Manny Lee was a one-of-a-kind Cardinal.
In the long history of the franchise, Lee is the only Cardinal to play in just one game for them and have a 1.000 batting average.
A 10-year veteran of the American League and shortstop for the 1992 World Series champion Blue Jays, Lee made his Cardinals debut as their 1995 Opening Day second baseman _ and never appeared in another big-league game.
Caribbean to Canada
Manuel Lora Lee was from San Pedro de Macoris, a Dominican Republic city noted for its poets and baseball players. Joaquin Andujar, Rico Carty, Pedro Guerrero, Alfonso Soriano, Sammy Sosa, Fernando Tatis and his son, Fernando Tatis Jr., are some of the many big-league players who came from there.
Lee was 16 when Mets scout Eddy Toledo signed him for $2,000 in May 1982. A switch-hitting shortstop, Lee led the Class A South Atlantic League in hitting (.330) in 1984, his third season in the Mets’ farm system.
To get Ray Knight from the Astros, the Mets sent them Lee and two other prospects near the end of the 1984 season. When the Astros neglected to place Lee on their 40-man winter roster, the Blue Jays claimed him in December 1984.
Boston Globe columnist Peter Gammons noted, “Houston was furious that the Blue Jays took Manny Lee, but if he were one of the best prospects in the Astros’ organization, why didn’t they protect him?”
Rules required the Blue Jays to keep Lee in the big leagues in 1985, or offer him back to the Astros. When Lee, 19 reported to the Blue Jays at 1985 spring training, he weighed 141 pounds on a 5-foot-9 frame, the Toronto Star reported, but he showed enough in the field to make the jump from Class A to the majors. He was the only teen on a 1985 big-league Opening Day roster.
Used mostly as a defensive replacement and pinch-runner, Lee produced no RBI in 40 at-bats and had more strikeouts (nine) than hits (eight). Looking back on that rookie season, Lee told the Star, “I was too young. I was like a little baby.”
Infield shift
Shortstop was the position Lee liked best, but an all-star, Tony Fernandez, had that role with the Blue Jays. After splitting time between the majors and minors in 1986 and 1987, Lee became the Blue Jays’ second baseman in 1988. He hit .291 overall and .316 with runners in scoring position that season.
Though he led American League second basemen in fielding percentage in 1990, Lee sometimes bailed out on double play pivots and was criticized for “indifferent play,” according to the Star.
When the Blue Jays acquired second baseman Roberto Alomar from the Padres after the 1990 season in a trade that included Tony Fernandez, manager Cito Gaston chose Lee to be the shortstop. “We’ve got confidence in Manny,” Gaston told the Star. “He played a decent second base for us, and he was improving, but I think shortstop was in his heart. He loves playing shortstop. Now he’s got the job.”
Star columnist Dave Perkins wrote, “Returning to his natural position should take the whitecaps off Manny’s brainwaves; he never did take to second base, or at least the idea of it.”
At 1991 spring training, the Star described Lee as “the happiest Blue Jay in camp.”
The good vibes didn’t last throughout the season, though. Lee swung like a slugger, but became the first big-league player with 100 or more strikeouts (107) and no home runs.
Blue Jays fans booed “the much-maligned and often maddening shortstop,” the Star reported.
Highs and lows
Larry Hisle joined the 1992 Blue Jays as hitting coach and said the flaw in Lee’s batting approach was obvious. “There is a lot of movement in the upper body,” Hisle told the Star. “On some pitches, his head moves as much as 12 inches.”
At spring training, “I have spent more time with (Lee) than with any other player,” Hisle said. “He has listened and he has worked. I’m urging him to concentrate on putting the ball in play.”
Lee improved, producing a career-best .343 on-base percentage and hitting .330 with runners in scoring position for the 1992 Blue Jays. He also achieved the second-highest fielding percentage among American League shortstops and didn’t commit an error on a ground ball all season. According to the Star, Blue Jays coach Gene Tenace called Lee “one of the unsung heroes of this team.” Lee credited Hisle. “He gave me confidence,” Lee told the newspaper.
In Game 3 of the playoffs against the Athletics, Lee’s two-run triple with two outs in the seventh propelled the Blue Jays to victory. They went on to win the pennant and the World Series championship. Boxscore
Granted free agency, Lee got a two-year guaranteed $3.4 million contract from the Rangers, but his time in Texas didn’t begin well. In 1993, he clashed with manager Kevin Kennedy and had what the Fort Worth Star-Telegram described as “an injury-riddled, error-prone, turmoil-laden debut season with the Rangers.”
