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Dave Williams started out on right track with Cardinals

Posted in Football, Games, Prospects, Trades on July 15, 2024| 6 Comments »

A hurdler in track, Dave Williams used those skills on the football field to spring above defenders and catch passes in a crowd.

The NFL St. Louis Cardinals projected him to be the deep threat who would replace longtime standout Sonny Randle.

Williams came through for St. Louis in his first three seasons, but couldn’t sustain the success. 

Athletic ability

Though born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Williams grew up in Tacoma, Wash., and went to Lincoln High School, where he excelled in football and track. He won a state championship for Lincoln in the hurdles in 1963.

Williams then competed in both sports at the University of Washington. According to Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Washington head football coach Jim Owens said, “He’s the finest natural athlete I ever coached.”

Williams was a collegiate all-America in four different events in track and field _ broad jump, 120-yard hurdles, 440-yard hurdles and 440-yard relay. He qualified to compete in the 1964 Olympic trials in the decathlon.

His football career at Washington was not as consistent. As Tacoma News Tribune sports editor Earl Luebker noted, “Much of his time was spent in frustration.”

In his first varsity season as a sophomore in 1964, Williams made a mere three catches. “He started his sophomore season as one of the most widely heralded pass receivers,” the News Tribune reported, “yet, before the year had progressed too far, he found himself working as a third-stringer in the defensive secondary.”

Williams’ breakout season came as a junior in 1965 when he made 38 catches, including 10 for touchdowns. The 6-foot-2 receiver had 10 catches, including one for a touchdown, against Stanford and another 10 catches, for 257 yards and three touchdowns, versus UCLA.

“We couldn’t cover that fellow Williams,” UCLA head coach Tommy Prothro told the Los Angeles Times. “We tried to play him loose, but it was no go … Williams, who sort of reminds me of (the Green Bay Packers’) Don Hutson, has such deceptive speed. Looks like he’s running slow with that easy gait.”

As a senior in 1966, Williams “was used largely as a decoy,” the Tacoma News Tribune reported, and had no touchdowns among his 21 catches.

Promising rookie

Williams caught the attention of the Cardinals with his play in college all-star games after his senior season. In the East-West Shrine Bowl, he snared a 48-yard touchdown toss from Stanford’s Dave Lewis. Then, in the Hula Bowl, Purdue’s Bob Griese connected with Williams on touchdown throws of 43 and 40 yards.

The Cardinals picked Williams in the first round of the 1967 NFL draft. He was the second wide receiver taken. The first was Michigan State’s Gene Washington by the Minnesota Vikings.

“Williams was the surest bet to help us,” Cardinals head coach Charley Winner said to the Post-Dispatch. “He has ideal size. In addition to speed, he’s big enough to crack back as a blocker and he definitely can catch the ball in a crowd.”

Cardinals receivers coach Fran Polsfoot told the newspaper, “He excels at catching the hard passes. He’ll go up and fight for the ball with a good spring in his legs and intense desire.”

At training camp with the 1967 Cardinals, Williams was accepted by veteran receivers Bobby Joe Conrad and Sonny Randle, and quarterback Charley Johnson.

“I’ve been really surprised by the help I’ve got from the other receivers,” Williams told the Post-Dispatch. “Bobby Joe Conrad showed me how to break on my pass patterns. Sonny Randle helped me in learning to make certain alignments. Charley Johnson has helped in telling me how to read defenses and be in the right place.”

Randle said to the newspaper, “He has all the tools. As soon as he knows the right places to be, he’ll be a good one.”

Williams did so well in exhibition games that the Cardinals traded Randle to the San Francisco 49ers for a draft choice three days before the 1967 season opener.

On Monday night, Oct. 30, 1967, the reigning NFL champion Green Bay Packers played at St. Louis. Matched against Herb Adderley, destined for election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Williams caught touchdown passes of 49 and 48 yards from Jim Hart. On a halfback option play, Johnny Roland also completed a pass to Williams in the end zone but it was nullified by an offsides penalty on a lineman. Described by the Green Bay Press-Gazette as “jet-like” and “explosive,” Williams made six catches for 147 yards in the game.

