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Archive for the ‘Pitchers’ Category

Pitching guru: Joe Becker brought out best in the best

Posted in Games, Hitters, Pitchers on October 28, 2024| 14 Comments »

For a club with Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton, the Cardinals hired a coach who caught Bob Feller and aided the development of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.

In October 1964, Joe Becker joined the Cardinals as pitching coach on the staff of newly appointed manager Red Schoendienst.

Becker, a St. Louisan, came to the Cardinals from the Dodgers after serving 10 seasons (1955-64) as their pitching coach. During that time, the Dodgers won three World Series titles (1955, 1959, 1963) and four National League pennants (1955, 1956, 1959, 1963). Becker coached three Cy Young Award winners: Don Newcombe (1956), Don Drysdale (1962) and Sandy Koufax (1963).

A catcher who played in the Cardinals farm system, Becker reached the majors with Cleveland the same year another rookie, Bob Feller, joined the club.

Learning the ropes

Becker grew up on the south side of St. Louis and attended Cardinals games as a Knothole Gang member. His favorite player was catcher Bob O’Farrell.

In 1930, the year he turned 22, Becker signed with Des Moines, an independent minor league team. “I started at $200 a month in the middle of the Depression and I was the richest kid on the block,” Becker told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The Cardinals purchased his contract during the 1930 season on the recommendation of scout Charley Barrett. Becker played four seasons (1930-33) in the Cardinals’ farm system, then was declared a free agent by baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. After sitting out a year, Becker signed with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League in 1935 and became a teammate of their 20-year-old center fielder, Joe DiMaggio.

The Seals sold his contract to the Cleveland Indians and that’s how Becker reached the majors as a backup catcher in 1936. His first big-league hit was a home run at Boston’s Fenway Park against winning pitcher Jim Henry. Boxscore

Most of the time, though, Becker, 28, was catching warmup throws of Cleveland pitchers, including those of 17-year-old fellow rookie Bob Feller.

“Feller was just a kid … but he had the liveliest fastball I ever saw,” Becker said to Bob Broeg of the Post-Dispatch in 1965. “Afterward, he developed not only one good curve, but three or four different sizes and speeds.”

Though Feller’s fastball was a rocket, the ball came in “alive and light” rather than heavy and didn’t sting the catcher’s hand, Becker told the Los Angeles Times.

After a second season with Cleveland in 1937, Becker returned to the minors. At 36, he joined the Navy and served for two years (1944-45) as a chief gunner’s mate on the USS Wake Island, a converted Casablanca-class escort carrier in the Pacific during World War II.

Discharged in February 1946, Becker went to play for a Giants farm team but tore cartilage in a knee early in the season. Discouraged, “I just wanted to go home and forget baseball,” Becker told the Sioux City (Iowa) Journal.

Giants farm director Carl Hubbell convinced Becker to try managing instead. Becker took over a club in Seaford, Del., in 1946 and went on to manage in the minors for nine years in the Giants, Browns and White Sox systems.

Special project

After his first season as Dodgers manager in 1954, Walter Alston replaced pitching coach Ted Lyons with Becker, who had impressed Alston when they managed against one another in the minors.

Becker was put in charge of a pitching staff that included Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine, Johnny Podres and a 19-year-old rookie, Sandy Koufax.

When he first saw Koufax, the left-hander “had a world of stuff,” Becker told the Chicago Tribune, but “was so damn wild he couldn’t throw the ball through an open barn door.”

At spring training in Vero Beach, Fla., “we had a half-dozen mounds and home plates so that several pitchers could work at the same time,” Becker said to Bill Bryson of the Des Moines Register. “They were spaced far enough so there wasn’t any danger from wild pitches _ until Koufax came along.”

Becker moved Koufax to a secluded area of the training site. “Sandy was a sensitive boy and he was getting awfully self-conscious about his wildness,” Becker told Bryson. “The guys were laughing at him and he was losing what little confidence he had. So we had the groundkeepers build us a mound over behind the barracks where nobody could see us.”

Though it took six years to get the desired results _ “Many kids would have given up,” Becker told the Post-Dispatch _ he and Koufax put in the effort to improve the pitcher’s poise, control and confidence. “I’d made up my mind that what the boy needed most was kindness and encouragement _ and work,” Becker said to the Des Moines newspaper. “I never had a pitcher who worked harder.”

Koufax told Bill Bryson, “Becker taught me the curve and just about everything else about pitching. I don’t know whether I ever would have mastered control if Joe hadn’t been so patient with me in those early years.”

(Don Drysdale, a more polished rookie, joined the Dodgers a year after Koufax did, in 1956. Though Becker helped him, too, such as on location of pitches and footwork, the approach was sometimes different. “Becker will bawl me out and chew me out and even tell me I’m lousy, but I like that,” Drysdale told the Los Angeles Mirror. “He does it face to face.”)

Change of scenery

In 1964, the Cardinals won the pennant, dethroning the Dodgers, who finished 80-82, even though Becker’s pitching staff had the best ERA (2.95) in the National League. Management reacted by overhauling Alston’s entire coaching staff. Becker was banished to the minors to manage Spokane. “I’d spent too many years in the minors to go back,” Becker told the Post-Dispatch.

After the Cardinals beat the Yankees for the World Series title, manager Johnny Keane resigned (in part, because club owner Gussie Busch clumsily schemed during the season to hire Dodgers coach Leo Durocher as manager) and joined the Yankees. Red Schoendienst, who replaced Keane, told the Post-Dispatch he talked with pitching coach Howie Pollet about staying but Pollet indicated he wanted to spend more time on his insurance business in Houston.

Schoendienst and the Cardinals then reached out to Becker, who agreed to replace Pollet as pitching coach. (A week after Becker was hired, Pollet was named pitching coach of the Astros.)

“I had talked with some of the Dodgers pitchers abut Joe,” Schoendienst told the Post-Dispatch. “They all said Joe helped them quite a bit, especially with control.”

Though the Cardinals were champions in 1964, their pitching staff allowed more runs than all but three National League teams. Becker said to the Los Angeles Times, “It’s quite a challenge to see if I can improve the Cardinals’ staff and make it easier for the club to win the pennant again.”

Good stuff

Bob Gibson was the ace of the Cardinals’ staff. He earned 19 wins in 1964, including the pennant-clinching season finale, and also won Games 5 and 7 of the World Series.

“Of 100 pitchers in the National League, not more than five or six can throw high strikes,” Becker said to the Toronto Star. “By that, I mean throwing strikes to a batter’s strength _ up where he can hit them. Koufax and Drysdale can do it. So can Bob Veale and Jim Maloney. Gibson is on that list, too.”

Becker said to the Post-Dispatch, “With what Gibson has going for him, there’s no reason in the world why he can’t become the best pitcher in the league.”

Gibson was averaging 140 to 145 pitches per game, according to Becker. He worked with Gibson to cut that to 120 to 125 by getting ahead in more counts.

The results were impressive: Gibson won 20 in a season for the first time with the 1965 Cardinals and struck out 270 batters.

(At spring training in 1965, Becker also took notice of a 20-year-old Steve Carlton. “He can be a good one in the future,” Becker told the Post-Dispatch.)

Moving on

A year later, with a mix of established starters (Gibson, Al Jackson and Ray Washburn) and emerging prospects (Carlton, Larry Jaster and Nelson Briles), Becker’s pitching staff ranked second in the National League in ERA.

Gibson won 21 in 1966 and his 78 walks were quite an improvement from the 119 he totaled five years earlier when he joined the starting rotation.

“The big thing about Gibson is that he’s continuing to cut down on his pitches and he’s not just trying to overpower the hitters,” Becker told the Post-Dispatch. “No doubt it, Gibson has been much more a pitcher than a thrower. His concentration is so much better. He’s (pitching) to spots much better.”

Despite the strides he made, Becker resigned after the 1966 season because he objected to “interference from the front office,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

According to the newspaper, “It is no secret that Becker has resented numerous suggestions and memorandums from general manager Bob Howsam regarding the pitching staff.”

Red Schoendienst tried to get Becker to reconsider but was unsuccessful. “My relationship with Schoendienst has been happy,” Becker told the Post-Dispatch. “Red has done a real good job under the circumstances. I’ve enjoyed working with the Cardinals players, especially the pitchers.”

A couple of weeks later, at the urging of manager Leo Durocher, the Cubs hired Becker to be their pitching coach. He completed the conversion of Ferguson Jenkins from reliever to starter and worked with another emerging left-hander, Ken Holtzman.

Becker wanted to retire after the 1969 season but the Cubs convinced him to come back for another year. In August 1970, Becker, 62, suffered a heart seizure and collapsed in the clubhouse. He recovered but his coaching days were finished.

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High hopes faded fast for Pat Malone with Cardinals

Posted in Opponents, Pitchers, Trades on October 11, 2024| 11 Comments »

Looking to strengthen a starting rotation that already included 30-game winner Dizzy Dean, Branch Rickey, the Cardinals’ teetotaling general manager, acquired the Cubs’ Pat Malone, who drank highballs as fervently as he threw high fastballs.

Three weeks after the Cardinals beat the Tigers in World Series Game 7, Rickey traded catcher Ken O’Dea for Malone and cash on Oct. 26, 1934.

A husky right-hander, Malone, 32, was a two-time 20-game winner who twice helped the Cubs earn National League pennants (1929 and 1932), dethroning the Cardinals each time.

A fierce competitor, Malone had a reputation as a baseball bad boy off the field. “Pat was a problem child,” the Minneapolis Star noted. “He loved his firewater.” According to Sec Taylor of the Des Moines Register, “He just couldn’t leave the bottle alone.”

As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch put it, Malone could be found “where the lights are bright and the glasses tinkling.”

On the urging of manager Frankie Frisch, Rickey took a chance on the hurler.

Malone “ought to win 15 games for us,” Frisch said to the Post-Dispatch.

Rickey predicted to the St. Louis Star-Times, “I believe he’ll win 20 games for us.”

As it turned out, Malone never pitched in a regular-season game for the Cardinals.

Rough and tumble

Born in Altoona, Pa., Perce Leigh Malone was named in honor of a family friend, Perce Lay, a brakeman on the Pennsylvania Railroad, but he preferred to be called Pat. As The Sporting News noted, “Nobody called him Perce from the day he was able to put his hands up, and Pat was handy with his dukes.”

Malone went to work for the railroad as a fireman when he was 16. A year later, he joined the Army as a cavalry soldier. After his military service, Malone went back to railroading and also played sandlot baseball. His first year as a professional pitcher was 1921 with Knoxville.

He spent seven seasons in the minors. When he got to the Cubs in 1928, Malone lost his first five decisions. Manager Joe McCarthy stuck with him and the grateful rookie finished the season with 18 wins. “He thought McCarthy was the greatest guy in the world and McCarthy, who liked his spirit, thought right well of him, too,” New York Sun columnist Frank Graham observed.

According to the Minneapolis Star, “McCarthy never questioned (Malone’s) conduct off the field so long as he produced on it.”

Catching Malone’s blazing fastball took a toll on Gabby Hartnett, whose hand “often was puffed to three times its normal size,” The Sporting News noted.

The Cubs became National League champions in 1929 and Malone was a major factor. He led the league in wins (22), shutouts (five) and strikeouts (166). His record that season against the defending champion Cardinals was 5-0.

Malone won 20 again in 1930, but McCarthy was fired near the end of the season and replaced by Rogers Hornsby.

