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How Jeff Torborg ended his playing days at Cardinals camp

Posted in Hitters, Opponents, Trades on December 30, 2023| 16 Comments »

A catcher who earned the trust of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Nolan Ryan, Jeff Torborg came to the Cardinals to work with a pitching staff led by Bob Gibson.

On Dec. 6, 1973, the Cardinals acquired Torborg from the Angels for pitcher John Andrews. With 10 years of big-league experience and a reputation as a defensive specialist who worked well with pitchers, Torborg, 32, seemed a good fit to back up Cardinals catcher Ted Simmons, 24, in 1974.

Instead, when the Cardinals decided on a different roster configuration, Torborg departed and began a second career as a coach and manager.

Giants fan

As a youth in Westfield, N.J., Torborg was a New York Giants fan. “I remember walking on the field (after attending a game) at the Polo Grounds with my dad and I couldn’t believe I was really there,” Torborg recalled to the Bridgewater (N.J.) Courier-News. “I remember seeing Monte Irvin hit one into the upper deck in the deepest part of left field, and I couldn’t imagine anybody hitting the ball that far.”

Torborg played college baseball at Rutgers and was a power-hitting catcher. After he saw Torborg hit two home runs and a triple in a game against Army, Dodgers scout and former Giants infielder Rudy Rufer said to the Courier-News, “I raced for the nearest phone, called up (general manager) Buzzie Bavasi, and told him Torborg was a prospect we couldn’t afford to miss.”

A right-handed batter, Torborg hit .537 for Rutgers in 1963 and produced 67 total bases in 67 at-bats.

The Dodgers signed him on May 23, 1963, and sent him to their Albuquerque farm club. He arranged to return home to receive his Rutgers diploma on June 5 (he earned a degree in education), got married the next day to a former Miss New Jersey, Susan Barber, and went back to Albuquerque on June 8.

(The Dodgers gave Torborg and his wife a two-week paid honeymoon in Hawaii after the season, according to the Courier-News.)

Higher education

Torborg, 22, made the Opening Day roster of the 1964 Dodgers as a backup to catcher John Roseboro. Don Drysdale dubbed the rookie “Rudy Rutgers” because he looked the part of a clean-cut collegian, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Sandy Koufax, a bachelor, had a collection of kitchen appliances he’d received for being a guest on postgame radio shows. One day, in the locker room, he handed Torborg a new electric can opener. According to author Jane Leavy in the book “A Lefty’s Legacy,” Koufax said to the newly married Torborg, “You can use this more than me.”

On days Koufax didn’t pitch, he would hit fungoes to Torborg so that the rookie could acclimate himself to pop-ups behind the plate at Dodger Stadium, Leavy noted. She also explained in her book that Koufax told Torborg to stop jumping up from his crouch after every pitch. “I like the picture of the catcher being quiet behind the plate, staying down, so everything I see is low,” Koufax said.

John Roseboro also would “offer help every chance he had,” Torborg said to the Los Angeles Times. According to The Sporting News, Torborg was grateful to Roseboro for “tutoring him on how to handle low pitches and block the plate.”

Torborg didn’t hit well in the majors but he had his moments. On July 25, 1965, he contributed a two-run single against the Cardinals’ Nelson Briles in a five-run Dodgers fifth inning. Boxscore Five days later, he sparked a Dodgers comeback at St. Louis with a home run against Curt Simmons that went deep over the hot dog stand in left. Boxscore

The highlight of Torborg’s 1965 season came on Sept. 9 at Dodger Stadium when he caught Koufax’s perfect game against the Cubs.

As Koufax crafted his masterpiece, “my heart was beating so loudly it was pounding in my ear,” Torborg said to the Los Angeles Times. Boxscore

All rise

Torborg was Roseboro’s backup for four seasons (1964-67). When Roseboro got traded to the Twins, “I felt I was No. 1,” Torborg told the Los Angeles Times. Instead, the Dodgers acquired Tom Haller from the Giants and made him the starting catcher.

“I got very frustrated,” Torborg said to the Times. “I let myself get overweight and I had back trouble.”

Torborg was the catcher when Don Drysdale beat the Giants on May 31, 1968, for his fifth consecutive shutout, and he caught Bill Singer’s no-hitter against the Phillies on July 20, 1970. Boxscore and Boxscore

Mostly, though, Torborg watched as Haller did the bulk of the Dodgers’ catching from 1968-70. Torborg served so much time on the bench he was nicknamed “The Judge,” according to The Sporting News.

Change of scenery

In March 1971, Torborg was sent to the Angels. He shared catching duties with John Stephenson and Jerry Moses in 1971 and with Art Kusnyer and Stephenson in 1972.

With Bobby Winkles as manager and John Roseboro as a coach for the Angels in 1973, Torborg, 31, finally became a No. 1 catcher.

On May 15, 1973, Torborg caught his third career no-hitter, the first of seven pitched by Nolan Ryan. “He called an outstanding game,” Ryan told The Sporting News. Boxscore

(Since then, Carlos Ruiz of the Phillies and Jason Varitek of the Red Sox each caught four no-hitters, according to MLB.com.)

With the 1973 Angels, Torborg played in a career-high 102 games, but hit .220. As he told Bob Broeg of the Post-Dispatch, “I’m a no-hit catcher in more ways than one.”

After the season, the Angels acquired catcher Ellie Rodriguez from the Brewers and projected him to be the starter in 1974. 

New script

Ted Simmons caught in 152 games, totaling a franchise-record 1,352.2 innings, for the 1973 Cardinals. Hoping to give him more breaks from the grind in 1974, the Cardinals acquired Torborg.

(According to The Sporting News, Nolan Ryan “loved to pitch to” Torborg and “was upset” when he got traded.)

The Cardinals went to 1974 spring training with four catchers on the roster _ Simmons, Torborg, Larry Haney and Marc Hill. According to the 1974 Cardinals media guide, Torborg “has a good chance to be the No. 2” catcher.

Described by The Sporting News as “a proficient receiver with an excellent arm,” Torborg told the publication, “I feel I can help (the Cardinals) a lot even if I’m not playing. I can help the pitchers in the bullpen and I can talk with the pitching coach (Barney Schultz) on the bench.”

