RetroSimba

Intimidation: Ozzie Smith, Will Clark and the Battle at Busch

July 24, 2013 by retrosimba

Ozzie Smith thought the Cardinals were being bullied and he needed to show them how to stand up for themselves. Will Clark thought Smith was behaving like a bully by attacking him from behind.

Clark, Smith and Jose Oquendo were the principal figures in a memorable brawl during a Giants-Cardinals game at St. Louis.

On July 24, 1988, nine months after the Cardinals defeated the Giants in a seven-game National League Championship Series, the teams played a Sunday afternoon game at Busch Stadium.

In the eighth inning, Clark was on first base when Candy Maldonado hit a grounder to Smith at shortstop. Smith tossed the ball to Oquendo at second base in time to get the forceout on Clark. Attempting to prevent Oquendo from completing a double play, Clark slid over the bag and toward Oquendo.

Clark called it an aggressive, clean slide. Oquendo thought Clark could have avoided contact.

“In the old days, they played hard and aggressive and that’s the way I was brought up,” Clark said to the Associated Press.

Said Oquendo to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “I was just trying to get out of the way and I didn’t think that was a right slide. He slid late. I was ticked off.”

With Clark on the ground, Smith and Oquendo stood over the baserunner. Oquendo either kicked or kneed Clark.

“When I slid, I hit the bag and bounced off to the side and I was laying against Oquendo’s leg,” Clark said. “He kneed me and said, ‘What are you doing, man?’ or something like that. There’s really no answer to that. I was trying to break up two.”

As Clark began to rise, Oquendo slapped him in the head. “I couldn’t understand what that was all about,” Clark said. “Then I just went off.”

Enraged, Clark got up and grabbed Oquendo.

Approaching from behind, Smith punched Clark in the head. “It was a cheap shot,” Clark said.

Said Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog: “Any shortstop and second baseman would do the same thing.”

Smith took several more punches, connecting with at least a couple, as Clark and Oquendo grappled.

Smith to Cards: Toughen up

”It’s become embarrassing,” Smith said to Mike Shannon of radio station KMOX. “You have a guy like Will Clark … He’s taking liberties. He’s coming down to second base at will, thinking nobody’s going to do anything, doing whatever he wants to do out there … As a competitor, it’s embarrassing for me.

”Sometimes you’ve got to stand up and be a man. That’s been part of our problem around here, guys not taking the initiative to tell people that, ‘Hey, I’m not going to be bullied.’

”I’ve never run from anybody,” Smith continued. “I’ve never been intimidated by anyone and I’m not going to start now. As a team, we have to learn that if that’s the way people want to play, that’s the way we have to play.”

Clark told reporters covering the Giants, ”I thought Ozzie Smith had a little more (class) than to sucker-punch somebody from behind. If you’re going to whup somebody, you might as well whup them face to face.”

A video of the incident showed players from both teams quickly rushed toward the combatants and piled onto one another. Maldonado took a swing at Smith. “That’s the fastest I’ve seen Maldonado run from first to second,” Giants manager Roger Craig said.

Clark and Oquendo were ejected. Asked why Smith wasn’t ejected, umpire Dutch Rennert said he hadn’t seen Smith land any punches.

“I saw Clark swing first at (Oquendo) and both were ejected for fighting,” Rennert said. “… I just saw one punch by Clark. I didn’t know Ozzie hit him. If I had seen Ozzie sucker-punch him, I would have thrown him out.”

Terry gets the message

After order was restored, Mike Aldrete came to bat against Scott Terry. The first pitch from Terry was high and wide. The second was high and inside, near Aldrete’s head. Home plate umpire Randy Marsh ejected Terry for the brushback pitch. Both benches emptied. Smith and Giants catcher Bob Brenly argued near third base, but no punches were thrown.

“By no means was I trying to hit Aldrete,” Terry said. “It was a purpose pitch. He knew it and I knew it.

“The only way the club can protect itself is on the mound. We felt like the Giants were doing things they shouldn’t be doing. We felt they had overstepped their bounds and we were not going to accept that.”

Rennert said Clark’s slide was within the rules. “(Clark) didn’t slide out of the baseline,” Rennert said. “He slid over the base. Straight and direct. A hard slide. Baseball can be a hard game.”

Said Clark: ” If I have the opportunity to do it again, I’m going to go in there the same way.” Boxscore

Previously: 1980s macho match: Whitey Herzog vs. Roger Craig

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

Cool customer: How Dizzy Dean survived armed robbery

July 19, 2013 by retrosimba

(Updated July 21, 2020)

In 1933, during his second full season in the big leagues, Dizzy Dean of the Cardinals was developing a reputation as a fearless pitcher who could work his way out of any situation.

That cool under pressure helped him survive a tough jam off the field as well.

Dean walked into a St. Louis drugstore while an armed robbery was in progress. One of the robbers stuck a pistol in Dean’s stomach and ordered him into a back room.

Dean, his wife, Patricia, and everyone else in the store survived the holdup unscathed.

The incident added to the legend of a 23-year-old pitcher who was attracting as much attention for his demeanor as he was for his arm.

In the summer of 1933, The Sporting News wrote, “Dean has a lot of ego, both off and on the field. … It is the result of a supreme confidence in himself. … Breaks against him never daunt him, for, in his opinion, all things must come his way eventually.”

It’s a stickup

At about 11 o’clock on the evening of July 21, 1933, Dean and his wife arrived at the Forest Park Hotel on the corner of Euclid Avenue and West Pine Boulevard in St. Louis. Dean and his wife resided at the hotel.

Dean lingered in the lobby while his wife entered the hotel drugstore. Soon after, two men with guns came into the drugstore and ordered the half-dozen or so customers, including Mrs. Dean, into a rear room. Before Mrs. Dean complied, she discreetly slipped her purse, containing about $50 and a wristwatch, into an ice cream box behind the counter, the St. Louis Star-Times reported.

As the customers went into the back room as instructed, the robbers told proprietor Sam Levitch to stay with them and to empty his pockets. The bandits were searching Levitch and taking whatever money he had on him when Dean came into the drugstore. Dean was there to inspect a movie camera he was considering purchasing and to view home movies of the Cardinals taken with the camera, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Dean noticed the two men standing near Levitch but didn’t think anything was amiss. “They were just kids,” Dean told the Post-Dispatch.

One of the armed men stuck a gun in Dean’s stomach and said, “Get in that room and stay there,” the Star-Times reported.

Dean thought it was a practical joke. “I thought that guy had a water gun and was just playing,” Dean told the Star-Times.

Dean pushed the man’s shoulder, laughed and said, “Quit kidding.”

Thinking the man was there to see the home baseball movies, Dean said, “Come on, let’s get going.”

Levitch said, “Dizzy. this is a real stickup.”

No joking matter

“I felt awfully weak all of a sudden,” Dean told the Star-Times. “I went into that other room pretty quick.”

The robbers didn’t recognize Dean, according to the Star-Times.

With everyone except Levitch in the back room, the robbers went to the cash register, grabbed about $200 and fled. They made no attempt to rob any of the customers, the Star-Times reported.

As the robbers ran to the street, Mrs. Dean followed and “saw them drive away in a roadster” with an Illinois license plate, the Post-Dispatch reported.

According to the Star-Times, Dean told the other customers after the bandits fled, “I came here to see a motion picture and ran into a real-life thriller.”

Dean later told the Star-Times, “I sure was in one tight spot. It was worse than being in the box with the bases loaded and nobody out.”

After the dust settled, Dean stayed in the drugstore, watched the home baseball movies and bought the movie camera, the St. Louis newspapers reported.

Honor among thieves

On July 24, 1933, three days after the armed robbery, Dean told the Star-Times, “A mysterious telephone call came to me today. The voice said it was one of the bandits speaking. He said he had nothing against me personally and to show it he would send me a half-dozen neckties.”

Later that day, a half-dozen neckties, wrapped as a gift, arrived for Dean, “and are they beauties,” he boasted to the Star-Times.

Dick Farrington, a columnist for The Sporting News, wrote, “Dizzy Dean was held up the other night. Reports say this was the only time Diz has been known to keep his mouth shut and his pockets open.”

Unfazed, Dean delivered one of the most dominant performances of his Hall of Fame career when he struck out 17 Cubs on July 30, 1933. Boxscore

Wrote Grantland Rice: “This Cardinal star has everything a great pitcher needs _ more smoke than a burning oil well, a fine curveball, good control, a cool head and plenty of heart.”

Posted in Pitchers | 2 Comments »

Joaquin Andujar skipped All-Star Game to barbecue quail

July 17, 2013 by retrosimba

Joaquin Andujar had a nearly perfect first half of the 1985 season.

The Cardinals’ right-hander produced 15 wins before the all-star break, but that wasn’t enough to get him the starting assignment for the National League.

Andujar was one of 10 all-star pitchers selected by Padres manager Dick Williams. At the time of the selections, Andujar had a 15-3 record. The Padres’ LaMarr Hoyt was 11-4 and won his last nine decisions. Williams said he wanted to see the outcome of the July 12 Padres vs. Cardinals game, matching Andujar against Hoyt, before naming his all-star starter.

“I don’t think I should have to pitch good tonight to be the (all-star) starter,” Andujar said to the Associated Press before the Padres-Cardinals game.

Miffed by what he considered a slight by Williams, Andujar told reporters he would skip the All-Star Game.

Informed of Andujar’s comments, Williams said, “Andujar deserves (the all-star start) as much as anybody. If you go by the numbers, he’s got the best. He’s on a 30-win collision course,” but Williams also noted Hoyt had pitched six years in the American League for the White Sox before joining the Padres and “that’s something to consider because he knows the hitters over there.”

Hoyt wins duel with Andujar

In the matchup against Hoyt, Andujar pitched well; Hoyt was better. Hoyt pitched seven scoreless innings, held the Cardinals to two hits and got the win in the Padres’ 2-0 victory at St. Louis. Andujar yielded two runs and eight hits and took the loss. Boxscore

Hoyt stretched his consecutive wins streak to 10 and improved his record to 12-4. Andujar dropped to 15-4 but still led the major leagues in wins. The Cardinals scored a total of one run in Andujar’s four losses.

With better support, Andujar might have been 19-0 at the break. The scores in his losses were 5-0 to the Giants, 1-0 and 3-1 to the Phillies and 2-0 to the Padres.

“I’ll be there (at the All-Star Game) … I hope Andujar comes, too,” Hoyt told United Press International. “He’s a good pitcher and he deserves to be there.”

Fire up the grill

Approached by reporters after his loss to the Padres, Andujar said, “I wasn’t trying to impress Dick Williams. He’s not a special guy.”

Asked what he would do during the all-star break, Andujar replied, “I’m going to work out every day and barbecue with my family. I’ll barbecue quail or anything.”

Said Williams to the Associated Press: “Now he’s got me a little mad.”

Williams named Hoyt the all-star starter. Andujar skipped the game.

Hoyt pitched three innings, giving up two hits and an unearned run, and got the win in a 6-1 National League victory. Boxscore

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How Rick Wise became all-star winner for Cardinals

July 15, 2013 by retrosimba

(Updated July 24, 2018)

In 1973, Rick Wise was the winning pitcher in the All-Star Game. No Cardinals pitcher has won an All-Star Game since.

Dizzy Dean (1936) and Steve Carlton (1969) join Wise as the only Cardinals pitchers with All-Star Game wins.

National League manager Sparky Anderson wanted the Dodgers’ Don Sutton to be his starting pitcher in the 1973 All-Star Game at Kansas City, but after consulting with Walter Alston, the Dodgers’ manager, Anderson determined Sutton wasn’t ready.

“Sutton is the guy I’d like to open with, but he’s been pitching a lot,” Anderson said to the Associated Press.

Wise, 11-5 with a 3.10 ERA for the 1973 Cardinals entering the July 24, 1973, All-Star Game, was Anderson’s backup choice to oppose Catfish Hunter.

“It’s a great honor for me,” Wise said.

Wise had been named an all-star in 1971 while with the Phillies, but didn’t appear in the game. Seven months later, Wise was traded to the Cardinals for Carlton. The Phillies got the best of that deal. Carlton built a career that earned him election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

However, in July 1973, Wise was on the all-star team; Carlton wasn’t.

Wise retired the American League all-stars in order in the first, striking out Bert Campaneris and getting Rod Carew and John Mayberry on ground outs.

In the second, Reggie Jackson led off against Wise with what the Associated Press described as a “booming double off the center field wall.” Amos Otis followed with a single, scoring Jackson and giving the American League a 1-0 lead.

Wise retired the next three batters _ Bobby Murcer, Carlton Fisk and Brooks Robinson _ on fly outs.

Scheduled to lead off the third, Wise was lifted for pinch-hitter Darrell Evans, who walked, sparking a two-run inning against Bert Blyleven, who had relieved Hunter.

Staked to a 2-1 lead, the bullpen of Claude Osteen, Sutton, Wayne Twitchell, Dave Giusti, Tom Seaver and Jim Brewer pitched shutout relief and the National League won, 7-1. Wise’s pitching line: 2 innings, 2 hits, 1 run, 0 walks and 1 strikeout. Boxscore

Wise won just five of his last 12 decisions and finished the 1973 season at 16-12. He was traded to the Red Sox three months after his all-star start and helped them win the 1975 pennant. He never was named to another all-star team.

Since 1973, only two Cardinals pitchers have started All-Star Games. Chris Carpenter had a no-decision in the 2005 game, which was won by the American League, 7-5. Adam Wainwright had a no-decision in the 2014 game, which was won by the American League, 5-3.

Previously: Steve Carlton vs. Nolan Ryan: fateful 1971 finale of aces

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Cardinals helped Dan Quisenberry overcome the blues

July 12, 2013 by retrosimba

After 10 seasons wearing Kansas City Royals blue, Dan Quisenberry was startled when he put on his St. Louis Cardinals jersey, walked by a mirror and glimpsed how he looked in red.

“It’s pretty bright red,” Quisenberry said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “My eyes are going to have to adjust.”

In July 1988, Quisenberry joined the Cardinals 10 days after being released by the Royals.

Departing Kansas City was emotional for Quisenberry, who earned 238 saves for the Royals. Quisenberry, who threw a sinker with a submarine delivery, was the closer on the Royals’ World Series championship team in 1985 and led the American League in saves five times.

In 1986, Quisenberry was signed to what the Royals called a lifetime contract. By 1988, the Royals were phasing out Quisenberry, 35, and grooming younger pitchers such as Steve Farr and Jeff Montgomery for the closer job. When Quisenberry was released on July 4, 1988, his season record was 0-1 with a 3.55 ERA in 20 games.

With tears welling, Quisenberry told Bob Nightengale of the Kansas City Star and Times, “After all of these years, it’s hard not to be emotional … It wasn’t a happy ending and it wasn’t very picturesque.”

Said Royals general manager John Schuerholz to the Associated Press: “The bottom line is effectiveness. It was purely and simply a baseball decision. His effectiveness was just not what it had been.”

Reunited with Whitey

Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog was the Royals’ manager in 1979, Quisenberry’s rookie season with Kansas City. Herzog and Cardinals general manager Dal Maxvill reached out to Quisenberry and signed him on July 14, 1988.

“A lot of it is being close to my home (in Leawood, Kan.),” Quisenberry told the Post-Dispatch. “One of the other reasons is that Whitey is the manager. I have the utmost respect for Whitey. He’s a real straight shooter.”

Quisenberry also was a friend of Cardinals coach Nick Leyva. They were college baseball teammates at La Verne in California.

Pitching primarily in middle relief, Quisenberry was 2-0 with a 6.16 ERA in 33 games for the 1988 Cardinals. St. Louis brought him back in 1989 and Quisenberry was 3-1 with six saves and a 2.64 ERA in 63 appearances.

Hit man

Because of the designated hitter rule in the American League, Quisenberry never batted in a big-league game with the Royals. He got his lone big-league hit on July 6, 1989, when he delivered a RBI-single against Tim Belcher of the Dodgers at St. Louis. Boxscore

Players in the Cardinals’ dugout “went into hysterics” after Quisenberry reached first base, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Cardinals fans gave Quisenberry a standing ovation as he stood on first.

”That was embarrassing,” Quisenberry said. ”I was hoping they’d stop. The cordial thing is to tip your hat, but I stuttered. It was a stutter tip.”

In the eighth, Quisenberry batted against Ricky Horton and struck out on three breaking pitches.

”I learned I’m a dead-red fastball hitter,” Quisenberry quipped. ”I probably should go back to Triple-A to learn how to hit the curveball.”

Posted in Games, Managers, Opponents, Pitchers | 1 Comment »

High drama: How 3 Cardinals each got 200 hits in 1963

July 10, 2013 by retrosimba

Bill White and Curt Flood each approached his final at-bat of the 1963 season needing a hit to reach 200 for the year. Each delivered, enabling the Cardinals to have three players get 200 hits in a season for the first time in franchise history.

White and Flood joined Dick Groat as Cardinals who reached 200 hits in 1963. Groat, who finished with 201, got his 200th hit in the penultimate game of the season.

According to the book “The Curt Flood Story: The Man Behind the Myth,” Flood approached Groat in 1963 after Groat was acquired by the Cardinals from the Pirates and said to him, “I got to learn to hit to the opposite field. You show me.”

“Groat and I would go out to the ballpark for long periods of time and he would help me to learn how to hit to right field,” Flood said. “That Groat, he could hit .300 with a strand of barbed wire.”

On Sept. 28, 1963, Groat entered the next-to-last game of the season with 199 hits. He tripled against the Reds’ Joe Nuxhall in the first inning for hit No. 200 and got his final hit of the season, a double off Nuxhall, in the sixth. Groat became the first Cardinals player to achieve 200 hits in a season since Stan Musial (with 200) in 1953. Boxscore

White and Flood were hitless in that game. Each had 198 hits entering the season finale, Sept. 29, 1963, against the Reds at St. Louis, but the spotlight was focused on Musial, who was playing the final game of his illustrious career.

In the sixth, Flood doubled against Jim Maloney and scored on Musial’s single, the 3,630th and final hit of Stan’s career. White also singled in the inning. So Flood and White each had 199 hits.

When Flood grounded out in the seventh and White grounded out in the eighth, it appeared both would fall short of achieving 200, but the Reds scored twice in the ninth, tying the score, 2-2, and the game went to extra innings.

In the 13th, White singled against Joey Jay for hit No. 200. In the 14th, Flood singled off Jay, becoming the third Cardinal that year with 200 hits. The single moved baserunner Ernie Broglio from first to second. Dal Maxvill followed Flood with a double, driving in Broglio with the game-winning run. Boxscore

The 1963 season was the only time Groat and White reached 200 hits in a season. Flood did it one more time, getting 211 hits for the 1964 Cardinals.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Records | 2 Comments »

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