RetroSimba

Scout to Cardinals: I know what’s in Pete Kozma’s heart

October 14, 2012 by retrosimba

In 2007, Cardinals scout Steve Gossett pushed hard for the franchise to draft Pete Kozma. Gossett saw more than baseball skills from the Oklahoma high school shortstop. He saw a player whose character and dedication could pay dividends.

Gossett was betting on Kozma’s heart.

The Cardinals followed Gossett’s advice and in 2012 they benefitted from it.

After replacing the injured Rafael Furcal in September as the everyday shortstop, Kozma played a significant role in helping the Cardinals reach the 2012 National League Championship Series against the Giants.

Kozma, 24, hit .333 (24-for-72) in the 2012 regular season for the Cardinals and achieved an on-base percentage of .383. In the postseason, his two-run single in the ninth inning capped the Cardinals’ come-from-behind 9-7 victory over the Nationals in Game 5 of the NL Division Series. Boxscore

Because he often struggled in the minor leagues since being selected as the 18th pick in the first round of the 2007 amateur draft, Kozma’s productive play for the Cardinals was a surprise to most, but Gossett saw Kozma as a standout after coaching him in an Oklahoma summer league while Kozma was in high school.

In 2007, his senior season at Owasso High School in suburban Tulsa, Kozma hit .522 and struck out five times in 113 at-bats. His first-inning home run lifted Owasso to a 1-0 victory in the Oklahoma Class 6A state championship game. The Oklahoman newspaper named Kozma all-state player of the year.

“I would play every day if I could,” Kozma said to The Oklahoman.

Owasso coach Larry Turner told the Associated Press that Kozma was “the best player I’ve ever had.”

Draft forecasters expected the Cardinals to take a college player with their first pick. Gossett advised Jeff Luhnow, the Cardinals’ vice president in charge of their draft, to select Kozma.

“I got to know this kid,” Gossett said. “I know what’s in his heart. I know what kind of family he comes from, his work ethic.”

Gossett predicted the Cardinals “are going to love the way (Kozma) attacks the game.”

“The one thing that stuck out in my mind about Pete is you look in his eyes and you see a guy that you really feel is going to play in the big leagues,” Gossett said.

Baseball America magazine had forecast Kozma being selected by the Reds with the 15th choice in the first round. The magazine rated Kozma “the best all-around middle infielder in the draft,” but the Reds chose catcher Devin Mesaraco.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Cardinals were prepared to select pitcher Blake Beavan in the first round, but the Rangers, with the pick just ahead of St. Louis, drafted Beavan.

Though pitchers such as Rick Porcello and Jordan Zimmerman were available, the Cardinals took Kozma.

“This is a first-round talent,” Luhnow told Derrick Goold of the Post-Dispatch. “He has the potential to be a real impact in the big leagues at a premium position.”

(In the third round of that 2007 draft, the Cardinals chose infielder Daniel Descalso. In the Cardinals’ four-run ninth inning against Washington in Game 5 of the 2012 NL Division Series, Descalso got the two-run single that tied the score and Kozma followed with the two-run single that produced the winning runs.)

Kozma became the third infielder selected by the Cardinals in the first round since 1997. The others were Adam Kennedy (1997) and Tyler Greene (2005).

Though he had committed to play college baseball at Wichita State, Kozma signed with St. Louis.

He wasn’t a sensation.

In 2009, his third minor-league season, Kozma appeared to be regressing. He hit .231 and had almost as many strikeouts (104) as hits (111). Baseball America did name him the best defensive shortstop in the Texas League, but in 2010 Kozma committed 34 errors at shortstop.

In 2011, Kozma received fielding instruction from coach Jose Oquendo during a brief stay at the big-league spring training camp. It was enough to steady his defensive play. In May 2011, Kozma was called up to the Cardinals from Class AAA Memphis as a replacement for injured utility player Nick Punto. Kozma produced a RBI-double in his first big-league at-bat (against the Astros’ Bud Norris), becoming the first Cardinal to get an extra-base hit in his first at-bat since Hector Luna (a home run) in April 2004. Boxscore

That was the highlight of his initial St. Louis stay. Kozma batted .176 (3-for-17) for the Cardinals and soon was returned to Memphis. There, his struggles continued. He hit .214 for Memphis and finished the 2011 Class AAA season with more strikeouts (91) than hits (85).

Kozma opened 2012, his sixth professional season, at Memphis again. He hit .232. When the Cardinals tabbed him to replace Furcal in September, some wondered whether rookie Ryan Jackson would have been a better choice, but Cardinals manager Mike Matheny liked Kozma’s defense.