In the book “The Man in the Dugout,” Cubs second baseman Billy Herman told author Donald Honig, “Hornsby tried to have discipline on the club, but he had some bad actors and couldn’t control them _ fellows like Pat Malone and (outfielder) Hack Wilson. They’d get drunk and get into fights.”

As Si Burick of the Dayton Daily News noted, Malone “was mixed up in several unpleasantries as a direct result of his convivial escapades.” In one of those incidents, Malone assaulted two Cincinnati sports reporters.

Behavior clause

Charlie Grimm took over for Hornsby during the 1932 season and guided the Cubs to a pennant, but he and Malone had a falling out in 1934. Malone won eight of his last 10 decisions, raising his 1934 season record to 14-7, but Grimm yanked him from the starting rotation after Aug. 24. Malone said the Cubs had promised to give him a $500 bonus for each win above 15 and that’s why Grimm stopped starting him, the Star-Times reported.

Malone wanted out. During the 1934 World Series, he met with Frankie Frisch, who asked Rickey to arrange a trade, the Star-Times reported.

As the Post-Dispatch noted, “Malone is not exactly the kind of player Branch Rickey would choose.” To close the deal, the Cubs gave the Cardinals “considerable cash,” according to the Star-Times.

Rickey “practically clinched the 1935 National League championship for the Cardinals” when he got Malone to join a starting rotation with Dizzy Dean, Paul Dean, Bill Walker and Bill Hallahan, the Star-Times proclaimed.

The good vibes evaporated, though, when Rickey mailed a contract to Malone offering a 1935 salary of $5,000, a 50 percent cut from his pay with the Cubs in 1934. Malone sent back the document, unsigned, with a note: “Haven’t you made a mistake and sent me the batboy’s contract?”

According to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Rickey said the low offer was his way of emphasizing to Malone that the Cardinals didn’t consider him of much value unless he agreed to curb his drinking. Rickey said he didn’t plan to keep Malone unless he expressed “a strong determination to be a very, very well-behaved boy,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

Malone came to St. Louis, met with Rickey for more than two hours, promised he’d behave, and emerged with a signed contract. According to the Post-Dispatch, the contract had “a provision for a bonus if he refrained from tasting liquor during the training and league seasons, and for heavy fines if he wandered from the straight and non-intoxication path.”

Both appeared satisfied. Rickey said to the Post-Dispatch, “I expected to find horns on this man, Malone, but he hasn’t any.”

Malone told the newspaper, “Rickey isn’t the big, bad wolf I expected to meet.”

Math problem

A portly Malone lumbered into Cardinals spring training headquarters at Bradenton, Fla., in 1935. “There isn’t a uniform in camp big enough to give Malone arm freedom,” the Star-Times noted.

Following a morning of workouts early in camp, Malone accepted an invitation from Dizzy Dean to play golf that afternoon. After six holes, Malone “broke down. He sent his caddy back to the clubhouse with his sticks, called for a taxicab and went to the club’s hotel,” the Post-Dispatch reported. “Straight to his room he went, without bothering about food, and he was snoring before 6 o’clock.”

The next morning he told the newspaper, “I can barely move one leg after another. I never knew what work was until I came to this Cardinals camp.”

Determined to show the Cardinals he could contribute, Malone became “one of the hardest workers on the field,” the Post-Dispatch reported. “He showed the zest of a rookie.”

According to the Globe-Democrat, “Pat has given every indication of his willingness, nay, his eagerness, to cooperate to the fullest to become a regular and reliable starting pitcher when the season opens.”

Branch Rickey saw it differently. On March 26, 1935, he sold Malone’s contract to the Yankees, who were managed by Joe McCarthy, for a reported $15,000. According to the Post-Dispatch, Malone said to Rickey, “If you had kept me, I’d have shown you something. I’d have worked my head off and won for you.”

Describing the trade as a “surprise,” the Post-Dispatch added that Malone’s conduct “on and off the field during the training season has been all that anyone could have asked.”

While offering no specific reasons for the deal, Rickey said to the Star-Times, “I feel relieved considerably now that Malone is off our ballclub … After surveying conditions here for a week, I realized Malone was not the type I desired on a world championship team or a team that is going to try to win another pennant.”

Rickey told the Post-Dispatch, “There are four phases of arithmetic: addition, multiplication, division and subtraction. Applied to baseball, subtraction is the most important … I have subtracted Malone from the Cardinals’ roster. He cannot lose any games. He cannot lead any of our little boys astray. Ergo, the Cardinals are stronger.”

End of the line

Used primarily by McCarthy as a reliever, Malone was 19-13 with 18 saves in three seasons with the Yankees, helping them to two American League pennants (1936 and 1937).

Released in 1938, Malone joined the minor-league Minneapolis Millers at spring training in Daytona Beach, Fla., and was fitted for a uniform. “He stood there, a Coca-Cola in one hand and a cigarette in the other, while two men plied his Ruthian form with tape measures,” the Minneapolis Star reported.

Trouble soon followed. Manager Donie Bush told the newspaper, “Malone began drinking while the team was at Daytona Beach and we had several arguments about it then.”

Bristling against discipline by a minor-league club, Malone rebelled and twice was suspended within a week early in the season for getting drunk. He pitched for two more minor-league teams in 1938, his final year in professional baseball, before returning home to Altoona.

In October 1939, the Yankees were headed to Cincinnati for the World Series when the train stopped in Altoona for about 10 minutes. Malone climbed onboard, spent time with Joe McCarthy and went through the cars, saying hello to the players, according to columnist Frank Graham.

When it came time for the train to depart, Malone said to McCarthy, “Well, Joe, I wish to hell I was going with you.” McCarthy replied, “I wish you were, too, Pat.”

According to Harold C. Burr of the Brooklyn Eagle, Malone “stood on the station platform and watched the lighted windows of the Pullmans go streaking past. It was Malone’s wistful farewell to baseball.”

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Orient Express: Masanori Murakami blazed pioneer path

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers, Prospects on September 27, 2024| 12 Comments »

In a bid to contend with the Cardinals and others for the 1964 National League pennant, the Giants added the majors’ first Japanese import to their bullpen.

On Sept. 1, 1964, Masanori Murakami, 20, became the first Japanese native to play in the big leagues when he pitched in relief for the Giants against the Mets.

Possessing impressive command of his pitches, Murakami, a left-hander, made an impact. Though the Giants didn’t win a pennant in either of his two seasons with them, Murakami “was right at the top among relief pitchers in the National League,” Giants general manager Chub Feeney told the San Francisco Examiner in 1965. “Possibly only Ron Perranoski of the Dodgers was better.”

In two years with the Giants, Murakami was 5-1 with nine saves and struck out 100 batters in 89.1 innings.

He faced the Cardinals four times, all in 1965, and was 1-0 with a save.

Baseball rebirth

Murakami was born during World War II in Otsuki, Japan, a silk production center, on May 6, 1944.

After the war, Tsuneo “Cappy” Harada, a Japanese-American who served the Allies in military intelligence, was assigned by General Douglas MacArthur to encourage the resumption of baseball in Japan, according to the Hartford Courant.

Helping Harada in his efforts was Lefty O’Doul, two-time National League batting champion. O’Doul made multiple trips to Japan to promote baseball before the war and became a national institution, according to Red Smith of the New York Herald Tribune. In return visits there after the war, O’Doul was an influence on young Masanori Murakami, according to the Examiner.

Murakami was 19 when he joined the Nankai Hawks of the Japan Pacific League in September 1963. Cappy Harada was scouting for the San Francisco Giants then. Harada arranged with Nankai to let three of their teen prospects _ Murakami, infielder Tatsuhiko Tanaka and catcher Hiroshi Takahashi _ join the Giants’ organization in 1964. “They sent me over … to study the baseball system,” Murakami said years later to the New York Times.

New world

After getting a look at the Japanese teens in 1964 spring training, the Giants determined Murakami could pitch for the Class A Fresno farm club. The other two players were sent there with Murakami to observe before they’d join a rookie level farm team at Twins Falls, Idaho, in June.

The agricultural Fresno area then was home to 15,000 Japanese-Americans. Murakami and his two countrymen resided in the home of Keek Saiki and his wife Fumiko. “They drink milk by the gallon,” Fumiko said to the Examiner, “and go for fried chicken and westerns on TV. They are very quiet, write letters a yard long and ask where they can swim.”

Murakami’s manager at Fresno was Bill Werle. A former left-handed reliever for the Cardinals, he saw Murakami had the makeup to be a closer. “His control is incredible,” Werle told the Examiner. “That’s why I put him in tight spots in late innings … His low curve makes the batsmen tap grounders for double plays.”

Murakami was 11-7 with 11 saves and a 1.78 ERA for Fresno. He struck out 159 batters in 106 innings. Murakami made one start _ on Japanese-American Night in Fresno _ and pitched a complete game in a 3-2 win over Reno.

“He was too good for the league,” Werle told the Los Angeles Times.

The 1964 Giants entered September in third place in the National League and were a half game ahead of the Cardinals when they called up Murakami. Attempting the leap from Class A to the majors was formidable. The cultural significance of being the first Japanese-born big leaguer added to the challenge.

Big Apple

The rookie joined the Giants in New York for their series against the Mets. At Shea Stadium, he was greeted by general manager Chub Feeney and several Japanese reporters and photographers.

Murakami carried with him a Stan Musial model glove. When asked by the Examiner whether Musial was one of his favorites, Murakami shrugged. His English was limited.

Feeney “trailed him around the field, pen in hand, before the game,” trying to get Murakami to sign a major-league contract, the Times reported. Murakami didn’t want to sign until he understood what the contract meant. Feeney scrambled to find an interpreter and eventually got Murakami’s signature.

With the Mets ahead, 4-0, Giants manager Al Dark brought in Murakami to pitch the eighth. According to Newsday, “Many of the (39,379) fans stood and cheered when the pitcher came into the game.”

Mets starter Al Jackson told the newspaper, “We thought he might be a little nervous, but he wasn’t.”

Actually, Murakami told the San Francisco Chronicle, “I was afraid.” To calm his nerves, he said he hummed the tune “Sukiyaki” as he walked to the mound.

Murakami struck out the first batter, Charlie Smith. Chris Cannizzaro singled, then Ed Kranepool struck out and Roy McMillan grounded out. “As Murakami, with a spring in his gait and a wad of chewing gum in his mouth, strode toward the Giants’ dugout, Mets fans stood and cheered,” the Associated Press reported.

Stadium organist Jane Jarvis saluted Murakami’s successful debut with “The Japanese Sandman.” Boxscore

The next day, from Lefty O’Doul’s saloon near San Francisco’s Union Square, Examiner columnist Prescott Sullivan wrote that Murakami’s debut made the proprietor the happiest man in town. “Such was his joy, that for a period of six seconds, shortly before 11 a.m. when a slow bartender was on duty, all drinks served at his Geary Street tavern were on the house,” Sullivan noted.

Back in New York, Murakami was a guest on Ralph Kiner’s TV show, but, even with an interpreter, something got lost in translation, according to the Examiner.

Kiner: “What is your best pitch?”

Murakami: “Koufax.”

Kiner: “Who is your favorite pitcher?”

Murakami: “Curveball and a little bit changeup.”

Murakami asked to meet 74-year-old Mets manager Casey Stengel, who spoke his own unique style of English, Stengelese. Stengel posed with Murakami for a photo. Asked what he thought of him, Murakami said to the Examiner, “Nice old man. Very friendly.”

Sudden impact

In his first nine appearances for the 1964 Giants, covering 11 innings, Murakami didn’t allow a run. His first big-league win came against Houston at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. Murakami pitched three scoreless innings and the game ended when Matty Alou of the Dominican Republic slugged a home run (his first in two years) against French-Canadian Claude Raymond in the 11th. Boxscore

In his next appearance, against the Cubs, Murakami faced three future Hall of Famers, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Ernie Banks, and retired them in order. Boxscore

Described by the Examiner as “the slingin’ samurai,” he finished with a 1-0 record, one save and a 1.80 ERA for the 1964 Giants, striking out 15 and walking one in 15 innings. Batters hit .163 against him.

The Giants and Nankai Hawks both wanted Murakami to pitch for them in 1965, causing a dispute between the clubs. The matter got settled in late April 1965 when the Hawks agreed to let Murakami play for the Giants on the condition he’d be allowed to return to Japan in 1966 if he desired.

Murakami made his first appearance for the 1965 Giants on May 9, three days after he turned 21. (Murakami and teammate Willie Mays shared a birthday.)

When the Giants were at home, Murakami resided at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in San Mateo. On the road, his roommate was fellow left-handed reliever Bill Henry, 37, a Texan, who began playing professional baseball in 1948 with the Clarksdale Planters of Mississippi.

Popular with teammates, Murakami “has an innate dignity, a quiet confidence and a sly sense of humor,” the Examiner’s George Murphy observed.

Giants manager Herman Franks was trying to find the players who were helping Murakami learn English. When Franks went to the mound to talk to Murakami during a game, the pitcher smiled and said to him, “Take a hike.” (Or words a good deal stronger than that.) Franks told the Examiner, “I don’t think he knows what he’s saying.”

Reliable reliever

Murakami beat the Cardinals the first time he faced them. With the score tied at 2-2 and Cardinals runners on first and second, one out, Murakami relieved Frank Linzy. He got Tim McCarver to pop out to second and fanned Carl Warwick. After Tom Haller’s two-run homer against Bob Gibson in the top of the 13th, Murakami retired the Cardinals in order for the win. Boxscore

A month later, with the Giants clinging to a 3-2 lead, the Cardinals had Julian Javier on second, two outs, in the ninth when Murakami relieved Linzy and struck out Bill White for the save. Boxscore

Murakami was especially effective against the Dodgers. In eight appearances covering 11 innings versus the 1965 Dodgers, he allowed one run (for an 0.82 ERA) and struck out 11. He also got his first big-league hit, a bunt single, against the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax. Boxscore

Because of his delayed start to the season, Murakami wasn’t available when the Giants’ bullpen lost games to the Dodgers on April 30 and May 7.

“We lost the pennant to the Dodgers by only two games, and I missed one month,” Murakami said to Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times. “If I pitched more, we would have won the pennant.”

Murakami was 4-1 with eight saves for the 1965 Giants. He struck out 85 in 74.1 innings and held batters to a .206 average.

Times have changed

Afterward, Murakami opted to play for the Nankai Hawks. “Murakami explained he wanted to stay with the Giants in 1966, but pressure from his parents, among others, forced him to return to Japan,” the Examiner reported.

Years later, asked by Jim Murray whether he wished he had stayed a Giant, Murakami replied, “Oh, yes.”

Murakami pitched in Japan for 18 years. His best season was 1968 when he was 18-4 with a 2.38 ERA for the Nankai Hawks. His teammates that season included second baseman Don Blasingame, a former Cardinal, and first baseman Marty Keough, who would become a Cardinals scout.

In 1983, when he was 38, Murakami attempted a comeback with the Giants but was released in spring training. “Fastball not so fast,” he told the Examiner.

Thirty years passed between the time Murakami last pitched for the 1965 Giants and the next Japanese player, Hideo Nomo of the 1995 Dodgers, reached the majors. A Japanese network arranged to televise Nomo’s games and hired Murakami as a broadcaster. On Aug. 5, 1995, at Candlestick Park, Murakami was honored by the Giants and threw the ceremonial first pitch. Then Nomo took the mound and hurled a one-hit shutout. Boxscore

Nomo received the 1995 National League Rookie of the Year Award. More Japanese players followed. The Cardinals signed their first, outfielder So Taguchi, in January 2002. In 2024, the most celebrated player in the game was the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani of Japan.

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Bobo Newsom and Browns: An unpredictable pairing

Posted in Games, Pitchers on September 20, 2024| 8 Comments »

Depending on how often his fastball found the strike zone, Bobo Newsom could be entertainingly good or entertainingly bad _ sometimes both in the same day.

The few fans who came to St. Louis’ Sportsman’s Park in September 1934 witnessed classic Bobo.

A big right-hander (6-foot-3, 220 to 240 pounds, according to the Associated Press), Bobo started Game 1 of a doubleheader for the Browns against the Athletics on Sept. 14, walked the first four batters and was yanked. To nearly everyone’s surprise, he started Game 2 as well and, this time, struck out the first four batters. He went on to pitch a complete game and earn the win.

Four days later, Bobo started at home against the Red Sox. He pitched a no-hitter for nine innings _ and lost, in the 10th.

Give me a break

Louis Newsom of Hartsville, S.C., began pitching in the minors when he was 20 in 1928. His nickname was Buck, but he became “known to all as Bobo because that was the way he greeted everybody, from the owner of the club to the team’s batboy,” according to the Associated Press.

After a stint with the Dodgers (1929-30), Bobo was claimed by the Cubs. On his way to Chicago to talk contract, his car spun down an embankment and Bobo suffered a compound fracture of the left leg, the Detroit Free Press reported. 

Two days after he was able to begin moving around again, Bobo accompanied an uncle to a mule sale in South Carolina. Bobo got kicked in the bum leg by a mule and suffered two broken bones, he told the Free Press.

Limited to one appearance with the 1932 Cubs, Bobo went back to the minors with the 1933 Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League and won 30 games. The Browns claimed him on the recommendation of their manager, Rogers Hornsby, who managed the Cubs when Bobo was there. “I think Newsom has real stuff,” Hornsby said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

St. Louis showboat

Using a corkscrew windup, Bobo would “spin off the mound and fire a sidearm fastball,” the Free Press noted.

