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Archive for the ‘Pitchers’ Category

Ooh la la: Joaquin Andujar and a Canadian clout

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Pitchers on April 3, 2024| 16 Comments »

In Montreal, where the predominant language is French, he’s “Un Dominicain Coriace.” In his homeland, where Spanish is spoken, it’s “Un Dominicano Duro.”

Regardless of the locale, Joaquin Andjuar, the self-proclaimed “One Tough Dominican” pitcher, could back up his image with astonishing results.

One such instance occurred on April 27, 1984, for the Cardinals against the Expos at Montreal. Brushed back by a pitch, Andujar retaliated by belting the next delivery for a home run that put the Cardinals ahead for good.

Head games

For the Friday afternoon game at Olympic Stadium, the Expos produced a lineup that included Pete Rose in left, three future Hall of Famers _ Gary Carter at catcher, Andre Dawson in right, Tim Raines in center _ and a probable future Hall of Fame manager at first, Terry Francona.

The player who drew Andujar’s attention (and ire), though, was the Expos’ spunky second baseman, Bryan Little. Batting with one out and none on in the first inning, Little bunted for a single. He advanced to third on a hit by Raines and scored on Dawson’s sacrifice fly.

Andujar didn’t think much of a batter who used a puny bunt to get on base against him. When Little came up again in the third, he was sent spinning to the ground by a fastball. “He was throwing at me,” Little told the Montreal Gazette.

Andujar expected the Expos to seek retribution because when he batted in the fifth he wore a helmet with a protective ear flap, an unusual choice for him, when he dug in from the right side of the plate. “I didn’t want to get hit in the ear,” Andujar told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Sure enough, Steve Rogers’ first pitch to him was a fastball near the head. Umpire Bruce Froemming warned Rogers he’d be ejected if he threw another like that.

My way

Andujar had his own system for determining which side of the plate to take as a batter. Though a right-hander, he sometimes batted from the left side, as he did in his first plate appearance of the game against Rogers.

According to the Post-Dispatch, Andujar said he batted from the left side versus right-handers when there were runners in scoring position because, “I make better contact left-handed.” He generally went to the right side when he was bunting or trying to slug a home run.

Usually, Andujar was trying for the long ball.

Cutting loose with savage cuts, he struck out 315 times in 607 career at-bats in the majors. As Rick Hummel of the Post-Dispatch noted, “If one watched Andujar swing his 40-ounce bat as if he were trying to beat a rug, one wondered what would happen if bat ever met ball.”

After throwing the brushback pitch to him, Rogers found out.

On with the show

Andujar powered the next pitch to deep left for a home run, breaking a 2-2 tie.

“He was pumped up and I threw a bad pitch right in his wheelhouse,” Rogers told the Post-Dispatch. “I was trying to throw a slider away and I threw a spinning nothing ball, middle in.”

Milking the moment, “Andujar majestically flipped his bat aside and watched his homer sail over the wall,” Rick Hummel wrote. “Then he literally walked the last 90 feet in his home run trot, pausing to step dramatically on home plate before continuing to the dugout.”

Cardinals infielder Ken Oberkfell told the Montreal Gazette, “We were all stunned … Now we’re going to have to listen to him talk about his power for a week.”

Andujar finished with a complete-game win. (His first 10 decisions versus the Expos all were wins and he ended his career with a 15-6 record against them.) Boxscore

Power supply

A career .127 hitter in his 13 major-league seasons, Andujar had five home runs, including two versus Rogers. With the Astros in 1979, Andujar homered against Rogers at Montreal. Boxscore

In addition to the two home runs off Rogers, Andujar hit another against the Expos _ in 1979, an inside-the-park poke versus Bill Lee at the Astrodome in Houston. Boxscore

Andujar’s first four home runs were right-handed. His last, a grand slam at St. Louis against the Braves’ Jeff Dedmon, was from the left side. Like Babe Ruth, Andujar called that shot.

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Cardinals gave Jim McAndrew big-league baptism by fire

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers on March 25, 2024| 13 Comments »

Picture this: You’re a rookie starting pitcher from a hamlet in Iowa, making your big-league debut on the road against the reigning World Series champions. The opposing starter is a future Hall of Famer who rarely has allowed a run during a winning streak on his way to a Cy Young Award.

That’s the challenge Mets right-hander Jim McAndrew faced when he got the start in his first major-league game against Bob Gibson and the 1968 Cardinals.

The degree of difficulty McAndrew faced hardly lessened. In his first four starts, McAndrew allowed six runs total, but the Mets scored none _ and he lost all four.

McAndrew finally got his first win by pitching a shutout, beating the Cardinals and their other future Hall of Famer, Steve Carlton.

A hard-luck hurler, McAndrew nearly quit when he was in the minors but Whitey Herzog convinced him to stay. McAndrew had one winning season in seven years in the majors, but played for two National League pennant winners and a World Series champion.

Help from Herzog

McAndrew grew up on his parents’ 750-acre farm in Lost Nation, Iowa, and developed into a top prep ballplayer. Cardinals scout Ken Blackman showed interest but advised McAndrew he’d be better off playing college baseball, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.

A psychology major, McAndrew pitched for the University of Iowa. On the recommendation of their St. Louis-based scout, Charlie Frey, the Mets took him in the 11th round of the 1965 amateur draft. (Their 12th-round pick was another right-hander, Nolan Ryan.)

