RetroSimba

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 »

The night Davey Lopes ran wild against Cardinals

August 21, 2024 by retrosimba

Imagine accomplishing a rare feat and doing it in the presence of the master of the craft. Davey Lopes knew the feeling.

On Aug. 24, 1974, Lopes had five stolen bases for the Dodgers against the Cardinals. Watching him perform was the National League’s all-time best base stealer, the Cardinals’ Lou Brock.

Lopes became the first National League player to swipe five bases in a game since Dan McGann did it for the Giants against Brooklyn on May 27, 1904. Boxscore

Though he holds the record for most career stolen bases (938) in the National League, Brock never swiped five in a game. Neither did other prominent base stealers such as Ty Cobb, Tim Raines, Vince Coleman, Max Carey, Honus Wagner and Maury Wills.

Lopes remains the only player with five steals in a game versus the Cardinals.

Tough part of town

Lopes was born and raised in East Providence, Rhode Island, a town of Irish, Portuguese and Cape Verdean immigrants who came looking for jobs in the factories and along the waterfront.

One of 12 children, Lopes was a toddler when his father died, according to the Los Angeles Times. A stepfather abandoned the family. Lopes’ mother, Mary Rose, worked as a domestic when she could.

Residing in a tenement, Lopes described the neighborhood to Times columnist Jim Murray as “roaches, rats, poor living conditions, drugs as prevalent as candy.”

“If it hadn’t been for sports, there’s no telling what I’d be or where I’d be,” Lopes said to the Times in 1973. “All I had to do is step off the porch to a choice of all the things you associate with a ghetto … It’s an easy step off the porch.”

Before he learned to steal bases in ball games, Lopes said he resorted to shoplifting. “I never stole anything major, just clothes and baseballs and bats,” he told Jim Murray.

Lopes also said to the Times, “When you don’t have money and can’t have what the other kids have, you get it any way you can. You live on the street. You steal.”

Though, as Jim Murray put it, “even by Rhode Island standards, Davey was little,” he excelled in high school baseball and basketball. Among those who admired Lopes’ play was an opposing coach, Mike Sarkesian. A son of an Armenian immigrant who worked in steel foundries, Sarkesian grew up in a Providence tenement house, but went on to graduate from the University of Rhode Island with dual degrees in biology and physical education.

In the same year Lopes graduated from high school, Sarkesian was named head basketball coach and athletic director at Iowa Wesleyan College. He recruited Lopes, offering him a college education and providing an escape from East Providence. After two years at Iowa Wesleyan, Sarkesian became athletic director at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. Lopes went with him, arriving shortly after a tornado left the campus in shambles.

An outfielder, Lopes did so well in baseball that he got selected by the Giants in the eighth round of the 1967 amateur draft but opted to stay in college. The Dodgers drafted him in the second round in 1968 and Lopes signed for $10,000. He gave most of the money to his mother, according to the Times.

Though he played in the minors in the summers of 1968 and 1969, Lopes skipped spring training both years so that he could complete his studies at Washburn. He graduated in 1969 with a degree in elementary education and taught sixth grade one winter.

(Lopes also got married in July 1968 but continued to contribute to the education of brothers and sisters still in school. “I try and send home as much as I can, even when it hurts my own wallet,” he told the Times in 1973.)

On the run

Lopes wanted to be a center fielder, but Tommy Lasorda, who managed him for three seasons (1970-72) in the minors, suggested his best path to the big leagues was as an infielder. Lopes learned to play second base. He was 5-foot-9 and tough. “A Billy Martin with more talent and speed,” noted San Francisco Examiner columnist Art Spander.

Leigh Montville of the Boston Globe described Lopes as “a dirty uniform ballplayer” whose “game is motion, as much motion as he can create.”

After hitting .317 with 48 stolen bases for Lasorda with Albuquerque in 1972, Lopes, 27, was called up to the Dodgers that September. The next year, he replaced Lee Lacy as the Dodgers’ second baseman and took off running, igniting the offense from the leadoff spot.

“He sets our mood,” Dodgers manager Walter Alston said to the Los Angeles Times. “I will give him a red light in certain situations, but otherwise he can run whenever he wants.”

Lopes told the newspaper, “The steals are something to talk about, but when they turn into runs, that’s what is important.”

