Page 194 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 187
ere was also an interesting incident in April 1966 which sheds some light on the relationship between players and management, pre-Marvin Miller. McCarver and veteran pitcher Bob Purkey represented the players in a meeting with management in a dispute over compensation for appearances for pre- and post- game shows. e players were not being compensated and they wanted $25 for radio and $50 for television appearances. Management pointed to small print in the player’s contract that they agree to “cooperate with the club and participate in any and all promotional activities of the club and league.” at was the end of that.
1967 was a big year for the McCarver and the Cardinals. Buoyed by a near-MVP season from rst baseman Orlando Cepeda, St. Louis won the pennant by a comfortable 101⁄2-game margin over the San Francisco Giants. McCarver was batting .348 at the All-Star break and earned a second, and nal, trip to the mid- season classic. His average tailed o to .295, but he still nished with career highs in home runs, 14, and RBIs, 69. e Cardinals went into the 1967 World Series to face the “Impossible Dream” Boston Red Sox. Boston, which had nished ninth the season before, was led by Triple Crown winner Carl Yastrzemski and pitcher Jim Lonborg, who won 22 games. e Series was hard fought and nally the Cardinals rode the strong arm of pitcher Bob Gibson to a seven game victory. McCarver did not have the same outstanding performance as he did in the 1964 Series, batting only .125 with 3 hits in 24 at-bats.
1968 marked the last year in the great run for the St. Louis Cardinals. ey captured their third pennant in ve years, again nishing comfortably ahead of the San Francisco Giants. 1968 was also known as the Year of the Pitcher and St. Louis was carried by Bob Gibson’s historic 1.12 ERA and 22 victories. McCarver saw his average dip to .253, but he atoned for his poor performance in the 1967 Series with a very good 1968 Series. He batted .333 and among his nine hits was a three-run home run in the fth inning of Game ree o Pat Dobson that put the Cards ahead and spurred them on to a 7-3 victory. Alas, things did not turn out
as well for the Cards as it had in 1964 and 1967. St. Louis stormed out to a three-games-to-one lead before the Tigers mounted a comeback and took three games in a row to win the World Championship.
McCarver ended his rst tour of duty with the Cardinals in 1969 with another solid season; 7 HR, 51 RBIs, .260. e club slumped to fourth place, 13 games behind the rst-place “Miracle Mets.” In a historic trade, McCarver was sent o to the Philadelphia Phillies along with Curt Flood in a seven-player trade that also saw enigmatic Dick Allen go to St. Louis. Flood refused to report to the Phillies and took his case all the way to the Supreme Court. is was the precursor to all the player/management labor issues in the ‘70s that changed the baseball landscape forever.
is also began the vagabond part of McCarver’s career. He began the 1970 season as the Phillies starting catcher, but in a microcosm of all the troubles that befell the Phillies in those days, McCarver broke his nger on a foul ball o the bat of Willie Mays in early May. In the very same inning, backup catcher Mike Ryan su ered a similar injury and both were shelved for a good part of the season. McCarver already pos- sesses a less-than-powerful arm, the broken nger did not heal straight. e e ect was that his throws moved like a cut fastball.
McCarver returned to form with the Phillies in 1971. He appeared in 134 games and again produced solid o ensive numbers with a .278 average to go along with 8 round-trippers and 46 RBIs. An interesting incident with his former Cardinal teammates took place in September. It began when McCarver dropped a popup near the St. Louis dugout. Cardinal players began riding him and really got under his skin when they began yelling from the dugout “ ere he goes” with the slow-footed Joe Torre on rst base — the implica- tion being that his throwing problems would not even allow him to catch a pedestrian Torre on a stolen base attempt. When Lou Brock was at the plate he was brushed back by pitcher Manny Muniz on two con- secutive pitches. Brock made a comment and the two former teammates and current friends began to scu e. Umpire Al Barlick ejected McCarver.