RetroSimba

Dick LeMay: Consistent winner in Cardinals’ system

April 9, 2018 by retrosimba

Dick LeMay was a pitcher who impressed Carl Hubbell, earned a complete-game win in his first major-league start against Bob Gibson and was the ace on Cardinals minor-league teams managed by Warren Spahn.

Unlike Hubbell, Gibson and Spahn, who were Hall of Fame pitchers, LeMay was a journeyman. Though he pitched in the big leagues for the Giants and Cubs, LeMay spent a significant portion of his playing career in the Cardinals’ system.

LeMay pitched for Cardinals Class AAA clubs during a five-year period (1964-68) when the major-league team won three National League pennants.

Screwball specialist

A Cincinnati native, LeMay, 19, received an offer to begin his professional career with the Reds, but chose to sign with the Giants as an amateur free agent in 1958 because they offered the most money, a $12,000 signing bonus.

LeMay was toiling in the Giants’ system when, in 1961, Hubbell, the organization’s director of player development, scouted him and filed a favorable report. Like Hubbell, who had been a Giants ace in the 1930s, LeMay was left-handed and threw an effective screwball.

“When I looked at LeMay, I discovered he had a good forkball and screwball, wasn’t too fast, but could consistently get his breaking ball over,” Hubbell told The Sporting News.

Backed by Hubbell’s endorsement, LeMay was promoted to the Giants and he made his major-league debut for them on June 13, 1961, with 2.2 innings of scoreless relief against the Dodgers. After two more scoreless relief stints, LeMay got his first big-league start on June 24, 1961, versus the Cardinals at St. Louis.

The game matched LeMay against Gibson, who was in his third big-league season and starting to emerge as a consistent winner.

LeMay shut out the Cardinals until the ninth, when he yielded a run-scoring single to Carl Warwick. Powered by home runs from Orlando Cepeda (a three-run shot off Gibson) and Willie McCovey, the Giants prevailed, 6-1. LeMay got the complete-game win. Gibson went five innings and gave up five runs. Boxscore

Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported LeMay threw “soft breaking stuff with a big motion, using a screwball and forkball more than he did a fast one.”

Appearing with Cardinals broadcaster Harry Caray on a post-game radio show, LeMay said he hoped Giants manager Al Dark “lets me get back in the bullpen. You get in more games that way.”

Ups and downs

After LeMay was shelled for seven runs in 5.2 innings in a start against the Cardinals on July 8, he returned to the bullpen. He got a win against the Cardinals on July 20, with 3.1 innings in relief of starter Sam Jones. LeMay gave up a bases-loaded double to Bill White in the sixth (two of the runs were charged to Jones), but shut out the Cardinals over the last three innings. With the score tied at 6-6 in the eighth, LeMay sparked a four-run rally against Lindy McDaniel by drawing a walk on five pitches. Boxscore

LeMay posted a 3-6 record with three saves and a 3.56 ERA for the 1961 Giants.

He made nine relief appearances for the 1962 Giants and was 0-1 with a 7.71 ERA. The loss came against the Cardinals on Sept. 20 when LeMay was unable to protect a 4-3 lead in the ninth. Boxscore

Upset by the loss, Dark “knocked a box containing three dozen hardboiled eggs off a table and scattered them about the clubhouse,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

After the 1962 season, the Giants traded LeMay to the Colt .45s. Toward the end of spring training in 1963, the Colt .45s (who later became the Astros) dealt LeMay to the Cubs. The Cubs loaned LeMay to the Atlanta Crackers, a Class AAA affiliate of the Cardinals, and he was 3-3 with a 2.22 ERA for that club before being called up by the Cubs. LeMay made nine appearances, three versus the Cardinals, for the 1963 Cubs and was 0-1 with a 5.28 ERA.

Stuck in minors

The Cubs cut loose LeMay and he signed with the Cardinals, who invited him to their 1964 major-league spring training camp as a non-roster player. When the season began, LeMay was assigned to the Class AAA Jacksonville Suns and he did well for them (12-7 record, 2.81 ERA). The Cardinals rewarded LeMay by placing him on their 40-man big-league winter roster, putting him in the mix to earn a relief job in 1965.

