Orlando Pena was a baseball sorcerer, a mound magician who delivered a mix of deceptive pitches and overcame formidable odds to repeatedly revive his career.
Pena worked his wizardry for the Cardinals after they acquired him from the Orioles for cash on June 15, 1973.
Pena was 39, a castoff who had gone to spring training that year as a batting practice pitcher after suffering an elbow injury a few months earlier. Acquiring him turned out to be a marvelous, or even Merlinesque, move.
Give me a chance
Born and raised in Cuba, in the town of Victoria de las Tunas, Pena ran errands as a youth for his father, a grocer. The boy made a baseball glove from a pair of kid’s cowboy boots, cutting off the upper halves and sewing the two portions together to create a mitt, according to the Kansas City Star.
A right-handed pitcher, Pena was signed by the Cincinnati Reds, who sent him to their Daytona Beach (Fla.) farm club in 1955. Pena was 21, skinny (about 140 pounds, according to The Cincinnati Post) and considered a marginal prospect.
The Reds told Daytona Beach manager Johnny Vander Meer (who pitched consecutive no-hitters for Cincinnati in 1938) to give Pena a look and, if he didn’t like what he saw, the club would release the pitcher, the Associated Press reported. Given a chance to relieve in a game, Pena impressed. “To think I was told to let this man go was something I couldn’t believe when I saw him pitch,” Vander Meer said to the wire service.
Moved to the starting rotation, Pena was 21-8 with a 1.96 ERA for Daytona Beach in 1955. Three years later, the Reds brought him to the majors.
“I tell him he does not have a major-league fastball,” the Reds’ Cuban-born coach, Reggie Otero, informed The Cincinnati Post in 1959, “but he has a real good sinker. I tell him to keep the ball down, or you will find yourself back in Havana.”
Pena got too many pitches up (6-10 with Cincinnati), returned to the minors and resurfaced with the Kansas City Athletics in August 1962. He lost 20 games with the 1963 Athletics, gave up 40 home runs in 1964 and went 0-6 for them in 1965 before being placed on waivers.
Fork in the road
The Tigers took a chance and signed Pena in June 1965.
A high school player, Ted Simmons, was the Tigers’ batting practice catcher for home games. “Pena was the only guy on the team who would even talk to me,” Simmons recalled years later to Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News.
With a wink, Simmons added, “That’s how I learned to catch a forkball.”
McCoy wrote, “The wink was meant to inform the listener that he really meant a spitball.”
Pena told the Associated Press, “Everybody accuses me of spitting on the ball. I call it my Cuban forkball.”
Pena said a Reds minor-league manager, Bert Haas, taught him to throw the forkball, the Miami News reported.
To throw the forkball, Pena gripped the ball between his index and middle fingers, “which he spreads as wide as the extension of an average person’s three middle fingers,” the Miami News noted. Pena told the newspaper, “The forkball has a rotation the same as a spitter … If it weren’t for the forkball, I’d be selling peanuts in Cuba.”
Besides the forkball, Pena threw a wide assortment of other offerings and tried to distract the batter by turning his back on him in the middle of his delivery. Orioles manager Earl Weaver said to The Sporting News, “He’s got every pitch in the book _ a forkball, curve, fastball, slider and sinker from several arm positions, and a screwball, too.”
Pena also threw a palmball (a type of changeup) and dabbled with a knuckleball.
Down and out
In three seasons with the Tigers, Pena had eight wins, 11 saves and a 3.01 ERA but in May 1967 they sent him to the Indians. Pena notched eight saves with the 1967 Indians, but was demoted to the minors the following year. At 34, he seemed done as a big-league pitcher.
Pena, 36, was a batting practice pitcher for the Royals in 1970 when the Pirates came to Kansas City in June to play an exhibition game. After watching Pena throw, Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente met with club officials and, according to The Pittsburgh Press, told them, “Pena is as good as anyone in our bullpen.”
Desperate for relievers, the Pirates signed him that day. (The Pirates used 20 pitchers in 1970 and 18 of those made relief appearances.) Pena was 2-1 with two saves in 23 games for the 1970 Pirates, but they released him in August after he injured an ankle.
Miami marvel
When spring training began in 1971, Pena, 37, was at home in Miami. Looking to stay in the game, he accepted a coaching job with the Orioles’ Miami farm club in the Class A Florida State League. The job also called for him to appear on Spanish-language radio and promote interest in the team.
“I was going to pitch some, help the young pitchers and try to sell tickets,” Pena told the Kansas City Star.
Instead, Pena became a starter. He was 9-4 with an 0.70 ERA when the Orioles called him to the big leagues in July. He made five relief appearances for them, then finished the season with the Class AAA Rochester (N.Y.) affiliate.
Back with minor-league Miami (where, according to The Sporting News, his teammates called him Poppa), Pena, 38, performed remarkably in 1972, posting a 15-3 record and 1.38 ERA for the Class A club. Promoted to Rochester late in the season, he dazzled there, too (7-0, 0.96), and helped the club reach the International League playoffs.
