RetroSimba

Profile in courage: Cardinals prospect Bob Slaybaugh

March 10, 2022 by retrosimba

In his quest to pitch for the Cardinals, Bob Slaybaugh lost an eye, but not his determination.

On March 24, 1952, Slaybaugh was pitching batting practice at Cardinals spring training when he was struck in the head by a line drive. He suffered severe damage to his left eye and it had to be surgically removed.

A couple of months later, Slaybaugh was pitching again.

Promising prospect

Robert Slaybaugh was born and raised in the village of Hartville, Ohio, located about halfway between Akron and Canton. According to census records and his obituary, the family name was spelled Slabaugh. At some point, either intentionally or inadvertently, a “y” was added to the spelling of his last name.

Known as Bob or Bobby, Slaybaugh was stricken by rheumatic fever as a youth and had to use a wheelchair for a time, according to baseball-reference.com.

A left-handed pitcher who stood 5 feet 9, Slaybaugh developed into a pro prospect and was signed by the Cardinals. In his first season, 1950, he was 6-17 with a 4.85 ERA for Goldsboro, N.C., a Class D farm team. He returned to Goldsboro in 1951, became the ace (17-10, 2.33 ERA) and led the league in strikeouts (224 in 219 innings, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch).

The Cardinals rewarded Slaybaugh with an invitation to attend big-league spring training at St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1952.

Described by the St. Petersburg Times as a “quiet, likeable, team-type player,” Slaybaugh roomed at the Bainbridge Hotel with another pitcher, Gary Blaylock.

“Residents along lower Second Avenue South became accustomed to seeing the two stroll toward the Bainbridge each evening after games, so absorbed in replaying the contest that they stopped from time to time to demonstrate by gestures what had occurred,” the St. Petersburg Times observed.

Slaybaugh got into two Cardinals exhibition games, pitching two innings against the Senators and three versus the Braves. He allowed one run, showing Cardinals manager Eddie Stanky enough to convince him “he was only a year or two away” from being ready for the majors, the St. Petersburg Times noted.

“Right back at me”

On March 24, 1952, it was Slaybaugh’s turn to pitch batting practice during morning drills for rookies and prospects. Jim Dickey, a power-hitting first baseman at the Class A level, stepped in from the left side of the plate. Slaybaugh threw a pitch on the outside corner.

“I was expecting it to be pushed down the left field line as usual,” Slaybaugh told Helen Popa for The Sporting News. “Instead, it shot right back at me. I watched it all the way and threw my gloved hand in front of my face for protection, but at the same moment I jerked my head. The ball tipped one of my gloved fingers and hit the left side of my face.”

Slaybaugh “dropped as though shot,” the St. Petersburg Times reported.

According to The Sporting News, “the line drive shattered the left cheekbone and forced the left eyeball partly out of the socket.”

Stanky and Don McGranaghan, a vacationing New York state police officer, rushed Slaybaugh to a hospital in McGranaghan’s car, Bob Broeg reported in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“With a towel, Stanky literally held the eye in place,” according to Broeg.

Stanky told The Sporting News, “In the car on the way to the hospital, he talked about baseball. No whimper out of him, and the pain must have been terrific. He told me that, if they had to operate, for me to be sure to tell the surgeons that he had rheumatic fever when he was young, so they could be careful about the effect of anesthetic on the heart.”

Significant damage

A St. Louis ophthalmologist, Dr. S. Albert Hanser, happened to be vacationing in nearby North Reddington Beach. A police escort raced him to the hospital, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

Dr. Hanser joined St. Petersburg ophthalmologist Dr. Bernard Bell in treating Slaybaugh. They performed “a delicate operation” in an effort to save the left eye, the Associated Press reported.

In addition to the damaged eye, Dr. Hanser said Slaybaugh suffered a fracture of the left cheekbone, a fracture of a group of bones near the eye and multiple fractures of the nasal bones, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported.

Cardinals owner Fred Saigh called Slaybaugh’s parents in Ohio, informed them of their son’s injury and arranged for them and another son to travel by plane to St. Petersburg the next day, The Sporting News reported.

After a week in the St. Petersburg hospital, Slaybaugh, accompanied by his mother, took a flight to St. Louis on March 31 for further treatment at a hospital there. That same day, Jim Dickey, who hit the line drive, was assigned by the Cardinals to their Rochester farm team. He’d never make it to the majors.

On April 4, Slaybaugh’s damaged eye was removed in “an emergency operation,” the Associated Press reported. Dr. Hanser, who performed the operation, said, “A rupture at the rear of the eyeball forced the removal.”

Passing grade

Sometimes, good can come amid tragedy. While recuperating from his eye operation in the St. Louis hospital, Slaybaugh met a nurse, Joy, and she became his wife, according to The Sporting News.

In late April, Slaybaugh was cleared to practice with the Cardinals at Sportsman’s Park.

“When I first started working out, I was ready to give up,” he told The Sporting News. “I couldn’t do anything right. I was confused by distances and was just plain scared, but Eddie Stanky and the players kept encouraging me and gradually I started feeling better.”

In mid-May, Slaybaugh was discharged from the hospital. He made a brief visit home to Ohio, then reported to the Cardinals’ Omaha farm team, managed by George Kissell.

Ray Oppegard, business manager of the Omaha team, said, “(Slaybaugh) still thinks he can pitch and so do we and our doctors.”

Kissell wasn’t so sure. Asked in May by the Des Moines Tribune whether he’d let Slaybaugh pitch in a game, Kissell said, “Too dangerous. A one-eyed person has no depth perception.”

When Slaybaugh arrived in Omaha, he said to Kissell, “I didn’t come here to sit on the bench. Let me pitch.”

According to The Sporting News, Kissell set up a program to help determine Slaybaugh’s chances of playing again. He had Slaybaugh throw on the sideline. After several good sessions, Slaybaugh was allowed to stand behind the pitcher during batting practice to get used to batted balls again.

After that, Slaybaugh progressed to pitching in bunting practice, then batting practice.

“At first, he threw the ball only to the inside corner so that he knew when it was hit it wouldn’t come back at him,” Kissell told The Sporting News. “Now he throws all over the plate.”

Kissell then put Slaybaugh through fielding practices. “He had his players drive grounders straight at Slaybaugh and to both sides,” the Des Moines Tribune reported. “Then he tested him with line drives.”

Finally, Slaybaugh got to bat in batting practice. When he passed all the tests to Kissell’s satisfaction, it was time to play in games.

Quite a comeback

On June 22, in his first game since losing the eye, Slaybaugh allowed one run in 6.1 innings of relief against Colorado Springs.

His next appearance, on June 29, was a start against Des Moines in the first game of a doubleheader. Slaybaugh responded with a four-hit shutout in a 1-0 Omaha victory in seven innings.

“That shows you what determination and courage will do,” Des Moines manager Harry Strohm told the Des Moines Tribune.

Slaybaugh called it “the biggest game of my life.”

He pitched 31 innings for Omaha in 1952 and posted a 2-2 record, according to baseball-reference.

The next year, he was 2-9 for Columbus (Ga.) and Winston-Salem. On May 1, he tried to pitch for the first time without an eye patch, placing a strip of tape over the left optic. In the fifth inning, the artificial eye fell to the ground. “Unflustered, Bobby picked it up and stuck it in his pocket,” The Sporting News reported.

The 1954 season was Slaybaugh’s last as a pro. After brief stints with Columbus (Ga.) and Lynchburg (Va.), the Cardinals asked him to report to Winnipeg, Canada. “Instead, he went home and obtained a job as a bookkeeper with a produce firm,” according to The Sporting News.

Posted in Games, Pitchers, Prospects | 2 Comments »

Gene Mauch used Cardinals as stepping stone to managing

March 6, 2022 by retrosimba

Gene Mauch, who drew comparisons with Eddie Stanky, got to play for him a brief while with the Cardinals.

On March 26, 1952, the Cardinals claimed Mauch for $10,000 after he was placed on waivers by the Yankees.

Mauch began the 1952 season with the Cardinals as a utility infielder but was released in May. A few months later, he began a more prominent career as a manager.

The Natural

The Dodgers signed Mauch, 17, in 1943 out of Fremont High School in Los Angeles.

A year later, at the Dodgers’ wartime spring training camp at Bear Mountain, N.Y., Mauch, 18, impressed manager Leo Durocher and earned the shortstop job.

“He’s a natural,” Durocher, the former Cardinals shortstop, told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. “He does everything right by instinct.”

Pee Wee Reese, who took over for Durocher as Dodgers shortstop in 1940, was in military service in 1944, opening an opportunity for Mauch. “Durocher regards Mauch as a better shortstop prospect than Reese was at Mauch’s age,” the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported.

On April 18, 1944, Mauch was the Dodgers’ Opening Day shortstop against the Phillies. Boxscore

Joining Mauch in the infield were first baseman Howie Schultz, a 6-foot-6 basketball player; second baseman Luis Olmo, an outfielder; and third baseman Gil English, a utilityman appearing in a big-league game for the first time in six years. English was an upgrade from Dixie Walker, an outfielder who flopped in a tryout at third base in spring training.

Years later, Mauch told the Atlanta Constitution, “It must have been the worst infield of all time.”

Mauch started the Dodgers’ first five games, made no errors but hit .133 and was returned to the minors. In May 1944, Mauch entered the Army Air Corps and served until the spring of 1946.

