First & Last III

Every player who reaches the major leagues has a first game and a last game. Sometimes those games are one in the same. How did baseball’s immortals do in their first major league game? This is the third in a series of Myster Eephus columns of the first and last games of MLB’s greatest players.

Baseball owners can’t help themselves. With few exceptions – Tom Yawkey, George Steinbrenner – they constantly talk about escalating player salaries and the need to keep expenses down. Before the major leagues instituted the player draft in 1965, teams could offer signing bonuses to entice a young player to sign with their organization. Teams then were paying on potential rather than performance. Some of the higher bonuses paid off; many did not. To curb themselves, the owners instituted the baby bonus rule. If a team signed a player for more than $4,000 (a rather paltry amount given how some clubs had offered $100,000 to some players to sign) that player had to remain on the major league roster for two seasons before they could send him to the minors. In 1954, the Brooklyn Dodgers could not resist paying a tall, lanky southpaw a $50,000 bonus, requiring him to stay on the team: Sandy Koufax.

Tales of Koufax’s wildness early in his career are legion, but there was some truth in them. He could throw incredibly hard, and had a big, breaking curve ball. But his control was, to be kind, erratic. Batters were frequently hit and his strike-out to walk ratio was usually one to one.

Dodger manager Walter Alston was reported to be unhappy having Koufax on the roster, essentially losing a more advanced player (I’m sure he changed his mind about having to keep Koufax on the roster when he became the game’s best hurler). For two months, Koufax rode the bench.

He made his major league debut on June 24,1955, against the Milwaukee Braves, with the Dodgers trailing 7–1 in the fifth inning. He did not get off to a good start.

The first batter he faced was Johnny Logan, who singled. Eddie Mathews followed, and reached base on an error by Koufax, with Logan taking third. Henry Aaron then walked. Koufax struck out Robby Thomson, then got Joe Adcock to hit into a double play.

In the sixth inning, Koufax retired the side in order. He was scheduled to lead off the seventh, but was pinch hit for by George Shuba, who singled. Final score was Braves 8 Dodgers 2.

Alston gave him a start on July 6. He lasted four and two-thirds innings walking eight batters. He did not get a second start until August 27 and threw a complete game shutout against the Cincinnati Reds. His other win that year was also a shutout. Overall, he appeared in 12 games, striking out 30 batters but walking 28. The Brooklyn Dodgers won their only World Series that year, but Koufax did not appear in any of the seven games in that series.

In 1957, Koufax’s control began to improve, and the Dodgers continued to stick with him. Then, like most things in baseball, something happened that is hard to pin down: he turned into the game’s best pitcher. Beginning in 1961, he had a five-year stretch as good as anyone who had ever pitched. What did it? One story has it that catcher Jeff Torborg told him he didn’t have to throw so hard. In those five seasons, Koufax went 128-47.

The Dodgers lost a playoff series for the pennant to the Giants in 1962 and won the World Series in 1963. Koufax became the second pitcher to win both the Cy Young and Most Valuable Player Awards in the same season (Don Newcombe was the first to achieve this in 1956). Koufax was 25-5 that year. In game one of the World Series against the Yankees, he set a then-record by striking out 15 batters. New York manager Casey Stengel said he could see how he won 25 games, but how did he lose five? Koufax also won game four as the Dodgers swept the series.

The Dodgers won the pennant again in 1965, as Koufax earned another Cy Young with 26 wins and a then-record 382 strike outs in 335 innings.

But Koufax created a controversy by not pitching game one of the World Series as it fell on the Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur. The Dodgers lost the game, and the Twins beat Koufax in game two, despite allowing only one earned run in six innings. The Dodgers won the next three games, with Koufax winning game five 7-0, allowing only four hits and striking out 10. The Twins won game six, and on two days rest Koufax started game seven. Alston had Don Drysdale ready to relieve Koufax if he got into trouble or was tiring, but he wasn’t needed. The lefty beat Minnesota 2-0, another complete game shutout in which he allowed only three hits and again struck out 10 batters.

They won the pennant again in 1966, and Koufax had arguably his best season. He led the league with 27 wins (his personal best), lost only nine, had an ERA of 1.73

In the World Series that year, Koufax started game three on October 8, 1966, and he pitched very well, but outfielder Willie Davis made three errors in one inning, helping the Orioles score three unearned runs. Koufax got into a jam in the sixth inning. After giving up a run, the bases were loaded with one out, but a double play ended the inning. For the third consecutive game, the Dodgers were shutout.

Oriole slugger Frank Robinson, who won the triple crown that year, noticed Koufax wasn’t himself. His fastball was in the low 90s, he said, and normally he was at 98.