Pitching in pain
On Sept. 4, 1972, Pena was a front-seat passenger in a car driven by Rochester coach Chico Fernandez when the vehicle was struck broadside at an intersection, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported.
According to the Baltimore Sun, the right front wheel of the car took the brunt of the collision. “If it had hit my door, I’d be a dead man,” Pena told the Rochester newspaper.
Pena said his right elbow slammed against the car door and he felt a “pulsing ache” from the shoulder blade to the elbow of his pitching arm, but the next day he threw for 15 minutes and declared himself ready to pitch in the playoff series against Louisville, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.
On Sept. 6, 1972, two days after being hurt in the accident, Pena started Game 2 of the playoff series and pitched nine innings before he gave in to the pain and asked manager Joe Altobelli to lift him for a pinch-hitter with the score tied at 3-3. Roger Repoz hit a two-run homer in the 10th and Rochester won, 5-3.
“He’s got heart,” Rochester trainer Rudy Owen told the Democrat and Chronicle. “I could tell he was going through some kind of pain, but he hung in there.”
Throughout the game, Owen applied a hot preparation to Pena’s aching elbow. “I mixed up a special compound of Capsulin and an analgesic,” Owen said. “We put it on him every other inning.”
Pena told the Rochester newspaper, “I’ve never had such a burning sensation before. Every time Doc would put it on, I’d hold my breath.”
After Louisville won the best-of-three series, Pena had the elbow re-examined and it was discovered he had fractured it in the car accident, the Baltimore Sun reported. He underwent surgery and, for the first time in 17 years, didn’t play winter league baseball in the Caribbean.
Unfinished business
There was no market for a 39-year-old pitcher on the mend from an elbow injury. As a courtesy, the Orioles invited Pena to spring training in 1973 as a batting practice pitcher.
In their second exhibition game, against the Yankees at Fort Lauderdale, the Orioles ran out of pitchers in extra innings. So they put Pena on the mound and he pitched well.
Given more appearances in spring training games, Pena surprised manager Earl Weaver and pitching coach George Bamberger with his effective assortment of pitches. “Pena has so many variations that Bamberger doesn’t know what they are sometimes when he charts them,” Weaver told The Sporting News.
When Opening Day came, Pena was on the Orioles roster.
In his first appearance for the 1973 Orioles, Pena earned a save against the Tigers. Three days later, Weaver named him the starting pitcher for the second game of a doubleheader versus the Brewers. It was Pena’s first start in the majors since 1967. He pitched 7.1 innings and the Orioles won. Boxscore
Helping hand
In June 1973, Cardinals starter Scipio Spinks was sidelined by a shoulder ailment and Tom Murphy was moved from the bullpen to replace him. Seeking a reliever to replace Murphy, the Cardinals purchased the contract of Pena from the Orioles.
Together with Diego Segui, Al Hrabosky and Rich Folkers, Pena gave the Cardinals a reliable relief corps. After his first nine appearances for St. Louis, Pena was 1-0 with two saves and an 0.00 ERA.
He also doubled as the Cardinals’ clubhouse clipper. Described by The Sporting News as “an accomplished barber,” Pena gave haircuts to teammates and became “one of the club’s most likeable members.”
Pena told The Cincinnati Post, “You know what they call me here? They call me Satchel. You know, like Satchel Paige.”
In September, when the 1973 Cardinals were contending for first place in the mediocre East Division, Pena was superb. In a doubleheader versus the Pirates on Sept. 3, he pitched in both games, earning a save in the second with 3.2 scoreless innings. For the month, Pena was 1-1 with two saves and a 1.71 ERA in 11 appearances. Boxscore
Pena was 4-4 in 42 games for the 1973 Cardinals and ranked second on the club in both saves (six) and ERA (2.18).
End of the line
The Cardinals were glad to have Pena, 40, back with them in 1974.
He picked up where he left off the previous year, winning his first five decisions. In 42 relief appearances for the 1974 Cardinals, Pena was 5-2 with four saves and a 2.60 ERA. He allowed no home runs in 45 innings pitched. Right-handed batters hit .158 against him.
Imagine his shock then when, to make room on the roster for newly acquired Claude Osteen, the Cardinals released Pena in August 1974.
“Sometimes they catch you by surprise and you feel like the whole ceiling falls over you,” Pena told The Sporting News.
Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst said, “Orlando is a great guy and a hell of a guy to have on the club, but we could keep only 10 pitchers.”
(Pena and Osteen had a history. Eleven years earlier, in a 1963 American League game, Pena hit a grand slam against him. Boxscore)
Pena agreed to stay in St. Louis as a batting practice pitcher. Then, on Sept. 5, 1974, he was traded to the Angels for a player to be named (pitcher Rich Hand).
Pena’s final big-league appearances were with the 1975 Angels, who had Dick Williams as manager and Whitey Herzog as a coach.
RetroSimba 
These guys that don’t rely on a fastball can hang around forever. Pena had some pretty impressive numbers even at a later stage in his career.
