RetroSimba

Bob Gibson was a dominator in 1967 opener

April 7, 2012 by retrosimba

(Updated Nov. 22, 2024)

On April 11, 1967, Bob Gibson pitched nine innings, walked none and struck out 13 in the Cardinals’ season-opening 6-0 victory over the Giants at St. Louis.

Gibson struck out the first five batters _ Ken Henderson, Jesus Alou, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Jim Ray Hart _ before retiring Tom Haller on a pop-up to catcher Tim McCarver. All five went down swinging. Gibson became the third National League pitcher to strike out the first five batters of a game, joining the Dodgers’ Dazzy Vance (1926) and the Giants’ Bob Bolin (1966).

Mays and McCovey each went 0-for-4. McCovey struck out three times; Mays, once. “My slider was my best pitch, but I had a good fastball, too,” Gibson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Cardinals shortstop Dal Maxvill said to the newspaper, “Gibby was really blowing the ball by them in the first two innings. He’d nip the corners with his great slider and then, when they’d be looking for the slider, he’d run the fastball in on their hands. He was busting the bats right out of their hands.”

Gibson yielded five hits, all singles. The Giants got three in succession in the third inning but failed to score. With one out, Hal Lanier singled to left and Juan Marichal singled to center, advancing Lanier to second. Henderson followed with a single to short right, loading the bases. Gibson got out of the jam by inducing Alou to ground into a double play. Alou hit the ball to Orlando Cepeda, who stepped on first and threw to McCarver, who tagged out Lanier at the plate.

The win was Gibson’s first against the Giants since 1965. He was 0-3 against them in 1966. “I always pitch good against them and get beat,” Gibson said to the Associated Press. “It’s refreshing to beat them.”

St. Louis scored all of its runs against Marichal, who yielded 14 hits. Lou Brock’s three-run home run in the second was the big blow.

“I felt good,” Marichal said. “They were hitting my good stuff.” Boxscore

Though the Cardinals were the only National League club to have more wins (21) than losses (18) versus Marichal in his career, he had their respect.

In 2018, Tim McCarver recalled to Cardinals Yearbook, “I remember Marichal used to run out to the mound, like he couldn’t wait to face the hitters. If you see that when you’re in the on-deck circle, it doesn’t do much for your confidence. Then you go to bat and watch him throw any pitch in any count _ and he had a bunch of pitches _ and you understand why he was so eager to get out there.”

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Ernie Broglio and his Opening Day shutout for Cardinals

April 6, 2012 by retrosimba

Ernie Broglio was in midseason form on Opening Day for the 1963 Cardinals.

Broglio pitched a two-hit shutout in the Cardinals’ season-opening 7-0 victory over the Mets at the Polo Grounds on April 9, 1963. The right-hander retired 20 consecutive batters between the second and ninth innings.

“Harsh reality, wearing the uniform of the St. Louis Cardinals, smothered the New York Mets like a huge wet blanket,” Leonard Koppett wrote in the New York Times.

Second baseman Larry Burright, batting leadoff, got both Mets hits. Burright led off the first with a single to center and started the ninth with a double to left.

“Unless Ernie gets hurt, he should win 20,” Mets center fielder Duke Snider said to The Sporting News. “He has so many good pitches and can get them over the plate, so a batter can’t wait for a certain pitch.”

Broglio’s gem was one of several notable performances by the Cardinals:

_ First baseman Bill White and third baseman Ken Boyer each drove in two runs.

_ Left fielder Stan Musial, making the final Opening Day appearance of his Hall of Fame career, went 1-for-3 with a walk and a RBI.

_ Shortstop Dick Groat, making his regular-season Cardinals debut after being acquired from the Pirates, had three hits, scored twice and fielded flawlessly.

“It will be a sad day for me when they tear down the Polo Grounds,” Groat said to the Associated Press. “This park is just too much. Everything good has happened to me here. I played my first professional game here back in 1952. I got my first big-league hit and my first home run here. I also played in the last game here before the Giants moved to San Francisco.

