RetroSimba

Jose Oquendo packed potent pennant punch for Cards

October 14, 2017 by retrosimba

By any definition, Jose Oquendo was a giant killer.

In his first four years in the major leagues, Oquendo hit three home runs. All came against the Giants. The first two occurred in the regular season. The third happened on Oct. 14, 1987, and carried the Cardinals to a National League pennant.

In the decisive Game 7 of the 1987 NL Championship Series at St. Louis, Oquendo hit a three-run home run in the second inning, giving the Cardinals a 4-0 lead. The blast stunned the Giants and inspired the Cardinals, who went on to a 6-0 victory and a berth in the World Series against the Twins.

“You’ve heard of a home run giving somebody a lift,” Cardinals slugger Jack Clark said to the San Francisco Chronicle. “This one lifted us right out of the stadium.”

Asking for trouble

Oquendo was 20 years old and a rookie with the Mets when he hit his first big-league home run. It occurred on Aug. 21, 1983, against Giants left-hander Gary Lavelle at San Francisco.

In 1987, Oquendo was a Cardinals utility player. He produced 71 hits _ 61 for singles. On July 25 that season, Oquendo hit his second big-league home run. It came against Giants left-hander Craig Lefferts at San Francisco.

With another Giants left-hander, Atlee Hammaker, starting Game 7 of the NL Championship Series, Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog sought to stack his lineup with players who batted from the right side. Needing a first baseman to replace Clark, who was injured, Herzog moved right fielder Jim Lindeman to first and chose Oquendo, a switch hitter, to start in right.

In the second inning, the Cardinals led, 1-0, and had Willie McGee on second, Tony Pena on third and one out. Oquendo, the eighth-place batter, was at the plate and pitcher Danny Cox was on deck.

With first base open, Giants manager Roger Craig had the option of walking Oquendo intentionally, setting up a potential force out at every base with Cox at the plate.

Instead, the Giants decided to take their chances with Oquendo.

“I didn’t think Roger Craig would want to pitch to me,” Oquendo said.

Countered Craig: “Hammaker has got out a lot better hitters than Oquendo. With one out, I wouldn’t put Oquendo on … You can second-guess me. I don’t care.”

It’s a gift

With the count even at 2-and-2, Hammaker threw Oquendo a slider that barely missed the strike zone. “Real close,” Oquendo admitted.

The full-count payoff pitch was a cut fastball over the plate. “It hung about as high as the bird on Oquendo’s uniform,” wrote San Francisco columnist Ray Ratto.

“Hung it big as day,” said Giants third baseman Kevin Mitchell.

“I thought they’d try to throw me breaking balls outside,” Oquendo said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I was surprised he came in.”

“Even then,” said Hammaker to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, “Oquendo needs luck.”

Taking a confident cut, Oquendo connected with the pitch and drove the ball over the left-field wall at Busch Stadium. Video

“If you’re talking improbable, implausible and almost impossible, how about Jose Oquendo hitting a home run?” wrote Rick Hummel of the Post-Dispatch.

“Was I stunned?” asked Cardinals third baseman Terry Pendleton. “Weren’t you?”

Said Herzog: “It was a goddamn Christmas present.” Boxscore

Hard work pays

Oquendo’s home run occurred on the birthday of his daughter, 3-year-old Adianez. “I feel proud,” Oquendo said.

During the series with the Giants, Doug DiCences, an infielder acquired by the Cardinals from the Angels, had suggested to Oquendo that he watch an instructional hitting video by future Hall of Famer Rod Carew. Oquendo, who admired Carew, studied the video before Game 7, according to the Post-Dispatch.

“He’s probably the hardest worker we have on the ball club,” Cardinals hitting coach Johnny Lewis said of Oquendo. “He was out here today (before Game 7) at 2:30 taking batting practice … He was ready.”

Oquendo would finish his 12-year career in the major leagues with 15 home runs _ 14 in the regular season and one in the postseason.

Only one was hit against a right-hander, Doug Bair of the Pirates.

Previously: How Ozzie Smith motivated Cards to get Jose Oquendo

Previously: Tom Lawless and his role in Cardinals World Series lore

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How Julian Javier surprised Red Sox with home run cut

October 12, 2017 by retrosimba

For overall excellence with bat and glove, second baseman Julian Javier earned a place alongside future Hall of Famers Bob Gibson and Lou Brock as a standout for the Cardinals in the 1967 World Series.

The trio capped their consistently strong postseason with clutch performances in the decisive Game 7 against the Red Sox at Boston on Oct. 12, 1967.

After the Cardinals and Red Sox split the first six games, St. Louis prevailed in the finale, 7-2, at Fenway Park. In that game:

_ Gibson pitched a three-hitter, struck out 10 and contributed a home run. He won all three of his starts against the Red Sox and was named recipient of the World Series Most Valuable Player Award.

_ Brock produced two hits, a walk, three stolen bases and scored a run. For the Series, he hit .414 (12-for-29) with seven steals and eight runs scored.

_ Javier delivered the key hit _ a three-run home run. For the Series, he hit .360 (9-for-25) and fielded splendidly. Javier made 12 putouts, helped turn four double plays and made 20 assists. His lone error occurred on a hurried relay throw in the finale.

Brock told United Press International he believed the World Series MVP trophy “has to go to Javier. He made some of the greatest plays I’ve ever seen in addition to his nine hits.”

Strategy session

Through five innings of Game 7, the Cardinals led, 4-1. With Gibson at peak form, the Red Sox realized they likely would need to keep the Cardinals from scoring again in order to have a chance to rally.

In the sixth, Tim McCarver, hitless in his previous 10 at-bats, led off for the Cardinals and stroked a low liner to right against Red Sox ace Jim Lonborg. Ken Harrelson charged in and attempted a diving catch, but the ball glanced off his glove. McCarver hustled to second base with a double.

Mike Shannon followed with a one-hop smash that clanked off third baseman Joe Foy. With McCarver holding at second, Shannon reached first base safely and Foy was charged with an error.

Red Sox manager Dick Williams visited Lonborg on the mound. “I went out there to take him out,” Williams told The Sporting News.

Lonborg asked to stay in. He explained to Williams that the next batter, Javier, likely would try to advance the runners with a sacrifice bunt. Williams agreed.

After Javier, the Cardinals’ eighth- and ninth-place batters, Dal Maxvill and Gibson, were due to bat. If Javier sacrificed, Lonborg figured, he liked his chances of escaping the inning unscathed.

“Jim said he still felt good,” Williams told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “and we thought Javier would be bunting.”

Instead, Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst, sensing a chance to drive a dagger into Boston’s hopes, allowed Javier to swing away.

Game changer

Looking to make contact, “I wasn’t trying to hit the ball hard,” Javier said to the Associated Press.

Relying on breaking pitches, Lonborg got ahead in the count, 1-and-2.

The next pitch, a slider, lacked a sharp break and hung in the strike zone.

Javier connected _ “It went up there,” he said of the ball_ and the high drive carried over the Green Monster wall in left field for a home run, giving St. Louis a 7-1 lead.

“This one is a crusher,” Cardinals broadcaster Harry Caray said. Video

As McCarver, Shannon and Javier rounded the bases and reached home plate _ “A joyous parade,” Caray crowed _ many in the Boston crowd fell silent.

The Red Sox managed to score a run in the eighth before Gibson sealed the win in the ninth. Boxscore

Noting that two of the Cardinals’ top hitters had struggled throughout the World Series _ Orlando Cepeda batted .103 and McCarver hit .125 _ Javier said “we could have beat them in five games” if the middle-of-the-order duo had produced better.

