RetroSimba

Cardinals gave Juan Gonzalez chance for a comeback

April 11, 2025 by retrosimba

During his time with the Cardinals, Juan Gonzalez lived up to his nickname, but not in the way he and the team hoped.

Invited to try out for a spot as an outfielder on the 2008 Cardinals, Gonzalez was Juan Gone _ as in, headed home _ before spring training ended.

In his heyday with the Rangers, Gonzalez was called Juan Gone because balls he hit frequently were sent into orbit and gone out of sight.

When he came to the Cardinals, though, Gonzalez, 38, looked different than he did in his prime. Gone was the bulk he had when he twice led the American League in home runs. Gone was a lot of the swagger, too.

Suspected in the 1990s of using banned performance-enhancing steroids to help him become one of the most powerful hitters, Gonzalez was trying to return to the majors for the first time in three years. The Cardinals, a haven for players linked to performing-enhancing drugs, welcomed him.

Great expectations

“Using a broomstick as a bat and a bottle cap as a ball on the dusty streets of Vega Baja,” Gonzalez developed into a baseball standout as a youth in Puerto Rico, according to the Los Angeles Times. His boyhood nickname was Igor because of his fascination with a professional wrestler of the same name.

At 16, when he was signed by Rangers scout Luis Rosa in May 1986, Gonzalez was “tall and gangly but with athleticism and serious bat speed,” according to MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan.

The Rangers brought Gonzalez to Florida, where he was introduced by scouting director Sandy Johnson as the “next Babe Ruth,” and put in the outfield alongside 17-year-old Sammy Sosa on their Gulf Coast League rookie team. As Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Randy Galloway noted, “Babe Ruth’s bat had to have been heavier than young Juan.”

Three years later, Gonzalez, 19, made his big-league debut. He was 22 when he won his first American League home run crown. In April 1994, the Fort Worth newspaper did a story speculating whether Gonzalez would break Hank Aaron’s career record of 755. Gonzalez had 121.

Gonzalez also twice received the AL Most Valuable Player Award _ in 1996 (.314 batting mark, 47 homers, 144 RBI) and in 1998 (.318, 45 homers, 157 RBI). That 1998 season was his best. Gonzalez had 101 RBI before the all-star break and his final total of 157 were the most in the American League since 1949 Red Sox teammates Vern Stephens and Ted Williams each had 159. Gonzalez also scored 110 runs and produced 50 doubles.

“Juan in a million,” the Fort Worth Star-Telegram declared.

Success didn’t always bring happiness, however. Gonzalez was married and divorced three times before he turned 25. One of the failed marriages was to the sister of Braves catcher Javy Lopez. (A fourth marriage, to pop singer Olga Tanon, also resulted in divorce.)

“His mistakes, I think, were from a lack of education,” Luis Mayoral, the Rangers’ Latin American liaison and Gonzalez’s confidant, told Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times. “He didn’t know what he needed to cope with fame and fortune.”

Columnist Randy Galloway noted, “No one who knows Gonzalez calls him a bad person. He’s not. He can be immature, he can pout, he can be unreasonable at times, and he can make stupid decisions.”

He also had a philanthropic side to him. In 1998, Gil LeBreton of the Fort Worth newspaper wrote, “In his old neighborhood on the rugged streets of Vega Baja, Gonzalez has opened a standing account with the local pharmacy. For those who can’t pay for their prescriptions, Juan will buy the medicine.”

Other Gonzalez projects included a $50,000 donation to build a youth ballpark in southeast Dallas; the purchase of Rangers tickets for underprivileged youngsters from 1995-99; donations for every RBI to Literacy Instruction for Texas reading and writing program from 1997-99; a $25,000 donation to help victims of Hurricane George.

Cheating with chemicals

In his book “Juiced,” Jose Canseco said he introduced Gonzalez to banned performance-enhancing drugs when they were Rangers teammates from 1992-94. Canseco said he injected Gonzalez with the steroids. Canseco was traded to the Rangers from the Athletics, where he played for manager Tony La Russa. In his book, Canseco said he injected Athletics teammate Mark McGwire with banned performance-enhancing drugs and witnessed McGwire and Jason Giambi administer needles to one another.

Rangers owner Tom Hicks told the Associated Press in June 2007 that he suspected Gonzalez used banned steroids when he was with the team. “His number of injuries and early retirement just makes me suspicious,” Hicks said.

In the December 2007 Mitchell Report, an investigation into the use of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone in big-league baseball, Gonzalez was linked to a bag of steroids discovered during a search at the Toronto airport in 2001.

The 2001 season was Gonzalez’s last big year in the majors. He hit .325 with 35 homers and 140 RBI for the Indians that season. After that, his body broke down. Injuries to his hamstrings, hands, shoulders and back cut short his seasons with the Rangers in 2002 and 2003, and with the Royals in 2004.

Gonzalez, 35, rejoined the Indians for spring training in 2005 but injured a hamstring while making a catch on the same day that manager Eric Wedge named him the starting right fielder. In his first game back with the Indians on May 31, Gonzalez injured the hamstring again while running to first base in the first inning. He never played in another big-league game.

Hear no evil, see no evil

The big-league totals for Gonzalez included 434 home runs and 1,404 RBI. In February 2007, he told USA Today he hoped to return to the majors and reach 500 homers. “That’s still my goal and I remain confident I will attain it,” he said.

To get himself into condition for a comeback, Gonzalez attended a training program in Puerto Rico operated by ex-Cardinal Eduardo Perez. “He really never stopped playing,” Perez told Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He looks great, like he hasn’t missed a beat. His legs look strong. Once a hitter, always a hitter.”

Perez recommended Gonzalez to Cardinals manager Tony La Russa. “You’re going to see a very humble guy,” Perez told the Post-Dispatch. “It’s a lot different than before. He just wants to prove he can still play.”

Intrigued, the Cardinals signed Gonzalez to a minor-league contract in February 2008 and invited him to compete at spring training for a role on the big-league club. The deal called for him to be paid $750,000 if he made the big-league team.

“We all know what he was in his prime,” La Russa told the Post-Dispatch. “He had one of the most gorgeous swings around.”

Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said to reporter Joe Strauss, “There’s not a great deal of risk involved, but there is the potential for significant upside.”

Actually, there was a risk _ to the Cardinals’ image _ because club management looked like enablers, or protectors, for users of performance-enhancing drugs.

In December 2006, La Russa urged the Cardinals to sign free agent Barry Bonds. Even without Bonds, the Cardinals at 2008 spring training had five players (more than any other team) who were implicated in the Mitchell Report: Rick Ankiel, Ryan Franklin, Troy Glaus, Juan Gonzalez and Ron Villone. Also, La Russa had given Mark McGwire, whose use of banned performance-enhancing drugs created a fraudulent pursuit of the single-season home record, an open invitation to join the Cardinals that spring as an instructor.

Eyes wide shut

Here are excerpts from a February 2008 interview Post-Dispatch columnist Bryan Burwell did with La Russa at spring training:

Burwell: Does it bother you that there’s a perception that you give safe harbor to steroid guys?

La Russa: “No, and I’ll tell you why not … I know there isn’t anything we’ve done in all those years that was _ with one small exception where we stole signs, a little hiccup _ there isn’t anything else that has happened on our ballclubs in Oakland or St. Louis that there’s a hint of illegality. There isn’t anything that we didn’t actively and proactively attempt to do it right.”

Burwell: Does it bother you that you and coach Dave McKay have gained the unflattering label as the so-called godfathers of baseball’s steroids era with your connections to Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire?

La Russa: “That’s one of the crosses you have to bear … Dave McKay has as much or more integrity as any man I’ve met … There’s no chance that what happened officially at Oakland was tainted. Does it mean … when our guys are not in our facilities, not in our weight rooms, that guys didn’t experiment? No.”

Burwell: Would you have cared if you did know they were experimenting?

La Russa: “Yeah, I would care, because when I saw a guy who got stronger quickly without working hard, oh yeah, that implies a lot of other things about what he’s willing to do.”

Burwell: You still don’t believe McGwire used performance-enhancing drugs?

La Russa: “Absolutely not.”

Burwell: Come on.

La Russa: “Absolutely not. If you see Mark today, he still looks like he did then.”

Burwell: No he doesn’t.

La Russa: “Yes he does.”

Asked when he got to camp whether he’d ever used performance-enhancing drugs, Gonzalez told reporter Derrick Goold, “I never used it. I’m clear.”

Assigned uniform No. 22, Gonzalez singled twice and scored a run in the Cardinals’ exhibition opener against the Mets.

In 26 spring training at-bats, Gonzalez hit .308 with one homer (against Johan Santana) and five RBI before straining an abdominal muscle.

Placed on the temporarily inactive list, Gonzalez opted to go home to Puerto Rico. The Cardinals informed him he could return for an extended spring training when he felt ready to play.

“I told him he made a real good impression,” La Russa said to the Post-Dispatch. “I’m disappointed because he could have provided something special to our club.”

The Cardinals didn’t hear back from Gonzalez.

Six years later, in 2014, La Russa was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. In an interview he did that year with Cardinals Yearbook, La Russa said McGwire did “a limited amount” of performance-enhancing drugs. Here are excerpts from that 2014 interview:

Cardinals Yearbook: How do you respond to those who say you were an enabler of baseball’s steroids era?

La Russa: “The only way you could know about what was going on was if you ran an investigation … I know on our team you couldn’t be a policeman and get detectives involved. Nobody is going to do that. If something is happening, it’s happening away from the ballpark.”

Cardinals Yearbook: How could it have been handled differently?

La Russa: “That’s the great unknown … All I know is on a personal basis I have no regrets. I don’t feel guilty about any part of it. We did what we could do.”

Posted in Hitters, Managers | 15 Comments »

Tony La Russa nearly got detoured before going to St. Louis

April 4, 2025 by retrosimba

When he was ready to leave the Athletics, Tony La Russa was intending to manage the 1995 Red Sox.

“At the end of nine years, the A’s had given me permission to interview with the Red Sox, and I was going to Boston,” La Russa recalled to Cardinals Yearbook in 2014. “We even had a discussion about free agents … The one free agent we wanted was Larry Walker.”

If La Russa had gone through with the move, he likely never would have joined the Cardinals, the club he managed to three National League pennants, two World Series championships and a franchise-record 1,408 wins.

A lunch conversation with Athletics owner Walter Haas prompted La Russa to change his plans.

The times they are a-changin’

From 1988-90, La Russa led the Athletics to three consecutive American League pennants and a World Series title, but they finished 68-94 in 1993 and 51-63 in strike-shortened 1994. Though the 1994 Athletics had players such as Dennis Eckersley, Rickey Henderson and Mark McGwire, the club had a dismal 19-43 record until winning 19 of its next 22.

La Russa’s two-year contract with the Athletics expired at the end of 1994 and he was thinking it might be time to leave Oakland. “I came to realize that once you start amassing time _ eight or 10 years in one place _ there becomes a very real perception that the scene needs a change, more for the people around you than for yourself,” La Russa recalled to Cardinals Yearbook. “Fans get tired of reading your same quotes. The media starts to know what you’re going to say before you even say it. Players grow tired of you.”

Also, the Athletics were for sale and the uncertainty that created gave La Russa another reason to consider departing. “If the Haas’ (family) were still in Oakland, I’d still be there,” La Russa told Cardinals Yearbook in 2014.

After the players’ strike halted the season in August 1994, La Russa took his family on an extended vacation to England a month later “amid growing speculation that he could become Boston’s next manager,” the Sacramento Bee reported. “La Russa did nothing to downplay the speculation, acknowledging there are some ‘attractive situations’ out there. He sounded absolutely unsure if he will return to the A’s or seek grander challenges elsewhere.”

The Red Sox were seeking a replacement for Butch Hobson, who never produced a winning record in three seasons as their manager.

“I don’t think that Hobson’s firing will have any impact on our negotiations (with La Russa),” Athletics general manager Sandy Alderson told the Oakland Tribune.

Alderson also said to the Sacramento Bee, “Most of the Boston speculation is just that _ speculation.”

Please come to Boston

Actually, La Russa was the first choice of Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette, who viewed him as the person to lead the franchise to its first World Series crown since Babe Ruth played there in 1918. “The Red Sox are dying to hire La Russa and are willing to pay him a record-setting salary,” Baltimore Sun columnist Tom Keegan noted.

In explaining why La Russa would consider joining the Red Sox, Sacramento Bee columnist Mark Kreidler wrote, “Win it all in Boston, and La Russa’s fame is set for eternity, perhaps even the Hall of Fame … La Russa is not a man without ego. He would go into baseball-rabid Boston and he would own it within a year; and he would be paid millions; and he would work for a franchise that has the money and is willing to spend it in service of a diamond-encrusted ring. Heady stuff.”

Though it went unreported at the time, La Russa made up his mind to accept Boston’s offer. Before sealing the deal, he accepted an invitation to lunch with Walter Haas, the club owner who hired him to manage the Athletics in 1986 after La Russa was fired by the White Sox.

“(Haas) had always treated Elaine (La Russa’s wife) and me like family,” La Russa recalled to Cardinals Yearbook. “At this point, he was having serious health problems. He said he had one more year and he wanted me to manage the team. Going home, I told Elaine what Walter had said. At the time, I didn’t really know if he was talking about his health, selling the franchise, or both.”

Regardless, La Russa decided to honor Haas’ request. “I called Boston and declined the job,” he told Cardinals Yearbook.

Haas gave La Russa a three-year contract with a protective clause that enabled the manager to depart if there was an ownership change, the San Francisco Examiner reported.

As columnist Mark Kreidler noted, “You don’t have to make Tony La Russa a prince for accepting $1.25 million (per year) to continue managing the A’s, but know this: Finances and all, La Russa still made a decision of loyalty and personal feeling not to jump to the waiting Boston Red Sox.”

On the same day the Athletics signed La Russa, the Red Sox named Kevin Kennedy, formerly of the Rangers, as their manager.

“The specter of La Russa haunts Kennedy as Kennedy takes over the fabled Boston franchise,” wrote Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy. “It is well known that the Red Sox coveted the A’s manager above all others.”

Twists and turns

About the time he decided to stay with the Athletics, La Russa, a vegetarian and animal rights activist, caused a stir when he hammed it up in a national TV commercial for Wendy’s and its new chicken, bacon and Swiss cheese sandwich. “It was stupid on my part,” he told the Associated Press. “I screwed up.”

La Russa claimed he was misled, saying he thought the commercial was for a salad bar and baked potatoes, but Wendy’s spokesman Denny Lynch said Tony was full of baloney. “He knew that it was a chicken sandwich commercial,” Lynch told the Associated Press.

During the 1995 season, the Haas family completed the sale of the Athletics to Ken Hofman and Steve Schott. On Sept. 20, Walter Haas, 79, died. After that, the Athletics lost their last nine games and finished at 67-77, La Russa’s third consecutive losing season. “It wasn’t like the guys weren’t trying; they were grieving,” La Russa recalled to Cardinals Yearbook.

Meanwhile, Kevin Kennedy’s Red Sox, with a roster that included ex-Athletics slugger Jose Canseco as the designated hitter and former Cardinals such as second baseman Luis Alicea, pitcher Rheal Cormier and outfielder Willie McGee, were 1995 East Division champions at 86-58.

La Russa left Oakland after the season and became Cardinals manager. His first World Series appearance with them was in 2004. Their opponent was the Red Sox. Managed by Terry Francona, Boston swept, becoming World Series champions for the first time in 86 years.

Eventually, La Russa worked for the Red Sox, joining them in November 2017 as special assistant to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. The Red Sox then won the 2018 World Series championship.

Posted in Executives, Managers | 9 Comments »

Pete Mazar: Slinging, singing southpaw in St. Louis system

March 31, 2025 by retrosimba

While pitching in the Cardinals’ organization, Pete Mazar became known as much for his vocal cords as for his arm.

Dubbed the “Frank Sinatra of baseball” for his singing, Mazar, like Ol’ Blue Eyes, was from New Jersey. Sinatra’s hometown was Hoboken, site of the first organized baseball game played in 1846 between the Knickerbocker Club and New York Nine. Mazar grew up in High Bridge, a mere 50 miles from Hoboken but, otherwise, worlds apart.

An urban melting pot across the Hudson River from Manhattan, Hoboken in Sinatra’s time was known for its gritty industrial docks and was the setting for the film “On the Waterfront.” In contrast, the borough of High Bridge has a reputation as a place for parks, trails and scenic beauty. A resident, Howard Menger, wrote “The High Bridge Incident,” a book about his claim of having met space aliens in the woods near High Bridge when he was a boy. Otherworldly, indeed.

Little lefty

Pete Mazar had eight brothers (including a twin) and five sisters, according to The Sporting News. Though no more than 5-foot-9 and 150 pounds, he was a standout athlete in soccer, basketball and baseball at High Bridge High School.

After graduation in June 1940, Mazar was a machinist for the local Taylor-Wharton Iron and Steel Company, makers of railroad fittings and switches and dredging equipment. A left-handed pitcher, he played semipro baseball for the High Bridge team in the well-regarded Tri-County League.

Mazar’s success as a semipro player got him a contract in 1941 with a New York Giants farm club in Milford, Del., but he became ill, pitched briefly and got released, according to the Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call. Returning to High Bridge, Mazar went back to the iron and steel job (the company now was producing material for America’s World War II involvement) and pitched semipro baseball.

In May 1944, with the war depleting baseball team rosters, the Cardinals offered Mazar, 23, a tryout with their Allentown farm club. Allentown manager Ollie Vanek, who had a notable eye for talent (the Cardinals signed 16-year-old Stan Musial on Vanek’s recommendation), took one look at Mazar and gave him a spot on the team. Mazar rewarded him with an 11-6 record.

Promoted by the Cardinals to Columbus (Ohio) in 1945, Mazar pitched a no-hitter against manager Casey Stengel’s Kansas City Blues. Of the 27 outs Mazar recorded using a sharp-breaking curve, 20 came on grounders, the Kansas City Times reported.

American idol

Seven of Mazar’s eight seasons in the Cardinals’ system were spent either with Columbus or Houston. In 1947, he pitched for both. After going 0-4 for Columbus, he was sent to Houston and pitched better for manager Johnny Keane’s club, which was on its way to becoming Texas League champions.

On Aug. 19, 1947, an estimated 13,000 spectators packed into Houston’s Buffalo Stadium for a doubleheader on what was promoted as “appreciation night.” Looking for ways to show their appreciation to fans, club officials gave Mazar a microphone before one of the games and asked him to sing for the crowd. Mazar had “served as a vocalist in a nightclub near his home at High Bridge,” according to The Sporting News.

Crooning hit tunes, Mazar thrilled his audience and was touted as “the Sinatra of baseball,” the Associated Press reported. (Sinatra’s popular songs in 1947 included “Almost Like Being in Love,” “Autumn in New York,” and “Time After Time.”)

Word spread that the Houston club had a silky-voiced troubadour with a smooth delivery. “Now everywhere he goes to play ball, they want him to warble,” according to the Associated Press.

On Aug. 24, it was arranged for Mazar to sing a song before Houston’s game at Dallas. “The crowd of 6,000 roared its approval,” the Associated Press reported. “They called him back for another, and still another. They wanted him for a fourth except that the ballgame had to go on.”

The next night, Aug. 25, Mazar was the starting pitcher for Houston at Oklahoma City. He entertained a crowd of 4,937 with three songs, then got the win against an Oklahoma City club that featured hitters such as Ray Boone and Al Rosen.

Houston club president Allen Russell asked Mazar to spend the winter in Texas so that he could promote his singing.

Fan favorite

Back with Houston and Johnny Keane in 1948, Mazar, 27, had his best season as a pitcher. He won 12 of his first 14 decisions and finished 15-10 with a 2.53 ERA in 228 innings.

His most satisfying win came at home on July 17, 1948. When Houston fans learned Mazar and his wife were expecting their third child, they presented the couple with more than 100 gifts before that night’s game. Mazar thanked the crowd of 7,358, crooned several songs and then pitched a three-hit shutout to beat Tulsa. “I never wanted to win a game so much in my life … I didn’t want to let all of those good people down,” Mazar told The Sporting News.

Mazar’s successful 1948 season didn’t do enough to impress the Cardinals. When they didn’t put him on their 40-man winter roster, the Cubs claimed him in the November 1948 minor-league draft on the recommendation of scout Jigger Statz. Mazar reminded him of Tony Freitas, another pint-sized left-hander who pitched in the majors during the 1930s, Statz told the Los Angeles Times.

Assigned to the Cubs’ Los Angeles Angels farm team in 1949, Mazar was 2-4 for the Pacific Coast League team when he got sent back to Houston in May.

In April 1950, Mazar was struck by a line drive, breaking his left thumb. It didn’t hurt his singing, but it did his pitching. The 1951 season was Mazar’s last in the Cardinals’ system. He pitched three more years in the minors but never reached the big leagues _ either as a player or a singer.

Returning to High Bridge, Mazar and his wife operated a tavern and he also worked as a machinist for F.L. Smidth & Company, makers of equipment for mining and cement industries.

Posted in Games, Pitchers, Prospects | 8 Comments »

Dutch master: Cardinals made pitch for Brad Van Pelt

March 24, 2025 by retrosimba

One year after they traded Steve Carlton because he wanted a $65,000 salary, the Cardinals offered a college pitcher a six-figure contract.

Michigan State’s Brad Van Pelt, a right-hander with a 100 mph fastball, was the prospect who prompted the Cardinals to consider coughing up the cash. He also was a football talent, a recipient of the Maxwell Award presented to the most outstanding college player in the sport.

Drafted in January 1973 by the baseball Cardinals and the NFL New York Giants, Van Pelt opted for pro football. He went on to play 14 seasons, helping to form one of the all-time best linebacking units.

Abundant athleticism

Van Pelt was from Owosso, Mich., a town 90 miles northwest of Detroit. Thomas Dewey, twice the Republican nominee for president, was from there, too. (Dewey lost to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1944 and to Harry Truman in 1948.)

An athlete who excelled in every sport he tried, including bocce, golf and soccer, Van Pelt was a high school sensation as a quarterback in football, a rebounder in basketball (he hauled down 42 in one game) and a pitcher in baseball (consecutive no-hitters as a senior).

The Tigers, his favorite team, chose Van Pelt, 18, in the 14th round of the 1969 June baseball draft but he took a football scholarship from Michigan State instead.

(It was the first of five times Van Pelt was selected in the baseball draft. He declined to sign each time. After the Tigers in June 1969, others to draft him were the Angels in June 1972, Cardinals in January 1973, Pirates in June 1973 and Indians in January 1974.)

“Rangy, fast and strong,” Van Pelt, 6-foot-5, 220 pounds, had the “defensive end’s body with the receiver’s speed,” according to the Lansing State Journal.

Michigan State guard Joe DeLamielleure (elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame for his skill as a Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns lineman) told the newspaper, “Van Pelt was the modern day Jim Thorpe, and that’s no exaggeration … He could have been our starting quarterback because he could throw the ball a mile.”

Michigan State head coach Duffy Daugherty said Van Pelt could have played any position on the football team. “He is the most versatile athlete I’ve ever coached,” Daugherty told the Associated Press.

Daugherty dubbed Van Pelt his “secretary of defense” and put him at safety. Often called a rover back, Van Pelt had the size and speed to intimidate receivers, stuff rushers and pressure quarterbacks with blitzes. “I’ve never seen a safety able to come up to the line of scrimmage to make tackles as quick as Brad can,” Daugherty said to the Flint Journal.

George Perles, an assistant on Daugherty’s staff before eventually becoming head coach, told the Lansing newspaper, “During his college career, he (Van Pelt) might have been the biggest safety in the Big Ten (Conference), if not the country.”

In his three varsity seasons (1970-72), Van Pelt totaled 256 tackles and 14 interceptions. “He (Daugherty) gave me the freedom to blitz when I wanted and to go to the ball on every play,” Van Pelt said to the State Journal. “I can’t thank him enough.”

Man for all seasons

Described by Joe Rexrode of the Lansing newspaper as “the purest all-around athlete in Michigan State history,” Van Pelt played varsity basketball and baseball.

He got into 31 basketball games for head coach Gus Ganakas, who told the State Journal, “Van Pelt helped define the position of power forward.”

In baseball, Van Pelt pitched for head coach Danny Litwhiler, a former big-leaguer who played in two World Series (1943 and 1944) as the Cardinals’ left fielder.

As a sophomore, Van Pelt was on the 1971 Big Ten championship baseball team. The next season, he struck out 84 in 56.1 innings and had a 2.07 ERA. The Angels picked Van Pelt in the 13th round of the June 1972 draft and offered $100,000 _ “The first three days after they made the offer I really thought about signing,” Van Pelt told the Flint Journal _ but he chose to return to college for senior year.

Instead of spending the summer of 1972 pitching in the Angels’ system, Van Pelt went to the Netherlands with an amateur team from Grand Rapids, Mich., to compete in an international honkbal (Dutch for baseball) tournament.

Cardinals calling

After Van Pelt’s senior football season, big-league baseball held a winter draft on Jan. 10, 1973. In those days, a secondary phase was conducted for players who had been drafted in prior years but hadn’t signed.

Selecting seventh in the first round, the Cardinals chose Van Pelt. “He was one of a few premium players available,” Cardinals director of player procurement George Silvey told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Cardinals general manager Bing Devine said to United Press International, “He’s an all-American boy in every sense of the word.”

(The Tigers, who had the next pick after the Cardinals, were planning to draft Van Pelt, the Post-Dispatch reported. When the Cardinals beat them to it, the Tigers went with Van Pelt’s Michigan State teammate, pitcher Larry Ike.)

Van Pelt told the Cardinals he’d wait until the NFL draft was held on Jan. 30, 1973, before making a decision.

When the Cardinals made it known they intended to sign Van Pelt, NFL teams didn’t want to risk losing a first-round pick in a bidding war with a baseball team. As the New York Times put it, Van Pelt became “a player of unquestioned ability but highly questionable availability.”

New York Jets head coach Weeb Ewbank told the Times, “We just didn’t see any sense in fighting baseball for him, but he is one hell of an athlete.”

The Giants, who had traded their first-round pick to the Browns for defensive end Jack Gregory, grabbed Van Pelt in the second round, where, as head coach Alex Webster noted to the Times, “he was worth the risk.”

Decision time

A year earlier, the Cardinals reportedly offered Steve Carlton a 1972 salary of $57,500. Carlton wanted more. As spring training got under way, Carlton said he and the club were less than $10,000 apart, The Sporting News reported, but owner Gussie Busch, angry when the pitcher didn’t sign, ordered Bing Devine to trade him. Carlton was sent to the Phillies, who gave him $65,000 in 1972, and he won 27 games for them that season.

Devine offered a lot more than that to Van Pelt in February 1973. Braving a snowstorm, Devine met with Van Pelt in Owosso and made an enticing pitch. “We went to a peak level with the offer we made him,” Devine told Milton Richman of United Press International. “By that I mean over $100,000.”

Giants owner Wellington Mara followed Devine to Owosso and presented Van Pelt with a three-year, no-cut contract worth $300,000.

Van Pelt said the money offered by the Cardinals and Giants was about the same. “The two offers were so close that I almost thought they had gotten together,” he remarked in an article published in the Post-Dispatch.

Van Pelt chose the Giants primarily because he could begin his pro career in the NFL rather than in baseball’s minor leagues.

(Danny Litwhiler told United Press International that Van Pelt would need at least two years of total concentration on baseball to become ready for the majors. Van Pelt acknowledged to the Jersey Journal, “I know I have a major-league fastball, but my curve leaves a lot to be desired.”)

As Devine said to Milton Richman, “With us, he would have had to go to the minor leagues to develop. With the football Giants, he went right to the big-league club. That was the key.”

Crunch Bunch

The Giants tried Van Pelt at tight end and strong safety during a frustrating rookie year. After Bill Arnsparger replaced Alex Webster as head coach in 1974, Van Pelt shifted to outside linebacker. His career soared when Marty Schottenheimer arrived as linebacker coach in 1975. “I’d say 85 percent of what I am now, I learned from him,” Van Pelt told the Detroit Free Press in 1979.

Van Pelt was named to the Pro Bowl five years in a row (1976-80) and was chosen as the Giants’ player of the decade for the 1970s. “If Brad Van Pelt played on a good team, he would be a household name,” Los Angeles Rams general manager Don Klosterman said to Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News.

The Giants had one winning record in Van Pelt’s 11 seasons with them. As club executive John Mara told the Daily News, “If you look at those (Van Pelt) years, our teams were as bad as could possibly be. We really had some awful teams in the 1970s. He was the one guy who was consistently a good player.”

Van Pelt played for five Giants head coaches _ Alex Webster, Bill Arnsparger, John McVay, Ray Perkins and Bill Parcells. (Bill Belichick was a Giants assistant coach from 1979-84 and Van Pelt’s linebacker coach from 1980-83.)

When Parcells joined the Giants as defensive coordinator on Perkins’ staff in 1981, he installed a 3-4 defense after the club drafted Lawrence Taylor. From 1981-83, the Giants’ four hard-hitting starting linebackers _ Harry Carson, Brian Kelley, Taylor and Van Pelt _ became known as the Crunch Bunch. (Carson and Taylor were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.)

According to Newsday, Taylor called Van Pelt “one of the greatest players I ever played with.”

The arrival of linebacker Carl Banks, a first-round pick from, of all places, Michigan State in 1984 prompted the Giants to break up the Crunch Bunch. In July 1984, Van Pelt was traded to the Minnesota Vikings for fullback Tony Galbreath.

Van Pelt refused to report, telling the Vikings he preferred to be with a team either in California or Florida. He never played a game for the Vikings. They traded him to the Los Angeles Raiders for two draft choices. Van Pelt spent two seasons (1984-85) with the Raiders and one (1986) with the Browns.

In 1998, Van Pelt returned to Michigan State and completed his school work, earning a degree in health and physical education. Three years later, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. A son, Bradlee, was a quarterback for Colorado State and played in three games for the 2005 Denver Broncos.

Posted in Football, Pitchers, Prospects | 7 Comments »

Lou Brock, Bob Gibson give their best in MLK tribute

March 18, 2025 by retrosimba

In a fundraising game to honor the memory of slain civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., two of the top performers on a genuine field of dreams were Cardinals Lou Brock and Bob Gibson.

On March 28, 1970, the East-West Major League Baseball Classic was played at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. According to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Saturday afternoon exhibition netted more than $30,000 for two beneficiaries:

_ Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a regional organization founded by King and others in 1957 to help coordinate grassroots efforts in civil rights and voting rights activities.

_ Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, also known as King Center. Located in Atlanta, the center was founded in 1968 by Coretta Scott King to preserve and advance her husband’s legacy. It houses a library, archives and exhibits. It’s also the burial site of Dr. King and his wife.

Most of baseball’s top players participated in the game, taking time out from spring training to show their support for King and his mission.

Baseball tribute

After King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 (the convicted murderer, James Earl Ray, was born in Alton, Illinois, 20 miles north of St. Louis), Bob Gibson spoke with emotion about the bitterness and frustration he felt. In his autobiography, “Stranger to the Game,” Gibson said, “I reeled from the impact of the assassination _ the cold-blooded murder of the one man in my lifetime who had been able to capture the public’s attention about racial injustice, break through some of the age-old social barriers and raise the spirits and hopes of black people across the country.”

According to the Baseball Hall of Fame, shortly after King was killed, ballplayers asked King’s associates what they could do as a public tribute to him, Joseph Peters, sports project director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, explained in a November 1968 letter to baseball commissioner William Eckert.

When Southern Christian Leadership Conference members suggested a fundraising game, Major League Baseball officials agreed to cooperate. The game initially was planned for March 1969, but the Southern Christian Leadership Conference asked for more time. That’s why the event was held in March 1970.

Though spring training exhibitions were under way, every big-league team made players available for the fundraising game and paid their expenses, the Associated Press reported.

Among those who came to Los Angeles to play were Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Johnny Bench, Lou Brock, Orlando Cepeda, Roberto Clemente, Bob Gibson, Reggie Jackson, Al Kaline, Willie Mays, Joe Morgan, Tony Oliva, Frank Robinson, Pete Rose, Ron Santo, Tom Seaver and Willie Stargell.

Mays traveled from Japan, where his club, the Giants, were playing goodwill games. In explaining why he made the long trip to Los Angeles, Mays told the Torrance Daily Breeze, “This cause is too important to pass up. At last, baseball players can show their feelings about the late Dr. King and his work through the medium of this game. I wouldn’t miss it.”

Players from the East divisions of the American and National leagues were placed on an East team. The West team had players from the West divisions of both leagues. That gave fans the chance to see Angels and Dodgers, Mets and Yankees, and Athletics and Giants perform as teammates.

Joe DiMaggio was chosen to manage the East team. His coaching staff: Billy Martin, John McNamara, Stan Musial and Satchel Paige.

The West team manager was Roy Campanella. His coaching staff: Don Drysdale, Elston Howard, Sandy Koufax and Don Newcombe.

Entertainer Bill Cosby held a reception for the teams at the Warner Brothers Studio the night before the game, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Star power

Starting lineups were selected by members of the Los Angeles-Anaheim chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America and the Southern California Sportscasters Association.

The East batting order: 1. Ron Fairly, first base; 2. Reggie Smith, center field; 3. Frank Robinson, right field; 4. Willie Stargell, left field; 5. Ron Santo, third base; 6. Ernie Banks, shortstop; 7. Don Buford, second base; 8. Tim McCarver, catcher; 9. Tom Seaver, pitcher.

Banks, 39, a Cubs first baseman, was at shortstop for the first time in nine years.

East bench warmers included Lou Brock, Roberto Clemente and Al Kaline.

The West batting order: 1. Maury Wills, shortstop; 2. Pete Rose, center field; 3. Hank Aaron, left field; 4. Reggie Jackson, right field; 5. Johnny Bench, catcher; 6. Orlando Cepeda, first base; 7. Joe Morgan, second base; 8. Sal Bando, third base; 9. Don Wilson, pitcher.

Willie Mays and Tony Oliva couldn’t crack the starting lineup.

Ticket prices ranged from $10 to $2. Among the 31,694 spectators for the 2 o’clock game were baseball pioneers Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby, baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn (successor to William Eckert) and entertainers Sammy Davis Jr. and Danny Kaye.

Mudcat Grant sang the national anthem, a recording of Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech was played on the public address system, and Coretta Scott King threw the ceremonial first pitch to Johnny Bench.

(Bench, 22, impressed fellow catcher Roy Campanella, who told the Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, “Now there’s a kid who has it all. His future is unlimited.”)

A scheduled home run hitting contest featuring Frank Robinson, Ron Santo and Willie Stargell for the East versus Hank Aaron, Orlando Cepeda and Reggie Jackson for the West was canceled without explanation, the Long Beach Independent reported.

Aces prevail

The East’s pitching combination of Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson kept the West from scoring.

When Pete Rose batted in the first, Seaver surprised him with a blooper pitch. As Rose watched it drop into catcher Tim McCarver’s mitt, plate umpire Emmett Ashford gave his emphatic “stee-rike-ah” call. Rose stepped out of the box and smiled at Seaver, who grinned back. “It was a little slip curve,” Seaver told the Long Beach Independent. Rose finished the at-bat by flying out to left.

Seaver completed his three-inning scoreless stint with back-to-back strikeouts of Pete Rose and Hank Aaron. Then Bob Gibson took over and also held the West scoreless for three innings. The only hit against Gibson was a Sal Bando single.

Despite his performance, Gibson told Rich Roberts of the Long Beach Independent, “I sure didn’t feel good. I wouldn’t be telling no lie. I just used fastballs, but you better call them straight balls because they weren’t very fast.”

The East went ahead, 1-0, in the third when Ron Fairly hooked the first pitch from Lew Krausse into the stands in right, just inside the foul pole, for a home run. Ron Santo made it 2-0 when he led off the fourth with a homer to left against Krausse.

(Krausse was representing the Seattle Pilots, who were only a few days away from becoming the Milwaukee Brewers.)

Both managers substituted often, trying to get as many players as possible into the game. In a pinch-hit appearance, Willie Mays grounded into a force out.

The East went up 5-0 with three runs in the eighth against Mudcat Grant. After Al Kaline singled, Lou Brock lined a shot that carried over the head of left fielder Hank Aaron for a run-scoring double. A Roberto Clemente smash that eluded Maury Wills was ruled a double and scored Brock. Ken McMullen drove in Clemente with a single.

Facing Grant Jackson in the bottom half of the inning, the West scored a run when Willie Davis singled and came home on a Ken Berry double.

The East won, 5-1, but it wasn’t the outcome that mattered.

“I thank these fellows for giving their time,” West manager Roy Campanella told the Long Beach Independent.

As Pete Rose noted in a column he did for the Cincinnati Enquirer, “Even though it was an exhibition game, it had meaning … I feel good inside because I’ve contributed to a worthy cause.”

Posted in Games, Hitters, Managers, Pitchers | 11 Comments »

Cardinals to Manny Lee: We hardly knew thee

March 12, 2025 by retrosimba

Manny Lee was a one-of-a-kind Cardinal.

In the long history of the franchise, Lee is the only Cardinal to play in just one game for them and have a 1.000 batting average.

A 10-year veteran of the American League and shortstop for the 1992 World Series champion Blue Jays, Lee made his Cardinals debut as their 1995 Opening Day second baseman _ and never appeared in another big-league game.

Caribbean to Canada

Manuel Lora Lee was from San Pedro de Macoris, a Dominican Republic city noted for its poets and baseball players. Joaquin Andujar, Rico Carty, Pedro Guerrero, Alfonso Soriano, Sammy Sosa, Fernando Tatis and his son, Fernando Tatis Jr., are some of the many big-league players who came from there.

Lee was 16 when Mets scout Eddy Toledo signed him for $2,000 in May 1982. A switch-hitting shortstop, Lee led the Class A South Atlantic League in hitting (.330) in 1984, his third season in the Mets’ farm system.

To get Ray Knight from the Astros, the Mets sent them Lee and two other prospects near the end of the 1984 season. When the Astros neglected to place Lee on their 40-man winter roster, the Blue Jays claimed him in December 1984.

Boston Globe columnist Peter Gammons noted, “Houston was furious that the Blue Jays took Manny Lee, but if he were one of the best prospects in the Astros’ organization, why didn’t they protect him?”

Rules required the Blue Jays to keep Lee in the big leagues in 1985, or offer him back to the Astros. When Lee, 19 reported to the Blue Jays at 1985 spring training, he weighed 141 pounds on a 5-foot-9 frame, the Toronto Star reported, but he showed enough in the field to make the jump from Class A to the majors. He was the only teen on a 1985 big-league Opening Day roster.

Used mostly as a defensive replacement and pinch-runner, Lee produced no RBI in 40 at-bats and had more strikeouts (nine) than hits (eight). Looking back on that rookie season, Lee told the Star, “I was too young. I was like a little baby.”

Infield shift

Shortstop was the position Lee liked best, but an all-star, Tony Fernandez, had that role with the Blue Jays. After splitting time between the majors and minors in 1986 and 1987, Lee became the Blue Jays’ second baseman in 1988. He hit .291 overall and .316 with runners in scoring position that season.

Though he led American League second basemen in fielding percentage in 1990, Lee sometimes bailed out on double play pivots and was criticized for “indifferent play,” according to the Star.

When the Blue Jays acquired second baseman Roberto Alomar from the Padres after the 1990 season in a trade that included Tony Fernandez, manager Cito Gaston chose Lee to be the shortstop. “We’ve got confidence in Manny,” Gaston told the Star. “He played a decent second base for us, and he was improving, but I think shortstop was in his heart. He loves playing shortstop. Now he’s got the job.”

Star columnist Dave Perkins wrote, “Returning to his natural position should take the whitecaps off Manny’s brainwaves; he never did take to second base, or at least the idea of it.”

At 1991 spring training, the Star described Lee as “the happiest Blue Jay in camp.”

The good vibes didn’t last throughout the season, though. Lee swung like a slugger, but became the first big-league player with 100 or more strikeouts (107) and no home runs.

Blue Jays fans booed “the much-maligned and often maddening shortstop,” the Star reported.

Highs and lows

Larry Hisle joined the 1992 Blue Jays as hitting coach and said the flaw in Lee’s batting approach was obvious. “There is a lot of movement in the upper body,” Hisle told the Star. “On some pitches, his head moves as much as 12 inches.”

At spring training, “I have spent more time with (Lee) than with any other player,” Hisle said. “He has listened and he has worked. I’m urging him to concentrate on putting the ball in play.”

Lee improved, producing a career-best .343 on-base percentage and hitting .330 with runners in scoring position for the 1992 Blue Jays. He also achieved the second-highest fielding percentage among American League shortstops and didn’t commit an error on a ground ball all season. According to the Star, Blue Jays coach Gene Tenace called Lee “one of the unsung heroes of this team.” Lee credited Hisle. “He gave me confidence,” Lee told the newspaper.

In Game 3 of the playoffs against the Athletics, Lee’s two-run triple with two outs in the seventh propelled the Blue Jays to victory. They went on to win the pennant and the World Series championship. Boxscore

Granted free agency, Lee got a two-year guaranteed $3.4 million contract from the Rangers, but his time in Texas didn’t begin well. In 1993, he clashed with manager Kevin Kennedy and had what the Fort Worth Star-Telegram described as “an injury-riddled, error-prone, turmoil-laden debut season with the Rangers.”

The next year, strike-shortened 1994, Lee did better. He hit .278 (second-best batting average of his big-league career) and .337 with runners in scoring position. Though primarily the shortstop, Lee also played second base for the first time in four years and made no errors in 108.1 innings there.

Opening and closing

The Cardinals took notice. After the strike ended on April 2, 1995, the Cardinals went looking for infield help. On April 18, a week before the start of the season, they signed two free agents _ Lee and Luis Rivera _ and had them compete for a spot on the Opening Day roster. Lee won the job, expecting to back up Ozzie Smith at short and Geronimo Pena at second.

However, two days before the season opener, Pena pulled a hamstring running to second base _ on a ground-rule double. Manager Joe Torre picked Lee, 29, to replace him.

“I never thought that I would be the Opening Day second baseman,” Lee said to the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat. “I feel comfortable here, relaxed. There’s no pressure on me any more.” He also told the newspaper that playing alongside Ozzie Smith was “a dream for me.”

The dream turned into a nightmare, though, in the season opener against the Phillies at St. Louis.

In batting practice, Lee’s line drive struck coach Gaylen Pitts in the chest. Though Pitts wasn’t seriously hurt _ “It didn’t get me in the heart,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “My heart is not big enough.” _ it was an omen of bad things ahead for Lee.

In the second inning, Phillies catcher Darren Daulton got an infield single on a ball Lee backhanded but couldn’t get out of his glove in time. In the third, pitcher Curt Schilling also got an infield hit on a bouncer to Lee, who again had trouble releasing the ball after fielding it and threw low and late to first.

Later in the inning, with Mickey Morandini the runner on second, Gregg Jefferies hit another bouncer toward Lee. “The ball glanced off the glove of Lee, who reached for it again and then tumbled flat on his back,” the Post-Dispatch reported. “Morandini, who had held at third, motored home” and Jefferies reached first on the error.

Adding injury to insult, Lee sprained his right ankle on the play. He received medical attention but stayed in the game.

Asked whether he should have made the plays on the grounders hit by Daulton, Schilling and Jefferies, Lee told the Post-Dispatch, “I used to, but I haven’t played second base for a full year.”

Leading off the bottom of the third in his first Cardinals plate appearance, Lee singled to left and eventually scored on a Scott Cooper single. After the inning, Lee was unable to continue on the sprained ankle and was replaced at second by Jose Oquendo.

Rick Hummel of the Post-Dispatch wrote, “It’s fairly probable that the Manny Lee Show at second base will have a short run.” Boxscore and Video

More to the story

Lee was placed on the 15-day disabled list and the Cardinals called up Tripp Cromer from the minors to replace him.

When Lee’s ankle healed, he played in 12 games for Cardinals farm clubs on an injury rehabilitation assignment. Ready to rejoin the Cardinals, he returned to St. Louis but was told the club was happy with Cromer. Lee was released and finished as a player.

In his quirky stint as a Cardinal, Lee had a higher batting average (1.000) than his fielding average (.800). As the Post-Dispatch noted, it “was a generous” .800.

According to baseball-reference.com, Lee remains the only Cardinal to play in just one game for them and have a 1.000 batting average.

Nine others have 1.000 batting averages as Cardinals, but all played in multiple games for them, according to baseball-reference.com. In alphabetical order, those nine are:

_ Bryan Augenstein, 2011, five games, one plate appearance, one hit.

_ Justin Burnette, 2000, four games, one plate appearance, one hit.

_ Eddie Fisher, 1973, six games, one plate appearance, one hit.

_ Larry Herndon, 1974, 12 games, one plate appearance, one hit.

_ Bob McClure, 1991-92, 103 games, one plate appearance, one hit.

_ Kevin Ohme, 2003, two games, one plate appearance, one hit.

_ Tige Stone, 1923, five games, three plate appearances, one hit, two walks.

_ Abe White, 1937, five games, one plate appearance, one hit.

_ Esteban Yan, 2003, 35 games, one plate appearance, one hit.

After his playing days, Lee stayed in the Dominican Republic. In August 2004, he was in the news there but not for baseball. Using a .38-caliber pistol, Lee shot and killed Edwin Gomez Vasquez, 28, who Lee suspected was trying to rob his residence in San Pedro de Macoris, the daily newspaper, Diario Libre, reported.

Posted in Games, Hitters | 11 Comments »

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