John Littlefield was a relief pitcher for the Cardinals and Padres in 1980-81.
John Andrew Littlefield was born January 5, 1954, in Covina,
California, east of Los Angeles. He pitched for Azusa High School, where he was
also the quarterback and kicker for the football team, and in American Legion
ball. After graduating in 1972 he was drafted in the 20th round by
the Dodgers, but didn’t sign. I found later references to his having attended
Arizona State briefly, but no specifics; he ended up at Azusa Pacific
University. John was picked by the Cardinals in the 30th round in
1976; he signed and then relieved three games, with a 2.57 ERA, for the
Cardinals’ team in the Rookie class Gulf Coast League. He was then moved to the Johnson City
Cardinals of the Appalachian League, also a Rookie league, where he went 6-3
with a 1.43 ERA in 44 innings in 14 games, two of them starts, striking out 24 and walking just six. After the season
Johnson City manager Buzzy Keller said: “Our best relief pitcher was John
Littlefield. He can’t throw it at a major league speed but he got people out.”
John started 1977 with St. Petersburg of the Class A Florida
State League, where he had a 2.65 ERA in 17 innings in nine relief appearances,
striking out five and walking four. At the end of May he was promoted to the
Arkansas Travelers of the Class AA Texas League. From the August 6 Arkansas
Democrat:
Suddenly John Littlefield is looking like the pitcher who will take the Arkansas Travelers to the East Division championship of the Texas League. At least he did nothing Friday night to discourage that notion.
The 23-year-old righthander from Azusa, Cal., came on in relief of Joe Edelen against the Shreveport Captains at a time when Joe definitely needed help and the Travs were searching for a lift. Littlefield provided that lift and more. Shutting out the visitors over the last five innings-plus, he was credited the victory [sic], making him 7-1, as the Travs took the opener of a five-game set, 6-4…
“I just come in and try to throw strikes,” said Littlefield, a graduate of Azusa College who began his baseball career at tradition-rich Arizona State. “I’m not a power pitcher. My sinker is my out pitch. If I’m going good, I get a lot of ground balls. I need a good defense behind me.”
Littlefield, who has just been named the minor league pitcher for July in the St. Louis system, was going good Friday night and had the good defense…Littlefield was 4-0 in July and his earned run average was under 1.5…
John ended the Texas League season with a 9-1 record and
1.19 ERA in 98 innings in 33 games, three of them starts; he struck out 61 and
walked 23.
In spring training 1978 John was on the roster of the AAA
Springfield Redbirds. From the April 2 Arkansas Gazette:
Pitching Staff May Be Franchise This Year
In Florida With Jim Bailey
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—Partly in jest, John Littlefield pondered ways he might improve on his 1977 pitching statistics for the Arkansas Travelers.
To have a better record, he needs to go 10-1 or 9-0. To tighten his earned run average, he has to go 1.19 or lower.
Nobody told Littlefield that he’ll be going back to Arkansas. Nobody has to. He looks around the Springfield roster and sees 12 other pitchers, eight of whom have already pitched Triple-A or higher. He knows four more pitching candidates for Springfield will soon be dropped from the St. Louis Cardinals.
“It gets to be a matter of numbers,” Littlefield said Saturday. “Somebody has to go. I think I earned a shot in Triple-A, but I’ve only pitched two seasons—about a season and a half, really.
“I figure this is the year they (the Cardinals) have to make a decision about me. So the important thing this year is to pitch. I know I can pitch in Little Rock. If I made the Springfield club, I’d be hanging on as the ninth or 10th man on the staff, waiting for somebody ahead of me to fail. I might pitch an inning every week or two. I might get bombed a couple of times and be a forgotten man.
“I can pitch in Triple-A, and if I’d been playing three or four years and was in the spot I’m in now, I’d really be screaming. But, realistically, I’m going back to Little Rock and I can accept it.”
The next day John was in fact demoted to Arkansas. He spent
the season there, as his ERA shot up to 4.36 in 97 innings in 50 relief
appearances.
John started spring training 1979 on the Springfield roster, but was sent back down to Arkansas. He had a 2.17 ERA in 58 innings in 26 games as of the beginning of July, when he was promoted to Springfield.
For the
Redbirds his ERA was 2.93 in 46 innings in 29 games, and he finished second, to
John Urrea, in voting by teammates for
the team’s most valuable pitcher. Between his two stops he had 17 saves and
walked just 19 batters in 104 innings. After the season the Cardinals added him
to the 40-man major league roster, and he pitched for Guasave in the Mexican
Winter League (where he had a 1.70 ERA).
A January 30, 1980, article in the Arkansas Democrat
on the Cardinals’ need to improve their bullpen quoted manager Ken Boyer:
“We’ll go into spring training and possibly there could be some young surprises,” Boyer said. “Somebody might become available during spring training. You just don’t know. I know we’re going to take a long look at John Littlefield (relief specialist for the Arkansas Travelers last season). We need to bring him out of the bullpen a few times with the game on the line and see what happens. Who knows? The answer may be in our own organization…”
On February 20 Cardinals GM John Claiborne was quoted as
saying of John: “He’s coming fast.” On February 28 John, who had been holding
out, signed a one-year contract, and on March 27 he was sent down to
Springfield. He pitched 32 innings in 17 games for the Redbirds with a 2.25
ERA, and then on June 1 he and teammate Kim Seaman were called up to St. Louis
as the Cardinals placed Silvio Martinez and Mark Littell on the disabled list.
John sat for a week before making his major league debut on
June 8, in the first game of a doubleheader at Montreal. He replaced starter
John Fulgham after Fulgham walked the leadoff batter in the fourth, already
down 5-0. John got Chris Speier to ground into a double play, allowed singles
to pitcher Steve Rogers and Ron LeFlore, and got Rodney Scott on a lineout to
shortstop. He retired the side in the fifth and sixth before being removed for
a pinch-hitter; after the Cardinals lost the game 6-4 manager Ken Boyer was
fired. The second game was managed by coach Jack Krol, who used John again—this
time he allowed three earned runs in an inning and a third as the Cardinals
lost 9-4.
The next day Whitey Herzog was named St. Louis manager, the
Cardinals played at Atlanta, and John pitched again, getting the win in relief
of Jim Kaat in a 10-inning game, 8-5. Herzog quickly gained confidence in John
and used him often. From the July 5 Springfield State Journal-Register:
Littlefield a big bargain for Cards
For the lowly sum of $1,000, John Littlefield goes down as one of the St. Louis Cardinals’ best investments.
Although such things have a way of changing from one day to the next, Littlefield is, at the moment, the right-handed stopper in the bullpen.
June 1, when Littlefield and left-handed reliever Kim Seaman were called up from Springfield, it was kiddingly suggested to both that they were the aces of the Cardinals bullpen. Both were 0-0, unscored upon—and unused—at a time when the bullpen was a definite weakness.
After his first 14 appearances as a Cardinal, Littlefield had a 3-1 record, an earned run average below 2.40, only three walks in 19 2/3 innings and two saves, matching the team high.
Is the success of Littlefield, 9-5 in parts of two seasons with the Redbirds, a surprise? No, said Jim Otten. Yes, said Terry Kennedy. Both are former Redbird and current Cardinal teammates. “John could be here a long time,” Otten said Thursday night in St. Louis. “He throws strikes. He just took the job (as the stopper).
“He’s not an excitable person. He’s not hyper. He’s more calm than some, and he’s a good person to have out there.”
Kennedy, however, commented: “Yes, John has surprised me. I caught him in AA and AAA. His forte is his control.
“But he has found out there is more to life than the sinker. He has good control of four pitches now. I think he’s going to do the job all the time.”
