When Dennis Higgins first got to pitch for the Cardinals, it seemed like a dream come true. They’d been his favorite team when he was a youth in his hometown of Jefferson City, Mo.
Recalling boyhood summers pitching in amateur leagues in central Missouri, Huggins told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “I’d have signed with the Cardinals and played for nothing.”
By the time Higgins became a Cardinal in 1971, he was near the end of his pro playing career, a journey that began 14 years earlier in the White Sox system.
His stint with the Cardinals was no fairytale. He had ups and downs, got sent to the minors, returned and got traded, a move that prompted him to quit the game.
A tall (6-foot-3), lanky, right-handed reliever, Higgins had a record of 22-23 with 46 saves in seven seasons with the White Sox (1966-67), Senators (1968-69), Indians (1970) and Cardinals (1971-72). He died at 84 on Nov. 3, 2023.
Perseverance pays
Jefferson City, about midway between St. Louis and Kansas City, is the capital of Missouri. The town was laid out by Daniel Morgan Boone, son of the famous frontiersman, and was named for President Thomas Jefferson. In the 1950s, Omar Higgins, a Jefferson City police captain, took his son to Cardinals games in St. Louis “to watch Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter every chance he could,” Dennis Higgins told the Post-Dispatch.
According to the Jefferson City Daily Capital News, Higgins, 18, signed with the White Sox in the fall of 1957. He spent eight years in the minors before he earned a spot with the 1966 White Sox. He made his big-league debut on April 12, Opening Day, pitching 2.2 scoreless innings against the Angels in Chicago. Boxscore
The White Sox won that Tuesday afternoon game in 14 innings. After it ended, Higgins rushed to O’Hare Airport for a flight to Jefferson City, where he was married the following afternoon, April 13, to Ruth Ann Schnieders, whose brother, Paul, pitched in the Cubs system for eight years. The next afternoon, Higgins was back in uniform for the White Sox’s April 14 game at Chicago.
Relying on a sinking fastball, Higgins pitched in 42 games for the 1966 White Sox and was 1-0 with five saves and a 2.52 ERA. Batters hit a mere .202 against him.
An eye for an eye
At White Sox spring training in 1967, Higgins’ left eye bothered him. He consulted a doctor, but kept pitching, The Sporting News reported.
In May, during a game at Kansas City against the Athletics, Catfish Hunter threw a pitch close to White Sox batter Don Buford, who hit the dirt to get out of the way. In the bottom half of the inning, Higgins relieved starter Tommy John. The first pitch Higgins threw hit Danny Cater in the top of the batting helmet. His next pitch sailed over the head of Dick Green. Umpire crew chief Hank Soar warned Higgins he’d be ejected if he threw another one too close to a batter. Higgins walked Green on three more pitches.
Sal Bando came up next. Higgins’ first pitch hit him in the hip, and home plate umpire Jim Odom ejected Higgins and manager Eddie Stanky. “I wasn’t throwing at anybody,” Higgins told The Sporting News. Umpire Ed Runge said, “All we know is that Higgins faced three men, hit two and knocked the other down.”
(Years later, Higgins recalled that Stanky ordered him to hit the three batters in succession, the Post-Dispatch reported.) Boxscore
Two weeks after the incident, Higgins learned he had a detached retina in his left eye. He underwent surgery a week later and missed the remainder of the season.
Another capital city
In February 1968, Higgins was traded to the Senators and became their closer, leading the club in saves (13) and appearances (59). “The hitters are just plain stupid,” Higgins told the Daily Capital News. “Less than 30 percent of them are long ball hitters, yet they all go up there swinging for the fence.”
Ted Williams replaced Jim Lemon as Senators manager in 1969. When the Senators went to Boston for the first time with Williams as manager, the return of the Red Sox icon created a hullaballoo. The Senators won and Higgins got the save with three scoreless innings. “I wish we had more like him,” Williams told The Sporting News. Boxscore
Williams called on Higgins often. He used him in 11 games in April and 11 in May, twice pitching him in both games of doubleheaders. “I overworked him early in the year because I had to,” Williams told the Akron Beacon Journal.
Higgins had 10 wins for the 1969 Senators and led them in saves (16) and appearances (55). He also threw 15 wild pitches. In his book, “Kiss it Goodbye,” Senators broadcaster Shelby Whitfield noted, “Ted’s critics said he ruined the arm of Dennis Higgins by pitching him too frequently in 1969.”
Paul Lindblad, who pitched for Williams in 1971 and 1972, told The Sporting News, “Ted ruined pitchers his first year out. He burned out Higgins and wore out (Darold) Knowles to next to nothing.”
Traded to the Cleveland Indians, Higgins was their team leader in saves (11) and appearances (58) in 1970. Unhappy with the contract offer he got for 1971, he held out for more and was shipped to Wichita at the end of spring training. In July, Higgins got sent to the Athletics, who then flipped him to the Cardinals for infielder Gaylen Pitts.
Opportunity knocks
Assigned to Tulsa, Higgins pitched in 17 games for the Cardinals’ affiliate. His combined record for Wichita and Tulsa was 2-11, so when he got called up to the Cardinals in September 1971, “Higgins said he found it hard to believe,” the Daily Capital News reported.
He got into three games for the 1971 Cardinals and was 1-0 with a 3.86 ERA. The win came in the Cardinals’ home finale when he pitched 3.2 scoreless innings against the Expos. Boxscore
The Cardinals put Higgins, 32, on their 40-man winter roster. Manager Red Schoendienst “was reasonably impressed enough to want to see more of Higgins in the spring,” Cardinals general manager Bing Devine told the Daily Capital News.
At 1972 spring training, Higgins pitched well and beat out another veteran, Stan Williams, for a spot on the Opening Day roster, the Post-Dispatch reported.
It was a different story after the season began. Higgins had a 6.75 ERA in April and 4.05 in May. He was 0-2 with 14 walks in 13 innings when the Cardinals demoted him to Tulsa in May 1972. “He has a good arm, a good fastball and a good curve,” Schoendienst told the Post-Dispatch. “All he has to do is throw strikes and challenge the hitters.”
Higgins considered quitting, then changed his mind. “The pay is the same, and that’s the only reason I’m going to Tulsa,” he said to the Post-Dispatch.
Tulsa manager Jack Krol put Higgins in the starting rotation and he thrived. He was 7-2 with a 1.89 ERA in 11 starts. Two of the wins were shutouts. Higgins figured that was enough to earn a midseason return to the Cardinals. When they didn’t call, he went home to Jefferson City.
“Bing Devine called and asked me what my intentions were,” Higgins explained to the Jefferson City Sunday News and Tribune. “I told him I wasn’t going to pitch in the minors with a record like mine. He said they would see what they could do.”
On July 26, 1972, the Cardinals released pitcher Tony Cloninger and replaced him with Higgins. Given a start against the Cubs on July 30, he was lifted in the third inning. Boxscore
Moved to the bullpen, Higgins made five August relief appearances for the 1972 Cardinals and was 1-0 with a save and a 1.35 ERA. The win came in a scoreless stint against the Mets. Boxscore
In late August, Higgins felt pain in his right elbow and received a cortisone shot, the Post-Dispatch reported. On Aug. 31, his contract was sold to the Padres, “a move regarded as a forerunner of further activity with the Cardinals, who have interest in Padres shortstop Enzo Hernandez,” The Sporting News reported.
Higgins, 33, had other ideas. “I was home on an off day when Devine called to tell me I had been traded to San Diego,” Higgins recalled to the Jefferson City Sunday newspaper. “I wasn’t going, and that was the end of my career.”
He returned to Jefferson City and went into the sporting goods business.