(Updated Sept. 1, 2018)
On a Cardinals pregame radio show from Los Angeles June 9, 2010, Mike Shannon had Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully as his guest. When Shannon asked Scully about the long rivalry between the Dodgers and Cardinals, Scully launched into a story to illustrate the intensity that existed in the series.
According to Scully, Brooklyn’s Carl Furillo lined a shot that struck Cardinals pitcher Cloyd Boyer in the throat. Scully told how Boyer dropped to the ground and reached for his throat as if trying to pry an imaginary pair of hands that were strangling him.
As Furillo went up the line toward first base, he apparently was jawing at Boyer. Furillo supposedly was yelling, “Choke, you so-and-so. Choke!” Scully said.
The incident occurred on July 17, 1950, in Game 1 of a doubleheader at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. Boxscore
How impressive it was to hear Scully tell the tale 60 years after he witnessed it.
Boyer entered the game in the eighth inning in relief of starter Gerry Staley and the first batter he faced was Furillo, who hit a line drive toward the pitcher. The ball struck Boyer “hard on the right thumb, glanced off and slammed against his throat,” Dick Young of the New York Daily News reported.
Although Boyer retrieved the ball and threw to first base in time to get Furillo, “he almost fainted a moment later, gasping for breath,” the Daily News reported. “His mates had him lie on the hill for several minutes, regaining his wind.”
Once he was certain he could breathe freely, Boyer got to his feet and was able to walk off the field.
X-rays of the thumb disclosed no fracture, “but a ruptured blood vessel at the heel of his hand will keep him idle for perhaps a week,” the Daily News reported. “At that, he’s lucky he’s alive. Getting his hand in the way of Furillo’s comeback bullet just in time to prevent it from tearing into his neck probably saved the guy’s life, or at least his voice.”
Boyer “barely escaped worse injury when a Carl Furillo line drive glanced off his hands and struck him on the Adam’s apple,” Baseball Digest reported. “But the gallant hurler scrambled to his feet, threw out the batter and then collapsed.”
The Sporting News called Boyer a “hard-luck rookie right-hander” and reported Furillo’s liner “bruised his right hand at the base of the thumb and glanced against his windpipe, momentarily taking the kid’s wind.”
Ankiel, 20, made his debut on Aug. 23, 1999, at Montreal against the Expos. His official line: five innings, five hits, three runs, two walks and six strikeouts.
In August 1959, The Sporting News pubished a trademarked Page 1 story by publisher J.G. Taylor Spink reporting the Cardinals would trade Stan Musial to the Yankees for catcher and St. Louis native Yogi Berra.
A Cardinals spokesman confirmed Eddie Stanky, player development director and special assistant to general manager Bing Devine, was in New York, scouting the Yankees, in August 1959.
Mize achieved the feat in two seasons: doing it twice in 1938 and twice in 1940.
I researched it this week and found that Walters is the fourth Cardinals pitcher to get his first major-league win at San Diego against the Padres. Here’s a look at the other three:
_ June 19, 1979, Cardinals 7, Padres 2, at San Diego. Right-hander John Fulgham made his debut for the Cardinals and pitched a complete game.
After Jerry Mumphrey singled and scored on a double by Keith Hernandez in the top of the 15th, O’Brien retired Ozzie Smith, Gene Tenace and Dave Winfield in order in the bottom half of the inning.
RetroSimba 