RetroSimba

Stan Musial apparently played a significant role in the development of Doug Harvey as a Hall of Fame umpire.

It just didn’t happen exactly the way the Baseball Hall of Fame has reported it.

In the spring 2010 edition of Memories And Dreams, the official magazine of the Hall of Fame, the museum’s director of communications, Craig Muder, wrote a profile of Harvey.

Here is what Muder wrote about Musial and Harvey regarding an undated game in 1962 between the Cardinals and Dodgers:

Early in his career, Harvey called out future Hall of Famer Stan Musial on a pitch from another future Hall of Famer, Don Drysdale. The pitch appeared to be a strike _ until it darted four inches off the plate at the last second, a common path of Drysdale’s wicked deliveries.

Musial, who was playing in his 21st big league season, gently told Harvey to “calm down and slow down.” Harvey took the advice to heart. He taught himself to slow down his calls, thus establishing his deliberate style. That extra moment in time allowed Harvey to perfect his craft.

It is unclear whether Muder got his information from Harvey, or whether it came from an October 1992 Baseball Digest magazine article by Jerome Holtzman. Wrote Holtzman:

He was a rookie, his first time in St. Louis, working his third plate game, the Dodgers against the Cardinals. Ninth inning, two outs, score tied, full count, Don Drysdale pitching and Stan Musial coiled, ready to swing.

Drysdale delivered. Plate umpire Doug Harvey, seeing the ball in flight, raised his right hand, signaling strike three. It was 30 years ago, in 1962. But Harvey has not forgotten. The pitch broke to the outside and missed the plate by six inches.

“And there I am standing with egg on my face, the crowd booing,” Harvey recalled. “Musial never looked at me. He told the bat boy to bring him his glove. Then, without turning, he said, ‘Young fellow, I don’t know what league you came from, but we use the same plate. It’s 17 inches wide.’ “

Immediately, Harvey learned two lessons:

“That’s when I realized why they call him ‘Stan the Man.’ And I learned not to anticipate the call.”

Both stories are well-told. Both have significant inaccuracies.

Drysdale faced the Cardinals six times in 1962. Harvey worked the plate in only one of those games, July 25. Musial had three at-bats against Drysdale in that game. He popped out twice and hit a two-run home run. He didn’t strike out. Drysdale pitched seven innings, not nine.

I believe the basic story about Musial and Harvey is true, but I’m convinced it happened on May 11 in St. Louis and that Stan Williams, not Drysdale, was the pitcher.

Harvey worked a Dodgers-Cardinals game behind the plate for the first time that Friday night at Sportsman’s Park. Williams, like Drysdale, a powerful right-hander, started for the Dodgers.

Leading off the bottom of the second inning, Musial was called out on strikes by Harvey.

The setting (St. Louis), the time of year (early in the season), the teams, the call, the batter and the fact it was Harvey’s first time working the plate in a Dodgers-Cardinals game all fit the anecdote. But it could only happen with Williams, not Drysdale, on the mound. Boxscore