Danny Breeden was a catcher for the Reds in 1969 and the
Cubs in 1971.
Danny Richard Breeden was born June 27, 1942, in Albany,
Georgia. The day after his second birthday his brother Hal was born. Hal would
play in the major leagues as well and be a little more successful;
unfortunately for Danny if you type his name in a Google search box he comes up
as “Hal Breeden’s brother.”
Danny went to spring training 1964 on the roster of AAA Salt
Lake City, but was demoted to the Wenatchee Chiefs of the Class A Northwest
League. In late April he filled out a questionnaire in which he said he was
5-11 ½ and 180 pounds, that his off-season occupation was “help daddy and go to
school” (apparently he finished his degree at Troy State), and that his hobbies
were fishing, hunting, and pool shooting.
On July 30 came a tragedy, as reported on in various
newspapers the next day via UPI:
Boy Killed By Idol’s Line Drive
WENATCHEE, Wash.—A 13-year-old youngster who loved baseball and his favorite player became teammates in tragedy here last night.
Jerry Highfill was down on the infield during batting practice prior to the Wenatchee-Lewiston Northwest League game helping retrieve balls hit to the outfield.
His idol, catcher Danny Breeden, a right-handed hitter, was taking his cuts in the batter’s box when Jerry turned his back to the plate to gather in a throw from the outfield.
Breeden leaned into a pitch and watched with horror as the ball rifled toward Jerry on the third base side of the pitcher’s mound.
The ball struck Jerry on the back of the head with a sickening thud and players rushed to his side when he dropped to the ground.
Jerry spoke to several players by name before being rushed to St. Anthony’s Hospital here where he died shortly after admittance.
“He was unconscious when he reached here,” said a nurse at the hospital. “The doctors did everything possible for him, but it was no use.”
Jerry had spent part of the afternoon at Breeden’s home and had ridden to the park with his idol.
Breeden, grief-stricken, was placed under sedation.
Wenatchee went through the motions but lost to Lewiston, 10-0—a score Jerry would have hated to see.
The account in the August 15 Sporting News was very
similar but added “Members of the club served as pallbearers at the boy’s
funeral, August 2.”
Danny hit .248/.311/.402 in 383 at-bats in 115 games for
Wenatchee, leading the league’s catchers in assists, then hit .218/.253/.402 in
29 games for the Cubs’ team in the fall Arizona Instructional League. On
December 21 the Cardinals bought him back from the Cubs.
Danny spent 1965 with the Cardinals’ Class AA team, the
Tulsa Oilers of the Texas League. He only played 69 games, backing up starting
catcher Dave Pavlesic, who won the batting title at .344—Danny hit
.280/.335/.434. After the season he played for Aragua in the Venezuelan Winter
League, then moved to Estrellas in the Nicaraguan Winter League.
In 1966 Tulsa moved up to the Class AAA Pacific Coast
League, remaining a Cardinals affiliate, but during spring training Danny was
sent back to the Texas League and the Cardinals’ new team there, the Arkansas
Travelers. In July he started at catcher in a game between the league’s
all-stars and the Houston Astros, and in the September 3 Sporting News
he got a mention for having had ten hits in a 17 at-bat period. He hit
.268/.339/.373 in 362 at-bats in 111 games and was named the catcher on the
league all-star team, as the Travelers finished in first place but lost in the
first round of the playoffs to brother Hal’s team, fourth-place Austin.
Danny went to spring training 1967 on the Tulsa roster, but
was lent to the White Sox organization, spending the season with their AAA
affiliate, the Indianapolis Indians of the Pacific Coast League. He missed some
time in June when a finger got infected after being hit by a foul tip, and
wound up having an off year, hitting .232/.277/.335 in 92 games.
1968 found Danny back with Tulsa. From the June 22 Sporting
News:
Denver may be mired in the cellar in the Eastern Division, but the Bears still are full of fight, literally. In the fourth inning of a June 4 game against Tulsa, Denver’s Graig Nettles slid home and bumped Oiler catcher Danny Breeden hard. Both players came up swinging and both benches emptied before order was restored. Nettles and Breeden were ejected from the game, which Denver went on to win, 4-3.
Also from TSN, August 31:
August 14 just wasn’t Tulsa catcher Danny Breeden’s night. The Oiler backstop was hit on the wrist by San Diego shortstop Don Money’s throw while breaking up a double play in the top of the third, then was hit on the throwing hand by a foul tip in the bottom of the same inning. Breeden left the game with two dislocated fingers.
Danny hit .273/.327/.376, with career highs in at-bats (450)
and games (118) as the Oilers easily won the East Division and defeated the
Spokane Indians for the championship, four games to one. After the season he
was moved to the St. Louis roster, then on December 3 he was traded with Ed
Spiezio, Ron Davis, and Phil Knuckles to the brand new San Diego Padres for
Dave Giusti, whom the Cardinals had just lost to the Padres in the expansion
draft.
At this point the other catchers on the Padre roster were Fred Kendall, who had been at AA in 1968, and Ron Slocum, who had been at Class A, and Danny went to spring training in 1969 with thoughts of being a major league regular. However, in late March the Padres got Chris Cannizzaro in a trade with the Pirates, and Danny was sent back to the minors. San Diego didn’t have a AAA team of their own—they shared one with the Kansas City Royals—so they lent Danny to the Syracuse Chiefs of the Yankees’ farm system.
On July 22 Cincinnati backup catcher Pat Corrales’ wife died
in childbirth and Danny was called up. First stringer Johnny Bench was in
Washington for the All-Star Game (scheduled for the 22nd but played
on the 23rd due to rain), and it was reported that he was leaving
for two weeks of military duty. Danny made his major league debut on the 24th
at Shea Stadium against the Mets, batting eighth in a game the Reds won in
twelve innings. In his first at-bat, in the top of the second, he singled
against Gary Gentry; in the 11th he successfully pulled off a
sacrifice bunt against Tug McGraw.
The next day Danny went 0-for-2 with another sacrifice bunt
against Jerry Koosman as the Mets won, 4-3; the day after that he struck out
twice against Tom Seaver but had his third sacrifice bunt, this one a squeeze
play, and the Mets won 3-2. Then Bench came back and Danny spent a few days not
playing before being sent back to Indianapolis. For the Indians he hit
.294/.354/.388 in 28 games; when their season ended he was called back up by
the Reds but he didn’t play for them. He was voted a one-ninth share of
Cincinnati’s share of the World Series money, which meant he got $22.66.
Danny was protected on the Cincinnati roster over the off-season, and in February 1970 he signed a major league contract.
During spring training
he was sent back to Indianapolis, and he spent the season there, backing up
Bill Plummer. He hit .252/.322/.374 in 155 at-bats in 60 games as the backup to
the guy who would soon be challenging Pat Corrales for the chance to be the
backup to Johnny Bench; it had to be frustrating after seeming to have a chance
to be the regular for the Padres the year before.
On November 30 Danny was traded to the Chicago Cubs for Willie Smith, the same day that brother Hal was traded to the Cubs by the Braves. This put Danny in the running for the backup job to Randy Hundley, who had missed much of the 1970 season due to injury.
From the Sporting News, April 3,
1971:
Cubs Audition Brother Act
By Jerome Holtzman
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—No one seems to remember if the Cubs, in their glorious past, ever had brothers on the club at the same time. If not, precedent could be set this spring if the Breeden brothers, Danny and Hal, are able to win major league berths.
Danny is a catcher and Hal a first baseman. Neither is a starry-eyed young kid awed by it all. They have been around and have served, each of them, eight long years in the minors. They figure it’s now or never.
Danny, at 28, is the elder. He’s already put in four years at Triple-A and says, quite frankly, “I never had a break. I’ve seen catchers in the same league have worse years than I had, but they always seemed to go up, I didn’t.”
Then he added, somewhat philosophically, “I guess you got to be there at the right time.”
This could be the right time for a catcher to win a spot on the Cub varsity—if only because Randy Hundley, the club’s regular backstop, has been out with a severe ankle sprain. As a result, Manager Leo Durocher has been taking a long look at his reserve catchers, Breeden included.
Danny has limited major league experience. He got into three games with Cincinnati, in June [July] of 1969 as a temporary replacement for Johnny Bench, who was absent fulfilling a military obligation.
The first time up, Danny got a hit—a single up the middle off Gary Gentry of the Mets.
