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Cardinals brought out the best in Duane Thomas

Posted in Football, Games, Opponents on August 26, 2024| 10 Comments »

Duane Thomas was a valuable running back and non-conformist in a league that valued conformity more than it did talent.

Thomas had two seasons with the Dallas Cowboys and was their leading rusher in both. In his rookie season, they reached the Super Bowl for the first time. In his second season, they won it.

The Cowboys traded Thomas after both title games because he wanted a pay raise. They preferred to get rid of him rather than renegotiate his contract.

Thomas led the NFL in average yards per carry (5.3) as a rookie in 1970 and in total touchdowns (13) and rushing touchdowns (11) in 1971. Against the St. Louis Cardinals, he scored four touchdowns in the 1971 regular-season finale.

On the run

Born and raised in South Dallas, Thomas was a teen when his parents, John and Loretta, died less than a year apart. He moved in with relatives.

Regarding those teen years, Thomas said to Gary Cartwright of Texas Monthly magazine in 1971, “Both of my parents were dead and I traveled a lot. This aunt in Los Angeles … This aunt in Dallas … You travel, you see things. One night, I slept next to a dead man on a railroad track, only I didn’t know he was dead. You see things and you start to relate … I met the Great Cosmos out there.”

(According to Cartwright, “The Great Cosmos was Duane’s attempt to express the inexpressible, and he used the term like a new toy. It was an interchangeable expression of faith and fear, of love and loneliness, of infinite acceptance and eternal rejection, a gussied-up extraterrestrial slang that still hovered painfully near his South Dallas streets.”)

“When I was young, hobos used to come and sleep on our porch,” Thomas told the Boston Globe. “We might not have anything but beans and cornbread but we always shared what we had.”

Thomas played football at Lincoln High School in South Dallas. He reminded observers of Abner Haynes, who played for Lincoln a decade earlier and went on to lead the American Football League (AFL) in rushing touchdowns for three consecutive seasons (1960-62).

Lincoln head coach Floyd Iglehart told Gary Cartwright, “I guess you could call Duane a loner. The only thing that boy liked to do was run. All the time … Running, by himself. Running from home to school, running back home, running over to his girlfriend’s house at night.”

Thomas and his girlfriend married while in high school after she got pregnant. They had a daughter and later a son, according to Texas Monthly.

Happy days

Thomas went to college at West Texas A&M in the panhandle town of Canyon, 375 miles from Dallas. He averaged six yards per carry in four seasons.

The Cowboys chose Thomas in the first round of the 1970 NFL draft. (The Cardinals took the first running back, Texas A&M’s Larry Stegent, who then tore up his knees.)

Cowboys head coach Tom Landry was ecstatic about Thomas being available when Dallas’ turn came with the 23rd pick. “We have unlimited feeling for Thomas,” Landry told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “He’s the type running back that doesn’t come along every year … If we’d gone into the draft with only one (player) to come out with, he’s the one we wanted … This guy doesn’t lack anything.”

Asked his reaction to being drafted by Dallas, Thomas said to the newspaper, “There’s nothing like home sweet home. I’m so excited I can hardly think.”

Thomas signed a three-year contract. According to Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray, Thomas got base salaries of $18,000 in 1970, $20,000 in 1971 and $22,000 in 1972. Thomas also got a $25,000 signing bonus, plus a bonus for making the team as a rookie.

Robust rookie

Calvin Hill and Walt Garrison opened the 1970 season as the Cowboys’ starting running backs, with Thomas primarily returning kickoffs. (He averaged 22 yards on 19 returns.) In October, Thomas moved into the starting backfield. The rookie led the 1970 Cowboys in rushing (803 yards) and rushing touchdowns (five).

“Thomas is the best we’ve ever had as far as hitting all types of plays and being able to go all the way on them,” Landry told The Sporting News.

Football writer Bob Oates observed, “When daylight appears in a football line, even a crack of light, his acceleration is breathtaking.” Jim Murray wrote, “He didn’t really run; he just sort of flowed, like syrup over a waffle.”

In describing what it was like to carry a football as a NFL running back, Thomas told Gary Cartwright, “It’s like moving in a shadow … in a dream … where everything is real slow and yet so fast you don’t think about it … Then you see some light and you go for it.”

The 1970 Cowboys qualified for the playoffs and Thomas carried them to wins over the Detroit Lions (135 yards rushing) and San Francisco 49ers (143 yards rushing and two touchdowns _ one rushing and the other receiving).

“Thomas is great at cutting back on power sweeps,” columnist Dick Young noted in The Sporting News. “Here’s a guy who picks up the most casual six, eight yards a try I ever saw.”

In the third quarter of the Super Bowl against the Baltimore Colts, the Cowboys were ahead, 13-6, and on the verge of delivering a knockout punch. On first down from the Baltimore 2-yard line, Thomas took a handoff, got inside the 1, twisted and tried to get across the goal line, but linebacker Mike Curtis stripped the ball out of his hands and cornerback Jim Duncan recovered. The Colts rallied and won, 16-13.

Hard feelings

Based on the overall success of his first season, Thomas wanted to be paid more than the $20,000 his contract called for him to receive in 1971. He asked the Cowboys to renegotiate and they refused.

Upset with the response, Thomas held a news conference in July 1971 and criticized Cowboys management. He said Landry was “so plastic, just not a man at all.” He called team president Tex Schramm “sick, demented and completely dishonest” and said player personnel director Gil Brandt was “a liar.”

