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Archive for the ‘Pitchers’ Category

Bill Sherdel sought to solve a pitcher’s hitting puzzle

Posted in Games, Hitters, Pitchers on June 16, 2026| 9 Comments »

Bill Sherdel, a mite on the mound, nearly achieved a mighty hitting feat.

No big-league pitcher has hit for the cycle (single, double, triple, home run) in a game, but Sherdel, a half-pint Cardinals left-hander, twice came close to doing it.

In 1922, Sherdel produced a single, double, home run (but no triple) in a game against the Phillies. Four years later, versus Brooklyn, he got the triple, as well as a double and home run, but missed out on a single.

Changing speeds

A son of German immigrants, Sherdel grew up about 12 miles east of Gettysburg, Pa. He started out in sandlot baseball as a left-handed catcher and his brother, Fred, pitched. Eventually they switched roles.

Sherdel turned pro at 18 in 1915. He was 5-foot-8 and less than 150 pounds, according to the Society for American Baseball Research. As he advanced through the minors, Sherdel developed a dazzyling array of changeups and slow curves.

With Milwaukee of the American Association in 1917, Sherdel won 19. Cardinals president Branch Rickey took notice and purchased Sherdel’s contract for $1,000.

“Baseball men cheerfully admit that Bill Sherdel pitches primarily with his head and secondarily with his arm,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted.

(During a visit to St. Louis in 1962, Sherdel was asked by Cardinals manager Johnny Keane to meet with the club’s pitchers. According to The Sporting News, Sherdel told them, “I tried to hit the plate low and on the outside corner. Learn that and you’re bound to last.”)

In his first big-league win, a complete game for the Cardinals against the Reds in 1918, Sherdel allowed 12 hits but two runs. He also had a RBI and scored a run. Boxscore

Branch Rickey, who became Cardinals manager in 1919, always called him William. The local newspapers called him Wee Willie and referred to him as “undersized,” “diminutive,” and “peewee.”

Rickey used Sherdel as both a starter and reliever. In 1922, he produced 17 wins and 17 hits. That was the year he first came close to hitting for the cycle.

In four plate appearances versus the Phillies’ Jesse Winters on Aug. 19 at St. Louis, Sherdel had a walk, single, solo home run and two-run double. Perhaps all that hitting and baserunning took its toll on the little man. He carried a 7-5 lead into the ninth, but the Phillies rallied and won, 8-7. Boxscore

Help from Hornsby

Sherdel had 15 wins and hit .337 for the 1923 Cardinals, but in 1924 Rickey used him more as a reliever (25 games) than as a starter (10).

Deciding the bullpen was where Sherdel belonged, Rickey took him out of the starting rotation in 1925. Sherdel made 11 relief appearances, but then Rogers Hornsby replaced Rickey on May 31. One of his first moves was to restore Sherdel to the rotation. Sherdel won 15 for the 1925 Cardinals and was 11-3 as a starter.

Back in the rotation in 1926, Sherdel lost four of his first five decisions. Hornsby stuck with him and Sherdel won eight of his next 10.

In June 1926, the Cardinals got Grover Cleveland Alexander from the Cubs to join a rotation with Sherdel, Jesse Haines and Flint Rhem.

“Alexander taught me more about pitching than any manager or coach,” Sherdel told Bill Duncan for The Sporting News. “There was a wonder. I studied him hour after hour, how he worked on the various hitters, what he threw each one and what he didn’t throw them. I talked to (Alexander) dozens of times and asked him many questions. He was friendly and cooperative.”

On Aug. 4, 1926, at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, Sherdel flirted with the cycle for the second time. Facing starter Burleigh Grimes, he grounded out in the second, tripled in the fifth and lashed a two-run double down the line in right in the sixth. In the ninth, against reliever Rube Ehrhardt, Sherdel clouted a home run that struck the flagpole on top of the wall in right. Sherdel pitched a complete game in the 8-4 St. Louis victory. Boxscore

Describing Sherdel’s tantalizing off-speed pitches that kept the Brooklyn batters off balance, Thomas Holmes of the Brooklyn Eagle wrote, “He starts his slow ball delivery on Saturday morning and it reaches home plate on the following Wednesday afternoon. Beg pardon, that’s his fast one. His floater occupies two days longer in transit.”

Sherdel is among a small number of pitchers to get the three extra-base hits in a game needed for the cycle but come up short on the single. Others:

_ Grover Cleveland Alexander, who had a double, triple and home run for the Cubs against the Phillies on June 20, 1925, at Chicago. Boxscore

_ Steve Sundra, who had a double, triple and home run for the Browns against the White Sox on July 5, 1942, at Chicago. Boxscore

Leading lefty

Sherdel had 16 wins, including six against Brooklyn, in helping the Cardinals earn a National League pennant for the first time in 1926. Cardinals third baseman Les Bell said to The Sporting News, “Alexander was the more famous pitcher and Haines was great, too, but never overlook the magnificent work of Sherdel.”

He won 21 when the Cardinals earned another pennant in 1928.

Sherdel is the Cardinals’ franchise leader in most career wins by a left-hander (153). Only right-handers Bob Gibson (251), Jesse Haines (210), Adam Wainwright (200) and Bob Forsch (163) have more wins as Cardinals.

Just missed

Some other big-leaguers who almost hit for the cycle as pitchers include:

_ Jimmy Ryan of the Chicago White Stockings hit for the cycle on July 28, 1888, against the Detroit Wolverines. Ryan began the game as a center fielder. He got two hits (a single and triple) before he was switched to pitcher in the second inning. As the pitcher, Ryan hit a double, triple and home run, giving him five hits for the game. He pitched 7.1 innings in Chicago’s 21-17 victory.

_ Babe Ruth got four or more hits in a game 29 times but never achieved the cycle. As a pitcher, he came close to doing it at St. Louis. Ruth had four hits (single, home run and two doubles) for the Red Sox against the Browns in a 4-2 Boston victory on July 21, 1915. Boxscore

_ Shohei Ohtani hit for the cycle on June 13, 2019, as the designated hitter for the Angels against the Rays. As a pitcher, he came close to achieving the cycle, hitting a single, double and triple (but no home run) against the Athletics on April 27, 2023. Boxscore and Boxscore

Besides Bill Sherdel and Steve Sundra, some other St. Louis pitchers who nearly achieved a cycle:

_ Jesse Haines had two singles, a double and home run for the Cardinals against the Phillies on Aug. 11, 1920, at Philadelphia. Haines also walked and reached on an error, but couldn’t produce a triple. He hit two triples in 19 seasons in the majors. Boxscore

_ Milt Gaston hit a single, double and home run for the Browns versus the Tigers on July 5, 1927, at St. Louis. Gaston batted .260 with three homers for the 1927 Browns. Boxscore

_ Tommy Byrnes had four RBI, hitting a double, home run and two singles, for the Browns against the Athletics on July 17, 1952, at Philadelphia. In 13 seasons in the majors, Byrnes totaled 14 homers and 98 RBI. Boxscore

_ Scott Terry had a three-run home run, single, double and sacrifice bunt for the Cardinals versus the Giants on April 27, 1989, at St. Louis. A former minor-league outfielder, Terry had 21 hits, but no triples, in the majors. Boxscore

Special mention belongs to pitcher Don Newcombe. He three times came close to hitting for the cycle. Each time was against the Cardinals. The triple eluded him.

_ On June 17, 1955, Newcombe had a home run, double and single for the Dodgers at St. Louis. Boxscore

_ On July 15, 1955, Newcombe produced two singles, a double and home run for the Dodgers at Brooklyn. He also reached on an error. Newcombe hit .359 with seven home runs for the 1955 Dodgers and posted a 20-5 record. Against the Cardinals that season, he was 4-0 and hit .524. Boxscore

_ On July 18, 1958, Newcombe had a single, double and home run for the Reds at Cincinnati. In 10 big-league seasons, he slugged 15 homers, including six versus the Cardinals, and totaled 108 RBI. Boxscore

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How Bob Forsch flipped the script on Bruce Sutter

Posted in Games, Pitchers on June 2, 2026| 16 Comments »

In a storybook season for the Cardinals, starter Bob Forsch changed the narrative.

The ability of closer Bruce Sutter to consistently seal wins for the Cardinals was a key to their becoming World Series champions in 1982. Sutter led the majors in saves that season, with 36. He saved eight of Forsch’s 15 wins.

It was a different story, though, in a game at Atlanta. Forsch got a save, his first in the majors, to preserve a win for Sutter and the Cardinals.

National League showdown

In May 1982, the two division leaders, Cardinals and Braves, opened a four-game series in Atlanta. It was a matchup of future Hall of Fame managers, Whitey Herzog and Joe Torre. Besides Torre, the Braves had a strong Cardinals connection, with coaches Bob Gibson and Dal Maxvill, and reliever Al Hrabosky.

Forsch started the opener and wasn’t effective (five runs in 3.2 innings) but the Cardinals won, with Sutter pitching 2.2 innings for the save. A Biff Pocoroba walkoff home run against Doug Bair lifted the Braves to victory in Game 2.

A throng of 48,433 turned out for Game 3 on a Saturday night at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. It was the largest baseball crowd in Atlanta since 50,595 packed the ballpark for a July 4, 1977, Tom Seaver versus Phil Niekro matchup.

Unhappy with the performance of starter John Martin, Herzog yanked him in the first inning. Herzog used six pitchers in seven innings.

With the Braves ahead, 3-2, Sutter was brought in to pitch the eighth and retired them in order.

In the ninth, the Cardinals tied the score with two outs when Keith Hernandez laced a Gene Garber pitch past diving first baseman Bob Watson for a double, driving in Lonnie Smith from third.

After Sutter retired the Braves in order again in their half of the ninth, the Cardinals scored four in the 10th and led, 7-3. The big blow was Lonnie Smith’s three-run home run against Rick Camp.

Emergency call

As Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted, “A four-run lead with Sutter pitching seemed safe enough, but Sutter, pitching his third inning for the second time in three days, had nothing in the 10th.”

Sutter told Hummel, “Even the first two innings, I didn’t have anything.”

Sutter struck out the first batter he faced in the 10th, Dale Murphy, but Bob Horner followed with a deep drive. Left fielder Lonnie Smith froze and the ball struck the top of the low fence for a double. “I just panicked instead of busting my butt,” Smith told the Post-Dispatch.

After Bob Watson’s single moved Horner to third, Chris Chambliss batted for Bruce Benedict. A left-handed batter, Chambliss had produced only a single in 10 previous at-bats versus Sutter. This time, though, he clouted a three-run homer, cutting the St. Louis lead to one at 7-6.

Herzog decided to replace the weary closer with the Cardinals’ eighth pitcher of the game. The only remaining ones were Joaquin Andujar, who’d started the night before and went seven innings; Steve Mura, who was scheduled to start the next day; and Bob Forsch, who hadn’t appeared in relief since 1979.

Forsch was “the only one I had left,” Herzog told the Atlanta Constitution.

Role reversal

Rafael Ramirez was due to be the first batter Forsch faced, but Joe Torre sent a pinch-hitter, Ken Smith. A week earlier, Smith drilled a pinch-hit single against Forsch. This time, he singled again.

Next up was Biff Pocoroba, who’d beaten the Cardinals with his walkoff homer the night before. Another homer here would lift the Braves to victory. Pocoroba was a career .400 hitter against Forsch. This time, he popped up to shortstop Ozzie Smith for the second out.

Forsch ended the drama by getting Claudell Washington to ground out to third baseman Ken Oberkfell.

In a reverse of the norm, Sutter was the winning pitcher and Forsch had his first career save.

“Say, I wonder how I stand in the Rolaids Relief Standings?” Forsch said to the Post-Dispatch’s Rick Hummel. Boxscore

Rest of the story

Forsch made 34 starts for the 1982 Cardinals and was 15-9. He had one more relief appearance that season, pitching 2.2 scoreless innings versus the Cubs on Oct. 2.

In 10.2 regular-season innings against the 1982 Braves, Forsch gave up 10 runs, but he tossed a three-hit shutout against them in the rescheduled Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. “My best game ever,” Forsch said in the book “Whitey’s Boys.” Boxscore

Forsch’s gem came after the first try at playing Game 1 (a matchup of Phil Niekro and Joaquin Andujar) was rained out with the Braves ahead, 1-0, in the fifth.

The Cardinals went on to sweep the Braves and then prevailed in a seven-game World Series versus the Brewers.

In 1985, when the Cardinals again won a National League pennant, Forsch got two more saves, one against the Cubs; the other versus the Dodgers. At 35, he was used as both a starter (19 appearances) and reliever (15 appearances) that season, contributing a 9-6 record.

Forsch finished with 168 wins and three saves in his 16 seasons in the majors.

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Cardinals reject Dick Hughes came to club’s rescue

Posted in Games, Pitchers, Prospects on May 26, 2026| 15 Comments »

As a Cardinals prospect in 1966, Dick Hughes appeared headed for the scrap heap. A year later, he was the leading winner for the World Series champions.

Hughes’ emergence as a top starter for the 1967 Cardinals seemed about as likely as if another Arkansas native, Dizzy Dean, tried making a comeback with them at age 57.

The 1966 season was Hughes’ ninth in the Cardinals’ system. A right-hander who threw hard but lacked command, he was 28 and going backwards. After starting the season at Class AAA, Hughes was demoted to Class AA in May. Two weeks later, needing roster room for more promising pitchers, St. Louis loaned him to the Toledo Mud Hens, top farm club of the Yankees.

It was the second time the Cardinals had loaned Hughes to another organization, a sure sign he wasn’t rated a serious candidate to reach the majors with them.

Reflecting on his struggles, Hughes told Neal Russo of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “A lot of times I figured it was do or die, and a lot of times I halfway died.”

Golden arm

Hughes moved with his family from rural Arkansas to Shreveport, Louisiana, when he was 8. He had poor eyesight _ 20-350 vision in one eye; 20-300 in the other _ and “couldn’t recognize his mother without his glasses,” the Post-Dispatch noted.

His right arm, though, was strong and he threw a baseball with velocity. Cardinals scout Fred Hawn took an interest. When Hughes graduated from high school, he told Hawn he wanted to try college. Hawn helped Hughes get a baseball scholarship to the University of Arkansas and urged him to stay in touch.

Two years later, in 1958, Hughes contacted Hawn, who arranged a tryout in St. Louis. Liking what they saw, the Cardinals gave Hughes a $10,000 signing bonus. He used most of the money to join his father in buying an Arkansas cattle ranch.

Help wanted

Entering St. Louis’ farm system with only a fastball, “I was a wild, strong-armed kid who kept fooling around too much looking for a second pitch,” Hughes recalled to Bob Broeg of the Post-Dispatch.

In 1963, his sixth season in the minors, Hughes was loaned by the Cardinals to the Washington Senators, who sent him to pitch for the York (Pa.) White Roses. He did enough (11-5, 2.17 ERA) to rekindle the Cardinals’ interest. They put him with their Class AAA Jacksonville farm club in 1964 and he was effective (9-4, 2.92 ERA), but not impressive enough to get a call to the majors.

Hughes was tempted to quit. “My confidence was shaken,” he told Bob Broeg.

Returned to Jacksonville in 1965, Hughes regressed (7-8, 3.82 ERA). The Cardinals made him available in the minor-league draft, but no team wanted him.

So it was back to the Cardinals’ farm in 1966 _ and that’s when Hughes caught a break. Billy Muffett had become the franchise’s minor-league pitching instructor. He taught Hughes to pitch with a no-windup delivery, which helped his control considerably, and showed him how to throw a hard slider.

The results weren’t immediate. Hughes flopped at Tulsa (1-1, 5.40 ERA), got demoted to Little Rock (2-3, 2.35) and then loaned to Toledo in June 1966.

Holy Toledo!

The Toledo Mud Hens played their games at a converted harness racing track in suburban Maumee, Ohio. The Yankees farm team was managed by Loren Babe, who later would mentor infielder Tony La Russa and encourage him to think like a manager. “I’ve learned something from every manager I played for, but nobody taught me as much as Loren,” La Russa said in the book “Man on a Mission.”

Hughes’ Toledo teammates included pitchers Stan Bahnsen, Paul Toth and Jerry Walker, first baseman Mike Hegan and a heralded shortstop, Bobby Murcer.

“Rescued from Cardinals farm system obscurity,” as the Toledo Blade put it, Hughes found his groove. The no-windup delivery enabled him to consistently throw strikes. The hard slider became a formidable complement to the fastball.

