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My copy of Flamethrowers: Carlton & Gossage, by Bill Gutman, 1982. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)
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(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 9th inning, throws some fastballs, and
nails down the save. But in Flamethrowers,
you’ll read about Gossage coming into games in the 7th or 8th
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 24th.
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 300th 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 4,000th 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.