“I had all the freedom of a Negro slave,” Thomas said to the Boston Globe.

The Cowboys shipped Thomas, lineman Halvor Hagen and defensive back Honor Jackson to the New England Patriots for running back Carl Garrett and a No. 1 draft pick.

At his first training camp practice with the 1971 Patriots, Thomas clashed with head coach John Mazur when asked to set up in a three-point stance. Thomas went into a two-point stance instead. According to The Sporting News, Thomas told Mazur, “This is the way I was taught at Dallas. They said you could see the linebackers better from a two-point stance.”

Mazur insisted a three-point stance was better. Thomas replied, “That may be but I’m doing it my way.”

(Years later, Thomas recalled to the Boston Globe, “I was in a two-point stance because it gives a better view of a handoff. I was behind [fullback] Jim Nance, and I couldn’t see. His ass was the size of a volleyball court.”)

Mazur ordered Thomas to leave the field, then went to general manager Upton Bell and said he wanted Thomas off the team.

When Bell called the Cowboys about rescinding the trade, Tex Schramm said no, but NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle intervened and brokered a compromise, the Boston Globe reported. The Cowboys returned Garrett and the No. 1 draft pick to the Patriots, who sent Thomas and two high draft picks to Dallas. The Patriots kept Hagen and Jackson.

With the Cowboys still unwilling to renegotiate his contract, Thomas refused to report. The Cowboys placed him on their reserve list without pay.

In late September 1971, Thomas agreed to return to the team.

Championship run

The player the Cowboys traded in July and reluctantly relented to take back led them in rushing (793 yards) and total touchdowns scored (13) in 1971, even though he played in just 11 of their 14 games.

One of those games was a 44-21 Cowboys victory against the Patriots. Thomas ignited the rout with a 56-yard touchdown run for the first score of the game. Landry described Thomas as “tremendous,” The Sporting News reported.

Another highlight came Dec. 18, 1971, in the Cowboys’ 31-12 triumph against the Cardinals at Dallas. Thomas scored three touchdowns rushing and another receiving. One of the touchdown runs was of 53 yards. The touchdown catch, on a screen play, went 34 yards. “Thomas zigzagged behind blockers, cut back to the middle and scored easily,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Game stats and Video

Throughout the season, Thomas refused to talk with the media because he thought it had taken management’s side in his contract squabble. Years later, he told the Boston Globe, “The NFL controlled the media. That’s how they kept players in line _ through fear, which is an old slave tactic. Pit one against the another … Tom (Landry) would tell you one thing and the media something else.”

Thomas helped the Cowboys repeat as NFC champions, scoring touchdowns in playoff victories versus the Minnesota Vikings and San Francisco 49ers.

In the Super Bowl against the Miami Dolphins, Thomas rushed for 95 yards and a touchdown in Dallas’ 24-3 victory, earning a winner’s share of $15,000.

Moving around

At training camp in July 1972, Thomas again threatened to sit out unless his base pay was raised. Again, the Cowboys traded him _ to the San Diego Chargers for wide receiver Billy Parks and running back Mike Montgomery.

“I’m not going to try and change Duane Thomas,” Chargers head coach Harland Svare said to The Sporting News. “He won’t be expected to stand and salute.”

Thomas never played a regular-season game for the Chargers. He eventually was put on the reserve list in 1972 and traded to the Washington Redskins for two high draft picks in 1973.

Thomas played two seasons (1973-74) with Washington. One of his best performances came on Sept. 22, 1974, when he rushed for 96 yards against the Cardinals, who won, 17-10. Game stats

After playing a few games for Hawaii of the World Football League in 1975, Thomas worked a variety of jobs, including as an avocado farmer in California, before settling in the Village of Oak Creek near Sedona, Arizona.

“I was living in my own little world,” Thomas told Jim Murray. “I was making the world up as I went along.”

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A bevy of double plays can’t save the day for Cardinals

Posted in Games, Opponents, Records on August 16, 2024| 5 Comments »

There are many frustrating ways to lose a baseball game but perhaps none more so than this:

On Aug. 20, 1954, the Cardinals turned six double plays, tying a National League record, and still were beaten, 3-2, at home against the Reds.

Though they totaled 12 hits and eight walks, putting a runner on base in every inning, the Reds didn’t do much damage. They had two triples and a double, but none produced a run. The Reds scored one run on a double play and another on a wild pitch.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals ran into outs. They had four runners thrown out on the base paths, including two at home plate. The game ended when a Cardinals runner was nailed trying to score from second on a single.

Twists and turns

The Friday night game featured starting pitchers Joe Nuxhall, on his way to his first winning season with the Reds, against winless Cardinals rookie Ralph Beard, a Cincinnati native.

The first inning set the tone. For the Reds, Ted Kluszewski’s single scored Roy McMillan from second but Jim Greengrass ended the threat by grounding into a double play. For the Cardinals, Wally Moon was thrown out at second attempting to steal.

In the second, the Cardinals nearly turned a triple play. After Johnny Temple and Wally Post opened with singles, Hobie Landrith lined to second baseman Red Schoendienst. He tossed to shortstop Alex Grammas, who made the out on Temple at second, but Post beat Grammas’ peg to first “by a whisker,” the Dayton Daily News reported.

(Schoendienst started four of the double plays; Grammas started the other two.)

