RetroSimba

On Sept. 4, 1987, Vicente Palacios stood on a big-league mound for the first time, a 24-year-old Pirates rookie from Mexico making his debut at Houston’s Astrodome. It must have felt to him like standing atop Mount Everest. He’d been rejected by two other organizations, White Sox and Brewers, making him wonder whether he’d lost his chance of ever reaching the majors, but here he was, pitching in the same game with none other than Nolan Ryan.

Seven years later, on July 19, 1994, his 31st birthday, Palacios was back on the mound at the Astrodome, this time as a member of the Cardinals. He’d been through multiple shoulder surgeries and experienced more rejection, but managed to persevere.

Palacios had his greatest game that night, holding the hard-hitting Astros to one hit in nine innings and pitching a shutout for the win.

Traveling man

Born about 20 miles inland from the port city of Veracruz along the Gulf of Mexico, Palacios was 19 in 1983 when he pitched his first season of professional baseball in the Mexican League with El Aguila de Veracruz (The Eagle of Veracruz).

“There was no question he was one of the top three or four pitchers in Mexico,” Terry Collins, then a scout for the Dodgers, told The Pittsburgh Press.

The Chicago White Sox purchased his contract in 1984 and sent him to the minors. A right-hander, Palacios didn’t do enough to impress while in the White Sox system. They loaned him to the Mexico City Reds in 1985 and to El Aguila de Veracruz in 1986 before releasing him.

Desperate to revive his career, Palacios, 23, experimented with developing a different pitch. “I did it on my own,” he told Bob Hertzel of The Pittsburgh Press.

The pitch Palacios came up with was a variation of the split-fingered fastball. “It’s kind of like a forkball,” catcher Mike LaValliere said to The Press. “He holds it like a knuckle-curve, only it doesn’t spin much.” Pitching coach Ray Miller described it to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as “a knuckle palm ball,” and broadcaster Jim Rooker, a former pitcher, called it “a knorkle ball.”

Palacios learned to master the pitch in winter ball in Mexico after the 1986 regular season, drawing interest from scouts for the Pirates and Brewers.

The Pirates signed Palacios on Dec. 4, 1986, four days before the baseball winter meetings, but the Brewers outmaneuvered them. Because he wasn’t on the Pirates’ big-league roster, Palacios was exposed to the Dec. 8 Rule 5 draft, and, much to the Pirates’ chagrin and embarrassment, was selected by the Brewers.

The draft rules required that the Brewers keep Palacios on their big-league roster throughout the 1987 season or else give the Pirates the chance to take him back.

At 1987 spring training, Palacios was nurtured by the Brewers’ 20-game winner and countryman Teddy Higuera, who focused on the mental aspects of pitching, such as managing emotions and making adjustments to game situations.

However, Palacios didn’t advance enough to earn a spot on the Opening Day roster, and was sent back to the Pirates.

“We really wanted to keep him,” Brewers general manager Harry Dalton told The Pittsburgh Press. “We saw potential in him. We would have kept him if he were a little more poised, a little more mature.”

Ups and downs

The Pirates sent Palacios to their Class AAA Vancouver farm club in 1987 and he thrived under the guidance of pitching coach Jackie Brown, who altered his pitching mechanics. “When his mechanics got straightened out, he started feeling better about himself,” Pirates director of player development Buzzy Keller told the Post-Gazette.

Palacios was 13-5 for Vancouver and led the Pacific Coast League in ERA (2.58), shutouts (five), innings pitched (185) and strikeouts (148).

Called up to the Pirates in September 1987, Palacios made his debut at the Astrodome, working two scoreless innings (sixth and seventh) in relief of Mike Bielecki and matching zeroes with opposing pitcher Nolan Ryan. Boxscore

Four days later, Palacios made his first start and outdueled Rick Sutcliffe, holding the Cubs to one run in eight innings and getting the win. Boxscore

Based on that success, Palacios was in the Pirates’ plans, but then came more setbacks. He had shoulder surgery in 1988 and again in 1989.

His comeback bid in 1990 began with Class AAA Buffalo, where Terry Collins was the manager and Jackie Brown the pitching coach. Palacios made 28 starts for Buffalo and had a 13-7 record.