The loss would also be Koufax’s last game. He was only 30 years old, but an arthritic elbow made pitching excruciatingly painful. His arm was so bent he couldn’t comb his hair with it. A few weeks after the season, he held a press conference announcing that he was leaving the game.

A reporter asked him about the money he was giving up by retiring. Koufax answered with an analogy: a millionaire would give up everything he had to keep his arm.

Five years after he retired, Koufax was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame, the youngest person to be enshrined; he played until he was only 30. His final six seasons were among the finest ever. He became an announcer for NBC’s Game of the Week, but left after two seasons, and rarely made public appearances, although he did spend a few spring trainings with the Dodgers helping with younger pitchers. He lives in Pennsylvania where he guards his privacy and is a golf devotee. Last year, a statue of him at Dodger Stadium was unveiled.

Call it rubbing it in, sticking it to ya, or he who laughs last laughs best.

The Chicago Cubs had beaten the Phillies 4-3 at Veterans Stadium. The winning pitcher was Ferguson Jenkins, who pitched a complete game for his 20th victory of the year.

“What I’m going to say may shock the fans, and maybe they won’t take it the right way,” he said., “But I’m going to say it anyway. I no longer want to be categorized with other active pitchers. I want people to say that Fergie Jenkins belongs in a class by himself. That’s a great class to be in, and these great Cub players, Ron Santo, Billy Williams, Randy Hundley – have put me in that class by scoring runs for the team. I’m not saying that I’m a better pitcher than anyone else, but I have done something that others haven’t – I’ve now won twenty games six seasons in a row. Among active pitchers that puts me in a class by myself.”

The last two pitchers to accomplish that feat were Robin Roberts and Warren Spahn.

That his victory took place in Philadelphia only made the long-suffering baseball fans in Philadelphia agonize even more. The great-grandson of a slave who escaped to Canada via the Underground Railroad, Jenkins had been signed by the Phillies and worked his way through the team’s minor league system. He thought he was going to make the team out of spring training in 1965, but was sent back to AAA. He did return to pitch in seven games that year. His first appearance was on September 6 at St. Louis. In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Cardinals tied the score at 3-3. Manager Gene Mauch replaced starter Jim Bunning with Jenkins with two outs to face Cardinal infielder Dick Groat.

“I do not remember being nervous when I got ready to throw my first big league pitch, but I must have been. The ball almost tore off Dick Groat’s head. I settled down, though, and struck him out to finish the inning,” Jenkins said.

He pitched three more innings. In the bottom of the 12^th, he was pinch hit for, and the team scored a run, giving Jenkins his first major league victory.

The following year he was with the team after spring training; he made his first appearance on April 20. The day before, Jenkins made his final appearance for Philly that season, pitching 2.1 innings of relief in an 8-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves at Connie Mack Stadium in front of 6,855 fans. He gave up three hits and one earned run while walking a batter and striking out two. The next days he was part of a trade that sent him to the Chicago Cubs.

Mauch said the team traded Jenkins because he didn’t throw hard enough.

Not throw hard enough! Jenkins fumed. I’ll show them. And he did.

A Phillies beat writer from the mid-60s told me that Mauch knew how good Jenkins was. His statement that Jenkins didn’t throw hard enough – was he told to say that?

Jenkins alternated between relieving and starting with Chicago in 1966. In 1967, he was a full-time starter, and began his streak of six seasons of 20 or more wins.

After a subpar season (for him) in 1973, Jenkins was traded to the Texas Rangers for Bill Madlock and Vic Harris. The Cubs were breaking up the nucleus of its great team that never managed a pennant. In his first year with the Rangers, Jenkins won 25 games, led the American League with 29 complete games, and finished second to Jim “Catfish” Hunter for the Cy Young Award.

After the 1975 season, Texas traded him to Boston, where he pitched for two seasons, and was traded back to the Rangers, In his first three seasons with Texas, he won 46 games. In December 1981, he signed a free-agent contract with the Cubs. At the age of 39, he went 14-15 with a 3.15 ERA in 34 starts. 1983 was his last season. His final appearance was against the Phillies on September 26; in one inning he gave up two runs on two hits.

Jenkins was the first pitcher in history to record more than 3,000 strikeouts and less than 1,000 walks. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1991

How’s this for a debut box score line:  0.0 IP, 0 H, 0 SO, 1 BB, 0 ER.

On April 12, 1965 at Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs had tied the St. Louis Cardinals in the bottom of the 11th inning, making the score 10-10/ With the winning run on second base, manager Red Schoendienst brought in a left-handed pitcher to face left-hand hitting outfielder George Altman.

Facing his first batter in the major leagues, the 20-year old pitcher walked Altman, and Schoendienst replaced him with righty Bob Purkey.

