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Transformer Man: Rick Ankiel returned as a slugger

Posted in Games, Hitters, Prospects on August 4, 2017| 1 Comment »

(Updated Jan. 9, 2019)

Early in the 2007 season, the Cardinals had a plan to call up Rick Ankiel from the minor leagues in September to see what he could do. By mid-summer, when Ankiel continued to clout home runs at a consistent clip for Memphis, the plan changed and the Cardinals moved up their timetable.

On Aug. 9, 2007, Ankiel returned to the big leagues with the Cardinals after a three-year absence.

When he had left, he was a pitcher.

He came back as an outfielder.

Arriving in St. Louis from Memphis late that Thursday afternoon, Ankiel was inserted in the starting lineup for that night’s game against the Padres.

It was a memorable return. Ankiel hit a three-run home run, signaling that his transformation from pitcher to slugger was no stunt.

Something to consider

In 2000, his first full season with the Cardinals, Ankiel was a starting pitcher. The left-hander earned 11 wins and struck out 194 in 175 innings. His career quickly unraveled during the 2000 postseason when he suddenly lost the ability to pitch in the strike zone.

Frustrated by injuries and unhappy with his career path, Ankiel decided during spring training in 2005 to give up pitching and become an outfielder.

Assigned to the minor leagues, Ankiel played for two Cardinals farm clubs _ Quad Cities and Springfield, Mo., _ in 2005. His combined statistics that season included 21 home runs and a .275 batting average.

Injured, Ankiel sat out the 2006 season.

In 2007, the Cardinals assigned him to their top farm team, Memphis, where he produced 104 hits in 102 games, with 32 home runs and 89 RBI.

Lineup upgrade

On Aug. 8, when asked by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about Ankiel, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said, “We’re talking about when is the right time” for a call-up.

Later that day, as the Memphis team was in Tacoma, awaiting a flight back home, Memphis manager Chris Maloney informed Ankiel the Cardinals wanted him to report to St. Louis the next day because a roster spot opened when Scott Spiezio went on leave to address a substance abuse problem, Ankiel said in his 2017 book “The Phenom.”

Ankiel arrived at Busch Stadium at 4 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2007.

“I pulled open the door to a major-league clubhouse I’d sometimes wondered if I’d ever see again,” Ankiel said in his book.

La Russa put Ankiel in the lineup as the right fielder and batted him second in the order, behind David Eckstein and ahead of Albert Pujols.

“It’s very overwhelming,” Ankiel admitted.

Ankiel, 28, hadn’t appeared in a major-league game since Oct. 1, 2004.

“If I didn’t think having him in the lineup gives us a better chance to win, he wouldn’t be here,” La Russa said.

Home sweet home

Ankiel received a standing ovation when he stepped to the plate in the first inning. Facing Chris Young, the Padres’ 6-foot-10 pitcher, Ankiel popped out to shortstop.

Young struck out Ankiel in the second and again in the fifth.

In the seventh, the Cardinals led, 2-0, and had runners on second and third, two outs, when Ankiel came to bat against Doug Brocail.

“I just hope people have patience and realize he’s still not a polished major-league hitter,” Cardinals television broadcaster Al Hrabosky said to viewers.

Broadcast partner Dan McLaughlin replied, “Chance here to make an impression, though.”

Ankiel pulled a 2-and-1 slider over the right-field wall, thrilling the crowd and his teammates.

In the dugout, La Russa beamed and applauded. Ankiel raised his right fist in triumph as he reached first base. Video

“Almost seven years after it had happened the first time, I felt as though I’d left my body again,” Ankiel said in his book. “This time, however, there was no panic. My breaths were short _ not out of fear but in celebration, in joy. I could feel the game in my heart, in my soul.”

Ankiel got a curtain call from the crowd of 42,848. Boxscore

“I’m happy to be home,” Ankiel said.