Late in spring training, the Cardinals decided that their catcher from the 1960s, Tim McCarver, 32, who was on the roster as a reserve first baseman, would suffice as the backup to Simmons. In an emergency, first baseman and former catcher Joe Torre also could fill in.

Torborg was released, Larry Haney got sent to the Athletics and Marc Hill went to the minors.

“I had a pretty good spring, but the Cardinals ran into a (roster) numbers problem and they let me go,” Torborg told The Sporting News.

Torborg went home to New Jersey. Two months later, in May 1974, the Red Sox brought him to Boston for a tryout after catcher Carlton Fisk injured a knee, but they opted to go with Tim Blackwell as the backup to Bob Montgomery.

At 32, Torborg’s playing days were finished. Among the Hall of Famers he caught were Don Sutton (51 games), Drysdale (49 games), Ryan (41 games) and Koufax (24 games).

Coach and manager

Torborg, who earned a master’s degree in athletic administration from Montclair (N.J.) State, became athletic director and head baseball coach at Wardlaw School in Edison, N.J., but left for a spot on the 1975 Cleveland Indians coaching staff of manager Frank Robinson.

In June 1977, Torborg, 35, replaced Robinson as manager. Years later, he told the Bridgewater Courier-News, “I really wasn’t prepared to manage. I was a young coach who was still very close to the players. I made a lot of mistakes.”

After he was fired in July 1979, Torborg joined the Yankees coaching staff in 1980. He was ready to become head baseball coach at Princeton in 1982 but changed his mind when Yankees owner George Steinbrenner gave him a seven-year contract to stay as a coach.

According to Newsday’s Tom Verducci, Steinbrenner offered Torborg the Yankees general manager job in 1982 but he rejected it because he wanted to remain in a role on the field. Billy Martin, one of several managers Torborg coached for with the Yankees, distrusted him. “He thought I was a pipeline upstairs (to Steinbrenner),” Torborg told Verducci.

After nine seasons (1980-88) as a Yankees coach, Torborg managed the White Sox (1989-91), Mets (1992-93), Expos (2001) and Marlins (2002-2003).

In 1992, Torborg and Mets outfielder Vince Coleman “engaged in an angry and physical confrontation on the field,” the New York Times reported. Coleman was suspended for two days without pay for shoving Torborg and swearing at him after the Mets manager tried to break up Coleman’s argument with an umpire.

According to New York Times columnist George Vecsey, “Coleman has been both a cause and a symbol of the Mets’ slide to the bottom. This is an outfielder with little baseball savvy and bad wheels and an unsavory image.”

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Ken MacKenzie played it smart on diamond and ice

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers, Trades on December 26, 2023| 8 Comments »

During his National League pitching career, Ken MacKenzie produced one hit. It resulted in his only RBI _ a game-winning single against the Cardinals.

Doing the unexpected came naturally to MacKenzie. A hockey player from a small town on a Canadian island, he went to Yale, graduated and became a big-league pitcher.

A left-handed reliever, MacKenzie was the only pitcher on the original 1962 New York Mets to finish the season with a winning record. In an encore, he also was the only pitcher with a winning record on the 1963 Mets.

Bespectacled and unassuming, MacKenzie was called Mr. Peepers by his Mets teammates, according to Newsday’s George Vecsey.

The Cardinals acquired him for a possible pennant run. After his playing career, MacKenzie coached baseball and hockey at Yale.

Out of the wilderness

MacKenzie was from Gore Bay, a town on Manitoulin Island in Ontario, Canada, at the north end of Lake Huron. His father, John, who ran a hardware store, lost an eye serving in Europe with the Black Watch Royal Highland Regiment of Canada during World War II, according to the Hartford Courant.

Like his father, Ken MacKenzie excelled at hockey. Years later, he recalled to the Atlanta Constitution, “I never played baseball until I was 15 … I started pitching for the town team.”

MacKenzie was so inexperienced at pitching, “I didn’t even know how to wind up until I was 16,” he said to The Sporting News.

He went to Yale for an education (majoring in industrial administration) and to play hockey. After playing for Yale’s freshman hockey team, he made the varsity as a defenseman his sophomore year.

Though he hadn’t played freshman baseball, MacKenzie tried out for the varsity as a sophomore and earned a spot on the pitching staff. He became “one of the best college pitchers I’ve seen,” Hartford Courant columnist Bill Newell observed.

Relying on pinpoint control, MacKenzie was 19-6 with a 1.77 ERA in three varsity baseball seasons. He was 6-0 versus Harvard and 5-1 against Princeton.

(MacKenzie also played three varsity hockey seasons at Yale and was the team’s leading scorer as a junior.)

Beating the odds

Though he was successful in the Ivy League, conventional wisdom was MacKenzie didn’t throw hard enough to pitch in the pros. “Ken, even in his wildest dreams, never pictured himself being a major-league player,” the Hartford Courant noted.

After he graduated in 1956, MacKenzie received one baseball offer _ from the Milwaukee Braves. He signed with them in September 1956 and reported to their Class AA Atlanta Crackers farm club at spring training in 1957.

According to the Atlanta Constitution, MacKenzie “kept his bags packed” because he was uncertain he’d make the team. “Every time I heard a rumor someone was going, I figured it would be me,” he told the Atlanta newspaper.

Instead, he made the team and became a prominent starter, pitching a one-hitter against Mobile and finishing the 1957 season with a 14-6 record.

Progressing through the farm system, MacKenzie got called up to the Braves to fill a relief role in May 1960. His first decision, a loss to the Reds, came when he gave up a walkoff grand slam to Ed Bailey. Boxscore

In October 1961, the Braves sold MacKenzie’s contract to the Mets.

New York, New York

The 1962 Mets (40-120) were a bad team but had some smart pitchers. In addition to MacKenzie (Yale), the college graduates on the staff included Craig Anderson (Lehigh) and Jay Hook (Northwestern). Their manager was the Ol’ Perfessor, Casey Stengel, 72.

In recalling the 1962 Mets, MacKenzie told Dick Young of the New York Daily News, “Grounders went through all the time, and the ones they got to they didn’t pick up. All singles were doubles. I had an earned run average of 5, and maybe half of it was mine. We had to get five and six outs an innings. One day, Frenchy Daviault was pitching and it was brutal. The Old Man (Stengel) came out and said, ‘What’s the matter?’ Frenchy said, ‘What do you expect me to do?’ The Old Man said, ‘Strike somebody out. You know they can’t catch grounders.’ “

According to the New York Times, when MacKenzie came into a game one time in a crucial situation, Stengel handed him the ball and said, “Make like those guys are the Harvards.”