In his first Toledo appearance, Hughes pitched a two-hit shutout against Toronto. Then he struck out 10 in six innings versus Buffalo.

John Hannen of the Toledo Blade called Hughes the “mystery man of the Toledo Mud Hens. The mystery of it all is how a pitcher of Hughes’ caliber was lying around loose on a double-A roster.”

Hughes kept up the good work all summer. He struck out 13 in a win against Columbus and 14 in a two-hitter versus Richmond. Rochester manager Earl Weaver was so impressed that “I tried to get my boss, Harry Dalton, to get Hughes” for the Orioles, he told the Post-Dispatch.

Suddenly, the Cardinals coveted the pitcher they had rejected. On Sept. 5, they sought to call up Hughes. It was the same day as Toledo’s season finale and Hughes was the scheduled starter.

The pitcher who had waited nine years to reach the majors asked the Cardinals to delay the promotion one day so that he could pitch the final game for Toledo. “I felt obligated to pitch this last game,” Hughes told Bill Fox of the Toledo Blade, “and I wanted to do it.”

The game matched Hughes against Jacksonville’s Tom Seaver. Hughes struck out 12 and Seaver fanned 10, but ex-Cardinal Johnny Lewis slugged a two-run home run to win it for Jacksonville.

Hughes finished 9-4 with a 2.21 ERA and 132 strikeouts in 110 innings for Toledo.

In comments to the Post-Dispatch, Cardinals farm director Sheldon Bender called Hughes “one of those guys who has seemed to arrive just about when you’ve given up on him.”

Big-league stuff

Hughes’ first Cardinals appearance came on Sept. 11, 1966, at Pittsburgh. Relieving Al Jackson with the Pirates ahead, 3-2, in the seventh, Hughes “could not have had a much tougher task for his debut,” the Post-Dispatch noted. The Pirates were the best-hitting team in the big leagues and the first batter to face Hughes was Matty Alou, who was leading the majors with a .348 batting mark.

Undaunted, Hughes retired nine of the 10 batters he faced, including Alou twice. He struck out Roberto Clemente and got Willie Stargell to fly out. The only batter to reach base was Bill Mazeroski on a walk. The Cardinals rallied for two runs, making Hughes the winning pitcher. Boxscore

In his next appearance, Hughes earned a save against the Reds. Boxscore

Manager Red Schoendienst gave Hughes a start in the season’s final series against the Cubs and he responded with a three-hit shutout, winning a duel with Ferguson Jenkins. Boxscore

In 21 innings for the 1966 Cardinals, Hughes struck out 20 and was 2-1 with a save and a 1.71 ERA.

“The big thing about Hughes is he throws strikes,” Cardinals pitching coach Joe Becker told the Post-Dispatch, “and, when you throw strikes, you have a chance.”

Ace in the hole

The 1967 Cardinals began the season with a starting rotation of Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, Ray Washburn, Al Jackson and Larry Jaster. Hughes was a reliever and spot starter.

On May 25 at Atlanta, after Hughes pitched a two-hit shutout against the Braves, he and Al Jackson swapped roles. Boxscore

While in Atlanta, Hughes bought a hunting rifle. In an insensitive and chilling stunt, he “checked out the scope by zeroing in on pedestrians from the window of his hotel room,” according to Bob Gibson in the book “Stranger to the Game.” After that, teammates “started calling me The Sniper and Lee Harvey Hughes because I was lugging the rifle around so much,” Hughes told Neal Russo of the Post-Dispatch in a comment appallingly devoid of self-awareness.

Wins have a way of making people overlook ignorant behavior _ and Hughes did a lot of winning for the Cardinals. After shutting out the Braves, he struck out 13 Reds in eight innings but lost, 2-1, then won five in a row.

“Hughes threw a hard slider that was almost unhittable,” Cardinals first baseman Orlando Cepeda said in his book “Baby Bull.”

In July, a Roberto Clemente shot fractured Bob Gibson’s leg. Nelson Briles moved into the rotation. Briles and Hughes each won seven of nine decisions during Gibson’s absence.

Hughes’ salary for 1967 was $10,000, but general manager Stan Musial twice rewarded him with bonuses _ one for $1,500 and another for $2,500.

Hughes led the 1967 Cardinals in wins (16), complete games (12), shutouts (three) and innings pitched (222.1). Along with a 16-6 record, he had three saves and a 2.67 ERA.

Though the Cardinals lost both games Hughes started in the 1967 World Series against the Red Sox, St. Louis won the championship largely because of Bob Gibson (three wins), Nelson Briles (one win), Lou Brock (12 hits, eight runs scored, seven stolen bases) and Roger Maris (10 hits and seven RBI).

In 1968, Hughes tore muscles in his right shoulder and lost his effectiveness. His final big-league appearance was a brief relief stint in Game 6 of the 1968 World Series versus the Tigers.

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How Browns triggered terrible tantrum from Lefty Grove

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers, Records on May 11, 2026| 12 Comments »

Late in life, Lefty Grove would look back at 1931, the year he won 31 games, including 16 in a row, and two more in the World Series, and what he would remember most was a loss.

The sting of that defeat, at St. Louis against the Browns, never left Lefty. In losing 1-0 at Sportsman’s Park, the run scoring when a reserve outfielder misplayed a fly ball, Grove was deprived of setting an American League record for consecutive wins in a season.

A loss always put Grove in a foul mood and usually prompted a temper tantrum, but that one in St. Louis set off “the greatest of his towering rages,” Arthur Daley of the New York Times wrote.

Grove went berserk, smashing up the locker room.

“I wanted the record but I also wanted the victory,” Grove said to The Sporting News. “I just couldn’t stand to lose.”

