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How Charley Johnson engineered an amazing career

October 2, 2024 by retrosimba

Studying a football playbook or the intricacies of a defense don’t seem so daunting compared with preparing a dissertation on chemical engineering or doing research for the space program.

Charley Johnson was a good quarterback for 15 years in the NFL, including from 1961-69 with the St. Louis Cardinals. He led the NFL in completions (223) and passing yards (3,045) in 1964. His 170 career touchdown passes are more than the likes of Troy Aikman (165), Roger Staubach (153) and Bart Starr (152).

Perhaps even more impressive is that Johnson earned master’s and doctorate degrees in chemical engineering from St. Louis’ Washington University while playing in the NFL. He used that education to go into business, forming his own natural gas compression company, and then to become head of the chemical engineering department at New Mexico State University.

Basketball boost

As a high school quarterback in his hometown of Big Spring, Texas, Johnson was on a team that rarely passed the ball. No Division I college football program offered him a scholarship, so he enrolled at Schreiner Institute, a school in Kerrville, Texas, that specialized in preparing students for military careers.

After Johnson’s first year at Schreiner, the school dropped its football program. “I’m still not sure whether it was because of me or in spite of me,” Johnson said to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Johnson stayed and played basketball for the school. At a tournament in Big Spring, New Mexico State athletic trainer Brick Bickerstaff was scouting players. Later that night, at a local chili parlor, Charley’s uncle, Jack Johnson, cornered Bickerstaff and persuaded him to offer his nephew a scholarship, according to Newspaper Enterprise Association. “I was recruited to play basketball,” Johnson told the Albuquerque Journal.

He left Schreiner in mid term and joined the 1957-58 New Mexico State basketball team, playing in two games. “I was very lucky to have received a scholarship anywhere,” Johnson told the Las Cruces Sun-News.

When the basketball season ended, Johnson tried out for the football team at its spring practice. Impressed, head coach Warren Woodson not only gave him a spot on the roster, he named him the starting quarterback.

With Johnson running an offense that featured scoring threats Pervis Atkins, Bob Gaiters and Bob Jackson, New Mexico State was 8-3 in 1959 and 11-0 in 1960, capping each season with a win in the Sun Bowl.

While excelling in football, Johnson also successfully pursued a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. He said he chose that field after he observed engineers on the site while he was digging ditches for a summer job in Texas. “I knew right then I wanted to be an engineer,” Johnson told the Albuquerque Journal.

Scholar-athlete

While studying New Mexico State game films of Pervis Atkins and Bob Jackson, the NFL Cardinals noticed Johnson, according to Newspaper Enterprise Association. He was drafted by both the Cardinals and the American Football League’s San Diego Chargers. He also got an offer from the Canadian Football League’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who were coached by Bud Grant.

The Cardinals made the highest bid, $15,000. 

After spending the 1961 Cardinals season as third-string quarterback behind Sam Etcheverry and Ralph Guglielmi, Johnson enrolled in a master’s program at Washington University, taking spring semester courses in engineering analysis, statistics and chemical kinetics.

During the 1962 season, he replaced Etcheverry as starting quarterback.

According to Sports Illustrated, “Johnson didn’t have much use for sleep. His day started at 5:15 a.m. when he wrote a commentary that he delivered on a St. Louis radio station (WIL) at 8. Following the broadcast, he went to classes at Washington U., carrying his playbook with his schoolbooks. Around noon, he headed to practice, and afterward back to class (or to research projects).”

At Washington U., Johnson “can be found leaning over a laboratory table, measuring the viscosity of polymer plastics,” the Globe-Democrat reported.

His specialty was rheology. He told the newspaper, “Rheology involves the science of flow characteristics of various materials. Many plastics, if you melt them, will flow through a small tube and then will expand to be larger than the tube as they come out. I’m trying to figure out why.”

The title of Johnson’s master’s thesis on polymers was titled, “Expansion of Laminar Jets of Organic Liquids Issuing From Capillary Tubes.”

After receiving his master’s in a June 1963 ceremony, Johnson met with teammate Sonny Randle and practiced pass patterns.

At the helm

Johnson led the Cardinals to records of 9-5 in 1963 and 9-3-2 in 1964. Some of his most intense duels were with Cleveland Browns quarterback Frank Ryan, who earned a doctorate in advanced mathematics from Rice in 1965.

Describing that period as “the Charley Johnson era,” Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “It was a team that would innovate. It was a good football team.”

Post-Dispatch columnist Bob Broeg called Johnson “underrated” and added, “He didn’t have the strongest or even the most accurate arm, but he had a knack of getting something out of most scoring opportunities, and he was superb when competing against the two-minute clock at the end of a half or a game.”

In his biography, quarterback Jim Hart, who joined the Cardinals in 1966, said Johnson “studied the game, he knew defenses, and he knew just what he wanted to do. I marveled at the game plan he would call. He didn’t have the overpowering arm. It was more like (Fran) Tarkenton’s. He wasn’t going to break a pane of glass at 50 yards, but he really feathered the ball in there.”

Regarding Johnson’s leadership skills, Hart said, “He had a quiet confidence that I’ve tried to emulate.”

Asked by Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz in January 1988 to name the starting quarterback on his all-St. Louis Cardinals team, Bill Bidwill chose Johnson over Hart. “If he hadn’t been hurt, Johnson would have been in the (Pro Football) Hall of Fame,” Bidwill said. “He was an outstanding player.” Video

Rocket man

Johnson suffered a shoulder separation in 1965 and tore ligaments in his right knee in 1966. He was called to active Army duty as a second lieutenant in 1967 and 1968, and assigned to do research on high temperature plastics for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Hampton, Va. “The project could eventually be important in developing heat- and radiation-resistant material for spacecraft,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

Johnson commuted to Cardinals games during his Army stint but rarely played. When he completed his tour of duty, he continued his NASA research at Monsanto Chemical in St. Louis as a doctoral project for Washington U.

(To the delight of an audience at an April 1967 fundraising banquet in Las Cruces, N.M., Johnson shared the dais with actor Leonard Nimoy, who played Mr. Spock in the “Star Trek” TV series.)

Though Johnson, 30, returned full-time to the Cardinals in 1969, head coach Charley Winner was committed to Jim Hart. Johnson asked to be traded. The Cardinals obliged, sending him and cornerback Bob Atkins to the Houston Oilers for quarterback Pete Beathard and cornerback Miller Farr in January 1970.

After the first of his two seasons with the Oilers, Johnson earned his doctorate in chemical engineering from Washington U., in June 1971. Asked about his dissertation on high-performance plastic resistant to heat and radiation, Johnson told the Texas Star, “My professors and I used a new technique to determine temperatures at which plastic can be molded. It evoked a reaction because there were quite a few plastics not molded at the time of their discovery. No one knew at what temperatures to mold them. People wanted to try our technique, to find out how to mold these plastics which had been shelved.”

Distinguished faculty

In August 1972, the Oilers sent Johnson to the Denver Broncos for a high draft pick. A year later, he led the Broncos to their first winning season since the franchise began in 1960.

After his final season with Denver in 1975, Johnson told United Press International, “I always will feel I’m a Cardinal. I guess that’s because St. Louis is where I started out, and it’s just hard to forget from where you came.”

Johnson became an engineering consultant for a natural gas compressor company in Houston before starting his own firm, Johnson Compression Services, in 1981.

In 2000, he was named head of the chemical engineering department at New Mexico State and continued teaching there until 2010.

Posted in Football | 6 Comments »

Orient Express: Masanori Murakami blazed pioneer path

September 27, 2024 by retrosimba

In a bid to contend with the Cardinals and others for the 1964 National League pennant, the Giants added the majors’ first Japanese import to their bullpen.

On Sept. 1, 1964, Masanori Murakami, 20, became the first Japanese native to play in the big leagues when he pitched in relief for the Giants against the Mets.

Possessing impressive command of his pitches, Murakami, a left-hander, made an impact. Though the Giants didn’t win a pennant in either of his two seasons with them, Murakami “was right at the top among relief pitchers in the National League,” Giants general manager Chub Feeney told the San Francisco Examiner in 1965. “Possibly only Ron Perranoski of the Dodgers was better.”

In two years with the Giants, Murakami was 5-1 with nine saves and struck out 100 batters in 89.1 innings.

He faced the Cardinals four times, all in 1965, and was 1-0 with a save.

Baseball rebirth

Murakami was born during World War II in Otsuki, Japan, a silk production center, on May 6, 1944.

After the war, Tsuneo “Cappy” Harada, a Japanese-American who served the Allies in military intelligence, was assigned by General Douglas MacArthur to encourage the resumption of baseball in Japan, according to the Hartford Courant.

