First & Last IV

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 another installment in a series of Myster Eephus columns of the first and last games of MLB’s greatest players.

Joe Morgan’s first hit in the major leagues was costly to the Phillies. It not only was a walk-off single in Houston, it enraged Phils manager Gene Mauch so much he upended the post-game spread for the players, dousing barbecue sauce on several of their suits. He yelled at his players that how could someone as small as Morgan (Mauch used a now politically incorrect term) beat them. When writers criticized him, he said, “I only threw a table; Fred Hutchinson throws entire rooms.” (Hutchinson was manager of the Cincinnati Reds at the time.) Mauch wound up paying for new threads.

Morgan had made his major league debut the day before, September 21, 1963. With Houston trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the third, the infielder pinch hit for starter Don Nottebart. Houston manager Harry Craft had been ejected the previous inning by home plate umpire Bill Jackowski, so it was one of the coaches who sent Morgan to the plate.

Morgan was listed at 5’7” tall but played a big man’s game. He had power, he could rope extra-base hits into the alleys, he unnerved pitchers when he was on base as he was a constant threat to steal. But for years scouts ignored him because of his size until a Houston scout saw his potential and signed him. He got off to a great start in the minors in 1963, was promoted where he did even better and when rosters were expanded in September he was called up to Houston.

By this year, Morgan established himself as the newly named Astros every day second baseman, and for six seasons put up respectable numbers. In November of 1971 he, Jack Billingham, Ed Armbrister, César Gerónimo and Denis Menke were traded to the Cincinnati Reds. (The Astros received Tommy Helms, Lee May and Jimmy Stewart.)

When arrived in Cincinnati, Morgan elevated his game to become one of the greatest players in baseball.

Marty Brennaman, the Reds’ broadcaster for several decades and who is in the Hall of Fame himself, said, “He said often had he not been traded to the Reds he doubted that he would have ever been able to attain Hall of Fame recognition. Being surrounded by a bunch of other great Hall of Fame type players, day in and day out, like Bench, Rose, Tony Perez, Dave Concepcion and people like that, just simply spurred him to become a better player himself and that he had to do it in order to keep up with them. He made no bones about it. He said, “I doubt if I would have ever been in the Hall of Fame had I not been traded to the Reds and had been surrounded by those great players.”

In 1972, Morgan helped lead the Reds to the World Series (they lost in seven games to the Oakland A’s). That year he led the league in walks, runs, OBP, and set career highs with 16 home runs, 73 RBIs and 58 stolen bases. He batted .292 and won a Gold Glove.

The following season he again led the league in walks and topped his career highs in home runs, RBIs and stolen bases. He batted .290. The Reds won 98 games in 1974 but finished four games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL West championship. Morgan again led the league in OBP, but his other numbers dropped a bit.

The following year Cincinnati became the Big Red Machine. They won 108 games, the most in 70 years. They beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NLCS and defeated Boston for the World Series in what many consider the greatest series ever. In 1976, Cincinnati became the first team since John McGraw’s New York Giants in 1921-22 to win consecutive pennants and World Series titles after sweeping the Phillies in the NLCS and sweeping the Yankees in the World Series. In those two years, Morgan batted .327and .320, with 44 home runs, 205 RBIs and 127 stolen bases. For both seasons, he received the Most Valuable Player Award.

For the next two seasons he put up (for him) ordinary numbers while he played for Houston and San Francisco. In 1983, he was traded to the Phillies, – where he was part of the pennant-winning “Wheeze Kids” and was reunited with Pete Rose and Tony Perez. He helped the club win the NL East and was named Player of the Month for September. He signed with Oakland the following season.

On the final day of the ’84 season, the Athletics hosted Joe Morgan Day, and his extended family was in attendance. In the bottom of the first inning facing Kansas City Royals starter Mark Gubicza, he doubled. Manager Jackie Moore sent Tony Philips to pinch runs for Morgan. Leaving the field, Morgan was cheered by the fans. He was first ballot inductee to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990. He passed away on October 11, 2020, at the age of 77.

Like Roberto Clemente, Roy Campanella was robbed of a chance to continue his career. While death took Clemente, Campanella was paralyzed in an accident on a January, 1958 night driving on an icy road. He survived but was left a quadriplegic. As his biographer put it, that’s when Campanella began his second life, as a man who did not give in to self-pity but became an inspiration to other paralyzed people who saw him on TV, at special events, and even throwing out the first pitch at an exhibition game when the Dodgers first moved to Los Angeles.

While growing up in Philadelphia, Campanella played semi-pro ball with several teams. His life was all about playing baseball.

He became the youngest player to appear in a major league game when Major League Baseball adopted statistics from the Negro Leagues.

According to a biography of Campanella by Rick Swaine of the Society for American Baseball Research, “At the tender age of 15 in 1937, Campanella began his professional baseball career with a top-notch semi-pro team, the Bacharach Giants. Despite his youth, Campanella performed so impressively for the Bacharach Giants that the Washington Elite Giants of the Negro National League soon signed him to spell veteran receiver and manager Biz Mackey on weekends.”

The date he signed and when he played his first game are lost to history. Campanella played in six games that year; he had three hits and one RBI in 18 at bats

Campanella played sparingly the next two seasons with the Elite Giants who had moved to Baltimore, but in 1940 he became a regular. In 1944, he led the league with a .388 batting average; the following season he led the league in RBIs.

Swaine wrote, “After he turned 16, (Campanella) quit school to play full time…. In 1939, the 17-year-old youngster took over the regular catching chores after Mackey was traded to the Newark Eagles. His hitting improved and he began showing more power in 1940, and was soon challenging the legendary Josh Gibson’s status as the best catcher in Negro baseball. While still a teenager, he caught the entire 1941 Negro League East-West All-Star Game for the East, winning MVP honors for his excellent defensive work.”

The Brooklyn Dodgers signed Campanella for the 1946 season, and he played for the Dodgers’ B League team in New Hampshire, where his manager was future Brooklyn skipper Walter Alston. He batted .290 with 13 home runs and 96 RBIs. He even stole 16 bases. The following year at Montreal he put up similar numbers. Campanella began the 1948 season with the Dodgers’ other AAA affiliate, the St. Paul Saints. After hitting .325 in 35 games, he was called up to Brooklyn.

He shared catching duties with Bruce Edwards, but became Brooklyn’s everyday backstop the following year. He won the first of his three MVP Awards in 1951, when he batted.325 with 33 home runs and 108 RBIs. In his second MVP season he batted .312, with 41 home runs and a league-leading 142 RBIs. In 1955, his last great season, he won the award again by batting .318 with 32 home runs and 107 RBIs. He was 33 years old that season, but an old 33; he’d been catching for 18 years and suffered the injuries associated with playing backstop. In 1956-57 he batted only .219 and .242. In 1957, he played in 103 games, and the Dodgers were thinking about an eventual replacement.

The Dodgers had John Roseboro, who was thought to be a possible successor to Campanella, and Joe Pignatano, who had been with the Dodgers early in the season but was sent back to Triple A. Both were probably auditioning for a spot as a backup catcher next season with the possibility of becoming the everyday catcher after Campanella. Roseboro made his major league debut on June 14, 1957, and appeared in 35 games. Joe Pigantano also made his major league debut that year.

Campanella’s last game was Sunday, September 29 against the Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium. He did not start, as manager Alston had Pignatano behind the plate. At the time of this game, Campanella could not feel the fingers on his left hand, and right thumb was hurting. Leading off the top of the eighth inning, Campanella batted for pitcher Roger Craig. Facing Phillies left-handed starter Seth Morehead, he flied out to center field.

Campanella’s last game playing catcher was September 27, also against the Phillies in Philadelphia. Batting eighth, he went 0-1 and was replaced by Roseboro in the bottom of the third inning.

According to Swaine’s bio, “After enduring years of therapy, Campanella regained some use of his arms. He eventually was able to feed himself, shake hands, and even sign autographs with the aid of a device strapped to his arm, though he remained dependent on his wheelchair for mobility. Through it all he managed to maintain the positive, upbeat attitude that was his trademark and became a universal symbol of courage. In 1969, the same year he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, he received the Bronze Medallion from the City of New York, the highest honor the city confers upon civilians, awarded for exceptional citizenship and outstanding achievement. Three years later the Dodgers retired his uniform number 39 along with Robinson’s number 42 and Sandy Koufax’s 32.”

Campanella was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. He died on June 6, 1993, at the age of 71.

Greg Maddux pitched one inning – the 18^th inning – in a continued game from September 3, 1986 against Houston that was tied 4-4. Cubs manager Gene Michael had used up most of his pitchers, so he sent Maddux to the mound for his major league debut. He retired the first batter he faced, shortstop Craig Reynolds, but up next was Billy Hatcher who homered. Maddux recovered to get second baseman Bill Doran to pop up and pitcher Danny Darwin to strike out

“He made one mistake, but I like what I see in him,” Michael told the Chicago Tribune. “I want to see what he can do as a starter, and we’ll probably start him either Sunday or soon after that. I have to talk to (pitching coach) Billy Connors.