Before the start of spring training in 1965, The Sporting News said of the defending World Series champion Cardinals, “The bullpen shapes up pretty well, with Barney Schultz and Ron Taylor as the bellwethers and such men as Bob Humphreys, Mike Cuellar, Fritz Ackley and Dick LeMay available.”

The Cardinals, however, returned LeMay to Jacksonville for the 1965 season and he again did well (17-11, 3.19) for the Suns.

Though he was excelling at the highest level of their farm system, LeMay wasn’t prominent in the Cardinals’ plans. Left-handers such as Steve Carlton and Larry Jaster surpassed LeMay as premier prospects. LeMay, who turned 28 in 1966, spent that season with the Tulsa Oilers, a Cardinals Class AAA club, and was 14-13 with a 4.35 ERA.

In 1967, Spahn, who retired as the all-time leader in wins among left-handed pitchers, became manager of the Oilers. LeMay was Spahn’s most durable starter in 1967 (13-18, 3.48) and 1968 (16-10, 3.29).

After that, LeMay went back to the Cubs organization, pitched two more seasons at the Class AAA level, retired from playing and managed the Class A Quincy (Ill.) Cubs of the Midwest League in 1971 and 1972.

LeMay pitched in 45 major-league games, nine versus the Cardinals. He was 2-1 with a 5.13 ERA against St. Louis. His overall career mark in the big leagues is 3-8 with a 4.17 ERA.

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers, Prospects, Trades | 4 Comments »

Familiar foes: Rusty Staub vs. Bob Gibson

April 3, 2018 by retrosimba

(Updated Nov. 25, 2019)

Rusty Staub, who did his best hitting versus right-handed pitchers, and Bob Gibson were matched against one another often. Though Staub didn’t hit Gibson as well as he did most right-handers, he had a couple of significant games while facing the Cardinals’ ace.

Staub had more plate appearances (162) and more at-bats (143) versus Gibson than he did against any other pitcher in his major-league career.

A left-handed batter, Staub played 23 seasons in the big leagues, starting in 1963, when he was 19, with the Houston Colt .45s before they were renamed the Astros. An outfielder and first baseman, Staub also played for the Expos, Mets, Tigers and Rangers.

Staub had career totals of 2,716 hits and 1,466 RBI, with a .279 batting average. Against right-handed pitching, he hit .291. Gibson was among the few right-handers who fared well against Staub, limiting him to a .224 batting average, but Staub was a respected adversary, compiling 32 hits, 16 walks and 15 RBI against him.

Cardinals nemesis

In 256 games against the Cardinals, Staub batted .273, with 226 hits, 109 walks and 102 RBI. He hit .300 or better versus the Cardinals every year from 1966 to 1973. Some of his performances against St. Louis were dominant: .484 batting average and 13 RBI in 1966; .328 and 15 RBI in 1967; and .343 and 15 RBI in 1975.

In a November 2019 interview with broadcaster Dan McLaughlin, longtime Cardinals catcher Ted Simmons said, “If Rusty decided he wasn’t going to strike out, you couldn’t strike him out. I mean, it wasn’t a matter of him trying to foul the ball off. He would put an at-bat on you. Every swing was critical.”

Staub was tough on Cardinals right-handers such as Nelson Briles (.384 batting average against) and Ray Washburn (.327), and one of the left-handers he solved was Steve Carlton (.308). Staub had more RBI (25) versus Carlton than he did against any other pitcher. All four of his career home runs off Carlton came while the pitcher was with the Cardinals.

Staub was 20 when he hit his first home run against a Cardinals pitcher, left-hander Curt Simmons, 35, in 1964.

Another longtime Cardinals left-hander, Ray Sadecki, struck out Staub more times (21) than any other major-league pitcher.

