RetroSimba

Bobo Newsom and Browns: An unpredictable pairing

September 20, 2024 by retrosimba

Depending on how often his fastball found the strike zone, Bobo Newsom could be entertainingly good or entertainingly bad _ sometimes both in the same day.

The few fans who came to St. Louis’ Sportsman’s Park in September 1934 witnessed classic Bobo.

A big right-hander (6-foot-3, 220 to 240 pounds, according to the Associated Press), Bobo started Game 1 of a doubleheader for the Browns against the Athletics on Sept. 14, walked the first four batters and was yanked. To nearly everyone’s surprise, he started Game 2 as well and, this time, struck out the first four batters. He went on to pitch a complete game and earn the win.

Four days later, Bobo started at home against the Red Sox. He pitched a no-hitter for nine innings _ and lost, in the 10th.

Give me a break

Louis Newsom of Hartsville, S.C., began pitching in the minors when he was 20 in 1928. His nickname was Buck, but he became “known to all as Bobo because that was the way he greeted everybody, from the owner of the club to the team’s batboy,” according to the Associated Press.

After a stint with the Dodgers (1929-30), Bobo was claimed by the Cubs. On his way to Chicago to talk contract, his car spun down an embankment and Bobo suffered a compound fracture of the left leg, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Two days after he was able to begin moving around again, Bobo accompanied an uncle to a mule sale in South Carolina. Bobo got kicked in the bum leg by a mule and suffered two broken bones, he told the Free Press.

Limited to one appearance with the 1932 Cubs, Bobo went back to the minors with the 1933 Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League and won 30 games. The Browns claimed him on the recommendation of their manager, Rogers Hornsby, who managed the Cubs when Bobo was there. “I think Newsom has real stuff,” Hornsby said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

St. Louis showboat

Using a corkscrew windup, Bobo would “spin off the mound and fire a sidearm fastball,” the Free Press noted.

Post-Dispatch columnist John Wray wrote, “Newsom throws about the fastest ball in the league, if not the majors.”

Senators manager Bucky Harris told the Washington Star, “He had the damndest arm I ever saw.”

Bobo talked a good game, too. The Buffalo News described him as “made up of almost equal parts of bombast, braggadocio and brilliance.”

Morris Siegel of the Star observed, “He was frivolous, cantankerous, often careless with the truth, competitive and garrulous, but fun most of the time.”

Arthur Daley wrote in the New York Times that Bobo “was the only pitcher who could swagger while standing still.”

When Bobo popped off at Detroit reporter Robert Ruark, the journalist tried to pop him with a punch. Later, Ruark recalled Bobo as “one of the finest non-malicious liars I ever knew … He was a braggart and a blowhard, but I never knew anybody who really disliked him.”

Wild thing

Hornsby pitched Bobo in 47 games with the 1934 Browns. He won 16, lost 20 _ a record that might have been reversed with better control. Bobo totaled more walks (149) than strikeouts (135).

When Bobo got pulled after walking the first four batters of the Sept. 14 doubleheader opener, he figured to be done for the day, but George Blaeholder, who was supposed to start Game 2, got sick. The 500 spectators on hand in St. Louis that Friday afternoon “were somewhat surprised to see” Bobo warming up as Blaeholder’s replacement, the Post-Dispatch reported.

More surprising, too, was how Bobo reversed his performance from the opener, striking out the first four batters. He fanned just one more after that, but held the Athletics to two runs in nine innings for the win. Boxscore and Boxscore

In his next start, the nine hitless innings against the Red Sox, Bobo’s control cost him a win. He walked seven, and two of those scored.

Played on a Tuesday afternoon at Sportsman’s Park (no attendance was reported but each of the other three games of the Red Sox-Browns series drew 500 or less), Bobo gave up a run in the second. Red Sox cleanup hitter Roy Johnson led off the inning with a walk and, after an error and an out, scored from third on a fielder’s choice.

With the score tied at 1-1 in the 10th, Bobo walked Max Bishop and Billy Werber. With two outs, Johnson grounded a 3-2 pitch up the middle. Shortstop Alan Strange “made a gallant try for the ball but it just tipped the finger of his glove as it went to center,” scoring Bishop with the winning run, the Post-Dispatch reported. Boxscore

(Bobo pitched five more one-hitters in the majors and won all.)

Show must go on

In May 1935, the Browns sold Bobo’s contract to the Senators for $40,000. As he departed St. Louis, Bobo told the Buffalo News, “Brownie fans have been my friends _ both of them.”

Bobo had two more stints with the Browns _ 1938-39 and 1943. He won 20 for the 1938 Browns. In July 1943, after being suspended for insubordination by Dodgers manager Leo Durocher, prompting his teammates to threaten to strike unless he was reinstated, Bobo was banished to the Browns.

“I don’t want to play in St. Louis,” Bobo said to the Associated Press. “I will quit before reporting to St. Louis.”

Bobo reported, went 1-6, then was peddled to the Senators.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in attendance when Bobo started on Opening Day for the Senators at home against the Yankees. In the fifth inning, Senators third baseman Ossie Bluege charged in to field a Ben Chapman bunt and heaved a strong throw toward first. Bobo, standing directly in the path of the ball, forgot to duck. With a sickening smack, the ball struck him full force just below the right ear. President Roosevelt “dropped his bag of peanuts and sat transfixed” as Bobo clutched his face in his hands, the Washington Star reported.

Disregarding the advice of a doctor, Bobo insisted on staying in the game. As the Washington Star put it, “This big galoot with an unmatchable heart refused to quit after punishment that would have hospitalized an ordinary mortal.”

Bobo pitched a complete game, limiting the Yankees to four singles, and won, 1-0. President Roosevelt stayed for the entire show. Boxscore

Bobo served five separate terms with Washington. “That’s one more than FDR’s record,” he said to the Free Press.

Traveling man

It was tough to get Bobo, who pitched 246 complete games in the majors, to leave the mound.

Cleveland Indians slugger Earl Averill, who altered the career of Dizzy Dean with an All-Star Game smash that broke the left toe of the Cardinals’ ace, drilled a liner that struck Bobo in the left knee during the third inning of a game at Washington.

“After briskly rubbing the knee, he declared he was ready to pitch,” the Star reported. With trainer Mike Martin applying ice packs between innings, Bobo pitched a complete game, but lost by a run. That night, X-rays showed he had a fractured kneecap. Boxscore

Bobo three times won 20 in a season and three times lost 20. He never led a major league in wins but four times led the American League in losses.

In 1940, he was 21-5 for the Tigers, who won the American League pennant. In the World Series against the Reds, Bobo’s father watched from the stands as his son started and won Game 1. The next morning, Bobo’s father died. After the funeral, Bobo started Game 5 and pitched a three-hit shutout. Two days later, in the decisive Game 7, Bobo limited the Reds to two runs, but the Tigers scored just one against Paul Derringer and lost. Boxscore, Boxscore, Boxscore

Bobo arrived at 1941 spring training “in a long auto with a horn that blared ‘Hold That Tiger,’ and a neon sign that flashed, ‘Bobo,’ ” The Sporting News reported.