MacKenzie and his wife, Gretchen, a Vassar College graduate, lived in a Greenwich Village apartment during their time with the Mets. “We’d walk around and see all the art shows, drop in the coffee shops, or just watch the people,” MacKenzie told Newsday. “We liked the people down there. Everybody was open-minded. That’s the way we like to operate.”

Timely hitting

On July 28, 1962, at St. Louis, MacKenzie relieved Jay Hook in the fifth inning of a game against the Cardinals. With the Mets ahead, 8-6, in the ninth, MacKenzie, hitless as a big-leaguer, stroked a single against Don Ferrarese, scoring Joe Christopher and increasing the lead to 9-6.

(It was MacKenzie’s only hit and only RBI in 36 at-bats in the majors. MacKenzie told the Hartford Courant that Mets hitting coach Rogers Hornsby said to him, “You know, MacKenzie, you’re not a bad hitter. You put the bat on the ball.”)

The run was important because, in the bottom half of the inning, MacKenzie walked Bill White and gave up a home run to Curt Flood, pulling the Cardinals to within one at 9-8. (Flood hit .700 _ 7 for 10 _ against MacKenzie in his career.) After Willard Hunter relieved and walked Stan Musial, Craig Anderson came in and rescued the Mets, retiring the next three batters and securing the win for MacKenzie. Boxscore

MacKenzie was 5-4 with a save for the 1962 Mets, becoming the first pitcher to complete a season with a winning record for them. His ERA was 4.95. According to the Hartford Courant, when MacKenzie told Casey Stengel that at $10,000 per year he was the lowest paid member of Yale’s class of 1956, Stengel replied, “But you had the highest ERA.”

Cardinals calling

With the 1963 Mets, MacKenzie had a torrid start to the season (2-0, one save, 0.00 ERA in six appearances in April) but hit the skids hard in May. In one stretch of three games, he gave a walkoff home run to the Dodgers’ Frank Howard, a shattering home run to the Cardinals’ Bob Gibson and a game-winning home run to another Cardinal, Charlie James. (For his career, James hit .800 _ 4 for 5 _ versus MacKenzie.) Boxscore, Boxscore, Boxscore

Nonetheless, three months later, on Aug. 5, 1963, the Cardinals traded pitcher Ed Bauta to the Mets for MacKenzie. With a 3-1 record and three saves for the 1963 Mets, MacKenzie again was their only pitcher with a winning record.

(Regarding MacKenzie’s combined record of 8-5 for the 1962-63 Mets, Dick Young wrote, “If they ever decide to hand out medals, Ken MacKenzie belongs in the front line.”)

Manager Johnny Keane, whose Cardinals were five games behind the first-place Dodgers at the time of the trade, said to The Sporting News, “We got MacKenzie to help Bobby Shantz with the left-handed job in the bullpen.”

Though he told Newsday he was pleased to join a pennant contender, MacKenzie also had regrets about leaving the Mets. “I felt I was one of the originals on the club, and that meant something,” he said.

MacKenzie made eight appearances totaling nine innings for the 1963 Cardinals, who finished in second place. After the season, they traded him to the Giants for catcher Jim Coker.

Back to school

After brief stints with the 1964 Giants and 1965 Astros, MacKenzie was done as a player. In October 1965, he was named coach of the freshman baseball and hockey teams at Yale.

Three years later, in June 1968, MacKenzie became head coach of the Yale varsity baseball team, replacing Ethan Allen, who retired.

Among the players on the first varsity team MacKenzie coached were first baseman Steve Greenberg (son of Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg) and center fielder Brian Dowling (who also was the quarterback on Yale’s football team). Steve Greenberg became deputy commissioner of Major League Baseball, and the character of B.D. in the Doonesbury comic strip was based on Brian Dowling, a classmate of cartoonist Garry Trudeau.

In 1969, MacKenzie made a surprise return to the majors. Montreal Expos general manager John McHale, who had been in the Braves’ front office when MacKenzie first came to the big leagues, put MacKenzie on the Expos’ roster on Sept. 1, 1969, as a favor to add the necessary 26 days for the minimum five years needed for a pension, the Montreal Gazette reported. A grateful MacKenzie spent the month pitching batting practice and didn’t get into a game.

After that adventure, he resumed his coaching duties at Yale. MacKenzie coached varsity baseball for 10 seasons and then worked in the school’s alumni office until he retired.

 

 

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To Have or Have Not: Hugh Casey vs. Ernest Hemingway

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers on December 20, 2023| 8 Comments »

A pretty good pitcher, Hugh Casey often got cuffed by the Cardinals. Off the field, as Ernest Hemingway learned, he was no punching bag.

In the 1940s, the Cardinals (four) and Dodgers (three) won seven of the 10 National League pennants that decade. Casey was a prominent pitcher on the Dodgers championship clubs in 1941 (14 wins, seven saves) and 1947 (10 wins, 18 saves).

Against the Cardinals, though, he could look like a guy tossing batting practice. Twice, they clobbered 15 hits in a game against Casey. In one of those, he gave up five homers and 13 runs in seven innings.

Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis gave him nightmares. Casey’s ERA in 28 games there against the Cardinals was 6.03. The career batting averages of some prominent Cardinals against Casey _ Stan Musial (.529), Johnny Mize (.447), Joe Medwick (.429), Red Schoendienst (.400) _ helped get them elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Come to Papa

In 1942, for the second spring in a row, the Dodgers held their training camp in Havana, the capital of Cuba. Novelist Ernest Hemingway was a resident and got to know the ballplayers.

“He used to hang around the Dodgers in the lobby of the Hotel Nacional de Cuba,” broadcaster Red Barber wrote in a column for the New York Times.

In the book “Baseball: When the Grass Was Real,” Dodgers second baseman Billy Herman told author Donald Honig about a “night I’ll never forget” at Hemingway’s Havana house.

“Hemingway took a lot of pride in all this manly stuff, guns and boozing and fighting, things like that,” Herman said to Honig. “He was a big, brawny man, and when he’d had a few drinks, he got mean, real mean.”

