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Archive for December, 2010

Leron Lee: Cardinals bust became star in Japan

Posted in Hitters, Records on December 22, 2010| 1 Comment »

(Updated March 4, 2019)

Leron Lee, who once hit so poorly he lost the starting right field job with the Cardinals, recovered to become the career batting leader in Japan.

Lee has held the Japanese career batting average record (.320) for players with a minimum of 4,000 at-bats.

The statistics help round out the story of how Lee revived his career after stumbling with the Cardinals.

Support from Sparky

Lee, a left-handed-hitting outfielder, was the first-round choice of the Cardinals in the 1966 draft. He began his professional career in 1967 with the Cardinals’ Class A Modesto team, managed by Sparky Anderson. After a terrible start, Lee finished the season with a .297 batting average and 22 home runs.

In a story in the April 18, 1970, edition of The Sporting News, Lee told how Anderson never lost confidence in him.

“Sparky kept me in the lineup and pitched extra batting pratice to me himself,” Lee said.

Lee progressed through the Cardinals’ system. After he hit .303 with 30 doubles, 17 home runs, 96 RBI and 14 steals for manager Warren Spahn’s Tulsa Oilers in 1969, Lee went to spring training in 1970 with a chance to make the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster.

He took advantage of the opportunity, hitting .308 with a team-best 12 RBI in spring training. Joe Medwick, the Hall of Fame outfielder and Cardinals minor-league batting instructor, said Lee hit the ball so hard “he made it wave,” The Sporting News reported.

“Lee has been learning how to pick his pitches,” said Cardinals batting coach Dick Sisler. “He hasn’t been swinging at too many bad pitches. He’s standing back, waiting for the pitch instead of jumping at it.”

Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst said Lee was “100 percent improved over last year at this time,” according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“What has helped me most was just playing a lot,” Lee said.

Outfield starter

When the Cardinals opened the 1970 season on April 8 at Montreal, Lee started in right field and went 1-for-5 with a run scored in St. Louis’ 7-2 victory. Boxscore

Lee was the starting right fielder in the Cardinals’ first 21 games of 1970 (Lou Brock was in left; Jose Cardenal in center) and hit .272 in that stretch.

Lee appeared in more games (76) in right field than any other Cardinal in 1970, but he eventually split time with Carl Taylor and Joe Hague as his hitting declined. In 121 games, Lee batted .227 with six home runs, 23 RBI and a .290 on-base percentage.

“I like Leron,” said Schoendienst. “He’s like a young bird dog _ Sometimes they come around all of a sudden.”

In 1971, the Cardinals moved Cardenal to right field and went with Matty Alou and Jose Cruz in center. Lee was relegated to pinch hitting. With his batting average at .171, Lee and pitcher Fred Norman were traded to the Padres on June 11, 1971, for pitcher Al Santorini.

“You take a kid like Leron and use him as little as we did and what can he show you?” said Cardinals general manager Bing Devine. “Leron wanted to play.”

Lee’s career statistics as a Cardinal: .222 batting average, .291 on-base percentage, seven home runs and 25 RBI.

On the rise

Lee played for the Padres, Indians and Dodgers before getting released by the Dodgers on Nov. 2, 1976.

Lee, 28, signed with the Lotte Orions of Japan’s Pacific League and fulfilled his potential.

Lee batted .317 for Lotte in 1977 and led Japan’s Pacific League in home runs (34) and RBI (109). He played 11 years with Lotte. He led the Pacific League in batting (.358) in 1980 and twice led the league in total bases (286 in 1977 and 310 in 1980).

