Gaylord Perry had a career record of 14-14 versus the Cardinals, but there was nothing mundane about the night-and-day seasons he experienced against them in consecutive years during the 1960s.
In four starts against the Cardinals in 1966, Perry was 4-0 and didn’t walk a batter.
The next year, Perry was 0-5 in five starts versus the Cardinals.
Perry pitched well against the Cardinals in both seasons (1.06 ERA in 1966) and (2.23 ERA in 1967), but one of the big differences between the two years was the blistering bat wielded by his ex-teammate, St. Louis slugger Orlando Cepeda.
On-the-job training
Relying on a fastball and curve, Perry reached the majors with the Giants in 1962. After four seasons with them his record was 24-30. His breakthrough came in 1966 when he mastered the spitball taught two years earlier by Bob Shaw.
Acquired by the Giants from the Braves in January 1964, Shaw was throwing at spring training when Perry observed how his pitches dipped sharply. Asked how he did it, Shaw showed Perry how to throw a spitball, a pitch banned in the majors.
In his book “Me and the Spitter,” Perry said Shaw told him, “It takes a lot of work. You got to know how much to apply, where, how to hold the ball and control it, and, most important, how to load it up without anybody seeing you.”
From then on, “Shaw and I were inseparable, spitball buddies, so to speak,” Perry said in his book.
According to Perry, “Most pitchers experiment with a spitter but soon give it up. If you don’t throw it correctly, it is just a hanging curveball, a gopher pitch. It took me the rest of that (1964) season and the next (1965) to master it in every way.”
At the same time, Perry also worked on developing a slider, and on learning to control his emotions on the mound.
Big winner
“By Opening Day, 1966, I had my spitter, my slider and my temper in good shape,” Perry said in his book.
The results were spectacular: Perry won 20 of his first 22 decisions and finished with 21 wins for the 1966 Giants.
His four wins against the Cardinals were by scores of 2-0, 4-2, 3-2 and 3-1.
Perry was 2-0 for the season when he entered a May 1, 1966, start against Bob Gibson and the Cardinals at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
Limiting the Cardinals to four singles, including two infield hits, in the 2-0 shutout, Perry credited the slider. Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst said to the San Francisco Examiner, “Slider? I didn’t see anything but fastballs.” Boxscore
Five days later, at St. Louis, Perry again beat Gibson and the Cardinals. Gibson pitched a three-hitter, struck out 14 but lost, 4-2. Boxscore
On July 4 at San Francisco, Perry got the game-winning hit, a single versus Nelson Briles, in a 3-2 victory over the Cardinals. Boxscore
A week later, in the All-Star Game at steamy St. Louis, Perry was the winning pitcher for the National League with two scoreless innings of relief. Boxscore
Facing the Cardinals for the final time in 1966, Perry ran his season record to 19-2 with a 3-1 win at San Francisco on Aug. 16. A key moment came in the sixth inning when, with one out and the Giants ahead, 2-1, the Cardinals put runners on first and third. Perry struck out Orlando Cepeda and got Mike Shannon to end the inning with a grounder. Boxscore
The four wins over the Cardinals in 1966 gave Perry a career record of 6-0 against them.
Give and take
Cepeda was the Giants first baseman the first time Perry threw a spitter in a game, May 31, 1964, in an epic 23-inning marathon with the Mets at Shea Stadium in New York. Perry pitched 10 scoreless innings of relief.
One of the first batters he threw the spitter to was Mets pitcher Galen Cisco, who, with two on and one out in the 15th, grounded into a double play. After snaring the relay throw, Cepeda “rolled the ball along the grass, tumble-drying it by the time it reached the mound,” Perry recalled in his book. “Everybody protects a spitball pitcher.” Boxscore
Two years later, in May 1966, Cepeda was traded to the Cardinals. In his first full season with them, he won the 1967 National League Most Valuable Player Award and the Cardinals won a World Series title. He also beat up on Perry and the Giants that year.
Perry’s five losses to the 1967 Cardinals were by scores of 2-1, 4-1, 3-1, 2-1 and 2-0. Cepeda had the game-winning hit in three of those.
