Stan Wall, Unwitting Chavez Gatekeeper
You didn't get to the Dodgers without getting past the Wall
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1976 Topps Stan Wall (#584) - Card of the Day
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The Los Angeles Dodgers have enjoyed a long run good-to-great left-handed pitchers, some legendary, some more quietly excellent or briefly excellent. That historic staff of southpaws includes Stan Musial, Clayton Kershaw, Jim Brewer, Fernando Valenzuela, Johnny Podres, Claude Osteen, Jerry Reuss, and many others.
One Dodger lefty who doesn’t often get his due, though, is Stan Wall.
Now, Wall’s major league stats don’t jump out at you the way, say, Koufax’s strikeouts and record do, and he engendered no Mania, the way Fernando did. But there is little doubt he played an important part in Dodgers history … or at least witnessed important parts of Dodgers history.
Drafted by L.A. in the sixth round in 1969, Wall was used mostly in relief at Rookie-level ball that summer. He’d spend most of the next three seasons in the rotation with some bullpen work mixed in, though, climbing straight up the chain from Single-A Daytona Beach to Triple-A Albuquerque in the process.
That 1972 season with the Dukes was actually Wall’s second in Albuquerque, as he had spent 1971 there with the Double-A Albuquerque Dodgers before the city moved up a rung on the farm system ladder.
Little did Wall know how familiar the area would become.
That first (*foreshadowing*) summer of Triple-A ball yielded a 6-9 record with a 4.61 ERA in 28 appearances, 20 of them starts. Wall folded in five complete games and three shutouts along the way, so there were some flashes of hope.
Among Wall’s teammates with the 1972 Dukes were Davey Lopes, Charlie Hough, Rick Rhoden, Steve Yeager, Doug Rau, Geoff Zahn, Larry Hisle, Von Joshua, Joe Ferguson, and Ron Cey, all on their way to — or back to — the majors for long stays.
Heading into his age-22 season, though, Wall would have to wait for his own call to the bigs. In the meantime, he split 1973 between Albuquerque and Double-A Waterbury, then returned to the Dukes in 1974 … and 1975.
By then, the 24-year-old was working in a fairly balanced swing role, making 11 starts among 23 appearances for the Dukes. By the middle of July, his record stood at 9-5, and he had posted a 2.38 ERA and eight complete games.
The Dodgers had stumbled in the month leading up to the All-Star break and entered the second half 12.5 games back in the old National League West. They had little to lose by fiddling with their pieces a bit, so up came Wall for his major league debut.
Manager Walter Alston found spots for the rookie lefty in 10 games, all from the bullpen, from July 19 through the end of September. In that span, Wall went 0-1 but with a 1.69 ERA in 16 innings of work. He gave up just six hits and six walks, and hit one batter, yielding a tidy 1.188 WHIP.
It had taken Wall a while to make it to Chavez Ravine, but at 24 years old, he was one of the 10 youngest Dodgers (among 37 total) to appear in the majors that summer.
The future looked bright, and even more so the next spring when Wall appeared as a southpaw Southern Cal harbinger of Tim Lincecum on his 1976 Topps rookie card and made the Dodgers out of Spring Training.
A bit of harshness was waiting just around the corner, though.
To wit, Wall made his 1976 season debut on April 13, in the Dodgers’ third game, and the Padres tagged him for a home run and two runs (both earned) in two-thirds of a relief inning. That was “good” for a 27.00 ERA, and it would be five days before Alston called on him again.
Even so, the lefty recovered to stick with L.A. all season, putting up a solid line in his official rookie season. By the time the club headed home for the winter, after again finishing second to the Reds in the West, Wall stood at 2-2 with a 3.60 ERA in 50 innings pitched across 31 appearances, all in relief. He also picked up a save, his first in the majors.
Wall left 1976 behind as the first calendar year since 1970 that he hadn’t pitched at Albuquerque.
With the farm system fading in his rearview mirror, Wall once again landed with the Dodgers for Opening Day festivities in 1977. Also once again, he greeted collectors from Topps wax packs, this time with a slightly more kempt hairdo and a pretty healthy walrus lip.
Following exactly in the footsteps of his predecessor, new Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda brought Wall in for his season debut in the team’s third game, against the Giants this time. The lefty fared slightly better in his 1977 opener — sure, he still gave up a homer and two runs, just as he had in his 1976 debut, but he at least lasted a full inning.
Unlike in 1976, though, Wall took a while to recover from his gaudy first-game showing. After serving up another two-run inning in his second outing the next day, his ERA hadn’t budged, stuck at 18.00.
Lasorda kept giving him chances, though, and Wall eventually settled in a bit, pruning that mark to 4.30 by the beginning of June. But a rough month, capped by a five-run outing in one-and-a-third innings on June 29, left him at 2-3 with a 5.46 ERA.
The writing was on the Wall (ahem) by then, and even a scoreless two-thirds-inning showing on July 3 couldn’t save him. The Dodgers shipped their 26-year-old back to Albuquerque, and there he’d stay for the rest of the season.
Even the familiar climes of his old stomping ground weren’t enough to turn things around for Wall, though. In 11 outings for the Dukes, including six starts, he went 2-3 with a 7.63 ERA.
That would be the end of Wall’s pro career, and the end of an era in baseball: the Dodgers’ inveterate gatekeeper, who had helped usher everyone from Lee Lacy and Jerry Royster to Glenn Burke, Pedro Guerrero, and Ron Washington through Albuquerque on their way to the major leagues, had left his post.
Of course, Los Angeles managed to muddle along without Wall, who presumably moved along with his life after baseball, too … though there are precious few mentions of him after his playing days.
Whatever the case, Stanley Arthur Wall was born 75 years ago today.
1986 Fleer Baseball's Best Wally Joyner Fed the Rookie Card Bulls
Also born on this day, in 1962, was Wally Joyner, who turned the sport — and hobby — upside down in the early going of 1986. Wally World became a phenomenon so big, and left so many collectors clamoring for Joyner’s non-existent rookie card, that changes were in order.
Fleer struck first, with their brand new Baseball’s Best box set. Read all about it right here.
Under the Halo: The Official History of Angels Baseball
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