After producing 10 wins and 1.47 ERA for a Class AA club managed by St. Louisan Roy Sievers in 1967, McAndrew was dejected when the Mets didn’t put him on their 40-man big-league winter roster. He thought about quitting and going to graduate school. “I had confidence in myself but nobody else seemed to,” McAndrew recalled to Newsday.

When Mets director of player development Whitey Herzog learned McAndrew was thinking of leaving, he talked him out of it. McAndrew was assigned to Class AAA Jacksonville in 1968, but manager Clyde McCullough moved him to the bullpen. “Whitey told McCullough to put McAndrew back into the starting rotation,” Newsday reported.

In July 1968, when Nolan Ryan reported for military duty, the Mets called up McAndrew to replace him.

The heat is on

On a sweltering Sunday, July 21, 1968, McAndrew made his debut against Bob Gibson and the Cardinals at Busch Memorial Stadium. “Some people thought it was throwing a lamb to a lion.” Newsday noted.

Instead, “for five innings he matched zeroes with Gibson, who is in the midst of one of the hottest streaks in all baseball history,” the New York Times reported.

Then, in the Cardinals’ half of the sixth, Bobby Tolan drove a pitch to right-center. Outfielders Cleon Jones and Larry Stahl pursued it, thinking a catch could be made, but the ball hit against the wall. Neither Jones nor Stahl was in position to get the carom and the ball got between them and rolled away. Tolan circled the bases with an inside-the-park home run, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.

After the inning, McAndrew left the game because the searing 94-degree heat got to him more than the Cardinals batters did. “He needed oxygen between innings,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. 

The Cardinals added a run in the eighth and won, 2-0. Gibson completed his seventh shutout of the season, stretching his win streak to 10 and improving his career mark against the Mets to 20-3. He threw 144 pitches and struck out 13.

McAndrew told the New York Daily News he felt good about how he pitched, “but I didn’t win, and that’s what I’m supposed to do.” Boxscore

Runs are scarce

In his next three starts, McAndrew and the Mets lost 2-0 to the Dodgers, 1-0 to the Giants and 1-0 to the Astros, giving him an 0-4 record. The Mets finally scored in his fifth start, but McAndrew got shelled and lost to the Giants, a 13-3 final.

McAndrew brought an 0-5 record and 3.38 ERA into his next start, a return to St. Louis against Steve Carlton on Aug. 26.

The game was scoreless in the seventh when Tim McCarver lined a pitch deep to left. “McCarver would have had a three-base hit, two bases, at least,” Mets manager Gil Hodges said to the Post-Dispatch, but Cleon Jones made a diving catch. “Maybe the best play we’ve had in the outfield all year,” Hodges said.

The importance of the play was underlined when the next batter, Mike Shannon, singled. Instead of driving in a run, it was a harmless hit because McAndrew worked out of the inning unscathed. “I don’t win it if Cleon doesn’t get that one,” McAndrew told the New York Daily News.

The Mets manufactured the run McAndrew needed against Carlton in the eighth. Tommie Agee singled, moved to second on a Phil Linz sacrifice bunt, stole third and scored on a Cleon Jones sacrifice fly.

Given the 1-0 lead, McAndrew did the rest, retiring the Cardinals in order in the eighth and ninth to secure the shutout and his first win.

Recalling how Whitey Herzog stuck with him earlier in the year, McAndrew said to Newsday, “I attribute my being here tonight to him.” Boxscore

Five nights later, in a rematch at New York, Carlton and Joe Hoerner combined on a shutout and beat McAndrew and the Mets, 2-0. Boxscore

In three starts against the 1968 Cardinals, McAndrew allowed three runs in 23 innings and was 1-2.

Fit for a king

After the 1968 season, the Mets offered the Reds Dick Selma, Larry Stahl and their choice of either McAndrew, Gary Gentry or Steve Renko for Vada Pinson and Hal McRae, according to columnist Dick Young, but Pinson went to the Cardinals for Bobby Tolan and Wayne Granger.

The Mets also offered McAndrew to the Expos for Donn Clendenon but were turned down, The Sporting News reported. (Later, in June 1969, the Mets acquired Clendenon for a package of players and he was a key run producer for them.)

McAndrew stayed with the Mets in 1969 and contributed to their championship season. On a staff with Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan and Jerry Koosman, McAndrew pitched in 27 games, including 21 starts, and was 6-7. One of those wins was a three-hitter against the Cardinals on June 30. Boxscore

The Mets won four of five against the Orioles in the 1969 World Series, but McAndrew didn’t pitch in any of the games.

“He was the team intellectual, the quiet one of the clubhouse, the loner,” Joseph Durso wrote in the New York Times. “On the field, he was even more isolated than that _ the sixth man in a five-man rotation, the hard-luck pitcher nobody scored any runs for, the trade bait whenever deals were discussed.”

To the people of his hometown, though, McAndrew was someone special. On Nov. 1, 1969, residents of Lost Nation held a parade and dinner in McAndrew’s honor. “McAndrew received a number of gifts, including a plaque from Lost Nation mayor Shorty Ales noting Jim’s inspiration for the youth of the community, and a specially designed gold ring,” the Quad-City Times reported.

“Everyone has treated me just like a king,” McAndrew said to the newspaper.

Ups and downs

In 1971, McAndrew twice was injured in on-field accidents. At spring training, he was running in the outfield when a line drive off the bat of teammate Art Shamsky struck him in the jaw. “I lost four teeth,” McAndrew told the Post-Dispatch.

