THE PORTLY PORTSIDER
Arroyo's "Scroogie" Tightens Up Ford
"During the recent World Series games in Cincinnati, a rather portly man with wavy gray hair felt very much at home. Luis Arroyo used to undress and dress in the home team's clubhouse. He had worn the scarlet undershirt briefly in 1959 and, but for an extraordinary oversight on the part of the Reds' overlords, might well have been pitching for Fred Hutchinson's team against the Yanks.
One of these overlords was Hutchinson himself. 'He had me in St. Louis in 1955,' Luis says. 'I won 11 games for the Cards but he said I was lazy. So when the season was over he sent me to Omaha.'
Luis was always packing and unpacking his bags in those days. He bounced between Pittsburgh and Hollywood in 1956, thence to Columbus and finally to Cincinnati. 'Mayo Smith was the manager when the season opened,' Luis recalls. 'I sat on the bench mostly, but I did win one game. Then Mayo was fired and Freddie took his place. He took one look at me and without giving me a chance to pitch, out he sent me.'
Luis feels no animosity towards the glum-faced manager of the National League champions. On the contrary. Life, in the baseball sense, began anew for him with the Reds' Havana farm team. The story of his comeback from nowhere to fame as the Yankees' greatest relief pitcher in a decade is proof that's it's never too late to succeed.
'I got no other life than baseball,' is how he puts it. 'If I don't play, I don't make money.' Luis is a money pitcher both by inclination and from hunger.
Felipe Arroyo was a watchman on a farm near Tallaboa, a hamlet some 80 miles from San Juan, Puerto Rico. He had four boys, all of whom played baseball from tiny tothood. Luis always pitched; Raimon always caught. 'Baseball was like a fever,' Luis says. 'I was pitching for what you might call a Little League team when I was eight. There were leagues everywhere- in the eighth grade I was already in what you might call AA amateur ball such as they play in Central Park in New York.'
In Puerto Rico, baseball is an around-the-calender game. After the war, the New York Yankees played exhibition games in San Juan, Ponce and other cities. Luis, then 18, was picked as a member of the best amateur team on the island. The following year he signed with Ponce. Except for working in a bakery in 1946 and 1947, he has done nothing but play ball.
In the winter of 1947 Juan Garcia, owner of the Ponce club, paid Luis' expenses to the baseball school operated by Snuffy Stirnweiss and Phil Rizzuto in Barstow, Florida. The minor leagues were flourishing then. Bob Doty, owner of the independent Greenville club of the Class D Coastal Plain League, signed Luis to his first contract in organized baseball, and his zigzag climb up the ladder began.
'I wish I knew 15 years ago what I know now,' Luis said one day last summer after he had won his thirteenth game in relief. He might have added that he wished some of baseball's wiseacres had appreciated his dedication to the game then. After winning 21 games for the Greensboro team of the Class C Carolina League in 1949, the Cardinals began to groom him for old Sportsman's Park. He had a fine fast ball, a curve, a slider, a changeup, enough equipment to warrant serious consideration. He had something else- twice as much experience for a pitcher his age than almost anyone else. 'The pay wasn't good,' he says. 'A man's got to have money to support a family. That's why I played winter ball after every season. It paid me $50, $75 a game.'
He was kept on the Cardinals' reserve list until 1955. By that time he had acquired a thorough self-education in the finer arts of pitching. He is fundamentally a thinking moundsman. He studies batters, and detects little details about their stance, swing, mental processes. His advance notices were excellent when he, at last, became a big leaguer with the Cards in 1955. 'Look here,' he says, pointing to statistics which detail his record that season. 'I won 11 games and lost only eight. I was in 35 games. It was a good season, wasn't it?'
But there was something about Luis' gait, his casualness, his refusal to get excited that affected Fred Hutchinson oddly. Luis' release came as a shock to him. But, in the book of the average big league scout, 28 is too old; and Luis was already set in his pitching ways. He was tabbed as an almost-ran, sound of arm and heart, wise in the ways of pitching, but not quite good enough for the big time. The woods are full of such guys, arent' they?
'I kept looking for the Why,' Luis says. 'In 1958 I was back in Columbus. One day Al Hollingsworth, who used to pitch for the St. Louis Browns, was warming up for batting practice tossing. He was throwing all kinds of stuff. I see him throw a screwball. 'That's what I need,' I says to myself.' So Luis put his mind and arm to conquering the pitch that had served Carl Hubbell so well during his many years of southpaw supremacy.
The 'scroogie,' as it's called in baseball jargon, is a going-away pitch to right-handed batters. It looks like a normal cross-fire fast ball or inside curve until it reaches the plate. Suddenly it goes the wrong way, squibbing off the end of the bat for a foul or easy pop-up- or is missed completely. Add a sinker, a good fast ball, a change-of-pace and a slider to the screwball and you have Luis Arroyo, the incomparable, in action. The 'scroogie' is hard to control. It's hard on the arm, too- Hubbel's flipper was contorted for years of twisting, but Luis' is as yet unaffected.
