A right-handed batter with power, Mike Ivie couldn’t cope with the expectations and pressures of professional baseball.
When he felt overwhelmed, he walked out on his team. He did that multiple times in stints with the Padres, Giants and Astros.
He kept getting chances to return because, when he was focused rather than fearful, he hammered the ball. The Cardinals encountered that side of him a lot.
A .269 hitter in 11 seasons in the majors, Ivie batted .316 against the Cardinals in his career.
Head game
A standout high school athlete in Atlanta, Ivie, 17, was taken by the Padres with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1970 amateur baseball draft. Projected to be a catcher, “He’s got better hands than Johnny Bench,” Padres scout Leon Hamilton said to the Tri-City Herald of Pasco, Washington.
Ivie told the newspaper, “I don’t anticipate any problems making the adjustment to pro ball.”
In September 1971, after his second season with a Class A farm team, Ivie, 19, got called up to the Padres. He caught 39 innings for them and hit .471.
All eyes were on Ivie when he came to spring training in 1972. The Padres expected him to compete for their starting catcher spot. Instead, Ivie unraveled. “He couldn’t throw the ball back to the pitcher in batting practice without hitting the protective screen,” the Miami Herald reported.
In his first intrasquad game, he double- and triple-pumped before returning the ball to the pitcher, Sports Illustrated reported.
Frustrated, Ivie quit, went home, and said he didn’t want to be a catcher. “I’ve developed a mental block about catching,” Ivie told The Sporting News.
He sat out all of spring training. When the 1972 season started, he reported to the Padres’ Class AA affiliate in Alexandria, Louisiana, and was put at first base. Playing for manager Duke Snider, Ivie hit .291 with 24 home runs. When the Padres offered to promote him to the majors during the season, he declined because they wanted him to be a catcher, The Sporting News reported.
Blue in Hawaii
When Ivie came to spring training in 1973, he did an about-face, telling the Padres he wanted to compete for the starting catching job. Visits to a psychiatrist during the winter helped him change his mind about catching, Ivie told The Sporting News. “The psychology sessions convinced me my problem was fear of failure in baseball,” Ivie said.
He was having a good spring until he injured both hands. Damaged blood vessels in his left hand caused Ivie to lose feeling in a finger. That put an end to the catching plans.
The Padres assigned Ivie to Class AAA Hawaii in 1973 and put him back at first base. In June, he told manager Roy Hartsfield he couldn’t cope with the travel, quit and sat out the rest of the season.
He came back in 1974 and played the season in the minors. Ivie, 22, finally stuck with the Padres in 1975, sharing first base with Willie McCovey and playing some third base, too.
Cardinals nemesis
From 1976-79, Ivie pounded Cardinals pitching.
In 29 plate appearances versus the 1976 Cardinals, Ivie had 12 hits and four walks _ a .552 on-base percentage. Two of those hits were home runs against John Curtis and Pete Falcone. (Ivie batted .450 versus Falcone for his career.)
The next year, Ivie posted a .438 on-base percentage (17 hits, four walks) in 48 plate appearances versus the Cardinals. One of those hits won a game highlighted by a record-setting Lou Brock achievement.
On Aug. 29, 1977, at San Diego, Brock’s second stolen base of the game broke Ty Cobb’s major-league career record. In the eighth, with the Cardinals ahead, 3-2, Ivie spoiled their fun, hitting a two-run home run against Al Hrabosky, and the Padres won, 4-3. Boxscore
“I fouled off the first fastball he threw me and decided right then he was probably going to challenge me all the way, so I was looking for fastballs,” Ivie told the Associated Press. “If he had thrown me a breaking pitch after that, I probably would have screwed myself to the ground swinging at it.”
As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted, “Ivie would like to make a career of hitting against the Cardinals.”
For certain, he didn’t want to make a career of playing for the Padres. He wanted to be traded, preferably to the Braves, so he could be at home in Georgia. “He has a wealth of talent,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said to The Sporting News. “I hope we can get him.”
Instead, the Padres dealt him to the Giants.