In July that year, during batting practice at Houston, McAndrew was fielding balls hit to the outfield and pitcher Gary Gentry was shagging tosses from coach Rube Walker. While chasing a liner, McAndrew collided with Gentry. McAndrew needed 20 stitches and plastic surgery for a wound over his right ear. Gentry took 15 stitches for facial cuts.

McAndrew had his best season in 1972, finishing 11-8 with a 2.80 ERA. Two of the wins were against the Cardinals, including his first complete game in two years. Boxscore

“He’s sneaky fast,” Mets catcher Duffy Dyer told Newsday. “He’s not a strikeout pitcher and there’s a lot of first-ball swinging.”

The Mets were National League champions in 1973, but McAndrew wasn’t much of a factor. He was 3-8 and had no wins after May 13. The Mets didn’t use him in any of the seven World Series games against the champion Athletics.

Afterward, the Cardinals offered to trade Joe Torre to the Mets for Jerry Koosman. The Mets countered with a package that included McAndrew, but the Cardinals said no. The Mets then sent McAndrew to the Padres. He pitched his final season in the majors with them in 1974.

McAndrew had a career mark of 37-53, including 6-6 versus the Cardinals.

In 1989, his son, pitcher Jamie McAndrew, was taken by the Dodgers in the first round of the 1989 amateur draft. He got to the big leagues with the Brewers in 1995. The catcher in his debut game was Mike Matheny. Boxscore

 

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Lots of great starts, sad endings for Jose DeLeon

Posted in Games, Pitchers, Trades on March 11, 2024| 10 Comments »

Jose DeLeon had the talent, but not the won-loss record, to be an ace. Some of it was bad luck. Some of it was bad teams. Some of it was his own doing.

DeLeon was the first Cardinals pitcher since Bob Gibson to lead the National League in strikeouts. He outdueled Roger Clemens twice in five days. Some of the game’s best hitters were helpless against him. Cal Ripken was hitless in 12 at-bats versus DeLeon. George Brett batted .091 (1-for-11) against him.

“George Brett told me he (DeLeon) was the toughest guy he ever hit against,” Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1988. “He said his stuff was nasty.”

Yet DeLeon twice had 19 losses in a season and his career record in the majors was 86-119.

A right-hander who threw four pitches (fastball, curve, forkball and slider), DeLeon pitched 13 seasons (1983-95) in the majors with the Pirates, White Sox, Cardinals, Phillies and Expos.

Playing favorites

DeLeon was 11 when he moved with his family from the Dominican Republic to Perth Amboy, N.J., in 1972. He followed baseball and adopted pitcher Mike Torrez as his favorite player. Like DeLeon, Torrez, who began his major-league career with the Cardinals, was a big right-hander.

Though he played only one season of varsity high school baseball, DeLeon, 18, was drafted by the Pirates in 1979 and called up to the majors in July 1983. In his third appearance, a start versus the Mets, he was matched against Mike Torrez.

The result was storybook. As the New York Daily News put it, “Jose DeLeon waged a brilliant pitching war with his longtime idol, Mike Torrez.”

DeLeon, 22, held the Mets hitless until Hubie Brooks lined a single with one out in the ninth. DeLeon totaled nine scoreless innings. Torrez, 36, was even better: 11 scoreless innings. Neither got a decision. The Mets won, 1-0, in the 12th. Boxscore

Torrez said to the Daily News, “I pitched well enough to win. DeLeon pitched well enough to win. Sometimes, this game can drive you batty.”

Told that DeLeon was a fan of his, Torrez replied to the newspaper, “That’s a nice compliment. He showed a lot of poise and showed he’s a big-league pitcher.”

Three weeks later, DeLeon beat the Reds, pitching a two-hit shutout and striking out 13. “He has the best forkball I’ve ever seen,” Reds shortstop Dave Concepcion told the Dayton Daily News. “It looks like a knuckleball.” Boxscore

No-win situations

DeLeon was 7-3 with the 1983 Pirates, but it would be five years before he’d have another winning season in the majors.

“I had success early, then I thought it would be easy,” DeLeon told Mike Eisenbath of the Post-Dispatch. “My arm was ready, but my mind wasn’t.”

With the 1984 Pirates, he finished 7-13, including 0-4 versus the Cardinals. The Pirates were shut out in six of his 13 losses and scored only one run in five others. On Aug. 24, 1984, DeLeon pitched a one-hitter against the Reds _ and lost, 2-0. Boxscore

The next year was worse. His 2-19 record for the 1985 Pirates included an 0-2 mark versus the Cardinals. (DeLeon never beat the Cardinals in his career.) The Pirates were held to two runs or less in 14 of his 19 losses. They averaged 2.3 runs in his 25 starts.

Nonetheless, “His problems are a combination of his being too nice a guy and relying strictly on his arm,” Pirates general manager Syd Thrift told The Pittsburgh Press. “He has to take charge from the first pitch.”

In July 1986, DeLeon was traded to the White Sox for Bobby Bonilla. His first two wins for them came against Roger Clemens, the American League Cy Young Award recipient that year. Boxscore and Boxscore

Though he was 11-12 for the 1987 White Sox, DeLeon won six of his last seven decisions, totaled more than 200 innings (206) for the first time in the big leagues and led the White Sox in strikeouts (153).

