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Down and out: Bob Reynolds got decked by Frank Robinson

February 2, 2024 by retrosimba

An incident involving a future Hall of Famer and a former Cardinals pitcher turned the relaxed atmosphere of an exhibition game between the Cleveland Indians and their top farm team into an awkward embarrassment.

On June 30, 1976, Cleveland’s player-manager, Frank Robinson, went to the mound and slugged Toledo reliever Bob Reynolds before 5,013 stunned spectators at the Mud Hens’ ballpark. (I was one of those in attendance.)

Robinson said Reynolds provoked him. Reynolds said Robinson was the instigator. Either way, the sight of a big-league manager punching one of the franchise’s players during a goodwill game made for a strange, ugly scene.

Hard stuff

A right-handed pitcher, Bob Reynolds was nicknamed Bullet as a high school player in Seattle because of the speed of his fastball. The Giants took him in the first round of the 1966 amateur draft and sent him to Twin Falls, Idaho, to pitch for the Magic Valley Cowboys of the Pioneer League. Reynolds, 19, struck out 147 batters in 86 innings.

Unprotected in the October 1968 expansion draft, Reynolds was chosen by the Expos. At spring training, he showed “a good, live fastball,” Expos catcher Ron Brand told the Montreal Star. “Reynolds makes it hop and sail.”

On March 6, 1969, in the Expos’ first exhibition game, Reynolds retired the Royals in order in the ninth, sealing a 9-8 victory. “I was tickled to death at Reynolds’ poise,” Expos manager Gene Mauch told the Star. “He knows he can throw strikes, and he protected our lead. He really blows smoke past them, doesn’t he? He’s a hard-throwing youngster.”

Preferring he get experience at the Class AAA level, the Expos sent Reynolds to Vancouver, a farm team managed by future Hall of Famer Bob Lemon.

“I was my own worst enemy,” Reynolds told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. “I used to lose my head, kick dirt around the mound, throw things. Just blow up when things weren’t going right. I got to be known as a hothead. When you get a tag like that, it’s awfully hard to shake.

“In 1969 at Vancouver, I got so hot after a loss, I was ready to swing at the first person who walked in the clubhouse. Bob Lemon called me in his office, pointed to his big belly and said, ‘You want to hit something? Hit this.’ He calmed me down so much, I came out laughing at myself for my stupidity.”

The Expos called up Reynolds in September 1969. After being told he would make his big-league debut the next day in a start against the Phillies, “I took sleeping pills and everything else I could find, but nothing worked,” Reynolds recalled to the Baltimore Sun. “I was a nervous wreck the next day.”

Reynolds gave up three runs in 1.1 innings and never appeared in the regular season for the Expos again. Boxscore

Traveling man

On June 15, 1971, the Cardinals acquired Reynolds from the Expos for Mike Torrez. “We’d already lost Reynolds because his options had run out and he was frozen on Winnipeg’s roster,” Expos general manager Jim Fanning said to the Montreal Star. “A lot of clubs were interested in him and we decided to take the first good offer. Torrez became available … and we grabbed him.”

Cardinals scout Joe Monahan told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “Reynolds should be able to help us … His control has improved since the Expos sent him to Winnipeg because they made him stick to his fastball and slider, and forget about his curve.”

Reynolds made four relief appearances for the 1971 Cardinals and gave up runs in three of those games. As the Post-Dispatch noted, “Reynolds made little noise on the Cardinals scene except when he flapped his arms and gave his crow call. The bird imitation kept the bullpen crew from falling asleep.”

Two months after he joined the Cardinals, Reynolds was dealt to the Brewers. A Brewers instructor, former big-league pitcher Wes Stock, helped Reynolds with his slider. “Stock got me to come over the top with it,” Reynolds told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. “I had been coming down the side a little with it and it was a flat slider.”

Reynolds was on the move again the following March when the Brewers sent him to the Orioles, who assigned him to their Rochester farm team. Working mostly in relief, he had a 1.71 ERA and struck out 107 in 95 innings. The Orioles brought him back to the majors in September 1972.

Doggone it

At spring training in 1973, Reynolds suffered a hairline fracture in his right hand and dislocated the little finger when he fell against a wall in his apartment while playing with his dog.

“I can’t blame it on the dog,” Reynolds said to the Baltimore Sun. “It was me who suggested the game in the first place.

“Reminds me of the time I was playing high school basketball and I tried to jazz it up as I went in for a layup. The ball got stuck behind my back and in trying to get straightened out I ran into a wall. Nearly knocked myself cold. Fans thought it was great. Coach didn’t like it too much.”

For the next two years (1973-74), Reynolds was the Orioles’ top right-handed reliever. He had a 1.95 ERA in 1973 and his nine saves tied left-hander Grant Jackson for the team lead. In 1974, Reynolds led the Orioles in games pitched (54) and had a 2.73 ERA.

At the urging of manager Earl Weaver, Reynolds was traded to the Tigers for pitcher Fred Holdsworth in May 1975. Three months later, the Cleveland Indians claimed Reynolds off waivers.

Missing the cut

At Indians spring training in 1976, the final spot on the pitching staff came down to a choice between Reynolds and Stan Thomas. “Bullet is faster, but his ball is straighter,” catcher Ray Fosse told the Akron Beacon Journal. “Thomas’ ball moves more and he has a greater selection of pitches.”

Frank Robinson and general manager Phil Seghi chose Thomas. “It was difficult having to make a decision like this,” Robinson said to the Akron newspaper. “Reynolds has a good attitude. He did everything we asked him to do.”

Reynolds, 29, was assigned to Toledo. Because he had no more options, he would need to remain on the Mud Hens’ roster all season.

The 1976 season was the last for Frank Robinson as a player and his second as a big-league manager. (He would finish with 586 career home runs and get elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.) The Indians, who had a streak of seven straight losing seasons, seemed to be improving under Robinson. Their record was 36-33 when they went to play the exhibition game with Toledo.

On the warpath

Among those in the Indians’ starting lineup on a rainy evening for the Toledo game were Boog Powell at first base, Duane Kuiper at second, George Hendrick in left and Rico Carty as the designated hitter. The Mud Hens had the likes of catcher Rick Cerone and first baseman Joe Lis.

