A greater controversy was developing in shaping the pitching staff

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One afternoon under the broiling Florida sun, one frustrated fifa 15 coins player asked for a meeting with Branch Rickey and then presented the classic disgruntled baseball player’s complaint, “Play me or trade me.” Normally, Rickey and most baseball executives were unmoved by such a request, but the Cardinals mastermind sensed that there was something different about this player. He seemed so genuine and earnest in his ambition. His name was John Leonard Roosevelt Martin, soon to be known to the fans as Pepper Martin and “The Wild Horse of the Osage.” Rickey would call him his favorite among the many extraordinary players he developed. “He is as was,” Rickey said. “He is a child of nature and never pretends to be anything he isn’t.”

Signed in 1924 on Charley Barrett’s recommendation off the roster of a class D Minor League team in Greenville, Texas, Martin had worked his way up the Cardinals ladder but felt stymied that his Major League re- sume to date consisted of only thirteen at-bats in 1928 and one plate ap- pearance in 1930. Almost twenty-seven years old, Martin was champing at the bit, begging Rickey for a chance to earn a regular Major League job. “I am glad that you want to play every day, John,” Rickey said sympa- thetically, addressing Martin, as he usually did all his players, by his given Christian name. “I wouldn’t want someone on my team who didn’t want to play regularly.”

Rickey advised Martin to be patient. “Keep your head up, John, and be ready to play whenever called upon,” Rickey counseled. “Every year is different and you never know when your opportunity will arise. Just be prepared to seize it when it arrives.” Martin listened intently, being one of those players who loved to hear the baseball brain orate. Yet, as spring training commenced in 1931, Martin thought ruefully, it seemed that the outfield of Chick Hafey in left, Taylor “Flyhawk” Douthit in center, and George Watkins, coming off a .373 rookie season, was fairly well set (even if Hafey, as was his custom, was holding out for a higher salary).

A greater controversy was developing in shaping the pitching staff. Dizzy Dean fully expected to make the rotation after winning twenty- five games in the Minors in 1930 as well as winning in his Major League debut on the last day of the regular season. However, Gabby Street’s pre- diction of the unpredictability of the future star was proving truer than maybe even Street expected. In training camp Dean started to tell every- one about how great he was going to be in the big leagues and how supe- rior he was to the veterans already on the team. Rookies were supposed to be seen and not heard, but the exuberant Dean did not care about that propriety. He infuriated manager Street by appearing late for spring training drills and then having the audacity to proclaim publicly, “Let some of the other clucks work out for the staff; nobody can beat me.”