In 1960, pitching for Havana in the International League and wintertimes in Puerto Rico, Luis quickly perfected his mastery of the odd ball. His earned run figures had plummeted to a sensational 1.15 in 1959. He was at 2.27 in August 1960, when manager Steve Souchock of the Yankees' Richmond farm team, added a postscript to his weekly report: 'Arroyo could make a good relief pitcher for the Yankees.'
Meantime, the U.S. State Department had put Castro's Cuba off limits for Stateside baseball. The Havana franchise was transferred to New Jersey, three minutes by Hudson Tube from Manhattan.
Bill Skiff, the Yanks' head scout, made the trip the following evening. 'I took one look at Luis,' he says. 'He had the best screwball I'd seen in years.' The next day, for $25,000, the Yankees bought Luis' contract from Cincinnati, owner of the Jersey City franchise.
Luis appeared in only 29 Yankee innings before the season ended, but won five games, losing one. At that time Bobby Shantz was Casey Stengel's late-inning mopper-upper. Casey vanished over the Rockies to Pasadena after the Yankees lost the World Series to the Pirates. Shantz vanished into the National League draft two months later after the expansion draft. Ralph Houk used Luis for the first time in an exhibition game with the Minnesota Twins in March.
The 1961 Yankees were a freewheeling, boisterous club, a young club, seeded with a few starry veterans. Luis moved among them like a genial uncle. He didn't look like an athlete in street clothes. He occasionally mingled with the crowds outside the clubhouse door, listening to the cheers for Maris, Mantle, Ford, Berra and the other stars, and went unrecognized.
But, as the weeks passed and he frequently rescued Ford and other starters, the fans began to cheer him, too. It was a new and refreshing experience for the old pitcher. One day he retired the Cleveland Indians with one pitch which was converted into a double play. In the bottom of the ninth, Johnny Blanchard socked a pinch home run. Luis wore the widest grin in the clubhouse afterwards. 'If I can keep winning games with one pitch, I'm good for another 15 years up here,' he said.
His string of victories passed the ten mark, the 11, 12, 13. Reporters crowded around his locker on such occasions. One asked, 'Where's a good Spanish restaurant in town?'
'I don't to go to many' he said.
'But you must know one or two,' the reporter insisted.
Luis mentioned an eatery in Greenwich Village.
'What's your favorite dish?' the reporter inquired.
'Beans and rice. That's what I used to eat all the time when I was a kid.'
There are few secrets in the Yankee clubhouse. Whitey Ford frankly told newsmen how he had pitched to various batters. Luis became equally frank. 'No, I didn't get him on the screwball,' he says about a hitter who fanned feebly on his 'out-pitch.' Luis would add with a smile: 'He went down on my fast ball.'
The experts called it 'setting a pattern.' Luis explains: 'A reliever has an advantage. We come in late in the game. Batters haven't seen us and don't know our pattern. We know what we are going to do. They don't.'
Luis is methodical- and slow- in everything he does except pitching. Elston Howard, a 'pattern-catcher,' who tries to remember every pitch thrown at every batter. Luis' 'scroogie' has been so well advertised that most batters expect it after they've reached two strikes. Luis and Ellie delight in confusing, befuddling and out-thinking them. A batter, leaning forward for an expected scroogie, looks awfully foolish when a fast one slices the inside corner of the plate.
It sounds easy, if you have control, which Luis does. Pitching around the calendar has given his arm an automatic affinity for the strike zone. Long experience has made him philosophic. 'I didn't have it,' he'll say after allowing a run. His pitching is for real as every A.L. team and the 1961 Cincinnati Reds found out.
Luis appreciates his late success. He has seldom made more than $7,500 a year, the major league minimum, or a minor league stipend plus winter pickings. The Yankees raised him to $10,500 last spring. Next season he'll receive at least twice as much. At long last he'll be able to afford more than a hotel room; or, taught thriftiness from years of scant pickings, prepare for the long future when the scroogie will have become a museum piece.
Witty Whitey Ford calls Luis 'my other arm.' Gifts rained down on Whitey from admiring fans last September 9. A half-truck rolled from the bullpen, displaying a gigantic white Life Saver. From it hopped Luis. The affable, earnest avuncular Puerto Rican was grinning all over his proud pan. Combined into one super southpaw, Ford and Arroyo won 40 games and lost but nine in one of the happiest examples of true teamwork that baseball has ever seen."
-Charles Dexter, Baseball Digest, January 1962
"The round man with the educated screwball is Luis Arroyo, baseball's best relief artist. He earned 15 victories in 1961, a record for an American League bullpen specialist, and had a 2.19 ERA.
The Puerto Rican craftsman kicked around at St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati before finding steady work at Yankee Stadium in 1960. Arroyo commands the game's top salary for "piece work." He has a 38-28 lifetime mark."
-Don Schiffer, The 1962 Major League Baseball Handbook
"This was the first spring since he entered professional baseball 14 years ago that Luis Arroyo felt secure. He knocked around the minors long before he came up with the St. Louis Cardinals. From there he drifted back and forth between the minors and Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.