A year-by-year look at Lee’s career with the Lotte Orions:

1977: .317 batting average, 34 homers, 109 RBI

1978: .317 batting average, 30 homers, 88 RBI

1979: .333 batting average, 28 homers, 95 RBI

1980: .358 batting average, 33 homers, 90 RBI

1981: .302 batting average, 19 homers, 71 RBI

1982: .326 batting average, 15 homers, 60 RBI

1983: .317 batting average, 25 homers, 82 RBI

1984: .309 batting average, 31 homers, 88 RBI

1985: .328 batting average, 28 homers, 94 RBI

1986: .331 batting average, 31 homers, 94 RBI

1987: .272 batting average, 9 homers, 41 RBI

In the book “Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game” by Robert K. Fitts, Lee said the spring training regiment of the Orions helped him.

“I did a lot of (batting practice) when I was in the States _ a couple of hundred balls a day. But in Japan we were hitting 500 to 700 balls a day,” Lee said. “… Over the years, all the practice turned out to be a blessing. It made me a more consistent hitter because my swing was fixed. As the years went by, I realized that kind of spring training was exactly what I should have been doing here in the States.”

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Phil Cavarretta home run sunk Cardinals, lifted Cubs

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Pitchers on December 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Phil Cavarretta hit one of the most important home runs in the long rivalry between the Cubs and Cardinals.

Cavarretta, who died Dec. 18, 2010, at 94, was a 19-year-old first baseman for the Cubs in 1935.

On Sept. 25, the first-place Cubs brought an 18-game winning streak to St. Louis to begin a season-ending, make-or-break five-game series with the Cardinals.

Chicago (97-52) had a three-game lead over St. Louis (94-55).

The series opener paired Chicago’s Lon Warneke against Paul Dean, brother of Dizzy Dean. Paul Dean had beaten the Cubs five times in six decisions that season. Warneke had lost four of six against the Cardinals.

Paul Dean struck out four of the first five Cubs. That brought Cavarretta to the plate with two outs in the second inning.

Dean hung a one-strike curve and Cavarretta belted it over the right-field pavilion. It was the hit that lifted the Cubs into the World Series.

Warneke shut out the Cardinals on two hits and the Cubs won, 1-0, clinching a tie for the pennant. Boxscore

After a rainout the next day, the Cubs beat Dizzy Dean and the demoralized Cardinals, 6-2, in the opener of a doubleheader, eliminating St. Louis from contention.

Playing for the Cubs from 1934-52, Cavarretta batted .291 (260-for-893) against the Cardinals, with 12 home runs, 110 RBI and a .370 on-base percentage.

In 1944, Cavarretta and Stan Musial of the Cardinals were the National League co-leaders in hits (197).

Musial trailed Cavarretta by six hits as the Cardinals went into a doubleheader against the Giants at New York on the final day of the season.

Musial went 6-for-9 (4 hits in the opener and 2 in the second game).

His final hit, the one that tied Cavarretta, came on his last at-bat _ a two-run home run off Ken Brondell.  Boxscore

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Stan Musial: Bob Feller was best pitcher

Posted in Games, Hitters, Pitchers on December 20, 2010| 1 Comment »

(Updated Nov. 20, 2024)

Stan Musial, the greatest Cardinals player, rates the Cleveland Indians’ Bob Feller as the greatest pitcher of his time.

In his book “Stan Musial: The Man’s Own Story,” Musial said of Feller, “I hit against Feller only in exhibition games, but I’d say he probably was the greatest pitcher of our era. He had blinding speed, later developed a great curveball and finally a good slider. Feller took baseball most seriously and was one of the first players I knew who punished himself physically with exercises, recognizing the need for prime conditioning.”

As a youth in Iowa, Feller’s favorite player was another Cardinal, Rogers Hornsby.

In the book “Voices From Cooperstown,” Feller told author Anthony J. Connor, “My first glove was a Rogers Hornsby glove, the old three-fingered glove. Used it for years. Every two years, I’d buy a new one … Hornsby was my first idol … I even took up second base as my first position because that was where he played.”

