Page 73 - 1975 BoSox

66 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
with 11. e Lewiston team was managed by former big-league pitcher Ray Hathaway. It is Hathaway, who would later become the Cardinals’ pitching coach, along with Billy Mu ett, whom Cleveland credited with teaching him to pitch.6
Cleveland was back in St. Petersburg once more for the 1968 campaign, this time compiling a 15-10 record over 27 starts and an ERA of 2.77, striking out 135 in 185 innings. After growing up in the frigid Canadian prairie, St. Petersburg must have seemed like paradise. In 1968 he married St. Petersburg resident Kathleen Kubicki. e couple, who took up residence in sunny St. Pete, would collaborate on three children — Michelle, Michael, and Todd. e next year was Cleveland’s breakout year in the minors. He was 15-6 in 1969 for the Arkansas Travelers (Double-A Texas League) with an ERA of 3.39 in 23 starts. He tied for the league lead in complete games with 13. Cleveland moved up to the Tulsa Oilers in the Triple-A American Association for six games before making his major- league debut.
On October 1, 1969, in the next-to-last game in the 1969 schedule, the 6-foot-1, 195-pound right-hander made his debut for St. Louis with a start against the Philadelphia Phillies in Busch Stadium. While Cleveland did not pitch well (four innings, seven hits, four earned runs) the Cardinals won, 6-5. Cleveland started the 1970 season in the minors but after posting a 12-8 record in Tulsa, he was called up in August. He got into 16 games, including one start, for the Redbirds and was 0-4 over that stretch. Despite his record, there was one appearance, in Pittsburgh on September 9, that showed he could succeed in the majors. Cleveland had been working with Schoendienst and Mu ett on his mechanics. He was not using his lower body ef- fectively but was reluctant to make changes. Schoendienst and Mu ett persisted, however, and through the use of movies, demonstrated his awed delivery.
Cleveland told e Sporting News’s Neal Russo, “I certainly found out what I was doing wrong. I wasn’t driving properly. When I corrected those things, I started to throw hard again and my control was a lot
better. I had been doing things wrong like that all year and didn’t realize it.”7 In the September 9 game, the right-handed batting Cleveland got his rst major- league hit (o Dave Giusti), and pitched 32⁄3 shutout innings, allowing three hits while striking out four and walking no one. Cleveland was impressive enough to stay with the big club for the rest of the season, and, as it would turn out, in the majors for good.
In his rst start in 1971, on April 11, Cleveland pitched poorly and lost to San Francisco’s Juan Marichal. He bounced back in his next start but was on the short end of a 2-1 loss to Al Downing and the Los Angeles Dodgers. “I was beginning to think I’d never win a game,” said the Cardinals rookie, whose major-league record to that point was 0-6.8 en, on April 20, Cleveland showed he belonged in the Cardinals rota- tion with Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, and Jerry Reuss. He got his rst major-league win, against Marichal at Candlestick Park.
e Giants were in the midst of a nine-game winning streak when the Cardinals came to town. On paper it looked like a mismatch: Marichal with his 206 major-league victories versus 22-year-old Reggie Cleveland still looking for his rst. But the game is not played on paper. Cleveland beat Marichal and the Giants, 2-1, giving up just the one run in 72⁄3 innings. He struck out Dick Dietz twice with a total of ve men on base. He also got George Foster once and struck out pinch-hitter Willie McCovey, too. Cleveland went on to win 11 more times in 1971 and was named National League Rookie Pitcher of the Year by e Sporting News.
e next year, Cleveland started like a Cy Young candidate. By the time he threw a complete game to beat the Atlanta Braves, 2-0, on July 13 (Cleveland had one RBI and Bernie Carbo the other), he was 11-4 with a 2.99 ERA. But he went 3-11 the rest of the way to nish 14-15 with a 3.94 ERA for the 75-81, fourth-place Cardinals. Not bad for a second-year man, but disappointing after the stellar start.
e 1972 season could be viewed as a microcosm of Cleveland’s career. He seemed to be in a constant