“Trying to catch his forkball is like trying to catch Charlie Hough throwing a 90 mph knuckleball,” White Sox catcher Carlton Fisk told The Pittsburgh Press.

The Cardinals saw DeLeon, 27, as a pitcher on the verge of fulfilling his potential. On Feb. 9, 1988, they sent Ricky Horton, Lance Johnson and cash to the White Sox for DeLeon.

That’s a winner

For the next two seasons, DeLeon was a winner and did things no Cardinals pitcher had done since Bob Gibson.

In 1988, DeLeon struck out 208 batters, the most for a Cardinal since Gibson had the same total in 1972. DeLeon averaged 8.2 strikeouts per nine innings. He had a 13-10 record, but the Cardinals were 20-14 in his 34 starts. In DeLeon’s 10 losses, the Cardinals scored a total of 15 runs.

(DeLeon did it all that season. In a 19-inning marathon against the Braves, he played the outfield for four innings while Jose Oquendo pitched.)

On Sept. 6, 1988, DeLeon beat the Expos with a three-hit shutout. He also doubled versus Dennis Martinez and scored the game’s lone run. Boxscore

“His forkball and curveball were really working,” Expos slugger Andres Galarraga told the Post-Dispatch. “You didn’t know what to expect.” (Galarraga, a National League batting champion, hit .061 in 33 career at-bats versus DeLeon.)

Late in the 1988 season, DeLeon pitched in Pittsburgh for the first time since the Pirates traded him. He threw a three-hitter and won. “He looks different and acts different,” The Pittsburgh Press noted. “This was not the confused, defeated, befuddled child of a man the Pirates had traded away. This was a confident, mature adult who stuck it to the Pirates.” Boxscore

The 1989 season was DeLeon’s best. He was 16-12 and had 201 strikeouts, becoming the first Cardinals pitcher since Gibson in 1968 to lead the league in fanning the most batters. DeLeon also joined Gibson as the only Cardinals pitchers then with consecutive seasons of 200 strikeouts.

Batters hit .197 versus DeLeon in 1989. Right-handed batters had the most trouble against him, hitting .146 with more than twice as many strikeouts (115) as hits (54).

“I wish I had what he had,” Scott Sanderson, an 11-game winner with the 1989 Cubs, said to the Post-Dispatch.

On April 21, 1989, DeLeon beat the Expos on a two-hit shutout. Boxscore Four months later, he did even better _ holding the Reds scoreless on one hit (a Luis Quinones broken-bat single) for 11 innings. The Cardinals, though, stranded 16 base runners and the Reds won, 2-0, in the 13th against reliever Todd Worrell. Boxscore

Down and out

DeLeon appeared headed for another good season in 1990, winning four of his first six decisions. One of those wins came against the Reds when DeLeon pitched 7.1 scoreless innings _ “The Reds appeared to be swinging at pebbles” columnist Bernie Miklasz wrote in the Post-Dispatch _  and also tripled and scored versus Tom Browning. The triple occurred when right fielder Paul O’Neill tried unsuccessfully to make a shoestring catch and the ball skipped to the warning track. “DeLeon had no choice but to leg out a slow-motion triple,” Jack Brennan of The Cincinnati Post observed. Boxscore

After beating the Expos on June 17, DeLeon’s record was 6-5. Then he went 1-14 over his last 18 starts, finishing at 7-19.

Cardinals broadcaster Mike Shannon told Bill Conlin of the Philadelphia Daily News, “Jose DeLeon defines the word ‘siesta.’ If he could just establish some intensity, there’s no doubt he could be the best pitcher in the game. He’s got the best pure stuff in our league.”

DeLeon pitched a lot better for the Cardinals in 1991 (2.71 ERA in 28 starts) but his record was 5-9. The Cardinals totaled 17 runs in his nine losses. DeLeon had the lowest run support among National League starters (3.5 runs per nine innings). “Bad luck seems to find him,” Cardinals manager Joe Torre said to the Post-Dispatch.

Back-to-back seasons like DeLeon had in 1990 and 1991 might put almost anyone into a funk. Torre and pitching coach Joe Coleman worked to boost his confidence. “I was really down,” DeLeon said to Dan O’Neill of the Post-Dispatch. “In my mind, everything was negative.”

After a strong spring training, DeLeon was named the 1992 Cardinals’ Opening Day starter. He pitched well (one run in seven innings) but the Mets won. Boxscore and video

From there, his season unraveled. In a stretch from May 22 to June 8, DeLeon lost four consecutive starts, dropping his record to 2-6, and was moved to the bullpen. The Cardinals released him on Aug. 31 and he got picked up by the Phillies.

“DeLeon is a swell fellow,” Bernie Miklasz wrote in the Post-Dispatch. “Quiet. Unobtrusive. A gentleman. Doesn’t whine. Doesn’t blame others for his problems. Doesn’t make excuses _ but he doesn’t win as many games as he should.”

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Cardinals gave Tom Qualters quite an initiation to majors

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers, Prospects on March 6, 2024| 6 Comments »

The number stands out from the stats line like a wart, ugly and embarrassing: 162.00. That’s the earned run average Tom Qualters had in his rookie season with the Phillies.

The Cardinals were responsible for giving him that statistical shiner. Qualters, 18, made his big-league debut against them. He faced seven Cardinals and retired one. Six scored. His line: 0.1 innings, six runs, 162.00 ERA in his lone appearance of the 1953 regular season.