Power supply

Declaring Ankiel’s home run the “best single moment in St. Louis sports in 2007,” Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz also wrote, “It was great theater and it moved anyone who witnessed it. Most of all, the homer gave us another indication of Ankiel’s strong, competitive character. He didn’t give up on himself after a barrage of misfortune that would have ruined many athletes. Ankiel deserved the joy and happiness that came his way.”

Jim Riggleman, the Cardinals’ minor-league field coordinator, said, “The moment he stopped pitching is the same moment he became the No. 1 power bat in the system.”

Ankiel had hit two home runs as a Cardinals pitcher in 2000. He became the first big-league player since Clint Hartung to hit his first big-league home run as a pitcher, return to the majors as a position player and hit a home run again. Hartung pitched for the Giants from 1947-50 and he was an outfielder for them in 1951 and 1952.

Before Hartung, the last major-league player to hit his first home run as a pitcher, change positions and hit a home run again was Babe Ruth.

On Aug. 11, two days after his dramatic return to the big leagues, Ankiel again dazzled. He hit two home runs _ a two-run shot off starter Derek Lowe and a solo blast off Roberto Hernandez _ in a 6-1 Cardinals triumph over the Dodgers at St. Louis.

In 47 games for the 2007 Cardinals, Ankiel produced 49 hits, with 11 home runs and 39 RBI.

The next year, Ankiel had his best season as a hitter, with 25 home runs and 71 RBI in 120 games for the 2008 Cardinals.

Previously: Pitching or hitting, Rick Ankiel was marvel and mystery

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Frankie Frisch and his last hurrah as Cardinals clouter

Posted in Games, Hitters, Managers on August 1, 2017| Leave a Comment »

The last hit of the Hall of Fame career of Frankie Frisch completed a ninth-inning comeback that carried the Cardinals to a walkoff victory and inspired his teammates to carry Frisch off the field.

In 1937, Frisch, 40, was manager of the Cardinals. He also was in his last season as a player.

Frisch had been a standout second baseman for the Giants from 1919 to 1926. After he was dealt for Rogers Hornsby, Frisch continued his success with the Cardinals, helping them to four National League pennants and two World Series titles. He became their player-manager in 1933.

As late as 1936, Frisch played 59 games at second base and 22 at third base for the Cardinals, batting .274 with an on-base percentage of .353.

In 1937, however, Frisch seldom appeared in the lineup.

His last game at second base was on May 29, 1937. Over the next two months, he had five at-bats as a pinch hitter. Frisch failed to reach base in any of those plate appearances.

So it was a bit of a surprise when, with the outcome on the line in the Cardinals’ game against the Braves on Aug. 4 at St. Louis, Frisch put himself at the plate as a pinch hitter.

Keep the line moving

The Braves led, 6-2, entering the bottom of the ninth inning of the Wednesday afternoon game before 2,303 spectators at Sportsman’s Park.

Braves starter Lou Fette, who had a 13-3 record, appeared to be in control. The rookie from Alma, Mo., retired two of the first three batters in the ninth. Terry Moore, who had walked, was on first base when Johnny Mize came to the plate, representing the Cardinals’ last hope.

With a four-run lead, the Braves weren’t holding Moore at first. So, he went to second base uncontested while Fette focused on Mize.

Mize singled to right, scoring Moore and cutting the Braves’ lead to 6-3.

Joe Medwick followed with a double to left-center, driving home Mize and making the score 6-4.

Braves manager Bill McKechnie, the former Cardinals skipper, brought in Guy Bush to relief Fette. Bush had a 2.76 ERA.

Don Padgett greeted him with a single to right, scoring Medwick and reducing the Braves’ lead to 6-5.

Don Gutteridge got the Cardinals’ fourth consecutive hit _ a single to left. When Padgett advanced from first to third on the play, drawing the throw from the outfield, Gutteridge alertly took second.

With runners on second and third, Pepper Martin, sent to pinch-hit for Leo Durocher, received an intentional walk, loading the bases.

Stout heart

Mickey Owen was due up next for the Cardinals. A rookie catcher, Owen was the Cardinals’ eighth-place batter. He was 1-for-4 in the game, giving him a .214 batting mark for the season.

Frisch, who was batting .194 and hadn’t produced a hit since May 28, grabbed a bat and stood in at the plate for Owen.

“I felt I was the right man in this spot,” Frisch said to the St. Louis Star-Times. “I believed I could deliver the much-needed hit in the pinch … Why should I put some other man in that spot when I figured I could get a hit myself?”

Frisch, a switch hitter, batted from the left side against Bush, a right-hander. Swinging at the first pitch, Frisch “slashed it down the first-base line like a shot out of a howitzer,” the Star-Times reported.

The ball eluded first baseman Elbie Fletcher and bounded into right field. Padgett scored from third with the tying run and Gutteridge raced from second to the plate with the winning run for a 7-6 Cardinals victory. Boxscore

Frisch’s teammates rushed toward him, lifted him onto their shoulders and carried him triumphantly to the dugout.

“The best pinch-hit I’ve ever seen,” Medwick said.

Frisch, the Star-Times observed, “still packs a pretty stout heart beneath those red birds on his Cardinals uniform shirt.”

The hit gave Frisch 2,880 for his big-league career.

The next day, Frisch batted for the final time. Pinch-hitting in the ninth for Moore, Frisch grounded into a double play in a game the Cardinals lost 4-1 to the Braves.

Frisch finished with a career batting mark of .316 and 1,244 RBI. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1947.

Previously: Kolten Wong, Frankie Frisch gave Cards pop at 2nd

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Enos Slaughter, Pete Reiser put on fantastic finish

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents on July 20, 2017| Leave a Comment »

(Updated Oct. 17, 2024)

With a drive to the outfield depths of Sportsman’s Park, Enos Slaughter altered the course of a National League pennant race in favor of the Cardinals.

Slaughter hit a walkoff inside-the-park home run that lifted the Cardinals to an extra-inning victory over the Dodgers and completed a doubleheader sweep of the NL leaders on July 19, 1942.

The Dodgers’ top player, center fielder and NL batting leader Pete Reiser, suffered a concussion when he crashed into a concrete outfield wall while pursuing Slaughter’s smash.

The sweep moved the second-place Cardinals to within six games of the Dodgers.

Reiser, who rushed back to the lineup too soon, struggled to hit over the last two months of the season. That was a factor in enabling the rejuvenated Cardinals to overtake the Dodgers at the end of the season and win the pennant.

Musial gets mad

The Dodgers entered the July 19 doubleheader at St. Louis with an eight-game lead over the Cardinals. A Dodgers sweep threatened to demoralize the Cardinals.

In Game 1, the Cardinals led, 7-0, in the fourth inning when Stan Musial batted against rookie Les Webber. A month earlier, Musial had hit a home run off him.

Webber threw an inside pitch that moved Musial off the plate. Musial yelled out to Webber. The next pitch “came dangerously close to Stan’s head,” according to the St. Louis Star-Times.

Angered, Musial uncharacteristically moved toward Webber with his bat in hand. Webber started toward Musial. (“I didn’t know what I was going to do once I got there,” Musial told Cardinals Yearbook in 1991.)

Players from both dugouts poured onto the field, but umpires stepped between Musial and Webber. No punches were thrown and the showdown quickly dissolved. Musial continued his at-bat and grounded out.

Two innings later, Webber batted and was hit by a pitch from Mort Cooper. Led by four RBI from Johnny Hopp, the Cardinals went on to an 8-5 victory. Boxscore

Going all-out

In Game 2, the Cardinals led, 6-2, after three, but the Dodgers scored four in the fifth, tying the score at 6-6. The game went into extra innings.

It was 7:37 p.m. and dusk was arriving when Slaughter led off the bottom of the 11th against Johnny Allen and launched an 0-and-2 pitch deep into center field.

“It’s a line drive directly over my head, and my first thought was that it can be caught,” Reiser told author Donald Honig in the book “Baseball When the Grass Was Real.”

Reiser raced back _ “He was traveling like a bullet,” Dodgers left fielder Joe Medwick told The Brooklyn Daily Eagle _ turned and caught the ball. A split second later, Reiser crashed into the wall, his head banging against the concrete. The ball squirted out of his glove and bounced toward the flagpole.

“It was like a hand grenade had gone off inside my head,” Reiser told Donald Honig.

As Slaughter sped around the bases, Reiser got to his feet, “staggered dizzily after the ball” and threw to the cutoff man, shortstop Pee Wee Reese, according to accounts in both the Star-Times and Daily Eagle. “How I did that I’ll never know,” Reiser told Honig.

In a rare double relay, Reese flipped the ball to second baseman Billy Herman, who was better positioned to make a strong peg to catcher Mickey Owen.

As Slaughter rounded second, he looked up and saw Cardinals manager Billy Southworth, coaching at third, “waving his arms like mad,” Slaughter said.

“I really gave that sprint around the base paths everything I had,” Slaughter told the Star-Times.

Slaughter “slid under the throw in a cloud of dust” for a home run that gave the Cardinals a 7-6 triumph. Boxscore

Eager to return

Dodgers players rushed to Reiser, who was leaning against the outfield wall. Reiser, a St. Louis native, walked off the field, went to the clubhouse, showered and dressed, according to the Star-Times.

Still wobbly, Reiser was taken to a hospital. Dr. Robert Hyland said X-rays revealed Reiser had a concussion, but no fractures.

The next day, July 20, Reiser, against the advice of doctors, left the hospital and went to his parents’ home in St. Louis. After spending the night there, Reiser boarded a noon train on July 21 and went to rejoin his teammates in Brooklyn.

Four days later, on July 25, Reiser was back in the Dodgers’ lineup.

Reiser, who was batting .350 at the time of his injury, was a diminished player afterward. He hit .206 in August and .233 in September.

The Cardinals surged to records of 25-8 in August and 21-4 in September and finished in first place at 106-48, two games ahead of the Dodgers.

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Bob Gibson vs. Roberto Clemente: Ultimate hardball

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Pitchers on July 14, 2017| 2 Comments »

(Updated Nov. 21, 2024)

In their many duels from 1959-72, Bob Gibson threw brushback pitches to Roberto Clemente to keep him from taking ownership of the plate. The tactic was rooted in a machismo kind of respect, not dislike, and Gibson never hit Clemente with a pitch.

One time, though, Clemente hit Gibson.

The incident became a prominent part of Cardinals lore.

On July 15, 1967, Clemente hit a ball that struck Gibson and fractured a bone in his right leg.

Unaware of the severity of the injury, Gibson remained in the game and pitched to three more batters before collapsing.

Many predicted the injury, which would sideline Gibson for almost two months, would ruin the Cardinals’ championship hopes.

Instead, the Cardinals pulled together and went on to win the 1967 National League pennant and World Series title.

Back off

Clemente, a career .317 hitter, batted .208 (26-for-125) with 32 strikeouts against Gibson.

In his book “Stranger to the Game,” Gibson said of Clemente, “I always threw at him. He swung way too hard against me, flinging himself at the ball and spinning around in the batter’s box like he was on the playground. I had to demonstrate to him I was no playground pitcher. To that end, I made a point of throwing at least one fastball in his direction nearly every time he came to the plate.”

(In the book “Voices From Cooperstown,” pitcher Robin Roberts said of Clemente, “He was the most unorthodox good ballplayer I ever saw … When he swung, he’d lunge and hit bad balls … He really looked less like a ballplayer than anyone I’ve ever seen … The only thing that made him look sensational was the results … but everything he did was an effort. Nothing was graceful or smooth.”

Gibson said he liked Clemente and learned to laugh at his antics.

“It was virtually impossible to ignore him because he was always talking,” Gibson said. “Usually, it was to complain about how much his back or his shoulder or some other thing was hurting him. Then he would step in the batter’s box and swing so hard that the flagsticks on top of the stadium would bend.”

Just tape it

The Pirates went hitless in the first three innings against Gibson on July 15, 1967, in St. Louis. Clemente, leading off the fourth, hit a ball that rocketed straight toward Gibson and struck him on the shin.

“All my weight is on my right foot on my follow through,” Gibson said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “That’s why I couldn’t get out of the way of the ball. I couldn’t even lift my foot because the weight was on it.”

The force of the blow knocked down Gibson. Trainer Bob Bauman rushed to the mound and sprayed ethyl chloride on Gibson’s leg. “He advised me to take a look,” Gibson said. “I saw what he saw _ a dent in the skin the shape of a baseball.”

Clemente’s smash cracked Gibson’s fibula, a bone in the lower part of the leg.

Gibson, though, didn’t feel much pain. “In this type of injury, there is shock immediately and no pain,” said Cardinals team physician Dr. I.C. Middleman.

Said Gibson: “It was odd that I couldn’t feel where I had been struck, but because I couldn’t feel it I wasn’t particularly worried. I told Doc (Bauman) to put a little tape on it and let me get back to work.”

Now it’s broke

Gibson threw some practice pitches and declared himself fit to continue. “While it was true I didn’t surrender easily to pain or injury, at the time I didn’t fully realize what I was doing,” Gibson said. “I assumed I had picked up a hell of a contusion.”

Pirates slugger Willie Stargell told the Atlanta Constitution, “You could hear the leg pop. I knew something was wrong, but Gibson stayed in.”

When play resumed, Gibson walked Stargell and got Bill Mazeroski to fly out to center. The next batter, Donn Clendenon, worked the count to 3-and-2.

“I tried to put a little extra on the payoff pitch,” Gibson said.

As the pitch sailed outside the strike zone for ball four, Gibson collapsed.

“Initially, the bone had been fractured, but not separated,” Gibson said. “It was only when I came down on it so hard (on the last pitch) _ my motion concentrated a lot of weight and spinning momentum on my right leg _ that it broke cleanly in two. If that hadn’t happened, I might have continued the season uninterrupted.”

Said Middleman: “He has a high threshold for pain. You or I would have been writhing from the pain.”

Setting an example

Gibson was taken to a hospital and his leg placed in a cast. “At the hospital, he didn’t even want a shot,” Middleman told The Sporting News. “All we gave him was a little codeine.”

The Pirates won the game, 6-4, cutting the Cardinals’ lead over the second-place Cubs and Reds to four. Boxscore

After witnessing Gibson’s will and determination, Cardinals pitchers who might have complained about minor ailments or tiredness felt inspired to push forward.

The Cardinals were 36-19 during the time Gibson was sidelined. Nelson Briles and Dick Hughes each won seven of nine decisions during Gibson’s absence; Steve Carlton won five of seven.

When Gibson returned to action on Sept. 7, the Cardinals were 87-53, 11.5 games ahead of the second-place Cubs and Giants.

“I felt a little awkward with all the gushy rhetoric that accompanied the incident,” Gibson said, “but if it provided a constructive example for the ballclub, so be it.”

Gibson, 10-6 when injured, won three of four decisions after his return and finished 13-7. The Cardinals completed the season at 101-60, 10.5 ahead of the runner-up Giants.

In the ensuing World Series against the Red Sox, Gibson made three starts and earned wins in all.

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Ray Lankford sees red with super swings in Cincinnati

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Records on July 11, 2017| Leave a Comment »

In the home of the Big Red Machine, it was a Cardinal, Ray Lankford, who put on an unprecedented display of jaw-dropping power.

Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium was the venue for Reds teams that won four National League pennants and two World Series championships from 1970 to 1976. Those teams had sluggers such as Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and George Foster.

