RetroSimba

A short stint with the Cardinals was the end of the line in the playing career of Gary Sutherland. Afterward, he dropped them a line in gratitude.

A utilityman whose best position was second base, Sutherland played 13 seasons in the majors with the Phillies (1966-68), Expos (1969-71), Astros (1972-73), Tigers (1974-76) and Padres (1977) before finishing with the 1978 Cardinals.

He appeared in 10 games for the Cardinals, a team on its way to 93 losses. Cut from the roster in May, Sutherland, 33, sent the team a letter. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, it read:

“Dear Cards:

“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to say goodbye to all of you and that I wasn’t able to contribute much to the ballclub other than keeping the smokers stocked in cigarettes, and having an unblemished record as a prosecuting attorney (in clubhouse mock court hearings).

“My career has been a very good one for me and I have no regrets whatsoever other than having to leave so many friends. Everyone’s playing days must end some day and it seems my time has come …

“I want to wish everyone the best of luck. There’s still a long way to go and I know you’re capable of making it to the top this year. How can you miss? If I can’t make the team, as great as I am, you’ve got to be the best.”

Sutherland went on to become a scout for the Dodgers and Angels, then moved into the Angels’ front office. He was 80 when he died on Dec. 16, 2024.

Baseball bloodlines

Gary Sutherland was raised in Glendale, Calif., by a father (Ralph) who pitched in the Cardinals’ system and was 15-3 for Newport, Ark., in 1936, and a mother who was a catcher for a semipro softball team in Culver City, Calif. Dad pitched batting practice to Gary and his brothers and mom caught their throws in the backyard. Gary’s older brother, Darrell, pitched in the majors for the Mets and Indians.

A second baseman at University of Southern California, Gary Sutherland was chosen for the U.S. team that went to the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Baseball then was a demonstration sport, not in medal competition.

The Phillies signed Sutherland, 20, in November 1964. Minor-league teammates dubbed him Casper, as in the cartoon ghost, because of his pale complexion. (Sutherland later was diagnosed with hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar.)

After reaching the majors in September 1966, Sutherland stuck with the Phillies as a utility player the next two seasons. He appeared at second base, shortstop, third base, left field, right field, and went to the Florida Instructional League to learn catching in case he was needed in an emergency.

A right-handed contact hitter _ “The name of his game is ping, not power,” Bill Conlin noted in the Philadelphia Daily News _ Sutherland stung the Cardinals a couple of times in 1968.

With the Cardinals ahead, 3-2, at Philadelphia, the Phillies had two on, two outs, in the ninth when Sutherland batted against rookie reliever Hal Gilson. Left fielder Lou Brock shifted toward left-center because, as manager Red Schoendienst told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sutherland “never pulls the ball.”

Gilson threw a slider down and in _ “Always a tough pitch for me to handle,” Sutherland told the Daily News. To nearly everyone’s surprise, he drove it toward the corner in deep left. Brock made a long run and leaped. The ball barely went over his glove for a double. Both runners scored, giving the Phillies a 4-3 walkoff win. “He probably won’t pull the ball to the left field corner the rest of the year,” Schoendienst moaned to the Post-Dispatch. Boxscore

Four months later at St. Louis, Ray Washburn started for the Cardinals in his first appearance since pitching a no-hitter. With the score tied at 1-1 in the ninth, the Phillies had a runner on third, two outs, when Washburn intentionally walked former teammate Bill White to pitch to Sutherland. Swinging at a slow curve, Sutherland lashed a double to center, driving in the winning run. Boxscore

Original Expo

The Expos selected Sutherland in the October 1968 National League expansion draft. Gene Mauch, Sutherland’s first big-league manager, was with Montreal. Expos scout Eddie Lopat, who watched Sutherland hit .339 for the Phillies in September 1968, told the Montreal Star, “He’s the best utilityman I saw in the National League.”

Sutherland became the Expos’ starting second baseman. Mauch stuck with him even after Sutherland went hitless in his first 22 at-bats.

On June 8, 1969, Sutherland helped the Expos end a 20-game losing streak. Ahead 2-0 on a Rusty Staub home run, the Expos had runners on the corners, one out, in the fourth against the Dodgers’ Bill Singer when Sutherland perfectly executed a suicide squeeze bunt, scoring Mack Jones from third. The Expos won, 4-3. Boxscore

Sutherland finished the 1969 season with 130 hits (third-most on the club) and 26 doubles. Platooned with Marv Staehle in 1970, Sutherland slumped to .206, then reverted to a reserve role in 1971 after the Expos acquired Ron Hunt.