Perfect at plate

On May 1, 1968, Gibson pitched 12 innings, yielding seven hits and no earned runs, in a 3-1 Cardinals victory over the Astros at Houston. Staub gave him the most trouble, with four hits and a sacrifice bunt in five plate appearances.

“You can’t trick Staub,” Gibson said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Said Cardinals center fielder Curt Flood: “Staub has a good, short stride and he seems to know what kind of pitch is coming.”

Staub, batting in the cleanup spot, produced three singles and a double.

Explaining how Gibson relied on fastballs and sliders, Cardinals catcher Johnny Edwards said, “I think Gibby threw two curves all night and the only changeup was the one Rusty Staub hit up the middle (in the fourth) for a single.”

In the Astros’ half of the 11th, with the score tied at 1-1, Jim Wynn drew a leadoff walk. Staub was up next, and even though he was perfect at the plate against Gibson, Astros manager Grady Hatton instructed him to bunt. Staub executed, moving Wynn into scoring position at second base.

After Doug Rader struck out, Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst ordered Gibson to walk John Bateman to get to Denis Menke, a career .184 batter versus Gibson. Menke grounded into a forceout. Boxscore

Sweet swing

Seven years later, on April 23, 1975, Gibson was matched against Mets ace Tom Seaver in a game at New York. Staub was with the Mets then.

In the fifth, with the Cardinals ahead, 1-0, Jack Heidemann singled against Gibson and moved to second on Jerry Grote’s single. With Seaver at the plate, Gibson made a pickoff throw to second baseman Ted Sizemore. Sizemore applied a tag, but umpire Tom Gorman ruled Heidemann safe.

“He never got to the bag,” Sizemore complained.

After Seaver grounded out, Wayne Garrett walked, loading the bases, and Felix Millan hit a two-run double. After an intentional walk to Del Unser, reloading the bases, Staub came up, swung at Gibson’s first pitch, a fastball, and walloped it for a grand slam. The Mets won, 7-1.

“I’ve always said the key to hitting is to have men on base,” Staub said to The White Plains Journal News. “It doesn’t matter who bats behind you in the batting order. It matters only if men are on base in front of you and you can get a pitch to hit.”

Said Gibson: “I was having control problems and when you have control problems you don’t throw the same.” Boxscore

The grand slam was the sixth of nine Staub hit in the big leagues. Two other future Hall of Fame pitchers, Rollie Fingers and Dennis Eckersley, also yielded grand slams to Staub.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Pitchers | 2 Comments »

Why Cardinals gave up on hometown prospect Dick Sisler

March 31, 2018 by retrosimba

Dick Sisler, a standout as a St. Louis prep school athlete and son of a Hall of Fame baseball player, came to the Cardinals amid high expectations. He earned starts in two Opening Day lineups for the Cardinals but departed before he developed into a major-league all-star.

On April 7, 1948, the Cardinals traded Sisler to the Phillies for infielder Ralph LaPointe and $20,000.

Initially, the deal disappointed Sisler, who hoped to establish a big-league career with the hometown Cardinals. Sisler soon learned, however, that joining the Phillies was a good break for him.

Preps to pros

Dick Sisler excelled at baseball, basketball, football and track at John Burroughs School in the St. Louis suburb of Ladue. His father, George Sisler, a first baseman, was one of baseball’s best hitters, primarily for the St. Louis Browns of the American League, in a major-league career that spanned from 1915 to 1930.

As a high school senior, Dick Sisler accepted a college scholarship offer from Colgate, but when the Cardinals came calling with a professional contract in February 1939, Sisler, 18, went with them instead.

Sisler made his major-league debut with the Cardinals in 1946, starting at first base on Opening Day. When a hand injury sidelined Sisler in June, Cardinals manager Eddie Dyer moved Stan Musial from the outfield to first base. After Sisler recovered from his injury, Dyer kept Musial at first and put Sisler in left. Sisler hit .260 with 42 RBI in 83 games as a Cardinals rookie.

When the 1947 season opened, the Cardinals started Musial at first base and Sisler in left field. Sisler didn’t provide the power the Cardinals sought, and in May they acquired left fielder Ron Northey from the Phillies and moved Sisler to the bench. Sisler batted .203 in 46 games for the 1947 Cardinals.

When Sisler signed his Cardinals contract for the 1948 season, club owner Robert Hannegan informed him Musial would be moved back to the outfield. Sisler was told he would have the chance to compete for the starting first base job, but would be traded if someone else got the role, according to The Sporting News.

Spring cleaning

Sisler played well for the Cardinals at spring training in 1948. “Dick was meeting the ball better and seemed to be on his way to a bright season,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Sisler told the St. Louis Star-Times, “I was given to understand that I had a real chance to make the Cardinals’ ball club if I had a good spring training season. Well, I had a big spring. I know I led the club in home runs. In extra-base slugging, my percentage must have been over .600.”

After the Cardinals left Florida and made their way north, they stopped in Columbus, Ga., to play an exhibition game on April 7, 1948, against their farm team. The Cardinals were at a team barbecue when Hannegan approached Sisler and told him he’d been traded to the Phillies.

The Post-Dispatch reported the deal as “something of a surprise move” and the newspaper’s editorial page predicted the Cardinals are “going to regret trading Dick Sisler.”

According to the Star-Times, the trade was made because Dyer and Sisler “were hardly of one mind on Dick’s baseball abilities or on other subjects.”

The Sporting News said Dyer planned to start Sisler at first base, but changed his mind because he wanted a right-handed batter to better balance a lineup with left-handed hitters such as Musial, Northey and Enos Slaughter. After the trade, Dyer named Nippy Jones, a right-handed batter, to start at first base.

“I feel the deal ultimately will prove to be in Sisler’s best interest as well as the Cardinals’,” Hannegan said.

Philadelphia freedom

After Sisler reported to the Phillies, he appeared to be more naturally relaxed in his approach than he had been with the Cardinals. “Perhaps it would have been better for Dick if he had started in a town other than St. Louis, someplace where the fans didn’t have as many recollections of his brilliant dad,” columnist J.G. Taylor Spink wrote in The Sporting News.

Meanwhile, LaPointe, the player the Cardinals acquired from the Phillies for Sisler, was tabbed by Dyer to be a backup to Red Schoendienst at second base and to Marty Marion at shortstop.

“Coming to this ball club is like falling into Utopia,” LaPointe said.

Sisler batted .274 with 56 RBI for the 1948 Phillies and Jones, his replacement at first base, hit .254 with 81 RBI for the 1948 Cardinals. In his lone St. Louis season, LaPointe batted .225 in 1948.

Sisler had his all-star season with the 1950 Phillies, hitting .296 with 83 RBI. In the final regular-season game that year, Sisler hit a three-run home run in the 10th inning against Don Newcombe, lifting the Phillies to a 4-1 pennant-clinching victory over the Dodgers.

In four seasons with the Phillies, Sisler hit .287. He went to the Reds in 1952 but was traded back to the Cardinals in May that year. He finished his big-league playing career with the 1953 Cardinals.

After a stint as a minor-league manager, Sisler was a Reds coach from 1961-64. Late in the 1964 season, he replaced an ailing Fred Hutchinson as Reds manager and guided them into a pennant race with the Cardinals and Phillies. The Reds finished in second place when the Cardinals clinched the pennant on the last day of the regular season.

Sisler managed the Reds in 1965, and though the club finished 89-73, he was fired after the season. He was a Cardinals coach on manager Red Schoendienst’s staff from 1966-70, and he also coached for the 1975-76 Padres (managed by John McNamara) and the 1979-80 Mets (managed by Joe Torre).

Posted in Hitters, Trades | 2 Comments »

Catcher Francisco Pena followed dad Tony to Cardinals

March 28, 2018 by retrosimba

(Updated May 2, 2019)

Francisco Pena provided one of the surprises of the Cardinals’ 2018 spring training, leapfrogging ahead of prospect Carson Kelly and earning the backup catcher spot behind Yadier Molina on the Opening Day roster.

