Bob Milliken played, then coached decades with Cardinals

Cardinals minor league pitching instructor Bob Milliken had a message for short-season Hamilton Redbird pitchers in June 1990, as the far-away major league staff struggled with injury and performance, The Hamilton Spectator wrote.

Issues in the majors usually led to chain reactions in the minors, The Spectator wrote.

"There will always be room for pitching," Milliken told The Spectator then. "If I was still a pitcher and I looked at it I would say 'there's a place for me' and I'd go get it. I'd bear down and work."

Milliken spoke with decades of experience both in the minors and in the majors. He made the majors as a player over two seasons with Brooklyn. He later returned there as a coach with the Cardinals.

Milliken's long career in baseball began in 1947, signed by the Dodgers out of Cameron High School in West Virginia.

He started with the Dodgers at Class B Nashua. He made AA Fort Worth in 1949 and AAA Montreal in 1950. He then spent time in the military before returning to make Brooklyn in 1953.

That September in 1953, Milliken came on in emergency first-inning relief and proceeded to go 8.1 innings of hitless ball.

"Funny thing was, I pitched the last three innings with a blister on my middle finger," Milliken told The Brooklyn Eagle afterward. 

Milliken went 8-4 overall that year in 37 outings, 10 starts. He also had a 3.37 ERA. He returned for 24 more outings, three starts in 1954. He went 5-2 then, with a 4.02 ERA.

Milliken returned to the minors for 1955. He then moved to the Cardinals system for 1960 and continued playing in the minors into 1962.

He then soon started his coaching career. By 1967, he was back in the majors as bullpen coach for the Cardinals. He stayed there at least four seasons before returning to the minors as a pitching instructor. For 1976, he became Cardinals pitching coach. 

He soon returned to the minors and instructing. By 1991, he'd worked with the Cardinals for 30 years. That October, he worked with a rehabbing Todd Worrell.

"That slider," Milliken told Worrell, according to The Tampa Tribune, "really bit. It was one of those things no one can hit."

Milliken passed away in 2007 at the age of 80.

• Brooklyn Eagle, Sept. 10, 1953: Great Showing in Relief Role Gives Dressen Ideas
• Hamilton Spectator, June 19, 1990: Making a pitch for 'bigs'
• Tampa Tribune, Oct. 29, 1991: Worrell continues to make a pitch for ultimate save

More: The 1990 Johnson City Cardinals

1990 Minor League Tally 

Players/Coaches Featured:4,431
Made the Majors:1,423-32.1-X
Never Made Majors:3,008-67.9%

5+ Seasons in the Majors:577

10+ Seasons in the Minors:356