Makes one wonder why more pitchers, including those who have a major-league fastball, don’t, or can’t, develop other pitches. It is impressive that Orlando Pena could learn and throw so many pitches.
I had wondered whether the forkball was the same as what became known as the split-fingered fastball, but in his book, “Baseball for Brain Surgeons and Other Fans,” Tim McCarver explained the difference between the two pitches.
“Like the splitter, the forkball also is held between the index and middle finger and slides through the two fingers,” McCarver said. “On the split-fingered fastball, you have your fingers behind the ball, giving it force, but to throw the forkball, a pitcher with long fingers will wrap two fingers around the ball to slow it down, making the arm speed and ball speed different. He doesn’t get the rotation he gets on a split-fingered fastball. The forkball breaks down with a tumbling motion, making it very hard to catch or hit. It gives the illusion of a strike but rarely is.”
Another great post Mark. The fact that he played as long as he did without a “major league fastball” says a lot about his heart and character. I didn’t know about the Ted Simmons connection. That also says a lot about Orlando Pena. I was thinking that if in August of 1973 Bob Gibson doesn’t injure his knee the Cardinals probably would have won the NL East. It would not only have been well deserving for Orlando Pena to finally get a chance to pitch in the playoffs but very interesting with his assortment of pitches and deliveries to see what might have happened.
Until researching the Orlando Pena piece, I didn’t know, or didn’t remember, either that Ted Simmons had been a summer batting practice catcher for the Tigers while in high school. Pena’s kind consideration toward the kid is indeed telling. How wonderful then that eight years later Simmons became Pena’s catcher with the Cardinals for two seasons. As one would imagine, Pena had a lot of catchers during his big-league career. According to baseball-reference.com, the catcher who caught the most big-league games pitched by Pena was Ted Simmons. Simmons caught 74 games pitched by Pena, who had a 2.39 ERA in those games. Next on the list of most games caught with Pena as a pitcher was Bill Freehan (69 games). Others who caught Pena in the majors include Tim McCarver (6 games), Dave Duncan (5 games) and Dave Ricketts (1 game).
Indeed, it would have been wonderful for Pena to get a chance to pitch in a World Series or playoff game in the majors. Though he pitched for one team that won a pennant (1971 Orioles) and two others that won division titles (1970 Pirates and 1973 Orioles), Pena wasn’t with any of them when they got to the so-called postseason. When he got traded to the Cardinals from the Orioles in June 1973, Pena told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he hoped to earn two World Series checks that year _ one for pitching with the Orioles and the other for pitching with the Cardinals _ but neither reached the World Series.
Great story. I wonder if he ever wrote a book – think of all the travel, ballparks, pitches thrown, etc. he had.
Cardinals shouldn’t have dropped in ’74 – he was still getting outs!
Thanks for reading and for commenting, Dave. What a book that would be! In his first big-league game, Orlando Pena pitched against Gil Hodges and Duke Snider, and in his last big-league game he pitched against George Brett and Harmon Killebrew. That bridges quite a period of baseball. As you note, he saw firsthand an amazing number of fascinating people and places.
What a story! What determination and longevity – someone who clearly loved to pitch. Pena’s assortment of pitches reminds me of a guy pitching for the Blue Jays now – Chris Bassitt. They say he throws eight different pitches. Fun to watch him work on batters and trick them.
I love pitchers who don’t throw fast and love how you describe Orlando Pena as “a baseball sorcerer, a mound magician.” I can now add another pitcher who didn’t throw fast to my list.
It doesn’t get much better than “The boy made a baseball glove from a pair of kid’s cowboy boots, cutting off the upper halves and sewing the two portions together to create a mitt.”
That friendship he formed with Simmons is priceless, a testament to Pena’s character……and “the Cuban forkball” wink wink…..classic. It’s wonderful how you dig up these nuggets Mark.
Thanks for the intriguing comparison of Chris Bassitt and Orlando Pena. I’ll start rooting for Bassitt. Glad to know there still are some pitching artists in the big leagues. Because you spiked my curiosity, I did some brief looking into Bassitt’s career and quickly found a fun nugget: His first manager in professional baseball was Pete Rose Jr., son of the Hit King, with 2011 Bristol of the rookie Appalachian League.
I am glad you picked up on that anecdote of how young Orlando Pena made his own baseball glove. He showed then the skill and creativity that made him such a successful pitcher _ and an accomplished barber!
Cardinals had an excellent bullpen in 1973 and 74. It seemed like most of the competent relievers departed after having good years. So went the 1970s.
Yes, indeed. That was a fun mix of relievers those two seasons and well-balanced. In 1973, the Cardinals had Diego Segui and Orlando Pena from the right side and Al Hrabosky and Rich Folkers from the left. Wayne Granger and Eddie Fisher contributed, too. In 1974, Mike Garman replaced Segui, and Pena, Hrabosky and Folkers were back.
Wow! That’s a guy who has been through everything.
He sure did. After his playing career, Pena was a scout for the Tigers. In 1980, he signed for the Tigers some of the Cuban refugees who came to this country on the Freedom Flotilla, and helped them to get acclimated.