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Grant Jackson made his mark in the majors as a reliever, but his work as a starter, including gems against the Cardinals, made him an all-star.

A left-hander, Jackson pitched 18 seasons in the majors.

For his career, Jackson was 62-33 as a reliever and had 79 saves. In Game 7 of the 1979 World Series, he pitched 2.2 innings of scoreless relief versus the Orioles and was the winning pitcher for the champion Pirates. Boxscore

When he first got to the majors with the Phillies, Jackson wanted to be a starter. In 1969, while in the Phillies’ rotation, he beat the Cardinals twice, impressing their manager, Red Schoendienst. When it came time to pick pitchers for the National League all-star team, its manager, Schoendienst, chose Jackson as one of the nine.

Getting initiated

Jackson was about to turn 23 when he got to the big leagues with the Phillies in September 1965. It was a rough introduction.

In his debut, a relief stint against the Reds, Jackson gave up a three-run home run to Frank Robinson. Boxscore

In his next appearance, a relief stint against the Cardinals, Jackson gave up a three-run home run to Lou Brock. Boxscore

Two appearances, two home runs allowed, both to future Hall of Famers. Welcome to the big leagues, Mr. Jackson.

Speed it up

After spending most of the 1966 season in the minors, Jackson stuck with the Phillies and pitched effectively in relief. In 1968, Jackson had a 1.97 ERA in 27 relief appearances.

The Phillies left him unprotected in the expansion draft for 1969, but he wasn’t selected. “Jackson was disappointed by that,” The Sporting News reported. “He made no secret of his desire to get away from the Phillies. He wanted a chance to pitch regularly as a starter.”

Jackson got his chance to start in 1969 as a replacement for Chris Short, who developed back trouble. Jackson found his stride when he picked up his pace between pitches. “Before, he was too deliberate,” pitching coach Al Widmar told The Sporting News. “He was trying to make every pitch a masterpiece.”

In command

On April 25, 1969, Jackson was matched against Bob Gibson in a start against the Cardinals at Philadelphia. Jackson pitched a complete game, held the Cardinals to one unearned run and got the win. The game was completed in one hour, 48 minutes. Boxscore

Jackson limited the two-time defending league champions to seven singles and a walk. Dal Maxvill, who went hitless, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “I don’t think he should beat us quite that easily.”

Ahead 1-0, the Phillies broke open the game with four runs in the sixth against Gibson. Jackson started the uprising with a bunt single.

After he took the first pitch from Gibson, Jackson looked to third-base coach George Myatt and “he gave me the sign for a drag bunt,” Jackson told the Philadelphia Daily News.

Jackson, the Phillies’ fastest runner, bunted the ball to the right side and legged out a single “despite Gibson’s catlike pickup and throw,” the Philadelphia Daily News reported.

Stunned but impressed, Phillies manager Bob Skinner remarked, “He says Myatt gave him the sign? We don’t have any play like that for our pitchers.”

Nine days later, on May 4, 1969, Jackson started versus the Cardinals again at St. Louis. Matched against Dave Giusti, Jackson pitched his first shutout in the majors. Boxscore

Costly mistake

The next time Jackson faced the Cardinals was July 10, 1969, at Philadelphia. The game turned in the fourth inning. Ahead 2-1, the Cardinals had runners on second and third, two outs, and Julian Javier at the plate. 

Javier pounded left-handers. He hit .319 against them in 1969. With first base open and light-hitting Steve Huntz on deck, Skinner went to the mound and told Jackson to pitch around Javier instead of issuing an intentional walk.

Javier worked the count to 1-and-1 before he pulled a pitch hard on the ground along the third-base line and into left field for a two-run double.

“That was my mistake,” Skinner, a former teammate of Javier with the 1964-66 Cardinals, told the Post-Dispatch. “I knew how well he hit left-handers.” Boxscore

Ups and downs

Five days later, on July 15, 1969, Schoendienst named Jackson to the all-star team. The other left-handers selected to the staff were the Cardinals’ Steve Carlton and the Mets’ Jerry Koosman.

That night, Jackson started against the Cardinals and took the loss. In the fifth, after he got thrown out by Curt Flood while running from first to third, Jackson was routed, giving up four runs in the bottom half of the inning. Boxscore

In September, Jackson lost to the Cardinals for the third consecutive time, dropping his record for the season to 12-15. Boxscore

Grand finale

On Oct. 2, 1969, the Cardinals closed out their season with a game against the Phillies at St. Louis. The matchup was Gibson, seeking his 20th win, versus Jackson. It was quite a duel.

As the game entered the 12th with the score tied at 2-2, both starters still were pitching.

In the bottom half of the inning, Mike Shannon drew a leadoff walk. After failing twice to advance Shannon to second with a sacrifice bunt, Vic Davalillo tapped a grounder to the right of the mound. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Jackson could have had a forceout at second but played it safe and threw to first, retiring Davalillo.

After Jerry DaVanon was walked intentionally, Gibson hit the first pitch from Jackson to Rick Joseph at third. Joseph stepped on the bag for a forceout of Shannon and had an “easy chance” to get Gibson at first to complete a double play, but his throw pulled Richie Allen off the base, the Philadelphia Daily News reported.

With DaVanon at second and Gibson at first, Lou Brock batted and coaxed a walk on a 3-and-2 pitch.

The next batter, Curt Flood, fouled off the first pitch, then watched four in a row go out of the strike zone. The walk, which drove in DaVanon from third with the game-winning run, was the last plate appearance for Flood as a Cardinal. Five days later, he was traded to the Phillies. Boxscore

The win gave Gibson 20 in a season for the fourth time. The only other Cardinals pitcher to do that was Dizzy Dean.

Jackson finished the season at 14-18 with a 3.34 ERA. He had four shutouts and 13 complete games.

Jackson went on to make 692 appearances, 83 as a starter, with the Phillies (1965-70), Orioles (1971-76), Yankees (1976), Pirates (1977-81 and 1982), Expos (1981) and Royals (1982).

He was 7-11 with six saves and a 3.85 ERA in 66 appearances, including 11 starts, versus the Cardinals. Jackson pitched more innings (149.2) against the Cardinals than he did versus any other opponent.

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(Updated March 5, 2023)

After getting caught breaking the rules in a game at St. Louis, Don Sutton and the Dodgers denied, covered up and threatened to sue. The National League caved.

On July 14, 1978, Sutton, the Dodgers’ ace, was ejected by umpire Doug Harvey for pitching a defaced baseball against the Cardinals.

The punishment for such a violation included a 10-day suspension, but National League president Chub Feeney opted not to take that disciplinary action after getting a visit from Sutton’s lawyer.

Under suspicion

A right-hander, Sutton was a gifted pitcher who consistently achieved double-digit season win totals.

He also had a reputation for doctoring the ball. The Cardinals accused him of throwing a spitball the first time they faced him his rookie season. Ten years later, the Cardinals’ Lou Brock implied Sutton used Vaseline to make his pitches dart and dip. Reds manager Sparky Anderson complained Sutton routinely broke the rules by scuffing the ball.

Scuffing “makes the ball unpredictable,” Cardinals catcher Ted Simmons told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “It’s like a dry spitball.”

On June 8, 1977, in a game versus the Cubs, Sutton was ejected for the first time. Bill Buckner, an ex-Dodger, was batting against Sutton when he asked plate umpire Bruce Froemming to inspect the ball. Cubs manager Herman Franks joined in, requesting a search of Sutton. Umpires obliged, but found nothing.

Before delivering his next pitch, Sutton knelt on the mound and belligerently rubbed the ball in the dirt, the Los Angeles Times reported. Dick Stello, umpiring at third, asked for the ball. Sutton fired it low and hard, and the ball skimmed past Stello and into left field.

Froemming started out to the mound to confront Sutton. “His face was red and his veins were throbbing,” Sutton told the Los Angeles Times. “I called him a fat, gutless, little jackass.”

Sutton was ejected. Boxscore

Finding evidence

A year later, Sutton, 33, was seeking his 200th career win in a Friday night start for the Dodgers at Busch Memorial Stadium. The Cardinals had the worst record (35-53) in the league and the Dodgers were defending champions.

Early in the game, either in the second or third, Jerry Crawford, umpiring at first, looked at the ball after the Cardinals had made the last out of the inning. Crawford showed it to crew chief Doug Harvey and said, “Doug, this ball has been defaced,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

Harvey told Crawford to hold onto the ball.

In the sixth, after Keith Hernandez lined out to center fielder Bill North to end the inning, North rolled the ball toward the infield. Harvey, umpiring at second, picked up the ball and saw it was defaced.

According to Harvey, “the ball had an identical type of scuff mark” as the one Crawford showed him a few innings earlier, the Los Angeles Times noted.

Harvey went to Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda and said, “Someone is fooling with the baseball.”

“I told him if the pitcher pitched another defaced ball I would eject him,” Harvey recalled to The Sporting News.

You’re out

In the seventh, the Cardinals’ Mike Tyson flied out to right fielder Rick Monday for the third out of the inning. As the Dodgers left the field, Harvey called for the ball. He saw the same scuff mark in a similar spot as the other two balls.

There was, Harvey told the Los Angeles Times, “a roughness on the ball almost in exactly the same spot on all three. It was enough of a scuff to alter the flight of the ball.”

Harvey ordered the Dodgers to return to the field and ejected Sutton. He declared Sutton’s last pitch to Tyson a ball and told Tyson to get back into the batter’s box.

Lance Rautzhan relieved Sutton and got Tyson to again fly out to Monday in right.

The Cardinals, ahead, 2-1, when Sutton was tossed, scored twice against rookie Bob Welch in the eighth and won, 4-1, behind Pete Vuckovich’s three-hitter. Boxscore

Reasonable doubt?

In the clubhouse, Sutton told the Post-Dispatch, “I’m suing Harvey, the National League and whoever runs the umpiring for depriving me of my rights to earn a living as a pitcher.”

The Dodgers claimed the scuff marks on the balls were caused by the AstroTurf.

“It’s like bouncing a leather basketball on asphalt,” Rick Monday told the Los Angeles Times. “That’s what happens to a baseball on AstroTurf.”

Lasorda said Sutton “did absolutely nothing to the ball.”

Technically, Lasorda may have been correct. Post-Dispatch columnist Bob Broeg reported a Cardinals player suggested a Dodgers infielder concealed in his glove a piece of sandpaper with which to scuff the baseball for Sutton.

Harvey told the Post-Dispatch, “I want to make it clear I’m not saying Sutton was doing it. I’m just saying it was Sutton who was pitching a defaced baseball.”

The Post-Dispatch noted that because all three balls were defaced in the same area and in the same manner “it hardly could be a matter of coincidence.”

“I was three-fourths sure Sutton was doing it,” Harvey told The Sporting News.

Backing down

Sutton was represented by Ed Hookstratten, an attorney whose celebrity client list ranged from entertainers Elvis Presley and Joey Bishop to broadcasters Tom Brokaw and Vin Scully. Hookstratten was the husband of actress Patricia Crowley, who starred in the TV series “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies.”

Hookstratten met Feeney at the National League office in New York and presented the artificial turf theory, The Sporting News reported.

“They didn’t have a case,” Hookstratten said. “Those artificial fields are so tough on the ball that everyone is throwing doctored pitches.”

Hookstratten phoned Sutton and said, “I met with Mr. Feeney. You’re not suspended. Keep your mouth shut and I’ll talk to you later.”

On July 17, three days after Sutton was ejected, Feeney ruled there was insufficient evidence for a suspension. “The action taken by the umpires was proper … but no further disciplinary action appears appropriate at this time,” Feeney said.

In his Post-Dispatch column, Broeg wrote, “Feeney fumbled.”

The beat goes on

The next night, July 18, Sutton started against the Pirates at Pittsburgh. He wore a T-shirt with the words, “Not Guilty,” under his uniform jersey. Sutton pitched a six-hitter and got the win, No. 200 for his career. Boxscore

Sutton joined Don Drysdale as the only pitchers with 200 wins as Dodgers. “When you talk about him, you’re talking about durability, consistency and dependability,” Sutton said. “I want to be thought of in that light.”

(In the book “The Head Game,” Drysdale told writer Roger Kahn, “I threw a good spitball. When I wet the ball and kept my fingers on the smooth part, the bottom would drop out of the pitch when it reached the plate. A pretty good fastball that falls off the table.”)

A month later, Sutton again made headlines when, in an interview with the Washington Post, he said Reggie Smith, not Steve Garvey, was the Dodgers’ best player. When Garvey confronted Sutton about it in the clubhouse before a game against the Mets, they argued and got into a fight.

The rough-and-tumble Dodgers went on to win the 1978 National League pennant.

Sutton ranks as the Dodgers’ franchise leader in career wins, strikeouts, shutouts and innings pitched.

Sutton and Harvey both were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

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Don Sutton pitched some gems against the Cardinals, but they deprived him of the win he wanted most.

Sutton was a consistent winner. He is tied with Nolan Ryan for 14th all-time in wins (324). He had 18 regular-season wins versus the Cardinals, including seven shutouts. Sutton came up empty, though, when he faced them in the 1982 World Series.

A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Sutton died on Jan. 18, 2021, at 75. 

Rookie success

After graduating from high school in Pensacola, Fla., Sutton, a right-hander, signed with the Dodgers as an amateur free agent at age 19 in 1964. Two years later, he was part of a Dodgers starting rotation with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax.

On June 2, 1966, Sutton faced the Cardinals for the first time. He pitched 6.2 scoreless innings at St. Louis and got the win. Boxscore

“He’s the most developed young pitcher I’ve ever seen,” Dodgers reliever Bob Miller, a former Cardinal, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He has a good idea of what he’s going to do every pitch.”

According to the Post-Dispatch, Sutton threw a fastball, slider and curve. The curve was delivered at three different speeds. Cardinals batters Curt Flood and Bob Skinner said Sutton also threw a spitter. For the rest of his 23-year career in the majors, Sutton faced allegations of doctoring the ball.

Old school

In 1968, when the Cardinals were National League champions for the second consecutive year, Sutton was 3-1 with a 1.82 ERA against them.

Two years later, the Cardinals got one of their most satisfying wins against Sutton.

On Aug. 28, 1970, at Los Angeles, Sutton and Cardinals rookie Jerry Reuss were locked in a scoreless duel for eight innings. In the ninth, Joe Torre hit a home run, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 victory. Boxscore

Two weeks earlier, Sutton had been rocked for six runs in two innings in a start at St. Louis. Jose Cardenal and Dal Maxvill had key hits against him.

When Sutton faced the Cardinals again at Dodger Stadium, he hit Cardenal in the hand with a pitch in the first inning. In the second, Maxvill hit the dirt to avoid being struck by Sutton’s fastball.

Reuss retaliated, throwing a pitch behind Sutton and at the level of his head. Sutton found his control after that.

In the ninth, Torre led off and worked the count to 3-and-2. Sutton threw a fastball into the heart of the strike zone and Torre walloped it over the wall in center.

“I was trying to keep from walking Torre and I was trying not to give him anything good to hit,” Sutton said. “That’s a tough situation.”

For Torre, who arrived in the majors 10 years earlier, it was just the third home run he hit at Dodger Stadium. The others came against Koufax and Drysdale.

Torre hit five home runs versus Sutton in his career.

Good stuff

Sutton was 3-0, with two shutouts, and a 1.33 ERA against the Cardinals in 1976.

The Dodgers and Mets were in serious talks during spring training that year about a trade of Sutton for Tom Seaver, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Mets backed away when they and Seaver agreed on contract terms.

On April 29, 1976, Sutton pitched a five-hit shutout against the Cardinals at Los Angeles. It gave him 41 career shutouts, one more than Koufax. Boxscore

Asked how Sutton was able to stop a Cardinals lineup with nine left-handed batters, slugger Reggie Smith told the Post-Dispatch, “When you have good stuff, it doesn’t matter who you’ve got in there.”

Smith’s teammate, Lou Brock, countered, “Yeah, he’s good as long as he has the Vaseline pitch going. He threw me a good one.”

Two weeks later, at St. Louis, Sutton pitched another five-hit shutout. Boxscore

Sutton’s third win against the 1976 Cardinals was an unusual one for him. In the Dodgers’ last game before the all-star break, manager Walter Alston asked Sutton whether he could pitch in relief that afternoon at St. Louis. Sutton hadn’t made a relief appearance in five years. “What could I say except, ‘OK, Skip,’ ” Sutton recalled.