Post-Dispatch columnist John Wray wrote, “Newsom throws about the fastest ball in the league, if not the majors.”

Senators manager Bucky Harris told the Washington Star, “He had the damndest arm I ever saw.”

Bobo talked a good game, too. The Buffalo News described him as “made up of almost equal parts of bombast, braggadocio and brilliance.”

Morris Siegel of the Star observed, “He was frivolous, cantankerous, often careless with the truth, competitive and garrulous, but fun most of the time.”

Arthur Daley wrote in the New York Times that Bobo “was the only pitcher who could swagger while standing still.”

When Bobo popped off at Detroit reporter Robert Ruark, the journalist tried to pop him with a punch. Later, Ruark recalled Bobo as “one of the finest non-malicious liars I ever knew … He was a braggart and a blowhard, but I never knew anybody who really disliked him.”

Wild thing

Hornsby pitched Bobo in 47 games with the 1934 Browns. He won 16, lost 20 _ a record that might have been reversed with better control. Bobo totaled more walks (149) than strikeouts (135).

When Bobo got pulled after walking the first four batters of the Sept. 14 doubleheader opener, he figured to be done for the day, but George Blaeholder, who was supposed to start Game 2, got sick. The 500 spectators on hand in St. Louis that Friday afternoon “were somewhat surprised to see” Bobo warming up as Blaeholder’s replacement, the Post-Dispatch reported.

More surprising, too, was how Bobo reversed his performance from the opener, striking out the first four batters. He fanned just one more after that, but held the Athletics to two runs in nine innings for the win. Boxscore and Boxscore

In his next start, the nine hitless innings against the Red Sox, Bobo’s control cost him a win. He walked seven, and two of those scored.

Played on a Tuesday afternoon at Sportsman’s Park (no attendance was reported but each of the other three games of the Red Sox-Browns series drew 500 or less), Bobo gave up a run in the second. Red Sox cleanup hitter Roy Johnson led off the inning with a walk and, after an error and an out, scored from third on a fielder’s choice.

With the score tied at 1-1 in the 10th, Bobo walked Max Bishop and Billy Werber. With two outs, Johnson grounded a 3-2 pitch up the middle. Shortstop Alan Strange “made a gallant try for the ball but it just tipped the finger of his glove as it went to center,” scoring Bishop with the winning run, the Post-Dispatch reported. Boxscore

(Bobo pitched five more one-hitters in the majors and won all.)

Show must go on

In May 1935, the Browns sold Bobo’s contract to the Senators for $40,000. As he departed St. Louis, Bobo told the Buffalo News, “Brownie fans have been my friends _ both of them.”

Bobo had two more stints with the Browns _ 1938-39 and 1943. He won 20 for the 1938 Browns. In July 1943, after being suspended for insubordination by Dodgers manager Leo Durocher, prompting his teammates to threaten to strike unless he was reinstated, Bobo was banished to the Browns.

“I don’t want to play in St. Louis,” Bobo said to the Associated Press. “I will quit before reporting to St. Louis.”

Bobo reported, went 1-6, then was peddled to the Senators.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in attendance when Bobo started on Opening Day for the Senators at home against the Yankees. In the fifth inning, Senators third baseman Ossie Bluege charged in to field a Ben Chapman bunt and heaved a strong throw toward first. Bobo, standing directly in the path of the ball, forgot to duck. With a sickening smack, the ball struck him full force just below the right ear. President Roosevelt “dropped his bag of peanuts and sat transfixed” as Bobo clutched his face in his hands, the Washington Star reported.

Disregarding the advice of a doctor, Bobo insisted on staying in the game. As the Washington Star put it, “This big galoot with an unmatchable heart refused to quit after punishment that would have hospitalized an ordinary mortal.”

Bobo pitched a complete game, limiting the Yankees to four singles, and won, 1-0. President Roosevelt stayed for the entire show. Boxscore

Bobo served five separate terms with Washington. “That’s one more than FDR’s record,” he said to the Free Press.

Traveling man

It was tough to get Bobo, who pitched 246 complete games in the majors, to leave the mound.

Cleveland Indians slugger Earl Averill, who altered the career of Dizzy Dean with an All-Star Game smash that broke the left toe of the Cardinals’ ace, drilled a liner that struck Bobo in the left knee during the third inning of a game at Washington.

“After briskly rubbing the knee, he declared he was ready to pitch,” the Star reported. With trainer Mike Martin applying ice packs between innings, Bobo pitched a complete game, but lost by a run. That night, X-rays showed he had a fractured kneecap. Boxscore

Bobo three times won 20 in a season and three times lost 20. He never led a major league in wins but four times led the American League in losses.

In 1940, he was 21-5 for the Tigers, who won the American League pennant. In the World Series against the Reds, Bobo’s father watched from the stands as his son started and won Game 1. The next morning, Bobo’s father died. After the funeral, Bobo started Game 5 and pitched a three-hit shutout. Two days later, in the decisive Game 7, Bobo limited the Reds to two runs, but the Tigers scored just one against Paul Derringer and lost. Boxscore, Boxscore, Boxscore

Bobo arrived at 1941 spring training “in a long auto with a horn that blared ‘Hold That Tiger,’ and a neon sign that flashed, ‘Bobo,’ ” The Sporting News reported.

He was 12-20 that season.

Described by The Sporting News as “a modern day Marco Polo,” Bobo pitched for nine big-league teams _ Dodgers, Cubs, Browns, Senators, Red Sox, Tigers, Athletics, Yankees, Giants _ and posted a record of 211-222. “He moved around like a hobo, changing uniforms almost with the seasons,” Joe Falls of the Free Press noted.

