Little did Howsam know that Maris had informed the Yankees that he planned to retire in advance of the 1967 season.

Injuries to his hand and knee had depleted the power that made Maris a household name in 1961, when he slugged 61 home runs and replaced Babe Ruth at the top of the record books.

Despite back-to-back American League MVP awards in 1960 and 1961, Maris feuded with the New York media, which found him grouchy and uncooperative. New York Daily News columnist Dick Young shared a story that Sandy Koufax told with him regarding Maris and his relationship with the Gotham press:

It seems that a newsman did a story on Maris and took some liberties with the quotes. Maris was upset. He went to the newsman and said how come you quoted me that way? The newsman said he would write whatever he pleased, and after Maris got through telling him where he could go, Maris added that that went for all newspapermen.

“That’s where he made his mistake,” says Sandy Koufax. “Roger is a beautiful person, believe me. There is no more honorable man. But instead of blaming the guy who had crossed him, and marking one man lousy, he wiped everybody off his list.”[1]

Maris’s relationship with the media – and Yankees fans – only grew worse as injuries began to take their toll. He missed most of the second half of the 1963 season with an infection. In May 1965, he suffered a broken hand that required surgery. The operation was successful, but it left him without strength in that hand, which in turn sapped his power and bat control.[2]

Then, in 1966, he suffered a collision with Tigers catcher Bill Freehan that injured his knee. Yankees manager Ralph Houk cautioned Maris to run only when he had to, Young reported.

“There’s no sense in trying to run hard when you don’t have to,” Houk said. “You’re apt to hurt yourself work, and then I won’t have you in the lineup at all. I want your bat in there.”

Of course, the Yankees didn’t publicize Houk’s orders, so when Maris failed to race out ground balls, the fans began to boo him.

“I remember a time when they booed Maris for that on his first trip to bat, and later that night he hit the ball into the bleachers to win the game, and they stood up in Yankee Stadium and cheered him all the way around the bases,” Young wrote. “… He didn’t raise his eyes or give the faintest sign of recognition. He went the other way, in fact. He stared straight down at his feet as he trotted around the bases, and he ran into the dugout with his head down through all that cheering. I went to the clubhouse after the game and asked Maris why he didn’t give some sign of acknowledgment to the fans who were cheering him. I can’t tell you what he said, but what he said and what he feels is why the Yankees traded him, straight up, for Charley Smith.”[3]

That July, Maris informed the Yankees that he planned to retire after the season, and Houk asked him to wait until the following spring training to make it official. Maris agreed.[4] When Yankees president Lee MacPhail called in December to confirm that Maris planned to retire, the slugger had a feeling that something was up.

“Just detecting the way he was talking, I thought he had something in mind, and I said, ‘Lee, if you have any intentions of trading me, let me know now and I’ll announce my retirement.’ He said, ‘No, we have no intentions of trading you.’”[5]

In fact, MacPhail was shopping Maris around the league without much luck. After the trade to the Cardinals was completed, MacPhail said only three other teams showed any interest in Maris and listed the reasons why to the New York Daily News.

“One, he has a peculiar attitude, and everybody seems to know it,” MacPhail said. “Two, he is 32 years old. Three, his physical condition has been questionable lately. Four, he has just had two bad seasons. Five, he has been talking about quitting. Six, he makes over $70,000.”[6]

The Cardinals, however, were in desperate need of offensive firepower after they ranked last in the National League in scoring in 1966. When Howsam ran into Houk on the last day of the winter meetings, the beginnings of a trade were born.

