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Archive for 2011

Gino Cimoli doubled his fun with 1959 Cardinals

Posted in Games, Hitters, Trades on February 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

In his lone season with the Cardinals, Gino Cimoli achieved a standard no other St. Louis right-handed batter had matched in 20 years.

Cimoli hit 40 doubles for the 1959 Cardinals.

He was the first Cardinal to reach the 40-double mark since Stan Musial hit 41 in 1954 and the first right-handed batter to do it for St. Louis since Joe Medwick’s 48 in 1939.

Cimoli’s output placed him fourth in the National League in doubles in 1959, trailing only the Reds’ Vada Pinson (47), the Braves’ Hank Aaron (46) and the Giants’ Willie Mays (43).

Cimoli was an unlikely candidate to hit 40 doubles. In a 10-year big-league career, his next-best total was 22 doubles.

Acquired by the Cardinals from the Dodgers on Dec. 4, 1958, for outfielder Wally Moon and pitcher Phil Paine, Cimoli opened the 1959 season as the starting center fielder, ahead of Curt Flood.

In need of better corner outfield play _ the Cardinals had three first basemen (Stan Musial, Joe Cunningham and Bill White) playing outfield _ St. Louis sometimes shifted Cimoli to right or left and put Flood in center.

Cimoli played 95 games in center field, 56 in right and 47 in left for St. Louis.

Primarily batting second in the order, Cimoli had 145 hits in 143 games, batting .279 with eight home runs and 72 RBI.

On May 10, 1959, he went 7-for-10 with six runs, three doubles, a homer and four RBI in the Cardinals’ doubleheader split with the Cubs.

In the opener, won by the Cubs, 10-9, Cimoli was 4-for-6 with a double, homer and two RBI. Boxscore

In the second game, Chicago led 7-6 in the ninth before Cimoli’s RBI-double into the left-field corner tied the score. Flood followed with a single, scoring Cimoli with the winning run in St. Louis’ 8-7 victory. Boxscore

“It’s great to play every day,” Cimoli told the Associated Press. “I’m off to a good start (.349 batting average) and I feel I have a better future with the Cardinals than I did with the Dodgers.”

Desperate for pitching after finishing in seventh place with a 4.34 team ERA in 1959, the Cardinals dealt Cimoli and pitcher Tom Cheney to the Pirates for pitcher Ron Kline, an 11-game winner, on Dec. 21, 1959.

The deal backfired on St. Louis. Kline was 4-9 with a 6.04 ERA in 34 games for the 1960 Cardinals. Cimoli, used as a regular replacement for outfielders Roberto Clemente, Bill Virdon and Bob Skinner, helped Pittsburgh to the 1960 World Series title.

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Braves offered Chuck Tanner to Cardinals

Posted in Games, Hitters, Managers, Opponents on February 15, 2011| Leave a Comment »

The Cardinals rejected a chance to acquire Chuck Tanner in June 1957 and he made them pay a couple of months later.

As an outfielder for the Braves and Cubs in the 1950s and as manager of the Pirates and Braves in the 1970s and 1980s, Tanner had a long history as a Cardinals opponent.

Tanner broke into the majors with the Braves in 1955. On Aug, 15, he had his first three-RBI game as a big leaguer in the Braves’ 12-1 victory over St. Louis. Boxscore Three days later, Tanner hit a home run against Larry Jackson in the second inning, sparking the Braves to a 5-3 win against the Cardinals. Boxscore

On Sept. 16, 1955, Tanner’s three-run home run against Brooks Lawrence erased a 3-1 Cardinals lead and paced the Braves to a 9-4 victory. Boxscore

In 1957, the Braves were headed to a National League championship. To help their pennant push, the Braves wanted St. Louis outfielder Del Ennis. On June 1, the Braves offered the Cardinals three players _ Tanner, reliever Dave Jolly and their choice of a pitcher, Ray Crone or Gene Conley _ for Ennis, the Associated Press reported.