In his first big-league game, Bobo pitched to High Pockets Kelly, a future Hall of Famer who began in the majors in 1915. In his last big-league game, Bobo pitched to Larry Doby, a future Hall of Famer and first black to reach the American League. Boxscore and Boxscore

“The toughest man I ever faced in the clutch was Lou Gehrig,” Bobo told the Associated Press. “He always seemed to rise to the occasion.”

Gehrig’s numbers against Bobo: .337 batting average, .450 on-base percentage, six home runs.

Bobo also was hit hard by Joe DiMaggio (.380 batting average, .413 on-base mark, seven homers), Stan Musial (four hits, including two homers, in five at-bats for an .833 average) and Ted Williams (.385 batting average, .515 on-base mark.)

“DiMaggio, Musial and Ted Williams _ all three great hitters,” Bobo said to the Associated Press. “I wouldn’t try to choose between them.”

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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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Claude Osteen: Marathon man in brief stay with Cardinals

Posted in Games, Pitchers, Trades on August 6, 2024| 11 Comments »

During the 18 seasons he performed in the majors, left-hander Claude Osteen pitched 40 regular-season shutouts, the same total as Sandy Koufax and more than Lefty Grove (35) and Lefty Gomez (28).

That doesn’t count the unofficial shutout Osteen crafted for the Cardinals.

On Aug. 15, 1974, the Cardinals acquired Osteen from the Astros for minor-league pitcher Ron Selak and a player to be named (another pitching prospect, Dan Larson).

Rusty from inactivity and unable to find a groove, Osteen didn’t produce a win for the contending Cardinals, but he did deliver a special performance in a remarkable game. 

Entering in the 14th inning, Osteen held the Mets scoreless until the 23rd _ 9.1 innings, or basically the equivalent of a complete game. Though he departed with the score still tied, the Cardinals eventually won in the 25th.

Prep phenom

Osteen was born in Caney Springs, Tennessee, a hamlet 45 miles south of Nashville. As The Tennessean newspaper noted, “Almost everybody who lives in Caney Springs is kin to Osteen.”

Growing up there, he played baseball in cow pastures, learned to throw a curve and advanced to a 4-H Club team when he was 12. At 14, he moved with his family to Cincinnati, where his father took a job with General Electric.

Pitching for Reading High School, Osteen was 29-3 in three varsity seasons, including 16-0 as a senior in 1957 when his team became state champions.

Though his high school coach scouted for the Dodgers, who made an offer, Osteen accepted a contract with the Reds on July 2, 1957. “I signed with Cincinnati for several reasons,” Osteen told the Nashville Banner. “My folks wanted me to, for one. Besides, (the Reds) promised me I could stay with the club for a while instead of going right out to the minors.”

(Cardinals general manager Frank Lane said to the Cincinnati Enquirer, “We were interested in Osteen, but not to the extent of … putting him on our roster.”)

Major step up

Four days after signing, Osteen, 17, made his big-league debut against the Cardinals at Cincinnati. Si Burick of the Dayton Daily News described him as a skinny southpaw, “his cap cocked on the side of his head,” who “doesn’t look strong enough to throw the ball to the plate.”

According to Earl Lawson of The Cincinnati Post, Reds pitcher Art Fowler, 35, took one look at Osteen warming up and said, “My son can throw harder than he can.”

Cardinals backup catcher Walker Cooper, 42, told Osteen, “Little Leaguers are supposed to pitch from 40 feet out,” Lawson reported.

Entering in the seventh inning with two on, one out and St. Louis ahead, 10-3, Osteen faced five batters. He retired two, walked one, gave up two singles, threw a wild pitch and yielded a run. “A lot of fun,” he told the Enquirer. “I was a little nervous and I thought I might have been worse than I was, but it was a thrill.” Boxscore

(Catching the rookie from Caney Springs, Tennessee, that day was Ed Bailey from Strawberry Plains, Tennessee.)

The next day, Osteen faced the Cardinals again and pitched a scoreless ninth. Boxscore

Having fulfilled their pledge to let Osteen experience the big leagues, the Reds sent him to their Nashville farm club managed by Dick Sisler, the former Cardinal. Called back in September, Osteen made one scoreless relief appearance against the Cubs, striking out Ernie Banks with the bases loaded. Boxscore

Good moves

Osteen spent most of the next two seasons (1958-59) in the minors. Primarily a reliever with the 1960 Reds, he had a 5.03 ERA and was demoted the next year.

Osteen never got a win for the Reds. Other pitching prospects, Jim Maloney and Jim O’Toole, advanced ahead of him. In the book “We Played the Game,” O’Toole said, “I didn’t let anybody push me around like they did Claude Osteen. He’d throw what the catcher wanted instead of his best pitches and get hit hard.”

In September 1961, with the Reds on their way to winning the pennant, Osteen, 22, was traded to the Washington Senators, an American League expansion team. The Senators finished in last place in each of Osteen’s first three seasons with them (1961-63) but he got to start regularly and figured out how to survive.

“The big difference in my pitching now and when I was in the minors and with the Reds is I no longer try to strike out a lot of guys,” Osteen told the Nashville Banner in July 1962. “I realize I can’t strike out everybody up here. So I’m just trying to make them hit a bad pitch and let my fielders do some work.”

Osteen’s breakout season came in 1964 when he won 15 for the ninth-place Senators (62-100). Afterward, the Dodgers acquired him in a deal that sent slugger Frank Howard to Washington. The move vaulted Osteen from baseball’s basement into a starting rotation with Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.

Hollywood material

When he joined the Dodgers, Osteen’s teammates nicknamed him Gomer because they thought he resembled actor Jim Nabors, who played the character of Gomer Pyle on “The Andy Griffith Show” (1962-64) and then on “Gomer Pyle: USMC” (1964-69). “One day, Jim Nabors comes to the clubhouse and we start talking about all that downhome stuff _ he’s from Alabama _ and doggoned if we didn’t become good friends,” Osteen told the Los Angeles Times.