Traded to the Astros in 1972, Sutherland spent most of that season and the next in the minors.

Tiger tale

Getting demoted “was quite a shock,” Sutherland said to the Detroit Free Press, but a silver lining was he got to play regularly and that helped improve his hitting. He batted .299 for Oklahoma City in 1972 and .294 for Denver in 1973.

The Tigers acquired Sutherland to be their second baseman in 1974. “I’m not going to be outstanding in anything because I’m limited in so many ways,” Sutherland cautioned the Free Press. “I don’t have enough power to hit a lot of home runs and I don’t run well enough to be a .300 hitter.”

He did enough to stay in the lineup. Adept at turning the double play “about as well as any second baseman in the business,” according to the Montreal Star, Sutherland also contributed at the plate for the Tigers. In 1974, he had career highs in hits (157), RBI (49) and total bases (194). With the 1975 Tigers, Sutherland combined 130 hits with a career-best 45 walks.

Though he ended up with just 24 home runs in the majors, Sutherland had some surprising swats. He slugged homers in consecutive seasons versus the Cardinals’ Steve Carlton at Montreal. Boxscore and Boxscore

With the Tigers, facing Catfish Hunter for the first time, Sutherland hit two homers in a game at Oakland. A disgusted Hunter told the San Francisco Examiner, “Both pitches in the same spot, fastball up, slider up, both landed in the same spot.” Sutherland, a good sport, said to the newspaper, “I’m sure the wind helped them out.” Boxscore

The Tigers dealt Sutherland to the Brewers in June 1976. Released after the season, he joined the 1977 Padres and hit .316 for them as a pinch-hitter.

Good connections

Hoping to keep playing after getting released by the Padres in December 1977, Sutherland called Buzzie Bavasi of the Angels and asked for a roster spot. Bavasi said he didn’t have an opening. Soon after, in a talk with St. Louis general manager Bing Devine, Bavasi learned the Cardinals were seeking a backup infielder. Bavasi suggested Sutherland.

The Cardinals signed Sutherland to a minor-league contract and invited him to spring training as a non-roster player. Sutherland beat out Ken Oberkfell for one of the two reserve infield spots. The other went to Mike Phillips.

The 1978 Cardinals, though, were a mess. Manager Vern Rapp was fired in April, Ken Boyer replaced him and Sutherland no longer fit the plans. In eight plate appearances for the Cardinals, he produced one hit and two sacrifice bunts.

Just before getting released, Sutherland made an important contribution to the Cardinals. Bing Devine was considering a trade for Padres outfielder George Hendrick. Devine asked Sutherland for an opinion of his former Padres teammate. As Devine recalled to the Post-Dispatch, Sutherland “told me he never knew of a player who had a better relationship with his teammates than Hendrick did with the Padres.”

Devine made the deal and Hendrick helped the Cardinals become World Series champions in 1982.

The ability to assess talent helped Sutherland become a Dodgers scout and coordinator of their professional scouting department. Then the Angels hired him for the same roles.

Sutherland “was a significant influence” in the Angels’ decision to hire manager Mike Scioscia, the Los Angeles Times reported. Scioscia led the Angels to their only World Series title in 2002.

Sutherland became special assistant to Angels general manager Bill Stoneman. Sutherland and Stoneman had been Expos teammates. According to the Times, Sutherland rose to No. 2 on the Angels’ baseball operations staff.

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During their primes, Rocky Colavito in the American League and Ken Boyer in the National were prominent run producers. At one point, the Tigers and Cardinals considered swapping them for one another.

Late in their careers, Colavito and Boyer became teammates _ with the White Sox, who got them for a pennant chase, and with the Dodgers, who hoped they’d boost a popgun attack.

Urban and rural

A son of Italian immigrants, Rocco Colavito grew up in a Bronx tenement. His father, who came to America after serving in the Italian army during World War I, was a truck driver. When Rocky was 9, his mother died, and his older sister ran the household.

Colavito was a Joe DiMaggio fan. According to the book “Don’t Knock The Rock,” Colavito “copied DiMaggio’s wide open batting stance. When he was privileged to see his idol play, he made mental notes of DiMaggio’s every movement, his every mannerism, and tried, on the field and before the mirror in the small bedroom he shared with his two older brothers, to make them his.”

In 1950, Colavito, 17, tagged along with some sandlot pals to a tryout with a Cleveland Indians scout. Colavito’s strong throwing arm earned him a contract and he entered the Cleveland farm system in 1951.