Helping Harada in his efforts was Lefty O’Doul, two-time National League batting champion. O’Doul made multiple trips to Japan to promote baseball before the war and became a national institution, according to Red Smith of the New York Herald Tribune. In return visits there after the war, O’Doul was an influence on young Masanori Murakami, according to the Examiner.

Murakami was 19 when he joined the Nankai Hawks of the Japan Pacific League in September 1963. Cappy Harada was scouting for the San Francisco Giants then. Harada arranged with Nankai to let three of their teen prospects _ Murakami, infielder Tatsuhiko Tanaka and catcher Hiroshi Takahashi _ join the Giants’ organization in 1964. “They sent me over … to study the baseball system,” Murakami said years later to the New York Times.

New world

After getting a look at the Japanese teens in 1964 spring training, the Giants determined Murakami could pitch for the Class A Fresno farm club. The other two players were sent there with Murakami to observe before they’d join a rookie level farm team at Twins Falls, Idaho, in June.

The agricultural Fresno area then was home to 15,000 Japanese-Americans. Murakami and his two countrymen resided in the home of Keek Saiki and his wife Fumiko. “They drink milk by the gallon,” Fumiko said to the Examiner, “and go for fried chicken and westerns on TV. They are very quiet, write letters a yard long and ask where they can swim.”

Murakami’s manager at Fresno was Bill Werle. A former left-handed reliever for the Cardinals, he saw Murakami had the makeup to be a closer. “His control is incredible,” Werle told the Examiner. “That’s why I put him in tight spots in late innings … His low curve makes the batsmen tap grounders for double plays.”

Murakami was 11-7 with 11 saves and a 1.78 ERA for Fresno. He struck out 159 batters in 106 innings. Murakami made one start _ on Japanese-American Night in Fresno _ and pitched a complete game in a 3-2 win over Reno.

“He was too good for the league,” Werle told the Los Angeles Times.

The 1964 Giants entered September in third place in the National League and were a half game ahead of the Cardinals when they called up Murakami. Attempting the leap from Class A to the majors was formidable. The cultural significance of being the first Japanese-born big leaguer added to the challenge.

Big Apple

The rookie joined the Giants in New York for their series against the Mets. At Shea Stadium, he was greeted by general manager Chub Feeney and several Japanese reporters and photographers.

Murakami carried with him a Stan Musial model glove. When asked by the Examiner whether Musial was one of his favorites, Murakami shrugged. His English was limited.

Feeney “trailed him around the field, pen in hand, before the game,” trying to get Murakami to sign a major-league contract, the Times reported. Murakami didn’t want to sign until he understood what the contract meant. Feeney scrambled to find an interpreter and eventually got Murakami’s signature.

With the Mets ahead, 4-0, Giants manager Al Dark brought in Murakami to pitch the eighth. According to Newsday, “Many of the (39,379) fans stood and cheered when the pitcher came into the game.”

Mets starter Al Jackson told the newspaper, “We thought he might be a little nervous, but he wasn’t.”

Actually, Murakami told the San Francisco Chronicle, “I was afraid.” To calm his nerves, he said he hummed the tune “Sukiyaki” as he walked to the mound.

Murakami struck out the first batter, Charlie Smith. Chris Cannizzaro singled, then Ed Kranepool struck out and Roy McMillan grounded out. “As Murakami, with a spring in his gait and a wad of chewing gum in his mouth, strode toward the Giants’ dugout, Mets fans stood and cheered,” the Associated Press reported.

Stadium organist Jane Jarvis saluted Murakami’s successful debut with “The Japanese Sandman.” Boxscore

The next day, from Lefty O’Doul’s saloon near San Francisco’s Union Square, Examiner columnist Prescott Sullivan wrote that Murakami’s debut made the proprietor the happiest man in town. “Such was his joy, that for a period of six seconds, shortly before 11 a.m. when a slow bartender was on duty, all drinks served at his Geary Street tavern were on the house,” Sullivan noted.

Back in New York, Murakami was a guest on Ralph Kiner’s TV show, but, even with an interpreter, something got lost in translation, according to the Examiner.

Kiner: “What is your best pitch?”

Murakami: “Koufax.”

Kiner: “Who is your favorite pitcher?”

Murakami: “Curveball and a little bit changeup.”

Murakami asked to meet 74-year-old Mets manager Casey Stengel, who spoke his own unique style of English, Stengelese. Stengel posed with Murakami for a photo. Asked what he thought of him, Murakami said to the Examiner, “Nice old man. Very friendly.”

