TR Sullivan was a legend in the Rangers rhythm. He retired in December 2020 after 32 years writing for the Denison Herald, Fort Worth Star-Telegraph and MLB.com. TR is also a friend of MLBTR, and recently kindly contributed a retrospective to Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas trade. “I just wanted to write it,” TR explained. We are proud to publish it!
Of all the thousands of baseball commercials made over the decades, only one was brought up by Annie Savoy in her opening monologue for the movie Bull Durham.
“But bad trades are part of baseball – now who can forget Milt Pappas’ Frank Robinson, for God’s sake?” Savoy said while discussing the off-field qualities of various Minor League players.
Despite these interesting comparisons, it has now been 60 years since the Cincinnati Reds traded Robinson to the Orioles for not only Pappas but also a reliever. Jack Baldschun and a young outfielder Dick Simpson.
It is one of the most important and potentially disastrous trades in baseball history. Robinson, now in the Hall of Fame, was one of the best players in the National League, right there Willie Mays, Hank Aaron again Roberto Clemente.
When he went to Baltimore, he turned the Orioles from a contender into a dynasty by leading them to four pennants and two World Series titles in a six-year span. His 1966 season was the best year of his career as he won the Triple Crown by hitting .316 with 49 home runs and 122 RBI. He was not only the American League MVP but the World Series MVP with two home runs in the Orioles’ four-game sweep of the Dodgers.
So, what were the Reds thinking making such a stupid trade? Were they stupid? Was it because Robinson was going to be “30 years old” as Reds general manager Bill DeWitt suggested after the trade.
The Reds couldn’t be more stupid. Earlier that year, in the first June freshman program, they chose to hold high school Johnny Bench in the second round. Take them Bernie Carbo in the first round and Hal McRae in the sixth round. The 1965 Reds had two other future Hall of Famers in Pete Rose and Tony Perez in the area.
It came down to one for a team that finished 89-73 in 1965 and eight games out of first place.
“The name of the game is sting,” DeWitt said in announcing the trade. “Absences, especially in the bullpen, hurt us last season.”
Pitching was the name of the game for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1965. They won the World Series with a rotation led by . Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Claude Osteen again Johnny Podresand liberating materials Ron Perranoski again Bob Miller.
The Dodgers had excellent pitching across the board with a team ERA of 2.81 and a WHIP of 1.117. The Reds had the second-highest ERA (3.88) and WHIP (1.333) in the National League.
That’s where you start when you sit back in 60 years of baseball’s most popular franchise and try to figure out how to get down.
Offensively, the Reds led the NL with 5.09 runs per game. The Braves were second at 4.37. Robinson, who hit .296 with 33 home runs and 113 RBI, was just one part of the Reds’ offensive arsenal.
Rose had a breakout season as the Reds’ 24-year-old second baseman, hitting .312 with 117 runs, 35 doubles, 11 triples and 11 home runs. He batted second most of the year behind the outfielder Tommy Harperwho hit .257/.340/.393 while stealing 35 bases and leading the league with 126 runs.
Vada Pinson hit third, a center fielder who played 18 years in the big leagues and posted career numbers close to the Hall of Fame. He hit .305/.352/.484 with 22 home runs and 94 RBI in 1965. He was 27 again at the time of the trade and appeared to be at the top of his game.
The big stick that replaced Robinson in the middle of the line was the third player Deron Johnsonformer Yankees and Athletics hitter. The Reds purchased him from Kansas City in April of 1963, and he spent the rest of that season at Triple A San Diego. He joined the Reds system in 1964 and had a breakout year in ’65, hitting .287/.340/.515 with 32 home runs and a league-leading 130 RBI.
In 1966, the Reds moved Johnson to join Pinson and Harper in the outfield. Tommy Helms he took over in third place and was Rookie of the Year. Perez met with veterans Gordy Coleman in the beginning.
Three-time All-Star catcher Johnny Edwards (two Gold Gloves) and a shortstop Leo Cardenasa five-time All-Star who won a Gold Glove in ’65, he also helped make it a formidable program. After all this there were two very good batting prospects Lee May again Art Shamskyand the most respected striker in the middle Chico Ruiz.
Considering all of that, the Reds had reason to believe they would be fine offensively without Robinson in their lineup. They wanted arms. They had two.
Jim Maloney again Sammy Ellis they were at the top of the rotation. At least they presented that idea and with Maloney, there was no doubt. He was 25 years old and 20-9 with a 2.54 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in 1965. He struck out 244 in 255 1/3 innings with a fastball in the high 90’s and a nice curve.
On June 14, he struck out 18 and walked one in a 1–0 loss to the Mets in 11 innings. The Mets didn’t get a hit until the 11th. On August 19, he pitched a 10-inning no-hitter in a 1-0 win over the Cubs. He walked 10 and struck out 12.
Ellis was not in Maloney’s class. He won 22 games in 1965 but had a 3.79 ERA. He gave up 111 earned runs, the most in the league, and his ERA-plus was 99, slightly below average. That he benefited from the offensive support is obvious. But in 1965, if you won 22 games, you were considered a top player.
The next two Reds were top hitters until they collapsed in 1965. Left-hander Jim O’Toole hit 81 games from 1960-64, including 19 in 1961 when the Reds won in a penalty shootout. Joey Jay he won 21 that season and 21 in ’62. But in 1965, O’Toole was 3-10 with a 5.92 ERA while Jay was 9-8 with a 4.22 ERA. Fifth starter Joh Tsitouris was 9-8 with a 4.95 ERA.
The Reds thought O’Toole or Jay could go back in ’66. They were still looking for another key forward in an era of four-man rotation.
Trading a hitter for a pitcher worked for the Dodgers last winter when a seven-player deal with the Senators sent a power hitter. Frank Howard to Washington for left-hander Claude Osteen. That gave the Dodgers a reliable third starter and Osteen won 15 games. He also threw a five-hitter in Game 3 of the World Series after the Dodgers lost the first two games in Minnesota.
“I would still say that the Reds had the strongest players to start our league last season,” the Giants manager Herman Franks he told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Without the game, the Dodgers didn’t compare to the Reds’ position in terms of position.”
Pappas has been a solid starter for the Orioles for eight years. He was 18 when he broke through for the Orioles in 1958 and averaged 13.8 wins over seven seasons with a 3.25 ERA and 1.21 WHIP. He was good for 200 innings a year but no longer strong. He averaged 5.2 strikeouts and 2.9 walks in nine innings.
The Orioles were willing to make a deal because they were loaded with young pitchers, many of whom were interested Dave McNally, Wally Bunker, Jim Palmer, Dave Leonard, Eddie Watt again Tom Phoebus who would become part of an emerging dynasty in Baltimore.
Apparently, Robinson’s Pappas was not a fair trade. But Annie Savoy forgot to mention that the Reds also got shortstop Jack Baldschun and forward Dick Simpson.
Interesting point: The Orioles had just acquired Baldschun and Simpson in separate trades earlier that month from the Phillies and Angels. Orioles general manager Harry Dalton later insisted that those deals were not made to include the two players in Robinson’s deal.
The Reds had every reason to believe that Baldschun, 29, would be a big asset to their fold. He spent five seasons in the Phillies bullpen, averaging 66 appearances and 108 innings per season. His ERA during that time was 3.18 with a 1.34 WHIP. The release of that quality was a valuable asset. The trade was intended to strengthen both the Reds’ rotation and bullpen.
Simpson, 22, was not a thrower. He spent 1965 at Triple A Seattle in the Angels organization and hit .301/380/.523 with 24 home runs and 29 stolen bases. The speed and power for the 22-year-old wasn’t a bad thing in a trade. That he struck out 148 times might be a red flag, but he was the No. 3 pick in the deal. DeWitt compared him to Tommy Harper.
So, there you have it. In Frank Robinson, the Reds picked up a No. 3 starter behind Maloney and Ellis, a proven reliever and outfield prospect.
So what does everyone say to their local journalists.
“I’m happy with the deal,” Dalton told the Baltimore Sun. “Because it gives us the power hitter we’ve been looking for for a long time.”
“We hated to give up on Robby,” DeWitt told the Cincinnati Post. “But you have to give up something to get something good and we’d rather give up an old player than a young one. A top-flight starter and top-flight midfielder was too attractive a package to turn down.”
The trade turned out to be a disaster for the Reds. They went from 89 games in 1965 to 76-84 in ’66. The manager Don Heffner he was fired after 83 games.
So what went wrong?
Pappas was not a top rotation starter. He had a great career, winning 209 games, but No. 2 or 3 at best. In 1966, he didn’t, going 12-11 with a 4.29 ERA in 209 innings. He hit 16 in 1967, then was traded to the Braves in 1968. Leo Durocher established him as a “clubhouse lawyer” and a disturbing personality.
Baldschun? The Reds discovered what everyone should understand in baseball. Breakers are dangerous because of their heavy load and faulty use over many seasons. Baldschun went 1-5 with a 5.49 ERA, either because of a tired arm or because batters were no longer fooled by his screwball. But he was made an effective relief.
Simpson was no Frank Robinson or Tommy Harper. He was a former “4A” player who could run but couldn’t hit at the big league level. His memorable seven-year career spanned six leagues and ended with a .207 batting average.
The Reds’ offense suffered without Robinson, scoring 133 runs. Their pitching wasn’t much better as the team ERA rose from 3.88 to 4.08. Ellis was 12-19 with a 5.29 ERA, a bigger disappointment than Pappas or Baldschun.
But then again, the Reds weren’t dumb. It was a few years before the greatest season in franchise history when the Big Red Machine won four pennants and two World Series from 1970-76. In a 21-year span from 1961-81, the Reds had 19 winning seasons.
It just came down to what Annie Savoy said. Bad trades are part of baseball.
