September 13, 1963: Stan Musial equals Ty Cobb in doubles; Warren Spahn takes an early shower

Stan Musial’s career was winding down. It was September of his final season, and his St. Louis Cardinals were making a late run toward the National League pennant, trailing the league-leading Los Angeles Dodgers by three games entering play on September 13, 1963.

Just 16 days earlier, at the close of play on August 28, the Cardinals were in third place and trailed the Dodgers by 6½ games. But a 15-1 record since then catapulted St. Louis into striking distance with 14 games left, and the third-place Milwaukee Braves coming to town for a four-game set.

Despite their proximity in the standings, the National League race was now a two-team affair, as the Braves languished 9½ games behind the Dodgers. Still, Milwaukee was a formidable roadblock, with a lineup featuring four future Hall of Famers1 when Curt Simmons threw the opening pitch of the series for the Cardinals.

“It should be an interesting match,” Cardinals manager Johnny Keane said before the game.2

Simmons surrendered a leadoff single to Roy McMillan, but any hint of an early rally  disappeared for the Braves when Frank Bolling was retired and Henry Aaron struck out, with McMillan caught stealing on the pitch.

As the Cardinals came to bat, Milwaukee marched 42-year-old Warren Spahn to the mound. Spahn had won his eighth straight and 20th game of the season five days earlier in a complete-game 3-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. It was the 13th time in his career that he had won 20 or more games in a season, and he became the oldest player to accomplish the feat, topping Cy Young’s 21-win season at age 41 in 1908. The record still stood as of 2024.

Spahn downplayed the accomplishment.

“This means I’ve got a job next year,” he commented. “No, I’m not kidding. Say I win 12 or 13. They’ve got a lot of young guys on this club who can do that, and they don’t have to pay me what I get for that kind of performance.”3

This outing wouldn’t resemble his season’s successes.

After Spahn retired Julián Javier and Dick Groat to start the game, Musial came to the plate. The pair had a storied history, facing each other 360 previous times, and despite the lefty-vs.-lefty matchup, Musial sported a .317 batting average against Spahn.

This at-bat mirrored Musial’s previous success against the Braves hurler, as he doubled, his 22nd all-time against Spahn, and more importantly, the 725th regular-season two-bagger of his career, giving him the second-most of all-time, passing Ty Cobb.4 Only Tris Speaker, with 792, had hit more doubles than Musial, who topped the National League in this category eight times with a career-high 53 in 1953.

Ken Boyer followed Musial by blasting a pitch into the outfield bleachers, staking St. Louis to a 2-0 lead. Future National League President Bill White flied out to right to end the inning.

The Spahn/Musial matchup was noted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch game recap the next day, as Musial’s double was the final time the pair would face each other.

“I never appreciated having to face Stan,” Spahn said. “It seemed every time I wound up, he knew what I was going to throw. I have only one regret. I didn’t find out how to pitch to him before I quit. I don’t really think there is a way.”5

In the second inning, Milwaukee answered with two baserunners, one reaching on an error by second baseman Javier and the other on a walk, but they failed to score.

The bottom of the second didn’t go any better for Spahn.

Curt Flood singled and went to second when right fielder Aaron booted the ball. Charlie James followed with a single, scoring Flood. After Tim McCarver’s sacrifice moved James to second, Simmons aided his own cause with a double, scoring James and chasing Spahn, who surrendered five earned runs on five hits in an inning and a third.

Hank Fischer replaced Spahn and gave up a single to Javier, scoring Simmons. Javier stole second before Groat stuck out, but Musial collected his second hit of the day, a single that scored Javier and pushed the St. Louis margin to 6-0.

Boyer then singled and Braves manager Bobby Bragan substituted Dan Schneider for Fischer to face White, who drove in Musial with a single before Flood popped out to first to end the inning.

The Cardinals led 7-0, and all promise of a competitive matchup evaporated.

Despite the St. Louis offensive onslaught, it was Simmons’s performance on the mound that stole the headlines. The left-hander scattered five hits, and with the exception of loading the bases in the Braves’ seventh, the outcome was never in question. It was Simmons’s third successive shutout and pushed his season record to 15-7.

“I don’t remember ever doing that before,” Simmons noted about the consecutive shutouts. “I had a slow curve, and it was a good one, so I used it.”6

Roy McMillan tallied two hits for Milwaukee, but he was the Braves’ lone bright spot. Future Hall of Famers Aaron, Eddie Mathews, and Joe Torre were a combined 0-for-12 for the Braves. Spahn, the other future Cooperstown member, was knocked out before he could record a plate appearance.

The Cardinals received multi-hit games from Javier, Musial, Boyer, and Flood. Every player in the starting lineup had at least one hit except Dick Groat, who was hitless in four at-bats. (Entering the game, Groat was leading the National League with a .331 batting average. He finished the season in a tie with Aaron for third in the league, trailing Tommy Davis, the leader at .326, and Roberto Clemente.)

The Cardinals gained a half-game on the Dodgers, who split a doubleheader with Philadelphia that day. They continued their surge, winning three more against the Braves and moving to within one game of the Dodgers on September 15. But the streak ended there, as St. Louis lost eight of the next 10 games and finished a distant six games behind National League champion Los Angeles.

Spahn pitched two additional seasons for three teams, adding 13 victories before retiring after the 1965 season at age 44.

And Musial, who became a grandfather7 two days before passing Cobb’s doubles total, wrapped up his career in St. Louis playing 12 additional games, including a single off Jim Maloney of the Cincinnati Reds, almost 20 years his junior, in his final at-bat. Musial never hit another double after that one against Spahn. (Pete Rose later passed Musial on the all-time doubles list with 746.)

Despite the Cardinals’ failure to win the pennant in his final season, Musial still made an appearance in the 1963 World Series. As a guest of the New York Yankees, he threw out the first pitch in the World Series opener.8

Sources

In addition to the sources credited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, SABR.org, and Stathead.com for information on players, teams, and seasons. 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN196309130.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1963/B09130SLN1963.htm

Photo credit: Stan Musial, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Hank Aaron (1982), Eddie Mathews (1978), Joe Torre (2014), and Warren Spahn (1973) are all members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Stan Musial, in the St. Louis lineup this day, was elected to the Hall in 1969.

2 “Old Pro Spahn Next Hurdle for Ambitious Red Birds,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 13, 1963: 15.

3 Bob Wolf, “Hats Off …!” The Sporting News, September 21, 1963: 21.

4 The double by Spahn broke a career tie with Ty Cobb, moving him into second place behind Tris Speaker, who had 792 in his career. Pete Rose later passed Musial, recording 746 in his career.

5 Neal Russo, “Simmons Pitches 3rd Consecutive Shutout,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 14, 1963: 6.

6 “Simmons Is a Card – He Can Hit,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), September 14, 1963: 52.

7 “You Can Call Stan Musial Grandpa Now,” Des Moines Tribune, September 10, 1963: 18.

8 “Stan to ‘Hurl’,” New York Daily News, September 29, 1963: 96.