“I started to kid Ralph and said, ‘Hey, when are we going to make a trade?’” Howsam recalled. “Houk then said, ‘Would you be interested in Maris?’ I told him that I’d have to think it over. And when I got on the plane headed back to St. Louis, I figured we might be able to use Maris.”[7]

Howsam called manager Red Schoendienst to see if he would be interested in a trade for Maris. Schoendienst replied, “Who wouldn’t?”[8]

In exchange for Maris, the Cardinals sent Smith to New York. The 28-year-old third baseman had hit .266 with 10 homers and 43 RBIs in his lone season with the Cardinals. Smith, who replaced Ken Boyer as the Redbirds’ starting third baseman, was now replacing Ken’s brother Clete Boyer, who had been traded from the Yankees to the Braves earlier in the offseason.

“Unless Maris declines to report or fails utterly to come back with the Cardinals, all Bob Howsam will be out is some of Gussie Busch’s money, the difference between Maris’s salary and Smith’s,” wrote St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports editor Bob Broeg. “This might not be a good deal, but it’s certainly not a bad one and it could be great.”[9]

Responding to the concerns regarding Maris’s personality, Broeg noted that “Charley gripes in a southern drawl and acts as if he’s tired even before the season begins.”[10]

Broeg continued: “Smith did become one of the better-fielding third basemen, but the long balls he hit were too far and few between. And he ran the bases as if he were playing girls’ softball, begging the pardon of the more aggressive young women of the diamond. In moving to the Yankees, the 28-year-old Smith will be playing for his sixth big-league club in seven seasons. If that doesn’t suggest something, it should.”[11]

When the Associated Press contacted Smith to ask him his thoughts about the trade, he admitted that he hadn’t heard the news.

“I’ll be darned,” he replied.[12]

Like Smith, Maris found out about the trade through an unofficial source. The Yankees tried to call him, but when they couldn’t reach him, they sent a telegram instead. Maris had been at the grocery store, where for the second time in his career, he learned that he had been traded.

“I wasn’t at all surprised,” he said. “I rather expected it. In fact, I expected to be traded ever since 1962. This is the second time I have heard of my being traded in a grocery store. It was the same thing back in 1959, when the Athletics traded me to the Yankees.”[13]

Given Maris’s previous statements about considering retirement, St. Louis reporters asked him whether he intended to play in St. Louis. The Post-Dispatch reported that if Maris failed to report to the Cardinals, he would go on the voluntary retired list and the trade would be nullified.[14]

“I just don’t know,” Maris said.[15]

Ultimately, the Cardinals offered Maris a $75,000 contract to play in 1967, which he accepted.[16]

“When this (trade) came up the way it did, I had voiced to only a couple of people that I was retiring, and the writers would have made me look bad again,” Maris said. “They’d say, ‘Well, he’s not going to play because he was traded away from the Yankees.’ They would have jumped on me like it was a big news story. So I finally agreed to go ahead and play the year.”[17]

While Maris never proved to be the power hitter the Cardinals hoped, he was a steady professional for Cardinals teams that won the World Series in 1967 and the National League pennant in 1968.

“Contrary to what we’d read about him in the papers, Maris wasn’t chronically miserable,” Bob Gibson wrote in 2015. “… He was just a plainspoken, chain-smoking North Dakotan who was happy to be away from high-rise apartments and the media capital of the universe; and happy to finally be happy.”[18]

After the trade, Schoendienst told the St. Louis media that with Maris playing on a new team, in a new stadium and a new league, they shouldn’t expect him to be the same power hitter he had been in 1961.[19]

“I think he was so happy to be out of New York and that pressure cooker that he would have done anything we asked of him,” Schoendienst wrote in his 1998 autobiography. “The only thing he ever told me that he didn’t want to do was play left field, because he said he really had trouble picking up the ball off the bat from that angle. That was no problem for me, and he played very well.”[20]

With Maris playing right field, Mike Shannon moved to third base.

“I think I deserve a chance to play every day and I think they want me to play every day,” Shannon said. I feel that if I play every day I can hit .300 or better, hit 20 to 30 home runs and drive in 100 runs. I hope I can drive in Maris 50 or 60 times next year.”[21]

Maris hit .261 with nine homers and 55 RBIs in 1967, and enjoyed the experience enough that he returned for 1968. He batted .255 with five homers and 45 RBIs in 1968 before announcing his retirement, having played 225 regular-season games with the Cardinals. During his 12-year major-league career, he played in seven World Series, winning three.

Smith played two seasons with the Yankees, batting .224 with 10 homers and 45 RBIs in 181 games. He played one season with the Cubs before retiring following the 1969 campaign.

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[1] Dick Young, “Young Ideas,” New York Daily News, December 11, 1966.

[2] Joe McGuff, “Maris, a Complex Man, Reaches His Baseball Point of Decision,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 11, 1966.

[3] Dick Young, “Young Ideas,” New York Daily News, December 11, 1966.

[4] Peter Golenbock (2011), “The Spirit of St. Louis: A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns,” HarperCollins Ebooks, Page 479.

[5] Peter Golenbock (2011), “The Spirit of St. Louis: A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns,” HarperCollins Ebooks, Page 479.

[6] Dick Young, “Young Ideas,” New York Daily News, December 11, 1966.

[7] Neal Russo, “Maris Could Balance Attack – Howsam,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 9, 1966.

[8] Neal Russo, “Maris Could Balance Attack – Howsam,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 9, 1966.

[9] Bob Broeg, “Sound Maris Could Help Cardinals If He Wants To,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 9, 1966.

[10] Bob Broeg, “Sound Maris Could Help Cardinals If He Wants To,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 9, 1966.

[11] Bob Broeg, “Sound Maris Could Help Cardinals If He Wants To,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 9, 1966.

[12] Associated Press, “News to Him,” New York Daily News, December 9, 1966.

[13] Joe Trimble, “Rog Goes to St. Loo For Smith – Even Up,” New York Daily News, December 9, 1966.

[14] Neal Russo, “Maris Could Balance Attack – Howsam,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 9, 1966.

[15] Joe McGuff, “Maris, a Complex Man, Reaches His Baseball Point of Decision,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 11, 1966.

[16] “Maris Offered $75,000 By Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 25, 1967.

[17] Peter Golenbock (2011), “The Spirit of St. Louis: A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns,” HarperCollins Ebooks, Page 479.

[18] Bob Gibson (2015), “Pitch by Pitch: My View of One Unforgettable Game,” Kindle Android version, Page 36.

[19] Red Schoendienst with Rob Rains (1998), “Red: A Baseball Life,” Sports Publishing, Champaign, Ill., 145-146.

[20] Red Schoendienst with Rob Rains (1998), “Red: A Baseball Life,” Sports Publishing, Champaign, Ill., 145-146.

[21] Neal Russo, “Maris Could Balance Attack – Howsam,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 9, 1966.

The post Why the Yankees traded Roger Maris to the Cardinals first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

“I told him when he left the dugout, he would hit a home run,” Cepeda said.[1]

Maris proved the Cardinals’ first baseman correct, hitting his first home run as a Cardinal and National Leaguer after hitting 261 in the American League with the Indians, Athletics, and Yankees.

“I’m glad he knew it,” Maris said after sending the ball 400 feet into the stands in right-center field. “I certainly didn’t. That (Woodie) Fryman’s tough. His ball really moves.”[2]

Though Maris made history when he broke the single-season home run record with 61 blasts in 1961, those days were long past. Beset by injuries, Maris hit just eight homers in 1965 and 13 more in 1966 before the Yankees traded him to the Cardinals for Charley Smith.

As Sridhar Pappu described it in his 2017 book, Year of the Pitcher:

What the Yankees kept quiet was that he’d irreparably injured his hand. Surgery followed, but Maris would never regain his strength. He couldn’t cope with any kind of fastball. He had to hope for off-speed pitches, which were becoming increasingly rare. By the end of 1966, baseball had become an albatross for Maris, and he wanted out. When he agreed to the Yankees’ request to hold off announcing his retirement until the start of spring training in 1967, they promptly traded him within days to the Cardinals.[3]

Though Maris had developed a reputation for being surly with the New York media and his Yankees teammates, the Cardinals didn’t have the same experience with the two-time American League MVP.

