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.”

Early in the 1934 season, if any pitcher looked like a candidate to get 30 wins, it was Lon Warneke, not Dizzy Dean.

A Chicago Cubs right-hander, Warneke pitched a one-hitter on Opening Day versus the Reds and followed that with another one-hitter in his next start against Dean and the Cardinals.

Warneke is the only big-league pitcher to follow a one-hitter on Opening Day with another one-hitter in his second start.

Humming along

A native of Mount Ida, Arkansas, called the quartz crystal capital of the world, Warneke was 19 when he became a professional pitcher in 1928. His debut with the Cubs came in relief against the Cardinals at St. Louis in April 1930. Boxscore

Two years later, Warneke, 23, had a breakout season, leading the National League in wins (22) and ERA (2.37) for the 1932 pennant winners.

J. Roy Stockton of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch nicknamed him “The Arkansas Hummingbird” because of a darting fastball. Stockton’s colleague, Bob Broeg, described Warneke as “a scarecrow with a chaw of tobacco stuck in a straw cheek” and with “shoulders as wide, and as thin, as a coat-hanger.”

“I kept calm with my chew of tobacco,” Warneke told the newspaper. “I always had a chew of tobacco in my mouth. Being without the chew was like being without my glove.”

Reds rooters

In 1933, Warneke was 18-13 overall but 0-5 against the Reds. Nonetheless, he got the starting assignment in the Cubs’ 1934 season opener at Cincinnati.

Facing a lineup with ex-Cardinals Jim Bottomley, Chick Hafey and Bob O’Farrell, Warneke “had everything _ fast ones, curves, some change of pace and control,” the Dayton Daily News noted. “He made the ball behave just as he wanted it to _ and that means he made the batters behave in the same way.”

After holding the Reds hitless through six innings, the Crosley Field spectators “adopted Warneke as their hero for the afternoon” and rooted for the pitcher to complete a no-hitter, the Chicago Tribune reported.

When Adam Comorosky broke the spell with a one-out single to center in the ninth, the fans booed.

Warneke retired the last two batters, completing the one-hit shutout and securing the 6-0 win. He struck out 13, the only time in his 15 years in the majors that he fanned more than nine in a game. His teammates hoisted him to their shoulders and carried him off the field, bringing cheers from the crowd.

“No team in baseball could have beaten Lon this afternoon,” Reds player-manager Bob O’Farrell told The Cincinnati Post. “He kept that curveball on the outside corner. His control was remarkable. He could have thrown the ball through a knothole, so true was he aiming.” Boxscore

Si Burick of the Dayton Daily News predicted, “You will have to go a long way in this budding season to see a game as nearly flawlessly pitched as Warneke’s.”

Five days later, though, Warneke pitched another one-hitter.

One and done

On April 22, 1934, a Sunday afternoon at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, Warneke was matched against Cardinals ace Dizzy Dean. On Opening Day, Dean beat the Pirates, holding them to a run in nine innings, but the Cardinals hadn’t won since.

It turned out to be no contest. The Cubs scored four in the first, two in the second and Dean was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the third.

Though Warneke walked six, he allowed just one hit _ a Rip Collins double in the fifth. Warneke, who lashed two singles, had twice as many hits as he allowed the Cardinals. The Cubs won, 15-2. Boxscore

Warneke’s back-to-back one-hitters occurred four years before the Reds’ Johnny Vander Meer became the only big-league pitcher to toss consecutive no-hitters.

“The big thing with me was get the wins and not worry about how many hits I gave up,” Warneke said to the Post-Dispatch.

One-hitter wonders

Others who have pitched and won Opening Day one-hitters include Herb Pennock of the 1915 Athletics, Jesse Petty of the 1926 Dodgers and Bob Lemon of the 1953 Indians. In 2015, Sonny Gray (eight innings) and Evan Scribner (one inning) combined on an Opening Day one-hitter for the Athletics. None of those pitchers followed with a one-hitter in his second start.

Bob Feller of the 1940 Indians pitched the only Opening Day no-hitter but he was shelled for six runs in three innings in his second start.

