(Updated Dec. 24, 2018)
At 17, Ray Sadecki threw with as much velocity as anyone on the Cardinals’ major-league pitching staff.
An amateur free agent, Sadecki was pursued by most big-league teams. Cardinals scout Runt Marr, who followed Sadecki for two years, recommended the club invest in the left-handed pitcher from Kansas City, Kansas.
On June 1, 1958, Sadecki signed with the Cardinals for a bonus of $50,000 and a three-year contract totaling another $18,000.
High interest
Sadecki was an exceptional prospect. At 16, he pitched four no-hitters, two in high school and two in summer league games. In his senior year at Ward High School, Sadecki was 9-0 and pitched another no-hitter. Marr said Sadecki averaged two strikeouts per inning over two high school seasons and twice struck out 21 batters in seven-inning games.
At the state high school baseball tournament at Eldorado, Kansas, in 1958, 12 of the 16 major-league teams sent scouts to watch Sadecki. Marr was joined by Cardinals minor-league director Walter Shannon. They saw Sadecki win the state championship game, capping a 17-0 season for Ward High School.
After graduating, Sadecki met with representatives from the Athletics, Pirates and Yankees. He worked out for the Orioles in Kansas City and went to Cleveland to throw for the Indians, who offered a $50,000 bonus. Sadecki returned home briefly before heading to St. Louis for a workout with the Cardinals.
Frank Sadecki, Ray’s father, asked bidders for a “$55,000 trust fund or insurance type deal that would provide a salary for life,” according to United Press International.
Hard thrower
The Cardinals announced Sadecki’s signing while he was pitching on the sidelines in a workout at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
In his book “October 1964,” author David Halberstam wrote, “Frank Sadecki, an immigrant’s son who had not been permitted to play baseball by his father, took the $10,000 check for the first part of the bonus and showed it to his own father. The old man looked at it and broke into tears of both pleasure and anguish; the boy, he said, is making that much money just for playing a game, while he had had to work so hard all his life for so much less.”
Cardinals manager Fred Hutchinson, who pitched 10 years in the big leagues, compared Sadecki with Cardinals ace Sam Jones, who led the National League in strikeouts in 1958.
“He’s very smooth,” Hutchinson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We won’t have to do a thing with his delivery. We’ll have to develop a curveball. He throws as hard as Sam Jones does.”
In The Sporting News, Bob Broeg wrote Sadecki “has the potential of developing into one of the hardest-throwing pitchers in the game.”
After receiving mentoring from Cardinals pitching coach Al Hollingsworth in St. Louis, Sadecki was assigned to their farm club in Winnipeg.
Wild thing
Sadecki “felt some resentment from the career minor-league players because he had made so much money before he had even thrown his first pitch,” Halberstam wrote.
On June 19, 1958, Sadecki made his pro debut, pitching a four-hitter in a win against St. Cloud. He struck out 11, walked 10 and hit a two-run home run.
Games with high totals of strikeouts and walks were commonplace for Sadecki in 1958. On July 21, he pitched a three-hitter in a win over Duluth-Superior, striking out 14 and walking 11. Facing Minot on July 29, Sadecki won a four-hitter, striking out 13 and walking nine.
Sadecki finished the 1958 season with a 9-7 record, 3.34 ERA and 11 complete games for Winnipeg. In 132 innings, he struck out 174 and walked 129.
Though he’d pitched a full schedule of high school and minor-league baseball that year, the Cardinals sent Sadecki to their Florida Instructional League for more work in October 1958.
On Oct. 15, in his debut for the Florida Instructional League Cardinals, Sadecki combined with teammates Roland Passaro and Jerry Lock on a no-hitter against the Athletics.
A month later, Cardinals pitching instructor Johnny Grodzicki said Sadecki “could be one of the game’s great left-handers. Control is his only problem.”
The Post-Dispatch called Sadecki “one of the best prospects, but he also is one of the wildest.”
VIPs impressed
On Dec. 6, with Cardinals general manager Bing Devine, manager Solly Hemus and talent evaluator Eddie Stanky in attendance, Sadecki pitched a no-hitter against the Florida Instructional League Yankees at St. Petersburg. Sadecki struck out 12, walked nine and hit a batter in a 3-0 victory.
“We won’t rush him no matter how good he looks … but we do believe that Sadecki, with his unusual speed and fine curve, can make it a quick trip to the majors,” Devine said.
