The native of Centralia, Illinois, was the Cardinals’ fourth-round selection out of Lake Land College in the January 1978 draft, but he chose to transfer to continue his collegiate career after the Cardinals offered him just a $500 bonus to go pro.

“Five hundred dollars didn’t look like a great deal to me,” Gaetti said. “That’s probably the overriding reason why I didn’t sign.”[1]

A year and a half after the Cardinals drafted him, the Twins made Gaetti the 11^th overall pick in the June 1979 draft. In 10 years in Minnesota, Gaetti won four Gold Glove awards and was selected to two all-star games. In 1987, he was part of the Twins team that defeated the Cardinals in a seven-game World Series.

After 201 home runs and 758 RBIs in a Twins uniform, Gaetti signed with the Angels ahead of the 1991 season. In California, injuries took their toll, and the Angels released Gaetti in June 1993.

A couple of weeks later, Gaetti signed with Kansas City, where he resurrected his career. Healthy for a full season for the first time in years, Gaetti hit .261 with 35 homers, 96 RBIs, and an .846 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) in 1995. He finished 10^th in the American League MVP voting that season and won a Silver Slugger Award as the AL’s top-hitting third baseman.

After he led their team in home runs, RBIs, and runs scored, the Royals offered Gaetti a one-year deal for about $1 million.[2]

“Their offer was what I considered to be light considering what I did for them,” he said. “It made me feel like I was demanding, and had I got what I thought I was worth, would have been pulling their teeth out.”[3]

Instead, the Cardinals, who had Scott Cooper penciled in at third base following a disappointing 1995 campaign in which he hit .230 with three homers and 40 RBIs in 430 plate appearances, signed Gaetti to a $2 million deal.

“I think this guy will have more power and drive in more runs,” Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty said. “He’s a winner, a champion, a legitimate blue-collar guy.”[4]

“All the Cardinals had to do was give Gary Gaetti 4,000 times more than they offered him the first time (in 1978),” veteran sportswriter Rick Hummel wrote in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.[5]

The Cardinals were more than happy to add Gaetti to a lineup that also had Brian Jordan and Ray Lankford, had just added Royce Clayton at shortstop, and would soon sign Ron Gant.

“We needed to add some offensive pop to our infield,” Jocketty said. “Gary gives us a proven long-ball threat, and I like the fact that we now have four or five players in our lineup who have the ability to hit 15 to 20 home runs.”[6]

Gaetti arrived in St. Louis just eight homers shy of 300 for his career.

“I feel as good as I did when I was 36,” he joked.[7]

More seriously, Gaetti shared his memories of going to Cardinals games as a young boy and even receiving a broken bat from Angels shortstop Dick Schofield.[8]

“This is something I have dreamed of since I was a young boy,” he said, adding that he used to play in his backyard, pretending to be Cardinals legends such as Bob Gibson, Tim McCarver, Mike Shannon, Julian Javier, Orlando Cepeda, and Lou Brock. “I look at this as a good opportunity and a chance to come home. Last night, when I was doing some Christmas shopping, I stopped by a sporting goods store to see what I looked like in a Cardinals cap, and it looked just right.”[9]

Fifteen years into his big-league career, Gaetti was about to face his first season in the National League.

“I’d be dishonest if I said I wasn’t a little bit nervous,” he said. “There will be times when I’ll look really dumb and other times when it looks like I actually know what I’m doing.”[10]

Fortunately for the Cardinals, it was largely the latter. Despite a slow start, Gaetti hit .274 with 23 homers, 80 RBIs, and a .799 OPS in his first season in St. Louis. He also demonstrated a penchant for dramatic home runs, including a blast in his first at-bat as a Cardinal at Busch Stadium.

That fall, Gaetti hit a three-run homer in Game 1 of the NLDS against the Padres and launched a grand slam in Game 2 off the Braves’ Greg Maddux in Game 2 of the NLCS.

“He’s just a dead-game competitor and he’s just great in the clubhouse,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said after Gaetti’s NLCS grand slam. “He’s loose. He has fun with the guys, but when you get into the competition, he’s real serious. If he sees someone falling short of the standard, he tells them. He’s a great teammate.”[11]

In 1997, Gaetti collected his 2,000^th career hit with a line drive off Maddux’s ankle. At age 38, he hit .251 with 17 homers, 69 RBIs, and a .710 OPS.

“I feel not only geographically that I’m home, but I feel well-received in St. Louis,” he said that June. “Even in the short time I was there, I feel like I’ve been able to become a Cardinals player, and that really is something special.

“There are times when I’ll be standing out there warming up for the game, and I will sense the smell of the stadium. The wind is wafting through the stadium just the right way, and I will smell the same smell that I used to love as a kid coming over to watch the Cardinals. The hot dogs and the beer and the popcorn, it just wafts in the air. I used to just love that as a kid because, you know, going to the ballpark is a special time. Times like that, I think I really am blessed to be in the position I’m in.”[12]

Gaetti continued to be productive in 91 games for the Cardinals in 1998, batting .265 with 11 homers, 43 RBIs, and a .793 OPS. However, the Cardinals sent Royce Clayton and Todd Stottlemyre to Texas at the trade deadline in a deal that brought Fernando Tatis to St. Louis. Tatis became the Cardinals’ new starting third baseman, and on August 14, the Cardinals released Gaetti.

In three seasons for the Cardinals, Gaetti compiled 51 homers, 192 RBIs, and a .764 OPS. He quickly signed with the Cubs and played the remainder of that season and 1999 in Chicago before briefly concluding his career with the Red Sox in 2000. For his 20-year career, Gaetti hit .255 with 2,280 hits, 360 homers, and 1,341 RBIs.

[1] Rick Hummel, “Gaetti Finally A Cardinal,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 19, 1995.

[2] “Gaetti signs deal with Cardinals,” The Kansas City Star, December 19, 1995.

[3] R.B. Fallstrom (Associated Press), “Cards Sign Gaetti To Fill Third Base, Daily American Republic, December 19, 1995.

[4] Rick Hummel, “Gaetti Finally A Cardinal,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 19, 1995.

[5] Rick Hummel, “Gaetti Finally A Cardinal,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 19, 1995.

[6] Joe Ostermeier, “Cards sign Gaetti to 1-year pact,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 19, 1995.

[7] Rick Hummel, “Gaetti Finally A Cardinal,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 19, 1995.

[8] Rick Hummel, “Gaetti Finally A Cardinal,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 19, 1995.

[9] R.B. Fallstrom (Associated Press), “Cards Sign Gaetti To Fill Third Base, Daily American Republic, December 19, 1995.

[10] Rick Hummel, “Gaetti Finally A Cardinal,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 19, 1995.

[11] Bernie Miklasz, “‘The Rat’ May Be Old, But He Puts Bite On Braves,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 11, 1996.

[12] Jim Souhan, “Gaetti feeling right at home in St. Louis,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, June 30, 1997.

The post How the Cardinals signed Gary Gaetti 17 years after drafting him first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

McGwire’s was the second of back-to-back home runs as the Cardinals defeated the Phillies 6-1 on August 8, 1997.

The Cardinals acquired McGwire from the A’s in exchange for Eric Ludwick, T.J. Mathews, and Blake Stein at the trade deadline on July 31, and since that time McGwire and the Cards had played in Philadelphia, New York, and Atlanta. The start of the Phillies series marked the beginning of a nine-game homestand and McGwire’s first opportunity to play at Busch Stadium.

McGwire had gone just 2-for-25 in his first seven games for the Cardinals, dropping his batting average from .284 at the time of the trade to .271. Nonetheless, the 38,300 Cardinals fans in attendance greeted McGwire with a standing ovation when he stepped into the batter’s box for his first Busch Stadium at-bat.

“Overwhelming,” McGwire said. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a crowd so loud in a regular-season game.”^[1]

With runners on first and second, McGwire swung at the first pitch from Phillies starter Mark Leiter and popped up to shallow right field. With McGwire retired, Delino DeShields and Ron Gant pulled off a double steal, and both runners scored when Gary Gaetti smashed a ground ball past rookie third baseman Scott Rolen and into left field. The play was ruled an error on Rolen.

“I know it was scored an error, but that ball was smoked,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.[2]

Ray Lankford, a late addition to the lineup after suffering a hamstring injury more than a week earlier, hit a solo home run in the third inning before McGwire stepped to the plate for his second at-bat. This time, the big man hit a line-drive home run off the left-field foul pole, ending his streak of 71 at-bats without a home run.

“It had been a while,” McGwire said. “It just felt good to hit a ball squarely.”[3]

“It was beautiful,” Cardinals starting pitcher Donovan Osborne said. “It’s amazing to watch that guy hit. It’s nice to see.”[4]

The crowd continued to cheer until McGwire climbed the dugout steps for a curtain call.

“Believe me, I will never forget this night,” McGwire said. This was a feeling I’ve never experienced.”[5]

“They’re pretty impressive fans,” Phillies manager Terry Francona said. “I’m not talking as someone trying to beat the Cardinals. I’m talking as someone who likes baseball.”[6]

The Phillies scored an unearned run in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Mike Lieberthal. It was Philadelphia’s only run of the game as Osborne allowed just three hits over seven innings. He struck out six without walking any.

Just five days earlier, the Phillies had jumped on Osborne with eight earned runs in three innings.

“The difference between this game and the last one for me was that nothing I threw last time was working and everything I threw this time was,” Osborne said.[7]

Curtis King and John Frascatore each pitched scoreless innings to complement Osborne’s best performance of the season.

In the eighth inning, the Cardinals added a pair of insurance runs off reliever Reggie Harris. David Bell brought a run home with an infield single and rookie center fielder Scarborough Green, another Cardinal making his Busch Stadium debut, added an RBI single into center field. Green was a graduate of Lafayette High School in Wildwood, Mo., the same high school that produced David Freese, Ryan Howard, and Luke Voit.

Gant, Lankford, Mike Difelice, and Bell each had two hits apiece for the Cardinals, who finished with 12 for the day.

Leiter took the loss for Philadelphia, allowing two earned runs over seven innings.

The game sparked McGwire, who hit 24 homers and drove in 42 runs in his 51 games with the Cardinals that season.

On September 16, inspired by the reception he had received in St. Louis, McGwire signed a three-year, $28 million contract with an $11 million option for a fourth year.[8] Just hours after the deal was announced, McGwire hit his 52^nd home run of the season, a 517-foot blast that tied him with Ken Griffey Jr. for the major league lead.

McGwire cemented his place in history with his 70-home run season in 1998, which set a new Major League Baseball single-season home run record. In 2010, prior to being hired as the Cardinals’ hitting coach, McGwire admitted that he used steroids at various points in his career, including during the 1990s and the 1998 season.

“I’m sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids,” McGwire said. “I had good years when I didn’t take any, and I had bad years when I didn’t take any. I had good years when I took steroids, and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn’t have done it and for that I’m truly sorry.”^[9]

In 4 ½ seasons in St. Louis, McGwire hit 220 home runs, giving him 583 for his career. Over the course of his career, he was named to the All-Star Game 12 times, won three Silver Slugger awards, and won a Gold Glove in 1990.

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[1] Mike Eisenbath, “Cards Roll In McGwire’s Home(r)coming,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 9, 1997.

[2] Mike Eisenbath, “Cards Roll In McGwire’s Home(r)coming,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 9, 1997.

[3] Jim Salisbury, “McGwire helps muscle St. Louis past the Phillies,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 9, 1997.

[4] Mike Eisenbath, “Cards Roll In McGwire’s Home(r)coming,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 9, 1997.

[5] Jim Salisbury, “McGwire helps muscle St. Louis past the Phillies,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 9, 1997.

[6] Jim Salisbury, “McGwire helps muscle St. Louis past the Phillies,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 9, 1997.

[7] Mike Eisenbath, “Cards Roll In McGwire’s Home(r)coming,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 9, 1997.

[8] Rick Hummel, “‘I’m Proud To Be A Cardinal,’ McGwire Says,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 17, 1997.

[9] “McGwire apologizes to La Russa, Selig,” ESPN.com, www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=4816607.

The post Mark McGwire homers in Busch Stadium debut: August 8, 1997 first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

Ron Gant and Gary Gaetti each hit two home runs and Ray Lankford, Brian Jordan, and John Mabry each added blasts as four of the six pitchers the Cubs used were taken deep. The power surge equaled the team record set on May 7, 1940, when Eddie Lake and Johnny Mize each hit two runs apiece to pace an 18-2 rout of the Dodgers and marked the first time the Cubs had allowed seven home runs in a game since the Dodgers did it to them in 1976.

“Seemed like no matter what I threw, they were hitting,” said Cubs starting pitcher Steve Trachsel, who allowed four of the Cardinals’ seven home runs. “They hit them high, they hit them low, they hit breaking pitches, fastballs, everything.”[1]

The Cardinals didn’t need the long ball to get the scoring started in the second inning. After Trachsel retired the side in order in the first, Jordan reached on an error. Mabry followed with a single to right and an error by Sammy Sosa allowed Jordan to score. An RBI single by Mike Gallego, newly returned from the disabled list, gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.

The home run barrage started in the third inning as Mabry hit a two-run homer and Gaetti followed with a solo shot over the left-field wall.

Cardinals starting pitcher Andy Benes allowed an unearned run in the third on an RBI double by Mark Grace, but St. Louis broke the game open in the fifth. Lankford and Gant hit back-to-back home runs to open the inning and chase Trachsel from the game.

“I know how good that young man is,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said of Trachsel. “I wouldn’t have bet a dime we’d hit one, much less seven, but the boys took care of our No. 1 strategy – get so far ahead that I can’t mess it up.”[2]

With Rodney Myers taking over on the mound for the Cubs, Jordan doubled and Gaetti hit a two-run blast – his second homer of the day – to make it 9-1.

In the sixth, Cubs reliever Tanyon Sturtze walked Lankford and Gant before allowing a three-run blast to Jordan. An eighth-inning home run by Gant gave the Cardinals a 13-1 lead before a Dave Magadan home run and an RBI double by Doug Glanville made it 13-3.

Mabry led the Cardinals with four hits on the day while Jordan and Gaetti each had three.

“He’s just a hungry hitter,” La Russa said of Mabry. “He doesn’t throw any at-bats away, whether he’s 3-for-4 or 0-for-4.”[3]

Benes, who had won just one of his first eight decisions since signing a free-agent contract with the Cardinals during the offseason, improved to 7-8 with the win. Over eight innings, he allowed two earned runs on nine hits and a walk.

“He’s getting a lot of payback for pitching well early in the season,” La Russa said. “He was pitching better than his record.”[4]

Dennis Eckersley pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning, striking out the final two batters he faced.

It was a forgettable outing for Trachsel, who allowed four of the Cardinals’ seven homers. He allowed six earned runs over four innings and fell to 7-6 on the season.

“One guy hits a homer with a one-armed swing, another guy hits a split-fingered pitch I had down in the zone,” Trachsel said. “I didn’t have good location on a lot of my pitches, but they were hitting balls they shouldn’t have been hitting and when that happens I tip my cap to them.”[5]

“When the wind is blowing out, even pop-ups can go out,” Mabry said. “Trachsel had good stuff, but he was just on the wrong side of the wind.”[6]

Incredibly, the Cardinals’ home run outburst represented almost 5% of their home runs for the season. Their 142 homers for the season ranked 23^rd in the majors, 115 behind the Orioles and 35 below the league average. Gant led the Cardinals with 30 homers, followed by 23 from Gaetti and 21 from Lankford.

Despite their lack of home run production, the Cardinals went 88-74 to win the National League Central. They swept the Padres in a three-game National League Division Series before falling to the Braves in a seven-game National League Championship Series.

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[1] Associated Press, “Cards homer-happy against Cubs,” Decatur Herald and Review, July 13, 1996.

[2] Rick Hummel, “Cards Test Big-Bang Theory,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 13, 1996.

[3] Rick Hummel, “Cards Test Big-Bang Theory,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 13, 1996.

[4] Rick Hummel, “Cards Test Big-Bang Theory,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 13, 1996.

[5] Mike Kiley, “Cubs’ long day result of long ball,” Chicago Tribune, July 13, 1996.

[6] Associated Press, “Cards homer-happy against Cubs,” Decatur Herald and Review, July 13, 1996.

The post July 12, 1996: Gant, Gaetti pace Cardinals’ seven home runs in win over the Cubs first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

In his rookie campaign in 1995, Mabry tied for fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting after batting .307 with five homers and 41 RBIs. That performance included 12 hits in 23 at-bats at Coors Field, but also included just one triple in 418 plate appearances.

On this day, however, he collected the second triple and the seventh home run of his career on his way to hitting for the cycle. Unfortunately, his historic accomplishment came the same night that the Rockies rallied for a five-run ninth inning to beat the Cardinals, 9-8.

“This is a really strange feeling,” Mabry said. “You’ve got to win the game. That’s all I know.”[1]

Mabry’s day began with a single up the middle against Colorado’s Marvin Freeman, a 6-foot-7 veteran right-hander who placed fourth in the Cy Young Award voting in 1994 but was now in the final season of his major-league career.

After Gary Gaetti hit a solo home run to lead off the fourth, Mabry followed with a ground-ball double down the right-field line but was stranded at third base.

Mabry was part of a four-run Cardinals rally in the fifth. After Brian Jordan drew a one-out walk, Ray Lankford homered to left field. Gaetti drew a walk before Mabry tripled over the head of Rockies center fielder Larry Walker, scoring Gaetti. Tom Pagnozzi scored Mabry with an RBI single that gave St. Louis a 5-1 lead.

Walker and Jeff Reed each homered in the sixth to cut the Cardinals’ lead to 5-3, but Mabry answered in the seventh with a two-run homer off left-handed reliever Mike Munoz to become the 212^th player in major league history to hit the cycle. It also made him the 15^th Cardinal to accomplish the feat and the first since Lankford did it in 1991.[2]

After the game, he said he was unaware of the potential cycle until his teammates congratulated him.

“I thought they were just congratulating me for the home run,” he said.[3]

Lankford said, “If it had been brought to his attention, it probably would have messed him up, but he was able to go up there relaxed in the seventh and he was just trying to make contact. Fortunately, he hit it out of the ballpark.”[4]

When Mabry came to the plate with Lankford on third base in the top of the ninth, Rockies pitcher John Habyan intentionally walked him. Lankford later scored on a wild pitch, giving the Cardinals an 8-4 lead.

The Rockies, however, erased that deficit in the bottom of the ninth, as Ellis Burks hit a two-run homer and John Vander Wal hit a walk-off, three-run homer off Dennis Eckersley to win the game, 9-8.

“I didn’t have anything tonight,” Eckersley said. “I couldn’t make a pitch, and you’ve got no time to find it. It was unbelievable.”[5]

One day later, Eckersley returned to St. Louis to have an MRI exam on his right elbow.[6]

“How can we not be in here celebrating John Mabry’s cycle?” asked Tony La Russa. “But nobody feels worse than Eckersley.”[7]

The loss dropped the Cardinals to a 17-25 record and the bottom of the National League East Division. Two days later, however, the Cardinals began a five-game win streak that marked the beginning of their resurrection. Led by Jordan, Lankford, and Ron Gant, the Cardinals battled back. An eight-game win streak between August 30 and September 7 catapulted the club into the NL East lead, and by season’s end, the Cardinals led the division by six games with an 88-74 record.

Mabry hit .297 in 1996 with a career-high 13 homers and 74 RBIs. He played with the Cardinals through the 1998 season, then signed with Seattle. In 2001, he briefly returned to St. Louis, appearing in five games before the Cardinals traded him to the Marlins. In 2004, Mabry again signed with the Cardinals and played two more seasons in St. Louis. His 14-year career included eight years in St. Louis. He hit .281 with 53 homers and 272 RBIs while wearing the birds on the bat.

After his playing career ended, Mabry spent one season as an analyst on Cardinals’ pre- and post-game shows for Fox Sports Midwest. In 2012, Mabry was named the Cardinals’ assistant hitting coach under Mark McGwire, then was promoted to hitting coach after McGwire took the same position with the Dodgers. Mabry served as the Cardinals’ hitting coach until July 2018.

Since then, he has coached for the Royals, Marlins, Orioles, and Angels.

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[1] Rick Hummel, “Mabry Goes For A Ride On The Cycle,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 19, 1996.

[2] “Eck, Cards lose again to Rockies,” Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, May 19, 1996.

[3] Rick Hummel, “Mabry Goes For A Ride On The Cycle,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 19, 1996.

[4] Rick Hummel, “Mabry Goes For A Ride On The Cycle,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 19, 1996.

[5] Rick Hummel, “Stunned Cardinals Are Victims In Another Rockies’ Horror Show,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 19, 1996.

[6] Rick Hummel, “Turns Out, Eckersley’s Sore Because Of Elbow, Not Ump,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 20, 1996.

[7] Rick Hummel, “Stunned Cardinals Are Victims In Another Rockies’ Horror Show,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 19, 1996.

The post John Mabry hits for the cycle: May 18, 1996 first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

Eight months earlier, McGwire arrived in St. Louis in a trade that sent Erick Ludwick, T.J. Mathews, and Blake Stein to the Oakland Athletics. In his final 51 games of the 1997 season, McGwire hit 24 home runs for the Cardinals and endeared himself to the St. Louis faithful when he signed a new contract with the club.

As the team entered the 1998 season, all eyes in St. Louis were on McGwire, even before he began his historic home run chase.

The game opened with Todd Stottlemyre on the mound for the Cardinals. Entering his third season in St. Louis since being acquired from the Athletics, Stottlemyre was coming off a 1997 season in which he went 12-9 with a 3.88 ERA over 181 innings. With Andy Benes now pitching for the Diamondbacks, the Cardinals were looking for Stottlemyre to take the mantle as the staff ace in 1998.

“Going into the game, I was trying to stay away from all the nervousness and other things that go into opening day,” he said. “It’s fun, but then again, it’s hard to say it’s fun. Your gut is going all different directions. … Today was actually like being nervous-ready.”[1]

The right-hander from Yakima, Washington, certainly looked ready. He retired the first 11 batters he faced before Mike Piazza singled to center field for the Dodgers’ first baserunner.

With one out in the fifth, the Dodgers mustered their first threat when Paul Konerko singled and Todd Hollandsworth drew a walk. With runners on first and second, Stottlemyre struck out Trent Hubbard looking, then retired Ramon Martinez on a hard-hit ground ball that McGwire fielded cleanly at first base.

“When it was hit, I said, ‘Oh no,’” Stottlemyre said. “That play saved two runs.”[2]

As Stottlemyre cruised through the early innings, Martinez worked his way in and out of trouble. Royce Clayton led off the first inning with a single but was caught trying to steal second. The following inning, Ray Lankford led off with a double but was stranded at third when Gary Gaetti struck out looking to end the inning. McGwire led off the fourth inning with a double down the left-field line before Martinez got two fly balls and a groundout to once again emerge unscathed.

He would not be so fortunate in the fifth.

Gaetti doubled into the right-field gap to lead off the inning, then advanced to third on a single by Tom Lampkin. Martinez struck out Stottlemyre and Clayton, and the Cardinals appeared poised to allow another opportunity through their grasp. Then Delino DeShields drew a six-pitch walk to load the bases for McGwire.

“Walking DeShields was the key right there,” Dodgers manager Bill Russell said. “We got into a position where we had to pitch to (McGwire) with the bases loaded because we had no place to put him.”[3]

As Cardinals fans voiced growing anticipation for McGwire to come to the plate, Russell and the Dodgers infield converged on the mound.

“Billy told Ramon to go after him, that we had confidence in him,” Dodgers second baseman Eric Young said. “We knew that Ramon was in a tough spot, but he was pitching well, and he’s our ace.”[4]

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz described the scene:

The fans were on their feet – stomping, yapping, screaming, pleading for McGwire to give them a precious memory to take home as a souvenir on opening day. People were going nuts before anything actually happened. The anticipation spread through the crowd like a legal drug.[5]

“You hear it, but you have to stay within your own world, your own mind,” McGwire said. “You can’t get out of it. You have to bear down.”[6]

The first home run of his historic 1998 season came on a 1-0 changeup and traveled 364 feet before landing in the left-field stands. Miklasz wrote, “This baseball stayed up in the clouds for so long, you could have raced to the concession stands for a box of Cracker Jack, sprinted to the bathroom, called home to check on postgame plans, and returned to your seat in time to see the official landing.”[7]

It was the 10^th grand slam of McGwire’s career and the first opening-day grand slam ever hit by a Cardinals player.[8]

“It sort of surprised me the way it carried,” McGwire said. “I knew I hit it high enough. It was just a matter of far enough. But then I saw the fans move.”[9]

With the Cardinal faithful cheering him on, McGwire gave Gaetti a high-five that the veteran third baseman said almost broke his hand.

“I put my hand up,” Gaetti said. “Big mistake. He crushed me.”[10]

After the game, Lampkin wore an ice bag on his back where McGwire had slapped him in celebration.[11]

“I felt like I got hit by a cannon,” Lampkin said.[12]

As the 47,972 fans at Busch Stadium provided a standing ovation, Lankford paused outside the batter’s box, allowing McGwire to hop out of the dugout and give the fans a curtain call.

“It’s an awesome feeling,” McGwire said. “Everybody I’ve talked to in the National League says there’s no place better in America that you’d want to play. I got it first-hand for two months (last year). Now I get it for three years.”[13]

After dodging threats through the first four innings, Martinez was pulled from the game with two outs in the fifth. He was charged with four earned runs on seven hits and two walks.

“Everything changed right there,” Martinez said of McGwire’s grand slam. “I threw him a good pitch, a changeup that was a bit high, and at first, I didn’t think it was going to go out. But it kept carrying and carrying.”[14]

McGwire’s grand slam provided all the offensive support Stottlemyre needed. Over seven innings, he allowed just three hits and walked two. After he walked pinch-hitter Wilton Guerrero to lead off the eighth, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa called on left-hander Lance Painter to retire Mike Devereaux. John Frascatore then entered the game to finish the eighth inning.

Stottlemyre “definitely was our No. 1 star today,” La Russa said.[15]

In the bottom half of the eighth, Ron Gant singled and stole second base before Gaetti drove him home with an RBI single. Gaetti scored on a ground ball by Willie McGee to extend the Cardinals’ lead to 6-0.

Braden Looper struck out the side in his major-league debut to cap off the season-opening win.

McGwire’s grand slam marked just the beginning of his strong start to the season. Two days later, he hit a three-run, 12^th-inning home run to beat the Dodgers. He then homered in the next two games as well, making him the first player to open the season with home runs in their first four games since Willie Mays did it for the San Francisco Giants in 1971.

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[1] Mike Eisenbath, “Stottlemyre aces opening day test,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 1, 1990: Page D1.

[2] Rick Hummel, “McGwire, Cards get first one,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 1, 1998: Page D7.

[3] Jason Reid, “McGwire’s blast breaks it open and L.A. gets only three hits in 6-0 loss to Cardinals,” Los Angeles Times, April 1, 1998: Page C7.

[4] Jason Reid, “McGwire’s blast breaks it open and L.A. gets only three hits in 6-0 loss to Cardinals,” Los Angeles Times, April 1, 1998: Page C7.

[5] Bernie Miklasz, “Surely, this is how baseball felt in the days of Babe Ruth,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 1, 1998: Page D1.

[6] Bernie Miklasz, “Surely, this is how baseball felt in the days of Babe Ruth,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 1, 1998: Page D1.

[7] Bernie Miklasz, “Surely, this is how baseball felt in the days of Babe Ruth,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 1, 1998: Page D1.

[8] Rick Hummel, “McGwire, Cards get first one,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 1, 1998: Page D1.

[9] Rick Hummel, “McGwire, Cards get first one,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 1, 1998: Page D7.

[10] Bernie Miklasz, “Surely, this is how baseball felt in the days of Babe Ruth,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 1, 1998: Page D1.

[11] Rick Hummel, “McGwire, Cards get first one,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 1, 1998: Page D7.

[12] Bernie Miklasz, “Surely, this is how baseball felt in the days of Babe Ruth,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 1, 1998: Page D1.

[13] Rick Hummel, “McGwire, Cards get first one,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 1, 1998: Page D1.

[14] Jason Reid, “McGwire’s blast breaks it open and L.A. gets only three hits in 6-0 loss to Cardinals,” Los Angeles Times, April 1, 1998: Page C1.

[15] Mike Eisenbath, “Stottlemyre aces opening day test,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 1, 1990: Page D1.

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