Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Hitters’ Category

No vacancy: Why Marc Hill got turned away by Cardinals

Posted in Games, Hitters, Prospects on September 12, 2025| 7 Comments »

Marc Hill was supposed to be the catcher who moved Ted Simmons from behind the plate to first base in St. Louis.

Hill threw with the strength and quick release of Johnny Bench. He worked well with pitchers, caught pop flies and dug balls out of the dirt.

The problem was Hill didn’t hit like Simmons. He didn’t hit like Keith Hernandez either. With Hernandez emerging as the Cardinals’ first baseman, there was no place to move Simmons, a future Hall of Famer.

Blocked from getting much playing time with the Cardinals, Hill was traded to the Giants. His catching skills kept him in the majors for 14 seasons, including a stretch with the White Sox when Tony La Russa was their manager. Hill was 73 when he died on Aug. 24, 2025.

Catching on

Hill was from the Missouri town of Elsberry, located in Mississippi River bottomland, about 60 miles north of St. Louis. The area is known as a haven for duck hunters.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cardinals equipment manager Butch Yatkeman, a family friend, arranged for Hill, then 16, his parents and sister to attend a game of the 1968 World Series at Busch Memorial Stadium. Yatkeman also tipped off the Cardinals to Hill’s baseball talents.

Hill’s father, Henry, a St. Louis Browns minor leaguer in 1946, encouraged his son to lift weights. Hill also got strong working in the lumber yard his father managed. He became a baseball and basketball standout for Lincoln County High School.

In 1970, the Cardinals sent scouting supervisor Fred McAlister and instructor Vern Benson to see Hill, 18, play in a tournament at Hannibal, Mo. They liked what they saw. The Cardinals chose him in the 10th round of the June 1970 amateur draft. “He has a real major-league arm and good catching ability,” Cardinals general manager Bing Devine told the St. Louis American.

At the lowest levels of the minors, though, Hill’s inability to hit became a concern. In his first two seasons, at Sarasota (Fla.) in 1970 and at Cedar Rapids (Iowa) in 1971, he had more strikeouts than hits. “Hill was almost useless as a batter,” Cardinals instructor George Kissell told the Post-Dispatch. “You could almost walk through the batter’s box and he still couldn’t hit you.”

Nicknamed Booter, as in Boot Hill, the catcher’s hopes of reaching the majors appeared on the brink of being buried. “If I could just hit, I’d have it made,” Hill told the Mexico (Mo.) Ledger.

Making the majors

A turnaround came in 1973. Hill totaled 20 doubles, 12 home runs and 57 RBI for Cardinals farm clubs. His catching dazzled. According to the Tulsa World, Arkansas manager Tom Burgess said Hill “throws better than Johnny Bench, or anybody” and predicted “Hill will move Ted Simmons to another position.”

The Cardinals, in the thick of a division title chase, called up Hill, 21, for the last two weeks of the 1973 season. For the opener of the final series of the year, manager Red Schoendienst showed supreme confidence in Hill, having him make his big-league debut as the starting catcher against the Phillies. Simmons, 24, shifted to first base, replacing injured Joe Torre.

“Before the game, I was so scared they almost had to push me out of the dugout,” Hill recalled to Milton Richman of United Press International. “Ted (Simmons) asked me if I was nervous. I said yes and he said, ‘Try not to be. We’ll help you along.’ And he certainly did.

“We had a close relationship, Ted and I. There was no bitterness between us because we played the same position. He kind of nursed me, took care of me.”

With Hill catching, Mike Thompson (four innings) and Diego Segui (five innings) combined on a two-hit shutout in a 3-0 Cardinals triumph. Boxscore

Encouraging words

Before a spring training game at St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1974, Cardinals broadcasters Jack Buck and Mike Shannon told Reds catcher Johnny Bench about Hill’s laser beam throws from the plate to second base. Then, as Hill recalled to Milton Richman, “I was sitting on the Cardinals’ bench, pretty much by myself. I saw Johnny Bench walk by and I just plain shook in my britches. ‘There’s Johnny Bench, the best catcher in baseball,’ I said to myself.”

Bench gave a hello, told Hill he’d heard good reports about him and wished him well, United Press International reported.

Though Hill was star-struck in Bench’s presence, Cardinals management had no doubt he was ready for the majors.

“I don’t know of any catcher in the big leagues who throws better than Hill does,” Red Schoendienst said to the Post-Dispatch. Cardinals director of player personnel Bob Kennedy told the Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune, “He’s the best defensive catcher in all of baseball.”