Pena, son of former Cardinals catcher Tony Pena, played in the Mets’ system for seven seasons (2007-13) before reaching the majors with the Royals in 2014. After the 2015 season, his contract was sold to the Orioles and Pena was with them in 2016 and 2017.

The Cardinals signed Pena after he was granted free agency in October 2017.

Francisco Pena hit his first Cardinals home run, and his fourth overall in the major leagues, on May 18, 2018, versus the Phillies at St. Louis.

Tony Pena and Francisco Pena became the second father-son pair to hit home runs for the Cardinals, following Ed Spiezio and Scott Spiezio. Ed Spiezio played five years (1964-69) for the Cardinals and hit five home runs for them. His son, Scott Spiezio, played two years (2006-07) for the Cardinals and hit 17 home runs for them.

Tony Pena hit 107 big-league home runs, including 19 in three seasons (1987-89) with the Cardinals. Tony helped the Cardinals win the 1987 National League pennant and he was an all-star with them in 1989.

Francisco Pena never got to see his father Tony play for the Cardinals. Francisco was born on Oct. 12, 1989, 11 days after Tony played in his final game for the Cardinals. Tony Pena became a free agent on Nov. 13, 1989, and signed with the Red Sox two weeks later.

Francisco Pena hit .203 with two home runs in 58 games for the 2018 Cardinals. In 2019, the Cardinals sent Pena to the minor leagues and on May 2, 2019, they traded him to the Giants in a cash transaction.

Posted in Hitters, Records | 2 Comments »

Ed Charles enjoyed thrill of a lifetime against Cardinals

March 25, 2018 by retrosimba

(Updated Nov. 26, 2021)

Ed Charles hit the most important home run of his major-league career against the Cardinals.

Charles, nicknamed “The Glider,” was a third baseman who played eight seasons in the big leagues with the Athletics (1962-67) and Mets (1967-69).

In 1969, Charles hit a home run against the Cardinals’ Steve Carlton that helped the Mets clinch their first postseason berth.

Carlton cursed

The 1969 season was the first for divisional play in the majors. The Cardinals were two-time defending National League champions. The Mets, who joined the league in 1962 as an expansion team, never had experienced a winning season.

Few predicted the Mets would be the league’s best team in 1969. Yet, entering their game against the Cardinals on Sept. 24 at New York, the Mets were in first place in the NL East and needed one win to clinch the division title.

The game matched Carlton, the future Hall of Fame left-hander, against Gary Gentry. A week earlier, on Sept. 15 at St. Louis, Carlton struck out 19 Mets, including Charles twice, but the Cardinals were beaten, 4-3, on a pair of two-run home runs by Ron Swoboda. Boxscore

Career climax

Determined to clinch the playoff berth before a sellout crowd at Shea Stadium, the Mets looked motivated from the start of their Sept. 24 match with the Cardinals. With one out in the first inning, Donn Clendenon hit a three-run home run and, after Swoboda walked, Charles came to the plate.

In the book “After the Miracle,” Mets outfielder Art Shamsky said, “Carlton would deliver his signature slider to Eddie. Willie Stargell once compared trying to hit it to drinking coffee with a fork, but the phrase, ‘Never throw a slider to The Glider,’ had become part of Mets folklore by that time.”

Charles hit a two-run home run, giving the Mets a 5-0 lead and prompting manager Red Schoendienst to remove Carlton from the game. The Mets cruised to a 6-0 victory.

“Boom. Boom. We’re dethroned,” Schoendienst said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in describing the first inning salvos by the Mets.

Said Carlton: “Tonight was the worst experience of my life.”

The home run by Charles was a drive to right-center. Curt Flood, the Cardinals’ center fielder, banged against the wall in pursuit of the ball and was taken out of the game after two innings because of a bruised knee.