Bench strength
Filling in for Willie McCovey at first base and Terry Whitfield in left, Ivie hit .308 overall and .387 as a pinch-hitter for the 1978 Giants. He clubbed four pinch-hit homers., including the only walkoff of his big-league career, against the Cardinals.
On July 25, 1978, at San Francisco, the Cardinals led, 2-1, when Larry Herndon singled against Bob Forsch with one out in the bottom of the ninth. Ivie, batting for shortstop Roger Metzger, followed with a two-run home run to left, giving the Giants a 3-2 victory Boxscore
“When you are a little kid, you play the dream game,” Ivie said to the Sacramento Bee. “You pretend you’re in a real game and you pretend you just hit a home run. You dream of the day you can do it for real. Now that I’ve done it, now that I’m living my dream, I can’t believe this is happening to me. I just feel numb all over.”
Asked to explain his pinch-hitting success. Ivie said to the San Francisco Examiner, “It’s more of a mental thing than a physical one. I drink a lot of coffee, smoke a lot of cigarettes, try to keep my hands warm and wait for the opportunity to be called upon.”
Ivie told the Post-Dispatch he shared tips with Cardinals pinch-hitter Roger Freed. “Freed and I talk a lot about what size bats to use in certain pinch-hitting situations,” Ivie said. “I’ve been studying pinch-hitters, especially guys like (the Phillies’) Tim McCarver, who seems to get good wood on the ball every time he bats. I watch Tim like a hawk.”
Down and out
Ivie had his best season in 1979 with the Giants. Sharing first base with Willie McCovey, he had 27 home runs and 89 RBI in 402 at-bats.
On June 7, 1979, at St. Louis, the score was tied at 9-9 with two outs in the ninth when Ivie slugged a Mark Littell fastball 420 feet to center for a three-run home run. The Giants won, 12-10. Boxscore
The good times didn’t last.
In December 1979, Ivie sliced a tendon in a finger while cleaning a hunting knife and underwent surgery. He had a poor spring training and a shaky start to the 1980 season, hitting no home runs in April and batting .209 in May.
The Giants were going to trade him to the Phillies, who planned to flip him to the Astros in exchange for pitcher Joaquin Andujar, but the deal got canceled when Ivie landed on the disabled list in late May 1980. Giants general manager Spec Richardson told The Sporting News that Ivie was experiencing “mental exhaustion.” Ivie called it “depression.”
When his stint on the disabled list ended, Ivie, 27, appeared in one game, then quit. “I was right at the point of a nervous breakdown,” he told Sports Illustrated.
About a month later, in July 1980, he changed his mind and returned to the club. “The guys can handle Mike’s return, but I just don’t know if he can,” outfielder Jack Clark told The Sporting News. “I think Mike is really sick.”
Troubled times
In April 1981, the Giants dealt Ivie to the Astros. A month later, he was found weeping in the locker room. Again, he quit and sought treatment for what he called “problems of anxiety,” The Sporting News reported.
“He was afraid to fail and he was afraid to succeed,” Astros owner John McMullen told the New York Times.
In June, big-league players went on strike. When play resumed in August, Ivie was with the Astros for a road trip that began in San Francisco. After one day there, he quit again.
“It goes back to when I was a kid in the Little League and was supposed to get six hits every five times I went to bat,” Ivie told Joe Durso of the New York Times in September 1981. “It’s professional pressure, I guess. When I was a kid, I was pretty near the best. Then, after I got to the big leagues, I found that I wasn’t the best player in the world. After a couple of seasons, it started getting to me. Now I go to the doctor, the psychiatrist, three times a week.”
Released by the Astros in April 1982, Ivie was signed by the Tigers.
Asked about Ivie’s history, Tigers manager Sparky Anderson said to Ira Berkow of the New York Times, “If he says he’s scared, or fears failure, let me tell you, he’s not a special case. This is a tough business, and all of us are scared to various degrees. I’ve seen guys so scared, they’re shaking. I’ve gone to guys in pressure situations to pinch-hit, and they said they couldn’t. I’ve had guys come to me and ask me to take them out of ballgames. I’ve seen a pitcher’s hand swell up when he was told he’s going to pitch a big game the next day.”
Ivie hit .232 with 14 home runs as a designated hitter for the 1982 Tigers. He was 30 when he played his last game in the majors for Detroit in May 1983.
RetroSimba 
Cleveland’s Tony Horton was another good, young hitter who had trouble dealing with the stress of playing in the major leagues.
Good point. Many similarities between the two. Tony Horton was 19 when he made his big-league debut and 25 when he played his last game in the majors. In 1968, he told The Sporting News, “If you’re afraid _ actually afraid _ of missing a ball or having a bad night, you’re going to worry and press, and all you can do is get worse.”
Hoo boy, that mysterious and complex organ swimming around in our noggin.
Reading this got me thinking about a Braves game I was watching the other day. Matt Olson came to bat and I was thinking, “Why does he always seem so relaxed?” The guy looked like he didn’t have a care in the world and had just smoked a doobie before the game. Quite the paradox of Ivie.
Is it brain synapses? Is it DNA? Maybe he slept differently as a baby? Who the hell knows, but I feel for the people that experience an almost existential terror on a daily basis like Ivie. This funny sport sometimes does funny things to people. Sh*t, life in general does funny things to people. I really hope he found solace later in life.
Well-said, Gary. There were a lot of issues, it seems. According to published reports I saw in doing the research, when teenage Mike Ivie was drafted No. 1 by the Padres, he never had been out of the state of Georgia and never had been on an airplane flight. There was a lot for him to deal with overall and there wasn’t a lot of help. According to The Sporting News and others, when Ivie first walked out of Padres spring training in 1972, the Padres front office made no effort to contact him. He was kind of left on his own to try to figure it all out.
As soon as I saw this post I realized that I had completely forgotten about Mike Ivie. He really was a Cardinals killer. A .363 batting average at the cookie cutter Busch Stadium is incredible! He was also an excellent clutch hitter. A batting average of .300 with men in scoring position. And of his 81 career homeruns, 36 came with someone on base. You have to ask yourself if many he was called up to the Big Leagues too soon. One things for sure, back then there was probably little or no help at all for players dealing with certain issues. Today it’s different. I was touched reading about how Willie McCovey talked him out of retiring. Also how Sparky Anderson was willing to give him an opportunity with Detroit. These things just show that notwithstanding the issues that Mike Ivie struggled with he was a good ball player and even better human being. I do have a question. Is it true the Giants and Twins were discussing a trade that would have involved both Mike Ivie and Rod Carew? Thanks Mark for another great post.
Good stuff, Phillip. I am glad you can appreciate Mike Ivie’s career batting mark at the downtown Busch Memorial Stadium.
Yes, indeed, in December 1978, the Twins and Giants agreed to a trade of Rod Carew for Mike Ivie, outfielder Jim Dwyer (the former Cardinal) and minor-league pitcher Phil Nastu, The Sporting News reported. (According to columnist Dick Young, the Giants also agreed to send the Twins $400,000 cash.) The Twins were looking to trade Carew because he was eligible to become a free agent after the 1979 season and they didn’t think they could sign him.
Because he had spent 10 years with the Twins, Carew had the right to approve or reject the trade. Giants owner Bob Lurie went to Minnesota to meet with Carew and try to convince him to give the OK, The Sporting News reported.
Carew said he was impressed by what Lurie told him but opted not to approve the deal at that time. In January 1979, the Giants brought Carew to San Francisco and gave him the red carpet treatment. Shortly after, Carew informed the Giants that he preferred to stay in the American League. Carew’s agent, Jerry Simon, told The Sporting News, “The Twins would like to make the San Francisco deal, but Rod would rather remain in the American League.”
On Feb. 3, 1979, the Twins traded Carew to the Angels for 4 players, including outfielder Ken Landreaux.
Always thought you had to be crazy to be a catcher.
Bob Uecker might agree. I always appreciated the title of his autobiography: “Catcher in the Wry.”