(In the only regular-season matchup against Feller, on April 24, 1937, Hornsby, then with the Browns, drew a bases-loaded walk, struck out and reached on an error by the third baseman. Hornsby was 41 and Feller was 18. Boxscore)

Feller began his Hall of Fame career with the Indians in 1936 when he was 17. “I signed for one dollar and an autographed baseball,” Feller recalled to Anthony J. Connor. “I’m glad I didn’t receive a big bonus. I believe you should get paid after you do your job, not before. I was very confident that I’d make good.”

Feller pitched until 1941, served in World War II, resumed his playing career in 1945 and retired after the 1956 season with 266 wins. He led the American League in strikeouts seven times.

Musial began his Hall of Fame career with the Cardinals in 1941, played through 1944, served in the Navy in 1945, resumed his playing career in 1946 and retired after the 1963 season.

Fact vs. myth

Before big-league baseball integrated in 1947, barnstorming clubs of major leaguers would play stars from the Negro League during the off-season in the 1930s and 1940s.

On Sunday Oct. 5, 1941, an all-star team named for Cardinals coach Mike Gonzalez and led by Feller played an exhibition against the Kansas City Monarchs, champions of the Negro National League, at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis.

Musial, who had made his major-league debut a few weeks before, on Sept. 17, 1941, against the visiting Boston Braves, is said to have played in that exhibition. According to the book “Musial, From Stash to Stan the Man” by James Giglio, Musial hit a home run off Satchel Paige in the exhibition. Giglio cites as his source the book “Don’t Look Back: Satchel Paige in the Shadows of Baseball.”

However, an account of the exhibition in the Oct. 9, 1941, edition of The Sporting News makes no mention of a home run by Musial. Game reports in the three St. Louis newspapers _ Globe-Democrat, Post-Dispatch and Star-Times _ don’t mention Musial either. In the book “Satch, Dizzy & Rapid Robert,” author Timothy M. Gay states, “Despite persistent claims to the contrary in books and articles over the years, Cardinals rookie Stan Musial did not play that afternoon.”

(I couldn’t find any evidence that Musial played in the game. The Globe-Democrat published a box score and Musial isn’t listed).

According to the Globe-Democrat, three Cardinals played for the all-stars: Johnny Hopp, Frank “Creepy” Crespi and Walker Cooper.

Johnny Lucadello and Johnny Wyrostek each drove in two runs for the all-stars in a 4-1 win over the Monarchs, the Globe-Democrat reported.

Feller and Paige were the starting pitchers. Feller struck out three, walked three and yielded a run on two hits in five innings. Paige, described by the Star-Times as “the Negro Dizzy Dean,” struck out four, walked two and yielded four runs on five hits in four innings.

“The magnet of a duel between Bob Feller, Cleveland fireball mound ace, vs. Satchel Paige, king of all Negro pitchers, attracted a paid crowd of 10,124 to Sportman’s Park,” The Sporting News reported. According to the “Satch, Dizzy & Rapid Robert” book, “several thousand African-American fans sat in the segregated right-field bleachers.”

Musial joins tour

Musial did play for the Bob Feller All-Stars when Feller organized a barnstorming tour in 1946. Feller and Paige were the main pitching attractions.

It was quite a boost to the tour when Feller got Musial to agree to play. Musial was the National League batting champion in 1946.

The book “Satch, Dizzy & Rapid Robert” confirms Musial joined Feller’s barnstorming squad after the 1946 World Series. Eight future Hall of Famers played on the tour. Besides Feller, Musial and Paige, the others were Bob Lemon, Phil Rizzuto, Hilton Smith, Monte Irvin and Willard Brown.

On Oct. 16, 1946, the day after the Cardinals won Game 7 of the 1946 World Series at St. Louis, Musial joined the Feller All-Stars in Los Angeles and played in the game that night. He went hitless, including 0-for-2 versus Paige, and drew a walk, according to the “Satch, Dizzy & Rapid Robert” book.

Musial stayed with the tour as it barnstormed up and down the West Coast and finished in Hawaii.

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Cardinals were first big-league test for Bob Feller

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Pitchers, Prospects on December 17, 2010| 3 Comments »

(Updated Nov. 20, 2024)

Bob Feller pitched against major leaguers for the first time when he faced the Cardinals as a 17-year-old.