To his credit, Qualters recovered from that clobbering. He eventually went to the minors and became a teammate of Satchel Paige and Whitey Herzog. Then he returned to the majors and pitched for an American League pennant contender, retiring the likes of Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams.

Bonus baby

A standout amateur athlete in McKeesport, Pa., near Pittsburgh, Qualters developed into a dominating right-handed pitcher. He struck out 22 in a no-hitter against Donora (hometown of Stan Musial). In 1951, at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, Qualters started for a team of American Legion all-stars managed by Hall of Famer Pie Traynor.

After he graduated from high school in June 1953, Qualters was offered a signing bonus of at least $25,000 by Pirates general manager Branch Rickey, according to The Pittsburgh Press, but instead accepted a $40,000 offer from the Phillies. Qualters “had his heart set on joining the Phillies from the time he was in knee pants,” The Sporting News reported.

Major League Baseball had a rule then that any amateur who got a signing bonus of more than $4,000 had to stay with the big-league club for two full years. (It was intended to keep the wealthiest clubs from signing scores of prospects and stockpiling them in the minors.) That meant Qualters, who signed on June 16, 1953, had to remain in the majors with the Phillies until at least June 16, 1955.

“I might have been better off going to the minors for experience and a chance to pitch regularly, but I just couldn’t pass up that money,” Qualters said to The Pittsburgh Press. “I used most of it to fix up our home in McKeesport and also pay for an operation on my mother.”

(More than 30 years later, in a 1987 interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Qualters said baseball’s bonus rule “was devastating to me” because “I had no business being there” in the majors.)

Learning curve

When he joined the Phillies, “I was really scared,” Qualters said to The Pittsburgh Press. “It was the first time I ever had been away from home and I didn’t know what kind of a reception I’d receive … Being a bonus player, I thought they’d give me the cold shoulder, but they treated me like one of the boys and were always giving me advice. I spent a lot of time with Jim Konstanty in the bullpen and he went out of his way to be nice. Robin Roberts, too.”

(Decades later, Qualters gave conflicting versions of how his Phillies teammates received him. In 1984, Qualters said to the Philadelphia Daily News, “Guys like Robin Roberts, Curt Simmons, Richie Ashburn _ they were great. They made the ride a little smoother, and they certainly didn’t have to.” Three years later, Qualters told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “The players and the manager (Steve O’Neill) were from the old school and didn’t accept me. You can imagine the resentment. As a result, I was off by myself most of the time.”)

The Phillies’ plan was for Qualters to learn by observing rather than pitching. Though he was occupying a roster spot, there was no desire to put him into a regular-season game. “I was a batting practice pitcher, a high-priced batting practice pitcher,” Qualters told the Philadelphia Daily News.

On June 29, 1953, in an exhibition between the Phillies and Athletics for the benefit of the Junior Baseball Federation of Philadelphia, Qualters started before a crowd of 15,293 at Shibe Park. The jittery teen got through the first inning, but gave up six runs in the second before he was lifted.

Two weeks later, Qualters pitched in another exhibition game for the Phillies against the minor-league Baltimore Orioles and yielded five runs in three innings.

Though those exhibition performances did nothing to entice manager Steve O’Neill to pitch Qualters when the Phillies played for keeps, he told the Philadelphia Bulletin, “The boy has everything he needs, a fastball and a terrific curve. If he isn’t a real pitching prospect, then I’ve never seen one.”

Rough stuff

On Sept. 13, 1953, a Sunday at St. Louis, the Cardinals led the Phillies, 11-1, entering the bottom of the eighth. With the outcome not much in doubt, O’Neill waved a proverbial white flag, choosing to let Qualters make his official debut. The Cardinals, though, were all business.

The first batter Qualters faced, hulking slugger Steve Bilko, slammed a home run. The next to come up was Bilko’s physical opposite, Peanuts Lowrey. He drew a walk, then scooted to second on a Qualters wild pitch.

Qualters hit the next batter, Rip Repulski, with a pitch. Harvey Haddix, the Cardinals’ pitcher, followed with a single, loading the bases. Solly Hemus also singled, scoring Lowrey, and reloading the bases.

The first out Qualters recorded came when a future Hall of Famer, Red Schoendienst, grounded to first. Hemus was forced out at second, but Repulski scored from third on the play.

Next up was Stan Musial.

“I was told never to give him the same pitch twice, and this stuck with me like a nursery rhyme,” Qualters said to The Pittsburgh Press. “Our catcher (Stan Lopata) called for a slow curve and Musial swung and missed. I felt pretty good. Then the catcher decided to call for the same pitch and I shuddered. I knew what the boys in the bullpen told me, but who was I to shake off the catcher? So I threw the slow curve again and Musial hit it against the wall.”

Musial’s two-run double knocked Qualters out of the game. Jim Konstanty relieved and gave up a single to Enos Slaughter, driving in Musial and making the score 17-1. Boxscore

It would be four years before Qualters pitched in another regular-season game in the majors.

Starting over

Qualters spent the entire 1954 season with the Phillies and, though healthy, never played in a regular-season game. 

In 1955, as mandated by the bonus rule, the Phillies began the season with Qualters on their roster but he again didn’t get into a regular-season game. The Sporting News referred to him as “Money Bags” because he was being paid without having to perform.