“Most important, I met my wife right in this park (in May 1955). I was immediately attracted to Barbara (after being introduced by her father), but for the life of me I couldn’t remember her name. I remembered, though, where they were sitting, and I got Bob Prince, who broadcasts the Pirates’ games, to go to their box and get their telephone number.”

Said Cardinals manager Johnny Keane: “Groat is more valuable to us than any statistics can ever show. He helped us even before we played our first game. He’s taken Julian Javier in hand and made a better second baseman out of him. The Cardinals haven’t had a good double-play combination in years. Now we’ve got just about the best in the league.”

As good as the Cardinals looked in the opener, the Mets looked just the opposite.

“When the game got under way, Curt Flood, the first batter, chopped a little squibbler down the third-base line on the second pitch,” the Associated Press reported. “Charlie Neal charged it and threw it about 10 yards wide of first base. Flood wound up on second, eventually scored and the Cards led 2-0 before the Mets could swing a bat.”

Mets pitchers were called for three balks and their fielders made two errors. They probably committed more miscues than that. On one such play, “A hard smash bounced off the shins of new first baseman Tim Harkness into the hands of new second baseman Larry Burright, who threw the ball over old pitcher Roger Craig’s head. It was scored a hit,” the Associated Press reported.

“Now you may not believe this,” said Mets manager Casey Stengel, “but my club is better than it looked today. It’s tremendously improved over the shellshocked bunch I had last year, when I couldn’t give ’em away. Now, we can sell at least six of them right now.”

The Mets who drew praise from Stengel were Ed Kranepool, the 18-year-old right fielder, and Snider, the 36-year-old center fielder. “The only two who did well was an old man and a young feller,” Stengel said. “And, would you believe it, they were the only two I was worried about.” Boxscore

Previously: Ernie Broglio built great home record the hard way

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Pure-hitting Jerry Lynch savored Cardinals pitching

April 4, 2012 by retrosimba

Jerry Lynch, one of the all-time premier pinch-hitters, had more career hits, including two of his most dramatic, against the Cardinals than any other team.

A career .277 batter in 13 big-league seasons (1954-66) with the Pirates and Reds, Lynch hit .301 with 16 home runs against the Cardinals. A left-handed batter, his 128 hits off St. Louis pitching were his most against any opponent.

In 1961, when Lynch helped the Reds to their first National League pennant in 21 years, he hit .404 as a pinch-hitter (19-for-47), with five home runs. Against the Cardinals that season, Lynch hit .333 (10-for-30) overall, with two homers.

Lynch holds the National League record for career pinch-hit homers (18). The big-league mark belongs to Matt Stairs (23 pinch-hit homers). Stairs slugged 14 of those 23 in the National League.

Lynch, an outfielder, hit two big-league grand slams _ both against the Cardinals.

The first occurred on Aug. 7, 1960, in the opener of a doubleheader at St. Louis. Lynch hit an eighth-inning grand slam off reliever Ron Kline, helping the Reds to an 18-4 victory. (Kline and Lynch had been Pirates teammates and eventually became business partners). Boxscore

Four years later, July 21, 1964, at St. Louis, Lynch hit a fifth-inning grand slam against reliever Ron Taylor, lifting the Pirates to an 8-4 triumph. Boxscore

Twice in 1959 Lynch had four-hit games against St. Louis.

On June 28, 1959, Lynch, batting third and playing left field, was 4-for-5 with two doubles and a RBI for the Reds in the Cardinals’ 11-8 victory in Game 2 of a doubleheader at Cincinnati. Boxscore

Less than three weeks later, Lynch, batting fifth and playing left field, went 4-for-5 with four RBI, including a two-run homer off Ernie Broglio, in the Reds’ 7-5 win at St. Louis on July 16, 1959. Boxscore

In the May 1959 edition of Baseball Digest, Si Burick wrote of Lynch, “He was an outfielder who performed atrociously on defense. He moved uncertainly after fly balls. He wasn’t adept at fielding ground balls. He had just a fair arm. What kept him in business was his bat. Even when he wasn’t hitting for an average, he swung with an authority that was recognized by all who saw him.”

Lynch hit Bob Gibson well. He was 18-for-58 (.310) against the Cardinals ace. In the last game he started for the Reds, Lynch drove in three and hit two doubles, both against Gibson, in Cincinnati’s 10-6 victory at St. Louis on May 19, 1963. Boxscore

Four days later, the Reds traded Lynch to the Pirates for outfielder Bob Skinner.

Lynch had started his big-league career with the Pirates in 1954 before being acquired by Cincinnati in December 1956. After learning he’d been reacquired by Pittsburgh in May 1963, Lynch told The Sporting News, “I sure was surprised.”

After his playing days, Lynch and Dick Groat co-owned a Pennsylvania golf course.

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1964 Cardinals were menace to Dennis Bennett

March 31, 2012 by retrosimba

(Updated Dec. 24, 2018)

Dennis Bennett played a role in the drama that enabled the Cardinals to overcome the Phillies in the final two weeks of the regular season and win the 1964 National League pennant.

Bennett was a member of the Phillies’ starting rotation in 1964. Before the season, he predicted he’d win 20. His record through July 5 was 9-5, but he lost his next seven decisions.

In early September, Bennett began to regain his winning form, giving Phillies manager Gene Mauch hope for a reliable starter to join stalwarts Jim Bunning and Chris Short. Crediting a sidearm delivery with giving him better control and enabling him to keep his pitches low in the strike zone, Bennett told The Sporting News, “My ball is moving much more. The curve is really breaking off now.”

A left shoulder ailment knocked Bennett off track again.

Bennett, who lost to the Cardinals on May 4 Boxscore and again on July 25 Boxscore, made his last start of the 1964 season on Sept. 29 at St. Louis.

The Cardinals and Phillies were headed in opposite directions. St. Louis had won six in a row and Philadelphia had lost eight in a row. The Cardinals began the day a game behind the first-place Reds and a half-game ahead of the Phillies.

According to the David Halberstam book “October 1964,” Bennett had tendinitis in his left shoulder, resulting in “a dead arm.” Pitching in pain, Bennett was no match for the red-hot Cardinals. They scored a run in the first on a Dick Groat RBI-double and scored twice in the second on a Tim McCarver RBI-single and a Curt Flood RBI-groundout. Bennett was lifted after giving up three runs, five hits and a walk in 1.1 innings.

The Cardinals won, 4-2, and, paired with the Pirates’ 2-0 victory over the Reds, moved into a tie with Cincinnati for first place. The Associated Press reported the defeat was “a near-fatal blow to the Phillies’ slim pennant hopes.” Boxscore

St. Louis went on to win the pennant and the World Series title. Bennett, who finished 12-14 in 1964, was 0-3 with a 15.83 ERA in four games against the Cardinals that season. On Nov. 29, 1964, Bennett was traded to the Red Sox for first baseman Dick Stuart.

Boston, which had a 4.50 team ERA in 1964, was desperate for pitching and was hopng Bennett would become their best left-handed starter since Mel Parnell, who retired after the 1956 season.

Bennett never developed into a big winner. He pitched for the Red Sox, Mets and Angels, appearing in his final big-league game in 1968. He was 43-47 with a 3.69 ERA in seven major-league seasons.

Bennett did get a measure of revenge against the Cardinals. His final big-league win came against them at St. Louis in the first game of a doubleheader on July 16, 1967. Starting for the Mets, Bennett held the Cardinals to one run in seven innings and New York won, 2-1, on Ed Kranepool’s two-run home run against Ray Washburn in the seventh. Boxscore

In 14 career appearances against the Cardinals, Bennett was 2-7 with a 5.95 ERA.

Previously: Ryne Duren threw roadblock at 1964 Cardinals

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Dave Philley: Pinch-hitter deluxe against Cardinals

March 22, 2012 by retrosimba

In an 18-year big-league career, Dave Philley spent three seasons in the National League and did some serious damage against the Cardinals.

One of the all-time best pinch-hitters, Philley was a career .270 batter who finished with 1,700 hits. The team against whom he had the highest batting average was the Cardinals.

Philley batted .370 (30-for-81) in 37 career games against the Cardinals. In 1959, playing for the Phillies, Philley blistered Cardinals pitching at a .422 clip (19-for-45).

A switch hitter, Philley made his big-league debut with the White Sox in 1941, served in the military and returned to the majors in 1946. He was an outfielder and first baseman with the White Sox, Athletics, Indians, Orioles and Tigers until joining the Phillies in 1958.

From 1957 through 1959, Philley was one of the premier pinch-hitters in the game. His batting averages as a pinch-hitter in those years:

_ .436 (17-for-39) in 1957 (White Sox and Tigers).

_ .409 (18-for-44) in 1958 (Phillies).

_ .395 (15-for-38) in 1959 (Phillies).

In 1958, Philley hit safely in eight consecutive pinch-hit appearances. When he got a pinch hit in his first appearance of 1959, Philley extended the streak to a major-league record nine.

In 1959, when he turned 40 in May, Philley pounded Cardinals pitching. It began in spring training when Philley ripped a pinch-hit grand slam against Sal Maglie of the Cardinals on March 29 at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Some of Philley’s many highlights versus the Cardinals in 1959:

_ May 5, 1959, Phillies 8, Cardinals 7, at Philadelphia: The Cardinals took a 7-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth, but Philadelphia rallied for five runs against starter Vinegar Bend Mizell and relievers Larry Jackson and Jim Brosnan. Boxscore

Philley, pinch-hitting for catcher Jim Hegan, contributed to the comeback with a RBI-single off Brosnan.

Cardinals manager Solly Hemus told The Sporting News the bullpen collapse was “the worst exhibition I ever saw _ terrible.”

_ June 6, 1959, Phillies 4, Cardinals 3, at Philadelphia: In the 10th inning, Philley, pinch-hitting for catcher Valmy Thomas with two outs and the bases loaded, singled to right against Lindy McDaniel, scoring Richie Ashburn from third for the victory. Boxscore

_ Aug. 9, 1959, Phillies 4, Cardinals 2, at St. Louis: In the ninth inning of the second game of a doubleheader, Philley, pinch-hitting for pitcher Jim Owens, singled to left off Marshall Bridges, driving in Joe Koppe from third with the tie-breaking run. Boxscore

“I’m a better hitter now than I ever was,” Philley said in a 1959 interview with The Sporting News, “and if I had known 10 years ago what I know now, I would have been able to make a potful of money out of this game.

“Of course, as you get older you get smarter up there at the plate and figure the pitchers better, but the main thing is that I’ve cut down on my swing. When I first came up and, in fact, until a few years ago, I was trying to hit home runs. I swung too hard and I had too long a swing. Now I’ve cut my swing down and I have control of the bat and I can wait longer on a pitch.”

In his book “Stan Musial: The Man’s Own Story,” Musial said Philley became “an outstanding pinch-hitter past 40 because he worked so hard to stay in shape.”

Philley was a mentor to the rookie second baseman of the 1959 Phillies, Sparky Anderson. The Sporting News reported Anderson, the future Hall of Fame manager of the Reds and Tigers, “has been one of the most consistent seekers of advice from Philley and believes Dave has helped him in many ways. The two usually sit together on the club’s plane rides and talk baseball by the hour.”

Previously: Cardinals’ collapse part of Larry Jackson’s painful 1961 season

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Why Cardinals career had sour ending for Julian Javier

March 18, 2012 by retrosimba

(Updated March 24, 2019)

The second baseman who participated in one of the happiest periods in Cardinals history parted with the franchise in an unhappy manner.

Only three players _ Frankie Frisch, Julian Javier and Tommy Herr _ have been the everyday second basemen on three Cardinals pennant winners. Javier started for the National League championship clubs of 1964, 1967 and 1968.

By 1972, Javier, 35, no longer was prominent in the Cardinals’ plans. Ted Sizemore had taken over as St. Louis’ second baseman and Ed Crosby was seen as a capable backup.

On March 24, 1972, the Cardinals traded Javier to the Reds for pitcher Tony Cloninger. Bob Howsam, who’d been Cardinals general manager before taking the same role with the Reds, acquired Javier to back up Joe Morgan at second base and Denis Menke at third.

After the deal was made, Javier indicated he was unhappy with general manager Bing Devine and manager Red Schoendienst for not getting the chance to play more in spring training and compete for a starting job.

“I feel too good, like 20, to be sitting around,” Javier said to the Associated Press.

During the off-season, Devine and Schoendienst had talked with Javier about his future and were of the impression Javier had agreed to a reserve role in 1972, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. “I thought Bing and I had a perfect understanding with Hoolie,” Schoendienst said to The Sporting News.

At spring training, however, Javier asked the Cardinals for his release because he was upset Schoendienst was taking a look at other candidates for a reserve infield role, according to Post-Dispatch sports editor Bob Broeg.

Javier told Schoendienst, “I think I can play everyday for two more years,” the Dayton Journal Herald reported.

Javier’s complaints prompted an uncharacteristic blast from Schoendienst, a former all-star second baseman. “Hoolie wasn’t in shape, didn’t want to play and scarcely could get the ball from second base to first, yet he wants to say we didn’t use him,” Schoendienst told Broeg. “I’m tired of people who don’t want to play but say they do.”

In 12 seasons (1960-71) with the Cardinals, Javier twice was named an all-star (1963 and 1968), twice led National League second basemen in putouts (1963 and 1964) and collected 1,450 hits.

A right-handed batter, Javier hit .299 against left-handed pitching during his major-league career.

Javier’s role with the Cardinals changed after the 1970 season when the club acquired Sizemore from the Dodgers for first baseman Dick Allen.

Javier was found to owe back taxes to the U.S. government, leading to speculation the native of the Dominican Republic could become entangled in a legal case that might jeopardize his career. However, Javier worked out a settlement on his tax problems. When he reported to spring training in 1971, he was 10 pounds lighter (at 180) and performed more like the player he’d been on those championship teams.

Because of an injury to Dal Maxvill, Sizemore opened the 1971 season at shortstop and Javier remained the starter at second base. Javier batted .309 in the first two months of the season, slumped and entered July at .234. Maxvill returned to shortstop and Sizemore moved to second, replacing Javier.

At spring training in 1972, the Cardinals determined they were ready to move on without Javier. The trade to the Reds turned out to be a blessing for him. Javier had several key hits for the Reds and helped them win the 1972 NL pennant. Among the highlights:

_ Reds 11, Cardinals, 2, May 13, at Cincinnati: Facing Cloninger, the pitcher for whom he was traded, Javier delivered a RBI-single, scoring Johnny Bench. Boxscore

_ Reds 4, Giants 3, May 16, at San Francisco: Starting at third base, Javier hit a three-run home run against left-hander Ron Bryant. Boxscore

_ Reds 6, Phillies 5, June 3, at Philadelphia: Javier hit a two-run home run against left-hander Steve Carlton, a former Cardinals teammate. It was the 78th and last homer of Javier’s big-league career. Boxscore

_ Reds 8, Mets 2, June 17, at Cincinnati: Facing another former Cardinals teammate, left-hander Ray Sadecki, Javier hit a two-run single. Boxscore

Javier capped his career by appearing in four games for the Reds against the Athletics in the 1972 World Series.

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