Feller is hailed as one of the great pitchers in baseball history and the Cardinals were the first big-league opponents to glimpse his greatness.

On July 6, 1936, the Cardinals played an exhibition against the Indians at Cleveland during the All-Star Game break. Interleague play didn’t exist then, so any matchup between National League and American League teams was an event.

The Indians, who signed Feller because of his fastball, wanted to test him against big-league batters and the exhibition provided an ideal opportunity.

Feller, who a month earlier completed his junior year of high school in Iowa, entered in relief of starter George Uhle in the fourth inning with the score 1-1. In his 1990 book, “Now Pitching, Bob Feller,” Feller said he wasn’t scared of facing a team he’d seen play two years earlier in the 1934 World Series at St. Louis.

“Not in my entire pitching career was I ever scared of any hitter or any situation,” Feller said.

In the book “Baseball When the Grass Was Real,” Feller told author Donald Honig, “I never had any concern about the hitters as long as I could get that ball over the plate. My only concern that day was the crowd. I’d never seen so many people before in my life.”

Cleveland manager Steve O’Neill, a former big-league catcher celebrating his 45th birthday, wanted to see Feller firsthand and decided to catch when Feller came into the game. He told the teen to just throw fastballs. Feller was flattered the manager would make such an effort.

“He wanted to give me his personal treatment because he thought I had the potential to make it big,” Feller said.

Cardinals manager Frankie Frisch intended to play second base, but after watching Feller sail a fastball over the catcher and against the backstop in warmups, he changed his mind. “I’m getting too old to get killed in the line of duty,” Frisch said, according to author Bob Broeg in the book “Memories of a Hall of Fame Sportswriter.”

Feller said to author Donald Honig, “If anybody was nervous that day, it was the Cardinals. I was very wild and had them scared half to death.”

The first batter to face Feller was Bruce Ogrodowski.

“My first pitch to Ogrodowski was a called strike, and it made something of a smacking sound as it hit O’Neill’s mitt,” Feller said. “Ogrodowski turned to O’Neill and said, ‘Let me out of here in one piece.’ He was serious and he laid the next pitch down, bunting down the third-base line.”

Third baseman Odell Hale fielded the ball and threw out Ogrodowski. “He achieved the purpose — he got out of there in one piece,” Feller said.

The next batter was Leo Durocher. According to the book “Bob Feller: Ace of the Greatest Generation,” written by John Sickels, Durocher stepped to the plate, glared at Feller and growled, “Keep the ball in the park, busher.”

One of Feller’s fastballs sailed over Durocher’s head. Another went behind his back. According to Feller, Durocher stepped out of the batter’s box and said to the plate umpire, “I feel like a clay pigeon in a shooting gallery.”

With the count at 2-and-2, Durocher went into the dugout and “pretended to hide behind the water cooler,” Feller said.

After umpires ordered him to return to the plate, Durocher struck out swinging.

The next batter, Art Garibaldi, also struck out.

“I had a big windmill windup and a habit of glancing into left field and then flashing my eyes past third base as I turned toward the plate,” Feller said. “It scared the hitters even more.”

Cleveland scored in the bottom of the fourth.

In the fifth, Feller struck out Les Munns before Terry Moore singled to left and Stu Martin walked. Attempting to rattle Feller, Frisch called for a double steal. Feller rushed the pitch and his fastball eluded O’Neill. Moore raced home, tying the score 2-2, and Martin advanced to third.

The Cardinals had two of their top veterans due up next, but Feller collected himself and struck out Pepper Martin and Rip Collins.

In the sixth, Ogrodowski led off with a double near the foul line before Feller struck out Durocher, Charlie Gelbert and Munns.

Impressed, O’Neill lifted Feller. In three innings, eight of the nine outs he recorded were strikeouts. Cleveland won, 7-6.

In the book “Voices From Cooperstown, Feller said to author Anthony J. Connor, “That day, I was as fast as I’ve ever been.”

Plate umpire Red Ormsby said Feller is “the best pitcher I have seen come into the American League in all my experience,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

“He showed me more speed than I have ever seen uncorked by an American League pitcher,” Ormsby said. “I don’t except Walter Johnson either.”

According to the John Sickels book, a photographer asked Cardinals ace Dizzy Dean to pose with Feller afterward. “If it’s all right with him (Feller), it’s all right with me,” Dean replied. “After what he did today, he’s the guy to say.”

Feller said Dean told him, “You sure poured that ol’ pea through there today.”

Feller said “praise from Dizzy Dean was approval from the baseball gods.”

Feller’s outing convinced the Indians he was major-league ready. Two weeks later, on July 19, 1936, Feller made his big-league debut with an inning of relief against the Senators. Boxscore

It was the start of a Hall of Fame career.

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Whitey Herzog’s advice worked well for Ken Oberkfell

Posted in Hitters, Managers on December 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

(Updated March 21, 2017)

A disciple of the Whitey Herzog school of managing, Ken Oberkfell, third baseman on the Cardinals’ 1982 World Series championship club, was bench coach on Mets manager Terry Collins’ staff in 2011.

Before that, Oberkfell had been a minor-league manager for 17 years. In an interview for the 2010 Cardinals yearbook, Oberkfell discussed the advice he received from Herzog.

“When I started managing, I talked to Whitey a little bit,” Oberkfell said. “He just said, ‘You’ve got to have your own identity, your own way of managing things. You can take what you can from other managers you’ve had, but you have to be yourself.’

“And he also said, ‘If you make a decision, don’t second-guess yourself.’ And I’ve taken that to heart.”

Oberkfell began his managerial career in 1995 in the independent Northeast League. After managing there again in 1996, Oberkfell became a manager in the Phillies’ system. He managed Piedmont of the Class A South Atlantic League from 1997-99 and Clearwater of the Florida State League in 2000.

One of his players at Piedmont was 18-year-old shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who reached the majors in 2000, won the Gold Glove Award four times and a National League Most Valuable Player Award.

Rollins was the first of several outstanding prospects who were nurtured under Oberkfell’s care. Others include shortstop Jose Reyes, third baseman David Wright and outfielder Jason Bay. All became all-stars in the major leagues.

In 2001, Oberkfell joined the Mets organization. He managed Capital City of the South Atlantic League in 2001, St. Lucie of the Florida State League in 2002-03, Binghamton of the Eastern League in 2004, Norfolk of the International League in 2005-06, New Orleans of the Pacific Coast League in 2007-08 and Buffalo of the International League in 2009-10.

He was named minor league manager of the year by Baseball America magazine in 2005. In an article about the award, Oberkfell cited Herzog’s positive influence on his managing style. Story

“I learned a lot from Whitey in terms of handling players and communicating, especially with extra players,” Oberkfell told the magazine. “He always had a way of keeping them positive, keeping them ready. That’s so important if you want to have success at any level.

“And just like Whitey, I like to run. I like to be aggressive on the bases. I’m a pretty laid-back guy until we have runners on base.”

It was with the Cardinals that Oberkfell broke into the major leagues in 1977 as a second baseman. He played for Vern Rapp and Ken Boyer before Herzog joined the Cardinals in June 1980.

An outstanding fielder _ he led National League second basemen in fielding percentage (.985) in 1979 _ Oberkfell made a successful conversion to third base after Herzog traded incumbent Ken Reitz to the Cubs in December 1980.

Oberkfell led NL third basemen in fielding percentage in 1982 (.972) and 1983 (.960). His game-winning single off Gene Garber in Game 2 of the NL Championship Series gave the Cardinals a 4-3 victory over Atlanta. Boxscore Oberkfell batted .292 (7-for-24) with four runs scored in the 1982 World Series.

When Terry Pendleton proved ready to handle the third base job, Oberkfell was dealt to the Braves on June 15, 1984, for pitcher Ken Dayley and first baseman Mike Jorgensen.

From 1977-84 with St. Louis, Oberkfell batted .292 with a .364 on-base percentage.

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How Cardinals nearly traded Bob Gibson to Senators

Posted in Hitters, Managers, Pitchers, Trades on December 10, 2010| 11 Comments »

(Updated Feb. 14, 2022)

The Cardinals almost dealt Bob Gibson to the Washington Senators.

In December 1960, the Cardinals and Pirates each had trade talks with the Senators regarding left-handed reliever Bobby Shantz.

“I wanted Shantz to cement our bullpen as the second man behind Lindy McDaniel, just as the Pirates wanted him behind Roy Face,” Cardinals general manager Bing Devine told Oscar Kahan of The Sporting News.

The Senators asked the Cardinals for right fielder Joe Cunningham, Devine said.

“When I would not make the deal,” Devine told Kahan, “they expressed interest in Bob Gibson.”

Gibson, 25, was unhappy with the way he was being utilized by Cardinals manager Solly Hemus. Gibson pitched in 27 games for the 1960 Cardinals, posting a 3-6 record and 5.61 ERA.

The Senators “said it would take a lot more than Gibson to get Shantz,” Devine told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Kahan, citing an anonymous source, reported in the Dec. 28, 1960, edition of The Sporting News the Cardinals offered the Senators three players for Shantz:

1. Bob Gibson

2. Either pitcher Ron Kline or outfielder Walt Moryn.

3. Any one of these minor leaguers: pitchers Ed Bauta, Willard Schmidt and Dean Stone, and outfielders John Glenn and Ben Mateosky.

“Kline and Gibson, each of whom would be a starter for the Senators, have been mentioned as possible trade bait for Shantz,” the St. Louis Globe-Democrat noted.

Devine thought it was an offer the Senators couldn’t refuse. “I think I wound up offering more than they got from the Pirates, but we could not get together,” Devine said.

Senators manager Mickey Vernon had been a Pirates coach during the 1960 season and became impressed by several Pittsburgh prospects, especially first baseman R.C. Stevens.

The Senators swapped Shantz to Pittsburgh for Stevens, outfielder Harry Bright and pitcher Bennie Daniels.

Pirates general manager Joe Brown “beat me to the draw on Shantz,” Devine told the Post-Dispatch. “I feel that maybe I blew the thing, but we were ready to make a similar deal with Washington with players off our (big-league) roster.”

It was a deal the Senators would regret.

_ Stevens, who hit 37 home runs with 109 RBI for Class AAA Salt Lake City in 1960, played in 33 games for the Senators in 1961, with no homers and two RBI. He never played another season in the big leagues.

_ Bright, who hit 27 homers with 119 RBI for Salt Lake City in 1960, played two seasons with the Senators before he was traded to the Reds.

_ Daniels had a 37-60 record and 4.14 ERA in five seasons with the Senators.

When the Cardinals replaced Hemus with Johnny Keane in July 1961, Gibson blossomed into an ace, becoming the greatest Cardinals pitcher and leading St. Louis to two World Series championships and three pennants.

And, Devine ended up acquiring Shantz, after all.

After one season with Pittsburgh, the Pirates lost Shantz to the Houston Colt .45s in the expansion draft. On May 7, 1962, Houston traded Shantz to the Cardinals for outfielder Carl Warwick and pitcher John Anderson.

In three years with St. Louis, Shantz had 12 wins, 15 saves and a 2.51 ERA.

A final twist: While many recall pitcher Ernie Broglio was the key player Devine traded to the Cubs on June 15, 1964, for outfielder Lou Brock, what often gets overlooked is Shantz also was part of the deal.

So, instead of trading Gibson for Shantz, Devine ended up keeping Gibson, acquiring Shantz and trading him for Brock. Today, Gibson and Brock are members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

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