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Archive for the ‘Hitters’ Category

Hats off to resourceful innovator Lou Brock

Posted in Executives, Hitters on November 6, 2026| 6 Comments »

Lou Brock used his legs to become one of baseball’s best players. He used his head when it came to business.

Brock, National League career leader in stolen bases (938), was an entrepreneur who got involved in many businesses (florist, corporate pitchman, sporting goods, television sports programmer, broadcaster) during and after his playing career.

As Kevin Horrigan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, noted, “To Lou, business opportunities are likes bases … waiting, not to be stolen, but taken … You can’t steal a base if you don’t run, and you can’t make any money if you don’t dare greatly.”

The business that brought Brock the most attention was the umbrella hat.

Brock designed, marketed and sold the BroccaBrella.

Fashion statement

Not to be confused with the euphonious John Boccabella, the catcher who batted .219 in 12 big-league seasons, Brock’s patented BroccaBrella was worn on the head and protected users from the sun or rain.

(There are various published spellings of Brock’s umbrella hat, including BrockaBrella and Broc-a-Brella, but in all of the company’s advertisements during the 1970s it was BroccaBrella.)

As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted, “The BroccaBrella wasn’t merely a hat or an umbrella; it was both accessories melded into one stylistic statement. The design concept was simple enough: Take one adjustable headband, attach a lightweight frame, then cover with a colorful swatch of material.”

According to a 1978 Post-Dispatch ad, “With a jaunty BroccaBrella, you’re always ready for both sun and rain. With both hands free for work or play, and with room for air to circulate and cool your head. Adjustable headband, aluminum frame and ribs, rainproof nylon cover. Folds into pocket or beach bag.”

The BroccaBrella was offered for $5.95, or two for $10, in the 1978 Post-Dispatch ad, but Eagle supermarket in Springfield, Ill., priced it at $3.97 in 1979 and a 1980 ad in The Sporting News listed the product at $4.95.

An acquired taste

According to multiple published reports, Brock conceived the idea for the umbrella hat as a way to shield visiting players from objects heaved by bleacher fans at Chicago’s Wrigley Field. He sent his design to an Asian manufacturer. When a shipment of umbrella hats arrived, Brock and Cardinals teammate Al Hrabosky wore the gadgets, partly as a gag, during warmups before a game at Chicago.

Though the umbrella hat was mocked as goofy by some, others were intrigued. Sensing an opportunity, Brock got a patent. His business, Broc-World Products, which marketed sports novelties, began selling the BroccaBrella in 1976 while Brock still was playing for the Cardinals.

It was pitched in ads as a sun and rain protector for people fishing, golfing, gardening, doing yardwork, relaxing at the beach or spectating at sports events.

The Post-Dispatch’s Robert W. Duffy called the BroccaBrella “the weirdest-looking headdress since Carmen Miranda’s fruit hats.”

Brock told the Columbia Missourian that the umbrella hat was “for people who have a creative image of themselves” and “who are a little bit daring.”

The rainmaker

Brock was a relentless promoter of the umbrella hat, wearing it with a smile whenever news cameras were on the scene. At the 1977 baseball winter meetings, he modeled the BroccaBrella poolside at the Sheraton Waikiki. At a meeting in New York, he gave one to Mayor Abraham Beame.

Cardinals owner Gussie Busch wore the umbrella hat at a game. Comedian Steve Martin appeared on “The Tonight Show” with one on his noggin. Cincinnati Bengals linemen Bob Brown and Coy Bacon wore BroccaBrellas at a 1976 team practice.

When Pope John Paul II visited the U.S., BroccaBrellas designed with the papal coat of arms were sold to the faithful as sun protection during outdoor Mass.

According to the Post-Dispatch, the majority of customers bought the umbrella hat to ward off the sun. Brock told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, “The people who use it are mostly fishermen and little old ladies in the garden.”

By June 1978, Brock’s company reported $500,000 in BroccaBrella sales.

In 2010, in a Cardinals ballpark promotion, 25,000 replica BroccaBrellas were given to fans attending the game. Brock, wearing one of the replica umbrella hats, threw the ceremonial first pitch.

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No mystery: Cardinals clued in to Charlie Chant

Posted in Games, Hitters, Prospects, Trades on October 30, 2026| 9 Comments »

Nearly 50 movies have been made about the adventures of Charlie Chan, the fictional Chinese-American detective created by novelist Earl Derr Biggers.

Warner Oland, a Swede, played the title role in 16 films. Sidney Toler from Warrensburg, Missouri, was the philosophical detective in 22 pictures. Other movie Charlie Chans included Ross Martin and Peter Ustinov. Peter Sellers spoofed the character in “Murder by Death.”

