RetroSimba

Bo Belinsky, a playboy pitcher with a powerful left arm, a playmate wife and penchant for publicity, appealed to the Cardinals as a possible answer to a bullpen need.

On Dec. 2, 1968, the Cardinals selected Belinsky in the Rule 5 draft of unprotected players.

Because of the departures of Wayne Granger to the Reds in a trade and Larry Jaster to the Expos in the expansion draft, the two-time defending National League champion Cardinals were seeking another left-hander to join Joe Hoerner in the bullpen.

Belinsky was a surprising and controversial choice. He’d spent the entire 1968 season in the minors after a subpar year with the Astros in 1967 and he maintained a legendary reputation for off-field carousing and feuds with baseball management.

As Bob Broeg noted in a column for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Belinsky had let “a loose tongue and 10-cent brain offset the potential brilliance in a million-dollar arm.”

Going Hollywood

Belinsky spent six seasons in the minors before getting a chance in the big leagues with the 1962 Angels. On May 5, 1962, Belinsky pitched a no-hitter for the Angels against the Orioles, boosting his record to 4-0 and rocketing him to the top among sports celebrities in image-conscious Los Angeles. Boxscore

A pool hustler who craved fame and fun, Belinsky was drawn to the Hollywood nightlife and became a fixture on Sunset Strip.

“He tooled around town in a candy-apple Cadillac convertible burning more midnight oil than he drank, squiring some of the long-stemmed beauties of Hollywood,” Broeg observed.

Belinsky dated actresses Ann-Margret, Tina Louise, Connie Stevens and Juliet Prowse and was engaged for a few months to Mamie Van Doren, who told the New York Times, “Our life was a circus.”

While Belinsky’s partying peaked, his pitching plummeted. In three seasons with the Angels, his record was 21-28 and he was traded to the Phillies on Dec. 3, 1964.

Happy in Hawaii

Belinsky floundered with the Phillies. He was 4-9 with a 4.84 ERA in 1965 and 0-2 in 1966, but he was effective against the Cardinals. In five starts versus St. Louis in 1965, Belinsky was 2-2 with a 2.72 ERA.

On May 17, 1965, Belinsky pitched a five-hitter in a 2-1 Phillies victory at St. Louis (Boxscore). A month later at Philadelphia, he pitched a six-hitter in a 7-1 triumph over the Cardinals (Boxscore).

The Astros claimed Belinsky in the Rule 5 draft in November 1966 and he was 3-9 with a 4.68 ERA for them in 1967. When Belinsky went to spring training with the Astros at Cocoa, Fla., in 1968, he was visited by Jo Collins, a Playboy magazine playmate of the year. Belinsky asked the club for permission to stay out with Collins after the midnight curfew, but the Astros refused his request and Belinsky left camp, The Sporting News reported.

By mutual request, the Astros sent Belinsky to the Hawaii Islanders of the Pacific Coast League for the 1968 season. Belinsky, who developed a screwball to go with a formidable fastball, pitched better for Hawaii than his 9-14 record indicated. He threw three shutouts, including a no-hitter, struck out 181 batters in 176 innings and posted an ERA of 2.97.

Taking a chance

Cardinals scout Bill Sayles was impressed by Belinsky’s pitching and said in his report to the club, “This guy is a big-league pitcher. He has the best arm I’ve seen all year and he has the stuff to go with it.”

Warren Spahn, the former big-league ace who was manager of the Cardinals’ Tulsa farm club, supported Sayles’ assertions and St. Louis scouting supervisor Harrison Wickel also watched Belinsky and liked what he saw.

After the 1968 season, the Hawaii club returned Belinsky to the Astros and they assigned him to their Oklahoma City affiliate, making him eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Cardinals general manager Bing Devine and manager Red Schoendienst agreed they’d select Belinsky at the cost of $25,000.

“We felt we might as well take a chance on someone who has a good arm,” Schoendienst said to the Post-Dispatch.