Smoke signals

Robert Moses Grove was one of eight children from a miner’s family in Lonaconing, an iron and coal town in western Maryland. At 16, he worked in a mine for two weeks, filling in for a brother. Afterward, Grove told his father he never wanted to go underground again, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Grove instead worked as an apprentice glass blower and also got a job in a railroad shop. He played baseball for a town team and turned pro when he was 20. The 6-foot-3 left-hander overpowered batters for five seasons in the minors, mostly with Baltimore of the International League, before his contract was sold to the Philadelphia Athletics for $100,600.

Grove’s Baltimore roommate, pitcher Tommy Thomas, said to the Boston Globe, “He was so fast that even his low fastballs would rise.”

The nickname, “Lefty,” came naturally, but his A’s teammates usually called him “Mose,” and manager Connie Mack called him “Robert,” though he often mispronounced the last name “Groves.”

Lefty loved to smoke black cigars “the size of fungo sticks,” humorist and writer Will Rogers observed. The mail-order stogies were “made out of oolong weeds (Chinese tea leaves) and a wrapper of oak leaves dipped in tar,” Rogers said. According to Victor O. Jones of the Boston Globe, Grove “was a chain smoker, lighting one cigar from the butt of the other.”

Those dark cigars often reflected his mood. As United Press International noted, Grove had a “smoking fastball, with temper to match.” After a loss, he’d stomp off the field, kick a water bucket, snap at teammates. “Nobody hated to lose more than Lefty Grove,” Red Sox outfielder Dom DiMaggio recalled to the Globe.

A friend, journalist J. Suter Kegg of the Cumberland Evening Times in Maryland, wrote, “The man was unbearable to be around when he lost and even preferred to be alone when he won.”

Grove won a lot. His only losing season during 17 years in the majors was as a rookie in 1925. His career mark of 300-141 gave Grove a .680 winning percentage, still the highest of any of baseball’s 300-game winners.

In a six-year span (1928-33), Grove won 79 percent of his decisions (152-40).

Detroit’s Charlie Gehringer, a left-handed batter who hit .320 but 50 points less against Grove, told author Donald Honig, “It’s hard to believe anyone could throw harder than Lefty Grove … I always could pull Bob Feller but I could never pull Grove until the tail end of his career. I’d go up there telling myself I was going to swing the minute he’d let it go. I’d still hit a ground ball to the third baseman.”

Grove’s best season was 1931. After beating Chicago on Aug. 19 for his 16th consecutive win, Grove was 25-2. He tied Walter Johnson (1912 Senators) and Smoky Joe Wood (1912 Red Sox) for most American League wins in a row.

Grove aimed to break the AL mark and take another step toward the big-league record of 19 in a row (held by Rube Marquard of the 1912 National League Giants) when he faced the St. Louis Browns on Aug. 23.

Blinded by the light

As Arthur Daley noted, “It had seemed a lead-pipe cinch” for Grove to get a 17th consecutive win. The A’s were 84-32; the Browns, 49-68.

Connie Mack chose Grove to start the opener of a Sunday doubleheader at St. Louis. A crowd of 22,000, the Browns’ largest of the season at home, came out to see Grove try for the American League record.

Grove cruised through the first two innings and struck out the first two batters in the third. Then Fred Schulte singled to center and Oscar Melillo, a .300 hitter that season, came to the plate.

Melillo lined the ball to left. Jimmy Moore, filling in for regular left fielder Al Simmons, who was home in Milwaukee receiving treatment for an ankle ailment, peered into the sun as he tried to track the ball. “All the players had difficulty judging balls raised against a cloudless sky and in front of a brilliant sun,” the St. Louis Globe-Democrat noted.

Moore recalled to Harold Kaese of the Boston Globe, “If I’d have stood still, I’d have caught it. If I’d been sitting in a chair, I’d have caught it, but … I moved in two steps. The ball was hit harder than I thought.”

Moore turned around and reached for the ball _ “It just nipped off the end of my glove,” he told the Globe _ but it soared over his head. Melillo was credited with a double, though it was clear to most that Moore had misplayed the ball.

Fred Schulte raced from first to home and slid safely into the plate ahead of the relay throw from shortstop Dib Williams. “Grove slapped his leg in disgust,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

“I should have tackled that St. Louis runner (Schulte) rounding third and nailed his butt to the bag,” Grove told John Flynn of the Inquirer.

That was the only run of the game. St. Louis starter Dick Coffman, who’d lost nine of his first 11 decisions that season, shut out the mighty A’s on three hits, all singles. “That made Grove as mad as anything,” Moore said to the Globe. Boxscore

Raging bull

In Grove’s view, his pitching was worthy of a 17th consecutive win. The Browns don’t score if Moore makes the catch. Even still, he wins if the A’s score twice against an ordinary pitcher. The perceived injustice of it all brought Grove’s anger to a dangerous boil.

The losing pitcher stormed into the locker room, picked up a chair “and smashed it to smithereens,” Arthur Daley reported. “Then he attempted to take the room apart, locker by locker.”

According to the Inquirer, “He shattered lockers, tried to tear doors off hinges, and tore off his uniform and jumped up and down on it.”

The Sporting News reported, “He tore out lockers and smashed benches against the wall. While his silent teammates watched, Grove proceeded to tear up his uniform and glove, rip his shoes and demolish everything in sight.”

In the book “Baseball When The Grass Was Real,” Grove told Donald Honig he “wrecked the place. Tore those steel lockers off the wall and everything else. Ripped my uniform up. Threw everything I could get my hands on _ bats, balls, shoes, gloves, water bucket; whatever was handy.”

A’s center fielder Doc Cramer told Honig that Grove tore his jersey so angrily that the buttons whizzed by him, three lockers away.

According to Arthur Daley, Grove roared, “(Al) Simmons could have caught that ball in his back pocket. What did he have to go to Milwaukee for?”

When Jimmy Moore entered the locker room, Grove “was in the showers, raising hell about (Al) Simmons,” Moore recalled to Harold Kaese. “He was mad (Simmons) wasn’t there … Grove didn’t say anything to me. I didn’t say anything to him. I was just a $7,000 player. He was getting $35,000.”

Adding insult to Grove’s ire, the A’s won Game 2 of the doubleheader, 10-0, belting 17 hits against three Browns pitchers in support of Waite Hoyt. Boxscore

Topping 30

Grove won his next six decisions. Moore scored the winning run in two of those games, including win No. 30. Boxscore and Boxscore

Grove finished the season with a 31-4 record. Only one pitcher, Denny McLain with the 1968 Tigers, has matched that win total since. Moore told Harold Kaese, “Except for me, Grove’s record would have been 32-3, not 31-4.”

The left-hander was 4-1 with an 0.92 ERA versus the 1931 Browns. His career record against the Browns was 42-17.

In the 1931 World Series, Grove was 2-1 against the Cardinals, who prevailed in seven games. Grove won Games 1 and 6. Burleigh Grimes beat George Earnshaw in Game 7.

Grove is the only pitcher with four World Series wins against the Cardinals _ two in 1930 and two in 1931.

Just win, baby

Schoolboy Rowe of the 1934 Tigers won 16 in a row, tying the American League record of Grove, Johnson and Wood.

After his pitching days, Grove operated “Lefty’s Place,” a combination bowling alley and pool room in Lonaconing. When not at work, he liked to hang out at the Republican Club next door.

According to local journalist J. Suter Kegg, “He often left orders with bartenders at the Lonaconing Republican Club to tell out-of-town writers who tried to contact him by telephone that he wasn’t there.”

Recalling the first time he was sent with a photographer to interview Grove, Kegg said, “I was shaking in my shoes and my voice may even have been quivering (but) to my delightful surprise the great portsider was extremely cordial. He broke out a bottle of Canadian whiskey and asked us to join him in a drink.”

In 1972, when Steve Carlton won 15 in a row for the last-place Phillies, Grove said to the Philadelphia Inquirer, “God, that ain’t bad. He’s the franchise.”

For Grove, nothing topped getting a win. As he told James H. Bready of the Baltimore Sun, “The best of it all was the feeling in you after the game went right and you came back in the locker room and got undressed. I used to take my shower and swallow an ounce of whiskey slow and get a rubdown and I’d go off to sleep right there on the table. It was very damn good.”

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Visionary: Tom Sunkel saw way to overcome handicap

Posted in Games, Pitchers, Prospects on April 24, 2026| 14 Comments »

Nothing was wrong with the left arm of Cardinals pitcher Tom Sunkel. He threw pitches with blinding speed. The problem was an eye. He was blind in the left one.

Though his vision was impaired, Sunkel spent the 1939 season with the Cardinals, and what he did showed he had plenty of heart, too. Sunkel pitched a two-hit shutout against the Giants. He won four decisions in a row as a starter. Plus, he swung a potent bat, hitting .321 for the season.

The Giants wanted him and arranged a 1941 trade. In his second game for them, Sunkel spun another two-hit shutout, against the Phillies.

Boyhood accident

Tom Sunkel grew up on a farm in Paris _ Illinois, that is _ about 20 miles northwest of Terre Haute, Ind. Incorporated in 1849, Paris, Ill., likely got its name from the word “Paris” carved into a tree in the center of the village.

When Sunkel was 4, a playmate loaded a popgun with a stick, aimed it and fired. Sunkel put up a hand for protection but the stick streaked between his fingers and pierced his left eye, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

A doctor saved the eye but a traumatic cataract developed, cutting Sunkel’s sight to a little better than half normal, according to the Associated Press.

Despite the restricted vision, Sunkel became a standout amateur baseball player. At 21, he was pitching for a local church team when the Cardinals signed him for their farm system in 1934.

On his path through the minors, Sunkel took a step backward in 1936 when he posted a 6-26 record for a Class B Asheville (N.C.) club managed by Billy Southworth. As other pitching prospects advanced, Sunkel stayed at Class B in 1937, with Decatur (Ill.). It turned out well for him, though. His fastball and curve stymied batters from clubs such as the Moline Plow Boys and Terre Haute Tots. Sunkel totaled 227 strikeouts in 192 innings.

No rescue for Redbirds

Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey visited Decatur in August 1937 to scout Sunkel. The Cardinals were contending with the Cubs and Giants for the National League pennant but they needed starting pitching help. Dizzy Dean hurt his toe in the All-Star Game, altered his pitching delivery and damaged his arm. His brother, Paul Dean, underwent shoulder surgery. Jesse Haines was 44 years old.

St. Louis players were hoping Rickey would acquire proven pitching for the pennant push, but instead he called up Sunkel, 25, from Decatur to fill the void.

Sunkel’s arrival “became a big joke with the other players,” Sid Keener of the St. Louis Star-Times noted. “A pitcher from Decatur was Rickey’s idea of trying to win the 1937 pennant.”

(The Cardinals finished fourth, 15 games behind the champion Giants.)

