In a move more desperate than daring, the Cardinals attempted to bolster their starting rotation by acquiring a retired pitcher who’d been through a bankruptcy, admitted to having been a problem drinker and was thought to have lost velocity on his pitches.
Ron Bryant, a left-hander who followed a 24-12 record for the 1973 Giants with a 3-15 mark in 1974, then went on baseball’s voluntarily retired list, was dealt to the Cardinals in May 1975. Two months later, they released him.
The Cardinals paid a high price to find out Bryant was washed up. A prospect they traded for him, Larry Herndon, developed into one of the National League’s top rookies in 1976, then became a starting outfielder for the 1984 World Series champion Tigers.
Opportunity knocks
In 1965, Giants scout Eddie Montague went to see a California high school infielder, Bob Heise, play for Vacaville. The opposing pitcher, Ron Bryant of Davis, threw a no-hitter.
On Montague’s recommendation, the Giants drafted Bryant in the 22nd round. He signed the day after his graduation but had low expectations for his baseball career. “I just didn’t believe I had the ability to make the big leagues,” he later said to the Atlanta Constitution. “I didn’t think I had the fastball or anything else.”
Bryant didn’t strike out many _ “I can’t. I am just not an overpowering pitcher,” he told the Atlanta newspaper _ but “he pitched cleverly,” Glenn Dickey of the San Francisco Chronicle noted, and made it to the majors with the Giants as a reliever and spot starter.
The Giants’ equipment man, Mike Murphy, nicknamed Bryant “Bear” because of his resemblance to the animal, not the football coach. Bryant was 6-foot and 210 pounds and “looked like a bear, with his chunky build, his way of walking and his curly hair,” Murphy told The Sporting News.
A performance against the Cardinals in April 1971 earned Bryant a spot in the starting rotation. When Frank Reberger developed a shoulder problem and departed after allowing the first two Cardinals batters to reach base, Bryant relieved, pitched nine innings and got the win. “A major turning point,” he told The Sporting News. “If I hadn’t had that opportunity, or hadn’t pitched well, I might have stayed in the bullpen.” Boxscore
Five days later, Bryant pitched a three-hitter against the Pirates for his first shutout. Boxscore
The Cardinals were involved in another pivotal game for Bryant in June 1972. With one out in the eighth inning and the Giants ahead, 3-0, manager Charlie Fox removed Bryant for a reliever. After the Cardinals rallied and won, Bryant criticized Fox for taking him out. Boxscore
In his next start, against the Cubs, Fox left Bryant alone and he pitched a two-hit shutout. As Bryant headed for the dugout after the final out, Fox came onto the field and bowed to the pitcher. Boxscore
Bryant went on a six-game winning streak and finished the 1972 season with a 14-7 record, including four shutouts, and 2.90 ERA.
Good and bad
While Bryant was progressing on the field, he was having trouble away from baseball. The pitcher and his wife filed for bankruptcy in November 1972, the San Francisco Examiner reported.
After a loss to the Cardinals in May 1973, Bryant’s season record was 3-3. Then, while watching game film, he discovered a flaw in how he was releasing the ball. Bryant made a correction and won eight in a row. Video at 9:20
Bryant stacked up wins faster than any pitcher in the league. He won his 20th before September and finished with 24, most for a Giants left-hander since Carl Hubbell had 26 in 1936. The Sacramento Zoo named a 10-month-old sloth bear in honor of the pitcher nicknamed Bear.
It should have been the best of times for Bryant but it wasn’t. He and his wife divorced. Then there was the drinking. Bryant “drank considerably,” Art Spander of the San Francisco Chronicle noted.
During the 1973 season, Charlie Fox found Bryant “lurking in the hotel bar once too often and pushed him out the door,” according to columnist Wells Twombly.
Glenn Dickey of the Chronicle wrote of Bryant’s 24-win season, “There is no question that the attention went to his head. He drank too much and his marriage disintegrated. Nothing he ever did was intended maliciously, but he did a lot of damage to people, including himself.”
“Drinking had been one of my problems,” Bryant told The Sporting News.
Slip sliding away
When Bryant reported to 1974 spring training, “he was desperately overweight,” Wells Twombly reported. “Not only that, he was living from beer to beer and nearly everybody knew it.”
After a Cactus League game in Yuma, Ariz., the Giants took a bus ride across the desert to Palm Springs, Calif. Shortly after 8 p.m., they arrived at the Tropics, a Polynesian-styled resort that featured a coffee shop (regrettably named Sambo’s), two cocktail lounges (The Reef and The Cellar) and a steakhouse (The Congo Room). The place became a celebrity hangout in the 1960s. Victor Mature (who played opposite Hedy Lamarr in “Samson and Delilah”) had a private table in The Congo Room. Elvis Presley and Nancy Sinatra used to relax by the pool.
The pool looked inviting to Bryant. About 11 p.m., the Bear went belly-flopping down a slide, lost control, tumbled off and slammed into the concrete edge of the pool, opening a gash near his right rib cage. Some 30 stitches were required, The Sporting News reported.
Bryant said drinking didn’t cause the mishap (he’d had two beers, the Examiner reported), but that was no solace to Charlie Fox, who called it “an unfortunate, silly accident,” the Examiner reported.
Sidelined for six weeks, Bryant was ineffective when he returned. His 3-15 record included an 0-2 mark against the Cardinals.
“That pool accident threw everything out of whack,” Bryant told the San Francisco Chronicle. “It preyed on my mind. What happened was my own fault, nobody else’s … I have to admit I should have had more dedication.”
Coming and going
In December 1974, Bryant and his wife remarried and he gave up drinking. However, he came to 1975 spring training at close to 220 pounds, The Sporting News reported, and performed inconsistently. “He would pitch well to a couple of batters and then his mind would wander,” the San Francisco Chronicle observed.
Wes Westrum, who replaced Charlie Fox as manager, said Bryant showed “no velocity” on his pitches, The Sporting News reported. Pitching coach Don McMahon concurred, saying Bryant’s “velocity and control were off.”
Just before the season began, Bryant, 27, told the Giants he was retiring.
“I don’t think there’s any chance I’ll change my mind … I’m not really enjoying playing,” he said to the Oakland Tribune.
Two weeks later, Bryant changed his mind. He asked the Giants to reinstate him, but baseball rules required he had to wait until the season was 60 days old before he could pitch in a regular-season game. For Bryant, that meant June 6.
Uninterested in keeping him, the Giants looked to make a trade. To their glee, the Cardinals agreed to give up two prospects, pitcher Tony Gonzalez and outfielder Larry Herndon, to get him. The deal was made on May 9, 1975.
Unsatisfied with the performances of John Denny and 39-year-old Bob Gibson, the Cardinals were looking to revamp their starting rotation. After dealing for Bryant, they acquired Ron Reed from the Braves. Denny was demoted to the minors, Gibson got banished to the bullpen and Bryant and Reed were tabbed to replace them as starters.
To get much-needed work, the Cardinals sent Bryant to extended spring training in Florida. Primarily facing minor-league rookies whose low-level summer leagues hadn’t started yet, Bryant allowed one hit in six innings.
Next, the Cardinals chose him to start in a June 5 exhibition game against their Class AAA team at Tulsa. It was a disaster. Bryant allowed nine runs and 12 hits in 4.1 innings. “Lots of the time, I didn’t have much of an idea of what I was doing out there,” he confessed to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Nonetheless, the Cardinals activated him. Pitching in relief, he faced three batters in his first appearance and allowed three hits. Boxscore
Then came a start against the Pirates. Bryant gave up two home runs _ a two-run wallop by Willie Stargell and a three-run rocket from Rennie Stennett _ and retired just three batters before being relieved by Gibson. Boxscore
Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst saw enough. He removed Bryant from the starting rotation and put Gibson back in.
