In advance of the April 1988 publication of his new autobiography Wizard, which Smith wrote with St. Louis sportswriter Rob Rains, the Cardinals shortstop sat down with Washington Post writer Thomas Boswell for a three-hour, cover-story interview for GQ Magazine. In the ensuing article, Boswell either quoted or paraphrased Smith criticizing a wide range of baseball colleagues, including former teammate Jack Clark, manager Whitey Herzog, umpires, the New York Mets (particularly third baseman Howard Johnson), and the San Francisco Giants (particularly catcher Bob Brenly).

“I feel that it was an injustice,” Smith said. “It came out totally opposite of the way I thought it was going to come out.”[1]

Ozzie vs. Jack Clark

The previous September, Clark tore a ligament in his ankle while attempting to avoid a tag at first base. Originally believed to be relatively minor, Clark’s injury kept him out of the playoffs, and without their top slugger, the Cardinals fell to the Twins in a seven-game World Series.

“A lot of players soured on Jack Clark when he didn’t try to come back … (he) should have taken a shot … everybody would have at least known that he had tried,” Smith was quoted as saying in Boswell’s GQ article.[2]

It was a similar statement to what was published the following month in Wizard: “I think Jack should have taken a shot to try to kill the pain in his ankle so he could play – at least to find out if he could play. It was a way he could have shown the club how hard he was trying to play, since he was in the middle of negotiating a new contract. If he had taken the shot and still hadn’t been able to play, everybody would have at least known he had tried.”[3]

The truth, however, was that painkillers would not have allowed Clark to play through a torn ligament.

“I don’t know what got into him to say those things. He must have done one too many backflips,” Clark fired back. “Both Dr. (James) Andrews and our team physician, Dr. (Stan) London, told me a shot wouldn’t do any good. It wasn’t that kind of an injury. There was a tear in there that they said would take four to five months to heal – which it did. They told me to stay off it.”[4]

In fact, Clark – who signed with the Yankees during the offseason – was still recovering when the 1988 season began, forcing him to miss New York’s first nine games. He was, however, feeling well enough to take aim at his former teammate.

“Ozzie’s obviously bitter about something,” Clark said. “He thinks he should be both the manager and the team doctor now. I think maybe it’s because he was paid $2 million a year when he was a .230 hitter, and now that he’s finally earning his money, he can speak out like that. I know this, I was going into free agency and I had a chance to win the MVP. Don’t you think I wanted to play?”[5]

In a 1991 Sports Illustrated article, Clark later suggested that Smith made those comments to gain favor with Cardinals ownership in advance of his own upcoming contract negotiations.[6]

“If you ask me, he should apologize,” Clark said. “Not to me. I don’t care. I’m starting a new life over here with the Yankees and I’ve never been happier. But he owes an apology to Whitey and (Cubs outfielder Andre) Dawson.”[7]

Why would he owe those gentlemen apologies? We’re getting there …

Ozzie vs. Whitey Herzog

In the GQ article, Smith criticized Herzog’s comments to the media during the World Series.

In the magazine article, Smith said, “I felt that the team needed a vote of confidence. For the manager to say, ‘You guys are as good or better than they are.’ But Whitey kept saying, ‘I don’t know why we’re here,’ like he expected us to lose. I kept waiting for him to say something positive, but he never did. Maybe he figured we knew how he felt, and he was just trying to lull the other team to sleep. But some guys didn’t understand that. We needed a boost.”[8]

Herzog subsequently explained his postseason comments that painted the Cardinals as clear underdogs as they played without Clark and third baseman Terry Pendleton, who was also out with an injury.

“You lose Jack Clark. Do you think we should beat the Giants?” Herzog said. “We lost Clark and Terry Pendleton. Do you think we should beat anybody in a seven-game series? What I meant was that we overachieved to get there. What I was saying was a compliment to what we accomplished without those guys.”[9]

Nonetheless, Herzog said he wasn’t bothered by Smith’s comments.

“Ozzie is a hell of a good ballplayer, a hell of a guy, and a good friend,” he said.[10]

Instead, Herzog was more concerned about the comments attributed to Smith regarding major league umpires.

Ozzie vs. the Umpires

In discussing baseball’s umpires, Boswell quoted Smith saying, “Their judgement is bad, their eyesight is bad, their level of consistency is terrible. … Since my contract, my strike zone has all of a sudden become a lot larger. I have to think a lot of umpires are trying to call me out just so they can show me they’re the boss.”[11]

While Herzog brushed aside the quotes regarding his World Series performance, he immediately arranged for a telephone conversation between Smith and National League President A. Bartlett Giamatti to clear the air.[12] With a new season about to begin, Herzog wanted to halt a feud between his star shortstop and the league’s umpires before it began.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, umpires Frank Pulli, Gerry Crawford, and Eric Gregg expressed surprise at Smith’s remarks. “I’ve always gotten along well with Ozzie,” Crawford said.[13]

Smith, meanwhile, said that Boswell had misconstrued his point by indicating the umpires were “prejudiced” against him.

“I’d never say something like that,” Smith said. “I said that in any business, there are people who are incompetent at what they do, not only in baseball. You find players who are incompetent, umpires who are incompetent. I don’t know where the prejudice comes from.”[14]

In Wizard, Smith struck a similar tone and seemed to be saying that any “prejudice” on the umpires’ part was due to his recent, high-paying salary.

“Unfortunately, since I signed the contract, my strike zone seems to have suddenly become a lot larger,” he wrote. “I like to think I have a pretty good eye at the plate, but it sure seems like all of the close pitches now go the pitcher’s way. I want to think that it hasn’t been malicious, but it has happened so often that it suggests a lot of umpires resent my contract.”[15]

Ozzie vs. Andre Dawson

Boswell’s GQ article also hinted that Smith believed he should have won the previous year’s NL MVP award over Cubs outfielder Andre Dawson.

Dawson won the MVP trophy with 11 of 24 first-place votes after batting .287 with 49 homers and 137 RBIs. Smith, meanwhile, received nine first-place votes after batting .303 with 75 RBIs, 104 runs scored, and 43 stolen bases.

Smith discussed the MVP results in Wizard, writing, “There is a gray area in MVP voting, in that nobody has ever established whether the award should be for the most “valuable” player – which is what it says – or the most “outstanding” player. Dawson was definitely the most outstanding player in the league. But his club finished in last place. Where would the Cubs have finished without him? How valuable could his performance have been? To me, the MVP should be a player who had an integral role in his club’s winning.”[16]

Ozzie vs. the New York Mets

Smith’s comments regarding the MVP race were nothing compared to what he had to say about the Mets. In Boswell’s article, he wrote that Smith believed Mets third baseman Howard Johnson should have an asterisk beside his stat line due to suspicions that Johnson corked his bat.[17] Johnson hit 36 homers and drove in 99 runs in 1987.

“Someone ought to drill that disrespectful jerk, and that’s all I want to say,” said Keith Hernandez, Smith’s former teammate in St. Louis.[18]

“I’m surprised he said it, but I’d rather not comment,” Dwight Gooden said.[19]

“I’m not going to say anything about it,” Howard Johnson said. “I don’t think it would be too wise to say anything about it.”[20]

Ozzie vs. Bob Brenly and the San Francisco Giants

In both the GQ article and his autobiography, Smith noted that as much as he disliked the Mets, the Giants were even worse.

Boswell paraphrased Smith’s feelings, writing that “the New York Mets are disrespectful jerks but the San Francisco Giants are worse. They’re scared loudmouths.”[21] In his own book, Smith used similar phrasing, calling them “loudmouth overachievers.”[22]

Smith particularly called out Giants outfielder Jeffrey Leonard, calling him “one of the main loudmouths,” and was especially irked when catcher Bob Brenly said that Smith misplayed a ball during the NLCS because he was “styling.”

“Bob Brenly, who in my opinion is mediocre at best … once made four errors in the same game playing third base, and he’s telling me about playing defense,” Smith wrote in Wizard. “I don’t tell him how to catch or say anything about all his passed balls. If you walked down the street and asked 20 people if they know who Bob Brenly is, I guarantee 19 of them wouldn’t know him.”[23]

That summer, Smith and Brenly’s war of words turned physical when Giants first baseman Will Clark slid hard into Cardinals second baseman Jose Oquendo to break up a double play. In the ensuing brawl, Brenly appeared to get a few shots in on Smith, bloodying his lip.

“I don’t know if somebody stepped on him or what,” Brenly said. “Maybe his lip got caught rolling over on my hand.”[24]

Ozzie vs. Thomas Boswell

In response to the GQ article (his book wasn’t due out until April), Smith called a press conference before the Cardinals’ March 29 game against the Pirates.

“Anybody who knows Ozzie Smith knows that it’s completely out of character,” Smith said. “What you have here is a situation where Ozzie Smith is saying one thing, and Tom Boswell is saying another. That puts Ozzie Smith in a very vulnerable position. You pick it up, and you read it, and you’re not going to be able to read between some of the lines.”[25]

Boswell, meanwhile, stood by his work, noting that his editor was in the room during the three-hour interview.

“It’s a good thing Ozzie has good hang time because he doesn’t have a leg to stand on,” Boswell said. “In 19 years, this is the first time I’ve ever had the senior editor of the publication sit in on the whole interview.

“Everything that’s in the story is in the book at least three times over,” Boswell continued. “Every paraphrase of mine is a weakened, watered-down version of what’s in the book. What he said was not as strong in the interview as he was in the book. And if he changes the book, we still have the manuscript he showed us.”[26]

Interestingly, while the GQ interview created a brief stir, the St. Louis media seemed disappointed by Smith’s autobiography once it was published. Post-Dispatch reporter Rick Hummel wrote that Wizard “isn’t as controversial as the recent Gentlemen’s Quarterly article would suggest.”[27]

Sports editor Kevin Horrigan, who was collaborating with Herzog on his own autobiography, White Rat: A Life in Baseball, wrote that, “If Ozzie Smith’s book was a shortstop, it would be Don Buddin. He gives us the standard career recap, never telling us much about himself. But that’s nothing new. In his seven years in St. Louis, Ozzie has never really opened up. He is a careful, cautious, precise man who happens to be the greatest shortstop who ever lived.”[28]

Of course, given all the controversies Smith initiated in his GQ interview, maybe caution was a better path for the star shortstop.

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[1] Rick Hummel, “Ozzie Criticizes GQ Article,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 30, 1988.

[2] Bryan Burwell, “Ozzie: Clark, Whitey costs us Series,” New York Daily News, March 30, 1988.

[3] Ozzie Smith and Rob Rains (1988), Wizard, Contemporary Books, Pages 163-164.

[4] Bill Madden, “Clark: He’s flipped too many times,” New York Daily News, March 30, 1988.

[5] Bill Madden, “Clark: He’s flipped too many times,” New York Daily News, March 30, 1988.

[6] Rick Reilly, “This is the life that Jack built,” Sports Illustrated, July 22, 1991.

[7] Bill Madden, “Clark: He’s flipped too many times,” New York Daily News, March 30, 1988.

[8] Bryan Burwell, “Ozzie: Clark, Whitey costs us Series,” New York Daily News, March 30, 1988.

[9] Rick Hummel, “Ozzie Criticizes GQ Article,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 30, 1988.

[10] Rick Hummel, “Ozzie Criticizes GQ Article,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 30, 1988.

[11] Tom Wheatley, “Ozzie Charged With Error For Not Accepting Blame,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 2, 1988.

[12] Rick Hummel, “Ozzie Criticizes GQ Article,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 30, 1988.

[13] Rick Hummel, “Ozzie Criticizes GQ Article,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 30, 1988.

[14] Rick Hummel, “Ozzie Criticizes GQ Article,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 30, 1988.

[15] Ozzie Smith and Rob Rains (1988), Wizard, Contemporary Books, Page 113.

[16] Ozzie Smith and Rob Rains (1988), Wizard, Contemporary Books, Page 168.

[17] Bryan Burwell, “Ozzie: Clark, Whitey costs us Series,” New York Daily News, March 30, 1988.

[18] Bryan Burwell, “Ozzie: Clark, Whitey costs us Series,” New York Daily News, March 30, 1988.

[19] Bryan Burwell, “Ozzie: Clark, Whitey costs us Series,” New York Daily News, March 30, 1988.

[20] Bryan Burwell, “Ozzie: Clark, Whitey costs us Series,” New York Daily News, March 30, 1988.

[21] Rick Hummel, “Ozzie Criticizes GQ Article,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 30, 1988.

[22] Ozzie Smith and Rob Rains (1988), Wizard, Contemporary Books, Page 171.

[23] Rick Hummel, “Ozzie Says ’89 Could Be Last Year,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 3, 1988.

[24] Edvins Beitiks, “Fighting-trim Giants ready for Dodgers,” San Francisco Examiner, July 25, 1988.

[25] Rick Hummel, “Ozzie Criticizes GQ Article,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 30, 1988.

[26] Tom Wheatley, “Ozzie Charged With Error For Not Accepting Blame,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 2, 1988.

[27] Rick Hummel, “Ozzie Says ’89 Could Be Last Year,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 3, 1988.

[28] Kevin Horrigan, “Latest Book On Ozzie Smith: Good Field, No Write,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 20, 1988.

The post How a 1988 Ozzie Smith GQ interview created a firestorm first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

With two outs in the ninth and the Cardinals trailing by a run, Clark hit a three-run homer off Tom Niedenfuer on October 16, 1985, to give St. Louis a 7-5 win and a six-game series victory over the Dodgers.

In a game that featured two of the National League’s top pitchers that season in the Cardinals’ Joaquin Andujar (21-12, 3.40 ERA during the regular season) and the Dodgers’ Orel Hershiser (19-3, 2.03), the game came down to bullpens and managerial strategies.

Until Clark’s home run, the Dodgers had led the entire game. Mariano Duncan led off bottom of the first with a double, then scored on an RBI single by Bill Madlock. Duncan made it 2-0 with an RBI single in the second before Tom Herr answered with a run-scoring single of his own.

The Dodgers took a 4-1 lead in the fifth as Pedro Guerrero drove a run in with a sacrifice fly and Madlock followed with his third home run in three games.

In the seventh, the Cardinals evened the score as Willie McGee hit a two-run single that chased Hershiser from the game and Ozzie Smith followed with a triple off Niedenfuer to score McGee.

The following inning, the Dodgers appeared poised to reclaim the lead. Duncan led off with a triple, and after Cardinals reliever Todd Worrell got Ken Landreaux to pop out, Guerrero returned to the plate for the Dodgers. Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog opted to intentionally walk the big man even though that brought Madlock to the plate with runners on first and third.

The move paid off. Madlock hit into a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play.

“Well, the choice was to take two shots with a man on third to get two outs or shoot craps and hope to get a ground ball,” Herzog said. “Worrell made a good pitch and we were out of the inning.”[1]

“An amazing move,” Dodgers right fielder Mike Marshall said. “I thought Whitey would walk both guys (Guerrero and Madlock) to load the bases, but it worked this time.”[2]

Though Herzog’s machinations allowed the Cardinals to escape the seventh inning, Marshall led off the eighth with a solo home run that gave the Dodgers a 5-4 lead heading into the top of the ninth.

Niedenfuer opened the inning by striking out pinch-hitter Cesar Cedeno. McGee singled and Smith drew a walk, but when Tom Herr grounded out to Niedenfuer, the Cardinals had just one out remaining with Clark coming to the plate. Los Angeles manager Tommy Lasorda suddenly had a decision to make: with first base open, should he walk Clark and pitch to Andy Van Slyke?

On the one hand, Clark, whom the Cardinals acquired in a February trade with the Giants, had hit just one home run since he suffered a rib injury on August 23. In Clark’s last at-bat in the seventh inning, Niedenfuer had struck him out on three sliders.

On the other, Clark was the Cardinals’ primary source of home run power, having hit 22 homers and driven in 87 runs during the regular season, and he was hitting .350 for the playoffs. Van Slyke, meanwhile, was just 1-for-10 for the series and hitting .067 in the playoffs.

Lasorda chose to pitch to Clark.

“If I was Tommy Lasorda, I’d pitch to me rather than Jack Clark,” Van Slyke said. “When they started to pitch to him, I’m sure Jack’s eyes got three inches wide. He must have lit up inside.”[3]

After striking out Clark with sliders two innings prior, Niedenfuer figured that Clark would be looking for that pitch again.[4] Instead, he opened the at-bat with his best pitch, a fastball.

He was right – Clark wasn’t looking for that pitch. He hit it anyway.

“Maybe I wasn’t expecting them to walk me intentionally,” Clark said, “but I thought they might at least try to work around me. Maybe some pitches away, but not a fastball in on me.”[5]

“Tommy may have been a little too pumped up, but he’s got a lot of heart and he was going after Clark with everything he had,” Dodgers catcher Mike Scioscia said. “You’ve got to give Clark credit.”[6]

The ball sailed about 20 rows into the left-field stands. Before it even landed, Clark turned to look at his teammates in the dugout.

“I knew it was gone,” he said. “It didn’t matter where it landed. I just wanted to see my teammates’ reactions, because it was for all of them, for Whitey, for my mom and father, for my wife and two children, and last of all for me.”[7]

Clark wasn’t the only one to know it was a home run well before it landed.

“That would have had to hit the blimp and come back down to stay in the ballpark,” said Niedenfuer, who also had allowed Smith’s game-winning homer in Game 5. “He must have hit it 500 feet.”[8]

“As soon as I heard the ball hit the bat, my ears were ringing,” said Van Slyke. “The ball looked like a laser beam.”[9]

“There’s a particular sound that his home runs make – a bat-meeting-ball sound that can’t be described, but one which tells you this is a Jack Clark home run,” added Tito Landrum. “Today, if you were listening, you heard that sound.”[10]

“You can look at it on the replay,” Terry Pendleton said. “You’ll see him looking at us. Everybody knows it when Jack Clark hits a home run. He gave us the signal – ‘We got it.’”[11]

After Van Slyke flied out to end the inning, the Cardinals put the game in the hands of reliever Ken Dayley. Dayley retired the side in order, striking out Duncan and Enos Cabell before Guerrero flied out to McGee in center field.

“Oh man,” McGee said. “I didn’t think it would ever come down.”[12]

With the win in hand, the Cardinals celebrated in the Dodger Stadium visitor’s clubhouse. As the National League champions poured champagne over one another, the second-guessing regarding Lasorda’s decision to pitch to Clark was in full swing.

“My theory has always been if you have one guy making $1.3 million and another guy making $100,000, I pitch to the guy making $100,000,” Herzog said.[13]

He then admitted that if the Dodgers had walked Clark, he already planned to pinch-hit for Van Slyke.

“It’s easy to second-guess and I don’t mean to, because Tommy is an outstanding manager with good strategies, and I’m sure he’s got good statistics on Clark against Niedenfuer,” Herzog said, “but I was expecting him to bring in Jerry Reuss, walk Clark, and leave the decision up to me what to do. I would have used Brian Harper.”[14]

“I couldn’t figure it out,” Herr said. “Jack Clark’s the kind of guy that can hurt you, and the next guy hasn’t been having a good series. I felt great when I saw they were pitching to Jack.”[15]

The Dodgers’ Cabell said, “I was hoping they would pitch around him. Jack’s a home-run hitter and he can hit ‘em out of Yellowstone.”[16]

Both catchers were more forgiving of Lasorda’s decision.

“I don’t think it was the wrong choice at all,” Scioscia said. “I don’t think the pitch selection was bad either. I think Tom just tried to overthrow it. He was too pumped up and the ball went down the middle instead of outside, where we wanted it to go.”[17]

“I’m just glad I’m not a manager,” said Darrell Porter.[18]

In Los Angeles, the media reaction was clear – Lasorda had made a mistake.

“He should not have pitched to him,” wrote Mike Downey in the Los Angeles Times. “That’s all there is to it. He should have walked Jack Clark, or hit Jack Clark in the ribs with a change-up, or offered Jack Clark several billion dollars to leave the bat on his shoulder. Anything but pitch to him.[19]

“The easiest thing in the world is to second-guess,” Lasorda said. “But I’m the manager. I have to accept responsibility for my actions. The guy makes an out, I look good. But the guy hits a home run, and even my wife knows I should have walked him.”[20]

In St. Louis, Clark’s home run instantly joined Smith’s in Cardinals lore.

“They will be talking about this game for a long, long time,” wrote Kevin Horrigan in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “They will talk about it like they talk now about Enos Slaughter’s mad dash home in 1946. They’ll talk about it like they talk about Bob Gibson blowing down the Red Sox and the Tigers, like they talk about Lou Brock’s 118^th steal and like they talk about the Man named Musial. It is now part of the Cardinal legacy, a shiny memory to be brought out and cherished for as long as the Birds sit on the bat. Where were you when Jack Clark hit his homer?[21]

Facing the Royals in the World Series, the Cardinals initially continued their momentum, winning three of the first four games before Kansas City won Games 5, 6, and 7 to win the title.

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[1] Gordon Edes, “Dodgers Pitch to Clark … It’s His Pitch,” Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1985.

[2] Gordon Edes, “Dodgers Pitch to Clark … It’s His Pitch,” Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1985.

[3] Mike Smith, “Dr. Clark Provides Cures,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 17, 1985.

[4] Ron Cobb, “Niedenfuer Is Foiled Again,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 17, 1985.

[5] Mike Smith, “Dr. Clark Provides Cures,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 17, 1985.

[6] Ron Cobb, “Niedenfuer Is Foiled Again,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 17, 1985.

[7] Mike McKenzie, “Lasorda brings out second-guessers by pitching to Clark,” Kansas City Times, October 17, 1985.

[8] Ron Cobb, “Niedenfuer Is Foiled Again,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 17, 1985.

[9] Gordon Edes, “Dodgers Pitch to Clark … It’s His Pitch,” Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1985.

[10] Mike Smith, “Dr. Clark Provides Cures,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 17, 1985.

[11] Richard Hoffer, “Cardinals Had No Doubts That Clark Had Connected for the Big Blow,” Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1985.

[12] Kevin Horrigan, “Cards Savor Feeling After Clark’s Blast,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 17, 1985.

[13] Mike McKenzie, “Lasorda brings out second-guessers by pitching to Clark,” Kansas City Times, October 17, 1985.

[14] Mike McKenzie, “Lasorda brings out second-guessers by pitching to Clark,” Kansas City Times, October 17, 1985.

[15] Mike Downey, “They Should Have Taken the Bat Out of Clark’s Hands,” Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1985.

[16] Mike Downey, “They Should Have Taken the Bat Out of Clark’s Hands,” Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1985.

[17] Gordon Edes, “Dodgers Pitch to Clark … It’s His Pitch,” Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1985.

[18] Mike Downey, “They Should Have Taken the Bat Out of Clark’s Hands,” Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1985.

[19] Mike Downey, “They Should Have Taken the Bat Out of Clark’s Hands,” Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1985.

[20] Gordon Edes, “Dodgers Pitch to Clark … It’s His Pitch,” Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1985.

[21] Kevin Horrigan, “Cards Savor Feeling After Clark’s Blast,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 17, 1985.

The post How Jack Clark homered to win Game 6 of the 1985 NLCS first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

“They were either under the influence of alcohol or they didn’t have watches,” Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said.[1]

“It was the first time I ever got home and had the paper waiting for me,” added third-base coach Nick Leyva.[2]

The double-header was scheduled to begin at 5:35 p.m. on July 7 after the Cardinals and Dodgers had been rained out two months earlier. However, rain delayed the first pitch of the day until 7:57 p.m.[3]

Once play finally began, the Dodgers struck first. Third baseman Phil Garner hit a solo home run off Ricky Horton with one out in the second, and after Alex Trevino doubled to left field, Dodgers pitcher Tim Leary hit a two-out single that gave Los Angeles a 2-0 lead.

Willie McGee put the Cardinals ahead in the bottom of the third. Horton led off the inning with a double, but Vince Coleman popped up trying to bunt and Ozzie Smith flied out as well. With two outs, Leary walked Tom Herr and Clark, loading the bases. McGee cleared them with a double down the left-field line, putting the Cardinals ahead 3-2.

Horton, who made 61 of his 67 appearances that season in relief, lasted into the sixth inning, but left the game with the bases loaded and one out. Right-handed reliever Ken Dayley struck out Trevino for the second out, but with Steve Sax at the plate, he threw a wild pitch that allowed Pedro Guerrero to score before Mickey Hatcher was thrown out at home.

In the seventh, Dodgers center fielder John Shelby hit an RBI single off Todd Worrell to give the Dodgers a 4-3 lead. That advantage wouldn’t last long.

After retiring the first batter, Leary walked Coleman and Smith, and Dodgers skipper Tommy Lasorda turned to reliever Brian Holton to finish the inning. Holton, however, was undone by his defense. In consecutive at-bats, Hatcher misplayed a ground ball at first base, Ken Landreaux dropped a fly ball in left field, and Hatcher booted another ground ball, allowing the Cardinals to take a 5-4 lead.

Worrell worked around a leadoff triple by Sax in the ninth inning to earn his fourth win of the season. Leary took the loss for the Dodgers, falling to 1-4 on the season. After the game, Lasorda chased his clubhouse attendants away and shouted at his team from behind the locked clubhouse door.[4]

His efforts weren’t enough to inspire the Dodgers to a win in Game 2, though they again took an early lead against the Cardinals. Guerrero started the scoring with a first-inning sacrifice fly off Cardinals starter Lee Tunnell. Hatcher added RBI singles in the second and fourth innings to give Los Angeles a 3-0 lead.

The Cardinals rallied for two runs in the fifth. Dodgers starter Brad Havens, making his only start of the season and his first since 1985, held the Cardinals off the scoreboard through the first four innings, but was replaced by Alejandro Pena after Lake singled to lead off the fifth. Coleman drew a one-out walk before Smith hit an RBI single and Herr drove in another run on a sacrifice fly to left field.

From there, Pena shut the Cardinals’ offense down, and Shelby added an RBI double in the seventh to give the Dodgers a 4-2 lead. Los Angeles maintained that two-run advantage heading into the bottom of the ninth, when Terry Pendleton singled off reliever Matt Young to lead off the frame. After Young struck out Jim Lindeman, Lake launched a game-tying home run over the left-field wall to send the game into extra innings.

“They’ve got Mr. October. Now they’ve got Mr. Midnight,” Lake said.[5]

“He’s the last guy in the world I thought would hit the ball out of the ballpark,” Lasorda said.[6]

With an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 fans remaining in the park, Lake received a curtain call.[7]

“They call you a 3 o’clock hitter, and I guess I am,” he said. “They never said if it was a.m. or p.m.”[8]

In the 10^th, Dawley and Dayley combined to work around an error by Smith at shortstop. Facing Dodgers reliever Ken Howell, Curt Ford led off the 10th inning with a walk. Tom Lawless attempted a sacrifice bunt, but Dodgers first baseman Franklin Stubbs made a nice play to throw out Ford at second.

Undeterred, Lawless stole second to get into scoring position. Clark didn’t waste the opportunity, hitting a ground ball single up the middle to score Lawless and end the game just a minute after 3 a.m.

“I didn’t feel real great,” Clark said. “I was starting to feel a little tired, and I was getting a little stiff. It was a little cool, but, you know, when you have a chance to win the game, you just keep going out there.”[9]

Dayley, who appeared in both games of the doubleheader, earned his second win of the season, while Howell took the loss for the Dodgers. Smith, Pendleton, and Lake each had two hits as the Cardinals finished with nine for the game.

“You know what was truly amazing?” Lake asked. “There were maybe 10,000 people here at the end. They were screaming and standing up. I got a curtain call at 3 o’clock in the morning. It was kind of neat.”[10]

The only Cardinal who could recall a later game was veteran right-hander Bob Forsch, who was a rookie when the Cardinals won a 4-3, 25-inning marathon against the Mets on September 11, 1974.

“Bake McBride ended up scoring from first to win it,” Forsch recalled. “They tried to pick him off and threw it away. By the time we got out of there, the only people still at the restaurant were the ladies of the night.”[11]

Incredibly, the Cardinals and Dodgers had another double-header scheduled on July 8 for a total of three games that day. The Cardinals won both of those games for a four-game series sweep over the course of 28 hours. The wins were part of a streak that ultimately reached nine games.

“It’s just a matter of getting out of this damn town,” said Hatcher, who played third base in Game 2 after his errors proved costly in the opener. “I’d never played so late at night, 3 a.m., and I don’t want to do it again.”[12]

“This team (the Cardinals) is playing just the way it did in ’85,” Lasorda said. “They swing down and everything finds a hole. They go from first to third as well as everybody you’ve ever seen. You can’t walk anybody to set up double plays because they don’t hit into double plays.”[13]

After watching the Cardinals-Dodgers series, Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray described St. Louis’s ballclub by writing:

Are they all the same guy?

Look at them. They’re all 5-10 or 5-11. They all bat from both sides of the plate. They all run the hundred in 9.2 or the forty in 4.3. They all think a home run is something that rolls to the outfield fence. … I can’t tell one from the other and I don’t think the National League pitchers can either.[14]

It was a style of play that certainly worked throughout the 1987 season, as St. Louis went on to win 95 games and win the National League East. The Cardinals beat the Giants in a seven-game NLCS to claim their third National League championship of the 1980s.

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[1] Tom Wheatley, “Early Birds: Cards Double Their Pleasure At 3 A.M.,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 9, 1987.

[2] Tom Wheatley, “Early Birds: Cards Double Their Pleasure At 3 A.M.,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 9, 1987.

[3] John Sonderegger, “Rain Dashes Attendance,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 8, 1987.

[4] Rick Hummel, “Worrell Gets Out Of Jam,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 8, 1987.

[5] Tom Wheatley, “Early Birds: Cards Double Their Pleasure At 3 A.M.,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 9, 1987.

[6] Tom Wheatley, “Early Birds: Cards Double Their Pleasure At 3 A.M.,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 9, 1987.

[7] Tom Wheatley, “Early Birds: Cards Double Their Pleasure At 3 A.M.,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 9, 1987.

[8] Tom Wheatley, “Early Birds: Cards Double Their Pleasure At 3 A.M.,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 9, 1987.

[9] Tom Wheatley, “Early Birds: Cards Double Their Pleasure At 3 A.M.,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 9, 1987.

[10] Tom Wheatley, “Early Birds: Cards Double Their Pleasure At 3 A.M.,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 9, 1987.

[11] Tom Wheatley, “Early Birds: Cards Double Their Pleasure At 3 A.M.,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 9, 1987.

[12] Sam McManis, “Dodgers Pile Up 4 Losses During 28-Hour Period,” Los Angeles Times, July 9, 1987.

[13] Rick Hummel, “Cards Sweep LA; Streak Hits 7,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 9, 1987.

[14] Jim Murray, “The Cardinals Are All Birds of a Feather,” Los Angeles Times, July 9, 1987.

The post July 7, 1987: Steve Lake and Jack Clark lead Cardinals to late-night doubleheader sweep first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

Since the Cardinals acquired Clark from the Giants on February 1, 1985, he had been the primary source of power in a lineup that was built around speed. In his first season in St. Louis, he hit .281 with a team-leading 22 home runs (Andy Van Slyke was second on the team with 13). In that season’s NLCS against the Dodgers, Clark hit .381 and his three-run homer in the ninth inning of Game 6 clinched the series. In the World Series against the Royals, he added another four RBIs.

A torn ligament in his thumb limited Clark to just 65 games the following year (his nine homers ranked second on the team behind Van Slyke’s 13), but in 1987, Clark again paced the Cardinals’ offense. In what proved to be his final season in St. Louis, he hit .286 with a league-leading .459 on-base percentage (buoyed by a league-high 136 walks) and .597 slugging percentage.

With 35 homers and 106 RBIs, Clark placed third in the National League MVP vote and won the Silver Slugger Award at first base despite suffering an ankle injury on September 7 that limited him to only a few pinch-hit at-bats the remainder of the season.

“We’d have never won the 1985 and 1987 pennants without him,” Herzog wrote in 1999. “He was one of the scariest fastball hitters I ever saw. Some of his shots to the opposite field didn’t just scatter the fans, they left the seats in splinters. There wasn’t a pitcher in baseball that didn’t fear Jack Clark.”[1]

Herzog wrote that he didn’t have to see the batting cages to know when Clark was taking batting practice.

“He was the only guy I had who didn’t sound like he was hittin’ underwater,” he wrote.[2]

After the Cardinals lost to the Twins in the 1987 World Series, however, the Cardinals seemed in little rush to sign the four-time all-star. In December, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that both sides believed they could reach a two-year deal that would pay Clark approximately $2 million per year.

The Cardinals, however, wanted a lower base salary with incentives for the number of games played, with the contract reaching full value at 145 games. Clark and his agents, Bill Landman and Tom Reich, weren’t opposed to the concept, but wanted the contract to max out at 125 or 130 games.[3]

“Dal and I have to be a little creative,” said Landman, referring to Cardinals general manager Dal Maxvill. “On one hand, the Cardinals have to protect themselves a little bit if Jack can’t play a full season. On the other, you have to acknowledge his contribution to the team and his value.”[4]

Clark also wanted a $250,000 loan that was part of his last contract with the Giants, in addition to the $2 million salary. The Cardinals wanted it to be included as part of the $2 million deal.

“It’s not really a loan anymore,” Maxvill said. “It’s just more money that he wants the way he’s dealing with it. Instead of him wanting $2 million, he wants $2,250,000.”[5]

Clark had an option of filing for salary arbitration before the December 19 deadline, but opted to remain a free agent. [6]

“The last thing I heard was that we were pretty much at an impasse,” Clark said. “I think I should be concerned. I don’t understand what’s so difficult. I’m not frustrated, but I’m discouraged enough that I don’t even care to get involved. This should be an exciting time. It seems like such an easy thing. I guess it isn’t.”[7]

On December 7, after months of negotiating solely with the Cardinals, Reich announced he would begin actively pursuing opportunities with other teams.

“There’s no animosities, no hard feelings for the Cardinals,” Reich said. “We respect the Cardinals. We’re not closing any doors, but we’re going to absolutely attempt to negotiate with other teams. We’re just not getting anywhere.”[8]

With no progress toward a deal since November, Reich said, he and Clark had no intention of coming back to the Cardinals to see if they would match or top it.[9] Despite Clark’s growing frustration, Maxvill still thought that an agreement was just a matter of time.

“I can’t imagine why Jack wouldn’t sign and stay here, with the numbers we’re talking about,” Maxvill said. “If he squirms out a few dollars more somewhere else, is he going to uproot himself? I can’t imagine him wanting to do that. This is a great place to play. I don’t know if clubs out there, based on his past health, would go into the $2 million category where we are.”[10]

Maxvill noted that he had left several messages with Landman but that none had been returned.[11] According to Major League Baseball rules in place at the time, the Cardinals had until midnight on Friday, January 8, to re-sign Clark or they would lose their rights to talk to him until May 1.[12]

“I’m sure they’re going to wait until Friday to use that as a pressure tactic … but A-B (Anheuser-Busch) doesn’t move because of applying pressure,” Maxvill said.[13]

Clark and his agents didn’t wait until Friday, and it wasn’t a pressure tactic. On Wednesday, January 6, the Yankees held a press conference announcing that they had signed Clark to a two-year contract. The deal paid a guaranteed $3 million, with the chance to reach $4 million if Clark played 145 games per season.

Clark admitted that the contract called for less money than what the Cardinals had offered.

“In St. Louis, we’ve been negotiating for what amounts to about three years, and nothing was really happening,” he said. “I felt we were getting to a point we didn’t want, so I asked Tom to step in and find me a job.”[14]

Negotiations with the Yankees moved much more swiftly than they had with the Cardinals.

“This is one of the quickest negotiations I’ve ever been involved in, or will be involved in, as a general manager,” Piniella said. “I spoke with Jack Clark’s agent Monday, we spoke yesterday, and signed today.”[15]

Clark said the Cardinals made two last-minute offers – one for $1.75 million guaranteed per year and a $250,000 signing bonus, and another for $1.6 million per year with a chance to make $1.9 million if he played 140 games, plus the $250,000 signing bonus. Ironically, the Cardinals wound up paying the $250,000 that had been so contentious anyway due to a clause in Clark’s contract that required the Cardinals to pay him that amount if they did not re-sign him.[16]

“There’s no question that if the proposal had been made a week, two weeks, six weeks earlier, they would have had a deal, but by that time we had given our word,” Reich said.[17]

Clark was also upset about a comment he claimed Maxvill made in which he allegedly said, “If you won’t play here, just go to Cleveland.” Maxvill said he had mentioned Cleveland in a conversation with Landman, but not in that context.[18]

“We had been negotiating three long years, and nothing was really happening,” Clark said. “The fact is, I took a lot of stuff there that made me look bad. They kept beating me down about my injuries, and they said stuff about me not being a good first baseman after I agreed to play there to help the team.”[19]

In New York, Clark joined a Yankees lineup that also included Don Mattingly, Dave Winfield, and Rickey Henderson. With Mattingly at first base and Winfield and Henderson in the corner outfield spots, Clark was slotted as the Yankees’ designated hitter.[20]

“He’s a hitter,” Piniella said. “That’s what we got him for. We just want him to hit. Plus, he comes from a winning organization. I’ve stressed that in all our dealings, we get people who know how to win here. This is a signing the magnitude of Reggie Jackson.”[21]

In St. Louis, perhaps no one was more disappointed than Herzog, who noted that the process reminded him of the 1984 offseason, when the Cardinals lost their star closer, Bruce Sutter.

“All I ever heard was, ‘We’ll sign him, we’ll sign him,’” Herzog said. “I heard that about Sutter too.”[22]

While the Cardinals continued to thrive in Sutter’s absence thanks to relievers like Jeff Lahti and Todd Worrell, the Cardinals didn’t have another first baseman waiting to fill Clark’s shoes. Herzog said he might use left-handed-hitting Mike Laga and right-handed-hitting Jim Lindeman at first base, and that David Green also was an option.[23]

“In all honesty, without Jack Clark for 162 games, we’ll be lucky to play .500,” Herzog said. “I’m not saying we can’t get a surprise, but where’s that surprise going to be? We just lost our only threat we’ve got. You’ve seen us play.”[24]

Clark’s former teammates were also disappointed.

“Wow! That’s not good,” said Bob Forsch, who was also a free agent and in the midst of his own contract negotiations with the Cardinals. “I mean, it’s good for Jack Clark. I’m happy for him and his family, but it’s not going to help our ballclub. I really thought he’d end up here. Boy, that’s a shame. Boy, that’s going to hurt, losing 120 runs batted in. The Cardinals are going to have to scuffle to find another first baseman.”[25]

“I just had a feeling after the last week or so that he was gone,” Willie McGee said. “They dragged it on so long. I know that’s it. I know Jack.”[26]

Maxvill said he wasn’t surprised either. After all, Clark and his representatives hadn’t responded to his phone calls in three days.[27]

“I guess (people) will probably be upset with me because I didn’t get the job done, but I don’t know what else you can do when you offer someone more money, and they still leave,” Maxvill said. “We’re all upset. Obviously, he wanted to play in New York. Obviously, he likes the city better. He likes the media better. He likes their fans.”[28]

Rather than taking blame for the way things worked out, Maxvill said Clark was simply impatient with the process.

“He felt Bill Landman and I were dragging our feet, although Bill and I didn’t feel that way. I don’t feel anything more could have been done. Jack felt that Bill and I were not making progress, even though we both felt that we were, and he decided to call another agent in.”[29]

Reich was quick to point out that he wasn’t blaming for Clark leaving St. Louis either, noting that Clark had given ground considerably in negotiations, including accepting two years instead of the three he originally sought.

“I’m the same guy that told Jack when he was traded by San Francisco to St. Louis that it was a great opportunity, and that’s what I reiterated to him after the season was over,” Reich said. “They do business tough in St. Louis. They run it like a hard business, and they’re entitled to do that. They have the right to play hardball, but you also know that carries a risk. Deals can get away sometimes. This one did. Jack just got fed up with it. Jack simply had enough of their style. He didn’t like being depreciated.”[30]

Eight days after Clark signed with the Yankees, the Cardinals signed Bob Horner to a one-year deal. Horner played just 65 games before what proved to be a career-ending shoulder injury ended his season. Desperate for a first baseman, the Cardinals traded John Tudor to the Dodgers for Pedro Guerrero in August.

Clark spent one season in New York, batting .242 with 27 homers and 93 RBIs. As the season progressed, however, he found himself disillusioned with the Yankees’ lifestyle and wished to return to the West Coast. Harvey Araton of the New York Daily News noted that shortly after Clark signed with the Yankees, their new designated hitter already seemed wistful about his days in St. Louis.

“At 5:30, Clark walked in and stood at the podium with Piniella,” Araton wrote. “He said he was excited to be a Yankee, but he didn’t look very excited. Truth is, he looked subdued. He made sure to say how sorry he was to be leaving all his friends – Ozzie (Smith) and (Terry) Pendleton and Danny Cox – behind in St. Louis.”[31]

In October 1988, the Yankees traded Clark and Pat Clements to the Padres for Stan Jefferson, Jimmy Jones, and Lance McCullers. Clark played two seasons in San Diego, then signed with the Red Sox as a free agent. He retired after the 1992 season, ending an 18-year major-league career that included 340 homers and 1,180 RBIs.

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[1] Whitey Herzog and Jonathan Pitts (1999), You’re Missin’ a Great Game: From Casey to Ozzie, the Magic of Baseball and How to Get It Back, New York; Berkley Books, Page 75.

[2] Whitey Herzog and Jonathan Pitts (1999), You’re Missin’ a Great Game: From Casey to Ozzie, the Magic of Baseball and How to Get It Back, New York; Berkley Books, Page 121.

[3] Rick Hummel, “Clark, Cardinals On Hold As Deadline Approaches,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 4, 1988.

[4] Rick Hummel, “Negotiations With Clark Hit Snag,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 6, 1987.

[5] Rick Hummel, “Clark, Cardinals On Hold As Deadline Approaches,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 4, 1988.

[6] Rick Hummel, “Negotiations With Clark Hit Snag,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 6, 1987.

[7] Rick Hummel, “Negotiations With Clark Hit Snag,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 6, 1987.

[8] Rick Hummel, “Clark To Consider Other Teams,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 8, 1987.

[9] Rick Hummel, “Clark To Consider Other Teams,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 8, 1987.

[10] Rick Hummel, “Clark, Cardinals On Hold As Deadline Approaches,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 4, 1988.

[11] Rick Hummel, “Clark, Cardinals On Hold As Deadline Approaches,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 4, 1988.

[12] Rick Hummel, “Clark, Cardinals On Hold As Deadline Approaches,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 4, 1988.

[13] Rick Hummel, “Clark, Cardinals On Hold As Deadline Approaches,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 4, 1988.

[14] Rick Hummel, “Impatience Motivated Clark,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 7, 1988.

[15] Bill Madden, “Boss’ great hi-Jack,” New York Daily News, January 7, 1988.

[16] Rick Hummel, “Clark Agent: Bid By Cards Too Late,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 8, 1988.

[17] Rick Hummel, “Clark Agent: Bid By Cards Too Late,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 8, 1988.

[18] Rick Hummel, “Impatience Motivated Clark,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 7, 1988.

[19] Bill Madden, “Boss’ great hi-Jack,” New York Daily News, January 7, 1988.

[20] Bill Madden, “Boss’ great hi-Jack,” New York Daily News, January 7, 1988.

[21] Bill Madden, “Boss’ great hi-Jack,” New York Daily News, January 7, 1988.

[22] Rick Hummel, “Herzog: ‘We’ll Be Lucky To Play .500,’” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 7, 1988.

[23] Rick Hummel, “Herzog: ‘We’ll Be Lucky To Play .500,’” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 7, 1988.

[24] Rick Hummel, “Herzog: ‘We’ll Be Lucky To Play .500,’” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 7, 1988.

[25] Tom Wheatley, “Losing Clark Will Hurt, Ex-Teammates Say,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 7, 1988.

[26] Tom Wheatley, “Losing Clark Will Hurt, Ex-Teammates Say,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 7, 1988.

[27] Rick Hummel, “Herzog: ‘We’ll Be Lucky To Play .500,’” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 7, 1988.

[28] Rick Hummel, “Herzog: ‘We’ll Be Lucky To Play .500,’” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 7, 1988.

[29] Rick Hummel, “Herzog: ‘We’ll Be Lucky To Play .500,’” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 7, 1988.

[30] Rick Hummel, “Clark Agent: Bid By Cards Too Late,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 8, 1988.

[31] Harvey Araton, “Mets: Thank you, George,” New York Daily News, January 7, 1988.

The post Jack Clark signs with the Yankees: January 6, 1988 first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

“I don’t like Horner,” the Cardinals manager said. “Of his lifetime homers, about 70% were hit in Atlanta. He never could hit in St. Louis. He can’t hit and he can’t field, and he wants $1.4 million for three years.”[1]

“I just don’t think (Horner is) the answer,” Herzog continued. “I don’t know what he’d hit in our ballpark. He’s a fly ball hitter. He never did hit much on the road. You play him 81 games in our ballpark and then in other ballparks and he’s got nothing left. He never plays when he’s hurt. I just don’t know.”[2]

In nine seasons with the Braves, Horner had hit 215 home runs. Of those, 142 (66%) came at the launching pad at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. He had homered once every 12.6 at-bats in Atlanta compared to just once every 24.6 at-bats on the road.[3]

The 1978 National League Rookie of the Year winner as a 20-year-old, Horner went directly to the big leagues out of Arizona State University and hit 23 home runs in 89 games. In 1980, he hit a career-high 35 homers, and in 1982, he appeared in the All-Star Game on his way to 32 homers and 97 RBIs.

Though he was productive when on the field, Horner was plagued by injuries. He suffered a season-ending right wrist fracture that cost him the final 43 games of the 1983 season, and in 1984, he played just 32 games before he broke his left wrist, once again ending his season.

Following the 1986 season, Horner and agent Bucky Woy asked for $2 million per season. They turned down a three-year, $4.5 million offer from the Braves and, after that offer was pulled off the table, declined a three-year, $3.9 million deal on the final day that free agents could re-sign with their teams without missing a month of the season.[4]

When no one else offered him a contract, Horner signed a $2 million deal with the Yakult Swallows of the Japanese League, where he hit 31 homers in 93 games (17 years later, Horner received more than $7 million from the players’ collusion lawsuit against the owners[5]).

Despite his success in Japan, Horner wanted to return home. After Clark signed with the Yankees on January 6, 1988, Cardinals general manager Dal Maxvill reached out to Woy, who told him that Horner was interested. However, Woy suggested that the Cardinals’ offer should match the $1.75 million they offered Clark.[6]

“Horner’s a better first baseman than Clark,” Woy said. “With the rabbits they’ve got there in St. Louis, he could drive in 130, 140, 150 runs. He’s a better contact hitter than Clark. I’m not knocking Clark, but Horner has a pure stroke.”[7]

Woy then told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “If Whitey likes him, I think we can cut a deal.”[8]

That was when Herzog listed his concerns with a potential Horner signing.

“I expressed to Bucky Woy that our interest is not high, to say the least,” Maxvill said. “Whitey doesn’t have a great deal of interest in him. He mentioned a lot of points, but he was most concerned with the money.”[9]

Instead, the Cardinals made a brief pivot to Twins third baseman Gary Gaetti, but he told the Cardinals that he wasn’t interested in moving to first base.[10]

Meanwhile, Horner, who was born in Junction City, Kansas, wasn’t ready to give up. He called Maxvill and Herzog to express his interest in playing for the Cardinals.

“I didn’t want to let this thing die,” Horner said. “I didn’t want to let it slip under my fingers.”[11]

Horner’s perseverance – along with his willingness to come down from his initial asking price and the Cardinals’ lack of viable alternatives – ultimately proved the difference.

“A week ago, I wasn’t so sure we would be able to put it together, but that changed when Bob called me and informed me of his desire to play for the Cardinals,” Maxvill said.[12]

On January 14, 1988, eight days after Clark signed with the Yankees, Horner became the first player the Cardinals had signed from another team since Darrell Porter more than seven years earlier. Horner had come down considerably from his initial demands, accepting a one-year, $950,000 contract with $150,000 bonuses to be paid for reaching 125, 130, and 140 games played. He would earn an additional $140,000 for being named to the all-star team or earning regular-season or playoff MVP honors.[13]

“A long time ago, my dad had a chance to try out with a Cardinals farm team, but it was set aside when he had to go back to the farm,” Horner said. “He’s always had a dream of me playing for the Cardinals. When the family hears about this, they’re going to go crazy.”[14]

Horner had chosen the Cardinals over a $900,000 offer from the Braves and $650,000 with incentives from the Rangers.[15]

“I didn’t think Dal and Whitey liked him that much,” Braves general manager Bobby Cox said. “I’m very shocked. I don’t understand it, but good for Bob. If that’s what he wants to do, fine. We’ll go on.”[16]

“Sayonara,” said Braves president Stan Kasten. “That’s fine for Bob. I’m glad he finally found a place where he can be happy.”[17]

Horner’s former teammate, Dale Murphy, was less caustic than Kasten in wishing Horner good luck in St. Louis.

“It’ll be a little different, but it’s good that a player of Bob’s talent will be back in the National League,” Dale Murphy said. “I was hoping Bob would come back with us, but he’s going to a good organization and a good city. I’m sure he’s excited.”[18]

Horner also turned down a three-year, $10 million contract from the Yakult Swallows.

“I’ve been in this business 23 years and I never thought I’d turn down $10 million,” Woy said. “Horner really wanted to get back.”[19]

“It’s been a dream of mine to play for the Cardinals,” Horner said. “This is an absolute perfect fit for me. It just makes all the sense in the world for me right now. I turned down a lot of money from Japan, but I’m glad for this opportunity.”[20]

Herzog said he planned to bat Horner cleanup, with either Tom Herr or Terry Pendleton ahead of him in the lineup.

