Roger Craig, Teacher of an Era-Defining Pitch, Is Dead at 93

Roger Craig, who pitched or managed in 5 World Series and altered the face of pitching within the Nineteen Eighties because the guru of the split-fingered fastball, died Sunday. He was 93.

The San Francisco Giants, a workforce Craig managed for eight seasons, main them to the National League pennant in 1989, introduced his demise on its web site on Sunday. His household mentioned Craig had a brief sickness, a Giants spokesman mentioned.

For some, Craig was a determine in baseball trivia: He was the beginning pitcher for the Dodgers of their closing recreation earlier than shifting from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, and 5 years later, in 1962, he threw the primary pitch within the Mets’ historical past. He was the loser each occasions. He misplaced 24 video games after which 22 for the dreadful Mets of their first two seasons, together with 18 in a row in 1963. But he had his moments when backed by good-hitting lineups.

A lanky 6-foot-4 right-hander who, it was typically famous, bore a exceptional resemblance to President Lyndon B. Johnson, Craig pitched in three World Series for the Dodgers within the Nineteen Fifties and one other with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964. In managing the Giants to the 1989 N.L. pennant, he implored his gamers to hustle with the mantra “Humm baby” and taught his pitchers to throw the split-fingered fastball.

Craig unfold the gospel of the break up, thrown with the identical movement as a conventional fastball however capable of confound batters as a result of the pitcher gripped the baseball along with his index and center finger unfold broadly aside, and parallel to the seams as a substitute of throughout them.

“The split finger is, simply, a fastball that you put an extra spin on so that it drops down in front of the batter so fast that he don’t know where it’s goin’,” Craig defined in a 1988 interview with Playboy. “Every pitcher with brains who wants to stick around wants to learn it.”

As the pitching coach for the Detroit Tigers, Craig taught the supply to the right-hander Jack Morris, who helped propel the workforce to the 1984 World Series championship and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018.

After leaving the Tigers when his wage calls for have been unmet, Craig taught the split-fingered fastball to the Houston Astros’ right-hander Mike Scott, who had sought his recommendation. Scott went on to win the 1986 N.L. Cy Young Award. As Scott as soon as put it, “God bless Roger Craig.”

“Everyone was throwing that pitch,” Mike Scioscia, who caught for the Dodgers within the Nineteen Eighties and later managed the Angels, informed The Associated Press in 2011. “It was the pitch of the ’80s just like the pitch of the ’60s was a slider.”

Roger Lee Craig was born on Feb. 17, 1930, in Durham, N.C., certainly one of 10 youngsters of John and Mamie Craig. His father was a shoe salesman. He was noticed by a part-time scout for the Dodgers whereas pitching in highschool, then signed by the workforce out of North Carolina State University in 1950. After pitching within the Dodgers’ minor league system and serving within the Army, Craig made his debut with Brooklyn in July 1955.

He had a 5-3 file over 21 video games, 10 of them begins, then beat the Yankees in Game 5 of what grew to become the one World Series a Brooklyn workforce would win. He pitched for the Dodgers once more within the 1956 World Series, taking the loss in Game 3 of the seven-game sequence win for the Yankees.

A fastball pitcher early in his profession, Craig developed arm issues that he attributed to throwing in chilly and damp climate because the starter on Sept. 29, 1957, on the Philadelphia Phillies’ Connie Mack Stadium, within the closing recreation the Dodgers performed earlier than shifting to Los Angeles.

Craig was again within the minors for a lot of 1958 and for a part of the 1959 season whereas rehabilitating from his harm. He by no means regained the pace on his fastball however when he returned to the Dodgers for good in 1959 he focused on getting forward of batters within the depend. That 12 months, he revived his profession as a management pitcher and had his finest main league season, posting an 11-5 file whereas main the N.L. in shutouts, with 4, because the Dodgers received their first pennant in Los Angeles. He began twice within the World Series in opposition to the Chicago White Sox, with one loss and one no-decision in a recreation received by the Dodgers, who took the Series in six video games.

Craig pitched principally in aid earlier than he was chosen by the Mets as their No. 3 choice within the October 1961 enlargement draft, after catcher Hobie Landrith and infielder Elio Chacon. He was the sixth choose general for the reason that Mets alternated with Houston, the opposite new workforce, within the draft order.

The Mets traded Craig to the Cardinals earlier than the 1964 season, and he received Game 4 of the World Series in aid as St. Louis beat the Yankees in seven video games. He later pitched for the Cincinnati Reds and the Phillies and completed his profession with a file of 74-98.

Craig started instructing the split-fingered fastball, a variation on a lower-velocity supply referred to as the forkball, when he managed the San Diego Padres in 1978 and ’79. The future Hall of Fame reliever Bruce Sutter had been utilizing the pitch for a number of years with the Chicago Cubs, having discovered it from their roving teacher, Fred Martin, when he was within the minors. While Craig didn’t “discover” the break up finger, he proved particularly adept at instructing it.

After 5 years as a Tigers coach, Craig grew to become the Giants’ supervisor with 18 video games left within the 1985 season and remained with the workforce for seven extra years. The spotlight of his tenure got here in was 1989, when the Giants received an N.L. pennant for the primary time since 1962, though they have been swept by the Oakland Athletics in an earthquake-delayed World Series. He retired after the 1992 season and had frolicked on his Southern California ranch in Borrego Springs in his later years.

The split-fingered fastball remained part of pitchers’ arsenals within the years that adopted Craig’s retirement, however it steadily declined in reputation over considerations that it could actually put undue stress on a pitcher’s arm.

“We have lost a legendary member of our Giants family,” Larry Baer, the Giants’ chief govt, mentioned in a press release. “Roger was beloved by players, coaches, front office staff and fans. He was a father figure to many and his optimism and wisdom resulted in some of the most memorable seasons in our history.”

He is survived by his spouse, Carolyn; three daughters, Sherri Paschelke, Teresa Hanvey and Vikki Dancan; a son, Roger Jr.; seven grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren, the Giants mentioned.

In trying again on his profession, Craig shared wry reminiscences of pitching for Casey Stengel’s Mets.

As he associated it to CBS Sports in 2013, Stengel would inform him kind of the next: “Mr. Craig, I know you pitched nine innings today and won’t pitch again for four days, but don’t throw between starts just in case we’re ahead. I may need you to pitch an inning or two.”