Kenton Boyer grew up in rural Missouri. His father was a laborer. His mother did laundry for others. Their home lacked electricity and indoor plumbing during Ken’s formative years, according to a 2016 biography of Boyer.

His father instilled Ken and his brothers with a passion for baseball. “Fifty-cent baseball gloves were typical gifts on Christmas Day,” biographer Kevin D. McCann noted. “Spring couldn’t come soon enough to use them and they often ran outside to play catch in the snow. When authentic baseballs were scarce, they threw homemade ones made of string and put together by their mother, or simply hit corncobs with a bat.”

In 1949, the year he turned 18, Ken Boyer impressed his favorite team, the Cardinals, in a series of tryouts. They signed him and sent him to the minors.

(All seven Boyer brothers played professional baseball. Clete, Cloyd and Ken reached the majors. Len, Lynn, Ron and Wayne stayed in the minors.)

High performance

Right-handed batters with power, Colavito and Boyer became big-leaguers in 1955 _ Rocky, an Indians outfielder; Ken, a Cardinals third baseman _ and it didn’t take long for them to achieve prominence.

With Cleveland, Colavito twice led the American League in extra-base hits. He and Harmon Killebrew each clouted a league-high 42 home runs in 1959. In a game at Baltimore that year, The Rock slammed four home runs. Boxscore

(The only other American League players with four-homer games: Lou Gehrig, 1932 Yankees; Pat Seerey, 1948 White Sox; Mike Cameron, 2002 Mariners; Carlos Delgado, 2003 Blue Jays; and Josh Hamilton, 2012 Rangers.)

Two days before the 1960 season opener, general manager Frank Lane (who, when he was with the Cardinals, traded Red Schoendienst and tried to deal Stan Musial and Ken Boyer) sent Colavito to the Tigers for American League batting champion Harvey Kuenn. “I traded a hamburger for a steak,” Lane said.

(For the multitudes of irate Colavito fans in Cleveland, Lane’s comment “may be remembered longer than Marie Antionette’s ‘Let them eat cake,’ ” Boston Globe columnist Harold Kaese suggested.) 

Colavito totaled 45 home runs and 140 RBI for the Tigers in 1961 and followed that with 37 homers and 112 RBI in 1962, the year he led the American League in total bases for the second time.

Meanwhile, Boyer excelled for the Cardinals. With the exception of 1957, when he temporarily was moved to center field, Boyer had 90 or more RBI and more than 20 home runs each season from 1956-62. In that seven-year stretch, he hit better than .300 five times and won multiple Gold Glove awards.

Blame game

Following the 1962 season, frustration was high among Tigers and Cardinals followers. Neither team had been in a World Series since the mid 1940s. More was wanted from Colavito and Boyer.

Colavito’s critics pointed to his .236 batting average with runners in scoring position in 1962.

As for Boyer, he struck out 104 times in 1962 _ the first Cardinal with 100 whiffs since Steve Bilko in 1953. (By comparison, Colavito, with his 37 homers, fanned a mere 68 times in 1962, and never totaled 100 strikeouts.)

“The boo birds probably would shed few tears if Ken Boyer were dealt,” The Sporting News noted in October 1962.

A Colavito-for-Boyer deal seemed to some a good fit.

With Willie Horton in the wings, the Tigers considered Colavito expendable. With Stan Musial nearing retirement, the Cardinals needed a corner outfielder.

According to Boyer’s biography, asked in October 1962 about a possible deal for Colavito, St. Louis general manager Bing Devine said, “We’ll take a hard-hitting outfielder, but I don’t think Detroit would be willing to let Colavito go.”

The Cardinals instead made a trade with the Cubs for right fielder George Altman, who wasn’t the big bopper they expected.

Talk of a Colavito-for-Boyer deal was renewed during the 1963 season. In the Detroit Free Press, columnist Joe Falls wrote, “From all you hear, it looks as if The Rock will be wearing another uniform by the time the 1964 season rolls around _ a National League uniform, at that. The best bet is he will go to the Milwaukee Braves or St. Louis Cardinals in a deal for Eddie Mathews or Ken Boyer.”

According to Bob Burnes of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, the Cardinals lost interest when the Tigers wanted a player in addition to Boyer.

Lowering their sights, the Tigers sent Colavito, Bob Anderson and cash to the Kansas City Athletics in November 1963 for Jerry Lumpe, Ed Rakow and Dave Wickersham. After a season with the A’s, Colavito returned to Cleveland in 1965 and led the league in RBI (108) and walks (93).