Danny was hitless in seven subsequent times at bat and hence has a major league mark of .125.
This, of course, isn’t a fair test and the indications here are that Danny is quite a consistent hitter. Though he’s never batted as high as .300 in the minors, he seems to be fairly quick with the stick. He also appears to be sound defensively…
Both Breedens are righthanded hitters and feel they have been buffeted about long enough. Danny’s options have been used up and he indicates if he doesn’t make it now, he might quit. Hal feels much the same way and doesn’t intend to return to the minors…
The Breeden brothers, who are natives of Albany, Ga., certainly are entitled to every break, if only because of their long service in the minors.
This is the first time the Breedens have been on the same club. “This is what dad always hoped for,” said Danny. “Anyway, it’s nice for the both of us to be together. You know you always have somebody pulling for you.”
Hal made the team but Danny was sent to AAA Tacoma. The Cubs
began the season with Hundley, Ken Rudolph, and J.C. Martin as their catchers,
but Hundley was still ailing and only got into one game in April. Martin was
injured as well in mid-month, leaving Rudolph to play every day until Danny was
recalled at the end of the month. Immediately moved into the lineup in place of
Rudolph, he had a single and a double off Rick Wise of the Cardinals in his
first game with the Cubs, at home on May 1. On May 5 he drove in two runs
against the Mets, as reported in the next day’s Chicago Daily News:
Dan Breeden give Cubs lift
By Armand Schneider
NEW YORK—Everyone was crowded around Fergie Jenkins, the winning pitcher.
Danny Breeden, the co-star of Wednesday night’s 5-4 Cub win over the Mets here, sat hunched over on his stool as if he was hoping he’d be overlooked.
Breeden’s single with the bases loaded and two out in the fifth inning drove in the two runs that were to mean victory. It was one of the few clutch hits the Cubs have had in New York, this or any other recent season.
Breeden, the Cubs catcher, is the older brother of Hal Breeden, utility first baseman and pinch-hitter.
There was a big, pride-filled grin on Hal’s face, but there was that shy grimness of having to face the limelight in Danny’s.
“Yeah,” he drawled in that Georgia accent, “it was the first time I’ve driven home a winning run in the majors.”
Glenn Beckert, sitting nearby, cracked: “But he had 50 in high school. How do you think he got here?”
Danny gave a little snort of appreciation. Nothing is big with Danny Breeden, smiles, dissatisfaction…it all appears the same.
“I had one RBI in the majors before tonight,” said Danny, “and that was on a squeeze bunt back in ’69, when I was with Cincy.
“I’ll say one thing—I been lookin’ kinda bad lately and I hope this brings me out of it.” Breeden beat out an infield hit earlier in the game.
Then someone asked Danny how he and Hal got along as roomies on the road. “I’m the boss,” he said, “I’m always the boss.” And he didn’t even smile…
“That Breeden,” said Cub manager Leo Durocher, “is a little bulldog. He comes to the dugout in the fourth or fifth inning, dripping blood.
“He doesn’t say boo to anyone. I thought he split a finger, but he tells me: ‘Naw, just a split fingernail an’ I ain’t gonna go out.’
“So Doc (Scheunemann) tapes the finger and back out he goes.”
Danny played every day until Hundley came back on May 11,
but when Randy went down again after a few games the Cubs traded for Chris
Cannizzaro from the Padres and sent Danny back to Tacoma—the second time he
lost a major league job after his team acquired Cannizzaro. But at the
beginning of June it was Cannizzaro’s turn to get injured, and Danny went back
to Chicago.
Danny’s first game back in the Cub lineup was on June 3 in
Cincinnati, and he caught a no-hitter by Ken Holtzman as the Cubs won, 1-0. The
Associated Press story on the game quoted Danny:
“That’s what you call high heave,” crowed catcher Danny Breeden, who came to the Cubs from the Reds over the winter.
“This is no doubt my biggest thrill in baseball. I just can’t believe it. He moved his fast ball all around and when he had to hump up he really did. When he did they fouled it off. They were swinging at good pitches but they were his pitches.”
