5th and a leadoff homer against Clay Carroll in the 8th. I used to listen to all the games at night on the radio in bed when I was a kid, and I jumped around like a 9-year-old maniac when John Vukovich caught Pete Rose's line drive to third for the last out of the game. Wise was a one-man wrecking crew that night, and is the only player in baseball history to homer twice and pitch a no-hitter in the same game. Wise was an all-star that year, finishing 17-14 with a 2.88 ERA for an awful Phillies team.
In a trade that swapped pitchers unhappy with their contracts, Wise was traded to the Cardinals for a young lefty named Steve Carlton. Wise made $25,000 in 1971 and wanted a substantial raise, but the Phillies wouldn't budge. Carlton was having his own contract issues. So the 1-for-1 swap was made, and Carlton went an otherworldly 27-10 with a 1.987 ERA and 310 strikeouts in his first year with the Phils, leaving fans to say "Rick who?" Carlton won 241 games in 15 years for the Phillies, along with 4 Cy Young Awards. Wise outhomered Carlton during the careers, 15-13.
Wise pitched in St. Louis for 2 seasons and was traded to the Red Sox along with Bernie Carbo for Reggie Smith and Ken Tatum. Wise and Carbo would figure heavily in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, called by some as the greatest game ever played. Wise got the win in the game in relief and Carbo hit a pinch-hit 3-run homer in the 8th. This game is also known as the Carlton Fisk Game, when the Sox catcher hit a walkloff home run to left which he famously waved fair in the bottom of the 12th.
Wise would also pitch for the Indians and Padres in his 18-season career, and won 188 games.
Next to the no-no 2 HR game, my favorite was fact was Is that on September 18, 1971 against the Chicago Cubs, he completed a string of retiring 32 batters in a row, four shy of Harvey Haddix's Major League record, and drove in the winning run in the 12th inning.
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