Book Review: Flamethrowers: Carlton & Gossage, by Bill Gutman (1982)

 

My copy of Flamethrowers: Carlton & Gossage, by Bill Gutman, 1982. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

(This article was first published on Mark My Words in June, 2019.) Why did I recently read the 1982 baseball book Flamethrowers: Carlton & Gossage, by Bill Gutman, when it was probably intended for 6^th graders? Well, because Steve Carlton is my favorite baseball player. When I found Flamethrowers in a box of books marked 50 cents at one of my favorite used bookstores, I had to get it. There was a book about Steve Carlton that I didn’t even know about!

As you can tell from the title, Flamethrowers focuses on two pitchers who ended up in the Hall of Fame: Steve Carlton and Rich “Goose” Gossage. Bill Gutman tells us their backstories and takes us through their careers, year by year. Flamethrowers is written well, for what it is, and although I don’t think Gutman interviewed either Steve Carlton or Goose Gossage for the book, he sprinkles it with quotes from newspapers and other sources. (I’m assuming Gutman used other sources, although, not surprisingly, the book lacks either footnotes or a bibliography.)

The part of the book about Goose Gossage was less interesting to me, so I’ll cover that first. It’s still an interesting overview of Gossage’s career through 1981. Gossage was one of the finest relief pitchers in baseball from 1975-1985, using his wild delivery, overpowering fastball, and Fu Manchu mustache to intimidate batters in late innings. On the subject of mustaches, Al Hrabosky, another Fu Manchu-d reliever from the 1970’s, once said, “How can I intimidate batters if I look like a fucking golf pro?”

It’s interesting now to read about how Gossage was used in relief, which is very different from how most closers are used today. Nowadays, your closer comes in for the 9^th inning, throws some fastballs, and nails down the save. But in Flamethrowers, you’ll read about Gossage coming into games in the 7^th or 8^th innings! That’s right, closers sometimes used to pitch more than just one inning!

Gossage was part of the craziness that was the New York Yankees during the George Steinbrenner years of the 1970’s and 1980’s. Despite that, Gossage pitched well under pressure on the game’s biggest stages. Minnesota Twins fans like myself will enjoy the references to two of the Yankees’ other relief pitchers of 1981: Ron Davis and George Frazier. Ron Davis was the Twins’ closer from 1982 to 1985, and that time was, um, somewhat tumultuous. I’m pretty sure that Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse credits the trade of Davis to the Cubs in August of 1986 as the crucial move that allowed the Twins to triumph in the World Series in 1987. Ironically, George Frazier was one of the players the Twins received from the Cubs for Davis. Frazier set the ignominious record of losing three games in the same World Series for the Yankees in 1981. Fortunately, Frazier emerged unscathed from his one appearance in the 1987 World Series for the Twins.

I learned some new facts about Steve Carlton from Flamethrowers. For example, Gutman writes that Carlton was called up by the Cardinals at the end of the 1964 season, but didn’t pitch in any games. I had never heard this before. 1964 was Carlton’s first professional season, and he quickly rose through the ranks and was promoted to Tulsa, the Cardinals AA farm team. Gutman writes that Carlton warmed up once for the Cardinals in the bullpen, during a high scoring game against the Mets. He even quotes Carlton: “I was so nervous I couldn’t believe it. I began throwing to Dave Ricketts and I couldn’t even see him.” (p.8)

I’ve never encountered the story of Carlton being called up at the end of 1964, and since the Cardinals were involved in a tight pennant race, which they ended up coming out on top of, I thought it was unlikely they would have called up a 19-year-old pitcher just finishing his first pro season. But I did some Googling to see what I could find. And I found a copy of a major league contract signed by Steve Carlton, dated September 19, 1964. Carlton’s contract was approved by National League President Warren Giles on September 24^th. The game that Gutman references where Carlton warmed up, but didn’t actually enter, took place on October 3, 1964. The Mets beat the Cardinals 15-5. The Cardinals used 8 pitchers in the game, so their bullpen was stretched thin. The fact that Carlton signed a major league contract in September of 1964 is proof enough for me that they called him up at the end of the season.