The Cardinals made another out on the base paths in the bottom half of the inning. With Rip Repulski on third and one out, Nuxhall snared Joe Cunningham’s grounder and then trapped Repulski, who had broken for home, in a rundown before tagging him out.

More buffoonery in the third: With two outs, Beard uncorked a wild pitch, enabling Bobby Adams to score and extending the Reds’ lead to 2-0.

The Reds scored the decisive run in the fourth. With runners on the corners, none out, Nuxhall rolled into a 4-6-3 double play, but Post came home from third, making the score 3-0.

St. Louis turned its fourth double play in the fifth on Gus Bell’s grounder.

Hits, runs, errors

The Cardinals scored twice in the sixth. With two outs, Stan Musial was on second and Ray Jablonski on first, when Bill Sarni singled to center. Musial scored, and when center fielder Gus Bell let the ball roll between his legs for an error, Jablonski streaked home from first with the second run. Sarni kept running, too, trying to take third, but left fielder Jim Greengrass, who retrieved the ball, fired to third baseman Bobby Adams in time to tag the runner, ending the inning.

The Reds got leadoff triples from Temple in the sixth and Post in the eighth, but failed to score. Kluszewski grounded into double plays in the seventh and ninth.

With two outs and none on in the St. Louis eighth, Reds manager Birdie Tebbetts used a four-man outfield, removing the shortstop, against Musial for the second time that season. Tebbetts wanted to prevent Musial from getting an extra-base hit that would put him in scoring position.

When Musial saw the defensive alignment, he called time and met with Cardinals manager Eddie Stanky. “I told Stan to get on base any way he could,” Stanky said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Attempting to hit the ball into the vacated shortstop spot for a single, Musial instead grounded out to third, ending the inning.

Hit and run

Clinging to the 3-2 lead, Nuxhall walked the leadoff batter, Ray Jablonski, in the ninth. Dick Schofield, 19, ran for Jablonski and advanced to second on Rip Repulski’s sacrifice bunt. Frank Smith, who threw sidearm, relieved Nuxhall.

Bill Sarni bounced out to Smith, with Schofield holding second. Then Joe Cunningham drilled a low line single to right. Wally Post charged the ball, gloved it and threw a strike to catcher Andy Seminick, nailing Schofield easily for the final out. Boxscore

(Note: The box score, which shows Schofield was on third when Cunningham singled, is wrong. Multiple newspaper accounts of the game report that Schofield was on second when Cunningham got his hit. None report him being on third.)

Asked about third-base coach Johnny Riddle’s decision to wave Schofield to the plate, Stanky said to the Post-Dispatch, “If he hadn’t sent the kid with two outs, I’d have shot him.”

The dramatic finish almost overshadowed the six double plays. It was the seventh time a National League team turned that many double plays in a game, and the third time the team achieving that fielding feat lost, The Cincinnati Post reported.

The Yankees of the American League established the big-league record by turning seven double plays in a win versus the Athletics on Aug. 14, 1942. Boxscore

Since then, the Astros equaled the Yankees’ mark, turning seven double plays in a 3-1 victory against the Giants at the Astrodome on May 4, 1969. Boxscore

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Cardinals sent mayday call when facing Denny Lemaster

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers on August 12, 2024| 14 Comments »

May was indeed a merry month for Denny Lemaster when he pitched against the Cardinals. A left-hander, Lemaster hurled four shutouts versus the Cardinals, and all occurred in May during the 1960s.

In 11 seasons in the majors with the Braves (1962-67), Astros (1968-71) and Expos (1972), Lemaster was on the cusp of becoming an ace until injuries set him back. His record was 90-105, including 15-13 versus the Cardinals.

Lemaster experienced multiple family tragedies during his life: his sister drowned in a cesspool; his father died in a car crash; his wife also was killed in an auto accident.

Cesspool cave-in

Lemaster resided with his parents and younger sister in Camarillo, Calif., 50 miles north of Los Angeles. Denny’s father, Cyrus, milked cows for Adohr Farms and the family was housed in a residence court leased by the dairy for its workers.

On June 24, 1951, Denny’s sister, Lana, 8, and a playmate, Peggy Ziese, were skipping across the yard of the residence court when “the earth opened up beneath them,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

Rotten timbers covering a cesspool had given way and Lana fell in, the Associated Press reported. “Lana fell from sight through a hole about three feet in diameter,” the Times reported.

According to the Los Angeles Daily News, her friend Peggy “lost her footing but scrambled to safety” and screamed for help.

Two neighbors, Fred Luddenburg and Charles Simmons, were the first on the scene. According to the Camarillo Star, Lana’s father, Cyrus, soon joined them. The men lowered a garden hose to Lana.

“She grasped it and was nearly free of water when rotted timber gave way and struck her, causing her to lose her grip,” the Daily News reported. “Lana disappeared under an avalanche of dirt,” according to the Associated Press.

Her brother Denny, 12, had run to a fire station three blocks away for help, but rescuers arrived too late. “The rescue squad laid planks across the opening and lowered a ladder into the pit,” the Times reported. “Russell Griffin climbed down the ladder and carried Lana’s body to the surface.” Attempts to resuscitate failed.

Twenty minutes after she first fell, Lana was dead, drowned in the cesspool.

“Because of the tragic death of little Lana Lemaster, many local residents are advocating the immediate installation of a central sewage system,” the Camarillo Star reported.

(The Lemasters never considered a lawsuit. “We were poor, uneducated people,” Denny told the Times in 2021. “If that happened today, we’d have owned Adohr Farms.”)

Fatal accident

Three years later, on Dec. 3, 1954, Denny’s father, Cyrus, 44, died after his pickup truck skidded on a rain-slick road in Camarillo and slammed into a power pole, deputy coroner Virgil Payton said to the Oxnard Press-Courier.

A passing motorist stopped and found Cyrus in the pickup truck, bleeding badly. An ambulance was called to the scene, but Cyrus “had to be transferred to another ambulance when the first broke down (on its way) to the hospital,” the Ventura County Star reported. Cyrus was dead on arrival.

Pitching in

Without a father to support he and his mother, Denny worked 40 hours a week at a gas station while attending Oxnard High School, the Oxnard Press-Courier reported. He earned extra income from a second job with a lumber company.

When he wasn’t working or attending classes, Lemaster played high school baseball. He was a first baseman as a freshman and sophomore, then turned to pitching his junior and senior years.

As a senior in 1958, Lemaster had a stretch of 53 consecutive scoreless innings. He struck out 251 in 123 innings. Johnny Moore, West Coast scout for the reigning World Series champion Milwaukee Braves, signed Lemaster for $60,000 in June 1958. Moore previously signed Eddie Mathews and Del Crandall for the Braves.

(One of Lemaster’s prep teammates, Ken McMullen, signed with the Dodgers in 1960 and went on to play 16 seasons in the majors as a third baseman.)

Reaching the top

In 1962, his fifth season in the minors, Lemaster was 10-4 for Louisville when he got called to the Braves in July. Their ace left-hander, Warren Spahn, helped him adapt to the big leagues, showing him an effective pickoff move to first and how to add off-speed pitches to his mix.

“At Louisville, I could rear back and just throw it by some hitters,” Lemaster told the Ventura County Star, “but you can’t get away with that in the big leagues.”

In 1963, his first full season in the majors, Lemaster was 11-14, but the Braves were shut out in seven of those defeats and he lost another by a 2-1 score.

The next year, Lemaster had his best record _ 17-11 for the 1964 Braves. On May 24, he shut out the Cardinals for the first time, a three-hitter at Milwaukee. Boxscore

When he got to spring training in 1965, Lemaster’s shoulder ached. “Figuring he could work the stiffness out, he continued to pitch,” Newspaper Enterprise Association reported. “The pain increased. By July, the pain in his shoulder was as bad as his pitching record.” He finished the season with a 7-13 mark.

“I had torn tendons and there was nothing to do but rest,” Lemaster told reporter Sandy Padwe. “I was taking ultrasound and cobalt treatments and they were shooting my shoulder with cortisone. Finally, the shoulder began to respond and I could throw normally again.”

Pitching instead of throwing

In May 1966, the Cardinals moved into Busch Memorial Stadium in downtown St. Louis and defeated the Braves twice in their first two games there. The first pitcher to beat the Cardinals in their new home was Lemaster. He did it with a four-hit shutout and also drove in a run against Bob Gibson.

“Tonight I had to be a pitcher,” Lemaster told the Atlanta Journal. “I had to make a guy pop the ball up on a 3-1 pitch. I got another one to pop up on a 3-2 pitch and I got one to ground out on a 3-1 pitch. There’s a fine point between a good game like that and a bad game sometimes. If you make a little mistake in those situations, 3-1, 3-2, you can be in real trouble.

“So that’s why I get more satisfaction out of a game like (this) one. I made the pitches I had to when I had to make them.” Boxscore

With an 11-8 season record, Lemaster was warming up for an August 1966 start at San Francisco “when I felt something snap in my arm below the elbow,” he told Newspaper Enterprise Association. He pitched four innings, couldn’t straighten his arm and was shut down for the season.

Right stuff

The Cardinals were on their way to becoming World Series champions in 1967, but Lemaster was not intimidated. On May 24 in Atlanta, he pitched a one-hitter against them and won, 2-0.

“Just as soon as I started warming up, my fastball was going boom, boom, boom, right over the plate and I knew that I had it,” Lemaster told the Associated Press.

Catcher Joe Torre said to the Atlanta Constitution, “His fastball was as good as I ever saw it.”

The Cardinals’ lone hit was Lou Brock’s one-out single in the third, a low liner to center. “It almost tore my head off,” Lemaster said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Bob Gibson pitched a three-hitter for the Cardinals. One of those hits was Felipe Alou’s two-run home run in the fifth. More upsetting to Gibson, though, was what preceded the home run. With two outs and none on, Gibson issued a walk to Woody Woodward, who entered the game with a .197 batting average and had a career mark of .100 (3-for-30) versus Gibson.

“I should have thrown the ball right down the middle to Woodward,” Gibson said to the Post-Dispatch. Boxscore

More tragedy

After the 1967 season, Lemaster and infielder Denis Menke were dealt to the Astros for infielder Sonny Jackson and first baseman Chuck Harrison.

Lemaster shut out the Cardinals for the final time on May 2, 1968, a three-hitter at Houston. Lemaster had a 2.81 ERA for the 1968 Astros but a 10-15 record. Boxscore

He was moved fulltime to the bullpen by Astros manager Harry Walker in 1971 and finished his pitching career as a reliever with the 1972 Expos.

Lemaster became a custom home builder in Georgia, where he resided with his wife, Earlene, and their four children.

In October 1978, Earlene, 40, was killed and a daughter, Kim, 14, was injured in a traffic accident in Decatur, Ga. Earlene was driving her daughter home from school when she apparently ran a stop sign, a DeKalb County police official told the Atlanta Constitution. A truck slammed into the Cadillac and Earlene and her daughter were pinned in the wreckage for at least 30 minutes before rescuers could free them. The 20-year-old driver of the truck was not seriously injured and was not charged, police said.

Lemaster remarried in 1983. He was a master woodcarver, whose specialty was duck decoys.

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How John Lackey helped Cardinals sharpen their edge

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers, Trades on July 28, 2024| 9 Comments »

John Lackey was a big guy (6-foot-6) with a big presence on the mound who often came up big in the biggest games.

On July 31, 2014, the Cardinals acquired Lackey from the Red Sox for outfielder Allen Craig and pitcher Joe Kelly. The Red Sox also sent the Cardinals a minor-league pitcher, Corey Littrell, and $1.75 million cash.

Just nine months earlier with the Red Sox, Lackey beat the Cardinals in the decisive Game 6 of the 2013 World Series, making him the first pitcher to start and win the clinching game of a World Series for two franchises. As an Angels rookie, he started and won Game 7 of the 2002 World Series against the Giants.

David Eckstein, shortstop for two World Series champions (2002 Angels, 2006 Cardinals), said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about Lackey, “The bigger the stage, the better the performance. The bigger the game, the better he is.”

Lackey’s success in big games was an obvious quality that appealed to the Cardinals. Another was his demeanor. On the mound, Lackey was intense, edgy. Or, as Cubs catcher David Ross described it to the Chicago Tribune, full of “competitive fire.” The Cardinals would benefit from that kind of approach.

Pitching provides path

Lackey, naturally, came from a big state _ Texas. He was born and raised in Abilene. In high school, Lackey played almost exclusively at first base and hit .541 as a senior.

He went to the University of Texas-Arlington as a first baseman, but also was given the chance to pitch his freshman season. Then he enrolled at Grayson College in Denison, Texas, where he planned to play one season before transferring to Texas Tech.

At Grayson, Lackey, a right-hander, developed his pitching skills. “I like it a lot,” he told the Abilene News-Reporter in May 1999. “It gives me a chance to be in control of the game. It’s been fun so far. I still like to hit, though.”

Grayson won the national junior college baseball championship in 1999 and Lackey canceled his plans of transferring to Texas Tech when the Angels selected him in the second round of the 1999 amateur draft.

Three years later, in June 2002, he made his Angels debut, replacing Scott Schoeneweis in the starting rotation.

Rookie won’t rattle

Lackey, 23, made 18 regular-season starts for the 2002 Angels and was 9-4. He lost just once in his final seven starts of the season and won the game that clinched the Angels’ first playoff berth in 16 years.

“A lot of John’s success is due to his makeup, which started long before he pitched in the major leagues,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. “His passion for the game and his makeup and his willingness to work … You mix that with his talent, it’s an incredible combination.”

In the American League Championship Series against the Twins, Lackey started Game 4 and pitched seven scoreless innings for the win. Boxscore The Angels clinched the pennant the next day, reaching the World Series for the first time.

When Scioscia chose Lackey to start World Series Game 7 versus the Giants, Angels closer Troy Percival told the Los Angeles Times, “You couldn’t ask for a better man to be out there than Lackey. He’s not scared of anything.”

Lackey did the job, allowing one run in five innings and becoming the first rookie since the Pirates’ Babe Adams in 1909 to win a World Series Game 7. Boxscore

Noting how Lackey established the inside fastball early in the game, Angels pitching coach Bud Black told the New York Times, “You can’t discount experience, but a lot of times youthful aggressiveness pays off.”

Lackey said to the Los Angeles Times, “If you don’t want to go out there with a little pressure and pitching in big games, you shouldn’t be around.”

Lackey pitched eight seasons (2002-09) with the Angels, posting a 102-71 record, then became a free agent and took a five-year contract from the Red Sox for $82.5 million.

Getting it done

When the Red Sox missed qualifying for the playoffs in 2010 and 2011, “Lackey became one of the symbols of what had gone wrong,” the Boston Globe noted. “Fans booed him and Lackey’s angry exchanges with reporters caused team officials to wince.”

Lackey tore a ligament in his right elbow during the 2011 season, managed to make 28 starts but had a 6.41 ERA. He underwent surgery and sat out the 2012 season, when the Red Sox (69-93) finished in last place.

John Farrell, a former pitcher, replaced Bobby Valentine as Red Sox manager in 2013 and Lackey returned to the rotation. The 2013 Red Sox had the best record in the American League (97-65). In the playoffs, Lackey beat the Rays in Game 2 of the Division Series and won Game 3 of the League Championship Series against the Tigers. Then he beat the Cardinals in the decisive Game 6 of the World Series. Boxscore, Boxscore, Boxscore

“You can foresee him being successful for years to come because of the style of pitcher he is,” Farrell told the Globe. “He can put the ball on the ground. Because he throws the ball on a downhill angle, he doesn’t rely on velocity as much.”

When the Red Sox floundered in 2014 and sunk to last place in July, they shopped Lackey and fellow starter Jon Lester.

