Headed into the 1985 season, the St. Louis Cardinals were an enigma. After trading Keith Hernandez to the New York Mets in 1984 and allowing Bruce Sutter to leave for Atlanta via free agency, Cardinals fans feared that star shortstop Ozzie Smith, entering the last year of his contract, would be the next Redbird out …
On the day of Whitey Herzog’s first game as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, he found himself, somewhat baffled, in Marietta, Georgia, trying to get to the team hotel in nearby Atlanta. His misadventures began when he was given the wrong departure time for his flight. Then, after catching a later plane to Atlanta, …
June 9, 1980: Whitey Herzog manages his first game for the Cardinals Read More »
Ahead of the 1982 season, shortstops Ozzie Smith and Garry Templeton both needed a change of scenery. In a deal that took more than two months to complete, the St. Louis Cardinals sent Templeton, outfielder Sixto Lezcano, and pitcher Luis DeLeon to the San Diego Padres to obtain Smith, who became a Hall of Fame …
February 11, 1982: Cardinals, Padres finalize the Ozzie Smith-Garry Templeton trade Read More »
Nine months after the Cardinals ended the Giants’ 1987 world championship hopes in a hard-fought, seven-game NLCS, the two teams came to blows in a midsummer brawl involving Will Clark, Ozzie Smith, and Jose Oquendo. Neither team enjoyed the same success in 1988 that they had before. Entering the final game of their four-game series …
July 24, 1988: Ozzie Smith and Jose Oquendo fight Giants slugger Will Clark Read More »
In the right-field bleachers, Cardinals fans hung a bedsheet declaring that evening’s starting pitcher, Joaquin Andujar, “one tough Dominican” in honor of the right-hander’s favorite self-description. On October 21, 1982, Andujar proved to be exactly that, pitching seven innings to lead the Cardinals to a 6-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 7 of …
Willie McGee thought he had made a name for himself during the regular season when he burst onto the scene with a .296 average, 56 RBIs, and 24 stolen bases in 123 games on his way to a third-place finish in the National League Rookie of the Year balloting. After he hit two home runs …
October 15, 1982: Willie McGee homers twice as Cardinals win Game 3 of the World Series Read More »
Arguably the most famous home run in St. Louis Cardinals postseason history may also have been the most unlikely. On October 14, 1985, broadcaster Jack Buck encouraged Cardinals fans to “go crazy, folks, go crazy!” after shortstop Ozzie Smith hit the first left-handed home run of his career. The unexpected blast gave St. Louis a …
Heading into the 1981 season, if someone suggested that the Cardinals would have the greatest shortstop of the decade, fans everywhere would assume they were referring to Garry Templeton, one of the most talented infielders in the National League. But a heated confrontation with Cardinals fans on August 26, 1981, led to a franchise-altering trade …
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 7, 1987: Steve Lake and Jack Clark lead Cardinals to late-night doubleheader sweep Read More »
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” …
June 23, 1984: Willie McGee hits for the cycle in the ‘Ryne Sandberg game’ Read More »