Denny Doyle was a baseball pixie, a Punch-and-Judy hitter who got to the big leagues because of his fielding at second base.
Standing 5 feet 9, he swung a 32-ounce stick _ “Dick Allen cleans his teeth with bats like that,” Doyle told Stan Hochman of the Philadelphia Daily News _ but he clobbered the Cardinals and, most improbably, their ace, Bob Gibson.
A .240 hitter in the National League, Doyle hit .309 versus the Cardinals and .464 against Gibson for his career.
Batting from the left side, Doyle turned into Tony Gwynn at the sight of a Cardinals pitcher. He had more career hits (58), home runs (three) and runs scored (26) versus the Cardinals than he did against any other foe. He was 78 when he died on Dec. 20, 2022.
Caveman cometh
After attending high school in Horse Cave, Ky., near Mammoth Cave National Park, Doyle accepted a basketball scholarship to Morehead State. He averaged 2.7 points in 11 varsity games and switched his focus to baseball.
In the summer of 1965, Doyle got a tryout with the Phillies, who offered him a contract. He signed only after the Phillies agreed to let him earn his college degree before reporting to the minors. “I had nine hours to go to get my diploma,” Doyle told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “The Phillies didn’t like it too much, but I had to graduate first.”
At Spartanburg, S.C., in 1966, Doyle, the second baseman, made an immediate connection with the shortstop, Larry Bowa. They formed both a friendship and a dandy keystone combination. Doyle and Bowa played together for three seasons in the minors and became rookie starters with the Phillies in 1970.
Noting that Bowa was loud and Doyle was quiet, Inquirer columnist Frank Dolson wrote, “Bowa and Doyle complement each other beautifully … Two Larry Bowas might be too explosive. Two Denny Doyles might be too bland. Together they are perfect.”
Phillies coach Doc Edwards told the newspaper, “Anybody breaks up this combination ought to have his head chopped off.”
Getting to Gibson
The second base job with the Phillies opened for Doyle after they traded Cookie Rojas to the Cardinals. The consensus was Doyle, 26, had the fielding skills but the rookie’s ability to hit was in question. “I have to be an artist at the bunting game and the hit-and-run,” Doyle said to the Philadelphia Daily News. “I’ve got to make contact with the bat.”
He was batting .204 for the season when he stung the Cardinals with a four-hit game against them on May 24, 1970, at Philadelphia. Boxscore
Doyle hit .208 for the 1970 season but .298 versus the Cardinals in 14 games.
The next year, he did even better against St. Louis _ .333 in 13 games. The most impressive performance came on July 30, 1971, at Philadelphia. Doyle, batting .226 for the season, reached base safely in five plate appearances against Gibson. He had three singles, a home run and was hit by a pitch. Doyle was plunked leading off the first inning and slugged his home run on the first pitch he saw from Gibson in his next trip to the plate.
Doyle’s home run into the bullpen in right broke a streak of 23 consecutive scoreless innings for Gibson, who, nonetheless, achieved the win, pitching a complete game and driving in the winning run with a home run versus Chris Short in the seventh. Boxscore
According to the Philadelphia Daily News, asked after the game what pitches he threw to Doyle, Gibson growled, “Ask some intelligent questions. I threw him a fastball, slider, fastball and a curve. And I won the ballgame, which is the important thing.”
Gibson had much success when facing the Phillies _ his 30 career wins against them were his most versus any foe _ but it was a different story with Doyle. In 32 career plate appearances against Gibson, Doyle had a .516 on-base percentage, including 13 hits. Gibson struck him out just twice.
Pennant push
Doyle only once achieved four RBI in a game. Naturally, it came against the Cardinals. On Sept. 20, 1973, he had a three-run home run and a sacrifice fly versus Cardinals starter Alan Foster at Philadelphia. Boxscore
For the season, Doyle hit .386 in 14 games against the 1973 Cardinals.
Afterward, at the urging of manager Danny Ozark, the Phillies acquired second baseman Dave Cash from the Pirates, making Doyle expendable. He was shipped to the Angels in December 1973 and then to the Red Sox in June 1975.
Doyle thrived with the Red Sox, putting together a 22-game hitting streak, batting .310 for the season, solidifying the defense and helping them become 1975 American League champions. He started at second base in all seven games of the 1975 World Series and had eight hits.
Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe noted, “Denny Doyle makes the double play. He stops balls from going through when there are men on base. He keeps rallies going. He doesn’t strike out. He wants to win and he usually manages to find a way to do it.”
Doyle’s last season in the majors was 1977. Two brothers also made it to the big leagues _ Brian Doyle, an infielder with the Yankees (1978-80) and Athletics (1981), and Blake Doyle, a coach with the Rockies (2014-16).
RetroSimba 
I love to hear of odds defying stats like Doyle hitting so well against Gibson. I get that it was a small sample size, but still, it must be something Doyle remembered when he was alive. I can relate to the feat a little bit. It’s like when I’m in a room with someone who I greatly admire and I say something that resonates. It makes me feel good.
When you mentioned keystone combination, I immediately thought of Whitaker and Trammel and wondered why Whitaker isn’t in the Hall of Fame.
Thanks, Steve. I like your line about saying something that resonates with someone you respect.
In his book “Sixty Feet, Six Inches,” Bob Gibson said, “The guys who wore me out were the left-handed banjo hitters.”
Lou Whitaker had 2,369 career hits (similar to Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg’s 2,386), won 3 Gold Glove awards and an American League Rookie of the Year Award but got just 2.9 percent of the votes in Hall of Fame balloting in 2001.
Thanks Mark. Denny Doyle was no Hall of Famer but a player you needed to have on your team. Incredible baseball instincts and always a student of the game. Incredible to look back on the Rollercoaster ride he had in 1975. What a World Series and what a postseason Denny Doyle had. Baseball is a crazy game. Doyle had a great WS but he made an unfortunate throwing error in the 6th inning of game 7. Instead of a double play to end the inning, Tony Perez, who was the next batter, hits a two run homer.
Good points, Phillip. In the 1975 World Series, Denny Doyle had more hits (8) and a higher batting average (.267) than his Hall of Fame counterpart of the Reds, Joe Morgan (7 hits, .259), but Morgan drove in the winning run in the ninth inning of Game 7 and Doyle, as you noted, made that costly error in that decisive game.
Denny Doyle also could have potentially scored the winning run in the Carlton Fisk game. George Foster’s throw was strong, but the umpire was seemingly blocking Doyle’s ability to slide in a way that would evade Bench’s tag.
Yep, Tom, in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, with the bases loaded, none out and the score tied 6-6, Carlton Fisk lofted a fly ball about 150 feet down the left-field line at Fenway Park. George Foster caught it (for the first out), Doyle broke for the plate and was thrown out on Foster’s peg to Johnny Bench, completing a double play.
Red Sox manager Darrell Johnson told the Boston Globe that there was a breakdown in communication between third-base coach Don Zimmer and Doyle at third. Zimmer said he told Doyle to stay on the bag; Doyle said he heard Zimmer tell him to go for the plate.
“I could understand if Denny had trouble hearing him,” Johnson told the Globe. “People don’t understand about the crowd noise and how loud it really is on the field.”
Asked about Doyle’s dash for the plate, Zimmer told the Globe, “It wasn’t a gamble. It was suicide. I yelled at him, ‘You can’t go,’ ”
Asked whether he thought Zimmer had given him a green light, Doyle replied, “Obviously.”
Said Zimmer, “Maybe I should have tackled him.”
Fisk bailed out the Red Sox in extra innings with a walkoff home run.
I have one clear memory of Denny Doyle. As teenagers, my buddy’s dad set up a trip for the two of us to go to St. Louis and take in a couple of series – this was 1972. We saw a series against the Pirates, who were the defending World Champs, and the Phillies, a lousy club, although they had an ace in former Cardinal Steve Carlton, who shut out the Cards in that series. We stayed at what was then Stouffer’s Riverfront Inn, which also happened to be where the visiting teams stayed.
But the memory is of arriving early one evening for a game against the Phillies. The Phils were taking infield practice and a coach was hitting ground ball after ground ball to Bowa and Doyle. They worked a lot on the double play, and while I was a kid still, I have never seen quicker hands turning the double play than Denny Doyle showed. They had a drill where they did like five grounders in a row to Bowa, who would feed to Doyle and then Doyle relayed to first. Doyle seemed to barely touch the ball making the relay. It was fun to watch.
What a wonderful anecdote. Well-told and loaded with insight. Thanks for sharing it, Michael.
Thanks for the lengthy response! (Quick note: Fred Lynn hit the ball to Foster.) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GHQcPc7yeig
I appreciate you setting the record straight on Fred Lynn hitting the ball to George Foster.
We were glad to have Denny on the Phils during his major league career, Mark. He was a “glue guy” who anyone would’ve loved to have on their roster.
In researching the piece, it was clear Denny Doyle had the respect of the Philadelphia writers throughout his time with the Phillies. The Phillies took a lot of heat for shipping Doyle to the Angels as the player to be named in a deal for Billy Grabarkewitz.