Cardinals general manager Frank Lane wanted more _ either pitcher Juan Pizarro or pitcher Bob Trowbridge. When the Braves declined, trade talks ceased.

A week later, the Cubs claimed Tanner off waivers.

Inserted into the starting outfield, Tanner produced. In two games against the Cardinals in August 1957, he went 5-for-8 with two runs scored and three RBI. On Aug. 13, Tanner was 3-for-4 with two RBI in Chicago’s 6-2 victory over the Cardinals. Boxscore Two days later, Tanner’s seventh-inning home run against the Cardinals’ Sam Jones helped the Cubs to a 4-1 win. Boxscore

In 1958, Tanner’s last season as a National League player, he delivered a key blow against the Cardinals in an unusual situation. On Aug. 31, the Cubs led, 2-1, in the third with two on and Lee Walls at the plate. Cardinals starter Sal Maglie brushed back Walls with a pitch the Cubs batter claimed hit him.

Umpire Frank Secory ruled the ball missed Walls, who argued and was ejected. Tanner took over the at-bat and hit a three-run home run, helping Chicago to an 8-5 victory. Boxscore

Tanner batted .236 with four home runs and 20 RBI in his career against the Cardinals.

After managing the White Sox and Athletics, Tanner went to the National League as manager of the Pirates (1977-85) and Braves (1986-88).

Tanner had a 76-106 record as manager against the Cardinals. He was 29-25 versus St. Louis in the 1970s and 47-81 when facing the Cardinals in the 1980s.

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Cardinals wanted Elston Howard as broadcaster

Posted in Broadcasters on February 11, 2011| 2 Comments »

(Updated Nov. 30, 2021)

The Cardinals gave Elston Howard a chance to become the first black broadcaster of a major-league team.

Howard rejected the offer because he had hopes of becoming the first black big-league manager.

Manager material

Howard, a St. Louis native who played against the Cardinals in the 1964 and 1967 World Series, retired after the 1968 season, ending a 14-year major-league playing career as a catcher and outfielder with the Yankees and Red Sox.

He joined the Yankees coaching staff in 1969. After that season, the Cardinals offered him a chance to join Jack Buck on their broadcasting team, replacing Harry Caray. Howard had broadcast high school football games in 1969 for a New York television station.

Howard thought he had a good chance to eventually replace Ralph Houk as Yankees manager, so he opted to remain a coach rather than take the Cardinals’ offer.

Jim Woods, who had been on the Pirates broadcast team with Bob Prince, replaced Caray in St. Louis. It wasn’t until two years later that Howard revealed the Cardinals’ offer.

“Yankees coach Elston Howard said he was offered a job on the Cardinals play-by-play broadcast team after the 1969 season, but decided against it,” The Sporting News reported in February 1971.

In the book “Elston and Me: The Story of the First Black Yankee,” authors Arlene Howard (Elston’s widow) and Ralph Wimbish wrote, “Someone from the Cardinals called and asked if he was interested in becoming a broadcaster … He (Howard) turned down an offer to work with Jack Buck doing St. Louis Cardinals games.”

Bill White, the former Cardinals first baseman and a friend of Howard, became the first black broadcaster of a big-league team, joining the Yankees crew in 1971. White told me in a 2011 interview he also was offered a broadcasting job with the Cardinals when Caray was fired after the 1969 season. White said he initially accepted the offer but reconsidered.

In the “Elston and Me” book, the authors said White and Howard were friends. When White became the Yankees’ broadcaster, he turned to Howard, the Yankees’ coach, for advice.

“Elston made my job much easier because he had great knowledge of the players,” White said in the book. “I had to depend on him. He was my eyes and ears on the field.”

When Houk stepped down as manager after the 1973 season, the Yankees bypassed Howard and hired former Cardinals outfielder Bill Virdon as manager for 1974.

“I knew Ellie wanted to manage,” White said in the Howard biography. “He should have. He had as much experience as anybody out there. There is no reason he couldn’t have been a manager.”

In 1975, Frank Robinson became the first black big-league manager, with the Cleveland Indians.

Cardinals tryout

Howard had hoped, even expected, to begin his big-league playing career with his hometown Cardinals. After graduating from Vashon High School in the late 1940s, he attended a four-day tryout camp at St. Louis’ Sportsman’s Park and performed well, but the Cardinals never made an offer.

“The Cardinals once had Howard all set for signing,” The Sporting News reported in 1971, “but that was just before they began signing Negroes.”

In the “Elston and Me” book, Howard recalled, “I did as good as anybody else at the tryout. I pumped about three of them out of the park and I made it to the final day of the tryout, then they said they’d send me a letter.”

According to the book, “Elston would have signed with the Cardinals, but he never heard back from them. They were not ready to sign any black players.”

After playing for the Negro American League Kansas City Monarchs, Howard signed with the Yankees in 1950. When he made it to the big leagues with them in 1955 at 26, he was the first black Yankees player _ eight years after Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier with the Dodgers and one year after the first black, Tom Alston, played for the Cardinals.

After Howard was named Most Valuable Player of the International League while a Yankees prospect in 1954, the Cardinals tried to trade for him. Cardinals general manager Dick Meyer confirmed the Cardinals submitted a list of shortstops for the Yankees to choose from in exchange for Howard, but the negotiations ended when the Yankees asked for third baseman Ken Boyer, The Sporting News reported.

Howard played in 10 World Series (nine with the Yankees) and won the American League Most Valuable Player Award in 1963.

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Ron Piche had hot start to Cardinals career

Posted in Games, Pitchers on February 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

In his first two appearances for the Cardinals, Ron Piche earned saves in both games, energizing a staff making a mid-summer push to get the club back into the pennant race.

Piche couldn’t sustain that splendid start, however, and, after finishing the 1966 season with the Cardinals, never pitched in the major leagues again.

Piche made his major-league debut with the Braves in 1960.

After four seasons with the Braves and a year with the Angels, Piche, 31, began the 1966 season with Class AAA Seattle of the Pacific Coast League. On April 30, 1966, the Cardinals acquired Piche for Earl Francis, a former big-league pitcher who was on their Class AAA Tulsa roster.

Piche, 31, was assigned to Tulsa, managed by Charlie Metro, and he performed well as a reliever. On July 4, 1966, he got his break. With Cardinals general manager Bob Howsam and farm director Sheldon Bender in attendance, Piche made a rare start and pitched a complete-game four-hitter in Tulsa’s 11-2 victory over Tacoma.

The win boosted Piche’s record to 5-3 with a team-best 2.20 ERA and impressed Howsam and Bender.

On July 17, 1966, Cardinals starter Art Mahaffey was lifted with one out in the first inning after surrendering three runs on three hits and two walks. With his staff weakened by injuries and overwork, Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst seriously considered using infielder Jerry Buchek and outfielder Mike Shannon in emergency relief.

Instead, the Cardinals dispatched Mahaffey to Tulsa two days later and promoted Piche, who was 6-3 with a 2.00 ERA in 25 games for the Oilers.

The Cardinals began winning, playing as hot as the mid-summer temperatures.

On July 21, 1966, against the Braves at St. Louis, starter Al Jackson took a 7-2 lead into the eighth inning. When he tired, allowing two runs with one out, Schoendiest turned to Piche to protect the 7-4 lead in his Cardinals debut.

Piche faced two batters in the eighth and three in the ninth _ and retired all five on groundouts, earning his first big-league save since 1961 with the Braves.

The win was the Cardinals’ fourth in a row and evened their record at 46-46. Boxscore

The next day, at Chicago, Piche saved a 9-4 Cardinals victory over the Cubs with two scoreless innings of relief, moving St. Louis above .500 for the first time in more than a month. Boxscore

In two games with St. Louis, Piche had more saves than he had in his previous four big-league seasons combined.

Sparked by the improved pitching, the Cardinals climbed to seven games above .500 before slipping back again.

Piche earned a win against the Dodgers with two perfect innings of relief in St. Louis’ 3-2, 13-inning victory on Aug. 20, 1966. Boxscore

He finished with a 1-3 record, two saves and a 4.26 ERA in 20 relief appearances.

In the winter, the Cardinals assigned Piche to Tulsa. He pitched well for manager Warren Spahn’s Oilers in 1967 (4-2, 3.07 ERA in 46 games) but never got called back by the Cardinals.

On April 22, 1968, St. Louis traded Piche and pitcher Jack Lamabe to the Cubs for pitchers Pete Mikkelsen and Dave Dowling.

Piche pitched in the minor leagues until 1972 before he became a coach, scout and community ambassador for the Expos. Nicknamed “Monsieur Baseball” in Quebec, he was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

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Why the Cardinals fired Warren Spahn

Posted in Managers on February 2, 2011| 3 Comments »

Less than a year after offering him their big-league pitching coach job, the Cardinals fired Hall of Fame left-hander Warren Spahn as manager of their Class AAA team.

The Tulsa Oilers were 15 games below .500 and in last place when Spahn was fired. The Cardinals said Spahn’s dismissal was based on a desire to give other managers in their system a chance to advance.

On Aug. 27, 1971, Cardinals general manager Bing Devine arrived unannounced in Tulsa, met with Spahn and told him his contract would be terminated after the completion of the American Association season.

Spahn responded he wouldn’t manage the remaining seven games. Tulsa outfielder Gary Geiger, a former big-leaguer, filled in for Spahn.

“I certainly respect Bing for flying to Tulsa to tell me,” Spahn said to The Sporting News. “He could have as easily picked up a phone and told me.”

Spahn, 50, said Devine informed him there were no other jobs for him with the Cardinals and “there were young prospective managers in the organization who needed to move up.”

Jack Krol, 35, who managed Class AA Arkansas in 1971, replaced Spahn at Tulsa for the 1972 season.

According to The Sporting News, Spahn had been offered the job of pitching coach on Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst’s staff in October 1970 after Billy Muffett was fired. Spahn chose to remain Tulsa manager.

Clyde King, a former Cardinals minor-league manager and pitching instructor, also was considered to replace Muffett, but King became manager of the Class AAA Richmond Braves, and the Cardinals settled for former reliever Barney Schultz as their pitching coach.

A day after Spahn’s firing, Aug. 28, 1971, Tulsa general manager Hugh Finnerty quit in protest, saying he hadn’t been consulted.

“I haven’t felt like I was general manager,” Finnerty said. “I felt like the releasing of Spahn was ill-timed, coming just seven days before the end of the season.”

Oilers owner A. Ray Smith told The Sporting News the Cardinals had contacted him two weeks before Spahn’s firing to advise him of their decision.

“The Cardinals pay 100 percent of the manager’s salary and I think that gives them the right to do what they want _ although they have never tried to cram anything down our throats,” Smith said.

Spahn had been Tulsa’s manager for five seasons _ the longest stint in franchise history. When he became Tulsa manager in 1967, it was at the urging of Smith and at great cost to the Cardinals.

According to The Sporting News, the Cardinals’ first choice to manage the 1967 Tulsa team was Sparky Anderson, who managed the Cardinals’ Class A St. Petersburg club to a Florida State League championship in 1966. Smith wanted Spahn, who never had managed. The Cardinals relented and assigned Anderson to manage their Class A Modesto team in 1967.

Upset he had been passed over for the Class AAA job, Anderson left the Cardinals’ organization after the 1967 season and accepted a minor-league managing job in the Reds’ system. In October 1969, Anderson was selected manager of the Reds and embarked on his Hall of Fame career.

