Roger Craig, who pitched or managed in five World Series and changed the face of pitching in the 1980s as the guru of the split-fingered fastball, died Sunday. He was 93.
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A lanky 6-foot-4 right-hander who, it was often noted, bore a remarkable resemblance to President Lyndon B. Johnson, Craig pitched in three World Series for the Dodgers in the 1950s and another with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964. In managing the Giants to the 1989 N.L. pennant, he implored his players to hustle with the mantra “Humm baby” and taught his pitchers to throw the split-fingered fastball.

Craig spread the gospel of the split, thrown with the same motion as a traditional fastball but able to confound batters because the pitcher gripped the baseball with his index and middle finger spread widely apart, and parallel to the seams instead of across them.

“I’m remembered as a baseball player and not by the sport I played the best,” Groat once said. “North Carolina is the one place where I’m still remembered as a basketball player.”

“I didn’t have speed, power or the greatest arm,” he told Sports Illustrated. “Baseball was work, every day.”

Groat, who died on Thursday at 92 in a Pittsburgh hospital, performed that work superbly for 14 major league seasons. He helped take the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates to their first World Series championship in 35 years while winning the National League’s batting championship and Most Valuable Player Award. He anchored the infield for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964 when they won the World Series. And he was a five-time All-Star.