In Holtzman’s next start, June 8 at home against Pittsburgh, he again won 1-0, a 12-inning complete game. Durocher considered pinch-hitting for Danny in the 10th, but Holtzman said “Leave him in there Skip, I like to pitch to the kid.” Danny hit into an inning-ending double play, but Joe Pepitone won it with a homer in the 12th.
On June 22, after
Cannizzaro returned from his injury, Danny was demoted to Tacoma, but he
announced he was retiring. From Steve Duck’s “Duck’s Pond” column in the July 2
Mobile Register:
…As of June 21, Danny Breeden was optioned to Tacoma, Wash., but, get this, refused to go; announced he was quitting baseball; and, as the AP brief so aptly put it, “presumably now at Robertsdale, Ala. home.”
Fine and dandy, I have Breeden beating out Johnny Bench for the All-Star team and the Cubs have him in Tacoma. Meanwhile, Breeden has some ideas of his own where he wants to be, namely home with wife Dianna; sons Rick and John; and daughter Kelly.
Immediately, if not sooner, I was on the phone to the former Dianna Larrimore’s father to see what exactly was going on. According to his father-in-law, Breeden was indeed sent down and did indeed refuse to go—at first. Since then, Breeden and Cubs’ general manager, John Holland, have ironed out their differences and Robertsdale’s pride and joy is now at Tacoma on 24-hour recall.
At 28, Breeden didn’t take too kindly to the thought of rejoining the minor league circuit. He has been that route five other times, from Little Rock to Rochester, N.Y. In fact, Breeden has been with five big league clubs in all, if, of course, you count the Cubs twice.
B.B. Larrimore was pretty much to the point about why his son-in-law had originally told the Cubs what they could to with Tacoma. “You might say he (Breeden) didn’t think he was the one that should have gone.” Evidently, Larrimore was referring to the two guys who are now commanding the first two catcher spots for the Cubs—Chris Cannizzaro, 35-year-old reject of the Cards, Mets, Pirates, and Padres, and J.C. Martin, another 35-year-old, who enjoyed some pretty good years with Chicago’s American League team.
Naturally, Larrimore is biased, but he does make a pretty good defense attorney for his son-in-law. Remember, it was Breeden who caught the no-hitter Ken Holtzman threw against Cincinnati. And Larrimore says Holtzman prefers Breeden to any catcher on the club, including Hundley, whose recurring knee problems may end his career at a relatively young 29 years of age, incidentally.
Apparently, the thing that really ticked off Breeden was the Cubs’ failure to put him on waivers before sending him down. Atlanta supposedly wanted him badly after he caught the no-hitter, but the Cubs wouldn’t let him go.
One reads plenty these days about pro sports pushing around the borderline, mediocre players. Don’t write it off as bunch [sic] of crybabies looking for pity.
Sure, Breeden may be a poor hitter, but he’s a heckuva defensive catcher and don’t ever forget it. Remember too that Cubs won 17 of 25 games he caught. Most of all, remember he’s family.
Danny was with Tacoma the rest of the season, hitting
.250/.337/.391 in 156 at-bats in 51 games. The Chicago players voted him a
quarter share of their portion of the World Series money, which amounted to $34.68.
In 1972 the Cubs changed their AAA affiliate to the Wichita
Aeros of the American Association, and that’s where Danny went. In the June 24 Sporting
News he got a mention as one of four elected assistants to the Aeros’
kangaroo court judge Cleo James. He hit .226/.306/.319 in 226 at-bats in 72
games.
During spring training 1973 the Cubs sold Danny back to San Diego, and the Padres sent him to their AAA team, the Hawaii Islanders of the PCL. In early June he was traded with Steve Simpson to the Phoenix Giants, in the same league, for Frank Johnson.
From the Phoenix Republic, August
12:
The usually mild-mannered Danny Breeden got the heave-ho for the second time in three games after a night-long feud with plate umpire John O’Neill finally reached the boiling point in the eighth inning.
Breeden felt O’Neill missed a pitch on Albuquerque’s Jerry Royster, and he just rolled the ball halfway back to the mound. That touched off a dispute in which Phoenix manager Jim Davenport miraculously escaped an early shower himself.
“I’m not going to open my mouth again this year,” said Breeden. “I can’t afford it.” His two ejections will set him back $50.
https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B/Pbreed101.htm
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/breedda01.shtml
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