Sutton entered the game in the seventh, pitched three innings and got the win, his first as a reliever since 1968. Boxscore

Series showdowns

On July 14, 1978, Sutton, trying for his 200th career win, was ejected from a game against the Cardinals at St. Louis. Umpire Doug Harvey tossed Sutton “for pitching a defaced baseball.” Harvey had three scuffed baseballs as evidence. Boxscore

Sutton became a free agent after the 1980 season and signed with the Astros. They traded him to the Brewers in August 1982. On the final day of the regular season, Sutton beat the Orioles, clinching a division title for the Brewers. He also got a win in the American League Championship Series versus the Angels.

The Brewers advanced to play the Cardinals in the World Series. They won the opener, 10-0, and started Sutton against rookie John Stuper in Game 2 at St. Louis. Sutton had leads of 3-0 and 4-2, but the Cardinals tied the score on Darrell Porter’s two-run double in the sixth. Sutton was lifted and the Cardinals went on to win. Boxscore and Video

Asked by the Post-Dispatch about Porter’s key hit, Sutton replied, “A good piece of hitting. That’s why he is so well-respected by those of us who stand in the middle of the mound.”

The Brewers won two of the next three, giving them a chance to clinch the championship in Game 6 at St. Louis. The matchup again was Sutton versus Stuper.

With the Dodgers, Sutton played for four league champions (1966, 1974, 1977 and 1978) but none won a World Series crown. At 37, he finally could be part of a World Series champion if he beat the Cardinals in Game 6.

“Nothing in my life comes close in magnitude to this game,” Sutton told the Post-Dispatch.

The Cardinals made it a blowout. Porter and Keith Hernandez each hit a two-run home run against Sutton. He gave up seven runs before being lifted with one out in the fifth. Stuper pitched a four-hitter and the Cardinals won, 13-1. Boxscore and Video

“He wasn’t vintage Sutton,” said Cardinals second baseman Tommy Herr. “He was up in the strike zone a lot. He has to pitch to spots.”

Sutton told the Post-Dispatch, “I had good stuff, but bad location. I have no excuse.”

Years later, for the book “Where Have You Gone ’82 Brewers,” Sutton said, “When I got to St. Louis, I was out of gas … There wasn’t a whole lot left. That’s why I always said I wish I could have given Milwaukee younger innings in the World Series.”

Sutton continued to pitch until he was 43. His last season was in 1988 with the Dodgers. They released him in August and he was a spectator when they won the World Series championship in October.

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Throughout his career in the major leagues, Miguel Batista created drama and suspense in connection with the Cardinals. It was precisely what might be expected from a pitcher who was a novelist.

On Jan. 14, 2011, the Cardinals signed Batista, a free agent, to a minor-league contract and invited him to their spring training camp. Batista, 40, earned a spot on the 2011 Cardinals’ Opening Day roster as a reliever.

The notion of Batista becoming a Cardinal might have seemed unimaginable to some who remembered him as a villain when he played for the Diamondbacks. Batista beat the Cardinals in the 2001 playoffs. Two years later, he was the instigator in an Easter Sunday brawl at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

Mixed emotions

A right-hander from the Dominican Republic, Batista debuted in the majors with the 1992 Pirates. He also pitched for the Marlins, Cubs, Expos and Royals before joining the Diamondbacks in 2001.

Relying on a fastball with exceptional movement, Batista was 11-8 for the 2001 Diamondbacks and helped them win a division title. He made 18 starts and 30 relief appearances. “He’s been invaluable to me because of his versatility,” Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Diamondbacks first baseman Mark Grace, who also was Batista’s teammate with the 1997 Cubs, said Batista learned to stop falling behind in the count and developed off-speed pitches to go with his fastball.

“Big-league hitters, we can get wood on a bullet if we know it’s coming,” Grace said. “So, if you’re 2-and-0, 3-and-1 consistently, you’re going to get in trouble.”

