Roger Craig

Today I came across an envelope in one of my binders that I’d forgotten about. It was the envelope in which I received a signed card from former MLB pitcher and manager, Roger Craig. Inside the envelope was a sheet with Craig’s answers to a few brief questions that I had asked him when I sent him the autograph request.

As much as I love getting autographs back, the answers to my questions are often more fun yet. Sometimes they say something candid or unexpected. Other times, they simply lead me down a path of research that is (at least for me) as entertaining as it is informing. This was certainly the case today as I looked into Craig’s career.

When asked what he would consider to be the biggest highlight of his career, he mentioned his first game. That, I suppose would be a highlight for many. To spend your whole life dreaming and working and waiting and hoping, I can only imagine the excitement of stepping onto an MLB diamond for the first time. There were two things that made Craig's debut even better though:

1. He pitched GREAT, allowing just three hits and one earned run in a 6-2 complete game victory!
2. Perhaps even more incredibly, Craig mentioned to me that it was not just the first MLB game he pitched...it was the first MLB game he'd ever seen!

You can imagine how star-struck Craig must have been. Nick Diunte quotes him as saying, “When I first walked in that clubhouse with Jackie, Pee Wee, Duke, Furillo, and all those great Hall of Famers, I said, ‘I don’t belong here, what am I doing here?" The Boys of Summer made him feel comfortable though, and his talent took over from there.

While his first start in 1955 certainly made for a great career highlight, Craig could have just as easily chosen his final start of 1955. It was game five of the 1955 World Series, and the rookie hurler earned the victory to put the Dodgers up 3-2 over the Yankees. Two days later, the Dodgers would win game seven, finally defeating their cross-town rivals, and earning Brooklyn's only World Series title.

Craig would pitch in the World Series again in 1956 (which the Yankees won), and then again in 1959 after the Dodgers had moved to Los Angeles. In that Series he matched up in games one and four with Hall of Famer Early Wynn, as the Dodgers won in six.

A few years later, he returned to New York as the Mets chose him in the expansion draft. He was the top pitcher for the woeful Mets, which meant that and he kept getting run out there against the other teams' top hurlers. He started 64 games over two seasons, including the very first game in Mets history. His ERA over those two years was an unspectacular 4.14, but with dreadfully little run support, he lost over 20 games both seasons.

He split time between the bullpen and the rotation, logging a 3.25 ERA in 166 innings pitched. In game four of the World Series, with the Cardinals trailing the Yankees two games to one, starting pitcher Ray Sadecki failed to retire the first four batters. With the Cardinals' season teetering on the brink, manager Johnny Keane hooked him right there, turning to Craig. The veteran got the Cardinals through five innings, striking out eight and allowing just two hits before being lifted for a pinch hitter. That pinch hitter (Carl Warwick), Curt Ford, and Dick Groat all reached to load the bases, and Ken Boyer hit a grand slam to give the Cardinals a 4-3 lead that would prove to be the final, earning Craig another World Series victory. He had done his job, and Bob Gibson would pick up two wins in the next three games to give Craig his third World Series ring.

Craig would finish up his playing days with a year each in Cincinnati and Philadelphia. He would later become a big league manager, spending two season in San Diego and seven in San Francisco (in addition to 18 games there in 1985). In 1987, he led the Giants to their first division title in 16 years. Two season later, his Giants would take the 1989 National League pennant, reaching the World Series for the first time since 1962, back when he was pitching for the Mets!