Roger Craig (baseball)

Craig as a Met (1963)

Craig threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) tall and weighed 190 pounds (86 kg). He signed with Brooklyn in 1950 and began his rise through the Dodger farm system, missing 1952 and 1953 while performing Korean War military service. In July 1955, after he won ten of 12 decisions for the Triple-A Montreal Royals, Craig was called up to the majors. In his debut game July 17, Craig was the Dodgers' starting pitcher against the Cincinnati Redlegs at Ebbets Field. He threw a complete game victory and allowed only three hits and one earned run as Brooklyn triumphed, 6–2.[1] He made nine more starts for the Dodgers over the next ten weeks, and relieved in a dozen games more; he threw two more complete games, earned two saves, and posted a fine 2.78 earned run average as the Dodgers won the National League pennant. He started Game 5 of the 1955 World Series against the New York Yankees, worked six innings, gave up four hits and only two runs before being relieved by Clem Labine, and was credited with Brooklyn's 5–3 victory.[2] Two days later, on October 4, 1955, Craig's teammate Johnny Podres shut out the Yanks in Game 7, giving Brooklyn its first and only World Series championship.

Craig would appear in three more World Series. He was treated harshly by the Yankees and Chicago White Sox in the 1956 and 1959 World Series, losing two decisions with a dismal 9.98 earned run average; but he was almost flawless as a reliever for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1964 Series. In two appearances for the Redbirds, he kept the Yankees scoreless and allowed only two hits in five innings pitched. A yeoman effort in Game 4, in which Craig worked 4​²⁄₃ scoreless innings pitched (with eight strikeouts) in relief of Ray Sadecki, enabled the Cardinals to recover from a 3–0 deficit to win, 4–3, with Craig getting credit for the victory. St. Louis went on to take the series in seven games.

Craig was well-known as an original 1962 New York Met. As a member of the starting rotation of the 1962 and 1963 Mets, who lost 120 and 111 games, respectively, Craig posted a nightmarish 15–46 won–lost record during his two seasons with the expansion team. He lost the first game in Mets' history, 11–4, in St. Louis. (It has been erroneously believed that he gave up the Mets' first run on a balk; although he did commit a balk in the first inning, he already trailed 1–0, and the balk was not a scoring play.)[3] In 1963, Craig suffered through a personal 18-game losing streak, and changed his uniform number from his traditional 38 to "unlucky" 13 to break the 90-day winless skein (from May 4 through August 4). "But," Craig once recalled, "11 of those times it took a shutout to beat me." Despite his poor record, Craig was a stalwart of the legendarily bad team's pitching staff. Remarkably, he threw 27 complete games in 64 starts, demonstrating that he was one of the Mets' best pitchers. His manager, Casey Stengel, told him, "You've gotta be good to lose that many."

A master of the split-finger fastball, Craig worked in 368 games over the course of his 12-year MLB career. He won ten or more games in 1956, 1959 and 1962, and posted a 74–98 won–lost mark (59–52 not counting his Mets' tenure). In 1,536​¹⁄₃ career innings pitched, he surrendered 1,528 hits and 522 bases on balls, with 803 strikeouts and a 3.83 earned run average. He threw seven shutouts and 58 complete games, and earned 19 saves. His late MLB tenure consisted of one-year stops with the Cardinals (1964), Cincinnati Reds (1965) and Philadelphia Phillies (1966). Although he performed poorly during the 1959 World Series, Craig helped pitch the 1959 Los Angeles Dodgers to the National League pennant, winning 11 games (with complete-game victories in his last three starts), posting a brilliant 2.06 ERA, and leading his league in shutouts (four), despite making only 17 starts and spending part of the season with the Triple-A Spokane Indians. Overall he appeared in four World Series; in seven games and 26​¹⁄₃ innings pitched, he allowed 19 earned runs on 31 hits and 16 bases on balls, and struck out 25. He split four World Series decisions and compiled a 6.49 ERA.

Craig retired from the mound after the 1966 campaign and rejoined the Dodgers as a scout (1967) and manager of Double-A Albuquerque (1968). In 1969, former Dodger general manager Buzzie Bavasi appointed Craig the first pitching coach in the history of the newly born San Diego Padres. Enduring the growing pains of another expansion team, Craig spent four years as the Padres' mound tutor before he was replaced by ex-teammate Podres. After another brief return to the Dodgers as a minor league pitching instructor in 1973, Craig resumed his MLB coaching career with the Houston Astros (1974–1975) and had a second tour with the Padres (1976–1977). During the latter year, the Padres lost 93 games under two managers, John McNamara and Alvin Dark.

In March 1978—in the midst of spring training, and only two weeks before Opening Day—the Padres' ownership fired Dark for "miscommunication" with his players and elevated Craig to the manager's post. Said Craig at the time: "It was the shock of my life, but the best shock I've ever had. My main task now is to get the players to relax so they can perform to the best of their capabilities."[4] The 1978 Padres responded to Craig's leadership, improving by 15 games over 1977 and posting the first winning season (84–78) in franchise history. However, Craig's 1979 team took a giant step backward, reverting to a poor 68–93 record. Craig was fired at season's end and replaced by Jerry Coleman, the former Yankee second baseman then serving as the radio voice of the Padres.

The firing eventually proved to be beneficial to Craig's managing career, however. Sparky Anderson, a former Dodger minor leaguer and coaching colleague of Craig's on the 1969 Padres, had taken over as pilot of the Detroit Tigers in the middle of 1979. He appointed Craig his pitching coach for 1980, and over the next five seasons, Craig moulded the Detroit pitching staff (led by bellwethers Jack Morris and Dan Petry) into a formidable group. The 1984 Tigers stormed to a 35–5 start, the American League pennant, and World Series championship (achieved against the San Diego Padres). The national exposure he received burnished Craig's reputation as one of baseball's top pitching coaches and teacher of the split-finger fastball. But when the Detroit front office refused his request for a salary increase for 1985, Craig retired to his San Diego County ranch.[5] His retirement did not last a full baseball season.

• Angell, Roger (1988). Season Ticket: A Baseball Companion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-395-38165-7.

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball-Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet

• Roger Craig managerial career statistics at Baseball-Reference.com
• Roger Craig at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
• YouTube video of Craig's start against the St. Louis Cardinals, July 25, 1959
• Roger Craig at Baseball Almanac
• Roger Craig at Baseball Library
• Roger Craig at Ultimate Mets Database
• The original Humm-baby Article on the 20th Anniversary of the phrase "Humm Baby"
• Giants Clubhouse: Humm Baby