RetroSimba

(Updated March 2, 2019)

Willie Crawford was acquired by the Cardinals from the Dodgers to strengthen the bench, but he exceeded expectations and became their starting right fielder, giving a good performance for a bad team.

On March 2, 1976, the Cardinals traded second baseman Ted Sizemore to the Dodgers for Crawford.

The deal accommodated Sizemore, who was being displaced as the starting second baseman and sought to play close to his home in southern California.

Crawford, who spent 12 seasons as a role player with the Dodgers, wanted to play regularly, but with Lou Brock in left, Bake McBride in center and Reggie Smith in right the 1976 Cardinals were set with starting outfielders.

Platoon player

In 1964, Crawford, a high school standout in Los Angeles, was signed by Dodgers scout Tommy Lasorda, the future Hall of Fame manager.

A left-handed batter, Crawford hit .268 during his Dodgers career and played in two World Series (1965 and 1974) for them.

In 1969 and 1970, Sizemore and Crawford were Dodgers teammates. After the 1970 season, the Dodgers dealt Sizemore and catcher Bob Stinson to the Cardinals for slugger Richie Allen.

No. 2 man

Sizemore was the Cardinals’ starting second baseman from 1971-75. Batting primarily in the No. 2 spot, Sizemore led the National League in sacrifice bunts (25) in 1973 and was second (with 21) in 1975.

In 1974, when Brock had 118 stolen bases, he said, “You have to have the right man batting behind you. I do: Ted Sizemore.”

“To bat behind a base stealer, you have to be patient, willing to take pitches and sacrifice your average, able to make contact with two strikes, adept in the subtle ways of hindering a catcher and satisfied that by helping to get that man to second base, you are doing what your team must do to win,” Sizemore said to the Los Angeles Times.

By 1976, Sizemore was expendable because the Cardinals planned to shift Mike Tyson from shortstop to second base and play Don Kessinger at shortstop until Garry Templeton was ready to take over the position.

Anatomy of a deal

Sizemore told Cardinals general manager Bing Devine he intended to go to spring training in 1976 and beat out Tyson for the starting second base spot, but changed his mind, “expressing his desire to be traded to Los Angeles if such a deal could be made,” Devine told United Press International.

Devine said he approached Dodgers executive Al Campanis and proposed a trade of Sizemore for Crawford. Because the Dodgers had Davey Lopes at second base and Bill Russell at shortstop, they projected Sizemore, 30, as a utility player.

The Cardinals and Dodgers also discussed a deal of Reggie Smith for Bill Russell, Campanis confirmed to the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper noted such a swap would give Crawford a chance to claim the right field job with the Cardinals “while enabling the Dodgers to move Davey Lopes to shortstop, opening up second base for Sizemore.”

However, Campanis said the Cardinals “expressed a desire to stand pat until later in the spring,” the Los Angeles Times reported. “The Cardinals also expressed the opinion that the Dodgers would have to part with more than Russell.”

Crawford, 29, figured to join Mike Anderson and Luis Melendez as a reserve outfielder for the Cardinals. “I felt I was stereotyped in a position by the Dodgers with no way to break it,” Crawford said, adding, “I welcome the new atmosphere. The Cards always have seemed like a pretty relaxed club that works together. I hope to contribute to that.”

Crawford told the Los Angeles Times he “never had the type of communications” with Dodgers manager Walter Alston “that I should have, but I don’t leave with ill feelings. I simply feel there was a need for a change of scenery. I was in a rut. I was not getting any younger and my situation wasn’t improving.”

Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray wrote, “Willie’s is a classic case of arrested athletic development. A big-muscled, powerful young man in the Lou Gehrig mold, Willie Crawford, like Gehrig, has the body and configuration that must be used every day to stay at peak efficiency.”

Hot hitter

Crawford quickly fit in with the 1976 Cardinals. During spring training, The Sporting News reported, Crawford took over retired pitcher Bob Gibson’s role of “clubhouse and on-field needler.”

Over the first two weeks of the 1976 regular season, Crawford was used exclusively as a pinch-hitter by manager Red Schoendienst. On April 25, Schoendienst moved Smith to third base, replacing struggling rookie Hector Cruz, and put Crawford in right field.

Crawford responded by batting .438 in April and .326 in May.

After the Cardinals traded Smith to the Dodgers, not for Russell but for catcher Joe Ferguson, on June 15, 1976, Crawford got the most starts in right field.

Strong season

Crawford completed the 1976 season with a .304 batting average and a .360 on-base percentage. His batting average against right-handers was .313.

Crawford hit nine home runs and produced 50 RBI, but consistent run production was a weakness. Crawford hit .225 with runners in scoring position and .323 with no one on base, according to the Web site baseball-reference.com.

After the 1976 Cardinals finished 72-90, Schoendienst was fired and the club looked to make other changes.

Planning to move Cruz to right field in 1977, the Cardinals traded Crawford, pitcher John Curtis and utility player Vic Harris to the Giants for pitchers Mike Caldwell and John D’Acquisto and catcher Dave Rader in October 1976.