“The kid’s good,” Adderley told the Post-Dispatch. “I predict a great future for him. He’s not like most of these rookies who go out and see how fast they can run. Williams makes moves. I backed off and played him loose the second half. He could have those short ones, but no more bombs.” Game stats and Video

Williams completed his rookie season with 28 catches and five touchdowns.

Hard to cover

Convinced Williams was headed for stardom, the Cardinals traded Billy Gambrell to the Detroit Lions for a draft choice just before the start of the 1968 season, making Williams and Bobby Joe Conrad the starting wide receivers.

Williams had 43 catches, including a team-high six for touchdowns, in 12 starts for the 1968 Cardinals before an injury to his left knee sidelined him for the final two games.

One of his season highlights was a 71-yard touchdown catch on a pass from Hart against the Pittsburgh Steelers. “I was supposed to cut him off short and (safety) Clendon Thomas was supposed to take him long,” Steelers cornerback Marv Woodson told the Post-Dispatch, “but Williams just outran Thomas, and Jim Hart threw a perfect pass. No cornerback can stop a good receiver from catching a perfect pass, no matter how well he covers his man.” Game stats

(Of Williams’ 22 touchdown receptions in his five seasons with St. Louis, 12 were of more than 30 yards.)

In 1969, Williams led the Cardinals in receptions (56). His seven touchdown catches came in two games.

On Nov. 2, 1969, Williams scored four touchdowns on passes from Charley Johnson, but the Saints beat the Cardinals, 51-42. “Here I am with my greatest day statistically, but the luster is taken off,” Williams said to the Post-Dispatch. “You come away with an empty feeling because you lost the ballgame.” Game stats

A month later, Jim Hart connected with Williams on three touchdown passes against the Steelers. Game stats

Unhappy days

Based on his first three seasons, the Cardinals had high hopes for Williams in 1970. At training camp, Bob Broeg of the Post-Dispatch observed that Williams “gives promise of leadership because he’s sharp, articulate and the kind of performer who can inspire.”

Broeg added, “Williams’ forte is the incredible leaping ability and possessiveness that permits him to get higher than backfield defenders and to out-grapple them for the ball.”

The season, though, was a bust. Williams clashed with head coach Charley Winner and told the Post-Dispatch, “Most of the players didn’t respect him.”

Williams had 23 receptions in 1970 (33 fewer than the year before) and, according to the Post-Dispatch, Jim Hart lost confidence in him. “Dave Williams was a dejected, withdrawn football player, dressing quickly and leaving the locker room before his teammates, and intentionally ostracizing himself from the club,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

Charley Winner was fired after the season and became an assistant on the staff of Washington Redskins head coach George Allen. The Cardinals offered to trade Williams to Washington for a second-round draft pick, but Winner recommended to Allen that he decline the proposal, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Bob Hollway was the Cardinals’ head coach in 1971 but Williams regressed, losing his starting job to rookie Mel Gray and finishing with 12 catches.

On Feb. 1, 1972, after the Cardinals made Oregon wide receiver Bobby Moore (who later became Ahmad Rashad) their first pick in the draft, they traded Williams to the San Diego Chargers for wide receiver Walker Gillette. (Like Williams, Moore went to high school in Tacoma.)

“Williams had been a big disappointment to the Cardinals,” the Post-Dispatch exclaimed. “His teammates often accused him of not running correct patterns, and this alienated him from the squad.”

Never a dull moment

After a season and a half with the Chargers (21 total catches, three touchdowns), Williams was placed on waivers and acquired by the Steelers in October 1973. He played in one game for them and joined the Southern California Sun of the World Football League in 1974.

Playing for head coach Tom Fears, Williams spent two seasons with the Sun and revived his career _ 59 catches, 11 touchdowns in 1974, and 21 catches, nine touchdowns in 1975. “Williams runs like a deer, is sure-handed and runs exemplary pass patterns,” the Los Angeles Times noted.

