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Sobering choice: Cards wouldn’t give Sam McDowell a shot

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers, Trades on October 17, 2026| 11 Comments »

The Cardinals went shopping for a left-handed starting pitcher at the 1971 baseball winter meetings in Phoenix. They pursued St. Louisan Ken Holtzman, but the Cubs traded him to the Athletics for Rick Monday. They tried for Tommy John, but the White Sox sent him to the Dodgers for Dick Allen.

Next on their list was Dave Roberts of the Padres. “Roberts is a very desirable pitcher,” Cardinals general manager Bing Devine told Ed Wilks of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We thought we had made a pretty good offer for him and thought we were close to getting him (but) San Diego wanted Ted Sizemore, and, if we trade him, who plays second base?”

So, instead, San Diego dealt Roberts to the Astros for Derrel Thomas, Bill Greif and Mark Schaeffer.

Cleveland offered its top pitcher, left-hander Sam McDowell, but Devine replied with a firm no.

“Maybe I’ve never been impressed by McDowell as much as many baseball men,” Devine said to Bob Broeg of the Post-Dispatch in December 1971. “We would like to add a starting pitcher … but I couldn’t justify giving up promising young (pitchers) such as Reggie Cleveland or Jerry Reuss for McDowell.”

Though McDowell five times led the American League in striking out the most batters, Devine noted, he also five times led the AL in walking the most batters.

There was another thing: “Sam hasn’t always taken care of himself,” Devine said diplomatically to the Post-Dispatch.

In fact, McDowell was an alcoholic.

Sudden Sam

Big (6-foot-5) and athletic, McDowell was a dominating pitcher for Pittsburgh’s Central Catholic High School (also the alma mater of future NFL quarterbacks Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins and Marc Bulger of the St. Louis Rams).

The Cleveland Indians signed him in 1960. With their Class D farm club in Lakeland (Fla.), McDowell, 17, “displayed a sizzling fastball and a curve that literally flopped off the table,” the Lakeland Ledger reported.

Cleveland officials put McDowell on a fast track. At 18, he made a huge leap from Class D to Class AAA in 1961 and finished the season in the majors, starting against the Twins. Boxscore

McDowell got nicknamed “Sudden Sam” because of how his fastball suddenly burst upon batters at the plate. The back of his 1963 Topps bubblegum card noted, “Cleveland fans can’t help but compare Sam to Bob Feller when they watch this fire-balling youngster perform.”

In the book “We Played the Game,” Cleveland pitcher Pedro Ramos said McDowell had “a blazing fastball and so much wildness that batters were scared of him. We all thought that if he learned better control he was going to be a big winner.”

Wild thing

McDowell was an exasperating talent. He could be wonderful or wretched _ sometimes in the same game. In pitching a two-hitter against the White Sox, he struck out 11; walked nine. In a win versus Washington, he whiffed 15 but gave up 11 hits and five walks. Boxscore and Boxscore

On a night when he had both overpowering stuff and command of his pitches, striking out 16 and walking none in a three-hitter against the Athletics, McDowell told the Cleveland Plain Dealer, “You have just seen the eighth wonder of the world. I mean, I made only 119 pitches and the game was over in two hours and 11 minutes. I never thought I’d see the day.” Boxscore

The lack of control he experienced on the mound extended to his lifestyle. “I was baseball’s answer to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” McDowell told The Pittsburgh Press.

Except for an occasional beer, McDowell said he didn’t drink alcohol until he got to the big leagues. He started guzzling the booze, he told The Pittsburgh Press, because, “I just wanted to be one of the boys … I wanted to be wanted.”

McDowell became addicted to alcohol. He had a penchant for barroom brawling when drunk. “I can’t tell you how many times I sat in a police department,” he told Jim O’Brien of The Pittsburgh Press.

(O’Brien and McDowell were high school classmates. In 1981, when McDowell decided to go public with the story of his alcoholism, he contacted O’Brien.)

During his time with Cleveland, McDowell had a 122-109 record and 2.99 ERA, but he and the club were ready for a divorce. General manager Gabe Paul put out the word at the 1971 baseball winter meetings that McDowell was available.

According to The Sporting News, Cleveland offered McDowell to every club and more than a dozen were interested. The Tigers offered Mickey Stanley, Dick McAuliffe and Mike Kilkenny. The Mets offered Jerry Koosman and an infielder, columnist Dick Young reported.

Giant gaffe

Since winning the National League pennant in 1962, the Giants had been on a perpetual (and usually futile) quest for a left-handed ace. They traded Felipe Alou to the Braves for Bob Hendley, Matty Alou to the Pirates for Joe Gibbon, Orlando Cepeda to the Cardinals for Ray Sadecki, reacquired Mike McCormick from the Senators, and signed 44-year-old Warren Spahn.

When Cleveland dangled Sam McDowell as trade bait, the Giants bit. They dealt Gaylord Perry and Frank Duffy for the left-hander. “They didn’t know about my drinking problem,” McDowell told The Pittsburgh Press.

On the day after the trade, “I flew to San Francisco (and) I got drunk on the plane,” McDowell said to Jim O’Brien. “I was arrested at a restaurant there that night for disorderly conduct.”

Departing spring training with the 1972 Giants, McDowell “didn’t get out of the Phoenix airport without assistance,” the San Francisco Examiner reported. “He bombed out at the bar and collapsed on the floor.”

Gaylord Perry won 24 for Cleveland in 1972 and received the American League Cy Young Award. McDowell was 10-8 (1-1 versus the Cardinals) for the 1972 Giants.

The next year, McDowell pitched mostly in relief. His last win for the Giants came against St. Louis before he was shipped to the Yankees in June 1973. Boxscore

“The Giants were in Pittsburgh (when) I was told that I had been sold to the Yankees,” McDowell recalled to The Pittsburgh Press. “I took a plane to Oakland to join the Yankees there. I got out there six hours before they did and I got blitzed out of my mind.”

Bronx bomber

Manager Ralph Houk put McDowell in a starting rotation with Mel Stottlemyre, Doc Medich, Fritz Peterson and Pat Dobson. McDowell won five of his first six decisions, then lost seven in a row as his drinking worsened.

In his book “The Bronx Zoo,” Yankees reliever Sparky Lyle said, “When Sam was with us he had a terrible drinking problem … Sam was notorious for getting in the sauce, getting real rowdy, picking a fight and getting beat up.”

McDowell said to The Pittsburgh Press, “Looking back, it’s hard to understand how the managers put up with me. I knew I went beyond the bounds of normal decency once I got into my addiction.”

McDowell told Jim O’Brien how he betrayed the trust of Ralph Houk: “I was out late one night in Minneapolis and I’d been drinking pretty good and I stepped off a curb and tore the hell out of my ankle. I told Houk I did it on an escalator in a department store. Houk asked me if that’s what really happened … I said, ‘Yeah, that’s how it happened.’ I lied straight to his face.”