When Qualters completed his two-year stint on the big-league roster in June 1955, he was sent to a Class B farm club in Reidsville, N.C. “I just want to pitch in games, somewhere, anywhere,” Qualters said to the Associated Press.

Years later, he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “When I went to Reidsville, I found I had lost my velocity. I didn’t have my riding fastball anymore.”

With the Class AAA Miami Marlins in 1956, Qualters, 21, was a teammate of Satchel Paige, 50. Paige was 11-4 with a 1.86 ERA. Qualters had his first good season as a pro _ 5-5 with a 3.38 ERA.

Paige and Qualters were back with Miami in 1957. Joining them was an outfielder, Whitey Herzog, 25, who hit .272. Qualters led the pitching staff in appearances (46) and innings pitched (186) and won 11. Paige had 10 wins and a 2.42 ERA.

Qualters admired the glove Paige used, an aged Mort Cooper model. “It looks like it belongs in the museum at Cooperstown but I like the way it handles,” Qualters told the Miami News. Qualters swapped Paige a new glove for his relic.

The Phillies called up Qualters in September 1957 and he made six relief appearances for them. In one, against the Cardinals, he gave up two runs in 0.2 innings. Boxscore

Qualters began the 1958 season with the Phillies, pitched in one game, got waived and was claimed by the White Sox.

A highlight came on May 25, 1958, in a game against the Red Sox. Qualters relieved starter Dick Donovan with the bases loaded and got Ted Williams to fly out to center. Boxscore

Two months later, at Yankee Stadium, Qualters pitched two scoreless innings and retired Mickey Mantle on a pop-up to second. Boxscore

Qualters made 26 relief appearance for the 1958 White Sox, who finished second behind the American League champion Yankees.

The White Sox had Qualters in their plans for 1959 until he injured his pitching elbow in spring training. Assigned to Class AAA Indianapolis, managed by Mort Cooper’s brother, Walker Cooper, Qualters developed nerve problems in his pitching hand and never got back to the majors. The 1959 White Sox won the American League pennant. “I was all set to be on that pitching staff (until getting injured),” Qualters said to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “That really hurt.”

Qualters became a regional supervisor for the Pennsylvania Fish Commission and was responsible for overseeing enforcement for 10 counties, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He was in charge of 15 field officers and 80 deputies.

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Cincinnati Kid: Don Gullett was ace of diamonds vs. Cards

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers on February 26, 2024| 14 Comments »

On a Big Red Machine team of Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Pete Rose and Tony Perez, the player who consistently confounded the Cardinals was Don Gullett.

A left-handed pitcher, Gullett was 14-3 versus the Cardinals, including 7-0 at Busch Memorial Stadium. He also liked to hit in St. Louis. His batting average there was .281.

Gullett played for six pennant winners in nine seasons in the majors and pitched in five World Series with the Reds and Yankees. His career record was 109-50.

Teen talent

In high school at South Shore, Ky., on the south bank of the Ohio River, Gullett excelled in football (scoring 11 touchdowns and kicking six extra points in one game) and basketball (scoring 47 points in one game) but turned down college scholarship offers because he wanted to become a professional baseball player.

He dazzled scouts when he pitched a seven-inning perfect game in high school, striking out 20 and retiring one batter who bunted.

The Reds selected him in the first round of the June 1969 amateur draft. (The Cardinals also chose a left-handed high school pitcher in that first round, but Charles Minott never advanced above the Class A level of the minors.)

Sent to the Sioux Falls (S.D.) Packers of the Northern League, Gullett, 18, struck out 87 in 78 innings and was 7-2 with a 1.96 ERA.

Invited to Reds spring training in 1970 as a non-roster player, Gullett, 19, impressed first-year manager Sparky Anderson. “For a kid his age, Gullett’s poise is amazing,” Anderson said to The Sporting News. “He just doesn’t scare.”

After striking out against Gullett in spring training, Pirates slugger Willie Stargell told The Sporting News, “Man, that kid throws nothing but wall to wall heat.”

Gullett got a spot on the 1970 Reds Opening Day roster as a reliever.

Rookie sensation

A year after pitching against high schoolers, Gullett made his big-league debut with 1.1 scoreless innings in relief of Ray Washburn versus the Giants. Boxscore

In his first win, against the Dodgers, Gullett pitched five scoreless innings in relief of Jim Maloney. “The kid showed them smoke,” catcher Johnny Bench told The Cincinnati Post. “I mean it was real heat.” Gullett also walked, stole a base, tripled and scored twice. Boxscore

A week later, facing the Cardinals for the first time, Gullett got his first save. With the Reds ahead, 3-2, in the ninth, the Cardinals had a runner on first, two outs, and Jim Campbell at the plate when Gullett replaced closer Wayne Granger.

Asked why he brought in the rookie, Sparky Anderson replied to the Dayton Daily News, “If you’ve got a guy with a lot of stuff like Gullett on your staff and you’re afraid to use him just because he’s 19, then you shouldn’t have him on the team.”

Gullett got Campbell to hit a fly to short center. Center fielder Bobby Tolan couldn’t get to the ball _ “It looked like an in-betweener base hit to me,” Gullett said to the Dayton newspaper  _  but shortstop Dave Concepcion made a twisting catch on the run to end the game. Boxscore

Near the end of Gullett’s rookie season, Dodgers manager Walter Alston told The Sporting News, “Gullett comes as close to matching Sandy Koufax’s fastball as anyone I’ve seen.”