Nontheless, the Cardinals determined Hill, 22, would be better off playing every day in the minors rather than serving as Simmons’ backup. So Tim McCarver was kept as the reserve catcher and Hill began the 1974 season with Tulsa.

Change of plans

Playing for Tulsa manager Ken Boyer, Hill hit with power, drove in runs and excelled at catching.

“I am not being cocky when I say I know I am going to be the Cardinals’ catcher pretty soon,” Hill said to Tulsa World sports editor Bill Connors in May 1974. “Ted Simmons knows it. He has been very nice to me … He has said he … will be glad to get down to first base whenever the Cardinals think I am ready … He may hit .350 when he gets that strain (of catching) off his legs.”

The Cardinals called up Hill in July 1974. He was the starting catcher in six games but didn’t hit well. Returned to Tulsa, Hill came back to St. Louis in late August, taking the roster spot of Tim McCarver, who was shipped to the Red Sox. Hill mostly sat and watched, though, because Simmons hit .349 with 27 RBI in 27 September games. “I’m not concerned about someone taking my catching job away from me,” Simmons told the Columbia Daily Tribune.

Meanwhile, Keith Hernandez, brought from Tulsa to St. Louis with Hill, made a strong impression with his fielding at first base and with his .415 on-base percentage (10 hits, seven walks) in 41 plate appearances.

The Cardinals concluded they’d do best having Simmons and Hernandez in the lineup in 1975. Two weeks after the 1974 season ended, they traded Joe Torre to the Mets for Ray Sadecki and Tommy Moore, and Hill to the Giants for Elias Sosa and backup catcher Ken Rudolph.

In explaining why he traded Hill, Bing Devine told the Post-Dispatch, “We couldn’t afford the luxury of keeping Hill and not playing him.”

Stop and go

In six seasons (1975-80) with the Giants, Hill played for four managers (Wes Westrum, Bill Rigney, Joe Altobelli, Dave Bristol). He was the Giants’ Opening Day catcher for three consecutive years (1977-79) but also was platooned with the likes of Dave Rader, Mike Sadek and Dennis Littlejohn.

Facing the Cardinals for the first time since the trade, Hill threw out Lou Brock on three of five steal attempts in May 1975. Boxscore, Boxscore, Boxscore

(Hill also went hitless in seven at-bats during the series.)

Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “lead-legged,” Hill seemed to be trudging perpetually uphill when on the base paths. “The harder I try to run, the slower I get,” he told the San Francisco Examiner.

It was both a shock and thrill when Hill got his only stolen base in the big leagues _ against the Cardinals on May 2, 1978, at St. Louis.

With Bob Forsch pitching, Ted Simmons catching and Hill the baserunner on first, the Giants called for a hit-and-run with Johnnie LeMaster at the plate. Hill took off with the pitch, but LeMaster didn’t connect. Hill rumbled into second with a steal. Boxscore

Two weeks later, in a ceremony between games of a Cardinals-Giants doubleheader in San Francisco, Giants owner Bob Lurie and National League stolen base king Lou Brock presented Hill with the base he stole.

Helping hand

Milt May became the Giants’ catcher in 1980 and Hill was sent to the Mariners. Granted free agency after the season, he signed with the White Sox and spent six seasons (1981-86) with them as backup to catcher Carlton Fisk. “We have the best backup catcher in the game in Marc Hill,” White Sox manager Tony La Russa said to the Chicago Tribune.

La Russa and Hill developed a mutual respect. “I’ve never met anybody as totally unselfish as Marc Hill,” La Russa told the Tribune. Hill said to the newspaper, “Tony treats me like a superstar.” In May 1986, when reports circulated that White Sox general manager Ken Harrelson might fire La Russa, Hill gave teammates T-shirts with the words: “Save the Skipper.”

Hill became a minor-league manager in the farm systems of the White Sox, Mariners and Pirates. With Jacksonville in 1994, his shortstop was 18-year-old Alex Rodriguez. Hill twice served as a big-league coach _ in 1988 for Astros manager Hal Lanier and in 1991 for Yankees manager Stump Merrill.

Read Full Post »

Ted Simmons: A man for all seasons

Posted in Executives, Hitters on September 8, 2025| 13 Comments »

In June 2025, Ted Simmons was interviewed by Jon Paul Morosi for the Baseball Hall of Fame podcast “The Road to Cooperstown.”

Here are excerpts:

On the influence of his mother, Bonnie Sue:

Simmons: “She worked in a factory. A tool and die place for 36 years and went every day … I saw a work ethic … My mother was a real monument for me and taught me what hard work, living a good, solid life behaviorally meant, and was responsible for giving me those kinds of traits and skills that I tried to keep my entire life.”