Steve Carlton is known now for his silence with the media, for his intense and unorthodox physical conditioning program, and for his focus on the mental aspect of baseball. But these characteristics took time to develop, and they were not part of his makeup when he made his major league debut with the Cardinals on April 12, 1965.

Carlton was clearly a talented young pitcher with a live fastball and an excellent curve, but when he added a slider to his repertoire in 1969, he took his game to the next level and emerged as a truly dominant starting pitcher. Carlton’s slider looked just like his fastball, until it dove downward at the last possible instant. It was a pitch that would confuse hitters for the rest of Carlton’s career. Late in 1969, Carlton set a major league record by striking out 19 New York Mets. (Ironically, Carlton lost the game, 4-3.)

However, in 1970 Carlton stopped throwing his slider, as it was hurting his arm. He was struggling through a difficult season as the losses piled up. Sometime that season he started getting letters from a fan who thought that Carlton wasn’t focusing his mental energy. Carlton said: “You can create an atmosphere about yourself, positive or negative. The year I lost nineteen games {1970} I was all wrapped up in self-pity. I really learned a lot about mental attitude that year.” (p.23)

Carlton rebounded from 1970 to become a 20-game winner for the first time in 1971. When he wanted a raise from the Cardinals, the team refused. The difference in dollars between Carlton and the Cardinals was small, but in February, 1972, the team traded him to the lowly Philadelphia Phillies. Carlton was determined to not let this affect his positive mental attitude. Carlton proclaimed days that he started to be “win day,” and in 1972, he was almost always right. Carlton won 27 games for a last-place team that only managed 59 wins, meaning that Carlton was responsible for 45.8% of the Phillies’ wins! Carlton won the pitching Triple Crown, leading the National League in wins, ERA, and strikeouts. He also won the Cy Young Award. Phillies manager Paul Owens said the team performed differently when Carlton was pitching: “It was Steve’s charisma, the feeling of confidence everyone had when he was on the mound.” (p.33)

Expectations were sky-high for Carlton entering the 1973 season. Carlton had done nothing to tamp these expectations down, as he spoke publicly about the possibility of winning 30 games. Instead, he went from a 20-game winner to a 20-game loser, finishing 1973 with an ERA almost two runs higher than 1972, and a record of 13-20. Carlton had walking pneumonia during the season, and although he didn’t spend any time on the disabled list because of that, it couldn’t have helped. The media started being more critical of Carlton during 1973. If he was thinking so positively, why couldn’t he win 30 games? Up to this point in his career, Carlton’s relationship with the press had been largely positive. Now it turned antagonistic. Eventually, as the 1970’s wore on, Carlton stopped talking to the press altogether. Despite what most people have written about Carlton’s silence in the media, it was not absolute, as he still gave occasional interviews during this time. For example, Hal Bodley interviewed him in the 1980-81 off-season for his book about the 1980 Phillies, The Team That Wouldn’t Die. And Carlton would still talk to reporters off the record about subjects other than baseball. But if they tried to wheedle an on the record baseball-related quote from him, Carlton would grin and say, “Policy is policy.”

1974 and 1975 were two more up-and-down seasons for Carlton, as the Phillies slowly improved. According to Gutman, Carlton was suffering from a sore arm these two seasons. Carlton led the league in strikeouts in 1974, but he also led the league in walks. In 1976 both Carlton and the Phillies exploded, as the Phillies surged to the top of the NL East, and Carlton won 20 games while losing just 7. So, what changed? For Carlton, he started working with Gus Hoefling, a “strength and flexibility expert.” (p.59) Carlton and Hoefling devised an unusual workout strategy that defied much of the conventional logic about how pitchers should train. The thinking was that pitchers should run. A lot. Carlton wasn’t a fan of running, and he was an early proponent of weight lifting, which was not very widespread in baseball in the 1970’s. Carlton also studied martial arts, and some of his training was inspired by martial arts exercises. One of the exercises called for Carlton to stick his left arm in a barrel of rice and work his hand down to the bottom of the barrel. Carlton’s best friend in baseball, the chatty catcher Tim McCarver, said of Lefty’s workouts: “It’s a very strenuous training program. I know because I’ve tried it and it almost killed me.” (p.60) My own theory is that Carlton’s career was rejuvenated by his unorthodox training program. After the 1975 season, Carlton’s won-loss record stood at 148-119, for a winning percentage of .554. From 1976 through the 1984 season, Carlton’s record was 165-88, for a winning percentage of .652. I’m not saying wins and losses are the be all and end all for pitchers, and surely part of Carlton’s changing fortunes were due to the Phillies’ improvement as a team over those same years, but I think Carlton’s training helped make him a better pitcher.