Robinson began substituting in the third inning. He sent coach Rocky Colavito, 42, to replace Hendrick in left. Another coach, Jeff Torborg, got to play, too. Robinson put himself in the game as a pinch-hitter in the fifth. Reynolds, who relieved Cardell Camper (a former Cardinals prospect), was on the mound for Toledo.

Reynolds’ first pitch to Robinson went about six feet over his head. “That was no accident,” Robinson told the Associated Press. “I’ve played long enough to know. The first inning he pitched he never threw a ball above the waist and he never threw one above the waist to the batter before me.”

Robinson said to United Press International, “I feel he was trying to intimidate me and show (off) in front of his teammates.”

(“I wasn’t throwing at him,” Reynolds said to Ron Maly of the Des Moines Register. “The ball just got away from me. I was trying to throw a fastball and my spikes were cluttered with mud.”)

The at-bat continued and Robinson hit a fly ball that was caught for an out. As Robinson cut across the diamond to return to the dugout on the third base side, he said to Reynolds, “You got a lot of guts throwing at me in a game like this,” United Press International reported.

According to Robinson, Reynolds replied, “You had a lot of guts sending me down, you (obscenity).”

Robinson rushed toward Reynolds and punched him with a left-right combination. The left struck Reynolds in the teeth and jaw. The right “sent Reynolds to the ground in a sitting position,” The Cleveland Press reported.

Reynolds told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle that he blanked out “momentarily, maybe for just a second.”

Robinson was ejected and booed by the Toledo fans. Reynolds, spitting blood, insisted on staying in the game. His tongue was cut and his jaw was swollen, according to The Cleveland Press.

“The whole thing could have been avoided,” Toledo manager Joe Sparks said to the Des Moines Register. “The manager of a big-league club should go out of his way to not let something like that happen.”

Robinson told United Press International, “If the circumstances were the same, I would do it again.”

Cleveland won the exhibition game, 13-1. Right fielder Charlie Spikes, who would total three home runs for the Indians in 1976, hit three homers against Toledo. In the seventh inning, Ray Fosse also hit a home run for Cleveland but injured a knee during his trot around the bases. Pitching coach Harvey Haddix, 50, had to come in and complete circling the bases for Fosse.

Robinson went on to manage 17 seasons in the majors with the Indians, Giants, Orioles, Expos and Nationals. Reynolds never got back to the big leagues.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Pitchers, Trades | 17 Comments »

Boos and blitzes were not enough to keep Norm Snead down

January 28, 2024 by retrosimba

Quarterback Norm Snead lost a lot more often than he won in the NFL. Some of it was his fault. Some of it had to do with his supporting casts.

A classic drop-back passer, Snead was 6-foot-4, smart and had a strong arm. Teams traded quarterbacks Sonny Jurgensen and Fran Tarkenton to acquire him.

He was with the Washington Redskins (1961-63), Philadelphia Eagles (1964-70), Minnesota Vikings (1971), New York Giants (1972-74 and 1976) and San Francisco 49ers (1974-75). Most of those were bad teams.

Snead’s clubs had losing records in 13 of his 16 NFL seasons. The exceptions: 1966 Eagles (9-5), 1971 Vikings (11-3) and 1972 Giants (8-6).

In 178 games played (159 as a starter), Snead was 57-114-7 (52-100-7 as a starter). He was 3-12 versus the Cleveland Browns; 3-14-2 against the Redskins.

The St. Louis Cardinals, with their relentless blitzing, also were a tormentor. Snead was 7-12-1 against them. The Cardinals sacked him more times (53) than any other foe, but he also totaled his most passing yards (3,832) against them.

(Cardinals receiver Sonny Randle was a friend, but more on that later.)

Snead threw 196 career touchdown passes _ more than luminaries such as Ken Stabler (194), Bob Griese (192), Sammy Baugh (187), Otto Graham (174), Joe Namath (173), Norm Van Brocklin (165) and Troy Aikman (165).

Sink or swim

In high school at Newport News, Va., Snead excelled in baseball (he struck out 16 in a game) and basketball (he averaged 21 points a game as a senior) as well as football. He went on to play college football at Wake Forest and set multiple Atlantic Coast Conference passing records.

The Washington Redskins, with the second overall pick in the first round of the 1961 NFL draft, chose Snead ahead of quarterbacks Fran Tarkenton of Georgia and Billy Kilmer of UCLA. Then they traded their starter, Ralph Guglielmi, to the Cardinals and gave the job to Snead.

With no running game (the 1961 Redskins ranked last in the NFL in rushing), Snead was put in a tough spot. Opponents, knowing he was going to pass most of the time, teed off on him.

When Snead faced Guglielmi and the Cardinals on Oct. 22, 1961, at Washington, he was sacked seven times, intercepted once and booed by the home crowd before being replaced in the second half. “I felt sorry for him,” Guglielmi told the Associated Press. “I sure was glad it wasn’t me.”

Led by blitzing linebackers Bill Koman, Dale Meinert and Ted Bates, the Cardinals won, 24-0 _ the franchise’s first shutout win since the Chicago Cardinals beat the Detroit Lions, 7-0, in 1942. Game stats

Snead started all 14 games his rookie season but didn’t get a win until the finale against the Dallas Cowboys. Years later, he told the Philadelphia Daily News, “I should have sat on the bench when I first came up instead of starting right away … I’d just go in and throw. I developed some bad habits, like throwing in a crowd, things like that.”

Helping hand

In 1962, Washington became the last NFL team to integrate. Among the black players acquired was future Pro Football Hall of Famer Bobby Mitchell. He and Snead made an immediate connection. Snead threw 22 touchdown passes in 1962. Eleven of those went to Mitchell.

After the season, Snead volunteered with the Peace Corps as a consultant in recruiting college students.

“I had thought about joining the Peace Corps while I was still at Wake Forest,” he said to the Associated Press. “I think all of us have some sort of idealism or patriotism in us that we want to express. This is a fine chance to do it.”

