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Archive for the ‘Pitchers’ Category

How 28 equaled 30 for Cardinals’ Dizzy Dean

Posted in Executives, Games, Pitchers on June 17, 2024| 13 Comments »

Dizzy Dean was plenty good for the 1934 Cardinals, but he needed a helping hand from an influential source to achieve 30 wins.

In two June relief appearances Dean made for the 1934 Cardinals, National League president John Heydler credited him with wins in both, even though other pitchers appeared to qualify instead.

If not for Heydler’s unconventional decisions, Dean would have finished with 28 regular-season wins in 1934. Instead, he got 30, becoming the last National League pitcher to achieve the feat.

Save or win?

On June 21, 1934, at St. Louis, Dean beat the Dodgers, pitching a complete game and boosting his season record to 10-3. Boxscore

Two days later, with the Dodgers ahead, 3-0, in the sixth inning, Bill Hallahan relieved for the Cardinals and gave up a run, extending the Brooklyn lead to 4-0. In the bottom half of the inning, Pat Crawford batted for Hallahan and delivered a two-run single, capping a five-run rally that put the Cardinals on top, 5-4.

Dean entered in the seventh, looking to protect the lead. Hallahan figured to be in line for the win if the Cardinals held on. Dean did the job, holding the Dodgers scoreless the last three innings. Boxscore

Official scorer Martin Haley, baseball reporter for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, awarded the win to Hallahan because the Cardinals were ahead when Dean was brought in.

As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted, “The official scorer, in naming Hallahan, was abiding by the scoring rules, which provide that ordinarily a pitcher shall be credited with the runs scored by his team in the inning, or innings, he pitches.”

Haley apparently had second thoughts, though, because that night he filed a report to Heydler, a former umpire, and asked him to make a decision on who should be the winning pitcher. Dean, the fourth Cardinals pitcher of the game, was the only one who held the Dodgers scoreless.

Rules to pitch by

Here is how Major League Baseball defines how a pitcher qualifies for a win:

“A pitcher receives a win when he is the pitcher of record when his team takes the lead for good _ with a couple rare exceptions. First, a starting pitcher must pitch at least five innings (in a traditional game of nine innings or longer) to qualify for the win. If he does not, the official scorer awards the win to the most effective relief pitcher.

“There is also a rarely used clause where an official scorer can deem a relief pitcher’s appearance ‘brief and ineffective.’ (For example, if a reliever relinquished a one-run lead by allowing three runs, but was still in line for a win after his team scored four runs in the following inning _ that may qualify.) If that’s the case, the scorer can award the win to a pitcher who followed that ‘brief and ineffective’ pitcher. Which relief pitcher earns the win specifically is also up to the judgment of the official scorer.”

Verdict is in

On the morning of June 27, 1934, Heydler declared Dean the winning pitcher of the June 23 game. “Dean pitched great ball … to protect (a) one-run lead,” Heydler ruled. “Hallahan pitched one inning rather poorly.”

According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, “Hallahan himself suggested that the credit go to Dean.”

St. Louis newspapers supported Heydler’s decision.:

_ St. Louis Star-Times: “Hallahan, like Diz, entered the contest as a relief pitcher but, unlike Diz, failed to hold the foe in check.”

_ St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “It was (Dean’s) strong arm and determination, his pitching skill and his fielding agility that made it possible for the Cardinals to win.”

Heydler’s ruling gave Dean a season record of 11-3.

That afternoon, the Cardinals played the Giants at St. Louis. The groundkeeper’s thermometer at Sportsman’s Park recorded 115 degrees on the field, the New York Daily News reported.

Dizzy started for the Cardinals and labored into the ninth inning. With the score tied at 7-7, the Giants had runners on first and second, two outs, when Jim Mooney relieved Dean.

Mooney, an ex-Giant, got the Cardinals out of the jam when he fielded Mel Ott’s sharp grounder and threw to first for the third out. Ott’s comebacker “almost knocked the pitcher down,” the Post-Dispatch reported, but he made the play.

Facing 43-year-old reliever Dolf Luque in the bottom half of the ninth, Cardinals catcher Bill DeLancey drove a pitch onto the pavilion roof in right-center for a walkoff home run. Boxscore

Decisions, decisions

Though Mooney had done the job, retiring a future Hall of Famer with the outcome on the line, and was still in the game when Delancey hit his homer, official scorer Martin Haley awarded the win to Dean.

