Before Roger Craig was an innovative coach and manager, he was a pitcher for the fledgling New York Mets (and before that a Brooklyn Dodger) who led the NL in losses with 24 in 1962 and 22 the following year. He also pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals in ’64, the Cincinnati Reds in ’65, and the Philadelphia Phillies in ’66, retiring at the age 36 and compiling, a record of 74-98 over 12 seasons.
Craig was more successful as a bench leader, leading the San Francisco Giants to a pennant in 1989. Getting swept by the cross-bay Oakland A’s was even more memorable because that was the year an earthquake hit the area, causing a 10-day delay. The event was the subject of The Day the World Series Stopped, an award winning documentary by Jon Leonoudakis.
Craig died June 4 at the age of 93. Here’s his obit by Richard Goldstein in today’s New York Times. It was subtitled, “After winning three World Series as a player, [he] became a coach and spread the gospel of the split-fingered fastball, what one player of the time called “the pitch of the ’80s.””
As the pitching coach for the Detroit Tigers, Craig taught the delivery to the right-hander Jack Morris, who helped propel the team to the 1984 World Series championship and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018.
After leaving the Tigers when his salary demands were unmet, Craig taught the split-fingered fastball to the Houston Astros’ right-hander Mike Scott, who had sought his advice. Scott went on to win the 1986 N.L. Cy Young Award. As Scott once put it, “God bless Roger Craig.”
The wily righty — who some say resembled Lyndon B. Johnson — published Inside Pitch: Roger Craig’s ’84 Tiger Journal in 1984.
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