Sudden impact

In his first nine appearances for the 1964 Giants, covering 11 innings, Murakami didn’t allow a run. His first big-league win came against Houston at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. Murakami pitched three scoreless innings and the game ended when Matty Alou of the Dominican Republic slugged a home run (his first in two years) against French-Canadian Claude Raymond in the 11th. Boxscore

In his next appearance, against the Cubs, Murakami faced three future Hall of Famers, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Ernie Banks, and retired them in order. Boxscore

Described by the Examiner as “the slingin’ samurai,” he finished with a 1-0 record, one save and a 1.80 ERA for the 1964 Giants, striking out 15 and walking one in 15 innings. Batters hit .163 against him.

The Giants and Nankai Hawks both wanted Murakami to pitch for them in 1965, causing a dispute between the clubs. The matter got settled in late April 1965 when the Hawks agreed to let Murakami play for the Giants on the condition he’d be allowed to return to Japan in 1966 if he desired.

Murakami made his first appearance for the 1965 Giants on May 9, three days after he turned 21. (Murakami and teammate Willie Mays shared a birthday.)

When the Giants were at home, Murakami resided at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in San Mateo. On the road, his roommate was fellow left-handed reliever Bill Henry, 37, a Texan, who began playing professional baseball in 1948 with the Clarksdale Planters of Mississippi.

Popular with teammates, Murakami “has an innate dignity, a quiet confidence and a sly sense of humor,” the Examiner’s George Murphy observed.

Giants manager Herman Franks was trying to find the players who were helping Murakami learn English. When Franks went to the mound to talk to Murakami during a game, the pitcher smiled and said to him, “Take a hike.” (Or words a good deal stronger than that.) Franks told the Examiner, “I don’t think he knows what he’s saying.”

Reliable reliever

Murakami beat the Cardinals the first time he faced them. With the score tied at 2-2 and Cardinals runners on first and second, one out, Murakami relieved Frank Linzy. He got Tim McCarver to pop out to second and fanned Carl Warwick. After Tom Haller’s two-run homer against Bob Gibson in the top of the 13th, Murakami retired the Cardinals in order for the win. Boxscore

A month later, with the Giants clinging to a 3-2 lead, the Cardinals had Julian Javier on second, two outs, in the ninth when Murakami relieved Linzy and struck out Bill White for the save. Boxscore

Murakami was especially effective against the Dodgers. In eight appearances covering 11 innings versus the 1965 Dodgers, he allowed one run (for an 0.82 ERA) and struck out 11. He also got his first big-league hit, a bunt single, against the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax. Boxscore

Because of his delayed start to the season, Murakami wasn’t available when the Giants’ bullpen lost games to the Dodgers on April 30 and May 7.

“We lost the pennant to the Dodgers by only two games, and I missed one month,” Murakami said to Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times. “If I pitched more, we would have won the pennant.”

Murakami was 4-1 with eight saves for the 1965 Giants. He struck out 85 in 74.1 innings and held batters to a .206 average.

Times have changed

Afterward, Murakami opted to play for the Nankai Hawks. “Murakami explained he wanted to stay with the Giants in 1966, but pressure from his parents, among others, forced him to return to Japan,” the Examiner reported.

Years later, asked by Jim Murray whether he wished he had stayed a Giant, Murakami replied, “Oh, yes.”

Murakami pitched in Japan for 18 years. His best season was 1968 when he was 18-4 with a 2.38 ERA for the Nankai Hawks. His teammates that season included second baseman Don Blasingame, a former Cardinal, and first baseman Marty Keough, who would become a Cardinals scout.

In 1983, when he was 38, Murakami attempted a comeback with the Giants but was released in spring training. “Fastball not so fast,” he told the Examiner.

Thirty years passed between the time Murakami last pitched for the 1965 Giants and the next Japanese player, Hideo Nomo of the 1995 Dodgers, reached the majors. A Japanese network arranged to televise Nomo’s games and hired Murakami as a broadcaster. On Aug. 5, 1995, at Candlestick Park, Murakami was honored by the Giants and threw the ceremonial first pitch. Then Nomo took the mound and hurled a one-hit shutout. Boxscore

Nomo received the 1995 National League Rookie of the Year Award. More Japanese players followed. The Cardinals signed their first, outfielder So Taguchi, in January 2002. In 2024, the most celebrated player in the game was the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani of Japan.

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers, Prospects | 12 Comments »

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 »

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