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The truth behind the Stan Musial-Doug Harvey legend

September 4, 2010 by retrosimba

Stan Musial apparently played a significant role in the development of Doug Harvey as a Hall of Fame umpire.

It just didn’t happen exactly the way the Baseball Hall of Fame has reported it.

In the spring 2010 edition of Memories And Dreams, the official magazine of the Hall of Fame, the museum’s director of communications, Craig Muder, wrote a profile of Harvey.

Here is what Muder wrote about Musial and Harvey regarding an undated game in 1962 between the Cardinals and Dodgers:

Early in his career, Harvey called out future Hall of Famer Stan Musial on a pitch from another future Hall of Famer, Don Drysdale. The pitch appeared to be a strike _ until it darted four inches off the plate at the last second, a common path of Drysdale’s wicked deliveries.

Musial, who was playing in his 21st big league season, gently told Harvey to “calm down and slow down.” Harvey took the advice to heart. He taught himself to slow down his calls, thus establishing his deliberate style. That extra moment in time allowed Harvey to perfect his craft.

It is unclear whether Muder got his information from Harvey, or whether it came from an October 1992 Baseball Digest magazine article by Jerome Holtzman. Wrote Holtzman:

He was a rookie, his first time in St. Louis, working his third plate game, the Dodgers against the Cardinals. Ninth inning, two outs, score tied, full count, Don Drysdale pitching and Stan Musial coiled, ready to swing.

Drysdale delivered. Plate umpire Doug Harvey, seeing the ball in flight, raised his right hand, signaling strike three. It was 30 years ago, in 1962. But Harvey has not forgotten. The pitch broke to the outside and missed the plate by six inches.

“And there I am standing with egg on my face, the crowd booing,” Harvey recalled. “Musial never looked at me. He told the bat boy to bring him his glove. Then, without turning, he said, ‘Young fellow, I don’t know what league you came from, but we use the same plate. It’s 17 inches wide.’ “

Immediately, Harvey learned two lessons:

“That’s when I realized why they call him ‘Stan the Man.’ And I learned not to anticipate the call.”

Both stories are well-told. Both have significant inaccuracies.

Drysdale faced the Cardinals six times in 1962. Harvey worked the plate in only one of those games, July 25. Musial had three at-bats against Drysdale in that game. He popped out twice and hit a two-run home run. He didn’t strike out. Drysdale pitched seven innings, not nine.

I believe the basic story about Musial and Harvey is true, but I’m convinced it happened on May 11 in St. Louis and that Stan Williams, not Drysdale, was the pitcher.

Harvey worked a Dodgers-Cardinals game behind the plate for the first time that Friday night at Sportsman’s Park. Williams, like Drysdale, a powerful right-hander, started for the Dodgers.

Leading off the bottom of the second inning, Musial was called out on strikes by Harvey.

The setting (St. Louis), the time of year (early in the season), the teams, the call, the batter and the fact it was Harvey’s first time working the plate in a Dodgers-Cardinals game all fit the anecdote. But it could only happen with Williams, not Drysdale, on the mound. Boxscore

 

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Cardinals made Cal McLish debut a daunting task

September 1, 2010 by retrosimba

(Updated Oct. 6, 2019)

Cal McLish grew up as a Cardinals fan and nearly began his professional pitching career with them.

Instead, he made his big-league debut as a teenager against the Cardinals in St. Louis. The first batter he faced: Stan Musial.

Cal McLish’s full name was Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish. His father named him after leaders: Calvin Coolidge was president when McLish was born on Dec. 1, 1925, in Anadarko, Okla. Julius Caesar had been emperor of Rome, and “tuskahoma” was a Choctaw Indian word for warrior.

In the October 2005 edition of Indian Ink Magazine, McLish was interviewed by writer Chuck Murr, who told the story of how the pitcher almost started his career with the Cardinals:

“Part Choctaw and Cherokee Indian, McLish played at 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds,” Murr wrote. “He grew up in Oklahoma listening to the St. Louis Cardinals on the radio. In the fall of 1943, the Cardinals invited him to St. Louis for the World Series so that he could be introduced to commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis in order to settle a dispute as to who owned the rights to the young right-hander.

“This was decades before baseball had an annual player draft. Back then, teams had hordes of scouts trying to sign prospects and both the Cardinals and Washington Senators thought they had McLish’s name on the dotted line. In the Senators’ case, there was a signature but no dotted line.

“McLish explained to Landis how he and another young Oklahoma player had signed an agreement to go to Washington for two weeks and work out with the Senators, whose scout tried unsuccessfully to make a binding contract out of a napkin that had been signed by the boys.”

Landis ruled neither club had signed McLish properly. McLish then attended a Dodgers tryout camp and was signed by Brooklyn while still a senior in high school.

With big-league rosters depleted because of World War II, the Dodgers brought McLish, 18, to the majors in 1944. He was introduced by general manager Branch Rickey to reporters at Brooklyn’s Ebbetts Field. Baseball Digest magazine, describing the scene years later, reported that McLish “wore country clothes and looked dazed by his sudden transportation from Oklahoma to the Big City.”

McLish made his big-league debut on May 13, 1944, against the Cardinals at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis before a Saturday afternoon gathering of 2,264. Brought on in relief of starter Rube Melton with one out and the bases loaded in the fifth inning, here is a description of the scene by writer Charles Dexter in a July 1959 profile of McLish in Baseball Digest:

“The first game Cal tossed in the majors was something to remember. Stan Musial was up. Walker Cooper waited in the batter’s circle. And next was Whitey Kurowski … The knees of 34-year-old Cal McLish, bold and brave, still knock when he thinks about it.”

McLish pitched 1.2 innings that day, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk. The Cardinals won, 8-4. Boxscore

He went on to compile a 92-92 record and 4.01 ERA for the Dodgers, Pirates, Cubs, Indians, Reds, White Sox and Phillies in a big-league career that lasted until 1964.

McLish also spent 16 seasons as a major-league pitching coach for the Phillies, Expos and Brewers. He was the pitching coach for Milwaukee in 1982 when the Brewers won the pennant and faced the Cardinals in the World Series.

In a 2019 edition of the Baseball Hall of Fame magazine, “Memories and Dreams,” pitcher Ferguson Jenkins credits McLish with being a mentor.

“I played winter ball for two years in Puerto Rico, 1963 and 1964, and I developed a pretty good slider under the tutelage of Cal McLish,” Jenkins said. “I think that pitch probably got me to the big leagues quicker than any other aspect of learning how to play the game the right way.”

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Stan Musial ranks with best walkoff homer hitters

August 25, 2010 by retrosimba

(Updated July 30, 2024)

Stan Musial hit 12 walkoff home runs during his career with the Cardinals.

Musial hit his first walkoff home run for them at age 21 and his last 20 years later at 41.

Musial’s first walkoff home run was a two-run shot in the 11th inning off Dick Errickson of the Braves, lifting the Cardinals to a 7-5 win on July 14, 1942, at St. Louis.  Boxscore

On June 5, 1962, Musial hit his last game-ending home run, a solo blast with one out in the 11th against Dave Sisler for a 10-9 Cardinals win over the Reds at St. Louis. Boxscore

“I can pick up a bat right away and tell you whether it weighs 33 ounces or 34 ounces,” Musial said to Roger Kahn of Sport magazine. “Every bat has its own kind of feel to it.

“I got a special model,” Musial said. “The handle comes from one they made for Mel Ott. I haven’t got real big hands and I guess Ott didn’t either. But the barrel is big. I took that from one they made for Jimmie Foxx.”

As Kahn noted, Musial “can use a pipe stem handle safe in the knowledge that he will hit the ball with the dynamic part of the bat.”

A snapshot of Musial’s 12 walkoff home runs:

DATE………..FOE………LOSING PITCHER………….FINAL SCORE

7-14-42…….Braves……Dick Errickson……………..7-5 in 11

7-14-46…….Dodgers….Vic Lombardi………………2-1 in 12

8-22-46…….Phillies……Andy Karl…………………..7-6 in 12

8-26-48…….Giants……..Ken Trinkle…………………7-5 in 9

8-28-48……..Giants…….Monty Kennedy…………..5-4 in 12

9-6-50……….Cubs………Paul Minner………………..5-4 in 10

6-17-51………Phillies…..Russ Meyer…………………5-4 in 10

7-6-52………..Pirates…..Murry Dickson…………….6-5 in 9

5-7-59………..Cubs………Don Elston…………………4-3 in 9

8-7-59………..Phillies…..Ruben Gomez……………..3-1 in 9

8-27-60………Pirates……Roy Face…………………..5-4 in 9

6-5-62…………Reds………Dave Sisler………………..10-9 in 11

Posted in Hitters, Records | 3 Comments »

Stan Musial’s 400th home run shows flair for dramatic

August 23, 2010 by retrosimba

(Updated Nov. 30, 2024)

Stan Musial and Albert Pujols are the only players to hit 400 home runs as Cardinals. Musial hit 475 home runs in 22 seasons (1941-1944 and 1946-1963) with the Cardinals. Pujols hit 469 home runs in 12 seasons (2001-2011 and 2022) with St. Louis.

Pujols was 30 when he hit his 400th home run on Aug. 26, 2010 _ a solo shot against Jordan Zimmerman of the Nationals at Washington.

Musial was 38 when he slugged No. 400 _ and he did it in dramatic fashion.

On May 7, 1959, at St. Louis, the Cubs and Cardinals were deadlocked, 3-3, heading into the bottom of the ninth inning.

Don Elston, a veteran right-hander, was beginning his second inning in relief of Cubs starter Moe Drabowsky. Leading off the ninth for St. Louis was Musial.

Musial had gotten off to a slow start that season. He was hitting .268 with one home run.

Elston was a hard thrower and one of the best relievers in the National League _ he would be named to the all-star team in 1959 _ but Musial was ready. He lined a 1-and-0 fastball over the 400-foot mark in right-center field for a walkoff home run, giving the Cardinals a 4-3 win. His second homer of the season was No. 400 in his career. Boxscore

After the ball cleared the wall, it caromed back onto the field. Center fielder George Altman, unaware of the historic significance of the home run, retrieved the ball and tossed it back among the fans, the Chicago Tribune reported. “We wanted to send that one to the Hall of Fame,” said Cardinals publicist Jim Toomey.

No. 400 put Musial sixth all-time in career home runs. The top five at the time were Babe Ruth (714), Jimmie Foxx (534), Mel Ott (511), Lou Gehrig (493) and Ted Williams (482).

In the book “Voices From Cooperstown,” Musial told author Anthony J. Connor, “That homer swing was something I learned with experience. When I was young, I used to punch the ball around to left and left-center and not try to pull.

“As years passed, I gained confidence and learned to pull the ball when I wanted to go for power. Ralph Kiner came up in the late 1940s and started to hit home runs, more than anyone else, and pretty soon he was getting more money than anyone else. Well, that got me thinking. After 1947, 1948, I started swinging for the fences.”

Posted in Hitters, Records | 2 Comments »

Dusty Baker ended career with Tony La Russa at helm

August 13, 2010 by retrosimba

Tony La Russa and Dusty Baker, who feuded as opposing managers, have a long baseball history together.

La Russa and Baker were teammates on the 1971 Atlanta Braves. La Russa also was Baker’s last manager in the big leagues, with the Oakland Athletics in 1986.

After he was fired by the White Sox, La Russa was hired on July 7, 1986, to replace Jackie Moore with the Athletics.

Baker was a 37-year-old part-time outfielder and designated hitter for Oakland. He played in 33 games for La Russa. His best performance for his new manager came on July 18 when he slugged a two-run home run (the 242nd and last of his career) against Mark Clear, walked twice and scored twice in the Athletics’ 6-1 victory over the Brewers. Boxscore

“I was only with Tony for half a year, but we talked baseball all the time,” Baker told Rob Rains in the book “Tony La Russa, Man on a Mission.” “… He told me that one of the biggest mistakes he made was that at the end of my career he should have made me part of his coaching staff in Oakland.”

The biggest contribution Baker made to La Russa’s Athletics was his recommendation that Oakland take a chance on pitcher Dave Stewart, who had been released by the Phillies in May 1986. Baker and Stewart had been teammates on the Dodgers.

Oakland signed Stewart on May 23, 1986, but he languished in the bullpen. When La Russa arrived, along with pitching coach Dave Duncan, he put Stewart in the rotation.

Stewart started La Russa’s first game as Oakland manager, and beat Roger Clemens and the Red Sox in Boston. He went on to post a 9-5 record that season, won 20 or more in each of the next four seasons for La Russa and was the ace on Oakland’s three consecutive pennant-winning teams (1988-90).

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Cardinals, Reds staged a star-studded brawl in 1967

August 12, 2010 by retrosimba

(Updated July 3, 2020)

On July 3, 1967, the eve of Independence Day in St. Louis, the Cardinals and Reds put on an explosive display using fists instead of fireworks.

In the first inning, the Reds were humiliated when the Cardinals built a 7-0 lead in support of Bob Gibson.

With two outs, Lou Brock attempted to steal second.

He was unsuccessful, but to the Reds it was an unnecessary attempt to pile on.

“A guy who tries to steal with a seven-run lead has to be nuts … Our club has pride,” Reds shortstop Tommy Helms said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We don’t like to be shown up.”

When Brock next came to bat, leading off the fourth with the Cardinals still ahead 7-0, reliever Don Nottebart drilled him with a pitch.

Gibson knew what to do next. When Tony Perez led off the Cincinnati fifth, Gibson unleashed a fastball toward Perez’s ear. Perez dived to the dirt to avoid being hit.

In his book “Stranger to the Game,” Gibson said, “My first pitch buzzed past Perez’s ear, which should have been an indication that I wasn’t trying to hit him. If a pitcher is trying to hit a batter, the last place he wants to throw the ball is at the head because it’s the easiest thing to move. When I wanted to hit somebody, I threw slightly behind him because a batter will instinctively jump backwards when he sees the ball coming toward him.”

Added Gibson, “The brushback of Perez was merely a message to lay off Brock.”

Broiling hot

On the next pitch, Perez flied out to right. On his way to the dugout, he crossed in front of the mound and said something to Gibson that the pitcher described as “uncharacteristically nasty.”

Gibson took a few steps toward Perez. So did Cardinals first baseman Orlando Cepeda. This star-studded convergence of future Hall of Famers caused both benches to empty.

No punches were thrown, but just when it appeared order was being restored, the Reds relievers came storming onto the field from the bullpen. They were led by Bob Lee, a hulk who made a beeline for Cepeda.

“Lee started calling me names,” Cepeda said.

Said Lee: “I came in from the bullpen because it looked to me as if Cepeda was going to swing at Perez. I grabbed Cepeda and shoved him out of the way.”

In Cepeda’s biography, “Baby Bull,” Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver said Lee “ran in to where we were standing and said, ‘Cepeda! I want you, Cepeda!’  Then Orlando smoked him. This ignited the worst fight I was ever in.”

Gibson recalled in his autobiography, “As Lee was looking around and ranting, Cepeda tapped him on the shoulder and coldcocked him with a single punch.”

Said McCarver: “Bob Lee sure got more than he wanted when he went after Orlando.”

Lee told a different version. “I didn’t swing at anyone and nobody hit me,” Lee said. “Cepeda took one swing at me. I couldn’t get at him, or I would have put his lights out.”

Out of control

If the words between Gibson and Perez lit the fuse, the altercation between Cepeda and Lee set off the explosion.

According to the book “El Birdos,” Cepeda punched Pete Rose three times in the back of the head.

“Rose was like a wild man after being sucker-punched by big Orlando Cepeda,” the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. “He was swinging in all directions and not missing too often.”

Gibson wrestled with Helms as the fight spilled into a dugout. When Rose and others went to Helms’ rescue, Gibson began grabbing Reds players in the dugout and hurled them, one by one, onto the field. Cardinals outfielder Bobby Tolan, watching from the top dugout step, dived into the pile of brawlers to help Gibson.

“I actually got in some good licks on Rose and Helms,” Gibson said.

Said Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck: “I’ll never forget the sight. There was Gibson in the Reds’ dugout visibly manhandling about three Reds and tossing them bodily out of the dugout and onto the field.”

When Nottebart grabbed McCarver, Brock “planted a punch” on the Reds pitcher, “leaving his calling card in blood,” the Dayton Daily News reported.

Lou Smith of the Enquirer described the free-for-all as “the wildest this writer witnessed in more than three decades of writing baseball. It was a lulu.”

According to multiple published accounts, it took 20 St. Louis policemen 12 minutes to break up the fights.

When Reds first baseman Deron Johnson saw a policeman confront manager Dave Bristol, Johnson said, “Don’t you draw a stick on him,” the Dayton Daily News reported.

One policeman, Robert Casey, suffered a dislocated jaw in the fracas. “I don’t know whether I was hit by a fist or an elbow,” Casey said.

McCarver said, “Bristol threw a punch and broke Casey’s jaw.”

About 25 players and coaches were treated for wounds, mostly cuts and bruises. Among the injured: Gibson (jammed right thumb), Helms (chipped tooth), Nottebart (facial cuts) and Bristol (gashed leg).

The eyeglasses of Cardinals second baseman Julian Javier were shattered and he had to wear reading glasses the rest of the game. “He said he could see the ground balls, but not the pop flies,” Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst said.

Lee was the only player ejected.

Gibson, who was crafting a perfect game (the first 13 batters were retired, nine on strikeouts) before the fights began, stayed in, lasted 7.2 innings and got the win in a 7-3 Cardinals victory. Boxscore

Gibson said the fight “lit a fire” in the Cardinals and helped propel them to the pennant and the World Series championship that season.

Said Brock: “We hadn’t been going well and that fight really woke us up.”

Posted in Games | 24 Comments »

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