In November 1975, Williams, 30, became the first player to sign with the Seattle Seahawks, an NFL expansion team slated to begin its inaugural season in 1976. Part of his contract required Williams to make promotional appearances to generate interest in the fledgling franchise.

Williams entered a professional indoor track meet in Seattle in the spring of 1976 after receiving approval from the Seahawks. While running an obstacle course, his spikes caught in the boards and he tore cartilage in his left knee.

Meanwhile, in June 1976, Williams filed a damage lawsuit against Dr. Arnold Mandell, a former team psychiatrist for the Chargers, who wrote a book, “The Nightmare Season,” about his experiences with the team. In his lawsuit, Williams said Mandell falsely accused him of “defects of character.”

Two months later, in August 1976, the Seahawks put Williams on waivers because he failed a physical. Williams threatened to sue the Seahawks, claiming they were responsible for the knee injury he suffered in the track meet.

In December 1976, Williams told the Tacoma News Tribune that he and the Seahawks reached an out-of-court settlement. “We sat down and resolved the matter in about 20 minutes,” Williams said to the newspaper.

With his playing career done, Williams eventually became a spokesman for the Pro Football Retired Players Association.

In May 1979, a San Diego County Superior Court jury awarded Williams $300,000 in his libel trial against the former Chargers psychiatrist.

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Chris Speier was in right place, right time for Cardinals

Posted in Games, Hitters, Trades on July 1, 2024| 16 Comments »

The Cardinals took out an insurance policy on their shortstop position and it turned out the timing was fortuitous.

On July 1, 1984, the Cardinals and Expos swapped utility infielders, with Chris Speier coming to St. Louis for Mike Ramsey.

Though Ramsey, 30, had been a valuable backup for the World Series champion Cardinals in 1982, manager Whitey Herzog preferred a reserve with extra-base potential at the plate. Speier, 34, was better at that than Ramsey.

With Gold Glove Award winner Ozzie Smith at shortstop, Speier’s role figured to be mostly as a pinch-hitter who filled in at third for Andy Van Slyke against some left-handers and gave Smith an occasional breather.

The plan changed when Smith got hit on the wrist by a pitch and went on the disabled list for a month. All of the sudden, Speier was the Cardinals’ shortstop.

His stint as the emergency replacement started off with a bang.

Full steam ahead

Speier was from Alameda, just across the bay from San Francisco, but was playing for a semipro team in Stratford, Ontario (where his college pitching coach had gone), when Giants scout Herman Hannah discovered him. On Hannah’s recommendation, the Giants drafted Speier, 19, in January 1970.

After one season at the Class AA level of the minors, Speier, 20, went to the Giants’ 1971 spring training camp as a non-roster player and won the shortstop job from incumbent Hal Lanier. “Here, I took his job, and he ends up being my roommate on the road, and helping me learn pitchers,” Speier said to the San Francisco Examiner.

The 1971 Giants were 18-5 in April and Speier was a key contributor, batting .319 for the month, with 30 hits and 11 walks in 22 games. “He’s been the difference in our club,” Giants manager Charlie Fox said to the Associated Press.

Though a rookie making the leap from Class AA to the majors, Speier boldly stepped into a lineup featuring Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Bobby Bonds.

“He didn’t so much play baseball then as attack it,” Dwight Chapin of the Examiner observed, “and he had a similar approach to life. He may have led the league in hell-raising. He’d yell at teammates, umpires, anybody in sight. He threw so many batting helmets that people lost count.”

That temperament carried over to his activities off the field. “I was single, brash and very immature,” Speier recalled to the Examiner. “I partied and caroused all the time. I guess I was trying to experience everything all at once.”

(Speier got married in October 1972 and that’s “what turned me around,” he told the Examiner. As Dwight Chapin put it, Speier’s wife became “an engineer to halt the runaway train.”)

The 1971 Giants were division champions. In the National League Championship Series, Speier hit .357, scored four runs and made just one error in 34 innings, but the Pirates prevailed and went to the World Series.

Named to the National League all-star team three years in a row (1972-74), Speier was a San Francisco treat, but in 1977 he and general manager Spec Richardson came to an impasse on contract negotiations. Eligible for free agency after the season, Speier wanted a five-year contract.

On April 27, 1977, Speier was sent to the Expos for shortstop Tim Foli. The Expos’ general manager was Speier’s first manager with the Giants, Charlie Fox. He gave the shortstop the five-year contract he wanted.

Canadian convert

While with the Expos, Speier, his wife and children became year-round residents of Canada, moving to the town of Sainte-Adele, 40 miles north of Montreal. They bought “a house built in the 1930s as a replica of a 17th-century Quebec farmhouse, with big casement windows, brick fireplaces and lots of charm,” the Montreal Gazette reported.

Speier’s wife and children learned to speak French. To show its gratitude for him becoming a year-round resident, the town presented Speier with a woodcut of him in uniform, the Gazette reported.

For six seasons (1977-82), Speier was the Expos’ everyday shortstop. He became the second Expo to hit for the cycle (in 1978 against the Braves) and the first to total eight RBI in a game (in 1982 versus the Phillies.) Boxscore and Boxscore

On June 14, 1982, Speier successfully worked the hidden ball trick on Ozzie Smith. After Willie McGee flied out, center fielder Andre Dawson threw to Speier, who returned to his shortstop position while still in possession of the ball. Pitcher Bill Gullickson instinctively knew what to do. He got set on the mound as Ken Oberkfell stepped to the plate. When Smith took a lead off second, “Speier swooped down” and tagged him for the third out, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Boxscore

“I bet I haven’t seen that play in 20 years,” Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said to the Post-Dispatch.

Speier told the newspaper it was the first time he’d tried the play. Expos manager Jim Fanning added, “It was nothing that came from the bench. It was never plotted or rehearsed … Speier is capable of pulling that off on his own.”

In 1983, Bill Virdon became Expos manager and clashed with Speier, who called it a “personality conflict,” according to the Gazette. Speier gradually was phased out of the starting shortstop role in 1983. The next year, much to Speier’s chagrin, Virdon told him he’d be a utility player.

Speier asked to be traded and, when the Expos sent him to St. Louis, he told the Gazette, “I’m out of prison. They buried me here.”

Big blast

Speier knew at least one member of the 1984 Cardinals _ coach Hal Lanier, who lost the Giants’ shortstop job to him 13 years earlier.

Speier’s first two appearances for the Cardinals were starts at third.

Then, on July 13, 1984, in the second inning of a game against the Padres at St. Louis, an Ed Whitson pitch struck Ozzie Smith on the right wrist and fractured a bone. Smith was replaced by Speier.

In the 10th, with two on, two outs and the score tied at 4-4, Speier got a hanging slider from Luis DeLeon, a former Cardinal, and slammed it into the seats near the left field foul pole for a walkoff three-run home run. Boxscore

Speier hit just two walkoff home runs in the majors. The other was in August 1975 for the Giants against the Astros’ J.R. Richard.

Replacement player

With Smith sidelined, Speier became the starting shortstop and the Cardinals called up rookie Terry Pendleton to take over at third.

“I think I’m a capable shortstop,” Speier told the Post-Dispatch. “I think I can do an adequate job, but Ozzie … is on a plateau all by himself.”

Speier made 33 starts at shortstop for the Cardinals, committing three errors in 287.2 innings. Though he batted .178, 11 of his 21 hits were for extra bases _ seven doubles, one triple, three home runs.

(Mike Ramsey hit a total of two home runs in six years with the Cardinals.)

On Aug. 17, 1984, Speier had a RBI-double and home run against Pascual Perez in the Cardinals’ 3-1 victory over the Braves. Boxscore

Two days later, with Smith ready to return, Speier was traded to the Twins for cash and a player to be named (minor-league pitcher Jay Pettibone).

“Chris played well for us,” Herzog told The Sporting News, but he noted that with Smith back and Pendleton at third, Speier would mostly sit if he stayed with the Cardinals. Trading him to the Twins gave him a chance to play before becoming a free agent after the season.

Helping hand

Speier spent two seasons (1985-86) as a utility player with the Cubs. One of his highlights for them came on June 6, 1986, when he slugged two home runs in a 9-3 Cubs win at St. Louis Boxscore

Don Zimmer, a coach with the Cubs when Speier was there, became a Giants coach in 1987 and recommended Speier, a free agent, to general manager Al Rosen. The Giants signed him and it became a happy homecoming.

Speier, 36, was a reliable role player for the 1987 Giants, filling in when injuries sidelined their second baseman and third baseman. Speier made 35 starts at third, 33 at second and seven at shortstop. He batted .400 as a pinch-hitter. On May 5, 1987, Speier’s grand slam against reliever Ray Soff carried the Giants to a 10-6 victory at St. Louis. Boxscore

“Chris Speier is the most valuable player on this ballclub,” Giants manager Roger Craig told the Associated Press in August 1987.

The Giants in 1987 won a division title for the first time since Speier’s rookie season in 1971. In the National League Championship Series against the Cardinals, Speier was hitless in five at-bats and the Cardinals prevailed.

In 1988, Speier hit for the cycle in a 21-2 Giants rout of the Cardinals and scored four runs in a game for the only time in his career. Boxscore

His last season as a player was 1989, when the Giants won the pennant and went to the World Series, but a bad back kept him off the playoff roster.

Speier went on to coach for 13 seasons in the majors with the Brewers (2000), Diamondbacks (2001), Athletics (2004), Cubs (2005-06), Reds (2008-13) and Nationals (2016-17).

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Say hey! Cardinals made a pitch for Willie Mays

Posted in Executives, Hitters, Trades on June 23, 2024| 11 Comments »

Imagine Willie Mays and Stan Musial in the same Cardinals lineup. The Cardinals could. They tried to make it happen.

In June 1957, the Cardinals offered the New York Giants a combination of cash and players for Mays, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported.

In the authorized biography, “Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend,” author James S. Hirsch wrote that Giants owner Horace Stoneham “seriously considered the deal but didn’t pull the trigger because of the club’s pending transfer to San Francisco.”

Opportunity knocks

The Cardinals opened the 1957 season with rookie Bobby Gene Smith as their center fielder, but he struggled to hit and, in desperation, the club shifted Ken Boyer from third base to fill the hole in center.

Meanwhile, the Giants were looking to move from New York. In 1956 and 1957, the only major-league team that drew fewer fans than the Giants was the Washington Senators.

As Mays biographer Hirsch noted, “Unlike their money-losing years from 1948 to 1953, the Giants did squeak out profits, but they could not keep pace with their Gotham rivals. Between 1947 and 1956, the Giants earned $405,926; the Dodgers earned $3.5 million, and the Yankees, $3.6 million.”

The Giants, Hirsch added, “made money only because of their increasing media revenue, receiving $600,000 a year for their television rights.”

In May 1957, National League club owners gave permission to the Giants to move from New York to San Francisco and for the Dodgers to transfer from Brooklyn to Los Angeles after the season.

A month later, the Cardinals made their pitch for Mays.

High stakes

Cardinals executive vice president Dick Meyer and general manager Frank Lane had the approval of Cardinals owner Gussie Busch to attempt a deal for Mays.

“Mr. Busch told me that I was a good general manager and that I ought to get Mays,” Lane told the Globe-Democrat. “I told him I’d try.”

Meyer said to the newspaper, “We were really anxious to get Mays … When we first told Lane to see what he could do about getting Mays, we fixed the cash price at $500,000. That apparently wasn’t enough and we authorized Lane to increase the ante.”

Lane said negotiations started with Giants vice president Chub Feeney and then club owner Horace Stoneham got involved.

“We made four offers for Mays, including one totaling $1 million,” Lane told the Globe-Democrat.

That offer was: $750,000 cash, outfielder Wally Moon, one or two other players on the Cardinals roster and several in the minors, the Globe-Democrat reported.

(According to the Federal Reserve inflation calculator, $750,000 in 1957 would be the equivalent of about $8.1 million today.)

Mays, 26, already had sparked the Giants to two National League pennants (1951 and 1954) and a World Series title (1954). In 1957, the Gold Glove center fielder would have another stellar season, leading the league in triples (20), stolen bases (38) and slugging percentage (.626). He slammed 35 home runs and scored 112 runs that season.

What a duo he and Musial would have formed. Musial, 36, won his seventh league batting title in 1957. He hit .351 and Mays was second at .333. Musial also was the 1957 league leader in on-base percentage (.422) and Mays was runner-up (.407). Musial had 29 home runs and 102 RBI for the 1957 Cardinals.

Mays and Musial had a bond. According to Mays’ biographer, the three players Mays followed as a youth in the 1940s were Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Musial. When Mays traveled with the Negro League Birmingham Black Barons in 1948, he attended his first big-league game at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis and got to see Musial hit.

On a plane to an All-Star Game in the mid-1950s, several black players were in the rear, playing cards. According to Mays’ biographer, Musial approached them and said, “Deal me in.” That was his way of telling those players they belonged. “That told me how classy he was,” Mays said, “and I never forgot that.”

Wrong time

The Giants’ gave “serious consideration” to the Cardinals’ offer for Mays, the Globe-Democrat reported, before opting to decline. Lane said to the newspaper, “Feeney told me the last time we talked about a Mays deal that it was out of the question. As I recall, Chub told me that if they traded Mays and then moved to San Francisco, the people out there would throw them into the bay.”

Stan Isaacs of Newsday wrote that moving the Giants to San Francisco “wasn’t nearly as shocking” as considering a trade of Mays to the Cardinals. 

The San Francisco Examiner noted, “Willie certainly must be a lot of baseball player to be worth that kind of money. Since the offer made by the Cardinals was turned down, it must be assumed Stoneham thinks Willie is worth even more.”

Stoneham told International News Service he “appreciated” the offer. In explaining why he rejected it, Stoneham said, “The money was not important. We’re not broke … What we want … above all else is a winning ballclub. All ballclubs have one special player … and to us it is Willie who is that ballplayer. We can build a team around Willie. Maybe that’s the answer to why we didn’t trade him to the Cardinals or anyone else.”

Then Stoneham, in that 1957 interview with International News Service, added, “Maybe we will sell him about 15 years from now, if somebody has a few ballplayers nearly as good.”

Fifteen years later, in May 1972, the Giants dealt Mays, 41, to the Mets for pitcher Charlie Williams and $50,000.

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Joining Cardinals became a career saver for Ken Dayley

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

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

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

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

Dayley helped the Cardinals win two National League pennants.

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

Easily rattled

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

High hopes

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

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

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

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

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

Pleasant surprise

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On the mend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Falling out

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

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

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

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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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Down and out: Bob Reynolds got decked by Frank Robinson

Posted in Games, Hitters, Pitchers, Trades on February 2, 2024| 17 Comments »

An incident involving a future Hall of Famer and a former Cardinals pitcher turned the relaxed atmosphere of an exhibition game between the Cleveland Indians and their top farm team into an awkward embarrassment.

On June 30, 1976, Cleveland’s player-manager, Frank Robinson, went to the mound and slugged Toledo reliever Bob Reynolds before 5,013 stunned spectators at the Mud Hens’ ballpark. (I was one of those in attendance.)

Robinson said Reynolds provoked him. Reynolds said Robinson was the instigator. Either way, the sight of a big-league manager punching one of the franchise’s players during a goodwill game made for a strange, ugly scene.

Hard stuff

A right-handed pitcher, Bob Reynolds was nicknamed Bullet as a high school player in Seattle because of the speed of his fastball. The Giants took him in the first round of the 1966 amateur draft and sent him to Twin Falls, Idaho, to pitch for the Magic Valley Cowboys of the Pioneer League. Reynolds, 19, struck out 147 batters in 86 innings.

Unprotected in the October 1968 expansion draft, Reynolds was chosen by the Expos. At spring training, he showed “a good, live fastball,” Expos catcher Ron Brand told the Montreal Star. “Reynolds makes it hop and sail.”

On March 6, 1969, in the Expos’ first exhibition game, Reynolds retired the Royals in order in the ninth, sealing a 9-8 victory. “I was tickled to death at Reynolds’ poise,” Expos manager Gene Mauch told the Star. “He knows he can throw strikes, and he protected our lead. He really blows smoke past them, doesn’t he? He’s a hard-throwing youngster.”

Preferring he get experience at the Class AAA level, the Expos sent Reynolds to Vancouver, a farm team managed by future Hall of Famer Bob Lemon.

“I was my own worst enemy,” Reynolds told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. “I used to lose my head, kick dirt around the mound, throw things. Just blow up when things weren’t going right. I got to be known as a hothead. When you get a tag like that, it’s awfully hard to shake.

“In 1969 at Vancouver, I got so hot after a loss, I was ready to swing at the first person who walked in the clubhouse. Bob Lemon called me in his office, pointed to his big belly and said, ‘You want to hit something? Hit this.’ He calmed me down so much, I came out laughing at myself for my stupidity.”

The Expos called up Reynolds in September 1969. After being told he would make his big-league debut the next day in a start against the Phillies, “I took sleeping pills and everything else I could find, but nothing worked,” Reynolds recalled to the Baltimore Sun. “I was a nervous wreck the next day.”

Reynolds gave up three runs in 1.1 innings and never appeared in the regular season for the Expos again. Boxscore

Traveling man

On June 15, 1971, the Cardinals acquired Reynolds from the Expos for Mike Torrez. “We’d already lost Reynolds because his options had run out and he was frozen on Winnipeg’s roster,” Expos general manager Jim Fanning said to the Montreal Star. “A lot of clubs were interested in him and we decided to take the first good offer. Torrez became available … and we grabbed him.”

Cardinals scout Joe Monahan told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “Reynolds should be able to help us … His control has improved since the Expos sent him to Winnipeg because they made him stick to his fastball and slider, and forget about his curve.”

Reynolds made four relief appearances for the 1971 Cardinals and gave up runs in three of those games. As the Post-Dispatch noted, “Reynolds made little noise on the Cardinals scene except when he flapped his arms and gave his crow call. The bird imitation kept the bullpen crew from falling asleep.”

Two months after he joined the Cardinals, Reynolds was dealt to the Brewers. A Brewers instructor, former big-league pitcher Wes Stock, helped Reynolds with his slider. “Stock got me to come over the top with it,” Reynolds told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. “I had been coming down the side a little with it and it was a flat slider.”

Reynolds was on the move again the following March when the Brewers sent him to the Orioles, who assigned him to their Rochester farm team. Working mostly in relief, he had a 1.71 ERA and struck out 107 in 95 innings. The Orioles brought him back to the majors in September 1972.

Doggone it

At spring training in 1973, Reynolds suffered a hairline fracture in his right hand and dislocated the little finger when he fell against a wall in his apartment while playing with his dog.

“I can’t blame it on the dog,” Reynolds said to the Baltimore Sun. “It was me who suggested the game in the first place.

“Reminds me of the time I was playing high school basketball and I tried to jazz it up as I went in for a layup. The ball got stuck behind my back and in trying to get straightened out I ran into a wall. Nearly knocked myself cold. Fans thought it was great. Coach didn’t like it too much.”