Interesting start to Steve Carlton’s Hall of Fame career. (The game ended in a 10-10 tie as it was called on account of darkness after the Cubs made the final out in the bottom of the 11^th.)

According to a SABR bio by Cosme Vivanco, while attending Miami Dade College, Carlton signed a $5,000 bonus contract with the St. Louis Cardinals in October 1963. For Rock Hill of the Class-A Western Carolinas League in 1964, he compiled a record of 10-1 with an ERA of 1.03 and struck out 91 batters in 79 innings. In midseason Carlton was promoted to advanced Class-A Winnipeg (Northern League) and then to Double-A Tulsa. Overall, he won 15 games.

Carlton became a member of the Cardinals starting rotation in 1967, but angered the team by asking for a big raise after going 20-9 in 1971. After finishing 20-9 in 1971, Carlton again asked for a high salary, this time $65,000. Cardinals owner August Busch offered $$60,000, but Carlton wouldn’t budge and Busch ordered his GM to trade Carlton, who was dealt to the Phillies for Rick Wise.

During spring training 1972, Phillies pitching coach Ray Rippelmeyer noticed something was missing from Carlton.

“I had seen him pitch in the minor leagues and seen him use another type of breaking pitch that I hadn’t seen him use when I saw him pitch against us in 1971,” said Rippelmeyer. “I asked him about it, and he told me the Cardinals weren’t letting him throw a slider. I asked if I could see it. He threw me a half dozen and I said, ‘You and I are going to use this pitch.’

“The theory back then in certain clubs and pitching coaches was if you started throwing the slider, you would lose your curveball,” continued Rippelmeyer. “He had a very good overhand curve and I was convinced that [the slider theory] was a complete fallacy. I had thrown both of them. I convinced him to forget it.”

That year, Carlton went 27-10. The rest of the Phillies went 32-87. He was the unanimous winner of the Cy Young Award. He pitched 346 innings (since then, only knuckleballer Wilbur Wood has thrown more innings in a season). He made 41 starts, threw 30 complete games, struck out 310 batters and had an ERA of 1.98.

The most impressive number, one that probably won’t be broken, is he won 45.7 percent of his team’s victories.

The next season Carlton joined a pretty exclusive club: pitchers who won 20 games and then lost 20 games the next year, going 13-20. Carlton reported to spring training that season battling pneumonia. He was reportedly unhappy with new manager Danny Ozark. The following two years he went 16-13 and 15-14. In 1976, the Phillies were expected to win the National League East. Carlton did not make the opening day start that season (the only time in his years with the Phillies that he didn’t). He went 20-7 and followed it up by winning 23 games and another Cy Young. He was considered one of the dominant left-handed pitchers in baseball (trying to hit Carlton is like “trying to drink coffee with a fork,” said Pirates slugger Willie Stargell). His brilliant 1980 season (24-9) culminated in the Phillies first World Series championship and another Cy Young Award. He won another Cy Young in 1982 and gained his 300^th victory on September 23, 1983.

He was also famous for being uncommunicative with the press: he NEVER talked to the media from about 1974 to 1980; that’s when his good pal Tim McCarver joined the Phillies broadcast team, and for a while Carlton would talk to his buddy for a post-game interview.

Carlton was into martial arts training. People marveled at his strength – he frequently was among the league leaders in innings pitched. But Carlton began to wane. In 1986, he went 1-8 and made only 16 starts. On June 21, 1987, in a game against his first team, the Cardinals, Carlton pitched five innings, allowed six runs on six hits, walked six, and struck out six. He did not factor in the decision, and his record was 4-8 with a 6.18 ERA. It was his last game with the Phillies. Three days later, the Phillies released him. Managing Partner Bill Giles said it took him two days to work up the nerve to tell Carlton he was being cut from the club. His final record with the team was 241–161.

He was signed by the San Francisco Giants but released less than two months later. He joined the Chicago White Sox and was granted free agency at the end of the season. Carlton fell into a select group of pitchers who pitched for three teams in one season and won at least one game with each club.

In 1987 he signed with the Cleveland Indians, who traded him July 31 to the Minnesota Twins. He pitched on and off with the Twins for another season. He pitched his final game against the Cleveland Indians, giving up eight runs in five innings in the loss. He was then released on April 28, 1988.

He finished with a career record of 329-244 and was a first ballot Hall of Fame Inductee in 1994.

A right-handed pitcher from Illinois by way of Michigan State University, Robin Roberts made his major league debut in a Phillies uniform on June 18, 1948 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. In the first inning, he walked a batter but that’s all he allowed. He gave up a run in the third, and in the seventh he gave up his first home run – the first of 505 he allowed in his career, the second most in baseball history. Through eight innings, Roberts allowed only two runs and five hits. He walked two and struck out two in a 2-0 loss. A good start to a Hall of Fame career.

