New York Mets: The Phil Regan All Star team
The New York Mets new pitching coach summons memories of a bygone era in the game’s history
When new New York Mets pitching coach Phil Regan came to the major leagues in 1960, his manager was Jimmy Dykes. Dykes in turn made his debut in 1918 playing for Connie Mack, who had debuted in 1886.
Thus it’s fair to say that two degrees of separation from the new Mets pitching coach encompasses all but 10 of the 143 years of Major League Baseball.
The appointment of the 82-year-old Regan prompts all manner of similar nostalgia. His three fellow Mets coaches with significant big league experience – Chili Davis, Gary DiSarcina and Ricky Bones – were active in the 1980s and 1990s, by which time Regan ‘s career had been over for close to two decades.
Bones, who was named interim bullpen coach when Regan was named pitching coach, was just three years old when Reagan retired as a player in 1972. DiSarcina was only four and Davis, aside from Regan the elder statesman of the group, was in middle school.
Regan’s immediate supervisor on the New York Mets, field manager Mickey Callaway, would not be born until 1975, when Regan was three seasons into a post-playing career tenure as head coach at Grand Valley State University.
Because of its reach, a look back at Regan’s career, and especially at his teammates, provides an unusual glimpse into the historical panoply of baseball. The All Star team of his teammates that follows is premised on two factors. One, obviously, is playing accomplishment.
But the second, at least as important and possibly moreso, is age. On this team, it is at least as important to have played during the game’s Golden Era as to have Hall of Fame credentials.
First base
Norm Cash, Regan’s teammate on the Detroit Tigers from 1960 through 1965, retired 45 seasons ago. Nevertheless, Cash is actually the junior member of the All-Regan teammate team, not having come to the big leagues until 1958.
Cash won the American League batting title for Detroit in 1961 when he hit .361. That same year, Regan – a 24-year-old in his first full season – made 32 appearances, 16 of them starts. He went 10-7 but with a 5.25 ERA as the Tigers made an inspired run at the 1961 pennant. Powered by Cash and Al Kaline, they went 101-61 to finish second in the expanded 10-team American League.
Granted, that was eight games behind the powerhouse Yankees, but it was also a 30-game improvement over Detroit’s 71-83 finish of just one season before.
Traded from the Chicago White Sox prior to the 1960 season, he remained with the Tigers through 1974, being named to four All Star teams and retiring with 377 home runs.
But Cash’s health began to decline soon after. In 1979, he suffered a stroke. He recovered sufficiently to do some television work, but he died in October of 1986 at age 51. At the time, Regan was concluding a three-season stint as pitching coach for the Seattle Mariners.
Second base
Jim Gilliam is the link between Regan and Jackie Robinson.
Gilliam came to the major leagues in 1953 as replacement second baseman for Robinson, who the Dodgers shifted to left field. He batted .278 in 151 games and won the National League’s Rookie of the year Award.
Gilliam was a two-time All Star for the Dodgers, where his versatility paid off. Over the course of his 14-season career, all of it with the Dodgers, he started alternately at second base, third base and in the outfield. He averaged .265, and played on seven pennant winners, four of those teams going on to win the World Series.
When Regan joined the Dodgers bullpen in 1966, Gilliam was a 37-year-old in his final season. He batted just .217, although in those dead ball days that was good enough to get him 88 starts, splitting time at first, second and third bases. He was hitless in six official at bats against the Baltimore Orioles in that fall’s World Series.
That 1966 season was, coincidentally, perhaps Regan’s best. Appearing in 65 games in relief of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Claude Osteen or Don Sutton he went 14-1 with a 1.62 ERA in 117 innings. It was for his penchant of picking up victories that Regan acquired his nickname, “The Vulture.”
As with Cash, Gilliam’s post-career time was brief. He coached first base for Walter Alston, the man who had managed him virtually his entire career, until Alston retired in 1976. Then, when Tom Lasorda was named Alston’s successor ahead of Gilliam, he agreed to stay on as a coach.
But in mid-September of 1978, with the Dodgers comfortably in front of the NL West race, Gilliam suffered a stroke that would prove fatal within the month. At his death, he was not yet 50 years old.
Shortstop
Regan was a 31-year-old established star when he was traded early in the 1968 season from the Dodgers to Leo Durocher’s Chicago Cubs. For the first time in a generation, the Cubs had something going – in 1969 they would lead most of the season before giving way to the New York Mets.
Although by 1968 the team had a cadre of stars, its face was the team’s iconic player, Ernie Banks. A two-time most Valuable Player as a shortstop who had come up in 1953, Banks was a full-time first baseman by the time Regan arrived with Jim Hickman in exchange for Ted Savage and Jim Ellis.
In that 1968 season, Banks batted only .246 but he did deliver a team-high 32 home runs. Finishing 60 games in relief of emerging stars Ken Holtzman and Ferguson Jenkins, Regan went 10-5 with a team-high 25 saves. The Cubs reprised their third place finish behind the Cardinals (and Giants).
Banks remained a Cub through all of his 19-season career, retiring in 1971. Regan, by then 34 and no longer a closer, was his teammate through those frustrating final seasons, which included plus-.500 finishes but no pennants.
Banks remained affiliated with the Cubs, usually as a front office advisor, for most of the remainder of his life. He died in 2015 at age 83, the most beloved figure in the franchise’s long and storied history.
Third base
Eddie Yost was a 32-year-old 14-season veteran when the Detroit Tigers acquired him from Washington in December of 1958. That meant that when Regan made his major league debut in July of 1960, Yost was right there in his common place, batting leadoff.
Yost went 0-4 with two strikeouts, but that was unusual. For most of his career, he was known as the prototype of a patient hitter. He had arrived with the Senators as a 17-year-old World War II fill-in in August of 1944, and although he lasted just seven games before joining the Navy he returned in 1946, and by 1947 was a regular at the precocious age of 20.
Yost was so known for his discerning eye that he acquired a unique nickname, “The Walking Man.” Six different times, including 1960, he led the American League in bases on balls, and in 1956 he actually accumulated more walks (151) than hits (119). That led to a slash line you’d rarely see these days, .231/.412/.336.
But Yost was aging just as Regan was arriving, so following the 1960 season the Tigers let him go to the California Angels in the expansion draft. He played another season and a half before retiring with 1,863 hits plus 1,614 bases on balls.
In 1963 Yost joined the staff of the Washington Senators as a coach. He coached with the Mets under Gil Hodges, and later with the Red Sox. He died in 2012 at age 86.
Left field
A September 1955 callup by the Cleveland Indians, Rocco Colavito was runner-up in the following season’s Rookie Of The Year voting. He hit 21 home runs that season, but really established his power credentials in 1959 when he led the league with 42.
So it shocked the baseball world when the Indians traded their star to the Tigers for batting champion Harvey Kuenn. In Detroit, Colavito was a mid-order slugger when Regan debuted, enjoying the third of five consecutive 30-homer seasons. One season later, Colavito’s career-high 45 homers helped the Tigers chase New York to the 1961 pennant.
He and Regan remained teammates through the 1963 season. With the Tigers, he was a consistent run-producer, averaging a 135 OPS+ over those three seasons.
At the conclusion of the 1963 season, Colavito was traded again, this time to the Kansas City Athletics, severing his connection with Regan. Their relationship resumed briefly when Colavito, by then 34, was purchased by the Dodgers from the New York Yankees in March of 1968. But the reunion lasted only a few weeks, Regan being traded to the Cubs in late April. The Dodgers released Colavito that same July.
He retired in 1968 with 374 home runs, worked off and on in local television in Cleveland, and coached for several seasons in the 1970s and 1980s. He left the game in 1983 to work on the family farm, and continues to live in retirement at age 85.
Center field
Bruton was part of a large second wave of talent that cemented the game’s integration in 1953. The Braves called him up that April, a few years after Sam Jethroe integrated the team, and installed him as the center fielder. Although a veteran of just one season, in 1954 he would mentor rookie Hank Aaron through Aaron’s own major league debut.
Bruton was Milwaukee’s leadoff hitter when the Braves won the 1957 World Series and 1958 National League pennant. Following the 1960 season, however, he was included in a six-player deal with the Tigers, who put him in center between Colavito and Al Kaline.
But Bruton was 35 by then and into his decline phase. His .257 season was the worst since his rookie year. Still he remained a Tiger regular until his retirement at the end of the 1964 season.
During the four seasons Regan and Bruton played together, the Tigers compiled a .542 winning percentage, but only once finished higher than fourth, that in 1961.
Bruton left the game to accept a position with an automobile manufacturer, an association he continued for more than two decades. In December of 1995, he suffered an apparent heart attack while driving near his home and was pronounced dead.
Right field
If Ernie Banks or Sandy Koufax weren’t the best players Regan ever played with, then Al Kaline was. When Regan arrived in Detroit as a rookie in 1960, Kaline was the unquestioned team leader. By then, Kaline had five All Star appearances, one batting title, 125 home runs and 554 RBIs to his credit.
For Kaline, 1960 would be a relative disappointment. In what should have been his prime, his average slumped to .278, and he delivered just 15 home runs and 68 RBIs. Both of those numbers were his fewest since his 1954 rookie season.
Nonetheless, in several of Regan’s 42 victories and five saves with the Tigers, Kaline’s offensive support proved pivotal.
As the franchise’s face, Kaline out-lasted Regan in Detroit by nearly a decade, retiring at the conclusion of the 1974 season, his 22nd. He left with a .297 career average, 3,007 base hits, 399 homers and 1,582 RBIs, ensuring his first-ballot election to the Hall of Fame.
Following that retirement, Kaline’s affiliation with the Tigers continued for another quarter-century, mostly as a TV color commentator. He remained until 2001, completing more than a half century of direct involvement with the team.
Kaline will celebrate his 85th birthday in December.
Catcher
The Yankees introduced Gus Triandos to the major leagues in August of 1953, but included him in one of the largest deals in baseball history, a 17-player exchange with the Orioles in November of 1954.
In Baltimore, Triandos established himself as a regular and borderline star. A three-time All Star, Triandos received Most Valuable Player votes in four different seasons with the Orioles.
His relationship with Regan began in November of 1962 when the Orioles sent him and Whitey Herzog to the Tigers for Dick Brown. During that 1963 season, he tutored an up-and-coming 21-year old named Bill Freehan, who would be a catching cornerstone for the next decade.
In 1963, though, Triandos was the Tiger regular. As such, he caught most of Regan’s 27 starts, leading him to a 15-9 record and 3.86 ERA in 189 innings. It would become the biggest workload of Regan’s career.
But with Freehan blossoming and Triandos in his 30s, the Tigers made the obvious decision. In December, they shipped Gus and pitcher Jim Bunning to the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for outfielder Don Demeter and pitcher Jack Hamilton. Triandos remained active until August of 1965, when the Houston Astros released him.
During his career, Regan may have been caught by more touted catchers, including Freehan, John Roseboro and Randy Hundley. None, however, could trace their lineage back into the early 1950s, as Triandos could.
In retirement, he worked in private business, dying in 2013 at age 82.
Starter
During a lengthy career, Regan teamed up with a Hall of Fame caliber staff that included Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax and Ferguson Jenkins, plus stars Frank Lary, Don Drysdale and Ken Holtzman. But the most compelling pitcher who ever teamed with Regan may have been a little-remembered figure from the 1950s named Sam Jones.
Jones pitched alongside Regan on the staff of the 1962 Tigers. He was 36 by then and restricted to part-time duty, on his way to a 2-4 record in 30 appearances, all but six of them in relief.
But Jones could have told Regan some stories. He had come to the majors with Cleveland in 1951, lost 20 games with the 1955 Cubs, then won 21 with the 1959 Giants. Jones was always just good enough to be appealing to some other team, accounting for his being traded four times, included in one expansion draft, and signed twice as a free agent.
He held one other distinction: in 1955, Jones became the first African-American pitcher ever to throw a no-hitter. And he did it in a fashion that remains the stuff of legend today.
Pitching for the Cubs, Jones faced the woeful Pittsburgh Pirates on May 12 of that season at Wrigley Field. Jones was noted for his overpowering fastball and for his tendency toward wildness, both of which were in full view that afternoon. He walked four but had not allowed a hit through eight innings.
Nursing a 4-0 lead, he began the ninth by walking Gene Freese, Preston Ward and Tom Saffell in quick succession. That brought the heart of the Pirate order, Dick Groat, Roberto Clemente, and Frank Thomas, to the plate, each representing the potential tying run.
They never had a chance. Stabilizing, Jones struck out all three of them on a total of 11 pitches to complete the no-hitter with a flourish.
It was the highlight of Jones’ career. He retired in 1964 and by 1971 was dead at age 45, a cancer victim.
Bullpen
Regan associated with the elite of the bullpen corps as well as many of the game’s best starters. In his career, he teamed with Don Mossi, Ted Abernathy, and Ron Perranoski. None, however, could stretch their credentials back into the 1940s. Gerry Staley, however, could.
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Staley teamed with Regan at the conclusion of a distinguished career that played a part in establishing the role of relief ace. Coming to the game with the Cardinals in 1947, Staley by the mid 1950s had transitioned into a relief role.
Obtained by the White Sox on waivers in 1956, Staley was 35 but on the verge of delayed stardom. Between 1957 and 1960, he would make 221 appearances for the Sox, all of them out of the pen. In 1959 he led the American League with 15 saves, a deceptively low figure in that he added 8 wins and worked 116 innings.
By the middle of 1961, however, the Sox shipped the 40-year-old Staley to Kansas City, who transferred him two months later to the Tigers. Staley appeared in 13 games for the Tigers. His debut, on Aug. 5, came in relief of Regan, who left in the seventh inning holding a 7-4 lead. Staley closed out the side, but not before allowing two inherited baserunners to score. Eventually, Regan did get the victory, his 10th.
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Regan and Staley teamed up twice more. On Sept. 3, Staley relieved to begin the ninth, Detroit holding a 5-4 lead. Home runs by Mickey Mantle and Elston Howard turned the outcome around, New York winning 8-5. On Sept. 24, Staley relieved Regan in the seventh inning of an eventual 7-5 Tiger victory over the Angels. He faced two hitters, retiring one.
Staley died in 2008 at age 87.