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Tracy Solves Caseof Winless Hurler-He’s Met Hero Now• , •• v .ViV/.V'. • ■ 'mmmkm:'y • • ••::va• VAVi’ • ••v-xP Vv:••Bv BARNEY KREMENKONEW YORK, N. Y.While the Mels did not make any trades before the June 15 midnightdeadline, they did come up with a new starting pitcher. The find is TracyStallard, the righthander whose only previous mark of distinction was that he had tossed the record-breaking sixty-first home run to Roger Maris at the close of the 1961 season. Stallard was then with the Red Sox.Acquired by the Mets from the Bosox in a trade last winter, Stallard started the 1963 season as Casey Stengel’s No. 1 bull-pen man. Casey saw in the handsome 25-year-old from Herald, Va., “another Ryne Duren.”This didn’t quite work out. Hampered by control problems, Tracy disappointed repeatedly. It reached the point where his job with the Mets was in jeopardy.Then on May 6, just three days before cutdown time, Stallard shut out the U. S. Military Academy Cadets,3-0, in the Mets’ exhibtion visit to West Point.It caught the eye of the Mets’ high command, not so much that Tracy held the Cadets to two hits and fanned 13, but the easy manner in which he hit the plate for strikes and also his willingness to take the assignment.Originally, Stallard was to work a few innings and let Larry Foss, later dealt to the Braves, finish up. But Foss reported with a sore arm and Tracy, happily, went all the way in the seven-inning game.The May 9 cutdown deadline came and went, but Stallard stayed on.Even then Stengel w a s hesitant about trusting the husky Virginian (he’s 6*5, weighs 210) in any crucial spots.Casey Desperate for StartersStallard’s big break came on June 2.The Mels’ pitching staff, smallest in the majors with only nine members, had been worn thin by the demands of a heavy schedule. With the club facing its second double-header in four days. Stengel was plumb out of starters.It was in that desperate situation that Casey and his pitching coach,Ernie White, decided to give Stallard a chance.Tracy surprised everyone, including himself, by holding the Pirates hitless. as well as runless, through the first six innings.In the seventh, with his arm unaccustomed to such lengthy work, Stallard grew weary and was removed after the first three batters got on base.However, he had satisfied Stengel that he was worthy of another shot.Eight days later, against the Reds at the Polo Grounds, Stallard drew his second starting assignment, facing Joey Jay. This time Tracy went all the way to beat the Reds, 3-2, with a seven-hitter, his first victory in the majors in two years.Repeat Victory Over Reds That same week, the Mets visited Cincinnati and again Stallard took on the Reds and Jay. Once more he conquered, 4-1, on a nine-hitter.Now he was established and given a place in the Mels’ regular rotation.Asked what brought on the improvement after his dismal experiences of the early spring, Stallard had a ready answer.“Control. Like everybody will tell you, the best pitch is a strike. But it took me a long time to be convinced of that,” Tracy said.“When I realized T was pitching badly for the Mets in relief, I took stock of the situation.“1 watched the good pitchers in the league. I would say to myself that my hummer is faster than theirs, that my curve breaks sharper, that I have a better slider. Yet they’re winning and I’m not.“Why? I decided it was because they were not trying to blow any batters down. They were pitching instead of throwing. Best of all, they were getting the ball over.“So I worked on less humming and more pitching. All of a sudden I found that I could get the ball over, too.That made a big difference.”“This fellow had a playboy rcputa-Tracy Stallardtion when he was with other clubs,” Casey reported. “I knew all about it. When he joined us in the spring, I talked to him about it and told him there was only one way he could succeed in the big leagues — by hardwork.”Stallard admitted to the reputation that follows him wherever he goes, but insisted it was unearned.“I love to have fun,” he said. “Who doesn’t?“However, that’s quite different from being a playboy. I have never done anything that I thought might hurt my pitching career.”Jackson, Craig FalterIt was a lucky thing for the Mets that Stallard came along, what with Southpaw Alvin Jackson going into a slump and veteran Righthander Roger Craig continuing to have difficulty finding the winning formula. Only Carl Willey has kept pace with Stallard.Met Memos: Casey Stengel revealed that seven National League clubs put in bids for Pitcher Roger Craig. “But they wouldn’t give me any first-line player in return, so we didn’t trade,” the 72-year-old skipper said snappily. . . . National League Prexy Warren Giles tossed a gala steak cookout at his Cincinnati home for the writers and broadcasters traveling with the Mets on Saturday night, June 15. In attendance, too, were Secretary Fred Fleig, Publicity Director Dave Grote and Lou Krems from the N. L. office. . . . Mets’ players asked for and received permission from Stengel for a temporary lifting af the club’s card-playing ban after a game had been rained out in Milwaukee and a two-hour plane wait loomed. No sooner did Casey give the go-ahead than four bridge games broke out., . . When the Mets defeated the Reds, 10-3, in Cincinnati the night of June 14, it marked the first time in the New York expansion club’s history that it had triumphed on Cros-ley Field soil. The Mets had dropped 11 straight in Cincy. . . . Catcher Norm Sherry required three stitches in his toe after being spiked by Frank Robinson of the Reds in a play at the plate. . . . Southpaw Don Rowe was sidelined for the better part of a week with a sore shoulder.
Newspaper Details
St Louis Sporting News
St Louis, Missouri, US
Sat, Jun 29, 1963
Page 23
Full Page
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SC, USA 06 Feb 2019
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