Carlton won the Cy Young Award again in 1977 and 1980. The latter season was one of Carlton’s best, as he led the league in wins and strikeouts, going 24-9 for a Phillies team that finally made it past the NLCS to the World Series. Carlton went 2-0 in the World Series, including the deciding Game 6. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, in 1980 Carlton put up what will probably be the last 300-inning season a pitcher ever throws. Carlton threw 304 innings in the regular season, and then added another 27 1/3 innings in the postseason! In Game 2 of the World Series, Carlton threw eight innings and 159 pitches. No pitcher would be allowed to do that today.

The 1981 season saw Carlton add more highlights to his formidable resume, as he became the first left-hander to strike out 3,000 batters, and he also surpassed Bob Gibson’s record for most strikeouts in the National League. And that’s where Flamethrowers leaves Steve Carlton, a 37-year-old power pitcher whose slider was still one of the best pitches in baseball.

Carlton had another great season in 1982, as he became the first pitcher to win four Cy Young Awards, leading the league in pretty much everything: wins, games started, complete games, shutouts, innings pitched, strikeouts—as well as most hits allowed. In 1983 Carlton won his 300^th game, led the league in strikeouts and innings, and helped the Phillies make it back to the World Series. In 1983 and 1984 Carlton and Nolan Ryan traded off the title of all-time strikeout leader. Carlton went on the disabled list for the first time in his career in 1985 with rotator cuff issues. He wasn’t the same pitcher after that, although he persisted with his positive mental outlook, even as he bounced from team to team. He recorded his 4,000^th strikeout with the San Francisco Giants in 1986, which is still the National League record. Carlton pitched his last game for the Minnesota Twins in 1988, finishing his career with 329 wins. Carlton was a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 1994.

If you’re really, really obsessed with either Steve Carlton or Goose Gossage, or baseball in the 1970’s, then I can heartily recommend Flamethrowers to you.

Vote for Steve Carlton for the Cardinals Hall of Fame

A very young Steve Carlton with the Cardinals.

 If you're a fan of Steve Carlton, you can vote for him to be enshrined in the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame. Carlton is one of the 5 candidates this year. The 5 candidates are: Steve Carlton, Keith Hernandez, Matt Morris, Edgar Renteria, and Lee Smith. The winning candidate of the fan vote will be inducted at a ceremony on August 21, 2021. Fan voting ends on April 17th. While Steve Carlton had his greatest seasons as a Phillie, he still had great seasons as a Cardinal as well. Over his 7 years with the Cardinals, from 1965-1971, Carlton had a record of 77-62, with a 3.10 ERA. Carlton threw 66 complete games and 16 shutouts for the Cardinals. It was with the Cardinals that Carlton struck out 19 Mets on September 15, 1969. Carlton pitched for two pennant-winning Cardinal teams: the World Series-winning 1967 team, and the NL champion 1968 team. He was a 3-time All-Star with the Cardinals, in 1968, 1969, and 1971. Carlton started the 1969 All-Star Game, pitched 3 innings, and was the winning pitcher. Carlton also had his first 20-game winning season for the Cardinals in 1971, his last year with the team. 

Here's the link to vote for the Cardinals Hall of Fame:

https://www.mlb.com/cardinals/fans/hof-vote

The 1994 BBWAA Hall of Fame Ballot

 

Steve Carlton at the Hall of Fame press conference on January 13, 1994. Despite his sometimes rocky relationship with the press, and his reputation for not speaking to reporters, Carlton gave interviews for more than two hours.

Ted Simmons in 1976.