On the move

When Mauch resumed his baseball career, he embarked on an odyssey as a utility player with the Dodgers, Pirates, Cubs and Braves.

Atlanta Constitution columnist Furman Bisher told the story of the time the Braves’ bus got stuck under a low overpass on the way to a game. The embarrassed driver was unsure what to do. Mauch suggested he let the air out of the tires and back out. The driver did.

Mauch spent most of the 1951 season with the Braves’ Class AAA team in Milwaukee, hitting .303 and posting a .445 on-base percentage. Milwaukee manager Charlie Grimm told The Sporting News, “Every big-league scout I have talked with this season tells me Mauch is good enough to be the regular shortstop on almost any big-time club except the Yankees and Dodgers.”

Naturally, it was the Yankees who took Mauch in the Rule 5 draft in November 1951. Looking to be the backup to shortstop Phil Rizzuto, Mauch batted .077 in spring training.

The Cardinals, in Eddie Stanky’s first season as manager, were seeking a reserve infielder to replace Stan Rojek. They claimed Mauch on waivers from the Yankees near the end of spring training at St. Petersburg, Fla., where both clubs trained.

On their way from Florida to St. Louis to open the 1952 season, the Cardinals played a series of exhibition games. At Lynchburg, Va., on April 9, Mauch drove in the winning run against the Phillies.

Mauch, 26, made his Cardinals regular-season debut on April 17 when he was sent to run for Steve Bilko. Boxscore

Pinch-running became Mauch’s primary role with the Cardinals. He appeared in seven games, four as a pinch-runner, two as a substitute shortstop and one as a pinch-hitter. In four plate appearances for the Cardinals, he had no hits and a walk. In two fielding chances at shortstop, he made one putout and one error.

In May 1952, the Cardinals acquired Virgil Stallcup from the Reds to be their backup shortstop and asked waivers on Mauch.

Chance to lead

According to the Associated Press, the Cardinals were planning to send Mauch to one of their minor-league teams, Rochester or Columbus, if no one claimed him, but the Braves did. Mauch spent the rest of the 1952 season with the Braves’ farm club in Milwaukee and hit .324.

After the season, Mauch’s former Dodgers teammate, Dixie Walker, left his job as manager of the minor-league Atlanta Crackers, a Braves farm team in the Class AA Southern Association, to become a Cardinals coach on Stanky’s staff.

Crackers owner Earl Mann sought a player-manager to replace Walker. While attending the 1952 World Series between the Dodgers and Yankees in New York, Mann met with Braves general manager John Quinn, who recommended Mauch.

According to the Atlanta Constitution, Quinn labeled Mauch an Eddie Stanky-type.

“He’s always thinking on the field, talks baseball all the time, and is one of the sharpest young students of baseball in the game,” Quinn said. “I feel confident that Mauch is ready to take a shot as a manager in double-A ball.”

Mann called Mauch at home in Los Angeles, invited him to Atlanta for an interview and hired him. “That’s where my future is in baseball _ managing,” Mauch told the Atlanta Constitution.

Mann said, “He has everything I’ve been looking for in a manager: youth, aggressiveness, personality.”

Told Mauch was described as a Stanky-type, Eddie Stanky replied to the Atlanta Constitution, “I’m not sure that’s an asset, but I’m sure you’ve got a good man. I can vouch for him as a student of baseball.”

Making his mark

Mauch had no connection to Atlanta or the South, so he arrived as a mystery man to Crackers fans. Columnist Furman Bisher wrote, “The selection of Mauch exploded on Atlanta with much the same surprising effect as if the Prohibition candidate had won the presidency.”

It didn’t take long for him to get noticed. Mauch, 27, led the 1953 Crackers to an 84-70 record. One of his top players was outfielder Chuck Tanner, who, like Mauch, became a successful big-league manager.

According to the Atlanta Constitution, Mann invited Mauch to return in 1954, but Mauch declined. “We may have had some success on paper, but I wasn’t satisfied because I didn’t think I measured up to what I thought I should as a manager,” Mauch told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Crackers sent Mauch to the Pacific Coast League’s Los Angeles Angels, a Cubs farm team, and he resumed playing. He returned to the majors as a Red Sox utility player in 1956 and 1957, then went back to managing. He managed the Red Sox’s farm team at Minneapolis in 1958 and 1959.

In 1960, Mauch was 34 when he got his first job managing in the majors with the Phillies. The man who hired him, general manager John Quinn, was the one who recommended Mauch for the Atlanta job when Quinn was with the Braves.

A smart instigator, Mauch turned out to be a lot like Stanky. Mauch managed in the big leagues for 26 seasons with the Phillies, Expos, Twins and Angels but never won a pennant.

Throughout his playing career, Mauch had several managers who either had played for or managed the Cardinals. Those influencers included Leo Durocher (1944 Dodgers), Ray Blades (1946 St. Paul), Jimmy Brown (1947 Indianapolis), Frankie Frisch (1949 Cubs), Billy Southworth (1950 Braves) and Eddie Stanky (1952 Cardinals).

In 1980, when Whitey Herzog became Cardinals general manager, he tried to hire Mauch to manage the Cardinals, but was turned down.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Managers | 10 Comments »

Rogers Hornsby vs. Roger Maris: Hard feelings

March 2, 2022 by retrosimba

Roger Maris didn’t like being criticized. Rogers Hornsby didn’t like being snubbed. Subsequently, Maris and Hornsby didn’t like one another.

On March 22, 1962, in the usually relaxed setting of spring training, an impromptu encounter between Maris, the Yankees’ outfielder, and Hornsby, the Mets’ hitting coach, turned ugly before an exhibition game at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Maris, who broke Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record five months earlier, refused to pose for a photo with Hornsby, who holds the mark for top career batting average by a right-handed hitter.

The incident went public when Hornsby, stung by Maris’ disrespect, lashed out at him in comments to newspaper reporters.

Though eventually linked by their prominent roles in Cardinals championship success _ Hornsby was the manager and second baseman for the 1926 World Series champion Cardinals, and Maris was the right fielder on Cardinals World Series clubs in 1967 and 1968 _ their differences kept them apart.

Mantle fan

In 1961, when Maris and teammate Mickey Mantle were in pursuit of Ruth’s home run record, Hornsby, scouting big-league clubs for the Mets in Chicago, publicly supported Mantle because he considered him a better player than Maris.

“I told a writer that there was only one thing Maris could do better than the Babe _ that was run,” Hornsby said to The Sporting News. “I also said Mantle has all types of ability Maris doesn’t have. I said I’d like to see Mantle lead in home runs.”

In the book “Roger Maris: Baseball’s Reluctant Hero,” authors Tom Clavin and Danny Peary wrote that Maris “took it personally” when Hornsby criticized him.

Hornsby was a career .358 hitter who batted better than .400 in a season three times for the Cardinals and led the National League in hitting seven times. He preferred a player such as Mantle, who hit .317 with 54 home runs in 1961, to Maris, who batted .269 in 1961 and never hit .300 in the big leagues.

“I’ll give Maris credit for hitting all those homers,” Hornsby told The Sporting News, “but he has the advantage of playing in Yankee Stadium. He’s got the short right field there and he’s a right field hitter.”

Maris, who hit 31 of his 61 home runs away from Yankee Stadium in 1961, silently bristled at Hornsby’s remarks. Hornsby wasn’t alone in his criticism and, as spring training neared in 1962, Maris had heard enough.

“This stuff about not hitting for an average gets me,” he told The Sporting News. “Eighteen more hits would have brought me to .300. Lots of guys bloop in that many or more.”

Bad vibes

Mets manager Casey Stengel, 71, put Hornsby, 65, on his coaching staff in 1962. Stengel had managed the Yankees to seven World Series championships and 10 American League pennants before he was fired after the 1960 World Series.

When the defending World Series champion Yankees, featuring Maris and Mantle, came to St. Petersburg to play Stengel’s expansion team Mets in March 1962, it drew a lot of attention.

Joel Schrank, an enterprising photographer for United Press International, got the idea to pose the two rajahs, Hornsby and Maris. Schrank approached Hornsby, who agreed to the request. Hornsby grabbed a bat and followed Schrank to the Yankees dugout, where they found Maris.

According to the St. Petersburg Times, when Maris was asked to pose with Hornsby, he said to Schrank, “Why should I? He’s done nothing but run me down. He says I can’t hit.”

Maris turned his back on them and walked away, the Associated Press reported.

“That bush leaguer,” Hornsby said to The Sporting News. “I’ve posed for pictures with some major league hitters, not bush leaguers like he is. He couldn’t carry my bat.”

According to the Associated Press, Hornsby also called Maris a “little punk.”

By comparison, Hornsby told The Sporting News, Yankees first baseman Bill Skowron approached Stengel before the same game and asked him whether Hornsby could share advice about hitting.

“There were a few things he thought I could straighten out for him,” Hornsby said. “We talked for about 15 minutes. That’s the difference between a high-class fellow and a swelled-up guy.”

Regarding Hornsby, Maris said to the New York Daily News, “All last year I kept reading how he said I was a lousy hitter. So why should I pose with him? He says I’m a lousy hitter and a busher. Well, I think he is a lousy hitter, too _ that is, in my category, home runs.”

(Hornsby twice led the National League in home runs, with 42 in 1922 and 39 in 1925, and ranked in the top 10 in the league 14 times.)

Difference of opinions

New York Herald Tribune columnist Red Smith, who described Hornsby as the “mightiest of all National League hitters and the roughest right-handed bruiser in human history,” wrote that Hornsby was justified for being miffed by Maris’ slight.

Noting that Maris “has not yet learned to live with fame,” Smith advised the Yankees slugger to learn from the experience. “If, through stubbornness, he becomes embittered, it can warp what should be a productive professional life,” Smith cautioned.

Yankees manager Ralph Houk told The Sporting News that when he was a boy Hornsby “was sort of an idol,” but he said he disagreed with Hornsby’s characterization of Maris.

“He says Maris is a bush leaguer and a lousy .269 hitter. I know differently,” Houk said.

About three weeks after the incident, Hornsby’s book, “My War With Baseball,” was published.

In the chapter titled “There Won’t Be Any More .400 Hitters,” Hornsby said, “Maris, a left-handed hitter, is strictly a right field pull hitter … They didn’t pitch him very smart in 1961. Threw him too many inside pitches, which is all he’s looking for so he can pull the ball. He’ll never have a big average, let alone hit .400. He couldn’t hit .400 if he added all his averages together.”

(Maris remains the only big-league player to hit 61 home runs in a season without using performance-enhancing drugs. Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa all hit more than 61 but needed steroids to do it, and attempted to cover up their fraud. The Cardinals rewarded McGwire, a career .263 hitter, for the revenue his flimflam generated for them by putting him alongside Hornsby in their club hall of fame. Imagine what Hornsby would say about that.)

Posted in Hitters | 17 Comments »

Why free agent Ted Simmons stuck with Brewers

February 27, 2022 by retrosimba

In his only opportunity to experience free agency, Ted Simmons had a chance to return to the National League with the Giants.

Instead, he decided to stay with the American League Brewers.

Compensation was an issue, but so was playing position. The Brewers planned to shift Simmons from catcher to designated hitter. The Giants, with no designated hitter rule in the National League, wanted Simmons to play first base.

Run producer

Simmons had a stellar season as a hitter for the Brewers in 1983, the year after they played the Cardinals in the World Series.

Starting 83 games at catcher and 66 games as designated hitter, Simmons had a career-high 108 RBI in 1983. He batted .308 and produced 185 hits.

According to The Sporting News, Simmons’ batting average in 1983 was the highest among all big-league switch-hitters who had enough at-bats to qualify for a batting title that season.

Simmons was a significant force in the clutch in 1983, hitting .373 with runners in scoring position and .500 (7-for-14) with the bases loaded.

After the season, Simmons, 34, became a free agent for the first time since he entered the majors with the Cardinals in 1968.

Simmons said he wanted to stay with the Brewers, who he joined when traded by the Cardinals in December 1980, but he also wanted to find out his value on the open market.

Establishing terms

Though the Brewers sought to keep Simmons for his bat, they wanted a defensive upgrade at catcher. In 1983, runners were successful on 82 of 116 stolen base attempts when Simmons was catcher. His backup, Ned Yost, threw out a mere eight of 65 runners trying to steal.

On Dec. 8, 1983, while Simmons was a free agent, the Brewers acquired six-time American League Gold Glove Award winner Jim Sundberg from the Rangers to be their catcher.

If Simmons wanted to return to the Brewers, it would be as a designated hitter. Simmons was OK with the role proposed for him, but he wanted a four-year contract and the Brewers were offering no more than three.

Simmons, who was negotiating without an agent, said seven teams besides the Brewers had been in contact with him, the San Francisco Examiner reported.

The Giants showed the most interest among the new suitors. Their first baseman, Darrell Evans, who hit 30 home runs in 1983, also had become a free agent and signed with the Tigers. The Giants viewed Simmons as a replacement for him.

“San Francisco still needs a first baseman and is making bids for Ted Simmons,” Tracy Ringolsby reported in the Kansas City Star.

In The Sporting News, Stan Isle wrote, “The Giants are said to be making a strong bid for Ted Simmons with the intention of playing him at first base.”

Making it work

If Simmons was hoping to use the Giants’ interest as leverage, the Brewers weren’t budging.

In early January, Simmons changed his contract terms when he met with Brewers general manager Harry Dalton, The Sporting News reported. Two weeks later, on Jan. 16, 1984, he and the Brewers agreed to a three-year guaranteed contract for $1 million per year, with a club option on a fourth year.

“Up until 10, 12 days ago, I was very concerned it wasn’t going to happen,” Simmons told The Sporting News. “I wanted a four-year guaranteed situation and it was a structure the organization could not live with. It was a concession I made.”

Dalton told the Associated Press, “He likes it here and we like .308 hitters.”

Simmons told The Sporting News, “Being a DH is something I’ve looked forward to.” Noting that he caught in excess of 100 games in 11 of his big-league seasons, Simmons said, “Even though at age 34 I think I could continue to do it, I think I’m at the point of my career where I don’t want to do it.”

End of the line

A month later, in February 1984, the Giants acquired Al Oliver, 37, from the Expos to be their first baseman. Oliver, who had two years left on a contract that paid $800,000 per year, hit .300 for the Expos in 1983 and led the National League in doubles for the second consecutive season.

On Opening Day in 1984, Oliver was the Giants’ cleanup hitter, batting between Jack Clark and Jeffrey Leonard. He hit .298 for them in 91 games, but was traded to the Phillies in August after the Giants fell to the bottom of the standings.

Simmons, like the Brewers, had a terrible season in 1984, hitting .221. It was the only season in his Hall of Fame career that he didn’t play a game as a catcher. He made 75 starts as a designated hitter, 37 at first base and 14 at third base. He hit .091 (1-for-11) with the bases loaded.

Simmons “lost all sense of the strike zone,” columnist Peter Gammons wrote in The Sporting News.

Like the Giants, the Brewers finished last in their division in 1984.

Simmons rebounded in 1985, the second year of his three-year deal with the Brewers. He had 144 hits and 76 RBI. He made 11 starts at catcher, 27 at first base, two at third base and 99 as designated hitter.

In March 1986, Simmons was traded to the Braves, and he spent his last three seasons with them, serving as a utility player and an unofficial coach for manager Chuck Tanner.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my five years in Milwaukee,” Simmons told Cardinals Magazine in 2020. “The people there are wonderful, a lot like you see in St. Louis. They’re down to earth, work hard, expect to be paid, and they love their baseball.”

Posted in Hitters | 6 Comments »

Why Cardinals preferred Bill Bruton to Curt Flood

February 23, 2022 by retrosimba

After giving Curt Flood a chance at the center field job, the Cardinals decided they needed an upgrade at the position. The player they wanted was Bill Bruton.

A left-handed batter, Bruton became the Braves’ center fielder in 1953 and helped transform them into National League champions in 1957 and 1958.

In December 1960, the Cardinals made multiple offers for Bruton, including one that likely involved trading Bob Gibson.

Impact player

Bruton got his start in pro baseball when his father-in-law, future Hall of Fame third baseman Judy Johnson, put out the word about him, The Sporting News reported. Bruton was 24 when Braves scout Johnny Ogden signed him in 1950.

Bruton made an impact his first season in the minors, swiping 66 bases for Eau Claire. The next year, he had 27 triples for Denver.

“I’ve seen no player in baseball today who is as fast as Bruton,” Braves scout Walter Gautreau told The Sporting News.

With Class AAA Milwaukee in 1952, Bruton totaled 211 hits and scored 130 runs.

Before the 1953 season, the Braves relocated from Boston to Milwaukee and Bruton was named their Opening Day center fielder.

Splendid start

The Braves began the 1953 season at Cincinnati. Bruton, 27, had a dazzling debut. Batting leadoff, he had two hits, a stolen base and scored a run.

Described by the Cincinnati Enquirer as a “mercury-footed” outfielder who covered center “like the morning dew,” Bruton made six putouts, “two of them only short of sensational.”

“In the third inning, he leaped high in front of the center field seats to take what looked like a surefire double away from Willard Marshall,” the Enquirer reported. “He repeated the performance at the expense of Bobby Adams in the ninth.” Boxscore

The Braves took a flight to Milwaukee after the game and were greeted at the airport by 1,500 admirers, according to United Press.

Heroics at home

The next day, in their first regular-season home game since moving from Boston, the Braves played the Cardinals, and Bruton again was sensational.

In the eighth inning, with the score tied at 1-1, the Cardinals had two on and two outs when Stan Musial drove a Warren Spahn pitch into left-center. Bruton made a running catch, depriving Musial of a two-run double.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Braves had two outs and none on when Bruton, described by The Sporting News as the “Jesse Owens of the baselines,” hit an inside fastball from Gerry Staley over the head of right fielder Enos Slaughter for a triple. Sid Gordon’s single scored Bruton, giving the Braves a 2-1 lead.

The Cardinals tied the score in the ninth.

Batting with one out and none on in the 10th, Bruton got a knuckleball from Staley. “Man, it just hung there,” Bruton told the Associated Press.

Bruton drilled the pitch to deep right. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Slaughter “ran back to the waist-high wire fence, reached up and almost made the catch, but as his fingers began to close on the ball, his elbow struck sharp prongs protruding from the wire barrier.”

The impact jarred the ball loose and it dropped over the fence for a home run, Bruton’s first in the majors. It also turned out to be his only home run of the season and his only walkoff home run in 12 years in the big leagues. Boxscore

As Bob Broeg of the Post-Dispatch noted, Bruton’s dramatics made him “as popular in Milwaukee as beer and cheese.”

Multiple talents

Bruton was the Braves’ center fielder for eight years (1953-60). Hank Aaron, who joined the Braves in 1954, was his outfield teammate for seven of those seasons.

The Braves won the pennant in 1957 but Bruton sat out the World Series because of a knee injury. The next year, when the Braves repeated as National League champions, Bruton had a .545 on-base percentage in the World Series, reaching base 12 times (seven hits and five walks) in 22 plate appearances.

Bruton led the National League in stolen bases three times: 1953 (26), 1954 (34) and 1955 (25).

In 1960, Bruton, 34, had one of his best seasons, leading the league in runs scored (112), triples (13) and assists by a center fielder (11). He also ranked fourth in hits (180).

The Braves, though, had been searching for a second baseman ever since Red Schoendienst came down with tuberculosis, and general manager John McHale decided Bruton’s trade value would bring an experienced infielder.

Determined to deal

The Cardinals preferred Bruton to Flood.

In three seasons as Cardinals center fielder, Flood’s batting average and on-base percentage decreased every year: 1958 (.261 batting average, .317 on-base percentage), 1959 (.255 and .305) and 1960 (.237 and .303). He also had a mere two stolen bases in both 1958 and 1959, and none in 1960.

“We’ve been interested in Bruton for some time,” Cardinals general manager Bing Devine told the Post-Dispatch.

According to The Sporting News, the Cardinals offered their shortstop, Daryl Spencer, for Bruton. Spencer had been a second baseman with the Giants.

When the Braves reacted unenthusiastically, the Cardinals approached the Phillies about making a three-way trade with the Braves.

According to the Associated Press, the Braves were interested in Phillies second baseman Tony Taylor and reliever Turk Farrell. In exchange, the Phillies wanted outfielder Wes Covington from the Braves, and first baseman Joe Cunningham and pitcher Bob Gibson from the Cardinals, the Philadelphia Daily News reported. Bruton would go to the Cardinals.

(Later that month, the Cardinals offered Gibson to the Senators for Bobby Shantz.)

According to The Sporting News, the three-way deal “went down the drain” when the Phillies “stepped up their demands.”

“We wanted to make a deal,” Cardinals manager Solly Hemus said, “but it wound up with the Phillies wanting too many of our established players. We would have had to give up four or five, and would have gotten one or two.”

The Cardinals tried again to interest the Braves in a swap of Spencer for Bruton. “The Braves began to warm up to his possibilities,” The Sporting News reported, but then the Tigers entered the picture.

Flood is the answer

When the Tigers proposed dealing second baseman Frank Bolling to the Braves for Bruton, talks with the Cardinals ceased. Braves general manager John McHale had been general manager of the Tigers and he was an admirer of Bolling.

“When I was at Detroit, I thought Bolling was just as valuable to the club as Harvey Kuenn or Al Kaline,” McHale told The Sporting News.

To ensure the Tigers didn’t waver, McHale sweetened the deal. On Dec. 7, 1960, the Braves traded Bruton, catcher Dick Brown, infielder Chuck Cottier and pitcher Terry Fox for Bolling and a player to be named, outfielder Neil Chrisley.

According to the Sporting News, Hemus contacted Tigers manager Bob Scheffing and asked whether the Tigers would flip Bruton to the Cardinals, but was told no.

Don Landrum, acquired from the Phillies in September 1960, opened the 1961 season as the Cardinals’ center fielder. The Cardinals also tried Don Taussig and Carl Warwick there.

In July, Hemus was fired and replaced by Johnny Keane, who committed to Flood in center. Flood rewarded Keane’s confidence by hitting .324 in July, .330 in August and .355 in September. He went on to be the center fielder on Cardinals clubs that won three league championships and two World Series titles.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Trades | 11 Comments »

What a relief: Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale called from pen

February 19, 2022 by retrosimba

(Updated Jan. 15, 2025)

Imagine going to a regular-season game in St. Louis and getting to see Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale pitch.

It happened on May 12, 1962, in a game Koufax started for the Dodgers against the Cardinals. Gibson and Drysdale relieved and were the winning and losing pitchers in a 15-inning, 6-5 Cardinals victory.

Gibson pitched five innings of scoreless relief. Drysdale gave up the winning run and barely avoided a serious injury.

Fit to be tied

The Saturday night game at the original Busch Stadium matched Koufax against Ernie Broglio.

When Koufax was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the seventh, the Cardinals led, 4-3. They increased the lead to 5-3 with a run in the eighth against Larry Sherry.

Bobby Shantz, who relieved Broglio in the sixth, held the Dodgers hitless until the ninth when eighth-place hitter Larry Burright followed a walk to Daryl Spencer with a two-run home run, tying the score at 5-5.

Two nights earlier, when Burright hit his first big-league home run against Bob Bruce of the Colt .45s, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported that Dodgers manager Walter Alston said to him, “I hope that doesn’t make you a home run hitter. I don’t want you swinging for the fences.”

In the bottom of the ninth, when Red Schoendienst singled to right, Bill White tried to score the winning run from second, but was thrown out at the plate on a powerful peg by right fielder Frank Howard.

Costly outing

Making his first relief appearance of the season, Gibson (3-2, 4.02 ERA) entered in the 11th. Two nights earlier, he’d pitched 4.2 innings in a start against the Giants and gave up five runs.

Against the Dodgers, Gibson got into a jam in the 12th when they loaded the bases with two outs. Though pinch-hitters Duke Snider, Andy Carey, Doug Camilli and Norm Sherry were available, Alston let rookie pitcher Pete Richert bat and he grounded out.

In the 13th, Richert tore a muscle in his elbow pitching to White. Dodgers first baseman Tim Harkness said he could hear the muscle rip loose. “It sounded like two sticks clicking together,” Harkness told the Los Angeles Times.

Another rookie, Joe Moeller, relieved Richert and held the Cardinals in check until Snider batted for him in the 15th. The Dodgers got a runner, Burright, to second with two outs before Maury Wills, a .211 career hitter against Gibson, struck out.

Emergency call

Alston needed a replacement for Moeller in the bottom half of the 15th. He chose Drysdale (5-1, 2.98 ERA) to make his first relief appearance of the season. Two nights earlier, Drysdale pitched a complete game against the Colt .45s.

“I knew I didn’t have a thing left,” Drysdale told the Los Angeles Times. “I told them so in the bullpen.”

Rookie outfielder Doug Clemens, a replacement for Minnie Minoso, who was injured the previous night when he crashed into a wall, led off with a single. Julio Gotay, attempting a sacrifice bunt, was hit by a Drysdale pitch.

As the next batter, Gibson, backed away from a pitch, catcher John Roseboro fired a strike to second, picking off Clemens for the first out of the inning.

When he resumed pitching to Gibson, Drysdale felt something pop in his right elbow. Gibson drew a walk, advancing Gotay to second.

Drysdale fanned Curt Flood for the second out.

Julian Javier, a career .195 hitter versus Drysdale, was up next. Drysdale got two strikes on him, followed by three consecutive pitches outside the zone.

At 12:58 a.m., nearly five hours after the game began, Javier hit a blooper to the opposite field. The ball landed barely fair, just inside the right field line. Gotay, who was running with the payoff pitch, easily scored from second. Boxscore

If Javier had made the third out, the game would have been declared a tie because the National League had a curfew that barred the start of an inning after 12:50 a.m. The game would have been replayed another time.

Upset with the outcome, Drysdale stormed into the clubhouse and “smashed a mirror with his fist and kicked a sandbox,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

“My arm was stiff. I didn’t want to pitch but Alston asked me to go in,” Drysdale told Sport magazine. “I didn’t argue. I’d never argue with him.”

Fortunate recovery

When he showed up at the ballpark the next day, Drysdale “had a Band-aid on his right pinkie, and his left big toe was taped, souvenirs of his outburst,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

The good news was his elbow was OK.

“When I rolled over in bed early this morning, the elbow popped back into position,” Drysdale said.

Drysdale went on to have a career year, earning the 1962 National League Cy Young Award. He led the league in wins (25), strikeouts (232) and innings pitched (314.1).

Against the Cardinals in 1962, Drysdale was 2-4. He had winning records versus each of the other eight National League teams that season.

In addition to his 41 starts, Drysdale made two relief appearances in 1962 _ the one against the Cardinals and another on July 8 when he earned a save for Koufax versus the Giants. Boxscore

In the book “We Would have Played For Nothing,” slugger Frank Robinson said Drysdale “was the toughest pitcher for me to hit off of in my career … His fastball would tail in on you, slide away, and would be on top of the plate … When I would finish four at-bats against Drysdale, it was like wrestling a horse or a mule, or being in a fight. That’s how tired I would be after the game.”

Gibson finished 15-13 with a 2.85 ERA in 1962 and tied Bob Friend of the Pirates for the league lead in shutouts (5). With 208 strikeouts, Gibson ranked third in the league behind Drysdale (232) and Koufax (216).

In addition to his 30 starts, Gibson made two relief appearances in 1962 _ the one against the Dodgers and another July 29 when he was credited with a save versus the Mets. Boxscore

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers | 4 Comments »

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