Homage to a Yankee Killer

 

The other day brought the death, at 93, of Roger Craig, the last (or next-to-last, reports differ) of the O.G. Mets. Most fans today know him—if they know him at all—as a legendary pitching coach, "Hum, baby!", the Apostle of the Splitter.

His career also runs like a red thread through Yankees history. Craig broke in with the Dodgers, after two years in Korea. Walter Alston started him in Game Five of the 1955 World Series, even though he had only 10 previous starts in the majors.

Alston knew what he was doing. The young pitcher the Yanks hadn't seen before pitched six strong innings, giving up just four hits and two runs, and Clem Labine brought home a 5-3 win for the Brooks. A couple days later, another young, unheralded pitcher, Johnny Podres, wrapped up the one and only World Series win for the Borough of Homes and Churches.

The Yanks got Craig back the next year, a 5-3 win as they set the world to rights again. After that, he suffered from various, poorly diagnosed arm miseries (as opposed to the well-diagnosed arm miseries we can do nothing about today), going up and down as pitchers used to do in that era.  

He had a good 1959 with the Bums, going 11-5 2.06, as the Dodgers claimed another ring out in La-La Land. But by 1962 he was 32 years old, and seemed finished. LA let him go in the expansion draft to the Mets, whose master plan was to appease the fans with old Dodgers from the past, while they built a team—Gil Hodges, Duke Snider, Don Zimmer, Labine, Craig.

It was a cynical, even a cruel plan, and particularly cruel to Roger Craig, who the Mets used as the proverbial rented donkey.  

The very first Mets pitcher to hurl a ball in anger, Craig went a combined 15-46 in 1962-63, throwing an amazing 27 complete games in 64 starts. You think that's bad? They ALSO pitched him 24 times in relief. (He picked up five saves!)

Roger Craig didn't complain, didn't so much as whimper. He did the best that he could, going 5-22 in 1963 despite a 3.78 ERA. And when the Mets decided they had gnawed every last bit of marrow off that bone, they dealt him to St. Louis for a couple of mediocrities.

But they were wrong. Roger Craig had a little something left after all. The Cardinals threw him into the breach in the World Series that year and Damn! if he didn't pitch 5 shutout relief innings against us, allowing only 2 hits and no runs, striking out 9, and picking up a win.

Not long after that, Craig was off on a long jaunt as a groundbreaking pitching coach. He even did some managing, winning the Giants their first pennant in 27 years, in 1989. His life and his career were little lessons in how to persevere. Even if he was a Met. And a Dodger.