“He had toiled 8.2 innings under a blistering sun and had pitched shutout baseball from the third to that ninth,” the Post-Dispatch noted.

He also may have pitched with a hand injury. According to Dean, an X-ray showed a small piece of bone chipped off the knuckle, the Globe-Democrat reported.

Seeking cover for his decision, Haley again asked Heydler to make the final ruling. Heydler agreed with him. Dean got the win, improving his season record to 12-3.

In his book “Diz,” Dean biographer Robert Gregory wrote that the two rulings giving wins to Dean “were controversial” and the Giants “were said to be particularly indignant.”

Dean finished the 1934 regular season with a 30-7 record. In 33 starts, he pitched 24 complete games, including seven shutouts, and was 26-5. He was 4-2, including the two Heydler rulings, in 17 relief appearances. In three starts against the Tigers in the 1934 World Series, Dean was 2-1, including a shutout in Game 7.

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How Dizzy Dean found a way to beat the heat

Posted in Games, Pitchers on June 12, 2024| 7 Comments »

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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Joining Cardinals became a career saver for Ken Dayley

Posted in Games, Pitchers, Trades on June 7, 2024| 14 Comments »

When the Cardinals acquired Ken Dayley, they thought they were getting a top of the line starting pitcher. Then they were worried he might be a dud.

As it turned out, Dayley developed into one of the top left-handed relievers in the National League during the 1980s.

On June 15, 1984, the Cardinals traded third baseman Ken Oberkfell to the Braves for Dayley and utility player Mike Jorgensen.

Dayley helped the Cardinals win two National League pennants.

Jorgensen also played for the 1985 league champion Cardinals and served several roles for the organization, including interim manager in 1995, minor-league manager (1986-89), director of player development (1992-2001) and special assistant to the general manager (2001-2018).

Easily rattled

A marketing major who played baseball and basketball at the University of Portland in Oregon, Dayley was the first pitcher selected in the 1980 June amateur draft. The Braves took him with the third overall pick.

Two years later, Dayley, 23, made his big-league debut in a start against the 1982 Cardinals, who roughed him up for four runs in 1.1 innings. The big blow was Tito Landrum’s two-run homer. Boxscore

Two months later, the Cardinals’ Willie McGee whacked a grand slam against Dayley. Boxscore

Shuttled back and forth between starting and relieving, Dayley had losing records with the Braves in 1982 and 1983. “He’s a fairly high-strung kid, and it seemed when we sent him to the mound, he felt he was pitching for his life,” Braves manager Joe Torre told the Atlanta Constitution.

Braves pitching coach Bob Gibson said to the newspaper, “He has to learn to relax more than he does now. He tries to give you the appearance that everything is fine and that he’s cool inside, but he’s really not.”

Dayley’s stress level wasn’t helped when, after the 1983 season, the Braves released franchise icon Phil Niekro and said doing so opened a starting spot for Dayley. “In other words,” wrote Gerry Fraley of the Atlanta Constitution, “Dayley is supposed to replace Phil Niekro on the mound and in the statistics, if not in the hearts of Braves fans.”

Pitching more like Phil Silvers than Phil Niekro, Dayley was 0-3 with a 5.30 ERA in four starts for the 1984 Braves before he was demoted to the minors. According to the Atlanta Constitution, trying to replace Niekro “became an oppressive mental burden for the already skittish Dayley.”

Braves director of player development Hank Aaron said to the Constitution, “We still think Ken Dayley has a tremendous future in the big leagues. It’s a matter of him getting his act together _ relaxing.”

High hopes

The Cardinals sent three scouts to watch Dayley at Class AAA Richmond (Va.) and they liked what they saw. When the Braves went looking for a third baseman to replace Bob Horner, who suffered a season-ending wrist injury in May 1984, the Cardinals agreed to swap Oberkfell for Dayley and Jorgensen.

Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said Dayley, 25, had the capability to be a “No. 1 or No. 2” starter, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. “I feel he’s ready,” Herzog told the newspaper. “He’s paid his dues … He’s got a chance to be a very good pitcher.”

The results, though, were alarming. The Cardinals pitched Dayley in three games, including two starts, and he was shelled in each, allowing 16 hits and 10 earned runs in five total innings. Dayley gave up so many hard shots that “we had to get the married men off the infield, or there’d have been a lot of widows and orphans,” Herzog told The Sporting News.

Dayley said to the Post-Dispatch, “I was muscling up on the ball. I wasn’t smooth. I wasn’t relaxed in letting the ball go.”

The Cardinals dispatched Dayley to Class AAA Louisville and left him there for the rest of the 1984 season.

Pleasant surprise

At 1985 spring training, The Sporting News reported, Dayley “may be getting his last look by the Cardinals.” He told the Atlanta Constitution, “I was just trying to make the team.”

The Cardinals’ closer, Bruce Sutter, had become a free agent and signed with the Braves. Herzog decided to use a committee of relievers to fill the void. “I never even thought about relieving,” Dayley said to reporter Chris Mortensen.

Herzog and pitching Mike Roarke envisioned a bullpen that featured a balance of right-handers and left-handers. Seeking another left-hander to join Ricky Horton, they worked on making Dayley a fulltime reliever.

“Dayley is kind of hyper and … we had to teach him to pitch in pressure situations,” Herzog told The Sporting News.

Roarke said to the Post-Dispatch, “We changed a few things in his delivery. He’s got better location with his pitches now. Last year (in 1984), he was throwing too many around the waist.”

Dayley made the 1985 Opening Day roster. Keeping his pitches low and on the corners, and maintaining his poise, he flourished, allowing one run in his first 13 appearances, covering 18.2 innings.

He’d become so valuable that when the Cleveland Indians offered starter Bert Blyleven to the Cardinals in July 1985 for three pitchers _ Dayley, Kurt Kepshire and Rick Ownbey _ the bid was rejected, The Sporting News reported.

“Dayley probably has been the biggest surprise” of the Cardinals’ bullpen committee, The Sporting News declared.

When the Cardinals clinched the 1985 pennant with a win in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series, Dayley got the save, retiring the Dodgers in order in the ninth. Boxscore and Video

He’d come a long way from the shaky candidate who went to spring training without a lock on a job. Dayley led the 1985 Cardinals in games pitched (57) and was second on the club in saves (11). His ERA was 2.76 and he yielded a mere two home runs (though one was a titanic game-winning shot by Darryl Strawberry) in 65.1 innings.

In the 1985 postseason, Dayley was nearly perfect, with six scoreless innings in five appearances in the playoff series against the Dodgers and six more scoreless innings in four games pitched versus the Royals in the World Series. He was the winning pitcher in World Series Game 2.

As Herzog said to the Post-Dispatch, “In 1985, he was the best left-handed reliever in the league.”

On the mend

In 1986, Dayley’s left elbow didn’t feel right. By July, the pain became unbearable and he was sidelined the rest of the season. An exam revealed a torn ligament.

A nerve and tendon from Dayley’s right arm were surgically transplanted to his left elbow in October 1986. By May 1987, he was pitching for the Cardinals. “It came along much faster than I had any right to hope,” Dayley exclaimed to the Post-Dispatch. “I kind of think it’s a miracle.”

Herzog told columnist Kevin Horrigan, “When we got Dayley back, and when it looked like he was going to pitch effectively, that’s when I began to think we could win (the pennant).”

A month after his return, Dayley faced another health hurdle when he was diagnosed with meningitis (an infection and inflammation of the fluid and membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord).

Dayley recovered and had an exceptional July (5-1, one save, 1.56 ERA in 15 games pitched that month). He finished the 1987 season as the team leader in ERA (2.66), posting a 9-5 record with four saves and striking out 63 in 61 innings.

In the 1987 National League Championship Series versus the Giants, Dayley saved two of the Cardinals’ four wins and didn’t allow a run in three appearances.

Dayley’s remarkable success in the postseason continued into the 1987 World Series against the Twins. He didn’t allow a run in his first three appearances, including 2.2 innings for a save in Game 4. Boxscore

His fourth appearance of the Series, Game 6, was a different story. Ahead, 6-5, in the sixth inning, the Twins had the bases loaded, two outs, when Herzog brought in Dayley to face left-handed batter Kent Hrbek.

Dayley had not allowed a home run to a left-handed batter all season. He had not allowed a run in 20.1 postseason innings.

According to the Associated Press, Herzog told Dayley, “Get this guy out and we’ve got a chance to win.”

The first pitch was a fastball “over the plate where he could extend his arms on it,” Dayley told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “I wanted it inside a little.”

Hrbek drove the ball 439 feet for a grand slam. The Twins won, 11-5, to even the Series and then clinched the title in Game 7. Boxscore

Dayley told columnist Rick Bozich, “When you’re a reliever, you’re either a hero or a zero.”

Falling out

Granted free agency after the 1990 season, Dayley signed with the Blue Jays. At spring training in 1991, he experienced dizzy spells and was diagnosed with a severe case of vertigo.

According to the 2005 book “Cardinals: Where Have You Gone?” doctors determined the vertigo most likely “stemmed from when he contracted meningitis in 1986. That virus stayed dormant until it moved out and traumatized a nerve years later.”

Appearing in just 10 games for the Blue Jays, Dayley’s pitching career ended at age 34.

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Hometown boy Ken Holtzman: A Cardinal at heart

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers on April 29, 2024| 15 Comments »

While growing up in the St. Louis suburb of University City, Ken Holtzman rooted for the Cardinals and dreamed of pitching in the big leagues. Holtzman got to the majors, but not with the Cardinals. He went instead to their rivals, the Cubs.

A left-hander, Holtzman was a starter for the Athletics when they won three consecutive World Series titles. He also pitched two no-hitters in the National League and, as a rookie, beat his boyhood baseball idol, giving Sandy Koufax his last regular-season career loss.

Holtzman achieved 174 regular-season wins and four more in the World Series.

When he pitched the last game of his 15-year stint in the majors, it occurred, fittingly, in his hometown against the Cardinals. Afterward, Holtzman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “Even though I signed to play with the Cubs, my heart has always been with the Cardinals.”

Natural talent

Holtzman got his interest in baseball from his father, Henry, a machine tool dealer.

“I remember reading Jimmy Piersall’s book and how his father pushed him,” Holtzman recalled to The Sporting News. “It was nothing like that with my dad. He didn’t push me, but he used to encourage me.

“He would try to keep my mind preoccupied with sports, and especially improving myself as far as baseball was concerned. When other kids would be thinking about girls and cars after school hours, I used to go home and my father would be waiting. He would take time out from his own business. We’d go over to a park a few blocks away. He’d hit me fly balls and I’d pitch to him. He recognized I had a natural talent for baseball, but we actually worked on all sports. Pretty soon I developed my own desire to improve myself.”

Holtzman was 8 when his dad took him to his first big-league game at the former Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. “When we walked into the old park, I thought it was the greatest thing in the world,” Holtzman told the Post-Dispatch.

As a pitcher for University City High School, Holtzman was coached during his sophomore and junior years by Ed Mickelson, a former first baseman for the Cardinals, Browns and Cubs. Mickelson’s replacement, Henry Buffa, coached University City to a state title in Holtzman’s senior year of 1963. Holtzman pitched a no-hitter and struck out 14 in the state semifinal against Springfield Hillcrest.

After his sophomore season at the University of Illinois, the Cubs chose Holtzman in the fourth round of the June 1965 amateur draft. Pitching for farm clubs, Holtzman, 19, struck out 114 in 86 innings that summer, earning a promotion to the Cubs in September. The first pitch he threw for them was walloped by the Giants’ Jim Ray Hart for a home run. Boxscore

Special games

Holtzman arranged to take classes at the University of Illinois branch campus in Chicago while pitching for the Cubs.

The first time he faced the Cardinals was on May 25, 1966, in the sixth game played at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Several Holtzman family members were there to cheer him. “I was a little nervous at first,” Holtzman said to the Post-Dispatch. “My grandmother was seeing her first major-league game.”

Holtzman pitched well, allowing two runs in six innings, but was the losing pitcher. Boxscore

Afterward, Holtzman took a 12:19 a.m. flight to Chicago because he had an 8 a.m. French class to attend, the Post-Dispatch reported.

The next time Holtzman pitched in St. Louis, on July 17, 1966, he got the win, yielding two runs in seven innings. Two future Hall of Famers supported him. Ferguson Jenkins got the save and Billy Williams hit for the cycle. Boxscore

Some saw Holtzman, 20, as the Cubs’ version of Sandy Koufax.

“Sportswriters made the first comparison between Sandy and me, primarily, I guess, because both of us are left-handers and Jewish,” Holtzman told The Sporting News. “As far as I’m concerned, there is no comparison. He was my boyhood idol and I still regard him as the greatest I’ve ever seen. We’re miles and miles apart.”

The only time Holtzman and Koufax started against one another was on Sept. 25, 1966, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Holtzman won, holding the Dodgers hitless until Dick Schofield led off the ninth with a single.

The pitching lines:

_ Koufax: 8 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs (one earned), 2 walks, 5 strikeouts.

_ Holtzman: 9 innings, 2 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts.

