Jack Sanford: Fastballs, Temper Tantrums, and a Terrible Trade

Pitcher Jack Sanford burst onto the scene with the Phillies in 1957 as an unheralded 28-year-old rookie, who had spent many years laboring in the Phillies minor league system. He pitched a fading group of former Whiz Kids into contention for half of the season, appeared in the All-Star game, and went on to edge out teammate Ed Bouchee as the Rookie-of-the-Year. His record was an excellent 19-8 with a 3.08 ERA that year and he led the league with 188 strikeouts. The following spring, Sanford reported to camp overweight and out of shape, and fell to 10-13 with a 4.44 ERA. The Phillies soured on him and traded him away that winter to the San Francisco Giants for catcher Valmy Thomas and pitcher Ruben Gomez. It would turn out to be one of the most inexplicable trades in Phillies history.

In 1947, the Phillies signed three pitchers who would have a major impact in the major leagues. Eighteen-year-old lefty phenom Curt Simmons was signed for a $65,000 bonus and rushed straight up to the major leagues. College grad, Robin Roberts, signed for $25,000, and after 11 starts in the minors, was promoted to the big leagues in mid-1948. Jack Sanford, the second-best pitcher on his Wellesley (Massachusetts) High School team, received no bonus and was assigned to the Class D Dover (Delaware) Phillies in the Eastern Shore League for $125 a month. Thus began Sanford's long odyssey through the minor leagues.

Lack of control kept Sanford in the minors for seven years. Lack of control of his hard sinking fastball and lack of control of his combustible temper. As he worked his way through the minors, Sanford routinely averaged 6+ walks per nine innings. Slowly, however, he learned to command his blazing fastball and by 1953 he was pitching for the Phillies top farm club, the Triple-A Baltimore Orioles. After a strong season at Baltimore (14-13, 3.69), Sanford was invited to the Phillies major league camp in the spring of 1954. Sanford thought he had pitched well enough to make the big club. When he was farmed out to Syracuse, he had an angry confrontation with the front office. Sanford's temper was, by then, well known by the Phillies brass. His temper affected his pitching ability. According to assistant farm director, Eddie Collins, Jr., if Sanford thought an umpire had missed a call, "He'd blow his top and it would unsettle him so much he would be unable to do what he wanted on the next pitch."*

After a poor season with Syracuse in 1954, Sanford was drafted into the army and was out of professional baseball for almost two years, although he spent most of his time in the service pitching for a camp team. After his discharge in 1956, Sanford, who had been working out with the Phillies by pitching batting practice, was activated and started his first major league game on September 16. He performed well. Against the Chicago Cubs, he pitched seven innings of four hit baseball, while walking eight, and was the winning pitcher, 4-1. Reliever Ron Negray earned a two-inning save. That performance put Sanford on the radar for 1957.

Sanford began the 1957 season in the starting rotation with Robin Roberts, Curt Simons, Harvey Haddix, and another rookie, Don Cardwell. He won his first four starts but was just warming up. On June 1, he shutout the Brooklyn Dodgers, 3-0, allowing just two hits and one walk while striking out 11. On June 7, he shut out the Chicago Cubs, 1-0, on just three hits, striking out 13, tying a Phillies record for the time. He ran his scoreless inning streak to 20 innings in his next start on June 13, when he was finally scored upon by the St. Louis Cardinals, but he won that game, 8-1. That 8-1 score matched Sanford's won-loss record to that point, and the Phillies stood at 29-21 in second place, just 1/2 game behind the Milwaukee Braves. 

By now, Sanford was the talk of the town and was attracting national attention. In a lengthy feature article by Edgar Williams in Baseball Digest, ** Roy Campanella, who struck out three times in that June 1 shutout by Sanford is quoted as saying, "You just can't throw a ball faster than he did. He threw it right by me. I couldn't get my bat around. What I want to know -- where have they been hiding a fellow like that?" After the Cubs shutout on June 7, manager Bob Scheffing moaned, "Now I know what it means to be Sanford-ized."*** Phillies pitching coach Whit Wyatt compared Sanford's fastball favorably to that of Bob Feller. Wyatt should know from fastballs. After facing Sanford, St. Louis Cardinals star Stan Musial told The Sporting News, "I don't believe I've seen a pitcher be able to ride that high fast one so effectively since Whitlow Wyatt at Brooklyn (fifteen years ago)."**** Former major league pitcher, Bullet Joe Bush, no stranger to the fastball himself said, "He throws aspirin tablets and he's just wild enough to keep everybody loose at the plate."

Sanford continued to pitch well, but the Phillies fell out of contention as their weak hitting began to take a toll on their generally effective pitching staff. The Phillies offense finished at or near the bottom of the league in most offensive categories and the team ended the season in fifth place with a .500 record, 77-77-2. Phillies teams would not approach .500 again for another five years. Sanford was named Rookie-of-the-Year for his performance. Astoundingly, he  boasted a 2-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio, a figure he had never approached in the minor leagues.

In 1958, the Phillies fell to last place and Sanford pitched poorly. Sanford blamed himself. He told the San Francisco Examiner's Walter Judge, "I reported in Florida at 210 pounds.  We had bad weather and I never did get down to my best playing weight. I guess I was a little more relaxed than I was the previous year. I thought I didn't have to push myself as much."**** The Phillies decided that Sanford was a one-year wonder and shipped him off to the San Francisco Giants for catcher Valmy Thomas and pitcher Ruben Gomez. 

Gomez was the better-known player in the trade, but, perhaps surprisingly, Phillies general manager Roy Hamey said the trade was made primarily because the Phillies wanted a strong defensive catcher. He was very high on Thomas' defensive ability. The only question was if Thomas could hit. He couldn't. Thomas played a grand total of 64 games for the Phillies, failed to hit his weight, and was benched in favor of veteran Carl Sawatski. Thomas was unceremoniously sold to the Baltimore Orioles at the end of the season. Ruben Gomez was also a complete bust. He pitched to a 3-8 record with a horrendous 6.10 ERA. in 1959. After starting 1960 0-3, he was sold to the Cleveland Indians.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Giants manager Bill Rigney was salivating. "Sanford will be a 20-game winner for us," he said. Eventually, he was. Sanford won 89 games for the Giants over the next seven years and pitched them into the World Series with a spectacular 24-7 season in 1962. Sanford also pitched well in the World Series against the Yankees that year, but emerged with a record of 1-2, dropping game seven when Willie McCovey's smash line drive famously ended up in second baseman Bobby Richardson's glove.

Years after this ill-fated trade, Phillies owner Bob Carpenter called it, "The worst trade I ever made." While there is plenty of competition for that title, Carpenter is probably correct.

Jack Sanford had arm miseries late in his career and eventually was converted to a reliever, a role he did not enjoy.  He retired with a record of 137-101 and worked for a time as a pitching coach for the Cleveland Indians, notably helping pitcher "Sudden" Sam McDowell improve the control of his blazing fastball. Sanford later worked as the manager of a golf club. He died in 2000, at age 70, from a brain tumor.

*Warren Corbett, "Jack Sanford," SABR BioProject.
** Edgar Williams, "The Phillies Hot Tot Trio," Baseball Digest, August 1957: 5
*** Scheffing is making a pun here. In those days, a men's shirt that had been "sanforized" had been pre-shrunk and guaranteed not to shrink further.
**** Neal Russo, "Cardinals Spike Newk's Jinx, But Not Dodgers' Spell," The Sporting News, July 24, 1957: 6
***** Walter Judge, "Sanford Pleased by Trade," San Francisco Examiner, December 4, 1958: 47.