The next year, strike-shortened 1994, Lee did better. He hit .278 (second-best batting average of his big-league career) and .337 with runners in scoring position. Though primarily the shortstop, Lee also played second base for the first time in four years and made no errors in 108.1 innings there.
Opening and closing
The Cardinals took notice. After the strike ended on April 2, 1995, the Cardinals went looking for infield help. On April 18, a week before the start of the season, they signed two free agents _ Lee and Luis Rivera _ and had them compete for a spot on the Opening Day roster. Lee won the job, expecting to back up Ozzie Smith at short and Geronimo Pena at second.
However, two days before the season opener, Pena pulled a hamstring running to second base _ on a ground-rule double. Manager Joe Torre picked Lee, 29, to replace him.
“I never thought that I would be the Opening Day second baseman,” Lee said to the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat. “I feel comfortable here, relaxed. There’s no pressure on me any more.” He also told the newspaper that playing alongside Ozzie Smith was “a dream for me.”
The dream turned into a nightmare, though, in the season opener against the Phillies at St. Louis.
In batting practice, Lee’s line drive struck coach Gaylen Pitts in the chest. Though Pitts wasn’t seriously hurt _ “It didn’t get me in the heart,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “My heart is not big enough.” _ it was an omen of bad things ahead for Lee.
In the second inning, Phillies catcher Darren Daulton got an infield single on a ball Lee backhanded but couldn’t get out of his glove in time. In the third, pitcher Curt Schilling also got an infield hit on a bouncer to Lee, who again had trouble releasing the ball after fielding it and threw low and late to first.
Later in the inning, with Mickey Morandini the runner on second, Gregg Jefferies hit another bouncer toward Lee. “The ball glanced off the glove of Lee, who reached for it again and then tumbled flat on his back,” the Post-Dispatch reported. “Morandini, who had held at third, motored home” and Jefferies reached first on the error.
Adding injury to insult, Lee sprained his right ankle on the play. He received medical attention but stayed in the game.
Asked whether he should have made the plays on the grounders hit by Daulton, Schilling and Jefferies, Lee told the Post-Dispatch, “I used to, but I haven’t played second base for a full year.”
Leading off the bottom of the third in his first Cardinals plate appearance, Lee singled to left and eventually scored on a Scott Cooper single. After the inning, Lee was unable to continue on the sprained ankle and was replaced at second by Jose Oquendo.
Rick Hummel of the Post-Dispatch wrote, “It’s fairly probable that the Manny Lee Show at second base will have a short run.” Boxscore and Video
More to the story
Lee was placed on the 15-day disabled list and the Cardinals called up Tripp Cromer from the minors to replace him.
When Lee’s ankle healed, he played in 12 games for Cardinals farm clubs on an injury rehabilitation assignment. Ready to rejoin the Cardinals, he returned to St. Louis but was told the club was happy with Cromer. Lee was released and finished as a player.
In his quirky stint as a Cardinal, Lee had a higher batting average (1.000) than his fielding average (.800). As the Post-Dispatch noted, it “was a generous” .800.
According to baseball-reference.com, Lee remains the only Cardinal to play in just one game for them and have a 1.000 batting average.
Nine others have 1.000 batting averages as Cardinals, but all played in multiple games for them, according to baseball-reference.com. In alphabetical order, those nine are:
_ Bryan Augenstein, 2011, five games, one plate appearance, one hit.
_ Justin Burnette, 2000, four games, one plate appearance, one hit.
_ Eddie Fisher, 1973, six games, one plate appearance, one hit.
_ Larry Herndon, 1974, 12 games, one plate appearance, one hit.
_ Bob McClure, 1991-92, 103 games, one plate appearance, one hit.
_ Kevin Ohme, 2003, two games, one plate appearance, one hit.
_ Tige Stone, 1923, five games, three plate appearances, one hit, two walks.
_ Abe White, 1937, five games, one plate appearance, one hit.
_ Esteban Yan, 2003, 35 games, one plate appearance, one hit.
After his playing days, Lee stayed in the Dominican Republic. In August 2004, he was in the news there but not for baseball. Using a .38-caliber pistol, Lee shot and killed Edwin Gomez Vasquez, 28, who Lee suspected was trying to rob his residence in San Pedro de Macoris, the daily newspaper, Diario Libre, reported.