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Chris Speier was in right place, right time for Cardinals

Posted in Games, Hitters, Trades on July 1, 2024| 16 Comments »

The Cardinals took out an insurance policy on their shortstop position and it turned out the timing was fortuitous.

On July 1, 1984, the Cardinals and Expos swapped utility infielders, with Chris Speier coming to St. Louis for Mike Ramsey.

Though Ramsey, 30, had been a valuable backup for the World Series champion Cardinals in 1982, manager Whitey Herzog preferred a reserve with extra-base potential at the plate. Speier, 34, was better at that than Ramsey.

With Gold Glove Award winner Ozzie Smith at shortstop, Speier’s role figured to be mostly as a pinch-hitter who filled in at third for Andy Van Slyke against some left-handers and gave Smith an occasional breather.

The plan changed when Smith got hit on the wrist by a pitch and went on the disabled list for a month. All of the sudden, Speier was the Cardinals’ shortstop.

His stint as the emergency replacement started off with a bang.

Full steam ahead

Speier was from Alameda, just across the bay from San Francisco, but was playing for a semipro team in Stratford, Ontario (where his college pitching coach had gone), when Giants scout Herman Hannah discovered him. On Hannah’s recommendation, the Giants drafted Speier, 19, in January 1970.

After one season at the Class AA level of the minors, Speier, 20, went to the Giants’ 1971 spring training camp as a non-roster player and won the shortstop job from incumbent Hal Lanier. “Here, I took his job, and he ends up being my roommate on the road, and helping me learn pitchers,” Speier said to the San Francisco Examiner.

The 1971 Giants were 18-5 in April and Speier was a key contributor, batting .319 for the month, with 30 hits and 11 walks in 22 games. “He’s been the difference in our club,” Giants manager Charlie Fox said to the Associated Press.

Though a rookie making the leap from Class AA to the majors, Speier boldly stepped into a lineup featuring Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Bobby Bonds.

“He didn’t so much play baseball then as attack it,” Dwight Chapin of the Examiner observed, “and he had a similar approach to life. He may have led the league in hell-raising. He’d yell at teammates, umpires, anybody in sight. He threw so many batting helmets that people lost count.”

That temperament carried over to his activities off the field. “I was single, brash and very immature,” Speier recalled to the Examiner. “I partied and caroused all the time. I guess I was trying to experience everything all at once.”

(Speier got married in October 1972 and that’s “what turned me around,” he told the Examiner. As Dwight Chapin put it, Speier’s wife became “an engineer to halt the runaway train.”)

The 1971 Giants were division champions. In the National League Championship Series, Speier hit .357, scored four runs and made just one error in 34 innings, but the Pirates prevailed and went to the World Series.

Named to the National League all-star team three years in a row (1972-74), Speier was a San Francisco treat, but in 1977 he and general manager Spec Richardson came to an impasse on contract negotiations. Eligible for free agency after the season, Speier wanted a five-year contract.

On April 27, 1977, Speier was sent to the Expos for shortstop Tim Foli. The Expos’ general manager was Speier’s first manager with the Giants, Charlie Fox. He gave the shortstop the five-year contract he wanted.

Canadian convert

While with the Expos, Speier, his wife and children became year-round residents of Canada, moving to the town of Sainte-Adele, 40 miles north of Montreal. They bought “a house built in the 1930s as a replica of a 17th-century Quebec farmhouse, with big casement windows, brick fireplaces and lots of charm,” the Montreal Gazette reported.

Speier’s wife and children learned to speak French. To show its gratitude for him becoming a year-round resident, the town presented Speier with a woodcut of him in uniform, the Gazette reported.

For six seasons (1977-82), Speier was the Expos’ everyday shortstop. He became the second Expo to hit for the cycle (in 1978 against the Braves) and the first to total eight RBI in a game (in 1982 versus the Phillies.) Boxscore and Boxscore

On June 14, 1982, Speier successfully worked the hidden ball trick on Ozzie Smith. After Willie McGee flied out, center fielder Andre Dawson threw to Speier, who returned to his shortstop position while still in possession of the ball. Pitcher Bill Gullickson instinctively knew what to do. He got set on the mound as Ken Oberkfell stepped to the plate. When Smith took a lead off second, “Speier swooped down” and tagged him for the third out, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Boxscore

“I bet I haven’t seen that play in 20 years,” Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said to the Post-Dispatch.

Speier told the newspaper it was the first time he’d tried the play. Expos manager Jim Fanning added, “It was nothing that came from the bench. It was never plotted or rehearsed … Speier is capable of pulling that off on his own.”

In 1983, Bill Virdon became Expos manager and clashed with Speier, who called it a “personality conflict,” according to the Gazette. Speier gradually was phased out of the starting shortstop role in 1983. The next year, much to Speier’s chagrin, Virdon told him he’d be a utility player.

Speier asked to be traded and, when the Expos sent him to St. Louis, he told the Gazette, “I’m out of prison. They buried me here.”

Big blast

Speier knew at least one member of the 1984 Cardinals _ coach Hal Lanier, who lost the Giants’ shortstop job to him 13 years earlier.

Speier’s first two appearances for the Cardinals were starts at third.

Then, on July 13, 1984, in the second inning of a game against the Padres at St. Louis, an Ed Whitson pitch struck Ozzie Smith on the right wrist and fractured a bone. Smith was replaced by Speier.

