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Duke Snider vs. Cardinals: Big games, painful incidents

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Records on March 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »

(Updated Jan. 4, 2025)

Duke Snider had one of the most productive performances of his career in the same game Stan Musial achieved a slugging milestone.

On June 3, 1955, Snider went 4-for-5 with five RBI and two runs scored in the Dodgers’ 12-5 victory over the Cardinals at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.

Snider clouted a three-run home run, a RBI-double and two singles, one of which was a squeeze bunt that scored Pee Wee Reese from third.

In the same game, Musial hit his 300th career homer _ a three-run shot off Johnny Podres in the fifth. Musial became the 13th player with 300 homers.

Snider’s big performance against the Cardinals was part of a three-game tear in which he totaled five homers and 13 RBI. Dubbing him “The Duke of Destruction,” Bill Corum of International News Service wrote, “I’ve never seen a hitter quite as dangerous as Duke Snider.” Boxscore

Special talent

A center fielder, Snider hit .300 in his career against the Cardinals, with 60 homers and 189 RBI.

In his book “Stan Musial: The Man’s Own Story,” Musial said, “After he learned the strike zone in the majors, the Duke became one of the great sluggers of our era. He couldn’t hit the high and tight pitch early, but he learned to lay off it. He had great power … He was a fine outfielder with a good arm and good speed.”

In choosing his all-time National League all-star team, Musial selected Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Snider as the outfielders. Musial said with Snider in center, Carl Furillo in right and Andy Pafko in left “the Dodgers had the best-throwing outfield I ever saw.”

In the 1950s, the three center fielders in New York were Mickey Mantle of the Yankees, Mays of the New York Giants and Snider with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

In the book, “We Would Have Played For Nothing,” pitcher Ralph Branca, Snider’s Dodgers teammate, told former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent, “I think Duke was the best outfielder of the three of them. Duke got a great jump on the ball, charged the ground ball, and had the best arm of all three. Not only was he stronger, but he was more accurate.”

Snider wore No. 4 with the Dodgers in tribute to his boyhood favorite, Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig. In the book “Voices from Cooperstown,” Snider said to author Anthony J. Connor, “When that movie ‘Pride of the Yankees’ came out with Gary Cooper playing Lou Gehrig, I saw it maybe 15 times … I still get tears in my eyes watching that show.”

Playing rough

In 1961, Snider was involved in two rough-and-tumble incidents involving Cardinals pitchers Larry Jackson and Bob Gibson.

While facing the Cardinals in a spring training exhibition game, Snider shattered his bat on a pitch from Jackson. The ball struck Jackson on the hip and the bat hit him in the jaw.

In his book “The Duke of Flatbush,” Snider said, “I reached first base, but Jackson was still on the ground, seriously injured. His jaw was broken … I felt awful about it, but that’s one of the occupational hazards of pitching.”

A few weeks later, April 17, 1961, in a game between the Cardinals and Dodgers in Los Angeles, Snider hit a two-run home run against Gibson in the third inning. Boxscore

“I knew what would happen next … Word was already around the league that he had that mean streak that so many good pitchers have,” Snider said.

When Snider came to bat in the fifth, a Gibson fastball struck him in the elbow. Snider told Fay Vincent, “He threw a 95 mph fastball right at my ribs. I put my right elbow down to protect my ribs and it hit me right on the bone.”

When he tried to bat again in the seventh, Snider felt a sharp pain in that right elbow and was lifted for a pinch-hitter.

The elbow was fractured and Snider was sidelined for a month.

“It’s the only time I was ever on the disabled list,” Snider said to Fay Vincent. “I know that Bob Gibson has told people he never threw at a player on purpose. Bob Gibson is a nice guy, but he stretches the truth a little bit once in a while.”

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Braves offered Chuck Tanner to Cardinals

Posted in Games, Hitters, Managers, Opponents on February 15, 2011| Leave a Comment »

The Cardinals rejected a chance to acquire Chuck Tanner in June 1957 and he made them pay a couple of months later.

As an outfielder for the Braves and Cubs in the 1950s and as manager of the Pirates and Braves in the 1970s and 1980s, Tanner had a long history as a Cardinals opponent.

Tanner broke into the majors with the Braves in 1955. On Aug, 15, he had his first three-RBI game as a big leaguer in the Braves’ 12-1 victory over St. Louis. Boxscore Three days later, Tanner hit a home run against Larry Jackson in the second inning, sparking the Braves to a 5-3 win against the Cardinals. Boxscore

On Sept. 16, 1955, Tanner’s three-run home run against Brooks Lawrence erased a 3-1 Cardinals lead and paced the Braves to a 9-4 victory. Boxscore

In 1957, the Braves were headed to a National League championship. To help their pennant push, the Braves wanted St. Louis outfielder Del Ennis. On June 1, the Braves offered the Cardinals three players _ Tanner, reliever Dave Jolly and their choice of a pitcher, Ray Crone or Gene Conley _ for Ennis, the Associated Press reported.

Cardinals general manager Frank Lane wanted more _ either pitcher Juan Pizarro or pitcher Bob Trowbridge. When the Braves declined, trade talks ceased.

A week later, the Cubs claimed Tanner off waivers.

Inserted into the starting outfield, Tanner produced. In two games against the Cardinals in August 1957, he went 5-for-8 with two runs scored and three RBI. On Aug. 13, Tanner was 3-for-4 with two RBI in Chicago’s 6-2 victory over the Cardinals. Boxscore Two days later, Tanner’s seventh-inning home run against the Cardinals’ Sam Jones helped the Cubs to a 4-1 win. Boxscore

In 1958, Tanner’s last season as a National League player, he delivered a key blow against the Cardinals in an unusual situation. On Aug. 31, the Cubs led, 2-1, in the third with two on and Lee Walls at the plate. Cardinals starter Sal Maglie brushed back Walls with a pitch the Cubs batter claimed hit him.

Umpire Frank Secory ruled the ball missed Walls, who argued and was ejected. Tanner took over the at-bat and hit a three-run home run, helping Chicago to an 8-5 victory. Boxscore

Tanner batted .236 with four home runs and 20 RBI in his career against the Cardinals.

After managing the White Sox and Athletics, Tanner went to the National League as manager of the Pirates (1977-85) and Braves (1986-88).

Tanner had a 76-106 record as manager against the Cardinals. He was 29-25 versus St. Louis in the 1970s and 47-81 when facing the Cardinals in the 1980s.

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Cardinals vs. Reds: An Easter night to remember

Posted in Games, Opponents on January 19, 2011| 1 Comment »

(Updated April 3, 2020)

On April 3, 1994, the Cardinals and Reds opened the major-league season with a controversial Easter night game at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium.

Because of the weather (39 degrees at first pitch, with steadily falling temperatures after a day of rain and snow flurries), the game probably shouldn’t have been played, but ESPN was televising a season opener for the first time and had heavily promoted it, so every effort was made to proceed as planned.

Reds owner Marge Schott and many Reds fans were opposed to their team opening the season on a Sunday night.

The Reds traditionally opened their season with a weekday afternoon game, starting with a parade in the morning. Cincinnatians adored the tradition and treated the day like a holiday.

To many Reds fans, the Sunday night opener was unacceptable and some expressed dissatisfaction by boycotting. The announced attendance was 32,803 in a stadium that seated almost 55,000. It was the smallest Opening Day crowd in Riverfront Stadium’s 24-year history and the first time the Reds hadn’t sold out a season opener in 10 years.

Schott and the Reds had agreed to the game when first approached, but Schott tried to renege when she learned the city wouldn’t host a parade before a night game.

“ESPN and Major League Baseball will have their Opening Day tonight,” Schott told the Associated Press. “The Reds’ opener is Monday.”

Schott, back in charge of the club after serving an eight-month suspension for racially offensive conduct, ordered no bunting adorn the stadium for the night game. There were no player introductions. A Cincinnati radio station urged fans to display banners criticizing ESPN.

