RetroSimba

How Dave Collins became player, coach for Cardinals

February 15, 2020 by retrosimba

The Cardinals gave Dave Collins a chance to extend his playing days and to begin a coaching career in the major leagues.

Collins, 37, signed a minor-league contract with the Cardinals on Feb. 16, 1990, and was invited to audition for a spot with the big-league club at spring training.

A switch-hitter with speed, Collins was an outfielder, but the Cardinals envisioned him as a candidate for multiple roles, including pinch-hitter, pinch-runner and defensive replacement for Pedro Guerrero at first base.

Collins won a spot on the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster and spent the 1990 season with them. In 1991 and 1992, he was the Cardinals’ first-base coach and mentored players such as Ray Lankford, Bernard Gilkey and Felix Jose on base running and outfield play.

Career options

Born and raised in Rapid City, S.D., Collins was a top high school athlete in baseball, basketball, football and track. He ran the 100-yard dash in 9.6 seconds. A slender 5-foot-11, Collins was recruited by multiple colleges and opted to pursue a baseball career.

“I got a lot of offers and was seriously thinking about playing basketball, but I knew if I played it would just be in college and that would be it,” Collins told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I thought I would have a better chance of becoming a professional baseball player.”

After a year at Mesa Community College in Arizona, Collins was drafted by the Angels in June 1972 and signed with them. The Angels had Dick Williams as manager and Whitey Herzog as coach when Collins, 22, made his major-league debut with them in June 1975.

Collins played 16 seasons in the majors for the Angels, Mariners, Reds, Yankees, Blue Jays, Athletics, Tigers and Cardinals, producing 1,335 hits and 395 stolen bases.

His best seasons were 1980, when he hit .303, scored 94 runs and had 79 stolen bases for the Reds, and 1984, when he hit .308 with 15 triples and 60 steals for the Blue Jays.

Bench help

Fifteen years after he coached Collins with the Angels, Herzog was manager of the Cardinals in 1990 when they went looking for a pinch-hitter.

According to the Post-Dispatch, the Cardinals pursued Keith Moreland, 35, a free agent who’d spent most of his career with the Phillies and Cubs. When Moreland informed the Cardinals he intended to retire, they turned to Collins.

“He gives us a little bit of experience and he’s better than what we had,” Herzog said.

Though Collins signed a minor-league deal, he said he’d quit if he didn’t earn a spot on the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster.

“I told them I didn’t want to end my career in triple-A,” Collins said. “Either I make the club or I go home. I feel comfortable I can still play.”

Chance to coach

Once the season started, Herzog was pleased with Collins’ fielding at first base, saying, “I really think he has played better there than I thought he could play,” but not with his hitting. Collins had two hits in his first 25 at-bats. When his wife gave birth to a son in June 1990, Collins told the Post-DIspatch, “If I make another out, my baby is going to weigh more than my batting average.”

In July 1990, Herzog resigned and was replaced by Joe Torre in August.

Collins worked to stay fit and make a good impression, running up and down the steps at Busch Memorial Stadium before home games. “I’ve been with eight organizations and this is the best one,” Collins said. “I’d like to stay here.”

Collins finished the 1990 season with a .366 on-base percentage, including .406 as a pinch-hitter. Torre asked him to join his coaching staff and Collins accepted.

“Collins has had some pretty good tutors along the way, like Joe Morgan,” Torre said. “Young players need constant surveillance, somebody to hook on to, to talk to.”

According to the Post-Dispatch, Collins would “instruct young outfielders such as Felix Jose and Ray Lankford” and “work on base stealing with those two and Bernard Gilkey, among others.”

Collins instructed veterans, too. At spring training in 1991, he helped utility player Rex Hudler improve his outfield play. Hudler said Collins taught “how to charge the ball, what foot to field it on, throwing over the top, and picking up a dead ball off the wall after you’ve chased it down. He’s given me a lot of tips and tricks.”

Resetting priorities

After the 1991 season, Collins took a job during the winter as head coach of a boys’ high school basketball team in Anna, Ohio, near Dayton.

“It’s something I always thought about doing,” Collins said. “Basketball was my first love. The only way I can still stay in touch with it is to coach it.”

Collins arranged for Cardinals and Reds players to compete in a charity basketball game at the high school. Players included Lee Smith, Rich Gedman, Milt Thompson and Tim Jones of the Cardinals and the Reds’ Barry Larkin, Paul O’Neill, Hal Morris and Rob Dibble, one of the relievers known as the Nasty Boys.

“If we’d have been charting fouls, Dibble would have fouled out before the game even started,” Collins said. “He was out of control.”

Asked about Lee Smith, the Cardinals’ 6-foot-5 closer, Collins said, “He can really play. He hit about 10 three-pointers.”

After a second season as Cardinals coach in 1992, Collins went back to Ohio and coached high school basketball again.

When Collins reported to 1993 spring training to begin his third year as Cardinals coach, his heart was tugging him back to Ohio, where his two toddlers lived, and where the prep basketball team he coached still was playing its season.

Collins asked the Cardinals to be reassigned so he could spend more time in Ohio. The club granted the request, making him an advance scout.

Collins’ departure from the coaching staff saddened Lankford, who credited him with being a mentor.

“You felt comfortable going to him if you had a problem, or if you weren’t sure about certain things,” Lankford said. “He made the outfield what it was _ Felix, Gilkey, myself. I’m speaking for everybody. We’re going to miss him.”

In January 2020, Collins joined the baseball coaching staff of Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, Ind.

Posted in Hitters | 5 Comments »

Roger Kahn and his insights about the Cardinals

February 12, 2020 by retrosimba

(Updated March 5, 2023)

Roger Kahn, who gained prominence for his work about the Dodgers, wrote extensively about the Cardinals as well.

A newspaper and magazine journalist, Kahn wrote 20 or so books, including the 1972 classic “The Boys of Summer” about his hometown Brooklyn Dodgers.

After covering sports for the New York Herald Tribune, Kahn wrote for magazines such as Collier’s, The Saturday Evening Post and Sports Illustrated.

Kahn was respected by colleagues and the baseball people he covered. In February 1954, he called former Cardinals and Dodgers executive Branch Rickey, who had moved to the front office of the Pirates, at his spring training base in Fort Pierce, Fla., and was “offered a job,” The Sporting News reported.

When Kahn asked Rickey how long it would take him to do for the Pirates what he did for the Cardinals and Dodgers, Rickey replied, “I need help. If you know how to help a tail end ballclub, come down here. I’ll pay you more than you’re making. I don’t care what it is.”

Lane explains

In May 1956, Dodgers outfielder Duke Snider was the subject of a controversial Kahn article in Collier’s titled, “I Play Baseball For Money, Not Fun.”

A month later, in The Saturday Evening Post, Kahn wrote about Cardinals general manager Frank Lane in a piece titled, “I’m Here To Win A Pennant.” Lane was in his first season with the Cardinals and created a ruckus by trading players such as Red Schoendienst, Harvey Haddix and Bill Virdon.

“I didn’t come to St. Louis to raise red roses or tell after-dinner stories or take the tenor lead in ‘Hearts and Flowers,’ ” Lane told Kahn. “I came here to win a pennant and that’s exactly what I intend to do any way I can.

“I’ve got a program here to keep the club growing and improving,” Lane said. “I want to tell the other general managers around the National League that, with our fine farm clubs, and with the tough core we’ve welded, I’m not going to have to jump at every little offer for a trade. If I see something good, though, they’d better be ready.”

Lane lasted two seasons with the Cardinals and didn’t win a pennant.

Prideful struggle

Four years later, in September 1960, Kahn wrote a story on Stan Musial for Sports Illustrated titled, “Benching of a Legend.”

Musial, 39, was hitting .250 when he was benched by Cardinals manager Solly Hemus. Musial was kept out of the starting lineup from May 27 through June 23. His season batting average fell to .229 on June 25, but Musial recovered by hitting .352 in July and finished the year at .275 with 17 home runs.

Musial “intends to end his career with dignity and with base hits,” Kahn wrote. “Neither comes easily to a ballplayer several years past his peak, and so to Musial, a man accustomed to ease and to humility, this has been a summer of agony and pride.”

Regarding Musial’s struggles in the first part of the season, Kahn concluded, “Athletes, like chorus girls, are usually the last to admit that age has affected them, and Musial appeared to be following the familiar unhappy pattern.”

In an interview with Kahn, Hemus said, “What’s my obligation as manager? It’s not to a friendship, no matter how much I like a guy. My obligation is to the organization that hired me and to 25 ballplayers. I have to win. Stan was hurting the club. He wasn’t hitting and balls were getting by him at first base.”

Kahn reported, “Musial hated the bench. He confided to a few friends that he wouldn’t mind being traded to a club that would play him every day.”

After returning to the starting lineup, Musial told Kahn, “Maybe my wheels are gone, but I’ll be able to hit like hell for a long time.”

Musial went on to play three more seasons for the Cardinals, including 1962 when he hit .330, before retiring at 42.

High praise

When “The Boys of Summer” came out in February 1972, it received a glowing review from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which called Kahn’s work “a magnificent sports volume” and “a book which is redolent of dream and magic and which finds a common ground between one boyhood in a big city and lots of boyhoods in many other places.”

In September 1972, when Kahn was in St. Louis for a Cubs-Cardinals series, columnist Jerome Holtzman wrote in The Sporting News, “A half-dozen ballplayers got into line to meet and shake hands with Roger Kahn, who was in town promoting his bestselling ‘Boys of Summer.’ I had never seen players line up to meet a writer, and Kahn said it was a big thrill for him.”

Pitching lessons

In 2000, Kahn’s book, “The Head Game,” was published. It focused on pitchers, including two who were prominent with the Cardinals, Bob Gibson and Bruce Sutter.

Gibson told Kahn, “Pitching is inexact. It begins as a craft, working with your hands, but the longer you go, if you know how to think, the more it becomes an art.”

To illustrate, Gibson cited how he threw fewer knockdown pitches as he gained experience.

“As the art, the thinking, takes over, I’ve come to realize not everyone is bothered by knockdowns and some of them are afraid of my fastball, whether I throw at them or not,” Gibson said.

Like Gibson, Sutter won head games with batters. A Cardinals closer, Sutter did it with an innovative pitch, the split-fingered fastball.

“It was some time before I could control the splitter the way I had to,” Sutter told Kahn. “After a while, I found out I did best throwing for the top of the catcher’s mask. That became my target. If I used a wide finger split, the ball would end up in the dirt. If I split the fingers a little less, it would be a strike at the knees.

“Once in a while,” said Sutter, “maybe one pitch in 10, to cross them up, I’d play real dirty. I’d throw a straight fastball that didn’t drop at all.”

Sutter was taught the split-fingered pitch by Cubs minor-league instructor and ex-Cardinals pitcher Fred Martin. Sutter told Kahn that he and Martin later taught the pitch to another ex-Cardinal, Roger Craig, who as a pitching coach and manager encouraged his pitchers to throw it.

“I was the guy who showed Roger Craig how to throw a splitter,” Sutter said to Kahn. “I was with the Cubs. Craig was pitching coach for San Diego. Fred Martin was there with me on the major league club that day, and on the sideline there I showed Roger how to throw it. Then Fred spent some time talking to him about it. I’m sure Roger came up with modifications, but it was Fred Martin and I who showed him the pitch.”

Posted in Executives, Hitters, Pitchers | 6 Comments »

Top 5 Canadian Cardinals of all-time

February 9, 2020 by retrosimba

(Updated March 9, 2021)

The election of outfielder Larry Walker to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020 qualifies him as the top Canadian to play for the Cardinals.

Here’s a look at the five best Canadian Cardinals:

LARRY WALKER

Acquired from the Rockies on Aug. 6, 2004, Walker, 37, hit .280 in 44 games for the 2004 Cardinals. With a .393 on-base percentage, the right fielder helped the Cardinals win a division title.

In the 2004 postseason, Walker hit six home runs: two in the National League Division Series versus the Dodgers, two in the NL Championship Series against the Astros and two in the World Series versus the Red Sox.

In Game 1 at Fenway Park in Boston, Walker, appearing in a World Series for the first time, was 4-for-5, including two doubles and a home run, and two RBI. Boxscore

The Associated Press noted, “He hasn’t allowed the atmosphere to overwhelm him. He said he was most excited about seeing Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, who sang ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ standing a few feet away from him.”

Born in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Walker became the second Canadian to hit a home run in a World Series game. The first was George Selkirk for the 1936 Yankees against the Giants.

In 2005, his final season, Walker hit .289 for the Cardinals. His .384 on-base percentage helped them qualify for the postseason again.

RON TAYLOR

A right-handed pitcher who could start and relieve, Taylor was 19-12 with 20 saves in three seasons (1963-65) with the Cardinals. His best pitches were a sinking fastball and slider.

Acquired from the Indians on Dec. 15, 1962, the Toronto native was a prominent member of the Cardinals’ staff in 1964 when they won a World Series title.

“As long as we have him in the bullpen, we’ll be well-fortified,” Cardinals consultant Branch Rickey told The Sporting News.

In the 1964 World Series against the Yankees, Taylor allowed no hits in 4.2 scoreless innings of relief.

Five years later, in the 1969 World Series for the Mets versus the Orioles, Taylor allowed no hits in 2.1 scoreless innings of relief.

His career statistics in the World Series: seven innings pitched, no hits, no runs and two saves.

Taylor, who earned a degree in engineering from the University of Toronto in 1961, enrolled in medical school after his playing career, graduated in 1977 and became the team physician of the Blue Jays in 1979.

REGGIE CLEVELAND

Born in Swift Current, Canada, the pitcher was 17 when he signed with the Cardinals as an amateur free agent in August 1965.

He made his Cardinals debut with a start against the Phillies on Oct. 1, 1969.

Cleveland lost his first six big-league decisions before outdueling Juan Marichal and beating the Giants at San Francisco on April 20, 1971.

Cleveland’s best season with the Cardinals was 1973 when he was 14-10 with a 3.01 ERA in 32 starts.

Though he threw right-handed, Cleveland used his left hand to eat, write and play other sports such as bowling and billiards.

“If somebody gave me a million dollars, I still couldn’t pitch left-handed,” Cleveland told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

In five seasons with the Cardinals, Cleveland was 40-41 with eight shutouts and 27 complete games.

RHEAL CORMIER

A left-handed pitcher, Cormier was chosen by the Cardinals in the sixth round of the amateur draft in 1988 when he was a member of the Canadian Olympic team.

A native of Moncton, Canada, he spent college summers working as a lumberjack.

Cormier played for the Cardinals for four seasons (1991-94). Appearing in 87 games, including 68 as a starter, he was 24-23.

His best Cardinals season was 1992 when he won his last seven decisions in a row and finished 10-10 in 30 starts. The winning streak was a relief for Cormier after he lost 10 of his first 13 decisions. He told the Post-Dispatch, “My wife and I were talking. She said we could be back in Canada chopping wood.”

TYLER O’NEILL

A native of Burnaby, Canada, O’Neill went to high school in Larry Walker’s hometown of Maple Ridge. In 1975, O’Neill’s father was named Mr. Canada for winning the nation’s bodybuilding championship.

O’Neill, who played the piano as a youth, is a power-hitting outfielder who bats right-handed.

Selected by the Mariners in the third round of the 2013 amateur draft, O’Neill was acquired by the Cardinals for pitcher Marco Gonzales on July 21, 2017.

In his first three seasons (2018-20) with the Cardinals, O’Neill had far more strikeouts (153) than hits (94), but the club remained intrigued by his slugging potential.

“I get overanxious and I swing at stuff I shouldn’t swing at,” O’Neill told the Post-Dispatch in January 2020. “When I’m in my groove, I’m not chasing nearly as much and I have the ability to play in this league and excel in this league.”

SPECIAL MENTION

_ Tip O’Neill: A native of Springfield, Canada, the outfielder never played for the Cardinals but he did play for their predecessors.

O’Neill spent seven seasons (1884-89 and 1891) with the St. Louis Browns of the American Association, a major league at the time. The American Association Browns were unrelated to the St. Louis Browns of the American League. In 1892, the American Association Browns joined the National League and eventually were renamed the Cardinals.

O’Neill, a right-handed batter, hit .344 during his St. Louis years, with an on-base percentage of .406.

_ Dave McKay: The Vancouver native was a Cardinals coach for 16 seasons (1996-2011) and helped them win three pennants and two World Series titles. His son, Cody McKay, also a Canadian, was a Cardinals utility player in 2004.

_ Stubby Clapp: A native of Windsor, Canada, Clapp became a Cardinals coach in 2019 after a successful stint as a manager in their farm system. Clapp managed Memphis to consecutive Pacific Coast League titles in 2017 and 2018.

His big-league playing career consisted of 23 games as a utility player for the Cardinals in 2001.

_ April 14, 1969: The Cardinals faced the Expos at Montreal in the first regular-season big-league game played outside the United States.

Posted in Hitters, Pitchers | 5 Comments »

How Herman Franks caught on with Cardinals

February 6, 2020 by retrosimba

Herman Franks was a player, coach and manager in the major leagues for five decades and it all began with the Cardinals.

A catcher who batted left-handed, Franks made his major-league debut with the Cardinals in 1939 as a backup to Mickey Owen.

With Owen as the starter and prospect Walker Cooper waiting in the minors, Franks was unlikely to get much playing time.

On Feb. 6, 1940, the Cardinals sold Franks’ contract to the Dodgers, who were managed by Leo Durocher, the former Cardinals shortstop. Durocher played a pivotal role in Franks’ career.

Divine intervention

Franks was born in Price, Utah, where his father, an Italian immigrant, and mother settled.

In high school, Franks excelled at multiple sports. He opted to pursue a baseball career. At 18, Franks signed with the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League and played a few games for them in 1932 and 1933. Overmatched, Franks was advised by manager Ossie Vitt to go home.

“He didn’t think I’d ever be a good ballplayer,” Franks told The Sporting News.

Franks enrolled at the University of Utah and played amateur baseball for a Catholic Youth Organization team. The Catholic bishop of Salt Lake City recommended Franks to Cardinals scout Charley Barrett.

In the spring of 1935, Barrett invited Franks to a Cardinals tryout camp in Houston. Franks impressed Barrett and was signed. The Cardinals sent him to a farm team in Jacksonville, Texas, tomato capital of the world, in the West Dixie League and paid him $100 a month.

“I was just glad to make the club and be back in baseball,” Franks said.

Looking the part

Franks worked his way up the Cardinals’ system. At Sacramento in 1937 and 1938, Franks played for manager Bill Killefer, a former big-league catcher who managed the Cubs from 1921-25 and was a coach for the 1926 World Series champion Cardinals.

“Men in the Cardinals organization have a high regard for Killefer’s judgment,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted.

At spring training in 1939, Franks, 25, fulfilled expectations.

“Franks is built for catching, looks like he has been behind the plate all his life, throws accurately and easily and has the reputation of being a smart receiver,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

The Cardinals opened the 1939 season with Franks and Don Padgett as backups to Owen.

“Pitchers like to throw to Herman Franks.” the Post-Dispatch reported. “He chatters incessantly behind the plate, makes a fine target, isn’t afraid to assume responsibility and is said to be a good thrower.”

Twist of fate

Franks started for the first time in the majors on May 2, 1939, against the Braves at Boston. It was a bittersweet experience.

In the second inning, Franks drove in Johnny Mize from second base with his first big-league hit, a looping single to left against Danny MacFayden.

Moments later, Franks wrenched his left leg when he caught his spikes in the bag sliding back to first while eluding a pickoff throw, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported. Franks departed and was replaced by Owen. Boxscore

Sidelined for three weeks, Franks seldom played when he returned.

Sad times

On July 4, 1939, Franks was saddened to learn Charley Barrett, the scout who gave him his big break, died of heart disease at 68.

After the Cardinals played a night game at Cincinnati on July 6, manager Ray Blades and four players, Franks, Owen, Don Gutteridge and Pepper Martin, returned to St. Louis for Barrett’s funeral service the next morning while the rest of the team went to Pittsburgh for a series against the Pirates.

Among the pallbearers were Cardinals owner Sam Breadon, executive Branch Rickey and Martin. According to the Globe-Democrat, “Martin was always considered by Barrett as the greatest player he ever discovered.”

The day after Barrett’s funeral, Franks was sent to a farm club in Columbus, Ohio, after the Cardinals tried to trade him.

“Wonder how much truth there is to the report that the Cardinals offered catcher Herman Franks and $30,000 to Kansas City (a Yankees farm club) for Joe DiMaggio’s brother, Vince,” the Globe-Democrat reported.

Franks batted .297 for Columbus and was called up to the Cardinals in September. For the season, Franks had one hit in 17 at-bats for the Cardinals.

Dodgers days

Killefer, a coach on Durocher’s staff with the 1939 Dodgers, recommended the club acquire Franks.

The Dodgers opened the 1940 season with Babe Phelps as their starting catcher and a pair of former Cardinals, Franks and Gus Mancuso, as backups. In 1941, Owen, acquired from the Cardinals, was the Dodgers’ starting catcher, with Franks and Phelps in reserve.

The Dodgers won the 1941 National League pennant.

In Game 1 of the 1941 World Series at Yankee Stadium, Durocher lifted Owen for a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning. In the ninth, with the Yankees ahead, 3-2, the Dodgers had Joe Medwick on second, Pee Wee Reese on first and one out, with Franks due up. Durocher would have preferred to send a pinch-hitter, Augie Galan, but he couldn’t because Franks was their only available catcher.

On the first pitch from Red Ruffing, Franks grounded to second baseman Joe Gordon, who fielded the ball and flipped to shortstop Phil Rizzuto.

Rizzuto tagged the bag just before Reese arrived. Reese slid hard into Rizzuto, hurling him into the air, but not before Rizzuto made a throw to first to nab Franks and complete a game-ending double play. Boxscore

Career choices

Franks enlisted in the Navy in 1942 and served for four years. After his discharge in 1946, Franks, 32, played for the Dodgers’ Montreal farm club.

Rickey, who left the Cardinals for the Dodgers, made Franks the manager of the St. Paul farm team in 1947. In August, the Athletics, desperate for catching help, inquired about Franks.

“Mr. Rickey gave me my choice of staying on as a manager in St. Paul or going back to the big leagues again as a catcher,” Franks said.

Franks joined the Athletics for the last month of the 1947 season and was with them in 1948, too.

In 1949, Durocher, who became Giants manager, hired Franks to be a coach. Franks was a Giants coach for Durocher from 1949-55.

In his book, “The Echoing Green,” author Joshua Prager revealed Durocher’s Giants stole signs of opposing catchers. Franks used a telescope from a perch above the center field wall at the Polo Grounds to view the signs and relay them via a buzzer system, according to the book.

When the Giants fired manager Alvin Dark after the 1964 season, Franks replaced him. He managed the Giants for four seasons (1965-68) and finished in second place each year, including 1967 and 1968 when the Cardinals prevailed.

Franks also managed the Cubs from 1977-79.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Prospects, Trades | 2 Comments »

Dusty Baker: A mystical path from Purple Haze to Astros

February 4, 2020 by retrosimba

(Updated April 5, 2023)

Dusty Baker was 19 when he debuted in the majors with the Braves against the Astros in 1968.

Baker was 73 when he managed the Astros to a World Series championship in 2022.

Music man

Johnnie B. Baker was born in Riverside, Calif. When he was a boy, his mother called him Dusty because he often got dust all over himself while playing, according to The New Yorker magazine.

Baker was a gifted athlete with a passion for music. He played the piano as a youth.

“Deep down inside, I don’t think of myself so much as a baseball man as I see myself as a music man, a blues man and much more than that,” Baker said in his 2015 book “Kiss The Sky.”

When he was 10, Baker wanted to stop playing baseball. “I couldn’t figure out what the big deal was playing ball,” Baker recalled to The Sporting News, “but, thankfully, my father wouldn’t let me quit. He kept me going, kept up my interest in playing.”

After he moved with his parents to the Sacramento area, Baker was the lead singer and only black member of a garage band. “I was going to be Hootie and the Blowfish before Hootie,” Baker said.

He excelled in multiple prep sports, including baseball, and was selected by the Braves in the 26th round of the amateur draft in June 1967, a week before he turned 18. The scout who recommended him to the Braves was Bob Zuk, who signed Willie Stargell for the Pirates and Reggie Jackson for the Athletics.

As an 18th birthday present, Baker’s mother bought tickets for him and a friend to the three-day June 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, featuring performances by Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Buffalo Springfield, Jefferson Airplane and Otis Redding, among others.

Turning pro

In a Zoom interview with the Baseball Hall of Fame on April 4, 2023, Baker recalled, “As a kid, I was always a Dodgers fan … I prayed that the Braves would not draft me. I didn’t want to go to the South.”

In August 1967, two months after they drafted him, the Braves brought Baker for a workout at Dodger Stadium and he said he got a warm welcome from the likes of Hank Aaron, Felipe Alou and Joe Torre.

After signing with the Braves that month, Baker reported to their Austin, Texas, farm club. Austin was managed by Hub Kittle, who would become the pitching coach for the 1982 World Series champion Cardinals.

Two of Austin’s most prominent players were Cito Gaston and Walt Hriniak. Like Baker, Gaston would become a Braves outfielder and a big-league manager, leading the Blue Jays to World Series titles in 1992 and 1993. Hriniak would become an influential hitting coach who mentored Hall of Famers Wade Boggs and Frank Thomas, among others.

Baker joined Austin too late in the season to do much, but it was a different story the next year. He hit .342 for the farm club at Greenwood, S.C., in 1968 and was called up to the Braves in September.

Big time

On Sept. 7, 1968, the Astros led the Braves, 2-0, at Atlanta when Baker appeared in a big-league game for the first time, batting for a future Hall of Famer, pitcher Phil Niekro, with one out and the bases empty. Facing Denny Lemaster, Baker grounded out to short.

Baker’s teammates in the game included four future Hall of Famers: players Hank Aaron, Joe Torre and Niekro, plus coach Satchel Paige.

The game had four players who would become big-league managers: Baker, Felipe Alou, Torre and the Astros’ Doug Rader. Boxscore

Baker made the most of his stint with the 1968 Braves. “You see the way he’s hitting the ball in batting practice?” Braves manager Lum Harris said to the Atlanta Constitution.

Baker’s first big-league hit was a single against the Astros’ Mike Cuellar, a former Cardinal. Boxscore His second hit was a single versus future Hall of Famer Juan Marichal of the Giants. Boxscore

“Baker will be a big-league star,” Lum Harris said. “I’d bet on that.”

After the season, Baker returned to California. In his book, he said he was on a street in San Francisco when he had a chance encounter with Jimi Hendrix and smoked a joint with him.

Distinguished career

In 1972, Baker’s first full season with the Braves, Hank Aaron said, “He does everything now but hit with consistent power. He’ll do that. I think he’ll hit between 25 and 30 homers a year in the future.”

Baker hit 20 or more home runs in a season six times, including a career high of 30 with the 1977 Dodgers.

In 19 seasons as a big-league player with the Braves, Dodgers, Giants and Athletics, Baker had 1,981 hits and 1,013 RBI.

Before accepting the Astros job in January 2020, Baker managed the Giants, Cubs, Reds and Nationals. The 2022 World Series title was his first as a manager.

Baker played for 11 managers in the big leagues: Lum Harris, Eddie Mathews, Clyde King and Connie Ryan with the Braves; Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda with the Dodgers; Frank Robinson and Danny Ozark with the Giants; and Jackie Moore, Jeff Newman and Tony La Russa with the Athletics.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Managers | 4 Comments »

Jesse Haines and his election to the Hall of Fame

February 1, 2020 by retrosimba

After Jesse Haines transformed into a knuckleball pitcher, the Cardinals transformed into a National League powerhouse.

On Feb. 1, 1970, Haines, 76, was rewarded for his achievements when he got elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Haines pitched 18 seasons (1920-37) for the Cardinals. When he joined them after pitching one game for the Reds, the Cardinals were perennial losers. He helped them be perennial contenders.

Haines pitched for five pennant-winning Cardinals clubs and three World Series champions. The right-hander remains the Cardinals’ all-time leader in games pitched (554) and ranks second in wins (210), complete games (209) and innings pitched (3,203.2).

Down on the farm

Haines was born and raised in Ohio farm country near Dayton. He excelled at baseball as a youth and became a professional at age 20 when he joined an independent minor-league team in Saginaw, Mich.

In July 1918, Haines was pitching for another minor-league club in Hutchinson, Kan., when his contract was purchased by the Reds. On July 20, 1918, two days before his 25th birthday, Haines made his major-league debut, allowing one run in five innings of relief versus the Braves at Cincinnati. Boxscore

The Reds, managed by Christy Mathewson, released Haines soon after his debut, but he revived his career by posting a 21-5 record for a minor-league team in Kansas City in 1919.

Multiple major-league teams, including the Cardinals, were interested in Haines. The cash-strapped Cardinals finished 54-83 in 1919 and 51-78 the year before. Manager Branch Rickey, whose farm system wasn’t in place yet, was desperate for talent and was determined not to let Haines get away. Rickey borrowed $10,000 from banks in order to purchase Haines’ contract from the Kansas City club.

Perfect pitch

Haines turned 27 in his first season with the Cardinals. Relying primarily on a fastball, he earned 13 wins in 1920 and 18 in 1921. With Haines leading the pitching staff and Rogers Hornsby producing runs, the 1921 Cardinals were 87-66.

At spring training in 1922, Haines, looking to add a pitch, approached Athletics knuckleballer Eddie Rommel before an exhibition game and asked for a lesson.

“Eddie would dig his fingernails into the cover of the ball and just use the front knuckles,” Haines told the Dayton Daily News. “I tried it, but couldn’t control the ball that way.”

Haines worked throughout the 1922 season to find a comfortable grip for throwing the knuckler. Haines said he settled on “using the first and middle fingers and pressing the two knuckles down between the seams. I put my thumb down under and it worked fine.”

Haines unveiled his knuckleball in 1923 and earned 20 wins for the Cardinals. The knuckler became his signature pitch.

“When I threw sidearm, it broke down and away,” Haines said. “When I threw overhand, it broke straight down. I knew exactly what the pitch would do.”

Haines threw his pitch much harder than other knuckleballers. “Because of the way he gripped a baseball and the way he threw it, it was a common occurrence for him to finish a game with his fingertips bleeding,” columnist Red Smith observed. “He must have had exceptionally strong fingers, which he used like talons. He gripped the ball with the very tips, went up high on his toes in the middle of his delivery and came over the top with a furious motion.”

Determined to win

Haines was a fierce competitor who flashed a temper when he lost.

“He could be kind, gentlemanly, considerate and philosophical, except when he pitched,” Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted. “He was the darndest hard loser.”

In 1935, when Haines was 42 and called “Pops” by his teammates, he surprised rookie outfielder Terry Moore by tearing up the clubhouse in Cincinnati after a loss to the Reds.

“I never forgot how much Haines expected of himself and of others,” Moore said.

Among Haines’ top performances for the Cardinals:

_ On July 17, 1924, Haines pitched a no-hitter against the Braves at St. Louis. Casey Stengel made the last out on a grounder to Hornsby at second. Boxscore

_ On Oct, 5, 1926, Haines pitched a shutout and hit a home run in Game 3 of the World Series versus the Yankees. It was the first World Series game played at St. Louis. Boxscore

_ Exactly four years later, on Oct. 5, 1930, Haines pitched a four-hitter and outdueled Lefty Grove to win Game 4 of the World Series against the Athletics at St. Louis. Haines also drove in a run with a single. Boxscore

Game 7 winner

Haines was overshadowed in the biggest win of his career.

On Oct. 10, 1926, Haines got the start in Game 7 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. Throwing mostly hard knuckleballs, Haines was effective but the effort took a toll on his fingers.

In the seventh inning, with the Cardinals ahead, 3-2, a big blister developed on a finger Haines used to grip the knuckler. Struggling to control the pitch, Haines yielded a single and two walks. With the bases full of Yankees and two outs, Hornsby, the Cardinals’ player-manager, made a mound visit.

“When I showed the blister to Hornsby, he decided to take me out,” Haines told United Press International.

Grover Cleveland Alexander, who started and won Game 6, relieved Haines, struck out Tony Lazzeri to escape the bases-loaded jam and shut out the Yankees over the last two innings, clinching the Cardinals’ first World Series championship. “I went straight to the clubhouse and didn’t see Alex strike out Lazzeri,” Haines said.

Haines was the winning pitcher but Alexander became the legend. Boxscore

Magic moment

Haines was 44 when he pitched his last game for the Cardinals in 1937. He was 210-158 for them in his career. He also was 3-1 in four World Series.

After his baseball career, Haines was a county auditor in Ohio.

When informed of his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Haines said, “I’d hoped that if I ever was going to get into the Hall it would come before I passed on. Now it’s happened. I’m kind of broke up about it.”

The Veterans Committee considered candidates who had been out of the game for 20 years or more. Among the committee members were Haines’ Cardinals teammate, Frankie Frisch, and retired Post-Dispatch journalist J. Roy Stockton.

“Haines is a worthy, worthy man,” Frisch told the Associated Press. “He was a great competitor, a fine fellow on and off the field. Any club would want a fellow like him.”

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