Lest We Forget: Don Cardwell

I first really started getting into baseball in 1966; my first live game was aday camp trip where the Mets played the San Francisco Giants. Still have the scroecard in the attic.

Don Cardwell was one of those “old”players. Regardless of his age — and he was only 31-34 during his years with the Mets — he, like most of his peers struck me as ancient. Take a look at pictures of early 20th-century players; don’t they look old beyond their years?

Anyway, Cardwell probably never had a book written about him. He was a plugger, like the vast majority of those who donned major league uniforms since the Cincinnati Reds started the whole business in 1969.

According to The Baseball Index, a project of the Society for American Baseball Research, Cardwell’s name appears in 67 articles, books, and book sections (not counting magazines). Here’s what Major League Baseball, 1968, by Jack Zanger had to say about Cardwell:

For a while last year it appeared as though the Mets had come up with a sleep in Don Cardwell. Don had been the so-called throw-in in the deal that sent Dennis Ribant to the Pirates for center fielder Don Bosch. In spring training, he was the club’s most effective hurler, and when the season began, he was entrusted with important starts. But then, in late May, he developed elbow trouble and never regained his form. Don wound up with a 5-9 record and an ERA of 3.58. At 32, he still has a big-league arm. He throws everything hard, including his slider-type curve, which is his best breaking pitch. He likes to sidearm right-handed hitters. Control for Don, who won 15 games for the Cubs in 161, and 13 for the Pirates in ’63 and’65, has never been a problem.

I loved these books. Each team had these capsule analyses of the players, ranked according to their importance to their teams. In this volume, Cardwell came in fifth, behind Tom Seaver (coming off his rookie year), Bud Harrelson, Ron Swoboda, and Tommy Agee, and ahead of Cleon Jones and Ed Kranepool. Earlier editions even had little ink drawings of the players, along with a “depth chart” imposed on the team’s ballfield.