He was 12-20 that season.

Described by The Sporting News as “a modern day Marco Polo,” Bobo pitched for nine big-league teams _ Dodgers, Cubs, Browns, Senators, Red Sox, Tigers, Athletics, Yankees, Giants _ and posted a record of 211-222. “He moved around like a hobo, changing uniforms almost with the seasons,” Joe Falls of the Free Press noted.

In his first big-league game, Bobo pitched to High Pockets Kelly, a future Hall of Famer who began in the majors in 1915. In his last big-league game, Bobo pitched to Larry Doby, a future Hall of Famer and first black to reach the American League. Boxscore and Boxscore

“The toughest man I ever faced in the clutch was Lou Gehrig,” Bobo told the Associated Press. “He always seemed to rise to the occasion.”

Gehrig’s numbers against Bobo: .337 batting average, .450 on-base percentage, six home runs.

Bobo also was hit hard by Joe DiMaggio (.380 batting average, .413 on-base mark, seven homers), Stan Musial (four hits, including two homers, in five at-bats for an .833 average) and Ted Williams (.385 batting average, .515 on-base mark.)

“DiMaggio, Musial and Ted Williams _ all three great hitters,” Bobo said to the Associated Press. “I wouldn’t try to choose between them.”

Posted in Games, Pitchers | 8 Comments »

Cardinals were early influence in career of Ed Kranepool

September 16, 2024 by retrosimba

Call it boldly creative or plain folly, 72-year-old Mets manager Casey Stengel defied convention when he chose an 18-year-old rookie first baseman to be his Opening Day right fielder against the 1963 Cardinals.

Ed Kranepool was the teen Stengel started that day, putting him in the No. 3 spot in the order ahead of cleanup hitter and future Hall of Famer Duke Snider.

Twelve years earlier, when he managed the Yankees, Stengel made a similar move, selecting a 19-year-old rookie shortstop to be his Opening Day right fielder against the 1951 Red Sox. Mickey Mantle batted third that day ahead of cleanup hitter and future Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio. Boxscore

Mantle went on to become an acclaimed slugger and a Hall of Famer. Not so with Kranepool. Though he spent 18 seasons with the Mets and set their franchise record for most games played (1,853), Kranepool was a career .261 hitter who did some of his best work late in his playing days as a pinch-hitter.

Preps to pros

Kranepool’s father, a U.S. Army sergeant, was killed in action serving in France during World War II in the summer of 1944. Kranepool was born a few months later, in November, and was raised in the Bronx by his mother, Ethel.

At James Madison High School, Kranepool, a left-handed batter, broke the school home run record of Hank Greenberg, who became a Hall of Fame first baseman with the Tigers.

In June 1962, scout Bubber Jonnard, a former Cardinals catcher, and scouting supervisor Johnny Murphy went to the Kranepool house with an offer from the Mets. “I can still remember when they signed me on the dining room table,” Kranepool said to the New York Times years later. “I got $85,000 _ that included the bonus and salary.”

(Kranepool bought his mother a house in White Plains, N.Y., with some of the bonus money, according to Newsday. He bought himself a white Thunderbird.)

Kranepool went to the minors, hit .301 in 41 games and was called to the Mets in September 1962. He was 17 when he got into three games that month against the Cubs. After his first hit, a double sliced to left against Don Elston, “I was so happy, I danced around second base,” Kranepool told the Times.

Casey’s boy

At spring training with the 1963 Mets, Kranepool became a favorite of Stengel and Mets owner Joan Payson. Kranepool described Payson to the Times as “like a grandmother to me.”

Over the objections of his boss, club president George Weiss, who wanted Kranepool to play in the minors all season, Stengel insisted on him being on the Mets’ 1963 Opening Day roster. “He’s a ballplayer,” Stengel said to Newsday. “He stands up there with that bat in his hands and he’s not afraid of anybody.”

Kranepool told the newspaper, “I appreciate what Casey is doing for me. Very few managers would ever look at an 18-year-old.”

(Stengel was 22 when he debuted with the 1912 Dodgers and went 4-for-4 with a walk against the Pirates.)

Duke Snider, acquired from the Dodgers a week earlier, made his Mets debut in the season opener against the visiting Cardinals. Snider, 36, was twice the age of Kranepool, 18. It was a striking contrast to see the teen prospect in right field, and the graying former Brooklyn favorite positioned beside him in center.

(Snider, though, was a comparative pup to the Cardinals’ left fielder, 42-year-old Stan Musial.)

After the Cardinals cruised to a 7-0 victory on Ernie Broglio’s two-hitter, Stengel said to Newsday, “I thought we had two good players today _ one of them (Kranepool) is maybe too young and the other (Snider) is maybe too old.”

Regarding Kranepool, Stengel told the New York Daily News, “The kid in right didn’t look a bit nervous and he was the one everybody seemed worried about.” Boxscore

The next day, the Mets were shut out again (on Ray Washburn’s four-hitter), but Kranepool had two of the hits. Boxscore

Ups, downs

Kranepool’s first month with the 1963 Mets was fun. He hit a home run in their first win and batted .300 for April. “He excited the imagination with his good early start,” Newsday noted.

The good times faded quickly, however. Overmatched, especially against veteran left-handers, Kranepool slumped. When the Cardinals’ Curt Simmons struck him out four times in a game, Dick Young of the Daily News wrote, “Kranepool was made to look sick by Simmons.” Boxscore

Hearing the cheers turn to jeers, Kranepool batted .175 in May, .169 in June and got ornery. (Asked a decade later how he would describe himself during his early days with the Mets, Kranepool told Times columnist Dave Anderson, “Young, temperamental, a spoiled brat.”

Kranepool’s road roommate, pitcher Larry Bearnarth, said to Newsday, “He started getting very defensive when things got bad. Instead of trying to overlook things, everything bothered him. He heard people yell at him, or took to heart the little needling that all young fellows get.”

Hitless in July, Kranepool was taking his cuts in the batting cage when Snider suggested he quit trying to pull the ball so much. According to the Daily News, Kranepool snapped at Snider, “You’re not going so hot yourself.” (Snider hit .243 for the 1963 Mets.)

Though Snider laughed off Kranepool’s remark, the incident displeased Stengel, who believed young players shouldn’t disregard the advice of respected veterans.

Kranepool was shuffled off to Buffalo, a Mets farm club.

Snider said to Newsday, “He’ll be better off down there … I was sent down twice before I stuck and those two seasons in the minors helped.”

Change of tune

If the demotion was meant to serve as a wakeup call, it worked. Kranepool went 4-for-5 in his first game with Buffalo, and kept on hitting. His attitude was better, too. When Buffalo teammate Marv Throneberry, who played for Stengel with the Yankees and Mets, offered advice, Kranepool listened. “Marv has helped me tremendously,” Kranepool told the Buffalo Courier Express.

