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Good old country hardball: Bobby Bolin vs. Cardinals

June 19, 2023 by retrosimba

Though Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry were the most prominent pitchers on the 1960s Giants, Bobby Bolin was an important member of those staffs, too.

A right-hander with a fastball rated among the best in the National League, Bolin was effective both as a starter and a reliever.

In 1968, when Bob Gibson led the league in ERA (1.12), the pitcher who was next-best was not Marichal or Perry or Ferguson Jenkins or Tom Seaver or any of the other future Hall of Famers pitching then. It was Bolin (1.99).

In the only game they started against one another that year, Bolin beat Gibson.

For his career, Bolin was 9-5 with a 2.75 ERA versus the Cardinals.

Country kid

Bolin was raised on a farm in Hickory Grove, S.C., a town of about 300 residents, located 55 miles from Charlotte, N.C. Years later, in a chat with the Rock Hill (S.C.) Herald, his mother, Blanche, said of Bobby and his two brothers, “It was hard to get any work out of those boys. They were either listening to a ballgame on the radio, or out in the backyard throwing rocks.”

Bolin switched from rocks to baseballs and became a pitcher. “Bobby played three years of baseball at Hickory Grove High School. The other year, when he was a junior, Hickory Grove had no team, so he pitched for York High School,” the Rock Hill Herald reported.

A gangly 6-foot-4, Bolin overpowered batters in high school and American Legion games with a fastball thrown from a sidearm delivery. His “big hand so completely covers the horsehide that you expect to see the stuffing fly out at any time,” the Charlotte Observer noted.

Herman Crump, Bolin’s American Legion coach, told the Charlotte newspaper, “It was hard to believe any 16-year-old could throw the ball as hard as Bobby did.”

According to the Rock Hill newspaper, the Pittsburgh Pirates signed Bolin, but the deal was voided because he was ineligible. Bolin was 17 when he signed with the Giants in December 1956.

Rookie year

Bolin, 22, reached the majors with the Giants in 1961 and was made a reliever. His first save came in his second appearance, on April 23, 1961, against the Cardinals at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

In the ninth inning, with the Giants ahead, 2-1, the Cardinals had runners on first and third, one out, when Bolin was brought in to work out of the jam.

The first batter he faced, Daryl Spencer, looked at a 2-and-2 pitch for strike three. Upset with the call by umpire Tom Gorman, Spencer slammed his bat to the ground and was ejected. “I thought the pitch was four inches inside,” Spencer said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Bolin told the San Francisco Examiner, “I thought it was a good pitch _ high enough and over the plate.”

The next batter, Mickey McDermott, lined a pitch foul before striking out swinging to end the game.

Noting that Bolin delivered only fastballs to the Cardinals, Giants catcher Hobie Landrith told the Examiner that the rookie threw “faster than anyone on our club can throw, and maybe as fast as anybody in the league.” Boxscore

Bolin said to the Charlotte Observer, “As my fastball goes, so go I.”

Two months later, on June 23, 1961, Stan Musial timed a Bolin fastball and belted it onto the roof of the right field pavilion “as Busch Stadium trembled with uproarious acclaim,” the Examiner reported. The grand slam was Musial’s ninth, and last, of his career and gave him seven RBI for the game. Boxscore

Learning on the job

The next year, Bolin (seven wins, six saves) helped the Giants win the 1962 pennant and pitched in two games of the World Series against the Yankees.

In 1964, Bolin appeared in more games as a starter than as a reliever for the first time since reaching the majors. In the first game he pitched that season, a start against the Cardinals, Bolin limited them to four hits in seven innings, but three were solo home runs _ by Johnny Lewis, Ken Boyer and Curt Flood _ and St. Louis won, 3-2. Boxscore

At the urging of his road roommate, pitcher Billy Pierce, 37, Bolin, 25, ditched the sidearm delivery and began throwing with more of an overhand motion. “As a result, his fastball moves _ and never the same way twice,” Pierce told The Sporting News.

On Aug. 14, 1964, Bolin pitched a one-hit shutout against the Braves. “A blind hog will find an acorn once in a while,” he modestly told the Examiner. Boxscore

Eight days later, he struck out 11 Cardinals, including Lou Brock four times, and got the win. Down by three in the seventh, the Cardinals had the bases loaded with two outs when Bolin struck out Brock on three consecutive fastballs. “I don’t think anyone could have hit those pitches,” Brock’s teammate, Tim McCarver, told the Examiner. “They tailed away and caught a sliver of the back of the plate.”

Giants catcher Tom Haller told the newspaper, “He’s as fast as he ever was, but he’s hitting spots. He’s got to throw it there to be effective.” Boxscore

Different look

Even with his overpowering fastball, Bolin needed a breaking pitch to keep batters from digging in. After much tinkering, he developed a slider. 

Bolin had 14 wins (eight in relief) in 1965 and 11 in 1966 (when he made 34 starts and pitched 10 complete games).

In his first appearance at the Cardinals’ new Busch Memorial Stadium, on June 28, 1966, Bolin pitched a two-hitter for the win. His former teammate, Orlando Cepeda, grounded a single to right for the Cardinals’ first hit in the seventh and Charlie Smith got the other on an infield hit in the eighth.

“I was missing with the fastball the last couple of innings, so I threw mostly sliders at the end,” Bolin told the Examiner. “Both the hits were on good pitches. Cepeda hit an outside slider and so did Smith.” Boxscore

A year later, on June 29, 1967, Bolin pitched the equivalent of a complete game in a relief stint against the Cardinals at St. Louis. The Giants scored 11 runs in the top of the first, nine against Bob Gibson, but, when Giants starter Joe Gibbon allowed two runs without recording an out in the bottom half of the inning, he was relieved by Bolin, who pitched nine innings for the win. Boxscore

Classic duels

To his disappointment, Bolin was used mostly in relief in the first half of the 1968 season. Moved into the starting rotation after the all-star break, he prospered. Bolin was 8-3 in the second half of the season. In those three losses, the Giants totaled one run.

On Sept. 6, 1968, fans came to Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, hoping to see Juan Marichal and Bob Gibson as the starting pitchers in Game 1 of a doubleheader, but Giants manager Herman Franks had other ideas. He opted to start Bolin (7-4, 1.89) versus Gibson (20-6, 0.99) and save Marichal (24-7, 2.33) for Game 2 against Steve Carlton (12-9, 2.83).

Regarding his choice of Bolin to oppose Gibson, Franks told the Post-Dispatch, “I didn’t pitch any humpty-dumpty, you know.”

When the public address announcer read Bolin’s name in giving the Game 1 lineups, the crowd booed, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Bolin was up to the challenge. He limited the Cardinals to two runs (both earned) in 7.2 innings before Frank Linzy took over and provided scoreless relief. Gibson gave up three runs (two earned) in eight innings and lost for only the second time in his last 20 starts. Boxscore

(Neither Marichal nor Carlton pitched especially well in the second game, an 8-7 victory for the Giants. Boxscore)

Two weeks later, when the Cardinals were in San Francisco, Gaylord Perry pitched a no-hitter against them. The next day, the Cardinals’ Ray Washburn turned the tables, pitching a no-hitter versus the Giants. Bolin was the losing pitcher in that game. He shut out the Cardinals on two hits before they struck for a run in the seventh and another in the eighth. Boxscore

Changing leagues

In December 1969, Bolin was traded to the Seattle Pilots, who moved to Milwaukee before the start of the 1970 season and became the Brewers. He was sent to the Red Sox in September 1970 and became a relief specialist.

Bolin led the Red Sox in saves (15) in 1973 when Eddie Kasko was manager. Darrell Johnson, who replaced Kasko after the season, wanted to shake up the roster. In March 1974, in what Peter Gammons of the Boston Globe described as “the biggest single surprise of spring training,” Bolin, 35, was released. He opted to return home to South Carolina rather than try to extend his playing career.

He later quipped to the Rock Hill Herald, “I had to quit in 1974 for health reasons. The Red Sox were sick of me.”

In 13 seasons in the majors, Bolin totaled 88 wins and 51 saves. He three times finished in the top 10 in the National League in ERA _ 1965 (2.76), 1966 (2.89) and 1968 (1.99).

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers | 14 Comments »

Old pro: Orlando Pena worked wonders with Cardinals

June 14, 2023 by retrosimba

Orlando Pena was a baseball sorcerer, a mound magician who delivered a mix of deceptive pitches and overcame formidable odds to repeatedly revive his career.

Pena worked his wizardry for the Cardinals after they acquired him from the Orioles for cash on June 15, 1973.

Pena was 39, a castoff who had gone to spring training that year as a batting practice pitcher after suffering an elbow injury a few months earlier. Acquiring him turned out to be a marvelous, or even Merlinesque, move.

Give me a chance

Born and raised in Cuba, in the town of Victoria de las Tunas, Pena ran errands as a youth for his father, a grocer. The boy made a baseball glove from a pair of kid’s cowboy boots, cutting off the upper halves and sewing the two portions together to create a mitt, according to the Kansas City Star.

A right-handed pitcher, Pena was signed by the Cincinnati Reds, who sent him to their Daytona Beach (Fla.) farm club in 1955. Pena was 21, skinny (about 140 pounds, according to The Cincinnati Post) and considered a marginal prospect.

The Reds told Daytona Beach manager Johnny Vander Meer (who pitched consecutive no-hitters for Cincinnati in 1938) to give Pena a look and, if he didn’t like what he saw, the club would release the pitcher, the Associated Press reported. Given a chance to relieve in a game, Pena impressed. “To think I was told to let this man go was something I couldn’t believe when I saw him pitch,” Vander Meer said to the wire service.

Moved to the starting rotation, Pena was 21-8 with a 1.96 ERA for Daytona Beach in 1955. Three years later, the Reds brought him to the majors.

“I tell him he does not have a major-league fastball,” the Reds’ Cuban-born coach, Reggie Otero, informed The Cincinnati Post in 1959, “but he has a real good sinker. I tell him to keep the ball down, or you will find yourself back in Havana.”

Pena got too many pitches up (6-10 with Cincinnati), returned to the minors and resurfaced with the Kansas City Athletics in August 1962. He lost 20 games with the 1963 Athletics, gave up 40 home runs in 1964 and went 0-6 for them in 1965 before being placed on waivers.

Fork in the road

The Tigers took a chance and signed Pena in June 1965.

A high school player, Ted Simmons, was the Tigers’ batting practice catcher for home games. “Pena was the only guy on the team who would even talk to me,” Simmons recalled years later to Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News.

With a wink, Simmons added, “That’s how I learned to catch a forkball.”

McCoy wrote, “The wink was meant to inform the listener that he really meant a spitball.”

Pena told the Associated Press, “Everybody accuses me of spitting on the ball. I call it my Cuban forkball.”

Pena said a Reds minor-league manager, Bert Haas, taught him to throw the forkball, the Miami News reported.

To throw the forkball, Pena gripped the ball between his index and middle fingers, “which he spreads as wide as the extension of an average person’s three middle fingers,” the Miami News noted. Pena told the newspaper, “The forkball has a rotation the same as a spitter … If it weren’t for the forkball, I’d be selling peanuts in Cuba.”

Besides the forkball, Pena threw a wide assortment of other offerings and tried to distract the batter by turning his back on him in the middle of his delivery. Orioles manager Earl Weaver said to The Sporting News, “He’s got every pitch in the book _ a forkball, curve, fastball, slider and sinker from several arm positions, and a screwball, too.”

Pena also threw a palmball (a type of changeup) and dabbled with a knuckleball.

Down and out

In three seasons with the Tigers, Pena had eight wins, 11 saves and a 3.01 ERA but in May 1967 they sent him to the Indians. Pena notched eight saves with the 1967 Indians, but was demoted to the minors the following year. At 34, he seemed done as a big-league pitcher.

Pena, 36, was a batting practice pitcher for the Royals in 1970 when the Pirates came to Kansas City in June to play an exhibition game. After watching Pena throw, Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente met with club officials and, according to The Pittsburgh Press, told them, “Pena is as good as anyone in our bullpen.” 

Desperate for relievers, the Pirates signed him that day. (The Pirates used 20 pitchers in 1970 and 18 of those made relief appearances.) Pena was 2-1 with two saves in 23 games for the 1970 Pirates, but they released him in August after he injured an ankle.

Miami marvel

When spring training began in 1971, Pena, 37, was at home in Miami. Looking to stay in the game, he accepted a coaching job with the Orioles’ Miami farm club in the Class A Florida State League. The job also called for him to appear on Spanish-language radio and promote interest in the team.

“I was going to pitch some, help the young pitchers and try to sell tickets,” Pena told the Kansas City Star.

Instead, Pena became a starter. He was 9-4 with an 0.70 ERA when the Orioles called him to the big leagues in July. He made five relief appearances for them, then finished the season with the Class AAA Rochester (N.Y.) affiliate.

Back with minor-league Miami (where, according to The Sporting News, his teammates called him Poppa), Pena, 38, performed remarkably in 1972, posting a 15-3 record and 1.38 ERA for the Class A club. Promoted to Rochester late in the season, he dazzled there, too (7-0, 0.96), and helped the club reach the International League playoffs.

Pitching in pain

On Sept. 4, 1972, Pena was a front-seat passenger in a car driven by Rochester coach Chico Fernandez when the vehicle was struck broadside at an intersection, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the right front wheel of the car took the brunt of the collision. “If it had hit my door, I’d be a dead man,” Pena told the Rochester newspaper.

Pena said his right elbow slammed against the car door and he felt a “pulsing ache” from the shoulder blade to the elbow of his pitching arm, but the next day he threw for 15 minutes and declared himself ready to pitch in the playoff series against Louisville, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.

On Sept. 6, 1972, two days after being hurt in the accident, Pena started Game 2 of the playoff series and pitched nine innings before he gave in to the pain and asked manager Joe Altobelli to lift him for a pinch-hitter with the score tied at 3-3. Roger Repoz hit a two-run homer in the 10th and Rochester won, 5-3.

“He’s got heart,” Rochester trainer Rudy Owen told the Democrat and Chronicle. “I could tell he was going through some kind of pain, but he hung in there.”

Throughout the game, Owen applied a hot preparation to Pena’s aching elbow. “I mixed up a special compound of Capsulin and an analgesic,” Owen said. “We put it on him every other inning.”

Pena told the Rochester newspaper, “I’ve never had such a burning sensation before. Every time Doc would put it on, I’d hold my breath.”

After Louisville won the best-of-three series, Pena had the elbow re-examined and it was discovered he had fractured it in the car accident, the Baltimore Sun reported. He underwent surgery and, for the first time in 17 years, didn’t play winter league baseball in the Caribbean.

Unfinished business

There was no market for a 39-year-old pitcher on the mend from an elbow injury. As a courtesy, the Orioles invited Pena to spring training in 1973 as a batting practice pitcher.

In their second exhibition game, against the Yankees at Fort Lauderdale, the Orioles ran out of pitchers in extra innings. So they put Pena on the mound and he pitched well.

Given more appearances in spring training games, Pena surprised manager Earl Weaver and pitching coach George Bamberger with his effective assortment of pitches. “Pena has so many variations that Bamberger doesn’t know what they are sometimes when he charts them,” Weaver told The Sporting News.

When Opening Day came, Pena was on the Orioles roster.

In his first appearance for the 1973 Orioles, Pena earned a save against the Tigers. Three days later, Weaver named him the starting pitcher for the second game of a doubleheader versus the Brewers. It was Pena’s first start in the majors since 1967. He pitched 7.1 innings and the Orioles won. Boxscore

Helping hand

In June 1973, Cardinals starter Scipio Spinks was sidelined by a shoulder ailment and Tom Murphy was moved from the bullpen to replace him. Seeking a reliever to replace Murphy, the Cardinals purchased the contract of Pena from the Orioles.

Together with Diego Segui, Al Hrabosky and Rich Folkers, Pena gave the Cardinals a reliable relief corps. After his first nine appearances for St. Louis, Pena was 1-0 with two saves and an 0.00 ERA.

He also doubled as the Cardinals’ clubhouse clipper. Described by The Sporting News as “an accomplished barber,” Pena gave haircuts to teammates and became “one of the club’s most likeable members.”

Pena told The Cincinnati Post, “You know what they call me here? They call me Satchel. You know, like Satchel Paige.”

In September, when the 1973 Cardinals were contending for first place in the mediocre East Division, Pena was superb. In a doubleheader versus the Pirates on Sept. 3, he pitched in both games, earning a save in the second with 3.2 scoreless innings. For the month, Pena was 1-1 with two saves and a 1.71 ERA in 11 appearances. Boxscore

Pena was 4-4 in 42 games for the 1973 Cardinals and ranked second on the club in both saves (six) and ERA (2.18).

End of the line

The Cardinals were glad to have Pena, 40, back with them in 1974.

He picked up where he left off the previous year, winning his first five decisions. In 42 relief appearances for the 1974 Cardinals, Pena was 5-2 with four saves and a 2.60 ERA. He allowed no home runs in 45 innings pitched. Right-handed batters hit .158 against him.

Imagine his shock then when, to make room on the roster for newly acquired Claude Osteen, the Cardinals released Pena in August 1974.

“Sometimes they catch you by surprise and you feel like the whole ceiling falls over you,” Pena told The Sporting News.

Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst said, “Orlando is a great guy and a hell of a guy to have on the club, but we could keep only 10 pitchers.”

(Pena and Osteen had a history. Eleven years earlier, in a 1963 American League game, Pena hit a grand slam against him. Boxscore)

Pena agreed to stay in St. Louis as a batting practice pitcher. Then, on Sept. 5, 1974, he was traded to the Angels for a player to be named (pitcher Rich Hand).

Pena’s final big-league appearances were with the 1975 Angels, who had Dick Williams as manager and Whitey Herzog as a coach.

Posted in Games, Pitchers, Trades | 12 Comments »

Why Cardinals had high hopes for Lew Burdette

June 9, 2023 by retrosimba

(Updated Jan. 13, 2025)

A right-hander whose extensive mix of pitches included a spitball, Lew Burdette was supposed to give the Cardinals the edge they needed to win the 1963 National League pennant, but it didn’t work out. Instead, he helped them attain a championship the following year, even though he was gone by June.

On June 15, 1963, the Cardinals obtained Burdette, 36, from the Braves for catcher Gene Oliver and pitcher Bob Sadowski.

The Cardinals expected Burdette could make the difference in a pennant race the way June acquisitions Grover Cleveland Alexander (1926) and Burleigh Grimes (1930) did for them.

Dynamic duo

Selva Lewis Burdette was from Nitro, W.Va., along the Kanawha River near Charleston. The town sprung up during World War I as a center for the manufacturing of gunpowder for the military.

Burdette went by a shortened version of his middle name, Lew or Lou. Asked by the St. Louis Globe-Democrat in 1963 which spelling he preferred, Burdette replied that either way was acceptable. “I always (endorse) the check the way it’s written,” he said.

After reaching the majors in 1950, making two relief appearances with the Yankees, Burdette was traded to the Braves for Johnny Sain in August 1951.

Burdette and Braves teammate Warren Spahn (baseball’s career leader in wins among left-handers) liked palling around together, each bringing out the mischievous side in the other, and became road roommates. Their friendship was “as close as Damon and Pythias,” The Sporting News observed.

Asked why he and Burdette got along so well, Spahn told Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “It’s because we appreciate each other’s sense of humor … No one else can stand us.”

Glory days

Burdette led National League pitchers in ERA (2.70) and shutouts (six) in 1956.

The next year, he was named the most valuable player of the World Series, winning Games 2, 5 and 7 against the Yankees. Burdette went the distance in all three games, allowing a mere two runs in 27 innings for an 0.67 ERA. Video

As the New York Times noted, Burdette relied on “sinkers, screwballs and sliders, his excellent control and his unswerving poise.”

He also mixed in a devastating spitball.

“Burdette has a great sinker, and when he gets into a tight spot, he throws a wet sinker,” Reds outfielder Jerry Lynch told The Sporting News.

With 20 wins in 1958, Burdette helped the Braves repeat as National League champions, but the Yankees prevailed in the World Series, in part because he was 1-2 with a 5.64 ERA.

He remained an ace, leading the National League in wins in 1959 (21), in complete games in 1960 (18) and in innings pitched in 1961 (272.1).

A man for all seasons

Burdette injured an ankle in May 1962 and Braves manager Birdie Tebbetts lost confidence in him. “Burdette makes no secret of the fact that he feels he was mishandled by Tebbetts,” The Sporting News reported.

Though he finished the 1962 season with a 10-9 record, Burdette allowed 172 hits in 143.2 innings (the first time since 1953 he didn’t pitch at least 230 innings) and made no starts after Aug. 16. Afterward, he told The Sporting News, “Last season was the most miserable one I ever spent in baseball. It’s the worst feeling in the world not to be a part of things.”

Bobby Bragan, who replaced Tebbetts, told The Sporting News that Burdette was not in his plans for 1963. After getting a look at him in spring training, Bragan changed his mind and named Burdette the Braves’ Opening Day starter.

“He’s an even better athlete than I had envisioned,” Bragan told The Sporting News. “He can field, he can run, he can hit _ anything.”

Let’s make a deal

When Ray Washburn, who won his first five decisions for the 1963 Cardinals, suffered a shoulder injury, general manager Bing Devine searched for a starter to replace him and to join a rotation with Bob Gibson, Ernie Broglio, Curt Simmons and Ray Sadecki.

Devine’s first choice was Burdette, but the Braves were close to trading him to the Orioles, The Sporting News reported. Devine then tried to deal for Houston’s Ken Johnson, but the Colt .45s took him off the market when Turk Farrell injured a hip, according to the Globe-Democrat.

Next, Devine approached the Mets about Roger Craig. The Mets offered Craig, pitcher Ken MacKenzie and catcher Norm Sherry for Gene Oliver, outfielder Duke Carmel and pitchers Harry Fanok, Bob Sadowski and Ron Taylor, but the Cardinals wouldn’t part with Taylor, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Devine went back to the Braves and convinced them to deal Burdette to him. When they acquired Burdette, the Cardinals (36-26) were tied with the Giants for first place in the 10-team National League. The Sporting News described him as “an ideal pickup for a St. Louis club which felt that one more established pitcher might put it in the World Series.”

Globe-Democrat sports editor Bob Burnes declared, “It’s a good deal for the Cardinals. Eight to 10 victories by Burdette the rest of the season added to what the Cardinals already have potentially on their side could mean the pennant.”

Cardinals debut

Burdette was 6-5 for the 1963 Braves and won his last three decisions, including a shutout of the Mets in his final game with Milwaukee on June 12. Boxscore

His first appearance for the Cardinals was a start against the Mets on June 18 and he pitched a complete game for the win. Burdette held the Mets scoreless until Tim Harkness hit a two-run home run with two outs in the ninth. Boxscore

“He had the ball really moving, sailing, sliding and sinking,” Cardinals third baseman Ken Boyer said to the Post-Dispatch.

Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver, 21, told the newspaper, “I’ve never seen a pitcher who can move the ball around as much as Burdette did.”

In the book “We Would Have Played For Nothing,” Burdette said, “I had an uncanny ability of throwing strikes … If you get the reputation that you don’t walk anybody, you don’t have to throw strikes. They swing at anything.”

Brave new world

On July 11, 1963, Burdette faced the Braves for the first time in a start at St. Louis. After taking a pitch from Burdette for a strike in the third inning, Hank Aaron asked plate umpire Chris Pelekoudas to check the ball to see whether it had a foreign substance. Pelekoudas took a look and kept the ball in play. “Henry has a better sense of humor than people think,” Burdette told the Post-Dispatch.

Two innings later, Aaron snapped a 1-1 tie with an RBI-double against Burdette and the Braves went on to a 5-3 victory. Boxscore

Two weeks later, Burdette made his first appearance in Milwaukee since the trade. The opposing starter was his friend, Warren Spahn.

Burdette held the Braves to a run in nine innings and got the win. Spahn allowed the Cardinals three runs in eight innings. “Spahn didn’t pitch badly for an old man,” Burdette told The Sporting News. He added, “I didn’t feel especially good about pitching against the best friend I ever had in baseball, but I had a job to do, and all I could do was go out and do my best.”

Braves manager Bobby Bragan said to The Sporting News that Burdette “won that game with less (velocity) than anybody I’ve ever seen on a major-league mound.” Boxscore

Burdette beat the Braves again with a complete game at St. Louis on Sept. 15, 1963, helping the Cardinals win their ninth in a row and end the day a game behind the first-place Dodgers. Boxscore

“We got Burdette just for a game like this,” Cardinals manager Johnny Keane said to the Post-Dispatch. “He gave us what we wanted when we had to have it.”

The Dodgers followed the Braves into St. Louis, swept a three-game series and went on to win the pennant. The Cardinals (93-69) finished in second place.

Burdette was 3-8 with two saves and a 3.77 ERA for the 1963 Cardinals. He had a 4.15 ERA in 14 starts and an 0.77 ERA in seven relief appearances. His losing record for the season was his first since 1952.

Starting over

In November 1963, the Cardinals acquired Roger Craig from the Mets and projected him to fill Burdette’s role. Burdette, 37, was moved to the bullpen in 1964. “I prefer starting,” he told The Sporting News.

Burdette was 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA in eight relief appearances for the 1964 Cardinals when he was traded to the Cubs on June 2 for pitcher Glen Hobbie.

It turned out that Burdette’s relief win for the Cardinals on April 24, 1964 _ a scoreless 11th inning against the Houston Colt .45s _ was important because the Cardinals (93-69) won the National League pennant that year by a mere one game over the Phillies (92-70) and Reds (92-70). Boxscore

“The Cardinals are a fine organization and I have no complaints with their treatment of me,” Burdette told the Associated Press. “It’s just that I didn’t get the opportunity to pitch. I guess they felt I was too old to be a starter. I’m 37, but I can outdo a majority of the 21-year-olds in most things.”

Burdette was 40 when he pitched his last game in the majors, a relief stint for the Angels versus the Twins in 1967. He faced three batters _ future Hall of Famers Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva _ and pitched a scoreless inning. Boxscore

In 18 seasons in the majors, Burdette was 203-144.

Posted in Games, Pitchers, Trades | 17 Comments »

Battle stations: Dizzy Dean versus Paul Derringer

June 5, 2023 by retrosimba

Pitchers Dizzy Dean and Paul Derringer didn’t get along as Cardinals teammates. As opponents, their dislike for one another erupted into public view.

On June 6, 1933, Dean and Derringer got into a fight on the field before a game at Cincinnati. Only their egos got bruised.

Dean, the consummate showman, was a flamboyant flamethrower who craved attention. Derringer, a skilled but less flashy pitcher, was “a belligerent man who often used his fists to settle disputes,” according to the Society for American Baseball Research.

Dean became a Hall of Famer, but Derringer earned far more career wins (223) than Dizzy did (150).

Intramural rivalry

Conflict between Dean and Derringer began in 1931 when both competed at spring training for a spot as a rookie in the Cardinals’ starting rotation. The Cardinals chose Derringer, 24, and returned Dean, 21, to the minors.

Derringer responded with an excellent rookie season for the 1931 Cardinals, helping them to repeat as National League champions. Derringer was 18-8, leading National League pitchers in winning percentage (.692). He also was the Cardinals’ team leader in shutouts (four).

While Derringer thrived with the Cardinals, Dean pitched for minor-league Houston and took out his frustrations on Texas League foes, crafting a 26-10 record and 1.57 ERA in 1931. 

Dean joined Derringer in the 1932 Cardinals’ starting rotation. Smug after his successful debut season, Derringer “strutted too much” and “became his worst enemy,” Sid Keener observed in the St. Louis Star-Times.

That made Derringer a target for Dean’s barbs. “Derringer had trouble with Dean,” the Dayton Daily News reported, “and he was prepared to report to the league president that Dean had been nasty in riding him all season.”

June of 1932 was a turning point for the two rivals. Dean was 3-1 with a 1.91 ERA in June. Derringer’s June numbers: 2-3 and 6.09. From then on, manager Gabby Street turned increasingly to Dean, prompting Derringer to accuse the club of favoritism, according to the book “Diz.”

True to his nature, Derringer “challenged Gabby Street to a fistic duel in the clubhouse,” the Star-Times reported, “because he objected to the managerial maneuvers.”

Dean finished his rookie season as the National League leader in strikeouts (191), shutouts (four) and innings pitched (286). He was 18-15 with a 3.30 ERA. Pitching with “a chip on his shoulder,” according to the Star-Times, Derringer was 11-14 with a 4.05 ERA.

On the move

After Derringer lost his first two decisions in 1933, the Cardinals traded him and two others to the Reds on May 7 for shortstop Leo Durocher, plus two pitchers.

The Cardinals beat Derringer the first time they faced him, on May 30 at St. Louis. Boxscore Five days later, when the Cardinals came to Cincinnati, Derringer turned the tables and won. Boxscore

Derringer was one of eight former Cardinals on the 1933 Reds, according to the Dayton Daily News. Others included Sparky Adams, Jim Bottomley and Chick Hafey. When the series started, “the boys were all pals,” Si Burick noted in the Dayton newspaper. “Leo Durocher, the famous (bench) jockey, was kidding all his former teammates good-naturedly, and the Reds kidded right back. There was entirely too much fun going on.”

That all changed on June 6 before the start of a Tuesday afternoon game.

Fighting words

According to the Dayton Daily News, “Derringer was pitching in batting practice and Dean was razzing him from the Cardinals dugout.”

Dean was “riding the life out of me,” Derringer told the Associated Press.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Derringer said Dean was “questioning his courage.”

Derringer approached Dean and “asked him if he meant what he had been saying,” the Dayton newspaper reported.

“I replied, ‘I meant every word of it,’ ” Dean said to the Post-Dispatch.

Derringer threw a punch and claimed it landed square in Dean’s eye, the Dayton newspaper reported.

Dean told the Post-Dispatch, “I’m skillful at the manly art of self-defense and I ducked very cleverly.”

To prove his point, Dean “showed an eye that had no shiner,” according to the Dayton newspaper.

After the punch, Derringer grabbed Dean, “and when I saw he wanted to wrestle I caught him around the neck and threw him to the ground,” Dean explained to the Post-Dispatch.

As the clinched pair rolled around, Cardinals pitcher Dazzy Vance, 42, “strolled out and sat on them until the situation was in hand,” the Dayton Daily News reported.

Derringer told the newspaper that he “would have won by a knockout if Vance hadn’t stopped the bout.”

Dean claimed he gave Derringer “a right to the side of the head” before Vance arrived.

The Three Stooges-like antics carried over into the game. Cardinals player George Watkins was ejected for throwing his cap at an umpire after being called out on the base path, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported, and Reds coach Jewel Ens also was ejected for arguing a call.

After the ejection of Ens, a woman spectator heaved a soda bottle from the stands, intending it for the umpire. Instead, it struck Cardinals infielder Burgess Whitehead on the shoulder as he stood on a dugout step, according to the Associated Press. Boxscore

Postscript

Dean was a 20-game winner for the 1933 Cardinals, then followed with 30 wins in 1934, plus two more in the World Series. He is the last National League pitcher to achieve 30 wins in a season.

Though his ERA was 3.30, Derringer was 7-27 in 1933 _ 0-2 with the Cardinals and 7-25 with the last-place Reds.

Despite that, he posted more wins (223) than losses (212) in his 15 seasons in the majors. He also pitched in four World Series for three franchises _ Cardinals (1931), Reds (1939 and 1940) and Cubs (1945).

 

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers | 12 Comments »

Cardinals got tangled up with true Vida Blue

June 1, 2023 by retrosimba

Before his fastball faded and spray hitters such as Ozzie Smith could pull it with power, the Cardinals saw the vintage Vida Blue, the one who, as Sports Illustrated noted, threw heat that “explodes in all directions.”

Blue was 28 when he came to the National League in a trade from the Athletics to the Giants in 1978. Though he would continue to pitch in the majors until 1986, his first year as a Giant was the last of his prominent seasons.

A left-hander who totaled 209 wins, Blue helped the Athletics win three World Series titles.

Rhapsody in Blue

Blue, 18, made his big-league debut with the Athletics on July 20, 1969. Two years later, he was the best pitcher in the American League, winning the Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards. His numbers in 1971: 24-8 record, 1.82 ERA, 24 complete games, eight shutouts and 301 strikeouts in 312 innings.

“He throws harder than Sandy Koufax did,” Orioles slugger Boog Powell said to Sports Illustrated.

After Blue produced three seasons of 20 or more wins, Athletics owner Charlie Finley wanted to cash in on that success. In June 1976, he tried to trade Blue to the Yankees in exchange for $1.5 million, but baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn voided the deal, declaring he did so in the best interests of baseball. (At the same time, Kuhn also canceled Finley’s attempt to swap reliever Rollie Fingers and outfielder Joe Rudi to the Red Sox for $1 million apiece.)

A year later, in December 1977, Finley sent Blue to the Reds for $1.75 million and first baseman Dave Revering. “They call Cincinnati the Big Red Machine. Now they have to call it the Big Blue Machine,” Vida said to The Sporting News.

The Reds envisioned a starting rotation led by Blue and Tom Seaver, but Kuhn again voided the deal. Part of the reasoning for Kuhn’s decision is he said he didn’t think the Athletics were getting enough talent in return. (In his nine seasons with the Athletics, Blue had a 124-86 record and 2.95 ERA.)

Ace vs. Cards

Giants general manager Spec Richardson sensed an opportunity. On March 15, 1978, Blue was traded to the Giants for seven players and nearly $400,000 in cash. Kuhn had no objections.

Naturally, Blue’s Giants debut came against the Reds at Cincinnati and he was the losing pitcher. Boxscore

After that, he went on a roll, winning six in a row. Two of those wins came against the Cardinals.

Blue’s first appearance versus the Cardinals was on May 1, 1978, at St. Louis. He limited them to four hits through seven innings on a mere 57 pitches. Trailing 2-0, the Cardinals scored a run against him in the eighth, but Blue got the win with strong relief help from Randy Moffitt in the ninth. Boxscore

Two weeks later, Blue faced the Cardinals at San Francisco and pitched a complete game for the win. He also singled, walked and scored a run in the Giants’ 9-3 triumph. Boxscore

Blue made three starts against the 1978 Cardinals and was 3-0 with a 2.08 ERA. For the season, he was 18-10 with four shutouts and a 2.79 ERA. 

The Padres’ Gaylord Perry (21-6, 2.73) was selected as the 1978 National League Cy Young Award recipient by the Baseball Writers Association of America, but Blue was named The Sporting News National League pitcher of the year in voting by the players.

Throughout the season, Blue was backed by the hitting of 22-year-old Jack Clark, who batted .306 and led the 1978 Giants in doubles (46), home runs (25), RBI (98) and runs scored (90).

Hard time

In an eight-year stretch from 1971 to 1978, Blue pitched 258 innings or more in seven of those seasons. He wouldn’t work that many again.

In 1979, he was 0-2 with a 4.84 ERA in three starts against the Cardinals. On Aug. 29 that year, he gave up a career-high 14 hits to the Cardinals. Tony Scott had four hits and scored twice in the 5-1 Cardinals triumph at San Francisco. George Hendrick, Blue’s former teammate with the Athletics, hit a home run. Boxscore

Cardinals first baseman Keith Hernandez told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “That’s the slowest I’ve seen him throw.”

In March 1982, the Giants traded Blue to the Royals. A year later, he pleaded guilty to a cocaine possession charge and was sentenced to three months in federal prison. Kuhn suspended him for the 1984 season.

Blue returned to the Giants in 1985 and eventually joined a starting rotation with ex-Cardinal Dave LaPoint and Atlee Hammaker, one of the players acquired from the Royals in the Blue trade.

On July 10, 1985, at St. Louis, Blue started, gave up five runs in three innings and took the loss. With two outs in the second, Blue threw a waist-high fastball to Ozzie Smith, who yanked it over the wall in left for a two-run home run. “A terrible pitch,” Giants manager Jim Davenport told United Press International.

An inning later, Blue’s former teammate, Jack Clark, also launched a two-run homer. “He challenges you,” Clark told the Post-Dispatch. “He gives you the fastball.” (Clark produced four hits, including two home runs, in five career at-bats versus Blue.)

In 17 career appearances, including 12 starts, versus the Cardinals, Blue was 5-5 with a 5.36 ERA.

Ted Simmons hit .316 (12-for-38) against Blue. Those with high on-base percentages against him included Tommy Her (.500, with six hits and three walks in 18 plate appearances) and Keith Hernandez (.421, with 13 hits and three walks in 38 plate appearances).

 

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers | 12 Comments »

Why Dennis Ribant took his slap shots to the big leagues

May 28, 2023 by retrosimba

Dennis Ribant hoped to be the second person _ and first American _ to play in both the National Hockey League and in baseball’s major leagues.

He made a good run at it, playing in the farm systems of baseball’s Milwaukee Braves and hockey’s Detroit Red Wings.

Encouraged by the Braves to focus on baseball, Ribant reluctantly gave up hockey and pitched in the majors with six teams, including one game for the Cardinals.

Cleats and skates

A Detroit native, Ribant was 12 when he worked for tips dusting off seats for fans at Tiger Stadium, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted.

A right-handed pitcher, Ribant got offers from the Tigers and Yankees after he graduated from high school but both were contingent on him quitting hockey, the Detroit Free Press reported. He signed with the Braves for less money because they “didn’t object too strenuously to hockey,” according to the newspaper.

About the same time, Ribant, 19, got assigned to the Detroit Red Wings’ Junior A hockey team in Hamilton, Ontario, for the 1960-61 season. “It’s a tremendous accomplishment in itself for an American kid to make a Junior A team,” Red Wings scout Jimmy Skinner told the Free Press. “It’s really rare.”

In a late-season game, Ribant “was hit blindside by a burly defenseman of the Toronto Marlboros and sent reeling into the boards of Maple Leaf Gardens,” Dick Young reported in the New York Daily News.

Ribant dislocated his left elbow. Soon after, when he showed up for his first spring training with the Braves in 1961, they were surprised to see his left arm in a sling.

(Five years later, Ribant still felt pain in the left elbow when he swung a bat, the Daily News reported in 1966.)

Fortunately for him, Ribant’s pitching arm, the right one, was undamaged. Assigned to Davenport (Iowa), a Class D team in 1961, Ribant was 17-2 and pitched a perfect game. Promoted to Class AA Austin (Texas) late in the season, he was 4-2. His overall ERA for the year was 1.68.

Playing hardball

After his successful pro baseball debut in 1961, Ribant planned to play another junior hockey season in the Red Wings’ system, but the Braves “shudder at the thought of him playing hockey,” the Free Press reported.

Braves general manager John McHale contacted his Red Wings counterpart, Jack Adams, and asked him to help convince Ribant to give up hockey, according to the New York Daily News.

As the Free Press noted, “The Red Wings find themselves in the strange position of discouraging a hockey prospect, especially an American hockey prospect and, taking it a step further, one born and raised in Detroit … Good American boys don’t come along very often, especially one from the club’s own town.”

According to the Daily News, Adams agreed to send scout Jimmy Skinner to talk with Ribant, but told McHale, “He’s a pretty good hockey player … The decision will be up to the boy.”

Ribant told the Daily News that Skinner said, “You’re going to be a big-league ballplayer. You can make a lot of money in baseball.”

Ribant replied, “I can do both, at least for a little while. I can make the National Hockey League, too, can’t I?”

Skinner said, “Maybe. You have a chance. They tell me you have a better chance in baseball. Think it over.”

Ribant decided to make baseball his sole sport.

(In an interview with the Free Press, Skinner said, “If he stayed in hockey, he would need several more years of seasoning, and I don’t think he’d ever make the National (Hockey) League, although he could play in the high minors.”)

A Canadian, Jim Riley, is the only person to play in the NHL and in baseball’s major leagues. An infielder, Riley played four games with the 1921 St. Louis Browns and two games with the 1923 Washington Senators. He also played in the NHL with Chicago and Detroit in 1927.

On the move

Ribant never did pitch for the Braves, In August 1964, during his fourth season in their farm system, the Braves traded him to the last-place Mets, who put him in their starting rotation. His first big-league win, on Aug. 17, 1964, was a four-hit shutout of the Pirates. Boxscore

After spending part of the 1965 season back in the minors, Ribant returned to the Mets’ starting rotation in 1966, finishing 11-9 with a 3.20 ERA. He and Bob Shaw (11-10) became the first Mets starters to complete a season with a winning mark.

After the season, Mets general manager George Weiss retired and was replaced by Bing Devine, the former Cardinals general manager who had become an assistant to Weiss. Devine determined the Mets needed a center fielder and went shopping for a Pirates prospect, Don Bosch. According to the New York Times, Mets scouts rated Bosch’s fielding skills “as good as Willie Mays, Bill Virdon or Curt Flood.”

Devine offered Pirates general manager Joe Brown a choice of a starting pitcher, Bob Shaw or Jack Fisher, for Bosch, but Brown insisted on Ribant, The Pittsburgh Press reported.

On Dec. 6, 1966, the Mets dealt Ribant and outfielder Gary Kolb to the Pirates for Bosch and pitcher Don Cardwell. “I hated to give up Ribant, but you can’t expect something for nothing in this business,” Devine told the New York Daily News.

Bosch flopped, batting .140 for the 1967 Mets and .171 the next year before being banished to the Expos.

Ribant was 9-8, including 2-0 versus the Cardinals, for the 1967 Pirates, and brought a hockey player’s attitude to the diamond. “Ribant doesn’t walk, he strides,” Roy McHugh wrote in The Pittsburgh Press. “He approaches the mound like John L. Sullivan on his way through the double doors of an 1890 saloon, ready to make the announcement that he can lick anyone in the house.”

After Ribant beat the Braves for his first win with the Pirates, Hank Aaron told The Pittsburgh Press, “He battles you … You get Ribant in a tough spot and he pitches his way out.”

Pirates teammate Roberto Clemente said to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “I like this Ribant.”

Fast fade

The Pirates traded Ribant to his hometown team, the Tigers, in November 1967. It should have been a dream come true. The Tigers were headed to a World Series championship in 1968, but Ribant didn’t get to partake in the celebration.

Though he was 2-2 with a save and a 2.22 ERA in 14 relief appearances for the 1968 Tigers, they determined they needed a more experienced reliever in the pennant stretch. On July 26, 1968, the Tigers dealt Ribant, 26, to the White Sox for Don McMahon, 38.

An American League expansion team, the Royals, acquired Ribant before the 1969 season but planned to send him to the minors. When Ribant balked, Bing Devine, who had returned to the Cardinals, bought his contract. “I know Ribant,” Devine said to The Sporting News. “I know he likes to work and I’ve never seen him when he wasn’t ready to pitch.”

Ribant was sent to minor-league Tulsa. Its manager, Warren Spahn, was a Braves ace when Ribant joined that organization. Later, Spahn was a pitcher and coach with the Mets when Ribant was there.

“I know I can pitch up there (the majors),” Ribant told the Tulsa World. “I’m young (27), no problems and in good shape. My arm is sound and I’m throwing as good as ever.”

After earning three consecutive wins, including a shutout of Iowa, for Tulsa, Ribant was called up to the Cardinals on June 4, 1969. A day later, he relieved Mike Torrez in a game against the Astros, pitched 1.1 innings and allowed two runs, including a Joe Morgan home run. Boxscore

The Cardinals never gave him another chance. A week later, he was sent to the Reds for pitcher Aurelio Monteagudo.

Ribant made seven relief appearances for the 1969 Reds, posting a 1.08 ERA, and never pitched in the majors again.

Posted in Games, Pitchers, Trades | 7 Comments »

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