RetroSimba

A crafty play by Ted Simmons confuses Cubs

May 24, 2024 by retrosimba

Ted Simmons clobbered the Cubs with his bat, but he also used brains and hustle to beat them.

On May 24, 1974, Simmons outmaneuvered the Cubs, escaping a rundown between third and home to score the run in a 1-0 Cardinals victory.

Hardly swift, the Cardinals’ catcher evaded the Cubs’ fastest player in a race to the plate.

Cubs tormentor

Sonny Siebert of the Cardinals and the Cubs’ Rick Reuschel were locked in a scoreless duel on a Friday afternoon at Chicago’s Wrigley Field when Simmons led off the ninth.

A switch-hitter, Simmons was a frightening sight on either side of the plate to Cubs pitchers. He would hit .466 against the 1974 Cubs, with a .500 on-base percentage and .781 slugging mark. Eleven of his 34 hits versus the 1974 Cubs were for extra bases. Reuschel was a favorite target. For his career, Simmons batted .357 (30 hits) against him and walked 10 times.

Sticking to the script, Simmons smashed a double to right to start the ninth. He moved to third on Bake McBride’s sacrifice bunt. Reuschel gave an intentional pass to Joe Torre (who hit .300 against him). Ken Reitz was due up next, but Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst sent Tim McCarver to bat for him.

McCarver pulled a grounder to the right of Billy Williams, who was moved to first base from the outfield that season.

Simmons broke from third when McCarver made contact, then stopped when Williams fired an accurate throw to rookie catcher Tom Lundstedt.

“I was a dead duck,” Simmons said to United Press International.

Path opens

Lundstedt ran toward Simmons, who turned and retreated toward third. Lundstedt then tossed the ball to third baseman Matt Alexander. “I thought Lundstedt released the ball too soon,” Simmons said to United Press International.

After making the throw, Lundstedt kept advancing until he was almost even with Simmons. Pivoting, Simmons (“exhibiting amazing reflexes,” the Chicago Tribune noted) turned his back to Alexander and could hardly believe his eyes. Home plate was unguarded. “I was somewhat startled,” Simmons said to United Press International, “because (until then) there was no way I was going to score.”

Reuschel, who had left the mound to cover first base when Williams pursued McCarver’s grounder, was standing near the bag, watching the play. Williams was alongside him.

What they saw was Simmons rush past Lundstedt and rumble toward home, his batting helmet off and long hair flowing, as Alexander chased after him. “It sounded like a fire behind me,” Simmons said to United Press International.

Normally, a race between Alexander and Simmons would be no contest, but “he had too big a head start,” Alexander told the Chicago Tribune.

Though Alexander (described by the Tribune as “the fastest of the Cubs”) was gaining on him, Simmons streaked across the plate before his pursuer could apply a tag, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.

Arriving too late were Reuschel and Williams, whom the Tribune described as “somewhat confused.”

Torre and McCarver advanced to third and second on the play, but Reuschel got out of the inning without allowing anymore scoring. Siebert set down the Cubs in order in the bottom of the ninth, retiring Williams, Jose Cardenal and Rick Monday to complete the shutout. Boxscore

Blame game

Cubs manager Whitey Lockman said Reuschel should have gone from first to home to cover the plate when he saw Simmons in a rundown.

“Any one of a number of players should have covered the plate, but I guess in the final analysis it should have been Reuschel,” Lockman said to United Press International.

Schoendienst told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he agreed that it was Reuschel’s responsibility to protect the plate. (Reuschel won National League Gold Glove awards when he was with the Pirates in 1985 and 1987.)

Cardinals coach George Kissell saw it differently, telling the Post-Dispatch that Williams should have covered the plate because the play was in front of him. (Two months later, Williams returned to the outfield and rookie Andre Thornton took over at first. The next year, Williams was a designated hitter for the Athletics.)

For his career against the Cubs, Simmons hit .334, including .339 at Wrigley Field.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents | 19 Comments »

Reds made unorthodox move in bid to thwart Stan Musial

May 21, 2024 by retrosimba

(Updated Aug. 13, 2024)

At a critical point in a game against the Cardinals, Reds manager Birdie Tebbetts determined bold action was required.

With Stan Musial at the plate, Tebbetts yanked the Reds’ shortstop from the game and went with an alignment of four outfielders.

Tebbetts’ surprise move became the talk of baseball. According to The Sporting News, it was “probably the first four-man outfield formation of its kind ever used in the major leagues.”

Long wait

On May 22, 1954, a Saturday night at St. Louis, the Reds led, 4-2, in the bottom of the eighth when Red Schoendienst singled with two outs against Art Fowler, a 31-year-old rookie who used a quick pitch to keep the Cardinals off stride.

The Cincinnati Enquirer described Fowler as “an old head who knows all the tricks and has all the pitches. He has a fine sense of speeds and seldom makes two pitches alike to a batter.”

Fowler spent 10 seasons in the minors before getting his chance with the 1954 Reds. In explaining why it took him so long to reach the majors, he told the Dayton Journal Herald, “For nine years, I had no ambition whatsoever.”

Decision time

After Schoendienst reached first, up next was Musial, who’d singled twice against Fowler in the game. Musial was perhaps the National League’s best and hottest hitter. He batted .333 in April 1954, and did even better the next month. On May 2, Musial slugged five home runs in a doubleheader against the Giants. In the opener of the Reds series, he belted a grand slam versus Frank Smith. Musial would hit .390 in May 1954.

Knowing Musial was the biggest threat to the Reds’ lead, Tebbetts acted to foil him. Tebbetts, 41, was in his first year as a big-league manager, but he had spent 14 seasons as a catcher in the American League, playing for the likes of managers Mickey Cochrane, Joe Cronin, Joe McCarthy and Al Lopez.

When the Reds hired Tebbetts after he had one season as a manager in the minors, Si Burick of the Dayton Daily News described him as “a gambling type” who will “take advantage of every angle and thinks of everything.”

Tebbetts removed shortstop Roy McMillan from the game and replaced him with a fourth outfielder, speedy rookie Nino Escalera.

A month earlier, Escalera and teammate Chuck Harmon made their big-league debuts in back-to-back pinch-hit appearances, integrating the Reds seven years after Jackie Robinson entered the majors. Escalera was a Puerto Rican of African descent and Harmon was an African-American. Boxscore

Plot development

Escalera positioned himself in right-center, joining an outfield of left fielder Jim Greengrass, center fielder Gus Bell and right fielder Wally Post. The shortstop position was vacant.

“Birdie’s defensive formation against Musial was not something he thought up on the spot,” The Cincinnati Post noted. “For three weeks previous, Birdie talked to his infielders, pitchers, catchers and Nino Escalera about plans for devising shifts against certain dangerous hitters to prevent them from wrecking games for the Reds. Musial happened to be the first one against whom a radical shift was employed. When Birdie sprang it, he probably became the first in major-league history to use this exact sort of a switch in the positions of his players.”

Tebbetts told The Cincinnati Post, “By having the three regular outfielders play their normal positions with Escalera protecting right-center field, we attempted to eliminate the possibility of Musial (hitting) a double or triple, which would score Schoendienst and also put Musial in position to score the tying run.”

As Tebbetts noted to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “He’d have a hell of a time getting a ball between those four outfielders spaced so evenly apart.”

Also, if Musial lined a ball against the concrete wall in right or right-center, a fourth outfielder likely would retrieve it on the carom before Musial could advance past first, Tebbetts said.

“With only three outfielders playing for us, the ball might rebound for a double or triple,” Tebbetts told The Sporting News. “I figured that if he did line a ball against the wall, our right fielder, or our right-center fielder, or our center fielder could recover the ball quickly enough to keep Stan from getting more than a single.”

In addition, Tebbetts told The Sporting News, “I had our third baseman, Chuck Harmon, stay close to third to protect the foul line and reduce Musial’s chances of hitting a double past third.”

Tebbetts was unconcerned about Musial trying to push a pitch through the vacated shortstop position for a base hit. “If he should single through our unprotected shortstop position, that would be all right,” Tebbetts said to The Sporting News. “We still would not be in as much danger of losing as if he bounced a double or triple off the fence.”

If Musial opted to try for a single through the shortstop hole, Ray Jablonski would bat with the tying run on first, but Tebbetts said he wasn’t worried about that. “Not because I don’t think Jablonski isn’t a good hitter, but because he’s still not Musial,” Tebbetts told the Post-Dispatch.

Swing shift

All of the maneuvering didn’t matter because Musial struck out swinging to end the threat. According to the Post-Dispatch, Musial was trying to belt a pitch onto the pavilion roof in right for a two-run homer that would tie the score.

“He had to,” Tebbetts said to the St. Louis newspaper. “That’s what they pay him $80,000 a year for _ to go for the long hit in a tight spot. Since I couldn’t play a man on the roof, I did the next best thing by adding a fourth outfielder to prevent the only other kind of hit that would have bothered me _ a double that would have put the tying run in scoring position.”

In the ninth, Tebbetts sent Rocky Bridges in to play shortstop and Escalera was taken out of the game. Fowler retired the Cardinals in order to complete the win. Boxscore

Asked about what would happen if the Reds tried the same alignment against him again, Musial smiled and replied to the Post-Dispatch, “We’ll see. Maybe they’re underestimating Jablonski.”

Tebbetts’ tactic brought him national attention. The Cincinnati Post reported “the most talked about play in baseball today is Tebbetts’ four-man outfield.” The Cincinnati Enquirer called it “one of the most surprising defensive moves in the history of the game.”

The next day, May 23, the Cardinals used an exaggerated shift against the Reds’ Gus Bell, moving fielders to the right side, but he crossed them up with a double to left.

During the 1954 season, the Cardinals shifted heavily toward the right side, leaving only one infielder on the third base side, for Bell and the Braves’ Eddie Matthews. They shifted fielders to the other side for the Cubs’ right-handed sluggers, Ralph Kiner and Hank Sauer. All four consistently beat the shifts by hitting opposite-field doubles and singles. For the 1954 season against the Cardinals, Bell hit .320; Mathews, .304; Kiner, .282; and Sauer, .314.

Postscript

Tebbetts tried a four-man outfield against Musial again on Aug. 20, 1954. Trying to slice a single through the vacated shortstop hole, Musial grounded out to third. Boxscore

One of Tebbetts’ favorite ploys was to call for sacrifice bunts with one out. He did that 38 times in 1954 and 14 of those paid off, with the next batter driving in the runner from scoring position with two outs.

Tebbetts went on to manage 11 years in the majors with the Reds, Braves and Indians. In 1956, Bob Burnes of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat rated Tebbetts the best manager in the National League “by several thousand miles.” In the book “We Played the Game,” Art Fowler said, “Birdie was the best manager I ever played for.”

Fowler, whose older brother Jesse pitched for the 1924 Cardinals, had three consecutive double-digit win seasons (1954-56) for the Reds. He became the pitching coach on most of the big-league clubs managed by Billy Martin.

The 1954 season was the only one for Nino Escalera in the majors.

Stan Musial finished the 1954 season with a batting mark of .330, including .344 versus the Reds. He hit .353 for his career against Art Fowler.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents | 11 Comments »

Soldier’s story: How Eddie Kazak became Cardinals all-star

May 10, 2024 by retrosimba

In late July 1944, Allied troops were on the outskirts of Brest, a strategic seaport town in northwest France that the Germans occupied during World War II and turned into a submarine base. The Allies were determined to drive out the Nazis, and hoped to make the harbor a supply hub.

Among the infantry advancing on Brest was a U.S. Army private, Eddie Kazak, a St. Louis Cardinals infield prospect. In the combat that ensued, Kazak had a bayonet driven through his left arm and had his right elbow crushed during an artillery attack. It took more than a year for him to recover. Discharged in December 1945, doctors warned him against playing baseball again.

