Roger Craig Gave ’84 Tigers a Second Manager for the Pitching Staff

Just as the legendary pitching coach Johnny Sain played a significant role in fine tuning the 1968 World Championship Tigers’ pitching staff lead by Denny McLain and Mickey Lolich, pitching coach Roger Craig did the same for Jack Morris and Dan Petry in helping manager Sparky Anderson lead the Tigers to the 1984 title.

With Roger Craig’s passing at age 93 on Sunday, it’s worth noting his legacy in Detroit where he was nationally known as the Zen Master of the split finger fastball that catapulted the career of former Tiger ace and Hall of Famer Morris while providing a guiding and calming influence to the staff.

In his low Southern drawl, Craig also became famous for walking through the Tiger locker-room telling his pitchers to “Hummm Baby!”

(From then on, Detroit News writer Jerry Green passed away earlier this year he and fellow writer Tom Gage greeted each other by saying “Huuum Baby””)

As the chief advocate of the split finger fastball, Craig was quick to point out that he did not originate “The Pitch of the Eighties.”

He once said: “People think I invented that,” Craig said. “I did not. Bruce Sutter did. I just found a way to teach it and it worked out.” Craig is also famously credited for teaching the pitch to 1986 Cy Young award winner Mike Scott.

Craig also provided one of the best books on the 1984 Tigers, Inside Pitch: Roger Craig’s ’84 Tiger Journal co-written with Vern Plagenhoef, a very insightful and sometimes brutally honest behind the scenes diary of that magical season.

Suffice to say, without Morris and his go-to pitch (and therefore without Roger Craig) the Tigers wouldn’t have won the World Series in 1984.

Oddly, Morris in his Hall of Fame induction speech was not exactly effusive about the man who gave him the deadliest weapon in his pitching arsenal. Morris simply stated, “Thank you pitching coach Roger Craig. Even though we didn’t always agree, I knew you were always in my corner.”

That’s it?

Craig told writer Rich Shook that the first person he worked with on the split finger fastball was Milt Wilcox, and it became “a good pitch for him.” He added that Aurelio Lopez, Juan Berenguer, and Randy O’Neal also had good ones, “but for Jack Morris it was great.”

Craig told Shook:

“He (Morris) was kind of tough to handle at times. Jack used a blooper pitch, but he telegraphed it. He had big fingers so we worked on it between starts. He had a good one but he didn’t want to throw it during a game. He said, ‘Naw, I like my changeup.’ But I asked him, ‘For one game, let’s just try it.’ So the first six innings he had about eight strikeouts and he ended up having one of the best around.”

Unlike some pitching coaches in the major leagues who have had little or no experience themselves in playing at the major league level, Craig had quite the résumé before joining Sparky’s staff in 1980.

As a pitcher over 12 seasons from 1955 to 1966, Craig posted a 3.83 ERA in 368 appearances with the Dodgers, Mets, Cardinals, Reds, and Phillies and helped win world championships with Brooklyn in 1955, the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1959, and the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964.

Before joining Sparky’s staff, Craig was a coach with San Diego and Houston, and managed the Padres in ’78 and ’79.

During the ’84 playoffs, Craig first suggested that he might retire, and although the Tigers offered him a two-year contract at year’s end he chose to retire to his ranch in California to spend time with his family. Some speculated the real reason was that Craig was unhappy with the offer. (Hitting coach Gates Brown also left the Tigers after the season as he felt he was not appropriately compensated given the team’s success).

Craig did hint however that if the price was right, he would consider returning to the game and indeed he did when he was hired in September of 1985 by the San Francisco Giants whom he managed through 1992. Craig led the Giants to the NL West title in 1987 and the National League pennant in 1989.

With Roger Craig’s passing, 88 year old Dick Tracewski is the sole surviving member of the ’84 Tigers coaching staff.