Finding a bargain

The 2014 Cardinals needed a boost. After losing, 12-1, to the Padres on July 30, the Cardinals (56-50) were in third place in a five-team division. That day, they acquired pitcher Justin Masterson (4-6, 5.51 ERA) from Cleveland for a prospect, outfielder James Ramsey.

Seeking another starter, the Cardinals had their eyes on Lackey, Lester and the Rays’ David Price, according to the Post-Dispatch.

Lackey, who would turn 36 in October, became their focus. In addition to his 11-7 record for the 2014 Red Sox, Lackey had an enticing contract structure. Though owed $5.08 million for the remainder of 2014, a clause in his contract gave his team the option to bring him back in 2015 for a salary of $500,000.

When the Cardinals agreed to include Joe Kelly (2-2, 4.37 ERA), along with Allen Craig (.237, 44 RBI), the trade was made.

Get to work

Craig and Kelly were “cherished teammates” among the Cardinals and the trade “left the clubhouse stunned,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak was “a little stunned,” too, “by the immediate take of disappointment” among the players, he told the Post-Dispatch.

One of the players who applauded the deal was a newcomer, catcher A.J. Pierzynski, 37. Released by the Red Sox on July 16, he signed with St. Louis five days before Lackey was acquired.

“He brings a presence,” Pierzynski told the Post-Dispatch. “He brings competitiveness, He wants the ball. He’s won big games wherever he’s been.”

As the Post-Dispatch noted, Lackey “proved reliable, if not dominant,” for the 2014 Cardinals. In 10 starts, he was 3-3. Additionally, he “brought an edge to us,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny told the Post-Dispatch.

From 2.5 games out of first place on the day Lackey was acquired, the Cardinals finished atop their division, two games ahead of the runner-up Pirates. The Cardinals were 34-22 after Lackey joined them and finished at 90-72.

Trading Craig and Kelly sent a message that served as a wakeup call to Cardinals players. “I think we came out of it as a stronger, tougher, more energized team,” Mozeliak said to the Post-Dispatch.

Wins matter

In the 2014 National League Division Series, Lackey pitched a gem in Game 3 (seven innings, one run) and beat the Dodgers. Boxscore

He started Game 3 of the National League Championship Series versus the Giants and was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning with the score tied. The Giants won, 5-4, and eventually prevailed in the series. Boxscore

Back with the Cardinals in 2015, Lackey, 36, was 13-10 with a 2.77 ERA and led the team in starts (33) and innings pitched (218). No Cardinal has pitched that many innings in a season since. Video

The 2015 Cardinals (100-62) had the best record in the National League and were pitted in the playoffs against the third-place finisher from their division, the Cubs, a team they’d defeated 11 times in 19 tries.

In Game 1, matched against Jon Lester, Lackey was superb (no runs, two hits, 7.1 innings) and St. Louis won. Boxscore

It was a different story in Game 4. Lackey allowed four runs in three innings. The Cardinals came back and tied the score, but the Cubs prevailed and advanced to the next round. Boxscore

Granted free agency, Lackey joined the Cubs, whose manager, Joe Maddon, coached the Angels when Lackey was with them. Reflecting on how Lackey didn’t want to be bothered on days he pitched, Maddon said to the Chicago Tribune, “Honestly, you can’t talk to him that day in the dugout.”

Lackey was 11-8 (including 1-1 with a 2.03 ERA versus the Cardinals) in 29 starts for the 2016 Cubs. Though he didn’t win a game in the 2016 World Series against Cleveland, the Cubs prevailed for the first time since 1908.

After a final season with the Cubs in 2017, Lackey finished with a career record of 188-147 and three World Series championship rings.

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How Ernie Lombardi enabled Reds to win by a nose

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents on July 5, 2024| 7 Comments »

In a game in which both catchers were perfect at bat, Ernie Lombardi won it for the Reds with his mitt.

On July 6, 1934, the Reds edged the Cardinals, 16-15, at St. Louis. Lombardi, the Reds catcher and future Hall of Famer who was nicknamed “Schnozz” because of his big nose, produced five hits in five trips to the plate. Cardinals catcher Spud Davis, a career .308 hitter, was 4-for-4 with two walks.

The game ended when Lombardi tagged out Leo Durocher at the plate.

Theatre of the absurd

Played on a Friday afternoon, a paid gathering of 1,100 came to Sportsman’s Park to see the last-place Reds (22-46) and second-place Cardinals (41-28).

The home team gave what the St. Louis Star-Times described as a “burlesque performance,” committing three errors, stranding 12 runners and allowing the Reds to score in six of the first seven innings.

Of the seven pitchers used by the Cardinals, three were future Hall of Famers (Jesse Haines, Dizzy Dean and Dazzy Vance), but the only one who didn’t give up a run was Tex Carleton, who worked the ninth.

The Reds led 8-0 in the second and 15-8 in the sixth, but their pitchers were as ineffective as those on the Cardinals.

More to come

Ahead by five, the Reds scored the decisive run in the seventh when Lombardi drove in ex-Cardinal Chick Hafey from second with a two-out single, extending the lead to 16-10.

However, an error by Lombardi in the bottom half of the inning gave the Cardinals a chance to create some drama.

The first batter, Jack Rothrock, hit a pop fly near the plate in fair territory. Lombardi called for it, but dropped the ball, and Rothrock was safe at first. Frankie Frisch flied out and Joe Medwick, on what should have been the third out, fanned.