The Pirates, in the thick of the 1990 title chase in the National League East, brought him back to the majors on Sept. 5. Manager Jim Leyland used Palacios in relief and got rewarded. In seven appearances covering 15 innings, Palacios allowed no runs and earned three saves, including one against the Cardinals, and helped the Pirates become division champions. Boxscore

Because he joined them after Sept. 1, Palacios was not eligible for the playoffs.

Nonetheless, his career seemed to be on an upswing. With the Pirates in 1991, Palacios was used as both starter and reliever. Though he spent a month on the disabled list because of shoulder problems, he posted a 6-3 record, with three saves and a 3.75 ERA. In seven starts, including a shutout of the Expos, his ERA was 2.72. Boxscore

The Pirates repeated as division champions in 1991, but Palacios was left off the playoff roster because his season record against their foe, the Braves, was 0-3. 

In 1992, Palacios won his first three decisions, but then his shoulder began to ache. He was placed on the disabled list in June, had his third surgery, missed the remainder of the season and was released. The Padres signed him, watched him at spring training in 1993 and released him. He returned to the Mexican League with the Yucatan Lions, who dealt him to the Aguascalientes Railroadmen.

“A lot of people think when you go to the Mexican League, you’re done,” Palacios told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Then when I got traded from (Yucatan), I was worried. I started thinking there’s something wrong.”

As he had before, though, Palacios soldiered on, earning 20 saves in the Mexican League in 1993 and pitching a no-hitter in the playoffs.

On Dec. 23, 1993, the Cardinals signed Palacios to a minor-league contract and invited him to spring training as a non-roster player.

No quit

Palacios won a spot on the Opening Day roster of the 1994 Cardinals as a reliever. “I’m very impressed with his stuff,” Cardinals pitching coach Joe Coleman told the Post-Dispatch. “The only question is his durability. He’s sneaky quick and throws that ball (from) out of his uniform. It’s tough to pick up. He’s got a fastball that rides in on their hands, and he’s got the forkball to go along with it.”

In the Cardinals’ season-opening win against the Reds at Cincinnati, Palacios played a key role, pitching two scoreless innings in relief of starter Bob Tewksbury. He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh by striking out Reggie Sanders. Boxscore

After making nine relief appearances, Palacios was moved into the starting rotation on May 3 when two pitchers went on the disabled list. He lost seven of his first eight decisions, but received poor run support. The Cardinals averaged 1.1 runs per game in his seven losses as a starter.

Lacking better options _ the 1994 Cardinals would finish with a team ERA of 5.14 _ manager Joe Torre stuck with Palacios.

On July 18, the Cardinals blew an 11-0 lead and lost, 15-12, to the Astros at Houston. The next night, Palacios, with his 1-7 record, was given the start against the Astros’ Darryl Kile.

The Astros, managed by Terry Collins, had a lineup with two future Hall of Famers, Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio, plus Steve Finley and Luis Gonzalez, and would lead the league in RBI that season.

It looked to be a mismatch, and it turned out that way, too _ but not in favor of the Astros.

Palacios issued a walk to Bagwell in the first and gave up a leadoff single to eighth-place batter Andujar Cedeno in the third, then retired the last 21 batters in a row, completing a one-hit shutout in a 10-0 Cardinals triumph. Boxscore

“I kept the ball down, mixed my pitches and stayed ahead of the hitters,” Palacios said to the Associated Press, “and our guys made a lot of good plays behind me.”

He made two more starts, then returned to a relief role, as Torre tried to find plugs for a pitching staff leaking runs.

Palacios led the 1994 Cardinals pitching staff in strikeouts (95) and was second to Bob Tewksbury in innings pitched (117.2). His season record: 3-8, 4.44 ERA.

With the 1995 Cardinals, Palacios got raked (5.80 ERA and .300 batting average against) before he underwent his fourth shoulder surgery in July. “I’ve got to find a new shoulder,” Palacios said to the Post-Dispatch.

The Cardinals released him four months later.

Determined to keep pitching, Palacios eventually worked his way back to the Mexican League. In 1999, with Broncos de Reynosa, he made 43 relief appearances and was 5-2 with 10 saves and a 0.95 ERA.

The Padres, managed by Bruce Bochy, signed him and on April 20, 2000, five years after he pitched for the Cardinals, Palacios, 36, was back in a big-league game. His opponent: the Cardinals.