Like Warneke, others have pitched one-hitters in consecutive starts, though none did so in his first two appearances of a season. Those who joined Warneke in pitching back-to-back one-hitters are Rube Marquard (1911 Giants), Mort Cooper (1943 Cardinals), Whitey Ford (1955 Yankees), Sam McDowell (1966 Indians), Dave Stieb (1988 Blue Jays) and R.A. Dickey (2012 Mets).

In 1923, Howard Ehmke of the Red Sox pitched a no-hitter on Sept. 7 and followed with a one-hitter four days later. In consecutive September starts in 1925, Dazzy Vance of the Dodgers had a one-hitter and a no-hitter.

Grover Cleveland Alexander had four one-hitters for the 1915 Phillies but never pitched a no-hitter in 20 years in the majors.

The pitchers with the most career one-hitters are Bob Feller and Nolan Ryan. Each had 12.

Pitcher to arbiter

Warneke was 22-10 for the 1934 Cubs. Dizzy Dean, 1-2 with a 7.17 ERA after his first four starts, finished 30-7 for the league champion Cardinals and got two more wins in the 1934 World Series.

The next year, when the Cubs claimed the pennant, Warneke won 20, plus two more in the 1935 World Series.

He was traded to the Cardinals in October 1936 (Rip Collins was one of the players the Cubs got in return) and pitched a no-hitter against the reigning World Series champion Reds in 1941.

Warneke was 83-49 for the Cardinals and 192-121 overall in the majors.

He was a National League umpire from 1949-55 and then became a county judge in Arkansas.

(Updated July 30, 2024)

In 12 seasons in the majors, Sandy Koufax made just one Opening Day start for the Dodgers. It came on April 14, 1964, against the Cardinals.

Koufax, 28, was considered to be at the top of his game then, coming off a dominant season. The left-hander won both the National League Most Valuable Player and Cy Young awards in 1963. He was 25-5 that season, including 4-0 versus the Cardinals, and led the majors in wins, ERA (1.88), shutouts (11) and strikeouts (306). Koufax also won Games 1 and 4 of the 1963 World Series, a Dodgers sweep of the Yankees.

Yet, as he approached an Opening Day start for the first time, Koufax admitted he was nervous. “Sure I feel it,” he said to columnist John Hall of the Los Angeles Times. “I’ve been getting worked up for days. It’s a thrill … I always get excited before every start, but the first game of the season is something extra.”

As it turned out, the prominence of the assignment wasn’t the sole reason for the jitters. Koufax’s pitching arm didn’t feel right.

Profit share

During contract negotiations for the 1964 season, Koufax proposed a “formula he worked out whereby he would participate in gate receipts on nights he worked,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner columnist Melvin Durslag noted, but Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley “made it clear he wanted employees only, not shareholders.”

Koufax met with his former teammate, Jackie Robinson, who advised the pitcher to press the Dodgers for a share of ticket revenue. “He made a difference of 10,000 to 15,000 in attendance a game near the end of the (1963) season when he pitched,” Robinson told The Sporting News.

O’Malley wouldn’t budge in his opposition to the idea. He told Durslag that “the Hollywood and Las Vegas influence … tend to give people in our business delusions of grandeur. Our boys hear talk in terms of residuals, capital gains, percentages and pieces of the action, and they are misled into applying these patterns to baseball.” 

On the day before the Dodgers’ team plane headed to spring training at Vero Beach, Fla., Koufax agreed to a contract of $70,000 for 1964, a doubling of the $35,000 salary he got in 1963, The Sporting News reported.

Ready or not

In his 1964 Florida spring training outings, Koufax threw mostly slow curves and changeups, but the Dodgers said it was nothing to worry about _ he was working on making his off-speed pitches better, The Sporting News reported.

Privately, Koufax confided his left arm was hurting, according to author Jane Leavy in her book “Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy.”

On April 10, 1964, four days before the season opener, Koufax was feted at the Los Angeles baseball writers banquet at the Hollywood Palladium on Sunset Boulevard. An overflow crowd of 1,500 attended the $20-a-plate dinner and was treated to entertainment from Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Nancy Wilson and emcee Phil Silvers.

The next night, Koufax started against the Angels in an exhibition game at Dodger Stadium and looked terrific in his two-inning tune-up, striking out five and allowing only an infield hit.

Good reads

Noting that Koufax “probably set a major-league record by reading more books in one season than any pitcher in history,” the Los Angeles Times asked him on the eve of the season opener to compile a list of books he’d recommend for teens.

Under the category of modern novels, Koufax suggested “Lord of the Flies” (William Golding), “Catcher in the Rye” (J.D. Salinger), “To Kill a Mockingbird” (Harper Lee), “A Separate Peace” (John Knowles), “I, Robot” (Isaac Asimov), “The Ugly American” (William Lederer and Eugene Burdick), “On the Beach” (Nevil Shute), “Jamie” (Jack Bennett), “Fail-Safe” (Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler) and “A Very Small Remnant” (Michael Straight).

A sampling of some of Koufax’s other recommendations included:

_ Adventures: “Annapurna” (Maurice Herzog), “Deliver Us From Evil” (Thomas A. Dooley), “The Edge of Tomorrow” (Thomas A. Dooley), “The Man Who Never Was” (Ewen Montagu).

_ Biographies: “Portrait of Myself” (Margaret Bourke-White), “The Diary of a Young Girl” (Anne Frank), “Surgeon” (Wilfred C. Heinz).

_ Histories: “Hiroshima” (John Hersey), “Profiles in Courage” (John F. Kennedy).

_ Humor: “The Education of Hyman Kaplan (Leonard Q. Ross), “Platypus At Large: A Nonsense Book of World Politics” (Emery Kelen).

_ Observation: “The Craft of Intelligence” (Allen Dulles), “Romance of Philosophy” (Jacques Choron), “The Fire Next Time” (James Baldwin).

_ Science: “The Universe and Dr. Einstein” (Lincoln Barnett), “Gods, Graves and Scholars” (C.W. Ceram).

Only four sports books made Koufax’s list: “The Four-Minute Mile” (Roger Bannister), “Basketball Is My Life” (Bob Cousy and Al Hirshberg), “Lou Gehrig: A Quiet Hero” (Frank Graham) and “Playing For Life” (Bill Talbert and John Sharnik).

Same Sandy

The book on Koufax was he looked good in pitching a six-hit shutout in a 4-0 Opening Day victory at Dodger Stadium. All six Cardinals hits were singles and only one Cardinal base runner advanced as far as second base. Boxscore

Bill White had two of the hits. For his career, White batted .176 versus Koufax. “You weren’t afraid of him, but Sandy, you just couldn’t handle him at all,” White told Yankees Magazine. “You could se the ball; you just couldn’t hit it.”

Koufax became the first Dodger to pitch an Opening Day shutout since Whit Wyatt did it in 1940 against the Braves at Boston. Boxscore

Cardinals team captain Ken Boyer told the Post-Dispatch, “Sandy’s curve got better as he went along. If you’re going to beat him, you’re going to have to do it in the early innings.”

Koufax and Cardinals starter Ernie Broglio were matched in a scoreless duel until Ron Fairly drove in Willie Davis with a single in the sixth. “That was the turning point,” Broglio told the Los Angeles Times. “You give Koufax a run and he gets pretty tough.”

Old arm

A week later, in the Cardinals’ home opener, Koufax gave up a three-run home run to Charlie James and departed after pitching one inning.

“He was slow,” Boyer told the Post-Dispatch. “It wasn’t too hard to figure something might be wrong with him.” Boxscore

Koufax was examined by Cardinals physician Dr. I.C. Middleman, who determined the pitcher had “inflammation of the elbow” and “a slight muscle tear” in his left forearm, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Middleman informed the newspaper that Koufax told him his arm had been hurting since spring training but he hadn’t mentioned it to the Dodgers.

Koufax missed his next three starts, took three cortisone shots and returned to the rotation on May 4. He found his groove in June (5-0 record) and July (5-1).

On Aug. 16, Koufax again shut out the Cardinals, striking out 13, and then was shut down for the rest of the season after being diagnosed with an arthritic left elbow. Boxscore

“Arthritis is an acute inflammation of a joint usually associated with old age,” Jane Leavy wrote. “Koufax’s elbow was old even if he wasn’t … The cartilage in his elbow was breaking down.”

Even with the ailments, Koufax managed to post a 19-5 record, with seven shutouts, and 1.74 ERA in 28 starts in 1964. He pitched two more seasons, winning the Cy Young Award both years, before calling it quits at 30.