Hemingway and his wife, Martha Gellhorn Hemingway (a journalist who was born and raised in St. Louis and was best known for her work as a war correspondent on the front lines), belonged to The Club de Cazadores del Cerro (Hunter Club of the Hills), a gun club that held an international trap and live pigeon shoot.

“So he invited (Dodgers players) Hugh Casey, Larry French, Augie Galan and myself out to the gun club,” Billy Herman said. “Believe me, this was no Coney Island shooting gallery. It was a real fancy place. You had a guy with a portable bar following you around. You’d get up, take your shots, and there’d be a drink ready for you. This went on from three o’clock in the afternoon until dark.”

Then Hemingway brought the players to his house.

“He took us into a huge dining room-living room combination, with all terrazzo floors, and told us to make ourselves comfortable while he went and got the drinks,” Herman said. “He came back with an enormous silver tray, with all the bottles, the mixers, the glasses, the ice _ the whole works. He set it up on this little bookstand in the middle of the floor. And we started drinking.”

Herman said Hemingway gave each of the four players an autographed copy of “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and talked with them about his experiences as a foreign correspondent.

“We had quite a bit to drink,” Herman recalled. “Then he laid out some food. After we ate, we had a few more drinks. It was getting pretty late now, and Mrs. Hemingway excused herself and went to bed. Hemingway was good and loaded by this time.”

Drunk and disorderly

Like Hemingway, Hugh Casey was a big drinker. Red Barber said, “Casey drank whiskey by the water glass _ without water.” Columnist Furman Bisher noted that Casey had cheeks “tanned by years of association with fine bourbon.”

Still telling war stories to his Dodgers guests, Hemingway “looked over at Casey, sort of sizing him up,” Herman recalled to Honig.

“You and I are about the same size,” Hemingway said to Casey. “We’d make a good match. I’ve got some boxing gloves. Let’s just spar. Fool around a little bit.”

According to Herman, Casey grinned and shrugged. Hemingway got the boxing gloves, put on a pair and gave the others to Casey.

“As Casey was pulling his gloves on, Hemingway hauled off and belted him,” Herman said. “He hit him hard. He knocked Casey into that bookstand and there goes the tray with all the booze and glasses smashing over the terrazzo floor.”

Hemingway’s wife came running into the room. According to Herman, she looked at the mess on the floor and went back to bed.

“Casey didn’t say anything about the sneak punch,” Herman said. “He got up and finished putting his gloves on. Then they started sparring. They were moving back and forth across the broken glass. Boom. Casey starts hitting him. And hitting him. Then Casey started knocking him down. Hemingway didn’t like that at all.

“Then Casey belted him across some furniture and there was another crash as Hemingway took a lamp and table down with him. The wife came running out, and Hemingway told her it was all right, that it was all in fun. She went away.”

Casey knocked down Hemingway some more. “Finally he got up this one time, made a feint with his left, and kicked Casey in the balls,” Herman said. “That’s when we figured it had gone far enough. We made them take the gloves off.”

Hemingway had his chauffeur drive the players back to their hotel.

“The next day, Hemingway’s wife brought him down to the ballpark,” Herman said. “You never saw a man so embarrassed, so ashamed. He apologized to everybody.”

(Years later, according to New York sports reporter and raconteur Tom Meany, Yankees catcher Yogi Berra was introduced to Hemingway at Toots Shor’s restaurant. After Hemingway departed, Meany asked Berra, “What did you think of him?” Berra said, “He’s quite a character. What does he do?” Meany replied, “He’s a writer.” Yogi said, “Yeah? What paper?”) 

Food for thought

In July 1942, four months after the incident with Hemingway, Stan Musial smashed a pitch straight at Casey “and almost bore a hole through his ample midriff,” the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported. As Casey tried to protect himself, the ball cracked the little finger of his pitching hand and he was sidelined for three weeks. The Cardinals, eight games behind the first-place Dodgers when Casey got injured, went on to win the pennant. Boxscore

After a three-year stint in the Navy, Casey returned to the Dodgers in 1946. He opened a restaurant in Brooklyn, Hugh Casey’s Steak and Chop House, at 600 Flatbush Avenue in the shadow of Ebbets Field.

Long and narrow with soft lighting, cozy booths and a 30-foot mirrored bar at the front, the restaurant was open from noon to 4 a.m, The Sporting News reported. Casey and his wife resided in an upstairs apartment.

Casey “takes great pride in his steaks and chops, condescends to serve fish on Fridays and gets a brisk trade from the neighborhood,” The Sporting News noted. “During the baseball season, the players from the clubs visiting Ebbets Field show up in droves.”

The restaurant’s walls were covered with photos of Dodgers players, including Jackie Robinson. A photo of Casey hung over the cash register. “Right there watching the money,” he told The Sporting News.

Multiple tragedies

On May 24, 1947, a car driven by Casey struck and killed a blind man on Fifth Avenue, near Seventh Street, in Brooklyn at about 11 p.m., the New York Times reported. The victim, 62, was being led across the street by his sister after they had exited a trolley car.

No charges were brought by police after witnesses told them the accident appeared to have been unavoidable, the New York Daily News reported.

Five months later, in the 1947 World Series against the Yankees, the Dodgers won three times. Casey (two wins and a save) had a hand in all three.

He pitched his last game in the majors for the 1949 Yankees and finished with a 75-42 career mark (8-11 against the Cardinals) and 54 saves.

In December 1950, a paternity suit ruling declared Casey the father of a son born out of wedlock to a 25-year-old Brooklyn woman.

Seven months later, on July 3, 1951, Casey, 37, sat on the edge of a bed in an Atlanta hotel room, holding a shotgun to his neck, and telephoned his estranged wife, Kathleen. According to the Associated Press, Casey told her, “I can’t eat or sleep since going through all the embarrassment.”

For 15 minutes, she pleaded with him to put down the gun, the Associated Press reported. Then he killed himself with a shotgun blast while his wife listened. According to the Associated Press, the shot also was heard by Casey’s friend, Gordon McNabb, who had hurried to the hotel after getting an earlier call from Casey telling him of his suicide plan. McNabb was in the corridor outside the room when the shot was fired.

On July 2, 1961, almost 10 years to the day of Casey’s death, Ernest Hemingway, 61, used a shotgun to commit suicide.