In 53 games with Buffalo, Kranepool hit .310. The Mets rewarded him with a September promotion. In his first game back, Kranepool played left field for the first time in his life and, batting in the leadoff spot, smacked four singles against the Cardinals. Boxscore

(Overall, Kranepool hit .209 for the 1963 Mets, but .265 against the Cardinals.)

Lost luster

When Kranepool pulled a thigh muscle the first week of 1964 spring training, Stengel seemed to sour on him. “You don’t pull muscles when you’re 19 if you’re in shape,” Stengel said to Newsday.

According to the newspaper, “Casey thinks Kranepool could run faster, throw harder, hustle more often.”

When Kranepool hit .167 in April and .184 in May, a couple of fans at Shea Stadium unfurled a banner: “Is Kranepool Over the Hill?”

He was 19.

The player who had bristled at Duke Snider’s suggestion now sought the advice of retired masters. Kranepool “has discussed hitting at every opportunity with Stan Musial, Paul Waner and any other acknowledged expert he has been able to find,” Times columnist Arthur Daley wrote.

Kranepool did better the second half of the 1964 season. He nearly sank the Cardinals’ pennant hopes. On the penultimate day of the season, Kranepool drove a curveball from former teammate Roger Craig deep to left-center for a three-run homer, the game-breaking blow in a Mets victory at St. Louis. The loss dropped the Cardinals into a tie for first with the Reds. Boxscore

(St. Louis won the pennant the next day, winning the season finale against the Mets while the Reds lost to the Phillies.)

Gap hitter

On July 16, 1967, reliever Jack Lamabe woke up in his St. Louis hotel room as a member of the Mets. When he got to Busch Memorial Stadium for that day’s doubleheader, he learned he’d been traded to the Cardinals.

The 1967 Cardinals were on their way to becoming World Series champions, but Kranepool knocked them backwards that Sunday afternoon. His two-run homer versus Ray Washburn carried the Mets to a 2-1 victory in Game 1. In the second game, Kranepool slugged another two-run homer, against Lamabe, giving the Mets the lead and sparking them to a sweep. Boxscore and Boxscore

Two years later, Kranepool hit a home run in Game 3 of the 1969 World Series versus Orioles reliever Dave Leonhard. Video

Kranepool, though, never hit more than 16 homers in a season. He said to columnist Arthur Daley, “I’m primarily a line drive hitter, don’t strike out much, and can wait for the final split second before committing myself.”

That approach helped Kranepool become a deluxe pinch-hitter late in his career. As a pinch-hitter, he batted .486 in 1974, .400 in 1975, .400 again in 1976 and .448 in 1977.

Turn back the clock

Kranepool batted .313 (36 hits, including two home runs) versus Bob Gibson and had some big years against the Cardinals (.323 in 1967, .429 in 1971, .348 in 1972 and .440 in 1974).

Nonetheless, he didn’t become the standout some hoped he’d be when he got the big bonus and reached the majors rapidly. As Newsday’s Tony Kornheiser noted, “There is a certain sadness to his career. It speaks of broken promises and wasted youth … He has never really been a symbol of the Mets. When the team was bad, he wasn’t bad enough. When the team was good, he wasn’t good enough.”

Looking back, Kranepool told Newsday’s Steve Jacobson it would have been better for him to spend three seasons in the minors before coming to the Mets.

“I might have been good at 20 instead of mediocre at 17 and staying there,” Kranepool said. “I might have grown and matured in three years in the minors.”

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents | 9 Comments »

Hard to handle: Steve Swisher and the mystery pitch

September 9, 2024 by retrosimba

(Updated Dec. 14, 2024)

Cubs rookie catcher Steve Swisher took the blame for a passed ball that cost the Cardinals a chance to reach the playoffs, but it might not have been his fault. Swisher may have been crossed up by his pitcher.

On Oct. 2, 1974, the Pirates’ Bob Robertson swung and missed at strike three, a strikeout that should have ended the game. A Cubs win would have kept alive the Cardinals’ division title hopes.

Instead, the ball got away from Swisher, who retrieved it but couldn’t throw out Robertson at first as the tying run streaked home from third. The Pirates went on to win in extra innings, clinching the division crown.

Swisher’s misplay made him a villain to some, but he may have been the fall guy. A gifted receiver, it’s suspected the ball eluded him because he wasn’t expecting his pitcher, Rick Reuschel, to throw a spitter.

Change in plans

Shortstop was the position Swisher played best in high school at Parkersburg, W.Va., but when he got to Ohio University, the team had a shortstop, junior Mike Schmidt (the future Hall of Fame third baseman). Swisher shifted to catcher, a position he hadn’t played, and he learned it well.

Impressed by his catching and what The Sporting News described as “a howitzer arm,” the White Sox selected Swisher in the first round of the June 1973 amateur draft and sent him to the minors.

(Nearly 30 years later, Swisher’s son, Nick, an outfielder, was a first-round choice of the Athletics in the 2002 draft. The Swishers joined Tom and Ben Grieve, and Jeff and Sean Burroughs, as father and son first-rounders at that time.)

Six months after they drafted Swisher, the White Sox reluctantly dealt him to the crosstown Cubs. Ron Santo, the Cubs’ iconic third baseman, triggered the trade.

Second City swap

On Dec. 5, 1973, Cubs general manager John Holland asked Santo if he’d consent to a trade to the Angels, The Sporting News reported. Santo said no and told the Cubs he wanted to stay in Chicago. Two days later, the White Sox got involved.

Swisher wasn’t part of the White Sox’s initial offer, but the Cubs refused to make a deal unless he was included. The White Sox relented, swapping Swisher, pitchers Steve Stone and Ken Frailing and a player to be named (pitcher Jim Kremmel) for Santo. “Swisher apparently was the key,” The Sporting News reported.

At 1974 spring training, the Cubs assigned Swisher to their Wichita farm club, managed by ex-catcher and future Cardinals pitching coach Mike Roarke, “with the intention of keeping him there all season,” according to The Sporting News.

The timetable got moved up in June 1974 when Cubs catcher George Mitterwald injured a knee and his backup, Tom Lundstedt, also had chronic knee pain.

Batting a mere .196 at Wichita, Swisher, 22, got called to the Cubs and was put in the starting lineup. Cubs coach Pete Reiser said to The Sporting News, “He’s going to be another Johnny Bench.”

Umpire John McSherry told the publication, “He’s a beautiful catcher defensively.”

Though Swisher struggled to hit (.214) in the National League, the rookie turned into Gabby Hartnett against the 1974 Cardinals (.343, including a grand slam against Barry Lersch. Boxscore)

Tuning in

On Oct. 1, 1974, Mike Jorgensen stunned the Cardinals, belting a two-run home run with two outs in the eighth inning against Bob Gibson to erase a 2-1 deficit and carry the Expos to a 3-2 victory. Boxscore

The loss put the Cardinals (86-75) a game behind the Pirates (87-74) entering the final day of the regular season.

At Montreal on Oct. 2, the Cardinals’ game with the Expos was rained out. The Pirates played that night at home against the Cubs. If the Pirates lost, the Cardinals would play the Expos on Oct. 3 with a chance for a win that would put them in a tie with the Pirates atop the standings. If that happened, the Cardinals and Pirates would face off in a one-game playoff at Pittsburgh on Oct. 4 to decide the division champion.

In the lobby of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, the Cardinals gathered around TV broadcaster Jay Randolph as he listened by telephone to an account of the Cubs-Pirates game relayed to him by colleague Ron Jacober from the station in St. Louis. Tension soared with each pitch.

The Cubs took a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth. After scoring a run to make it 4-3, the Pirates had a runner, Manny Sanguillen, on third with two outs and pinch-hitter Bob Robertson, batting on his 28th birthday, at the plate against starter Rick Reuschel.

Reuschel’s first three pitches to Robertson were out of the strike zone. Then Robertson took two called strikes before fouling off a pitch.

Swisher said he then signaled for a curve.

All wet

Whatever Reuschel threw on the 3-and-2 pitch, no one was quite sure.

The Pittsburgh Press called it a sharp slider.

Robertson said to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “It was the best sinking fastball I’ve seen all this year.”

Swisher told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “His curve had been breaking away from right-handed hitters all night, but, for some reason, this one broke down.”

Robertson said to the Chicago Tribune, “It sure came in strange.”

Angels scout Grover Resinger said to reporter Neal Russo, “I’m convinced that the pitch by Reuschel was a spitball, and Reuschel failed to let the kid catcher know it was coming.”

Resinger said he scouted Reuschel a week earlier and saw him throw five spitters. “They fell right off the table,” Resinger said to the Post-Dispatch.

Dave Nightengale of the Chicago Daily News wrote that the pitch Reuschel threw to Robertson was a spitter. According to The Sporting News, a spitball dips down and in to a right-handed batter.

Miracle workers

Robertson swung at the mystery pitch and missed for strike three. (“I’m not sure it was a strike, but I couldn’t afford to take it,” Robertson told the Post-Gazette.)

Swisher said to the Post-Dispatch, “It hit the bottom of my glove and it just bounced away. I missed it. It was my fault. I have no excuses.”

As Swisher chased after the ball, Manny Sanguillen steamed toward the plate from third with the tying run, and Robertson, facing knee surgery after the season, hobbled toward first.

According to the Post-Gazette, “Swisher had trouble picking up the ball about 20 feet behind the plate. When he did throw toward first, he had a good chance to nab Robertson.”

The Pirates’ Al Oliver said to The Pittsburgh Press, “There’s no doubt he would have been out with a good throw.”

Swisher’s throw was strong but it tailed toward Robertson, hitting him in the left shoulder and bounding into right field.

Swisher was charged with a passed ball and an error.

According to the Post-Dispatch, when word of Swisher’s blunder that enabled the Pirates to tie the score reached the Cardinals in Montreal, rookie first baseman Keith Hernandez said, “How could they make a bonehead play like that?”

In the Pirates’ 10th, Al Oliver tripled versus Ken Frailing and Sanguillen then topped a slow roller toward third. Bill Madlock charged in but couldn’t make a barehand grab, and Oliver scored the winning run on the weak single. Boxscore

The Pirates’ victory meant the Cardinals couldn’t catch them, making it unnecessary to play the rained out finale with the Expos. The Cardinals immediately took a flight home.

In his memoir, Keith Hernandez recalled, “On the plane back to St. Louis, Anheuser-Busch products were aplenty as well as hard liquor. Most of the guys opted for the latter … and most everyone was getting a bit boxed _ especially Reitzie (Ken Reitz), who was ranting that Swisher had let the ball get by him on purpose. He kept getting madder and madder, saying he was going to go after Swisher the first time the Cardinals and Cubs met next April.”

Back in Pittsburgh, Robertson told the Post-Dispatch, “I didn’t want that playoff game with the Cardinals. They’re a tremendous team.”

Switching sides

Swisher rebounded from the Pittsburgh mess. He was the Cubs’ Opening Day catcher from 1975 to 1977. National League manager Sparky Anderson put him on the all-star team as a backup to Johnny Bench in 1976.

In St. Louis during that time, Swisher’s appearances with the Cubs “were greeted with boos,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

So it was a quirk of fate when on Dec. 8, 1977, Swisher was traded with Jerry Morales to the Cardinals for Hector Cruz and Dave Rader. Asked whether he was concerned about lingering hard feelings, Swisher said to the Post-Dispatch, “I think that’s water over the dam.”

Swisher understood he was acquired to back up Ted Simmons. He said to the Decatur (Ill.) Daily Review, “I consider playing behind Ted Simmons a compliment. He’s unbelievable. He doesn’t receive enough credit.”

Though he didn’t play often in his three seasons (1978-80) with St. Louis, Swisher was respected. After Pete Vuckovich got a win versus the Expos, he said to the Post-Dispatch, “Swisher carried me. He called a hell of a game … His input is registering in my mind at various times of the game.”

In December 1980, Swisher was sent to the Padres as part of the trade that brought Rollie Fingers, Gene Tenace and Bob Shirley to the Cardinals.

After his playing career, Swisher was a manager in the farm systems of the Indians, Mets, Astros and Phillies. As manager at Tidewater in 1991, his catcher was Todd Hundley, son of former Cubs catcher Randy Hundley. Swisher also was a Mets coach from 1994 to 1996.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Trades | 9 Comments »

Passing fancy: Bobby Layne gave boost to NFL Cardinals

September 4, 2024 by retrosimba

Bobby Layne, who got an assist from the Cardinals in his development as a quarterback, returned the favor two decades later.

In 1965, Layne joined the St. Louis Cardinals as quarterback coach, helping to refine Charley Johnson.

During the 1950s, Layne was a savvy, swashbuckling quarterback who led the Detroit Lions to NFL championships. Before that, while at University of Texas, he got a crash course in how to play in a modern T formation when he was invited to visit the Chicago Cardinals.

Fast learner

A native of Santa Anna, a Texas town named after a Comanche chief, Layne experienced tragedy in 1935 when he was 8. According to Alcalde, the alumni magazine of the University of Texas, “he was riding in the backseat of the family car when his father coughed and lurched backward from the passenger seat, dying of a heart attack. The experience haunted Layne the rest of his life.”

Layne’s mother sent him to live with an aunt and uncle, and they settled in affluent University Park in suburban Dallas. At Highland Park High School, Layne became a friend and teammate of running back Doak Walker. They later played together with the Detroit Lions and were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

(Another Highland Park graduate, Matthew Stafford, surpassed Layne as the Detroit Lions’ all-time passing leader.)

Layne went to the University of Texas on a baseball scholarship. Though “he was a pitcher who couldn’t throw a fastball,” according to the Chicago Tribune, Layne was 38-7, including 28-0 against Southwest Conference foes, during his time at Texas. The Cardinals, Giants and Red Sox wanted him to pursue a professional baseball career with them, according to Alcalde magazine.

Football provided him with another option. He became the Texas quarterback and excelled at that, too.

Before Layne’s senior season in 1947, Texas head coach Blair Cherry made plans to convert the offense from a single wing to a T formation, which required deft ballhandling from the quarterback. Because the NFL’s Chicago Cardinals were adept at using the T, Cherry arranged for Layne to visit their summer training camp and learn the techniques.

Layne took his wife Carol on the trip north. “Every time they stopped for gas, Bobby and Carol jumped out of the car and practiced center snaps,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

Cardinals quarterback Paul Christman showed Layne how he operated in the T. Layne also got instruction from head coach Jim Conzelman and assistant Buddy Parker. A fast learner, Layne had a spectacular senior season, leading Texas to a 10-1 record. (The lone loss, 14-13, was to Southern Methodist, whose star player was Doak Walker.)

The Chicago Bears chose Layne in the first round of the 1948 NFL draft and he signed a three-year contract with them because “I could make more money in a hurry than I could have made if I’d started in as a baseball player … but doggone it if I still don’t like that baseball,” Layne told the Detroit Free Press.

Turning pro

With Sid Luckman and Johnny Lujack ahead of him at quarterback, there wasn’t much playing time available for Layne with the 1948 Bears. “I used to shine shoes for (center) Bulldog Turner when I was a Bears rookie,” Layne told the Chicago Tribune, “and … I used to sneak extra food out to Bulldog, too. He was at the fat man’s table and they were holding him down.”

When the Bears traded Layne after the season to the New York Bulldogs, he considered quitting. The 1949 Bulldogs were one of two NFL franchises in New York (the Giants were the other) and were a flop on the field and at the gate. The club was owned by Ted Collins, business manager of singer Kate Smith.

“Every time Kate Smith got a sore throat, we were worried about getting paid,” Layne told the Chicago Tribune. “If she couldn’t sing ‘God Bless America,’ there wouldn’t have been any checks.”

After one season with them, Layne was dealt to Detroit and his career soared. In 1951, when Buddy Parker became head coach, Layne threw 26 touchdown passes in 12 games. In Layne’s eight seasons (1950-58) with the Lions, they won three NFL championships (1952, 1953, 1957). They haven’t won one since.

Layne “couldn’t throw a spiral … but he could produce first downs and touchdowns like magic,” the Chicago Tribune noted.

Lions linebacker Joe Schmidt said to the Detroit Free Press, “Bobby was not a great pro thrower, but he was smart, knew the weaknesses of defenses and did what he had to do to win. He was a tremendous leader, highly competitive.”

His passes may have fluttered, but as Layne told the Chicago Tribune, “The only thing that counts is winning.”

According to United Press International, “Layne was perhaps the first NFL quarterback to make an art of getting a team downfield during the last two minutes of a game. Using plays and pass patterns designed specifically to gain yardage and stop the clock, Layne gave shape and substance to what became known as the two-minute drill.”

Fun and games

Layne was all business on the field and a carouser the rest of the time.

According to the Free Press, he “loved Cutty Sark whiskey, cards, gambling, jazz, a roomful of drinking buddies, picking up the tab and leaving a big tip.”

Lions guard Harley Sewell told the newspaper, “When I was a rookie, I went out with Bobby Layne to get some toothpaste, and we didn’t get back for three days.”

Lions safety Yale Lary added, “When Bobby said block, you blocked, and when Bobby said drink, you drank.”

Running back John Henry Johnson, Layne’s teammate with the Lions and Pittsburgh Steelers, said to The Pittsburgh Press, “He’d drink scotch, start perspiring and you could smell Cutty.”

Joe Schmidt told the Free Press that going to nightclubs with Layne “was like walking into a room with Babe Ruth. Everybody knew him, table down front, drinks for everyone and big tips to the musicians. You’d have a good time but pay for it the next day.”

One night, before playing the Cardinals, Layne was seen partying until 3 a.m., then showed up for the afternoon game and threw for 409 yards.

“No one can ever say I wasn’t 100 percent ready the day of a game,” Layne told the Chicago Tribune.

Dark side

After the second game of the 1958 season, the Lions dealt Layne to the Steelers for quarterback Earl Morrall and two draft choices. Layne was reunited with head coach Buddy Parker, who’d left Detroit for Pittsburgh during training camp in 1957. To Detroiters, the trade was as unimaginable as if the baseball Tigers dumped Al Kaline or the hockey Red Wings got rid of Gordie Howe.

Some speculated Layne was traded because the Lions suspected he was betting on their games.

In investigative journalist Dan Moldea’s 1989 book “Interference: How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football,” convicted gambler Donald “Dice” Dawson said he had placed bets with Layne.

In 1963, the Lions’ Alex Karras and Green Bay Packers halfback Paul Hornung were suspended for the season for betting on league games. In his 2004 autobiography “Golden Boy,” Hornung said Layne told him he bet on the Lions in games he played for them. “Bobby gambled more than anybody who ever played football,” Hornung said.

In his 1962 book “Always on Sunday,” Layne said, “I know I’ve been accused of betting on games … but I would have to be crazy to endanger my livelihood for a few thousand dollars … and to jeopardize my reputation would be ridiculous.”

Cardinals coach

After his final season as a player in 1962, Layne stayed with the Steelers as quarterback coach on Buddy Parker’s staff. When Parker quit just before the start of the 1965 season, Layne was out, too.

That’s when Cardinals head coach Wally Lemm invited Layne to join his staff in St. Louis. Layne accepted and arrived five days before the start of the season opener.

“There’s no doubt he can help us,” Lemm said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “None of the rest of us (on the staff) had the experience of playing quarterback.”

Layne clicked with Cardinals quarterback Charley Johnson.

“A year ago, (Johnson) had an unfortunate habit of trying to force his passes _ throwing to his primary receiver no matter how tight the coverage on him,” Tex Maule of Sports Illustrated observed. “He also had a tendency to give up on his running game if it did not work immediately and to rely entirely on passes. Now he has almost rid himself of these vices. Some of the improvement is the natural result of an additional year’s experience; more of it is due to the intensive coaching of Bobby Layne.”

The concept of the ground game setting up the passing game wasn’t revolutionary, but, coming from Layne, it resonated with Johnson.

“Layne hasn’t told me anything that coach Wally Lemm didn’t,” Johnson explained to Sports Illustrated. “Coach Lemm said the same things to me last year, but I guess I didn’t pay as much attention as I have to Layne _ probably because I know he was a quarterback and a good one.

“For instance, Bobby told me not to quit on a running play because it doesn’t work at first. He told me to run it again now and then just to make the defense aware of it and to set them up for something else, and then, when you get them set up, to wait until the right time to use a particular play. He reminded me not to waste it deep in your own territory _ to save it until you need it.”

