Dave Giusti, 1970s Pirates Relief Ace, Passes Away

Dave Giusti, Pirates Relief Ace, Has Died

Giusti pitched for the Houston Colt 45’s/Astros (1962-68), who signed him for a $30,000 bonus after he graduated from Syracuse, St. Louis Cardinals (1969), Pirates (1970-76), Oakland Athletics (1977), and Chicago Cubs (1977). For his career, he was 100-93 with 145 saves, a 3.60 ERA, 3.23 FIP, 1.296 WHIP, and 95 ERA+ while accumulating 16.1 WAR in 668 games, 133 of which were starts.

Early Years

At Syracuse, Giusti’s pitching coach, former major league pitcher Ted Kleinhans, taught him to throw the “palm ball,” a changeup held deep in the palm. This would become a key weapon in Giusti’s professional career.

Most of Giusti’s starts (118) came with Houston, for whom he was 47-53 with a 4.02 ERA. However, during his time with Houston, they never finished higher than eighth in the NL. Thus, he was happy to be dealt to the defending NL champion Cardinals after the 1968 season in a deal that brought catcher Johnny Edwards to Houston. His time with Houston wasn’t a total loss, however. It was there that general manager Paul Richards insisted Giusti rely on his palm ball more, despite the pitcher’s stubborn insistence that his fastball was his best pitch.

Hello, Good-Bye, and Hello Again

Any hopes Giusti had of playing for a winner seemed to have died three days after St. Louis acquired him. That’s because Cardinals GM Bing Devine gambled and left Giusti unprotected in October’s 1968 expansion draft. In the draft, the San Diego Padres selected Giusti from the Cardinals. Giusti wasn’t happy about it. “Without downgrading San Diego, the expansion clubs figure to have even more trouble than Houston,” he told Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “and I was depressed about starting over again.” However, Giusti was back with the Cardinals before he even had a chance to fill out his W-4 form for the Padres. They reacquired him during the winter meetings, sending Danny Breeden, Ron Davis, Ed Spiezio, and Philip Knuckles to the Padres. (Knuckles never pitched in the majors. Unfortunately, we can’t confirm that he threw a knuckleball, which would have been appropriate.)

The Accidental Relief Ace

After a year in St. Louis, the Cardinals traded Giusti and catcher/former college basketball star Dave Ricketts to the Pirates for Carl Taylor and Frank Vanzin. It was the only offseason trade made by Pirates GM Joe L. Brown for the 1970 Bucs. Manager Danny Murtaugh planned to use Giusti as a “swing man” – a reliever and spot starter. Giusti made it clear that he wanted to be a regular member of the starting rotation. Murtaugh was open to the idea, provided Giusti pitched well in spring training.

Giusti was terrible during the spring training games. After a rough outing against the Chicago White Sox in his final spring exhibition game, the headline in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette read, “Brown’s Trade A Flop – So Far.” Giusti told Charley Feeney of the Post-Gazette that he’d always been a good spring pitcher. “I can’t understand it,” said Giusti. “I feel in good shape. My arm feels good. But I just haven’t been able to do anything right.”

Giusti’s misfortune was the Pirates’ – and his – gain. In the season’s 10th game, Giusti was brought in for the seventh inning to protect a 3-1 lead against the Astros at Forbes Field. He was sharp, and Murtaugh let him finish the game to earn his first save as a Pirate. The rest, as they say, is history. A star reliever was born. Giusti saved 26 games in 1970 while receiving consideration for the NL’s Cy Young and Most Valuable Player Awards.

A World Series Champion and Award Winner

In 1971, Giusti earned an NL-leading 30 saves for the eventual World Series champion Pirates. For that, he won the NL’s Fireman of the Year Award from The Sporting News. He finished all four games in the NL Championship Series against the San Francisco, recording two saves. He wasn’t needed much to put out fires in the World Series against the Baltimore Orioles, thanks to two complete game victories by Steve Blass and another by Nelson Briles. But he earned a save in Game 4, the first night game in World Series history.

The Agony of Defeat

Giusti picked up 22 more saves for the Pirates in 1972. Many observers believe the 1972 Pirates were their best team of the 1970s, even better than the World Series winners of 1971 and 1979. The 1972 Pirates finished 96-59 in a season shortened by a players’ strike at the beginning of the season. Alas, chances for Giusti and the Pirates to repeat as world champions died with one bad inning in the Championship Series against the Cincinnati Reds at Riverfront Stadium.

The Pirates were winning the deciding Game 5, 3-2, when Giusti entered the ninth inning to protect the lead. He surrendered a long, opposite-field home run to leadoff hitter Johnny Bench. After giving up two more hits without recording an out, manager Bill Virdon turned to starter Bob Moose. With runners on first and third, Moose uncorked The Wild Pitch Heard ‘Round the World. The Reds, not the Pirates, were on their way to the World Series. Giusti, who was said to take defeat harder than any Pirate, wasn’t available to the media afterward.

“I thought Giusti had good stuff,” said Virdon to Bob Smizik of The Pittsburgh Press. “Bench got a pitch that was up and hit it out. That upset him. Then he tried to rush and got a little wild. I had to get a strike thrower in there. But Dave Giusti doesn’t have anything to apologize for.”

The End of a Career

Giusti continued to pitch effectively from 1973-75. He had his worst year as a Pirate in 1976, when the team’s run of success ended with a second-place finish. In the bicentennial year, Giusti posted a 4.32 ERA and six saves. Eventually, he lost his job as the Pirates’ top relief pitcher to Kent Tekulve, who would become another unlikely hero out of the bullpen.

Brown and Murtaugh retired at the end of the 1976 season. There were signs that the good times were coming to an end in 1975, but they were overly loyal to certain players who were part of the 1971 champs and reluctant to dismantle the team. Their replacements, GM Hardy Peterson and manager Chuck Tanner, had no such loyalty. In the spring of 1977, Giusti was one of six players Peterson traded to Oakland to obtain Phil Garner, an All-Star second baseman during Tanner’s lone year there. As a “ten-and-five” man, Giusti had the right to veto the trade. He accepted the deal anyway.

Giusti pitched well in Oakland, posting a 2.98 ERA and six saves in 40 games. Even so, the A’s sold him to the Cubs in August. With Chicago, he struggled, recording a 6.04 ERA and 1.737 WHIP. Blass, his best friend on the Pirates, saw Giusti struggle on TV, as told in Blass’s book, A Pirate for Life. Blass decided to fly to Chicago to be there for his buddy. Unfortunately, a night of binge drinking between friends did nothing to help Giusti’s pitching. His career was over when the Cubs released him in November.

The Last Word

Said Pirates principal owner Bob Nutting in a statement, “We are saddened by the loss of such a beloved member of the Pirates family. He was a vital member of our World Series-winning team in 1971 and spent seven of his 15 big league seasons with the Pirates before eventually making Pittsburgh his home. We extend our sincere condolences to his wife, Ginny, his daughters, Laura and Cynthia, and the entire Giusti family.”