He did start on Sunday, September 7, facing the Cincinnati Reds. Maddux won 11-3, pitching a complete game. He allowed single runs in the fifth, sixth and eighth innings. The Reds had 11 hits, while Maddux struck out four and walked three. He started four more games, finishing with a 2-4 record and an ERA of 5.52.

Starting 1987 with Iowa, Maddux made four starts, won three and had an ERA of 0.98 and was called up to the Cubs. He did not have a good season; in 30 games (27 starts), he went 6-14 with an ERA of 5.61.

In 1988 the “real” Greg Maddux emerged. He went 18-6 with an ERA of 3.18. He completed nine games and pitched 249 innings. Through 2006, Maddux pitched 200 or more innings every year but one, in which he tossed 199.1.

Jim Wright was Maddux’ pitching coach in his first full season in the minors, with Peoria in the Midwest League.

After the season, Wright went to Arizona for organizational meetings.

“We’re all down there and so everybody has to go over their team, and they start with the big league club, then the AAA club, AA, then high A, then they got to us .  Pete Mackanin is the manager. He has to go first. Now it’s my turn to get up in front of the whole organization and talk about the pitchers. When I got to Greg, I said, ‘All right, we have great. We had Greg Maddux this year, finished whatever, 14 and nine or I can’t remember the record but (he’s) six feet, 155 pounds soaking wet out of Las Vegas, Nevada. I said that the kid pitches like he’s 6’6” and 220. I said, you know, there’s a lot of variables with this guy. He’s a true baseball player, a throwback, but, I’m just gonna end it with this guy right here and say we have a future Hall of Famer in our midst, in my opinion.”

After the meeting, two people came up to Wright and said you can’t say a 19-year old is a future Hall of Fame player.

“I said time will tell. That’s how we left it. But I did say that about him and the organizational meetings with the Cubs in 19, the fall of 85, in my report to the staff,” said Wright.

The Cubs drafted Maddux with their second-round pick in the 1984 draft. He possessed a good fastball, a “fantastic” changeup and a curve ball to show hitters, said Wright.

“The one thing I knew he would need at the major league level was fastball command on the (catcher’s) glove side to keep left-handed hitters honest,” said Wright. “They’re gonna go out with his two seamer and they’re gonna go out over the plate on him with his change up and he’s gotta be able to own that pitch (the fastball). I remember we talked about it one day and I took him down to the mound to say, ‘I’m gonna teach him that pitch and he picked it up in five pitches. I talked to him about visualizing the path of the ball before he threw it and how it would move according to how he threw his and you see that? Like shooting pool. You line up the shot. You can see that path, and he goes, ‘Yeah, I can see it.’ And I said I’m gonna set the catcher on the outside corner, and so he threw five pitches. The first one went right in the middle of the plate. Second one hit the outside corner black, right right to the mitt. Third and fourth missed, he’s in the middle of the plate. The fifth one, he hit the outside corner again, and he turned around to me and winked and he goes, I got it now. I said, all right, show me. He threw 15 straight fastballs on the black into the mitt and I said, you got it I told him what that pitch was and how important it was gonna be to him in the future. And you see how he froze left handers all the time (with the) inside fastball. But that’s when I knew that this kid is special. He can pick something up that quick.”

Aside from one season when Chicago won the NL East Division, the Cubs had losing seasons from 1988-1992. His last season with the Cubs was one of his best: he went 20-11 with an ERA of 2.18 and led the league with 263 innings pitched. He won the first of four consecutive Cy Young Awards that year. Following the 1992 season, he was a free agent, and was expected to sign with the New York Yankees, but surprised everyone by inking with the Atlanta Braves. There he joined Tom Glavine and John Smoltz to form one of the greatest trios of starting pitchers in history. Aside from the strike shortened 1994 season, the Braves won their division (first west, then east) every year until 2006.

In his first three seasons with Atlanta, Maddux won 55 games and led the National League in innings pitched. In 11 seasons with the Braves, he won 194 games.

In 2004 at the age of 38, he returned to the Cubs. He later pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, who traded him back to the Dodgers during the 2008 season at the age of 42.

On September 27, 2008, Maddux made the last start of his career, pitching six innings against the home team San Francisco Giants, allowing two hits (a home run by left fielder Randy Wynn in the fourth inning and a single by shortstop Omar Vizquel in the sixth). He walked none and struck out two.

Los Angeles’ bullpen held and Maddux won his eighth game of the season and the 355th of his career.

