Bobby Del Greco was a graceful center fielder with a strong arm, but he was no Bill Virdon.
Del Greco was a principal figure in one of the Cardinals’ most lopsided trades.
On May 17, 1956, the Cardinals dealt center fielder Bill Virdon to the Pirates for Del Greco and pitcher Dick Littlefield.
Virdon, 24, was the winner of the 1955 National League Rookie of the Year Award. Del Greco, 23, was seeking a chance to play regularly in the major leagues.
The deal was a dud for the Cardinals. Virdon played 11 years with the Pirates, producing 1,431 hits, earning a Gold Glove Award and helping them win a World Series championship. Del Greco played part of one season for the Cardinals, couldn’t hit consistently and was sent to the Cubs.
Great glove
A Pittsburgh native, Del Greco was signed to a Pirates contract by Hall of Famer Pie Traynor. In 1952, Del Greco was 19 when he made his major-league debut with the Pirates against the Cardinals and produced three hits and a walk in five plate appearances. Boxscore
After hitting .217 in 99 games for the 1952 Pirates, Del Greco spent the next three seasons in the minor leagues. He played for the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League in 1955 and hit .287 with 26 doubles and 21 stolen bases for manager Bobby Bragan. Del Greco also caught the attention of Fred Hutchinson, manager of the rival Seattle Rainiers.
In 1956, Bragan became manager of the Pirates and Hutchinson became manager of the Cardinals. Bragan chose Del Greco to be the Opening Day center fielder for the 1956 Pirates.
Del Greco has “a strong, accurate arm and the instinct of throwing to the right base,” The Sporting News noted. He “gets a tremendous jump on any fly ball and can outrun some of them.”
Seeing is believing
The Cardinals opened the 1956 season with Wally Moon as the first baseman and an outfield of Hank Sauer in left, Virdon in center and Stan Musial in right.
After batting .281 as a Cardinals rookie in 1955, Virdon got off to a slow start in 1956. Cardinals general manager Frank Lane suspected Virdon might have deteriorating vision. Also, Virdon, like Musial and Moon, batted left-handed and Lane wanted an outfielder who batted from the right side.
Hutchinson suggested Del Greco as a replacement for Virdon and Lane began trade talks with the Pirates after the Phillies declined to deal center fielder Richie Ashburn for Virdon.
On May 13, 1956, Del Greco hit two home runs in a game at Pittsburgh against the Phillies’ Harvey Haddix, a former Cardinal. Lane was at the game to scout Del Greco and was impressed. Boxscore
Del Greco’s two-homer game “was the biggest boost for the trade,” Pirates general manager Joe Brown told The Sporting News.
Pirates plunder
Though Virdon was batting .211 in 24 games for the 1956 Cardinals, the trade was viewed as a major risk for them. Del Greco was batting .200 for the 1956 Pirates and they primarily were playing him against left-handers.
Hutchinson called Del Greco “a terrific outfielder” with “a real good arm and speed.” He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “Yes, I’d have to say (he’s) better than Virdon.”
Lane said, “We liked Del Greco because he seemed to have more drive than Bill Virdon.”
Citing the eyesight issue, Lane said, “Maybe, as has been suggested, we decided it would be better to let Pittsburgh or another club worry about whether he still has major-league vision.”
Lane added, “It wasn’t only Virdon’s failure to get base hits. Bill wasn’t even hitting the ball hard.”
Brown said the Pirates “wanted Virdon badly,” and when Lane readily agreed to the deal, “I began to wonder if there might be something wrong with Virdon.”
Turns out, Virdon was fine. He batted .334 with 170 hits in 133 games for the Pirates in 1956 and played a splendid center field. Virdon “is certainly on a par even with the fabulous Willie Mays,” The Sporting News remarked. “Pittsburgh fans compare him with the gifted Vince DiMaggio and Lloyd Waner.”
Del Greco batted .215 in 102 games for the 1956 Cardinals. He hit .176 in home games and overall his batting average with runners in scoring position was .098 (5-for-51).
“What a terrible deal,” Sauer said in the book “We Played the Game.” Virdon “was a great fielder, much better than Del Greco.”
A defiant Lane told the Sporting News, “I make no pretensions of perfection in trading. I merely hope to make more good deals than bad ones.”
Moving on
After the 1956 season, Del Greco played winter ball in Havana. Cardinals scout Al Hollingsworth went to Cuba to see Del Greco and said, “One thing he’s got to learn is to forget the long ball.”
At spring training in 1957, rookie Bobby Gene Smith won the Cardinals’ center field job when Del Greco batted .101 in Grapefruit League exhibition games.
On April 20, 1957, the Cardinals traded Del Greco and pitcher Ed Mayer to the Cubs for outfielder Jim King.
Del Greco played for the Cubs (1957), Yankees (1957-58), Phillies (1960-61 and 1965) and Athletics (1961-63), and batted .229 in his career in the majors.
RetroSimba 
Lane was known as “Trader Lane” and he made a number of bad trades, but that didn’t keep him from trying. He traded Red away and supposedly had a deal to trade Stan but Busch prevented him from following through. I was a new fan in those days and I had to watch Virdon excel for several seasons.
Yes, Frank Lane planned to trade Stan Musial to Phillies for Robin Roberts, but club owner Gussie Busch blocked the proposed deal: https://retrosimba.com/2015/10/08/frank-lane-and-his-tumultuous-stint-as-cardinals-gm/
The 1950’s and 1970’s had one thing in common. Hasty trades based upon a poor evaluation of talent. To say that Bill Virdon was fine is an understatement. If you do a player comparison between Bill Virdon and Hank Aaron, who won the NL batting title, beginning with Bill’s first game with the Pirates, Bill Virdon’s batting average is only three percentage points behind that of Aaron’s. If I counted right, I saw seven former Cardinals on the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates roster.
I agree with Phillip. The Cardinals did get a decade’s worth of contributions from a former Pirate farmhand, though (Julian Javier).
Yes, good stuff, thanks. The 7 former Cardinals who played for Pirates in 1960 World Series: Gino Cimoli, Bill Virdon, Rocky Nelson, Dick Schofield, Harvey Haddix, Tom Cheney and Vinegar Bend Mizell. In May 1960, Mizell was traded by Cardinals to Pirates for Javier.
And about DelGreco’s strong, accurate arm? It’s worth a mention that he threw batting practice for the Pirates for years, certainly well into the 1970s and maybe later.
Good point. Thanks.
The author got it wrong on a key fact. Del Greco’s 2-homer game was at Forbes Field against the Cardinals not the Phillies. Frank Lane was in attendance.
Nope. Bobby Del Greco had only one two-homer game in the majors. It was at Forbes Field against the Phillies, not the Cardinals, and Cardinals GM Frank Lane was in attendance: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1956/B05131PIT1956.htm