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Roger Craig (baseball)

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(June 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

American baseball player (1930–2023)
Baseball player
Roger Craig
Craig asSan Diego Padres' manager in 1978
Pitcher /Manager
Born:(1930-02-17)February 17, 1930
Durham, North Carolina, U.S.
Died: June 4, 2023(2023-06-04) (aged 93)
San Diego, California, U.S.
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
MLB debut
July 17, 1955, for the Brooklyn Dodgers
Last MLB appearance
July 10, 1966, for the Philadelphia Phillies
MLB statistics
Win–loss record74–98
Earned run average3.83
Strikeouts803
Managerial record738–737
Winning %.500
Stats atBaseball Reference Edit this at Wikidata
Managerial record at Baseball Reference Edit this at Wikidata
Teams
As player
As manager
As coach
Career highlights and awards

Roger Lee Craig (February 17, 1930 – June 4, 2023) was an Americanpitcher,coach andmanager inMajor League Baseball (MLB). After playing for theBrooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers,New York Mets,St. Louis Cardinals,Cincinnati Reds andPhiladelphia Phillies between1955 and1966, Craig became an acclaimed pitching coach,[1] and a manager, between1969 and1992.

As a player and coach, Craig was part of fourWorld Series championship teams. As a manager, he led the1989 San Francisco Giants to the team's firstNational League championship in 27 years.

Playing career

[edit]

Craig was born inDurham, North Carolina, and graduated fromDurham High School, where he played multiple sports.[2] He began his college sports career atNorth Carolina State University on abasketball scholarship, but spent only one year atNC State before signing aprofessional baseball contract with theBrooklyn Dodgers in 1950 for $6,000 (equivalent to $78,000 in 2024).[3]

Craig as a Met (1963)

Craig threw and battedright-handed, stood 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) tall and weighed 190 pounds (86 kg). After his first two seasons in the Dodgerfarm system, he missed 1952 and 1953 while performingKorean War military service. In 1955, he won ten of 12decisions for theTriple-AMontreal Royals, then was called up to the majors in midyear. In his debut game July 17, Craig was the Dodgers'starting pitcher against theCincinnati Redlegs atEbbets Field. He threw acomplete game victory and allowed only threehits and oneearned run as Brooklyn triumphed, 6–2.[4] He made nine more starts for the Dodgers over the next ten weeks, andrelieved in a dozen games more; he threw two more complete games, earned twosaves, and posted a fine 2.78earned run average as the Dodgers won the National Leaguepennant. He started Game 5 of the1955 World Series against theNew York Yankees, worked sixinnings, gave up four hits and only tworuns before being relieved byClem Labine, and was credited with Brooklyn's 5–3 victory.[5] Two days later, on October 4, 1955, Craig's teammateJohnny Podresshut out the Yanks in Game 7, giving Brooklyn its first and only World Series championship.

Craig would appear in three more World Series. He was treated harshly by the Yankees andChicago White Sox in the1956 and1959 World Series, losing twodecisions with a dismal 9.98 earned run average; but he was almost flawless as a reliever for theSt. Louis Cardinals in the1964 Series. In two appearances for the Redbirds, he kept the Yankees scoreless and allowed only two hits in five innings pitched. A yeoman effort in Game 4, in which Craig worked4+23 scoreless innings pitched (with eightstrikeouts) in relief ofRay Sadecki, enabled the Cardinals to recover from a 3–0 deficit to win, 4–3, with Craig getting credit for the victory. St. Louis went on to take the series in seven games.

Craig was a member of the inaugural1962 New York Mets. As a member of the starting rotation of the 1962 and1963 Mets, who lost 120 and 111 games, respectively, Craig posted a 15–46won–lost record during his two seasons with theexpansion team. "But," Craig once recalled, "11 of those times it took a shutout to beat me."[citation needed] Despite his poor record, Craig was a stalwart of the legendarily bad team's pitching staff. Remarkably, he threw 27 complete games in 64 starts, demonstrating that he was one of the Mets' best pitchers. His manager,Casey Stengel, told him, "You've gotta be good to lose that many."[citation needed]

Craig lost the first game in Mets' history, 11–4, in St. Louis. (It has been erroneously believed that he gave up the Mets' first run on abalk; although he did commit a balk in the first inning, he already trailed 1–0, and the balk was not a scoring play.)[6] Then, in1963, from May 4 through August 4, Craig suffered through a personal 18-game losing streak. During it, he changed his uniform number from his traditional 38 to"unlucky" 13 in an attempt to break the 90-day winless stretch.[7] Craig finally ended the drought with a complete game, 7–3 win over theChicago Cubs at thePolo Grounds on August 9—a game the Mets won in the ninth inning on awalk-offgrand-slam home run byJim Hickman. The victory improved Craig's record to 3–20.[8]