The first came on April 18 at San Francisco. After Roger Maris reached second on an error with two outs in the 11th, Cepeda got jammed by a Perry pitch but muscled it into right-center for a RBI-single, breaking a 1-1 tie. Boxscore
Two months later, on June 18 at San Francisco, Cepeda’s two-run home run against Perry snapped a 1-1 tie in the eighth and carried the Cardinals to victory. Boxscore
“Cepeda especially enjoyed beating Perry because Gaylord and Orlando weren’t always the best of friends when they were Giants teammates,” The Sporting News reported.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cepeda said Perry charged him with not putting out 100 percent when they were teammates.
On June 26, 1967, the Cardinals beat Perry and the Giants at St. Louis. Boxscore When the Giants returned two months later, Cepeda slammed another two-run home versus Perry in a 2-1 Cardinals triumph. Boxscore
For the 1967 season, Cepeda hit .471 versus Perry and .419 with 11 RBI versus the Giants.
In his book “Baby Bull,” Cepeda said of the 1967 season, “I saved some of my best hitting exploits for the Giants … Roger Maris said he had never seen any one player so single-handedly beat another team like I beat the Giants that year.”
Spit and polish
In Perry’s fifth loss to the 1967 Cardinals, on Aug. 24 at San Francisco, Dick Hughes pitched a four-hit shutout and delivered a run-scoring single in the 2-0 triumph. (“Hughes, by the way, threw a pretty good spitter,” Perry said in his book.) Cepeda had a single and two walks, and was almost flattened by a Perry pitch, The Sporting News reported.
After the game, Cepeda said in mocking fashion to the Post-Dispatch, “Poor Gaylord Perry. He pitched a good game again.” Boxscore
Cepeda’s success against Perry in 1967 didn’t last. He hit .217 against him for his career.
Other career batting marks versus Perry among 1967 Cardinals regulars: Lou Brock (.212), Curt Flood (.171), Julian Javier (.169), Roger Maris (.273), Dal Maxvill (.111), Tim McCarver (.186) and Mike Shannon (.190).
Perry was tough on the Cardinals when they repeated as National League champions in 1968. He pitched a no-hitter against them and was 3-1 with an 0.82 ERA.
In Perry’s last career appearance against the Cardinals, at Atlanta in 1981, he faced the likes of Keith Hernandez, Tommy Herr and Garry Templeton. Perry, 42, started for the Braves and Jim Kaat, 42, relieved for the Cardinals. Boxscore
RetroSimba 
He found his favorite pitch, and he certainly wasn’t shy about using it. I never quite knew how to feel about him while he was active, and that has not changed today. Those career batting averages by the ’67 Cards regulars are amazing.
I, too, was surprised by how consistently low the career batting averages of the 1967 Cardinals regulars were versus Gaylord Perry.
As a Phillies fan, you might appreciate knowing that one of the players who hit consistently well against Gaylord Perry was Bob Boone. He had a career .458 batting average versus Perry (11 for 24) and a .519 on-base percentage (11 hits and 3 walks) against him.
Kudos to Bob Boone. That’s not a bad sample size, is it?
Those 1966 Cardinals lowered the earned run averages for a lot of opposing pitchers.
Yep, the 1966 Cardinals ranked last in runs scored (571) in the 10-team National League.
Nice post Mark. Lately I’ve been looking up some things on Gaylord Perry. I had forgotten that in his own way he was involved in the George Brett pine tar incident!!
Thanks, Phillip. Some may be surprised to learn that Gaylord Perry was with the Royals when the George Brett pine tar incident occurred in 1983. During the argument that broke out on the field, Perry confiscated the pine tar bat, then was chased by stadium security and ejected. How fitting that a spitball pitcher would try to help cover up the evidence of a batter using an illegal bat.
Perry’s playing career spanned from 1962 to 1983. The first hit he allowed in the big leagues was a double to Frank Robinson of the Reds on April 14, 1962. Perry’s last strikeout victim was Rod Carew of the Angels on Sept. 21, 1983. Like Perry, Robinson and Carew were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Cheater or artist? After reading this I’m going with an artist. RIP lord of happiness.