In 1974, Bill Virdon managed the Yankees. McDowell told Jim O’Brien, “I came to Yankee Stadium one day stoned out of my mind. I was getting killed diving after balls in the outfield during the pregame warmup … Virdon sent the pitching coach out to get me off the field before I got killed out there.”

Virdon recalled to The Pittsburgh Press, “When Sam was with the Yankees, we sent him to psychiatrists. We had to get him out of jail a couple of times. We had to have a babysitter for him on the road.”

The Yankees released him in December 1974.

Last chance

McDowell’s hometown team, the Pirates, threw him a lifeline, inviting him to 1975 spring training. “I had dreamed of pitching for the Pirates when I was a kid,” McDowell said to The Pittsburgh Press.

He pitched well at training camp and the Pirates offered him a spot on the Opening Day roster, but general manager Joe Brown also told McDowell there would be zero tolerance of any drunkenness.

McDowell was on good behavior until June 21, a Saturday. He pitched four scoreless innings of relief that day against the Mets at Shea Stadium. “I went out that night in New York and celebrated,” McDowell recalled to Jim O’Brien. “I got back to my hotel room at 6 a.m., if that.” Boxscore

When he was called on to warm up in the bullpen at Shea Stadium that Sunday afternoon, McDowell couldn’t get a pitch near the plate. “Don Leppert, our bullpen coach, took me inside and told me to stay out of sight,” McDowell told The Pittsburgh Press.

A week later, when they returned from the road trip, the Pirates released him. At 33, McDowell’s pitching days were finished.

Biggest win

Deep in debt, McDowell took a job selling insurance in Pittsburgh to support a wife and children, but his addiction had a stranglehold on him.

He told Jim O’Brien, “I wanted to fight everybody and the only one I was beating up was me … Toward the end of my drinking days … I couldn’t go into a bar without getting my butt kicked seriously, or I’d remodel the bar … A sheriff would serve me with papers regularly. To me it was always someone else’s fault … In time I realized it was me, and that was my problem.”

After awakening from a two-day binge in April 1980, McDowell decided to quit drinking. He entered a rehabilitation program at a Pittsburgh hospital. The experience inspired him to become a counselor. McDowell earned an associate’s degree in sports counseling and addictions at the University of Pittsburgh, and the state of Pennsylvania certified him as a counselor in 1982.

McDowell was hired by big-league franchises such as the Blue Jays, Rangers and Reds to counsel their players.

 

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I shot the Sheriff: The startling saga of Marshall Bridges

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers, Prospects, Trades on October 11, 2026| 8 Comments »

It was easy to see why, for some, Fort Lauderdale in February 1963 was like paradise. Sunshine and scents of citrus blossoms carried by gentle sea breezes were abundant in the Florida coastal town.

Bolstered by the hit 1960 film “Where the Boys Are,” thousands of college students frolicked in the Atlantic Ocean surf and in hangouts like the Elbo Room.

The Yankees, reigning World Series champions, were headquartered for spring training in the oceanfront Yankee Clipper Hotel. Designed to model a luxury ocean liner, the hotel featured The Wreck Bar, where patrons could sip rum runners while seated along portholes that gave enticing views of mermaid shows being performed in the swimming pool. Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra or even the Yankee Clipper himself, Joe DiMaggio, then a spring training batting instructor, might show up to see their favorite mermaids.

A significant benefit of staying at the Yankee Clipper Hotel in 1963 was that it didn’t discriminate against people because of skin color. Before 1962, the Yankees (like the Cardinals) trained in St. Petersburg, and their hotel headquarters, The Soreno, refused to admit blacks.

Fort Lauderdale, too, was resistant to ending segregation. A 1927 ordinance restricted black residents and businesses to the northwest sector of the city. Fort Lauderdale’s beaches weren’t desegregated until 1962. Segregation wasn’t fully dissolved in the town until the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law.

A prominent social spot for blacks in Fort Lauderdale was a two-story building patrons called “The Elks Rest,” formally known as the Pride of Fort Lauderdale Elks Lodge No. 652. (Newspapers referred to it as the Negro Elks Club.)

“Back in the day, especially during the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s, anybody black and of high regard and considered ‘classy’ would most likely visit the Elks during their visit to Fort Lauderdale,” James Dallas II, son of a civic leader, recalled to Fort Lauderdale Magazine. “It was not just for these out-of-town visitors but also for everyday people looking for a cozy watering hole where they could have a few drinks and some good conversation.”

One of those finding his way there one night in February 1963 was Marshall Bridges. A left-handed pitcher, Bridges reached the majors with the 1959 Cardinals and was the top reliever for the 1962 champion Yankees.

Bridges was having a drink at the bar when he tried to strike up a conversation with a woman. She wasn’t interested, but Bridges persisted. So she reached into her purse, pulled out a gun and shot him.

Building bridges

Marshall Bridges was from Jackson, Mississippi. He quit school in ninth grade and at 14 got a job as a porter, or custodian, at the state capitol building in 1945, according to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger.

(Throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s, Bridges worked as a porter at the state capitol building during the fall and winter after baseball season. With salary and tips, he earned $50 a week, United Press International reported in 1961. “This is not a bad job as temporary jobs go,” Bridges told the wire service.)

In 1947, Jackson had a minor league team, an affiliate of the Boston Braves. Bridges, 16, became a groundskeeper’s assistant and then a clubhouse attendant. He was paid $28 a week, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“I used to throw during my lunch hour and every other chance I got when I was the clubhouse boy and the bat boy,” Bridges recalled to reporter Neal Russo. “I used to run errands and do all kinds of things for the ballplayers. They got to like me and gave me all the bats, balls and gloves I could use _ new ones, too.”

The Jackson manager, Willis Hudlin, totaled 157 wins as a Cleveland Indians pitcher. When he noticed Bridges tossing balls, he gave the youngster advice on how to pitch. Bridges joined a local semipro team in 1948 and played on weekends. He had talent and “was one of the players developed through the Delta Baseball School,” the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported.

The school was operated by Homer “Goose” Curry, manager of the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro American League. Curry brought Bridges to Memphis in 1950 to pitch and play outfield.

After the 1952 season, Bridges was part of a Negro American League all-star squad that played against a barnstorming team of major leaguers led by Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella. “As a result of his brilliant work in that series,” Bridges’ contract was purchased for $10,000 by the New York Giants, who outbid Brooklyn and Cleveland, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported.

Baseball odyssey

At the Giants’ 1953 minor-league spring training camp, Bridges impressed more with the bat than with his pitching. Giants officials deemed him a first baseman and assigned him to the Sioux City (Iowa) Soos. “His fielding at the start of the season was, to say the least, on the crude side,” the Sioux City Journal noted.

Bridges made errors, didn’t hit enough and was back with the Negro American League Memphis club as a pitcher in June 1954. Given the chance to start regularly, he regained his form.