A master of thesplit-finger fastball, Craig worked in 368 games over the course of his 12-year MLB career. He won ten or more games in1956,1959, and 1962, and posted a 74–98 won–lost mark (59–52 not counting his Mets' tenure). In1,536+13 careerinnings pitched, he surrendered 1,528 hits and 522bases on balls, with 803 strikeouts and a 3.83 earned run average. He threw seven shutouts and 58 complete games, and earned 19 saves. His late MLB tenure consisted of one-year stops with the Cardinals (1964),Cincinnati Reds (1965), andPhiladelphia Phillies (1966). Although he performed poorly during the 1959 World Series, Craig helped pitch the1959 Los Angeles Dodgers to the National League pennant, winning 11 games (with complete-game victories in his last three starts), posting a brilliant 2.06 ERA, and leading his league in shutouts (four), despite making only 17 starts and spending part of the season with the Triple-ASpokane Indians. Overall he appeared in four World Series; in seven games and26+13 innings pitched, he allowed 19 earned runs on 31 hits and 16 bases on balls, and struck out 25. He split four World Series decisions and compiled a 6.49 ERA.

Coach and manager

[edit]

Craig retired from the mound after the 1966 campaign and rejoined the Dodgers as ascout (1967) and manager ofDouble-AAlbuquerque (1968). In1969, former Dodgergeneral managerBuzzie Bavasi appointed Craig the first pitching coach in the history of the newly bornSan Diego Padres. Enduring the growing pains of another expansion team, Craig spent four years as the Padres' mound tutor before he was replaced by ex-teammate Johnny Podres. After another brief return to the Dodgers as a minor league pitching instructor in 1973, Craig resumed his MLB coaching career with theHouston Astros (19741975) and had a second tour with the Padres (19761977). During the latter year, the Padres lost 93 games under two managers,John McNamara andAlvin Dark.

InMarch 1978—in the midst ofspring training, and only two weeks before Opening Day—the Padres' ownership fired Dark for "miscommunication" with his players and elevated Craig to the manager's post. Said Craig at the time: "It was the shock of my life, but the best shock I've ever had. My main task now is to get the players to relax so they can perform to the best of their capabilities."[9] The1978 Padres responded to Craig's leadership, improving by 15 games over 1977 and posting the first winning season (84–78) in franchise history. However, Craig's1979 team took a giant step backward, reverting to a poor 68–93 record. Craig was fired at season's end and replaced byJerry Coleman, the former Yankeesecond baseman then serving as the radio voice of the Padres.

The firing eventually proved to be beneficial to Craig's managing career, however.Sparky Anderson, a former Dodger minor leaguer and coaching colleague of Craig's on the 1969 Padres, had taken over as pilot of theDetroit Tigers in the middle of1979. He appointed Craig his pitching coach for1980, and over the next five seasons, Craig moulded the Detroit pitching staff (led by bellwethersJack Morris andDan Petry) into a formidable group. The1984 Tigers stormed to a 35–5 start, theAmerican League pennant, andWorld Series championship (achieved against the San Diego Padres).

The national exposure Craig received burnished his reputation as one of baseball's top pitching coaches and "guru of the split-finger fastball".[1] Said former MLBcatcher and managerMike Scioscia in 2011, “Everyone was throwing that pitch. It was the pitch of the ’80s just like the pitch of the ’60s was aslider.”[1]

But when the Detroit front office refused his request for a salary increase for 1985, Craig retired to hisSan Diego County ranch.[10] His retirement did not last a full baseball season.

San Francisco Giants

[edit]

FromSeptember 18, 1985, through the end of1992, Craig was the manager of theSan Francisco Giants. He replacedJim Davenport for the final 18 games of the1985 season, posting a 6–12 record. But in his first five full seasons with the Giants, 1986 through1990, they never finished with a losing record.

In1987, Craig's Giants belted 205home runs, second-most in the major leagues, and won 90 games and theNational League Western Division title, to make their first appearance in the postseason since1971. TheGiants' divisional title in 1987 came just two years after they lost 100 games. The club came within one game of going to theWorld Series that year, losing to theCardinals inseven games. Reportedly, Craig assigned players to watch the third base coach, a runner on base, and the man at the plate for each game, with the pitcher being told to do pick off attempts to help with studying what was seen.[11] Along the way, Craig brought new popularity to the old baseball term "Humm Baby"[12] — traditional bench and infield chatter that urges pitchers to put extra "mustard" on their fastballs.[13]Brad Gulden, the third-string catcher behindBob Brenly andBob Melvin on the 1986 team, was the original “Humm Baby”. The moniker was bestowed on Gulden by Craig, and in the late 1980s the term spread until it applied to the entire team.