In 1948 and ’49, Roberts matured, as did the Phillies nucleus of young, exciting ballplayers. The team hit its stride in 1950. The club went on to build a big lead but slumped at the end of September and the Dodgers closed the gap. Roberts started three games in the last five days of the season (He started back-to-back games on September 27 and 28, losing both games; he pitched four innings giving up five runs in the first game, and the next day he hurled a complete game but lost to the New York Giants giving up three runs. The Phils led the Dodgers by one game. If the Phils won, they’d go to the World Series. If Brooklyn won, the teams would tie for the pennant and play a best of three playoff series to determine the league champion. Roberts was squared against Brooklyn’s Don Newcombe on Sunday, October 1.

The score was tied 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth inning. With runners on first and second with no outs, Roberts gave up a single; in one of the Dodgers’ biggest mistakes in Brooklyn, the third base coach sent the runner home, even though the ball was hit hard and right at Ashburn. The Phillies outfielder did not have a strong arm, but he had a quick release, and his throw beat the runner by 10 feet. Roberts got out of the inning without any damage. In the top of the 10^th, Dick Sisler hit a three-run homer off Newcombe, and Roberts retired the Dodgers in the bottom of the inning to secure the Phillies’ first pennant in 35 years.

In the 1950 Fall Classic against the New York Yankees, Roberts started game two and held the Yankees to one run through nine innings, but the Phils also scored only one run. In the top of the 10^th, Yankee slugger Joe Di Maggio hit a home run off Roberts into the upper deck of the left field stands, and the Yankees won 2-1. He pitched one inning of relief in game four, a 5-2 Yankee win that completed a sweep of the Phillies.

That season, Roberts established himself as one of the best pitchers in the major leagues and one of the best hurlers in Phillies history (he might have been behind Grover Cleveland Alexander, but he pitched longer.)

(Roberts pitched 304 innings in 1950; for the next five seasons he led the league in innings pitched, tossing more than 300 frames every year, including 346.2 in 1953. He also led the league in complete games from 1953 to 1956, including 33 in 1953. From 1950 to 1956 he won 20 or more games every year for a total of 157. He won 19 in 1957 and 15 and 17 in 1958 and 1959. For the decade, he won 219 games, along with 19 saves. He made five all-star teams.

He was certainly one of the decade’s best pitchers.

“His only competition would be (Warren) Spahn or Whitey Ford,” said John Rossi, a baseball historian, author and lifetime Phillies fan who saw Roberts pitch many times.

“Ford probably had the best ERA, Spahn more durable,” said Rossi. “Roberts was going strong in ’56, then appeared on the cover of Time and couldn’t get his 20th (win). From then on, he was something like ten games under 500 for the rest of the decade. I would say Roberts was the best for the 1st half Spahn for the second half.”

Ernie Banks said Roberts’ fastball was faster than Bob Gibson’s.

By the mid-1950s, the Whiz Kids were fizzing out. Veterans left and were not replaced by equal talent. Other “kids” got older, and they slid into the league’s second division. In 1961, Roberts lost his first seven decisions. On June 5, he beat the San Francisco Giants 3-2 in a complete game. It was his last win for Philadelphia (and his only win of the season).

On October 16, 1961, the Phillies sold him to the New York Yankees.

By then, Roberts was the leader in several franchise pitching categories: wins, games, complete games and strikeouts. In 1962, the team retired his number, 36. He was the first Phillie so honored.

He pitched one game for the Yankees before he was released that May. He signed with the Baltimore Orioles and started 25 games, going 10-9 with a 2.78 ERA. The following season he started 35 games, compiling a 14-13 record with a 3.33 ERA. In 1964, he was 13-7 in 31 starts, with an ERA of 2.91.

The Orioles released him in 1965, and he signed with the Houston Colt 45s. In mid-1966, he was released again and signed by the Cubs.

He recorded his final major league win, number 286, on August 29, 1966, hurling two innings of scoreless relief in a 14-inning victory over the Atlanta Braves. His last game in the majors was September 3 against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field. He entered the game in the bottom of the eighth inning with the Cubs trailing 5-1. The first two batters reached base and then Willie Stargell belted a three-run home run off Roberts. The Buccos scored another run off Roberts, who did strike out two hitters in his final frame of his career.

Roberts might have been trying – some might say ‘hanging on – to win 300. His final appearance in a professional baseball game was in 1967, when he was pitching for the Phillies’ AA team in Reading, PA. At the age of 40, he made 11 starts, finishing with a record of 5-3.

In retirement, he coached the baseball team at the University of Tampa. He did some broadcasting for the Phillies and also worked for the team as a roving instructor. Roberts was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1976.