For the next two years (1973-74), Reynolds was the Orioles’ top right-handed reliever. He had a 1.95 ERA in 1973 and his nine saves tied left-hander Grant Jackson for the team lead. In 1974, Reynolds led the Orioles in games pitched (54) and had a 2.73 ERA.

At the urging of manager Earl Weaver, Reynolds was traded to the Tigers for pitcher Fred Holdsworth in May 1975. Three months later, the Cleveland Indians claimed Reynolds off waivers.

Missing the cut

At Indians spring training in 1976, the final spot on the pitching staff came down to a choice between Reynolds and Stan Thomas. “Bullet is faster, but his ball is straighter,” catcher Ray Fosse told the Akron Beacon Journal. “Thomas’ ball moves more and he has a greater selection of pitches.”

Frank Robinson and general manager Phil Seghi chose Thomas. “It was difficult having to make a decision like this,” Robinson said to the Akron newspaper. “Reynolds has a good attitude. He did everything we asked him to do.”

Reynolds, 29, was assigned to Toledo. Because he had no more options, he would need to remain on the Mud Hens’ roster all season.

The 1976 season was the last for Frank Robinson as a player and his second as a big-league manager. (He would finish with 586 career home runs and get elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.) The Indians, who had a streak of seven straight losing seasons, seemed to be improving under Robinson. Their record was 36-33 when they went to play the exhibition game with Toledo.

On the warpath

Among those in the Indians’ starting lineup on a rainy evening for the Toledo game were Boog Powell at first base, Duane Kuiper at second, George Hendrick in left and Rico Carty as the designated hitter. The Mud Hens had the likes of catcher Rick Cerone and first baseman Joe Lis.

Robinson began substituting in the third inning. He sent coach Rocky Colavito, 42, to replace Hendrick in left. Another coach, Jeff Torborg, got to play, too. Robinson put himself in the game as a pinch-hitter in the fifth. Reynolds, who relieved Cardell Camper (a former Cardinals prospect), was on the mound for Toledo.

Reynolds’ first pitch to Robinson went about six feet over his head. “That was no accident,” Robinson told the Associated Press. “I’ve played long enough to know. The first inning he pitched he never threw a ball above the waist and he never threw one above the waist to the batter before me.”

Robinson said to United Press International, “I feel he was trying to intimidate me and show (off) in front of his teammates.”

(“I wasn’t throwing at him,” Reynolds said to Ron Maly of the Des Moines Register. “The ball just got away from me. I was trying to throw a fastball and my spikes were cluttered with mud.”)

The at-bat continued and Robinson hit a fly ball that was caught for an out. As Robinson cut across the diamond to return to the dugout on the third base side, he said to Reynolds, “You got a lot of guts throwing at me in a game like this,” United Press International reported.

According to Robinson, Reynolds replied, “You had a lot of guts sending me down, you (obscenity).”

Robinson rushed toward Reynolds and punched him with a left-right combination. The left struck Reynolds in the teeth and jaw. The right “sent Reynolds to the ground in a sitting position,” The Cleveland Press reported.

Reynolds told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle that he blanked out “momentarily, maybe for just a second.”

Robinson was ejected and booed by the Toledo fans. Reynolds, spitting blood, insisted on staying in the game. His tongue was cut and his jaw was swollen, according to The Cleveland Press.

“The whole thing could have been avoided,” Toledo manager Joe Sparks said to the Des Moines Register. “The manager of a big-league club should go out of his way to not let something like that happen.”

Robinson told United Press International, “If the circumstances were the same, I would do it again.”

Cleveland won the exhibition game, 13-1. Right fielder Charlie Spikes, who would total three home runs for the Indians in 1976, hit three homers against Toledo. In the seventh inning, Ray Fosse also hit a home run for Cleveland but injured a knee during his trot around the bases. Pitching coach Harvey Haddix, 50, had to come in and complete circling the bases for Fosse.

Robinson went on to manage 17 seasons in the majors with the Indians, Giants, Orioles, Expos and Nationals. Reynolds never got back to the big leagues.

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