The rookie was timid _ “I sure was a busher,” he admitted to the Star-Times _ and manager Frankie Frisch used him mostly in relief. Though he didn’t allow a run in six of eight relief appearances for the 1937 Cardinals, including a seven-inning stint versus the Pirates, Sunkel didn’t show enough to stick with the club in 1938. Boxscore

“Just when I figured I had made the grade (with St. Louis), the bottom fell out of everything,” Sunkel said to the Star-Times.

Rickey arranged for Sunkel to pitch for the 1938 Atlanta Crackers, which wasn’t a Cardinals farm club, but retained an option to recall him to St. Louis at any time.

Seeing the light

Sunkel was a success on the mound for Atlanta but it was a troubling season. He had a kink in his left arm the first part of the year. After that, he had a bout of neuritis, an inflammation of the nerves. One night, he was pitching a home game when a burglar broke into his apartment, “leaving the Sunkel family practically flat broke,” the Star-Times reported.

Then the vision in his left eye got dimmer and dimmer.

The traumatic cataract from his childhood injury had worsened considerably. On Aug. 3, 1938, Sunkel told Guy Butler of the Atlanta Journal that the condition of his left eye had deteriorated so much that “I can’t see out of it, but it’s been that way for a month, getting a little worse right along.”

Team trainer Dick Niehaus, a former Cardinals left-handed pitcher, said to the Journal, “I was standing right in front of him. I asked him to close his right eye and look at me. He said he couldn’t see me at all.”

With the club’s permission, Sunkel opted to keep playing. “It’s pretty tough that Tom must pitch under this handicap,” Atlanta catcher-manager Paul Richards said to the Journal. “I don’t want you folks to expect too much of him.”

Sunkel, though, adapted. “I have to guess where the plate is when I throw,” he told the Associated Press.

The results were amazing. Sunkel achieved a 21-5 record, winning his last 13 decisions in a row. For his 20th win, he pitched a one-hitter against Memphis. (Pitcher Hugh Casey got the hit on an infield roller in the third inning.) Sunkel posted a 2.33 ERA in 243 innings and also batted .255 (with 26 hits).

In the Southern Association playoffs, Sunkel won twice, helping Atlanta take the championship. Then he shut out Texas League champion Beaumont in the Dixie Series, winning a duel with Schoolboy Rowe.

Job well done

The Cardinals exercised their option and brought Sunkel to spring training in 1939. They had him examined by eye specialists, who agreed his condition couldn’t be corrected by surgery. “Sunkel calmly accepted the verdict that he would have to battle his way upward with only half the sight of other pitchers,” the Associated Press noted.

Sunkel made the team, but Cardinals manager Ray Blades didn’t use him much in the first part of the season. Then, in July, Sunkel was given some starts. He beat the Phillies for his first big-league win, limiting them to two runs in six innings. He also produced two hits and a sacrifice bunt. Boxscore

“He has developed a new pitching and batting stance, cocking the head slightly to one side so as to take in everything with his one good eye that he would normally see with two,” Ray Gillespie wrote in the Star-Times.

Sunkel told the newspaper, “As long as I’ve got one good eye … I’ll win a lot of games for the Cardinals … I’m big and strong enough to pitch and I’m not afraid of opposing batters. So how’s a little trouble in one eye going to stop me?”

Sunkel’s next win brought him national attention. On a humid afternoon at St. Louis, he held the Giants hitless until Tom Hafey (cousin of ex-Cardinals standout Chick Hafey) singled to right with one out in the eighth. The only other Giants hit was a two-out Billy Jurges single in the ninth. Sunkel produced as many hits as he allowed (two) and also had a walk and a RBI. Boxscore

Wins against the Dodgers and Pirates followed. Boxscore and Boxscore

In 20 games, including 11 starts, for the 1939 Cardinals, Sunkel was 4-4 with a 4.22 ERA. He also totaled nine hits in 28 at-bats.

Keep on going

His was a feel-good story, but results were valued more than sentiment in baseball. Sunkel, 27, gave up nine runs in his last 10 innings with the 1939 Cardinals. They determined he needed more time in the minors.

Sunkel spent 1940 with Columbus and 1941 with Syracuse. In September 1941, the Cardinals dealt Sunkel to the Giants for Jumbo Brown (a 295-pound pitcher) and Rae Blaemire.

Two weeks later, in his second start for the Giants, Sunkel held the Phillies hitless until Johnny Rizzo cracked a single with two outs in the eighth. Sunkel finished with a two-hit shutout, striking out 12. He also had a hit and scored a run. Boxscore

Sunkel was 3-6 for the 1942 Giants. A highlight was pitching 10 innings to beat the Dodgers. Boxscore

He spent most of 1943 in the minors. Then Branch Rickey, who had left the Cardinals, acquired Sunkel for the Dodgers. He pitched his last big-league games for them in 1944.

Sunkel continued to pitch in the minors until 1948. In an American Association playoff game for St. Paul in 1946, he pitched a no-hitter at Louisville. In describing the performance, Tommy Fitzgerald of the Louisville Courier-Journal called Sunkel “the Eiffel Tower of Paris, Ill.”

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Strikeout story: Grover Cleveland Alexander, Tony Lazzeri

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Pitchers on April 10, 2026| 12 Comments »

There are more versions of the story of Grover Cleveland Alexander striking out Tony Lazzeri than there were teams in a Branch Rickey farm system.

First, the undisputed facts:

With the Cardinals ahead, 3-2, in the seventh inning of Game 7 in the 1926 World Series, the Yankees had the bases loaded and Lazzeri at the plate. Cardinals manager Rogers Hornsby called for Alexander to relieve Jesse Haines, who had developed a blister on his pitching hand. Alexander, 39, had pitched a complete game the day before in the Cardinals’ Game 6 victory.