Right conditions

The Dodgers became National League champions in 1974. Lopes’ special blend of speed and power were highlighted that August. He had four stolen bases against the Astros on Aug. 4, becoming the first Dodger since Maury Wills in 1962 to swipe that many in a game. On Aug. 20, Lopes clouted three home runs and totaled five hits versus the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Boxscore and Boxscore

Four nights later, he had his five-steal game against the Cardinals’ battery of pitcher John Curtis and catcher Ted Simmons. The Dodgers totaled a club-record eight steals in the game and won, 3-0, with Don Sutton pitching the shutout.

Lopes, who reached base on three hits, a walk and an error, swiped second three times and third twice. He also was thrown out twice by Simmons _ at third with Curtis pitching and at second with Al Hrabosky on the mound.

“All five steals were my fault,” Curtis told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I was having trouble getting the ball over the plate.”

Curtis’ teammate, Lou Brock, said to the Los Angeles Times, “His delivery is systematic and easy (for a runner) to pick up.”

Brock also told the newspaper it was a myth that left-handers, such as Curtis, were more difficult to steal against. “Even though he’s looking right at you, you’re looking right at him, too,” Brock noted. “You can pick up so many keys to run from because they’re all there in front of you. Against a right-hander, all you see is his back and rear end. He can hide his motion better.”

Elite stealers

Brock also had a stolen base, his 88th of the season, in the game, and was headed for 118, breaking Wills’ record of 104.

In remarks to the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Lopes, 29, said of Brock, 35, “The first thing about him that amazes you is how he can steal all those bases at his age. The next thing is his ability to steal with the short lead he takes. Runners such as Joe Morgan, Cesar Cedeno, Bobby Bonds and myself take leads of at least seven to eight feet. Without that, we’d never get to second on time. Brock takes only five feet, mainly because of the speed he’s able to generate in a hurry.

“He picks up all those steals while only rarely attempting to take third. The other team knows he’s going to try for second. They get ready for him, but they seldom get him.”

Regarding Lopes’ five steals versus the Cardinals, Brock said to the Los Angeles Times, “So many conditions have to be exactly right. First, it has to be something a player wants very badly. He also has to defy a lot of things such as the unwritten rule that says you shouldn’t try to steal third with two outs … Also, it’s unusual for somebody to get that many opportunities _ that is, the number of pitches to the man batting behind him (Bill Russell).” Boxscore

The record for most steals in a game by one player is seven. George Gore did it for the Cubs in 1881 and Billy Hamilton matched the feat for the Phillies in 1894.

Those with six steals in a game: Eddie Collins for the Athletics twice in 1912, Otis Nixon of the 1991 Braves, Eric Young of the 1996 Rockies and Carl Crawford of the 2009 Rays.

Rickey Henderson, career leader in steals (1,406), had five in a game for the 1989 Athletics. The only Cardinals player with five steals in a game is Lonnie Smith, who did it Sept. 4, 1982, versus the Giants. Boxscore

Decades of service

Lopes finished the 1974 season with 59 steals. The next year, he swiped 38 in a row from June to August and led the league (with 77), ending Brock’s reign of four consecutive years. Lopes was the league leader again in 1976 (with 63 steals).

One of his best seasons was 1979 when he was successful on 44 of 48 steal attempts (his 91.67 percent success rate led the league) and slugged 28 home runs. His 28th homer was a walk-off grand slam against the Cubs’ Bruce Sutter. Boxscore

Lopes also was the league leader in stolen base percentage in 1985, swiping 47 in 51 tries (92.1 percent). For his career, he had a stolen base percentage of 83 percent, better than that of Henderson (80.7), Brock (75.3) and Wills (73.8).

In four World Series with the Dodgers, Lopes had 10 stolen bases in 12 tries.

His 16 years in the majors were with the Dodgers (1972-81), Athletics (1982-84), Cubs (1984-86) and Astros (1986-87), totaling 1,671 hits and 557 steals.

Lopes also managed the Brewers (2000-02) and coached for 27 years with the Rangers (1988-91), Orioles (1992-94), Padres (1995-99 and 2003-05), Nationals (2006 and 2016-17), Phillies (2007-10) and Dodgers (2011-15).

Posted in Games, Hitters, Records | 10 Comments »

A bevy of double plays can’t save the day for Cardinals

August 16, 2024 by retrosimba

There are many frustrating ways to lose a baseball game but perhaps none more so than this:

On Aug. 20, 1954, the Cardinals turned six double plays, tying a National League record, and still were beaten, 3-2, at home against the Reds.