In “Charlie Chan at the Opera,” Boris Karloff played the main suspect. “Charlie Chan at the Olympics” included footage of the 1936 Berlin Games. There also were “Charlie Chan at the Circus” and “Charlie Chan at the Race Track,” but no movie of Charlie Chan at the baseball park.

The Cardinals provided the closest version. They had Charlie Chant in the outfield.

Name game

The fictional Charlie Chan was born in China and immigrated with his parents to Honolulu. As a young man he joined the city’s police department and worked his way up to detective, then inspector, because of his skills in solving high-profile cases. Chan’s most prominent connection to baseball came in the film “Charlie Chan in Panama” with a mention that a son, Jimmy (played by Victor Sen Yung), was a member of the University of Southern California (USC) team.

Baseball’s Charlie Chant was born and raised in the Los Angeles area to parents of English, Irish and Scottish ancestry. There is no Chinese in his lineage. His formal name is Charles Joseph Chant. He preferred to be called Chuck _ that was what he went by in high school _ but was known as Charlie during his pro career because of the surname.

“A lot of people still keep leaving the ‘t’ off my last name,” Chant said to Neal Russo of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1975. (Russo added, “Charlie Chant is pretty tired of hearing all the cracks about his name.”)

Chant was a high school shortstop when the Oakland A’s drafted him in the 19th round in June 1969. Assigned to a farm club managed by Hall of Famer Billy Herman in Kennewick, Washington, Chant, 17, clouted a home run in his first professional at-bat. He played second base, shortstop and third base that first season but was shifted to the outfield the next year.

“Cannot tell where path lead until reach end of road.” _ Charlie Chan in “Charlie Chan at the Circus.”

The case of the unlucky nighthawk

In a May 1972 game at Birmingham’s Rickwood Field, Steve Gardner of the Columbus (Ga.) Astros hit a shot to the outfield. As Chant tracked the ball, a nighthawk chasing insects swooped across the sky. The ball struck the bird.

“The bird went one way, the ball the other, but that didn’t confuse Chant,” Bill Lumpkin noted in the Birmingham Post-Herald. “Chant played the ball instead of the bird and caught it for the out.”

The nighthawk fell dead near shortstop Gary Marion (nephew of Marty Marion). “The bird almost hit him in the head,” Chant recalled to the Post-Dispatch.

“In darkness, sometimes difficult to distinguish hawk from vulture.” _ Charlie Chan in “Charlie Chan’s Murder Cruise.”

The case of the mysterious dancing knuckler

Chant advanced through the Oakland system, earning a reputation as a good defensive outfielder with a strong arm. He regularly cut down runners trying to advance, totaling 24 assists with Tucson in 1974. Chant also hit 31 doubles that season. He had 27 doubles, 21 steals and 18 assists for Tucson the next year.

(According to The Sporting News, when someone asked Tucson pitcher Dave Hamilton whether Chant was Chinese, he replied, “No. He’s a right fielder.”)

It was a tough time, though, to gain a spot on the Oakland regular-season roster. The A’s were flush with talent and success, winning five division titles and three World Series championships between 1971 and 1975. Chant’s career got stalled at the Class AAA level until the A’s called him up in September 1975 and issued him uniform No. 24. (The A’s eventually retired that number to honor the player who later wore it, Rickey Henderson.)

Manager Alvin Dark didn’t do Chant any favors. The one time Chant got to start was as the designated hitter against Wilbur Wood, the knuckleballing left-hander with a 1.55 ERA versus the 1975 A’s. Chant went hitless in four at-bats. Boxscore

“Door of opportunity swing both ways.” _ Charlie Chan, “Murder Over New York.”

The case of Lou Brock’s stolen at-bat

The A’s traded Chant to the Cardinals for infielder Larry Lintz in October 1975. The 1976 Cardinals media guide suggested Chant “has a chance of making the Cardinals as a pinch-hitter and reserve outfielder.” Instead, he was sent to their Tulsa farm club managed by Ken Boyer.

When Cardinals center fielder Bake McBride underwent knee surgery in early August 1976, Jerry Mumphrey came off the bench to replace him. Seeking someone to fill Mumphrey’s previous role, the Cardinals wanted to call up Mike Easler, who hit .352 with 26 home runs at Tulsa, but he was out of options and frozen on the Class AAA roster. So Chant, batting .281, was the choice.

His two months with the 1976 Cardinals produced two highlights:

_ Chant was a pinch-hitter for a future Hall of Famer, Lou Brock.

_ Chant’s first big-league hit contributed to a winning rally.

At 37, Lou Brock still was a force and he showed it in a game against the Padres on Aug. 17, 1976, at St. Louis. Brock produced a double, two walks, three stolen bases, three runs scored and a RBI.

With the Cardinals ahead, 9-3, in the seventh and a left-hander, Dave Tomlin, on the mound for the Padres, St. Louis manager Red Schoendienst decided Brock had done enough for one night. With runners on second and third, two outs, Schoendienst sent Chant to bat for Brock. Chant flied out to left. Boxscore

On Sept. 1, 1976, in the 11th inning of a scoreless game against the Reds at St. Louis, the Cardinals had runners on first and second, none out, and Chant at the plate. He’d entered the game in the 10th as a defensive replacement in left field.

Chant was given the bunt sign, but as he later told the Post-Dispatch, “I’m not very good at bunting. With Oakland, they really didn’t work at it.”

Facing Rawly Eastwick, Chant bunted the ball hard. First baseman Tony Perez slipped as he reached for the ball. Eastwick picked it up and bounced a throw to Joe Morgan covering first. Chant was safe with a single, his first hit in the majors, and both runners advanced. The Cardinals went on to win on a bases-loaded walk to Don Kessinger. Boxscore

Chant’s only other big-league hit, a single against the Pirates’ Jim Rooker, came on the last day of the season. Boxscore

“Optimist only sees doughnut, pessimist sees hole.” _ Charlie Chan in “Charlie Chan in Paris.”

The case of the changing tides

In a 1977 spring training game on St. Patrick’s Day, Charlie Chant had Cardinals eyes smiling when he slammed a game-winning two-run homer against Silvio Martinez of the White Sox, but it wasn’t enough to earn him an Opening Day roster spot with St. Louis.

Sent to Class AAA New Orleans, Chant batted .157. Even teammate Tony La Russa (.188) hit better. Demoted to Class AA Arkansas, Chant (.209) couldn’t hit there either. At 26, his playing days were finished.

About this time, Charlie Chan was fading out of favor. Critics viewed the fictional figure as an insulting stereotype.

In 1958, James Hong, an Asian-American actor, played Charlie Chan’s son on a television show. In 1980, Hong told the Oakland Tribune he regretted that part. “Charlie Chan was a role created by the white man,” Hong said, “and for 50 years he was the only leading Asian character, complete with buck teeth and fortune cookie language.”

 

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Fair or foul? On and off the field with Bud Zipfel

Posted in Games, Hitters, Prospects on October 23, 2026| 9 Comments »

Just as a renter seeking a good apartment wants a fair chance from a landlord, a baseball prospect looking to play regularly wants a fair chance from a manager.

Bud Zipfel was a ballplayer, then a landlord.

A left-handed power hitter who had a stint in the Cardinals’ system after two years in the American League, Zipfel’s baseball career stalled, in part, because he wasn’t in the everyday lineup.

His time as a landlord was marred by allegations of discriminatory housing practices.

Zippity-do-dah

Marion Sylvester Zipfel was from Belleville, Ill., near St. Louis. He was called Bud at home and Zip on the ballfield.

In June 1956, the Yankees signed Zipfel, 17, on the recommendation of scout Lou Maguolo. Yankees assistant general manager Bill DeWitt Sr. made four trips to the Zipfel family home to seal the deal, the Belleville News-Democrat reported.

Zipfel was an outfielder his first three seasons (1956-58) in the Yankees’ system, but his throwing arm lacked zip and he was moved to first base in 1959.

Hitting was what Zipfel did best. He produced 104 RBI in 123 games with Fargo in 1959; 28 home runs and 107 RBI with Binghamton in 1960. A pull hitter, his swing was tailored to take advantage of the short (296 feet) distance from home plate along the right field line to the outfield stands at Yankee Stadium.

“If he plays his cards right, there may be no jackpot too big for Zipfel,” John W. Fox of the Binghamton Press noted.

Some pegged Zipfel as heir apparent to Yankees first baseman Moose Skowron, but Zipfel ended up with an American League expansion team, the 1961 Washington Senators. “I’m sorry we lost him,” Yankees manager Ralph Houk told the Washington Evening Star. “… We were gambling we could sneak him through the (expansion) draft. Somebody on the Washington club had good information.”

Zinging the ball

With the Senators at 1961 spring training in Pompano Beach, Zipfel, 22, “impressed camp followers with his classic batting swing, which can be described only as gorgeous,” Morris Siegel of the Washington Daily News observed.