In the 10th, with two on, two outs and the score tied at 4-4, Speier got a hanging slider from Luis DeLeon, a former Cardinal, and slammed it into the seats near the left field foul pole for a walkoff three-run home run. Boxscore

Speier hit just two walkoff home runs in the majors. The other was in August 1975 for the Giants against the Astros’ J.R. Richard.

Replacement player

With Smith sidelined, Speier became the starting shortstop and the Cardinals called up rookie Terry Pendleton to take over at third.

“I think I’m a capable shortstop,” Speier told the Post-Dispatch. “I think I can do an adequate job, but Ozzie … is on a plateau all by himself.”

Speier made 33 starts at shortstop for the Cardinals, committing three errors in 287.2 innings. Though he batted .178, 11 of his 21 hits were for extra bases _ seven doubles, one triple, three home runs.

(Mike Ramsey hit a total of two home runs in six years with the Cardinals.)

On Aug. 17, 1984, Speier had a RBI-double and home run against Pascual Perez in the Cardinals’ 3-1 victory over the Braves. Boxscore

Two days later, with Smith ready to return, Speier was traded to the Twins for cash and a player to be named (minor-league pitcher Jay Pettibone).

“Chris played well for us,” Herzog told The Sporting News, but he noted that with Smith back and Pendleton at third, Speier would mostly sit if he stayed with the Cardinals. Trading him to the Twins gave him a chance to play before becoming a free agent after the season.

Helping hand

Speier spent two seasons (1985-86) as a utility player with the Cubs. One of his highlights for them came on June 6, 1986, when he slugged two home runs in a 9-3 Cubs win at St. Louis Boxscore

Don Zimmer, a coach with the Cubs when Speier was there, became a Giants coach in 1987 and recommended Speier, a free agent, to general manager Al Rosen. The Giants signed him and it became a happy homecoming.

Speier, 36, was a reliable role player for the 1987 Giants, filling in when injuries sidelined their second baseman and third baseman. Speier made 35 starts at third, 33 at second and seven at shortstop. He batted .400 as a pinch-hitter. On May 5, 1987, Speier’s grand slam against reliever Ray Soff carried the Giants to a 10-6 victory at St. Louis. Boxscore

“Chris Speier is the most valuable player on this ballclub,” Giants manager Roger Craig told the Associated Press in August 1987.

The Giants in 1987 won a division title for the first time since Speier’s rookie season in 1971. In the National League Championship Series against the Cardinals, Speier was hitless in five at-bats and the Cardinals prevailed.

In 1988, Speier hit for the cycle in a 21-2 Giants rout of the Cardinals and scored four runs in a game for the only time in his career. Boxscore

His last season as a player was 1989, when the Giants won the pennant and went to the World Series, but a bad back kept him off the playoff roster.

Speier went on to coach for 13 seasons in the majors with the Brewers (2000), Diamondbacks (2001), Athletics (2004), Cubs (2005-06), Reds (2008-13) and Nationals (2016-17).

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How Gee Walker got a wakeup call versus Browns

Posted in Games, Hitters, Managers, Opponents on June 28, 2024| 9 Comments »

Gee Walker took a nap in St. Louis. Problem is, he did it on the base paths.

On June 30, 1934, Walker was picked off base twice in the same inning while sleep-walking for the Tigers against the Browns at Sportsman’s Park.

His blunders ruined a potential Tigers scoring threat, opening the door for the Browns to win in extra innings, and enraged Tigers player-manager Mickey Cochrane, who fined and suspended Walker.

Born to run

Gerald “Gee” Walker was an exciting ballplayer with multiple skills. He could run, hit for average and drive balls into the gaps for extra bases.

An outfielder and right-handed batter, Walker hit .300 or better in six of his 15 seasons in the majors with the Tigers (1931-37), White Sox (1938-39), Senators (1940), Indians (1941) and Reds (1942-45). He twice ranked among the top 10 in the American League in doubles, triples, RBI and total bases. He had 20 or more steals in a season five times.

At the University of Mississippi, Walker played football as well as baseball. He was a member of the “The Flying Five” backfield which also included Tadpole Smith, Rube Wilcox, Doodle Rushing and Cowboy Woodruff.

Walker brought a football-type aggressiveness to the diamond that could thrill but sometimes backfired. The Detroit News described him as a “base-running screwball” and the Detroit Free Press called it “dizzy base running.”

“He frequently was in hot water with his manager because of reckless running and his penchant for being picked off base,” The Sporting News noted.

Costly gaffes

The Tigers, who had not won a pennant since 1909, were challenging the Yankees for control of the American League in 1934. Entering a series-opening Saturday afternoon game with the Browns at St. Louis, the Tigers (40-25) were a mere half game behind the first-place Yankees (40-24). The Browns (28-34) were a team the Tigers were expected to beat, so Mickey Cochrane, Detroit’s manager and catcher, was looking for a strong start to the series.

With the score tied at 3-3, Hank Greenberg led off the Tigers’ eighth with a single. Walker followed with a grounder to third baseman Harlond Clift, who threw low trying to force out Greenberg at second.

Clift’s error gave the Tigers a scoring chance, with Greenberg at second, Walker at first, no outs and Marv Owen (who drove in 98 runs that season) at the plate.