“To me, Pete has impressed everybody at every level with his defensive ability,” Matheny said to the Post-Dispatch on Sept. 8. “When we have a need around here … there is no question that takes priority.”

It proved to be the right choice.

Previously: Cardinals would do well to develop another Dal Maxvill

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Howie Pollet pitched in pain for Cardinals

October 12, 2012 by retrosimba

In 1946, the Cardinals started pitcher Howie Pollet in the postseason, knowing he was injured and in pain.

Pollet lasted one-third of an inning, surrendering a run on three hits, before he was relieved in Game 5 of the 1946 World Series against the Red Sox.

In his return to the Cardinals following two years of military service, Pollet, 25, was St. Louis’ ace in 1946. He led the National League that season in wins (21), ERA (2.10) and innings pitched (266). Pollet pitched in 40 regular-season games, making 32 starts.

Under the heavy workload, Pollet was ailing in September. His back ached and he either had a torn shoulder muscle or a torn side muscle, according to conflicting published reports.

Nonetheless, Pollet kept taking his turn in the rotation. When the Cardinals and Dodgers finished the regular season tied for first place, they went to a best-of-three playoff series to determine the NL champion. Cardinals manager Eddie Dyer selected Pollet to start Game 1.

According to The Sporting News, Pollet agreed to the start despite a torn muscle in his left shoulder. (The publication subsequently reported the injury as a torn muscle in his side.)

Pollet pitched a complete game and the Cardinals won, 4-2. Boxscore

Five days later, Pollet was the starting pitcher in Game 1 of the World Series. Pitching with what the Associated Press described as an aching side, Pollet carried the Cardinals into the ninth inning with a 2-1 lead. He was one strike away from retiring the final batter until Tom McBride poked a single between short and third, scoring pinch-runner Don Gutteridge.

In the 10th, with two outs, Rudy York hit a Pollet curve into the last row of the left-field seats at Sportsman’s Park for a home run, giving the Red Sox a 3-2 victory. Boxscore

Said Pollet: “Yes, my back bothered me a couple of times, but I didn’t think it was affecting my pitching.”

With the World Series even at two wins apiece, Pollet was the Cardinals’ choice to start Game 5 at Boston. After three of the first four batters singled, giving the Red Sox a 1-0 lead, Al Brazle relieved Pollet. The Red Sox scored five runs off Brazle in 6.2 innings and won, 6-3. Boxscore

Wrote Sam Levy in the Milwaukee Journal: “The biggest surprise to the 35,982 fans … was the rapid exit of Howie Pollet.”

Pollet experienced an “extremely painful back ailment” and “torn side muscle,” the Associated Press reported.

Cardinals team doctor Robert Hyland instructed Pollet not to pitch again until spring training. “Howie figures that if he had taken a full week off in September after he first pulled a muscle in his back he would have been in better condition for the World Series,” The Sporting News reported.

Pollet continued to pitch in the major leagues until 1956. He was a 20-game winner for the 1949 Cardinals. In nine seasons with St. Louis, Pollet was 97-65. Pollet also was a Cardinals coach from 1959-64.

Previously: How Chase Riddle got Steve Carlton for Cardinals

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Hank Gornicki and his one amazing start for Cardinals

October 9, 2012 by retrosimba

(Updated April 18, 2021)

On May 3, 1941, in his first major-league start, Hank Gornicki pitched a one-hit shutout for the Cardinals against the Phillies at Philadelphia.

It was the only start Gornicki ever made for the Cardinals. Less than a month later, he was returned to the minor leagues. Before the season ended, he was shipped to the Cubs.

A right-hander, Gornicki was a 30-year-old rookie with the 1941 Cardinals. He pitched with success in the Cardinals’ farm system for six years, posting double-figure win totals each season, before earning a spot with the big-league club.

At the time, his claim to fame was being dubbed the “wood chopper of the Great Smokies” because he kept fit during the off-seasons by cutting down trees on his father’s property in North Carolina.

After two relief appearances with the 1941 Cardinals, manager Billy Southworth gave Gornicki the start against the Phillies because Southworth decided the rookie should be given the chance, The Sporting News reported.

Before the game, Cardinals coach Mike Gonzalez “told visitors to the St. Louis bench that he didn’t think Gornicki had a good enough fastball to last nine innings,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

According to the St. Louis Star-Times, “Southworth was afraid to use him without keeping a veteran warmed up for emergency duty. Out of the corner of his eye, Gornicki could see Bill McGee toiling in the bullpen through most of the game, but Bill might as well have spent the afternoon at a movie.”

On a chilly Saturday afternoon at Shibe Park, Gornicki held the Phillies hitless until Stan Benjamin lined a single to center with two outs in the sixth.

Gornicki finished with five strikeouts and five walks in pitching the Cardinals to a 6-0 victory. He also contributed a RBI-single in the seventh. Boxscore

“He pumped the ball overhand with fine speed and a very sharp-breaking curve,” the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Gornicki “has a fine curveball, a good fastball and perfect poise on the mound. His only apparent weakness was his tendency to get the count to 3-and-2. With a good-hitting club, this might prove fatal.”

The victory was the eighth in a row for the pitching-rich Cardinals and it improved their record to 13-3.

Though Gornicki dazzled in his start, Southworth returned him to the bullpen because the Cardinals already had quality starters such as Lon Warneke, Ernie White, Mort Cooper, Max Lanier, Harry Gumpert and Howie Krist.

As Fred Lieb of The Sporting News wrote, “Like the old lady in the shoe, Billy Southworth had so many good young pitchers he didn’t know what to do.”

Gornicki didn’t appear in another game for almost two weeks. He pitched less than an inning in relief on May 15 against the Braves. Soon after that, he was sent to Rochester of the International League.

With Rochester, Gornicki was 12-9 with a 2.83 ERA in 26 games. On Sept. 2, the Cardinals sent Gornicki to the Cubs in a cash transaction. He appeared once in relief for the Cubs before baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis voided the deal, saying it had violated the waiver rule. The Reds had claimed Gornicki on waivers before the Cardinals had sent him to the Cubs.

Returned to the Cardinals, Gornicki was in no-man’s land, unwanted and unsure of where he belonged. In December, the Cardinals dealt him to the Pirates.

Gornicki spent three seasons (1942, 1943 and 1946) with the Pirates in a stint that was interrupted by two years of military service during World War II. He posted a big-league career record of 15-19 with a 3.38 ERA in 79 games, including 33 starts.

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Cards fans cheered when 1954 game forfeited to Phillies

October 7, 2012 by retrosimba

The actions of manager Eddie Stanky caused the Cardinals to forfeit a home game to the Phillies. When the Busch Stadium public address announcer declared the umpires had awarded the Phillies a victory, Cardinals fans cheered to show their displeasure with Stanky.

On July 18, 1954, the Cardinals forfeited a brawl-marred game to the Phillies because umpires ruled the combative Stanky, nicknamed “The Brat,” intentionally used stalling tactics in an attempt to avoid a loss.

After being suspended by National League president Warren Giles, Stanky issued an emotional public apology.

Pressure mounts

Booed with increasing regularity by Cardinals fans because his team was mired in sixth place in the eight-team league, Stanky was dealing with a series of setbacks and strains.

On July 17, a Saturday afternoon when the temperature reached 100 degrees, the first-place Giants built a 9-0 lead after three innings against the Cardinals at St. Louis. The Cardinals fought back impressively, scoring five runs in the sixth, three in the seventh and one in the eighth, tying the score, but the Giants won, 10-9, with a run in the 11th, dropping the Cardinals 17 games out of first with a 41-44 record. Boxscore

The next day, Sunday, July 18, the Phillies were in St. Louis for a doubleheader with the Cardinals.

Amid growing speculation about Stanky’s job security, club owner Gussie Busch issued a vote of confidence, saying, “I know there are many loyal Cardinal fans all over the country who are impatient and unhappy with the present standing … but I think it is altogether too simple and too easy to blame the manager every time something goes wrong or doesn’t work out exactly as it should.”

Adding to the drama was the matchup between Stanky and his Phillies counterpart. Three days earlier, the Phillies fired manager Steve O’Neill and replaced him with Terry Moore, the ex-Cardinals outfielder. When Stanky became Cardinals manager in 1952, Moore was on his coaching staff. Stanky fired him after the season. Moore reacted by ripping Stanky, telling reporters, “When he loses a ballgame, he acts more like a 9-year-old boy than a manager. The job is too big for him. Stanky is temperamentally unsuited for the job of manager.”

It was under this backdrop _ the booing by Cardinals fans, the speculation about his job status and the sight of Moore managing against him _ that Stanky approached the first game of the July 18 doubleheader.

Snap, crackle, pop

It didn’t unfold as Stanky hoped. The game was delayed 1 hour and 18 minutes by rain in the seventh. The Cardinals led 8-7 after eight. The Phillies scored three in the ninth for a 10-8 lead. The Cardinals rallied, tying the score in the bottom half of the inning on a two-out, two-run single by Solly Hemus, but the Phillies scored in the 10th, the Cardinals stranded Wally Moon on third with one out in the bottom half of the inning, and Philadelphia won, 11-10. Boxscore

In consecutive games, the Cardinals had scored 19 total runs _ and lost each by a run in extra innings.

Because of the rain delay and extra inning in the opener, the second game of the doubleheader didn’t begin until after 6 p.m. The Cardinals and umpires mistakenly thought a league rule prohibited ballpark lights from being turned on for a Sunday game beginning after 6. (The rule had been erased before the 1954 season.)

When the Phillies took an 8-1 lead, Stanky began making a series of deliberate pitching changes in an effort to prevent the game from being completed in the mandatory five innings before darkness arrived.

Each Cardinals reliever appeared to work slowly and issue pitches outside the strike zone. Tensions built as the game inched into the top of the fifth and darkness approached.

At that point, Cardinals catcher Sal Yvars and Phillies first baseman Earl Torgeson, who had a long-running feud, began fighting one another on the field. Moore raced toward the pair and grabbed Yvars. Stanky bolted toward the combatants and tackled Moore. The benches emptied and fighting continued until police broke up the melee.

When Stanky went to the mound to make another pitching change, umpire Babe Pinelli declared a forfeit in favor of the Phillies.

Wakeup call

Giles backed his umpires, saying, “The tactics employed in the game were palpably designed to delay the game.”

Stanky disagreed, telling the Associated Press: “My pitchers have been wild and ineffective all season, not only during this game.”

The next day, Giles suspended Stanky for five days and fined him $100. Yvars was suspended for three days and Torgeson for two.

Humbled, Stanky apologized for his actions and read a statement. Some excerpts:

“I called this press conference because of the impression I received Sunday when I heard the St. Louis people applaud Pinelli’s decision, forfeiting the game to the Phillies. I know in my heart indirectly that I have embarrassed and hurt the St. Louis people, baseball nationally, my reputation as a baseball man … and Gussie Busch and the Cardinals’ front office.

“… My spirit and desire to win could never be broken. However, my human and public relations will be improved. This affair Sunday has opened my eyes.”

Said Cardinals general manager Dick Meyer: “It takes a tremendous amount of fortitude to make the type of statement Eddie made unsolicited.”

Some were skeptical. “He said the same thing in 1952 right after he got the job, but the reform didn’t last long,” Moore said.

Stanky survived the season, but was fired in May 1955 after the Cardinals got off to a 17-19 start. Moore returned to the Cardinals in 1956 as a coach for manager Fred Hutchinson.

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How Cardinals won by forfeit at Dodger Stadium

October 6, 2012 by retrosimba

Fired up by the antics of manager Tommy Lasorda, fans at Dodger Stadium threw a barrage of souvenir baseballs and other items onto the field, prompting umpires to forfeit the game to the Cardinals.

On Aug. 10, 1995, a crowd of 53,361 packed Dodger Stadium for a Ball Night promotion and to see popular rookie starting pitcher Hideo Nomo face the Cardinals.

Tension began to build in the eighth inning. With the Cardinals ahead 2-1, the Dodgers had two on with two outs and Eric Karros at the plate. Karros was called out on strikes, argued the call and was ejected by plate umpire Jim Quick. Fans threw baseballs onto the field in protest.

After the Cardinals were retired in their half of the ninth, Raul Mondesi led off the bottom half of the inning. Mondesi took a pitch from Tom Henke and headed toward first base, thinking it was ball four, but Quick ruled the pitch a strike.

Mondesi eventually struck out, argued with Quick and was ejected. Lasorda rushed onto the field, jawed with Quick and was ejected as well.

With that, a hailstorm of baseballs was unleashed from the stands. Quick stopped play and a forfeit was declared, giving the victory to the Cardinals. Video

“We felt … the situation was getting out of hand,” Quick said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Boxscore

(It was the first forfeit in the National League in 41 years. That game involved the Cardinals, too. On July 18, 1954, umpires forfeited to the Phillies the second game of a doubleheader at St. Louis because they believed Cardinals manager Eddie Stanky intentionally was using stall tactics.)

First-base umpire Bob Davidson called the decision to forfeit the Dodger Stadium game to the Cardinals “100 percent correct” and criticized Lasorda.

“This whole thing was Tom Lasorda’s fault,” Davidson said to the Associated Press. “He instigated the crowd, waving his arms. He has himself to blame, absolutely. He knows he’s to blame.”

Said Lasorda: “How did I instigate it? I was talking to Jim Quick. All I was asking was why he threw my players out. We didn’t throw the balls.”

Cardinals catcher Tom Pagnozzi told the Post-Dispatch, “Lasorda provoked the whole thing.”

Lasorda told the Los Angeles Times, “I’m disappointed in the ones who threw the balls, not the good fans.”

Cardinals players said they felt they were in danger because objects other than baseballs were thrown at them.

“I wasn’t too worried until a bottle of Southern Comfort flew out of the stands and hit me,” Cardinals right fielder John Mabry said to Bob Nightengale of The Sporting News. “I got hit by a rum bottle, too.”

Said St. Louis center fielder Brian Jordan: “I’m not going to stand out there and get busted in the head with a ball. The umpires made a good decision.”

Los Angeles Times columnist Mike Downey wrote, “Here, where fans are best known for leaving early, if this is the way people intend to behave, then please, leave early.”

Cardinals coach Bob Gibson said to Nightengale, “Dodgers fans used to be among the best in baseball. I’m afraid you can’t say that anymore.”

Said Quick: “I hope everybody has learned a lesson from this. I’ve been in the game 28 years and I’ve never been involved in a forfeit. This is very disappointing.”

Previously: Stayin’ alive: Baseball, drugs, rock n’ roll at Comiskey

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Rookie Wally Moon helped Cardinals offense soar in ’54

October 5, 2012 by retrosimba

In 1954, Cardinals center fielder Wally Moon batted .304 with 18 stolen bases, had an on-base percentage of .371 and won the National League Rookie of the Year Award.

A left-handed batter, Moon had most of his at-bats from the leadoff or No. 2 spots in the order.

He was part of a 1954 Cardinals team that led the National League in steals (with 63) after having just 18 as a team in 1953.

At 24, Moon took over for Enos Slaughter, who was traded to the Yankees just before the start of the 1954 season. Moon played center field and was flanked by Stan Musial in right and Rip Repulski in left.

Cardinals manager Eddie Stanky, looking for speed and a more aggressive style of play, promised to buy a suit for every St. Louis player who would steal 10 or more bases in 1954.

(According to The Sporting News, National League president Warren Giles later ordered Stanky to stop offering incentives to players for individual performances. Replied Stanky: “I respect authority and I’ll respect Mr. Giles’ wishes, though … I do feel I must live up to the promise to give the prizes for 10 or more stolen bases.”)

Moon was the only Cardinal to reach the goal. With nine steals, third baseman Ray Jablonski fell one short.

On May 25, 1954, Moon swiped four bases in the Cardinals’ 9-4 victory over the Cubs at St. Louis. The National League single-game record at the time was five by first baseman Dan McGann of the 1904 Giants.

With ex-Cardinal Walker Cooper, 39, catching for the Cubs, Moon stole second in the first inning, second in the fourth, and second and third in the fifth. Jim Willis’ pitch on Moon’s steal of third was wild and Moon continued home. Willis was so steamed that he plunked the next batter, Alex Grammas, with a pitch.

In the seventh, Moon flied out. If he had reached base, Stanky said, Moon would have gotten the signal to attempt to steal because Stanky was aware of the record. Boxscore

“I would have given Moon every chance to get that fifth steal,” Stanky told The Sporting News. “He’s a nervy youngster and when he says he’ll have another go at it, I’m sure that he will.”

Moon told reporters he expected to “take another crack one of these days” at the record, but the most steals he ever got in a game after that was two.

Two weeks after his four-steal performance, Moon was reckless rather than savvy on the bases in a game against the Phillies at St. Louis on June 6, 1954.

With the score tied 6-6 in the bottom of the sixth, the Cardinals loaded the bases with two outs and Jablonski at the plate. Moon tried to steal home, but pitcher Bob Miller’s delivery to catcher Smoky Burgess was on time to retire Moon and end the inning.

Stanky, coaching at third, was booed. The fired-up Phillies scored five in the seventh and went on to win, 11-8. Boxscore

Afterward, Stanky told St. Louis writer Bob Broeg, “When things go wrong on the field, it’s my fault. I gave the sign,” but Moon told Broeg he had run on his own.

Moon’s 18 steals in 1954 were the single-season high of his 12-year major-league career. He finished with 89 career steals in the big leagues.

With 17 of 24 votes from the Baseball Writers Association of America, Moon won the Rookie of the Year Award against top-flight competition. The Cubs’ Ernie Banks placed second in the voting (four votes) and the Braves’ Hank Aaron finished fourth (one vote).

Moon had 193 hits in 151 games for the 1954 Cardinals, with 12 home runs, 29 doubles, 71 walks, 76 RBI and 106 runs scored.

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