According to Sports Illustrated, Johnson was setting up for passes more quickly and was less vulnerable to a rush. “Layne has given me a feeling of security in my calls, and I think I understand tactics better,” he said.

After the 1965 Cardinals won four of their first five games, Layne received much of the credit. “Johnson listens to Layne,” Cardinals receiver Bobby Joe Conrad said to The Pittsburgh Press. “He has a lot of respect for Bobby.”

Running back Willis Crenshaw told the newspaper, “Bobby Layne has made this a different ballclub.”

Layne said to Sports Illustrated’s Edwin Shrake, “My contribution to Charley has been overrated. Charley was a finished quarterback before I came here. I wouldn’t trade him for any quarterback in the league, and I mean that. I’ve helped him with a few little things, but the main thing I’ve done for him is to watch him all the time.

“When I was playing, I didn’t have anybody to watch me constantly and I tended to get sloppy, as anybody will occasionally. One of the most vital things for a quarterback to do is to get back into the pocket and set up quickly, especially with all the blitzes you see now. Charley knows I’m watching and he concentrates on setting up fast. If you keep doing that in practice, it becomes a habit.”

Despite Johnson’s advancement, the Cardinals fizzled and Lemm was fired. His successor, Charley Winner, didn’t retain Layne, who went on to scout for the Dallas Cowboys in 1966 and 1967.

Texas two-step

Layne settled in Lubbock, Texas, and was involved in a variety of businesses. In addition, “Bobby was a big-time gambler, and poker was his best game,” the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported. “He often played seven days a week. He reportedly won between $200,000 and $750,000 annually playing poker locally.”

A single-digit handicap, Layne also played in country club golf tournaments. “One year, the tournament committee hired a group of musicians who entertained from a flatbed trailer near the 18th green as the players finished their rounds,” the Lubbock newspaper reported. “As the band played ‘When the Saints Go Marching In,’ Bobby led his somewhat tipsy group in a wiggling, twisting boogie across the fairway _ with Bobby twirling his golf club like a drum major.”

Posted in Football | 12 Comments »

Welcome home: How Ron Hunt ended up with Cardinals

August 30, 2024 by retrosimba

(Updated Nov. 25, 2024)

Ron Hunt, best known for getting hit by pitches, made his biggest contribution to the Cardinals just by standing still at the plate and watching a ball zip into the catcher’s mitt.

On Sept. 5, 1974, the Cardinals acquired Hunt, a second baseman, after the Expos placed him on waivers. Born and raised in St. Louis, Hunt got to close out his playing career in his hometown with the 1974 Cardinals.

Adept at reaching base, Hunt was obtained to be a pinch-hitter who might ignite a spark for the Cardinals, contending for a division title.

Hunt did the job _ in eight plate appearances as a Cardinals pinch-hitter, he got on base five times (a .625 percentage), with two hits, two walks and one hit by pitch. Better yet, his patience at the plate enabled Lou Brock to break Maury Wills’ single-season stolen base record before the hometown fans.

Meet the Mets

Growing up in northeast St. Louis, Hunt considered himself a city kid before he moved with his mother and grandparents to nearby Overland. “My parents broke up when I was little,” Hunt said to Newsday. “My grandparents took care of me most of the time … They loved me so much they’d do anything for me.”

At Ritenour High School, Hunt was a third baseman and pitcher. He signed with the reigning National League champion Milwaukee Braves after graduating in June 1959. (Hunt’s favorite player, second baseman Red Schoendienst, helped the Braves win consecutive pennants in 1957-58.)

Assigned to play third base for the Class D team in McCook, Nebraska, Hunt, 18, was a teammate of pitchers Phil Niekro, 20, and Pat Jordan, 18. (Niekro went on to a Hall of Fame career and Jordan became a writer.)

Switched to second base in 1960, Hunt played three consecutive seasons in the minors for former Cardinals second baseman Jimmy Brown as his manager.

Late in the 1962 season, the Mets, on their way to losing 120 games, dispatched their coach, former Cardinals infielder and manager Solly Hemus, to scout prospects. After watching Hunt (.381 on-base percentage) play for Class AA Austin in the Texas League, Hemus recommended him to the Mets.

“I talked to Jimmy Brown about him,” Hemus told the New York Daily News. “He said he thought the kid could make the major leagues.”

In October 1962, the Mets purchased Hunt’s contract on a conditional basis. They had until May 9, one month after the start of the 1963 season, to decide whether to keep him or send him back to the Braves.

Gesundheit

Hunt appeared a longshot to make the leap from Class AA to the majors, but at 1963 spring training his rough and tumble style of play impressed manager Casey Stengel. “There’s a soft spot in the old man’s heart for his second baseman,” Newsday’s Joe Donnelly noted. “When he was a player, there must have been a bit of Ron Hunt in him.”

The 1963 Mets lost their first eight games before beating the Braves on Hunt’s two-run double in the ninth. Boxscore

Club owner Joan Payson showed her gratitude by sending a bouquet of roses to Hunt’s wife, Jackie, a gesture that prompted Hunt to run for a box of Kleenex.

“Ron is allergic to flowers,” Jackie told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

When he was a teen, “I went to an allergist,” Hunt said to the Los Angeles Times. “I found out I was allergic to just about everything.”

Hunt had asthma and, in addition to flowers, was allergic to two of the constant companions of an infielder _ grass and dust.

As St. Louis journalist Bob Broeg noted, Hunt “spends more time in the dirt than a grubworm.” Mets broadcaster Lindsey Nelson told Broeg, “My favorite recollection is of Ron sliding into second in a cloud of dust, coming up sneezing and borrowing umpire Augie Donatelli’s handkerchief to blow his nose.”

Hunt’s asthma and allergies required special attention. Mets trainer Gus Mauch kept under refrigeration a vial of medicine supplied by Hunt’s physician and administered the shots, the New York Daily News reported.

Neither his health issues nor the challenges of the big leagues deterred him. Hunt played with the same hustle, toughness and aggressiveness of another 1963 National League rookie second baseman, Pete Rose.

Bob Broeg described Hunt as “a back alley ballplayer.” Newsday’s George Vecsey observed that Hunt “slid hard with his spikes high and applied liberal dosages of knees to any runner who tried the same thing with him.”

“If anybody wants to get tough, I can get tougher than anybody else,” Hunt said to the Montreal Gazette.

On Aug. 6, 1963, the Cardinals’ Tim McCarver slid high and hard into Hunt at second base. McCarver’s spikes dug deep into Hunt’s thigh, causing two wounds. Hunt, hobbling, stayed in the game. Boxscore

Hunt led the 1963 Mets in total bases (211), hits (145), runs (64), doubles (28), batting average (.272) and most times hit by a pitch (13). He finished second to Rose in balloting for the National League Rookie of the Year Award.

Hit and run

In 1964, Hunt became the first Met to make the starting lineup for an All-Star Game. In voting by players, managers and coaches, Hunt was named the National League second baseman. He singled against Dean Chance in the game at New York’s Shea Stadium. Boxscore

(Hunt played in one other All-Star Game, in 1966 at St. Louis. His sacrifice bunt in the 10th inning moved Tim McCarver into position to score the winning run. Boxscore)

Hunt was sidelined for a chunk of the 1965 season because of a play involving the Cardinals’ Phil Gagliano. On May 11, with the bases loaded and one out, Lou Brock hit a slow grounder. Just as Hunt crouched for the ball, Gagliano, trying to advance from first to second, barreled into him. As Dick Young wrote in the lede to his story in the New York Daily News, “Ron Hunt was run over by an Italian sports car named Phil Gagliano.”

The impact separated Hunt’s left shoulder. He underwent an operation in which two metal pins were placed in the shoulder and was sidelined until August. Boxscore

In November 1966, Mets executive Bing Devine traded Hunt and Jim Hickman to the Dodgers for two-time National League batting champion Tommy Davis and Derrell Griffith. Hunt spent one season with the Dodgers, then went to the Giants (1968-70) and Expos (1971-74).

Black and blue

It was when he got to the Giants that Hunt began getting hit by pitches at an accelerated rate. He was the National League leader in most times getting plunked for seven consecutive seasons (1968-74).

Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray wrote, “Most batters dream of a pitcher they can hit. Hunt dreams of a pitcher who can hit him.”

Choking the bat up to the label, Hunt “couldn’t reach the ball unless two-thirds of his body was in the strike zone,” Jim Murray noted. Hunt told him, “I don’t stand close to the plate. I sit right on it.”

Hunt’s most remarkable seasons were with the Expos in 1971 (.402 on-base percentage, 145 hits, 58 walks, 50 hit by pitches) and 1973 (.418 on-base percentage, 124 hits, 52 walks, 24 hit by pitches).

On Sept. 29, 1971, when Hunt was plunked for the 50th time that season, the pitcher was the Cubs’ Milt Pappas, who told the Montreal Gazette, “He not only didn’t try to get out of the way, he actually leaned into the ball.” Pappas’ teammate, Ken Holtzman, said to the newspaper, “The pitch was a strike.” Boxscore

Hughie Jennings of the 1896 Baltimore Orioles holds the single-season record for most times hit by a pitch, with 51. Jim Murray wrote, “Hunt himself seems to go back to 1896. Crewcut, leather-faced, tobacco-chewing, his slight scarecrow appearance makes him look like something sitting with a squirrel gun and pointed black hat in front of an Ozark cabin.”

The pitcher who hit Hunt the most times with pitches was Bob Gibson (six). Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan each plunked Hunt five times. In 1969, a Seaver fastball conked Hunt on the back of the batting helmet, knocking him out. The ball bounced high off his helmet and Seaver caught it near first base, according to the San Francisco Examiner. Taken off in a stretcher, Hunt was back in the lineup three days later. Boxscore

(As for Gibson, in a 2018 interview with Joe Schuster of Cardinals Yearbook, Hunt recalled, “When I was traded to the Cardinals, one day I was pitching batting practice to the pitchers and I must have thrown at Gibson 10 times, but as much as I tried, I couldn’t hit him once since he was jumping all over the place.”)

Helping hand

After the Cardinals acquired Hunt, their manager, Red Schoendienst, said to the Post-Dispatch, “He can help you win.”

Soon after, the Cardinals’ second baseman, Ted Sizemore, got injured when his spikes caught in a seam of the artificial turf while chasing a grounder. Hunt replaced him in the starting lineup.

Sizemore batted in the No. 2 spot, behind Lou Brock, and his patience in taking pitches enabled Brock to get a lot of stolen base attempts.

On Sept. 10, 1974, against the Phillies at St. Louis, Hunt, batting second, was at the plate when Brock stole two bases. The first was his 104th of the season, tying Maury Wills’ major-league mark. The second broke the record. Boxscore

Hunt, 34, went to spring training with the 1975 Cardinals, looking to earn a utility job. In the batting cage against the Iron Mike pitching machine, he got struck by pitches six times. Hunt “actually practiced getting hit by pitches,” Ira Berkow of the New York Times reported.

He didn’t do enough to get base hits, though, batting .194 in 12 spring training games, and was cut from the roster before the season began.

In 12 big-league seasons, Hunt had 1,429 hits, got plunked 243 times (Hughie Jennings is the leader with 287) and produced a .368 on-base percentage.

From his ranch in Wentzville, Mo., Hunt started a baseball program for youths ages 15 through 18. More than 100 of his players received college scholarships.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Trades | 11 Comments »

Cardinals brought out the best in Duane Thomas

August 26, 2024 by retrosimba

Duane Thomas was a valuable running back and non-conformist in a league that valued conformity more than it did talent.

Thomas had two seasons with the Dallas Cowboys and was their leading rusher in both. In his rookie season, they reached the Super Bowl for the first time. In his second season, they won it.

The Cowboys traded Thomas after both title games because he wanted a pay raise. They preferred to get rid of him rather than renegotiate his contract.

Thomas led the NFL in average yards per carry (5.3) as a rookie in 1970 and in total touchdowns (13) and rushing touchdowns (11) in 1971. Against the St. Louis Cardinals, he scored four touchdowns in the 1971 regular-season finale.

On the run

Born and raised in South Dallas, Thomas was a teen when his parents, John and Loretta, died less than a year apart. He moved in with relatives.

Regarding those teen years, Thomas said to Gary Cartwright of Texas Monthly magazine in 1971, “Both of my parents were dead and I traveled a lot. This aunt in Los Angeles … This aunt in Dallas … You travel, you see things. One night, I slept next to a dead man on a railroad track, only I didn’t know he was dead. You see things and you start to relate … I met the Great Cosmos out there.”

(According to Cartwright, “The Great Cosmos was Duane’s attempt to express the inexpressible, and he used the term like a new toy. It was an interchangeable expression of faith and fear, of love and loneliness, of infinite acceptance and eternal rejection, a gussied-up extraterrestrial slang that still hovered painfully near his South Dallas streets.”)

“When I was young, hobos used to come and sleep on our porch,” Thomas told the Boston Globe. “We might not have anything but beans and cornbread but we always shared what we had.”

Thomas played football at Lincoln High School in South Dallas. He reminded observers of Abner Haynes, who played for Lincoln a decade earlier and went on to lead the American Football League (AFL) in rushing touchdowns for three consecutive seasons (1960-62).

Lincoln head coach Floyd Iglehart told Gary Cartwright, “I guess you could call Duane a loner. The only thing that boy liked to do was run. All the time … Running, by himself. Running from home to school, running back home, running over to his girlfriend’s house at night.”

Thomas and his girlfriend married while in high school after she got pregnant. They had a daughter and later a son, according to Texas Monthly.