In game one of the National League Championship Series, Maddux entered the game in the seventh inning with the Dodgers trailing 3-2. He pitched a scoreless inning. (Philadelphia went on to win 3-2.)

In game five, with the Phils holding a 2-1 edge, Maddux entered the game in the fourth inning with the Dodgers trailing 3-0. He pitched a one-two-three fourth and came out for the fifth inning. He gave up two hits, but Rafael Furcal made three errors in the inning, resulting in two unearned runs. It was Maddux’s last appearance in a major league game. The Phillies went on to win 5-1 and advanced to the World Series.

The following day, Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times wrote, “This might have been a retirement party for Greg Maddux, for Normar Garciaparra, for Jeff Kent, without the streamers or balloons or happy faces. As the Dodgers went home for the winter, losers in the National League Championship series, three of the greatest players of our time might have gone home for good. We won’t remember them this way. We’ll block out the image of Maddux as a long man, cleaning up the mess of a twenty something starter.”

Maddux was not overpowering, although at times his ERA compared with Sandy Koufax’ best years. He used precise command to get hitters out. In 23 seasons, he walked 999 batters. While throwing more than 200 innings per year, he never walked more than 100 batters in a season. In his first year with Atlanta, he pitched 267 innings and walked only 52 batters.

In 2014, Maddux was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. During his speech, he mentioned several people who were important to his career, and he said Jim Wright was one of them.

In 1897, $2,000 was a great deal of money, but the Pittsburgh Pirates were willing to pay that amount to purchase John “Honus” Wagner, an infield/outfielder who hit while playing for the minor league Paterson, NJ Colonels of the Atlantic League. The Colonel’s owner had an agreement with the Louisville Colonels of the National League to match or exceed any offer for Wagner. Louisville and the Pittsburgh Pirates had a bidding war for Wagner. The Louisville franchise offered $2,100. When Pittsburgh didn’t respond to an invitation to bid higher, Wagner was sold to the Kentucky team.

Wagner, 22 years old, made his major league debut with Louisville on July 18, 1897, playing centerfield in a game against the Washington Senators. In the bottom of the first, Wagner, batting third, came to the plate with runners on first and second and no outs. He bunted the ball down the third base line to move the runners along, who eventually scored. In his next at-bats, Wagner struck out, walked, and in the seventh inning lined an RBI single to right field for his first major league hit and run batted in. He also had an outfield assist as Louisville won 6-2. After playing nine games for the Colonels, he was batting .424.

Louisville might have been a major league franchise, but it had a bush league lineup and attendance was anemic – only 600 paying customers were on hand for Wagner’s debut. The team finished 52-78. Playing 61 games for the Colonels, Wagner batted .338 playing the outfield and second base.

In late 1899, the Colonels owner, Barney Dreyfus, purchased a share of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The National League had 12 teams and decided to fold four of them. In December, 1899, Wagner was traded in a massive deal. He and a dozen other Louisville players were sent to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Jack Chesbro, George Fox, Art Madison, John O’Brien and $25,000. Then the Colonels were folded.

Wagner was awkward looking with his bowed legs, and was clumsy in the infield. He began playing shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1903 and became one of the all-time greats at the position. He won seven batting titles and was considered the best defensive shortstop of his era.

He retired after the 1917 season at the age of 43. In 1916, his last full season, he batted .287. Wagner suffered injuries throughout his career. According to a biography of Wagner by Dennis DeValeria and Jeanne Burke DeValeria, he was hitting above .300 “on July 14 when Brooklyn outfielder Casey Stengel slid into first base and spiked Wagner’s right foot. The wound was cleaned and dressed on the field, but the injury ruined Wagner’s season. He missed several games and performed poorly when he did play.

“…His playing career ended with three innings at second base on September 17. With his painful foot preventing him from batting, he was pinch hit for by teammate Bill Wagner, who struck out.”

While he established many offensive records that were eventually broken, the authors wrote, “the numbers, though, were secondary to what Wagner meant to baseball. Perhaps Bozeman Bulgar of the (New York) World summed it up appropriately when he wrote in 1917, ‘Instead of trying to fix those figures in your head, just remember he is the best hitter and the best infielder the game has known and that will be sufficient….The fans love Wagner because he loves baseball….(Wagner is an) argument for the newly accepted theory that professional athletes and decency can go together.’”

In 2,794 games, Wagner amassed 3,420 hits for a career batting average of .328. He won seven batting titles, the last in 1911 when he was 37 years old. Wagner was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in its initial class of athletes in 1936.   He died on December 6, 1955 at the age of 81.