Greenberg’s presence on second meant Walker had nowhere to go and thus didn’t need to take anything more than a normal lead, but after Jack Knott made a pitch to Owen, catcher Rollie Hemsley noticed Walker had drifted into a no-man’s land off first. Hemsley fired the ball to first baseman Jack Burns and Walker was trapped between first and second.

When Greenberg saw the predicament Walker was in, he tried to help by galloping toward third but got caught in a rundown. Before Greenberg was tagged out, Walker advanced to second. Owen then lined to left for the second out.

Though picked off once that inning, Walker wandered six feet from second base. Before making a pitch to the next batter, Knott whirled and threw to shortstop Alan Strange, covering second. Walker was caught flat-footed and tagged out, ending the inning. As the Detroit Free Press noted, Walker “broke up a rally with some of his characteristic crackpottery.”

The Browns won, 4-3, in 10 innings. Boxscore

Out of sight

“Cochrane was furious with Walker,” the Free Press reported. “Before he left the Tigers’ dugout at the end of the game, he almost blew four fuses.”

Citing Walker’s bungling on the base paths, Cochrane suspended him indefinitely and issued a fine.

“I’m through with that fellow,” Cochrane said to the Free Press. “I’ve done everything I could to help him. Then he goes and kicks away a ballgame through reckless, stupid base running. It would not be fair to the other players to keep a fellow of Walker’s type around.”

Walker told the Detroit newspaper, “I don’t blame Mickey for doing what he has done. I had it coming to me.”

(The contrite comments were in contrast to what Walker said years later. Walker said to Chicago reporter Edgar Munzel, “I thought it was a rotten deal because I had violated no baseball rule on the club. A base runner has to be given a lot of latitude. Cochrane never forgot that day … He never liked me after that.”)

The next day, Sunday, July 1, the Tigers and Browns split a doubleheader and Walker, not in uniform, watched from a box seat. Afterward, the Tigers departed by train for a series in Cleveland and Walker took a separate train back to Detroit.

“All I want to do is get that fellow out of my sight in a hurry,” Cochrane told the Free Press.

While the Tigers were splitting a doubleheader at Cleveland on Monday, July 2, Walker met with Tigers owner Frank Navin. Though it was a pleasant session, Navin told Walker he backed Cochrane’s right to fine and suspend the player.

Cochrane wanted to send Walker to the minors, but he needed to clear waivers first. When the Browns made a waiver claim for Walker, the Tigers scrapped the idea of a demotion, the Free Press reported.

After the Tigers beat the Indians at Cleveland on Tuesday, July 3, both teams headed to Detroit for a July 4 doubleheader.

Gee whiz

Walker met with Cochrane before the holiday games at Detroit and offered to make an apology to the team if given another chance. He also asked if he could work out with the club, but the request was denied. Walker watched from the stands as the Tigers and Indians split the doubleheader.

After the games, Cochrane asked his players to vote on whether Walker should be reinstated. Walker’s teammates supported his return. Cochrane then declared the suspension would end after 10 days. Because the punishment began July 1, Walker was eligible to play again July 11.

“When he returns, I’ll be for him again, provided he plays the right kind of ball,” Cochrane told the Free Press.

Three days later, on Saturday, July 7, Cochrane was the catcher when the Tigers faced the Browns at Detroit. In the first inning, Cochrane doubled, driving in a run. Then, lo and behold, Browns catcher Rollie Hemsley picked off Cochrane. He took off for third but was tagged out.

In the seventh, after Cochrane walked, Hemsley tried to pick off Cochrane again but he scrambled back to the bag in time.

The Tigers won, 4-0. Cochrane fined himself $10 for getting picked off second, the Free Press reported. Boxscore

He’s back

Although back in uniform on July 11, Walker didn’t get into a game until making a pinch-hit appearance against the Yankees’ Red Ruffing on July 13. He popped out to second.

The next day, July 14, Cochrane started Walker in center and he contributed a double, two singles and three RBI in the Tigers’ 12-11 victory at home versus the Yankees. Walker got an ovation from the crowd when he singled against Lefty Gomez in the first.

The game also was noteworthy because Lou Gehrig was listed in the starting lineup as the shortstop, batting leadoff. Gehrig was “weak from an attack of lumbago,” according to the Free Press, and was in the lineup “only long enough to extend to 1,427 the string of consecutive games in which he has played.”

After Gehrig led off the game with a single, Red Rolfe ran for him and stayed in to play shortstop. Boxscore

Walker went on to hit .300 with 20 stolen bases for the 1934 Tigers, who won the pennant, but Cochrane didn’t start him in any of the World Series games against the Cardinals. Walker was 1-for-3 in that Series as a pinch-hitter. In Game 2, his RBI-single against Bill Hallahan tied the score at 2-2. Bill Walker relieved _ and picked Walker off first. Boxscore

Most popular

Walker had outstanding seasons for the Tigers in 1936 (.353 batting average, 55 doubles, 105 runs scored) and 1937 (.335 batting average, 213 hits, 113 RBI, 105 runs scored). On Opening Day in 1937, he hit for the cycle against Cleveland. Boxscore

Walker “won the hearts of all Detroit baseball fans with his daring, hard play,” International News Service reported.

The Free Press referred to Walker as the “people’s choice” and rated him as “probably the most popular player on the Tigers.”

Thus, there was an outcry when on Dec. 2, 1937, in a trade engineered by Cochrane, the Tigers sent Walker, Marv Owen and Mike Tresh to the White Sox for Vern Kennedy, Tony Piet and Dixie Walker.

“Fans by the thousands were protesting” the trading of Gee Walker, the Associated Press reported. The angry phone calls and letters produced “the biggest fan protest in the club’s history,” according to The Sporting News.

John Lardner of the North American Newspaper Alliance noted that “Mickey Cochrane, hitherto a public monument, is being wildly reviled for trading” Walker.

Cochrane said he made the deal to get Kennedy, a pitcher who was 14-13 with a 5.09 ERA for the White Sox in 1937 after earning 21 wins the year before. “We had to have pitching, and the only way we could get it was by giving up Walker,” Cochrane told the Associated Press. “The Sox wanted him and they had the only pitcher I thought could help us.”

Asked his reaction to the trade, Walker, referring to Cochrane, said, “I am out of the doghouse for the first time in six years.”

Kennedy was 12-12 with a 5.20 ERA for the Tigers before they dealt him to the Browns in May 1939. Walker did well with the White Sox (.305 batting average in 1938; 111 RBI in 1939) before joining the Senators (96 RBI in 1940).

Walker finished his big-league career with 1,991 hits and a .294 batting average.

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Say hey! Cardinals made a pitch for Willie Mays

Posted in Executives, Hitters, Trades on June 23, 2024| 11 Comments »

Imagine Willie Mays and Stan Musial in the same Cardinals lineup. The Cardinals could. They tried to make it happen.

In June 1957, the Cardinals offered the New York Giants a combination of cash and players for Mays, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported.

In the authorized biography, “Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend,” author James S. Hirsch wrote that Giants owner Horace Stoneham “seriously considered the deal but didn’t pull the trigger because of the club’s pending transfer to San Francisco.”

Opportunity knocks

The Cardinals opened the 1957 season with rookie Bobby Gene Smith as their center fielder, but he struggled to hit and, in desperation, the club shifted Ken Boyer from third base to fill the hole in center.

Meanwhile, the Giants were looking to move from New York. In 1956 and 1957, the only major-league team that drew fewer fans than the Giants was the Washington Senators.

As Mays biographer Hirsch noted, “Unlike their money-losing years from 1948 to 1953, the Giants did squeak out profits, but they could not keep pace with their Gotham rivals. Between 1947 and 1956, the Giants earned $405,926; the Dodgers earned $3.5 million, and the Yankees, $3.6 million.”

The Giants, Hirsch added, “made money only because of their increasing media revenue, receiving $600,000 a year for their television rights.”

In May 1957, National League club owners gave permission to the Giants to move from New York to San Francisco and for the Dodgers to transfer from Brooklyn to Los Angeles after the season.

A month later, the Cardinals made their pitch for Mays.

High stakes

Cardinals executive vice president Dick Meyer and general manager Frank Lane had the approval of Cardinals owner Gussie Busch to attempt a deal for Mays.

“Mr. Busch told me that I was a good general manager and that I ought to get Mays,” Lane told the Globe-Democrat. “I told him I’d try.”

Meyer said to the newspaper, “We were really anxious to get Mays … When we first told Lane to see what he could do about getting Mays, we fixed the cash price at $500,000. That apparently wasn’t enough and we authorized Lane to increase the ante.”

Lane said negotiations started with Giants vice president Chub Feeney and then club owner Horace Stoneham got involved.

“We made four offers for Mays, including one totaling $1 million,” Lane told the Globe-Democrat.

That offer was: $750,000 cash, outfielder Wally Moon, one or two other players on the Cardinals roster and several in the minors, the Globe-Democrat reported.

(According to the Federal Reserve inflation calculator, $750,000 in 1957 would be the equivalent of about $8.1 million today.)

Mays, 26, already had sparked the Giants to two National League pennants (1951 and 1954) and a World Series title (1954). In 1957, the Gold Glove center fielder would have another stellar season, leading the league in triples (20), stolen bases (38) and slugging percentage (.626). He slammed 35 home runs and scored 112 runs that season.

What a duo he and Musial would have formed. Musial, 36, won his seventh league batting title in 1957. He hit .351 and Mays was second at .333. Musial also was the 1957 league leader in on-base percentage (.422) and Mays was runner-up (.407). Musial had 29 home runs and 102 RBI for the 1957 Cardinals.

Mays and Musial had a bond. According to Mays’ biographer, the three players Mays followed as a youth in the 1940s were Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Musial. When Mays traveled with the Negro League Birmingham Black Barons in 1948, he attended his first big-league game at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis and got to see Musial hit.

On a plane to an All-Star Game in the mid-1950s, several black players were in the rear, playing cards. According to Mays’ biographer, Musial approached them and said, “Deal me in.” That was his way of telling those players they belonged. “That told me how classy he was,” Mays said, “and I never forgot that.”

Wrong time

The Giants’ gave “serious consideration” to the Cardinals’ offer for Mays, the Globe-Democrat reported, before opting to decline. Lane said to the newspaper, “Feeney told me the last time we talked about a Mays deal that it was out of the question. As I recall, Chub told me that if they traded Mays and then moved to San Francisco, the people out there would throw them into the bay.”

Stan Isaacs of Newsday wrote that moving the Giants to San Francisco “wasn’t nearly as shocking” as considering a trade of Mays to the Cardinals. 