Happy days

Thomas went to college at West Texas A&M in the panhandle town of Canyon, 375 miles from Dallas. He averaged six yards per carry in four seasons.

The Cowboys chose Thomas in the first round of the 1970 NFL draft. (The Cardinals took the first running back, Texas A&M’s Larry Stegent, who then tore up his knees.)

Cowboys head coach Tom Landry was ecstatic about Thomas being available when Dallas’ turn came with the 23rd pick. “We have unlimited feeling for Thomas,” Landry told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “He’s the type running back that doesn’t come along every year … If we’d gone into the draft with only one (player) to come out with, he’s the one we wanted … This guy doesn’t lack anything.”

Asked his reaction to being drafted by Dallas, Thomas said to the newspaper, “There’s nothing like home sweet home. I’m so excited I can hardly think.”

Thomas signed a three-year contract. According to Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray, Thomas got base salaries of $18,000 in 1970, $20,000 in 1971 and $22,000 in 1972. Thomas also got a $25,000 signing bonus, plus a bonus for making the team as a rookie.

Robust rookie

Calvin Hill and Walt Garrison opened the 1970 season as the Cowboys’ starting running backs, with Thomas primarily returning kickoffs. (He averaged 22 yards on 19 returns.) In October, Thomas moved into the starting backfield. The rookie led the 1970 Cowboys in rushing (803 yards) and rushing touchdowns (five).

“Thomas is the best we’ve ever had as far as hitting all types of plays and being able to go all the way on them,” Landry told The Sporting News.

Football writer Bob Oates observed, “When daylight appears in a football line, even a crack of light, his acceleration is breathtaking.” Jim Murray wrote, “He didn’t really run; he just sort of flowed, like syrup over a waffle.”

In describing what it was like to carry a football as a NFL running back, Thomas told Gary Cartwright, “It’s like moving in a shadow … in a dream … where everything is real slow and yet so fast you don’t think about it … Then you see some light and you go for it.”

The 1970 Cowboys qualified for the playoffs and Thomas carried them to wins over the Detroit Lions (135 yards rushing) and San Francisco 49ers (143 yards rushing and two touchdowns _ one rushing and the other receiving).

“Thomas is great at cutting back on power sweeps,” columnist Dick Young noted in The Sporting News. “Here’s a guy who picks up the most casual six, eight yards a try I ever saw.”

In the third quarter of the Super Bowl against the Baltimore Colts, the Cowboys were ahead, 13-6, and on the verge of delivering a knockout punch. On first down from the Baltimore 2-yard line, Thomas took a handoff, got inside the 1, twisted and tried to get across the goal line, but linebacker Mike Curtis stripped the ball out of his hands and cornerback Jim Duncan recovered. The Colts rallied and won, 16-13.

Hard feelings

Based on the overall success of his first season, Thomas wanted to be paid more than the $20,000 his contract called for him to receive in 1971. He asked the Cowboys to renegotiate and they refused.

Upset with the response, Thomas held a news conference in July 1971 and criticized Cowboys management. He said Landry was “so plastic, just not a man at all.” He called team president Tex Schramm “sick, demented and completely dishonest” and said player personnel director Gil Brandt was “a liar.”

“I had all the freedom of a Negro slave,” Thomas said to the Boston Globe.

The Cowboys shipped Thomas, lineman Halvor Hagen and defensive back Honor Jackson to the New England Patriots for running back Carl Garrett and a No. 1 draft pick.

At his first training camp practice with the 1971 Patriots, Thomas clashed with head coach John Mazur when asked to set up in a three-point stance. Thomas went into a two-point stance instead. According to The Sporting News, Thomas told Mazur, “This is the way I was taught at Dallas. They said you could see the linebackers better from a two-point stance.”

Mazur insisted a three-point stance was better. Thomas replied, “That may be but I’m doing it my way.”

(Years later, Thomas recalled to the Boston Globe, “I was in a two-point stance because it gives a better view of a handoff. I was behind [fullback] Jim Nance, and I couldn’t see. His ass was the size of a volleyball court.”)

Mazur ordered Thomas to leave the field, then went to general manager Upton Bell and said he wanted Thomas off the team.

When Bell called the Cowboys about rescinding the trade, Tex Schramm said no, but NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle intervened and brokered a compromise, the Boston Globe reported. The Cowboys returned Garrett and the No. 1 draft pick to the Patriots, who sent Thomas and two high draft picks to Dallas. The Patriots kept Hagen and Jackson.

With the Cowboys still unwilling to renegotiate his contract, Thomas refused to report. The Cowboys placed him on their reserve list without pay.

In late September 1971, Thomas agreed to return to the team.

Championship run

The player the Cowboys traded in July and reluctantly relented to take back led them in rushing (793 yards) and total touchdowns scored (13) in 1971, even though he played in just 11 of their 14 games.

One of those games was a 44-21 Cowboys victory against the Patriots. Thomas ignited the rout with a 56-yard touchdown run for the first score of the game. Landry described Thomas as “tremendous,” The Sporting News reported.

Another highlight came Dec. 18, 1971, in the Cowboys’ 31-12 triumph against the Cardinals at Dallas. Thomas scored three touchdowns rushing and another receiving. One of the touchdown runs was of 53 yards. The touchdown catch, on a screen play, went 34 yards. “Thomas zigzagged behind blockers, cut back to the middle and scored easily,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Game stats and Video

Throughout the season, Thomas refused to talk with the media because he thought it had taken management’s side in his contract squabble. Years later, he told the Boston Globe, “The NFL controlled the media. That’s how they kept players in line _ through fear, which is an old slave tactic. Pit one against the another … Tom (Landry) would tell you one thing and the media something else.”

Thomas helped the Cowboys repeat as NFC champions, scoring touchdowns in playoff victories versus the Minnesota Vikings and San Francisco 49ers.

In the Super Bowl against the Miami Dolphins, Thomas rushed for 95 yards and a touchdown in Dallas’ 24-3 victory, earning a winner’s share of $15,000.

Moving around

At training camp in July 1972, Thomas again threatened to sit out unless his base pay was raised. Again, the Cowboys traded him _ to the San Diego Chargers for wide receiver Billy Parks and running back Mike Montgomery.

“I’m not going to try and change Duane Thomas,” Chargers head coach Harland Svare said to The Sporting News. “He won’t be expected to stand and salute.”

Thomas never played a regular-season game for the Chargers. He eventually was put on the reserve list in 1972 and traded to the Washington Redskins for two high draft picks in 1973.

Thomas played two seasons (1973-74) with Washington. One of his best performances came on Sept. 22, 1974, when he rushed for 96 yards against the Cardinals, who won, 17-10. Game stats

After playing a few games for Hawaii of the World Football League in 1975, Thomas worked a variety of jobs, including as an avocado farmer in California, before settling in the Village of Oak Creek near Sedona, Arizona.

“I was living in my own little world,” Thomas told Jim Murray. “I was making the world up as I went along.”

Posted in Football, Games, Opponents | 10 Comments »

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