RetroSimba

With his playing career at a crossroads, Jay Johnstone took advantage of a chance to go to spring training with the Cardinals and show he still had the ability to perform in the majors.

An outfielder and left-handed batter, Johnstone played 20 seasons in the majors for eight teams.

Though he never played in the regular season for the Cardinals, his stint with them at spring training in 1974 was an important part of his career.

After flopping with the White Sox and Athletics, Johnstone’s future in the majors appeared bleak, but he regained his batting stroke in Cardinals’ spring training. Though they had no room for him on the Opening Day roster, the Cardinals liked Johnstone and spoke well of him to other clubs. The Phillies gave Johnstone a chance, and it worked out splendidly for him.

Ups and downs

Johnstone was born in Connecticut and grew up in California. His father, Jack, signed with the Cardinals but entered the Army during World War II and never got a chance to play professional baseball, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.

Jay Johnstone was 17 when he signed with the Angels in 1963 and 20 when he made his debut in the majors with them in 1966.

After the 1970 season, the Angels traded Johnstone to the White Sox. Urged to hit for power, Johnstone delivered a career-high 16 home runs for the White Sox in 1971, but messed up his swing. After he hit .188 in 1972, the White Sox wanted to reduce his salary 20 percent. Johnstone, the club’s player union representative, refused to accept the pay cut, and was released in March 1973.

“He should have been fighting for a job instead of feeling he had one,” White Sox director of player personnel Roland Hemond said to the Chicago Tribune.

Johnstone told The Sporting News, “Chicago really tried to put it to me.”

The Athletics signed Johnstone and assigned him to their Tucson farm team. He hit .347 for Tucson, but it was a different story when he got called up to the Athletics. Johnstone hit .107 in 23 games for the 1973 Athletics and was 0-for-11 as a pinch-hitter.

Tryout with Cardinals

Cardinals director of player personnel Bob Kennedy saw Johnstone play at Tucson and gave a favorable report to general manager Bing Devine. Kennedy “told me he liked him a lot and felt he could help,” Devine told The Sporting News.

After the season, Johnstone played winter baseball in Puerto Rico and led the league in RBI. Impressed, the Cardinals purchased Johnstone’s contract from the Athletics on a conditional basis in January 1974 and placed him on their 40-man big-league roster. The conditional clause meant the Cardinals had until April 1 to decide whether to keep Johnstone or offer him back to the Athletics.

“He’s got a lot of talent and he just might be at the age when he can play up to his capacity,” Devine said.

Johnstone, 28, did well at Cardinals spring training camp. He hit .296 in exhibition games. “I hit the ball hard,” Johnstone told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The Cardinals “liked his style,” The Sporting News noted, but decided they had better alternatives. Tim McCarver, in his second stint with the Cardinals, was kept as the top pinch-hitter from the left side, and other left-handed batters, Jose Cruz and Jim Dwyer, were designated as backup outfielders.

Johnstone “thought he had the team made,” The Sporting News reported. “Instead, he was released outright.”

When the defending World Series champion Athletics showed no interest in taking back Johnstone, the Cardinals offered to help him.

“Bing Devine said he’d get on the phone right away and try to get me with another club,” Johnstone told the Post-Dispatch.

Back in the bigs

The Dodgers wanted Johnstone to join them as a pinch-hitter, but he turned down the opportunity.

“I would have been strictly a left-handed pinch-hitter there,” Johnstone told the Philadelphia Daily News. “At my age, it wasn’t what I wanted. It’s the toughest job in baseball. I thought I was capable of playing every day.”

Phillies coach Bobby Wine, Johnstone’s manager in Puerto Rico, recommended him. When Phillies director of player personnel Paul Owens offered Johnstone a chance to begin the season as an outfielder with their Toledo farm club, he accepted, hoping it would lead to a promotion to the big leagues.

Toledo manager Jim Bunning, the former pitcher, future Baseball Hall of Famer and future United States senator, clashed with Johnstone, who had a reputation for being a free spirit and practical joker. Johnstone was fined by Bunning for lack of hustle and for missing signs, but he also hit .316 for Toledo.

“I think he knows he has talent, but he really hasn’t looked at himself in the mirror,” Bunning said to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “He hasn’t asked himself, ‘Why was I in the minors? Why have five organizations said I can’t do it this way?’ “

Johnstone told the Philadelphia Daily News he and Bunning just didn’t connect: “I didn’t like him. He didn’t like me.”

In July 1974, Johnstone got called up to the Phillies, and he made the most of the chance. Johnstone hit .380 for the Phillies in July and finished the season at .295. He also hit .346 versus the 1974 Cardinals.

After five seasons with the Phillies, Johnstone went on to play for the Yankees, Padres, Dodgers and Cubs. He hit .282 against the Cardinals for his career.

Johnstone’s final big-league at-bat came as a pinch-hitter against the Cardinals’ Danny Cox in Game 3 of the 1985 National League Championship Series at St. Louis. Batting for Rick Honeycutt, Johnstone grounded out to Tommy Herr.