(This article was originally published on Mark My Words in December, 2019.) When Ted Simmons was elected to the Hall of Fame last week, I took a closer look at the 1994 BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot, the only writers’ ballot that Simmons appeared on. It’s a pretty odd ballot, for reasons I’ll explain. The writers voted in late 1993, and the results were made public on January 12, 1994. The only player elected by the writers that year was my favorite baseball player: Steve Carlton, who was named on 95.6% of the ballots. At the time, Carlton’s percentage was one of the top ten in the history of the Hall of Fame. Carlton was a slam-dunk case for the Hall of Fame: he won 329 games, he was the second pitcher to ever strike out 4,000 batters, he won 4 Cy Young Awards, and he was a 10-time All-Star. Pretty open and shut.

Other than Carlton, there are now 8 players on the 1994 ballot who were subsequently elected to the Hall of Fame. They are: Orlando Cepeda, Phil Niekro, Tony Perez, Don Sutton, Ron Santo, Bruce Sutter, Joe Torre—who was elected for his accomplishments as a manager—and Ted Simmons. That’s a pretty stacked ballot. Oddly enough, it includes two 300-game winning pitchers, Phil Niekro and Don Sutton, who were NOT first-ballot Hall of Famers. It ended up taking Niekro and Sutton FIVE tries to make it into the Hall. It’s bizarre to think of two 300-game winners somehow not being first ballot Hall of Famers.

I don’t know if any of the voters have a thing about not voting for someone on their first ballot, and then voting for them the second time—separating the Hall into “first ballot” guys and everyone else,  but that’s the only reason I can think of for not voting for a 300-game winner the first year they’re eligible. Yes, Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton were better than Don Sutton, but it doesn’t mean that Sutton doesn’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.

I suppose someone could object to Phil Niekro because he lost so many games—274, 5^th on the all-time list. Niekro led the NL in losses four years in a row, from 1977-1980, but that’s more a reflection of the crappy Braves teams he was pitching for than his pitching talents. In 1979, Niekro led the NL in both wins and losses, in addition to also leading the league in games started, complete games, innings, hits, home runs, walks, hit by pitch, and batters faced! Niekro didn’t achieve the same level of fame as some of the other pitchers of his generation. Niekro never played in a World Series, never won a Cy Young Award, and won 20 games in a season “only” 3 times. Back in the day, when pitcher wins were VERY important, this might have made a difference to some voters. In contrast, Fergie Jenkins, who won 34 fewer games than Niekro over his career, won 20 games in a season seven times, including six years in a row. Seaver won 20 games five times, Carlton won 20 games six times, and Jim Palmer, who won 50 fewer games than Niekro, was an eight-time 20 game winner.

Fortunately, WAR and other sabermetric stats have proven Niekro’s value as a pitcher. If Niekro were hitting the ballot for the first time in 2019, I think he’d sail into the Hall of Fame.

It's almost like Don Sutton decided to win 324 games in the most low-key way possible. His season high for wins was 21, achieved in 1976, the only year that Sutton won 20 games. Sutton never won a Cy Young Award, and only led the league in a Triple Crown pitching statistic once, when he led the NL in ERA in 1980. Sutton is 7^th all-time in strikeouts, but the closest he came to leading the league was two 4^th place finishes. Sutton just pitched forever, never got hurt, and won like 16 games every single year. Sutton won 15 games or more in a season 12 times, which is impressive. Sutton still managed to be effective after he turned 40. Steve Carlton turned 40 in December of 1984, and Sutton turned 40 in April of 1985. Despite Carlton’s rigorous training regimen, and excellent physical health, in 1985 he went on the disabled list for the only time in his career with a rotator cuff strain and missed more than two months of the season. In short, Carlton was never the same pitcher after that injury. From 1985 to the end of their careers in 1988, Sutton’s record was 44-38, while Carlton’s was 16-37.

Anyway, back to the 1994 ballot. During this historical period, it seems as though the writers were really stuck on electing just one player at a time. It’s like Reggie Jackson, Steve Carlton, and Mike Schmidt were just so amazing that they couldn’t even focus on the statistics of the other players. The writers didn’t even elect anyone in 1996, when the ballot had no first-ballot Hall of Famers on it. (The best players to debut on that ballot were Bob Boone, Fred Lynn, and Keith Hernandez.) 1996 should have been a time for them to clear the backlog on the ballot and elect Niekro, Sutton, and Tony Perez in one fell swoop.