A few days after the championship celebration, Javier returned to his home in the Dominican Republic. Arriving at the airport in Santo Domingo, Javier was “given a hero’s welcome,” according to the Post-Dispatch. In a public ceremony, President Joaquin Balaguer presented Javier with the Order of the Fathers of the Country, the Dominican Republic’s highest decoration.

Previously: George Scott: Bob Gibson ‘won’t survive 5’ in Game 7

Previously: World Series duels: Norm Siebern vs. Bob Gibson

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Whitey Kurowski: Home run brought Cardinals a crown

October 9, 2017 by retrosimba

(Updated Sept. 12, 2025)

Only once has a Cardinals player hit a ninth-inning home run that provided the winning run in the deciding game of a World Series.

Whitey Kurowski, a rookie third baseman, accomplished the feat.

On Oct. 5, 1942, in Game 5 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium, Kurowski hit a two-run home run in the ninth inning, breaking a 2-2 tie and carrying the Cardinals to a 4-2 victory. The win was the fourth in a row for the Cardinals over the Yankees in the best-of-seven World Series.

Kurowski’s home run rates with those by players such as Ken Boyer (1964), Tim McCarver (1964), Willie McGee (1982), Tom Lawless (1987), Albert Pujols (2011) and David Freese (2011) as being among the most prominent and most important in Cardinals World Series lore.

Beating the odds

George “Whitey” Kurowski, a Reading, Pa., native, debuted with the Cardinals on Sept. 23, 1941 _ six days after another Polish-American from Pennsylvania, Stan Musial, played his first game for St. Louis.

“Kurowski’s right arm, which flaps in the breeze like a seal’s flipper, is the result of a bone operation, in which a large piece was removed from the forearm,” wrote Tom Meany, a New York-based syndicated columnist. “As a kid, he fell off a fence and landed on some broken glass. Osteomyelitis was the result and osteomyelitis is no fun for an 8-year-old who can’t even pronounce it.”

Determined to earn a spot with the 1942 Cardinals, Kurowski was at spring training when he learned his father had died of a heart attack.

Jimmy Brown opened the 1942 season as the Cardinals’ third baseman, with Kurowski in reserve. In May, manager Billy Southworth shifted Brown to second base, replacing Frank “Creepy” Crespi, and made Kurowski the starter at third.

In the book “Few and Chosen,” Cardinals shortstop Marty Marion said Kurowski had “good hands, but he didn’t have much range to his left, so I would cheat toward third. If I went far to my right for a ball, (Kurowski) would hold his glove over his mouth and say, ‘Thank you, Marty, thank you.’ ”

Kurowski, 24, batted .254 with nine home runs and 42 RBI in 115 games for the 1942 National League champions.

Decision time

In Game 1 of the 1942 World Series, Kurowski struck out three times against Yankees starter and future Hall of Famer Red Ruffing.

Kurowski produced a hit in each of the next three games, all Cardinals victories.

Needing one more win to clinch the championship, the Cardinals started rookie Johnny Beazley, winner of Game 2, against Ruffing in Game 5. Ruffing, 37, had seven World Series wins in his career.

In the ninth, with the score tied at 2-2, Walker Cooper led off for the Cardinals with a single to center. Johnny Hopp’s sacrifice bunt moved Cooper to second.

Kurowski batted next. With first base open, Ruffing looked to the dugout to see whether Yankees manager Joe McCarthy wanted him to give an intentional walk to Kurowski. On deck was the eighth-place batter, Marty Marion, who had no home runs during the regular season. After Marion came the pitcher, Beazley.

McCarthy ordered Ruffing to pitch to Kurowski.

Dramatic ninth

Kurowski connected on a high, inside pitch and drove the ball through a fog toward the left-field corner. “Not one-tenth of the spectators saw the ball,” wrote Tom Meany.

The ball _ fair by about five feet _ cleared the fence for a two-run home run, giving the Cardinals a 4-2 lead.

Cooper and Kurowski “received a few pats on the back when they arrived at the bench,” the St. Louis Star-Times reported. “The Cards were not going to celebrate before the final verdict had been sealed.”

The Yankees threatened in their half of the ninth. Joe Gordon led off with a single. Bill Dickey rolled a grounder to second, but Jimmy Brown booted the ball for an error. With runners on first and second, no outs, Jerry Priddy bluffed a bunt. The Cardinals’ catcher, Walker Cooper, fired the ball _ “a lightning peg,” The Sporting News called it _ to Marion, who was covering second. Gordon, caught off guard, was tagged out.

The pickoff took the steam out of the Yankees’ comeback hopes. Priddy popped out (Brown made a sprawling catch on the play) and George Selkirk, batting for Ruffing, grounded out, ending the game and clinching the championship for the Cardinals. Boxscore

Team player

In the victorious clubhouse, Cardinals players “hugged and pounded Kurowski on the back and then hoisted him on their shoulders,” the Associated Press reported. Teammates tore pieces off the back of Kurowski’s uniform pants and kept the shreds as souvenirs.

As the Star-Times noted, “The team spirit that carried the Cardinals to the top of the heap can be best illustrated by Kurowski, blonde-haired Polish boy from the hills of Pennsylvania who sidesteps all personal glory, even after that epic smash.”

Each member of the Cardinals earned a World Series championship share of $6,192.50.

Upon arriving in St. Louis by train from New York, the Cardinals were greeted by a crowd so thick on the station platform “it was hard to see who was coming out of the train,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Then 13 of the Cardinals, including Kurowski, went to the Red Cross headquarters in St. Louis and donated blood for use in treating U.S. military members.

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Leaving Cardinals became good break for Leo Durocher

October 6, 2017 by retrosimba

Leo Durocher, combative shortstop of the Cardinals’ Gashouse Gang teams of the mid-1930s, fell out of favor with manager Frankie Frisch.

Their relationship deteriorated so badly Frisch issued an ultimatum to Cardinals executive Branch Rickey: Either Durocher goes or I go.

On Oct. 5, 1937, the Cardinals dealt Durocher to the Dodgers for third baseman Joe Stripp, second baseman Jim Bucher, outfielder Johnny Cooney and pitcher Roy Henshaw.

The trade, it turned out, created a career-boosting opportunity for Durocher. After a season as the Dodgers’ starting shortstop, he became their player-manager in 1939. Durocher went on to a successful, sometimes stormy, managerial career that earned him election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Meanwhile, none of the players acquired by the Cardinals for Durocher contributed much. Frisch, who had been player-manager since 1933, was fired in September 1938 near the end of the Cardinals’ first losing season in six years.

Battle of wills

Durocher had come to the Cardinals from the Reds in a May 1933 trade. As their starting shortstop, Durocher helped the Cardinals to a World Series title in 1934. He led National League shortstops in fielding percentage in 1936.

Complaining of a kidney ailment and bad back, Durocher had a poor start to the 1937 season. After going hitless in a May 4 game at Boston against the Braves, Durocher’s batting average was at .132.

After the game, Durocher asked Frisch for permission to stay out of the hotel past the manager-mandated midnight curfew. The request upset Frisch, who accused Durocher, the team captain, of being focused more on fun than on performance.

The next day, May 5, Frisch benched Durocher and started Jimmy Brown at shortstop against the Braves.

After an off day on May 6, the Cardinals opened a series against the Giants at New York. Brown started at shortstop in the May 7 game.

When Frisch posted a lineup with Brown at shortstop again on May 8 against the Giants, Durocher declined to take batting or fielding practice at the Polo Grounds.

Durocher’s defiance was intolerable to Frisch.

“Nobody on my team _ even you _ can show such a lack of spirit,” Frisch said to Durocher.

When Durocher spoke up for himself, saying he had played earlier despite being ill and in pain, Frisch barked, “Get a train and go back to St. Louis. Get out of here.”

