Dennis Ribant hoped to be the second person _ and first American _ to play in both the National Hockey League and in baseball’s major leagues.
He made a good run at it, playing in the farm systems of baseball’s Milwaukee Braves and hockey’s Detroit Red Wings.
Encouraged by the Braves to focus on baseball, Ribant reluctantly gave up hockey and pitched in the majors with six teams, including one game for the Cardinals.
Cleats and skates
A Detroit native, Ribant was 12 when he worked for tips dusting off seats for fans at Tiger Stadium, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted.
A right-handed pitcher, Ribant got offers from the Tigers and Yankees after he graduated from high school but both were contingent on him quitting hockey, the Detroit Free Press reported. He signed with the Braves for less money because they “didn’t object too strenuously to hockey,” according to the newspaper.
About the same time, Ribant, 19, got assigned to the Detroit Red Wings’ Junior A hockey team in Hamilton, Ontario, for the 1960-61 season. “It’s a tremendous accomplishment in itself for an American kid to make a Junior A team,” Red Wings scout Jimmy Skinner told the Free Press. “It’s really rare.”
In a late-season game, Ribant “was hit blindside by a burly defenseman of the Toronto Marlboros and sent reeling into the boards of Maple Leaf Gardens,” Dick Young reported in the New York Daily News.
Ribant dislocated his left elbow. Soon after, when he showed up for his first spring training with the Braves in 1961, they were surprised to see his left arm in a sling.
(Five years later, Ribant still felt pain in the left elbow when he swung a bat, the Daily News reported in 1966.)
Fortunately for him, Ribant’s pitching arm, the right one, was undamaged. Assigned to Davenport (Iowa), a Class D team in 1961, Ribant was 17-2 and pitched a perfect game. Promoted to Class AA Austin (Texas) late in the season, he was 4-2. His overall ERA for the year was 1.68.
Playing hardball
After his successful pro baseball debut in 1961, Ribant planned to play another junior hockey season in the Red Wings’ system, but the Braves “shudder at the thought of him playing hockey,” the Free Press reported.
Braves general manager John McHale contacted his Red Wings counterpart, Jack Adams, and asked him to help convince Ribant to give up hockey, according to the New York Daily News.
As the Free Press noted, “The Red Wings find themselves in the strange position of discouraging a hockey prospect, especially an American hockey prospect and, taking it a step further, one born and raised in Detroit … Good American boys don’t come along very often, especially one from the club’s own town.”
According to the Daily News, Adams agreed to send scout Jimmy Skinner to talk with Ribant, but told McHale, “He’s a pretty good hockey player … The decision will be up to the boy.”
Ribant told the Daily News that Skinner said, “You’re going to be a big-league ballplayer. You can make a lot of money in baseball.”
Ribant replied, “I can do both, at least for a little while. I can make the National Hockey League, too, can’t I?”
Skinner said, “Maybe. You have a chance. They tell me you have a better chance in baseball. Think it over.”
Ribant decided to make baseball his sole sport.
(In an interview with the Free Press, Skinner said, “If he stayed in hockey, he would need several more years of seasoning, and I don’t think he’d ever make the National (Hockey) League, although he could play in the high minors.”)
A Canadian, Jim Riley, is the only person to play in the NHL and in baseball’s major leagues. An infielder, Riley played four games with the 1921 St. Louis Browns and two games with the 1923 Washington Senators. He also played in the NHL with Chicago and Detroit in 1927.
On the move
Ribant never did pitch for the Braves, In August 1964, during his fourth season in their farm system, the Braves traded him to the last-place Mets, who put him in their starting rotation. His first big-league win, on Aug. 17, 1964, was a four-hit shutout of the Pirates. Boxscore
After spending part of the 1965 season back in the minors, Ribant returned to the Mets’ starting rotation in 1966, finishing 11-9 with a 3.20 ERA. He and Bob Shaw (11-10) became the first Mets starters to complete a season with a winning mark.
After the season, Mets general manager George Weiss retired and was replaced by Bing Devine, the former Cardinals general manager who had become an assistant to Weiss. Devine determined the Mets needed a center fielder and went shopping for a Pirates prospect, Don Bosch. According to the New York Times, Mets scouts rated Bosch’s fielding skills “as good as Willie Mays, Bill Virdon or Curt Flood.”
Devine offered Pirates general manager Joe Brown a choice of a starting pitcher, Bob Shaw or Jack Fisher, for Bosch, but Brown insisted on Ribant, The Pittsburgh Press reported.
On Dec. 6, 1966, the Mets dealt Ribant and outfielder Gary Kolb to the Pirates for Bosch and pitcher Don Cardwell. “I hated to give up Ribant, but you can’t expect something for nothing in this business,” Devine told the New York Daily News.
Bosch flopped, batting .140 for the 1967 Mets and .171 the next year before being banished to the Expos.
Ribant was 9-8, including 2-0 versus the Cardinals, for the 1967 Pirates, and brought a hockey player’s attitude to the diamond. “Ribant doesn’t walk, he strides,” Roy McHugh wrote in The Pittsburgh Press. “He approaches the mound like John L. Sullivan on his way through the double doors of an 1890 saloon, ready to make the announcement that he can lick anyone in the house.”
After Ribant beat the Braves for his first win with the Pirates, Hank Aaron told The Pittsburgh Press, “He battles you … You get Ribant in a tough spot and he pitches his way out.”
Pirates teammate Roberto Clemente said to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “I like this Ribant.”
Fast fade
The Pirates traded Ribant to his hometown team, the Tigers, in November 1967. It should have been a dream come true. The Tigers were headed to a World Series championship in 1968, but Ribant didn’t get to partake in the celebration.
Though he was 2-2 with a save and a 2.22 ERA in 14 relief appearances for the 1968 Tigers, they determined they needed a more experienced reliever in the pennant stretch. On July 26, 1968, the Tigers dealt Ribant, 26, to the White Sox for Don McMahon, 38.
An American League expansion team, the Royals, acquired Ribant before the 1969 season but planned to send him to the minors. When Ribant balked, Bing Devine, who had returned to the Cardinals, bought his contract. “I know Ribant,” Devine said to The Sporting News. “I know he likes to work and I’ve never seen him when he wasn’t ready to pitch.”
Ribant was sent to minor-league Tulsa. Its manager, Warren Spahn, was a Braves ace when Ribant joined that organization. Later, Spahn was a pitcher and coach with the Mets when Ribant was there.
“I know I can pitch up there (the majors),” Ribant told the Tulsa World. “I’m young (27), no problems and in good shape. My arm is sound and I’m throwing as good as ever.”
After earning three consecutive wins, including a shutout of Iowa, for Tulsa, Ribant was called up to the Cardinals on June 4, 1969. A day later, he relieved Mike Torrez in a game against the Astros, pitched 1.1 innings and allowed two runs, including a Joe Morgan home run. Boxscore
The Cardinals never gave him another chance. A week later, he was sent to the Reds for pitcher Aurelio Monteagudo.
Ribant made seven relief appearances for the 1969 Reds, posting a 1.08 ERA, and never pitched in the majors again.
RetroSimba 
Always interesting to read about athletes who play two sports. An entertaining, informative post Mark, as always. Nyjer Morgan, in addition to his short MLB career, also played hockey in the Western Hockey League for a year. He was a fun player to have on the Brewers.
I love that Ribant had a job as a 12-year old dusting off seats at Tiger Stadium. What a thrill for a young kid to be at all those games.
That quote by Roy McHugh of The Pittsburgh Press is a classic and reminds me of those legends about Satchel Paige lowering his hands, a signal to the defense that they can sit down – “He approaches the mound like John L. Sullivan on his way through the double doors of an 1890 saloon, ready to make the announcement that he can lick anyone in the house.”
Thanks for mentioning ex-Brewers outfielder Nyjer Morgan playing professional hockey. Quite a feat.
I am glad you appreciate that line from Roy McHugh of The Pittsburgh Press. I enjoy finding those gems and I am grateful _ as well as impressed _ when a reader relates to them, and acknowledges them as well.
I agree with you on the item about Dennis Ribant dusting seats for tips at Tiger Stadium at age 12. I have respect for youngsters who hustle like that and develop an early work ethic. I had two jobs at age 12 _ one paid (delivering a daily newspaper house to house) and one volunteered (running errands for ward bosses at the local city hall).
We recently returned from a trip to Europe and our last stop was in Norway. We had to leave Bergen at 3 a.m. to catch a flight to Amsterdam. I was pleasantly surprised to find as we were leaving the place we stayed that local Norwegian high school kids were offering to carry our luggage. They were trying to earn tip money for their graduation parties. It impressed the heck out of me that these youngsters were working those hours _ they had to go straight to school soon after that _ to pay for their parties rather than relying on allowances, or their parents.
That’s excellent Mark that you got to visit Norway. I don’t hear often about people traveling there and that experience with the kids offering to carry your luggage….well, it’s amazing what travel brings, all the great moments.
I was like you. I had the paper route, helped pay for a Johnny Bench rookie card. I applaud you for volunteering at such a young age. My dad is 83 and started volunteering at a soup kitchen and talks about it often. I wonder if it’s adding months, hopefully years to his life.
Thanks Mark for another very interesting and informative post. If you consider that only four American born players were on an NHL roster for the 1960 season, Dennis Ribant was indeed something special. It sure is too bad that he never got to stick with one team at the big leagues. Something tells me he would have loved a career as a Met. Or, at least, celebrating a World Series with the Tigers. In looking at the boxscore from his final game as a Cardinal, I noticed that he was sent in as a pinch runner for Joe Torre. The next batter hit a line drive to right field and Dennis ends up getting thrown out at third base.
Thanks for the good information on there being just 4 American-born players in the NHL in the 1960 season. I also appreciate the information you provided on Dennis Ribant’s pinch-running appearance with the Cardinals on June 8, 1969.
According to the New York Daily News, Ribant was bitter about being traded from the Mets. He blamed manager Wes Westrum rather than GM Bing Devine. So, you’re right, I think _ he would have preferred to stay with the Mets.
In his first start against the Mets after the trade, Ribant was matched against their sensational rookie, Tom Seaver. During a plate appearance, Seaver was struck hard on his pitching elbow by a Ribant pitch. The Daily News called it a “brushback.” According to the newspaper, “Seaver hit the ground in a heap. He rolled over and flung his helmet furiously toward the Mets dugout.”
Seaver left the game after pitching six scoreless innings. He and the Mets said they feared he had suffered a serious injury, but X-rays came back negative. A relieved Seaver told the Daily News, “I’d rather have been hit in the head.”
Ribant pitched nine scoreless innings in that game before being relieved by Roy Face, who allowed a run in the 10th on a Ken Boyer sacrifice fly: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1967/B06061PIT1967.htm
I always think of Larry Walker when the topic is guys who played hockey and baseball. I think Walker felt he was a better hockey player than baseball, or at least liked playing hockey more than baseball.
Dennis Ribant was pretty effective in his final season. Makes me wonder why he did not get another shot in the bigs. Heck, if we could time warp, we could use him in the 2023 Cardinals ‘pen! 😀
Glad you mentioned Larry Walker. In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, he called hockey “the greatest game in the world.”
According to the Post-Dispatch, Walker “played goaltender in various youth hockey leagues growing up in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. There, he teamed with Cam Neely, who went on to an all-star career with the Boston Bruins of the NHL.”
Walker told the newspaper he turned to baseball when he “realized his chances as a pro hockey prospect were slim.”
As for Dennis Ribant, it is surprising to me he didn’t stick in the majors after baseball expanded by 4 teams in 1969. According to multiple credible published reports, he did rely on a spitball. Perhaps that stopped working for him. In researching his career, it seemed he got by on sheer determination a lot of the time. Or, as the New York Daily News put it, “He won with ordinary stuff topped by frosted guts.”