The reaction of his mother when Simmons in 1996, the year he turned 47, earned a degree from the University of Michigan, fulfilling her hope that one of her four offspring would graduate from college:

Simmons: “My mom (that day) was the happiest girl there ever was. It’s a really nice thing for me to think back upon.”

On first attending the University of Michigan during the campus unrest of the 1960s:

Simmons: “I often think about the middle 1960s when I think of today … In many ways, the way our society is today is volatile. When I was going to class in Ann Arbor, the walk through campus, you’d see blacks protesting, females protesting, foreign people protesting, and, politically, the place was on fire … It was all around you.”

On becoming an art and antique collector with his wife Maryanne, whom he married in May 1970, five years after their first date:

Simmons: “My wife was a fine arts major … My world began to open up when I saw who she was and what she was doing … (Cultural) diversity was really important to me. It’s where I saw understanding, education … (Cultural) diversity and baseball were such a gift. It took me everywhere in this world … and I learned from that.”

On spending his free time during baseball road trips visiting museums:

Simmons: “It’s just like a post-graduate degree. You don’t get the sheepskin, but you get the knowledge, and the knowledge is what you want … I was into it.”

On a lesson learned early in his pro playing career from Cardinals instructor George Kissell:

Simmons: “Sacrificing one’s self was one of the keynotes he emphasized. There are times when you must sacrifice yourself for the sake of the team … When you get a bunch of 17-, 18-year-olds, or in today’s game, 21-, 22-year-olds, who have a pocketful of money and a whole head full of ego, it’s hard to convince (them) it’s time to step back and think more in the context of the group as opposed to themselves. Very difficult thing to learn and, unless you learn it, it’s very difficult to end up in the pinnacle, in the seventh game of the World Series, with a team full of individuals.”

On playing for a pennant winner with the 1982 Brewers:

Simmons: “That’s where I … saw what a championship team is like. I saw what it took from the players, their skillset. You don’t fake that stuff … That whole season was just a culmination of a whole lot of hard work and anxiety and hope.”

On the most difficult adjustment to make when reaching the big leagues:

Simmons: “When you first come up, there’s something every opposition pitcher and team is going to find out about you, and that is: Can you hit a fastball that is up in the strike zone and inside? They would throw that every time until you proved you could hit it … because, if you can’t, you will be gone … It’s just an unmerciful thing you have to deal with … It’s the single most difficult pitch. Velocity high in the strike zone inside. It takes the quickest bat. It’s the hardest pitch to get the barrel in a position to hit hard … Inside fastball for a strike is the equalizer, it’s the determiner.”

Best hitter during his time in the majors (1968-88):

Simmons: “George Brett was the best I had seen. He was the best hitter who was all-encompassing. (Rod) Carew, (Tony) Gwynn, (Wade) Boggs _ hitting machines. But the guy who was dangerous and could drive in runs and could beat you was, for that time, Brett. He could manage any pitch.”

In a tribute to his wife Maryanne, who he called “my partner, my companion, my equal,” Simmons concluded his 2021 Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech with a line from “The End,” a Beatles song on the Abbey Road album: “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

Simmons: “I had two songs I was thinking about. One was “A Song For You” by Leon Russell. I said no, that’s too obscure for most people. They’ll understand the Fab Four. That lyric _ in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make _ is the single greatest lyric in my lifetime because it is so all-encompassing … Those are the two real romances in my life: my (baseball) career and my wife.”

Read Full Post »

Ernie Banks swung and missed in bid for elected office

Posted in Hitters, Opponents on August 25, 2025| 9 Comments »

Whether trying to drive in a run against Bob Gibson or snare a Stan Musial line drive to stop a Cardinals rally, Ernie Banks often excelled on the baseball field. The rough-and-tumble arena of Chicago politics was quite a different matter.

In December 1962, a month before he turned 32, Banks said he would run as a Republican candidate in the election for 8th Ward alderman in Chicago. A two-time winner of the National League Most Valuable Player Award, the slugger said he planned to continue his playing career with the Cubs while serving as alderman.

Though popular in Chicago _ he was nicknamed Mr. Cub _ Banks soon learned that being liked didn’t necessarily translate into votes, even with fellow Republicans and certainly not against a Democrat-controlled organization run by machine boss Mayor Richard J. Daley.

Mean streets

Banks’ desire to run for local office may have stemmed from an incident that occurred at his Chicago home.

On July 1, 1962, a bullet was fired through a window of Banks’ house at 8159 Rhodes Avenue, the Chicago Tribune reported. Banks was on a road trip with the Cubs, but his pregnant wife, Eloyce, and 3-year-old twin sons were in the house, along with Eloyce’s aunt, Mary Jones. No one was injured.