 

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How Pete Richert, Bing Devine bonded in Vietnam

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers, Trades on December 5, 2023| 10 Comments »

For pitcher Pete Richert, fatigues became as much a part of his wardrobe as a baseball uniform in 1968.

In April, he served with the National Guard, trying to quell riots in Washington, D.C. In the fall, he went to Vietnam, looking to boost the spirits of U.S. troops. In between, he pitched in relief for the Baltimore Orioles.

Among those who accompanied Richert to Vietnam was Cardinals general manager Bing Devine. Five years later, on Dec. 5, 1973, Devine acquired Richert for the Cardinals in a trade with the Dodgers.

A left-hander, Richert was a two-time American League all-star and pitched on Orioles teams that won three pennants and a World Series title. His stint with the Cardinals, though, didn’t go the way either he or the team had hoped it would.

Blazing heat

Richert was from Floral Park, N.Y., a village on Long Island. He went to Sewanhaka High School. (The name translates to “island of shells.”) Its alumni also include actor Telly Savalas and Heisman Trophy winner Vinny Testaverde.

In August 1957, Richert, 17, signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the day before the club declared it was moving to Los Angeles after the season.

Richert steadily worked his way through the Dodgers’ farm system as a starting pitcher. In 1960, for the Class AA Atlanta Crackers managed by Rube Walker, Richert had 19 wins and struck out 251 batters in 225 innings. The Atlanta Journal called him “the Cracker with the golden arm” and described his best pitch as a “miracle whip fastball.”

He was 22 when he made a spectacular big-league debut with the Dodgers on April 12, 1962. Relieving Stan Williams, Richert struck out the first six batters he faced _ Vada Pinson, Frank Robinson, Gordy Coleman (who advanced to first on a passed ball by John Roseboro), Wally Post, Johnny Edwards and Tommy Harper. Boxscore

(Until then, the only pitcher to strike out six consecutive batters in his debut in the majors was the Dodgers’ Karl Spooner against the Giants in 1954. Boxscore)

“I always say a little prayer when I’m nervous and excited, and I was tonight as I started walking to the mound,” Richert told the Los Angeles Times. “My father, who always wanted me to be a baseball player, died when I was 15. When I decided to try baseball, my brother told me that when I was nervous or excited to always say a prayer and dad would help me. As soon as I threw a pitch to Pinson, the nervousness left me.”

Called upon three days later, Richert struck out five, including Joe Torre twice, in two innings against the Braves. Boxscore

Setback in St. Louis

Richert’s robust rookie season got derailed on May 12, 1962, at St. Louis. Relieving in the 11th, he allowed no runs or hits to the Cardinals in 2.2 innings. Then, as Richert pitched to Bill White with two outs in the 13th, “the ball bounced to the plate, his glove sailed 15 feet away and he grabbed his left elbow in obvious agony,” The Sporting News reported.

Taken to a hospital, it was discovered Richert had tore ligaments in the elbow. Boxscore

He came off the disabled list two months later and was sent to the Dodgers’ Omaha farm team. Worried about reinjuring his arm, Richert resisted throwing hard. According to the New York Times, Omaha manager Danny Ozark said to Richert, “Pete, you’re scared to throw the ball. If you’re going to be a pitcher, you’ve got to make up your mind. It’s the difference between spending the rest of your life in the minors or going back to the big time.”

Richert responded, got brought back to the Dodgers in August and was put into their starting rotation.

He split each of the next two seasons (1963-64) between the Dodgers and their Spokane farm team (managed by Danny Ozark).

On Sept. 16, 1963, the first-place Dodgers went to St. Louis for a three-game showdown series with the Cardinals, who were a game behind them. Dodgers manager Walt Alston opted to start three left-handers. After Johnny Podres and Sandy Koufax prevailed in the first two games, Richert started the finale. He was knocked out in the third inning but the Dodgers got brilliant relief from another left-hander, Ron Perranoski, and completed the sweep. Boxscore

Capital gains

In December 1964, the Dodgers sent Richert to the Washington Senators. The trade reunited him with his former Atlanta manager, Rube Walker, who was a coach on the staff of Senators manager Gil Hodges.

Richert led the 1965 Senators in wins (15), ERA (2.60), innings pitched (194) and strikeouts (161). He also pitched two scoreless innings for the American League in the All-Star Game, striking out Willie Mays and Willie Stargell. Boxscore

He was the Opening Day starter for Washington in 1966 when Emmett Ashford became the first black umpire in the majors. Boxscore

On April 24, 1966, Richert struck out seven consecutive Tigers batters _ Don Demeter, Ray Oyler, Orlando McFarlane, Bill Monbouquette, Dick Tracewski, Don Wert and Norm Cash. Boxscore

Named again to the all-star team, Richert pitched in the 1966 game at St. Louis and gave up the game-winning hit to former teammate Maury Wills. Boxscore

Richert led the 1966 Senators in wins (14), innings pitched (245.2) and strikeouts (195). He was the first Washington Senators pitcher to strike out 195 in a season since Walter Johnson (228) in 1916.

War zones

Sent by the Senators to the Orioles in May 1967, Richert was moved to the bullpen in 1968 and never went back to starting.

Richert was a reservist with a National Guard unit in Washington, D.C. When rioting broke out there after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered, Richert left the Orioles to join his outfit. His two weeks of emergency riot-control duty “consisted of street patrol with D.C. police, guarding the Washington jail and protecting firefighters,” the Baltimore Sun reported.

“I saw some things you couldn’t believe,” Richert said to the Sun. “The city and its destruction, burning, looting, violence … Two entire streets of 15 blocks and another 22-block street were leveled … Firemen would be fighting fires and there were arsonists throwing Molotov cocktails at the fire trucks.”

After the 1968 baseball season, in a trip arranged by the United Service Organizations (USO) and the baseball commissioner’s office, Richert went to Vietnam with Bing Devine, players Ernie Banks of the Cubs, Larry Jackson of the Phillies and Ron Swoboda of the Mets, and St. Louis publicist Al Fleishman.

“We’d fly by helicopter to a firebase (artillery post), spend a couple hours chatting with the men, then take off and fly to another post nearby,” Fleishman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We hit five or six small bases a day that way for 17 days.”

In his memoirs, Devine recalled, “One time, we were in a whaleboat going up this canal … They gave me a grenade launcher” in case of an ambush.

Devine told the soldiers, “I don’t know how to shoot a gun. If I need it, we’re hopeless.”

Richert said to the Baltimore Sun, “We visited 57 hospitals and they figured the six of us came in contact with better than 10,000 troops.”

According to the Post-Dispatch, Richert and Devine bonded during the Vietnam trip and exchanged Christmas cards each year after that.

Fall classics

Richert’s first World Series appearance came in 1969. With the score tied in Game 4, the Mets had runners on first and second, none out, in the bottom of the 10th when Richert relieved Dick Hall. His first pitch to J.C. Martin was bunted along the first-base line. Richert got to it but his throw hit Martin in the wrist and the ball rolled away, enabling Rod Gaspar to score from second with the winning run. Photos showed Martin interfered by running inside the base line and should have been called out, the Baltimore Sun reported. Boxscore Video

Richert had a better experience in Game 1 of the 1970 World Series. In the bottom of the ninth, with Pete Rose on first and two outs, Richert relieved Jim Palmer, looking to protect a 4-3 lead. His first pitch jammed Bobby Tolan, who hit a soft liner to shortstop Mark Belanger for the final out. Boxscore

On the move

In December 1971, Richert was reunited with the Dodgers when they acquired him from the Orioles.

Two years later, when the Dodgers dealt for closer Mike Marshall, they deemed Richert expendable and traded him to the Cardinals for Tommie Agee.

Richert, 34, joined Al Hrabosky and Rich Folkers as left-handers in the bullpen for the 1974 Cardinals, but he lacked command of his fastball, walking 11 in 11.1 innings. The highlight was the save he earned when he retired the Pirates’ Al Oliver with the potential tying runs on base. Boxscore

Placed on waivers in June 1974, Richert was claimed by the Phillies at the urging of their manager, Danny Ozark.

In 21 appearances for the 1974 Phillies, Richert was 2-1 (the loss was to the Cardinals) with a 2.21 ERA. In September, it was discovered he had a blood clot in his left arm and needed surgery, bringing an end to his pitching days.

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Wild thing: Cardinals paved way for Johnny Klippstein

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers, Prospects on November 30, 2023| 10 Comments »

Johnny Klippstein was 16 when he pitched his first season of professional baseball in the Cardinals’ system. When he got to the big leagues at 22, it was with the Cubs, not the Cardinals.

A right-hander who converted from starter to reliever, Klippstein spent 18 years in the majors and pitched in two World Series _ one for the Dodgers and the other against them.

The Cardinals tried to reacquire him, along with a rangy first baseman who would become the star of a hit television series, but it didn’t work out.

Young and restless

Born at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Klippstein was raised in suburban Silver Spring, Md. His father, who immigrated to America from Germany as a boy in 1894, served 30 years in the U.S. Army and retired as a master sergeant, according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

A lanky kid with a strong arm, Johnny Klippstein learned to pitch in his one season playing American Legion baseball. In the summer of 1943, when he was 15, Klippstein and his mother took a bus to visit relatives in Appleton, Wis. By coincidence, the Cardinals were holding a tryout camp there and Klippstein went.

In the book “We Played the Game,” he recalled, “I arrived with a softball glove and softball hat and looked like a dope.”

Nonetheless, he impressed the Cardinals, who told him he would hear from them the following spring after he turned 16. With many young men in military service during World War II, ballclubs were reaching into the prep ranks to fill the talent pipeline. When Klippstein completed his junior year of high school, the Cardinals signed him and he was sent to their farm club in Allentown, Pa., in June 1944.

“All the guys were between 18 and 21 and I felt they were old enough to be my father,” Klippstein said to author Danny Peary. “The first time I went to the mound, I was so scared that my knees shook.”

Playing for manager Ollie Vanek (who a few years earlier gave a tryout to an amateur left-hander named Stan Musial and recommended him to the Cardinals), Klippstein pitched in six games for Allentown before spending the rest of the summer at a farm club in Lima, Ohio.

Afterward, Klippstein went back home to attend his senior year of high school. When he graduated in June 1945, Klippstein was so eager to return for a second season in the Cardinals’ system, “I didn’t even wait for my diploma. I told them to mail it to me,” he recalled to the Philadelphia Daily News.

Johnny on the spot

Klippstein, 17, was with Winston-Salem, N.C., for most of the summer of 1945. He posted an 8-7 record and led the team in ERA (2.48) but he also threw 19 wild pitches and hit batters with pitches eight times.

“He was rated (by the Cardinals) as a real prospect from the start, but he was young, didn’t even have his full growth,” the Winston-Salem Sentinel noted. “He was temperamental. He had a lot of stuff on the ball, but he was wilder than the usual rookie.”

Klippstein spent all of 1946 in the Army, returned to baseball the next year and pitched in the minors through 1948. After four years in the Cardinals’ system, Klippstein’s progress seemed to have stalled. As the Winston-Salem Sentinel noted, “The Cardinals did not want to let him go because they knew he had the stuff. They didn’t want to send him up because he was so wild.”

In the “We Played the Game” book, Klippstein said, “I was getting discouraged because I felt I was failing … The Cardinals didn’t have me in their plans.”

In November 1948, the Dodgers selected Klippstein in the minor-league draft. Sent to their farm club at Mobile, Ala., in 1949, he won 15 and had a 2.95 ERA.

The Cardinals wanted to get Klippstein back. In October 1949, Cardinals owner Fred Saigh met with Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey in Brooklyn and talked trade. The Cardinals offered pitcher Red Munger, a 15-game winner in 1949, for outfielder Gene Hermanski, first baseman Chuck Connors and Klippstein, the Associated Press reported.

(Connors, 28, made his big-league debut with the 1949 Dodgers, hitting into a double play in his lone at-bat. He later did better as an actor, playing the lead role of Lucas McCain in the TV Western series “The Rifleman.”)

Regarding the proposed trade, Rickey told the Associated Press, “Our greatest need is one more pitcher. I am willing to trade one of my outfielders for a good front-line pitcher. There is a chance to make that deal.”

Ultimately, the Dodgers decided to fill their need from within (Carl Erskine moved into the rotation in 1950) and the trade wasn’t made.

The Dodgers projected Klippstein for a spot with their Montreal affiliate, but the pitching-poor Chicago Cubs, who gave up the most runs in the National League in 1949, claimed him in the November Rule 5 draft.