“Contrary to what we’d read about him in the papers, Maris wasn’t chronically miserable,” Bob Gibson wrote in 2015. “… He was just a plainspoken, chain-smoking North Dakotan who was happy to be away from high-rise apartments and the media capital of the universe; and happy to finally be happy.”[4]

After 18 games with the Cardinals, Maris was hitting .270 with eight RBIs. Though he hadn’t homered yet, he wasn’t facing the same media criticism he had encountered in New York.

“When we made the deal for him, the one thing I told the St. Louis sports writers was that I hoped they wouldn’t put that kind of pressure on him,” Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst wrote in his autobiography. “I said he was coming to a different park, on a different team, in a different league, and not to expect him to be a major home-run hitter. … The press did lay off him, and Roger later thanked me for what I said because he said it was something he was worried about coming to a new town.”[5]

The May 9 contest marked the second game in a three-game series between the Cardinals and Pirates. Cepeda, who went on to win the National League MVP that season with 25 homers and 111 RBIs, drove in the first run of the game with a third-inning double that scored Julian Javier. Mike Shannon followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.

The Pirates got on the scoreboard off Steve Carlton in the fourth when Gene Alley drove Matty Alou home with an RBI single that cut the Cardinals’ lead in half.

With one out in the sixth inning, Maris stepped to the plate against Pirates lefthander Woodie Fryman, a 27-year-old who had won 12 games as a rookie in 1966, and deposited the ball into the right-center field stands 400 feet away.

An inning later, Cepeda hit another RBI double off Fryman. Tim McCarver followed with a two-run triple to give the Cardinals a 6-1 lead. Pittsburgh’s Jose Pagan hit a two-run single in the ninth to produce the final 6-3 score.

Cepeda, who received a penicillin shot before the game to combat a respiratory ailment, finished the day 4-for-4 with a walk, two RBIs, and two runs scored.

“Maybe I ought to get one before every game,” he said.[6]

Lou Brock and Dal Maxvill each added two hits.

Carlton earned his second win of the season after striking out nine Pirates over eight innings. Four of the Pirates’ seven hits against Carlton were infield singles.

“My rhythm wasn’t so hot at times, but I was hitting some good spots,” Carlton said.[7]

Joe Hoerner recorded the final three outs to earn the save.

It marked the Cardinals’ 24^th win in their last 28 games in Pittsburgh.

“Just play all your games at Forbes Field, and you’ll win by 48 games,” said Pirates coach Hal Smith, a former Cardinals catcher.[8]

Maris went on to bat .261 that season with nine homers and 55 RBIs, then hit .385 with a home run and seven RBIs in the Cardinals’ seven-game World Series win over the Red Sox. He played the final season of his 12-year major-league career in 1968, batting .255 with five homers and 45 RBIs in 310 at-bats. Though he hit just .158 in that World Series against the Tigers, it marked the seventh World Series of his career, including three world championships.

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[1] “Pirates Just Another Club Without Clemente,” Pittsburgh Press, May 10, 1967.

[2] Neal Russo, “Cepeda Is a Hit in Field,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 10, 1967.

[3] Sridhar Pappu (2017), Year of the Pitcher: Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, and the End of Baseball’s Golden Age, Kindle Android version, Page 263.

[4] Bob Gibson (2015), Pitch by Pitch: My View of One Unforgettable Game, Kindle Android version, Page 36.

[5] Red Schoendienst with Rob Rains (1998), Red: A Baseball Life, Sports Publishing, Champaign, Ill., 145-146.

[6] Neal Russo, “Cepeda Is a Hit in Field,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 10, 1967.

[7] Neal Russo, “Cepeda Is a Hit in Field,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 10, 1967.