“It isn’t often Koufax loses when he holds a team to one earned run and four hits,” the Los Angeles Times noted, “but this time he was outpitched by Holtzman.”

Koufax told the newspaper, “When a guy holds you hitless for eight innings, you know he pitched a great game. I was satisfied with my performance, but Ken was too good for us today.” Boxscore

On the rise

Limited to 12 starts for the Cubs in 1967 because of military duty, Holtzman was 9-0, including a win against the Cardinals, who were on their way to becoming World Series champions. Boxscore

Holtzman also earned his degree in business administration from Illinois in 1967. He worked several winters for I.M. Simon and Company, a St. Louis securities brokerage firm, and earned accreditation from the New York Stock Exchange as a registered representative.

On Aug. 2, 1968, Holtzman pitched his third consecutive shutout, a two-hitter against the Cardinals. Using a changeup and a fastball, he limited St. Louis to singles by Julian Javier and Tim McCarver. “I feel it was the best game I ever pitched,” Holtzman said to the Post-Dispatch. “I may have had better stuff in some other game, but I think that as far as smartness and strategy, this was my best. I felt in command all the way.” Boxscore

Holtzman pitched no-hitters against the Braves (in 1969) and the Reds (in 1971), but the Cardinals gave him trouble. He was 9-14 against them. Lou Brock beat him with a walkoff home run in 1969. Boxscore Joe Torre, in 74 plate appearances versus Holtzman, had a .554 on-base percentage and .508 batting average.

After consecutive 17-win seasons in 1969 and 1970, Holtzman was 9-15 in 1971, had differences with Cubs manager Leo Durocher and sought to be traded. On Nov. 29, 1971, the Cubs dealt Holtzman to the Athletics for Rick Monday. “I wouldn’t have cared if the Cubs had traded me for two dozen eggs,” Holtzman told the Chicago Tribune.

American Leaguer

The four years Holtzman spent with the Athletics were the glory days of his career. The club won three consecutive World Series titles. Holtzman’s regular-season win totals were 19 in 1972, 21 in 1973, 19 again in 1974 and 18 in 1975.

On the eve of the 1972 World Series, Athletics manager Dick Williams said to the Oakland Tribune, “Ken has pitched superbly for us all year. You might say he saved us. Without those 19 wins, the only way the A’s would have made the World Series is by paying to get in.”

Holtzman was 4-1 in World Series games for the Athletics and hit .333, with a home run and three doubles. Video

On April 2, 1976, Holtzman and Reggie Jackson were traded to the Orioles for Don Baylor, Paul Mitchell and Mike Torrez. Two months later, Holtzman was flipped to the Yankees. He was 9-7 for them but fell into disfavor with manager Billy Martin, who didn’t use him in the playoffs or World Series that year.

Though Holtzman was healthy, Martin rarely pitched him in 1977. He worked 71.2 innings, a pittance for a pitcher who exceeded 200 innings nine times. The New York Times dubbed him the “designated sitter” and noted, “It is very likely that Holtzman sits simply because the manager doesn’t have confidence in him.”

Ignored again in 1978, Holtzman asked out and was sent to the Cubs in June.

Headed for home 

The rust took a toll on Holtzman. His ERA with the 1978 Cubs was 6.11. He was better in 1979, shutting out the Astros twice, but as the season wound down he knew it would be his last.

His final big-league appearance on Sept. 19, 1979, was a start at St. Louis. Holtzman held the Cardinals scoreless. In the seventh, with two outs, a runner on base and Ted Simmons batting, Cubs manager Herman Franks wanted to lift Holtzman, but he didn’t want to leave. “I told Herman I wanted to pitch to one more man,” Holtzman said to the Post-Dispatch.

Franks relented and Holtzman retired Simmons, ending the inning. “Simmons is the best,” Holtzman told the Post-Dispatch. “At least I went out beating the best.”

After Bill Buckner batted for Holtzman in the eighth, Bruce Sutter took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth but blew the save chance, costing Holtzman a win. Boxscore

Holtzman settled in Chicago, earned a master’s degree in education at DePaul and taught in public schools.

To be close to his elderly parents, he moved to St. Louis in 1998 and became supervisor of health and physical education at the Jewish Community Center in Chesterfield, Mo. In addition to overseeing facilities and youth sports programs, Holtzman was head coach of the 9- and 10-year-old baseball teams. His assistant was his former prep coach, Ed Mickelson.