Among those impressed was Senators manager Mickey Vernon, a two-time American League batting champion who, like Zipfel, batted left and played first base. “I like the way he swings a bat … He has a good stroke,” Vernon told the Washington Evening Star.

Another who took interest in Zipfel at 1961 spring training was White Sox scout Bucky Harris, who had managed two World Series champions (1924 Senators and 1947 Yankees). “I like his stroke … Washington was lucky to come up with Zipfel,” Harris told the Washington Evening Star.

Though Zipfel hit .391 in spring training exhibition games, he’d never played above the Class A level during the regular season, so the Senators decided he should spend 1961 with Class AAA Houston.

While Zipfel slugged for Houston (21 homers in 378 at-bats), Senators first baseman Dale Long struggled (hitting .182 with runners in scoring position).

In late July 1961, Zipfel was called up to Washington and Mickey Vernon put the rookie in the starting lineup. Zipfel zapped his first home run, against Phil Regan in the 11th inning, halfway into the upper deck in right-center at Tiger Stadium, propelling the Senators to victory. He had two hits, two walks and three RBI in a rout of the Yankees, and two triples and four RBI at Baltimore versus the Orioles. Boxscore, Boxscore, Boxscore

Senators owner Pete Quesada, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general and former head of the Federal Aviation Administration, gushed to the Washington Evening Star in August 1961, “We paid $75,000 (in the expansion draft) for Bud Zipfel. People asked, ‘Who is Zipfel?’ I wouldn’t sell him now for $200,000.”

On their way to a last-place finish, the Senators sought any chance to create enthusiasm, but their zealousness for Zipfel was premature. He batted .200 for the 1961 Senators, with more strikeouts (49) than hits (34).

Ups and downs

After the 1961 season, Zipfel served six months with a U.S. Marines reserve unit and missed most of 1962 spring training. He was sent to the minors to get playing time, then brought back to Washington in late June 1962.

Zipfel slammed a Dean Stone pitch into the upper deck at Comiskey Park in Chicago for a home run and had a walkoff RBI-double to beat the Red Sox. Boxscore

His last big-league home run was a highlight. On Sept. 12, 1962, the Senators’ Tom Cheney, a former Cardinal, struck out 21 Orioles at Baltimore. Zipfel’s homer versus Dick Hall in the 16th inning broke a 1-1 tie and gave Cheney and the Senators the win. Cheney, who threw 228 pitches, told the Baltimore Sun, “When Zipfel homered, I was about ready for it.” Boxscore

Overall, though, Zipfel’s 1962 performance for the Senators was unexceptional. Platooning at first base and left field, he batted .239 with six homers. “If you’re playing in the little or big leagues, you are naturally going to play better when you play every day,” Zipfel told the Belleville News-Democrat.

The Senators assigned Zipfel to their fall Florida Instructional League team after the season but in the nine weeks there he showed “absolutely nothing,” coach George Case told the Washington Evening Star.

That prompted the Senators to sell Zipfel’s contract in December 1962 to the Reds, who put him in the minors.

In August 1965, the Reds shipped Zipfel, 26, to the Cardinals’ Jacksonville farm team, completing the December 1964 trade that sent Roger Craig and Charlie James from St. Louis to Cincinnati for Bob Purkey and a player to be named. The Reds first offered shortstop Francisco Obregon, but the Cardinals said no. Perhaps on the recommendation of Mickey Vernon, a Cardinals coach in 1965, Zipfel was the player St. Louis accepted.

The 1966 season was Zipfel’s last. He began the year with Arkansas, a Cardinals’ Class AA affiliate, and ended it with a Class A Phillies farm team.

Fair housing

Zipfel returned home to Belleville and operated an insurance agency and a real estate company that specialized in apartment rentals.

In 2001, Crystal Hill, 19, sought a Belleville apartment for her and a 5-month-old son. She contacted Zipfel, who told Hill he wouldn’t rent her a one-bedroom apartment because she had a child, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The federal Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to consider race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability or family status in rental sales, lending, or homeowner’s insurance decisions.

“It’s aggravating when you’re a single mom and you’re trying to get out of a certain situation, and you’re stuck, and they (landlords) don’t want to make it easier on you,” Hill told Mike Fitzgerald of the Belleville News-Democrat. “You just need to give people a chance.”

Hill sought help from the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council, a private nonprofit fair housing enforcement and education organization founded to combat illegal housing discrimination.

During a three-month investigation, the housing council’s Jamie McFarland, a fair housing specialist, sent testers posing as renters to build a discrimination case against Zipfel. According to the Post-Dispatch, Zipfel gave housing council testers posing as renters different information about the availability of apartments depending on their race and whether they had children, McFarland said.

