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This photo on next page was one furnished by the Cardinals for answering fan mail. There was usually a different photo each year.

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Here are a few Cardinal photos taken at various times and in various poses. One thing we could count on was posing for a lot of photos to give the camera guys something to do.

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Another photo taken in spring training at Al Lang field. Jim Toomy, our public relations man, is seen in the background. Cardinal players love to play “pepper” in front of the screen behind home plate. We would put on a great show for the fans showing the skills of ball handling, quick reflexes, fielding and bat control. This is an old Cardinal tradition. This tradition started in the 1929’s with Pepper Martin and his gang of players.

These scrappy Cardinals were known as the ‘Gas House Gang’. They could sing, play instruments and put on a show of ball handling before the game. At that time spring training games in Al Lang Field were shared with the New York Yankees, who also trained in St. Petersburg at ‘Miller Huggins Field’. One of the best books on Cardinal history was written by Bob Broeg titled, ‘Redbirds: The Centennial Celebration of Cardinal Baseball’ published in 1992.

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This is the zip up uniform worn in 1955. The styles changed but they always kept the red birds and bat on the front of the uniform. I did like the Cardinal uniforms of loose fitting light wool. Room for a lot of action.

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Another Cardinals shot.

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My brother Von joined the club after graduating from high-school in late May, 1957. He was only 18 years old and weighed 180. His high-school teams won three state championships his senior year – two in baseball and one in basketball.

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He tried out for the Cardinals, much like I did almost two years earlier, and was given a bonus contract of $50,000. He started his Big League Career with a bang winning his first five games against zero losses. People were writing that he was the biggest kid sensation since Bob Feller.

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In this photo I am congratulating Von on pitching a “one hitter” against the Pittsburgh Pirates. This picture was taken at old Busch Stadium (formerly called “Sportsman’s Park”). You can see that he is tired. Sometimes a pitcher loses 10 pounds while pitching a complete game. This picture was taken just as you leave the Cardinal dugout and before walking up stairs to the club-house. Von pitched 18 scoreless innings before giving up his first run.

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Von is being congratulated for another well pitched game against the Milwaukee Braves. To the left is Del Ennis, the Cardinals left fielder, and Stan “the man” Musial on the right. They are getting a real kick out of this young pup.

Von found it very easy to smile in those days. By the way, he, unlike me, had perfect teeth and to my knowledge never had a filling. He is much too young to be winning all of those games. I never saw Von pitch until he came to the Big Leagues since I was off playing baseball myself. It was really neat to see him perform at such a level and with great success.

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This photo shows Von and I at Wrigley Field in Chicago, known for day games and ivy covered outfield walls. The visitor’s clubhouse was pretty bad, and when we walked on the field, photographers were everywhere. That’s why many of my photos were taken in Wrigley Field. After a downpour rain, I have seen the dugout totally full of water. Then the sun would come out and the water drain away, the tarp would be removed and we would play the game. Chicago was not afraid of a little old rain.

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The next photo was taken of Von and me in Cardinal home uniforms. Outside of the Yankees, I thought the Cardinals had the best looking uniforms. This photo was taken in St. Louis in 1957. My playing weight stayed constant at 188 except for the last 5 years of my career where is reached 195. I could eat all I wanted and never gain an ounce of weight. Oh, it would be nice to be slim again!

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This photo was taken near the parking lot at Al Lang Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. This photo was taken by Harry Pickup, Sr. who was an instructor and public relations man at Florida College. He was a very fine man and I highly valued his advice and friendship.

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Von and I talking to our manager, Fred Hutchinson. Fred was great working with young players, and since he was formerly a pitcher, he had a lot of understanding about how to handle pitchers. This photo was taken in St. Louis where you can see the large clock on the tower in right field. Duke Snider, of the Dodgers, hit that clock off a pitch from Larry Jackson. Every ballpark is full of memories and I could tell you loads of stories about things that happened in the old “Sportsman Park”

By the “All Star” game, Von and I had 12 wins between us. At that time my record was 8 wins and 4 losses and Von was 4 wins and 0 losses. The “All Star” game was in St. Louis that year so Von and I attended. Everything was working out.

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Von and I are talking baseball, or are we arguing about something? Maybe we are discussing where to go to eat after the game. Does the great Stan Musial need to settle this matter? He would suggest we eat at “Stan and Biggie’s” Anyway, it looks like it is all caught on camera. Today, players have to cover the mouth so that special electronics don’t read their lips. Ain’t it a shame. I miss Von a lot. He prematurely died at the age of 56 on August 20, 1995. We shared a lot of things in common and was always fun to be around. My most enjoyable time in baseball was when Von and I were roommates with the Cardinals.

