(Updated April 5, 2022)
St. Louis native Jerry Reuss was 21 when he started a Cardinals home opener.
Reuss faced the Giants on April 10, 1971, in the Cardinals’ first home game of the season, but he got derailed that Saturday afternoon by a baseball legend nearly twice his age.
Willie Mays, less than a month shy of his 40th birthday, hit a two-run home run off Reuss, sparking the Giants to a 6-4 victory. It was Mays’ fourth home run in as many games and boosted his career total to 632, 82 behind the all-time leader at that time, Babe Ruth.
Reuss, a left-hander, had debuted with the Cardinals in September 1969. He made 20 starts for St. Louis in 1970, producing a 7-8 record, two shutouts, five complete games and a 4.10 ERA.
After the 1971 Cardinals opened at Chicago by splitting a pair of games against the Cubs _ Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton were the St. Louis starters _ they played their home opener on the day before Easter in front of 26,841 at Busch Memorial Stadium. Reuss was paired against Frank Reberger, 26, a right-hander who had started his big-league career as a reliever.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, it was the first time Reuss had started an opener of any kind, home or away, since he was in high school.
The first time through the Giants batting order went well for Reuss. He struck out Mays looking to end the first inning. He struck out Willie McCovey to begin the second.
In the third, the game was scoreless when Chris Speier walked with two outs, bringing up Mays. Reuss got ahead on the count, 0-and-2. His third pitch was a fastball. Mays turned on it and sent the ball soaring into the left field bleachers.
“I’m just happy to play,” Mays said to Pat Frizzell of the Oakland Tribune. “Not many guys my age can go out there every day. I hit the pitch hard.”
Reuss told the Post-Dispatch, “He’s hit home runs off better pitchers than I am.”
Cardinals catcher Ted Simmons said Mays struck out on an inside fastball in the first inning. When Mays batted in the third, “Reuss put the fastball on the inside corner of the plate, but it came in chin high,” Simmons said to the Post-Dispatch.
In the fourth, Ken Henderson singled and Dick Dietz belted a two-run home run, increasing the San Francisco lead to 4-0.
“It was a real fastball,” Dietz said of the pitch he hammered off Reuss. “He supplied the power.”
After the next batter, Al Gallagher, singled, manager Red Schoendienst lifted Reuss for right-hander Chuck Taylor.
Reuss’ line: 3 innings, 5 hits, 4 runs, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts. Boxscore
The Giants went on to win the National League West championship that season. The Cardinals finished as runner-up to the Pirates in the East. Reuss made 35 starts for the 1971 Cardinals. He was 14-14 with seven complete games, two shutouts and a 4.78 ERA. He issued a team-high 109 walks in 211 innings.
In April 1972, two months after the Cardinals traded Carlton to the Phillies, Reuss was dealt to the Astros for pitchers Scipio Spinks and Lance Clemons.
Cardinals general manager Bing Devine said team owner Gussie Busch ordered the trade.
In the book “The Spirit of St. Louis,” Devine told author Peter Golenbock, “This was a deal I had to make because Mr. Busch said, ‘Jerry Reuss is growing facial hair,’ and he didn’t like facial hair on ballplayers, or executives either.”
Reuss told me in a 2014 interview, “When you look back about how that was the thinking in baseball in the early 1970s and then just two or three years later baseball began to change with the times. Guys were coming in with long hair and beards. And you just wonder: What was the stink all about?”
Also, Reuss had been offered a $3,000 raise to $20,000, but hadn’t signed. He asked for $25,000, The Sporting News reported.
“Reuss didn’t appear to be happy with us, couldn’t come to terms and we were still far apart,” Devine told The Sporting News.
Said Reuss: “I think Mr. Busch is putting his principle ahead of the whole ballclub.”
In a 22-year major-league career, primarily with the Dodgers and Pirates, Reuss compiled a record of 220-191. He was 14-18 versus the Cardinals.
RetroSimba 
For all those interested in Jerry’s career, he just published his memoirs of playing in the big leagues. http://amzn.to/1dQl8xp
Thanks for the tip, Martyn
Perhaps the biggest game Reuss pitched against his original, hometown team was game 4 of the 1985 NLCS. I remember him making a throwing error on a bunt toss to home as the Cards scored 9 runs in the 2nd inning en route to a series-tying 12-2 blowout.
Amazing how the Cards traded two lefties who won a combined 549 games, mere months apart in 1972. Who knows how many pennants they could have won had they kept Carlton and Reuss? Certainly the close 2nd place finishes in 1973 and 74 would have been turned into division titles at the very least.
Never had another good lefty til Tudor in 1985 after the bad trades.
Good memory on that 1985 NLCS game that Jerry Reuss started for Dodgers. It is unfortunate Reuss and Steve Carlton didn’t remain Cardinals. Same with Mike Torrez.