The housing council investigation “concluded that Zipfel had discriminated against (Crystal) Hill and also had unfairly denied housing to black (testers) posing as prospective renters,” the Post-Dispatch reported. McFarland said Bud Zipfel Enterprises “offered to show apartments to white people while telling black people and single parents to look elsewhere,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

“To me, it’s clear that this is race discrimination,” McFarland told William Lamb of the Post-Dispatch. “Everyone deserves equal access to all housing.”

Zipfel and the housing council reached an out-of-court settlement. He paid $5,000 to Crystal Hill and $45,000 to the housing council, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Followup test

In 2004, two years after the settlement, the housing council sent nine testers posing as renters to Zipfel’s business, housing council executive director Will Jordan told the Belleville News-Democrat. Jordan told the newspaper that white testers were shown apartments but some black testers either were not shown an apartment or “they were shown something less than desirable.”

Housing tester R.J. Tanner reported that Zipfel said he kept the number of blacks in his apartments to about 20 percent, the Belleville newspaper reported.

In his report, Tanner said Zipfel told him “lately, since the blacks were coming up from East St. Louis like a wet sieve, problems have gotten worse.”

Zipfel told George Pawlaczyk of the Belleville newspaper, “He (Tanner) said I don’t want any bad blacks. That’s right. I don’t want bad blacks, and I don’t want bad whites … We’re careful of who we rent to _ black or white.”

In his report, Tanner concluded, “I felt that he believed he was the protector of the city … by unilaterally making these decisions.”

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Small ball: Willie McCovey and a creative extra-base hit

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents on October 5, 2026| 10 Comments »

Willie McCovey was frustrated. What’s with these pitchers and managers, he wondered? Why don’t they throw him strikes? What’s with those defensive shifts?

It was early in the 1970 season. McCovey was perhaps the most feared hitter in the National League. He won the 1969 NL Most Valuable Player Award. Led the league in home runs and RBI. Now pitchers preferred to walk him instead of challenge him, and fielders filled the right side of the diamond when the Giants’ left-handed slugger came to the plate.

McCovey was pressing, swinging at slop and trying too hard to slam the ball past the gimmicky alignments. His batting mark sunk below .200. He’d had enough.

On May 3, 1970, McCovey settled into the batter’s box in the first inning at Candlestick Park and saw a phalanx of Phillies fielders bunched on the right side, like mussels clustered on a rock in San Francisco Bay.

He looked to the left and saw only an umpire.

McCovey chose to do something that was as abnormal to him as rooting for the Dodgers. He bunted _ and got a double.

Power supply

From the moment he came to the majors and got four hits, including two triples, in his debut game against future Hall of Famer Robin Roberts, McCovey’s swing sent shivers through the National League.

In 22 big-league seasons, McCovey totaled 521 home runs and 1,555 RBI. He belted 41 homers against the Cardinals, including a 1966 clout some consider to be the longest ever hit at Busch Memorial Stadium. Even at age 41, in 1979, he was a force, blasting a walkoff homer to beat St. Louis.

McCovey hit .301 (with three homers) against Steve Carlton, .290 (seven homers) versus Bob Gibson and tormented Don Drysdale (.336 with 12 homers). “He’d climb out of a hospital bed just to bat against me,” Drysdale said, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Stretch, as McCovey was called, reached his peak in 1969 when he led the league in homers (45), RBI (126), on-base percentage (.453) and slugging (.656). McCovey also hit .320, scored 101 runs and struck out a mere 66 times.

That was the first of four consecutive seasons McCovey received the most intentional walks in the league. The 45 intentional passes he got in 1969 were 26 more than the runner-up, Hank Aaron, with 19.

In addition, teams tried defensive shifts in a bid to cut down his extra-base hits to the outfield and singles through the infield.

At San Francisco in June 1969, Reds manager Dave Bristol utilized a four-man outfield against McCovey. Shortstop Darrel Chaney moved to straightaway center, center fielder Pete Rose shifted to right-center and right fielder Bobby Tolan played along the line. Third baseman Tony Perez joined second baseman Tommy Helms and first baseman Lee May on the right side of the infield. Only left fielder Alex Johnson remained on the left side of the field.

(In 1954, another Reds manager, Birdie Tebbetts, also used four outfielders with Stan Musial at the plate for St. Louis.)

Double trouble

After his MVP season “most of the league’s managers rearranged their defenses for McCovey” in 1970, the San Francisco Examiner reported.

