RetroSimba

Jerry West could give St. Louis the basketball blues

June 21, 2024 by retrosimba

Fans of St. Louis basketball found out in a hurry how gifted Jerry West was as an all-round playmaker.

Whether facing the St. Louis University Billikens as a college senior or the St. Louis Hawks as a NBA rookie, West performed with excellence, totaling consistently impressive numbers of points, rebounds and assists.

A 6-foot-3 guard who played three varsity seasons at West Virginia University and 14 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, West averaged 24.8 points per game in college and 27 in the pros. (The NBA career leader is Michael Jordan at 30.1). West became the inspiration for the NBA logo.

College classic

As a junior at West Virginia, West averaged 26.6 points and 12.3 rebounds per game. West Virginia reached the championship final of the 1959 NCAA Tournament, but lost to California, 71-70. West had 28 points and 11 rebounds in that game. Boxscore

With West back for his senior season, West Virginia roared to a 6-0 start before facing St. Louis University in the first round of the Kentucky Invitation Tournament at Lexington in December 1959.

St. Louis assistant coach Fred Kovar, who scouted West that month when he scored 28 against Richmond, described him to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as “a great all-round player with a lot of finesse and a fine jump shot. He’s a dynamic rebounder and defensively tough.”

The Billikens tried having one of their top players, 6-foot-5 Pete McCaffrey, guard West, but it didn’t work out. West scored 25 points in the first half and his team led, 51-36, at halftime.

St. Louis head coach John Benington made a defensive adjustment for the second half, having his team go to a zone-and-chaser defense. The chaser was George Latinovich, a 5-foot-11 sophomore. Described by the Post-Dispatch as “agile and aggressive,” Latinovich chased and hounded West.

As the newspaper noted, “The idea was to make West think he could take the short defender into the middle. West did, and that’s where the taller, zone-playing other Billikens ganged him and cut down his scoring.”

With West slowed, the Billikens clawed back from a 20-point deficit in the second half. As the West Virginia lead evaporated, Benington had his Billikens switch to a zone press. West fouled out with 22 seconds remaining.

St. Louis trailed by two, 87-85, when Billikens senior Jim Dailey was fouled with one second left. Dailey made the first free throw, but the second “hit the right side of the rim, looped, and rolled off the left side,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

West Virginia escaped with an 87-86 win. West had 37 points (12 in the second half) and 22 rebounds. “He’s the best I ever played against,” McCaffrey, who finished with 22 points, told the Post-Dispatch. “West can jump higher and he is quicker than Oscar (Robertson). Oscar is a better team player, though.”

The next night, St. Louis beat North Carolina, 68-52, in the consolation game, and West scored 33 to lead West Virginia to a 79-70 triumph over Kentucky for the tournament title.

Tough rookie

Three outstanding guards _ all destined for induction to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame _ were taken among the first six picks in the opening round of the 1960 NBA draft. Oscar Robertson, chosen first, went to the Cincinnati Royals. The next pick, West, went to the Minneapolis Lakers. With the sixth selection, the St. Louis Hawks took Lenny Wilkens.

West’s first season with the Lakers was their first in Los Angeles. They relocated from Minneapolis before the 1960-61 season and hired Fred Schaus, West’s college coach, to be their head coach.

Among the highlights of West’s rookie season were a pair of regular-season games against the Hawks.

On Feb. 2, 1961, as part of a NBA doubleheader at Philadelphia’s Convention Hall, the Lakers beat the Hawks, 116-115. West’s drive to the hoop resulted in a basket that tied the score at 115-115 with 38 seconds left. The Lakers won on Frank Selvy’s free throw in the final five seconds.

With forward Elgin Baylor sidelined because of an ankle injury, West snared 21 rebounds to go along with his 29 points. Boxscore

Ten days later, the Lakers faced the Hawks at St. Louis’ Kiel Auditorium. Though Baylor was in the lineup, West was a force on the boards again. He grabbed a career-high 24 rebounds and scored 17 points in a 105-95 Lakers victory. Boxscore

As the Post-Dispatch noted, West “caused no little embarrassment among the Hawks” and was “a major factor in the Lakers’ wide edge in rebounding. West charged the boards while his teammates blocked out the taller St. Louis players.”

Hawks head coach Paul Seymour told the newspaper, “To let their small men go in for rebounds as they did had to insult our guards.”

The loss was a rare one at home for the Hawks that season. It dropped their home record to 24-3. The other two losses were to the Boston Celtics.

In his 1970 book, “Mr. Clutch,” West said, “The fans in St. Louis were the toughest in the league. At Kiel Auditorium, they were closer to the court than in most arenas, and it was hard not to hear them. I have no complaints with most fans. They pay their way in and have a right to express themselves within reason. The sort of support they give teams in St. Louis, Boston and Philadelphia really helped those teams.”

West also was impressed with the Hawks’ standout player, Bob Pettit. “He was the most agile 6-foot-9 forward I ever faced and one of the greatest competitors,” West said in his 1970 book.

The Hawks (51-28) were regular-season conference champions in 1960-61, but the NBA then (like all professional sports now) had a playoff system that allowed also-rans in as wild cards. The Lakers (36-43) were one of the teams “rewarded” with a wild card spot.

Though undeserving of a playoff berth based on their record in the regular season, the Lakers took advantage of the gift and nearly knocked out the Hawks in the conference finals. The Lakers won three of the first five games before the Hawks eked out a 114-113 win in overtime in Game 6 and a 105-103 triumph in Game 7. West, the rookie, averaged 24.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game in that series.

In his autobiography, West criticized the NBA for awarding playoff berths to clubs with mediocre or losing records. “If the games in October and November aren’t going to count, why charge for them?” West said. “It isn’t a big-league operation if the fourth-place team can win the championship.”

Class act

West had several other noteworthy performances against St. Louis. In 1962, he scored 46 points in a game at Los Angeles and 45 at St. Louis. Boxscore and Boxscore

He also dished out 16 assists to go with 23 points in a 1966 game versus St. Louis. Boxscore

Facing St. Louis in the 1966 conference finals, West averaged 34.6 points, 6.1 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game. West was the Lakers’ high scorer in six of the seven games in that series.

Guarded by St. Louis player-coach Richie Guerin, West scored 42 in Game 4. As the Post-Dispatch noted, “West was able to score because of his phenomenal skill firing in baskets despite hands in his face and constant harassment.” Boxscore

In the Game 7 finale, a 130-121 win for the Lakers, West had 35 points and six assists, even though he was called for his fifth foul late in the third quarter. West played the rest of the game without committing a disqualifying sixth foul.

“We did our best to take him under the basket, where he might get his sixth foul, but when we did that, we sacrificed some of our movement on offense,” Guerin told the Post-Dispatch. Boxscore

West was a guest instructor at the summer basketball camp run by former St. Louis University and NBA standout Ed Macauley at Hillsboro, Mo., in 1962.

One of the tips West gave the campers was: “If you’re trying to steal the ball, slap up, not down, and you’re less likely to be caught off balance.”

West also told the newspaper, “Quickness is more important than speed. The Hawks’ Bob Pettit has it, and so does Lenny Wilkens. The first move is the key one. It gets you past your man, or at least in the clear long enough to shoot.”

West was 36 when he opted to end his playing career in October 1974. Though he had a guaranteed $300,000 contract and had just scored 19 points in an exhibition game against the Portland Trail Blazers, West told the New York Times, “The major reason for my retirement is because I have set high standards for myself that I’m not willing to compromise. I have seen other players play longer than I thought they should have. I did not want to do that.”

Posted in Games, Opponents | 14 Comments »

How 28 equaled 30 for Cardinals’ Dizzy Dean

June 17, 2024 by retrosimba

Dizzy Dean was plenty good for the 1934 Cardinals, but he needed a helping hand from an influential source to achieve 30 wins.

In two June relief appearances Dean made for the 1934 Cardinals, National League president John Heydler credited him with wins in both, even though other pitchers appeared to qualify instead.

If not for Heydler’s unconventional decisions, Dean would have finished with 28 regular-season wins in 1934. Instead, he got 30, becoming the last National League pitcher to achieve the feat.

Save or win?

On June 21, 1934, at St. Louis, Dean beat the Dodgers, pitching a complete game and boosting his season record to 10-3. Boxscore

Two days later, with the Dodgers ahead, 3-0, in the sixth inning, Bill Hallahan relieved for the Cardinals and gave up a run, extending the Brooklyn lead to 4-0. In the bottom half of the inning, Pat Crawford batted for Hallahan and delivered a two-run single, capping a five-run rally that put the Cardinals on top, 5-4.

Dean entered in the seventh, looking to protect the lead. Hallahan figured to be in line for the win if the Cardinals held on. Dean did the job, holding the Dodgers scoreless the last three innings. Boxscore

Official scorer Martin Haley, baseball reporter for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, awarded the win to Hallahan because the Cardinals were ahead when Dean was brought in.

As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted, “The official scorer, in naming Hallahan, was abiding by the scoring rules, which provide that ordinarily a pitcher shall be credited with the runs scored by his team in the inning, or innings, he pitches.”

Haley apparently had second thoughts, though, because that night he filed a report to Heydler, a former umpire, and asked him to make a decision on who should be the winning pitcher. Dean, the fourth Cardinals pitcher of the game, was the only one who held the Dodgers scoreless.

Rules to pitch by

Here is how Major League Baseball defines how a pitcher qualifies for a win:

“A pitcher receives a win when he is the pitcher of record when his team takes the lead for good _ with a couple rare exceptions. First, a starting pitcher must pitch at least five innings (in a traditional game of nine innings or longer) to qualify for the win. If he does not, the official scorer awards the win to the most effective relief pitcher.

“There is also a rarely used clause where an official scorer can deem a relief pitcher’s appearance ‘brief and ineffective.’ (For example, if a reliever relinquished a one-run lead by allowing three runs, but was still in line for a win after his team scored four runs in the following inning _ that may qualify.) If that’s the case, the scorer can award the win to a pitcher who followed that ‘brief and ineffective’ pitcher. Which relief pitcher earns the win specifically is also up to the judgment of the official scorer.”

Verdict is in

On the morning of June 27, 1934, Heydler declared Dean the winning pitcher of the June 23 game. “Dean pitched great ball … to protect (a) one-run lead,” Heydler ruled. “Hallahan pitched one inning rather poorly.”

According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, “Hallahan himself suggested that the credit go to Dean.”

St. Louis newspapers supported Heydler’s decision.:

_ St. Louis Star-Times: “Hallahan, like Diz, entered the contest as a relief pitcher but, unlike Diz, failed to hold the foe in check.”

_ St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “It was (Dean’s) strong arm and determination, his pitching skill and his fielding agility that made it possible for the Cardinals to win.”

Heydler’s ruling gave Dean a season record of 11-3.

That afternoon, the Cardinals played the Giants at St. Louis. The groundkeeper’s thermometer at Sportsman’s Park recorded 115 degrees on the field, the New York Daily News reported.

Dizzy started for the Cardinals and labored into the ninth inning. With the score tied at 7-7, the Giants had runners on first and second, two outs, when Jim Mooney relieved Dean.

Mooney, an ex-Giant, got the Cardinals out of the jam when he fielded Mel Ott’s sharp grounder and threw to first for the third out. Ott’s comebacker “almost knocked the pitcher down,” the Post-Dispatch reported, but he made the play.

Facing 43-year-old reliever Dolf Luque in the bottom half of the ninth, Cardinals catcher Bill DeLancey drove a pitch onto the pavilion roof in right-center for a walkoff home run. Boxscore

Decisions, decisions

Though Mooney had done the job, retiring a future Hall of Famer with the outcome on the line, and was still in the game when Delancey hit his homer, official scorer Martin Haley awarded the win to Dean.

“He had toiled 8.2 innings under a blistering sun and had pitched shutout baseball from the third to that ninth,” the Post-Dispatch noted.

He also may have pitched with a hand injury. According to Dean, an X-ray showed a small piece of bone chipped off the knuckle, the Globe-Democrat reported.

Seeking cover for his decision, Haley again asked Heydler to make the final ruling. Heydler agreed with him. Dean got the win, improving his season record to 12-3.

In his book “Diz,” Dean biographer Robert Gregory wrote that the two rulings giving wins to Dean “were controversial” and the Giants “were said to be particularly indignant.”

Dean finished the 1934 regular season with a 30-7 record. In 33 starts, he pitched 24 complete games, including seven shutouts, and was 26-5. He was 4-2, including the two Heydler rulings, in 17 relief appearances. In three starts against the Tigers in the 1934 World Series, Dean was 2-1, including a shutout in Game 7.

Posted in Executives, Games, Pitchers | 13 Comments »

How Dizzy Dean found a way to beat the heat

June 12, 2024 by retrosimba

In 1934, the double whammy of the Great Depression and an extreme drought inflamed by excessive heat spread misery throughout the United States. For some, the antics of pitcher Dizzy Dean provided an amusing diversion from the problems they were facing.

A 30-game winner for the 1934 Cardinals, Dean was an enthusiastic entertainer whose showmanship extended beyond his pitching.

Dean provided his ballpark audiences with comedy routines on the field. One of his most inventive came at the height of a heat wave.

Hell on earth

According to Dean’s biographer Robert Gregory in his book “Diz,” the Midwest in 1934 experienced a brutal summer. “There was no rain for weeks, the Mississippi River had become a stream, Missouri was facing the worst farm crisis in state history and St. Louis was having its highest temperatures since 1871,” Gregory wrote. “For 30 days, it was 100 degrees or hotter.”

On Sunday afternoon, June 24, 1934, the temperature soared to 102 degrees in St. Louis, but 15,000 spectators came out to Sportsman’s Park for a game between the league-leading Giants (39-22) and second-place Cardinals (36-23).

The Giants’ lineup featured future Hall of Famers Bill Terry, Mel Ott and Travis Jackson, ex-Cardinals George Watkins and Gus Mancuso and starting pitcher Freddie Fitzsimmons.

The Cardinals’ Gashouse Gang group included Frankie Frisch, Joe Medwick, Pepper Martin, Rip Collins, Leo Durocher and starting pitcher Tex Carleton.

Taking center stage, though, was Dizzy Dean.

Singing in the rain

Before the game began, Dean decided to thumb his nose at the weather conditions. He “painstakingly collected enough rubbish to build himself a bonfire in front of his dugout,” the New York Daily News reported. The material for the fire consisted of paper wrappers, sticks, old scorecards and other debris Dean found along the edge of the grandstand.

Dean “fanned his little fire, rubbing his knuckles, encouraging and soberly inspecting it from every angle to make sure the wigwam of sticks drew a good draft,” New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Powers noted. “When assured he had a respectable blaze, he procured two Cardinals blankets, garbed himself and coach Mike Gonzalez in their suffocating folds and then stomped the earth, slapping his mouth in a series of yipping Indian war cries.”

According to Robert Gregory, “He had them rolling in the aisles behind the dugout and then he cupped a hand to his ear. What was it? his expression seemed to ask. What was he hearing in the distance? Was it thunder? Was a storm coming? Yes, his nods were suggesting, rain was falling, lots of it, the drought was broken, and now his cap was off, his head was tilted up, his eyes were closed, he was smiling at being splashed by this imaginary summer shower. Now cool and wet enough, he pretended to open an umbrella and tiptoed beneath it to the dugout, vanishing to laughing cheers and whistles.”

The New York Daily News described Dean’s exit this way: “Before the irate umpires could vent their wrath, he withdrew, his hand on his hip, stalking off with the dignity of a Princess Pocahontas.”

Dean’s performance was the highlight for the hometown fans. In the game that followed, the Giants won, 9-7. Boxscore

On with the show

While taking care of business on the hill in 1934 _ Dean was 5-0 in May, 6-1 in June, 6-1 in July, 5-2 in August and 7-1 in September _ Dizzy continued with an array of masterful pantomime performances.

According to Jimmy Powers, Dean will “break an egg and fry an omelet on the sun-steeped dugout roof. In slow motion, he will take an imaginary shave, or serve and consume an entire meal, or shadow box a vicious brawl.”

As Time magazine observed, Dean’s unconventional behavior, “the result of shrewd self-aggrandizement,” is as famed as his pitching prowess.

The Cardinals won the 1934 pennant and advanced to the World Series against the Tigers. After Dean won Game 1 at Detroit, he and his brother, Paul, had breakfast the next morning with Henry Ford.

According to Dean’s biographer, “At Ford’s direction, a siren-blaring police escort hurried them to the park. Dizzy signed lots of autographs on the field, posed for every camera, and then, taking off an Indian blanket, sat down with the band behind home plate, borrowed a tuba, and puffed his way through ‘Wagon Wheels.’ To the musician whose horn he’d taken, Dizzy said, ‘Give me a week at this and I’ll have your job.’ “

After getting conked in the head by a throw from Detroit shortstop Billy Rogell while running the bases in Game 4, Dean reportedly said, “I saw a million stars, moons, dogs, cats, but I didn’t see no Tigers.”

Before Game 7 at Detroit, Dean approached Tigers slugger Hank Greenberg as they headed up a runway to the field. According to Robert Gregory, Dean said, “You boys are too tight. What you got to do is ‘unlax’ a little. But your troubles are going to be over in a couple of hours. Ol’ Diz is pitching.”

Dean pitched a shutout, securing the championship for the Cardinals.

Posted in Games, Pitchers | 7 Comments »

Joining Cardinals became a career saver for Ken Dayley

June 7, 2024 by retrosimba

When the Cardinals acquired Ken Dayley, they thought they were getting a top of the line starting pitcher. Then they were worried he might be a dud.

As it turned out, Dayley developed into one of the top left-handed relievers in the National League during the 1980s.

On June 15, 1984, the Cardinals traded third baseman Ken Oberkfell to the Braves for Dayley and utility player Mike Jorgensen.

Dayley helped the Cardinals win two National League pennants.

Jorgensen also played for the 1985 league champion Cardinals and served several roles for the organization, including interim manager in 1995, minor-league manager (1986-89), director of player development (1992-2001) and special assistant to the general manager (2001-2018).

Easily rattled

A marketing major who played baseball and basketball at the University of Portland in Oregon, Dayley was the first pitcher selected in the 1980 June amateur draft. The Braves took him with the third overall pick.

Two years later, Dayley, 23, made his big-league debut in a start against the 1982 Cardinals, who roughed him up for four runs in 1.1 innings. The big blow was Tito Landrum’s two-run homer. Boxscore

Two months later, the Cardinals’ Willie McGee whacked a grand slam against Dayley. Boxscore

Shuttled back and forth between starting and relieving, Dayley had losing records with the Braves in 1982 and 1983. “He’s a fairly high-strung kid, and it seemed when we sent him to the mound, he felt he was pitching for his life,” Braves manager Joe Torre told the Atlanta Constitution.

Braves pitching coach Bob Gibson said to the newspaper, “He has to learn to relax more than he does now. He tries to give you the appearance that everything is fine and that he’s cool inside, but he’s really not.”

Dayley’s stress level wasn’t helped when, after the 1983 season, the Braves released franchise icon Phil Niekro and said doing so opened a starting spot for Dayley. “In other words,” wrote Gerry Fraley of the Atlanta Constitution, “Dayley is supposed to replace Phil Niekro on the mound and in the statistics, if not in the hearts of Braves fans.”

Pitching more like Phil Silvers than Phil Niekro, Dayley was 0-3 with a 5.30 ERA in four starts for the 1984 Braves before he was demoted to the minors. According to the Atlanta Constitution, trying to replace Niekro “became an oppressive mental burden for the already skittish Dayley.”

Braves director of player development Hank Aaron said to the Constitution, “We still think Ken Dayley has a tremendous future in the big leagues. It’s a matter of him getting his act together _ relaxing.”

High hopes

The Cardinals sent three scouts to watch Dayley at Class AAA Richmond (Va.) and they liked what they saw. When the Braves went looking for a third baseman to replace Bob Horner, who suffered a season-ending wrist injury in May 1984, the Cardinals agreed to swap Oberkfell for Dayley and Jorgensen.

Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said Dayley, 25, had the capability to be a “No. 1 or No. 2” starter, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. “I feel he’s ready,” Herzog told the newspaper. “He’s paid his dues … He’s got a chance to be a very good pitcher.”

The results, though, were alarming. The Cardinals pitched Dayley in three games, including two starts, and he was shelled in each, allowing 16 hits and 10 earned runs in five total innings. Dayley gave up so many hard shots that “we had to get the married men off the infield, or there’d have been a lot of widows and orphans,” Herzog told The Sporting News.

Dayley said to the Post-Dispatch, “I was muscling up on the ball. I wasn’t smooth. I wasn’t relaxed in letting the ball go.”

The Cardinals dispatched Dayley to Class AAA Louisville and left him there for the rest of the 1984 season.

