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Mark Littell went 32-31 with 56 saves and a 3.32 ERA over nine major league seasons with the Royals and Cardinals. (Topps baseball card photographed by Milo Stewart Jr.\/National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum)
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He surrendered one of the most famous home runs in baseball history, a blast that put the Yankees back in the World Series after an 11-year hiatus.<\/p>\n
Six years later, Mark Littell was out of the game due to an elbow injury. But the hard-throwing right-hander left his mark on two Missouri teams that had remarkable success during his career.<\/p>\n
Mark Littell went 32-31 with 56 saves and a 3.32 ERA over nine major league seasons with the Royals and Cardinals. (Topps baseball card photographed by Milo Stewart Jr.\/National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum)
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Mark Alan Littell was born Jan. 17, 1953, in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Taught the game by his father, Alan (who later served as his agent), Littell was raised on a soybean-and-cotton farm and played baseball with his younger brother Eric whenever time would permit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never liked to watch baseball on television,\u201d Littell told the Daily American Republic of Poplar Bluff, Mo., in 1982. \u201cI wanted to play it instead. No matter how hot it got, I would always drag Eric outside and throw to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really got scared once. Eric missed the ball, it hit him on the head and knocked him (out).\u201d<\/p>\n
With a classic overhand delivery befitting his 6-foot-3 frame, Littell dominated hitters at Gideon High School in Cape Girardeau (located on the Mississippi River south of St. Louis) and later excelled for the American Legion team in Poplar Bluff, Mo.<\/p>\n
The Royals selected Littell in the 12th round of the 1971 MLB Draft, and Littell signed with the encouragement of scout Gary Blaylock, who pitched for the Cardinals and Yankees during his one season in the big leagues in 1959 and was managing in the Royals system in 1971.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was supposed to go to the Appalachian League,\u201d Littell told the Daily American Republic. \u201cBut Gary wanted me to go with him to Billings where he was going to manage in the Pioneer League. That was actually a better league, so I decided to go with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Mark Littell was named the American Association Pitcher of the Year in 1973 after leading the circuit with 16 victories. (Topps baseball card photographed by Milo Stewart Jr.\/National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum)
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Littell went 5-1 with Billings, striking out 69 batters over 87 innings \u2013 mostly as a starter. Among his teammates that year was future Hall of Famer George Brett, who hit .291 in his first professional season.<\/p>\n
Littell moved on to Class A Waterloo of the Midwest League in 1972, going 10-9 with a 3.47 ERA while striking out 199 batters in 153 innings. He also earned his nickname, Country, from Royals minor league instructor and future Hall of Famer Joe Gordon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was kind of raw,\u201d Littell told the Daily American Republic. \u201cMy southeast Missouri accent was real strong and I did come from the country. Joe Gordon was standing at the batting cage one day and said, \u2018Where\u2019s that country boy?\u2019 The guy standing next to him said: \u2018Country\u2019s in the dugout.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1973, Littell made it all the way to Triple-A, where he was 16-6 with a 2.51 ERA for Omaha and earned a berth on the American Association All-Star team. Called up to the big league club in June, Littell made five starts before returning to Omaha until he was recalled in September.<\/p>\n
He finished the season with a 1-3 record and 5.68 ERA in eight appearances for Kansas City.<\/p>\n
In 1974, Littell impressed observers during Spring Training with his power fastball and darting slider.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s so young, but he doesn\u2019t have bad stuff,\u201d Fran Healy, who would be the Royals\u2019 regular catcher in 1974, told the Kansas City Times about Littell. \u201cOne thing I\u2019ve noticed this spring: The Royals are coming up with some good, young pitchers.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Mark Littell debuted at age 20, making him the youngest pitcher on the Kansas City staff in 1973. (Doug McWilliams\/National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum)
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But the Royals sent Littell back to Omaha that spring, and Littell soon developed pain in his right arm. Sporting a 3-5 record and 2.56 ERA, he was sent home to rest. When he returned, he was even less effective \u2013 and finished the year with a 3-9 record and 4.75 ERA, striking out just 44 batters over 89 innings.<\/p>\n
He finally underwent surgery to remove bone spurs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Royals didn\u2019t know what to think,\u201d Littell said after surgery. \u201cI had always been so healthy. Before all they had to do was hand me the ball as often as they wanted and I\u2019d throw it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now at a career crossroads, Littell regained his fastball in 1975 and earned a spot on the American Association All-Star team while pitching for Omaha. He earned the win as the All-Stars defeated the Chicago White Sox 7-4 on July 31 in Denver, then \u2013 while sporting a nine-game winning streak \u2013 was called up to Kansas City on Aug. 18 when Steve Mingori was placed on the disabled list.<\/p>\n
Littell worked in seven games for the Royals down the stretch, making three starts while going 1-2 with a 3.70 ERA. With Omaha, Littell was 13-6 with a 3.48 ERA.<\/p>\n
In the spring of 1976, Littell laid it on the line for Royals manager Whitey Herzog.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I can help the team this year,\u201d Littell told Herzog as Spring Training was winding down. \u201cI don\u2019t have any business in the minor leagues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herzog kept Littell as a bullpen arm and by May was using him as his closer. It was a move that propelled the Royals to their first American League West title.<\/p>\n
Kansas City Royals manager Whitey Herzog, who shed the interim tag in 1976 after stepping in as skipper the year before, moved Mark Littell to the bullpen and soon installed him as the closer. (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum\/Major League Baseball)
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Often pitching multiple innings as was customary for relievers of the time, Littell did not allow an earned run until May 17 and was 3-1 with six saves and a 1.25 ERA through June 16. He posted a win and five saves in August alone and finished the year 8-4 with 16 saves and a 2.08 ERA \u2013 a mark that would have been 1.50 if not for allowing seven runs over two innings against Cleveland on June 20 in his only start of the season.<\/p>\n
He permitted just one home run over 104 innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve gotten to where I enjoy coming in with men on base,\u201d Littell told the Associated Press. \u201cI really love to do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m doing right now is exactly what I\u2019ve wanted to do all my life, ever since I can remember. I\u2019ve never wanted to do anything but be a pitcher in the big leagues.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Royals wrapped up the division title on Oct. 1 when the second-place Athletics lost to the Angels. Littell also pitched that day in his final outing of the regular season, taking the loss in a 4-3 defeat at the hands of the Twins. But the Royals didn\u2019t care as they became the first AL expansion team to win a division title.<\/p>\n
The Royals entered the ALCS vs. the Yankees as underdogs, and their outlook did not improve when center fielder Amos Otis turned his ankle in the first inning of Game 1 and was lost for the rest of the series. Littell recorded the Royals\u2019 final out of that game, getting Thurman Munson to ground out to end the eighth one batter after Roy White\u2019s two-run double off Larry Gura gave the Yankees a 4-1 lead that would eventually be the game\u2019s final score.<\/p>\n
Littell returned in Game 3, pitching 2.2 innings of scoreless ball in another losing cause as the Yankees won 5-3 to take a 2-games-to-1 lead. But Kansas City won Game 4 by a 7-4 score, setting up a winner-take-all game at Yankee Stadium a day later.<\/p>\n
Mark Littell led Kansas City pitchers with 16 saves in 1976. (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum\/Major League Baseball)
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The teams each scored two runs in the first inning before Kansas City took a 3-2 lead in the top of the second. The Yankees then countered with two runs in the third and took control of the game with two more in the sixth.<\/p>\n
But in the top of the eighth, Brett\u2019s three-run homer off Grant Jackson tied the score at 6. Littell had entered the game in the bottom of the seventh to extinguish a New York rally and retired the Yankees in order in the eighth. And in the top of the ninth, Kansas City had two on with two out against Dick Tidrow when Jim Wohlford hit a chopper between third and short that Graig Nettles fielded. His throw to second appeared on TV replays to be too late to get Al Cowens, but second base umpire Joe Brinkman ruled that Cowens was out to end the inning.<\/p>\n
Had Cowens been safe, Brett \u2013 who hit .444 in the series \u2013 would have come to the plate with the bases loaded. Instead, Littell went back to the mound for the bottom of the ninth with the game still tied.<\/p>\n
Fans had thrown items onto the field between innings, delaying the game as workers cleared the debris. Littell threw extra warm-up pitches to stay loose before Yankees first baseman Chris Chambliss finally stepped into the batter\u2019s box.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe hits one deep to right center!\u201d yelled Yankees announcer Phil Rizzuto as the first pitch to Chambliss climbed into the New York night. \u201cThat ball is\u2026outta here! The Yankees win the pennant! Holy cow, Chris Chambliss! On one swing!\u201d<\/p>\n
With that swing, Littell entered the history books among other famous pitchers like Ralph Terry and Ralph Branca who had surrendered famous walk-off home runs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have given up a whole year\u2019s pay to have won that game and got in the World Series,\u201d Littell told the Daily American Republic. \u201cIt\u2019s not the money, it\u2019s the ring and ability to say: \u2018Hey, I pitched in a World Series.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Littell and the Royals bounced back in 1977, with Kansas City winning 102 games and once again capturing the AL West title. Littell was 5-4 with 12 saves and a 3.54 ERA when Herzog moved him into the rotation in mid-August due to injuries to the starting rotation. He made five starts \u2013 missing two weeks in late August with a back problem \u2013 and finished the year 8-4 with 12 saves and a 3.61 ERA in 104.2 innings over 48 games.<\/p>\n
In the ALCS rematch vs. the Yankees, Littell appeared in two games \u2013 allowing three runs (one earned) over two innings in a 6-2 loss in Game 2 and surrendering the go-ahead run (which was not charged to him) on a sacrifice fly by Willie Randolph in the top of the ninth of Game 5 in New York\u2019s 5-3 victory that clinched the series.<\/p>\n
After two straight postseason gut punches, the Royals decided a change was in order. On Dec. 8, they traded Littell and catcher Buck Martinez to the Cardinals in exchange for pitcher Al Hrabosky.<\/p>\n
Littell told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after the trade that he saw himself as a starting pitcher moving forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like starting,\u201d Littell said. \u201cI think, in the long run, that\u2019s where my future is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cardinals gave Littell two starts early in the 1978 season but soon returned him to the bullpen. After a period of adjustment, Littell posted scoreless outings in 11 of 12 games from late May to late June and finished with career-bests in games (72), innings (106.1) and strikeouts (130) while going 4-8 with 11 saves and a 2.79 ERA.<\/p>\n
But in 1979, elbow problems began to plague Littell. He was sidelined twice by arm pain early in the season and then blew three saves in a two-week span in early June before finding his form again.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been hurt by base on balls in key situations,\u201d Cardinals pitching coach Claude Osteen told the Post-Dispatch. \u201cIn that respect, (his record) is probably misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cardinals acquired Mark Littell on Dec. 8, 1977, along with Royals catcher Buck Martinez. (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum\/Major League Baseball)
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Littell was much better in the second half of the 1979 season and allowed just one run over 14 appearances to end the season, finishing with a 9-4 record, 13 saves and a 2.19 ERA in 63 games.<\/p>\n
Then in the spring of 1980, rumors abounded about a possible trade that would send Cubs ace reliever Bruce Sutter to the Cardinals. The return was to be Littell and top catching prospect Terry Kennedy.<\/p>\n
The deal never materialized, but Littell was ready for anything.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Royals general manager Joe Burke) told me in Kansas City I would never be traded. You never know,\u201d Littell told the Post-Dispatch.<\/p>\n
It was the start of a lost season for Littell, who was 0-2 with a 9.28 ERA in 14 games before being sidelined for the rest of the season after undergoing surgery to remove bone spurs from his elbow.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe hasn\u2019t been healthy since Spring Training,\u201d Cardinals general manager John Clairborne told United Press International. \u201cWe coughed up a lot of games when he wasn\u2019t pitching up to par.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Frank Jobe, the Dodgers team physician, performed the surgery on Littell.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t one of those things where you throw one pitch and (the arm) goes out on you,\u201d Littell told the St. Joseph (Mo.) News-Press. \u201cIn Spring Training it started bothering me, and I kept feeling the same thing over a long period of time. It kept getting worse and worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Surgeries to repair Mark Littell\u2019s right elbow ended a four-season stretch from 1976 through 1979 in which he posted a double-digit saves total. (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum\/Major League Baseball)
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Littell began throwing again in the Florida Instructional League following the 1980 season, and by the spring of 1981 his mid-90s velocity had returned. But Littell was unable to command his pitches like he had prior to the surgery and didn\u2019t rejoin the Cardinals\u2019 bullpen until late May. He made only six appearances before the strike interrupted the season, but in his first game after the dispute ended, he was a part of history.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 10, Littell surrendered an eighth-inning single to the Phillies\u2019 Pete Rose \u2013 a hit that propelled Rose past Stan Musial into the top spot on the all-time National League list with 3,631 safeties.<\/p>\n
But by that time, Littell was no longer pitching in high-leverage situations. The Cardinals swung their deal for Sutter after the 1980 season and installed him as their closer \u2013 and Littell finished the year with a 1-3 record, two saves and a 4.39 ERA over 28 games.<\/p>\n
In 1982, Littell \u2013 who had two years remaining on a contract worth a reported $125,000 per season \u2013 was limited to mop-up roles to start the year as the Cardinals embarked on a season that would eventually result in a World Series title. Doug Bair, Jim Kaat and Sutter were handling the key roles in the bullpen, and Littell was 0-1 with a 5.23 ERA through June 24. Two days later, the Cardinals \u2013 who were 1-15 in Littell\u2019s 16 games that year \u2013 designated him for assignment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t get him up and down in the bullpen,\u201d Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog told the Daily American Republic after Littell was cut. \u201cI just don\u2019t think that his arm, because of his operations, is suitable for relief.\u201d<\/p>\n
Littell made one start for Triple-A Louisville before his season came to an end.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got to pitch,\u201d Littell told the Daily American Republic after the Cardinals designated him for assignment. \u201cI can\u2019t sit.\u201d<\/p>\n
But his arm would not permit Littell to continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy arm was pretty much basically shot and Whitey Herzog gave me a big break by keeping me around as long as he did,\u201d Littell said in 2016.<\/p>\n
Whitey Herzog reunited with Mark Littell when he was named manager of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1980. (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum\/Major League Baseball)
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The news got worse for Littell as 1982 progressed when he and his father were sued by former Royals teammates John Wathan, Tom Poquette and Joe Zdeb for a 1977 land deal that went awry.<\/p>\n
But after a few years away from the game, Littell returned as a minor league pitching coach for the Orioles, Padres and Brewers \u2013 even appearing in a 1994 game with the Class A Stockton Ports (for whom he was a coach) when the team ran short on pitchers. He worked a scoreless inning in relief and earned a victory.<\/p>\n
Littell coached in the minors and at the college level into the 2000s before retiring. He passed away on Sept. 5, 2022, due to a heart ailment.<\/p>\n
Over nine seasons with the Royals and Cardinals, Littell was 32-31 with 56 saves and a 3.32 ERA over 316 games \u2013 and will always be remembered for one pitch. But his overall work during that magical season of 1976 \u2013 when Whitey Herzog turned him into a reliever \u2013 set the Royals franchise on the course to greatness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, (Herzog) took me along. That\u2019s all I care about,\u201d Littell told the AP in 1976. \u201cI don\u2019t have any regrets. And I don\u2019t think Whitey does either.\u201d<\/p>\n
Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He surrendered one of the most famous home runs in baseball history, a blast that put the Yankees…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2387],"tags":[5,936,2123,55,2596,2595,4,252],"class_list":{"0":"post-551696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-royals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-kansas","10":"tag-kansas-city","11":"tag-kansas-city-royals","12":"tag-kansascity","13":"tag-kansascityroyals","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116004996469584819","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}