Durocher didn’t depart, but he didn’t get back into the starting lineup until May 12 against the Phillies at Philadelphia.

Big deal

Durocher, 32, played out the rest of the season as the Cardinals’ primary shortstop. He batted .203 in 135 games and grounded into a team-high 17 double plays.

In summarizing Durocher’s season, the St. Louis Star-Times wrote, “He was off stride at the very start, complained of illness and injuries, and was anything but the brilliant defensive player he had been. Durocher gained weight and was unable to handle the important shortstop position with his old-time finesse. Batted balls to his left and to his right became base hits.”

On Oct. 5, two days after the completion of the Cardinals’ season, Rickey was in New York to attend the World Series between the Giants and Yankees when he made the trade with the Dodgers.

Dick Farrington, in a column for The Sporting News, declared, “Leo Durocher’s passing from the Cards to the Dodgers was a case of ‘It’s Durocher or me’ with Frankie Frisch.”

A headline in The Sporting News blared, “Frisch Responsible For Durocher Going.”

The key players in the deal for the Cardinals were Stripp and Bucher. Stripp _ “Generally regarded as one of the best third sackers in the major leagues,” according to the Post-Dispatch _ long had been coveted by Frisch. Rickey liked Bucher, who had started his career in the Cardinals’ system before being drafted by the Dodgers.

“Bucher, alone, is a better ballplayer than Durocher,” Giants manager Bill Terry told International News Service in rating the deal a steal for St. Louis.

According to The Sporting News, “The first impulse of Brooklyn fans was heavily against the switch” because they thought four players were too high a price for Durocher.

However, Pie Traynor, Pirates manager, said, “The Dodgers got a great shortstop and they didn’t give up anybody who could help them.”

Dodgers benefit

The 1938 season was a failure for Frisch and the Cardinals.

Stripp squabbled with management over his contract and got a late start to the season. He batted .286 in 54 games but was sent to the Braves on Aug. 1.

Bucher, who spent most of the year in the minors, hit .228 in 17 Cardinals games.

Henshaw had a 5-11 record and 4.02 ERA for the Cardinals.

Cooney was released on the eve of the season opener.

On Sept. 11, with the Cardinals’ record at 63-72, Frisch was fired and replaced by a coach, Mike Gonzalez, for the rest of the season.

Durocher in 1938 led National League shortstops in fielding percentage and was named to the all-star team.

Previously: Rift with Branch Rickey led Cards to oust Frankie Frisch

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Walt Jocketty paid price for not playing nice with others

October 3, 2017 by retrosimba

(Updated April 5, 2025)

General manager Walt Jocketty, whose trades transformed the Cardinals into perennial contenders, was the victim of an internal management mess.

Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr. became enamored of a data-driven consultant, Jeff Luhnow, who had business acumen. DeWitt brought Luhnow onto the management team, promoted him and put him in charge of the Cardinals’ player development group.

In essence, Jocketty was head of major-league baseball operations and Luhnow became head of minor-league baseball operations.

The problem was DeWitt did this without gaining the support of Jocketty. Though Luhnow reported to Jocketty, their relationship was icy _ Luhnow was DeWitt’s guy, not Jocketty’s _ and created division and tension throughout the front office.

DeWitt expected Jocketty and Luhnow to work out their differences and create organizational harmony.

Feeling undercut and underappreciated, Jocketty couldn’t work collaboratively with a baseball newcomer with whom he had wide philosophical differences.

DeWitt had said he hired Luhnow to be a “problem solver.”

The problem-maker, in DeWitt’s view, was Jocketty.

On Oct. 3, 2007, DeWitt surprised nearly everyone by firing Jocketty. The dismissal came a year after the Cardinals had won their first World Series championship in 24 seasons.

Redbirds revived

In 1994, when Anheuser-Busch owned the Cardinals, Jocketty was hired to replace Dal Maxvill as general manager. At the time, Jocketty was assistant general manager of the Rockies.

A year later, in 1995, Jocketty hired Tony La Russa to be the Cardinals’ manager. Jocketty and La Russa had worked together in the Athletics organization.

In 1996, a group led by DeWitt completed the purchase of the Cardinals from Anheuser-Busch.

With new ownership expressing a commitment to winning, Jocketty and La Russa went to work rebuilding a Cardinals club that hadn’t been to the postseason since 1987 and hadn’t won a World Series championship since 1982.

After qualifying for the postseason once in their first four years together, the leadership team of DeWitt, Jocketty and La Russa got the Cardinals into the postseason six times in a seven-year stretch from 2000-2006. The 2006 team won the World Series title.

Jocketty largely was responsible for the turnaround. His trades brought talent such as Mark McGwire, Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, Edgar Renteria, Darryl Kile, Woody Williams, Larry Walker and Adam Wainwright, to name just a few.

In an interview with Cardinals Yearbook in 2014, La Russa said, “Walt is an excellent example of a leader who has a great heart and is good with people. He is smart, knows the game of baseball and has the necessary toughness.”

Front office duel

Though the Cardinals had become successful, DeWitt determined the organization needed a different approach to scouting and player development. DeWitt hired Luhnow in October 2003 for the newly created position of vice president for baseball development.

Luhnow and Jocketty clashed. Communication between Luhnow and Jocketty and their staffs broke down.

“There was basically a difference of philosophy,” Jocketty said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He added, “It’s not a way I’m comfortable operating.”

Luhnow said, “I wasn’t trying to cram things down people’s throats,” but added, “I have definitely stimulated a lot of debate since I’ve been here.”

John Mozeliak, Cardinals assistant general manager, was placed in the uncomfortable role of being the conduit between Jocketty and Luhnow.

“(Mozeliak) has done a very good job of staying above the fray,” DeWitt said.

Said Cardinals president Mark Lamping: “(Mozeliak) was sometimes torn between two factions within baseball operations. Tough job for anybody to do that.”

Divorce court

After the championship high of 2006, the Cardinals finished with a losing record (78-84) in 2007.

On Oct. 3, three days after the end of the 2007 season, Jocketty was called to a morning meeting at DeWitt’s house in Clayton, Mo. During the 45-minute session, DeWitt, saying it was “time to move forward with undivided vision and purpose,” fired Jocketty, though the owner chose to frame the departure as a mutual decision. DeWitt said he and Jocketty “were in agreement our relationship … had likely run its course.”

Joe Strauss of the Post-Dispatch cited “a widening front office split” and “Jocketty’s refusal to embrace the new structure” as reasons for DeWitt’s decision.

“I don’t think it played out where we could close the divide,” DeWitt said. “There had been a divide from prior years, but not as severe as it became.”

Said Lamping: “A division within baseball operations continuing without a common purpose just doesn’t work.”

Tangled web

Jocketty had a year remaining on his contract and DeWitt said he would pay him the $1 million in salary for 2008.

Jocketty asked DeWitt to hold off announcing the dismissal to the media until he had a chance to tell his son, a high school junior, who turned 17 that day. DeWitt agreed. The announcement was made at 3 p.m.

Soon after Jocketty departed the meeting, DeWitt called La Russa at his residence in California. La Russa said he was “surprised and disappointed” by Jocketty’s departure. “I thought Walt would be back,” said La Russa.

Reflecting on his relationship with Luhnow, Jocketty said, “There are probably things I could have done and should have done to try and make it work better, but I wasn’t comfortable. I didn’t do it.”

Regarding his tenure from 1994-2007, Jocketty said, “We’ve had one of the most successful eras in Cardinals history. I hope that is how it is remembered.”

Three weeks after the shakeup, La Russa, surprising some, signed to return as Cardinals manager. On Oct. 31, Mozeliak was named to succeed Jocketty.

La Russa and Mozeliak led the Cardinals to a World Series championship in 2011.

Jocketty became general manager of the Reds in 2008 and went on to serve the club in a variety of executive roles.

Luhnow left the Cardinals in December 2011 to become general manager of the Astros. Four years later, it was learned a member of the Cardinals front office unlawfully had hacked into the Astros’ database. In 2016, Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa pleaded guilty to the crime and was sentenced to prison.

On Jan. 13, 2020, the Astros fired Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch after the two were suspended for the 2020 season by Major League Baseball for their roles in a scandal involving the stealing of signs opposing catchers flashed to pitchers.

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Umpire to John Denny: You gab, you’re gone

September 30, 2017 by retrosimba

In a season that started spectacularly before shattering into shambles, the low point for Cardinals pitcher John Denny occurred when he was ejected from a game before it began.

On Sept. 27, 1977, Denny was tossed because he ignored an umpire’s directive to stop talking with people in or near the stands.

It was that kind of season for Denny. He won his first seven decisions for the 1977 Cardinals before losing his next eight in a row. During the skid, he was injured and sat out for more than a month.

A year after leading the National League in earned run average, Denny was an underachiever for the 1977 Cardinals.

Up and down

Denny debuted in the big leagues with the Cardinals in September 1974. He earned 10 wins for St. Louis in 1975 and followed that with 11 wins and a league-leading 2.52 ERA in 1976. Denny was especially strong in the second half of the 1976 season, posting ERAs of 1.93 in July, 1.88 in August and 1.15 in September.

His effectiveness carried over into the start of the 1977 season. Denny was 5-0 with a 2.94 ERA in April and his record stood at 7-0 after a shutout victory over the Cubs on May 31.

After that, his season began to unravel. In June, Denny was 0-2 with a 4.91 ERA. He was ejected on June 6 for bumping an umpire and he got tossed again on June 11 for fighting with Reggie Smith of the Dodgers.

On June 21, Denny suffered a hamstring injury and didn’t pitch from June 22 until July 30. After he came back, Denny lost six decisions in a row, dropping his record to 7-8 with a 4.67 ERA.

“That was the worst stretch I’ve ever been through,” Denny said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “It really bothered me.”

Social hour

In their final homestand of the 1977 season, the Cardinals had games with the Expos and Mets.

On Sept. 27, the night before he was scheduled to make a start against the Expos, Denny was talking with people in or near the Busch Stadium stands before the game.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Edwardsville (Ill.) Intelligencer offered slightly different versions of what transpired between Denny and umpire Paul Runge.

_ Post-Dispatch: “Before the game, Runge noticed Denny leaning across the rail, talking to fans in violation of a league rule. When the umpire ordered Denny to return to the dugout, the pitcher got testy and was ejected.”

_ Intelligencer: “Runge objected to Denny talking to photographers in their booth by the dugout after he had asked that players move away from the stands.”

Cardinals management said Runge had overstepped his authority because the game hadn’t started, the Intelligencer reported.

Happy ending

Because Runge was scheduled to work home plate in the Expos-Cardinals game on Sept. 28, Denny was scratched from his start that night by manager Vern Rapp, who wanted to avoid a potential conflict between pitcher and umpire. Rapp moved Denny’s start to Sept. 30 in Game 1 of a doubleheader against the Mets.

Denny, 25, ended the tumultuous season on a high note. He pitched a complete game in a 7-2 Cardinals victory against the Mets. The win was his first since May and evened his record at 8-8.

Denny, who yielded eight hits and issued three walks, was helped by a defense that turned three double plays.

“That was one of the hardest games for me because I had to wait so long to win one,” Denny said. Boxscore

Denny credited pitching coach Claude Osteen with finding and fixing a flaw. “Claude noticed in some films that I had been hurrying too much with my pitches,” said Denny. “That made me erratic with my curve and with my changeup.”

Previously: Larry Dierker and his unsatisfying stint with Cardinals

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