RetroSimba

(Updated Dec. 16, 2019)

Bob Shaw outdueled Sandy Koufax in a World Series game, taught Gaylord Perry how to throw the spitball and frustrated the Cardinals after he joined the Mets.

Shaw started Game 5 of the 1959 World Series for the White Sox and beat Koufax and the Dodgers, 1-0, before more than 92,000 spectators at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Boxscore

Five years later, Shaw was with the Giants and became a mentor to Perry, a future Hall of Famer.

In his book “Me and the Spitter,” Perry said Shaw’s spitball was “one of the best I’ve ever seen.” After seeing how Shaw’s spitball fooled batters, Perry said, “I knew how Tom Edison felt when he discovered the electric light.”

“Bob and I worked for hours,” Perry said. “I studied his every movement. The old dew drop takes total dedication, like any new pitch you learn, only more so.”

On June 10, 1966, the Giants sold Shaw’s contract to the Mets.

Three days, later, on June 13, 1966, he made his Mets debut in a start against the Cardinals in Game 1 of a Monday night doubleheader at Shea Stadium and pitched a five-hitter, beating the Cardinals, 5-2. Shaw allowed one extra-base hit, a triple by Phil Gagliano. Using the bat of teammate Ken Boyer, Shaw also singled twice in three at-bats against Al Jackson. Boxscore

Shaw said he was motivated to pitch a complete game because he had something to prove to the Giants and their pitching coach, Larry Jansen, “who didn’t think I could go more than six innings,” Shaw told The Sporting News.

Eight nights later, on June 21, 1966, in St. Louis, Shaw started against the Cardinals again and beat them, 2-1, on a four-hitter, walking none and striking out nine. Tim McCarver’s solo home run in the seventh cut in half the Mets’ 2-0 lead, but Shaw retired the Cardinals in order in the eighth and ninth. Boxscore

The Cardinals said Shaw threw a spitball and repeatedly asked the umpire to check the ball.

“It’s a psychological advantage,” Shaw said to the New York Daily News. “If you get them thinking that way, it’s the greatest thing in the world.”

Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch “there’s no question that Shaw throws a spitter,” but said, “You just have to learn to hit it, wet or not.”

Cardinals pitcher Tracy Stallard said, “Spitball or not, Shaw pitched quite a game. You’ve got to admire him. He battles you and that’s the name of the game.”

Said Cardinals shortstop Dal Maxvill: “The way Shaw was throwing tonight, he wouldn’t give his own mother a good pitch to hit.”

Shaw went on to post an 11-10 record and 3.92 ERA in 25 starts for a Mets team that finished in ninth-place at 66-95.

The next year he pitched for the Mets and Cubs, ending an 11-year big-league career that began in 1957 with the Tigers.

Shaw became a successful commercial real estate developer and youth baseball coach in Jupiter, Fla. He managed a team from Jensen Beach, Fla., to the American Legion World Series championship in 1986.