Meanwhile, Boyer enjoyed a career year with the 1964 Cardinals, driving in a league-high 119 runs, belting a grand slam in the World Series and helping the Cardinals become champions. He was named the National League Most Valuable Player Award winner.

Twelve months later, Boyer was shipped to the Mets.

To the rescue

Managed by Eddie Stanky, the 1967 White Sox relied on starting pitching (Joe Horlen, Gary, Peters, Tommy John), a strong bullpen (Bob Locker, Hoyt Wilhelm, Wilbur Wood), defense and speed (Don Buford, 34 steals; Tommie Agee, 28).

Run production was a weakness. No one on the 1967 White Sox hit 20 home runs or produced 65 RBI. Yet, in late July, the White Sox were atop the American League standings.

If they could add a proven run producer or two, the White Sox figured to enhance their chances of winning the pennant.

On July 22, 1967, the White Sox got Boyer, 36, from the Mets. A week later, they picked up Colavito, 34, from Cleveland.

The deals reunited Boyer and Colavito with Eddie Stanky. Stanky was Boyer’s first manager in the majors with the 1955 Cardinals, and he coached with Cleveland when Colavito was there in 1957-58.

Boyer hit .377 in his first 15 games with the White Sox. Against Cleveland’s Luis Tiant, Boyer’s two-out single tied the score in the ninth, and Colavito’s two-run homer in the 10th won it. Boxscore

The next night, Boyer stroked four hits and scored twice, and Colavito contributed three hits, three runs and a RBI in another win at Cleveland. Boxscore

Asked to assess the value of Boyer and Colavito, Stanky said to the Chicago Tribune, “They’ve given us extra-base punch, but just as important is the big psychological lift. You can sense this on the field and in the clubhouse.”

Boyer belted a Mike Marshall slider for a game-winning homer against the Tigers at Detroit. Boxscore

A week later, after Boyer and Colavito helped in a win versus the Athletics, Stanky told the Tribune, “I don’t know where we’d be without them, but we can’t expect Ken and Rocky to do it all by themselves. We need a couple of other fellows to start picking us up with their bats.” Boxscore

The support, however, didn’t come. The White Sox batted .215 in August and .213 in September. They fell out of first but stayed in the race.

On Sept. 13, in the 17th inning of a scoreless game against Cleveland, Boyer singled with one out. Buddy Bradford ran for him, moved to second when Bobby Tiefenauer’s knuckler eluded rookie catcher Ray Fosse, and scored the winning run on Colavito’s single. Boxscore

Two weeks later, Boyer hit a home run against Sam McDowell in a 3-1 victory that put the White Sox a game out of first. Boxscore

If the White Sox won the pennant, Boyer would face the Cardinals in the 1967 World Series, but Chicago lost its last five games and the Red Sox emerged as American League champions.

Colavito and Boyer combined to produce 50 RBI for the 1967 White Sox.

Finishing up

In March 1968, the Dodgers obtained Colavito. Two months later, they added Boyer. Though the Dodgers had stellar pitching (Don Drysdale, Don Sutton, Claude Osteen and Bill Singer), the hitters lacked pop. Their home run leader was Len Gabrielson (10). Their top RBI producer was Tom Haller (53).

Playing in the National League for the first time, Colavito struggled (.204, three homers). Boyer did better, batting .271. Though he only had 221 at-bats, he ranked third on the Dodgers in RBI (41).

The last hurrah for Boyer and Colavito as teammates came on June 3, 1968. Each had a RBI in a 2-0 win versus Bob Veale and the Pirates. Boxscore

A month later, the Dodgers released Colavito and he finished the season, his last, with the Yankees. Boyer played one more year with the 1969 Dodgers.

Both men became major-league coaches _ Colavito with the Indians and Royals; Boyer with St. Louis _ and Boyer also managed the Cardinals.

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When the Cardinals offered Rico Carty the chance to begin his professional baseball career with them, the right-handed power hitter from the Dominican Republic was receptive. Then again, Carty was agreeable to signing with any club.

Away from home for the first time, Carty, 19, played in the Pan-American Games at Chicago in 1959. Impressed by his hitting, several big-league clubs sought to sign him.

“The Cardinals made the best offer, $2,000, and I wanted to go with them,” Carty told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Unschooled in English, Carty signed with the Cardinals and also with at least three other teams _ Braves, Giants and Pirates. “I didn’t know you couldn’t sign with more than one club,” Carty told the Associated Press.

