By TIM TROWER
Anyone who saw the piece I wrote for Wednesday’s paper on Roger Craig might wonder how I could possibly have more to say. I know there are people on the copy desk scraching their heads. Long stories kind of creep up on you, especially the “life-and-times” pieces, as a co-hort calls them. I can explain it away by saying, when I was a kid, I used to love reading baseball books about exploits from another era. Talking to Craig, the former pitcher who broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1955 and who coached the San Francisco Giants into the World Series in 1989, was like opening one of those books.
For those who want to hear some of it themselves, go to Harry & David Field at 2 p.m. Friday. Craig will speak in a casual, open setting, inviting questions and encouraging interaction. There is no charge.
Anyway, a couple of things didn’t make it into the story simply because I kind of zoomed past them.
At one point, I asked Craig who the hitters were that gave him trouble. Not surprisingly, he said Eddie Mathews and Stan Musial. The year Craig came within a few outs of winning the National League ERA title, 1959, Mathews won the NL home run crown with 46, one better than Ernie Banks and seven ahead of one Mr. Hank Aaron. Of Mathews, Craig said, “It seemed like he knew everything I was throwing and would hit it.”
More surprising was who Craig had more than his fair share of success against: the aforementioned Ernie Banks. “He was a great hitter and a great player,” says Craig, “but he told me one time, ‘every time I look for a pitch off you, you throw me just the opposite.’”
Craig is friends with locals Glen Clark and Bob Harrell through their association at Borrego Springs Country Club in Southern California. Clark told me in a phone call that the greatest photo he’s ever seen was one of Craig and some of his Dodger teammates standing around a batting cage. What’s special is there were seven Hall-of-Famers in that picture. “And there should be eight,” Craig told Clark, because Don Newcombe belongs in the Hall.
One nugget I noticed in a chronology of Craig’s career made me think back to those books I used to read. In July of 1959, Craig relieved in the third inning of a game against the Milwaukee Braves, for whom Aaron played. Craig hurled 11 scoreless innings (on just 88 pitches) in a 4-3 win, knocking the Braves from first place.
What struck a chord with me was, I remembered Harvey Haddix of Pittsburgh had pitched what is considered by many to be the greatest game in history around then, another extra-inning affair. I checked. Six weeks before Craig stymied the Braves, Haddix pitched 12 perfect innings – yes, perfect, 36 up, 36 down — against them. However, he lost 1-0 in the 13th on an error, an intentional walk of Aaron and a double by Joe Adcock. Adcock actually hit a home run, but it was taken away when he passed Aaron on the base path.
By the way, Craig is on an illustrious list of pitchers who surrendered home runs as Hank Aaron worked his way to 755. A check of an online list shows he gave up Nos. 34, 216, 227, 259, 298, 300, 354, 366 and 419. Not to worry, 70 came off Hall-of-Famers, including 17 off Don Drysdale.
Now you know the rest of the story.