Pleasant surprise

At 1985 spring training, The Sporting News reported, Dayley “may be getting his last look by the Cardinals.” He told the Atlanta Constitution, “I was just trying to make the team.”

The Cardinals’ closer, Bruce Sutter, had become a free agent and signed with the Braves. Herzog decided to use a committee of relievers to fill the void. “I never even thought about relieving,” Dayley said to reporter Chris Mortensen.

Herzog and pitching Mike Roarke envisioned a bullpen that featured a balance of right-handers and left-handers. Seeking another left-hander to join Ricky Horton, they worked on making Dayley a fulltime reliever.

“Dayley is kind of hyper and … we had to teach him to pitch in pressure situations,” Herzog told The Sporting News.

Roarke said to the Post-Dispatch, “We changed a few things in his delivery. He’s got better location with his pitches now. Last year (in 1984), he was throwing too many around the waist.”

Dayley made the 1985 Opening Day roster. Keeping his pitches low and on the corners, and maintaining his poise, he flourished, allowing one run in his first 13 appearances, covering 18.2 innings.

He’d become so valuable that when the Cleveland Indians offered starter Bert Blyleven to the Cardinals in July 1985 for three pitchers _ Dayley, Kurt Kepshire and Rick Ownbey _ the bid was rejected, The Sporting News reported.

“Dayley probably has been the biggest surprise” of the Cardinals’ bullpen committee, The Sporting News declared.

When the Cardinals clinched the 1985 pennant with a win in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series, Dayley got the save, retiring the Dodgers in order in the ninth. Boxscore and Video

He’d come a long way from the shaky candidate who went to spring training without a lock on a job. Dayley led the 1985 Cardinals in games pitched (57) and was second on the club in saves (11). His ERA was 2.76 and he yielded a mere two home runs (though one was a titanic game-winning shot by Darryl Strawberry) in 65.1 innings.

In the 1985 postseason, Dayley was nearly perfect, with six scoreless innings in five appearances in the playoff series against the Dodgers and six more scoreless innings in four games pitched versus the Royals in the World Series. He was the winning pitcher in World Series Game 2.

As Herzog said to the Post-Dispatch, “In 1985, he was the best left-handed reliever in the league.”

On the mend

In 1986, Dayley’s left elbow didn’t feel right. By July, the pain became unbearable and he was sidelined the rest of the season. An exam revealed a torn ligament.

A nerve and tendon from Dayley’s right arm were surgically transplanted to his left elbow in October 1986. By May 1987, he was pitching for the Cardinals. “It came along much faster than I had any right to hope,” Dayley exclaimed to the Post-Dispatch. “I kind of think it’s a miracle.”

Herzog told columnist Kevin Horrigan, “When we got Dayley back, and when it looked like he was going to pitch effectively, that’s when I began to think we could win (the pennant).”

A month after his return, Dayley faced another health hurdle when he was diagnosed with meningitis (an infection and inflammation of the fluid and membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord).

Dayley recovered and had an exceptional July (5-1, one save, 1.56 ERA in 15 games pitched that month). He finished the 1987 season as the team leader in ERA (2.66), posting a 9-5 record with four saves and striking out 63 in 61 innings.

In the 1987 National League Championship Series versus the Giants, Dayley saved two of the Cardinals’ four wins and didn’t allow a run in three appearances.

Dayley’s remarkable success in the postseason continued into the 1987 World Series against the Twins. He didn’t allow a run in his first three appearances, including 2.2 innings for a save in Game 4. Boxscore

His fourth appearance of the Series, Game 6, was a different story. Ahead, 6-5, in the sixth inning, the Twins had the bases loaded, two outs, when Herzog brought in Dayley to face left-handed batter Kent Hrbek.

Dayley had not allowed a home run to a left-handed batter all season. He had not allowed a run in 20.1 postseason innings.

According to the Associated Press, Herzog told Dayley, “Get this guy out and we’ve got a chance to win.”

The first pitch was a fastball “over the plate where he could extend his arms on it,” Dayley told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “I wanted it inside a little.”

Hrbek drove the ball 439 feet for a grand slam. The Twins won, 11-5, to even the Series and then clinched the title in Game 7. Boxscore

Dayley told columnist Rick Bozich, “When you’re a reliever, you’re either a hero or a zero.”

Falling out

Granted free agency after the 1990 season, Dayley signed with the Blue Jays. At spring training in 1991, he experienced dizzy spells and was diagnosed with a severe case of vertigo.

According to the 2005 book “Cardinals: Where Have You Gone?” doctors determined the vertigo most likely “stemmed from when he contracted meningitis in 1986. That virus stayed dormant until it moved out and traumatized a nerve years later.”

Appearing in just 10 games for the Blue Jays, Dayley’s pitching career ended at age 34.

Posted in Games, Pitchers, Trades | 14 Comments »

St. Louis became hitter’s haven for Bob Skinner

June 3, 2024 by retrosimba

(Updated June 28, 2024)

During his core years with the Pirates, Bob Skinner did a convincing impersonation of Stan Musial whenever he played against the Cardinals in St. Louis.

An outfielder who batted from the left side, Skinner had a level swing admired by teammates and foes alike.

In a six-season stretch from 1957-62, these were the numbers Skinner produced for the Pirates in games at St. Louis:

_ 1957: .412 batting average (14-for-34); .459 on-base percentage.

_ 1958: .364 batting average (8-for-22); .462 on-base percentage.

