After 10 seasons wearing Kansas City Royals blue, Dan Quisenberry was startled when he slipped on his jersey, walked by a mirror and glimpsed how he looked in St. Louis Cardinals red.
“It’s pretty bright red,” Quisenberry said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “My eyes are going to have to adjust.”
The Cardinals colors soon looked good to Quisenberry. In July 1988, Quisenberry signed with St. Louis a week after he was released by the Royals.
His departure from Kansas City was emotional for Quisenberry, who earned 238 saves for the Royals. Quisenberry, who threw a sinker with a submarine delivery, was the closer on the Royals’ only World Series championship team in 1985 and led the American League in saves five times.
In 1986, Quisenberry was signed to what the Royals called a lifetime contract. By 1988, the Royals were phasing out Quisenberry, 35, and grooming younger pitchers such as Steve Farr and Jeff Montgomery for the closer job. When Quisenberry was released on July 3, 1988, he was 0-1 with a 3.55 ERA in 20 games that season.
With tears welling, Quisenberry told Bob Nightengale of the Kansas City Star and Times, “After all of these years, it’s hard not to be emotional … It wasn’t a happy ending and it wasn’t very picturesque.”
Said Royals general manager John Schuerholz to the Associated Press: “The bottom line is effectiveness. It was purely and simply a baseball decision. His effectiveness was just not what it had been.”
Reunited with Whitey
Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog had been the Royals’ manager in 1979, Quisenberry’s rookie season with Kansas City. Herzog and Cardinals general manager Dal Maxvill reached out to Quisenberry and signed him on July 14, 1988.
“A lot of it is being close to my home (in Leawood, Kan.),” Quisenberry told the Post-Dispatch. “One of the other reasons is that Whitey is the manager. I have the utmost respect for Whitey. He’s a real straight shooter.”
Quisenberry also was a friend of Cardinals coach Nick Leyva. They were college baseball teammates at La Verne in California.
Pitching primarily in middle relief, Quisenberry was 2-0 with a 6.16 ERA in 33 games for the 1988 Cardinals. St. Louis brought him back in 1989 and Quisenberry was 3-1 with six saves and a 2.64 ERA in 63 appearances.
Hit man
Because of the designated hitter rule in the American League, Quisenberry never batted in a big-league game with the Royals. He got his lone big-league hit on July 6, 1989, when he delivered a RBI-single against Tim Belcher in the Cardinals’ 14-2 victory over the Dodgers at St. Louis. Boxscore
Players in the Cardinals’ dugout “went into hysterics” after Quisenberry reached first base, the Post-Dispatch reported.
Cardinals fans gave Quisenberry a standing ovation as he stood on first.
”That was embarrassing,” Quisenberry said. ”I was hoping they’d stop. The cordial thing is to tip your hat, but I stuttered. It was a stutter tip.”
In the eighth, Quisenberry batted against Ricky Horton and struck out on three breaking pitches.
”I learned I’m a dead-red fastball hitter,” Quisenberry quipped. ”I probably should go back to Triple-A to learn how to hit the curveball.”
Previously: Whiteyball: Willie McGee at shortstop; Ricky Horton in right
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