Carty also was under contract to Estrellas, a professional team in the Dominican Republic. When the Braves made a deal with Estrellas to acquire the rights to Carty, he became a member of the Milwaukee organization and all other contracts were voided, the Post-Dispatch reported.

A National League batting champion (.366 in 1970), Carty played for 15 seasons with the Braves and five other clubs in a career marked by health and injury woes, conflict and controversies.

Finding his way

Carty had 15 brothers and sisters. His father worked in a sugar mill and his mother was a midwife. As a teen, Carty became an amateur boxer, winning 17 of 18 bouts, but quit at the insistence of his mother, according to the Post-Dispatch.

His slugging on the diamond got him to the pros, but his fielding held him back. When Carty entered the Braves’ farm system in 1960, they tried him at catcher. As Carty recalled to the Atlanta Journal, “I was really brutal catching.”

With the Austin (Texas) Senators in 1963, Carty was moved to the outfield. He produced 100 RBI and was hailed “the best hitting prospect in the organization,” according to The Sporting News.

Called up to the Braves in September 1963, Carty, 24, made his major-league debut in a pinch-hitting stint at St. Louis and struck out against Ray Sadecki. Boxscore

Big-league bat

Batting .408 at spring training in 1964, Carty made the Braves’ Opening Day roster and continued his torrid hitting.

On May 23, 1964, at Milwaukee, Carty clouted two home runs for five RBI against the Cardinals’ Roger Craig. Boxscore

Carty’s hitting, combined with his adventures in the outfield, made him the darling of the bleacher fans at Milwaukee’s County Stadium. “They cheer every move he makes,” The Sporting News noted. “He is a thrill a minute fielder, the type who starts the wrong way on a ball and winds up making a circus catch.”

For the season, Carty hit .330. Against the Cardinals, who became 1964 World Series champions, the rookie batted .343 in 18 games.

Applying the hammer

The Braves moved to Atlanta after the 1965 season and Carty became a fan favorite there, too.

“Carty can most definitely charm the fans,” Frank Hyland of the Atlanta Journal observed. “They love him and he plays them like a drum. There is perhaps no athlete in any sport who makes himself as available as Carty.”

Rod Hudspeth of the Atlanta Journal added, “Carty has a lot of ham and a little con artist in him. He knows exactly when to turn and flash the big smile to a fan wanting a snapshot, the precise time to sign autographs and milk the most mileage from them, and the opportune moment to toss a baseball into the stands and get the big crowd reaction.”

Inside the clubhouse, it was a different story. “He was not well-liked by many teammates,” the Journal reported. Columnist Furman Bisher noted, “Teammates give him wide berth, even fellow Dominicans Felipe Alou and Sandy Alomar.”

In his autobiography “Alou: My Baseball Journey,” Felipe Alou said, “About the only guy I ever saw Hank (Aaron) have a problem with was Rico Carty … Rico was easy to have a problem with. He was defiant, belligerent, constantly challenging … Rico was a brawny guy who liked to intimidate people.”

On a Braves charter flight from Houston to Los Angeles in 1967, Carty got into an argument with Aaron and it boiled over into a fight.

In his autobiography “I Had a Hammer,” Aaron said, “Carty was playing cards two rows behind me when I heard him call me a ‘black slick.’ I stood up and asked him what he said, and he repeated it … A second later, we were swinging at each other … My fist went right by his head and put a hole in the luggage rack of the plane. Our teammates finally broke it up. I think there were three guys holding me.”

Aaron and Carty each told the Atlanta Constitution he was sorry the fight happened, but Aaron added, “He called me a name that I couldn’t take, and I would have fought anybody for that. It was a matter of principle and pride … If I’m called that name again, I’ll fight again.”

Carrying on

At spring training in 1968, Carty was diagnosed with tuberculosis. While undergoing six months of treatment in a sanatorium at Lantana, Fla., Carty received a letter from Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst, who was stricken with tuberculosis shortly after he played for the Braves in the 1958 World Series. “He said I was lucky that I would not have to be cut, like him,” Carty told Ira Berkow of Newspaper Enterprise Association. (Schoendienst underwent surgery to remove part of an infected lung.)

Back with the Braves in 1969, Carty suffered three shoulder separations but hit .342, helping Atlanta win a division title. Columnist Jesse Outlar noted, “That seemed inconceivable. You simply don’t spend an entire year in a hospital, then belt major league pitching at that clip with bum or sound shoulders.”

