“October 1964” by David Halbersham

[Boyer14]

A great read.

He discusses how Bing Devine put together a great team despite Branch Rickey doing all he could to prevent it. Rickey was determined to be the GM again, not just an adviser.
His nickname was “Trade Lane.”
He traded really good ballplayers, including Red Schoendienst, just to make trades. He even wanted to trade Stan Musial, but Gussie Busch found out, and he prevented it.

Now on the other hand the owners of the very successful NY Yankees were very cheap and mean spirited.
They would do whatever they could to keep a pitcher from winning 20 games, and demanding a big raise. One time they fielded a team of scrubs, but the pitcher won with a great pitching performance, much to the FO”s dismay.

They was so so dominant that the owners knew the would win anyway.

[bicyclemike]

This book is a great read, although it has been at least 10 years and probably more since I read it.

Long time Yankee GM George Weiss was indeed a tough nut to crack for the players, and would keep salaries down as much as he could.

Devine hated it when Rickey returned to the Cardinals as a special advisor. However, Boyer14 is mixing up Frank “Trader” Lane and Branch Rickey. It was Lane who wanted to deal Musial, and did trade Schoendienst. Lane was GM around the 1956-1958 time frame, with Bing taking over in ‘58 I believe.

The Cardinals dealt Red to the Giants when it appeared Don Blasingame was ready to take over second base.

But Rickey did occasionally disagree on deals Bing wanted to make. The deal that brought Dick Groat over from Pittsburgh for young Julio Gotay, with others involved, was one Rickey would not have made. In hindsight, the Cardinal probably do not win 93 games in ‘63 and ‘64 without Groat.

[Boyer14]

Thanks for your reply and the correction.

[bicyclemike]

Sure thing Boyer. Also another minor correction – the author is David Halberstam, with a “t”. He wrote several good books on history, not all of them sports related.

Not sure of the exact dates, but Frank Lane was brought in as the Cardinals GM around 1956 or so, and stayed a couple of years. Then Bing Devine was promoted to the job, with his first deal being acquiring Curt Flood from the Reds system.

At that time Branch Rickey had left the Pirates, and was working with investors to create a third major league, the Continental League, when the owners balked at expansion. Eventually expansion plans were finalized, and around ‘61-62 Rickey returned to the Cardinals in that advisory role, which as I stated sort of watered down Devine’s job. There was quite a lot of friction between the two.

I believe Rickey left after the ‘63 season.

[sheepdawg]

First Lane wanted to trade Musial to the Phillies in 1956 and August Busch put his foot down. Then Lane wanted to trade Ken Boyer to the Pirates in 57. That cost him his job.

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