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A’s made shrewd move getting Dal Maxvill from Cardinals

August 23, 2022 by retrosimba

A season that began with Dal Maxvill in a batting slump, resulting in his benching, ended for him with a World Series championship.

On Aug. 30, 1972, the Cardinals traded Maxvill to the Athletics for minor-league third baseman Joe Lindsey and a player to be named (minor-league catcher Gene Dusan).

A gifted fielder, Maxvill was a winner, and he brought those qualities with him to the Athletics.

Maxvill was a member of seven World Series clubs _ five as a player (Cardinals of 1964, 1967, 1968 and Athletics of 1972 and 1974) and two as a general manager (Cardinals of 1985 and 1987). Four of those (1964 and 1967 Cardinals and 1972 and 1974 Athletics) won World Series titles.

Getting it done

A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in electrical engineering, Maxvill signed with the Cardinals in 1960 and made his mark with them when he started at second base in all seven games of the 1964 World Series as a replacement for injured Julian Javier.

After fending off a challenge from Jerry Buchek, Maxvill became the Cardinals’ shortstop in 1966. A light hitter with little power, Maxvill earned the job because of his glove. He was their shortstop on the 1967 and 1968 World Series teams. The 1968 season was Maxvill’s best: He hit .253 and earned a Gold Glove Award.

Maxvill, 33, was the Opening Day shortstop for the Cardinals in 1972, but he went hitless in his first 21 at-bats and was replaced by Ed Crosby.

Though Crosby lacked Maxvill’s fielding skills, the Cardinals were willing to play him if he hit. After batting .324 in April, Crosby hit .217 in May and Maxvill returned to the starting lineup.

Rejuvenated, Maxvill hit .280 in June and .253 in July. To his delight, he hit for a higher average in those months than his road roommate, Joe Torre, the reigning National League batting champion, did. Torre hit .250 in June and .252 in July.

Maxvill drove in four runs against the Phillies on July 2 Boxscore and hit his last big-league home run, an inside-the-park poke against the Astros’ Larry Dierker, on July 9. Boxscore

“He’s being more aggressive at the plate,” Cardinals hitting coach Ken Boyer told The Sporting News. “He’s not taking so many good pitches.”

Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst said Maxvill also was fielding better “than any other infielder in the National League.”

The Cardinals, though, fell out of contention, and general manager Bing Devine was looking to trade for prospects.

Change of scene

With their record at 58-61, the Cardinals traded outfielder and first baseman Matty Alou to the Athletics on Aug. 27. Three days later, Maxvill was dealt.

The Maxvill trade was the fifth involving the Athletics and Cardinals in 1972. Describing Athletics owner Charlie Finley as “an aggressive guy,” Devine told The Sporting News, “He calls every day and does not seem to worry about a player’s age or salary.”

On the day they acquired Maxvill, the Athletics were in first place, a half game ahead of the White Sox, in the American League West Division.

Maxvill’s departure left Lou Brock and Bob Gibson as the only Cardinals players from the 1967 and 1968 pennant-winning teams.

“The future is more important than the present now,” Devine said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Maxvill told the newspaper he hadn’t expected to be traded but was grateful the Cardinals sent him to a contender.

Fitting in

The Athletics got Maxvill to play second base. Their shortstop, Bert Campaneris, led the American League in stolen bases for the sixth time in 1972 and he also led the league’s shortstops in putouts that season.

Dick Green, the Athletics’ Opening Day second baseman, suffered a herniated disc in April and needed back surgery. His replacement, Larry Brown, suffered the same injury in June.

Maxvill was one of 11 players used at second base by the Athletics in 1972.

In his Athletics debut, on Sept. 1 against the Tigers, Maxvill started at second and contributed two hits and a sacrifice bunt. Boxscore

Maxvill made 21 September starts at second for the 1972 Athletics, but manager Dick Williams often lifted him for a pinch-hitter early in the games. During one stretch, he made five starts without getting a plate appearance.

Key contributor

On Sept. 20, Maxvill contributed two defensive gems to help the Athletics beat the second-place White Sox and move five games ahead of them with two weeks left to play. In the clubhouse after the game, a grateful Dick Williams greeted Maxvill “with a big kiss on the cheek,” The Sporting News reported. Boxscore

“I like this ballclub,” Maxvill told the Oakland Tribune. “This is the type of ballclub we had in St. Louis five or six years ago when we won pennants.”

A week later, on Sept. 28, Maxvill drove in the winning run in the division title clincher against the Twins.

With the score tied at 7-7, Sal Bando led off the bottom of the ninth and was hit by a pitch from Dave LaRoche. Williams ordered the next batter, Maxvill, to attempt a sacrifice bunt. Squaring to bunt, Maxvill watched the first three pitches sail wide, then took a called strike.

Given the green light by Williams to swing at the 3-and-1 pitch, Maxvill drove a double into left-center, scoring Bando with the winning run and giving the Athletics the division title. Boxscore

Maxvill told the Oakland Tribune, “This was one of the most important hits I’ve ever had. The most important.”

It turned out to be his only RBI for the 1972 Athletics.

Helping hand

Dick Green was back for the American League Championship Series against the Tigers, so he started at second base and Maxvill was a reserve.

In Game 2, shortstop Bert Campaneris was ejected in the seventh inning for flinging his bat toward the mound after being hit in the ankle by a Lerrin LaGrow pitch. Video Maxvill replaced Campaneris at short. Boxscore

American League president Joe Cronin suspended Campaneris for the remainder of the series. Maxvill started at shortstop in each of the following three games and fielded flawlessly, helping the Athletics clinch their first pennant since 1931. Game 5 video clips

Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn allowed Campaneris to play in the 1972 World Series but extended the suspension to the first five games of the 1973 regular season.

Maxvill was on the World Series roster but didn’t appear in a game of the classic won by the Athletics against the Reds.

Because of Campaneris’ suspension, Maxvill was the Opening Day shortstop for the reigning champions in 1973. The Cardinals’ Opening Day shortstop, Ray Busse, was a bust and eventually got replaced by Mike Tyson.

In July 1973, Maxvill’s contract was purchased by the Pirates. Released in April 1974 after starting at shortstop on Opening Day for the Pirates, he was reacquired by the Athletics and helped them win another World Series title.

Maxvill played two innings in the 1974 World Series against the Dodgers. For his career, he played in 179 World Series innings (120 at shortstop and 59 at second base) and committed no errors.

Maxvill, 36, began the 1975 season as a coach on the staff of Athletics manager Al Dark. Activated in August, Maxvill contributed to their division title run.

After stints as a coach with the Mets, Cardinals and Braves, Maxvill became the Cardinals’ general manager in 1985 and remained in that role until 1994.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Trades | 9 Comments »

St. Louis Hawks had big part in NBA arrival of Bill Russell

August 20, 2022 by retrosimba

The St. Louis Hawks had a significant role in launching Bill Russell into a NBA career with the Boston Celtics.

In April 1956, the Celtics traded for the rights to the Hawks’ first-round draft spot and used it to take Russell. Eight months later, when Russell made his NBA debut with the Celtics, it came in a game against the Hawks.

A five-time recipient of the NBA Most Valuable Player Award who helped the Celtics win 11 league championships, Russell was a center who revolutionized the game, excelling at rebounding, blocking shots and playing defense.

Draft moves

With the tandem of Russell and guard K.C. Jones, the University of San Francisco won consecutive NCAA basketball championships in 1955 and 1956.

Russell generally was regarded as the best amateur basketball player in the country, but at the NBA draft on April 30, 1956, the Rochester Royals used the first overall pick to take Duquesne guard Sihugo Green.

According to the New York Times, money was a factor in the Royals’ decision. The Harlem Globetrotters were expected to make a lucrative offer to Russell and the cash-strapped Royals didn’t want to get into a bidding war with them.

Defending the choice, Royals owner Lester Harrison called Green “the best all-around player in the country, bar none,” International News Service reported.

Russell told the San Francisco Examiner, “I think Rochester made a good choice for its No. 1 man. I always said Sihugo and my friend, K.C. Jones, were the two best ballplayers I ever looked at.”

(Green played in nine NBA seasons, including four with the Hawks, and finished his career as Russell’s teammate with the 1965-66 Celtics.)

Please come to Boston

After the Royals selected Green, the Hawks, with the No. 2 overall pick, had the chance to take Russell. Like the Royals, though, the Hawks didn’t think they could afford him, especially if the Globetrotters bid high, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York Times reported.

The Hawks also were looking to generate local interest. In the 1955-56 season, their first since moving from Milwaukee to St. Louis, they finished 33-39. Club owner Ben Kerner thought Celtics center Ed Macauley, a St. Louis native who had been a standout performer at St. Louis University, was just the sort of popular local player the Hawks needed to attract customers.

In exchange for Macauley, the Celtics got the Hawks’ draft spot and used it to select Russell.

Two days later, on May 2, the Celtics sent Cliff Hagan to the Hawks in a cash transaction. Kerner said the acquisition of Hagan “had nothing to do with” the deal for Russell, the Post-Dispatch reported. Over time, though, several publications, including the Post-Dispatch, reported the transaction as Macauley and Hagan to the Hawks for Russell.

(The Celtics made quite a haul in the 1956 draft, getting K.C. Jones and Tommy Heinsohn of Holy Cross in addition to Russell.)

After acquiring Russell, Celtics coach Red Auerbach told the Boston Globe, “He’s the greatest defensive center I’ve ever seen.”

Russell said to the San Francisco Examiner, “I was pleased when I heard I was drafted. It was flattering to know they thought enough of me to pick me among the first.”

The Celtics in 1950 had become the first NBA team to draft a black player, Chuck Cooper.

Decades later, in a 2013 interview with Bill Simmons that aired on the NBA’s TV network, Russell, discussing the trade to acquire him, said, “St. Louis was overwhelmingly racist. If I would have gotten drafted by St. Louis, I wouldn’t have been in the NBA.”

Great expectations

Though drafted, Russell remained an amateur so he could play for the United States in the 1956 Summer Olympics. The Games at Melbourne, Australia, were held Nov. 22 to Dec. 8.

After helping the U.S. win a gold medal, Russell returned home and got married. He and his bride arrived in Boston on Dec. 16. Three days later, Russell signed a one-year $17,000 contract with the Celtics.

“He is one of the most publicized performers to join a Boston team in years _ and if he lives up to his advance notices he will belong in a class with Ted Williams,” columnist Harold Kaese wrote.