The Yankees, needing relief help desperately late in 1960, bought Looie from Jersey City. Since then he has won 20 games, lost six. In his 65 relief appearances last year (an American League record for a southpaw), Arroyo was 15-5, saving 29 games and posting an amazing 2.19 earned run average. The graying Puerto Rican came to Whitey Ford's rescue 24 times, saving 13 games, winning five, losing one.
Despite his fine late-season performance in '60, Luis wasn't secure at spring training a year ago. He wasn't at all sure that American League hitters might not be catching up with him. Then he suffered a broken left wrist, the result of being hit by a line drive. But he returned to enjoy the most glorious year of his career, including selection on the American League All-Star team.
This year he knows Manager Ralph Houk is counting on him as his relief ace, but just to be sure, Luis is working on added pitches to supplement his famed screwball."
-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook
Luis Enrique Arroyo (P) #47
Born February 18, 1927 in Puenuelas, Puerto Rico, resides in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Height: 5-8 1/2, weight: 185. Bats left, throws left.
Married and father of four boys, Solveig (14), Luis (12), Harold (10) and Luis (6), and one girl, Marta Miriel (1).
-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook
Pitched no-hit game for Houston of the Texas League, against Dallas, winning 3-0, August 11, 1954.
Set American League record, most appearances by a left-handed pitcher (65), 1961.
Set American League record, most games finished by a left-handed pitcher (54), 1961.
Received Sporting News Fireman Award as top American League relief pitcher, 1961.
-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide
"Much of the credit for the Yankees' success in 1961 belongs to their capable little relief specialist, Luis Arroyo. The 34-year-old veteran not only picked up 15 victories in 20 decisions but was responsible for saving more than twice that number of wins for New York starting pitchers.
The one-time National Leaguer was obtained by the Bombers during mid-season, 1960, from Jersey City of the International League for Zack Monroe.
In 29 games during the '60 campaign, he replaced Ryne Duren as New York's chief bullpen artist, posted a 5-1 record, and had a fine 2.85 earned run average. Last summer, working 119 innings, Luis' ERA was 2.19. Only because he didn't work the required 162 innings kept the stocky Puerto Rican from being the Junior Circuit's ERA king.
A fine control artist, Arroyo was first signed by the St. Louis Cardinal organization in 1948. He spent four seasons in the minors before going on the voluntarily retired list for the 1952 and 1953 seasons.
Luis returned to Organized Ball in '54 and in 1955, he made his big league debut with the Cards, posting an 11-8 mark. The Redbirds sent him to Omaha of the American Association in 1956 and eventually traded him to Pittsburgh. He was 3-3 with the Pirates before being sent down to Hollywood.
In 1957 Arroyo's mark with the Bucs was 3-11. They dispatched him to Columbus (IL) in 1958 and dealt him off to Cincinnati the following season. On the strength of his record at Columbus (10-3), Luis earned his third shot at the Senior Circuit. He won his lone decision with the Reds in 1959 but was once again sent down to the International League.
With Cincy's Havana club, his record was 8-9; however, this doesn't tell the real story. His 1.15 ERA is more in keeping with the facts, and his total of 94 strikeouts against 15 walks and 117 innings shows just how well he toiled for the Sugar Kings.
In 1960 the Havana club shifted to Jersey City due to the internal tension on the island. Arroyo, who stands at 5'8 1/2" and hardly looks like a ball player [sic], was going along at a 9-7 pace (2.46 ERA) when Yankee scouts watched him working against the Bombers' Richmond farm club. They decided that the cigar-smoking vet could help the club and a trade was consummated.
The 190-pound southpaw helped his own cause last summer with some timely hitting, especially against the Boston Red Sox.
He was credited with victories over every club in the league except Baltimore, and was particularly effective against Detroit, winning four from the Bengals.
Arroyo picked up his first World Series win in the 1961 Classic, receiving credit for the decision in game No. 3.
New York's bullpen problems are nil with the Senor on hand. He's ready, willing and able to come in when the going is rough.
Luis, who is called Yo-Yo by his teammates, has one of the finest screwballs in the game. He's a family man, with five youngsters.
Last spring Luis had to make the club. This year he's got it made. Now all he has to do is continue to produce in the same fashion he has since coming to the Bronx, and another pennant is almost a certainty for the Yankees."
-The 1962 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Yearbook
SURPRISE, MAN!
"Did anybody notice Whitey Ford almost fainted when he was relieved by Jim Coates in the fifth game of the last World Series?
'I had my head down and never looked up to see who it was,' Ford said recently. 'I handed him the ball and then stopped. It was a right hand. I looked up and it was Coates. Every other time this season it was Luis Arroyo.' "
-Leonard Schecter, New York Post (Baseball Digest, May 1962)
"What a season Luis Arroyo had in 1961. He pitched in 65 games, won 15, lost only five, recorded an earned run average of 2.19 in the regular season and won a game in relief in the World Series.
But Luis was to be denied this kind of year again. Arm trouble shelved him in 1962, but he'll in there battling to help bring another championship to New York."
-Official Souvenir Program of the 1962 World Series (Yankee Stadium)
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