Yet, it was Lankford who became the first to hit two home runs in one game into the upper-level red seats in the fourth deck of the Cincinnati stadium.

Lankford achieved the feat on July 15, 1997. By then, the stadium had been renamed Cinergy Field.

Sonic boom

Lankford was in the cleanup spot in the St. Louis batting order against Reds starter Brett Tomko, a rookie right-hander.

In the first inning, with Danny Sheaffer on base, Lankford got a fastball on a 2-and-1 count and drove it 448 feet into the empty red seats in right field, becoming the first Cardinals batter to reach the upper deck since the stadium opened in 1970.

“When you hit a ball like that, it’s just a different feel and a different sound,” Lankford said to The Cincinnati Post. “The ball just jumps, like you’re hitting a golf ball with a bat.”

Reds catcher Joe Oliver told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “The crack of the bat was deafening.”

When Lankford came up again in the third inning, three fans scurried into the red seats in right. Batting with the bases empty, Lankford again got a fastball on a 2-and-1 count and propelled it 439 feet into the upper deck.

“Fastballs. Both belt-high. Right down the middle,” Tomko said to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa: “You’ve got a pitcher with good stuff and a hitter with full extension. That makes for some serious distance.”

Exclusive group

Until Lankford, only one player, Foster, had hit two upper-deck home runs at the stadium in one year, but no one, not even the Cardinals’ Mark Whiten, had hit two in one game. Whiten hit four home runs in a game at Riverfront Stadium on Sept. 7, 1993, but none reached the red seats.

Foster hit the most career upper-deck home runs (six) at the stadium.

Lankford became the sixth visiting player to hit a home run into the red seats. The others: the Expos’ Bob Bailey, the Pirates’ Dave Parker, the Phillies’ Greg Luzinski, the Mets’ Darryl Strawberry and the Rockies’ Dante Bichette.

“I don’t know how to pitch to Lankford,” Reds manager Ray Knight said. “I know one thing, you don’t pitch him anywhere he can get the fat part of the bat on it.”

When Lankford came to bat for the third time, in the fifth inning, Oliver turned to him and said, “I knew you were strong, but this is ridiculous.”

About 30 fans went into the red seats in right, hoping Lankford would launch another up there, but reliever Felix Rodriguez issued an intentional walk to him.

In his last two plate appearances that night, Lankford struck out and walked. Boxscore

At the time of Lankford’s feat, bopper Mark McGwire still was with the Athletics. (McGwire would be traded to the Cardinals two weeks later, on July 31, 1997.)

Asked by the Post-Dispatch whether Lankford’s clouts reminded him of McGwire, whom he had managed in Oakland, La Russa replied, “He reminds me of Ray Lankford.”

Previously: Mark Whiten, Josh Hamilton: Same feat, different path

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Dizzy Dean and his final, painful Cardinals days

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers on July 8, 2017| 6 Comments »

Initially, most thought Lou Gehrig, not Earl Averill, delivered the most damaging shot against Dizzy Dean in the 1937 All-Star Game. It wasn’t until later in the summer that the impact of Averill’s low liner off the big toe of the Cardinals ace began to be understood.

On July 7, 1937, Dean was one out away from completing his starting stint for the National League all-stars at Washington when he yielded a single to Joe DiMaggio and a home run to Gehrig.

Averill followed with a smash up the middle. The ball hit Dean’s left toe and caromed to second baseman Billy Herman, who threw to first in time for the final out of the third inning.

Dean went to the clubhouse and listened to the remainder of the game on the radio. His toe was throbbing but he didn’t bring attention to the injury when meeting with reporters.

Instead, the media focus was on the hits Dean allowed to DiMaggio and Gehrig. Dean admitted to the Associated Press he ignored catcher Gabby Hartnett’s calls for curveballs to the Yankees sluggers. Dean, looking for strikeouts, threw fastballs to them.