McCovey batted .192 in April 1970 but his on-base percentage for the month was .404. He had 26 walks (eight intentional) with 14 hits (eight for extra bases).

“Pitchers just refuse to give me anything much to hit,” McCovey told The Sporting News. “Then sometimes I get overanxious and swing at bad pitches.”

In the opener of a Sunday doubleheader at home on May 3, McCovey went hitless, dropping his season batting mark to .193, and then received his 1969 MVP award in an on-field ceremony between games.

The Phillies went into a shift when McCovey came to the plate in the first inning of Game 2. Willie Mays, three days away from turning 39, was the runner on first, with one out. Pitching for the Phillies was left-hander Woodie Fryman, who, shift or no shift, was tough on McCovey. (For his career, McCovey hit .190 with no homers and 14 strikeouts versus Fryman.)

Third baseman Don Money had moved to the right side of the infield. McCovey bunted a Fryman pitch down the third-base line. When the ball hit the artificial turf, which was installed at Candlestick Park that spring, it picked up speed and skimmed past the bag and down the line in left field.

Willie Mays, hurtling around the bases like a runaway trolley car, scored easily, and by the time left fielder Tony Taylor got to the ball, McCovey had a double, laughing as he cruised into second.

In 2018, recalling the play to his listeners, Giants broadcaster Jon Miller said, “To this day it was the most outstanding thing I’ve ever seen in a baseball game.”

Rattled, Woodie Fryman gave up a home run and a triple to the next two batters, Ken Henderson and Al Gallagher, and was removed from the game.

“I’m not going to do it as a regular thing,” McCovey said of his bunt to Jim McGee of the San Francisco Examiner. “If I kept bunting like that, they’d make me a leadoff man. Can you imagine me being the next Matty Alou?” Boxscore

Mac is back

Energized, McCovey returned to his MVP form. On May 10, 1970, he drove in six runs against the Mets with a two-run homer off Nolan Ryan and a grand slam, the 12th of his career, versus Tug McGraw. Boxscore

McCovey had 26 RBI in 20 games in May; 10 homers and 28 RBI in August.

In a Sept. 7 game at San Francisco, Reds manager Sparky Anderson tried a shift with six outfielders against McCovey. Shortstop Dave Concepcion and second baseman Tommy Helms were stationed in short right field. Left fielder Bernie Carbo joined Pete Rose in deep right. Tony Perez moved from third base to left field and Bobby Tolan was in center.

McCovey could have bunted for an easy hit. Instead, he clobbered a Jim Maloney pitch over the fence in right for a shift-shattering home run. As McCovey trotted around second, he waved to Perez. “I was waving for him to come in … He didn’t have any reason for being out there any more,” McCovey told the San Francisco Examiner. Boxscore

After the frustrating first month, McCovey ended up with a 1970 season that was similar to his MVP year of 1969. He had a career-high 137 walks but also produced 39 homers and 126 RBI (same as 1969). His on-base (.444) and slugging percentages (.612) were stellar, too.

“I realize I could get more hits if I’d bunt against some of those shifts,” McCovey said to The Sporting News. “You can see that a lot of them would like me to, but that’s not normally my job.”

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Ready, set, go: How Willie Mays ran rings around Cardinals

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents on September 21, 2026| 12 Comments »

Willie Mays was having an unhappy 25th birthday the afternoon of May 6, 1956, at St. Louis.

Batting cleanup for the Giants in a doubleheader against the Cardinals, Mays went hitless in the opener and stranded five base runners as St. Louis prevailed, 5-4.

Willie’s birthday blues extended into the second game. In the first inning, he retrieved Red Schoendienst’s double and unleashed a wild throw that sailed past third baseman Foster Castleman and landed in the seats on one hop. Schoendienst scooted to home plate on the error, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.

Mays was such an exceptional ballplayer, though, that even when his hitting and fielding were askew, he could find another way to beat a team. In this instance, it was his base running that sparked the Giants to a Game 2 victory and gave Mays a birthday treat to celebrate. Mays swiped four bases in a game for the first time.

On the run

In his first three seasons with the Giants, Mays rarely attempted to steal bases, but manager Leo Durocher gave him the green light in 1955 and “I found out I could steal,” Mays told the Jersey Journal.

Mays swiped 24 bases in 28 attempts in 1955.

Durocher was Willie’s mentor and protector. When Bill Rigney took over as Giants manager in 1956, Mays had trouble adapting to the change. Rigney didn’t coddle Mays as Durocher had and tension developed between player and manager.

Mays hit .200 and made no steal attempts in the Giants’ first 13 games of 1956. A breakout came on May 4 at Milwaukee when Mays hit a home run and stole a base against Lew Burdette.