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The next photo shows Von and I in the Cardinal dugout and watching the game with our manager, Fred Hutchenson. Starting pitchers have the privilege of sitting in the dugout during the games, but relief pitchers have to sit in the bullpen which often is the worst place to view a game in the stadium. In Milwaukee, the bullpen is stuck in center field behind two wire fences. One advantage is that we could trade baseballs for hotdogs without others knowing. The only year that I was a starting pitcher for the entire year was in 1957 when Von and I played together. Deep down inside, every pitcher wants to be a starter, and this was also my ambition, but relief pitching turned out well for my career, and today no team can succeed without a strong relief corp.

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Here is a photo of 'Old Diz' showing that he is proud of the McDaniel brothers. Paul and Dizzy Dean were from Arkansas and we are from Oklahoma. We all grew up in the country, but outside of those things, I am not sure what all we have in common. But the press loves to make a story out of our being compared to the Dean Brothers of St. Louis fame. Even a photo of the three of us appeared in the 1958 Britannica Year Book. The publicity perhaps did us no harm, but it was a bit over the top, and since we both fell on our faces the following year (1958) it created a mountain of pressure, but especially on Von who had lost all of his stuff and was unable to succeed at the Major League Level.

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On this page is Von and I signing autographs for fans in our neighborhood in North St. Louis in 1957. You will notice that nice ’55 Chev parked on the street. I think it is mine. I should have kept it. But who knows about such things. It is a fact that Von was very popular with the young and was getting as much fan mail as Stan Musial. Of course, Stan’s little gig lasted more than 20 years while he was playing and is still going strong in retirement. But for a time, Von was the toast of St. Louis and we were really enjoying the moment in the sun.

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Here is a cartoon comparing Von and me with the Dean Brothers.

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Von standing in the famous Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants and Willie Mays and much earlier Mel Ott. At that time the Dodgers played at Ebbets field and the Giants at the Polo Grounds, because at some point in time Polo was played on the grounds where they later built the stadium. The next year both the Dodgers and the Giants moved to the West Coast. On the following page is a photo of the Polo Grounds taken in 1957 when Von and I took the Circle Line Tour Boat around Manhattan Island. I have a lot of memories of playing in the Polo Grounds.

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The Polo Grounds as seen from the river. At one time the New York area had three major league baseball clubs. The Yankees who played in Yankee Stadium, the Giants, who played in the Polo Grounds and the Dodgers, who played in Ebbits Field in Brooklyn. In 1958, just one year after Von signed, both the Dodgers and the Giants moved to the West Coast. The Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and the Giants moved to San Francisco.

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This is a 1961 photo of my youngest brother, Kerry Don, our dad, and myself in St. Louis. Just like Von and I, Kerry tried out and was very impressive. He had won his last 40 games in American Legion and in high school. The Cardinals signed him to a bonus contract for $50,000 just like Von and me. By mutual agreement, dad received $20,000 along with Kerry’s contract. Dad was being rewarded for all the time and effort he put into his boys. While we were growing up, he never missed a game. Mom, too, made many sacrifices indispensable to our success in baseball. Dad always dressed neatly when he went to town, even if it was to Hollis, Oklahoma.

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Kerry Don, myself and our pitching coach, Howie Polette. Howie was also a left-handed pitcher. He takes a great interest in this newest McDaniel boy. Howie had a rich history with the Cardinals.

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Kerry was also a very good hitter. He had the second highest batting average in Oklahoma high school history batting.675. Another great Oklahoma player, Johnny Bench, batted .700. We thought that Kerry Don was going to be the best player of the family, and Von and I were disappointed when Kerry failed to reach the Big League level. But he gave it his best effort. Years later he told me that his problem was control. In high school the batters would swing at a lot of bad pitches, but in the pros they become very selective. Unlike Von and I, Kerry did not invest his money in farm land, but he was very good in handling money.

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Well, Kerry has been on the playing field working out, in the dugout and now in the clubhouse. All he has left to do is sign that big contract. I do not remember exactly how many days he tried out before he signed.

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The camera person on the left is Al Fleshman, who was hired by the Cardinals to take photos of the players in action. But he always left the park by the 6th inning (guess he wasn’t a great baseball fan) and never got a stitch of film of my playing in 1960. If he had done so, it might have helped me solve my pitching problems in 1961. Hey, he did get a picture of my forkball grip. But please, just get photos of my full pitching delivery in a real game!

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This is a picture was taken in Cincinnati against the Reds. Fielding my position was never a problem for me. I set a National League record of playing in 225 consecutive games without making an error. As with many of the other photos, this is an AP wire photo, and states, among other things that I threw a wild pitch, and the runner was tagged out at home plate. The Reds went on to win the game 5 to 4. But, as they say, bad publicity is better than no publicity at all.