Asked about Belinsky’s reputation, Devine told The Sporting News, “His off-field activities don’t bother me … Sure, he’s a character and he likes girls, but he’s single and I’d say that’s a reasonably normal situation.”

Actually, Belinsky and Collins quietly had married in Hawaii three months earlier in September 1968, the Post-Dispatch and The Sporting News later reported, and she was pregnant. Belinsky and Collins were together in Venezuela, where Bo was pitching winter baseball, when the Cardinals called to tell him they’d drafted him.

Belinsky’s stay in Venezuela ended in a dispute when he refused to pitch in a game, saying his arm was sore. The club suspended him and Belinsky returned to the United States with Collins, saying he would sue to recover withheld pay.

Bo and Jo

At Cardinals spring training camp in St. Petersburg, Fla., Belinsky told Broeg, “I’m broke and if I don’t make it with the Cardinals, a good ballclub, I’ll be hurting.”

Reflecting on his life, Belinsky said, “I had a hell of a good time, but I burned the candle at both ends,” then added, “Though I don’t believe I’ve ever quite fit the portrayal of a finger-snapping, gum-cracking, girdle-snapping cool cat.”

“I think I’d have been better off in baseball in the Babe Ruth era when this wasn’t such a fragile game,” Belinsky said. “I like baseball, but maybe I haven’t had the temperament to be a truly dedicated player.”

Belinsky, 32, and his wife Jo, 23, arrived in Florida toting a .32-caliber automatic pistol and a .22-caliber rifle because they “like to go target shooting,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

Smoking a Tiparillo, a thin cigar popular in the 1960s, Jo told the Post-Dispatch, “I’m not really the typical baseball player’s wife. I’m not the domestic type.”

For instance, Jo said, she hadn’t cooked a meal since she married Bo and didn’t intend to. “It ruins the whole mood when you have to get up and cook,” she said.

“Bo and Jo like room service,” the Post-Dispatch reported. “They like having a maid bring their food and a valet to take care of their clothes. They like living in hotels and have done so since they were married last September.”

Jo also complained about the drivers in St. Petersburg. “This is an old folks town … They ought to take away their licenses when they’re 50,” she said.

Aloha, Bo

Belinsky posted a 1.92 ERA in spring training, but he walked 16 batters in 12.2 innings. “He’s been too wild,” Schoendienst said. “He’s gone to 3-and-2 counts on everybody.”

Between appearances, Belinsky avoided workouts as much as possible, prompting Cardinals physical fitness director Walter Eberhardt to teasingly present him a certificate for “his remarkable ability to perform strenuous exercises without exerting a single muscle.”

The Cardinals decided to keep journeyman Mel Nelson rather than Belinsky as the second left-handed reliever.

On March 31, 1969, the Cardinals offered the Astros the chance to take back Belinsky for half the $25,000 price the Cardinals paid for drafting him, but they declined. The Cardinals placed Belinsky on waivers, but there were no takers.

Belinsky complained of feeling “suppressed” by lack of work in spring training games and said, “I feel the Cardinals cheated themselves and that I was cheated, too.”

The next night, on April 1, 1969, Belinsky collapsed from nervous exhaustion and was taken to a hospital, the Post-Dispatch reported. “I felt as though I was going to die,” Belinsky said.

Unsympathetic, Cardinals trainer Bob Bauman said, “He did most of his training in the clubhouse, talking to the press. That’s where he got his fatigue, from talking too much.”

On April 3, 1969, the Cardinals did Belinsky a favor, returning him to the Hawaii Islanders for $10,000. “Bo was too good a bargain to pass up,” said Hawaii general manager Jack Quinn.

Almost four months later, on July 30, 1969, Belinsky got back to the big leagues when the Pirates purchased his contract from Hawaii.

On Sept. 10, 1969, Belinsky started for the Pirates against the Cardinals in the second game of a doubleheader at Pittsburgh. Belinsky faced seven batters, gave up two hits, walked three, allowed two runs and was lifted with two outs in the first inning (Boxscore).