[8] Neal Russo, “Cepeda Is a Hit in Field,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 10, 1967.

The post Roger Maris hits his first Cardinals home run: May 9, 1967 first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

“When I was working on Washburn just before the game, I told him, ‘You’re going to pitch a no-hitter today because you’re going to get even with those guys,’” Bauman said. “It was as simple as that. Nellie (Nelson) Briles was listening to us and said, ‘Ray will settle for just a victory.’”[1]

By the end of the day, the Giants were happy just to get the ball to the outfield, something they managed just twice against Washburn’s steady supply of slow, looping curveballs.

It had been a remarkable few days for the Cardinals, who clinched the National League championship three days earlier with a 7-4 win over the Houston Astros. Curt Flood had five hits in the win, Lou Brock added three and stole a base, and Roger Maris hit a two-run home run. As the San Francisco Examiner reported, “Large amounts of champagne were consumed on the spot. Then, the Cardinals flew to San Francisco and continued the victory party in a bar on California Street.”[2]

That Tuesday, while Bob Gibson struck out 10 and allowed just four hits – including a first-inning home run by Ron Hunt that produced the 1-0 final score – Perry held the Cardinals hitless, striking out nine while walking two.

Coming on the heels of Perry’s performance, Washburn can be forgiven if he was focused primarily on surviving a Giants lineup led by Bobby Bonds, Willie Mays, and Willie McCovey. In early May, Washburn battled through six innings in taking his first loss of the season.  Rookie Dave Marshall hit a two-run homer and Ty Cline, Jim Davenport, and Mike McCormick each added RBI singles. By the time Washburn left the game, the Cardinals were down 6-0 in what would become an 8-4 Giants win.

“You can have this park,” Washburn said afterwards. “I don’t care if I ever pitch in Candlestick again.”[3]

He felt much better about the ballpark by the time he had finished his no-hitter.

Washburn made his major league debut in 1961, appearing in three games. In 1962, the Cardinals placed him in the rotation, where he won 12 games on the strength of a high-90s fastball and a biting slider. After the season, he was sent to the Florida Instructional League to develop a curveball and changeup.

In 1963, he took a no-hitter into the eighth inning of a 3-0 win against the Dodgers and got off to a 5-0 start, leading the majors in wins and strikeouts. But Washburn tore his triceps, possibly in the win over the Dodgers or in another win over the Cubs in which he took a no-hitter deep into the game.

The injury sapped Washburn of just enough velocity that he could no longer rely on his fastball to get him through games. It wasn’t until 1968 that Washburn perfected the curveball that became his go-to pitch throughout his no-hitter.

“That slow curve has made Washburn a great pitcher this season,” catcher John Edwards said.[4]

Washburn couldn’t help but agree. “The curve has been the secret to my success,” he said. “It helps me keep the batters off stride and has them hitting the ball off the end of the bat and into the ground.”[5]

Washburn needed 138 pitches to complete his no-hit bid as he walked five batters and went to three-ball counts 11 times.

“If I got behind a hitter, I went to the curves, particularly when I realized I had a chance at the no-hitter from the sixth inning on,” he said. “We decided not to give in to any hitter.”[6]

Washburn received a couple of scares in the sixth inning. Giants pitcher Bob Bolin tapped a ground ball down the third-base line that required Washburn to pounce off the mound and throw his counterpart out. In the next at-bat, Bonds hit a hard shot that struck Washburn squarely in the leg.

“It fell right in front of me and I had plenty of time to make the throw,” Washburn said. “That’s the kind of break you need to pitch a no-hitter.”[7]

In the top of the seventh, Mike Shannon got the Cardinals on the scoreboard. With one out, Orlando Cepeda singled to center field and Mike Shannon hit a two-out double into right field to make it 1-0.