The San Francisco Examiner noted, “Willie certainly must be a lot of baseball player to be worth that kind of money. Since the offer made by the Cardinals was turned down, it must be assumed Stoneham thinks Willie is worth even more.”

Stoneham told International News Service he “appreciated” the offer. In explaining why he rejected it, Stoneham said, “The money was not important. We’re not broke … What we want … above all else is a winning ballclub. All ballclubs have one special player … and to us it is Willie who is that ballplayer. We can build a team around Willie. Maybe that’s the answer to why we didn’t trade him to the Cardinals or anyone else.”

Then Stoneham, in that 1957 interview with International News Service, added, “Maybe we will sell him about 15 years from now, if somebody has a few ballplayers nearly as good.”

Fifteen years later, in May 1972, the Giants dealt Mays, 41, to the Mets for pitcher Charlie Williams and $50,000.

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St. Louis became hitter’s haven for Bob Skinner

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents on June 3, 2024| 9 Comments »

(Updated June 28, 2024)

During his core years with the Pirates, Bob Skinner did a convincing impersonation of Stan Musial whenever he played against the Cardinals in St. Louis.

An outfielder who batted from the left side, Skinner had a level swing admired by teammates and foes alike.

In a six-season stretch from 1957-62, these were the numbers Skinner produced for the Pirates in games at St. Louis:

_ 1957: .412 batting average (14-for-34); .459 on-base percentage.

_ 1958: .364 batting average (8-for-22); .462 on-base percentage.

_ 1959: .410 batting average (16-for-39); .465 on-base percentage.

_ 1960: .345 batting average (10-for-29); .367 on-base percentage.

_ 1961: .500 batting average (14-for-28); .517 on-base percentage.

_ 1962: .308 batting average (8-for-26); .500 on-base percentage.

No wonder the Cardinals acquired him in their bid to get back into the 1964 pennant race.

Late bloomer

At La Jolla High School near San Diego, where his father taught Spanish and French, Skinner batted .200 as a junior. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, his high school coach said, “Of all the players I coached, I figured Bob Skinner was the least likely to succeed in baseball.”

Described by writer Myron Cope as sloped-shoulder, gangly and with “the features of a friendly hound dog,” Skinner moved deliberately around a ballfield. “It’s not that I’m lazy,” he told the Post-Gazette. “I just don’t waste any steps.”

Nonetheless, Pirates scout Tom Downey became fascinated with Skinner’s textbook swing, placed him in an amateur Sunday league and monitored his progress, the Post-Gazette reported. When Skinner, 19, learned to use that classic batting stroke to rap base hits consistently, Downey signed him to a Pirates contract in 1951.

He played in the minors that summer, then served two years stateside in the Marines and played baseball for service teams.

Skinner, 22, made the leap to the big leagues with the 1954 Pirates, becoming their first baseman and hitting .249 for a team that finished 53-101. Sent back to the minors in 1955, he returned to the Pirates the next year and settled in as their left fielder in 1957.

In the groove

Skinner’s sweet swing produced results _ .305 batting average and .370 on-base percentage in 1957, and .321 batting mark and .387 on-base percentage in 1958.

The Cubs’ Ernie Banks rated Musial, Hank Aaron and Skinner as the best hitters in the National League in 1958, The Pittsburgh Press reported. In the book “We Played the Game,” Tom Cheney, who pitched for the Cardinals and Pirates, said Skinner “was one of the best left-handed hitters I ever saw.”

In April 1959, New York Times columnist Arthur Daley wrote, “The successor to Stan Musial as the best left-handed hitter in the National League is Bob Skinner.”

Pittsburgh Press baseball writer Les Biederman noted, “The Pirates who see Skinner every day put him in Musial’s class as a hitter.”

Skinner told the newspaper, “I’ve become a better hitter now because I’m a better judge of the strike zone. I won’t swing at a bad pitch.” He credited Pirates instructor George Sisler, the former Browns first baseman, with helping him learn the strike zone.

“Mr. Sisler would show up any time you wanted to work with him and he’d stay as long as you wanted him to,” Skinner told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He’d work mainly on the mental approach to hitting, on concentration, being ready and hitting only strikes.”

Two-time American League batting champion Mickey Vernon, who became a Pirates coach, said to the Post-Gazette, “Skinner has a beautiful, level swing. That’s the mark of a good hitter _ a level swing. Skinner has it. No reason why he shouldn’t hit well over .300 each year.”

Yet, after the 1958 season, Skinner didn’t hit better than .280 for three years in a row. “He is the first to tell you that his pretty swing has produced, over the years, some mighty ugly results,” the Post-Gazette noted.

Hit and miss

In 1959, Skinner hurt his back when he crashed into a fence chasing a Hank Aaron drive in Milwaukee. “I was out for nine days after foolishly trying to knock that fence down,” Skinner said to the Post-Gazette. “It pained like the devil. I realized later I tried to get back in the lineup too soon. My timing was off for a long time.”

He still managed to be a pain to Cardinals pitchers. On Aug. 6, 1959, Skinner had four hits, a walk and scored twice during an 18-2 rout of the Cardinals at St. Louis. Boxscore

In 1960, Skinner had a team-leading 33 doubles and a career-high 86 RBI, helping the Pirates win the pennant. In Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees, he injured a thumb making a headfirst slide and didn’t play again until Game 7, scoring a run in the Pirates’ 10-9 triumph. Boxscore

Though he had a subpar 1961 season (.268), Skinner did have three doubles, three RBI and four runs scored in a 19-0 romp over the Cardinals at St. Louis. Boxscore

In 1962, Skinner hit .302 and led the Pirates in on-base percentage (.395), slugging percentage (.504), home runs (20), walks (76) and total bases (257).

