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).

Rogers Hornsby brought out the best in the baseball talents of Les Bell, and soon after Hornsby departed the Cardinals, Bell did, too.

On March 20, 1928, the Cardinals and Braves swapped third basemen, with Bell going to the Braves for Andy High and cash.

The deal reunited Bell with Hornsby. They were Cardinals teammates from 1923 to 1926. When second baseman Hornsby became player-manager in May 1925, Bell blossomed, developing into a premier run producer. “His effect on Bell was almost instantaneous,” International News Service reported. “From a very commonplace third baseman, he became a ranking star in 1926.”

In 1926, when Hornsby led the Cardinals to their first National League pennant and a World Series title, Bell batted .325 with 33 doubles, 14 triples, 17 home runs and 100 RBI.

After Hornsby was traded by the Cardinals to the Giants in December 1926, Bell fell into a funk. Without his mentor, Bell slumped in 1927, batting .259 with nine home runs and 65 RBI for the Cardinals. He also made 24 errors at third base.

Let’s make a deal

After the 1927 season, the Cardinals demoted player-manager Bob O’Farrell, promoted a coach, Bill McKechnie, to replace him, and the Giants traded Hornsby to the Braves.

Determined to impress McKechnie, Bell reported a week early to the Cardinals’ 1928 spring training camp. Bell hit well but fielded poorly. “Ground balls were getting by him and going through his legs,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Meanwhile, Hornsby was urging the Braves to trade for Bell. Andy High was the Braves’ third baseman. Born in Ava, Ill., High grew up in St. Louis, where his father was an electrical engineer. High reached the major leagues with the Dodgers in 1922 and played for them until he was claimed on waivers by the Braves in 1925. He hit .302 with 46 RBI for the Braves in 1927 and committed 20 errors in 89 games at third base.

The Cardinals unsuccessfully tried to acquire third baseman Freddie Lindstrom from the Giants, the St. Louis Star-Times reported. They also asked the Phillies about Fresco Thompson, a second baseman whom the Cardinals intended to move to third, but that deal also failed to develop.

The Cardinals were talking with the Braves about a pair of infielders, Doc Farrell and Eddie Moore, and when the Braves offered High for Bell, Cardinals owner Sam Breadon approved the trade.

Effective platoon

Hornsby “was largely responsible for the deal,” United Press reported.

Hornsby told the Star-Times “the Braves consider Bell the greatest third baseman in the business.”

Said Bell: “I intend to … show the Cardinals why they made a mistake. Don’t think I won’t play great ball this summer.”

The Post-Dispatch reported the trade “came as a big surprise to the Cardinals players.” Braves manager Jack Slattery told the newspaper he didn’t think High could field well enough to be a starter.

Though he called High “a great hitter and a wonderful fielder,” McKechnie said Wattie Holm, a utility player, would be the Cardinals’ starter at third base and High would have a backup role.

“I can hardly believe McKechnie is going to give me a chance to be the regular third baseman,” Holm said. “I am going out to show Bill he has not made a mistake in giving me the job.”

Said High: “McKechnie is a wonderful man personally and a mighty shrewd manager. The Cards have a great club. I will try hard to get a regular job and it is my honest opinion that I can help the Cards win many ballgames.”

McKechnie ended up platooning Holm and High. Holm, a right-handed batter, made 82 starts at third base, hit .277 with 47 RBI and committed 22 errors. High, a left-handed batter, started 70 games at third base, hit .285 with 37 RBI and made 12 errors.

The 1928 Cardinals (95-59) won the pennant and finished 44.5 games ahead of the Braves (50-103). Bell batted .277 with 36 doubles and 91 RBI, but he and the hard-hitting Hornsby, who replaced Slattery as manager in May, couldn’t overcome a pitching staff that produced a 4.83 ERA.