In addition to all the future Hall of Famers, the 1994 ballot was also full of excellent players who still haven’t made it into the Hall of Fame but have been considered by various iterations of the Veterans’ Committee. Those players include: Steve Garvey, Tony Oliva, Jim Kaat, Dick Allen, Ken Boyer, Minnie Minoso, Luis Tiant, and Dave Concepcion. There was certainly an embarrassment of riches for the writers to choose from in 1994.

The 1994 ballot was the last time that anyone wrote Pete Rose’s name down for Hall of Fame. Rose had been banned from baseball since 1989, and in 1991, just before Rose would have hit the ballot, had he not been banned, the Hall of Fame made it clear that players on the ineligible list (Rose) could not be considered for induction into the Hall of Fame. But some sportswriters wrote Rose’s name on their ballots anyway, and Rose was named on 9.5% of the ballots in 1992, the highest total of his three years being written in. In 1994, Rose was written in on 19 ballots, getting 4.2% of the vote. So, more sportswriters wasted their votes on a protest for Pete Rose than voting for Ted Simmons, who needed their help to stay on the ballot.

In addition to the banned Hit King being written in, there were other oddities in 1994. While Ted Simmons only got 17 votes, for 3.7%, and was dropped from future ballots, other players under 5% somehow reappeared the following year. George Foster, Vida Blue, and Don Baylor all received fewer votes than Simmons, and yet they all were on the 1995 BBWAA ballot. How did this happen? Sloppy proof-reading? Both Baylor and Foster got less than 5% of the vote on the 1995 ballot, and were dropped from future ballots. Vida Blue actually got more than 5% of the vote on the 1995 ballot, at 5.7%, but he was still dropped too. That just seems like adding insult to injury.

I don’t think Vida Blue is a Hall of Famer, despite his Hall of Fame name, but he was an excellent pitcher. With 191 victories after 1982, his age 32 season, Blue might have projected to someday join the Hall of Fame. However, Blue didn’t win a single game in 1983, and the Kansas City Royals released him in August. Blue had cocaine problems during this period as well, and in addition to serving a jail term, he was banned from baseball for the 1984 season by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Blue made a comeback with the Giants in 1985 and 1986, winning his 200^th game and getting his 2,000^th strikeout. I’m not going to say that Vida Blue was better than Don Drysdale, but I will point out that Blue has a slightly better won-loss record. Blue finished his career at 209-161, and Drysdale was 209-166. Given how amazing the Dodgers were throughout Drysdale’s career, it’s surprising his winning percentage wasn’t higher.

Vida Blue is also the answer to two fun trivia questions: he was the first pitcher to start All-Star games for both leagues, and he remains, 48 years later, the last switch-hitter to win the AL MVP. I met Vida Blue at a baseball card show in 2017, and he was a very nice guy. He remembered my name when I bumped into him walking around the show an hour after I got his autograph, so that was cool.

I also met Don Baylor at a baseball card show when I was a kid. It must have been shortly after he retired as a player. He was a nice guy, and he was always a player I really liked. Someone said of Don Baylor, “He just looked like an RBI, standing up there at the plate.” Baylor drove in 1,276 RBI’s during his career, so that was an apt quote. He was also unafraid of taking one for the team, as he was hit by 267 pitches. Once he was on the bases, Baylor was a threat to steal, as he racked up 285 steals, with a high of 52 in 1976.

One of the random facts I learned from the 2001 edition of The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract is that 8-time Gold Glove winning shortstop Mark Belanger had three books on his desk: “A baseball encyclopedia, Marvin Miller’s autobiography, and Don Baylor, by Don Baylor.” (p.624) I don’t know how Bill James knew this, but it’s interesting. Baylor and Belanger were teammates on the Orioles in the early 1970’s, so that perhaps explains why the book found a place on Belanger’s desk. I read Don Baylor’s autobiography when I was a kid and I remember enjoying it, although I couldn’t tell you anything specific about it. It’s never been one of the top three books on my desk. Maybe I should read it again.