(Though more a contact hitter than a slugger, Skinner had power. In May 1966, the Post-Dispatch reported that only nine fair balls ever had been hit to or over the right field roof at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field and the only two batters to do it twice were Skinner and the Braves’ Eddie Mathews.)

Looking to make room for a young, slugging left fielder, Willie Stargell, the Pirates sent Skinner to the Reds in May 1963 for Jerry Lynch. Unable to crack an outfield of Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson and Tommy Harper, Skinner was a reserve.

Helping hand

The departures of three left-handed batters (Musial and Carl Sawatski retired, and George Altman was traded) after the 1963 season left the Cardinals with a gap in 1964. They hoped a couple of promising outfielders who batted from the left side, Doug Clemens and Johnny Lewis, could do the job, but both struggled, prompting general manager Bing Devine to go shopping.

On June 13, 1964, the Cardinals (in sixth place at 28-28) got Skinner from the Reds for cash and minor-league catcher Jim Saul. “Skinner fills the Cardinals’ need for an experienced outfielder who bats left-handed,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

Two days later, the Cardinals got another left-handed batter, Lou Brock, from the Cubs to take a starting spot in the outfield.

Brock’s acquisition was crucial to the Cardinals becoming National League and World Series champions in 1964. Skinner helped, too.

Playing almost exclusively against right-handed pitching, Skinner, 32, hit .333 with runners in scoring position for the 1964 Cardinals. He also hit .389 (7-for-18) against the front-running Phillies.

On July 14 at St. Louis, the Dodgers led, 7-4, entering the bottom of the ninth, but the Cardinals scored four times for an 8-7 triumph. With two outs, Skinner, batting for Julian Javier, drove in the tying and winning runs with a two-run single versus ex-Cardinal Bob Miller. Boxscore

A month later, Skinner again batted for Javier, and cracked a three-run home run against the Dodgers’ Howie Reed, carrying the Cardinals to a 4-1 victory at St. Louis. Boxscore

As he had as a Pirate, Skinner hit well in St. Louis for the Cardinals. His home batting average for them in 1964 was .290.

Skinner also provided leadership. The Post-Dispatch described him as “commander in chief of the St. Louis reserves.”

In the 1964 World Series against the Yankees, Skinner made four pinch-hit appearances and produced two hits and a walk.

All in the family

Skinner was an asset to the Cardinals again in 1965. He hit .309 overall and .319 as a pinch-hitter. According to the Post-Dispatch, Skinner in 1965 had the most pinch-hits (15) and the most pinch-hit RBI (15) in the National League. In games at St. Louis in 1965, he batted .339 overall.

Released by the Cardinals after an unproductive 1966 season, Skinner went on to manage the Phillies (1968-69) and coached for 19 years in the big leagues with the Padres, Pirates, Angels and Braves. He coached for manager Chuck Tanner’s 1979 World Series champion Pirates.

A son, Joel Skinner, was an American League catcher for nine seasons. Joel also coached in the majors for 10 years and was Cleveland manager for part of the 2002 season.

Besides Bob Skinner and Joel Skinner, other fathers and sons who have managed teams in the majors are Felipe Alou and Luis Rojas; Buddy Bell and David Bell; Bob Boone and Aaron Boone; and George Sisler and Dick Sisler.

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Cards prospect Bill Plummer got stuck in catcher pipeline

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Prospects on May 29, 2024| 9 Comments »

During the 10 years he was a catcher in the big leagues, Bill Plummer may have been the most patient man in baseball. For most of that time, he sat and watched, waiting to get called into a game.

Plummer had hoped to play for the Cardinals, the club that signed him to his first professional contract, but it didn’t happen. Instead, he was mostly with the Reds, whose starting catcher, Johnny Bench, performed at a level that earned him election to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Being Bench’s backup kept Plummer on the bench. On the rare times Plummer did get on the field, the team he often did the best against was the Cardinals.

In the genes

Plummer came from a baseball family. His father, also named Bill, was a pitcher in the minor leagues for five seasons in the 1920s. An uncle, Red Baldwin, was a longtime minor-league catcher. Plummer’s father and uncle were teammates on the 1924-25 Seattle Indians.

Playing baseball at Shasta College in Redding, Calif., in April 1965, Plummer caught the attention of the reigning World Series champion Cardinals. Scout Bill Sayles offered him $10,000 and said the club also would finance the remainder of Plummer’s college education. “I came from a small country town (Anderson, Calif.), so I jumped at the offer,” Plummer recalled to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

According to the Redding Record Searchlight, “The Cardinals were interested in Plummer because of his hitting, ability as a catcher and rifle arm.”

Plummer, 18, joined the Cardinals’ 1965 Florida Rookie League team in Sarasota managed by George Kissell.

Behind the plate, Plummer looked terrific. He was “reputed to have one of the best arms in the Cardinals organization,” the Modesto Bee reported. Standing at the plate, he looked helpless. With Class A Eugene (Ore.) in 1966, Plummer batted .144 and had more strikeouts (33) than hits (18).

Catching on

Assigned to Class A Modesto in 1967, Plummer was managed by Sparky Anderson. The relationship did not begin well.

“I was using Sonny Ruberto for most of the catching early in the season and Plummer didn’t like it,” Anderson told the Post-Dispatch. “He gave me a mean stare one day as he entered the shower. I told him that stare would only get him back to Eugene if he kept it up. He played better after that.”

Plummer said to the Dayton Daily News, “I was young and had temper problems. I was frustrated and depressed because baseball was my career and I was floundering in the minors. I used to get so depressed I’d hide somewhere, and have a few cocktails where nobody talked baseball.”

Anderson eventually moved Ruberto to the infield and made Plummer the everyday catcher. Though he struggled to make contact (100 strikeouts, 93 hits), his catching skills were impressive. Modesto won a league championship.

The Cardinals organization had an abundance of talent in 1967. The big-league club became World Series champions that year. One of its core players was the catcher, Tim McCarver. The Cardinals’ first-round pick in the amateur draft that year was McCarver’s heir apparent, Ted Simmons.

Plummer’s hopes of becoming a Cardinal went down the drain when they left him off the 40-man big-league winter roster after the 1967 season. The Cubs claimed him in the November 1967 Rule 5 draft.

Forgotten man

By drafting him, the Cubs were required to keep Plummer, 21, on their big-league roster the entire 1968 season or else offer him back to the Cardinals, but manager Leo Durocher wasn’t inclined to use a catcher who hadn’t played above the Class A level.

As the Chicago Tribune noted, Plummer “appears doomed to little work if Randy Hundley stays healthy behind the plate.”

Hundley caught nearly every game for the 1968 Cubs. Plummer was mostly ignored. He got into two games all season. In his debut, April 19, 1968, at St. Louis, he batted for pitcher Chuck Hartenstein and was struck out by Cardinals rookie reliever Hal Gilson. Boxscore

Plummer’s only other appearance came on May 12 during a Mets rout of the Cubs in the second game of a doubleheader at Wrigley Field. Plummer caught two innings as a replacement for Hundley and was retired on a fly to right. Boxscore

“It was so bad that when we played an exhibition game in the middle of the year against the White Sox they called a catcher from the minors up to catch the game,” Plummer told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “They didn’t even use me then.”

Spending most of his time in the bullpen located along the outfield sideline at Wrigley Field, Plummer was similar to a spectator in the stands. Mike Murphy, a founder of the ballpark’s Bleacher Bums, told McClatchy News Service, “He was like one of us. He sat on a bench, just like we did. He’d wave and smile at us. He hit lots of home runs in batting practice. All the girls noticed him.”

Though popular, the season of inactivity “set me back a couple of years,” Plummer said to the Associated Press.

Reserve duty

Plummer hoped to get drafted by one of the four expansion teams (Expos, Padres, Pilots, Royals) that entered the majors in 1969, or go to any other club needing to play a catcher, but instead the Cubs sent him to the Reds in January 1969 for reliever Ted Abernathy.

Johnny Bench, who in 1968 won National League Rookie of the Year and Gold Glove awards, had a lock on the Reds starting catching job and his backup was the former Cardinals veteran, Pat Corrales.

According to the Redding Record Searchlight, “there was some talk of converting Plummer into a pitcher,” but the Reds reconsidered. 

Plummer spent most of the next three seasons (1969-71) in the minors before emerging as Bench’s backup in 1972. According to the Modesto Bee, Sparky Anderson, who became Reds manager in 1970, said Plummer “already has an arm better than two-thirds of the catchers up here.”

Asked to describe the catching strengths he and Bench possessed, Plummer said to the Cincinnati Enquirer, “John had the excellent release, great foot movement and super hands. He was excellent at receiving throws from the outfield and making tags. I was the kind of guy who stayed in and blocked the plate and crunched people. Those were my skills.”

The Enquirer added, “Plummer was adept defensively. He was a fine handler of pitchers and had a strong arm. He could make all the plays behind the plate.”

Reds pitcher Jack Billingham said to the newspaper, “He couldn’t carry Bench’s bat, but, defensively, you didn’t lose much at all when Plummer was in there.”

In 797 career at-bats for the Reds, Plummer hit .186, but there were some highlights, especially against the Cardinals and one of their former pitchers.

Magic moments

On June 8, 1974, facing Steve Carlton at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Plummer slugged two home runs and Bench, playing third, hit another, but the Phillies prevailed, 6-5. In 16 career plate appearances versus Carlton, Plummer batted .429 and had a .500 on-base mark. Boxscore

Plummer’s most productive game came almost exactly two years later, June 6, 1976, a Sunday afternoon at St. Louis. Filling in for Bench, who was experiencing muscle spasms, Plummer had seven RBI in the Reds’ 13-2 triumph at Busch Memorial Stadium.

Plummer had a RBI-single against Pete Falcone in the second, a three-run triple that knocked Falcone out of the game in the third, and a three-run home run versus Danny Frisella in the sixth.

“I actually felt chills when I circled the bases after hitting that homer,” Plummer told The Cincinnati Post. “Seven RBI. That’s almost a full season’s work for me.”

Plummer’s home run would have been a grand slam if George Foster hadn’t been picked off second on the previous play with the bases loaded.