He also told United Press International, “It’s one way to contribute to a fine cause. I believe in what the Peace Corps is doing throughout the world.”

Snead became the first pro football player to work for the Peace Corps, according to the Associated Press. 

“I don’t think football builds character,” Snead told Joe Donnelly of the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post Service, “but it is the greatest thing I’ve ever participated or come in contact with at revealing character.”

Not so Sonny

Snead’s fortitude got put to the test during his third season with Washington in 1963. He took a step backwards, getting intercepted 27 times, and became “the victim of unmerciful booing and criticism by Washington fans,” the Associated Press reported.

After the season, Snead and defensive back Claude Crabb were traded to the Eagles for quarterback Sonny Jurgensen and defensive back Jimmy Carr. The deal was unpopular in Philadelphia. As Jack McKinney of the Philadelphia Daily News noted, “Jurgensen, gifted with the best arm in pro football, is an established star. Snead, who has a pretty good pump of his own, is still merely promising.”

Then there was the matter of style. Sonny had swagger; Norm didn’t. Jurgensen “is an irrepressible, flamboyant man who moves through the football world laughing and enjoying himself,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Snead “is a soft-spoken and reserved man who has little to say except in the huddle.”

Or, as the Philadelphia Daily News put it, Jurgensen’s antics off the field were “something less than that of a Boy Scout leader.” Snead was “a non-drinking, non-swearing all-American boy type.”

To be sure, there were successes for Snead with the Eagles. Like the time in 1965 that he picked apart a depleted Cardinals secondary (safeties Jerry Stovall and Larry Wilson were sidelined because of injuries) and threw three touchdown passes to his road roommate, Pete Retzlaff, in a win at St. Louis. Game stats

Or, the 1967 season, when Snead in 14 games had 29 touchdown passes (including two to tight end Mike Ditka).

The bad times, though, literally were torture. In a 1966 loss to the Cardinals, Snead was sacked nine times and had five passes intercepted. Two of the picks were returned for touchdowns by Stovall and Wilson. “Snead was being slung around like a string of hot dogs by a pack of mad bulldogs,” the Philadelphia Daily News reported. The Philadelphia Inquirer called it “his darkest hour as a professional quarterback” and noted that the Cardinals “did everything but separate Snead from his right arm.” Game stats

Though the Eagles had many weaknesses, Snead often shouldered the blame. “The criticism has been harsh and steady,” wrote columnist Sandy Padwe.

After the 1970 season, the Eagles traded Snead to the Vikings for offensive tackle Steve Smith and three draft picks.

“The Philadelphia fans never forgave him for the fact the Eagles traded Sonny Jurgensen for him,” United Press International concluded.

Hot and cold

Vikings coach Bud Grant rotated three quarterbacks during the 1971 season. Gary Cuozzo made eight starts and Bob Lee started four times. Snead’s two starts resulted in wins _ one against the Buffalo Bills and the other versus the Eagles at Philadelphia. He also replaced Cuozzo in the fourth quarter of a game against the Giants and threw a game-winning touchdown pass to Bob Grim. Game stats

After the season, the Vikings sent Snead, Grim, running back Vince Clements and two draft choices to the Giants for Fran Tarkenton.

Snead, 33, had a rebirth with the 1972 Giants. He started 13 games (the Giants won eight of those) and led the NFL in completion percentage (60.3). He was the starter in both of the Giants’ wins against the Eagles that season. Eagles owner Leonard Tose, who had guaranteed his team would beat Snead and the Giants at Philadelphia, said to United Press International, “I can’t believe Snead beat this team. I’m sick. I just can’t believe we’re this bad.”

One more highlight: The last time Snead faced the Cardinals was Nov. 18, 1973. He came off the bench near the end of the first quarter to replace Randy Johnson, who suffered a concussion, and completed 14 of 20 passes, leading the Giants to a 24-13 victory. Some of those completions were to Johnny Roland, the former St. Louis running back, who told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “It gave me a lot of personal satisfaction to show the Cardinals I can still play football.” Game stats

The Virginians

Like Snead, Sonny Randle, a wide receiver for the 1960s Cardinals, was born and raised in Virginia and played college football in the Atlantic Coast Conference. He and Snead became friends.

When Randle was head football coach at East Carolina and then at his alma mater, the University of Virginia, Snead aided him in developing offenses for those college teams. He also assisted every year at Randle’s summer football camps for youths in Fork Union, Va. “There’s no better offensive man in football,” Randle told the Newport News Daily Press.

After his playing days, Snead became director of admissions and head football coach at Newport News Shipbuilding Apprentice School. Randle became head football coach at Massanutten Military Academy. 

On Nov. 5, 1977, Randle’s team beat Snead’s team, 25-6.

Randle went on to become head football coach at Marshall. Snead stayed with Apprentice School and was credited with “having restored the school’s football program to respectability,” the Newport News Daily Press reported. NFL Films video

Posted in Football, Games, Opponents | 16 Comments »

Bud Harrelson was little big man versus Bob Gibson

January 23, 2024 by retrosimba

Whitey Herzog helped Bud Harrelson hit well enough to stay in the big leagues. What he likely couldn’t have imagined is that the scrawny shortstop of the Mets would become a terror at the plate against Bob Gibson.

In 16 big-league seasons, Harrelson hit .236 and had a modest on-base percentage of .327. Against Gibson, he turned into the reincarnation of Ty Cobb. Harrelson batted .333 versus the Cardinals ace and, with 20 hits and 14 walks, had a .459 on-base percentage.

If not for Herzog, a Mets coach who later became Cardinals manager, Harrelson might not have stuck around long enough to do so much damage against Gibson. “Whitey Herzog really taught me what the game is all about here,” Harrelson said to the New York Daily News.

A Gold Glove fielder, Harrelson helped the Mets win two National League pennants and a World Series title.

Making a switch

Signed by the Mets in June 1963, a day after he turned 19, Harrelson got brought up to the majors two years later. His first plate appearance for the 1965 Mets came at St. Louis when he grounded out against the Cardinals’ Ray Washburn. Boxscore

At 155 pounds, Harrelson “looked like a high school shortstop,” the New York Times noted. He fielded like a pro but didn’t hit like one. In 37 at-bats for the 1965 Mets, Harrelson hit .108. Columnist Arthur Daley described him as a “frail little guy” and “a batter of feeble skills.”

Desperate to make himself useful as a hitter, Harrelson, a natural right-hander, took some swings from the left side against a pitching machine at spring training in 1966. Mets director of player personnel Bob Scheffing (a former Cardinals catcher) and minor-league manager Solly Hemus (a former Cardinals player and manager) “noticed his smooth left-handed stroke, and suggested that he continue,” the New York Times reported.

Assigned to Class AAA Jacksonville, managed by Hemus, Harrelson made himself into a switch-hitter, but the results were not immediate. He batted .221 overall, and .210 from the left side, for Jacksonville.

Called up to the Mets in August 1966, Harrelson worked before every game with Herzog, a coach on manager Wes Westrum’s staff, to get better at hitting from both sides. Herzog urged him to “hit that ball like it’s your enemy” and “smash it,” the New York Times reported.

Harrelson told the newspaper, “That half-hour I put into the batting cage is like two hours work for me … but I know I’m knocking on the door. I know I’ve got to make it as a switch-hitter. That’s the way it is.”

Whitey ball

Herzog boosted Harrelson’s confidence and encouraged his scrappy play.

On Sept. 16, 1966, at San Francisco, the score was tied at 3-3 with two outs in the ninth when Harrelson batted from the right side against Giants left-hander Billy Hoeft. A runner, Johnny Lewis (a former Cardinal), was on second.

Harrelson drove the ball over the head of rookie left fielder Frank Johnson, who played shallow, for his second triple of the game, scoring Lewis and giving the Mets a 4-3 lead. “I get to third base, I’m dusting myself off, just happy to be there, and Whitey (Herzog, coaching at third) says, ‘So steal home,’ ” Harrelson told the New York Daily News.

While Harrelson pondered that, the Giants lifted Hoeft and replaced him with Lindy McDaniel, the former Cardinal. On McDaniel’s first pitch to Eddie Bressoud, Harrelson took a normal lead and noticed McDaniel didn’t pay much attention to him. “Herzog told me if McDaniel wasn’t looking at me and I thought I could make it, I should go ahead and try it,” Harrelson said to the San Francisco Examiner.

On McDaniel’s second pitch, Harrelson broke for home as Herzog suggested. McDaniel’s pitch was high and went past catcher Tom Haller to the backstop. Harrelson scored easily with a steal of home, extending the Mets’ lead to 5-3.

The Giants scored a run in the bottom of the ninth, but the Mets prevailed, 5-4, on Harrelson’s dash to the dish. As Newsday noted, “A skinny kid … ran right over the Giants. He just about took their pennant hopes and buried them under home plate with his flashing spikes.” Boxscore

Different strokes

Harrelson became the Mets’ starting shortstop in 1967. “He had to make himself into a ballplayer, and he did it,” Herzog recalled years later to Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Described by Dick Young of the New York Daily News as “a hard-working slap hitter who can fly,” Harrelson took a tip from coach Yogi Berra to use different bats and different grips from each side of the plate.

“Yogi got me to start using a big bat when I hit left-handed,” Harrelson told Dave Anderson of the New York Times. “I use a 36-inch, 35-ounce bat and choke up about four or five inches from the handle. Right-handed, I’m using a light bat that (utility man) Bob Johnson gave to me. It is only 34 inches, 30 ounces. I choke up only about an inch with that one.”

Because batting right-handed was natural to him, resulting in a quicker swing, a lighter bat was sufficient, Harrelson said. From the left side, he became “a sweep contact hitter” who needed the help of a heftier bat, he told Dave Anderson.

“They use a Little League defense against me as a lefty,” Harrelson said to the New York Times. “The outfield plays shallow with the infield in.”

It was as a left-handed batter, his weak side, that Harrelson faced Bob Gibson. All that practicing and experimenting he did paid off.

Bring it on, Bob

The Cardinals won consecutive National League pennants in 1967 and 1968, and were expected to contend again in 1969, but the Mets, who never had experienced a winning season, dethroned them.

On Sept. 23, 1969, the Mets clinched at least a tie for a division title with a 3-2 win versus Gibson and the Cardinals in 11 innings. Batting left-handed, Harrelson had two hits and two walks, and drove in the winning run.

With the score tied at 2-2 in the bottom of the 11th, the Mets had runners on first and second, one out, when Harrelson lined a 1-and-2 pitch from Gibson into center for a single.

“I thought it was gong to be close at the plate,” Mets manager Gil Hodges told Newsday, but Curt Flood’s throw was up the first-base line, enabling Ron Swoboda to score from second. Boxscore

For the 1969 season, Harrelson hit .248 and had an on-base percentage of .341, but against the Cardinals he had a .317 batting mark and reached base in 45.1 percent of his plate appearances. In 17 plate appearances versus Bob Gibson in 1969, Harrelson’s on-base percentage was .625.

In his autobiography, “Stranger to the Game,” Gibson said, “Most of my energy was spent working on and worrying about the guys with the biggest sticks. Although the ping hitters may have put more nicks in me from game to game, I didn’t fear them whatsoever … If I wanted the batter to hit the ball, as I wanted singles hitters to do in most cases, I didn’t see the merit of throwing pitches that weren’t strikes.”

Two years later, on May 7, 1971, Gibson and the Cardinals had a 1-0 lead on Tom Seaver and the Mets at New York’s Shea Stadium when Harrelson led off the bottom of the seventh with a triple to the alley in right-center.

“Maybe he has only four super fastballs in him a game now,” Harrelson said to Newsday of Gibson, “but he’s a great self-analyst. He knows what he’s got and how to use it. He sets you up now instead of blowing you down.”

After Ken Boswell grounded out to first, Dave Marshall batted. “I put down two fingers for a curve and Bob saw only one,” catcher Ted Simmons told Newsday. “That fastball just sailed over my left shoulder.”

The wild pitch enabled Harrelson to scamper home with the tying run. 

“That wasn’t Ted’s fault,” Gibson said to Newsday. “I blew the sign.”

The Mets scored twice in the eighth against Gibson and won, 3-1. Boxscore

In 1973, when the Mets edged the Cardinals for the division title, Harrelson hit .258 overall and .325 against St. Louis.

For his career, Harrelson had more hits versus Steve Carlton (23) and Bob Gibson (20) than he did against any other pitchers.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents | 10 Comments »

Rough stuff: Sandy Koufax versus Lou Brock

January 18, 2024 by retrosimba

Sandy Koufax played hard ball when Lou Brock opted for small ball.

In a game at Dodger Stadium, Koufax intentionally drilled Brock in the shoulder with a pitch. The Dodgers ace was miffed at Brock because in his previous at-bat he bunted for a base hit and then swiped two bases, leading to a run.

Getting plunked by a Koufax fastball was as painful as one would imagine and knocked Brock out of the Cardinals’ lineup. It also messed with his mind.

“He almost ended my career,” Brock said to the New York Daily News.

Tough to solve

Like many who faced Koufax in his prime, Brock struggled mightily against him. In 1963, Koufax fanned him seven times in 11 at-bats. The next year, when he split the season with the Cubs and Cardinals, Brock hit .143 versus Koufax.

In Brock’s autobiography, “Stealing Is My Game,” his collaborator, Franz Schulze, wrote, “No one was harder on him than the great Koufax … Sandy could turn Lou into a flopping marionette with his curve and fastball.”

Brock, who had been swinging from the heels against Koufax, decided to try a different tactic. He was determined to bunt and use his speed to reach base.

“Brock’s bunting was the only thing that threatened Koufax,” Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson said in his autobiography, “Stranger to the Game.”

Lighting a fuse

The first time Brock got to test his new approach against Koufax came on May 26, 1965. After Julian Javier led off the game and struck out, Brock stepped in and bunted a pitch toward the mound. A flustered Koufax fielded the ball with his glove and, hurrying, shoveled it wide of first baseman Wes Parker as Brock streaked across the bag with a single.

With Curt Flood at the plate, Brock took off for second and beat catcher Jeff Torborg’s throw. Flood then bounced a grounder into the hole at shortstop. Maury Wills knocked down the ball but couldn’t make a throw. Brock held second as Flood reached first with a single.

Koufax was unhappy. The Cardinals hadn’t gotten a ball out of the infield but he was in a jam. The cleanup batter, Ken Boyer, was up next. Turning up the pressure, Brock and Flood executed a double steal.

With the runners on second and third, one out, Boyer hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Brock. The next batter, Dick Groat, grounded out, ending the threat, but Brock had shown the Cardinals a way to get to Koufax.

“I got under his skin by bunting back at him … Koufax couldn’t handle the bunt,” Brock said to Dick Young of the New York Daily News.

In the book “Sixty Feet, Six Inches,” Bob Gibson said, “We were helpless against Koufax until Brock figured out that he could bunt on him. Once he was on first base, he could run on him, too, because Sandy didn’t have a pickoff move.”

Koufax decided he had to do something to dissuade Brock from trying that again.

Sending a message

After the Dodgers tied the score with a run in the second against Curt Simmons, Javier led off the Cardinals’ third and flied out. Brock then came up for the first time since his electrifying performance in the opening inning.

According to author Jane Leavy in her book, “Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy,” Koufax took aim at Brock and fired. The ball smashed hard into Brock’s shoulder blade. “So darned hard,” Torborg told Leavy, “that the ball went in and spun around in the meat for a while and then dropped.”

From his perch in the dugout, it sounded like “a thud that had a crack in it,” Cardinals outfielder Mike Shannon recalled to Leavy.

In her book, Leavy wrote, “It was the first time, the only time, Koufax threw at a batter purposefully.”

(Years later, according to Leavy, Koufax said, “I don’t regret it. I do regret that I allowed myself to get so mad.”)

Despite the hurt, Brock went to first base. Then he swiped second.

Brock struck out against Koufax in the fifth, and was replaced in left field by Carl Warwick in the bottom half of the inning.

The Cardinals won, 2-1, with Bob Uecker scoring the tie-breaking run against Koufax, but the cost was high. Brock, their catalyst, was in trouble. Boxscore

Mind over matter

X-rays taken after the game were negative, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, and Brock traveled with the team to Houston. The next day, according to the newspaper, “he could not even lift his bruised left shoulder.”

Brock wasn’t in the lineup the next five games and the Cardinals lost all five. He came back on June 1, but “he couldn’t swing or throw as of old,” The Sporting News reported.

Brock went hitless in his first 17 at-bats after returning to the lineup. Collaborator Franz Schulze noted, “He was just suddenly scared to death of all inside pitches. So he kept retreating in the batter’s box.”

Brock told the New York Daily News, “Because of fear, I was jumping away from anything inside, expecting to be hit again. I was afraid.”

The fear of failure, though, became greater than the fear of pain. Brock forced himself not to flinch when a pitch came close. “I made myself do it,” he said to Dick Young. “I even closed my eyes and stepped into a few.”

When the base hits followed, the fear dissipated.

Brock was tested on June 16 when he was struck on the batting helmet by a pitch from the Pirates’ Frank Carpin. Brock stayed in the lineup. Boxscore

Two weeks later, another Pirates left-hander, Bob Veale, hit Brock in the right forearm with a pitch. “I’ve never been hit harder,” Brock said to the Post-Dispatch. “Veale throws even harder than Sandy Koufax.” Boxscore

The following night, back in the lineup against the Mets’ Frank Lary, Brock doubled, walked, scored a run and stole a base. Boxscore

In his autobiography, Bob Gibson noted, “Much of my reputation as a badass pitcher resulted from the fact that Lou Brock was on my side. There was no other player who irritated the other team as Brock did, and consequently no other who was knocked down quite as often. When somebody on the other team threw at Brock, I considered it my duty to throw at somebody on the other team.”

Brock was hit by pitches a career-high 10 times in 1965, but he played in 155 games, totaling 182 base hits, 107 runs scored and 63 stolen bases.

By the numbers

After being hit by the Koufax pitch in May 1965, Brock never successfully bunted for a hit against him again.

For his career, Brock batted .185 versus Koufax, with more than twice as many strikeouts (28) as hits (12).

Koufax hit batters with pitches 18 times. He plunked Frank Robinson twice. In addition to Brock, the ones Koufax nailed once were Frank Thomas, Billy Williams, Dick Stuart, Bob Aspromonte, Eddie Kasko, Jim Wynn, Denis Menke, John Bateman, Tim McCarver, Bobby Del Greco, Bobby Thomson, Elio Chacon, Bob Purkey, Merritt Ranew and Eddie O’Brien.

Koufax was hit by a pitch just once. The Cubs’ Dick Ellsworth did it in the 10th inning of a game at Dodger Stadium on May 4, 1964. With a runner on first and none out, Koufax tried to bunt with two strikes but the curveball hit him on the right foot. The next batter, Maury Wills, got the game-winning hit. Brock played right field for the Cubs that night and was hitless against Koufax. Boxscore

In 19 years in the majors, Brock was plunked 49 times. Two pitchers _ Ryne Duren and Chris Short _ both nailed him twice.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Pitchers | 15 Comments »

Gridiron geometry: Frank Ryan versus Cardinals

January 13, 2024 by retrosimba

Frank Ryan, a quarterback who excelled at advanced mathematics and physics, sought the formula for beating the St. Louis Cardinals defense.

In his 13 seasons (1958-70) in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams, Cleveland Browns and Washington Redskins, Ryan had more ups than downs versus the Cardinals but it wasn’t easy. He started 12 games against them and was intercepted 14 times. No other team picked off more of his passes.

In 1965, the year after he led the Browns to a NFL championship, Ryan was intercepted seven times in two starts versus the Cardinals. The next year, he made the right calculations and had one of the most productive passing games of his career against them.

During a time when the NFL featured Bart Starr, Fran Tarkenton and Johnny Unitas, Ryan twice led the league in touchdown passes _ 25 in 14 games in 1964 and 29 in 14 games in 1966.

Rocket man

As a youngster in Fort Worth, Texas, Ryan took an interest in math and science. By age 6, “he spent a lot of his time drawing sideview cutaway sketches of rockets and figuring out how fast a space missile would have to go to break out of the earth’s gravitational pull,” according to Sports Illustrated.

After high school, he enrolled at Rice, majoring in physics and playing quarterback. As a junior in 1956, Ryan split time with another quality quarterback, King Hill.

Ryan started Rice’s season opener his senior year but got injured. Hill replaced him and remained the starter, breaking the school record for total offense and guiding Rice to a berth in the Cotton Bowl.

In the 1958 NFL draft, the Chicago Cardinals, with the first two picks in the first round, took Hill and Texas A&M running back John David Crow. Ryan was chosen in the fifth round by the Rams. Upon earning his bachelor’s degree in physics, Ryan planned to pursue a master’s in advanced mathematics at Rice. He agreed to sign with the Rams after it was arranged for him to take classes at UCLA during the football season.

Asked about drafting a quarterback who was the backup to King Hill, Rams head coach Sid Gillman replied to the Chicago Tribune, “Ryan is the better bet. He would have been drafted sooner, only no one believes he’ll try pro football.”

California dreaming

While serving as backup to Rams starting quarterback Bill Wade, Ryan took two courses in math logic at UCLA.

Asked whether trying to master the Rams’ playbook was as difficult as graduate studies, Ryan said to the Los Angeles Times, “Both are largely a matter of memory, but with math, you can apply what you’ve memorized to attacking a problem with original thinking. Whereas I doubt if Coach Gillman would appreciate too much original thinking on my part where ‘Split Right, Take 18, Waggle Left, Pass X Comeback” is concerned.

“Let’s put it this way: The difference is that in football, you think quicker, but not as deeply. Science allows you more leisure to think, but you have to think deeper.”

When the Rams went on road trips, Ryan’s wife, Joan, sat in for him at class and took notes. “Give her a week, and she’ll understand it as well as I do,” Ryan told the Times.

(Joan Ryan graduated from Rice with a degree in English literature. When her husband joined the Browns, she became a sports columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. She later was a sports columnist for the Washington Star and Washington Post. She was one of two sports columnists named Joan Ryan. The other worked for San Francisco newspapers and was no relation.)

Ryan backed up Bill Wade in 1958 and 1959, and was in the same role in 1960 when Bob Waterfield replaced Gillman as Rams head coach.

On Sept. 23, 1960, the Cardinals, who had moved from Chicago to St. Louis, opened the season against the Rams. King Hill was the Cardinals’ starting quarterback. He struggled and was replaced at halftime by John Roach, who threw four touchdown passes and carried the Cardinals to a 43-21 victory. Ryan played in the second half for the Rams and threw a 54-yard touchdown pass to rookie Carroll Dale. Game stats

Midway through the 1960 season, the Rams went with Ryan as the starter. On Oct. 30, he threw three touchdown passes, including one to himself, in a 48-35 triumph over the Detroit Lions, snapping the Rams’ streak of 13 consecutive winless games.

Ryan’s touchdown reception happened this way: He threw a short pass to halfback Jon Arnett, who got blanketed by defenders. Arnett turned, saw Ryan and lateraled the ball to him. “I was the most surprised guy on the field,” Ryan said to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I ran about 25 yards. I barely beat Night Train Lane to the end zone.” The play went into the books as a 37-yard touchdown pass from Ryan to Ryan.

Head coach Bob Waterfield said to the Los Angeles Times, “That was a new one on me. I asked Ryan later: Where did we get that play?” Game stats

The next year, much to Ryan’s chagrin, Zeke Bratkowski became the Rams’ starting quarterback. Ryan had one highlight. On Oct. 1, 1961, substituting for an injured Bratkowski, he connected with Ollie Matson on a 96-yard touchdown pass against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Game stats

After making quarterback Roman Gabriel their top pick in the 1962 draft, the Rams saw no need for Ryan. On July 12, 1962, Ryan’s 26th birthday, he and running back Tom Wilson were traded to the Browns for defensive tackle Larry Stephens and two 1963 draft choices.

Dr. Ryan

Jim Ninowski opened the 1962 season as the Browns’ starting quarterback but broke his collarbone in the eighth game and was replaced by Ryan, who held on to the job.

In 1964, the Browns played the Baltimore Colts for the NFL championship. Johnny Unitas was the Colts’ quarterback, but Ryan “completely stole the show,” The Sporting News noted. He threw three touchdown passes to flanker Gary Collins and the Browns won, 27-0. Game stats

Six months later, Ryan got his doctorate in advanced mathematics from Rice. His doctoral dissertation was titled: “A Characterization of the Set of Asymptotic Values of a Function Holomorphic in the Unit Disc.”

“The world outside has no conception of what higher mathematics is about,” Ryan said to Sports Illustrated. “The heart and soul of modern mathematics is very abstract symbolism. People think mathematicians are concerned with numbers, and they’re not at all. Advanced mathematics is unrelated in a casual way to anything else, including football.”

Ryan became a professor of higher mathematics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland while playing for the Browns. He taught fulltime in the spring semester and twice a week during football season.

Big Red menace

The defending champion Browns began the 1965 season with a win at Washington and then prepared for their Sept. 26 home opener against the Cardinals. Ryan appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated that week.

The Cardinals were unimpressed. Ryan “had what must have been his saddest day in the NFL,” according to the Mansfield News-Journal. He was intercepted four times, injured a foot and “left the game with a broken heart” late in the first half, the Akron Beacon Journal noted. The Cardinals won, 49-13.

“The (foot) injury had a good deal to do with Ryan’s performance,” the Akron newspaper reported. “He was unable to set himself properly and throw _ and the results were passes resembling winged ducks.”

Jim Ninowski, who replaced Ryan in the game, was intercepted twice, giving the Cardinals a total of six. Jimmy Burson and Jerry Stovall each had two. Pat Fischer and Larry Wilson had one apiece. Wilson picked of another but it was nullified by a penalty. Game stats

In the rematch at St. Louis three months later, Wilson intercepted three Ryan passes and returned the first 96 yards for a touchdown. Browns running back Jim Brown (ejected for fighting with Cardinals defensive lineman Joe Robb) and flanker Gary Collins (rib injury) departed in the first half, but Ryan overcame the challenges and led the Browns to a 27-24 triumph. Game stats

The next year, with better pass protection, Ryan improved versus the Cardinals. Intercepted seven times by them in 1965, he was picked off just once in two games against the 1966 Cardinals. In the Dec. 17 season finale, a 38-10 Browns victory, Ryan threw for a career-high 367 yards, including four touchdown passes, and was not intercepted. Game stats

Good, bad and ugly

Bill Nelsen replaced Ryan as the the Browns’ starting quarterback in 1968. Ryan spent his final two NFL seasons _ 1969 (when Vince Lombardi was head coach) and 1970 _ with the Redskins as backup to Sonny Jurgensen.

Afterward, Ryan was director of information and computer systems for the United States House of Representatives from 1971-77. In 1977, Yale named him its athletic director and he spent 10 years in that role. He also taught mathematics at Yale and Rice.

Reflecting on his NFL days, Ryan told the Los Angeles Times in 1980, “The greatest lingering malady that goes with playing pro football is the psychological aftereffects. It puts such a hype on your performance. It builds your status as a special person, so you make an assumption about life after football that is fallacious. It leads to a real dislocation between your aspirations and what you are actually capable of.

“There is a harm that comes to a person who get so absorbed in football that the fundamental values that should govern their existence are set aside. There is nothing more special than a great athlete who doesn’t think he’s special.

“I’d be a much better person if I’d spent more of my time not playing football. It’s an intensely selfish sport. I think I succumbed to a lot of that and I’m not as good a man as I could be because of it.” Video highlights

Posted in Football, Games, Opponents | 11 Comments »

Over the rainbow: How Rip Sewell found his pot of gold

January 8, 2024 by retrosimba

The world changed for Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Rip Sewell on Dec. 7, 1941, but not for the obvious reason the date suggests.

Sewell went hunting with a group in Florida’s Ocala National Forest on that day, the last of deer season.

“I was walking down the fire lane,” Sewell recalled to the Tampa Tribune. “It was a path as wide as your living room, but one of those fellows was crouched down in the scrub pines, heard something, turned and fired his shotgun at it.”

Sewell was 30 feet away when two loads of buckshot from the double-barreled gun struck him in the legs and feet. The impact caused Sewell to turn a complete backwards somersault. The big toe was shot off his right foot. The blast “shattered every nerve in my legs,” he told the Tampa Tribune.

When the shooter and others reached him, they thought “I was dead,” Sewell said to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

He was taken to a hospital, where a nurse told the hunters she thought it was too late to save Sewell’s life. He almost bled to death, the Tampa Tribune reported.

In the book “Baseball When the Grass Was Real,” Sewell said to author Donald Honig, “That shot tore holes in me as big as marbles.”

In the hospital, they “managed to dig out 15 of the 18 buckshot slugs,” Sewell told the New York Times. “Now I’m able to understand how a deer must feel.”

Four months after the accident, Sewell was the starting pitcher for the Pirates in their 1942 home opener against the Cardinals.

Twisty travels

Sewell was from Decatur, Ala. His father was a streetcar conductor there, then became a boxcar builder for the L&N Railroad, Sewell told the Tampa Tribune.

Enrolled at Vanderbilt on a football scholarship, Sewell majored in mechanical engineering, “but I soon came to realize I wasn’t going to make it as a mechanical engineer,” he told author Donald Honig.

He left school, took a job at a DuPont rayon plant in Tennessee and played semipro baseball. A friend helped him get a minor-league contract. A right-hander, Sewell had 17 wins for the Raleigh (N.C.) Capitals in 1931.

The Detroit Tigers brought Sewell, 25, to the majors in June 1932. “When I went into the clubhouse and saw the name ‘Sewell’ on my locker, I was in shock,” he told the Tampa Tribune. “I was in the big leagues. I looked at the locker next to me, and there was Charlie Gehringer getting ready to play second base. It was the greatest thrill in my life.”

In his first appearance, a relief stint against the Athletics, Sewell retired Mickey Cochrane and Al Simmons, then gave up a home run to another future Hall of Famer, Jimmie Foxx. Boxscore

A month later Sewell was back in the minors. He wouldn’t return to the big leagues until six years later with the 1938 Pirates.

Quite a comeback

After the 1941 shooting, “I had to learn to walk all over again,” Sewell said to author Donald Honig.

On the pitching mound, “The injury forced him to alter his delivery because he could no longer drive off the foot as he had,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Sewell developed a motion like he was walking toward the batter and learned to throw a slider to compensate for reduced velocity on his fastball.

On April 17, 1942, his first regular-season appearance since the shooting, Sewell pitched a complete game and beat the Cardinals, limiting them to two runs, in the Pirates’ home opener. Boxscore

Sewell went on to win 17, including five shutouts, for the 1942 Pirates.

Perhaps the batter who hit best against Sewell was the Cardinals’ Stan Musial. His first-big-league home run came against Sewell in 1941 and his first big-league grand slam was hit against him a year later. Boxscore and Boxscore

Specialty pitch

Working on his revised pitching motion in practice sessions, Sewell discovered he could throw a pitch about 25 feet high and make it drop across the strike zone.

“I’d been fooling around with the pitch in the bullpen and Al Lopez, our catcher, kept egging me on to try it in a game,” Sewell recalled to Joe Falls of the Detroit Free Press.

He unveiled the pitch in a 1943 spring training game against the Tigers. “I was working three innings this day and I had two out in my last inning and Dick Wakefield was the batter,” Sewell said to Falls. “I decided, well, what the heck, I’ll give it a try.”

As Falls described it, “The pitch went almost straight into the air like a kid losing his balloon at the circus.”

Wakefield swung from the heels and missed the pitch by at least two feet.

After the game, reporters asked Sewell what kind of pitch he threw Wakefield. Seated nearby, Sewell’s teammate, Maurice Van Robays, piped up and said, “It’s an eephus pitch.”

“What’s an eephus?”

“It ain’t nothing,” replied Van Robays, “and that’s what that pitch is _ nothing.”

Also known as the blooper, the dew drop, the parachute, the rainbow and the balloon, the pitch was used by Sewell for the rest of his career.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Joe Browne described it as “the craziest pitch in the history of baseball _ and one of the most effective.”

In the book “Baseball When the Grass Was Real,” Sewell said, “I was the only pitcher to pitch off of the tip of his toes, and that’s the only way you can throw the blooper. It’s got to be thrown straight overhand. I was able to get a terrific backspin on the ball by holding onto the seam and flipping it off of three fingers. The backspin held it on its line of flight to the plate. So that ball was going slow but spinning fast. Fun to watch, easy to catch, but tough to hit.”

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the blooper “goes through the strike zone at an angle new and strange to the batters. It is dropping sharply and to meet it head-on the hitter would have to swing almost directly upward.”

Using the same motion as his fastball, Sewell threw the blooper pitch up to 15 times a game, usually when ahead in the count and not with a runner on base. He told the Free Press he could get it over the plate six out of 10 tries.

Most batters hated the eephus pitch. According to The Sporting News, the Cardinals’ Whitey Kurowski “spat tobacco juice at the ball when Sewell threw him the blooper,” and the Reds’ Eddie Miller one time “grabbed the pitched ball on its downward flight and threw it back to Sewell.”

“Anytime I’ve got a batter looking for the eephus, I’ve got him where I want him,” Sewell told the Free Press. “He’s duck soup then for a fastball.”

Nobody in the National League hit the eephus pitch for a home run, but Stan Musial came close.

On Sept. 8, 1943, at St. Louis, Musial hit two home runs against Sewell. None was off the eephus pitch. In the eighth inning, Sewell threw the blooper and Musial hit it squarely but pulled it just a bit too much and the ball “crashed into the seats in the upper deck of the right field stands, above the pavilion roof, but foul by a few feet,” the Post-Dispatch reported. Boxscore

According to Bob Broeg of the Post-Dispatch, the longest fair ball hit off Sewell’s blooper pitch in a regular-season game was a triple Musial ripped to the far reaches of right field at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field in 1944. Boxscore

For his career, Musial batted .492 versus Sewell and had five home runs among the 31 hits.

Show stopper

Sewell was a 21-game winner for the Pirates in 1943 (when he allowed a mere six home runs in 265.1 innings) and again in 1944.

In May 1946, he suffered a mild stroke in the Pirates’ clubhouse, The Sporting News reported, but kept pitching that season.

At the 1946 All-Star-Game in Boston’s Fenway Park, the American League was ahead, 8-0, when National League manager Charlie Grimm sent Sewell in to pitch with instructions to “throw that blooper pitch and see if you can wake up this crowd,” the Associated Press reported.

With two on and two outs, Ted Williams came to the plate. Sewell threw the blooper and Williams hit it foul. Another blooper landed outside the strike zone. Then Sewell surprised Williams with a fastball that was taken for strike two.

Sewell came back with a pitch he described as a “Sunday Super Dooper Blooper.”

“It was a good one,” Sewell said to author Donald Honig. “Dropping right down the chute for a strike. He took a couple of steps up on it _ which was the right way to attack that pitch, incidentally _ and he hit it right out of there. I mean, he hit it.”

The ball carried over the fence in right for the only homer hit off Sewell’s blooper. Boxscore and Video

That year, using All-Star Game revenue, Sewell and Cardinals shortstop Marty Marion “worked out the framework of a plan that was to lead to the establishment of baseball’s player pension fund,” The Sporting News reported.

Sewell’s career record in the majors is 143-97. He was superb against the Cubs (36-19, 2.84 ERA) and not so good versus the Cardinals (9-19, 4.85).

According to The Sporting News, “the consequences of Sewell’s (1941) hunting accident forced doctors to amputate both his legs below the knees in 1973 because of life-threatening circulatory problems.”

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers | 11 Comments »

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