RetroSimba

After Jesse Haines transformed into a knuckleball pitcher, the Cardinals transformed into a National League powerhouse.

On Feb. 1, 1970, Haines, 76, was rewarded for his achievements when he got elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Haines pitched 18 seasons (1920-37) for the Cardinals. When he joined them after pitching one game for the Reds, the Cardinals were perennial losers. He helped them become perennial contenders.

Haines pitched for five pennant-winning Cardinals clubs and three World Series champions. The right-hander remains the Cardinals’ all-time leader in games pitched (554) and ranks second in wins (210), complete games (209) and innings pitched (3,203.2).

Down on the farm

Haines was born and raised in Ohio farm country near Dayton. He excelled at baseball as a youth and became a professional at age 20 when he joined an independent minor-league team in Saginaw, Mich.

In July 1918, Haines was pitching for another minor-league club in Hutchinson, Kan., when his contract was purchased by the Reds. On July 20, 1918, two days before his 25th birthday, Haines made his major-league debut, allowing one run in five innings of relief versus the Braves at Cincinnati. Boxscore

The Reds, managed by Christy Mathewson, released Haines soon after his debut, but he revived his career by posting a 21-5 record for a minor-league team in Kansas City in 1919.

Multiple major-league teams, including the Cardinals, were interested in Haines. The cash-strapped Cardinals finished 54-83 in 1919 and 51-78 the year before. Manager Branch Rickey, whose farm system wasn’t in place yet, was desperate for talent and was determined not to let Haines get away. Rickey borrowed $10,000 from banks in order to purchase Haines’ contract from the Kansas City club.

Perfect pitch

Haines turned 27 in his first season with the Cardinals. Relying primarily on a fastball, he earned 13 wins in 1920 and 18 in 1921. With Haines leading the pitching staff and Rogers Hornsby producing runs, the 1921 Cardinals were 87-66.

At spring training in 1922, Haines, looking to add a pitch, approached Athletics knuckleballer Eddie Rommel before an exhibition game and asked for a lesson.

“Eddie would dig his fingernails into the cover of the ball and just use the front knuckles,” Haines told the Dayton Daily News. “I tried it, but couldn’t control the ball that way.”

Haines worked throughout the 1922 season to find a comfortable grip for throwing the knuckler. Haines said he settled on “using the first and middle fingers and pressing the two knuckles down between the seams. I put my thumb down under and it worked fine.”

Haines unveiled his knuckleball in 1923 and earned 20 wins for the Cardinals. The knuckler became his signature pitch.

“When I threw sidearm, it broke down and away,” Haines said. “When I threw overhand, it broke straight down. I knew exactly what the pitch would do.”

Haines threw his pitch much harder than other knuckleballers.

“He must have had exceptionally strong fingers, which he used like talons,” syndicated columnist Red Smith observed. “He gripped the ball with the very tips, went up high on his toes in the middle of his delivery and came over the top with a furious motion.

“Because of the way he gripped a baseball and the way he threw it,” Smith wrote, “it was a common occurrence for him to finish a game with his fingertips bleeding.”

Determined to win

Haines was a fierce competitor who flashed a temper when he lost.

“He could be kind, gentlemanly, considerate and philosophical, except when he pitched,” Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted. “He was the darndest hard loser.”

In 1935, when Haines was 42 and called “Pops” by his teammates, he surprised rookie outfielder Terry Moore by tearing up the clubhouse in Cincinnati after a loss to the Reds.

“I never forgot how much Haines expected of himself and of others,” Moore said.

Among Haines’ top performances for the Cardinals:

_ On July 17, 1924, Haines pitched a no-hitter against the Braves at St. Louis. Casey Stengel made the last out on a grounder to Hornsby at second. Boxscore

_ On Oct, 5, 1926, Haines pitched a shutout and hit a home run in Game 3 of the World Series versus the Yankees. It was the first World Series game played at St. Louis. Boxscore

_ Exactly four years later, on Oct. 5, 1930, Haines pitched a four-hitter and outdueled Lefty Grove to win Game 4 of the World Series against the Athletics at St. Louis. Haines also drove in a run with a single. Boxscore

Game 7 winner

Haines was overshadowed in the biggest win of his career.

On Oct. 10, 1926, Haines got the start in Game 7 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. Throwing mostly hard knuckleballs, Haines was effective but the effort took a toll on his fingers.

In the seventh inning, with the Cardinals ahead, 3-2, a big blister developed on a finger Haines used to grip the knuckler. Struggling to control the pitch, Haines yielded a single and two walks. With the bases full of Yankees and two outs, Hornsby, the Cardinals’ player-manager, made a mound visit.

“When I showed the blister to Hornsby, he decided to take me out,” Haines told United Press International.

Grover Cleveland Alexander, who started and won Game 6, relieved Haines, struck out Tony Lazzeri to escape the bases-loaded jam and shut out the Yankees over the last two innings, clinching the Cardinals’ first World Series championship.

“I went straight to the clubhouse and didn’t see Alex strike out Lazzeri,” Haines said.

Haines was the winning pitcher but Alexander became the legend. Boxscore

Magic moment

Haines was 44 when he pitched his last game for the Cardinals in 1937. He was 210-158 for them in his career. He also was 3-1 in four World Series.

After his baseball career, Haines was a county auditor in Ohio.

When informed of his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Haines said, “I’d hoped that if I ever was going to get into the Hall it would come before I passed on. Now it’s happened. I’m kind of broke up about it.”

The Veterans Committee considered candidates who had been out of the game for 20 years or more. Among the committee members were Haines’ Cardinals teammate, Frankie Frisch, and retired Post-Dispatch journalist J. Roy Stockton.

“Haines is a worthy, worthy man,” Frisch told the Associated Press. “He was a great competitor, a fine fellow on and off the field. Any club would want a fellow like him.”