As for Plummer’s bases-clearing triple, it came about when his liner took a high hop on the AstroTurf, went over the head of right fielder Willie Crawford and rolled to the wall. It was Plummer’s only big-league triple. Boxscore

A week later, playing the Cardinals at Cincinnati, Plummer had three hits, a walk, two RBI and scored twice, but the Cardinals won, 12-9. Two of Plummer’s hits _ a single and a home run _ came against Bob Forsch. Boxscore

Plummer had three three-hit games in the majors and two of those were against the Cardinals.

Of Plummer’s 19 RBI for the Reds in 1976, 10 came against the Cardinals. For the season, he hit .248 overall but .381 versus St. Louis.

Baseball teacher

During his time with Cincinnati, the Reds played in four World Series but Plummer never appeared in any of those games.

Released by the Reds in 1978, he played a final season with the Mariners.

Plummer managed in the minors for 20 years, primarily in the farm systems of the Mariners, Tigers and Diamondbacks. He also coached in the majors with the Mariners (1982-83 and 1988-91) and Rockies (1993-94).

Plummer got one chance to manage in the majors. That was with the Mariners in 1992. Though the team had future Hall of Famers Edgar Martinez (the American League batting champion that year), Ken Griffey Jr. and Randy Johnson, the 1992 Mariners finished with the worst record in the league (64-98). Plummer was fired and replaced by Lou Piniella.

A grandson of Plummer, Conner Menez, pitched in the majors for the Giants (2019-21) and Cubs (2022).

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A crafty play by Ted Simmons confuses Cubs

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents on May 24, 2024| 19 Comments »

Ted Simmons clobbered the Cubs with his bat, but he also used brains and hustle to beat them.

On May 24, 1974, Simmons outmaneuvered the Cubs, escaping a rundown between third and home to score the run in a 1-0 Cardinals victory.

Hardly swift, the Cardinals’ catcher evaded the Cubs’ fastest player in a race to the plate.

Cubs tormentor

Sonny Siebert of the Cardinals and the Cubs’ Rick Reuschel were locked in a scoreless duel on a Friday afternoon at Chicago’s Wrigley Field when Simmons led off the ninth.

A switch-hitter, Simmons was a frightening sight on either side of the plate to Cubs pitchers. He would hit .466 against the 1974 Cubs, with a .500 on-base percentage and .781 slugging mark. Eleven of his 34 hits versus the 1974 Cubs were for extra bases. Reuschel was a favorite target. For his career, Simmons batted .357 (30 hits) against him and walked 10 times.

Sticking to the script, Simmons smashed a double to right to start the ninth. He moved to third on Bake McBride’s sacrifice bunt. Reuschel gave an intentional pass to Joe Torre (who hit .300 against him). Ken Reitz was due up next, but Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst sent Tim McCarver to bat for him.

McCarver pulled a grounder to the right of Billy Williams, who was moved to first base from the outfield that season.

Simmons broke from third when McCarver made contact, then stopped when Williams fired an accurate throw to rookie catcher Tom Lundstedt.

“I was a dead duck,” Simmons said to United Press International.

Path opens

Lundstedt ran toward Simmons, who turned and retreated toward third. Lundstedt then tossed the ball to third baseman Matt Alexander. “I thought Lundstedt released the ball too soon,” Simmons said to United Press International.

After making the throw, Lundstedt kept advancing until he was almost even with Simmons. Pivoting, Simmons (“exhibiting amazing reflexes,” the Chicago Tribune noted) turned his back to Alexander and could hardly believe his eyes. Home plate was unguarded. “I was somewhat startled,” Simmons said to United Press International, “because (until then) there was no way I was going to score.”

Reuschel, who had left the mound to cover first base when Williams pursued McCarver’s grounder, was standing near the bag, watching the play. Williams was alongside him.

What they saw was Simmons rush past Lundstedt and rumble toward home, his batting helmet off and long hair flowing, as Alexander chased after him. “It sounded like a fire behind me,” Simmons said to United Press International.

Normally, a race between Alexander and Simmons would be no contest, but “he had too big a head start,” Alexander told the Chicago Tribune.

Though Alexander (described by the Tribune as “the fastest of the Cubs”) was gaining on him, Simmons streaked across the plate before his pursuer could apply a tag, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.

Arriving too late were Reuschel and Williams, whom the Tribune described as “somewhat confused.”

Torre and McCarver advanced to third and second on the play, but Reuschel got out of the inning without allowing anymore scoring. Siebert set down the Cubs in order in the bottom of the ninth, retiring Williams, Jose Cardenal and Rick Monday to complete the shutout. Boxscore

Blame game

Cubs manager Whitey Lockman said Reuschel should have gone from first to home to cover the plate when he saw Simmons in a rundown.

“Any one of a number of players should have covered the plate, but I guess in the final analysis it should have been Reuschel,” Lockman said to United Press International.

Schoendienst told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he agreed that it was Reuschel’s responsibility to protect the plate. (Reuschel won National League Gold Glove awards when he was with the Pirates in 1985 and 1987.)

Cardinals coach George Kissell saw it differently, telling the Post-Dispatch that Williams should have covered the plate because the play was in front of him. (Two months later, Williams returned to the outfield and rookie Andre Thornton took over at first. The next year, Williams was a designated hitter for the Athletics.)

For his career against the Cubs, Simmons hit .334, including .339 at Wrigley Field.

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