Back then I had to be one of the most attentive Giants fans around (as well as a daily reader of Herb Caen’s gossip column in the Chron) and not only did I never hear of the proposed Carew deal, but I’ve never heard anyone else in the area, civilian or media, ever mention it then or since. It’s amazing how the thing flew under the radar. For example, for years Tom Tolbert, the ex-Warrior, mentioned on his SF radio show how much he’d loved Carew growing up in Orange County, but nobody ever called in to say he almost became a Giant. I don’t have a subscription to newspapers.com, but I’d be interested to know if it was ever mentioned in the Examiner.
On Dec. 7, 1978, Glenn Schwarz of the San Francisco Examiner, reporting from the baseball winter meetings in Orlando, wrote, “By sundown tomorrow, Rod Carew could be a Giant.” Schwarz reported the Twins wanted Mike Ivie, Gary Lavelle, Larry Herndon and Phil Nastu. Giants GM Spec Richardson and Twins owner Calvin Griffith eventually negotiated a deal of Ivie, Jim Dwyer and Nastu for Carew. “It makes me feel very good to know that the Giants are No. 1 on the Twins’ list,” Richardson told the Examiner. “We’re willing to give them what they have asked for Carew.”
_ On Dec. 8, 1978, Schwarz reported in the Examiner, “The Giants’ effort to persuade Rod Carew to accept the trade from the Twins to the Giants failed today after Giants owner Bob Lurie met with Carew and his agent for three hours in a Bloomington, Minn., hotel suite.” The article said Carew was leaving the door open to changing his mind.
_ On Dec. 9, 1978, Lurie told the Examiner that Carew “wants to feel comfortable where he plays. He wants to come out and visit San Francisco.” Carew said to the Examiner, “After 12 years with a team, you can’t make a decision like this in 12 hours.”
_ On Dec. 10, 1978, Mike Ivie told the Examiner he learned of the trade while driving at home in Georgia. “I almost had a wreck when I heard it on the radio,” Ivie said. “I like playing in San Francisco, so I really hadn’t thought about going anywhere else.”
_ On Jan. 9, 1979, in a column he did for the Examiner, Giants pitcher (and former Cardinal) John Curtis wrote, “Along with several other Giants players, I have been invited to a small party. Giants owner Bob Lurie is the host and Rod Carew is the guest of honor. It is no secret that the Giants are trying to trade for Carew, so the purpose of the party is clear. Carew has come to San Francisco to find out what it’s like living and playing baseball here. Who could better inform him than the Giants players themselves.”
_ On Jan. 10, 1979, the Examiner reported that Carew met with Bob Lurie and San Francisco mayor Dianne Feinstein. Then he attended Lurie’s cocktail party and dinner. Mike Ivie was not at the party. “I’m not going to wish him well in San Francisco when I want to stay here,” Ivie told the Examiner. “I don’t feel like I want to go to Minnesota and be bouncing all over the place. It’s a sticky situation.”
_ On Jan. 11, 1979, the Examiner reported that Carew went on a house hunting trip in the Bay Area. “Right now, the Giants stand a pretty good chance of getting my name on a contract,” Carew told the Examiner.
A couple of days later, Carew opted not to accept the trade to the Giants.
Thanks for writing this article Mark. Sparky Anderson sheds a lot of light on just how tough it is to be in the majors, to succeed and handle the pressure and what not. I think in addition to all of that, there are some players who have it worse like maybe it’s the chemical imbalance or whatever and maybe if he were playing today, some of the newer meds could have helped Ivie out.
I’m glad Sparky Anderson’s comments resonated with you, Steve. I, too, thought his remarks were insightful for the reasons you cite. That entire subject _ players who handle pressure well and players who don’t _ would make a great book if insiders such as Sparky would talk candidly. Cardinals pitcher Rick Ankiel did a book along those lines and revealed that to cope with the pressure he drank vodka just before going out to the mound.
I guess it’s similar to those who top off their morning coffee with a little brandy or whisky before heading off to the bus and work.
2023 is the type of year where a guy who walked out on his team would pound the Cardinals too! heck a softball team full of woman could pound them!