Jon Miller, who broadcast the game for ESPN with former Reds second baseman Joe Morgan, said, “I don’t understand how they would downplay the Sunday game. It’s a marketing person’s dream: the Sunday opener and the traditional opener (Monday). What more could you want?”

Schott urged fans and her team to treat the opener like an exhibition. She spoke about the importance of the parade that would be held Monday morning. “We’ll have 20 more floats than we’ve ever had before,” she said. “The Air Force is coming in. Oh, and we’re going to have 300 pigeons, so keep your hat on.”

The Cardinals’ Ray Lankford, the first batter of the 1994 season, lined a 3-and-2 pitch from Jose Rijo over the left-center field fence for a home run. Video

It was the first time in eight years a leadoff batter opened the season with a homer. (Dwight Evans did it for Boston against Detroit’s Jack Morris in 1986). It also was the first time a Cardinal hit a homer in the first inning of the first game since Darrell Porter launched a three-run shot off Houston’s Nolan Ryan in 1982.

“I was just anxious to get going,” Lankford said. “When I was in here stretching, I started thinking about being the first batter of ’94. I wanted to do something. I couldn’t have asked for anything better than that to open the season.”

With the score 3-3 in the fourth, Cardinals pitcher Bob Tewksbury, a notoriously poor hitter, swung at a first-pitch fastball and lined a two-run, two-out double to center off Rijo, putting St. Louis ahead to stay, 5-3.

“I wasn’t going to give him a chance to throw a slider,” Tewksbury told The Cincinnati Post. “I was going to swing early and often. If I take that first pitch, I’ll never see a fastball.”

The unsung hero for the Cardinals was reliever Vicente Palacios. In the seventh, with St. Louis ahead 6-4, the Reds loaded the bases with two outs and Reggie Sanders at the plate. Sanders had homered in his previous at-bat, and there was a strong sense this was the moment for the Reds to strike. Palacios struck out Sanders and the Cardinals went on to win. Boxscore

“It didn’t seem like opening night at all,” Tewksbury said. “Part of that I think is because it was a night game and part of that was that Marge treated it like she didn’t want it to be the opening game.”

Said Reds catcher Joe Oliver: “It was the first game this year and it just seemed like a middle of the season game. It was sort of disappointing. We got hyped and went out there and the place was half full.”

Cincinnati Post columnist Paul Daugherty wrote, “Riverfront Stadium had all the ambiance of a garage sale. At Schott’s behest, the Reds accorded the game all the pomp of a rain delay … By the time the Reds batted in the bottom of the ninth, it was close to 11 p.m. and there weren’t more than 10,000 fans still in the stadium. Maybe they were frozen to their seats.”

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Cardinals dealt Trevor Hoffman first defeat

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Pitchers on January 13, 2011| Leave a Comment »

(Updated July 29, 2018)

Trevor Hoffman’s first loss in the big leagues was to the Cardinals.

Hoffman, who retired Jan. 12, 2011, with 601 saves and was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018, had his share of success against the Cardinals (six wins, 25 saves), but he had some spectacular setbacks, too.

Against teams whom he faced at least 10 times in his career, Hoffman’s ERA was highest vs. St. Louis (4.09 in 51 regular-season games).

Though he lost to the Cardinals three times in the regular season, none of those defeats occurred during his time with the Padres, whom he pitched for in 16 of his 18 big-league seasons.

Two of his losses to St. Louis came while with the Brewers (2009-10).

The other occurred in 1993 when he broke into the majors with the expansion Marlins.

On May 16, 1993, at St. Louis, Hoffman was brought in by manager Rene Lachemann to face the Cardinals in the bottom of the ninth of a scoreless game. With one out, Gregg Jefferies singled to center, stole second base and advanced to third on catcher Steve Decker’s errant throw. Hoffman issued intentional walks to Ray Lankford and Mark Whiten, loading the bases.