I’ve always been struck by how Don Baylor’s career is kind of a reverse image of Reggie Jackson’s. Granted, Baylor never climbed the ladder of super-duper stardom the way that Reggie did, but Baylor played for all the same teams that Reggie did. Jackson and Baylor were part of the blockbuster trade that sent Reggie from the A’s to the Orioles in April of 1976. Jackson played only one year for the Orioles, while Baylor only played one year for the A’s. While Reggie went to the Yankees and then to the Angels, Baylor went to the Angels and then to the Yankees. Jackson and Baylor were teammates for one year, on the 1982 Angels. Jackson led the AL in home runs that year with 39, while Baylor added 24 home runs of his own. Adding to the symmetry of their careers, both played their last season for the Oakland A’s: Jackson in 1987, Baylor in 1988.

The 1994 ballot also featured yet another veteran member of the 1987 Minnesota Twins besides Steve Carlton and Don Baylor: Joe Niekro, Phil’s younger brother. Joe was a pretty solid pitcher, tying his brother for the NL lead in wins in 1979, and winning 221 games in his career. Joe was released by the Twins in May of 1988, just a week after the team let Steve Carlton go. In his only appearance on a Hall of Fame ballot, Joe got six votes.

But Joe Niekro still fared better than his longtime Houston Astros teammate, Jose Cruz, who only received two votes. Cruz wasn’t a Hall of Famer, but he was a very good player who put together a nice career.

At the very bottom of the ballot were five players who didn’t receive any votes for the Hall of Fame: Scott McGregor, one of those very good pitchers that the Baltimore Orioles seemed to turn out like clockwork in the 1970’s and 1980’s, Bob Horner, one of the few players to never spend a day in the minor leagues, Mario Soto, who had back-to-back seasons of 274 and 242 strikeouts in 1982 and 1983, and Chris Chambliss and George Hendrick.

Chris Chambliss just has one of those names that sticks with you. The alliteration, the way the “is” at the end of “Chris” is echoed by the “iss” at the end of “Chambliss.” Also, “Chambliss” sounds like a fancy champagne. Ordering the Chambliss is always going to impress your date. For the record, Chris Chambliss’ full name is Carroll Christopher Chambliss. That’s wonderful. Also, I’m pretty sure that Chris Chambliss invented the soul patch. (Okay, he probably didn’t, but he’s the first baseball player who had one.) I’m kind of surprised that some New York sportswriter didn’t give Chambliss a vote just because of his walk-off home run in Game 5 of the 1976 ALCS, which brought the Yankees their first pennant since 1964.

Chris Chambliss had a “nice career,” which I officially define for a position player as achieving one or more of the following: 1,000 runs, 2,000 hits, 200 home runs, and 1,000 RBI’s. The only one of these milestones Chambliss achieved was 2,000 hits, as he finished his career with 2,109 hits, but it still qualifies him for a “nice career.”

George Hendrick, like Steve Carlton, was known for not talking to the press. The joke going around in the early 1980’s was that the worst thing that could happen to a sportswriter would be to have to cover a game where Steve Carlton pitched a one-hitter, and the player who got the one hit would be George Hendrick, meaning that you wouldn’t be able to get a quote out of the two main participants of the game.

The San Diego Padres made an odd decision in trading Hendrick to the St. Louis Cardinals in May 1978. Hendrick was coming off a season where he hit 23 home runs and batted .311. (According to the sabermetric stats WAR and OPS+, both of which hadn’t been invented yet, it was Hendrick’s best season.) The Padres traded Hendrick straight up for pitcher Eric Rasmussen. The most exciting thing about Eric Rasmussen is that during the 1976-77 off-season he changed his legal name from Harold to Eric. Rasmussen went 22-30 for the Padres over three seasons. Hendrick played for the Cardinals through 1984, was a two-time All-Star with the Cards, won two Silver Slugger Awards, and had an OPS+ of 125. Rasmussen has been a minor league pitching coach for the Minnesota Twins organization since 1991, a fact that I’m embarrassed I didn’t know until today. Random George Hendrick fact: former MLB player, and insightful commentator Doug Glanville credits Hendrick with starting the trend of players wearing longer pants and not showing any sock. Since I’m a stirrup sock guy, I have to dock George Hendrick a point for starting this uniform trend. However, since Hendrick hit 267 home runs and drove in 1,111 RBI’s, he does get points for having a “nice career.”

So that’s a look at the 1994 BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot. Like every Hall of Fame ballot, it was full of superstars and interesting players.