Four years later, Kazak was the Cardinals’ rookie third baseman and the starter for the National League in the 1949 All-Star Game.

Dangerous work

A son of Polish immigrants, Edward “Eddie” Tkaczuk was born in Steubenville, Ohio, and raised in Muse, Pa., 20 miles south of Pittsburgh. His father, Joseph Tkaczuk, was a coal miner, working “down deep where the sun and fresh air are withheld by earthen barriers as formidable as prison bars,” Bob Broeg wrote in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

After Eddie graduated from high school, he joined his dad as a coal digger. “To blink his way into the daylight and up to the cashier’s cage above ground for $50 checks every two weeks, he had to load 130 or more tons,” Broeg reported.

One day, a coal car, swinging around a bend too fast, jumped a rail, overturned and pinned Eddie against a tunnel wall, cracking several ribs.

When he recovered, Eddie, 19, resumed playing amateur baseball, including on Sundays for the coal mine team. He got an offer to turn pro with the Valdosta (Ga.) Trojans, a Class D minor-league club with no big-league affiliation.

Eddie wanted to sign but sought approval from his father because it meant giving up the steadier income he shared with the family from mining. “Papa Tkaczuk was eager for his son to have an opportunity to spend his life above ground at an easier task,” Bob Broeg wrote. “The boy was given parental blessing.”

Purple heart

A second baseman who hit for average, Eddie played for Valdosta in 1940 and impressed Joe Cusick, manager of the Cardinals’ Albany (Ga.) farm team. On Cusick’s recommendation, the Cardinals bought Eddie’s contract for $1,000 and brought him into their system. He batted .378 with 221 hits for Albany in 1941.

While with the Houston Buffaloes in 1942, Eddie met Thelma Bee Gregg and they became a couple. After the season, Eddie, 22, enlisted for military duty and went into the Army. That’s how he ended up in France in the summer of 1944.

The Germans fortified their defenses at Brest and the fighting was intense. In hand-to-hand combat with a German soldier, Eddie was knocked to the ground. He rolled over as the attacker rushed forward and thrust a bayonet through Eddie’s left arm, just missing an artery. “I think I shot him then because suddenly I was free,” Eddie said to Bob Broeg.

The wound required 19 stitches and left a huge scar.

Two weeks later, during an advancement, Eddie came under heavy fire. Shell fragments rained all around, striking Eddie and bringing down a structure he was near. He was buried in bricks and his right elbow, the one he used for throwing a baseball, was shattered.

Eddie spent the next year and a half in military hospitals. Doctors wanted to amputate the arm but he was against it. “For nearly a year of that time, his right arm was shaped like a capital ‘L’ and he couldn’t move the first three fingers of his right hand,” Broeg reported. “Then there was a delicate operation. Pieces of crushed bone were removed and plastic was used to repair the shattered elbow.”

Movement returned to the fingers, but when he was cleared to return to civilian life, Eddie, 25, had to weigh the advice of doctors against his desire to resume his baseball career. “I was warned to give up baseball because throwing might dislocate the synthetic elbow,” he told the Associated Press. “The doctors also said that, if the elbow should lock, there was nothing they could do about it.”

Eddie thought it over and chose baseball.

Lots of changes

In 1946, Eddie married Thelma Bee Gregg and they settled in her hometown of Austin, Texas. He took an off-season job as a postman, delivering mail. “I like the walking, the exercise,” he told Broeg. He also chose a simplified spelling of his last name, changing Tkaczuk to Kazak. As broadcaster Harry Caray might say, Kazak spelled backwards is still Kazak.

Kazak came to 1946 spring training to play second base in the Cardinals’ system but almost quit. He told the Newspaper Enterprise Association, “I couldn’t throw or swing properly. The pain killed me.”

He did daily exercises to strengthen his right arm and gradually made enough progress to perform. He also changed his batting style to compensate for the damaged arm, moving his hands up the handle and using a choked grip. Broeg described him as a good wrist hitter, “meaning Kazak can delay his swing until the last second and then snap into a pitch, buggy-whipping the ball.”

As the Newspaper Enterprise Association noted, “His powerful wrists make him an extraordinary line drive hitter. He gets the bat around so quickly that he gives the impression of jerking the ball out of the catcher’s glove, pulling it into left field.”

Kazak’s hitting kept him in the game. He made 47 errors at second with Columbus (Ga.) in 1946, but batted .326 with 88 RBI in 93 games for Omaha in 1947.

Promoted to Class AAA Rochester in 1948, Kazak was moved to third base by manager Cedric Durst. “I hate to have to pivot and make those snap throws (at second),” Kazak told the Associated Press. As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted, “The throw from third is longer but it is easier for Eddie to make.”

After hitting .309 with 85 RBI for Rochester in 1948, Kazak, 28, got called up to the big leagues in September and made his debut with the Cardinals. He got six hits, including three doubles, in six games.

Opportunity knocks

After Cardinals third baseman Whitey Kurowski had bone chips removed from his right elbow late in the 1948 season, he came to training camp the following spring and was unable to throw, opening the door for Kazak to make the team.

The 1949 Cardinals began the season with rookie Tommy Glaviano as the third baseman and Kazak as backup. When Glaviano struggled to hit, Kazak became the starter in the fifth game of the season. Kazak hit .385 in April and .359 in May.

On May 5, Cardinals second baseman Red Schoendienst was injured and Kazak replaced him, starting five games at second. It didn’t hurt his hitting. On May 9, he slugged his first big-league home run, a grand slam versus the Dodgers’ Joe Hatten at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field. Boxscore

Two months later, Kazak was back in Ebbets Field as the National League starting third baseman for the All-Star Game. Kazak was selected ahead of the Giants’ Sid Gordon and the Braves’ Bob Elliott in fan balloting. “It’s the greatest thrill I’ve ever had,” Kazak told The Sporting News.

(The National League all-star catcher was the Phillies’ Andy Seminick, who, like Kazak, grew up in Muse, Pa.)

Kazak went 2-for-2 in the game _ a single against Mel Parnell in the second and a RBI-single in the third versus Virgil Trucks.

He also was involved in a fielding controversy in the first. After scooping up a George Kell grounder, Kazak made a low throw to first baseman Johnny Mize, who dropped the ball. According to umpire Cal Hubbard, Kell would have been out if Mize had held onto the ball. Official scorer Roscoe McGowen charged Kazak with the error, but later reversed his ruling, giving Mize the error instead. Boxscore

Painful slide

Two weeks later, the Cardinals (52-36) were in Brooklyn to play the first-place Dodgers (53-34). Facing Joe Hatten again in the second inning, Kazak drove a ball to deep center. It smacked against the wall and caromed directly to center fielder Duke Snider.

Kazak, not expecting the ball to get to Snider so quickly, initially thought he had a stand-up double. “I realized all of a sudden I had to slide,” he recalled to the Austin American-Statesman. “I was too close to the bag for a normal slide and I plowed right on through the cushion, breaking the strap and separating the bag from the iron pin.”

Kazak writhed in pain and was carried on a stretcher to the clubhouse. “I was scared to death because it hurt way up into my hip,” Kazak told the Austin newspaper. Boxscore

He suffered chipped bones in his right ankle, jamming it where it fits the socket, and was unable to play the remainder of July and all of August.

On Labor Day, Sept. 5, 1949, the Pirates led the Cardinals in the seventh inning at St. Louis when Kazak made a surprise appearance, hobbling to the plate to bat for pitcher Ted Wilks. The holiday crowd responded with a thunderous ovation. In a game for the first time since injuring his ankle, Kazak swung at the first pitch from Bill Werle and whacked it into the bleachers in left for a home run.

“As he limped slowly around the bases, the roar of the crowd increased in appreciation,” The Sporting News reported. Boxscore

Kazak made four more pinch-hit appearances that month. For the season, he batted .304 (including .312 versus the Dodgers) and had an on-base percentage of .362. The Cardinals (96-58) finished a game behind the National League champion Dodgers (97-57). “We’d have won it with Kazak in the lineup all season,” Cardinals manager Eddie Dyer said to the Austin American-Statesman.

In October, Kazak had an ankle operation. He was the 1950 Cardinals’ Opening Day third baseman. He started again the next night, made three errors and didn’t start again until June.

After beginning the 1951 season with the Cardinals, Kazak was demoted to the minors in May. A year later, he was dealt to the Reds. He appeared in 13 games for them and spent the rest of his playing days in the minors.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Prospects | 9 Comments »

The story of Roman Gabriel versus the Cardinals

May 5, 2024 by retrosimba

When Roman Gabriel was with the Los Angeles Rams, a strong performance versus the St. Louis Cardinals helped him emerge as a No. 1 quarterback. Later, when Gabriel went to the Eagles, he led them to a stirring comeback against the Cardinals for his first win with Philadelphia, then never beat them again.

In 12 games, including 10 starts, versus the Cardinals, Gabriel won four, lost eight. Seven of those defeats came when he was with the Eagles.

Gabriel won a NFL Most Valuable Player Award in 1969 but never played for a NFL champion.

Potent passer

Roman Gabriel’s father came to the United States from the Philippines and settled in Wilmington, N.C., working in a dining car for a railroad.

As a youth, Gabriel had a severe case of asthma. “I remember having to stop to sit on a curb so I could catch my breath on my way to school,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Gabriel attended New Hanover High School, alma mater of NFL quarterback Sonny Jurgensen, and was one of the best prep basketball centers in the state. He joined the football team his senior year. With a strong arm, size and athleticism, he was a natural. “He can throw the pigskin a country mile,” the Greensboro (N.C.) News and Record observed.

Playing college football at North Carolina State, Gabriel became the first Atlantic Coast Conference quarterback to throw for 1,000 yards in a season. At 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, the Post-Dispatch noted, “He can peer over the tops of defensive linemen. He can stand resolute in the midst of a ferocious rush. He once demonstrated for onlookers that he could toss a football 85 yards in the air.”

Pro scouts were dazzled. The Oakland Raiders made Gabriel the No. 1 overall pick in the 1962 AFL draft. The Rams, with the second and third choices in the first round of the 1962 NFL draft, chose Gabriel and Utah State defensive tackle Merlin Olsen, and signed both.

Tinsel Town

A football player named Roman Gabriel seemed ideal for a team that played its games at the Coliseum in the City of Angels.

The strapping quarterback also had a look tailored for Hollywood. “This is quite a chunk of manhood,” New Yok Times columnist Arthur Daley wrote. “Gabriel is a bronzed giant with high cheek bones.”

Temptations were abundant. Reflecting on his early years with the Rams, Gabriel said to the New York Times, “I came from a small city in North Carolina, Wilmington, and Los Angeles was a lot for me to swallow. For a few years, I was pretty wild, out every night and waking up in a different place every morning. I finally realized that kind of life wasn’t getting me anywhere.”

Gabriel initially did more playing off the field than he did on it. Zeke Bratkowski was the Rams’ quarterback in 1962 and 1963, with Gabriel being given starts in the back ends of those losing seasons. Injured at the beginning of the 1964 season, Gabriel watched as rookie Bill Munson started at quarterback.

The Rams, though, remained intrigued by Gabriel’s potential.

“Gabriel is a cinch to be the next superstar at quarterback,” Rams head coach Harland Svare told the New York Times in 1964. “He’ll be making headlines long after Y.A. Tittle and Johnny Unitas have departed. No quarterback in the history of the league is as strong as Gabriel. One day, Gino Marchetti, the toughest defensive end in the business, had him apparently pinned against the sidelines. Gabriel merely reached out and pushed Marchetti’s face into the dirt. Then he made the throw.”

Nonetheless, when the 1965 season opened, Gabriel was the backup to Munson. As Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray noted, “Gabriel has been a Ram for four years. Most of that time he has been just another spectator.”

Job won

On Nov. 21, 1965, Munson tore up his right knee in a game against the San Francisco 49ers and the Rams’ season record fell to 1-9. Gabriel took over and led them to consecutive victories against the Green Bay Packers (their last loss in a NFL title season), St. Louis Cardinals and Cleveland Browns.

In the Rams’ 27-3 victory over the Cardinals, Gabriel threw two touchdown passes, completed 55 percent of his throws and wasn’t intercepted. One of the scoring passes, 59 yards to tight end Billy Truax, came on third down-and-17 as the Cardinals blitzed two linebackers and a safety.

“Gabriel, unlike any other quarterback, is as strong as the men who were coming at him,” The Sporting News noted. “He strode around in the heavy traffic as Truax ran his pattern. Then, as the Cardinals hacked at him like small boys with a toy hatchet, the tallest quarterback threw a straight dart for the touchdown.”

The Los Angeles Times concluded, “The Rams again benefited from inspired leadership as Gabriel kept the team on the move at all times.” Game stats

The next week, Gabriel threw five touchdown passes against the reigning NFL champion Browns. Game stats

Those performances got the attention of George Allen, who became Rams head coach in 1966. He named Gabriel the starter. “I was determined not to have this Bill Munson-Roman Gabriel wish-wash,” Allen told the Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer. “I wanted one quarterback. Gabriel was the man.”

Missing link

Before Allen arrived, the Rams hadn’t had a winning season since 1958. With Gabriel as his quarterback, Allen led the Rams to winning records in each of his five seasons with them. In 1967, the Rams were the NFL’s highest-scoring team. Two years later, Gabriel led the league in touchdown tosses (24). “For sheer arm, he is the Sandy Koufax of the NFL,” Jim Murray wrote.

Rams receiver Jack Snow told the Raleigh News and Observer in 1969, “(Gabriel) is the best in the league. I don’t think anyone else could lead the Los Angeles Rams. He is smart, respected and there never has been any questions about his ability. When he steps in the huddle, he’s the boss. The whole team has complete confidence in his ability.”

The hurdle Gabriel couldn’t overcome was the postseason. He got the Rams into two playoff games and lost both. The biggest letdown was in 1969, when the Rams were 11-0, then lost four in a row, including a playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings. “I was crushed, beyond consolation, and I cried,” Gabriel told the Post-Dispatch. “I’d done some good things, but I hadn’t done enough, so I’d let the team down. I felt an awful emptiness.”

Lights, cameras

During timeouts from football, Gabriel tried acting in TV shows and movies. His TV appearances included episodes of “Perry Mason,” “Gilligan’s Island,” “Ironside” and “Wonder Woman.” He showed up in the role of a prison guard in a 1968 movie comedy, “Skidoo,” directed by Otto Preminger and starring Jackie Gleason and Carol Channing.

Gabriel’s biggest movie role was in the 1969 western, “The Undefeated,” starring John Wayne and Rock Hudson. Gabriel’s Rams teammate, Merlin Olsen, also had a part. Gabriel was cast as Blue Boy, an adopted Cherokee Indian son of Wayne’s character. As critic Roger Ebert noted, “Gabriel looks about as Indian as one of the Beach Boys.”

According to Internet Movie Database (IMDb), Rock Hudson said in a 1980 interview he thought the movie was “crap” but he had fond memories of the filming because he became a close friend of John Wayne and Roman Gabriel. Movie trailer

Gabriel said to the Raleigh News and Observer in 1969, “I like acting, and there’s nothing like starting with a winner like John Wayne. I hope some of his winning style rubbed off on me.”

Bad ending

Injuries hampered Gabriel’s playing days with the Rams in 1971 (knee and elbow surgeries) and 1972 (a collapsed lung and tendinitis in his throwing arm). With Tommy Prothro as head coach, the 1972 Rams had a losing season. Disenchanted, Gabriel lashed out, implying the Rams were a selfish group.

“He made some statements that were detrimental to the team,” Rams center Ken Iman said to The Sporting News.

Receiver Jack Snow told columnist Bob Oates that Gabriel didn’t speak to teammates the last two weeks of the season. “Several members of the team, including myself, tolerated him the last half of the season,” Snow said. “I didn’t look up to him. I didn’t respect him.”

In January 1973, after the Rams acquired quarterback John Hadl from the San Diego Chargers, Gabriel demanded a trade. The Rams obliged, sending him to the Eagles in June 1973 for receiver Harold Jackson, running back Tony Baker and three draft choices.

Eagles win

Winless in his first four games with the Eagles, Gabriel faced the Cardinals at St. Louis on Oct. 14, 1973. The Cardinals led, 24-13, in the fourth quarter, but Gabriel threw two touchdown passes in the final two minutes, giving the Eagles a 27-24 victory. The winning touchdown came on a 24-yard pass to receiver Don Zimmerman as time expired.

In the huddle, Gabriel had asked Zimmerman, a rookie making his first NFL start, “Can you get open?” Zimmerman replied, “I think so.”

“OK,” said Gabriel. “I’m coming to you.”

Gabriel called the play: 93 double arrow. “The pattern called for both wide receivers (Harold Carmichael and Zimmerman) to run deep posts,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. “As Gabriel dropped back, he looked toward Carmichael, freezing safety Clarence Duren. Zimmerman loped down the left sideline, then cut sharply toward the goal post.”

Zimmerman caught a strike from Gabriel and was hit by both Duren and safety Jim Tolbert. Then cornerback Roger Wehrli hit Zimmerman from behind, but Zimmerman continued into the end zone. Game stats Video at 7:46

Gabriel went on to have a spectacular first season with the Eagles, leading the NFL in completions (270), passing yards (3,219) and touchdown throws (23).

Stupid gesture

In 1974, NFL players went on strike, refusing to report to training camps. The NFL ordered teams to keep the camps open, planning to operate with rookies and free agents. Gabriel, 34, decided to defy the union and cross the Eagles’ picket line.

As a busload of rookies, free agents and Gabriel arrived at camp, “Gabriel was jeered by the same players who had held him in reverence the previous season,” the Philadelphia Daily News reported. “Impulsively, Gabriel reacted by closing his hand at the bus window and extending his middle finger.”

Among the players outside Gabriel’s window were the entire Eagles offensive line.

“I believe Roman Gabriel lost the team when he crossed the picket line,” Eagles running back Po James told the Philadelphia Daily News.

In a 13-3 loss to the 1974 Cardinals, Gabriel was sacked nine times. Game stats

“No one ever suggested that the offensive linemen quit on Gabriel in 1974, but the gung-ho streak that used to sustain their blocking against physically superior defenses was no longer in evidence,” Jack McKinney noted in the Philadelphia Daily News.

Two years later, when Dick Vermeil became head coach of the 1976 Eagles, Mike Boryla replaced Gabriel as the starter. Gabriel spent his final season, 1977, as a backup to Ron Jaworski.

After his playing career, Gabriel worked in several jobs, including three years as head football coach at Cal Poly Pomona (8-24 record), a 1980s stint as president of the Charlotte Knights minor-league baseball team, and a stretch as radio broadcaster for the NFL Carolina Panthers (1995-2001).

Gabriel remains the Rams franchise leader in career touchdown passes (154) and most games played at quarterback (130).

Posted in Football, Games, Opponents | 16 Comments »

Hometown boy Ken Holtzman: A Cardinal at heart

April 29, 2024 by retrosimba

While growing up in the St. Louis suburb of University City, Ken Holtzman rooted for the Cardinals and dreamed of pitching in the big leagues. Holtzman got to the majors, but not with the Cardinals. He went instead to their rivals, the Cubs.

A left-hander, Holtzman was a starter for the Athletics when they won three consecutive World Series titles. He also pitched two no-hitters in the National League and, as a rookie, beat his boyhood baseball idol, giving Sandy Koufax his last regular-season career loss.

Holtzman achieved 174 regular-season wins and four more in the World Series.

When he pitched the last game of his 15-year stint in the majors, it occurred, fittingly, in his hometown against the Cardinals. Afterward, Holtzman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “Even though I signed to play with the Cubs, my heart has always been with the Cardinals.”

Natural talent

Holtzman got his interest in baseball from his father, Henry, a machine tool dealer.

“I remember reading Jimmy Piersall’s book and how his father pushed him,” Holtzman recalled to The Sporting News. “It was nothing like that with my dad. He didn’t push me, but he used to encourage me.

“He would try to keep my mind preoccupied with sports, and especially improving myself as far as baseball was concerned. When other kids would be thinking about girls and cars after school hours, I used to go home and my father would be waiting. He would take time out from his own business. We’d go over to a park a few blocks away. He’d hit me fly balls and I’d pitch to him. He recognized I had a natural talent for baseball, but we actually worked on all sports. Pretty soon I developed my own desire to improve myself.”

Holtzman was 8 when his dad took him to his first big-league game at the former Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. “When we walked into the old park, I thought it was the greatest thing in the world,” Holtzman told the Post-Dispatch.

As a pitcher for University City High School, Holtzman was coached during his sophomore and junior years by Ed Mickelson, a former first baseman for the Cardinals, Browns and Cubs. Mickelson’s replacement, Henry Buffa, coached University City to a state title in Holtzman’s senior year of 1963. Holtzman pitched a no-hitter and struck out 14 in the state semifinal against Springfield Hillcrest.

After his sophomore season at the University of Illinois, the Cubs chose Holtzman in the fourth round of the June 1965 amateur draft. Pitching for farm clubs, Holtzman, 19, struck out 114 in 86 innings that summer, earning a promotion to the Cubs in September. The first pitch he threw for them was walloped by the Giants’ Jim Ray Hart for a home run. Boxscore

Special games

Holtzman arranged to take classes at the University of Illinois branch campus in Chicago while pitching for the Cubs.

The first time he faced the Cardinals was on May 25, 1966, in the sixth game played at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Several Holtzman family members were there to cheer him. “I was a little nervous at first,” Holtzman said to the Post-Dispatch. “My grandmother was seeing her first major-league game.”

Holtzman pitched well, allowing two runs in six innings, but was the losing pitcher. Boxscore

Afterward, Holtzman took a 12:19 a.m. flight to Chicago because he had an 8 a.m. French class to attend, the Post-Dispatch reported.

The next time Holtzman pitched in St. Louis, on July 17, 1966, he got the win, yielding two runs in seven innings. Two future Hall of Famers supported him. Ferguson Jenkins got the save and Billy Williams hit for the cycle. Boxscore

Some saw Holtzman, 20, as the Cubs’ version of Sandy Koufax.

“Sportswriters made the first comparison between Sandy and me, primarily, I guess, because both of us are left-handers and Jewish,” Holtzman told The Sporting News. “As far as I’m concerned, there is no comparison. He was my boyhood idol and I still regard him as the greatest I’ve ever seen. We’re miles and miles apart.”

The only time Holtzman and Koufax started against one another was on Sept. 25, 1966, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Holtzman won, holding the Dodgers hitless until Dick Schofield led off the ninth with a single.

The pitching lines:

_ Koufax: 8 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs (one earned), 2 walks, 5 strikeouts.

_ Holtzman: 9 innings, 2 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts.

“It isn’t often Koufax loses when he holds a team to one earned run and four hits,” the Los Angeles Times noted, “but this time he was outpitched by Holtzman.”

Koufax told the newspaper, “When a guy holds you hitless for eight innings, you know he pitched a great game. I was satisfied with my performance, but Ken was too good for us today.” Boxscore

On the rise

Limited to 12 starts for the Cubs in 1967 because of military duty, Holtzman was 9-0, including a win against the Cardinals, who were on their way to becoming World Series champions. Boxscore

Holtzman also earned his degree in business administration from Illinois in 1967. He worked several winters for I.M. Simon and Company, a St. Louis securities brokerage firm, and earned accreditation from the New York Stock Exchange as a registered representative.

On Aug. 2, 1968, Holtzman pitched his third consecutive shutout, a two-hitter against the Cardinals. Using a changeup and a fastball, he limited St. Louis to singles by Julian Javier and Tim McCarver. “I feel it was the best game I ever pitched,” Holtzman said to the Post-Dispatch. “I may have had better stuff in some other game, but I think that as far as smartness and strategy, this was my best. I felt in command all the way.” Boxscore

Holtzman pitched no-hitters against the Braves (in 1969) and the Reds (in 1971), but the Cardinals gave him trouble. He was 9-14 against them. Lou Brock beat him with a walkoff home run in 1969. Boxscore Joe Torre, in 74 plate appearances versus Holtzman, had a .554 on-base percentage and .508 batting average.

After consecutive 17-win seasons in 1969 and 1970, Holtzman was 9-15 in 1971, had differences with Cubs manager Leo Durocher and sought to be traded. On Nov. 29, 1971, the Cubs dealt Holtzman to the Athletics for Rick Monday. “I wouldn’t have cared if the Cubs had traded me for two dozen eggs,” Holtzman told the Chicago Tribune.

American Leaguer

The four years Holtzman spent with the Athletics were the glory days of his career. The club won three consecutive World Series titles. Holtzman’s regular-season win totals were 19 in 1972, 21 in 1973, 19 again in 1974 and 18 in 1975.

On the eve of the 1972 World Series, Athletics manager Dick Williams said to the Oakland Tribune, “Ken has pitched superbly for us all year. You might say he saved us. Without those 19 wins, the only way the A’s would have made the World Series is by paying to get in.”

Holtzman was 4-1 in World Series games for the Athletics and hit .333, with a home run and three doubles. Video

On April 2, 1976, Holtzman and Reggie Jackson were traded to the Orioles for Don Baylor, Paul Mitchell and Mike Torrez. Two months later, Holtzman was flipped to the Yankees. He was 9-7 for them but fell into disfavor with manager Billy Martin, who didn’t use him in the playoffs or World Series that year.

Though Holtzman was healthy, Martin rarely pitched him in 1977. He worked 71.2 innings, a pittance for a pitcher who exceeded 200 innings nine times. The New York Times dubbed him the “designated sitter” and noted, “It is very likely that Holtzman sits simply because the manager doesn’t have confidence in him.”

Ignored again in 1978, Holtzman asked out and was sent to the Cubs in June.

Headed for home

The rust took a toll on Holtzman. His ERA with the 1978 Cubs was 6.11. He was better in 1979, shutting out the Astros twice, but as the season wound down he knew it would be his last.

His final big-league appearance on Sept. 19, 1979, was a start at St. Louis. Holtzman held the Cardinals scoreless. In the seventh, with two outs, a runner on base and Ted Simmons batting, Cubs manager Herman Franks wanted to lift Holtzman, but he didn’t want to leave. “I told Herman I wanted to pitch to one more man,” Holtzman said to the Post-Dispatch.

Franks relented and Holtzman retired Simmons, ending the inning. “Simmons is the best,” Holtzman told the Post-Dispatch. “At least I went out beating the best.”

After Bill Buckner batted for Holtzman in the eighth, Bruce Sutter took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth but blew the save chance, costing Holtzman a win. Boxscore

Holtzman settled in Chicago, earned a master’s degree in education at DePaul and taught in public schools.

To be close to his elderly parents, he moved to St. Louis in 1998 and became supervisor of health and physical education at the Jewish Community Center in Chesterfield, Mo. In addition to overseeing facilities and youth sports programs, Holtzman was head coach of the 9- and 10-year-old baseball teams. His assistant was his former prep coach, Ed Mickelson.

Holtzman had batting cages installed in the basement of the Jewish Community Center and during the winter Cardinals players such as Albert Pujols, J.D. Drew, Mike Matheny and John Mabry practiced their hitting there. Pitcher Gene Stechschulte came, too, to get in his throwing.

“They’re terrific with the little kids,” Holtzman told the Post-Dispatch in 2002. “Nobody bothers them as far as autographs, because people know they’re here to work. When they’re done, Pujols or Stechschulte will get in a pickup basketball game or floor hockey game with the little kids.”

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers | 15 Comments »

Game within the game: Jerry Grote versus Lou Brock

April 26, 2024 by retrosimba

Lou Brock had the legs; Jerry Grote had the arm. What sometimes made the difference in their showdowns was their heads.

During Brock’s prime years with the Cardinals, when he led the National League in stolen bases eight times, one of the most difficult catchers to steal against was Grote, who played for the Mets.

“Grote has been hailed as the best defensive catcher in the game, equal to Johnny Bench and Carlton Fisk in mechanics but better at setting up hitters,” the New York Daily News noted in 1976.

According to the New York Times, Bench remarked, “If the Cincinnati Reds had Grote, I’d be playing third base.”

In 1966, when he led the NL in steals for the first time, Brock told Newsday that Grote “may be the toughest catcher in the league to steal against.”

To counter Grote’s quick release and strong throws, Brock used mind games in a bid to gain the upper hand.

Texas roots

After a year at Trinity University in his hometown of San Antonio, Grote, 20, played his first season of professional baseball in 1963 with the San Antonio Bullets, a Houston Colt .45s farm club. There, he was tutored by player-coach Clint “Scrap Iron” Courtney, the former St. Louis Browns catcher.

Called up to Houston in September 1963, Grote stuck with the big-league club in 1964, but “I caught knuckleballs from Ken Johnson and (Hal) Skinny Brown and I was fortunate to just hang on,” he told Newsday.

Prone to taking big swings, the rookie also struggled at the plate, batting .181 in 1964 and totaling more strikeouts (75) than hits (54). In a game at St. Louis, he struck out four times. Boxscore

After the season, the Mets offered outfielder Joe Christopher and others to Houston for catcher John Bateman. Houston instead proposed sending them Grote, but the Mets said no, according to Dick Young of the New York Daily News.

Grote spent the 1965 season in the minors. Afterward, when the Mets again asked for Bateman, Houston still offered Grote, but this time the Mets said yes. On Oct. 19, 1965, Grote was traded to the Mets for pitcher Tom Parsons and cash.

Transformer man

Though he didn’t hit much, Grote impressed with his catching skills and became the Mets’ starter. “He’s a catcher a team can win with,” Mets coach Whitey Herzog told Newsday in 1966.

A year later, in September 1967, when asked to rate the catcher who was the toughest to steal bases against, Lou Brock replied to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “For quickness in getting rid of the ball and accuracy, I have to pick Grote.”

Grote also had a reputation for constantly complaining to umpires about their calls. When Gil Hodges became Mets manager in 1968, he ordered Grote to stop bickering. According to Dick Young in the New York Daily News, Hodges said to Grote, “There is a time to argue. If you think he has blown one, tell him. Then get it over with. You have to be more concerned with the course of a game. You have to think about situations. There’s more to catching than putting down one finger, and here comes the fastball.”

Hodges also worked with Grote to improve his hitting _ and the results were immediate. After batting .195 in 1967, Grote hit .282 in Hodges’ first season as Mets manager in 1968. As Dick Young noted, “He cut down on his swing, and went to the opposite field with the pitch away from him.”

As a result, Grote was the National League starting catcher _ ahead of Johnny Bench, Tim McCarver and Joe Torre _ in the 1968 All-Star Game.

Psychological edge

With Grote catching pitchers such as Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan and Jerry Koosman, the Mets became World Series champions in 1969. Grote threw out 56 percent (40 of 71) of the runners attempting to steal against him that season, but Brock figured out a way to foil him.

In 1968, when the Cardinals won their second consecutive National League pennant, Brock was successful on 84 percent of his steal attempts but was safe on just three of six tries against the Mets. A year later, Brock was perfect in seven steal tries versus the Mets.

“I used to have trouble stealing when Grote was catching,” Brock told Newsday. “I think he had caught me about six of 10 times. Then one day I passed him after a game and I hollered, ‘Grote!’ He didn’t appear to hear me. So I hollered louder, ‘Grote!’ He still didn’t answer me and I yelled his name a third time louder than the first two. His neck turned three shades of pink and I realized then that he didn’t like to be yelled at. So the next time I got on first in a game against the Mets, I hollered his name and he hollered back at me. Ever since then, I’ve had about 80 percent success stealing when Grote is catching.”

Once Brock saw he could light Grote’s short fuse, he never let up.

“One of the delights of a visit of the Cardinals to Shea Stadium when the Mets were an attraction was Brock’s confrontation with Jerry Grote, who had a gun for a catcher’s arm and a disposition to match,” Newsday’s Steve Jacobson noted. “Brock would take his lead off first base and scream his taunt: ‘Yaaah, Grote! I’m going, Grote!’ The challenge was thrown.”

In 1970, when asked again to rank the toughest catchers to steal against, Brock put Manny Sanguillen and Johnny Bench ahead of Grote. Brock claimed Grote was inching toward the plate to shorten his throws and compensate for diminishing arm strength. “Grote keeps moving in all the time.” Brock told the Post-Dispatch. “The way Grote’s always moving toward the pitcher, I’m surprised he hasn’t been hurt by a backswing.”

The Mets won their second National League pennant in 1973 and contended with the defending champion Athletics before losing in Game 7 of the World Series.

In a testament to how valuable he was to the team, Grote caught every inning of the Mets’ National League Championship Series and World Series games in 1969 and 1973. “He’s the best catcher a pitcher could want to throw to,” Tom Seaver told the New York Times.

Mellow my mind

Grote had a reputation for snapping at reporters and official scorers and for being gruff with teammates. George Vecsey of the New York Times described him as “the resident grump” of the Mets clubhouse. Milton Richman of United Press International wrote, “He was one of those sullen, unsociable citizens who preferred his own private company and wouldn’t hesitate to let you know it.”

Mets first baseman Ed Kranepool told the wire service, “He and I have always gotten along fine, but I know a lot of people sort of felt he was cold and distant.”

Pitcher Jon Matlack said to the New York Times, “I was scared to death that I’d bounce a curveball into the dirt and get him mad. You worried about him more than the hitter. One day I told him: ‘Look, I’ll pitch my game and you catch the ball. OK?’ After that, we got to be friends and roommates, and I began to see the many sides of Jerry Grote.”

In the mid 1970s, Grote joined teammate Del Unser in the daily practice of Transcendental Meditation. “I found it really relaxes me, gets me ready for the game and conserves energy,” Grote said to the New York Daily News.

Matlack told the New York Times, “On the field, he was all aggression. Off the field, he was many men: tender to his family, generous to his friends.”

Though not considered a slugger, Grote twice hit home runs to beat the Cardinals. A two-run shot against Bob Gibson provided the winning runs in a 1974 game. (For his career, Grote batted .139 versus Gibson and struck out 20 times.) Boxscore

In 1976, Grote’s ninth-inning homer against Pete Falcone gave Seaver and the Mets a 5-4 win. Boxscore

After Grote beat former teammate Tug McGraw with a ninth-inning home run at Philadelphia, the reliever told the New York Times, “Grote’s been catching me for 10 years and now he knows my mind better than I do.” Boxscore

The pitcher Grote hit best was Steve Carlton. In 85 plate appearances against the future Hall of Famer, Grote had a .405 on-base percentage.

Traded to the Dodgers, Grote appeared in the World Series with them in 1977 and 1978 as a backup to Steve Yeager. (Yeager told the Dayton Journal Herald, “There are only three real good, all-around catchers in the National League _ Johnny Bench, Jerry Grote and me.”

In 1981, when Grote, 38, played his final big-league season, he produced seven RBI for the Royals in a game against the Mariners. “The older the violin, the sweeter the music,” he told the Associated Press. Boxscore

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents | 11 Comments »

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