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This is a photo of myself and Hal Smith. In my opinion, Hal was one of the greatest defensive catchers of all time. Here I am showing him my forkball grip. He was so good that I could bounce a curve ball in the dirt with the bases loaded, and he would not allow it to get past him.

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This was my first team photo.

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This photo is of the 1957 Cardinals. Von is not in this photo because the team photo was taken before Von joined the ballclub.

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This is a team photo of the Omaha Cardinals. In 1958 I was having such a bad year that I asked to be sent to the minor leagues. I was sent to Omaha in August where I won 4 and lost 1. I was brought back to the Cardinals in September.

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Hey, they finally went to color! How can you take a photo of the Cardinals without color? Notice how clean the uniforms are. This must have been taken before workouts or anything. A good team always gets their uniforms dirty. Only the bat boy is crossing his legs. Crossing legs is considered bad luck. Just joking! If that were true all the guys on the last page are headed for a lot of bad luck. But of course baseball players are extremely superstitious.

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This is a good photo of old Busch Stadium (known also as Sportsman’s Park). Notice the giant scoreboard in left with the eagle on top. The eagle would fly whenever homeruns were hit. All of the information on the scoreboard was operated manually by men in the scoreboard. I was the last pitcher to throw a pitch in this park. That would be in on May 8th of 1966 when I was playing for San Francisco. The Giants won the game 10 to 5. I also was the winning pitcher. My friend, Bob Owen, was in attendance. So many memories of that park. I saw Roy Campanella, hit a home run clear out of the park in left field in 1956 and Wally Post hit some monster shots off the scoreboard. This is the same park Where I pitched at age 16 with the Altus American Legion club where Altus beat the top American Legion team in St. Louis 9 to 1.

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These next two pages contain a sampling of my baseball cards. I think there are at least twenty two or twenty three different cards of all the teams I played on. Tops made two different cards of Von which were published in 1958. If I had been smart, I would have made more money collecting cards than playing baseball. But who can tell about such things?

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If there is wisdom in brevity, there must be a lot of wisdom on the back side of baseball cards. It would be nice if our politicians would be brief and just stay with the facts.

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I don’t know how baseball cards caught on with the American people, but it is a pretty neat thing. Usually these photos were taken when the player is all sweaty and in the middle of working out. Some guy comes out on the field and takes a photo. That’s why a lot of the photos are really bad. After all, it’s baseball, not your senior graduating photo.

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For x’mas, TOPS would send me a big package of bubble gum. I hope too many kids didn’t end up with bad teeth trying to get these cards. Think of all those cards that got thrown away or were put on the spokes of bicycles! They might have been worth a lot of money. I notice that the new pictures have players doing a lot more posing. This has created a whole new industry. Forget it, the old cards are worth more money.

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This was scanned from the original done by Amadee, a cartoonist in St. Louis, and was made during my 1960 season.. These cartoons used to appear all the time in newspapers, but are seldom seen today.

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Cartoons, like jokes, are most effective when if they are based upon a grain of truth. Those done of me are not based upon timeless truth, but a bit of truth at the time.

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These are baseball cards of some of the great players of the Cardinals. Bob Gibson was probably the greatest Cardinal pitcher. Other great pitching stars were Dizzy Dean and Steve Carlton. Gibson probably had the single best year of any pitcher in history in 1968 with an E.R.A. of 1.12. He, Bill White, Charlie James and I would play bridge on the airplanes. Tim McCarver caught both Gibson and Steve Carlton. Curt Flood was a fine center fielder, and changed baseball forever by suing baseball over the “reserve clause” and winning in court.

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Lou Brock was a very nice man and one of the greatest base stealers of all time. Red Schoendienst, a player/manager, was a roommate to Stan Musial. He was quoted as saying, “Stan and I sure had a room full of hits!” Red was very nice to me when I first came to the Big Leagues. Then Frank Lane had to go and trade him in 1956!

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The greatest Cardinal of all time was Stan “the man” Musial. I played with him for seven years. He was a quiet leader. He had a steady influence on the ballclub and was a great hitter, base-runner and fielder. His only weakness was throwing. He had a lifetime batting average of .339 and led the league in hitting 7 times and was most valuable several times. He never argued with the umpires, but over the years if he took a pitch with two strikes it would almost always be called a ball. Maybe the umpires felt that Stan had a better eye for strikes than they did.

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I will always believe that Musial was not given his just dues because he played for a team in the mid-west, the St. Louis Cardinals. But those who saw him play over the years have a much better understanding. Baseball will always remember the great “man” and gentleman of the game—Stan Musial. He came from humble beginnings, as his dad worked in the coal mines outside of Pittsburg, PA. He never forgot those humble beginnings. I like those baggy pants & jerseys. It gives you room to wiggle.