RetroSimba

(Updated May 25, 2020)

On May 21, 1970, Steve Carlton, a future Phillie, and Richie Allen, a former Phillie, delivered dramatic performances for the Cardinals against the Phillies, but it wasn’t enough to produce a win.

Carlton struck out 16 Phillies and Allen sparked a Cardinals comeback with a ninth-inning home run, but the Phillies won, 4-3, at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

The unusual occurrences didn’t end with the game’s conclusion. A few hours after their loss, the Cardinals were roused from their rooms when a fire broke out in the hotel. The Cardinals were unharmed and the fire quickly was extinguished.

For Carlton, the game was the third in his Cardinals career in which he struck out 16 or more. Each time, he didn’t win. Carlton struck out 19 and took the loss in a 4-3 Mets victory over the Cardinals on Sept. 15, 1969. He struck out 16 and took the loss in a 3-1 Phillies victory over the Cardinals on Sept. 20, 1967.

“It’s getting to be a phobia,” Carlton said to United Press International. “I get all these strikeouts, but I start thinking that one mistake can kill you.”

Allen returns

Before the game, the focus was Allen, not Carlton. Allen was playing at Philadelphia for the first time since the Phillies sent him to the Cardinals seven months earlier in the deal involving Curt Flood and Tim McCarver.

Allen, the Cardinals’ first baseman, “was welcomed by a chorus of boos mingled with cheers” when he appeared on the field, the Associated Press reported.

According to the Philadelphia Daily News, “Nobody came to sit on their hands or be neutral. There was electricity in the air.”

In the sixth inning, the Phillies snapped a scoreless tie with three runs against Carlton. Larry Hisle hit a RBI-triple and Don Money produced a two-run home run. “I hung a slider to Money,” Carlton said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Otherwise, Carlton was dominant. “My fastball was good and I was keeping it low and away all night,” Carlton said. “I kept hitting the corners.”

With the Phillies ahead 3-0, Phil Gagliano, batting for Carlton, led off the ninth with a routine groundball to Money at third base. The ball took a bad hop and struck Money in the eye. Gagliano was credited with a single. Experiencing double vision, Money was taken to a hospital and diagnosed with “a fracture of the orbit, the thin bone around the eye,” The Sporting News reported.

After the next two Cardinals batters made outs against starter Woodie Fryman, Allen, hitless in the game, came to the plate.

Redbirds rally

Fryman threw a slider, down and in, and Allen ripped it for a two-run home run into the left-field stands, turning the jeers into cheers.

“There aren’t many smarter hitters in this game,” Fryman said. “He goes up there with an idea.

“He’s got tremendously fast feet. He really knows how to use them to open up on an inside pitch.”

According to Philadelphia Daily News columnist Stan Hochman. Phillies broadcaster and former outfielder Richie Ashburn suggested pitchers should pitch to Allen “the way porcupines make love _ carefully.”

“I’m not going to pitch him outside because he’s liable to hit that right back at you,” Fryman said, “and I wouldn’t want to challenge that.”

Following Allen’s home run, Joe Torre walked and Vic Davalillo ran for him. Carl Taylor singled, moving Davalillo to second. Bill Wilson relieved Fryman and yielded a single to Joe Hague, scoring Davalillo with the tying run. The Cardinals loaded the bases, but the threat died when Mike Shannon, facing former teammate Joe Hoerner, popped out to third.

In the bottom of the ninth, Tony Taylor hit a two-out, RBI-single off Sal Campisi, giving the Phillies the victory. Boxscore and radio broadcast

Wakeup call

Early on the morning of May 22, a fire erupted on the 15th floor of the hotel where the Cardinals stayed. Smoke “shot up to several higher floors,” including the floors where most of the Cardinals had rooms, The Sporting News reported.

Shannon and Cardinals coach Billy Muffett awakened many of their teammates “by kicking against their doors,” according to The Sporting News.

“Our floor was full of smoke,” said Muffett, “and when I tried to go out an exit door, I had to turn back because of the heavy smoke.”

Some of the Cardinals gathered in the lobby until certain the fire was put out.

In his book “Red: A Baseball Life,” Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst said, “I was asleep and the sirens woke me up. I could see the red lights flickering in my window. That was all I needed to get me going. I threw on a pair of pants and a shirt and hightailed it downstairs.

“We were lucky nobody was hurt … Our clothes smelled liked smoke for a long time after that.”

It was that kind of night.