Pitching in relief of Brian Boehringer, Palacios faced 13 Cardinals batters and gave up six runs, including home runs to Eli Marrero and Rick Ankiel. Boxscore

He did better after that, allowing no runs in four of his next six relief appearances, but the Padres released him in August.

Once again, Palacios returned to the Mexican League and pitched there until 2003 when he turned 40.

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Cardinals rookie Herman Bell seemed an unlikely candidate to accomplish one of the franchise’s most remarkable pitching feats.

On July 19, 1924, Bell pitched two complete games in a doubleheader and won both against the Braves at St. Louis.

Before joining the Cardinals, Bell primarily had been working as a cowpoke on a cattle ranch and pitching on pasture diamonds for semipro teams.

He went on to pitch in three World Series and have a role in one of Babe Ruth’s epic clouts.

Soldier and cowboy

Herman “Hi” Bell was born in Mount Sherman, Ky., 10 miles from Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace in LaRue County, but moved with his family to northwest Iowa when he was a youngster.

(When he joined the Cardinals, his teammates nicknamed him “Hi,” from the expression, “Hiya, how’re you doing?” according to Sid Keener of the St. Louis Star-Times.)

Bell attended school in Sibley, Iowa, 10 miles from the Minnesota border, and also resided in Alton, Iowa, according to The Sporting News.

In 1917, when he was 19, Bell enlisted in the Army during World War I and completed his service in 1919. He then worked on a ranch in Colorado for three years (1919-21), the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported, and played semipro baseball for town teams in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota.

Bell expected “to become a regular cowboy for the cattle ranch” near Colorado Springs, according to the Alton (Iowa) Democrat.

“There are probably no baseball pitchers in northwest Iowa the superiors of Herman Bell,” the Alton Democrat noted in October 1921. “He has no ambition, however, toward entering professional baseball, and has already tried ranch life and likes it.”

Bell apparently had a change of heart, because in 1922 he played for the Sioux Falls (S.D.) Soos of the Dakota League in the Class D level of the minors. When the league folded in 1923, Bell went back to pitching for a semipro team and was discovered by Cardinals scout Charley Barrett, who signed him late that summer, according to the Globe-Democrat.

After a good spring training with the 1924 Cardinals, managed by Branch Rickey, Bell, 26, was on their Opening Day roster.

Starting out

A 6-foot right-hander, Bell’s first six appearances for the Cardinals were in relief and he wasn’t particularly impressive, allowing runs in four of those games.

Then he got a start, in the second game of a doubleheader against the Pirates at Pittsburgh, and pitched into the 15th inning before allowing the winning run. “The youngster pitched exceptionally well,” The Pittsburgh Press reported. Boxscore

Five days later, on June 4, Bell got his first win, pitching a complete game versus the Phillies at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. Then he lost his next three starts, giving him a 1-4 record. Boxscore

Double wins

The Cardinals faced consecutive home doubleheaders _ Saturday, July 19, against the Braves and Sunday, July 20, versus the Phillies.

For Game 1 of the first doubleheader, Rickey chose Bell to start for the Cardinals (34-49) against the Braves (33-50).

Bell, who entered the game with a 4.80 ERA, retired the first 22 batters in a row before Ernie Padgett lined a double to right with one out in the eighth. Cotton Tierney followed with a single, scoring Padgett, but those were the only hits the Braves got versus Bell. He completed the two-hitter, a 6-1 Cardinals victory. The Braves’ No. 3 batter, Casey Stengel, went hitless. Boxscore

Between games, Rickey had Allen Sothoron and Bill Sherdel warm up, presumably with the notion of starting one of them in Game 2, but then the manager had an idea. He asked Bell whether he wanted to pitch the second game.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Bell replied, “Sure.” Rickey said, “Well, then, you’re the pitcher. Go to it.”

Rickey told the newspaper, “My purpose in sending Bell back was to instill confidence in the youngster and to give his teammates greater confidence in their pitcher. He is a big, strong lad and his pitching motion is such that pitching 18 innings entails no great effort.”

Bell retired the first 13 batters in Game 2. Just as in the opener, Ernie Padgett doubled for the first hit against him.

With the Cardinals ahead, 2-0, the Braves made it tense in the ninth. After Stengel’s two-out single drove in a run, the Braves had runners on first and third, with Stuffy McInnis, a career .307 hitter, at the plate.

“A trying moment for a pitcher who’d worked 17.2 innings,” the Globe-Democrat noted.

McInnis hit a grounder to third baseman Specs Toporcer, who threw to second in time to retire Stengel for the third out. Boxscore

(An oddity of note: The Cardinals had seven baserunners thrown out attempting to steal. In Game 1, Braves catcher Mickey O’Neil nailed five runners, and in Game 2 Frank Gibson stopped two.)

The Post-Dispatch described Bell’s pitching as “sensational.” The Globe-Democrat added it “was all the more remarkable considering that it rained during the greater part of both games.”

Sportsman’s Park didn’t have lights then.

As the Post-Dispatch reported, “At one stage of the opener it appeared as if the teams would be lucky to play the full nine innings. In the fourth and fifth innings of the nightcap, the ball was difficult to follow because of the darkness caused by the low black clouds rolling out of the west.”

Babe vs. Bell

Bell went winless the rest of the season, losing four more decisions, including an Aug. 6 start against the Braves, and finishing 3-8.

He spent the next year in the minors, with the 1925 Milwaukee Brewers.

Back with the Cardinals in 1926, Bell was a reliever and spot starter for a team that won the franchise’s first National League pennant and World Series title. In 19 relief appearances, Bell was 3-2 with a 1.27 ERA.

Bell’s lone appearance in the 1926 World Series against the Yankees came in a Game 4 relief stint at St. Louis _ and it was a doozy. In the sixth inning, Bell faced Babe Ruth, who had slugged home runs against starter Flint Rhem in the first and third innings. No one had hit three homers in a World Series game.

Bell worked the count to 3-and-2, then challenged The Babe. “Ruth waded into the fastball and put all his shoulders and back behind the 52-ounce bat,” the New York Times reported. “He caught the ball as flush as an expert marksman.”

As the New York Daily News noted, when Ruth made contact with Bell’s pitch, there was an “ominous crack, as loud as a rifle report” and the ball took off “as though propelled by high-powered explosives.”

This wasn’t one of Ruth’s arcing rainbows. It was, as the Daily News described, a “streak shot straight for the bleachers in center field, a direct flight.”

According to the Times, “It is 430 feet to the bleacher fence. The wall is about 20 feet high. Back of it stretches a deep bank of seats, and almost squarely in the middle of this bank” is where Ruth’s home run landed.

The Associated Press reported, “It was a terrific smash. The spectators just gasped and fell back in their seats.” Boxscore

Deja vu

Bell spent 1927 with the Cardinals, then most of the next two seasons (1928-29) with their farm club at Rochester, N.Y. On the final day of the 1928 season, with Rochester needing two wins at Montreal to clinch the International League pennant, manager Billy Southworth started Bell in both games of a doubleheader. He won both, replicating the feat he achieved with the Cardinals four years earlier.

In 1930, Bell’s last season with the Cardinals, he led the National League in saves (eight) for the pennant winners.

After another year at Rochester in 1931, Bell was drafted by the Giants and pitched three seasons for them, including 1933, when he had six wins, five saves and a 2.05 ERA for the World Series champions.

In 1935, Bell, along with Jim Thorpe, had an uncredited role as a ballplayer in “Alibi Ike,” a movie about a rookie pitcher for the Cubs with a penchant for making excuses. It starred Joe E. Brown, Olivia de Havilland and William Frawley, with Ring Lardner credited as a screenwriter.

After the 1937 season, when the Reds were looking for a manager to replace Chuck Dressen, Bell applied for the job, the Associated Press reported. Reds general manager Warren Giles, who had been Rochester club president when Bell pitched there, instead hired Bill McKechnie.

Bell operated a restaurant in Glendale, Calif., until his death from a heart attack at 51 in 1949.

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In 1934, the double whammy of the Great Depression and an extreme drought inflamed by excessive heat spread misery throughout the United States. For some, the antics of pitcher Dizzy Dean provided an amusing diversion from the problems they were facing.

A 30-game winner for the 1934 Cardinals, Dean was an enthusiastic entertainer whose showmanship extended beyond his pitching.

Dean provided his ballpark audiences with comedy routines on the field. One of his most inventive came at the height of a heat wave.

Hell on earth

According to Dean’s biographer Robert Gregory in his book “Diz,” the Midwest in 1934 experienced a brutal summer. “There was no rain for weeks, the Mississippi River had become a stream, Missouri was facing the worst farm crisis in state history and St. Louis was having its highest temperatures since 1871,” Gregory wrote. “For 30 days, it was 100 degrees or hotter.”

On Sunday afternoon, June 24, 1934, the temperature soared to 102 degrees in St. Louis, but 15,000 spectators came out to Sportsman’s Park for a game between the league-leading Giants (39-22) and second-place Cardinals (36-23).

The Giants’ lineup featured future Hall of Famers Bill Terry, Mel Ott and Travis Jackson, ex-Cardinals George Watkins and Gus Mancuso and starting pitcher Freddie Fitzsimmons.

The Cardinals’ Gashouse Gang group included Frankie Frisch, Joe Medwick, Pepper Martin, Rip Collins, Leo Durocher and starting pitcher Tex Carleton.

Taking center stage, though, was Dizzy Dean.

Singing in the rain

Before the game began, Dean decided to thumb his nose at the weather conditions. He “painstakingly collected enough rubbish to build himself a bonfire in front of his dugout,” the New York Daily News reported. The material for the fire consisted of paper wrappers, sticks, old scorecards and other debris Dean found along the edge of the grandstand.

Dean “fanned his little fire, rubbing his knuckles, encouraging and soberly inspecting it from every angle to make sure the wigwam of sticks drew a good draft,” New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Powers noted. “When assured he had a respectable blaze, he procured two Cardinals blankets, garbed himself and coach Mike Gonzalez in their suffocating folds and then stomped the earth, slapping his mouth in a series of yipping Indian war cries.”

According to Robert Gregory, “He had them rolling in the aisles behind the dugout and then he cupped a hand to his ear. What was it? his expression seemed to ask. What was he hearing in the distance? Was it thunder? Was a storm coming? Yes, his nods were suggesting, rain was falling, lots of it, the drought was broken, and now his cap was off, his head was tilted up, his eyes were closed, he was smiling at being splashed by this imaginary summer shower. Now cool and wet enough, he pretended to open an umbrella and tiptoed beneath it to the dugout, vanishing to laughing cheers and whistles.”

The New York Daily News described Dean’s exit this way: “Before the irate umpires could vent their wrath, he withdrew, his hand on his hip, stalking off with the dignity of a Princess Pocahontas.”

Dean’s performance was the highlight for the hometown fans. In the game that followed, the Giants won, 9-7. Boxscore

On with the show

While taking care of business on the hill in 1934 _ Dean was 5-0 in May, 6-1 in June, 6-1 in July, 5-2 in August and 7-1 in September _ Dizzy continued with an array of masterful pantomime performances.

According to Jimmy Powers, Dean will “break an egg and fry an omelet on the sun-steeped dugout roof. In slow motion, he will take an imaginary shave, or serve and consume an entire meal, or shadow box a vicious brawl.”

As Time magazine observed, Dean’s unconventional behavior, “the result of shrewd self-aggrandizement,” is as famed as his pitching prowess.

The Cardinals won the 1934 pennant and advanced to the World Series against the Tigers. After Dean won Game 1 at Detroit, he and his brother, Paul, had breakfast the next morning with Henry Ford.

According to Dean’s biographer, “At Ford’s direction, a siren-blaring police escort hurried them to the park. Dizzy signed lots of autographs on the field, posed for every camera, and then, taking off an Indian blanket, sat down with the band behind home plate, borrowed a tuba, and puffed his way through ‘Wagon Wheels.’ To the musician whose horn he’d taken, Dizzy said, ‘Give me a week at this and I’ll have your job.’ “

After getting conked in the head by a throw from Detroit shortstop Billy Rogell while running the bases in Game 4, Dean reportedly said, “I saw a million stars, moons, dogs, cats, but I didn’t see no Tigers.”

Before Game 7 at Detroit, Dean approached Tigers slugger Hank Greenberg as they headed up a runway to the field. According to Robert Gregory, Dean said, “You boys are too tight. What you got to do is ‘unlax’ a little. But your troubles are going to be over in a couple of hours. Ol’ Diz is pitching.”

Dean pitched a shutout, securing the championship for the Cardinals.

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