Then the Giants went to St. Louis for the Sunday twin bill on Willie’s birthday.

Coming up empty

In the opener, Mays went 0-for-5 against three Cardinals pitchers _ Harvey Haddix, Larry Jackson and Ellis Kinder.

He had hard luck against Haddix in the third. Batting with two on, two outs, Mays sent a drive to deep left. It looked to be a double or triple, but Rip Repulski made a leaping catch against the concrete wall.

Two innings later, Mays again batted with two on, but Larry Jackson got him to foul out to first baseman Wally Moon.

After Stan Musial put the Cardinals ahead, 5-4, with a home run versus Al Worthington in the eighth, Mays batted with one on in the ninth, but Ellis Kinder, the 41-year-old closer facing Mays for the first time, got him to fly out. Boxscore

Finding a weakness

Eager to atone for the error that gave St. Louis the lead in the first inning of Game 2, Mays led off the second with a single against Vinegar Bend Mizell. Back with the Cardinals after two years in the Army, Mizell was a left-hander who threw with a “slow, exaggerated delivery,” according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Mays was seeing Mizell for the first time. Willie was in the Army when Mizell had his first two seasons with St. Louis (1952-53).

As Mays took his lead off first, he “did not get a good read on Mizell’s move,” according to James S. Hirsch, author of the authorized biography “Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend.”

Willie’s hesitancy cost the Giants. Daryl Spencer followed with a grounder that the Cardinals converted into a double play _ Ken Boyer to Schoendienst to Moon.

If he reached base again, and Mays had no doubt he would, he was determined to take advantage of Mizell’s slow-motion windup. As biographer Hirsch noted, “Mays studied the pitcher from the bench. Left-handers were tougher to decipher, but he thought they all had one vulnerability: their eyes signaled their intentions. He also found a tip-off in Mizell’s delivery. With a speedy runner on first base, Mizell assumed, like most pitchers, that his fastball would give his catcher a better chance on an attempted steal, but Mays saw that Mizell kicked his right leg higher on a fastball, making that the ideal pitch on which to run.”

Next time up, in the fourth, Mays walked, got a running jump and stole second. Then he swiped third. He was stranded there, but Mays now knew he could run at will on Mizell and there was little that catcher Bill Sarni could do to stop him.

In the sixth, Mays walked again, stole second and “could feel the angry, frustrated stares of both Mizell and Sarni,” biographer Hirsch noted.

Sarni, who began his pro career at 15 with Los Angeles of the Pacific Coast League in 1943, had a strong arm and took pride in his ability to thwart stolen base attempts. He nailed 48 percent (70 of 146) of those trying to steal against him during his big-league career. After Mays ran wild against the Cardinals, Sarni told the Post-Dispatch, “I guess 26,000 people (at the game) will think I can’t throw.”

Applying pressure

With St. Louis ahead, 4-3, in the ninth, Mays led off against Mizell and singled. According to Hirsch, “Mizell tried to hold him with several throws, but Mays ran on the first pitch and beat the peg _ four steals in one game. He considered stealing third, though with none out, the attempt would have carried undue risk.”

“I could have taken third base easy,” Mays said.

Instead, Mays dashed home from second with the tying run on Daryl Spencer’s double against a rattled Mizell. After Ellis Kinder relieved, Foster Castleman bunted Spencer to third and Dusty Rhodes drove him in with a single, giving the Giants a 5-4 lead.

The Cardinals put two on with one out in their half of the ninth, but Hoyt Wilhelm came in and retired Bill Virdon and Walker Cooper on pop-outs to the catcher, preserving the win. Boxscore

NL’s first 30-30 player

A month after the base stealing show by Mays in St. Louis, Bill Sarni was sent with Red Schoendienst and others to the Giants in the trade that brought Alvin Dark to the Cardinals.

(Sarni threw out 15 of the 26 runners who tried to steal against him with the 1956 Giants. Impressed, the Giants projected him as their catcher in 1957, but on the first day of spring training Sarni, 29, suffered a heart attack. He survived but never played again.)

Willie Mays went on to steal 40 bases in 50 attempts and belt 36 home runs for the 1956 Giants, becoming the first National League player with at least 30 homers and 30 steals in a season.

(The first to do it in the American League was Ken Williams, with 39 homers and 37 steals for the 1922 St. Louis Browns. No AL player achieved the feat again until Tommy Harper, 31 homers; 38 steals, with the 1970 Milwaukee Brewers.)

Mays repeated the achievement in 1957, with 35 homers and 38 steals.