_ 1959: .410 batting average (16-for-39); .465 on-base percentage.

_ 1960: .345 batting average (10-for-29); .367 on-base percentage.

_ 1961: .500 batting average (14-for-28); .517 on-base percentage.

_ 1962: .308 batting average (8-for-26); .500 on-base percentage.

No wonder the Cardinals acquired him in their bid to get back into the 1964 pennant race.

Late bloomer

At La Jolla High School near San Diego, where his father taught Spanish and French, Skinner batted .200 as a junior. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, his high school coach said, “Of all the players I coached, I figured Bob Skinner was the least likely to succeed in baseball.”

Described by writer Myron Cope as sloped-shoulder, gangly and with “the features of a friendly hound dog,” Skinner moved deliberately around a ballfield. “It’s not that I’m lazy,” he told the Post-Gazette. “I just don’t waste any steps.”

Nonetheless, Pirates scout Tom Downey became fascinated with Skinner’s textbook swing, placed him in an amateur Sunday league and monitored his progress, the Post-Gazette reported. When Skinner, 19, learned to use that classic batting stroke to rap base hits consistently, Downey signed him to a Pirates contract in 1951.

He played in the minors that summer, then served two years stateside in the Marines and played baseball for service teams.

Skinner, 22, made the leap to the big leagues with the 1954 Pirates, becoming their first baseman and hitting .249 for a team that finished 53-101. Sent back to the minors in 1955, he returned to the Pirates the next year and settled in as their left fielder in 1957.

In the groove

Skinner’s sweet swing produced results _ .305 batting average and .370 on-base percentage in 1957, and .321 batting mark and .387 on-base percentage in 1958.

The Cubs’ Ernie Banks rated Musial, Hank Aaron and Skinner as the best hitters in the National League in 1958, The Pittsburgh Press reported. In the book “We Played the Game,” Tom Cheney, who pitched for the Cardinals and Pirates, said Skinner “was one of the best left-handed hitters I ever saw.”

In April 1959, New York Times columnist Arthur Daley wrote, “The successor to Stan Musial as the best left-handed hitter in the National League is Bob Skinner.”

Pittsburgh Press baseball writer Les Biederman noted, “The Pirates who see Skinner every day put him in Musial’s class as a hitter.”

Skinner told the newspaper, “I’ve become a better hitter now because I’m a better judge of the strike zone. I won’t swing at a bad pitch.” He credited Pirates instructor George Sisler, the former Browns first baseman, with helping him learn the strike zone.

“Mr. Sisler would show up any time you wanted to work with him and he’d stay as long as you wanted him to,” Skinner told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He’d work mainly on the mental approach to hitting, on concentration, being ready and hitting only strikes.”

Two-time American League batting champion Mickey Vernon, who became a Pirates coach, said to the Post-Gazette, “Skinner has a beautiful, level swing. That’s the mark of a good hitter _ a level swing. Skinner has it. No reason why he shouldn’t hit well over .300 each year.”

Yet, after the 1958 season, Skinner didn’t hit better than .280 for three years in a row. “He is the first to tell you that his pretty swing has produced, over the years, some mighty ugly results,” the Post-Gazette noted.

Hit and miss

In 1959, Skinner hurt his back when he crashed into a fence chasing a Hank Aaron drive in Milwaukee. “I was out for nine days after foolishly trying to knock that fence down,” Skinner said to the Post-Gazette. “It pained like the devil. I realized later I tried to get back in the lineup too soon. My timing was off for a long time.”

He still managed to be a pain to Cardinals pitchers. On Aug. 6, 1959, Skinner had four hits, a walk and scored twice during an 18-2 rout of the Cardinals at St. Louis. Boxscore

In 1960, Skinner had a team-leading 33 doubles and a career-high 86 RBI, helping the Pirates win the pennant. In Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees, he injured a thumb making a headfirst slide and didn’t play again until Game 7, scoring a run in the Pirates’ 10-9 triumph. Boxscore

Though he had a subpar 1961 season (.268), Skinner did have three doubles, three RBI and four runs scored in a 19-0 romp over the Cardinals at St. Louis. Boxscore

In 1962, Skinner hit .302 and led the Pirates in on-base percentage (.395), slugging percentage (.504), home runs (20), walks (76) and total bases (257).

(Though more a contact hitter than a slugger, Skinner had power. In May 1966, the Post-Dispatch reported that only nine fair balls ever had been hit to or over the right field roof at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field and the only two batters to do it twice were Skinner and the Braves’ Eddie Mathews.)

Looking to make room for a young, slugging left fielder, Willie Stargell, the Pirates sent Skinner to the Reds in May 1963 for Jerry Lynch. Unable to crack an outfield of Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson and Tommy Harper, Skinner was a reserve.

Helping hand

The departures of three left-handed batters (Musial and Carl Sawatski retired, and George Altman was traded) after the 1963 season left the Cardinals with a gap in 1964. They hoped a couple of promising outfielders who batted from the left side, Doug Clemens and Johnny Lewis, could do the job, but both struggled, prompting general manager Bing Devine to go shopping.

On June 13, 1964, the Cardinals (in sixth place at 28-28) got Skinner from the Reds for cash and minor-league catcher Jim Saul. “Skinner fills the Cardinals’ need for an experienced outfielder who bats left-handed,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

Two days later, the Cardinals got another left-handed batter, Lou Brock, from the Cubs to take a starting spot in the outfield.

Brock’s acquisition was crucial to the Cardinals becoming National League and World Series champions in 1964. Skinner helped, too.

Playing almost exclusively against right-handed pitching, Skinner, 32, hit .333 with runners in scoring position for the 1964 Cardinals. He also hit .389 (7-for-18) against the front-running Phillies.

On July 14 at St. Louis, the Dodgers led, 7-4, entering the bottom of the ninth, but the Cardinals scored four times for an 8-7 triumph. With two outs, Skinner, batting for Julian Javier, drove in the tying and winning runs with a two-run single versus ex-Cardinal Bob Miller. Boxscore

A month later, Skinner again batted for Javier, and cracked a three-run home run against the Dodgers’ Howie Reed, carrying the Cardinals to a 4-1 victory at St. Louis. Boxscore

As he had as a Pirate, Skinner hit well in St. Louis for the Cardinals. His home batting average for them in 1964 was .290.

Skinner also provided leadership. The Post-Dispatch described him as “commander in chief of the St. Louis reserves.”

In the 1964 World Series against the Yankees, Skinner made four pinch-hit appearances and produced two hits and a walk.

All in the family

Skinner was an asset to the Cardinals again in 1965. He hit .309 overall and .319 as a pinch-hitter. According to the Post-Dispatch, Skinner in 1965 had the most pinch-hits (15) and the most pinch-hit RBI (15) in the National League. In games at St. Louis in 1965, he batted .339 overall.

Released by the Cardinals after an unproductive 1966 season, Skinner went on to manage the Phillies (1968-69) and coached for 19 years in the big leagues with the Padres, Pirates, Angels and Braves. He coached for manager Chuck Tanner’s 1979 World Series champion Pirates.

A son, Joel Skinner, was an American League catcher for nine seasons. Joel also coached in the majors for 10 years and was Cleveland manager for part of the 2002 season.

Besides Bob Skinner and Joel Skinner, other fathers and sons who have managed teams in the majors are Felipe Alou and Luis Rojas; Buddy Bell and David Bell; Bob Boone and Aaron Boone; and George Sisler and Dick Sisler.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents | 9 Comments »

Cards prospect Bill Plummer got stuck in catcher pipeline

May 29, 2024 by retrosimba

During the 10 years he was a catcher in the big leagues, Bill Plummer may have been the most patient man in baseball. For most of that time, he sat and watched, waiting to get called into a game.

Plummer had hoped to play for the Cardinals, the club that signed him to his first professional contract, but it didn’t happen. Instead, he was mostly with the Reds, whose starting catcher, Johnny Bench, performed at a level that earned him election to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Being Bench’s backup kept Plummer on the bench. On the rare times Plummer did get on the field, the team he often did the best against was the Cardinals.

In the genes

Plummer came from a baseball family. His father, also named Bill, was a pitcher in the minor leagues for five seasons in the 1920s. An uncle, Red Baldwin, was a longtime minor-league catcher. Plummer’s father and uncle were teammates on the 1924-25 Seattle Indians.

Playing baseball at Shasta College in Redding, Calif., in April 1965, Plummer caught the attention of the reigning World Series champion Cardinals. Scout Bill Sayles offered him $10,000 and said the club also would finance the remainder of Plummer’s college education. “I came from a small country town (Anderson, Calif.), so I jumped at the offer,” Plummer recalled to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

According to the Redding Record Searchlight, “The Cardinals were interested in Plummer because of his hitting, ability as a catcher and rifle arm.”

Plummer, 18, joined the Cardinals’ 1965 Florida Rookie League team in Sarasota managed by George Kissell.

Behind the plate, Plummer looked terrific. He was “reputed to have one of the best arms in the Cardinals organization,” the Modesto Bee reported. Standing at the plate, he looked helpless. With Class A Eugene (Ore.) in 1966, Plummer batted .144 and had more strikeouts (33) than hits (18).

Catching on

Assigned to Class A Modesto in 1967, Plummer was managed by Sparky Anderson. The relationship did not begin well.

“I was using Sonny Ruberto for most of the catching early in the season and Plummer didn’t like it,” Anderson told the Post-Dispatch. “He gave me a mean stare one day as he entered the shower. I told him that stare would only get him back to Eugene if he kept it up. He played better after that.”

Plummer said to the Dayton Daily News, “I was young and had temper problems. I was frustrated and depressed because baseball was my career and I was floundering in the minors. I used to get so depressed I’d hide somewhere, and have a few cocktails where nobody talked baseball.”

Anderson eventually moved Ruberto to the infield and made Plummer the everyday catcher. Though he struggled to make contact (100 strikeouts, 93 hits), his catching skills were impressive. Modesto won a league championship.

The Cardinals organization had an abundance of talent in 1967. The big-league club became World Series champions that year. One of its core players was the catcher, Tim McCarver. The Cardinals’ first-round pick in the amateur draft that year was McCarver’s heir apparent, Ted Simmons.

Plummer’s hopes of becoming a Cardinal went down the drain when they left him off the 40-man big-league winter roster after the 1967 season. The Cubs claimed him in the November 1967 Rule 5 draft.

Forgotten man

By drafting him, the Cubs were required to keep Plummer, 21, on their big-league roster the entire 1968 season or else offer him back to the Cardinals, but manager Leo Durocher wasn’t inclined to use a catcher who hadn’t played above the Class A level.

As the Chicago Tribune noted, Plummer “appears doomed to little work if Randy Hundley stays healthy behind the plate.”

Hundley caught nearly every game for the 1968 Cubs. Plummer was mostly ignored. He got into two games all season. In his debut, April 19, 1968, at St. Louis, he batted for pitcher Chuck Hartenstein and was struck out by Cardinals rookie reliever Hal Gilson. Boxscore

Plummer’s only other appearance came on May 12 during a Mets rout of the Cubs in the second game of a doubleheader at Wrigley Field. Plummer caught two innings as a replacement for Hundley and was retired on a fly to right. Boxscore

“It was so bad that when we played an exhibition game in the middle of the year against the White Sox they called a catcher from the minors up to catch the game,” Plummer told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “They didn’t even use me then.”

Spending most of his time in the bullpen located along the outfield sideline at Wrigley Field, Plummer was similar to a spectator in the stands. Mike Murphy, a founder of the ballpark’s Bleacher Bums, told McClatchy News Service, “He was like one of us. He sat on a bench, just like we did. He’d wave and smile at us. He hit lots of home runs in batting practice. All the girls noticed him.”

Though popular, the season of inactivity “set me back a couple of years,” Plummer said to the Associated Press.

Reserve duty

Plummer hoped to get drafted by one of the four expansion teams (Expos, Padres, Pilots, Royals) that entered the majors in 1969, or go to any other club needing to play a catcher, but instead the Cubs sent him to the Reds in January 1969 for reliever Ted Abernathy.

Johnny Bench, who in 1968 won National League Rookie of the Year and Gold Glove awards, had a lock on the Reds starting catching job and his backup was the former Cardinals veteran, Pat Corrales.

According to the Redding Record Searchlight, “there was some talk of converting Plummer into a pitcher,” but the Reds reconsidered.

Plummer spent most of the next three seasons (1969-71) in the minors before emerging as Bench’s backup in 1972. According to the Modesto Bee, Sparky Anderson, who became Reds manager in 1970, said Plummer “already has an arm better than two-thirds of the catchers up here.”

Asked to describe the catching strengths he and Bench possessed, Plummer said to the Cincinnati Enquirer, “John had the excellent release, great foot movement and super hands. He was excellent at receiving throws from the outfield and making tags. I was the kind of guy who stayed in and blocked the plate and crunched people. Those were my skills.”

The Enquirer added, “Plummer was adept defensively. He was a fine handler of pitchers and had a strong arm. He could make all the plays behind the plate.”

Reds pitcher Jack Billingham said to the newspaper, “He couldn’t carry Bench’s bat, but, defensively, you didn’t lose much at all when Plummer was in there.”

In 797 career at-bats for the Reds, Plummer hit .186, but there were some highlights, especially against the Cardinals and one of their former pitchers.

Magic moments

On June 8, 1974, facing Steve Carlton at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Plummer slugged two home runs and Bench, playing third, hit another, but the Phillies prevailed, 6-5. In 16 career plate appearances versus Carlton, Plummer batted .429 and had a .500 on-base mark. Boxscore

Plummer’s most productive game came almost exactly two years later, June 6, 1976, a Sunday afternoon at St. Louis. Filling in for Bench, who was experiencing muscle spasms, Plummer had seven RBI in the Reds’ 13-2 triumph at Busch Memorial Stadium.

Plummer had a RBI-single against Pete Falcone in the second, a three-run triple that knocked Falcone out of the game in the third, and a three-run home run versus Danny Frisella in the sixth.

“I actually felt chills when I circled the bases after hitting that homer,” Plummer told The Cincinnati Post. “Seven RBI. That’s almost a full season’s work for me.”

Plummer’s home run would have been a grand slam if George Foster hadn’t been picked off second on the previous play with the bases loaded.

As for Plummer’s bases-clearing triple, it came about when his liner took a high hop on the AstroTurf, went over the head of right fielder Willie Crawford and rolled to the wall. It was Plummer’s only big-league triple. Boxscore

A week later, playing the Cardinals at Cincinnati, Plummer had three hits, a walk, two RBI and scored twice, but the Cardinals won, 12-9. Two of Plummer’s hits _ a single and a home run _ came against Bob Forsch. Boxscore

Plummer had three three-hit games in the majors and two of those were against the Cardinals.

Of Plummer’s 19 RBI for the Reds in 1976, 10 came against the Cardinals. For the season, he hit .248 overall but .381 versus St. Louis.

Baseball teacher

During his time with Cincinnati, the Reds played in four World Series but Plummer never appeared in any of those games.

Released by the Reds in 1978, he played a final season with the Mariners.

Plummer managed in the minors for 20 years, primarily in the farm systems of the Mariners, Tigers and Diamondbacks. He also coached in the majors with the Mariners (1982-83 and 1988-91) and Rockies (1993-94).

Plummer got one chance to manage in the majors. That was with the Mariners in 1992. Though the team had future Hall of Famers Edgar Martinez (the American League batting champion that year), Ken Griffey Jr. and Randy Johnson, the 1992 Mariners finished with the worst record in the league (64-98). Plummer was fired and replaced by Lou Piniella.

A grandson of Plummer, Conner Menez, pitched in the majors for the Giants (2019-21) and Cubs (2022).

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

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