Given a chance at relief work, Bryant mostly was ineffective. The Cardinals asked him to accept a demotion to Tulsa but he refused. “If he’d have gone down to Tulsa, where he could do some pitching, he could have come back to spring training (in 1976) and helped us,” Schoendienst told the Post-Dispatch.
Instead, the Cardinals released Bryant on July 31, 1975. In 10 appearances covering 8.2 innings for them, he was 0-1 with a 16.62 ERA.
Two years after leading the National League with 24 wins, Bryant was finished as a big-league pitcher.
RetroSimba 
There’s a chapter in Edward Kiersh’s 1983 book, “Where Have You Gone, Vince DiMaggio?” about Bryant. By that time, he was working in a Las Vegas casino.
Thanks for the info. I’ll have to find and read that book some time.
First off, thanks for including the video. Not only did I enjoy seeing side burns again, but it reveals the change he made in his delivery…releasing the ball. It makes me wonder if back in the 70’s and earlier, was it common for a flaw in a delivery to be detected as easily as it is today with all the technology analyzing everything?
What a roller coaster career and life Bryant lived. I’m glad to read he got control over his drinking and that he returned to his wife. Another exceptionally researched article Mark and a potent reminder how fleeting success is and how rare it is for a player to say, play for more than 10 years.
Thanks, Steve. According to published reports, Ron Bryant took the time to watch game film on reels, like home movies, to detect the flaw in his delivery because video on tape wasn’t yet common. So it took an effort on his part. In June 1971, he told The Sporting News, “I’ve speeded up my delivery, gaining momentum, and have increased the velocity of both my fastball and curve. I’m throwing harder than I ever have, by far.”
I’ve heard of similar techniques employed by Tony Gwynn, only his sort of hitting instructor or videographer was his wife! That one of the greatest hitters of all-time relied on his wife bodes well for the future of women in baseball and there are already some tremendous female minds….even that song Take Me Out to the Ball game was about a baseball crank named Katie, the longer version anyway.
I remember Bryant’s crumbling career. I hated it when the Braves traded Ron Reed. (Sadecki, Sosa, and Nordhagen did nothing to ease the pain at all.) Reed was very effective for the Cards after the trade, but then they essentially gave him away after the season. Reed reinvented himself as a very effective reliever and pitched into his 40s. By all accounts, he’s a good guy to boot. I went back and read your post from 2015 about Reed, Gibson, and Bryant. It was good to relive those memories.
Thank you for taking the time to read both the Ron Bryant and Ron Reed posts. I appreciate that _ as well as your astute comments. I’m glad to learn Reed was a good guy.
Strange I’d never heard of the guy considering he’s from Davis,Ca., a little college town outside of Sacramento. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time there as I dated a few girls who went to UC Davis. They also had a great low watt radio station (KDVS) and quite a thriving punk scene in the 90’s.
Thanks for the insights on the California town of Davis, Gary.
Ron Bryant’s 24-win season was a big deal there. According to the Sacramento Bee, Davis mayor Maynard Skinner proclaimed the week of Sept. 8-15, 1973, as Ron Bryant Week in the Yolo County community. Bryant received a certificate of achievement from the town and also got an award from Davis Little Leaguers.
The unfortunate incident that Ron Bryant had at the swimming pool got him a lot of publicity. Not all of it was good because most people thought that it was alcohol related. If I’m not mistaken, besides the abdominal injury, he also dealt with other physical issues from which he never fully recovered. I have to say that I agree with Red Schoendienst in that it would have been good for him to spend time in the minors to straighten out his mechanics. But it was obvious that his heart was no longer in it and his mind was somewhere else. After all these years it’s still amazing to consider that Ron Bryant went 38-19 over the course of 2 seasons.
I like how you expressed it about his “heart was no longer in it,” Phillip. Even if the arm is OK, a pitcher isn’t capable without the heart.
A couple of fun facts to share:
_ After he was traded from the Giants to the Mets, Willie Mays was hitless in 15 career at-bats against former teammate Ron Bryant.