Bridges pitched mostly for unaffiliated teams in the minors for the next four seasons and did well as a starter, including 15-1 with Amarillo in 1955.

Developing a curve to mix with a fastball, Bridges won 16 and struck out 205 with Sacramento of the Pacific Coast League in 1958. Scout Joe Mathes recommended Bridges to the Cardinals, who purchased his contract in October 1958.

After opening the 1959 season with Rochester, Bridges, 28, got the call he’d dreamed about. The former minor-league clubhouse attendant was going to the big leagues to pitch for the Cardinals.

Badge of honor

Bridges was assigned to room on the road with first baseman George Crowe. According to John Stamm of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, when Bridges introduced himself by his first name, Marshall, Crowe immediately thought of a deputy marshal, like Wyatt Earp, from an old Western. Crowe nicknamed him “Sheriff” and soon all the Cardinals were calling Bridges that.

Cardinals manager Solly Hemus viewed Bridges as a reliever. “He fits into our pattern of need; that is, he can throw exceptionally hard in a jam,” Hemus told the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

In his big-league debut, Bridges pitched 5.1 innings in relief of Larry Jackson and got the win against the Phillies. Boxscore

Two weeks later, Hemus gave Bridges a start versus the Reds at Cincinnati. In the first inning, Bridges clouted a two-run home run against Orlando Pena. Boxscore

(Though he never homered again in the majors and batted .119 overall, Bridges fancied himself a hitter. In 1965, after Bridges stroked a two-run triple against Dean Chance, the 1964 Cy Young Award winner, he told Steve Jacobson of Newsday, “Three greatest hitters _ Williams, Bridges, Musial.”)

In his second Cardinals start, the Sheriff prevailed in a duel with Sandy Koufax, striking out nine Dodgers and earning the win. With St. Louis, Bridges totaled three wins versus the Dodgers and Koufax was the starter in each game. Boxscore

Bridges was one of six pitchers who made their big-league debuts with the 1959 Cardinals and started games for them. The others: Gary Blaylock, Ernie Broglio, Bob Gibson, Tom Hughes and Dick Ricketts.

(In recalling the 1959 season in his book “Stranger to the Game,” Gibson said Solly Hemus “kept calling me Bridges, confusing me with Marshall Bridges, who was several years older than me, skinnier and pitched left-handed. But he was black. Solly got that much right.”)

Used primarily as a reliever the rest of the season, Bridges was 6-3 with a save in 27 appearances for the 1959 Cardinals, striking out 76 in 76 innings.

With the 1960 Cardinals, Bridges was 2-2 with a save and a 3.45 ERA in 20 games, but he landed in Hemus’ doghouse. “Hemus complained that Bridges’ performance was erratic,” the Globe-Democrat reported.

Bridges told Joe Trimble of the New York Daily News, “The manager (Hemus) decided I wasn’t good enough to be a starter or thought he had better men. Anyway, I was put in the bullpen. I told him I wanted to start.”

Selected off waivers by the Reds on Aug. 2, 1960, Bridges was 4-0 with two saves (including one against St. Louis) and a 1.07 ERA for Cincinnati that season.

That’s all, folks

Bridges was popular with teammates because of his infectious humor and entertaining tall tales. As catcher Elston Howard told the Jersey Journal, “He’ll try to get you to believe everything. We talk about table tennis, he says he was the national champion. Talk about fishing, you can bet he caught a 300-pounder.”

Many of his yarns were about rabbit hunting. He told Newsday he saw a rabbit run so fast that it turned blue. In the bullpen one night, Bridges said to pitcher Jim Brosnan, “One time I borrowed an old shotgun. It’s a mess. Wires held it together. So I spy a rabbit. The rabbit sees me. He stops. I shoot. Bam! The barrel goes one way. The handle goes the other way. But the rabbit drops. So I walk over, pick him up. Not a mark on him. Now believe me, that rabbit had a heart attack!”

Though Bridges’ nickname remained Sheriff, Brosnan called him Fox apparently because of Bridges’ boasts about his popularity with so-called foxy ladies. In his book “Pennant Race,” Brosnan quotes Bridges telling teammates, “So I says to this cute lil ol’ fox _ this is before I was married, you understand _ I says, ‘Honey, let’s me and you make a little happiness.’ She just smiles.”

With the 1961 Reds, Bridges entered a game against the Cardinals with Cincinnati ahead, 3-2, in the eighth. Stan Musial walked and Ray Sadecki ran for him. Daryl Spencer walked, moving Sadecki to second. Then Sadecki was picked off. Joe Cunningham lined a hanging curve to center, but Vada Pinson caught it and doubled Spencer off first to retire the side. According to Brosnan, Bridges strolled into the dugout and said, “When you’re wild, you got to use them trick plays.” Boxscore

Reds manager Fred Hutchinson wasn’t amused. He wasn’t laughing either when Bridges’ ERA ballooned to 7.84.

The Reds demoted him to Jersey City in June. After the Reds won the National League pennant, they brought Bridges back to pitch batting practice during the 1961 World Series against the Yankees.

Pride of the Yankees

Yankees scouts had seen Bridges strike out 15 for Jersey City in a game against their Richmond farm team and figured he might help them.

On Dec. 14, 1961, the Yankees traded catcher Jesse Gonder to the Reds for Bridges. It was a brilliant move. The Yankees’ closer, another former Cardinals left-hander, Luis Arroyo, developed an arm ailment in 1962 and Bridges replaced him. Bridges, 31, was 8-4 with 18 saves for the 1962 Yankees, who won the American League pennant.

Danger zone

On Feb. 13, 1963, Bridges participated in a Yankees spring training workout. That evening he went to the Elks Lodge and took a seat at the bar. Another customer, Carrie Lee Raysor, 21, arrived and sat next to Bridges.

Raysor said Bridges asked several times whether he could take her home. She said she told him no several times, United Press International reported.

According to the Fort Lauderdale News, Raysor told police Bridges “put his arm around me and pulled me over, and I didn’t like this kind of mugging.”

Bartender Cora Davis told police Bridges “was trying to kiss the woman.”

Bridges, married with three children, said to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, “I’ve been a happily married man for 11 years and I don’t have any girlfriends. I just went into this place to eat and I started talking to this woman … Suddenly, for no reason at all, she pulled a gun and shot me.”

The bullet, fired from a .25-caliber automatic revolver, entered Bridges’ left leg just below the knee and remained lodged in his calf, the New York Times reported.

Another bar patron, Erskine Hepburn, said to the Associated Press, “I heard a shot, looked around and saw Bridges fall to the floor. I helped him to my car and drove him to the hospital.”

Examination at Broward General Hospital disclosed a fractured fibula and torn muscle. The bullet burrowed deep and it was decided to leave the slug in his leg.

Raysor, a Fort Lauderdale resident, was taken to the city jail and charged with aggravated assault.

The next day, Bridges’ wife came to Fort Lauderdale. As George Vecsey of Newsday noted, “Being shot was hardly the worst part of Bridges’ experience. The lowest time of all was having to explain the incident to his wife.”

Hard times

After recuperating at home, Bridges returned to the Yankees in late March 1963. According to Newsday, when he entered the clubhouse, Mickey Mantle burst out of a side room, carrying a toy pistol. “Bang, bang, bang,” Mantle shouted. “It scared the stuffing out of me,” Bridges told George Vecsey.

Bridges pitched in 23 games for the 1963 Yankees and was 2-0 with a save. After the season he told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, “The leg bothered me up until about a month ago. That’s the one I push off the rubber with.”

Though Bridges had been reluctant to press charges against Carrie Lee Raysor, prosecutors were insistent she stand trial. After several delays, all charges against Raysor were dropped in May 1964 when Bridges didn’t appear in court to testify. An assistant county solicitor determined that without Bridges’ testimony the state couldn’t prosecute, the Fort Lauderdale News reported.

The Yankees sold Bridges’ contract to the Washington Senators and he pitched his last big-league game for them in 1965.

Life after baseball was difficult for Bridges. A business venture went bad. His wife left him. He tried carpentry, but a power saw sliced off the little, ring and middle fingers of his left hand. “Only three stumps remained on what had been his pitching hand,” Butch John reported in the Jackson newspaper.

He thought drinking could solve his problems. “I’d go get two or three fifths a day and lock myself in the house,” Bridges told the Clarion-Ledger.

Ralph Houk, Bridges’ manager with the Yankees, asked the club to invite Bridges to the annual Old-Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium. According to the Jackson newspaper, when Dizzy Dean, the former Cardinals ace, heard about it, he contributed money for a suit of clothes for Bridges to wear at the event.

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How Cardinals nearly struck out on getting Orlando Cepeda

Posted in Pitchers, Hitters, Trades, Games, Executives on August 31, 2026| 20 Comments »

Orlando Cepeda was supposed to be traded to the Cubs, not the Cardinals.

In April 1966, the Giants offered to swap Cepeda, a slugger recovering from knee surgery, to the Cubs for left-handed starting pitcher Dick Ellsworth. The Cubs were willing but wanted an outfielder included with Cepeda in the deal.

While the sides dickered, details of the talks were leaked to newspapers, irritating Giants owner Horace Stoneham, who killed the proposed deal.

The Cardinals, desperate for a first baseman, stepped in and made their pitch: left-handed starting pitcher Ray Sadecki for Cepeda.

Pain relief

A right-handed batter, Cepeda was a consistent run producer for the Giants after entering the majors in 1958 and earning the National League Rookie of the Year Award. In his first seven seasons (1958-64) with San Francisco, Cepeda averaged 106 RBI and 31 home runs each year.

His right knee, though, ached after he dropped a weight on it during a workout late in 1962. He had knee surgery in December 1964. At 1965 spring training, the knee caused Cepeda “constant pain,” he said in “Baby Bull,” his autobiography.

Manager Herman Franks “kept saying I was faking, that there was nothing wrong with my knee,” Cepeda recalled in his book. “He said it was all in my mind and that I should get my ass on the field and earn some money.”

Cepeda spent most of the first month of the 1965 season on the bench. On May 3, he was sent to bat for Jose Pagan in the seventh inning at St. Louis and flied out to left. “I could barely walk,” Cepeda said in his autobiography. “I had to walk up to the batter’s box using my bat as a cane because my knee hurt so much.” Boxscore

He didn’t appear in another game until August. For the season, Cepeda batted .176 with one home run in 33 games, 27 as a pinch-hitter.

Let’s make a deal

At home in Puerto Rico during the winter, Cepeda worked to get the knee in shape. “I would run in the water, work with weights, then run some more,” he said in his book. “I was like Rocky Balboa training for a shot at the title, working harder than I ever had before. When I arrived in Arizona in the spring (of 1966), I was in the best shape of my life. Even my knee felt good. I was running well.”

However, when the Giants opened the season at home against the Cubs, Herman Franks started Willie McCovey at first base and Len Gabrielson in left. Cepeda, who played both positions, was on the bench. Boxscore

Cepeda finally got a chance to start in the sixth game, as the left fielder, only because the Giants intended to trade him for a left-handed starting pitcher and wanted to show clubs his knee was OK. Boxscore

The Giants’ starting rotation consisted of right-handers Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry, Bobby Bolin, Bob Shaw and Ron Herbel.

General managers Chub Feeney of the Giants and John Holland of the Cubs met in April to discuss a swap of Cepeda for Dick Ellsworth, the San Francisco Examiner and Chicago American reported. Ellsworth, 26, a Fresno resident, won 22 for the Cubs in 1963 and 14 in each of the next two seasons.

“What a deal that would have been, especially for the Giants, who are dirt-poor for southpaw pitchers,” Fresno Bee sports editor Omer Crane wrote. “Ellsworth, with that Giants power behind him, could win 20 to 22 games.”

Willie McCovey, who had one hit in 20 career at-bats against Ellsworth, said to The Sporting News, “He’s tough for any hitter.”

The trade would have given the Cubs a lineup with four future Hall of Fame run producers: Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Billy Williams and Cepeda. With Banks stationed at first base, the Cubs would have put Cepeda in left field, John Holland told the Chicago Daily News.

“While Cubs fans thrill at the thought of Cepeda (40 home runs?) in the lineup, they shudder at the suggestion of their otherwise aging pitching staff without the presence of Ellsworth,” the Chicago Tribune noted.

Loose lips sink trades

Herman Franks was pushing for Chub Feeney to make the trade for the Giants, but Cubs manager Leo Durocher wanted John Holland to get more for Ellsworth than Cepeda. Durocher also insisted on proof that Cepeda’s knee was sound.

“Sure, I wanted Cepeda,” Durocher told Dick Young of the New York Daily News, “but I wanted some assurance that his knee was all right. After all, if I give them a pitcher like Ellsworth and then Cepeda’s knee goes pop, what have I got?”

The Giants would make no guarantee, but would permit the Cubs to have their own team doctor examine Cepeda’s knee in advance of a deal.

As for including an outfielder with Cepeda in the trade, Jesus Alou, Ollie Brown and Len Gabrielson were discussed, according to published reports. The Giants were given until two weeks after the season opened to agree to the terms, John Carmichael reported in the Chicago Daily News.

Giants owner Horace Stoneham didn’t like the Cubs’ demands and was miffed that they were leaking details to the newspapers. He told Chub Feeney and Herman Franks to call off the deal.

In the book “The Man Stan Musial Then and Now,” Musial, a Cardinals vice president in 1966, said, “It was common knowledge that a Cepeda-to-Chicago deal had fallen through because the Cubs, giving up Dick Ellsworth, wanted something other than the knee-damaged Cepeda to sweeten the pot. Those of us who knew Horace Stoneham were aware you didn’t push or prod” him.

According to Jack McDonald of the San Francisco Examiner, “Chicago fans are crying in their beer because the Cubs missed the boat on a Cepeda for Dick Ellsworth deal. Every Cubs official wanted it.”

Cardinals swoop in

After the collapse of the discussions with the Cubs, the Giants went after Ray Sadecki, 25, of the Cardinals. A 20-game winner in 1964, Sadecki won just six the next year but looked good in 1966. In April, he was 2-0 with an 0.98 ERA. One of those wins was a five-hitter against the Giants. Boxscore

The Cardinals were dissatisfied with rookie first baseman George Kernek, who lacked power. Cepeda, who slammed a two-run homer against the Cardinals on April 30, appealed to them. Boxscore

However, like the Cubs, Cardinals general manager Bob Howsam tried to get the Giants to include another player with Cepeda in a trade for Sadecki.

In the book “The Man Stan Musial Then and Now,” Musial recalled to collaborator Bob Broeg that “Howsam hedged and vacillated” on making the Sadecki for Cepeda deal until Cardinals executive vice president Dick Meyer, the top aide to team owner Gussie Busch, intervened.

Because of Howsam’s haggling, “We were fearful Horace (Stoneham) would nix the deal with St. Louis, too,” Musial said, “but Dick Meyer, always a sound stabilizing influence, urged Howsam to get along with the deal and to forget trying to get more for Sadecki.”

Getting it done

On May 7 at St. Louis, Cepeda clouted a grand slam against Cardinals starter Art Mahaffey. The next day, during the final game played at the former Sportsman’s Park, soon after Cepeda hit a two-run double against Larry Jaster, the Cardinals and Giants agreed to the Cepeda for Sadecki trade. Boxscore and Boxscore

The Cardinals and Cubs were the winners in the deal.

Cepeda helped the Cardinals win two National League pennants (1967-68) and a World Series title (1967). He received the 1967 NL Most Valuable Player Award.

Immediately after Horace Stoneham stopped the Cepeda trade talks with Chicago, the Cubs contacted the Phillies. On April 21, 1966, the Cubs sent pitchers Larry Jackson and Bob Buhl to Philadelphia for pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, center fielder Adolfo Phillips and first baseman John Herrnstein.

Jenkins developed into an ace and a Hall of Famer. He totaled 167 wins for the Cubs, and remains their career leader in strikeouts (2,038) and starts (347).

“I doubt very much whether we would have made the Philadelphia deal if we’d got Cepeda,” John Holland told the Chicago Daily News, “because we couldn’t afford to send two starters like Jackson and Ellsworth away at the same time.”

Former Cardinals ace Dizzy Dean predicted to United Press International that Sadecki “will give” the Giants the 1966 pennant. However, Sadecki was 32-39 in his four seasons with the Giants, who won no pennants during that time.

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No place like home for Cardinals farmhand Tony Freitas

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers, Prospects, Trades on August 17, 2026| 12 Comments »

The Cardinals had a pitcher in their system who collected wins the way neighborhood kids flocked to an ice-cream truck _ in bunches.

A left-handed lilliputian who relied on control and off-speed pitches, Tony Freitas achieved 20 or more wins for six seasons in a row (1937-42) with Sacramento. The Cardinals offered to bring him to the majors, but Freitas said no. Sacramento was his home and that’s where he preferred to stay.

Besides, Freitas had been in the big leagues _ with the Athletics and Reds _ before the Cardinals acquired him, and though he had multiple highlights, including 10 wins in a row as a rookie and an epic 17-inning duel with Dizzy Dean, the overall experience wasn’t satisfying.

So, being in the minors, where he won a lot, felt appreciated and got to remain in his home state of California, was all right with him.

Freitas went on to pitch until he was 45. He is the career leader in minor-league wins for a left-hander (342). Only right-handers Bill Thomas (383), Joe Martina (349) and George Payne (348) have more career wins in the minors than Freitas.

In the fast lane

Antonio Freitas was the son of immigrants from the Azores, a cluster of Portuguese islands. Freitas and Eve Arden were born a week apart in Mill Valley, a town near San Francisco. Arden became an actress in movies (“Mildred Pierce”) and television (“Our Miss Brooks”). Freitas chose baseball.

A cabdriver who’d seen Freitas pitch semipro ball in Mill Valley recommended him to Sacramento manager Buddy Ryan, who arranged for Freitas, 20, to start a pro career with Class D Phoenix in 1928. In his first pro game he pitched a one-hitter, according to the Sacramento Union. A year later, Ryan put him on the pitching staff of the Pacific Coast League’s Sacramento Senators.

Freitas had consecutive 19-win seasons for Sacramento in 1930-31. He listed his height as 5-foot-7. His weight during the season usually dropped below 160 pounds. Freitas lacked velocity on his pitches, so he depended on an assortment of curves and changeups with pinpoint control.

He made up for his dearth of speed on the mound when he got behind the wheel of a car. Freitas drove like a demon, paying no attention to speed limits, and was arrested multiple times. When the leadfoot got cited yet again in August 1931, Marin County Justice Thomas Rudolff sentenced him to serve five days in jail.

A Brooklyn Dodgers scout had come to San Francisco to see Freitas pitch the next night. Sacramento club owner Lewis Moreing told the San Francisco News he pleaded with Marin County authorities to free Freitas just long enough to pitch in the game. The nation was in the grip of the Great Depression and it was important to Moreing for Freitas to be showcased in the hope a big-league club would make a lucrative offer to purchase his contract.

Freitas was released and escorted to the San Francisco ballpark by a deputy sheriff, who kept a close watch over the prisoner during the game. Freitas got the win, going the distance in a snappy one hour, 40 minutes, and was back behind bars by 11 p.m., the San Francisco Call-Bulletin reported.

The scout was impressed, the San Francisco News noted, but the Dodgers wouldn’t agree to Moreing’s purchase price, the Brooklyn Eagle reported.

In the groove

Back with Sacramento in 1932, Freitas pitched a no-hitter versus Oakland on May 5, his 24th birthday. Two weeks later, he was in the majors, dealt to the Athletics for a pitcher (Jimmie DeShong) and $25,000.

Managed by Connie Mack, the A’s were the three-time defending American League champions and featured a roster with the likes of Mickey Cochrane, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove and Al Simmons. “I was a green kid, shy as the devil,” Freitas recalled to the Sacramento Bee. “I didn’t have enough guts to go up to somebody and ask them something. I was scared. I was in awe of the big names.”

Mack put the rookie in the starting rotation. In his debut, at home against the Washington Senators, Freitas pitched well. He retired 12 batters in a row, 11 of them on ground outs.

With the A’s ahead, 3-2, one out, in the ninth, Joe Cronin was at the plate for Washington. Catcher Mickey Cochrane told Freitas not to give Cronin a low pitch, but he did, and Cronin walloped it over the wall for a home run, tying the score. Freitas departed after 10 innings and Washington won in the 12th against George Earnshaw, but Freitas “made an impression with the crowd with his brainy and steady pitching,” the Philadelphia Inquirer noted. Boxscore

Freitas’ second start was against the Yankees. He walked the first two batters, then struck out Babe Ruth on a changeup. If the strikeout caused Freitas to have his head in the clouds, the Yankees brought him quickly back to earth. Lou Gehrig (single), Ben Chapman (triple), Bill Dickey (double) and Tony Lazzeri (single) followed with consecutive hits, giving New York a 5-0 lead on the way to a win. Boxscore

Freitas lost again, to Cleveland, then won 10 in a row. Nine of those wins were complete games, including a shutout of the White Sox. Boxscore

During that streak, Freitas turned a rare unassisted double play against the Browns. With one out in the fifth, the Browns had runners on second (George Blaeholder) and third (Jim Levey). Fred Schulte hit a high bouncer toward the mound. Freitas snared it, ran toward Levey, who had stopped between third and home, and tagged him before he could return to the bag. Then Freitas saw Blaeholder frozen between second and third. With Freitas in pursuit, Blaeholder retreated toward second. Freitas caught up to the runner, tagged him to complete the double play, but lost his balance. In the tangle, Freitas was spiked across the right instep and had to depart. Boxscore

Freitas completed his rookie season with a 12-5 record and earned the admiration of Connie Mack, who told the Sacramento Bee, “Freitas is a great pitcher because he has a wonderful change of pace, deadly control and the knack of putting the ball any place he wants.”

Duel with Dean

Imagine Freitas’ surprise when the A’s sent him a 1933 contract calling for a $1,400 pay cut. Mack blamed the economy. Freitas wouldn’t accept the offer and finally signed for the same amount he got in 1932 _ $1,000 a month for seven months, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.

He pitched three scoreless innings against the Cardinals in a 1933 spring training game, but the success from his rookie year didn’t carry over to his sophomore season. Freitas got hit often and was sent to the minors that summer. The Reds rescued him, bringing Freitas to the National League in May 1934.

On July 1, at Cincinnati, Freitas was matched against Dizzy Dean, who was on his way to 30 wins for the Cardinals that season. Freitas and Dean each pitched 17 innings, and Freitas stroked three hits versus the St. Louis ace. The Cardinals won in the 18th with two runs against Paul Derringer. Jim Lindsey (traded by the Reds for Freitas) got the save for the Cardinals. Boxscore

Freitas was 6-12 for the Reds in 1934 and 5-10 in 1935, when he beat the Cardinals twice. The wins came against the Dean brothers _ Dizzy and Paul. Boxscore and Boxscore

Home sweet home

In 1936, a lump formed on Freitas’ left elbow. For a month he “could not even comb his hair or butter his toast with his left hand,” the Sacramento Bee reported.

The swelling eventually faded but the Reds no longer wanted him. The Cardinals, though, were willing to take a chance. They bought his contract and sent him to their Columbus (Ohio) farm team.

Freitas earned 10 wins for Columbus in 1936. Afterward, he asked Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey to move him to Sacramento. The Sacramento Solons became a Cardinals affiliate in 1936, four years after Freitas had settled in the California capital city with his wife.

Rickey granted the request.

Comfortable at home, Freitas posted records of 23-12 for Sacramento in 1937 and 24-11 in 1938.

Rickey offered to reward Freitas, 30, with a promotion to the majors. “I said, ‘Mr. Rickey, I never felt good back there (in the majors) and I feel great out here … and I don’t care about going back up.’ ” Freitas told the Sacramento Bee.

In an interview with reporter Marco Smolich, Freitas explained, “I’ve had a shot in the American League and in the National League. Frankly, I think I got a raw deal each time. Why ask for more? The main thing is, though, that I’d just as soon pitch in my own backyard. I’m happy in Sacramento.”

Freitas’ next four seasons with the Cardinals’ farm club produced marks of 21-18 (1939), 20-19 (1940), 21-15 (1941) and 24-13 (1942).

Gene Lillard, who played with and against Freitas in the Pacific Coast League, told the Sacramento Bee, “He was about as smart as any pitcher in the league … He threw at different speeds … That made it difficult to time. Hitting is mostly timing.”

Henry Oana, who played for the San Francisco Seals, said to the Associated Press, “He’s got five different speeds. I can’t figure him out. When I get set for number one, he feeds me number four. Just when I’m ready for number five, he gives me number two. I wish he’d get out of the league.”

On the final day of the 1942 season, Sacramento, managed by Pepper Martin, needed to sweep a doubleheader against the Los Angeles Angels to win its first pennant. Freitas earned a save in the opener, then pitched a four-hitter for the win in the finale.

Man of many skills

Freitas spent the next three years (1943-45) as an aircraft mechanic in the Army Air Corps during World War II.

He pitched for Sacramento (1946-49), Modesto (1950-51), Stockton (1952-53) and did some managing, too. After that, Freitas worked from 1956-70 as a mechanic at Aerojet, a rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer.

In retirement, Freitas enjoyed fishing in the Sacramento River and tending to his garden, which included a small orchard of apple, lemon, orange and peach trees.

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John Sipin went from Cardinals prospect to Japanese star

Posted in Games, Hitters, Prospects, Records, Trades on August 3, 2026| 14 Comments »

John Sipin was taken late in the earliest amateur baseball draft, a 55th-round pick of the Cardinals in 1965.

From that humble beginning, the slender, slugging infielder had some notable experiences during his baseball career, including:

_ Being groomed by Sparky Anderson. Sipin was on two Cardinals farm teams Anderson managed and reached the majors with a Padres club Anderson coached.

_ Sharing a National League record with Willie McCovey. Sipin and McCovey are the only National League players to hit two triples in their big-league debuts.

_ Forming a potent power duo with Sadaharu Oh. Sipin played nine seasons in Japan. In 1979, Oh (with 33) and Sipin (with 27) were the top two home run hitters for the Yomiuri Giants.

Down on the farm

John Sipin was from Watsonville, a California agricultural center in the Pajaro Valley near Monterey Bay. Watsonville, a sanctuary city, is the company headquarters of Monterey Mushrooms, Driscoll’s (a prominent producer of berries) and Martinelli’s (a leading maker of sparkling apple cider and apple juice).

A wave of Filipino migrant farmworkers came to the area in the 1920s and 1930s. Sipin’s father, Johnny Imperial Sipin, immigrated from the Philippines, married Ethel White (whose family moved to California from Arkansas) and got a job managing farmworker camps. Johnny stood 5-foot-4. His son grew to 6-foot-2 and became a standout in baseball, basketball and golf.

After graduating from Watsonville High School in 1964, John Sipin attended Cabrillo College. On the recommendation of scout Bill Sayles, the Cardinals chose the strong-armed shortstop in the first amateur baseball draft, in June 1965, and he reported to their minor-league spring training camp in 1966.

