Heading into the 2014 trade deadline, Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak knew that he needed to shake up his ballclub. As the defending National League champions prepared to play the final game of a three-game series against the Padres, they sat in third place in the Central Division, 2 ½ games behind the Brewers and…
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August 1, 1990: Cardinals name Joe Torre manager as Whiteyball era ends
On August 1, 1990, the St. Louis Cardinals officially moved on from the “Whiteyball” era when they brought former Cardinals star Joe Torre back to take the managerial position vacated by Whitey Herzog just three weeks earlier. “During the selection process, I interviewed a number of very good candidates,” Cardinals general manager Dal Maxvill said,…
July 24, 1949: Stan Musial hits for the cycle, powers Cardinals into first place
On July 24, 1949, Stan Musial hit for the only cycle of his illustrious career, helping to power the St. Louis Cardinals into first place in the National League with an emphatic 14-1 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Though the clubs were still in the dog days of summer, Musial’s achievement came in a series…
July 20, 2018: Matt Carpenter hits three homers, two doubles in historic 5-for-5 game
On July 20, 2018, Matt Carpenter laid claim to arguably the most productive offensive game in Cardinals history, clubbing three homers and two doubles in an 18-5 win over the Cubs. Carpenter tied a team record with 16 total bases, matching Mark Whiten’s four-home run game on September 7, 1993. Carpenter’s five extra-base hits made…
July 15, 1967: Bob Gibson faces three Pirates with a broken leg
By 1967, Bob Gibson already had established himself as one of the fiercest competitors in baseball. On July 15, he cemented that reputation when he pitched to three batters with a broken leg before finally snapping the bone entirely. Less than three months later, he won the World Series MVP Award, leading the Cardinals to…
July 8, 1962: 41-year-old Stan Musial hits three homers to power Cardinals past the Mets
Even at age 41, Stan Musial had the ability to take over a ballgame. On July 8, 1962, four months prior to his 42nd birthday, Musial hit three home runs to lead the Cardinals to a 15-1 win over the Mets and become the oldest player to hit three homers in a game. With the…
July 7, 1987: Steve Lake and Jack Clark lead Cardinals to late-night doubleheader sweep
In the end, it wasn’t backup catcher Steve Lake’s game-tying, two-run home run in the ninth inning that impressed him the most. It wasn’t Jack Clark’s game-winning RBI single. It was the thousands of Cardinals fans still cheering on their Redbirds when the final pitch of a rain-delayed doubleheader was finally thrown at 3:01 a.m.…
July 5, 1961: Bill White hits three homers as Cardinals bid farewell to Solly Hemus
It was a strange twist of fate that in Solly Hemus’s final game as Cardinals manager, he watched two players whose careers he arguably had mismanaged lead his club to a 9-1 win over a Dodgers team that was chasing a National League pennant. Bill White hit three home runs and a double and Bob…
June 30, 1954: Joe Cunningham drives in five in his major-league debut
On June 30, 1954, Joe Cunningham kicked off his 12-year major-league career with a single, homer, and five RBIs in an 11-3 St. Louis Cardinals victory over the Cincinnati Redlegs. Cunningham had been with the Cardinals’ International League affiliate, the Rochester Red Wings, on June 29 when manager Harry Walker informed the 22-year-old that he…
June 23, 1984: Willie McGee hits for the cycle in the ‘Ryne Sandberg game’
On almost any other day, Willie McGee would have been the star of the game. On June 23, 1984, Willie McGee became the first Cardinal since Lou Brock in 1975 to hit for the cycle, driving in six runs and scoring three times. Nonetheless, the game will forever be known as “the Ryne Sandberg game”…