July 11, 1975: Walter Alston booed in St. Louis but Dodgers win

St. Louis Cardinals fans were pumped for the arrival of the Los Angeles Dodgers in July 1975. The anticipation wasn’t for the pennant race, even though the Dodgers were the defending National League champions and the Cardinals had been in the NL East Division race until they were eliminated on a Mickey Owen-esque misplay on the final day of the regular season in 1974.1

Both teams plummeted in ’75. As play began on July 11, St. Louis was in fourth place, 11½ games behind the division-leading Pittsburgh Pirates. Injury-plagued Los Angeles, though second in the NL West, was 10 games behind the Cincinnati Reds, and Sparky Anderson, manager of the Big Red Machine, correctly and ungrammatically predicted that the Dodgers weren’t going to catch them. “There ain’t no way we can lose this thing. We can only give it away,” the skipper said. “The players ain’t worrying no more. They’re just going out and playing baseball. LA, to them, don’t exist.”2

Angry Dodgers fans planned to let Anderson hear about it when the Reds next came to Los Angeles. Meanwhile, those in St. Louis had similar negative feelings toward Los Angeles manager Walter Alston, the reason for the significance of the weekend series at Busch Stadium.

Alston – in his 22nd season in the Dodgers dugout – had picked two relievers for the coming All-Star Game, neither of whom was having a dominating season. One was his own, Mike Marshall, coming off a year in which he had received the NL Cy Young Award, appeared in a record 106 games, and pitched 208 1/3 innings, all in relief. The other was left-hander Tug McGraw, who was in his first season with the Philadelphia Phillies after a prominent tenure with the New York Mets.

Snubbed was another southpaw, St. Louis’s Al Hrabosky,3 who had pitched well in his first two full seasons in the majors and was doing even better in 1975. At the time the pitchers were announced for the All-Star Game, he had 14 saves and an ERA of 1.98.

Beyond his excellent pitching were the features that earned the 25-year-old Hrabosky the nickname the Mad Hungarian – a Fu Manchu to complement his intimidating manner of meditating/psyching himself between pitches and punctuating it by slamming the ball into his glove. Hrabosky said he understood Marshall being picked but not McGraw.4 He also said that if he were picked as a replacement for an injured player, he wouldn’t pitch. “If I wasn’t good enough before, why should I be good enough now?”5

The team and its followers were similarly outraged. The middle game of the series was going to be the Game of the Week for NBC Television, and the Cardinals arranged it to be We Hlove Hrabosky Hday with a banner contest. Fans could bring their Hlove Hrabosky banners on the field before the game and then display them from their seats in center field. Winners of the best banners would get free tickets and a chance to meet the Mad Hungarian.6

Before the hbanner hday, however, was the series opener on Friday night. Both starters – Doug Rau for the Dodgers and Bob Forsch for the Cardinals – had won-lost records of 8-7. Forsch’s ERA of 2.61 was nearly a run better than Rau’s, but he had a dent put in it right away. Leadoff batter Dave Lopes hit a high chopper to shortstop Mike Tyson, who had no play, bringing up Bill Buckner.

Buckner, a .314 hitter in 1974, had missed a month in 1975 after injuring his ankle while trying to steal second on April 18. As he was in and out of the starting lineup through nearly the end of June, his hitting regressed, and his batting average was .192 coming into the Cardinals series. Even so, with Lopes running on a 2-and-1 pitch, Buckner tripled to center to drive in the game’s first run. After Jim Wynn struck out, Buckner scored on a sacrifice fly by Steve Garvey.

St. Louis got a run back in the second on a leadoff single by Luis Meléndez and a run-scoring double from Ken Reitz.

After the rough opening, Forsch kept his team close, although the Dodgers got an unearned run in the fifth to increase their lead to 3-1. Steve Yeager started the inning with a groundball to third, which Reitz booted for a two-base error. With the infield charging as Rau showed bunt, the Los Angeles pitcher crossed them up by swinging and grounding a single to right to bring in Yeager. The inning could have been worse as Rau went to second on a groundout and Buckner, on the 12th pitch to him, hit a hard grounder toward right. But first baseman Ron Fairly – a day before his 37th birthday – snagged it with a dive and threw to Forsch covering first for the out. Wynn’s groundout ended the inning.

Forsch, batting .333 with a double and three triples when the game began, responded to Rau’s hit with a double of his own to start the bottom of the fifth. He stopped at third on a single by Lou Brock, who was then picked off and caught stealing. Ted Sizemore and Reggie Smith walked to load the bases and finish Rau, who was relieved by Jim Brewerwith Alston being serenaded with boos as he made the pitching change.  Ted Simmons singled on Brewer’s first pitch to score two runs, and Fairly brought in Smith with a sacrifice fly to put the Cardinals in the lead, 4-3.

The Dodgers retied the game in the sixth. Garvey hit a leadoff double, went to third on a wild pitch as rookie John Hale struck out, and scored on Ron Cey’s single off Tyson’s glove. The tie was broken quickly as Reitz started the last of the sixth with his second double of the game and was sacrificed to third by Tyson. One out later, Brock lined a single to center to put the Cardinals ahead, 5-4.

Mike Garman took the mound in the seventh and was greeted by a pinch-single by Leron Lee. Lopes hit an apparent double-play grounder to Tyson, but Sizemore at second missed his throw for an error and Lee took third. As in the fifth, the Dodgers capitalized on shoddy defense. Lopes stole second on a 1-and-1 pitch to Buckner, who then hit a liner to left-center. Tyson leaped, but the ball skipped off the top of his glove. Buckner had two more runs batted in on his third hit of the game (he had also singled in the third) to raise his average to .206.

Alston turned the game over to Marshall in the last of the seventh.7 Marshall, who had appeared in only two games from April 19 through June 6 because of a rib injury, allowed a walk in the seventh and two hits in the eighth but got a double play each inning to keep Los Angeles in the lead.

The biggest outburst from the crowd of more than 32,000 came in the top of the ninth as Hrabosky charged in from the bullpen. Employing his antics with greater emphasis than usual, he retired the Dodgers in order with two strikeouts, the latter on a called third strike to Lopes to end the inning. But Marshall did the same in the last of the ninth, getting the Cardinals in order with two strikeouts.8

Perhaps nearly as loud as the cheers were for the entrance of the Mad Hungarian in the ninth were the boos for Alston each time he stepped on the field. The fans may have been warming up for the banner day the next day, and they likely enjoyed the rest of the weekend as the Cardinals took the final two games with Hrabosky the winning pitcher in each. On top of that, the colorful southpaw was named the National League Player of the Week by The Sporting News.9

The results of the Dodgers-Cardinals series barely moved the needle in the division races. In fact, even while winning the weekend opener, Los Angeles fell another half-game back of Cincinnati as the Reds swept a doubleheader. The Dodgers finished at 88-74, in second place but 20 games behind the Big Red Machine, which was on its way to its first of two consecutive World Series championships. The Cardinals surged into the division race in August before dropping back and finishing 82-80, 10½ games behind first-place Pittsburgh.

As for the All-Star Game and the relievers Alston had picked, Marshall and McGraw didn’t get into the game, even after the NL scored three times in the top of the ninth for a 6-3 lead. Alston opted for Cy Young-bound San Diego Padres starter Randy Jones, who retired the American Leaguers in order in the bottom of the inning to get the save.10

As for the reception he had received in St. Louis the previous weekend, the unflappable 63-year-old skipper said, “It’s not the first time I’ve been booed and probably won’t be the last.”11

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Victoria Monte and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Walter Alston, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play. He also relied on his own memories and scorebook from attending the game.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1975/B07110SLN1975.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN197507110.shtml

Notes

1 The Cardinals, trailing the Pirates by one game, were rained out in Montreal on October 2. They monitored the Chicago at Pittsburgh game, knowing they would be going home if the Pirates won and staying in Montreal for a makeup game if the Cubs won. The latter possibility seemed more likely as Chicago carried a two-run lead into the last of the ninth. Pittsburgh, however, had a run in with a runner on third with two out when Bob Robertson struck out. Steve Swisher missed the pitch for a passed ball as Manny Sanguillén scored the tying run. Pittsburgh won the game in the 10th, eliminating St. Louis.

2 “Can’t Lose This Now, Says Sparky,” Torrance (California) Daily Breeze, July 10, 1975: D2; “Big Red Machine Unstoppable?” Long Beach (California) Independent Press-Telegram, July 12, 1975: C1.

3 The H in Hrabosky is silent.

4 Marshall had missed a lot of time with a rib injury during the first half of the season in 1975 although Hrabosky seemed to concur with him as an All-Star pick since Marshall was the reigning Cy Young Award recipient. McGraw probably wasn’t an unreasonable selection at the time; he had an ERA about the same as Hrabosky’s (around 2.00) before blowing up in a game and having it rise by nearly a half-run right after being chosen.

5 “Al Says He’d Snub Alston,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 12, 1975: 5A. With Don Sutton of the Dodgers a possible scratch from the All-Star team because of injury, Alston had indicated he might pick Hrabosky as a replacement.

6 Neal Russo, “Cardinals Plan Hbanner Hday,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 9, 1975: 1E.

7 Buckner left the game at this point in a double switch. He played through the end of August, when he was shut down for the season with a .243 batting average. He had surgery on his left ankle on September 1 and rebounded with a .301 average in 1976. Jeff English, “Bill Buckner,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Bill-Buckner/. Accessed August 2025.

8 Although Brewer was the pitcher of record when the Dodgers took the lead for good in the seventh, the official scorer (who is not known) awarded the win to Marshall, employing Rule 10.19(c)(4): “Do not credit a victory to a relief pitcher who pitches briefly or ineffectively if a succeeding relief pitcher pitches effectively in helping to maintain his team in the lead.” In 1980 the rule was changed to “briefly and ineffectively” instead of “briefly or ineffectively.”

9 “Weekly Player Kudos Go to Yaz, Hrabosky,” The Sporting News, July 26, 1975: 29.

10 Alston, in calling the bullpen for Jones, reportedly said, “Give me that curly-headed little left-hander who gets everyone out.” Phil Collier, “Padre Pickups,” The Sporting News, August 2, 1975: 26. As for Hrabosky, he never made it to an All-Star Game. The 1975 season was the best of his career with a 1.66 ERA in 97 1/3 innings and 22 saves.

11 Jeff Prugh, “L.A. Wins but Falls Back as Reds Talk Up a Pennant,” Los Angeles Times, July 12, 1975: 3, 4.