Though they totaled 12 hits and eight walks, putting a runner on base in every inning, the Reds didn’t do much damage. They had two triples and a double, but none produced a run. The Reds scored one run on a double play and another on a wild pitch.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals ran into outs. They had four runners thrown out on the base paths, including two at home plate. The game ended when a Cardinals runner was nailed trying to score from second on a single.

Twists and turns

The Friday night game featured starting pitchers Joe Nuxhall, on his way to his first winning season with the Reds, against winless Cardinals rookie Ralph Beard, a Cincinnati native.

The first inning set the tone. For the Reds, Ted Kluszewski’s single scored Roy McMillan from second but Jim Greengrass ended the threat by grounding into a double play. For the Cardinals, Wally Moon was thrown out at second attempting to steal.

In the second, the Cardinals nearly turned a triple play. After Johnny Temple and Wally Post opened with singles, Hobie Landrith lined to second baseman Red Schoendienst. He tossed to shortstop Alex Grammas, who made the out on Temple at second, but Post beat Grammas’ peg to first “by a whisker,” the Dayton Daily News reported.

(Schoendienst started four of the double plays; Grammas started the other two.)

The Cardinals made another out on the base paths in the bottom half of the inning. With Rip Repulski on third and one out, Nuxhall snared Joe Cunningham’s grounder and then trapped Repulski, who had broken for home, in a rundown before tagging him out.

More buffoonery in the third: With two outs, Beard uncorked a wild pitch, enabling Bobby Adams to score and extending the Reds’ lead to 2-0.

The Reds scored the decisive run in the fourth. With runners on the corners, none out, Nuxhall rolled into a 4-6-3 double play, but Post came home from third, making the score 3-0.

St. Louis turned its fourth double play in the fifth on Gus Bell’s grounder.

Hits, runs, errors

The Cardinals scored twice in the sixth. With two outs, Stan Musial was on second and Ray Jablonski on first, when Bill Sarni singled to center. Musial scored, and when center fielder Gus Bell let the ball roll between his legs for an error, Jablonski streaked home from first with the second run. Sarni kept running, too, trying to take third, but left fielder Jim Greengrass, who retrieved the ball, fired to third baseman Bobby Adams in time to tag the runner, ending the inning.

The Reds got leadoff triples from Temple in the sixth and Post in the eighth, but failed to score. Kluszewski grounded into double plays in the seventh and ninth.

With two outs and none on in the St. Louis eighth, Reds manager Birdie Tebbetts used a four-man outfield, removing the shortstop, against Musial for the second time that season. Tebbetts wanted to prevent Musial from getting an extra-base hit that would put him in scoring position.

When Musial saw the defensive alignment, he called time and met with Cardinals manager Eddie Stanky. “I told Stan to get on base any way he could,” Stanky said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Attempting to hit the ball into the vacated shortstop spot for a single, Musial instead grounded out to third, ending the inning.

Hit and run

Clinging to the 3-2 lead, Nuxhall walked the leadoff batter, Ray Jablonski, in the ninth. Dick Schofield, 19, ran for Jablonski and advanced to second on Rip Repulski’s sacrifice bunt. Frank Smith, who threw sidearm, relieved Nuxhall.

Bill Sarni bounced out to Smith, with Schofield holding second. Then Joe Cunningham drilled a low line single to right. Wally Post charged the ball, gloved it and threw a strike to catcher Andy Seminick, nailing Schofield easily for the final out. Boxscore

(Note: The box score, which shows Schofield was on third when Cunningham singled, is wrong. Multiple newspaper accounts of the game report that Schofield was on second when Cunningham got his hit. None report him being on third.)

Asked about third-base coach Johnny Riddle’s decision to wave Schofield to the plate, Stanky said to the Post-Dispatch, “If he hadn’t sent the kid with two outs, I’d have shot him.”

The dramatic finish almost overshadowed the six double plays. It was the seventh time a National League team turned that many double plays in a game, and the third time the team achieving that fielding feat lost, The Cincinnati Post reported.

The Yankees of the American League established the big-league record by turning seven double plays in a win versus the Athletics on Aug. 14, 1942. Boxscore

Since then, the Astros equaled the Yankees’ mark, turning seven double plays in a 3-1 victory against the Giants at the Astrodome on May 4, 1969. Boxscore

Posted in Games, Opponents, Records | 5 Comments »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »