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RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
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Posted: 12/19/2012 9:57 AM
RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
12/19: Russell Branyan (37), Tom Lawless (56).
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Posted: 12/20/2012 7:25 AM
RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
12/20: Chris Narveson (31), Jose DeLeon (52).
Last edited 12/20/2012 7:56 AM by Domeboys
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Posted: 12/20/2012 10:43 AM
RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
DeLeon was the last Card to lead the league in Ks. 20 or so years ago. Played on some pretty bad teams IIRC.
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Posted: 12/20/2012 12:44 PM
RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
I forgot a very important Cardinal - one of the most influential of all time - Branch Rickey (died 1965).
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Posted: 12/20/2012 1:52 PM
RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
More important to baseball than to the Cards even.
I stopped at his gravesight back in the 70s traveling with a couple older men who had been around the game and had known him quite well. One wanted to pay respects and the other didn't get out of the car. Somewhere in the appalachain region. He made a profound impression on many people, positive or negative.
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Posted: 12/21/2012 8:16 AM
Re: Today's Cardinals birthdays
12/21: Dustin Hermanson (40), Andy Van Slyke (52), Tom Henke (55), Joaquin Andujar (60). |
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Posted: 12/22/2012 7:09 AM
RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
Big birthday day today.
12/22: Lonnie Smith (57), Tom Underwood (died 2010), Steve Carlton (68), Matty Alou (died 2011), Charlie James (75).
Last edited 12/22/2012 8:15 AM by Domeboys
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Posted: 12/22/2012 12:00 PM
RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
blingboy wrote: DeLeon was the last Card to lead the league in Ks. 20 or so years ago. Played on some pretty bad teams IIRC. He was on a good team for us in 1989 (which may have been the year he led the league in K's, or was that 1988?). He was our #2 starter that year, winning 16 games. Joe Magrane was our ace, with 18 wins by the end of August - but he went 0-5 in six starts in September, the Cards collapsed (Worrell's early-September injury was a big reason why) and we wound up finishing third. Gussie Busch died right about that time, too. That was a rather frustrating end to what was Whitey's last good team in St. Louis - had we managed to win the thing, there was a pretty good chance that Magrane would have taken the CYA (instead of reliever Mark Davis) and Pedro Guerrero had a pretty good shot at MVP. Anyway, the Cards totally collapsed in 1990 and Whitey was gone by the end of July, never to manage again. |
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Posted: 12/22/2012 12:07 PM
RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
Domeboys wrote: Big birthday day today.
12/22: Lonnie Smith (57), Tom Underwood (died 2010), Steve Carlton (68), Matty Alou (died 2011), Charlie James (75). As for this group, all of them were involved in some rather well-remembered trades: Lonnie we picked up from Cleveland for Silvio Martinez and Lary Sorensen; the Indians had just gotten him from Philly for Bo Diaz and from what I remember, the Phils weren't too happy that Cleveland flipped him to us - they certainly wouldn't have wanted to trade Lonnie directly to the Cards. Underwood is the guy we got from the Phillies (along with a minor leaguer named Dane Iorg) in the Bake McBride deal in 1977. Bad deal that we can place squarely in the lap of Vern Rapp, one of the two worst managers the Cards ever had (Solly Hemus, of course, is #1). Underwood didn't do well for us, but we traded him after a year to the Blue Jays for Pete Vuckovich. The Carlton trade we all remember. Matty Alou, one of my all-time favorites even *before* we got him in the winter of 1970, came over in a deal for Nellie Briles and Vic Davalillo. Nellie had had a bad 1970 but rebounded nicely for the Pirates and won a game in the WS that year. Matty was picked up to fill the CF void left by the Flood trade (we had tried Jose Cardenal in 1970; he was gone by mid-'71). By the end of the '71 season, though, Alou was playing 1B (Jose Cruz was in CF, IIRC) after Joe Hague bombed out. Hague was gone by mid-'72 (in the deal for Bernie Carbo) and we moved Torre to 1B with the ascension of Ken Reitz to 3B. The early 70's were a frustrating time to be a Cards fan. There's a new book out called "Gibson's Last Stand" dealing with the 1969-75 Cards - it's got a few inaccuracies but is a very good book nonetheless. After all, as frustrating as those years were, those were my formative years as a Cards fan so I remember them fondly despite all the frustration. (I just wish somebody would tell us who the Cards were offering Houston for Joe Morgan in the winter of 1971-72). Charlie James was involved in two memorable trades - we got him from the Mets for Ken Boyer after the 1965 season then dealt him to the Yankees one year later for Roger Maris. |
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Posted: 12/23/2012 7:17 AM
RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
12/23: Rick White (44).
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Posted: 12/23/2012 7:41 AM
RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
Jmodene1 wrote:
Matty Alou, one of my all-time favorites even *before* we got him in the winter of 1970, came over in a deal for Nellie Briles and Vic Davalillo.
Harry used to pronounce Davalillo's name "Davaleechio". Now how in blazes can any person of sound mind get "Davaleechio" out of "Davalillo"? Let this be a good example to all of our young posters as to what years of drinking vast quantities of Busch beer can do to one's mind.
There's a new book out called "Gibson's Last Stand" dealing with the 1969-75 Cards - it's got a few inaccuracies but is a very good book nonetheless.
Now really, just how does JMo know what really occured in the Cardinal dugout during those years? Taking into consideration all of the neat Redbird stories that JMo can rattle off at the drop of a hat from that era, plus a few other tell tale signs, I'm beginning to think JMo was not in fact a weatherman down in the Bayou during that period.....but rather a player.....which one is anyone's guess but his pic does look a bit like Julian Javier with a dark wig on. |
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Posted: 12/24/2012 7:15 AM
RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
12/24: Jamey Wright (38), John Costello (52), John D’Acquisto (61).
Last edited 12/24/2012 7:17 AM by Domeboys
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Posted: 12/24/2012 11:29 AM
RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
pugsleyaddams wrote:
Jmodene1 wrote:
Matty Alou, one of my all-time favorites even *before* we got him in the winter of 1970, came over in a deal for Nellie Briles and Vic Davalillo.
Harry used to pronounce Davalillo's name "Davaleechio". Now how in blazes can any person of sound mind get "Davaleechio" out of "Davalillo"? Let this be a good example to all of our young posters as to what years of drinking vast quantities of Busch beer can do to one's mind.
There's a new book out called "Gibson's Last Stand" dealing with the 1969-75 Cards - it's got a few inaccuracies but is a very good book nonetheless.
Now really, just how does JMo know what really occured in the Cardinal dugout during those years? Taking into consideration all of the neat Redbird stories that JMo can rattle off at the drop of a hat from that era, plus a few other tell tale signs, I'm beginning to think JMo was not in fact a weatherman down in the Bayou during that period.....but rather a player.....which one is anyone's guess but his pic does look a bit like Julian Javier with a dark wig on. The inaccuracies deal with the author getting some of the years wrong when he relates certain incidents. He took a lot of his information from other books, such as the Red Schoendienst and Jack Buck autobiographies (both co-authored by Rob Rains, whose reputation for accuracy is quite good) but as an example, he takes Jack's story about the Cardinal players walking through the airport with holes in their jeans and looking scraggly and thinking "these are the Cardinals?" and places the story around 1970-71 - when Jack was talking more about 1975-76, right about the time he left the team for a time to work for NBC Sports. Of course I wasn't there in the dugout - I was just a kid - but in those days the Cards used to write letters back to their fans. Bing Devine wrote me one, for instance, in 1972 (by which time we were stationed in San Francisco) when, heartbroken, I wrote asking why they had traded Matty Alou to the Oakland A's for somebody named Joe Voss. He explained that it was a followup deal to one a month or two earlier in which the A's had given us relief pitcher Diego Segui (another of my favorites). Actually, they first time they wrote me was when I was 12, in the summer of 1970 when we were still stationed in St. Louis - we had been there since August of 1968 (got there just in time for the WS) but that summer was my first as a serious Cards fan. I wrote them a letter and they sent me back a packet of 3x5 B&W player photos and a copy of the 1970 Media Guide - a copy of which is sitting here on my desk as I type this. I must have read that book a hundred times that summer (latching on to Gibson, Brock, and Dal Maxvill as my favorites) and by the time the season ended, I was imprinted. Weatherman on the bayou? Not until 1977, by which time I was 19. Between 1970 and 1977, we had been stationed in San Francisco (1971-73) and Fairbanks (1973-76) before my dad got stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana. I had stayed behind, working in radio in Fairbanks and Juneau, before joining them in November. |
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Posted: 12/25/2012 7:10 AM
RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
12/25: Jeff Little (58), Julio Gonzalez (60).
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Posted: 12/25/2012 8:43 AM
Re: Today's Cardinals birthdays
Gonzalez was one of three Cards who didn't get into the WS in 1982 - Steve Mura and John Martin were the others. That's pretty amazing; Whitey only used eight pitchers in seven games - Forsch, Stuper, Andujar, Lapoint, Kaat, Lahti, Bair and Sutter. These days managers will use eight pitchers in just *one* postseason game.
But getting back to Julio - he's one of the classic examples of guys who spent the whole year on a Whitey Herzog roster and almost never played - he was with the Cards for two full season but only got into 62 games, batting 109 times over the two years. And there are guys who had even less playing time than Julio - Tom Lawless in 1987 and Brian Harper in 1985.
I always find this amusing because Herzog talked so much in his 1999 book about how he used his entire roster. Not really, and it hurt us in years like 1987, when Pendleton was hurt during the WS and Lawless had to play 3B after having sat on the bench almost all season.
Getting back to Gonzalez - amusing note here as B-R lists his closest comp as being Mike Ramsey - who, of course, was our *other* utility infielder in 1982, the guy who got the playing time when Ozzie was hurt for a little while in August (IIRC). By 1984, though, Gonzalez was out of baseball and when Ozzie's arm was broken by an Eric Show pitch, rather than sticking Ramsey out there again Whitey traded him to Montreal for Chris Speier - who played SS for several weeks until Ozzie came off the DL, at which time we dealt Speier to the Twins for some minor league outfielder.
Last edited 12/25/2012 9:10 AM by Jmodene1
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Posted: 12/26/2012 6:46 AM
RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
Speaking of Ozzie, this is his day...
12/26: Ozzie Smith (58), Ray Sadecki (72), Al Jackson (77), Stu Miller (85).
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Posted: 12/26/2012 7:04 AM
Re: Today's Cardinals birthdays
Found another odd one for today. Doc Farrell was born on this date and died in 1966.
In 1930, the infielder/dentist was briefly a Cardinal but did not stay around for the World Series. Later, he was part of the famous 1934 trade between the Yankees and San Francisco of the PCL that netted NY Joe DiMaggio. Farrell refused to report and was dealt back to the Yanks as a player to be named later.
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Posted: 12/26/2012 10:30 AM
Re: Today's Cardinals birthdays
And well he should have; in those days, the PCL was an independent minor league. Farrell would have been stuck there until and unless the Seals decided to sell him to a major league club.
Sadecki is part of an interesting trifecta of trades.
The Cards traded him to SF in 1966 for Orlando Cepeda.
The Cards then traded Cepeda to ATL in 1969 for Joe Torre.
The Cards then traded Torre to the Mets in 1975 for... Ray Sadecki.
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Posted: 12/27/2012 8:57 AM
RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
12/27: Phil Gagliano (71).
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Posted: 12/28/2012 7:06 AM
RE: Today's Cardinals birthdays
12/28: Barret Browning (28).
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