In the big leagues

At spring training in 1950, Cubs manager Frankie Frisch said Klippstein would be part of the club’s pitching staff on Opening Day. “All he needs is confidence,” Frisch told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. “He seems to have everything else.”

Klippstein had mixed results with the 1950 Cubs. He was bad as a starter (1-8, 7.99 ERA) and good as a reliever (2.98 ERA in 22 appearances) and as a hitter (.333 in 33 at-bats).

After the season, the Cubs acquired Chuck Connors from the Dodgers. He and Klippstein were teammates with the 1951 Cubs.

Klippstein did not have a winning record in any of his five seasons with the Cubs. He was sent to the Reds in October 1954 and had his most success as a starter with them.

On Sept. 11, 1955, Klippstein pitched a one-hit shutout against the Dodgers, who were on their way to becoming World Series champions that year. As Dick Young noted in the New York Daily News, “This was no humpty dumpty lineup. It had all the big sticks available.” Included were five future Hall of Famers: Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson and Duke Snider.

The Dodgers’ hit came with one out in the ninth when Reese blooped a single to right-center. According to Dick Young, when the inning ended, Reese crossed paths with Klippstein, patted him on the rump and said, “Tough luck, John. It’s just one of those things.”

Klippstein just smiled at him. Boxscore

On the move

In 1956, his seventh year in the majors, Klippstein had his first winning season, finishing 12-11 for the Reds. On May 26, he held the Braves hitless for seven innings before manager Birdie Tebbetts lifted him for a pinch-hitter, with the Reds trailing, 1-0. (The Braves scored on a Frank Torre sacrifice fly after Klippstein loaded the bases by hitting Hank Aaron with a pitch and walking two.) Boxscore

“I don’t blame Birdie for taking me out,” Klippstein told the Chicago Tribune. “We were a run behind, had a man in scoring position, and only one more turn at bat.”

After a good spring training with the Reds in 1957, Klippstein was their Opening Day starter against the Cardinals. He got shelled, giving up five doubles (including two to Stan Musial). Boxscore

He ended the season much better than he started it. On Sept. 28, 1957, Klippstein pitched a one-hit shutout against the Braves, who were headed to a World Series title. The Braves’ hit was a Bob Hazle single with two outs in the eighth. Boxscore

Traded by the Reds to the Dodgers for Don Newcombe in June 1958, Klippstein was used mostly in relief the rest of his career.

In Game 1 of the 1959 World Series versus the White Sox, he pitched two scoreless innings for the Dodgers. Boxscore The Cleveland Indians obtained him in 1960 and he had an American League-leading 14 saves for them.

He went on to pitch for the Senators (1961), Reds (1962), Phillies (1963-64), Twins (1964-66) and Tigers (1967).

On Aug. 6, 1962, at Houston, Klippstein pitched three scoreless innings and walloped a Don McMahon slider for a home run, breaking a 0-0 tie with two outs in the 13th. Boxscore  (Klippstein hit five home runs in the majors, but was hitless in 37 career at-bats against the Cardinals.)

He had a 1.93 ERA for the 1963 Phillies and was 9-3 with five saves and a 2.24 ERA for the 1965 Twins, who became American League champions. Klippstein pitched in Games 3 and 7 of the 1965 World Series against the Dodgers and didn’t allow a run. Boxscore and Boxscore and Video

For his big-league career, Klippstein was 101-118 with 65 saves.

After his playing days, he was a Cubs season ticket holder. In October 2003, Klippstein was listening at his bedside to a Cubs game (a 5-4 win over the Marlins) when he died. His son John told the Chicago Tribune, “He passed away just after the Cubs scored that fifth run” in the 11th.

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Cardinals got early look at tower of power Frank Howard

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents on November 15, 2023| 12 Comments »

The first time Frank Howard came to the plate against the Cardinals he did what came naturally to him. He hit a home run. Not just any home run. A tape-measure clout, befitting a giant who stood 6-foot-7 and weighed more than 250 pounds.

As Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times noted, “He’s Gulliver in a baseball suit.”

A right-handed batter capable of launching balls into distant places, Howard ht 382 home runs in 16 years with the Dodgers (1958-64), Senators (1965-71), Rangers (1972) and Tigers (1972-73). He spent another 20 years as a big-league coach and managed the Padres (1981) and Mets (1983).

Hoops hot shot

In Columbus, Ohio, Frank Howard was “kind of a scrawny-looking, mangy-looking kid,” he told the Green Bay Press-Gazette. A son of a railroad machinist, he did construction work during high school and college summers. “I ran a jackhammer on asphalt crews,” Howard told the Press-Gazette, “and I was a hod carrier’s helper (carrying supplies to bricklayers). You work like that, and you’re going to have a strong body.”

When he enrolled at Ohio State, he was 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds. Basketball and baseball were the sports he played. “A lot of people thought I was better at basketball,” Howard said to the Press-Gazette.

In 1955-56, his first varsity basketball season as a sophomore, Howard averaged 15.1 points per game and led the Big Ten Conference in rebounding (12.9).

As a junior in 1956-57, Howard averaged 20.1 points and again was the Big Ten’s top rebounder (15.3). He snared 32 rebounds in a game against Brigham Young at New York’s Madison Square Garden. In Ohio State’s 74-54 home win versus the St. Louis University Billikens, Howard contributed 22 points and 11 rebounds.

In Howard’s senior year, Ohio State came to St. Louis’ Kiel Auditorium and he dazzled with 27 points and 10 rebounds, but the Billikens won, 88-77. Howard averaged 16.9 points as a senior and scouts for the NBA St. Louis Hawks “rated him as an outstanding pro basketball prospect,” The Sporting News reported.

New home

Howard played varsity baseball his sophomore and junior seasons at Ohio State and was “coveted by all 16 major-league clubs” because of his extraordinary power, the Los Angeles Times reported. According to The Sporting News, Dodgers scouts rated Howard higher than Dave Nicholson, the teenage slugger from St. Louis who signed with the Orioles for more than $100,000.

On March 5, 1958, the Dodgers signed Howard for $108,000. When he stepped into the batting cage for the first time at the Dodgers’ training camp in Vero Beach, Fla., Howard “was scared to death” and “actually was shaking,” according to the Los Angeles Times. On his third swing, he hit the ball 400 feet.

Teammates watched in wonder one morning when Howard consumed eight eggs, 24 strips of bacon, two bowls of cereal with sliced bananas, four glasses of orange juice and 10 slices of toast, The Sporting News noted.

The next month, the Philadelphia Warriors took Howard in the third round of the 1958 NBA draft, but by then he was on his way to the Dodgers’ farm club in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Playing for manager Pete Reiser, the St. Louis native and former Dodgers outfielder, Howard hit 37 home runs. “He’s simply fabulous,” Reiser told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He could do for baseball what Babe Ruth did. He hits many a ball completely out of sight in every park.”

Green Bay became important to Howard for reasons other than baseball. He met Carol Johanski, who worked in the circulation department of the Press-Gazette. She recalled to the newspaper, “We met in a pizza place in 1958. I was out with girlfriends and Frank and some fellows came over to our table and introduced themselves. We didn’t believe them when they said they were baseball players.”

Howard asked Carol for a date and they married a year later. Green Bay became Howard’s off-season residence. He spent several winters doing sales and promotional work for a Green Bay paper products company.

Big bopper

After his big season with Green Bay, Howard got called up to the Dodgers in September 1958. In his first game, he hit a home run against a future Hall of Famer, Robin Roberts of the Phillies. Howard’s blast landed atop the left field roof at Philadelphia’s Connie Mack Stadium. Boxscore

In the book “We Played the Game,” Dodgers reliever Johnny Klippstein recalled, “He was frightening looking and the strongest guy I ever saw in baseball, but he was mild and meek and called everybody Mister.”

Howard spent most of 1959 in the minors before a September promotion to the Dodgers, who were headed to becoming World Series champions.

The first time he faced the Cardinals was Sept. 22, 1959, at St. Louis. Batting for reliever Danny McDevitt, Howard drove a pitch from Lindy McDaniel 400 feet to left-center for a three-run home run. The Cardinals “couldn’t recall a ball that was hit as hard” as Howard’s line drive, the Post-Dispatch reported. Boxscore

Howard stuck with the Dodgers in 1960 after his recall from the minors in May, slugged 23 home runs and won the National League Rookie of the Year Award. On July 10, 1960, against the Cardinals at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Howard had his first 5-RBI game in the majors. Boxscore

In a five-year stretch (1960-64), Howard led the Dodgers in home runs four times. He slugged 31 for them in 1962 and 28 the next year when they became World Series champions.

Howard hit .354 versus the Cardinals in 1961 and .340 in 1964. His home run against Craig Anderson in the 11th inning at St. Louis on July 22, 1961, struck the scoreboard in left, more than 400 feet from home plate. Boxscore

All was not well, though, for Howard with the Dodgers. Manager Walter Alston platooned him in right field and wanted Howard to change his batting stance in order to reach curveballs low and away.

Howard threatened to retire in 1964 and made it known he’d welcome a trade. The Dodgers accommodated him, sending Howard, Ken McMullen, Phil Ortega, Pete Richert and Dick Nen to the Washington Senators for Claude Osteen and John Kennedy on Dec. 4, 1964.

Washington monument

As the Senators’ everyday left fielder, Howard became “the most frightening home run hitter in baseball,” the New York Times noted. On a last-place team in 1968, he led the American League in total bases (330), home runs (44), extra-base hits (75) and slugging percentage (.552).

Ted Williams became the Senators’ manager in 1969 and Howard again was the league leader in total bases (340).

“That son of a gun is the biggest and strongest hitter who ever played this game,” Williams told the New York Times, “and that includes Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg _ all of them. Nobody ever hit the ball harder and further, nobody.

“There was only one thing I talked to him about this spring,” Williams said. “He always used to swing at the first pitch that was anywhere near the plate. That’s just like swinging as if you had two strikes on you every time up. Wait. Wait for the pitch you want to hit.”

Howard, who never had more than 60 walks in a season, had 102 walks and 175 hits in 1969 _ an on-base percentage of .402. He was even better in 1970 (.416 on-base mark with 132 walks and 160 hits) and led the league that season in home runs (44) and RBI (126) in addition to walks. Video

Asked about Williams’ influence, Howard said to the New York Times, “He convinced me. I used to be swinging from the time I left the bench. Now I’m not afraid to give them a strike to be more selective … He’s made me more aware of what I’m doing as a hitter, and it has helped.”

Staying busy

After ending his big-league playing career with the 1973 Tigers, Howard returned to baseball as manager of a Brewers farm club in 1976. The next year, Howard became a coach on the staff of Brewers manager Alex Grammas. When Grammas was fired after the 1977 season, general manager Harry Dalton replaced him with George Bamberger. Howard told the Press-Gazette he was disappointed he was bypassed for the job, but Bamberger retained him as a coach.

Howard spent the ensuing winters in Green Bay operating a tavern. He described “Frank Howard’s Lounge” to the Press-Gazette as “intimate, the Fenway Park of saloons.” Howard tended bar and made it a point to talk with customers. As the Press-Gazette noted on a visit, “There he was, pulling on the beer taps, measuring shots of brandy, trying to stab olives and pouring delicate glasses of wine.”

In 1980, Howard’s fourth season as Brewers coach, George Bamberger took a leave of absence because of a heart condition. Howard wanted the job, but Harry Dalton gave it to another coach, Buck Rodgers. “It is tough to live with when you know you can do the job and no one else seems to know it,” Howard told the Associated Press.

After coaching for the 1980 Brewers, Howard was hired to be manager of the Padres, inheriting a last-place team. Howard’s 1981 Padres had Ozzie Smith at shortstop and a former Cardinal, Terry Kennedy, at catcher but not much else. Howard was fired after one strike-shortened season.

George Bamberger, who had replaced Joe Torre as Mets manager, hired Howard for a coaching job in 1982. The next year, Bamberger resigned in June and Howard replaced him. General manager Frank Cashen told Howard the job was only for the remainder of the season.

“He didn’t want to do it under those conditions,” Cashen told the New York Times, “but he finally acceded for the good of the organization … Nobody symbolizes professionalism more than Frank Howard did.”

Howard took over a last-place club. His shortstop was Jose Oquendo and a couple of weeks later the Mets got Keith Hernandez from the Cardinals to play first base.

Davey Johnson became Mets manager in 1984 and Howard was on his coaching staff. Howard went on to coach for the Mariners, Yankees and Rays as well as the Brewers and Mets again.

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