_ Though he was a left-handed batter facing a left-handed pitcher, Lou Brock of the Cardinals had a .455 batting average and .514 on-base percentage versus Bryant in his career. Brock had 15 hits and 4 walks against Bryant in 37 plate appearances.
I often wondered what happened to him after that magical 1973 season in which he finished third to Tom Seaver in the Cy Young Award. I had heard that there was some sort of a pool accident but I didn’t know the details nor the details about his personal life. I miss pictures like that who could get out by relying on their defense, working the strike zone and generally trying to fool hitters instead of overpowering them. The trade with the Cardinals was another example of a terrible 1970s trade which happened numerous times. Larry Herndon became a pretty good player for several years including getting 179 and 182 base hits in 1982 – 1983. Thom A
Thom, thanks for mentioning that Tom Seaver of the Mets was recipient of the National League Cy Young Award in 1973, the year Ron Bryant won 24. In voting by the Baseball Writers Association of America, Seaver got 10 of 24 first-place votes. Runner-up Mike Marshall of the Expos got nine. Bryant got three and the Reds’ Jack Billingham got two.
Their stats that season:
Seaver: 19-10, 2.08 ERA, 251 strikeouts, 18 complete games.
Marshall: 14-11, 31 saves, 2.66 ERA in 92 games pitched.
Bryant: 24-12, 3.53 ERA, 143 strikeouts, eight complete games.
Billingham: 19-10, 3.04 ERA, 155 strikeouts, seven shutouts, 16 complete games.
@retrosimba
Those are great stats. And don’t forget that in 1974 Mike Marshall won the Cy Young Award but this time with the Dodgers as he pitched in a record 106 games. I think he may have been the first reliever to ever win the Cy Young Award. When the Dodgers were in the World Series that year against the A’s I remember a lot of commentary about Marshall’s remarkable year.
Appreciate the follow-up. You might enjoy this previous post: https://retrosimba.com/2021/06/13/cardinals-created-dramatic-endings-vs-mike-marshall/
Of the 98 LH pitchers selected in the ’65 draft (many didn’t sign), only one had a major league career even remotely as good as Bryant’s: Ken Holtzman.
It sounds to me like Bryant’s high school coach might have been something of a chowderhead, failing to advise Bryant to go to a JC instead of to the Giants for no money.
Despite describing himself as not overpowering, Bryant in his first few seasons in the minors averaged more than a strikeout an inning. This means he likely would have dominated at a good program like Sac City College or San Jose City College, leading to a scholarship offer from Santa Clara, or even ASU or USC. In 1965, everyone in the Bay Area knew that just a few years earlier pitchers from Santa Clara U. had received big bonuses, $50k for Nelson Briles and $125k for Bob Garibaldi (the Mets offered $135k).
So if the coach at Davis High had been on the ball, Bryant might never had money problems, might never have become alcoholic, and might have had a career more like Ken Holtzman’s.
Thanks for the insights. The junior college route makes sense.
Hard to imagine that the Cardinals ever made a worse trade.
Indeed, it did not reflect well on their judgment.
According to published reports, the Mets also were interested in acquiring Ron Bryant but were unwilling to give up the equivalent of what the Cardinals offered the Giants.
In the Spring of 1975, I remember the failure of Ed Brinkman, and the not-quite-ready “next Musial,” Keith Hernandez. Cardinals were shut out quite often in the first couple months. Willie Davis perked things up a little later. As far as left-handed starting pitching went, I was hoping Schoendienst would give Ray Sadecki a start or two, for nostalgia’s sake. Lots of roster moves in the 1970s, and the tires kept spinning in the ditch.
Thanks for a good analysis of the 1975 Cardinals. I agree that they should have given Ray Sadecki more of a chance than they did that year. Here is a link to the Ed Brinkman failure: https://retrosimba.com/2014/11/09/why-ed-brinkman-was-not-a-shortstop-savior-for-cardinals/
Also, this post on the Willie Davis experiment: https://retrosimba.com/2015/08/09/willie-davis-and-his-short-strange-stay-with-cardinals/