The 26-year-old Littlefield sat in front of his locker and talked about one major difference in his pitching since leaving the Redbirds. “I’m throwing more changeups.” Littlefield said. “I’ve thrown more changeups here than I have the last two years total.”
One reason that has happened is that catchers Ted Simmons and Kennedy are calling for the changeup.
“I threw the changeup on the side in Springfield, but I didn’t throw it much in the games. I didn’t have enough confidence in it. Up here, you have to use it. Ted saw my changeup when I was warming up, and he’s calling for it. He’s been here a long time and knows how to work to the hitters.
“I’m going with what Terry and Ted are calling for. Only one time did I shake off what was called.”
Littlefield gave credit to minor league pitching coach Hub Kittle for teaching him the changeup and said he worked on it a lot in Mexico last winter.
The jump from the Mexican League to the National League is significant and one Littlefield might not have expected so soon. And he’s had instant success.
“I still don’t consider myself established,” Littlefield said. “I still have to prove myself. But I knew I was able to pitch up here.
“It was a matter of me keeping on top of myself and doing what I was capable of doing. I can’t try to throw any harder. When you have the names coming up like George Foster, Johnny Bench and Willie Stargell, you have to forget who you’re throwing to and just pitch. If you don’t, you’ll have four balls on them.
“I just pitch to them very carefully,” he added with a smile. “I think my concentration has been better up here. But the big key for me is that I throw strikes. And Ted has given me a lot of confidence. We think alike.”
Littlefield said he did have one particularly anxious moment—facing Dave Kingman in a pinch-hitting role at Wrigley Field last weekend. “I watched him on Cable TV a lot when I was in Springfield,” Littlefield said. “I knew he could hit it out easily. One swing of the bat and he could tie it up, but I struck him out.
“Hub said my success would come it I didn’t let my emotions overcome me. I’m not a Goose Gossage or Al Hrabosky type to psych myself up. If I did that, I would overthrow. The emotional part of the game is the hardest to learn.”
Which is not to say Littlefield does not get nervous. “I get the butterflies more in the bullpen than I do in the game,” he said. “I’m in a different world in the game.
“The first time I faced Bench, my wife said she was nervous. I said that I just had to get used to it. You think about it more afterward. I haven’t faced Dave Parker yet. I wanted to fact him the other night, but they brought in Seaman. I want to get that experience under my belt.”
Littlefield thanked Redbird manager Hal Lanier for giving him what he called the best advice.
“Hal told me before I went up to throw just like I had been and do nothing differently,” Littlefield said. “That’s been in the back of my mind.
“I’m not trying to be real fine. So far, it’s been effective.”
From a July 18 AP story, as it appeared in the Arkansas
Democrat:
Littlefield says speed overrated
ST. LOUIS (AP)—With all due respect to fireballer Nolan Ryan, the brightest newcomer on the staff of the St. Louis Cardinals says speed is overrated.
“I probably average 82 to 83 miles an hour,” says John Littlefield, a husky reliever on whose right arm many of St. Louis’ hopes currently reside.
“It depends upon what kind of radar gun you’re using. I’m more of an enticing type pitcher,” the former Arkansas Traveler said. “When I’ve got my good sinker going, control is my main weapon.”
Indeed.
In the 19 games he’s pitched since called up from Springfield of the American Association, Littlefield has walked but two batters unintentionally—one of them costing him a defeat.
His overall ledger shows seven earned runs in 28 innings, including three he surrendered on the day of his major league bow. Since June 9, he’s yielded three earned runs in 16 games over 21 1/3 innings.
Littlefield, in the absence of a trick pitch, says a slider he picked up in 1977, his second pro season, offers the key in complementing a better-than-average sinker.
“I can’t get by with the sinker alone,” he says. “My slider to a righthander, breaks away and my sinker moves in. They can’t know what’s coming. And control counts the most.” [What about his changeup?]
John continued to pitch well all season. He finished with a
3.14 ERA in 66 innings, allowing just two home runs (to Gary Matthews and Cliff
Johnson) and leading the team in games pitched with 52 and saves with nine,
despite not having joined the club until June.
During the 1980-81 off-season Whitey Herzog made a number of
trades, the biggest being one that sent John to the Padres along with Terry
Kennedy, Mike Phillips, Steve Swisher, John Urrea, Kim Seaman, and Al Olmstead
for Rollie Fingers, Gene Tenace, Bob Shirley, and a player to be named later
who turned out to be Bob Geren.
From the Sporting News, 5-2-81:
Littlefield Padres’ New Fire Chief
By Phil Collier
SAN DIEGO—Until he joined the San Diego Padres as one of the players obtained from St. Louis in the Rollie Fingers deal last December, John Littlefield had a common bond with comedian Rodney Dangerfield: He didn’t get any respect.
Now the 27-year-old Californian has become Fingers’ successor as the No. 1 righthander in the San Diego bullpen, a demanding assignment considering that Fingers was National League Fireman of the Year in 1977 and ’78 and tied for the award in 1980.
Fingers, traded first to St. Louis and then to Milwaukee in December, logged 23 of San Diego’s 37 saves last year. However, his absence went virtually unnoticed the first week of this season as Littlefield notched saves in each of the first two games at San Francisco.
The 6-2, 200-pounder pitched a perfect 12th inning of relief to help fellow reliever Gary Lucas gain credit for a 4-1 victory in the season opener at Candlestick Park April 9. One day later, the Giants had two on with one out in the ninth inning before Littlefield retired the side on three pitches to save the 4-2 victory for reliever John Urrea.
After three appearances with the Padres, Littlefield had logged four innings without permitting a hit with two walks leading to the only run he had given up.
Littlefield previously had not impressed people because of his inability to throw hard, and that probably was why the Cardinals waited until the 31st round to select him in the June draft five years ago…
Despite his success with St. Louis, Littlefield had reason to cheer when he became a part of the 11-man trade between the Padres and Cardinals.
“I knew the Cardinals were trying to trade for both Fingers and Bruce Sutter,” he said, “and I didn’t want to be in the same bullpen with both of them because it would have meant getting fewer chances to pitch.”
…Littlefield lost four of his last six decisions last season, after he had made one trip around the National League and hitters adjusted to his style of pitching.
“But John has the ability to adjust,” said Padres coach Jack Krol. “If he has to develop another pitch to go along with the slider and sinker, I know he’ll do it.” [What about his changeup?]
1981 was the year the middle third of the season was lost to
a player strike. At the time of the strike John’s ERA was up to 6.03 and he
hadn’t had a save since those first two games. A June 12 San Diego Union
article on what the Padres players would do during a strike quoted John as
saying “I would have to see if there is an opening for a substitute teacher.”
After the season resumed John pitched much better and got
his ERA down to 3.66, though he was not used as a closer and never did get a
third save. He pitched 64 innings in 42 games, walking 28, not up to his usual
control standards.
After the season the Padres fired manager Frank Howard and
hired Dick Williams to replace him. On November 19 the San Diego Union
quoted John on Williams:
“Dick [Williams] is a good manager, he knows what he’s doing,” reliever John Littlefield said by phone from his winter home in Bullhead City, Ariz. “I don’t know what his problems were in Montreal.”
At the beginning of spring training 1982 the Padres released
John to make room on the roster for Luis DeLeon, and he signed a minor league
contract with Toronto. Meanwhile the Fleer company had issued a baseball card
of John on which they flipped the photo negative, meaning that the card showed
him as a left-handed pitcher. They soon issued a correction, making the
original error card a rarity, and these days it can sell for over $1000.
With Toronto’s AAA team, the Syracuse Chiefs, John had a
7.49 ERA in 39 2/3 innings, walking 20 and allowing 11 home runs, before he was
released, ending his professional career.
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