Charles clapped his hands as he rounded the bases because, as he informed United Press International, “I wanted to tell the fans, and tell the world, this home run meant more to me than any other in my life.” Boxscore

At 36, Charles was a platoon player on a roster filled with teammates entering their primes. “I am in the twilight zone,” Charles said. “I’m not like these younger guys. There is going to be a next year for them. There may not be another next year for me.”

Pinch-hit power

Indeed, after the Mets went on to win the NL Championship Series against the Braves and the World Series versus the Orioles, Charles was released and didn’t play again.

A right-handed batter, Charles posted a .263 career batting average. He made his major-league debut two weeks before turning 29 and hit .288 with 17 home runs as a rookie with the 1962 Athletics.

In 37 career games against the Cardinals, Charles batted .228.

Before his home run against Carlton, Charles’ best performance versus the Cardinals occurred in 1968 when he delivered pinch-hit home runs in consecutive games. On June 1, Charles, batting for Kevin Collins, hit an eighth-inning home run against Joe Hoerner, Boxscore and on June 2, in the opener of a doubleheader, Charles batted for Al Jackson and hit a seventh-inning home run against Bob Gibson. Boxscore

In the book “Stranger to the Game,” Charles said, “Gibson was the single most intimidating pitcher I ever faced.” Recalling the home run he hit against him, Charles said, “I just sort of watched it for a moment in disbelief. When I got back to the bench, guys came over and sort of looked at me. They couldn’t believe it either.”

According to The Sporting News, Charles became the sixth National League batter to hit pinch-hit home runs in consecutive times at-bat and just the second to do it on consecutive days. Dale Long of the Cubs hit pinch-hit home runs on consecutive days vs. the Giants on Aug. 13-14, 1959.

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How Lance Lynn finally achieved his masterpiece

March 19, 2018 by retrosimba

Lance Lynn was a prolific winner, a strikeout artist and a durable starter for the Cardinals, but, for all his attributes, the feat he struggled most to accomplish was pitching a complete-game shutout.

Lynn had a regular-season career record of 72-47 for the Cardinals, struck out 919 batters in 977.2 innings and pitched 175 innings or more in each of his last five active seasons with the club.

Though he made 161 regular-season starts for St. Louis, Lynn pitched only one complete-game shutout. That occurred on May 27, 2014, against the Yankees at St. Louis.

Sink or swim

Lynn, a right-hander who reached the major leagues with the Cardinals in 2011, won Game 3 of the 2011 World Series, became a full-fledged member of the starting rotation the following season and posted records of 18-7 in 2012 and 15-10 in 2013.

In 2014, he took a 5-2 record into his start against the Yankees at Busch Stadium.

Facing the Yankees for the only time in his big-league career, Lynn got them to hit into 15 groundouts. “They were caught off guard by the sinker and didn’t expect me to use it as much as you can,” Lynn said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I elevated later in the game to get fly balls when I needed it.”

The Yankees got five hits and three walks, but were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. “We squared some balls up,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said to Newsday. “We had some chances to score a few runs.”

Cardinals hitters supported Lynn with four runs in the third and a run each in the fifth and seventh. Allen Craig and Matt Holliday each hit a solo home run.

Elusive goal

Lynn threw 116 pitches in eight innings. Manager Mike Matheny usually would relieve a pitcher at that point, but, knowing how much Lynn wanted a chance at a shutout, Matheny and Lynn reached a compromise. Matheny let Lynn start the ninth, but told him he would be lifted if a batter reached base.

Lynn retired the Yankees in order on 10 pitches, getting Yangervis Solarte and Alfonso Soriano to ground out and Brian Roberts to fly out. Boxscore

“Since my first day in the major leagues, that’s your goal, always to throw a complete-game shutout,” Lynn said. “Every time you go out there, that’s your goal _ not give up any runs and finish it. Took me way too long.”

Matheny told The Sports Xchange, “Everyone on the bench knew how much this meant to him. You could tell how long and hard he’d worked to make this happen. You could see the reaction of his teammates.”

Posted in Games, Pitchers | 1 Comment »

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