Jack Barry, who covered the Celtics for the Globe, wrote, “Bill Russell may revolutionize the game of basketball … Russell could be the first player to become a drawing card on his defensive ability.”

After three practice sessions with the Celtics, Russell was deemed ready to play in a regular-season game. His first opportunity came on Dec. 22 against the Hawks at Boston Garden.

Arnie Risen, in the NBA since 1948, was the Celtics’ starting center that Saturday afternoon. Russell came off the bench, totaled six points (he missed eight of 11 shots and all four free throws), but grabbed 16 rebounds and excelled on defense. Boxscore

“Demonstrating his great defensive strength,” Russell “three times went high into the air to block shots by Bob Pettit, generally considered the NBA’s top big man,” United Press reported.

Risen told the wire service, “He’ll block a shot by any man who shoots straight away in front of him. Fellows will have to be very tricky to score against him.”

(In a 1999 interview with the Globe’s Bob Ryan, Risen said, “I feel flattered when I hear Bill Russell say I was his mentor. I’m not so sure that isn’t just an old friend boosting a teammate. If I did anything for him, it was to tell him what to expect from the other players in the league, and to help him with our offense.”)

Russell said to United Press, “I have to admit I was very nervous. I was very tight all the way. My shooting was way off and I was just plain lousy at the foul line.”

Regarding his four missed free throws, Russell said to the Globe, “I choked.”

Auerbach told United Press that Russell “revealed his potential but also his greenness.”

Celtics owner Walter Brown said to the Globe, “I don’t care if he can’t shoot, as long as he gets those rebounds and cuts down some of those guys who have been murdering us for years.”

True greatness

The Celtics won the NBA championship in Russell’s rookie year, beating the Hawks in the final round of the playoffs. The next season, the Hawks won their lone title, prevailing against the Celtics in the finals.

After that, Russell and the Celtics dominated, winning eight consecutive NBA championships from 1959 to 1966.

Russell had several strong performances against the Hawks, including:

_ 37 rebounds on Dec. 23, 1966. Boxscore

_ 35 points on Nov. 14, 1961. In that game, the Hawks’ Clyde Lovellette, averaging 23 points a game, “couldn’t cope with Russell’s defensive tactics” and was held to two points, the Associated Press reported. Boxscore

_ 29 rebounds and 26 points on Nov. 21, 1962. Boxscore

_ 28 points and 27 rebounds on Feb. 4, 1964. Boxscore

In 1966, Russell became the NBA’s first black head coach. In three seasons as player-coach of the Celtics, Russell led them to two NBA championships. 

Russell five times led the NBA in rebounding. The top three career rebounders in the NBA are Wilt Chamberlain (22.9 per game), Russell (22.5) and Pettit (16.2).

During the 1960s, when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a teen named Lew Alcindor at Power Memorial High School in New York, he saw the Celtics play many times at Madison Square Garden.

“The man I studied was Bill Russell,” Abdul-Jabbar said to Bob Ryan. “I learned so much. Watching him, I learned the dynamics of the game, and how to win.”

Posted in Games, Opponents | 11 Comments »

For Glenn Brummer, there really is no place like home

August 6, 2022 by retrosimba

(Updated Dec. 8, 2024)

In the signature play of a championship season, a third-string catcher, relying on a knee that had been torn to shreds, made an unlikely dash for the plate.

Defining the spirit of a Cardinals club that used aggressiveness to overcome a lack of power, Glenn Brummer stole home, giving the Cardinals an improbable walkoff win in the heat of a pennant race.

The play occurred on Aug. 22, 1982, in the 12th inning of a game against the Giants at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

Surprising everyone, including his manager, Brummer made his move at the unlikeliest time _ with the bases loaded, two outs and two strikes on the batter.

Under any circumstance, it was a wonderfully nutty act of derring-do. Then, consider this: Three years earlier, Brummer suffered a knee injury so damaging that he wondered whether he’d be able to walk, much less run, normally again.

Getting a chance

Brummer was at junior college in Mattoon, Ill., when the Cardinals signed him in May 1974. He had a strong, accurate arm. Pitchers liked how he called a game and how he blocked low pitches.

“Brummer would block a bowling ball if it was coming at him 100 miles an hour,” minor-league pitcher Dave Otten told the Springfield (Ill.) State Journal-Register. “He’s tough.”

The problem was he lacked power and didn’t hit for average.

In 1979, Brummer, in his sixth season in the Cardinals’ system, was catching for the Springfield (Ill.) Redbirds. On July 16, a Wichita Aeros base runner, Kurt Seibert, tried to score from second on a single to right. As Brummer gloved the throw, Seibert crashed into him. Brummer’s left knee took the brunt of the blow.

“When he hit me, I saw my knee go in from six to eight inches,” Brummer told the Springfield newspaper.

After being carried off the field by teammates, Brummer was examined by doctors, who determined he suffered complete tears of five ligaments in his left knee and a partial tear of a sixth ligament. “That was the most pain I ever felt in my life,” Brummer told the Springfield newspaper.

Cardinals team physician Dr. Stan London performed surgery and told Brummer it was one of the worst knee injuries he had seen.

The prognosis for Brummer was “not good at all,” Cardinals director of player development Jim Bayens told the Mattoon (Ill.) Journal Gazette.

Brummer said to the Springfield newspaper, “I wondered if my career might be over. I knew I had a bad injury. I wondered if I would be able to walk right.”

Three months later, in October 1979, the Cardinals sent Brummer to their training facility in St. Petersburg, Fla. “I was a cripple, really,” Brummer told United Press International. “My left leg was about one and a half inches thinner than my right.”

Crediting his wife Shelly _ “She wouldn’t let me slack off” _ Brummer slowly progressed. “I started walking at first and building up my strength,” he told the Springfield newspaper. “After a while, I did a lot of walking, from eight to 10 miles a day. I also hit the weights. Then I started jogging and, finally, running.”

Quite a comeback

When the 1980 season began, Brummer was Springfield’s starting catcher.

Asked in July by Springfield sports editor Larry Harnly to name the most valuable Springfield player, Evansville Triplets manager Jim Leyland replied, “It’s Glenn Brummer, hands down. He catches every day, he runs a good game, and he throws well. Plus, he is a tough out when it means something. I respect him a lot, even though he might not have the overall talent some of the others have.”

Brummer played in 110 games for Springfield in 1980. He returned there in 1981 for an eighth season in the minors.

His perseverance was rewarded on May 24, 1981, when he got called up to the Cardinals to fill the third-string catcher role, behind Gene Tenace and Orlando Sanchez, after Darrell Porter went on the disabled list.

Unsure how long he would be with the big-league club, Brummer maintained his residence in Springfield and made the two-hour drive before and after every home game in St. Louis, according to the Cardinals’ media guide.

The Cardinals kept him on the team the rest of the strike-interrupted season.

Getting it done

With Tenace sidelined because of a broken thumb, Brummer began the 1982 season as the Cardinals’ third-string catcher behind Porter and Sanchez. He got into two games before being sent to the Louisville farm team.

A month later, Porter broke a finger and Tenace broke a hand, and the Cardinals called back Brummer.

From May 20 through June 7, Brummer started 12 games for the Cardinals. In his first start, against the Padres, he contributed two doubles, scored a run and drove in another. Boxscore

Brummer also drove in two runs against the Dodgers on May 21 Boxscore and two more versus the Giants on May 25. Boxscore On June 4, he stole third base against the Dodgers battery of Terry Forster and Mike Scioscia. Boxscore

The best, though, was yet to come.

Surprise of the season

Brummer rarely got into a game for the 1982 Cardinals after Porter and Tenace returned in mid-June.

On a steamy Sunday afternoon, Aug. 22, in St. Louis, Tenace was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the eighth and Brummer replaced him as the catcher.

The score was tied at 4-4 in the 12th when Brummer singled (his first hit in a month) with one out against Gary Lavelle. After Willie McGee singled and Julio Gonzalez popped out, Ozzie Smith’s infield hit loaded the bases for David Green.

A left-hander, Lavelle got ahead in the count, 1-and-2, to Green. Brummer noticed Lavelle wasn’t watching him, and determined he could steal.

“I was thinking about it all the time, but I didn’t want to tip it off,” Brummer said to Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I noticed there was a lot of high leg kick in his stretch. If he has a high leg kick, he’s taking some time to get rid of the ball.

“I just kept edging, edging. Slowly, slowly.”

Then he broke for the plate.

“Nobody knew he was coming,” Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog told Hummel.

Brummer said to Cardinals Yearbook, “I knew I was going to be safe. I wouldn’t have gone otherwise.”

Brummer reached the plate at about the same time as Lavelle’s pitch did. Sliding head-first, Brummer eluded the tag of catcher Milt May and was called safe by umpire Dave Pallone, giving the Cardinals a 5-4 triumph.

If Pallone, who had moved out from behind the plate to get a view of the play, had called the pitch strike three, the run wouldn’t have counted. “I called it a ball,” Pallone told Hummel.

Giants manager Frank Robinson vehemently disagreed. “He didn’t call anything,” Robinson told the Post-Dispatch. “He’s a liar.”

Herzog told Hummel the pitch looked like a strike to him. Cardinals first baseman Keith Hernandez suggested Pallone “had a vapor lock. He was just as surprised as anybody in the ballpark.”

In a 2012 interview with Cardinals Magazine, Herzog said, “There’s no way you should steal home with two outs and two strikes on the hitter.” He called Brummer’s dash “one of the dumbest plays in baseball.”

“It’s still an amazing thing,” Herzog said. “It’s a classic case of good things that need to happen in order to win a championship.”

In his book “White Rat: A Life in Baseball,” Herzog described Brummer as “slower than I am,” but he admired the overachiever.

“He’s the best third-string catcher I’ve ever seen,” Herzog told Hummel. “You’ve got to have a 1927 Yankees team if you don’t have room for that guy.” Boxscore and Video

Two days after Brummer’s steal, pitcher Jim Kaat presented him with a home plate autographed by his teammates.

The Cardinals went on to win the World Series championship in 1982. Brummer got into one World Series game but didn’t have a plate appearance.

Released in March 1985, he spent a final season in the majors with the Rangers.

In five big-league seasons, Brummer had more stolen bases (four) than home runs (one)

Posted in Games, Hitters | 6 Comments »

Lights, cameras, action: How Dizzy Dean went Hollywood

August 2, 2022 by retrosimba

Naturally, a ballplayer who craved the spotlight and never missed a chance to put on a show should be the subject of a Hollywood movie.

In 1952, the film “The Pride of St. Louis,” about the life of pitcher and broadcaster Dizzy Dean, came to theaters across the United States.

It got a better critical reception in New York and Los Angeles than it did in St. Louis.

From mound to movie

A master showman on the Cardinals’ Gashouse Gang teams of the 1930s, Dean was the last National League pitcher to achieve 30 wins in a season. Other pitchers of the era, such as Carl Hubbell, may have been as talented, but none matched Dean’s ability to perform theatrics and attract attention.

In his big-league debut for the Cardinals, he pitched a three-hitter and gained the affection of the fans. When he faced Babe Ruth for the first time, Dean got the best of the matchup and even had the Babe laughing. When armed robbers learned it was Dean who had been a victim of their stickup, they sent him a batch of neckties as a token of apology.

By 1951, Dean was an established and popular baseball broadcaster. Producer Jules Schermer pitched the idea of a movie about Dean to 20th Century Fox executives. After they bought in, Schermer approached Dean, “who was, of course, delighted” with the suggestion, the Associated Press reported.

The movie people envisioned the central characters to be Dizzy Dean, his wife, Patricia Dean, and Dizzy’s brother, Paul Dean, who also had pitched for the Cardinals. According to John Carmichael of the Chicago Daily News, Dizzy got $50,000 for the movie rights to his story. Paul was offered $15,000, but held out for more.

“Finally, I said I’d give him $5,000 of my end if he’d sign the danged contract, or we might never have got it made,” Dizzy told Carmichael.

In the book “Diz,” biographer Robert Gregory wrote that Patricia Dean negotiated the movie rights to Dizzy’s story and “settled for $100,000 _ payable, she insisted, in spread-out sums so the taxes would be smaller.”

Music man

Herman Mankiewicz was hired in 1951 to write the screenplay for “The Pride of St. Louis” from a story by Guy Trosper. Nine years earlier, Mankiewicz and Orson Welles won an Academy Award for best original screenplay for “Citizen Kane.”

Dan Dailey, known best for his work in musicals, was cast as Dizzy Dean.

In 1949, Dailey got an Academy Award nomination for best actor in “When My Baby Smiles at Me,” co-starring Betty Grable. (The best actor Oscar that year went instead to Laurence Olivier for “Hamlet.”) Dailey also appeared in 1949’s “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly.

Soon after he was tabbed for the Dizzy Dean role, Dailey admitted himself to the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kan., for psychiatric treatment because of an emotional breakdown. “I’d cracked,” he told syndicated columnist Hedda Hopper.

Dizzy Dean kiddingly told people that Dailey “went nuts” at the thought of having to portray him, The Sporting News reported.

After five months at the clinic, Dailey was discharged and began preparing to film “The Pride of St. Louis” in late summer 1951.

Joanne Dru got the part of Patricia Dean. An actress who co-starred with John Wayne in westerns such as “Red River” (1948) and “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” (1949), Dru was the sister of Peter Marshall, who went on to host the “Hollywood Squares” TV game show. Marshall’s son, Pete LaCock, became a big-league first baseman and hit a grand slam against Bob Gibson to beat the Cardinals’ ace in the last game of his Hall of Fame career.

A newcomer to movies, Richard Crenna was cast as Paul Dean. A radio performer, Crenna went on to have a long career in television (“The Real McCoys”) and film (most memorably, 1981’s “Body Heat”).

Learning curve

Dailey spent weeks studying slow-motion footage of Dean on the mound. “Then, working before mirrors, Dailey painstakingly imitated his windup, rear-back, and follow-through,” The Sporting News reported.

According to the Associated Press, Dailey pitched 45 minutes a day for three weeks to Ike Danning. A former minor-league catcher who got into two games with the 1928 St. Louis Browns, Danning coached Dailey on pitching motion.

“If determination means anything, he’ll look something like a pitcher,” Danning said. “It isn’t easy to teach a guy to look professional when he hasn’t played much baseball. It’s especially hard with a style like Dizzy’s.”

The baseball scenes were shot in Los Angeles at Gilmore Field, home of the Pacific Coast League’s Hollywood Stars, according to Internet Movie Database.

To get a feel for being a ballplayer, Dailey, wearing a Hollywood Stars uniform, sat on the team’s bench during a game, The Sporting News reported.

Dean, who went to Hollywood to see early clips of the movie, said Dailey “looks just like me when I was fogging them in there,” The Sporting News reported.

Starry night

The Missouri Theater at North Grand Boulevard and Lucas Avenue in St. Louis was site of the world premiere of “The Pride of St. Louis” on Friday night, April 11, 1952. The next day, the Browns and Cardinals were to play the first of two exhibition games at Sportsman’s Park before the regular season opened.

Attending the premiere were Dailey, Dru and her husband, actor John Ireland, Dizzy Dean and St. Louis mayor Joseph Durst, who proclaimed April 11-18 as Dizzy Dean Week in the city.

Several members of the Browns, including team owner Bill Veeck and manager Rogers Hornsby, attended, but no one from the Cardinals.

“It is understood the Cardinals declined to attend, even though the film has a great deal about the Cardinals team,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted without offering an explanation.

Television station KSD did a live broadcast of the ceremonies from the plush theater lobby.

Different perspectives

New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote, “Baseball itself, while it runs loudly and rampantly all through the film, is not the major interest in this picture … It is Dizzy Dean, the character, the whiz from the Ozark hills, the braggart, the woeful grammarian, the humbled human being, that is dished up here.”

He rated the Herman Mankiewicz script “howlingly humorous,” noted that Dailey played Dean “in high gear and in accents that reek of the hills,” and gushed that the ending “brings a little tug on the heart and it leaves you grateful to all who made this picture _ and to a legend by the name of Dizzy Dean.”

Los Angeles Times critic John L. Scott also gave a rave: “How much of this is fact and how much fiction need worry nobody. It is entertaining and whether you like baseball or not you will find ‘Pride of St. Louis’ an enjoyable movie.”

In St. Louis, “Singing in the Rain” with Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds opened the day before “The Pride of St. Louis” premiered. Praising “Singing in the Rain” for having “everything you could want in a musical,” Post-Dispatch critic Myles Standish noted that “Kelly does a solo on a rain-swept street to the title song which should rank as a classic.”

As for “The Pride of St. Louis,” Standish disliked “a rather trite and tepid screenplay” that showed Dizzy “as an amiable, rather child-like, buffoon.”

Standish also didn’t like Patricia Dean being portrayed as a “conventional sweet movie wife bolstering up her man” instead of “the shrewd manageress she seems to be,” or that the concerns of a few teachers regarding Dean’s lousy grammar were “absurdly magnified into a phony dramatic climax.”

(“The Pride of St. Louis” earned Guy Trosper an Academy Award nomination for best story. The 1953 Oscar, however, went to a trio of writers for “The Greatest Show on Earth.”)

Dizzy Dean loved “The Pride of St. Louis.” By mid-April 1952, he’d seen it six times, according to biographer Robert Gregory.

“I ain’t saying this just because it’s about me,” Dean said, “but I think them Hollywood boys outdid theirself.”

See it for yourself: You Tube video

Posted in Pitchers | 13 Comments »

How Tommie Aaron joined brother in stunning Cardinals

July 29, 2022 by retrosimba

Tommie Aaron, who usually played in the shadow of his older brother, Hank Aaron, got to share the spotlight with him in a game against the Cardinals.

On July 12, 1962, Tommie and Hank each hit home runs in the ninth inning, rallying the Braves to victory versus the Cardinals at Milwaukee.

With the Braves trailing by three runs, Tommie’s solo homer ignited the comeback and Hank’s walkoff grand slam completed it.

Oh, brother

Henry Louis Aaron was born in 1934 in Mobile, Ala. Tommie Lee Aaron was born there five years later.

“I remember seeing Henry play in Mobile,” Tommie told the Atlanta Constitution in 1968, “but I was too young to play on the same team with him.”

Hank Aaron made his big-league debut with the Braves in 1954. He got his first hit, a double, on April 15 against the Cardinals’ Vic Raschi. His first home run came eight days later, also versus Raschi, at St. Louis.

Four years later, John Mullen, who had brought Hank Aaron from the Negro League to the Braves’ organization in 1952, signed Tommie Aaron.

Tommie, like his brother did, batted right-handed. He played first base and outfield. Tommie hit 26 home runs for Eau Claire in 1959 and 20 for Cedar Rapids in 1960.

After batting .299 for Austin in 1961, Tommie made the leap from Class AA to the majors with the Braves in 1962, joining his brother on a team for the first time. Hank already had won a National League Most Valuable Player Award, two batting titles and three Gold Glove honors for his outfield play.

Tommie made the team as the backup to first baseman Joe Adcock. Another Braves rookie that season was a catcher, Bob Uecker.

In his major-league debut, against the Giants at San Francisco, Tommie got a single against Juan Marichal. Boxscore

“He has really impressed me as a good hitter,” Hank Aaron said to The Sporting News. “He does not fall away from the plate. He hangs right in there.”

On May 30, 1962, at Milwaukee, Tommie and Hank combined to give the Braves a victory against the Reds. With the score tied at 3-3, Tommie led off with a single against Dave Sisler, moved to second on a bunt and scored on Hank’s single. Boxscore

Two weeks later, on June 12 at Milwaukee, Hank and Tommie hit home runs in the same game for the first time. Hank’s solo homer came in the second inning against Phil Ortega, and Tommie’s two-run homer was in the eighth versus Ed Roebuck. Boxscore

Fantastic finish

Exactly a month later, Tommie and Hank hit their ninth-inning home runs against the Cardinals.

With one out and none on, Tommie, batting for pitcher Claude Raymond, hit the first pitch from starter Larry Jackson into the bleachers in left-center at County Stadium, cutting the Cardinals’ lead to 6-4.

After Roy McMillan singled, Lindy McDaniel relieved Jackson. McDaniel hadn’t allowed an earned run since May 31, but the Braves were unfazed. Mack Jones singled and Eddie Mathews walked, loading the bases for Hank Aaron.

Hobbling because of an ankle ailment, Aaron worked the count to 2-and-1 against McDaniel. “If he had been ahead of Henry, with two strikes, he would have thrown a forkball,” Cardinals pitching coach Howie Pollet told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Instead, McDaniel delivered a fastball, and Hank hit it deep, “almost a duplicate of the kid brother’s towering poke over the left-center fence,” the Post-Dispatch reported. Boxscore

The game-winning home run was Aaron’s third grand slam of the season. He totaled 16 grand slams in his career.

Tommie and Hank Aaron became the first brothers to hit home runs in the same inning of a big-league game since Sept. 15, 1938, when Lloyd and Paul Waner did it for the Pirates in the fifth inning against the Giants’ Cliff Melton at the Polo Grounds in New York. Boxscore

Highs and lows

Tommie Aaron had a terrific August for the 1962 Braves, filling in at first base after Adcock got hurt. For the month, Tommie hit .333 and had a .423 on-base percentage. He had 28 hits and 13 walks in 27 games in August.

On Aug. 4, Tommie hit a walkoff grand slam against Jack Baldschun, giving the Braves a 7-3 victory over the Phillies. Boxscore

Ten days later, Tommie and Hank hit home runs in the same game for the third and last time. Facing the Reds at Cincinnati, Tommie’s solo homer came against Johnny Klippstein in the sixth, and Hank followed with a solo homer versus Ted Wills in the seventh. Boxscore

Tommie completed his rookie season with 20 doubles, eight home runs and a. 231 batting mark. It turned out to be the best of his seven seasons in the majors, all with the Braves.

Asked in 1968 about whether he’d offered advice to Tommie, Hank told the Atlanta Constitution, “I’ve talked to him about hitting, but you can’t tell a fellow how to hit. I tell him what I know about certain pitchers, things like that. I’ve talked to him more about his weight. That’s been his biggest problem. He has to watch his weight.”

Hank and Tommie hold the record for most career home runs (768) in the majors by brothers. Hank hit 755 of those.

“You couldn’t possibly compare Hank and me,” Tommie told Milt Richman of United Press International. “We’re two different style ballplayers. He is the complete ballplayer. He can do just about anything. I had to scuffle to do it.”

Mentor to many

In June 1973, Tommie Aaron, 33, was named manager of the Braves’ farm club in Savannah, Ga. He became the first black manager of a professional baseball team in the state and the first in the Southeast, according to the Atlanta Constitution.

Tommie managed in the Braves’ system from 1973-78. Dale Murphy played for him as a catcher with Savannah in 1976 and with Richmond in 1977.

In 1979, Tommie returned to the majors as a Braves coach on the staff of manager Bobby Cox. When Joe Torre became Braves manager in 1982, he kept Tommie Aaron on a coaching staff that included Bob Gibson and Dal Maxvill.

In May 1982, results of a routine annual physical exam showed Tommie Aaron had leukemia. He died on Aug. 16, 1984, two weeks after turning 45.

Braves general manager John Mullen, who some 30 years earlier had signed Tommie and his brother, told the Atlanta Constitution, “He was just a tremendous person with an awful lot of influence on a lot of ballplayers’ lives.”

Among those attending the funeral in Mobile were Hank Aaron, Mullen, Torre and Murphy.  Pallbearers included former Braves outfielder Ralph Garr, along with former big-leaguers and Mobile natives Tommie Agee and Cleon Jones.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents | 4 Comments »

Marvelous day for most amazing Met, Marv Throneberry

July 25, 2022 by retrosimba

In a reversal of roles, Marv Throneberry played the hero and the Cardinals performed like the 1962 Mets.

On July 7, 1962, Throneberry hit the first walkoff home run of his big-league career, lifting the Mets to victory against the Cardinals at the Polo Grounds in New York. Throneberry’s winning hit came an inning after Dal Maxvill made a base running blunder that cost the Cardinals a run.

A first baseman whose gaffes on the field came to symbolize the ineptness of the expansion 1962 Mets, losers of 120 games, Throneberry hit like an all-star against the Cardinals that season.

Family affair

Marv and his older brother Faye, who also reached the big leagues, grew up on a family farm in Fisherville, Tenn., about 30 miles east of Memphis.

Faye Throneberry signed with the Red Sox in 1950 and hit .236 during eight years in the majors as an outfielder for the Red Sox, Senators and Angels.

Marv Throneberry signed with the Yankees in 1952. A left-handed batter, he became a prolific slugger for their Denver farm club, hitting 36 home runs in 1955, 42 in 1956 and 40 in 1957.

When Marv made his big-league debut with the Yankees in a game at Boston on Sept. 25, 1955, Faye was in the outfield for the Red Sox. Marv went 2-for-2 with three RBI and a run scored. Boxscore

That would be Marv’s only big-league experience until he stuck with the Yankees as a backup to first baseman Moose Skowron in 1958.

After the 1959 season, Throneberry was traded to the Athletics in a multi-player deal that brought Roger Maris to the Yankees.

“Marv Throneberry swings and misses with outlandish regularity,” Sports Illustrated noted in April 1960, “but manages to connect just often enough to maintain his reputation as a slugger of great promise.”

The Athletics shipped him to the Orioles in June 1961. Throneberry was a teammate of Whitey Herzog in Denver and with the Athletics and the Orioles.