Eloyce Banks said she heard two shots fired in a gangway and at the rear of her home about 1 a.m., shortly after she returned from attending a debutante cotillion for Jacqueline Barrow, daughter of boxer Joe Louis, at the iconic Palmer House hotel, the Associated Negro Press news service reported.

According to the Tribune, Eloyce and her aunt found the window of a breakfast nook had been pierced by a bullet. A .38 caliber slug was found on the floor.

Mrs. Banks told police six teens were gathered near the house, shouting abusive remarks, Associated Negro Press reported.

“Police said they believed the bullet fired into the Banks home was the outgrowth of general rowdiness rather than personal malice against the ballplayer or his family,” according to the Tribune.

Ernie Banks said to the newspaper, “This upsets me tremendously … There have been quite a few boys, and girls, too, hanging around the corners in our areas, making wisecracks, noise and so forth … It seems that in the summer they have parties and things, then gather on the street after the parties break up.”

Urban leader

Five months later, Banks announced his candidacy for the 8th Ward alderman seat. “There has been some trouble in our community,” Banks told the Chicago Defender. “It’s the kind that happens in any community, but I just think many people don’t pay attention to teenagers.”

Banks’ agent, Herman M. Peterson, said to the Tribune, “He wants to get into politics primarily so he can do everything in his power to help youth.”

An aide to U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen, an Illinois Republican, encouraged Banks to run, the Tribune reported. Banks told the Chicago Defender, “I said all right, providing it did not interfere with my baseball. It won’t.”

(Dirksen was Senate Minority Leader at the time Banks ran. Dirksen went on to have a crucial role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, working to craft a bipartisan compromise that secured votes to overcome a Senate filibuster.)

In Chicago, an alderman is the equivalent of what might be more commonly known elsewhere as a city council member. The 8th Ward was located in Chicago’s South Side and encompassed areas such as Calumet Heights, Chatham and South Shore. Banks resided in Chatham. So, too, at the time did gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and future sports commentator Michael Wilbon.

The 8th Ward alderman seat was held by a Democrat, James Condon. He’d been a Chicago police sergeant while attending night classes at DePaul, where he earned a law degree. As assistant state’s attorney for Cook County, Condon helped establish the nation’s first narcotics court, declaring in 1951 that “dope is as plentiful for kids on the South Side as lollipops,” the Tribune reported.

Before Condon, aldermen who served the 8th Ward included:

_ William Meyering, a U.S. military officer who had his right arm amputated after he was wounded in combat at Verdun, France, during World War I. Meyering received the Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry.

_ David L. Sutton, who received a blackmail note that said his 5-year-old son would be harmed unless the alderman placed $5,000 in a tomato can and left it, as instructed, in a vacant lot. Sutton gave the note to police detectives and his son was not abducted.

Rough stuff

Before announcing his candidacy, Banks didn’t seek the endorsement of the local Republican leadership. His entry into the race brought an unenthusiastic reaction from Michael J. Connelly, 8th Ward Republican committeeman, who indicated Banks’ busy baseball schedule would keep him from fulfilling an alderman’s responsibilities. Several other people were under consideration to be the endorsed Republican candidate, Connelly told the Tribune.

“Banks plans to buck the power of Michael J. Connelly … by running for alderman,” the Chicago Defender noted. “It is expected that Connelly will offer opposition to Banks’ move.”

Asked about Banks’ candidacy, Benjamin Lewis, Democratic alderman from the 24th Ward, told the Tribune, “He’s a minor leaguer as far as politics is concerned.”

(Two months later, a couple of days after he overwhelmingly was re-elected alderman of the 24th Ward, Lewis was found shot to death in his office. He was handcuffed and shot three times in the head with a .32 caliber automatic pistol. No suspect was arrested and the case remains unsolved.)

Banks did have the support of Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley and the editorial board of the Tribune.

“I talked to the boss, Mr. Wrigley, and he told me it isn’t often one would get an opportunity like the one I have been offered,” Banks said to the Chicago Defender.

In an editorial, the Tribune described Banks as “a promising candidate” and “an intelligent public-spirited citizen” whose candidacy “will be good for the development of a real two-party system in Chicago.”

“There are many like him in the new and rapidly growing Negro middle class who would like to run for office and are not yet committed to the Democratic Party,” the Tribune editorial concluded. “Many of the younger college-trained Negroes would turn to the Republican Party if they were given some encouragement and chances for advancement.”

Last hurrah

The Republican Party, however, didn’t endorse Banks as its candidate for 8th Ward alderman. Its choice was Gerald Gibbons, who worked for a printing company and had served as president of the 8th Ward Young Republicans Club.

It was reported that one reason the Republicans didn’t back Banks was because he didn’t vote in the November 1962 general election.

Banks said he would stay in the race as an independent Republican candidate.

“Politics is a strange business,” Banks said to the Tribune. “They try to strike you out before you get a turn at bat. I am in this, with or without the support of the Republican 8th Ward organization. I intend to win.”

Banks campaigned primarily on a promise to promote youth activities in the ward and fight juvenile delinquency. He was critical of incumbent James Condon’s “lack of interest” in the welfare of youths, the Tribune reported.

Condon told voters that during his four years as alderman the 8th Ward got more than $2 million in new street lighting, traffic control signals and street repairs.

On election day, Feb. 26, 1963, Condon retained his 8th Ward seat, finishing first in a field of four with 9,296 votes. The Republican-endorsed candidate, Gerald Gibbons, totaled 4,264. Banks was third with 2,028 votes and an independent with no party affiliation, Coleman Holt, got 1,335.

In recalling the election 50 years later, in 2013, Banks told Bruce Levine of ESPN.com, “Mayor Daley was running the city. Someone asked the mayor where that baseball player was going to finish in the race for the 8th Ward. He said somewhere out in left field. That is where I finished.”

A Tribune columnist noted that, though Banks lost the election, he remained the unofficial mayor of Wrigley Field.

Read Full Post »

Dizzy Dean was a Gashouse Gang slugger, too

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Pitchers on August 4, 2025| 8 Comments »

Pitching in relief just two days after making a start, Dizzy Dean got the win and a walkoff home run for the surging Cardinals.

Dean delivered four innings of hitless, scoreless relief and slugged a three-run homer in the bottom of the 10th inning, carrying the Cardinals to a 6-3 triumph over the Reds at St. Louis on Aug. 6, 1935.

The win was the Cardinals’ fifth in a row (they’d extend the streak to eight) during a torrid month when they swaggered into the thick of the National League pennant chase with Gashouse Gang bravado.

Rough and ready

The Depression Era Cardinals looked rough and played hard. In the book “Diz,” Dean biographer Robert Gregory described the Gashouse Gang during an August 1935 road trip: “With matching mud-caked shirts and socks, their pant legs stiffened by grime, they looked like sharecroppers after a day in the fields on their hands and knees.”

New York Sun columnist Frank Graham observed, “They don’t shave before a game and most of them chew tobacco. They have thick necks and knotty muscles, and they spit out of the sides of their mouths and then wipe the backs of their hands across their shirt fronts. They fight among themselves and use quaint and picturesque oaths. They are not afraid of anybody. They don’t make much money, and they work hard for it. They will risk arms, necks and legs _ their own or the other fellow’s _ to get it, but they also have a lot of fun playing baseball.”

Though the Cardinals had a good record (59-39), they were six games behind the front-running Giants (65-33) and two back of the Cubs (64-40) entering their Tuesday afternoon home match against the Reds. The game attracted 2,900 cash customers and 4,700 Knothole Gang youths admitted for free. “That’s a great big crowd for a weekday here,” the Cincinnati Enquirer noted.

With the score tied at 3-3 after six, Dean relieved, following starter Bill Walker (one inning, two runs) and Jesse Haines (five innings, one run).

Haines, 42, was hoping for his 200th career win that day, but the Cardinals failed to score after loading the bases with one out in the sixth, and Dean became the pitcher of record when he entered with the score knotted in the seventh. In his syndicated column, Dean, 25, said, “A few old-timers, what we calls veterans, is a good asset to any team. Look at Pop Haines, who is 42 and stopped the Reds dead yesterday. I hope I’m still pitching in the World Series when I am 42. That’ll give me 60,000 victories.”

Bloop and a blast

Dean, who went five innings in a start two days earlier against the Pirates, retired seven Reds in a row before issuing a walk to Jim Bottomley with one out in the ninth. Then he got Lew Riggs to ground into a double play.

After Dean retired the Reds in order in the 10th, Bill DeLancey was first up for the Cardinals in the bottom half of the inning. DeLancey’s long home run to center in the fourth had given St. Louis a 3-2 lead. This time, he lifted an ordinary fly to short right, but outfielder Ival Goodman couldn’t see the ball in the sun. Second baseman Alex Kampouris raced over to help “but the ball rolled off the ends of his fingers,” according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, and DeLancey was safe at second with a bloop double.

After Emmett Nelson, a rookie from South Dakota, gave an intentional walk to Charlie Gelbert, Leo Durocher executed a sacrifice bunt, moving the runners to second and third. Next up was Dean.

Dizzy swung at Nelson’s first pitch and socked it far up into the seats in left, giving the Cardinals a walkoff win. The Reds lost 10 of 11 games at St. Louis in 1935. “There is a hoodoo for our boys about this field,” the Enquirer noted. Boxscore

Since 1900, Dean and Ferdie Schupp are the only Cardinals pitchers to hit walkoff home runs, according to David Vincent of the Society for American Baseball Research. Schupp did it in the rarest of ways _ an inside-the-park home run _ on Aug. 28, 1919, against the Dodgers’ Leon Cadore for a 4-3 St. Louis victory. It would be Schupp’s only hit in 20 at-bats for the Cardinals that season. Boxscore

Who needs the DH?

Dean produced 21 RBI for the 1935 Cardinals. That rates as the single-season high for a Cardinals pitcher. He drove in those 21 runs on 30 hits. For the season, Dean went 30-for-128 (a .234 batting average), with two home runs and four doubles. During his Cardinals career, he had 74 RBI.

Bob Gibson produced 144 RBI as a Cardinal, including 20 in 1963. Gibson also had 19 RBI in both 1965 and 1970. Bob Forsch had 79 RBI as a Cardinal, with a season high of 12 in 1986.

The last good run producer among Cardinals pitchers was Adam Wainwright. He had 75 career RBI for St. Louis, including 18 in 2016.

The 1935 Cardinals went 22-7 in August and ended the month in first (77-46), a game ahead of the Giants (76-47). Dean was 6-1 in August.

Neither the Cardinals nor Giants, though, won the pennant. The Cubs, who went on a 21-game winning streak and were 23-3 for September, were National League champions at 100-54. The Cardinals (96-58) placed second.

Read Full Post »

How Bill Howerton lassoed a role with Cardinals

Posted in Games, Hitters on July 9, 2025| 7 Comments »

While learning to be a California cowboy, 11-year-old Bill Howerton vaulted from a horse, landed awkwardly and injured an ankle. His left leg was never the same.

Howerton walked with a limp, earning the nickname Hopalong, but eventually developed into a baseball talent, reaching the big leagues with the Cardinals.

A left-handed batter with power, Howerton got the most starts in center field for the 1950 Cardinals, joining an outfield of future Hall of Famers Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter.

Home on the range

Howerton was born and raised in California’s Santa Barbara County. Though often listed as being from the town of Lompoc, Howerton was born in unincorporated Las Cruces, “a spot in the road that has subsequently disappeared” to make way for highway construction, according to the Lompoc Record.

A son of a ranch foreman, Howerton was riding herd in the saddle when he leaped off his horse to close a corral gate, injuring his left ankle. A bacterial or fungal infection set in and doctors informed the youth he had osteomyelitis, an inflammation of bone or bone marrow, The Pittsburgh Press reported.

Howerton underwent four operations. Doctors drilled into the ankle bone to scrape the marrow, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Howerton spent nine weeks in a hospital and used a wheelchair and crutches for two years, the Pittsburgh and St. Louis newspapers reported.

After he recovered, Howerton attended Santa Ynez Valley High School in Solvang, Calif. He played baseball and showed skill as a pitcher. At 16, his parents separated and Howerton helped his mother operate a gas station, according to the Post-Dispatch. He also worked in a brick factory as a press operator, maintaining the machinery that shapes and molds raw materials into bricks.

Baseball became Howerton’s passion. He joined a semipro team, the Lompoc Merchants, played shortstop and earned a partial scholarship to Saint Mary’s College of California. In 1941, he hit .600 and didn’t make an error for the college team, according to the Santa Barbara News-Press.

Accepting an offer from Red Sox scout Earl Sheely, Howerton was assigned to a farm club in Scranton, Pa.

Baseball and romance

In 1943, his first season at Scranton, Howerton was moved from infield to outfield because the stiffness in his ankle prevented him from shifting quickly enough to field grounders to his left, International News Service reported.

After a home game that year, Howerton, 21, was having a late-night snack at Tony Harding’s Diner on Lackawanna Avenue in downtown Scranton. The place was known for baking its hamburger buns extra large to accommodate the fat burgers. Murals on the wall behind the counter depicted classic Lackawanna Railroad passenger trains. According to the Scrantonian Tribune, night owls at the diner often “stayed for breakfast while waiting for the morning paper with the baseball scores and racing results.”

It was there that Howerton met Betty McConnell. They married that year, forming a lifelong bond.

His commitment to the Red Sox wasn’t nearly as strong. After three seasons in their farm system, Howerton quit because of poor pay, saying he earned more operating a bulldozer for his father-in-law’s construction business in Scranton, the Post-Dispatch reported.

