Years ahead of the data revolution that put gigabytes of scouting details at the fingertips of baseball teams and baseball fans, the Cardinals had handy a stockpile of information on hitter tendencies. It tracked matchups by type of pitch and type of pitcher and detailed charts for defensive positioning that the Cardinals toted everywhere they went and informed every pitch they threw.
What would now be called the analytics department, the Cardinals knew by a different name.
They called him Dave Duncan.
“Where they hit the ball, how they hit the ball, where they hit the ball in the air, where they hit the ball on the ground, and then the strike zones — all of the dots on where they got hits, where they made outs, what pitches were they, what they weren’t, and all by hand,†said Chris Carpenter, a Cy Young Award winner. “He was the analytics guru before analytics were even talked about. He did new school, just old school.â€
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One of the most intelligent, innovative, imposing, sometimes stubborn and always meticulous pitching coaches of any era, Duncan received a new title Saturday: Cardinals Hall of Famer. During a ceremony at Ballpark Village, chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. presented Duncan with the signature red sportscoat that comes with the team’s highest honor and a plaque securing his place alongside the club’s greats and several of the pitchers he coached, such as Carpenter.
“Somebody is the GOAT,†manager Tony La Russa said this past week to the Post-Dispatch, using the acronym for greatest of all time. “And ‘Dunc’ is the GOAT of all pitching coaches.â€
For years, Duncan’s colleagues, many of his pitchers and several media members championed his candidacy for the team’s Hall based on his guiding role for a pitching philosophy that won eight division titles and two World Series championships in his 16 seasons in St. Louis. Separate from the fan vote for contemporary players that elected Matt Morris or the Red Ribbon Committee’s election of bygone-era player Whitey Kurowski this year, the Cardinals’ ownership selected Duncan for induction. It did the same previously for formative coaches George Kissell and Jose Oquendo. Duncan is the first coach inducted who never played a game in the Cardinals’ organization.
His induction Saturday brought a crowd that included Dennis Eckersley, Dave Stewart, Adam Wainwright, Albert Pujols and David Eckstein, in addition to 12 Cardinals Hall of Famers.
“I see all my ex-players here and I’m like, ‘(I’m) a pretty big deal,’†Morris said during his speech after receiving his red jacket. “They’re all here for ‘Dunc.’ And so am I.â€
Even as coaches’ profiles and salaries have grown, it remains rare for them to be honored alongside players or managers in team Hall of Fames, and they are not considered for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The Cardinals honoring Duncan adds to an ongoing conversation about a place for coaches in Cooperstown.
“Because it’s not just our organization,†Carpenter said. “I’m talking about the whole picture, the effects he has had on this game. He is a legend for what he does.â€
Historically and currently, Cooperstown honors baseball’s best in four categories: player, manager, umpire, and executive (commissioners, owners, general managers). Within those lanes, the Hall does not have an avenue for coaches to be elected. If the executive category was expanded to “builder,†there might be. Same for scouts, another category without a route to Cooperstown. But there’s been no movement to create one. The Hall does use its museum to tell the story of coaches and highlight feats by coaches. The Hall’s Buck O’Neil Award for someone who “enhanced baseball’s positive impact on society (and) broadened the game’s appeal†could go to a deserving coach or scout, as O’Neil was iconic and historic in both roles.
Evolving Hall
The Hall has always evolved after the game does. Relievers took a while to join their starter peers in Cooperstown, but the bullpen’s modern significance now regularly ushers in star closers. The litmus-test stats are starting to change to reflect how the game has, from accumulating numbers to elite rates. As players they had a category. Coaches’ importance is on the rise in the modern game, bringing new attention even to excellence from the past.
It is unlikely advocates for coaches like Duncan change the Hall’s current categories, but should that happen over time, Duncan’s career assures he’ll be among the first coaches considered.
Look no further than a recent gathering with many of his pitchers.
“If any guy stood up and said, ‘Let’s run through this wall for ‘Dunc,’†lefty reliever Ray King said motioning toward a room full of his 2004 Cardinals teammates. “I think every last guy here would try.â€
Said Jeff Suppan: “Of all the pitching coaches I ever had, not only did he have the plan and he had your style and how you can attack the hitter, but he was there with you every pitch. I would look into the dugout to say, ‘I’ve thrown everything I’ve got.’ And he would give me a pitch. There are many pitching coaches that I look in there and they’re not even there sometimes. He lived each pitch with me.“
Said Woody Williams: “He transformed the way I thought and that was the one piece that was missing from my game. That list is a long list of pitchers who he transformed their careers.â€
Duncan spent 32 years in the majors as a pitching coach, 29 of them with La Russa as manager. During Duncan’s tenure with the Cardinals, from 1996-2011, the pitching staff had a 4.08 ERA and only Hall of Famer-rich Atlanta and the Dodgers were better. The rotation led the NL with a 3.50 ERA, and in 2005, 2009, and 2010 the rotation had ERAs that were among the top in the era. An executive with the Cardinals once said that Duncan should be the highest-paid pitching coach in the majors — he was — because the performance he gets from lower-cost or bounce-back pitchers is worth millions. And then there are the millions pitchers made signing elsewhere. Two of the largest contracts the Brewers ever signed with free-agent pitchers went to Suppan and Kyle Lohse immediately after career-best stretches in St. Louis.
The Cardinals reached the playoffs nine times with Duncan as pitching coach, and he had four 20-game winners.
There was one unifying philosophy.
Carpenter recalled a meeting early in spring training when Duncan began by saying a phrase teams preach now: “Extra-base hits are what lead to runs.†Duncan then drew a diamond on a dry-erase markerboard and put lines down the baselines for where groundballs go for extra-base hits. He then started filling the outfield with lines for where extra-base hits live.
“He goes, ‘Let me ask you a question — why do you use your sinker,’†pitcher Jason Marquis recalled about his first spring with Duncan. “Oh, if there’s a man on base and I need a double play I try to get a groundball. ‘Let me ask you another question — why don’t you want a groundball all the time?’ And it’s like, ‘Ooooooh.’ We’re always of the mindset to miss bats, miss bats. I was a hard-thrower, a first-round pick, and I wanted to go miss bats. He said, ‘Do you want to go deeper into games and throw less pitches and win?’ That’s what sold me.
“Did he teach me the pitch? No,†Marquis concluded. “He showed me how to use it.â€
The stories like that are manifold.
Lance Lynn made a career out of multiple fastballs and Duncan’s urging to develop a sinker “was at the start of that.†Duncan shifted how Suppan used his curveball and he was a postseason leader for Cardinals. Duncan helped Jeff Weaver adjust his use and arm angle on a breaking ball, and that helped win the 2006 World Series. During his speech Saturday, Duncan said he was drawn to how a coach could find ways to win “not just with talent, but with strategy.†He helped young pitchers find their strengths; he helped seasoned starters rethink how to use theirs.
He often preferred to avoid media, and even his conversations with pitchers could be brief or blunt. He was skeptical as modern analytics did reach his office, but he expressed curiosity about the available and advanced info. Duncan was also willing to experiment in his way. He lobbied for relievers Braden Looper and Todd Wellemeyer to show they had the stuff to start — and could improve on the job. Duncan and La Russa engineered an approach in the 2011 NLCS that is now the October standard: “Bullpenning.†Relievers threw more innings in that series than starters and did not lose a game.
Duncan, a former big-league catcher and World Series champ behind the plate, worked closely with catchers to get their input on game plans and discuss all the data he kept, by hand, in the binders of scouting reports.
A pitcher standing on the mound with Yadier Molina and Duncan “was the highest level of baseball,†La Russa said. “Going to graduate school.â€
Tough times
While triumph often defined Duncan’s time with the Cardinals, there also were tragedies he shared with the club and its city.
Duncan stepped aside during the 2011 season to be with his wife, Jeanine, as she battled brain cancer. Duncan returned the last day of the regular season to cheers and tears in the clubhouse, and Jeanine attended Game 7 of the 2011 World Series to share a quiet championship toast with her husband and their two boys. Duncan retired ahead of the 2012 season to remain with his wife until her death. Their youngest son, Cardinals outfielder Chris Duncan, died of brain cancer in September 2019, six years after his mother.
Duncan promised that his speech would challenge Oquendo for the shortest ever by an inductee. It did not, in part because he held a pause for a long time as he thanked St. Louis for becoming family.
In the 2000s, the Cardinals had the deaths of two active pitchers, Darryl Kile and Josh Hancock. On the day Kile died in 2002, the team gathered in a large room at a Chicago hotel and Duncan was one who spoke to a somber, stunned group. When he began to weep, “the whole room let out its emotion,†La Russa said during a phone conversation this past week.
“This is my friend ‘Dunc,’ man,†the manager added.
And all of that should explain why so many who know him knew the Cardinals Hall had to include him.
“He’s a man of very few words,†Carpenter said. “‘Dunc’ was able to get everything he could out of every individual, and that’s the real testament to how great he was. I think it will be really cool stepping up there, watching him put on the red coat, and I’m excited to spend these memorable moments over however long it is with him at opening day, at Hall of Fame weekend, and every chance we have now to recognize how great he is.â€