Pete Falcone: The Poor Man's Carlton. OK, Very Poor. Alright, Alright, Poverty-Ridden...

"...the old man looked ruefully at his grandson, shook his head and in a trembling voice said, 'I wanted to give them to you, my boy, but it was a long, cold winter and in the end desperation demanded we burn all of my Pete Falcone Fleer collection just to stay warm.' The boy turned away, unable to bear the sight of his grandfather's tears and devasted by the loss of his 32¢ legacy...."

- from John Feinstein's inevitable baseball book, The Most Over-Wrought Story Of Our National Pastime Ever Told


Continuing with the theme of lefties in my last two posts, I couldn't resist taking a look at Carlton's vaunted splits against the Cards. I idolized him as a kid (when he wasn't throwing against StL) and I still think his slider at the knees is the most consistently devastating pitch I've ever seen out of a starter, though Pedro's change in the late 90s probably matched it.*

After the infamous trade to the Phillies for Rick Wise ahead of the 1972 season, Carlton made 59 career starts against the Redbirds, throwing 453.2 innings with a 38-14 record and a 2.98 ERA. For those of you doing math at home that's 7.2 IP a start, or as I prefer to put it, the 1974 and 1981 Division Crowns for the Cards. It's only fair to note, however, that his 1973 performance wouldn't have helped the Cards in their 2nd place finish when Rick Wise put up a 16-12 mark with a 3.37 ERA while Lefty was 13-20 with a 3.90 ERA.

And even the mercy of a benevolent god couldn't have redeemed those horrid teams of the mid-late 70s, when Jerry Mumphrey spent most of his time with his back to home plate retrieving the end results of Pete Falcone's best pitch -- the two-seam double.

*I'm too young to have seen Koufax pitch, though last year I saw some special video that had been shot of his curve from ground level and with high speed film, I believe. It was ungodly. Can't find the damned clip online, though.