Assigned to St. Petersburg, managed by Sparky Anderson, Sipin became the shortstop and helped the club win 19 in a row. “A key hitter during the streak was John Sipin,” The Sporting News noted. Anderson told the Santa Cruz Sentinel, “I never saw an infielder with a better arm.”

After 31 games at St. Petersburg, Sipin was promoted to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and continued to impress. Cardinals minor-league hitting instructor Joe Medwick told the Cedar Rapids Gazette that Sipin showed signs of being a power hitter and had one of the “quickest bats” he’d seen among prospects.

Though lanky, Sipin had strong wrists that enabled him to generate bat speed.

The Cardinals liked his bat (14 home runs, 63 RBI) and arm, and put him on their 40-man big-league winter roster after the 1966 season.

Position change

Sipin was the shortstop for Sparky Anderson again in 1967, with Modesto. Though he clouted 19 home runs, he made 51 errors in 123 games.

When Sipin reported to Arkansas in 1968, manager Vern Rapp shifted him to second base. “I feel more suited to second base,” Sipin said to The Sporting News.

Sipin led Texas League second basemen in putouts, assists and double plays, and was named an all-star.

With the National League adding franchises in Montreal and San Diego for 1969, Sipin hoped to be taken in the October 1968 expansion draft, preferably by the Padres, and given the chance to play in the majors for a team in his home state. “I thought they were going to take me,” he said to The Sporting News.

Instead, the Padres passed on Sipin and took another Cardinals infield prospect, Jerry DaVanon, who played high school and college baseball in San Diego.

Dazzling debut

While Sipin began the 1969 season as the second baseman for Warren Spahn’s Tulsa farm team, the Padres opened their inaugural season with Roberto Pena, a former Cubs and Phillies shortstop, as their second baseman.

Padres manager Preston Gomez and coach Sparky Anderson, a former Phillies second baseman, determined the expansion club needed an upgrade at second. Anderson advocated for Sipin.

On May 22, 1969, the Padres dealt Jerry DaVanon and Bill Davis to St. Louis for Sipin, 22, and Sonny Ruberto. “Sipin comes highly recommended,” Gomez told The Sporting News. “He can make the double play, and that’s what we need … The kid has a great arm. We’re working with him to improve his range.”

Two days later, in a game against the Cubs at San Diego, Sipin debuted as the Padres’ second baseman. Batting second, he faced Ken Holtzman in the first inning and tripled. His next time up, in the fourth, Sipin tripled again versus Holtzman. Boxscore

Sipin joined Willie McCovey as the only National League players to triple twice in their big-league debuts. McCovey did it for the Giants against Robin Roberts of the Phillies on July 30, 1959, at San Francisco. Boxscore

(Two American League players also tripled twice in their first games in the majors: Bill Irwin of the 1912 Tigers and Roy Weatherly of Cleveland in 1936. Boxscore and Boxscore)

Sipin was one of the first players of Filipino descent to reach the majors. The first was Bobby Balcena. Born in California to Filipino parents, he had two at-bats for the 1956 Reds. The only Philippines native to play in the majors was Bobby Chouinard. Born in Manila, he pitched for four big-league clubs from 1996-2001.

Sipin followed his two-triple game with a three-hit performance against the Cubs. Boxscore

On May 30, Sipin’s first home run, in the 10th inning against Dan McGinn, gave the Padres a 3-2 win at Montreal. He hit another homer versus the Dodgers’ Don Sutton. On July 30, Sipin had a double and a single against Bob Gibson at St. Louis. Boxscore, Boxscore, Boxscore

Sipin remained the Padres’ second baseman until August when a back ailment required hospital treatment and he was shut down for the season. Sipin made 54 starts for the 1969 Padres, committed just seven errors in 477 innings but batted .223 and had no triples after his first game.

Lion Maru

Sipin had stellar minor-league seasons in 1970 and 1971, but the Padres never brought him back to the majors.

Learning to handle breaking pitches and hit to the opposite field, Sipin batted .301 for Salt Lake City in 1970 and led manager Don Zimmer’s club in total bases (237), slugging (.510), runs (74), doubles (31), homers (20) and RBI (80).

After spring training in 1971, Sipin was with the Padres on Opening Day, but, when he got to the ballpark, management informed him he was being sent to Hawaii. Sipin batted .318 for Hawaii and was the team leader in total bases (262), hits (174) and doubles (26).

Sipin found his comfort zone at his next stop: Japan. He signed with the Taiyo Whales of the Japan Central League in 1972 and became one of the country’s most popular players. Like Ted Simmons, who was nicknamed “Simba” with the Cardinals, Sipin let his hair grow long and was called “Lion Maru,” because he resembled a Japanese TV action hero who was able to transform from a ninja swordsman into a lion-headed warrior.

His play on the field helped earn him fan support, too. As Taiyo’s second baseman in 1972, Sipin, 25, became the first foreign player to win a Japanese Gold Glove Award. He also slugged three grand slams.

Grateful to be playing where he was appreciated, Sipin learned to speak fluent Japanese. “I’m content to stay over there,” he told the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

After six successful seasons (1972-77) as Taiyo’s second baseman, Sipin was traded to the Yomiuri Giants, cut his hair and became Sadaharu Oh’s teammate. Oh and Sipin often batted back-to-back.

In 1979, the Associated Press called Sipin “the most consistent American to play in Japan.” He retired after the 1980 season. In 1,036 career games in Japan, Sipin produced 1,124 hits, including 218 home runs, and batted .297. He three times clouted 30 or more homers in a season.

Sipin went on to have a second career in real estate in Japan and California.

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Ron Northey was a cinch in the pinch for Cardinals

Posted in Games, Hitters, Records, Trades on May 21, 2026| 13 Comments »

When Ron Northey ordered a double, it was for extra portions of ice cream, milk and chocolate syrup, not whiskey. Northey had a weakness for chocolate milkshakes. He sampled his favorite drink in just about every lunch counter or malt shop in each big-league city during his playing days in the 1940s and 1950s.

Northey’s diet gave him a physique as thick as a milkshake. His weight usually fluctuated between 200 and 220 pounds on a 5-foot-10 frame, giving him a shape “reminiscent of a fire hydrant,” Don Daniels of the Philadelphia Inquirer noted.

Sportswriters called him Round Ron. Phillies manager Ben Chapman told the Philadelphia Record, “Ron has a waistline that looks like a man who has just swallowed a watermelon.”

Chapman preferred the outfielder look like a cucumber, but, as The Sporting News noted, when “Northey’s waist shrinks so does his hit output.”

A left-handed batter, roly-poly Northey was a menacing hitter, especially in a pinch. He was the first big-leaguer to clout three career pinch-hit grand slams, doing it for the Cardinals in 1947 and 1948 and for the Cubs in 1950.

Three others have matched Northey’s feat: Willie McCovey with the Giants (1960, 1965) and Padres (1975); Rich Reese with the Twins (1969, 1970, 1972); and Ben Broussard with Cleveland (two in 2004) and Seattle (2007).

