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Al McBean: Swashbuckling pitcher impressed Cardinals

February 12, 2024 by retrosimba

Stan Musial and Red Schoendienst had a high regard for Pirates pitcher Al McBean; so much so that there was talk of a swap involving him and Curt Flood.

A right-hander from the Virgin Islands who pitched 10 years (1961-70) in the majors, McBean was a good pitcher (67-50, 63 saves) who was as effective with a bat as he was with his arm against the Cardinals.

McBean twice hit home runs in wins versus the Cardinals. In turn, the Cardinals used home runs to beat him. The most striking example came in 1964 when McBean was as good as any reliever in the National League. He yielded a mere four home runs that season _ and all were hit by Cardinals.

A sinkerball specialist with a showman’s flair, McBean struck out more Cardinals (92) than he did any other foe, but his record against them was 6-8.

Picture this

McBean played baseball as a youth on St. Thomas, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands, but had no plans to become a pro. When he finished his schooling, he worked as a photographer for a local daily newspaper, The Home Journal. “I only played ball on Sundays because there was nothing else to do on Sundays,” he recalled to columnist Larry Merchant.

The Pirates held a tryout camp on St. Thomas and McBean’s newspaper assigned him to cover it. A former coach saw him and encouraged McBean to join the prospects on the diamond. According to the Philadelphia Daily News, McBean was sent to center field, told to throw a ball toward home plate and delivered a missile. Then he was instructed to try it from the mound. The Pirates liked what they saw and signed him.

McBean, 20, began his pro career in the Pirates’ farm system in 1958. Three years later, in July 1961, he got called up to the big leagues and pitched in relief for the reigning World Series champions.

In a game against the Cardinals that season, the rookie gave up a grand slam to Bill White. The towering drive carried to the back of the screen on the pavilion roof at St. Louis. (White would torment McBean throughout his career, hitting .440 with four home runs against him.) Boxscore

Two weeks later, Stan Musial slugged a two-run homer versus McBean. Boxscore

Overall, though, McBean (3-2, 3.75) showed enough for the Pirates to put him in their plans for 1962.

Bold buccaneer

With Joe Gibbon and Vern Law having arm ailments in 1962, the Pirates moved McBean into the starting rotation. He delivered a 15-10 record, including 3-1 versus the Cardinals.

McBean got married in Pittsburgh during that 1962 season. Serving as best man at the wedding was his road roommate, Roberto Clemente.

McBean embraced the spotlight _ both on and off the field.

A lithe (165-pound) athlete, McBean’s voice had “the lilt of a calypso melody and is as bouncy as a bongo,” according to Milton Gross of the North American Newspaper Alliance.

McBean wore clothes designed for attention. A purple suit. A white Nehru jacket. Or, as Milton Gross described, “The large red bandana he pulls from his hip pocket to wipe his face on the mound is only a pale reflection of his vivid personality. He may, for instance, be seen coming to or leaving the ballpark clothed in an ascot, a Rex Harrison (houndstooth) hat, red vest, canary yellow shirt, dark sports jacket, checked pants and a rolled umbrella swinging from his arm.”

His flashy style wasn’t limited to his wardrobe.

Before games, McBean put on shows during infield practice, scooping grounders with behind-the-back moves. “He makes an infield drill look like a Harlem Globetrotters warmup with his uncanny fielding style and non-stop chatter,” Bill Conlin of the Philadelphia Daily News observed.

Red Schoendienst said to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Funniest guy I’ve ever seen in a uniform. McBean is full of fun, especially before a game in practice.”

In his prime years, when he went back to being a reliever, McBean walked from the bullpen to the mound with a swagger.

“McBean saunters into a game,” Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh said to the Philadelphia Daily News.

Columnist Stan Hochman wrote, “He sashays out of the bullpen.”

Or, as Pittsburgh Courier sports editor Bill Nunn Jr. noted, “If one envisions a rooster strutting, you have McBean’s walk. The swaying of his fanny is the equal to the backlash generated by most show girls. His quick gait does justice to a fancy-stepping drum major.”

One time, when he got called into a 1963 game, McBean reached the mound, handed his sunglasses to the bat boy, then sent him to the dugout for a different shade of glove, according to columnist Stan Hochman.

“He wants to be noticed,” Pirates general manager Joe Brown said to the North American Newspaper Alliance. “He does things to be seen. He’s an individualist who doesn’t want to stay in a mold. Everything he does, he wants to be different _ his clothes, his windup, the way he walks, the way he talks. He’s like a faucet. Turn him on and he goes until you turn him off.”

Trading places

McBean had the stuff to back up his struts.

He was 13-3 with 11 saves in 1963 and 8-3 with 21 saves and a 1.91 ERA in 1964. “He’s good, all right, and he’s cocky, too, but he gets the job done,” Cubs slugger Ron Santo said to The Pittsburgh Press. “McBean is as fast as anybody in the league. He just throws the ball right by you.”

From late July 1963 to mid August 1964, McBean pitched in 62 games for the Pirates without a defeat, totaling 11 wins and 19 saves.

He threw from a variety of arm angles and his pitches darted in a maze of directions. One year, when McBean struggled, his manager, Larry Shepard, advised him to quit trying to be so precise with location of his pitches. “I told him to throw the ball down the middle,” Shepard recalled to the Philadelphia Daily News. “The way his ball moves, there’s no way he can throw a strike down the middle anyway. So why try to hit the corners?”

According to the Pittsburgh Courier, Stan Musial described McBean as a “pitcher who moves the ball around on every pitch.”

Al Abrams of the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette wrote that Musial and Schoendienst “persisted for years in asking, ‘What’s a guy with Al McBean’s pitching talent doing in the bullpen?’ They would have loved to have had him pitch for the Cardinals. They almost did.”

In June 1967, when the Cardinals had Musial as general manager and Schoendienst as manager, the Pirates offered to trade McBean, outfielder Manny Mota and catcher Jim Pagliaroni to St. Louis for outfielder Curt Flood, reliever Hal Woodeshick and catcher Johnny Romano, The Sporting News reported.

The Pirates “came close” to making the deal, but “word is that Cardinals owner Gussie Busch vetoed the trade at the last minute,” according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Muscling up

At the plate, McBean usually swung with all his slender might (in 1962, for instance, he struck out 32 times in 67 at-bats), but when he connected the ball could carry.

On June 16, 1963, at St. Louis, the score was tied at 3-3 in the 12th inning when McBean faced Ed Bauta and walloped a 400-foot home run halfway up the bleachers in left.

“Nobody believes me when I say I’m a good hitter,” McBean said to The Pittsburgh Press, “but when Ed Bauta gave me what I like _ a high, slow curve _ I almost jumped. This was right down my alley.”

In addition to his home run, McBean pitched six innings of scoreless relief and got the win. Boxscore

Five years later, in a 1968 game against the Cardinals at Pittsburgh, McBean hit a grand slam against Larry Jaster in a 7-1 Pirates victory. The Cardinals collected 13 hits and a walk against McBean but stranded 12 runners and hit into two double plays. Boxscore

In 1964, when McBean pitched in 58 games, the only team to hit home runs against him was St. Louis. Bill White hit two and Ken Boyer and Lou Brock had one apiece. Brock’s was a walkoff shot _ his first in the majors _ in the 13th inning. It landed on the right field roof and gave the Cardinals a 7-6 victory.

“He gave me a high, inside fastball and I jumped on it,” Brock told The Pittsburgh Press. “It was too good to be true.” Boxscore

For his career, Brock hit .476 with three home runs against McBean.

Some other future Hall of Famers didn’t fare as well. Hank Aaron batted .176 with one home run versus McBean and had more strikeouts (10) than hits (nine) against him. In 57 at-bats versus McBean, Ernie Banks hit .175 with no homers.

In 1967, after Jim Lonborg’s one-hitter versus St. Louis in World Series Game 2, Brock told the Boston Globe, “He had darn good stuff, but he’s not a (Juan) Marichal or a (Gaylord) Perry. He doesn’t even have the speed of Al McBean.”

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers | 9 Comments »

How Jimy Williams jumped from Class A to Cardinals

February 7, 2024 by retrosimba

An introduction to the big leagues with the 1966 Cardinals was about as challenging as it gets for Jimy Williams.

A middle infielder whose professional baseball experience consisted of one season at the Class A level of the minors, Williams got his first at-bat in the majors against none other than Sandy Koufax. His second plate appearance also came against a future Hall of Famer, Juan Marichal.

As if that wasn’t enough of a test, the rookie leaped into a frog-jumping contest involving Cardinals and Giants players.

Though his stint with the Cardinals was short, Williams went on to become a manager in the majors with the Blue Jays, Red Sox and Astros. He also managed the Cardinals’ top farm team.

Name of the game

James Francis Williams, known as Jimmy, was the son of farmers who raised cattle and garbanzo beans on 800 acres in Arroyo Grande, Calif. (Asked where Arroyo Grande is located, Williams told the Boston Globe, “It’s about three miles past ‘Resume Speed.’ “)

In high school, Williams changed the spelling of Jimmy, dropping one “m” as a prank. “I spelled it that way on a term paper or a test, and the teacher didn’t say anything about it, so I kept it,” he told the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

Williams played college baseball at Fresno State, earned a degree in agribusiness and was signed in June 1965 by Red Sox scouts Bobby Doerr and Glenn Wright. With Class A Waterloo (Iowa) that summer, Williams led the Midwest League’s shortstops in fielding percentage and hit .287.

When the Red Sox didn’t protect Williams on their winter roster, the Cardinals drafted him in November 1965 on the recommendation of scout Joe Mathes.

After Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst got his first look at Williams during 1966 spring training, he said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “I can see why Joe was so hot about the kid. He sure looks like a comer.”

According to the Post-Dispatch, Williams at shortstop displayed “agility as he moved with speed to field balls hit to either side.”

Schoendienst, whose career as a second baseman got him elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, mentored Williams on how to play that position and was pleased by the rookie’s progress in making the double play, the Post-Dispatch reported.

By being able to play both shortstop and second base, Williams enhanced his value as a utility player and earned a spot on the 1966 Cardinals’ Opening Day roster, joining Jerry Buchek, Phil Gagliano, Julian Javier and Dal Maxvill as the middle infielders.

On their way from St. Petersburg to St. Louis to begin the season, the Cardinals stopped in Kansas City to play exhibition games against the Athletics. In one, Williams entered as a replacement for Javier at second base and produced two hits and three RBI in the Cardinals’ 7-6 triumph.

Candlestick croakers

When the 1966 season opened, Williams sat for two weeks. His debut came on April 26 at Dodger Stadium when he replaced Maxvill at shortstop in the sixth inning. The first batter, Nate Oliver, hit a ground ball to Williams. The next, John Kennedy, hit a pop fly to him. Williams handled both chances flawlessly.

In the eighth, Williams got his first at-bat, facing Koufax. Asked what he was thinking as he came to the plate, Williams replied to the San Luis Obispo Tribune, “That I was going to get a hit. That’s the only reason to get into the batter’s box.”

Koufax struck him out. “I punched out two foul balls and got a hook (curveball) and it was, ‘Sit down, Jimy Williams,’ ” the rookie said to the San Luis Obispo newspaper. Boxscore

Two weeks later, at St. Louis, Williams got his second plate appearance. Facing Marichal, he grounded out, but two innings later, he singled to center versus Marichal, driving in Tim McCarver from third. Boxscore

In the time between his at-bats versus Koufax and Marichal, Williams and the Cardinals were in San Francisco for a series. A frog-jumping contest was planned at Candlestick Park before the Sunday finale. Ten players _ five Cardinals (Nelson Briles, Curt Flood, Mike Shannon, Bob Skinner and Williams) and five Giants (Bob Barton, Len Gabrielson, Bill Henry, Ron Herbel and Bob Priddy) _ were the participants. The player who coaxed his frog to make the longest jump would win $50 and the frog would be entered in the Calaveras Frog Jumping Contest made famous in the Mark Twain short story.

“I can sure use the $50 prize,” Williams told the Post-Dispatch. According to the newspaper, Williams practiced at a pond the day before the contest. (In a line Twain might have appreciated, Williams said to the Boston Globe, “If a frog had wings, he wouldn’t bump his booty.”)

The winner, however, was Gabrielson, whose frog (named Bat Legs) jumped 11 feet, eight inches. Priddy placed second (10 feet even) and Williams was third (nine feet, one inch).

In the game that followed, Gabrielson hit a home run against Bob Gibson, and the Giants won. “What a day,” Gabrielson exclaimed to the Oakland Tribune. Boxscore

Big break

Williams, 22, rarely played for the 1966 Cardinals. He had three hits in 11 at-bats before his season was cut short by a six-month stint in the Army reserve.

The Cardinals sent Williams to the minors in 1967. He returned to them in September, played in one game and was traded after the season with Pat Corrales to the Reds for Johnny Edwards.

Williams never again played in the big leagues. He was in the farm systems of the Reds, Expos and Mets before a bum shoulder ended his career in 1971. Williams hurt the shoulder in 1969 while working an off-season job at a Ford plant in St. Louis. “An employee who was playing around threw a Styrofoam cup at me,” Williams recalled to the San Luis Obispo Tribune. “When I threw it back at him, I felt something pop in my shoulder.”

After his playing career, Williams returned to St. Louis and operated a convenience store for two years, according to the San Luis Obispo newspaper.

A former Fresno State teammate, Tom Sommers, brought Williams back into baseball. Sommers was director of minor league operations for the Angels and needed a manager in 1974 for the Class A Quad Cities team in Davenport, Iowa. He gave the job to Williams, 30. “I was the happiest man in the world when Sommers called,” Williams said to the El Paso Times.

Williams rose through the Angels’ system and managed their top farm team, the Salt Lake City Gulls, in 1976 and 1977.

“I like to get young players to do things they don’t think they can,” Williams told the Deseret News. “That way, they boost their confidence and increase their potential. Our players will have freedom on the field to expand their talents.”

Back and forth

In October 1977, Tom Sommers was fired by Angels general manager Harry Dalton. Many of Sommers’ hires, including Williams, got fired, too.

Williams landed back in the Cardinals’ organization as manager of their Class AAA Springfield (Ill.) club in 1978. He accepted the job after Florida State University baseball coach Woody Woodward turned it down, according to Larry Harnly in The Sporting News.

Springfield had players such as Terry Kennedy, Dane Iorg, Tommy Herr, Ken Oberkfell, Silvio Martinez and Aurelio Lopez. The club finished 70-66.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Williams and A. Ray Smith, owner of the Springfield franchise, had “a personality conflict” and Williams was looking to manage somewhere else in 1979.

Art Teece, owner of the Salt Lake City franchise, pushed for the Angels to rehire Williams, and they agreed. “Bringing Jimy back to Salt Lake was the key in my resuming a working agreement with the Angels,” Teece told The Sporting News.

Williams said to the Salt Lake Tribune, “I enjoyed being with the Cardinals. They have a good organization and good people, but I really had a nice time in Salt Lake and I’m anxious to return.”

Major moves

Salt Lake City was nice but it wasn’t the majors. When Williams was offered a chance to be third-base coach on the staff of Blue Jays manager Bobby Mattick in 1980, he took it. After Bobby Cox replaced Mattick in 1982, he retained Williams.

After leading the Blue Jays to their first division title in 1985, Cox became general manager of the Braves and Williams replaced him. “Cox did a great job with the players, but I think Jimy’s style might be a little more imaginative,” Blue Jays general manager Pat Gillick told The Sporting News.

(When Gillick fired him in 1989, he told the Toronto Star that Williams was “too nice a guy and too honest.”)

In 12 seasons as a big-league manager with the Blue Jays (1986-89), Red Sox (1997-2001) and Astros (2002-04), Williams had a 909-790 record, but never had a pennant winner.

(When the Red Sox fired Williams in 2001, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said he was “shocked,” the Post-Dispatch reported. “I think he’s a hell of a baseball man,” La Russa said. “He’s as qualified as anybody around and he got results. You kind of scratch your head.”)

As a coach with the Braves (1990-96) and Phillies (2007-08), Williams was part of five National League pennant winners and two World Series championship teams.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Managers, Prospects | 12 Comments »

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 »

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