In the 2001 National League Division Series versus the Cardinals, Batista started and won Game 3. Boxscore

The next year, the reverse happened. Batista started and lost Game 3 of the 2002 Division Series against the Cardinals. Boxscore

The next time Batista faced the Cardinals was in a start for the Diamondbacks on April 20, 2003. In the fifth inning, Tino Martinez was struck on the shoulder by a Batista pitch. Martinez and Batista glared at one another. Cardinals manager Tony La Russa yelled at Batista in Spanish.

Martinez charged the mound and threw a punch. Batista fired the ball at him. Both missed. A brawl ensued. In addition to be ejected, Batista was suspended 10 games by Major League Baseball for his role in the incident. Boxscore

Poetry in motion

Batista played rough, but he was no dope. He kept a picture of Albert Einstein in his locker for inspiration. “He says imagination is the best tool you can have because talent and knowledge have their limits,” Batista told the Post-Dispatch. “In other words, man is as big as his dreams.”

Batista spent his free time reading. He became an avid reader, he said, when a friend told him books “are a window to another world.”

Reading inspired Batista to write a book of poetry. The title in English is “Feelings in Black and White.”

A team owner in the Dominican Republic gave Batista the nickname “El Poeta.”

Asked about writing poetry, Batista told the Post-Dispatch, “It’s a moment in time. You just grab a pen and paper. If not, it’s gone. If you don’t write it, then you never remember it the same way.”

Batista also wrote a novel, “The Avenger of Blood,” about a serial killer. In an interview with Trafford Publishing, Batista said of the subject matter, “I took two of the most sensitive issues in our society, the law and religion. I tried to create a scenario where facts and faith could face one another in the court of law.”

Regarding future works, Batista said, “When you become a writer, you will always write. You might not publish, but you never stop writing.”

Joining the roost

After the Cardinals won the 2006 World Series championship, they tried to sign Batista, a free agent, for their starting rotation. The Mariners offered more money, $25 million over three years, and he chose them instead.

Five years later, in 2011, Batista and the Cardinals finally connected. Though he wasn’t guaranteed a spot on the roster, Batista signed with the Cardinals because of La Russa.

At spring training in Jupiter, Fla., Batista said, “I’ve always wanted to play for a manager like Tony. So far, it’s been a real good learning experience, especially from the mental part of the game … When I was a free agent, he called me. He said, ‘If you play for me, you’re my family. If you don’t, I hate you.’ “

Batista had a 1.93 ERA in spring training games and was placed on the Cardinals’ 2011 Opening Day roster. “He’s earned it,” said La Russa.

Production problems

After Ryan Franklin had four blown saves in his first five chances, Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz suggested the Cardinals try Batista as the closer. “The role wouldn’t scare Batista,” Miklasz wrote.

The next day, La Russa said Franklin was being relieved of the closer’s role. Fernando Salas eventually replaced him.

On April 22, 2011, Batista was involved in an unusual move that paid off for the Cardinals. Kyle McClellan was scheduled to start against the Reds at St. Louis, but when the forecast showed severe weather was on the way, La Russa made a late switch, naming Batista the starter.

Batista was pitching to the second batter of the first inning when the game was halted because of rain and tornado warnings. After a delay of 2 hours, 10 minutes, the game resumed. McClellan came in, pitched six innings and got the win. The Reds’ scheduled starter, Edinson Volquez, who warmed up before the first inning, could not resume after the rain delay. His replacement, Matt Maloney, gave up three runs in two innings and was the losing pitcher. Boxscore

The next night, Batista pitched in relief against the Reds and got the loss. Boxscore

Batista entered June with an ERA of 2.01 for the season, but he faltered after that, yielding 10 earned runs in seven innings.

The Post-Dispatch reported Batista “drew high marks” from La Russa “for his impact on the Cardinals’ team chemistry,” but it wasn’t enough to keep his job. The Cardinals released him on June 22 and called up Lance Lynn from the minors.

“Miguel has been a terrific pro … so it’s a tough move,” La Russa said. “He handled it really well. He understands the business.”

In 26 appearances for the Cardinals, Batista was 3-2 with a 4.60 ERA. La Russa said he’d give a “glowing recommendation” to anyone who asked about Batista.

A month later, Batista signed with the Mets. Meanwhile, the Cardinals, with a restructured bullpen, went on to become 2011 World Series champions.

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