Lazzeri, a rookie, had 18 home runs and 114 RBI that season. Alexander struck him out. Then he shut down the Yankees in the eighth and ninth, earning a save to go with two World Series wins.

Alexander retired the side in the eighth and the first two batters in the ninth. Then Babe Ruth drew a walk, but was thrown out attempting to steal. Boxscore

In winning their first World Series championship, the Cardinals transformed from a perennial also-ran into an elite franchise in the National League.

The two people most qualified to know the full story of Alexander’s Game 7 heroics were catcher Bob O’Farrell and Alexander himself. Alexander gave his account to Francis J. Powers for the book “My Greatest Day in Baseball.” O’Farrell related his version to Lawrence Ritter in “The Glory of Their Times.”

Alexander: “There are stories that I celebrated (after Game 6) and had a hangover when Rogers Hornsby called me from the bullpen to pitch to Lazzeri.  That isn’t the truth.”

O’Farrell: “When he struck out Lazzeri, he’d been out on a drunk the night before and was feeling the effects.”

Alexander: “In the clubhouse after (Game 6), Hornsby came over to me and said, ‘Alex, if you want to celebrate tonight, I wouldn’t blame you, but go easy for I may need you tomorrow.’ I said, ‘OK, Rog’ … Hell, I wanted to win that Series and get the big end of the money as much as anyone.”

O’Farrell: “After the sixth game was over, Rogers Hornsby told Alex that if Jesse Haines got in any trouble the next day he would be the relief man. So he should take care of himself. Well, Alex didn’t really intend to take a drink that night, but some of his friends got hold of him and thought they were doing him a favor by buying him a drink. Well, you weren’t doing Alex any favor by buying him a drink because he just couldn’t stop.”

Alexander: “Early in (Game 7), Hornsby said to me, ‘Alex, go down into the bullpen and keep your eye on (Bill) Sherdel and (Herman) Bell. Keep them warmed up and if I need help I’ll depend on you to tell me which one looks best.”

O’Farrell: “In the seventh inning of the seventh game, Alex is tight asleep in the bullpen, sleeping off the night before … The Yankees get the bases loaded with two outs, and the next batter up is Lazzeri. Hornsby and I gather around Haines at the pitching mound. Jesse’s fingers are a mass of blisters from throwing so many knuckleballs, and so Hornsby decides to call in old Alex, even though we know he’d just pitched the day before and had been up most of the night.”

Alexander: “The bullpen in the Yankee Stadium is under the bleachers and when you’re down there you can’t tell what’s going on out in the field … When the bench wants to get in touch with the bullpen, there’s a telephone. It’s the only real fancy modern bullpen in baseball. Well, I was sitting around down there, not doing much throwing, when the phone rang and an excited voice said, ‘Send in Alexander.’ … I take a few hurried throws and then start for the box.”

O’Farrell: “In he comes, shuffling slowly from the bullpen to the pitching mound.”

Alexander: “When I come out from under the bleachers, I see the bases filled and Lazzeri standing at the box. Tony is up there all alone, with everyone in that Sunday crowd watching him. So I just said to myself, ‘Take your time. Lazzeri isn’t feeling any too good up there and let him stew.’ ”

O’Farrell: “Hornsby asks, ‘Can you do it?’ Alex says, ‘I can try.’ We agree that Alex should pitch Lazzeri low and away, nothing up high.”

Alexander: “I get to the box and Bob O’Farrell, our catcher, comes out to meet me. ‘Let’s start where we left off yesterday,’ Bob said. Yesterday (in Game 6) Lazzeri was up four times against me without getting anything that looked like a hit. He got one off me in the second game of the Series, but with one out of seven I wasn’t much worried about him … I said OK to O’Farrell. We’ll curve him.”

O’Farrell: “The first pitch is a perfect low curve for strike one.”

Alexander: “My first pitch was a curve and Tony missed. Holding the ball in his hand, O’Farrell came out to the box again. ‘Alex,’ he began, ‘this guy will be looking for that curve next time. We curved him all the time yesterday. Let’s give him a fast one.’ I agreed.”

O’Farrell: “The second one comes in high, and Tony smacks a vicious line drive that lands in the left field stands but just foul. Oh, it’s foul by maybe 10 feet.”

Alexander: “I poured one in, right under his chin. There was a crack and I knew the ball was hit hard … I spun around … and all the Yankees on base were on their way, but the drive had a tail-end fade and landed foul by eight to 10 feet in the left field bleachers. I said to myself, ‘No more of that for you, my lad.’ ”

O’Farrell: “So I run out to Alex. ‘I thought we were going to pitch him low and outside?’ Alex says, ‘He’ll never get another one like that.’ ”

Alexander: Bob signed for another curve and I gave him one. Lazzeri swung where that curve started but not where it finished. The ball got a hunk of the corner and then finished outside.”

O’Farrell: “A low outside curve and Tony Lazzeri struck out.”

In the bottom of the ninth, with two outs, Babe Ruth took off from first base on Alexander’s first pitch to Bob Meusel.

Alexander: “I caught the blur of Ruth starting for second as I pitched, and then came the whistle of the ball as O’Farrell rifled it to second. I wheeled around and there was one of the grandest sights of my life. Hornsby, his foot anchored on the bag and his gloved hand outstretched, was waiting for Ruth to come in.”

O’Farrell: “I wondered why Ruth tried to steal. A year or two later I went on a barnstorming trip with the Babe and I asked him. Ruth said he thought Alex had forgotten he was there. Also that the way Alex was pitching they’d never get two hits in a row off him, so he better get in position to score if they got one. Maybe that was good thinking. Maybe not. In any case, I had him out a mile at second.”

 

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