When the Cardinals’ Columbus (Ohio) farm team offered him a pay hike to resume his baseball career, a trade with the Red Sox was arranged and Howerton, 24, became a member of the St. Louis system in July 1946.

Columbus manager Hal Anderson “went to work on Howerton’s batting,” Russ Needham of the Columbus Dispatch reported. “The way he held his bat gave (Howerton) a loop in his swing. He could hit the tar out of a low pitch or one (that was) belt-high, but the pitchers were giving him few of those. Instead they’d pitch him around the shoulders, which forced him to loop with the bat to get his swing level as he met the ball.”

After eliminating the loop and learning to lay off high pitches, Howerton put up big numbers for Columbus _ .299 batting average, 25 home runs, 114 RBI in 1948; .329 batting mark, 21 homers, 111 RBI in 1949. He also developed a reputation as a steady outfielder.

The 1949 Cardinals, battling the Dodgers for first place, figured Howerton could help in the pennant stretch. He was called up to the majors in September.

Howerton contributed to a key win against the Dodgers in the first game of a doubleheader on Sept. 21, 1949, at St. Louis. Scoreless in the bottom of the ninth, the Cardinals had runners on first and second, none out, when Howerton turned a bunt into a single, loading the bases. Joe Garagiola followed with a hit, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 win. Boxscore

Though the Dodgers won the second game, the split kept the Cardinals in first place, 1.5 games ahead of Brooklyn, with eight to play. In the end, the Dodgers played better, winning the pennant with a 97-57 record and finishing a game ahead of the Cardinals (96-58).

Opportunity knocks

Howerton, 28, began the 1950 season primarily as a Cardinals pinch-hitter. On May 1 at St. Louis, the Dodgers led, 2-1, when the Cardinals put runners on first and second, two outs, in the bottom of the ninth. Catcher Del Rice was due up, but manager Eddie Dyer wanted a left-handed batter to face knuckleball specialist Willie Ramsdell.

“Can you hit a knuckleball, kid?” Dyer asked Howerton.

Howerton replied, “I can hit anything.”

Dyer liked that answer. Though he had other left-handed batters available, such as Joe Garagiola, Solly Hemus and Harry Walker, Dyer sent Howerton to the plate. He drilled a single to right, scoring Enos Slaughter from second with the tying run and moving Red Schoendienst to third. Ramsdell uncorked a wild pitch to the next batter, enabling Schoendienst to scamper home with the winning run. Boxscore

Howerton’s timely hitting convinced Dyer to start him against right-handers. Though Howerton made starts at all three outfield positions, he primarily platooned with Chuck Diering in center.

“Even now, with his left ankle stiff and the left leg thinner in circumference than the right, Howerton runs with a hopalong limp,” Bob Broeg reported in The Sporting News. “Still, he’s among the faster Cardinals and, next to Musial, has the best long ball power among the Redbirds.”

Howerton hit .281 for the 1950 Cardinals, with 59 RBI in 313 at-bats. He totaled 20 doubles, eight triples and 10 home runs.

Keep on truckin’

Marty Marion replaced Eddie Dyer as Cardinals manager and figured Howerton for a bench role in 1951. On June 15, Pirates general manager Branch Rickey sent Wally Westlake and Cliff Chambers to the Cardinals for Howerton, Joe Garagiola, Howie Pollet, Ted Wilks and Dick Cole.

Howerton got to play center in a Pirates outfield with Ralph Kiner and Gus Bell. “Howerton is a complete outfielder,” Pirates manager Billy Meyer told The Pittsburgh Press. “He’s a corking hitter, a fine outfielder and owns an arm that commands respect.”

The next year, though, the Pirates wanted to make room in the outfield for a hometown prospect, 19-year-old Bobby Del Greco. Howerton was odd man out.

In May 1952, he was acquired by the Giants, who were seeking outfield depth after Willie Mays entered military service. “I’m glad to have him,” Giants manager Leo Durocher told the New York Daily News. “He does everything well and I know he can handle center field. He can run and throw and he’ll hit pretty good, too.”

About a month later, though, Howerton was back in the minors for good.

He had one more big season (32 home runs, 106 RBI for Oakland of the Pacific Coast League in 1953) before going into the trucking business.

Read Full Post »

Going batty: How Ted Simmons home run turned into out

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents on July 2, 2025| 8 Comments »

Ted Simmons was feeling groovy during the summer of 1975. Long mane flowing, he swung free and easy from both sides of the plate, hitting for high average, driving in runs and making consistent contact.