That jingle jangle

Northey was from Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region. When he was in high school, a coach, Charlie Dunkelberger, took him to Philadelphia to work out for Athletics manager Connie Mack. According to the Pottsville Republican and Herald, Mack helped Northey get an athletic scholarship to Duke.

Batting for the Duke freshman team, Northey was beaned and suffered a punctured ear drum. “Since that day, Ron has had a buzz in his head,” The Sporting News reported.

The continual hum in his ear was so annoying that Northey sometimes slept with a radio on as a soothing distraction, according to The Sporting News.

It didn’t hurt his hitting, though. Northey had a power stroke. He also had an exceptionally strong right throwing arm that kept runners in check.

After a year at Duke, Northey entered the Athletics’ farm system in 1939. Two years later, his contract was sold to the Phillies.

Ready to hit

In his first big-league at-bat, with the 1942 Phillies, Northey walloped a double versus the Braves’ Al Javery. Two years later, he beat Javery with a home run in the 15th inning of a scoreless game. Boxscore and Boxscore

That 1944 season was Northey’s best _ 35 doubles, 22 home runs and 104 RBI. He pounded right-handed pitchers and was vulnerable against left-handers. With the 1946 Phillies, Northey batted .266 with 16 home runs versus right-handers and .159 with no home runs against left-handers.

After working in a stockroom at Sears during the winter, Northey reported late to 1947 spring training because of a salary dispute with the Phillies. Arriving 20 pounds overweight, he landed in Ben Chapman’s doghouse.

Punch, not Judy

After winning the 1946 World Series championship, the Cardinals had a dreadful start to the 1947 season. They lost 10 of their first 12 games, including the last eight in a row. They scored two runs or less in five of those 10 losses.

Harry Walker was deemed a weak link. After he batted .200 with no RBI in 10 games, the Cardinals stepped up efforts to acquire an outfielder with pop.

On May 3, 1947, they traded Walker and pitcher Freddy Schmidt to the Phillies for Northey. As a left-handed pull hitter, Northey’s swing was tailored to take advantage of the short distance (310 feet) down the line from home plate to the right field wall at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. Cardinals owner Sam Breadon told the St. Louis Star-Times, “Harry Walker is a fine defensive outfielder, but what we need right now is punch and I think Northey has it.”

The Cardinals, though, didn’t know Walker was close to mastering a revamped swing that would lead to a breakthrough.

Let ‘er rip

Making his Cardinals debut in a May 4 doubleheader at Boston, Northey singled and scored in the opener, a 4-3 Braves victory that extended the St. Louis losing streak to nine. In the second game, he went 3-for-4 with four RBI and three runs scored, sparking St. Louis to a 9-0 triumph. One of the hits was a two-run home run off Mort Cooper, the former Cardinals ace. Boxscore

Cardinals manager Eddie Dyer mostly platooned Northey in right field with Erv Dusak and Joe Medwick. Playing against right-handers, Northey delivered in the clutch, either as a starter or a pinch-hitter.

When the Cardinals played the Phillies for the first time since the trade, Northey’s former teammates heckled him unmercifully from the dugout, The Sporting News reported. As he heard shouts of “Well, well, here’s old Two Ton,” and “Roll out the barrel,” Northey’s neck turned red and “he swung and missed a pitch with a viciousness that shook the ground in the batter’s box.”

Later that season, Northey got his revenge, clouting a walkoff home run onto the Sportsman’s Park roof in right against Dutch Leonard to beat the Phillies. The first of his pinch-hit grand slams came while batting for catcher Del Rice against Doyle Lade of the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Boxscore and Boxscore

Northey was the central figure in a bizarre play at Brooklyn. He crushed a long drive toward the center field stands. As Northey steamed around second, umpire Beans Reardon signaled home run and, according to the Star-Times, said, “What are you running for? It’s a home run.”

Northey slowed to a trot, Another umpire, Larry Goetz, who’d gone into center to follow the ball, saw it strike the tip of the wall and bound onto the field. Goetz signaled the ball was in play. Outfielder Dixie Walker (Harry’s brother) retrieved it and relayed to second baseman Eddie Stanky, who threw to the plate. Northey started to run, but not fast enough. Catcher Bruce Edwards tagged him out.

The Cardinals filed a protest with National League president Ford Frick, saying Northey would have scored if Reardon hadn’t caused him to slow down. Frick ruled in the Cardinals’ favor. The game was declared a tie. All the statistics would count, but not the score. Boxscore

Frick ordered the game to be replayed in its entirety as part of an Aug. 18 doubleheader. The Dodgers won both. The Cardinals finished in second place at 89-65, five behind the Dodgers.

Northey was adept at reaching base for the 1947 Cardinals. His on-base percentages: .391 overall, .459 with runners in scoring position; and .484 as a pinch-hitter. He hit .313 versus right-handers; .154 versus southpaws.

Hot hitting

Meanwhile, Harry Walker went on a tear as soon as he joined the Phillies, getting 10 hits in his first 24 at-bats. He stopped trying to pull pitches and perfected a batting style suggested by Dixie Walker, who urged his sibling to close his stance and spray the ball to all fields.

In 130 games for the 1947 Phillies, Walker batted .371 with 181 hits, including a league-leading 16 triples.

Even with his 5-for-25 effort for the Cardinals added to his season total, Walker easily won the National League batting crown at .363. The runner-up, Bob Elliott of the Braves, hit .317.

Walker also placed second in the National League in on-base percentage at .436. Only the Reds’ Augie Galan (.449) did better.

Getting on base

Northey played two more seasons for St. Louis. He was good again in 1948, hitting .321 overall and .444 as a pinch-hitter. His on-base percentage for the season was .420, including .516 as a pinch-hitter. His first home run of the season was a pinch-hit grand slam against the Pirates’ Elmer Singleton. Boxscore

Harry Walker batted .292 for the 1948 Phillies, was traded to the Cubs after the season and then shipped to the Reds.

Northey hit two grand slams, including one against the Phillies’ Robin Roberts, for the 1949 Cardinals but was hitless as a pinch-hitter.

After the 1949 season, in a classic example of what goes around comes around, the Cardinals sent Northey and infielder Lou Klein to the Reds to reacquire Walker.

Northey’s time with the Reds was short. They dealt him to the Cubs. In a game against the Dodgers at Ebbets Field, he delivered his third pinch-hit grand slam, a shot over the right field screen against Dan Bankhead. Boxscore

Northey also played for the White Sox (1955-57) and scouted for them (1958-60).

Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh, Northey’s friend and former Phillies teammate, made him the hitting coach and he served in that role in Pittsburgh for three seasons (1961-63). The chocolate milkshake fan then took a job in public relations for Pittsburgh Brewing Company, makers of Iron City Beer.

A son, Scott Northey, was a big-league outfielder with the 1969 Kansas City Royals, an American League expansion team.

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