No shortage of shortcomings

The 1962 Mets opened their inaugural season with Gil Hodges, 38, as their first baseman, but a variety of ailments limited his playing time. On May 9, the Mets acquired Throneberry, 28, from the Orioles for a player to be named (former Cardinals catcher Hobie Landrith) and cash.

When Mets general manager George Weiss said Throneberry probably would be the club’s first baseman for the next four years, manager Casey Stengel “almost fell off his seat,” columnist Joe King reported. Weiss and Stengel were with the Yankees when Throneberry was there, and Stengel wasn’t impressed. “I know he can maybe move around at first base, but whether he can hit, I don’t know,” Stengel told The Sporting News.

With his options limited, Stengel played Throneberry against right-handers. Making mistakes in the field and on the base paths, and whiffing a lot at the plate, Throneberry was viewed as “a symbol of the futility of one of the most tragicomic teams in baseball,” the New York Times noted.

On June 17, in the first inning of a game against the Cubs at the Polo Grounds, Throneberry, batting with two on and one out, drilled a deep drive to right. Both runners scored and Throneberry reached third with a triple.

“He was dusting off his uniform at third base, apparently feeling that the tide in his fortunes had turned,” the Associated Press reported, when the Cubs appealed to first-base umpire Dusty Boggess, saying Throneberry had failed to touch the base on the way around.

The umpire agreed, and Throneberry was ruled out. He was credited with two RBI but no hit on the play.

“Stengel charged from the dugout in protest,” columnist Arthur Daley wrote in the New York Times. “The umpire shut him up fast. Throneberry didn’t touch second either.”

When the next batter, Charlie Neal, followed with a home run, Stengel emerged and pointed out each of the four bases to Neal as he made his home run trot, the New York Times reported. Boxscore

Hooray for Marv

The Mets were 22-57 entering the July 7 Saturday doubleheader versus the Cardinals at the Polo Grounds.

With the score tied at 3-3 in the eighth inning of the opener, the Cardinals had two on and two outs when Red Schoendienst hit a smash off Hodges’ glove at first base and into right field for a single.

Dal Maxvill, running at second for Stan Musial, rounded third and reached the plate easily with the apparent go-ahead run. The Mets appealed, saying Maxvill didn’t touch third base, and umpire Augie Donatelli agreed, calling him out and nullifying the run. Donatelli said Maxvill missed the bag by almost a foot, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

In the ninth, Curt Flood led off with a home run, putting the Cardinals ahead, 4-3.

Facing left-hander Curt Simmons in the bottom half of the inning, Joe Christopher hit a tapper along the first-base line. Simmons fielded the ball, tried to tag Christopher, but missed, enabling him to reach first with a single.

After right-hander Ernie Broglio relieved and got Hodges to fly out, Stengel countered by sending Throneberry to bat for shortstop Elio Chacon. Rather than have a left-hander pitch to Throneberry, Cardinals manager Johnny Keane stayed with Broglio.

Facing the Cardinals for the first time in a regular-season game, Throneberry worked the count to 1-and-1 before lining a pitch into the lower seats in right for a two-run home run, giving the Mets a 5-4 triumph. Boxscore

“Chances are that if you had 20 guesses as to which Met batsman had a pinch-hit homer in the ninth, you’d probably mention Marv Throneberry last, if at all,” the New York Times concluded. “His derelictions afield and at bat in recent exercises had made him the comic symbol of all that is wrong with the forlorn Mets.”

Throneberry started at first base in Game 2 of the doubleheader and almost was the hero again. In the seventh inning, his home run against Ray Washburn tied the score at 2-2. After Stan Musial put the Cardinals ahead, 3-2, with a home run in the eighth, Throneberry hit a triple against Washburn with two outs in the ninth, but Lindy McDaniel relieved and retired Gene Woodling to end the game. Boxscore

Man of the people

Throneberry hit one more walkoff home run for the Mets. On Aug. 21, 1962, he was coaching first base when Stengel told him to bat for Jim Hickman in the bottom of the ninth. Throneberry hit a three-run home run against Pirates closer Roy Face, eliminating a two-run deficit and giving the Mets a 5-4 victory. Boxscore

For the season, Throneberry led the National League in one category: most errors by a first baseman (17 in 97 games).

He hit 16 home runs for the 1962 Mets and batted .244, with almost as many strikeouts (83) as hits (87).

Against the 1962 Cardinals, though, Throneberry batted .326 (with 15 hits) and had an on-base percentage of .396.

“Marvin Eugene Throneberry became the symbol of the New York Mets,” Arthur Daley wrote in the New York Times. “Even his initials spelled out Met. Like the rest of his team, he was lovably inept but with a flair for heroics. He’d lose games by his bungling, or win them with dramatic home runs.”

According to Daley, “more than half the fan mail that came to the 1962 Mets was directed to Marvelous Marv. Ninety-nine percent of it pledged undying devotion. One percent call him a bum.”

After the season, the Mets acquired Tim Harkness, 25, from the Dodgers and made him their first baseman in 1963. Throneberry got into 14 games, hit .143 and was sent to the minors in May. 

In seven years in the majors, he had 295 strikeouts and 281 hits.

He resurfaced in popular TV commercials for Miller Lite beer during the 1970s. Video

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents | 8 Comments »

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