RetroSimba

Baseball and romance: Cardinals’ Cuban adventures

April 13, 2012 by retrosimba

(Updated Nov. 21, 2024)

Long before Fidel Castro began his dictatorial reign in Cuba, the Cardinals visited that country to play spring training exhibition games.

The Cardinals’ Cuba trips were noted for baseball _ even a bit of romance _ and not controversy.

The Cardinals visited Cuba in 1936, 1937 and 1940, playing exhibition games in Havana.

Mike Gonzalez, a Cuban native born in Havana in 1890, was a coach with the 1936 Cardinals and resided in Havana. He was instrumental in helping arrange the Cardinals’ four-game exhibition series in March 1936 against two longtime Cuban League clubs, Habana and Almendares.

(Gonzalez had a 17-year career as a big-league catcher, including three stints with the Cardinals. He played winter ball in the Cuban League from 1910-1936. Gonzalez was a Cardinals coach from 1934-46. He twice served as the Cardinals’ interim manager, replacing Frankie Frisch in 1938 and Ray Blades in 1940, and compiled a 9-13 record overall in that role.)

Under the headline, “Cards’ Spanish Bad, So Is Their Playing,” The Sporting News reported on the arrival of the 1936 Cardinals in Havana:

“A big crowd was at the dock when the S.S. Florida nosed into Havana Bay and, what is more important, there was a tremendous crowd at the beautiful Tropical Park, a sunken garden baseball field, when the Cardinals put on their uniforms to play the Habana team of the Cuban winter league.”

Habana won the first and third games against the Cardinals by scores of 13-8 and 2-1 in 11 innings. In the first game, The Sporting News reported:

“An aviator flew so low over the field that the bleacherites pulled in their necks. He was dropping handbills and it was reported the next day that he drew a $1,000 fine for endangering the crowd, besides scaring hell out of the Cards.”

The Cardinals won the second and fourth games, against Almendares, by scores of 5-4 and 6-1. (In Game 2, outfielder Pepper Martin had a ninth-inning RBI to tie the score and then scored the winning run for St. Louis.)

More than 30,000 attended the four games, with near-sellout crowds for the final two at Tropical Park, a setting so spectacular The Sporting News described it as “playing a ballgame in the orchard room of a big greenhouse.”

A year later, March 1937, the Cardinals returned to Cuba for a two-game exhibition set against the New York Giants, who were using Havana as a spring training base. The Cardinals and Giants split the two games, with the Cardinals winning 4-3 in the opener and the Giants winning 5-4 in 10 innings in the second game. (Cardinals manager Frankie Frisch stroked a two-run pinch-hit single in the seventh inning of the first game.)

The trip became more noteworthy for what happened off the field for 24-year-old first baseman Johnny Mize.

Jene Adams, a 19-year-old aspiring concert contralto singer from St. Louis, and her mother had been spending the late winter of 1937 in Daytona Beach, Fla., the Cardinals’ spring training base. They became acquainted with Mrs. Sam Breadon, wife of the Cardinals’ owner, and Mrs. Robert Hyland, wife of the Cardinals’ physician. Mrs. Breadon and Mrs. Hyland invited Jene Adams and her mother to accompany them to Havana for the Cardinals’ games with the Giants.

The Sporting News, in a 1940 feature, described what happened next:

“At the Plaza Hotel in Havana one morning, Jene was talking to Mrs. Hyland in the lobby when Mize strolled by. Mrs. Hyland introduced him to Miss Adams.

“We could hang out a tropical moon here for trimmings, but nothing happened in the way of romance until the team returned to Daytona Beach. There the young pair became better acquainted. Dan Cupid gradually worked into the picture. The engagement of the National League’s No. 1 slugger and Miss Adams came early in the summer of the same year, 1937. On Aug. 8, they were married.”

In March 1940, the Cardinals returned to Havana for a four-game exhibition series against a Cuban all-star team. The all-stars were managed by Havana native Dolf Luque, who pitched in the big leagues for 20 years (primarily with the Reds and Giants) and earned 194 wins, and featured left-handed pitcher Luis Tiant Sr., father of the future major-league pitcher of the same name.

(In the book “Voices from Cooperstown,” Hall of Fame catcher Al Lopez told author Anthony J. Connor, “I caught Dolf Luque at the end of his career and that was an education. He was the smartest pitcher I ever caught. He could spot the ball wherever he wanted, any kind of pitch.”)

The Cardinals’ batting order for the opening game was third baseman Don Gutteridge, second baseman Stu Martin, right fielder Enos Slaughter, first baseman Johnny Mize, catcher Don Padgett, center fielder Terry Moore, left fielder Pepper Martin, shortstop Marty Marion and pitcher Mort Cooper.

St. Louis won the first three games by scores of 5-4, 6-0 and 5-3. Left fielder Joe Medwick, who had been a holdout from spring training because of a contract dispute, made his first official appearance of the spring as a pinch-hitter in the third game. The Cuban all-stars won the finale, 4-2, behind the four-hit pitching of Agapito Mayor.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Pitchers | 1 Comment »

How Curt Flood set hot pace for Cardinals

April 11, 2012 by retrosimba

Slashing singles with stunning consistency, Curt Flood collected 12 hits in the Cardinals’ first five games of the 1968 season.

Of Flood’s 12 hits in 24 at-bats in the opening five games of 1968, nine were singles. He also had two doubles and a triple.

In the season’s third game, an 8-5 Cardinals victory over the Cubs at Chicago on April 13, Flood was 5-for-5. All of his hits were singles. Flood’s second single of the game struck starter Rich Nye on his pitching arm and forced the left-hander to leave in the third inning. Boxscore

Flood, 30, hit safely in eight consecutive at-bats over three games from April 11-14.

The center fielder compiled hits in each of the Cardinals’ first 10 games of 1968 (a .447 batting mark in that stretch). He also scored at least one run in each of those games. Flood hit safely in the last eight games of the 1967 regular season, so with hits in the first 10 games of 1968, his hitting streak reached 18.

Flood’s streak was stopped on April 21 when he went 0-for-3 (with a hit by pitch) against Cubs pitchers Ken Holtzman and Bill Hands in a 9-2 Cardinals victory at St. Louis. Boxscore

“In all my years with the Cardinals (since 1941), I’ve never seen two men at the top of the batting order to equal (Lou) Brock and Flood,” Stan Musial, then a Cardinals executive, said to The Sporting News in April 1968. “Between them, they’re good for about 400 hits. Brock upsets the opposition with his base-running and Flood moves him up by hitting to right field often.”

Flood batted .400 (30-for-75) for April in 1968. He finished the regular season at .301. Of his 186 hits, 160 were singles.

Previously: Should Curt Flood have caught Jim Northrup’s drive?

Posted in Games, Hitters | Leave a Comment »

Pitcher for 1964 Cardinals was mentor to Mike Matheny

April 9, 2012 by retrosimba

Bob Humphreys, a reliever for the 1964 World Series championship Cardinals, played a significant role in the professional baseball development of catcher Mike Matheny.

Matheny was drafted by the Brewers in 1991, played in their minor-league system and made his big-league debut with Milwaukee in 1994. He played for the Cardinals from 2000-2004 and was their manager from 2012-2018.

Humphreys was among his most influential Brewers instructors, Matheny told MLB.com. Humphreys was the Brewers’ coordinator of player development from 1984-94 and their coordinator of pitching and field development from 1994-95.

In 1964, Humphreys played a role in helping the Cardinals win the National League pennant and World Series title. Called up to St. Louis from Class AAA Jacksonville in July, the right-handed reliever went 2-0 with two saves and a 2.53 ERA in 28 appearances for the 1964 Cardinals.

Both of Humphreys’ wins occurred in September, when the Cardinals compiled a 21-8 record and overcame the first-place Phillies.

Humphreys was acquired by the Cardinals from the Tigers in a cash transaction in March 1963. He had the inscription “You can’t make it” on his glove as a motivational reminder of what the Tigers told him when he left their organization.

Humphreys started the 1963 season with Class AAA Atlanta and was 5-1 with a 1.13 ERA as a reliever before getting promoted to the Cardinals in late May.

He featured an unusual side-saddle windup, pumping two or three times with both hands to one side of his body.

In Humphrey’s second appearance for the Cardinals, on June 2, 1963, at St. Louis, he gave up home runs to Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda. The home run by Mays hit the scoreboard in left field and traveled about 480 feet, according to The Sporting News. Boxscore

Humphreys spent most of the rest of the 1963 season on the Cardinals’ disabled list. In nine games for the 1963 Cardinals, Humphreys was 0-1 with a 5.06 ERA.

When the Cardinals sent Humphreys to Jacksonville at the end of spring training in 1964, he said he was tempted to quit baseball. Instead, he posted a 6-2 record and 3.07 ERA in 26 games for Jacksonville.

Along with Barney Schultz and Gordon Richardson, Humphreys helped revamp the Cardinals’ bullpen in the second half of the 1964 season.

“I didn’t think I’d get another chance up here after spring training,” Humphreys said in an August 1964 interview distributed by the Associated Press. “I allowed only one run in 9.1 innings and still didn’t make the team. I was going to quit if I didn’t get a chance to pitch more at Jacksonville.”

On Sept. 6, 1964, Humphreys, 29, earned his first big-league win. Facing the Cubs in St. Louis, the Cardinals scored twice in the ninth, tying the score at 4-4. In the 10th, Cardinals reliever Mike Cuellar yielded a walk and a double to the first two batters and was lifted for Humphreys.

After issuing an intentional walk to Ron Santo, loading the bases with none out, Humphreys retired Ernie Banks and Jimmy Stewart on forceouts and struck out Len Gabrielson without allowing a run.

In the 11th, Humphreys executed a successful sacrifice bunt, moving Tim McCarver to second and setting up Lou Brock for a game-winning single. Boxscore

“If I have to wait as long for my second big-league win as I did for my first, I’ll be an old man,” Humphreys said.

Three days later, Sept. 9, 1964, against the first-place Phillies at Philadelphia, Humphreys recorded his second win, along with his first major-league hit and first major-league RBI. The Cardinals scored twice in the ninth, tying the score at 5-5. Humphreys relieved and pitched two scoreless innings. In the 11th, the Cardinals scored five times for a 10-5 victory. Humphreys’ single scored Julian Javier from second with the final run. Boxscore

Humphreys appeared once for the Cardinals in the 1964 World Series against the Yankees and pitched a scoreless inning in Game 6. Boxscore

In April 1965, the Cardinals traded Humphreys to the Cubs for infielder Bobby Pfeil and pitcher Hal Gilson.

Humphreys pitched nine years in the big leagues for the Tigers, Cardinals, Cubs, Senators and Brewers, posting a 27-21 record, with 20 saves and a 3.36 ERA. From 1974-78, he was head baseball coach at Virginia Tech.

Humphreys returned to professional baseball as minor-league pitching coordinator for the Blue Jays. After five seasons with Toronto, he began his long run in player development with the Brewers.

In 2002, after a stint coaching his alma mater (Hampden-Sydney College), Humphreys returned to the Cardinals’ organization. He was the Cardinals’ minor-league field coordinator from 2002-2004 when Matheny was the Cardinals’ catcher.

Previously: Cardinals can thank Pat Hentgen for Mike Matheny

Posted in Managers, Pitchers | Leave a Comment »

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.”

Posted in Games, Pitchers | 4 Comments »

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

Posted in Games, Pitchers | Leave a Comment »

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.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents | Leave a Comment »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »