This might sound familiar: two quality pitchers were traded for each other because they couldn’t agree to a contract with their original clubs.
But 50 years ago, on February 25, 1972, that exchange of disgruntled pitchers turned out to be one of the best trades in Phillies history. That’s when the Phillies acquired left-hander Steve Carlton from the St. Louis Cardinals in return for right-hander Rick Wise.
That was the last trade orchestrated by Phillies general manager John Quinn, who spent 28 years as a big-league GM. He made it a great one.
Carlton, 27, was fresh off a 20-win season for a Cardinals team that tied for second place.
Wise, 26, had been a 17-game-winner with the last-place Phillies. In 1971, Wise became the first and only pitcher in major-league history to throw a no-hitter and hit two home runs in the same game.
At that point in their careers, Carlton had 77 big league wins to Wise’s 75. Each was seeking a raise to $65,000, and both clubs balked.
Ironically, after the trade, Carlton, known as “Lefty,” got his raise to $65,000 from the Phillies, and Wise almost that much from St. Louis, according to the New York Times.
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Agents, arbitration, free agency didn’t exist 50 years ago. Players were on their own negotiating contracts.
Phillies fans were not happy because Wise was a favorite. Carlton was not happy because he didn’t want to leave the Cardinals.
Quinn and Paul Owens, then director of the minor leagues and scouting for the Phillies, had dinner the night before at the Garden Seat restaurant in Clearwater, Florida.
Quinn asked Owens: “Would you trade Wise for Carlton even up?” Owens replied: “What are we waiting for?”
The next morning the Phillies PR staff got four writers from Philadelphia together at the Fort Harrison Hotel to tell them about the trade.
There wasn’t a major press conference. TV and radio stations from Philly didn’t go to spring training. There was no ESPN, talk-radio, computers, cell phones or social media. Heck, typewriters were manual, not electric.
Carlton’s first season with the Phillies was electric, one of the greatest individual performances ever by a pitcher.
►He finished with a 27-10 record, eight shutouts, a league-low 1.98 ERA, and a club-record 310 strikeouts in 346 innings. He did this for a team that won just 59 games overall.
►His win total was a major league record for a last-place team. He also set an MLB record by earning 45.8% of his team’s victories.
►He finished 30 of his 41 starts. He was 14-5 at Veterans Stadium, 13-5 on the road. He won his first three starts, allowing two earned runs, including a 1-0 decision over former teammate Bob Gibson. That game took 1 hour, 33 minutes.
►He did all this in baseball’s first strike-shortened season in which the first week was wiped out. The Phillies missed six games, meaning Carlton missed two starts.
►The Phillies scored a total of 16 runs in his 10 losses. Five of those losses came in a row (May 13-30). Yes, his 10 losses included a five-game losing streak.
►Sitting at 5-6, Carlton went on a club-record 15-game winning streak from June 7 through August 17. “When Lefty pitches, it’s win day,” shortstop Larry Bowa said.
►The streak ended with a 2-1, 11-inning loss to the Braves at Veterans Stadium on August 21.
►During the 15-game winning streak, he had three no-decisions. The Phillies lost 1-0 in 11 innings in Houston, 9-7 at Atlanta, and won 11-4 in San Francisco. Carlton gave up four runs in five innings in that last outing, but the Phillies scored 11 times to take him off the hook.
►Five of the 15 wins were shutouts: 1-0, 2-0, 2-0, 5-0, 2-0.
►He won the ERA title by allowing four earned runs over his last five starts (4-1). The last Phillies pitcher to lead the National League in ERA had been Grover Cleveland Alexander at 1.83 in 1917.
►Only three of his victories were saved by the bullpen.
►Carlton was the unanimous winner of the Cy Young award, voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America. It was the first of four such awards during Carlton’s 15 seasons with the Phillies.
►Owens replaced Quinn as GM in June, 1972, and then took over as manager in July. He returned to his front office position at the end of the season. On January 16, 1973, Owens signed Carlton to a $165,000 contract, making him baseball’s highest-paid pitcher.
How times have changed.
Larry Shenk, a News Journal sports reporter in 1963, spent 40 years as the Phillies’ head of public relations. He also served as the team’s vice president for alumni relations.