(Gullett said he met Koufax at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field early in the 1970 season. “He showed me how he threw his curveball, how he put his fingers on the seams, and all that,” Gullett said to Dick Kaegel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The next year, Sparky Anderson arranged a meeting of Gullett and Koufax in Chicago. Anderson told the Post-Dispatch, “Sandy told him to think not up and down with his pitches. He told him to think in and out.”)

In 44 games for the 1970 Reds, Gullett was 5-2 with six saves and a 2.43 ERA. He also earned two saves and yielded no runs in the National League Championship Series versus the Pirates and one earned run in three World Series games against the Orioles. Video

Hot stuff

Gullett, 20, moved into the Reds’ starting rotation in 1971 and responded with a 16-6 record. He was 3-0 against the Cardinals, shutting them out twice, and would have had a fourth win if he’d protected a ninth-inning lead.

On June 16, 1971, Gullett pitched a four-hitter in a 1-0 Reds victory. The Cardinals threatened in the eighth, getting a runner to third with two outs, but Matty Alou struck out looking. (Alou, a National League batting champion, had one hit in 19 career at-bats versus Gullett.)

“He threw a fastball right on the black part of the plate,” catcher Pat Corrales told the Dayton Daily News. “As hard as he can throw, and with the location of that pitch, there wasn’t anything else for Alou to do but look at it and go sit down.”

Gullett said to the Cincinnati Enquirer, “I had my best fastball of the year” and an effective slider. Corrales told the newspaper that with Gullett’s slider, “You can’t tell when it’s coming. The rotation is just like on his fastball. A right-hander goes to swing at it, and all of a sudden it hits him on the fists.” Boxscore

Two months later, Gullett was matched against Bob Gibson. In their previous starts, Gibson pitched a no-hitter against the Pirates and Gullett limited the Cubs to one hit in eight innings.

The showdown turned out to be no contest. Gullett and the Reds won, 5-0. Joe Torre (the league batting champion that year) and Ted Simmons were a combined 0-for-8.

“Gullett’s got a fastball that rides away from you, plus a slider that comes in on you,” Torre told the Post-Dispatch. “You can’t tell which one’s coming.”

(Torre adjusted impressively. He had 20 career hits versus Gullett, batting .370.)

Asked whether Gullett was equal to American League left-hander Vida Blue, Sparky Anderson said to the Cincinnati Enquirer, “I wouldn’t trade him even up for Blue.” Boxscore

The Cardinals got some satisfaction against Gullett 11 days later. Gullett and the Reds led, 3-2, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but Lou Brock tied the score with a home run. The Cardinals went on to win in the 11th when Clay Carroll walked Ted Sizemore with the bases loaded. Boxscore

(Like Torre, Brock had success against Gullett, totaling 19 hits and batting .322.)

Bat man

Gullett also caused trouble for the Cardinals with his bat.

On July 16, 1974, Gullett, who batted right-handed, had three hits, three RBI and was the winning pitcher in a 12-7 Reds triumph against the Cardinals.

Gullett had a two-run double that knocked Bob Forsch from the game in the first inning, and drove in another run with a single versus John Curtis in the second. He added a single against Rich Folkers in the sixth. Boxscore

In 1975, Gullett, 24, was 4-0 with an 0.28 ERA versus the Cardinals. He allowed one run (a Ted Simmons home run) in 32 innings against them. One of those wins beat Gibson, who was trying for his 250th career victory. Boxscore

Gullett experienced an array of health problems and injuries, including hepatitis (1972), chronic back spasms (1974), a fractured left thumb (1975) and a dislocated ankle tendon (1976).

After the Reds repeated as World Series champions in 1976, Gullett became a free agent and signed a six-year contract with the Yankees. “We feel Gullett is a modern Whitey Ford,” Yankees president Gabe Paul told the New York Times.

Late in September 1978, Gullett underwent surgery for a double tear of the rotator cuff in his left shoulder and was done pitching at age 27. “Sometimes, I dream that I come back as a right-handed pitcher,” Gullett said years later to Bill Peterson of The Cincinnati Post.

In 1986, Gullett, 35, had a heart attack. Four years later, he had triple bypass surgery. Gullett recovered and coached for the Reds for 13 seasons (1993-2005).

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Yankees made a pitch to hire Bob Gibson

Posted in Pitchers on February 16, 2024| 16 Comments »

In the same year Bob Gibson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, he was fired by the Mets.

Rather than close the door to baseball jobs, the dismissal gave Gibson a chance to explore other possibilities. Those options included:

_ Working for Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

_ Replacing Dave Duncan as pitching coach of an American League team.

_ Reuniting with Joe Torre as pitching coach of a National League team.

New games

After pitching his last game for the Cardinals in 1975, Gibson went home to Omaha. He had investments in a bank and a radio station, and opened a restaurant near the campus of Creighton University, his alma mater. Gibson’s only connection to baseball was some television broadcasting for ABC and HBO.

In his book “Stranger to the Game,” Gibson said he was offered the job of pitching coach on the staff of Giants manager Joe Altobelli when Herm Starrette left to join the Phillies after the 1978 season. Gibson said he declined because he was preoccupied with opening his restaurant.

(The Giants hired Larry Shepard, former Pirates manager and Reds pitching coach. If Gibson had taken the job, one of the pitchers he’d have coached on the 1979 Giants was Vida Blue. As intriguing as that is to consider, it turned out for the best that Gibson turned down the Giants. Altobelli was fired before the completion of the 1979 season.)