(In the long and prominent history of the Cardinals, none has achieved 30 steals and 30 homers in a season.)

Mays in 1956 became the first National League player to swipe 40 bases since Kiki Cuyler totaled 43 for the 1929 Cubs.

Mays led the NL in steals for four consecutive seasons: 1956 (40), 1957 (38), 1958 (31) and 1959 (27).

He had 338 steals in his big-league career, according to retrosheet.org, and he was successful on most of his attempts. For instance, Mays had 27 steals in 31 tries in 1959 and 18 in 20 attempts in 1962. At age 40 in 1971, Mays was caught just three times in 26 attempts.

Mays swiped four bases in a game just once after his thefts at St. Louis. That came against the Reds in 1957, the year the Cardinals tried to acquire Mays with a $750,000 cash offer to the Giants. Boxscore

As for Vinegar Bend Mizell, Mays remained his menace throughout his career. Mays hit .392 (40 for 102) versus Mizell, with six doubles, five triples, five home runs and a .488 on-base percentage.

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Brooklyn bizarre: Cardinals win argument, lose game

Posted in Games, Hitters on September 7, 2026| 9 Comments »

Stan Musial wanted out. The Cardinals wanted to give away an out. The ninth inning at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field on Sept. 18, 1948, was, in a word, outlandish.

Musial, who hit .522 (24 for 46) at Ebbets Field in 1948, set the stage an inning earlier when he slammed a Paul Minner pitch out of the ballpark for his 36th home run of the season, tying the score at 2-2 in the eighth.

Stan comes clean

The score remained even when the Dodgers came to bat in the ninth against the Cardinals’ best reliever, Ted Wilks.

Pee Wee Reese led off and hit a pop fly into shallow left. Shortstop Ralph LaPointe chased after it and called off left fielder Enos Slaughter.

(LaPointe had entered the game in the fourth for Marty Marion, whose back ached. Marion committed two errors in the first, leading to a Brooklyn run.)

With the wind twisting the ball away from him, LaPointe changed direction at the last moment. He got his hands on the ball, then dropped it. Reese was safe at second with what was ruled a double.

Then Musial, playing center field, called a timeout, trotted toward the dugout and conferred with manager Eddie Dyer.

To the surprise of all in the ballpark, Musial took a seat on the bench and Erv Dusak went out to center field to replace him.

A day earlier, as it turned out, when Musial made a somersaulting catch of Tommy Brown’s short fly to center with two on in the eighth, he strained his left arm.

Musial kept quiet about the ailment because he didn’t want to remove his bat from the lineup. However, now that the Dodgers had the potential winning run in scoring position, Musial confessed to Dyer that he didn’t think he could make a strong throw from the outfield to the plate if Reese tried to score on a single to center, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

According to the Irv Goodman book “Stan The Man Musial,” Musial knew he was due to bat second in the 10th inning and “this, too, had kept him quiet when he went out to the field at the bottom of the ninth.”

Now that Brooklyn had a scoring chance, “My turn at bat wouldn’t mean anything if there wasn’t going to be a 10th inning,” Musial told reporter Bob Broeg.

So he huddled with Dyer, who said, “thanks,” according to the Irv Goodman book.

Decisions, decisions

Next up for Brooklyn was Carl Furillo. He fouled off a bunt attempt, then tried again and the ball “glanced straight down off the bat and wound up in fair territory on the left side,” the New York Daily News reported.

According to reporter Dick Young, “Furillo stood still at the plate for the longest moment and then decided to run.”

Wilks fielded the ball and fired to first for the out, with Reese advancing to third.

Rather than accept the out, Eddie Dyer and Cardinals catcher Del Rice insisted to plate umpire George Barr that the ball struck Furillo’s foot and thus was foul. After conferring with fellow umpires Lee Ballanfant and Al Barlick, Barr reversed his call, declaring Furillo’s bunt try was a foul, and ordered Reese to go back to second.

Instead of one out and a runner on third, the Dodgers still had none out and a runner on second.

With two strikes on Furillo, a third bunt try was impractical. So Dodgers manager Burt Shotton sent a left-handed batter, Pete Reiser, to replace Furillo and swing away against the right-handed pitcher.

A St. Louisan, Reiser drilled Wilks’ first pitch into the alley between Erv Dusak in center and Ron Northey in right. Reese raced home with the winning run. Reiser was credited with a single, though he easily could have reached second or third.

The victory, in the final 1948 matchup between the Cardinals and Dodgers, gave Brooklyn 12 wins in 22 games versus St. Louis. It was the first time the Dodgers won a season series against the Cardinals since 1932. Boxscore

 

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