RetroSimba

Looking to improve their offense, the St. Louis baseball Cardinals sought the help of a wide receiver who excelled at scoring with the St. Louis football Cardinals.

In 1961, the baseball Cardinals hired Sonny Randle to come to spring training and instruct major-league and minor-league players on how to run the bases better, with a special focus on teaching them to generate more speed from a standing start.

Four years later, in 1965, Randle was invited to come back and help the baseball Cardinals again.

Innovative idea

The 1960 Cardinals were sixth in the National League in runs scored, in part, because their base runners too often failed to take an extra base, or were unable to score on a hit.

The football Cardinals had moved from Chicago to St. Louis for the 1960 season and one of their top players was Randle. At the University of Virginia, Randle was a sprinter on the track team _ he ran the 100-yard dash in 9.6 seconds _ and was a wide receiver and kickoff returner on the football team.

Drafted by the football Cardinals, Randle debuted with them in 1959 and had a breakout season in 1960, with 62 catches, including 15 for touchdowns, in 12 games. His 15 touchdown receptions remain the single-season Cardinals franchise record.

Randle and Cardinals baseball general manager Bing Devine were at a banquet in 1960 and got into a conversation about how a wide receiver, or split end as Randle’s position was known, was able to generate speed. Devine got the idea to have Randle become a running instructor for the baseball club in spring training, according to St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports editor Bob Broeg.

After receiving permission from the football Cardinals, Devine arranged for Randle, 25, to join the coaching staff of the baseball Cardinals for an early training camp at Homestead, Fla.

New game

The early training camp, which started Feb. 12, 1961, had 24 players from the 40-man winter roster, including Curt Flood, Julian Javier, Tim McCarver and Bill White. Manager Solly Hemus was there, along with coaches Johnny Keane, Howie Pollet, Harry Walker and Darrell Johnson.

Randle, given the title of special running instructor, admitted he was unfamiliar with baseball. He hadn’t played the game since the seventh grade, when he got hit in the head by a pitch and “just laid down the bat and walked over to the track,” according to Broeg.

When Randle arrived at Homestead, Cardinals equipment manager Butch Yatkemen “had to show me how to put on a uniform,” Randle said.

The Feb. 16, 1961, edition of the Post-Dispatch had a photo showing Randle giving a tip to McCarver on how to get a fast start when running from a base.

“He really grows on you,” said Hemus. “The players were a lot more inclined to listen to an active football sprinter than to a veteran track coach, no matter how much more the old coach might know.”

When the early training ended and the 1961 Cardinals opened big-league camp on Feb. 28 at St. Petersburg, Fla., Randle was with them.

Earning his keep

Hemus, a month shy of his 38th birthday, challenged Randle to a 60-yard sprint across the outfield grass. Though Hemus was given a 25-yard head start, Randle won. “I know I never was fast, but you made me look like a sewing machine, running up and down in the same spot,” Hemus told Randle.

After the Cardinals played their 1961 exhibition opener against the Yankees on March 11, Randle went back to Homestead to instruct the minor-league players for two weeks.

“Sonny Randle impressed the baseball Cardinals … The feeling is the running technique of several players has been improved, notably (outfielder) Joe Cunningham and (catcher) Hal Smith,” Broeg reported.

Randle said he noticed many Cardinals didn’t use their upper bodies and arms properly when breaking away from a base.

“You’ve got to explode from a standing start and you don’t do it with arms hanging loosely at your side,” Randle said. “You’ve got to use the arms as well as the legs. You can’t run your best with the torso straight up like a prim old lady seated in a car with her nose pointed to the sky. You’ve got to lean forward _ explode.”

Asked by Broeg to compare Cardinals baseball and football training camps, Randle said, “I don’t think baseball players work nearly as hard or as long … They stand around more, too.”

After his stint with the baseball Cardinals, Randle returned to St. Louis to help coach track at John Burroughs School and prepare for the 1961 NFL season.

In the baseball Cardinals’ 1961 season opener against Warren Spahn and the Braves, Smith tripled for the first time in two years and credited Randle’s running tips with enabling him to reach third base on the hit. Boxscore

Return engagement

After the baseball Cardinals won the 1964 World Series championship, Randle was asked to be an instructor again during 1965 spring training.

New York Times columnist Arthur Daley visited Randle there and wrote, “He is an expert on quick starts and instant acceleration … His assignment is teaching Redbirds base runners how to get that extra little jump on the base paths.”

Said Randle: “The basic principles are identical for both sports _ the leg action and the arm action generate the same acceleration _ but where I drive straight ahead in football, base runners are facing sideways before they take off. Once they wheel around, though, they pick up speed the same way I do.”

Randle timed the Cardinals in 40-yard dashes. Lou Brock was the fastest at 4.3 seconds.

Years later, in his book “Stranger to the Game,” Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson questioned why the club used Randle as a base running instructor “instead of asking Brock, who was already with the team and was the man who revolutionized baseball with his base running.”

In 97 games over eight seasons with the football Cardinals, Randle had 60 touchdown catches among his 328 receptions.

Previously: From Bill White to Isaac Bruce: September specials