Rip Collins then drove a pitch onto the pavilion roof in right for a two-run home run, getting the Cardinals within four, at 16-12.

The Cardinals scored again in the eighth, making it 16-13.

In the ninth, Tex Carleton “showed his pals how real baseball should be pitched,” the Star-Times noted, and retired the Reds in order.

Fantastic finish

In the home half of the ninth, the Cardinals had runners on first and second, two outs, when their eighth-place batter, Leo Durocher, came to the plate against Si Johnson, who was on his way to a 22-loss season with the Reds.

Durocher hit a pop-up in foul ground, but “got a break when a boy in a grandstand box prevented Lombardi from reaching over for a catch,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Given a second chance, Durocher drilled a double to right, driving in both runners and making the score 16-15.

Next up was the pitcher, Carleton.

Cardinals player-manager Frankie Frisch had used 20 of his 22 players, including five as pinch-hitters. Only pitchers Paul Dean and Bill Hallahan hadn’t appeared in the game. Deeming neither a better option than Carleton, Frisch let Tex bat.

(Carleton produced 100 hits in the majors, including 17 in 1934.)

Carleton hit a sharp grounder to the right of shortstop Mark Koenig, who fielded the ball, but his low throw to first wasn’t in time to nail the runner.

When Durocher, who rounded third, saw first baseman Jimmy Shevlin fumble the ball, he dashed for the plate, hoping to score the tying run.

According to the Star-Times, “Shevlin quickly recovered the ball but his throw home was bad. Lombardi reached out, pulled in the ball and wheeled around just as Durocher tried to slide under him. Umpire Bill Klem whipped off his mask and cap and shouted, ‘You’re out!’ “

Believing he was safe, an angry Durocher “wanted to throw a fistful of dirt” at Klem, “but resisted the impulse,” the Post-Dispatch reported. Boxscore

 

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How Gee Walker got a wakeup call versus Browns

Posted in Games, Hitters, Managers, Opponents on June 28, 2024| 9 Comments »

Gee Walker took a nap in St. Louis. Problem is, he did it on the base paths.

On June 30, 1934, Walker was picked off base twice in the same inning while sleep-walking for the Tigers against the Browns at Sportsman’s Park.

His blunders ruined a potential Tigers scoring threat, opening the door for the Browns to win in extra innings, and enraged Tigers player-manager Mickey Cochrane, who fined and suspended Walker.

Born to run

Gerald “Gee” Walker was an exciting ballplayer with multiple skills. He could run, hit for average and drive balls into the gaps for extra bases.

An outfielder and right-handed batter, Walker hit .300 or better in six of his 15 seasons in the majors with the Tigers (1931-37), White Sox (1938-39), Senators (1940), Indians (1941) and Reds (1942-45). He twice ranked among the top 10 in the American League in doubles, triples, RBI and total bases. He had 20 or more steals in a season five times.

At the University of Mississippi, Walker played football as well as baseball. He was a member of the “The Flying Five” backfield which also included Tadpole Smith, Rube Wilcox, Doodle Rushing and Cowboy Woodruff.

Walker brought a football-type aggressiveness to the diamond that could thrill but sometimes backfired. The Detroit News described him as a “base-running screwball” and the Detroit Free Press called it “dizzy base running.”

“He frequently was in hot water with his manager because of reckless running and his penchant for being picked off base,” The Sporting News noted.

Costly gaffes

The Tigers, who had not won a pennant since 1909, were challenging the Yankees for control of the American League in 1934. Entering a series-opening Saturday afternoon game with the Browns at St. Louis, the Tigers (40-25) were a mere half game behind the first-place Yankees (40-24). The Browns (28-34) were a team the Tigers were expected to beat, so Mickey Cochrane, Detroit’s manager and catcher, was looking for a strong start to the series.

With the score tied at 3-3, Hank Greenberg led off the Tigers’ eighth with a single. Walker followed with a grounder to third baseman Harlond Clift, who threw low trying to force out Greenberg at second.

Clift’s error gave the Tigers a scoring chance, with Greenberg at second, Walker at first, no outs and Marv Owen (who drove in 98 runs that season) at the plate.

Greenberg’s presence on second meant Walker had nowhere to go and thus didn’t need to take anything more than a normal lead, but after Jack Knott made a pitch to Owen, catcher Rollie Hemsley noticed Walker had drifted into a no-man’s land off first. Hemsley fired the ball to first baseman Jack Burns and Walker was trapped between first and second.

When Greenberg saw the predicament Walker was in, he tried to help by galloping toward third but got caught in a rundown. Before Greenberg was tagged out, Walker advanced to second. Owen then lined to left for the second out.

Though picked off once that inning, Walker wandered six feet from second base. Before making a pitch to the next batter, Knott whirled and threw to shortstop Alan Strange, covering second. Walker was caught flat-footed and tagged out, ending the inning. As the Detroit Free Press noted, Walker “broke up a rally with some of his characteristic crackpottery.”

The Browns won, 4-3, in 10 innings. Boxscore

Out of sight

“Cochrane was furious with Walker,” the Free Press reported. “Before he left the Tigers’ dugout at the end of the game, he almost blew four fuses.”

Citing Walker’s bungling on the base paths, Cochrane suspended him indefinitely and issued a fine.

“I’m through with that fellow,” Cochrane said to the Free Press. “I’ve done everything I could to help him. Then he goes and kicks away a ballgame through reckless, stupid base running. It would not be fair to the other players to keep a fellow of Walker’s type around.”

Walker told the Detroit newspaper, “I don’t blame Mickey for doing what he has done. I had it coming to me.”

(The contrite comments were in contrast to what Walker said years later. Walker said to Chicago reporter Edgar Munzel, “I thought it was a rotten deal because I had violated no baseball rule on the club. A base runner has to be given a lot of latitude. Cochrane never forgot that day … He never liked me after that.”)

The next day, Sunday, July 1, the Tigers and Browns split a doubleheader and Walker, not in uniform, watched from a box seat. Afterward, the Tigers departed by train for a series in Cleveland and Walker took a separate train back to Detroit.

“All I want to do is get that fellow out of my sight in a hurry,” Cochrane told the Free Press.

While the Tigers were splitting a doubleheader at Cleveland on Monday, July 2, Walker met with Tigers owner Frank Navin. Though it was a pleasant session, Navin told Walker he backed Cochrane’s right to fine and suspend the player.

Cochrane wanted to send Walker to the minors, but he needed to clear waivers first. When the Browns made a waiver claim for Walker, the Tigers scrapped the idea of a demotion, the Free Press reported.

After the Tigers beat the Indians at Cleveland on Tuesday, July 3, both teams headed to Detroit for a July 4 doubleheader.

Gee whiz

Walker met with Cochrane before the holiday games at Detroit and offered to make an apology to the team if given another chance. He also asked if he could work out with the club, but the request was denied. Walker watched from the stands as the Tigers and Indians split the doubleheader.

After the games, Cochrane asked his players to vote on whether Walker should be reinstated. Walker’s teammates supported his return. Cochrane then declared the suspension would end after 10 days. Because the punishment began July 1, Walker was eligible to play again July 11.

“When he returns, I’ll be for him again, provided he plays the right kind of ball,” Cochrane told the Free Press.

Three days later, on Saturday, July 7, Cochrane was the catcher when the Tigers faced the Browns at Detroit. In the first inning, Cochrane doubled, driving in a run. Then, lo and behold, Browns catcher Rollie Hemsley picked off Cochrane. He took off for third but was tagged out.

In the seventh, after Cochrane walked, Hemsley tried to pick off Cochrane again but he scrambled back to the bag in time.

The Tigers won, 4-0. Cochrane fined himself $10 for getting picked off second, the Free Press reported. Boxscore

He’s back

Although back in uniform on July 11, Walker didn’t get into a game until making a pinch-hit appearance against the Yankees’ Red Ruffing on July 13. He popped out to second.

The next day, July 14, Cochrane started Walker in center and he contributed a double, two singles and three RBI in the Tigers’ 12-11 victory at home versus the Yankees. Walker got an ovation from the crowd when he singled against Lefty Gomez in the first.

The game also was noteworthy because Lou Gehrig was listed in the starting lineup as the shortstop, batting leadoff. Gehrig was “weak from an attack of lumbago,” according to the Free Press, and was in the lineup “only long enough to extend to 1,427 the string of consecutive games in which he has played.”

After Gehrig led off the game with a single, Red Rolfe ran for him and stayed in to play shortstop. Boxscore

Walker went on to hit .300 with 20 stolen bases for the 1934 Tigers, who won the pennant, but Cochrane didn’t start him in any of the World Series games against the Cardinals. Walker was 1-for-3 in that Series as a pinch-hitter. In Game 2, his RBI-single against Bill Hallahan tied the score at 2-2. Bill Walker relieved _ and picked Walker off first. Boxscore

Most popular

Walker had outstanding seasons for the Tigers in 1936 (.353 batting average, 55 doubles, 105 runs scored) and 1937 (.335 batting average, 213 hits, 113 RBI, 105 runs scored). On Opening Day in 1937, he hit for the cycle against Cleveland. Boxscore

Walker “won the hearts of all Detroit baseball fans with his daring, hard play,” International News Service reported.

The Free Press referred to Walker as the “people’s choice” and rated him as “probably the most popular player on the Tigers.”

Thus, there was an outcry when on Dec. 2, 1937, in a trade engineered by Cochrane, the Tigers sent Walker, Marv Owen and Mike Tresh to the White Sox for Vern Kennedy, Tony Piet and Dixie Walker.

“Fans by the thousands were protesting” the trading of Gee Walker, the Associated Press reported. The angry phone calls and letters produced “the biggest fan protest in the club’s history,” according to The Sporting News.

John Lardner of the North American Newspaper Alliance noted that “Mickey Cochrane, hitherto a public monument, is being wildly reviled for trading” Walker.

Cochrane said he made the deal to get Kennedy, a pitcher who was 14-13 with a 5.09 ERA for the White Sox in 1937 after earning 21 wins the year before. “We had to have pitching, and the only way we could get it was by giving up Walker,” Cochrane told the Associated Press. “The Sox wanted him and they had the only pitcher I thought could help us.”

Asked his reaction to the trade, Walker, referring to Cochrane, said, “I am out of the doghouse for the first time in six years.”

Kennedy was 12-12 with a 5.20 ERA for the Tigers before they dealt him to the Browns in May 1939. Walker did well with the White Sox (.305 batting average in 1938; 111 RBI in 1939) before joining the Senators (96 RBI in 1940).

Walker finished his big-league career with 1,991 hits and a .294 batting average.

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