Osteen (15 wins, 2.79 ERA) joined Koufax (26 wins, 2.04) and Drysdale (23 wins, 2.77) in forming a formidable top of the rotation for the 1965 Dodgers, who dethroned the Cardinals as National League champions.

After the Twins beat Drysdale and Koufax in the first two games of the World Series, Osteen turned the tide with a shutout in Game 3. The Dodgers went on to win the title in seven games. “If Claude hadn’t beaten us in that third game, we’d be the world champions,” Twins first baseman Don Mincher told The Tennessean. Boxscore

The Dodgers repeated as National League champions in 1966 (Osteen won 17 and had a 2.85 ERA) but were swept by the Orioles in the World Series. In Game 3, Osteen allowed one run in seven innings but Wally Bunker pitched a shutout and the Orioles won, 1-0. Boxscore

Osteen was a 20-game winner for the Dodgers in 1969 and again in 1972. He had double-digit wins in each of his nine seasons with them. “He is as dependable as sunset,” Jim Murray wrote in the Los Angeles Times.

Dodgers manager Walter Alston told The Tennessean, “There’s not a more reliable guy around … He gets about as much out of his stuff as anybody in the majors.”

In 1973, Osteen was 16-6 for the first-place Dodgers with one month remaining in the season, but he lost his last five decisions and the club went 12-14 in September, finishing second to the Reds. Afterward, he was traded to the Astros for outfielder Jim Wynn.

Houston, we have a problem

Osteen was the Astros’ first $100,000 salary player and was expected to make them contenders. [The highest-paid player in 1974 was White Sox slugger Dick Allen at $233,000, according to the Miami Herald. Leading the 1974 Cardinals: Bob Gibson ($160,000), Joe Torre ($140,000), Lou Brock ($110,000).]

One of the foes Osteen did best against in 1974 was the Cardinals. He beat them with a complete game in May and did it again in July. Osteen entered the all-star break at 9-7 with a 3.15 ERA. Boxscore and Boxscore

Though his fastball wasn’t sinking, and his curve and slider were hanging, “I was winning mostly on know-how and moving the ball around,” Osteen told The Sporting News.

Following the break, Osteen started twice and got shelled. He didn’t appear in a game for the next 17 days. “It was a very frustrating thing for me to find myself sitting on a bench,” Osteen told The Tennessean.

On Aug. 15, in a game against the Cubs, Osteen was told to get ready to relieve J.R. Richard. While Osteen warmed up, manager Preston Gomez waved for him to come to the dugout. “That’s when he took me aside and told me the deal had been made” with the Cardinals, Osteen told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Stranger things

The first-place Cardinals projected Osteen, 35, as a replacement for ailing starter Sonny Siebert. Cardinals general manager Bing Devine “told me he had not bought my contract merely to have me help them finish out the 1974 season,” Osteen said to The Tennessean. “He said he thought I had a couple of more good years. I agree with him.”

In his Cardinals debut, a start against the Braves, Osteen couldn’t protect a 5-0 lead and was lifted in the fourth. For the 14th time in his career, Hank Aaron hit a home run against Osteen, sparking the Braves’ comeback. Boxscore

Moved to the bullpen, Osteen was used mostly in mop-up roles. As a starter, he’d developed a rhythm, knowing he’d pitch every four days. This was different.

“I had no idea how to go about being a reliever,” Osteen said to United Press International. “I didn’t know how to warm up, how long to warm up, how to get used to sitting around, waiting so much. At first, I found I was wearing myself out getting up and down (and) throwing.”

One and done

In a game against the Mets, Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst turned to Osteen in the 14th inning. Pitching like he had in his prime with the Dodgers, Osteen held the Mets scoreless until being relieved by Siebert with two outs in the 23rd. The Cardinals won in the 25th when Bake McBride scored from first base on a wild pickoff throw.

Osteen’s line: 9.1 innings, no runs, four hits, two walks. Boxscore

That was Osteen’s highlight as a Cardinal. He made eight appearances for them and was 0-2 with a 4.37 ERA. Osteen called the 1974 season “a totally lost year” and “confusing,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

At Cardinals spring training in 1975, Osteen was “a prime candidate for the job as No. 5 starter,” according to the Post-Dispatch.

The Cardinals, though, had acquired another veteran left-hander, Ray Sadecki, 35.

Osteen posted a 3.91 ERA in 23 innings during spring training. Sadecki had a 9.00 ERA in 13.2 innings, but the Cardinals opted to keep him and release Osteen. Sadecki is “used to coming out of the bullpen,” Red Schoendienst explained to the Post-Dispatch.

Cardinals coach

Athletics owner Charlie Finley said a deal to sign Osteen “is virtually completed,” the Oakland Tribune reported, but the White Sox swept in and got him instead.

Osteen, 36, made 37 starts for the 1975 White Sox but lost 16 of 23 decisions in his final season. His career record: 196-195, 3.30 ERA.

Osteen bought a chicken farm near Hershey, Pa. During the 1976 baseball season, he was pitching coach for the Phillies’ farm club in Reading, Pa.

In October 1976, the Cardinals hired Vern Rapp to replace Red Schoendienst as manager. Osteen was surprised when Bing Devine called, asking him to meet with Rapp in New York during the 1976 World Series to discuss the Cardinals’ pitching coach job.

“I had never met Rapp,” Osteen said to The Tennessean. “I spent about three hours with Vern, talking about pitching. Before we finished, he picked up the telephone and called Bing and told him I was the man he wanted.”

Osteen spent four seasons (1977-80) as Cardinals pitching coach. He had the same job with the Phillies (1982-88), Rangers (1993-94), Dodgers (1999-2000). Three Phillies pitchers won Cy Young awards with Osteen as their coach _ Steve Carlton (1982), John Denny (1983) and Steve Bedrosian (1987).

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