The St. Louis Cardinals continue their season long celebration of the 30th Anniversary of their 1985 tonight as Ken Dayley will be signing autographs and be honored with a bobblehead prior to the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“It’s official, I guess, whether it’s deserving or not,” said Dayley, who imagines there will “be some shenanigans” from his family and friends with the bobblehead. Fans must have purchased a special Budweiser Bash theme ticket to receive the autograph and bobblehead.
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While the season ended in a big way with the World Series appearance for the Cardinals, the beginning also started in a big way for Dayley, who didn’t have a job going in.
“I wasn’t sure I was even going to be on the club when we broke Spring Training that year,” he said.
But when Willie McGee pulled a hamstring, Whitey Herzog decided to take an extra pitcher.
“It was kind of between Andy Hassler and myself, the two lefties, on who was going to stick around,” said Dayley. “We both pitched well the first month, but I got the nod and went from being the 11th man on a 10-man staff to being in the World Series by the end of the year. It was quite a major leap in my career.”
Dayley went on to led the team with 57 appearances that season and had 11 saves. It was his first season in the bullpen.
“I’d always been a starter and obviously, the pitches I thought I had–I really didn’t have. I thought I was a four-pitch pitcher, but when I went to the bullpen actually I was a two-pitch pitcher,” said Dayley.
Today, Kevin Siegrist wears the familiar number-46 for the Cardinals and at times, it’s like deja vu for the former lefty to watch the current reliever.
“There’s still a lot of outs in that jersey, I will tell you that,” stated Dayley. “I gave up my share of knocks, too. He has a had a couple of stretches where he has been phenomenal and then he had a little bump in the middle there last year. When he’s on top of the baseball, it’s got so much more life. It’s down, it’s moving, and you can just see the different reactions by the hitters. There’s no doubt he’s got the talent.”
“When you throw the ball 95+ miles per hour, it’s hard to hit,” continued Dayley. “Siegrist has got good stuff, there’s no doubt about it and right now they’ve got three or four guys out there that seem like whoever’s in, just does the job. That’s a good plus to have if you’re the manager.”
During this past offseason, Siegrist worked on shortening up his delivery–in large part to help cut down on runners stealing against him. Dayley remembers making his own adjustment with runners on base.
“I had a problem where when I was in the stretch, if I actually tucked my chin…when I would come up to throw it would let me front side fly and then the ball would just stay up and be flatter. If I had my chin up, when I checked runners from the stretch, and then went to home plate, everything stayed in. The ball stayed down and it had more movement on it also. It’s little things that you really can’t even imagine being a difference but that was mine. I had to keep my chin up.”
These days Dayley still watches the Cardinals closely and enjoys life with his family, which besides his wife and five children has grown to include four grandchildren. He’s also busy with Trophy Properties and Auction, which sells country properties and hunting land.
