Roger Craig, member of inaugural Mets team, dies at 93
Roger Craig of the Mets in March 1963. Credit: AP
Roger Craig had a long, successful career in baseball, winning three World Series as a player and another as a coach, plus a National League pennant as a manager.
But for New York-area fans, he was, is and always will be best known for his place on a famously unsuccessful team.
Craig, who died on Sunday at 93, was an original Met, one of the biggest names on a team that went 40-120-1 in its first season.
You could look it up, as its manager, Casey Stengel, used to say.
How bad were those Mets? Craig was the “star” of the pitching rotation, getting the nod in the franchise’s inaugural game — an 11-4 loss to the Cardinals in St. Louis. He allowed five runs in three innings. He finished that season 10-24 with a 4.51 ERA, which led the Mets’ staff in victories and the National League in losses.
In 1963, his second and final season as a Met, he went 5-22 — with an 18-decision losing streak — leading the league in losses for the second year in a row but with a respectable 3.78 ERA.
Craig had 27 complete games in 64 starts as a Met. As Stengel noted, despite his record, Craig was effective enough to keep deserving the ball.
FILE - American League manager Tony La Russa, center left, from the Oakland A's, and National League manager Roger Craig, of the San Francisco Giants, watch batting practice at Wrigley Field in Chicago, July 10, 1990, before the start of the 61st All-Star Game. Craig, who pitched for three championship teams during his major league career and then managed the San Francisco Giants to the 1989 World Series that was interrupted by a massive earthquake, died Sunday, June 4, 2023. He was 93. (AP Photo/Rob Kozloff, File) Credit: AP/Rob Kozloff
“You’ve got to be good to lose that many,” the manager said.
Craig, a 6-4 righthander, won his first World Series as a rookie in 1955 with the Brooklyn Dodgers, then another in ’59 after the team moved to Los Angeles.
He was the starter and winner in Game 5 of the 1955 World Series, which the Dodgers went on to win in seven games over the Yankees for their first title.
He started (and lost) the final game played by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1957, bookending his spot in New York baseball history for the Mets, the Dodgers’ NL successors.
FILE - Former Los Angeles Dodgers' Roger Craig, on hand for the Dodgers' Old Timers Game festivities, points as he rides in a cart before the baseball game between the Dodgers and Colorado Rockies, Saturday, May 16, 2015, in Los Angeles. Craig, who pitched for three championship teams during his major league career and then managed the San Francisco Giants to the 1989 World Series that was interrupted by a massive earthquake, died Sunday, June 4, 2023. He was 93. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok, File) Credit: AP/Danny Moloshok
The Mets took him in the expansion draft, and as the 1962 season approached, he was regarded as the closest thing to a sure thing on the staff.
Asked in spring training about being considered the ace, Craig told Newsday, “Sure it feels good, and I’ll bust my butt to prove it’s right.”
Craig played 12 major-league seasons for five teams, finishing 74-98 — 59-52 without those two seasons with the Mets. His career ERA was 3.83.
He added another ring with the 1964 Cardinals, getting the win in relief in Game 4 of the World Series against the Yankees.
Craig pioneered the use of the split-fingered fastball as a player and later as a coach, notably as a member of the Tigers’ coaching staff when they won the 1984 World Series.
He managed the Giants to the NL pennant in 1989, after which they lost the earthquake-delayed World Series in four games to the Athletics.
He was 738-737 as a manager in two seasons with the Padres and eight with the Giants.
“We have lost a legendary member of our Giants family,” Giants president and CEO Larry Baer said in a statement. “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.”
Craig was born in Durham, North Carolina, on Feb. 17, 1930. He signed with the Dodgers in 1950 but had his ascent to the majors delayed when he missed the 1952 and ’53 seasons serving in the Korean War.
With the current Athletics 12-50 and threatening the ’62 Mets’ record for futility, Craig and his teammates have been in the news again.
Unlike these A’s, those Mets widely were regarded as lovable losers.
Stan Isaacs’ lead paragraph in Newsday after that first game in 1962, lost by Craig, read like this: “There is no Santa Claus, the meek shall not inherit the earth and the Mets will not win all their games.”
The Giants said he is survived by his wife, Carolyn, his four children, Sherri Paschelke, Roger Craig Jr., Teresa Hanvey and Vikki Dancan, seven grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
With The Associated Press
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