Holtzman had batting cages installed in the basement of the Jewish Community Center and during the winter Cardinals players such as Albert Pujols, J.D. Drew, Mike Matheny and John Mabry practiced their hitting there. Pitcher Gene Stechschulte came, too, to get in his throwing.

“They’re terrific with the little kids,” Holtzman told the Post-Dispatch in 2002. “Nobody bothers them as far as autographs, because people know they’re here to work. When they’re done, Pujols or Stechschulte will get in a pickup basketball game or floor hockey game with the little kids.”

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The year Lon Warneke started out nearly unhittable

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers on April 22, 2024| 6 Comments »

Early in the 1934 season, if any pitcher looked like a candidate to get 30 wins, it was Lon Warneke, not Dizzy Dean.

A Chicago Cubs right-hander, Warneke pitched a one-hitter on Opening Day versus the Reds and followed that with another one-hitter in his next start against Dean and the Cardinals.

Warneke is the only big-league pitcher to follow a one-hitter on Opening Day with another one-hitter in his second start.

Humming along

A native of Mount Ida, Arkansas, called the quartz crystal capital of the world, Warneke was 19 when he became a professional pitcher in 1928. His debut with the Cubs came in relief against the Cardinals at St. Louis in April 1930. Boxscore

Two years later, Warneke, 23, had a breakout season, leading the National League in wins (22) and ERA (2.37) for the 1932 pennant winners.

J. Roy Stockton of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch nicknamed him “The Arkansas Hummingbird” because of a darting fastball. Stockton’s colleague, Bob Broeg, described Warneke as “a scarecrow with a chaw of tobacco stuck in a straw cheek” and with “shoulders as wide, and as thin, as a coat-hanger.”

“I kept calm with my chew of tobacco,” Warneke told the newspaper. “I always had a chew of tobacco in my mouth. Being without the chew was like being without my glove.”

Reds rooters

In 1933, Warneke was 18-13 overall but 0-5 against the Reds. Nonetheless, he got the starting assignment in the Cubs’ 1934 season opener at Cincinnati.

Facing a lineup with ex-Cardinals Jim Bottomley, Chick Hafey and Bob O’Farrell, Warneke “had everything _ fast ones, curves, some change of pace and control,” the Dayton Daily News noted. “He made the ball behave just as he wanted it to _ and that means he made the batters behave in the same way.”

After holding the Reds hitless through six innings, the Crosley Field spectators “adopted Warneke as their hero for the afternoon” and rooted for the pitcher to complete a no-hitter, the Chicago Tribune reported.

When Adam Comorosky broke the spell with a one-out single to center in the ninth, the fans booed.

Warneke retired the last two batters, completing the one-hit shutout and securing the 6-0 win. He struck out 13, the only time in his 15 years in the majors that he fanned more than nine in a game. His teammates hoisted him to their shoulders and carried him off the field, bringing cheers from the crowd.

“No team in baseball could have beaten Lon this afternoon,” Reds player-manager Bob O’Farrell told The Cincinnati Post. “He kept that curveball on the outside corner. His control was remarkable. He could have thrown the ball through a knothole, so true was he aiming.” Boxscore

Si Burick of the Dayton Daily News predicted, “You will have to go a long way in this budding season to see a game as nearly flawlessly pitched as Warneke’s.”

Five days later, though, Warneke pitched another one-hitter.

One and done

On April 22, 1934, a Sunday afternoon at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, Warneke was matched against Cardinals ace Dizzy Dean. On Opening Day, Dean beat the Pirates, holding them to a run in nine innings, but the Cardinals hadn’t won since.

It turned out to be no contest. The Cubs scored four in the first, two in the second and Dean was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the third.

Though Warneke walked six, he allowed just one hit _ a Rip Collins double in the fifth. Warneke, who lashed two singles, had twice as many hits as he allowed the Cardinals. The Cubs won, 15-2. Boxscore

Warneke’s back-to-back one-hitters occurred four years before the Reds’ Johnny Vander Meer became the only big-league pitcher to toss consecutive no-hitters.

“The big thing with me was get the wins and not worry about how many hits I gave up,” Warneke said to the Post-Dispatch.

One-hitter wonders

Others who have pitched and won Opening Day one-hitters include Herb Pennock of the 1915 Athletics, Jesse Petty of the 1926 Dodgers and Bob Lemon of the 1953 Indians. In 2015, Sonny Gray (eight innings) and Evan Scribner (one inning) combined on an Opening Day one-hitter for the Athletics. None of those pitchers followed with a one-hitter in his second start.

Bob Feller of the 1940 Indians pitched the only Opening Day no-hitter but he was shelled for six runs in three innings in his second start.

Like Warneke, others have pitched one-hitters in consecutive starts, though none did so in his first two appearances of a season. Those who joined Warneke in pitching back-to-back one-hitters are Rube Marquard (1911 Giants), Mort Cooper (1943 Cardinals), Whitey Ford (1955 Yankees), Sam McDowell (1966 Indians), Dave Stieb (1988 Blue Jays) and R.A. Dickey (2012 Mets).

In 1923, Howard Ehmke of the Red Sox pitched a no-hitter on Sept. 7 and followed with a one-hitter four days later. In consecutive September starts in 1925, Dazzy Vance of the Dodgers had a one-hitter and a no-hitter.

Grover Cleveland Alexander had four one-hitters for the 1915 Phillies but never pitched a no-hitter in 20 years in the majors.

The pitchers with the most career one-hitters are Bob Feller and Nolan Ryan. Each had 12.

Pitcher to arbiter

Warneke was 22-10 for the 1934 Cubs. Dizzy Dean, 1-2 with a 7.17 ERA after his first four starts, finished 30-7 for the league champion Cardinals and got two more wins in the 1934 World Series.

The next year, when the Cubs claimed the pennant, Warneke won 20, plus two more in the 1935 World Series.

He was traded to the Cardinals in October 1936 (Rip Collins was one of the players the Cubs got in return) and pitched a no-hitter against the reigning World Series champion Reds in 1941.

Warneke was 83-49 for the Cardinals and 192-121 overall in the majors.

He was a National League umpire from 1949-55 and then became a county judge in Arkansas.

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Why start versus Cardinals was special for Sandy Koufax

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers on April 9, 2024| 18 Comments »

(Updated July 30, 2024)

In 12 seasons in the majors, Sandy Koufax made just one Opening Day start for the Dodgers. It came on April 14, 1964, against the Cardinals.

Koufax, 28, was considered to be at the top of his game then, coming off a dominant season. The left-hander won both the National League Most Valuable Player and Cy Young awards in 1963. He was 25-5 that season, including 4-0 versus the Cardinals, and led the majors in wins, ERA (1.88), shutouts (11) and strikeouts (306). Koufax also won Games 1 and 4 of the 1963 World Series, a Dodgers sweep of the Yankees.

Yet, as he approached an Opening Day start for the first time, Koufax admitted he was nervous. “Sure I feel it,” he said to columnist John Hall of the Los Angeles Times. “I’ve been getting worked up for days. It’s a thrill … I always get excited before every start, but the first game of the season is something extra.”

As it turned out, the prominence of the assignment wasn’t the sole reason for the jitters. Koufax’s pitching arm didn’t feel right.

Profit share

During contract negotiations for the 1964 season, Koufax proposed a “formula he worked out whereby he would participate in gate receipts on nights he worked,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner columnist Melvin Durslag noted, but Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley “made it clear he wanted employees only, not shareholders.”

Koufax met with his former teammate, Jackie Robinson, who advised the pitcher to press the Dodgers for a share of ticket revenue. “He made a difference of 10,000 to 15,000 in attendance a game near the end of the (1963) season when he pitched,” Robinson told The Sporting News.

O’Malley wouldn’t budge in his opposition to the idea. He told Durslag that “the Hollywood and Las Vegas influence … tend to give people in our business delusions of grandeur. Our boys hear talk in terms of residuals, capital gains, percentages and pieces of the action, and they are misled into applying these patterns to baseball.” 

On the day before the Dodgers’ team plane headed to spring training at Vero Beach, Fla., Koufax agreed to a contract of $70,000 for 1964, a doubling of the $35,000 salary he got in 1963, The Sporting News reported.

Ready or not

In his 1964 Florida spring training outings, Koufax threw mostly slow curves and changeups, but the Dodgers said it was nothing to worry about _ he was working on making his off-speed pitches better, The Sporting News reported.

Privately, Koufax confided his left arm was hurting, according to author Jane Leavy in her book “Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy.”

On April 10, 1964, four days before the season opener, Koufax was feted at the Los Angeles baseball writers banquet at the Hollywood Palladium on Sunset Boulevard. An overflow crowd of 1,500 attended the $20-a-plate dinner and was treated to entertainment from Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Nancy Wilson and emcee Phil Silvers.

The next night, Koufax started against the Angels in an exhibition game at Dodger Stadium and looked terrific in his two-inning tune-up, striking out five and allowing only an infield hit.

Good reads

Noting that Koufax “probably set a major-league record by reading more books in one season than any pitcher in history,” the Los Angeles Times asked him on the eve of the season opener to compile a list of books he’d recommend for teens.

Under the category of modern novels, Koufax suggested “Lord of the Flies” (William Golding), “Catcher in the Rye” (J.D. Salinger), “To Kill a Mockingbird” (Harper Lee), “A Separate Peace” (John Knowles), “I, Robot” (Isaac Asimov), “The Ugly American” (William Lederer and Eugene Burdick), “On the Beach” (Nevil Shute), “Jamie” (Jack Bennett), “Fail-Safe” (Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler) and “A Very Small Remnant” (Michael Straight).

A sampling of some of Koufax’s other recommendations included:

_ Adventures: “Annapurna” (Maurice Herzog), “Deliver Us From Evil” (Thomas A. Dooley), “The Edge of Tomorrow” (Thomas A. Dooley), “The Man Who Never Was” (Ewen Montagu).

_ Biographies: “Portrait of Myself” (Margaret Bourke-White), “The Diary of a Young Girl” (Anne Frank), “Surgeon” (Wilfred C. Heinz).

_ Histories: “Hiroshima” (John Hersey), “Profiles in Courage” (John F. Kennedy).

_ Humor: “The Education of Hyman Kaplan (Leonard Q. Ross), “Platypus At Large: A Nonsense Book of World Politics” (Emery Kelen).

_ Observation: “The Craft of Intelligence” (Allen Dulles), “Romance of Philosophy” (Jacques Choron), “The Fire Next Time” (James Baldwin).

_ Science: “The Universe and Dr. Einstein” (Lincoln Barnett), “Gods, Graves and Scholars” (C.W. Ceram).

Only four sports books made Koufax’s list: “The Four-Minute Mile” (Roger Bannister), “Basketball Is My Life” (Bob Cousy and Al Hirshberg), “Lou Gehrig: A Quiet Hero” (Frank Graham) and “Playing For Life” (Bill Talbert and John Sharnik).

Same Sandy

The book on Koufax was he looked good in pitching a six-hit shutout in a 4-0 Opening Day victory at Dodger Stadium. All six Cardinals hits were singles and only one Cardinal base runner advanced as far as second base. Boxscore

Bill White had two of the hits. For his career, White batted .176 versus Koufax. “You weren’t afraid of him, but Sandy, you just couldn’t handle him at all,” White told Yankees Magazine. “You could se the ball; you just couldn’t hit it.”

Koufax became the first Dodger to pitch an Opening Day shutout since Whit Wyatt did it in 1940 against the Braves at Boston. Boxscore

Cardinals team captain Ken Boyer told the Post-Dispatch, “Sandy’s curve got better as he went along. If you’re going to beat him, you’re going to have to do it in the early innings.”

Koufax and Cardinals starter Ernie Broglio were matched in a scoreless duel until Ron Fairly drove in Willie Davis with a single in the sixth. “That was the turning point,” Broglio told the Los Angeles Times. “You give Koufax a run and he gets pretty tough.”

Old arm

A week later, in the Cardinals’ home opener, Koufax gave up a three-run home run to Charlie James and departed after pitching one inning.

“He was slow,” Boyer told the Post-Dispatch. “It wasn’t too hard to figure something might be wrong with him.” Boxscore

Koufax was examined by Cardinals physician Dr. I.C. Middleman, who determined the pitcher had “inflammation of the elbow” and “a slight muscle tear” in his left forearm, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Middleman informed the newspaper that Koufax told him his arm had been hurting since spring training but he hadn’t mentioned it to the Dodgers.

Koufax missed his next three starts, took three cortisone shots and returned to the rotation on May 4. He found his groove in June (5-0 record) and July (5-1).

On Aug. 16, Koufax again shut out the Cardinals, striking out 13, and then was shut down for the rest of the season after being diagnosed with an arthritic left elbow. Boxscore

“Arthritis is an acute inflammation of a joint usually associated with old age,” Jane Leavy wrote. “Koufax’s elbow was old even if he wasn’t … The cartilage in his elbow was breaking down.”

Even with the ailments, Koufax managed to post a 19-5 record, with seven shutouts, and 1.74 ERA in 28 starts in 1964. He pitched two more seasons, winning the Cy Young Award both years, before calling it quits at 30.

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