With Stan Royer, hitless in the game, due up next, manager Joe Torre called on Todd Zeile to bat. Zeile’s single to center scored Jefferies, giving St. Louis a 1-0 victory and handing Hoffman his first career loss. Boxscore

It would be 16 years before Hoffman lost to the Cardinals again in the regular season. On Sept. 8, 2009, at Milwaukee, Matt Holliday’s two-run, ninth-inning home run against Hoffman carried St. Louis to a 4-3 victory. Boxscore

The next year, on April 9 at Milwaukee, pinch-hitter Nick Stavinoha’s two-run home run against Hoffman in the ninth lifted the Cardinals to a 5-4 victory. Boxscore

Two other Cardinals home runs against Hoffman are noteworthy:

_ In Game 3 of the 1996 National League Division Series at San Diego, Hoffman entered in the ninth with the score at 5-5. Brian Jordan’s two-run home run gave St. Louis a 7-5 victory and a sweep of the best-of-five series. Boxscore

_ A year later, June 10, 1997, at San Diego, a matchup of two top relievers, Hoffman and Dennis Eckersley, became a debacle for both.

With the Padres leading 3-1 in the ninth, Hoffman entered and yielded four runs _ the last two on Delino DeShields’ two-out, two-run home run _ to put St. Louis ahead, 5-3.

Eckersley attempted a save, but Tony Gwynn’s two-out, two-run double tied the score at 5-5. San Diego won, 6-5, with a run in the 12th. Boxscore

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Bob Gibson vs. Billy Williams: Story of a classic duel

Posted in Bloggers, Games, Hitters, Opponents, Pitchers on January 12, 2011| 3 Comments »

(Updated on Jan. 15, 2025)

The Hall of Famer who hit the most career home runs against Cardinals ace Bob Gibson was Billy Williams, with 10.

Of the 257 regular-season home runs Gibson yielded in his career, 67 were hit by fellow Hall of Famers.

Williams, an outfielder for the Cubs from 1959-74, slugged more home runs (10) and drew more walks (24) against Gibson than any other player, Hall of Famer or otherwise. Williams batted .259 (45-for-174) versus Gibson.

In the book “Sixty Feet, Six Inches,” Gibson said, “Billy Williams probably hit me better than anybody, but even so, and despite the fact that he was left-handed, I went ahead and pitched to him because he had Ron Santo and Ernie Banks behind him and I didn’t want either of them hitting two-run homers. If Williams had batted cleanup, I’d have probably pitched around him more.”

Even in the two seasons in which Gibson won the Cy Young Award _ 1968, when he posted a 1.12 ERA, and 1970, when he recorded a career-best 23 wins _ Williams hit two home runs against him in each year.

Entering the Cardinals’ game against the Cubs on Aug. 4, 1968, Gibson had given up three runs in 101 innings before the Cubs scored five times on two home runs, including one by Williams. Boxscore

One of Williams’ most memorable home runs decided a showdown between Gibson and Ferguson Jenkins: In the 1971 season opener between the Cardinals and Cubs at Wrigley Field, Williams hit a home run off a Gibson fastball in the 10th inning for a 2-1 Chicago victory. Boxscore and Video

“Gibson and Williams were good friends and formed a mutual admiration society except when they faced each other in a game,” Bob Burnes of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat wrote in the 1986 Baseball Digest.

Hall of Famer and ex-Cardinal Rogers Hornsby was a hitting instructor with the Cubs when Williams was a prospect. In the book “We Would Have Played For Nothing,” Williams recalled, “One thing he said that always stuck is that when you get two strikes on you, you got to be like a goalie. You got to protect the outside. You got to protect the inside. You got to protect everything. So that’s what you did. You shortened your swing and you wanted to make contact. You didn’t swing for the fences. If you get your pitch on the first pitch, you swing for the home run, and that’s what I did.”