Big-league baseball, though, wasn’t hip to the grooves Simmons made in his bats, even though the Cardinals catcher claimed the alterations were done to preserve the lumber, not enhance his hitting.

Simmons paid a price for not knowing the rules. Umpires nullified a home run he hit against the Padres, deeming he used an illegal bat.

Hot hitter

After hitting .271 over the first two months of the 1975 season, Simmons surged. He hit .370 for the month of June and did even better in July. When the Cardinals went to San Diego for a series against the Padres after the all-star break, Simmons was hitting .326 for the season, with a .400 on-base percentage and .511 slugging mark.

“Ted is just about a batting title away from being recognized as the best hitter in the league,” Cardinals pitcher John Curtis told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He has received not nearly the recognition he deserves, and maybe a batting (title) is what will take care of that.”

During the first game of a Sunday doubleheader at San Diego, when Simmons contributed three hits, a walk and a RBI in the Cardinals’ 3-1 victory, Padres manager John McNamara noticed cuts in some of the baseballs. After Simmons flied out to end the third inning, the ball was brought to the Padres’ dugout. “We could see the lined scraped marks on the ball and we knew they had to have been made by something on the bat,” McNamara later told the Associated Press. Boxscore

That year, big-league baseball introduced a rule banning alteration of the hitting surface of the bat from the tip to within 18 inches of the handle bottom, according to the Associated Press.

Because he wasn’t certain Simmons had broken the rule, McNamara opted not to do anything during Game 1 of the doubleheader. Simmons sat out Game 2.

Bad bat

The next night, July 21, Simmons was back in the lineup at the cleanup spot, and McNamara was on alert. “I told the catcher (Bob Davis) to check out Simmons’ bat when he comes to the plate and see if it’s grooved,” McNamara said to the Associated Press.

In Simmons’ first plate appearance, he drew a walk. Davis informed McNamara the bat was grooved.

When Simmons batted again, leading off the fourth, he clouted a home run to left against Brent Strom. As Simmons rounded the bases, McNamara asked plate umpire Art Williams to check the bat for grooves. Williams did, determined the bat was modified against the rules and called Simmons out as he crossed the plate, nullifying the home run.

Umpire crew chief Ed Vargo confiscated the bat. “The rules say a bat can’t be tampered with 18 inches above the handle,” Vargo said to the Associated Press. “This one has grooves cut in it. It is clearly illegal.”

Noting he made no attempt to hide the bat, Simmons told the Post-Dispatch, “I was not aware of the new rule against grooving. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have grooved the bat.”

According to the Associated Press, Simmons said he used a knife to put grooves in the bat so that it wouldn’t fray. “What I did is actually what players have been doing for the past 50 or 60 years,” he said.

Simmons explained to the Post-Dispatch, “Grooving the bat doesn’t do anything to make the ball go farther or powerize it. The idea is to keep the bats from fraying. When the bats fray, you just throw them away (because) they’re no good anymore. Grooving protects the grains that are farthest from the center from breaking because of the vibration of the contact. Grooving just saves bats.”

Regarding McNamara’s decision to challenge the use of the bat after the home run, Simmons said the Padres manager “deserves credit for doing his homework,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

A notch above

After the ruling, Simmons took heat from the San Diego spectators. As he put it to the Post-Dispatch, “Unfortunately, the fans got uptight and I had to put up with the freaking.”

Swinging a smooth stick in his next plate appearance, Simmons smacked a double, silencing the detractors. His work behind the plate was impressive, too. Making his major-league debut, Harry Rasmussen (who later changed his name to Eric) followed the guidance of his catcher and pitched a shutout for the Cardinals. Boxscore

Though he stopped grooving his bats, Simmons didn’t stop hitting. The lumber may have frayed like shredded wheat from all the hard contact he made. For the month of July, Simmons hit .417 with an on-base percentage of .500 (43 hits and 17 walks in 120 plate appearances).

He hit .313 for August and .324 for September, finishing with a season batting mark of .332. Only Bill Madlock of the Cubs had a higher batting average (.354) in the league that season.

Simmons totaled 193 hits, 100 RBI and fanned a mere 35 times in 581 at-bats. He did that while catching more games (154) than anyone else in the league.

Three weeks after the incident in San Diego, Simmons lent one of his bats to Doug Rader during a Cardinals series at Houston. The Astros third baseman used it to belt a three-run homer against Al Hrabosky, but Simmons countered with a two-run shot and the Cardinals won, 5-4. Boxscore

Asked about Rader homering with a Simmons bat, the Cardinals catcher quipped to the Post-Dispatch, “Rader has done me enough favors by mishandling some of my bouncers to his backhand.”

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »