On paper, the Game 1 matchup between Justin Verlander and Anthony Reyes certainly seemed lopsided. Though just 23, Verlander had been the No. 2 overall draft pick just two years ago and was coming off a regular season that would earn him American League Rookie of the Year honors and a seventh-place finish in the […]
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With a trip to the World Series on the line, Cardinals starting pitcher Jeff Suppan outpitched that year’s National League Cy Young Award winner, Roger Clemens, to win Game 7 of the 2004 NLCS and send St. Louis to the World Series for the first time in 17 years. Suppan, 29, had signed with the
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With one swing of the bat against Astros closer Brad Lidge, Albert Pujols won the game and extended the Cardinals’ season (and the life of Busch Stadium III) by a game. He may even have broken Lidge in the process. On October 17, 2005, Pujols’ ninth-inning home run off the Astros’ dominant closer gave the
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After placing second in 2002 and 2003 and finishing third in the balloting in 2004, Albert Pujols finally won the first MVP Award of his career on November 15, 2005. Though in previous years Pujols had dismissed the importance of individual recognition in a team game, he admitted that on the eve of the Baseball
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Bobby Bonilla may have twice finished in the top three of the National League MVP voting, but to many Cardinals fans, his greatest legacy may lie in the six games he missed at the beginning of the 2001 season. On January 5, 2001, Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty signed Bonilla Bonilla to a one-year, $900,000
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In a 2022 season that saw Albert Pujols eclipse 700 home runs and the Cardinals win the National League Central Division, nothing surpassed the image of Pujols, Yadier Molina, and Adam Wainwright walking side by side as they left the playing field at Busch Stadium together for the final time in their careers. The Cardinals’
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On the day they set a record more than 15 years in the making, Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina were determined not to come up short. On September 14, 2022, Wainwright and Molina, both age 40, broke a major-league record even older than they were. With their 325th start together, they topped the 324 games
If Albert Pujols’ 700th home run couldn’t come at Busch Stadium, Dodger Stadium made for a nice consolation prize. On September 23, 2022, Pujols hit the 699th and 700th home runs of his career in front of a crowd of 50,000 fans who cheered him as though he was still wearing Dodger blue. While Pujols
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With 10 days remaining before the Cardinals’ 2022 season opener, Adam Wainwright was in the clubhouse taking a pregame nap when suddenly he was jolted awake by a “giant man on top of me giving me the biggest hug ever.”[1] Albert Pujols was back with the Cardinals. On March 28, 2022, after 10 seasons on
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With three home runs, including a walk-off, two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth, Albert Pujols closed Busch Stadium III’s first homestand in style. Pujols and more than 36,000 Cardinals fans[1] celebrated Easter on April 16, 2006, with an 8-7 win over the Reds that included three home runs and five RBIs from
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