In1989, Craig's Giants won their first National League pennant since1962. Led by sluggersKevin Mitchell andWill Clark and starting pitcherRick Reuschel, they won 92 regular-season games (their most since1966) and took theNL West title by three games over the Padres. Then they defeated theCubs in five games in the1989 National League Championship Series. But Craig's Giants were swept in four games by theOakland Athletics in theWorld Series. That Series, the first ever betweenSan Francisco Bay Area teams, was marred by the1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which struck October 17, minutes before Game 3, scheduled forCandlestick Park. The quake killed 63 people and caused over 3,750 casualties. It delayed the World Series for ten days.

The Giants then began a slow decline on the field, winning 85 games in1990, 75 in1991, and 72 in1992. OwnerBob Lurie put the team on the market, and when he reached a tentative sales agreement with Florida businessmanVince Naimoli, the club was poised to relocate toTampa–St. Petersburg for1993. But, in an eventful offseason, the National League rejected the Lurie-Naimoli deal; it instead approved the Giants' sale to aSan Francisco group, headed byPeter Magowan, committed to keeping the club in theBay Area. The new owners dismissed Craig on December 2. He finished with a career managerial record of 738 wins and 737 losses, 586–566 (.509) with the Giants.[14] Then Magowan's group signed superstarfree agentBarry Bonds on December 8. With Bonds anchoring his lineup, Craig's successor,Dusty Baker, won 103 games in 1993 and was named National LeagueManager of the Year.

Death

[edit]

Craig was a consultant with theArizona Diamondbacks during the yearsBob Brenly managed the ballclub.[15] He died inSan Diego on June 4, 2023, at the age of 93.[1][16]

Managerial record

[edit]
TeamFromToRegular season recordPost–season record
WLWin %WLWin %
San Diego Padres19781979152171.471
San Francisco Giants19851992586566.50979.438
Total738737.50079.438
Ref.:[14]

References

[edit]
  1. ^abcdGoldstein, Richard (June 6, 2023)."Roger Craig, Teacher of an Era-Defining Pitch, Is Dead at 93".The New York Times. RetrievedAugust 21, 2023.
  2. ^Potter, Mike (November 8, 1985)."Old friends share a taste of fame".The Durham Sun. p. D. RetrievedNovember 17, 2022.
  3. ^Ross, Helen (May 26, 2021)."Roger Craig - May NCSHOF Member of the Month".North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. Archived fromthe original on November 17, 2022. RetrievedNovember 17, 2022.
  4. ^Retrosheetbox score: 1955-07-17 (1)
  5. ^Retrosheetbox score: 1955 World Series Game 5
  6. ^"St. Louis Cardinals 11, New York Mets 4".retrosheet.org. RetrievedAugust 20, 2015.
  7. ^Red, Christian (April 11, 2012)."After 50 Years, Former New York Mets Pitcher Roger Craig Looks Back on Lovable Losers of 1962".nydailynews.com.The New York Daily News. RetrievedOctober 28, 2023.
  8. ^"New York Mets 7, Chicago Cubs 3",Retrosheetbox score (August 9, 1963)
  9. ^United Press International."Padres: Dark Out, Craig In."The New York Times.
  10. ^Shook, Rich,Roger Craig.Society for American Baseball Research Biography Project
  11. ^"SIGNS OF THE TIMES – Sun Sentinel"..
  12. ^Kroner, Steve (April 9, 2006)."20TH ANNIVERSARY: Brad Gulden / The original The original Humm-baby / Craig's fond label for scrub caught on".SFGate. RetrievedAugust 20, 2015.
  13. ^Boswell, Thomas (October 8, 1987)."Words That a Manager Can Live By—'Humm, Baby'".losangelestimes.com.The Washington Post. RetrievedJuly 28, 2022.The entire Bay area now says, "Humm, Baby"—that old-fashioned high-school staple of infield chatter and Craig's favorite expresion—whenever anything good happens.
  14. ^ab"Roger Craig".Baseball Reference. Sports Reference. RetrievedAugust 3, 2016.
  15. ^Ratto, Ray. "Spring Training 2001: Sage Craig Rides To Brenly's Aid,"San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, February 25, 2001. Retrieved August 6, 2024.
  16. ^"Roger Craig, World Series fixture as pitcher and manager, dies".ESPN.com. Associated Press. June 5, 2023. RetrievedJune 5, 2023.

Further reading

[edit]

External links

[edit]
Sporting positions
Preceded by
Franchise established
Tom Morgan
San Diego Padrespitching coach
1969–1972
1976–1977
Succeeded by
Preceded byHouston Astrospitching coach
1974–1975
Succeeded by
Preceded byDetroit Tigerspitching coach
1980–1984
Succeeded by
International
National
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