DiMaggio singled hard to center on a 1-and-2 count and Gehrig hit his towering home run to right on a 3-and-2 count. “Those guys were lucky stiffs,” Dean said.

Averill, looking for a fastball, got it on the first pitch and drove it right back toward Dean. Boxscore

Just a bruise

Dean returned to St. Louis and had the aching toe examined by Dr. Robert F. Hyland, the club physician. Hyland said the toe was bruised, not broken, and prescribed rest for Dean, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Dean, who had a 12-7 record and 2.41 ERA, was scratched from his scheduled start July 11 versus the Reds.

During his recuperation, Dean clipped a newspaper photo showing his bandaged foot, autographed it, inscribed “Thanks, Earl” and mailed it to Averill.

Though Dean still was limping, Cardinals management instructed him to join the team in Boston. When he arrived, manager Frankie Frisch asked Dean whether he could pitch. Dean said he could.

On July 21, two weeks after he was injured, Dean started against the Braves in Boston. He pitched eight innings and yielded two runs, but he altered his delivery to compensate for the pain in his toe. By throwing with an unnatural motion, Dean damaged his arm.

“I was unable to pivot my left foot because my toe hurt too much,” Dean said according to the biography “Diz” by Robert Gregory. “I was pitching entirely with my arm and putting all the pressure on it. I felt a soreness … I shouldn’t have been out there.”

Said catcher Mickey Owen: “His fastball had nothing on it, nothing at all.” Boxscore

Keep going

Four days later, on July 25, Dean started against the Dodgers in Brooklyn and pitched into the 11th inning of a game halted because of darkness with the score tied at 7-7. Boxscore

“It was evident early that there was something wrong with Dizzy’s arm,” the Post-Dispatch reported. Dean “was merely lobbing the ball over the plate.”

Asked about his toe, Dean said, “I’d forgotten about the toe. My arm hurts me so bad I didn’t know I had a toe.”

The next day, Dean, grimacing in pain, went to Cardinals trainer Harrison Weaver and told him, “This toe of mine is broke.”

Still, the Cardinals started Dean on Aug. 1 at home against the Dodgers. “I couldn’t follow through with my pitches and my shoulder hurt every time I threw,” Dean said after pitching 6.1 innings.

Dean started and pitched six innings on Aug. 8 at home against the Phillies.

“Frisch never pitched him against his will,” Cardinals outfielder Terry Moore said. “He relied on Diz to tell him how he felt.”

Nothing serious

After sitting out for two weeks, Dean earned a complete-game win in a start on Aug. 22 against the Pirates at Pittsburgh.

“It took much talking by his comrades to get Dizzy through the nine innings,” the Post-Dispatch reported. “He wanted to quit after seven and complained bitterly about misery in his right arm.”

Dean contributed three hits _ two singles and a home run _ and three RBI. Boxscore

Four days later, on Aug. 26, Dean started against the Phillies at Philadelphia, gave up a double to the leadoff batter and was lifted. Frisch told him to return to St. Louis and get examined by Hyland.

Hyland diagnosed Dean with bursitis of the right shoulder and prescribed rest. “In the opinion of Dr. Hyland, the pitcher’s arm ailment is not serious,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

About two weeks later, on Sept. 8, Dean started against the Cubs at Chicago and pitched a complete game, “though he threw without his usual graceful follow through and with little of his usual burning speed,” according to the Post-Dispatch. Boxscore

“I don’t think I did bad for a fellow whose arm hurt him on every pitch,” Dean said.

Cardinals executive Branch Rickey suggested Dean sit out a full year but said the decision was up to him. Dean rejected that idea, but he was done pitching for the season. His record after the all-star break was 1-3. Without an effective ace, the 1937 Cardinals finished in fourth place, 15 games behind the champion Giants.

Just before the start of the 1938 season, on April 16, the Cardinals traded Dean to the Cubs. After posting a 134-75 record in his Cardinals career, Dean was 16-8 in four seasons with the Cubs.

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