Hemus, who had replaced Hutchinson as Cardinals manager, said Sadecki “throws hard and gets a lot of stuff on the ball for a boy of his age.”
Sadecki finished the Florida Instructional League season with a 5-3 record and 2.50 ERA. In 72 innings, he struck out 89, yielded 36 hits and averaged seven walks per game.
Soon after Sadecki turned 18 on Dec. 26, 1958, the Cardinals invited him to their 1959 major-league spring training camp.
Fast track
Cardinals pitching coach Howie Pollet liked what he saw from Sadecki at spring training.
“We won’t try to change Sadecki’s delivery in any way,” Pollet said. “Whoever taught the boy taught him well. He has one of the finest basic, or fundamental, styles of pitching I’ve ever seen … Wherever Sadecki pitches the coming season, we’ll impress on his manager never to try to change the boy’s style. Just concentrate on having the boy practice spot control.”
In four innings pitched in Cardinals spring training games, Sadecki yielded no earned runs, two hits, two walks and struck out four.
Hemus said Sadecki “has the equipment to be a great pitcher.”
On March 26, 1959, the Cardinals sent Sadecki to their minor-league training camp at Daytona Beach, Fla., and he was assigned to Class AAA Omaha.
Sadecki was 13-9 with a 4.06 ERA for Omaha in 1959. He had 175 strikeouts and 145 walks in 193 innings.
In May 1960, Sadecki, 19, made his major-league debut with the Cardinals. He went on to earn 135 wins in 18 big-league seasons, including eight (1960-66 and 1975) with the Cardinals.
Sadecki was 68-64 for St. Louis and his best year was 1964 when he led the Cardinals in wins (20) during their run to a National League pennant. He also earned a win in Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees.
RetroSimba 
The thing I remember the most about Ray (besides his eye-popping velocity) was what a brutal fielder he was. Yeesh.
And, lest we forget, he was traded SFG for Cha-cha. Fantastic trade.
The Cardinals traded Ray Sadecki to the Giants for Orlando Cepeda in May 1966, dealt Cha-Cha to the Braves for Joe Torre in March 1969 and to complete the trilogy, traded Joe and reacquired Ray from the Mets in October 1974. A couple of MVP seasons and a World Series championship were the results when viewed from an STL standpoint.
The old adage, “What goes around, comes around,” was true in this case.
The Cardinals had two great pitching prospects named Ray in the early 1960s, both hard throwers. Ray Washburn was the other “Ray”.
Both struggled some with injuries and never quite lived up to the hype, yet both contributed in signifcant ways to Cardinal pennant winners.
Yes, Ray Sadecki (1964) and Ray Washburn (1968) each earned a World Series win for Cardinals.
Also, that ‘61 Topps Sadecki card always looked kind of nerdy with those glasses. He had some pretty cool cards later, and never had glasses on. Maybe he went to contacts while pitching, ala Greg Maddux.
He was having a pretty good, early 1966 season with the Cardinals. Pitching and hitting. I saw him hit one over the roof at old, old Busch Stadium 4/24/66. He finished that year hitting .341 with the Cards/Giants.
Thank you for the insights. You are right. Ray Sadecki was a good hitter as well as a good pitcher. He produced 151 hits and 56 RBI in his major-league career. It is pretty special you got to witness one of his five big-league home runs. In doing my research for the article, I found he played the outfield in high school in games he wasn’t pitching.
Did you know that Runt Marr passed on Mickey Mantle when he was in high school? He told The Mick that he had some more work to do and that he would get back to him. In an interview that Mantle gave late in life, he said that he was still waiting to hear back from Runt. The Cardinals were his boyhood favorites. What could have been…
Terrific anecdote. Thanks for sharing.
I followed the Cardinals as my nearest major league team as a young boy living in New Orleans in the late ’50s and early ’60s. I had that Sadecki 1961 card and pulled for him and the Cardinals in the 1964 World Series in which they beat the Yanks. Have been a solid Houston Astros fam since they got their franchise. But the Sadecki story brought back great memories of a time when baseball was a kid’s summer fun and not as much about the money.
Thanks, Steve. Good luck to the Astros.
Obviously they didn’t believe in pitch counts back in those days. That was a lot of innings and a lot of pitches for a 17 year old. It reminds one of Nook Laloosh in Bull Durham who once struck out 18 (a new league record) and walked 18(a new league record) in the same game.
An apt comparison. Thanks!