After the Cardinals fired him, Spahn became pitching coach of the 1972 Cleveland Indians. Gaylord Perry earned 24 wins and received the Cy Young Award with Spahn as his coach that season, and the Indians had a 2.92 team ERA.

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The story behind Stan Musial’s $100,000

Posted in Hitters on January 31, 2011| 2 Comments »

(Updated Nov. 30, 2024)

When Stan Musial established a National League record by signing a one-year, $100,000 contract, he got his first pay raise from the Cardinals in seven years.

On Jan. 29, 1958, Musial, 37, became the first National League player with a six-figure salary when the Cardinals agreed to pay him $100,000 to play first base.

After Musial won his seventh batting title by hitting .351 in 1957, Cardinals general manager Bing Devine asked him what salary he wanted for 1958.

In the book “Stan Musial: The Man’s Own Story,” Musial said he told Devine, “I’d like to be the highest-salaried player the National League has had. ”

Devine and Musial agreed on $91,000. Team owner Gussie Busch generously instructed Devine to give Musial $100,000.

According to Bob Broeg in the Feb. 5, 1958, edition of The Sporting News and verified by James Giglio in the book “Musial: From Stash to Stan the Man,” it was Musial’s first pay raise since Fred Saigh, then the Cardinals’ owner, signed Musial for $75,000, with a $5,000 attendance clause, on Feb. 18, 1951.

In the next seven seasons, Musial won three batting titles (1951, 1952 and 1957) and a RBI crown (1956), and hit .310 or better with at least 21 home runs each year. None of that earned him a raise until Busch surprised Musial with the $100,000 offer for 1958.

(In 1952, Saigh invited reporters and photographers to a meeting he had with Musial. In a stunt that stunned and embarrassed Musial, Saigh handed him a contract with a blank amount and urged him to fill in any figure. The classy Musial said he would accept the same salary he received in 1951).

“Baseball has rewarded me richly,” Musial said after signing the $100,000 deal. “The Cardinals always have treated me more than fair, this year in particular. Mr. Busch and Bing wanted me to have this contract. I would have settled for less … I feel highly honored.”

Mary Murphy, secretary to every Cardinals owner since 1930, attended the signing. According to Broeg, Musial said to Murphy, “Did you ever think, Miss Murphy, that when I signed for $4,200 in 1942 I’d ever be in this position?”

Murphy later told Broeg, “He (Musial) hasn’t changed a bit. He’s the same boy he’s always been.”

In a Page 1 article in the Feb. 12, 1958, edition of The Sporting News, Dan Daniel reported the highest-paid big leaguers that year were Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams ($125,000 per year), Musial ($100,000), Giants outfielder Willie Mays ($75,000) and Braves pitcher Warren Spahn ($65,000). According to Daniel, Yankees outfielder Mickey Mantle was asking for $75,000 to play in 1958.

“What has been going on in this major league contract-signing season is utterly without precedent in the game,” Daniel wrote. “All over the nation there has been runaway inflation which has sent the cost of living higher and higher, to continual new records. Now this inflation has hit baseball with a frenzy which defies efforts at analysis from any angle.”

Musial responded by batting .337 and collecting his 3,000th hit in 1958.

When he hit .255 (first time below .300 in his career) in 1959, Musial asked for and received a $20,000 pay cut, to $80,000, for the 1960 season, according to The Sporting News.

“The Cardinals have been generous to me the past few years, so I thought I’d be kind to them,” Musial said.

Even with the pay cut, The Sporting News reported, the 1960 contract made Musial the first National League player to reach $1 million in career salary ($1,053,000 in 18 seasons).

In the 1982 book “Voices From Cooperstown, asked his opinion of players receiving multiyear contracts, Musial said to author Anthony J. Connor, “I believe that the American system always worked on the basis of people being paid after they’ve produced.”

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