The Hall of Famers who hit home runs against Gibson in the regular season (listed in order of number of homers hit):

_ Billy Williams, 10

_ Hank Aaron, 8

_ Willie McCovey, 7

_ Willie Stargell, 5

_ Roberto Clemente, 4

_ Eddie Mathews, 4

_ Frank Robinson, 4

_ Ernie Banks, 3

_ Johnny Bench, 3

_ Orlando Cepeda, 3

_ Willie Mays, 3

_ Joe Morgan, 3

_ Ron Santo, 3

_ Duke Snider, 3

_ Bill Mazeroski, 1

_ Tony Perez, 1

_ Mike Schmidt, 1

_ Dave Winfield, 1

NOTE: In nine World Series games, Gibson yielded one home run to a Hall of Famer _ Mickey Mantle of the Yankees in 1964.

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Ryne Duren threw roadblock at 1964 Cardinals

Posted in Bloggers, Games, Opponents, Pitchers on January 10, 2011| Leave a Comment »

(Updated June 20, 2024)

Ryne Duren played a key role in nearly derailing the Cardinals’ National League pennant bid in 1964.

Duren was a hard-throwing, hard-drinking pitcher with the Yankees from 1958-61. In 1964, he was 35 and a middle-innings reliever with the Reds.

On Sunday morning, Sept. 20, 1964, the Cardinals were in second place, 5.5 games behind the Phillies and a game ahead of the Reds. Most figured St. Louis needed a win that afternoon in Cincinnati to keep alive its hopes of catching the Phillies and prevent the Reds from moving into a tie for second.

Ken Boyer’s two-run triple, solo home runs from Lou Brock and Dick Groat and a successful squeeze bunt by Bill White put St. Louis ahead 5-0 after three innings. When Mike Shannon led off the fourth with a home run, Reds starter Joe Nuxhall was replaced by Duren.

With St. Louis ahead 6-0, the Reds appeared beaten.

“I looked around the dugout and everyone was really down,” Duren told author Doug Wilson in the book “Fred Hutchinson and the 1964 Cincinnati Reds.”

“I got mad and said to everyone on the bench, ‘If you don’t want to compete, let’s just go home, but if you’re out here, let’s have a little life.’ ”

Duren backed his words with action, on the mound and at the plate, and his efforts changed the momentum.

He pitched four scoreless innings and held the Cardinals to three hits.

In the fifth, with the score 6-1, Duren batted with Leo Cardenas on first and two outs. An .061 career hitter who wore thick lenses on his glasses because of poor sight in both eyes, Duren was “a terrible hitter,” his former Yankees manager, Ralph Houk, said in the book “Season of Glory.” According to Houk, Duren “choked way up on the bat and it was like he was using a hammer to hit a nail. He swung at the ball like that.”

Nonetheless, Duren was challenged by his Reds teammates to get on base.

“I made up my mind I would take one for the team, which I did,” Duren said.

Duren leaned across the plate as Cardinals starter Gordon Richardson delivered his pitch. The ball struck Duren on the upper thigh and he was awarded first base. The Cardinals protested vehemently to no avail.

“He didn’t even try to get out of the way,” Reds pitcher Sammy Ellis said. “And there’s no way he would have gotten a hit. He couldn’t even see.”

Inspired, the Reds rallied against the flustered Richardson. Pete Rose singled, scoring Cardenas. Duren and Rose scored on Vada Pinson’s single. When Duren got to the dugout, all the Reds were on their feet to greet him.

Cincinnati tied the score in the sixth. Ellis relieved Duren in the eighth and, in the bottom half of the inning, Cincinnati scored three runs against closer Barney Schultz and won 9-6.  Boxscore

“Frank Robinson (Reds outfielder) always gave me credit for waking the club up,” Duren said.

The Phillies beat the Dodgers that day and went into the final two weeks of the season with a 6.5-game lead over the Cardinals and Reds with 12 to play.

After that, the Phillies lost the next 10 in a row, Cincinnati won nine in a row and the Cardinals won 10 of their final 13. When the Phillies beat the Reds in the final two games, St. Louis won the title on the last day of the season.

Duren never pitched another game for the Reds after his performance against the Cardinals. He was released in April 1965 and pitched for the Phillies and Senators that season, the last of his big-league career.

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