Later, Gibson was interested in returning to the Cardinals organization as manager of their Class AAA farm club. In 1980, the Omaha World-Herald reported, “If Hal Lanier had not returned this year as manager of Springfield in the American Association, the job might have gone to Bob Gibson.”

A. Ray Smith, owner of the farm club, said he “had a deal with Gibson … we had an agreement” if the job became available, according to the Omaha newspaper.

Instead, Gibson made his return to baseball with the Mets, who were managed by friend and former teammate Joe Torre. On Oct. 23, 1980, the Mets announced Gibson was joining Torre’s coaching staff. The Mets had a pitching coach, Rube Walker. In his autobiography, Gibson said Torre told him his job was to be an “attitude coach.”

“Rube is a fine, settling influence on the pitchers,” Torre told The Sporting News. “They have great respect for him, but he can carry them just so far. Maybe Gibson can carry them the rest of the way. Maybe he can light a fire in some of them.”

Gibson said to The Sporting News, “You can’t teach competitiveness, but you can work on attitude. If you can improve a player’s attitude, he may become more competitive.”

In and out

In January 1981, three months after the Mets hired him, Gibson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first appearance on the ballot. He got 84 percent of the vote from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Two other first-time candidates _ Harmon Killebrew (59.6 percent) and Juan Marichal (58.1 percent) _ failed to get enough support. Others falling short included Don Drysdale (60.6 percent), Red Schoendienst (41.4 percent) and Orlando Cepeda (19.2 percent).

The 1981 Mets were a bad team (41-62) in a strike-shortened season. The pitching staff Gibson worked with included two fading Cy Young Award winners (Randy Jones and Mike Marshall), a future Cy Young Award winner (Mike Scott), a closer nearing his peak (Neil Allen) and a future closer (Jeff Reardon).

In his autobiography, Gibson said, “As it turned out, my role became largely one of a counselor for the likes of our two talented relief pitchers, Neil Allen and Jeff Reardon, both of whom were having difficulty dealing with their identities on the team as well as their working relationship with each other. Reardon thought he was deserving of Allen’s role as closer.”

In his book “Chasing the Dream,” Torre said, “Gibby had tremendous knowledge to give pitchers but was willing to share it only with people who sincerely wanted to listen. A lot of pitchers don’t think they need help, and Bob was turned off by those types and wouldn’t hesitate to show them his gruff side.”

When the season ended, Torre and his coaches were fired.

Torre said in his autobiography that Gibson “took it much harder than I did … The rejection devastated him.”

Decisions, decisions

Bill Bergesch, who signed Gibson for the Cardinals in 1957, was vice president of baseball operations for the Yankees in 1981. When the Mets fired Gibson, Bergesch offered him a job in player development for the Yankees. In his autobiography, Gibson said the job was to be minor-league pitching coordinator.

Meanwhile, Cleveland Indians pitching coach Dave Duncan left for Seattle to become pitching coach of the Mariners for manager Rene Lachemann. The Indians inquired about the availability of Gibson for manager Dave Garcia’s staff, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. According to The Sporting News, Gibson was offered the job.

Of the two opportunities, the Yankees tempted Gibson the most because of Bergesch’s association with the club, Gibson said in his autobiography. Bergesch told Gibson he had a standing offer to work for the Yankees, Newsday reported.

Instead, when the Braves named Joe Torre their manager, Gibson accepted his offer to join the coaching staff. In his autobiography, Torre said the deal was sealed when the Braves agreed to Gibson’s demand for a two-year contract.

Gibson told Newsday he took the job in order to add more major-league service time toward his pension plan.

“I do want to work in player development,” Gibson said to Newsday, “but I need three years (in uniform in the majors) to get 20 years on my pension. I figured this is the time.”

Torre also hired Rube Walker for the Braves coaching staff, but, unlike with the Mets, Gibson was named pitching coach and Walker took a secondary role. “We divided up the duties to everybody’s satisfaction,” Gibson said in his autobiography. “Mine included being a lieutenant, more or less, to Torre.”

How it went

Gibson was a soap opera fan _ his favorites were “All My Children” and “Ryan’s Hope,” according to Newsday’s Marty Noble _ but it’s hard to imagine he would have liked being caught in the drama involving the Yankees had he gone there.

The 1982 Yankees used five pitching coaches. When the season began, Jeff Torborg and Jerry Walker shared the role. Stan Williams took over in April, then Clyde King succeeded Williams in June. A month later, Sammy Ellis replaced King. Ellis had been pitching coach at the Yankees’ Columbus farm club. If Gibson had been employed by the Yankees, it’s easy to imagine him being included in the shuffle of pitching coaches.

The 1982 Cleveland Indians went with Mel Queen as the replacement for Dave Duncan as pitching coach and he worked with a staff that included a pair of former Cardinals pitchers, John Denny and Lary Sorensen.

With Torre and Gibson, the Braves won a division title in 1982 but were ousted by the Cardinals in the National League Championship Series.

The good times didn’t last long. After the 1984 season, Torre was fired by club owner Ted Turner and so was Gibson. They were reunited in 1995 when Torre managed the Cardinals and added Gibson to the coaching staff as his assistant, but it was not a good year for them. Torre was fired in June, the Cardinals finished 62-81 and Gibson never coached again.

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