Carty, 30, reached his peak with the 1970 Braves. He batted .423 for April, .448 for May and put together a 31-game hitting streak. Though left off the All-Star Game ballot, a flood of write-in votes from the fans made him a National League starting outfielder along with Hank Aaron and Willie Mays.

A month later, Carty got into a clubhouse scuffle with teammate Ron Reed. 

The season ended with Carty as the league leader in hitting (.366) and on-base percentage (.454). He produced the highest batting average to lead the National League since Stan Musial hit .376 for the Cardinals in 1948.

Tough to take

Good times were followed by the bad. In December 1970, Carty suffered a triple fracture of his left knee, plus torn cartilage, when he collided with Matty Alou while chasing a fly ball during a game in the Dominican Republic. The severity of the injury prevented Carty from playing in 1971.

More trouble awaited.

In August 1971, while Carty and his brother-in-law, Carlos Ramirez, were in a car at a stoplight in Atlanta, two off-duty policemen pulled up alongside and accused them of being “cop-killing niggers,” the Atlanta Journal reported.

Carty noticed a uniformed officer inside a police car nearby and drove up to report what had happened. The off-duty cops followed and there was an altercation. Carty said the three white policemen beat him and his brother-in-law, using a billy club and the butt of a revolver. Carty and his relative were handcuffed and arrested on charges of assault and creating turmoil.

Atlanta mayor Sam Massell said the police actions appeared to be “blatant brutality,” United Press International reported.

Upon review, the three cops were fired by Atlanta police chief Herbert Jenkins. According to the Atlanta Constitution, Jenkins called it “the worst case of misconduct of a police officer I’ve ever seen.”

In dismissing all charges against Carty and his brother-in-law, Municipal Court Judge Robert M. Sparks Jr. said the defendants were “shamefully handled.”

Soon after, in an unrelated incident, Carty’s barbecue restaurant in Atlanta was destroyed in a fire.

Slow motion

Carty’s attempt to come back from the shattered knee and other ailments (he was hospitalized for pleurisy in 1971) was a struggle. At 1972 spring training, he said to United Press International, “When I came back after being sick with tuberculosis, it was just a matter of resting and building up my strength. Now there is pain to overcome. It does not hurt when I bat, but when I run it hurts.”

Braves manager Lum Harris told the wire service, “Rico never was a speedster, but I’ve never seen him as slow as he is now.”

Carty played in 86 games for the 1972 Braves, hit .277 and was traded to the Rangers for pitcher Jim “Pink” Panther.

The Rangers figured Carty to be an ideal designated hitter, but manager Whitey Herzog wasn’t impressed with what he saw. In the book “Seasons in Hell,” Herzog said to author Mike Shropshire, “When Rico runs from home plate to first, you could time him with a sundial.” Herzog also said he thought Carty was “crazier than a peach orchard sow.”

After a game against the Orioles, Carty told Shropshire he intentionally fouled off a pitch he thought was ball four because he didn’t want to spoil Jim Palmer’s bid for a perfect game. When Shropshire informed Herzog of this, the manager rolled his eyes and replied, “What a bunch of crap.”

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Herzog and Carty almost got into a dugout fistfight in June after Carty cussed Herzog for not backing him in a dispute with an umpire over a called strike. Soon after, Carty was sent packing. He finished out the season with the Cubs and Athletics.

Unwanted in the majors, Carty, 34, went to the Mexican League in 1974.

Another stab

Once again, Carty showed it was unwise to count him out. He hit .354 in the Mexican League. That impressed the Cleveland Indians, who brought him back to the majors in August 1974.

In four seasons with Cleveland, Carty batted .303, but he and manager Frank Robinson clashed. Robinson described his relationship with Carty as “a cold war,” the Associated Press reported.

Carty and Robinson soon were gone from Cleveland. Carty had one more big season, 1978, when he combined for 31 home runs and 99 RBI with the Blue Jays and Athletics.

During a road trip with the Blue Jays in 1979, a toothpick pierced Carty’s finger when he reached into a travel bag. Carty removed part of the toothpick, but the tip remained lodged under the skin.

“The thing keeps me from gripping the bat right, but they tell me it will work its way out eventually,” Carty told the Toronto Star.

The finger got infected and Carty “had to squeeze pus from his hand before hitting,” the Star reported.

Though the sliver finally was removed, his batting average sank like a martini olive untethered from its cocktail stick. He ended the season, his last, at .256.

That cost Carty a .300 career batting mark. He settled instead for .299.

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