That leaves you as an archaeologist, Mark. Great stuff as always. Your dedication to the history and diminutive, long-forgotten details of the game is admirable. What the hell…I’m gonna throw you in the artist category as well.
Thanks, Gary. I’m going to have to brush up on my Vaseline ball to be more artist than chronicler.
I agree with you on Gaylord Perry being artist rather than cheat, because it took skill, discipline and hard work to master the pitch, and cleverness to use it as a psychological advantage. The same with those who steal signs by using their observation skills and knowledge rather than technological devices.
The cheats, in my view, are those who use banned steroids and other banned performance-enhancing drugs to get an advantage. That takes neither skill nor cleverness of any commendable sort.
Aw, it was just a hard slider. I’m sure Joe Morgan would agree.
Thank you for the video clip. Impressive to see that awesome performance against those Big Red Machine all-stars.
Yep, “hard slider” became quite the euphemism for Gaylord Perry’s spitter. As White Sox slugger Dave “Swish” Nicholson said to Knight Newspaper Service, “If it’s a slider, it’s an irrigated one.”
Speaking of Joe Morgan, he often had a tough time against that hard slider. For his career, Morgan hit .192 in 99 at-bats versus fellow Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry.
I love how Perry asked Shaw how? Great to hear of professionals asking questions and getting answers and the result? “Spitball brothers.”
I never thought of a spitter as a pitch that involved a technique, something to develop and perfect. I wrongly, naively, assumed you lather it with vaseline or whatever and it swerves and curves and is hard to hit. The quotes you integrated into the article clarified a lot for me.
Great tribute Mark to a pitcher that I sometimes think is part of the record for most wins by a brother duo, but then I remember the Niekro brothers and I love thinking about the Perrys and the Niekros, the spitters and the knucklers or wait a second, did Gaylord teach his brother how to throw a spitter like Phil taught his brother how to throw a knuckler?
Thanks, Steve. You ask good questions, too. In 1991, Hartford Courant reporter Bob Sudyk (who co-wrote with Gaylord Perry the book “Me and the Spitter”) asked Jim Perry your question about whether he ever threw a spitter. Jim Perry replied, “Oh, sure, I tried it. Reckon everybody has. Not everyone can do it. Gaylord told me all about it, but I had all the pitches I needed. I was afraid it would hurt my arm. Besides, I could never sweat like Gaylord.”
Jim Perry also told Bob Sudyk about a time when his Twins teammate, Harmon Killebrew, whiffed on three consecutive spitters from Gaylord Perry. Killebrew returned to the dugout and said to Jim Perry, “You should learn it. You might need it someday.”
Gaylord Perry finished with 314 career wins and older brother Jim Perry had 215. As you note, the only brothers with more combined wins were Phil Niekro (318) and Joe Niekro (221).
Phil Niekro and Gaylord Perry were teammates on the 1981 Braves. Imagine being a Braves catcher that season!
Gaylord Perry and Jim Perry opposed one another as starters one time _ July 3, 1973, when Gaylord was with the Indians and Jim was with the Tigers. The Tigers won that game, 5-4. Gaylord Perry was the losing pitcher. Ed Farmer got the win in relief of Jim Perry. https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1973/B07030CLE1973.htm
Gaylord Perry and Jim Perry were teammates with the 1974 Indians. Gaylord won 21 that season and Jim won 17.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply Mark and your great sense of humor! That’s a classic you said about being the Braves catcher when Perry and Niekro were teammates in 1981 on the Braves. Have a great weekend!
Can still remember those back-to-back no no’s in SF. Probably will never happen again. I was three years into my “Cardinal career” of following the team on a day-to-day basis as a fan at the tender age of eleven. like many others, Washburn had a helluva season in ’68. 14-8/2.26.
Thanks for sharing those Cardinals memories. Here’s a link to my story on Ray Washburn and 1968: https://retrosimba.com/2013/09/13/willie-mays-on-ray-washburn-never-saw-a-better-curve/
Thanks!