The Giants threatened in the bottom half of the seventh when Washburn walked Hunt and McCovey. Both runners advanced when Jim Ray Hart grounded out to second base, but with Joe Hoerner warming up in the Cardinals’ bullpen,[8] Washburn struck out Dick Dietz to end the threat.

In the eighth, the Cardinals made it 2-0. Dick Schofield got things started with a double into left field, and with two outs Flood reached on an infield single that scored Schofield.

With the no-hitter on the line in the ninth, Washburn found himself facing the heart of the Giants’ lineup. He threw his worst pitch of the game to Hunt to lead off the inning. The ball floated up in the zone and Hunt hit it hard, but right to second baseman Phil Gagliano.

“I threw hard to Hunt in the ninth because he’s a pesky type who usually gets his bat on the ball,” Washburn said, “and when I got Hunt out, I felt that I could really go to work on Mays and McCovey.”

Mays grounded sharply to Shannon for the second out, leaving McCovey as Washburn’s final obstacle. By that point, the Candlestick Park crowd was eager to see history and one of the fans seated near home plate shouted, “Strike out, you bum McCovey. Let the kid have his no-hitter.”[9]

Instead, McCovey, who fouled a ball out of the park in the seventh, lined a ball foul down the right-field line before Washburn offered up another slow curveball. McCovey hit an easy fly ball to Flood in center field.

Washburn’s no-hitter was the fifth pitched in the major leagues that season, following Baltimore’s Tom Phoebus, Oakland’s Catfish Hunter, Cincinnati’s George Culver, and Perry. It marked the only time in major league history that no-hitters were thrown in back-to-back games, and was the Cardinals’ first no-hitter since Lon Warneke accomplished the feat against the Cincinnati Reds on August 30, 1941.

After the game, Cardinals general manager Bing Devine announced that Washburn would receive a $3,000 pay raise for the season in recognition of his accomplishment.[10]

Washburn finished the year with a career-best 14-8 record and 2.26 ERA. Facing the Tigers in the World Series, he threw 5 1/3 innings in Game 3 to earn the win in a 7-3 Cardinals victory, but lasted just two innings in a 13-1 Game 6 loss.

Washburn pitched one more season for the Cardinals before he was traded to the Reds for George Culver. He spent one season as a relief pitcher with the Reds before he was released and, after an unsuccessful tryout with the Angels, Washburn retired with a 72-64 career record.

After earning his master’s degree at Seattle University, Washburn became physical education department chair, athletic director, and baseball coach at Bellevue College, a two-year college in Bellevue, Washington. He retired from full-time duties in 2003.[11]

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[1] Neal Russo, “Washburn Heeds Doc’s No-Hitter Order,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 19, 1968: C1.

[2] Prescott Sullivan, “Job for an Asterisk,” San Francisco Examiner, September 19, 1968: Page 51.

[3] James K. McGee, “Curves Produce No Hitter,” San Francisco Examiner, September 19, 1968: Page 51.

[4] Neal Russo, “Washburn Heeds Doc’s No-Hitter Order,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 19, 1968: C1.

[5] Neal Russo, “Washburn Heeds Doc’s No-Hitter Order,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 19, 1968: C1.

[6] James K. McGee, “Curves Produce No Hitter,” San Francisco Examiner, September 19, 1968: Page 56.

[7] Neal Russo, “Washburn Heeds Doc’s No-Hitter Order,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 19, 1968: C4.

[8] James K. McGee, “Curves Produce No Hitter,” San Francisco Examiner, September 19, 1968: Page 56.

[9] Neal Russo, “Washburn Heeds Doc’s No-Hitter Order,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 19, 1968: C4.

[10] Neal Russo, “Washburn Heeds Doc’s No-Hitter Order,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 19, 1968: C1.

[11] Tim Herlich, “Ray Washburn,” https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/ray-washburn/. Accessed September 27, 2020.

The post How Ray Washburn matched Gaylord Perry’s no-hitter in 1968 first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.