“Right after I talked to (the Post-Dispatch), I said to myself that I’ve only seen him play in two ballparks,” Herzog said. “I’ve always known him as a lot better player in Atlanta than he was in St. Louis, but when I found out he wanted to get back and play and show me that he’s a lot better hitter than I thought he was, I thought we’d make a hell of a deal. I’m kind of looking forward to having a guy who wants to play and a guy who wants to hit in St. Louis. And we had to do something.”[21]

“One of Whitey’s concerns was the length of the contract,” Maxvill said. “When that changed, our interest increased a considerable amount.”[22]

Nonetheless, even after the Cardinals signed Horner, Herzog continued to express concerns about how Horner’s offensive skills would translate in St. Louis.

“I know he can put a charge into a ball, but sometimes when you play in a certain ballpark, people pitch you different,” Herzog said. “At Atlanta, we tried to jam him inside. If we put a fastball out over the plate, he’d hit homers to left center and right center. In our park, when we got to 2-0 and 3-1 in the count, we’d pitch him away. He’s got a good home-run swing, but will he be able to hit the ball out of the park in right-center and left-center field?”[23]

Meanwhile, Horner looked at the 1988 season as an opportunity to prove Herzog and others around the league wrong.

“If I go out there and have the kind of year I’m capable of having, I can see getting a three- or four-year deal,” Horner said. “Sometimes you’ve got to bite the bullet and stand up for yourself. I want to prove to all those teams that didn’t offer me a contract last year that they made a big mistake.”[24]

Cardinals reliever Ken Dayley had played alongside Horner in Atlanta from 1982 until he was traded to St. Louis in 1984.

“He can play, there’s no doubt,” Dayley said. “When he gets hot, he can carry a ballclub. I know Danny Cox will be happy to see him on the ballclub.”[25]

In May 1985, Horner hit two homers off Cox in a single game, blasting one shot off the Anheuser-Busch eagle on the left-field scoreboard.

“That cost me a couple of grand, getting that thing fixed,” Cox said.[26]

Unfortunately, Horner’s two home runs at Busch Stadium that day proved to be just one shy of his total wearing the birds on the bat. Horner appeared in just 60 games for St. Louis in 1988, batting .257/.348/.354 with three homers and 33 RBIs before a shoulder injury ended his season. He was second on the team in RBIs at the time of the injury.

In August, the Cardinals traded John Tudor to the Dodgers for Pedro Guerrero. With Guerrero installed at first base, the Cardinals did not offer Horner a new contract. Horner was invited to Orioles camp for spring training in 1989, but his injured shoulder – a chronic condition he had been playing through almost his entire career –  forced him, at age 31, to retire before the season began.

“I felt in my heart it was over,” Horner said. “It’s this pressure, this weight you’re carrying around on your shoulders, and I had carried it around for so long. The shots and pills and x-rays and operations and six months of therapy … it was too much.”[27]

Horner finished his career with 218 home runs and 685 RBIs over 10 major-league seasons. He took more than 500 at-bats just once in those 10 seasons.

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[1] Rick Hummel, “Herzog: Thumbs Down On Bob Horner,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 8, 1988.

[2] Rick Hummel, “Herzog: Thumbs Down On Bob Horner,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 8, 1988.

[3] Rick Hummel, “Cards Sign Horner For Year,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 15, 1988.

[4] Rick Hummel, “Cards Sign Horner For Year,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 15, 1988.

[5] I.J. Rosenberg, “Whatever happened to: Bob Horner,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 19, 2016.

[6] Rick Hummel, “Herzog: Thumbs Down On Bob Horner,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 8, 1988.

[7] Rick Hummel, “Herzog: Thumbs Down On Bob Horner,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 8, 1988.

[8] Rick Hummel, “Herzog: Thumbs Down On Bob Horner,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 8, 1988.

[9] Gerry Fraley, “Cards: Horner not worth asking price,” Atlanta Constitution, January 9, 1988.

[10] Rick Hummel, “Herzog: Thumbs Down On Bob Horner,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 8, 1988.

[11] Rick Hummel, “Cards Sign Horner For Year,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 15, 1988.

[12] Rick Hummel, “Cards Sign Horner For Year,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 15, 1988.

[13] Rick Hummel, “Cards Sign Horner For Year,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 15, 1988.

[14] Rick Hummel, “Cards Sign Horner For Year,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 15, 1988.

[15] Rick Hummel, “Cards Sign Horner For Year,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 15, 1988.

[16] Gerry Fraley, “Horner back in majors with Cardinals,” Atlanta Constitution, January 15, 1988.

[17] Gerry Fraley, “Horner back in majors with Cardinals,” Atlanta Constitution, January 15, 1988.

[18] Gerry Fraley, “Braves adjusted to lineup without Horner,” Atlanta Constitution, January 15, 1988.

[19] Rick Hummel, “Cards Sign Horner For Year,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 15, 1988.

[20] Rick Hummel, “Cards Sign Horner For Year,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 15, 1988.

[21] Rick Hummel, “Herzog Changes Tune To Cautious Optimism,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 15, 1988.

[22] Rick Hummel, “Cards Sign Horner For Year,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 15, 1988.

[23] Rick Hummel, “Herzog Changes Tune To Cautious Optimism,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 15, 1988.

[24] Rick Hummel, “Cards Sign Horner For Year,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 15, 1988.

[25] Rick Hummel, “Herzog Changes Tune To Cautious Optimism,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 15, 1988.

[26] Rick Hummel, “Herzog Changes Tune To Cautious Optimism,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 15, 1988.

[27] “Early Retirement,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 16, 1989.

The post Why the Cardinals signed Bob Horner despite Herzog’s initial concerns first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

If the phone rang with the news that he had not been inducted in his first year of eligibility, Smith and his family were all set to drive to Steak ‘n Shake and begin looking forward to next year. Instead, Smith and his family opened a bottle of champagne they had been saving for just such an occasion.[1]

“I had gone over it a thousand times in my mind the way it would come about,” Smith said. “The only thing I miscalculated was the degree of emotion you get when you do get that phone call. I didn’t know how much this was going to touch me. The tears … they just come.”[2]

The call from Jack O’Connell, secretary-treasurer of the Baseball Writers Association of America, came before noon.

“I had butterflies,” Smith said. “In knowing you had a chance to (be elected) on the first time, it’s important. It has more significance going in on the first ballot than having to wait two or three years.”[3]

O’Connell informed Smith that not only had he received 433 of a possible 472 votes (91.7%), but he was the only player on that year’s ballot to receive the 75% necessary for induction.

“He said, ‘It’s 92%, and you’re the only one going in,” Smith said. “Right away, I started thinking, ‘Oh Lord, that means I have to talk longer.’”[4]

Smith became just the 37^th player in baseball history to be inducted in the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, joining fellow Cardinals Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, and Lou Brock.[5]

Gary Carter received 343 votes, just 11 shy of the 354 necessary for election. Jim Rice received 260 (55%), former Cardinals closer Bruce Sutter received 238 (50%), Andre Dawson got 214 (45%), and Goose Gossage had 203 (43%).

“It’s appropriate that Ozzie is going on a solo excursion into the Baseball Hall of Fame,” wrote St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz. “He’s always had to do it by himself because so many people counted him out as he made his way along the Yellow Brick Road on the way to Cooperstown. And Smith’s relentless, Wizard-against-the-world spirit made this brilliant career possible.”[6]

That brilliant 19-year career included 15 All-Star Games, 13 Gold Gloves, one Silver Slugger Award, and the 1985 NLCS MVP Award. A .231 hitter in his first four major-league seasons with the Padres, Smith worked to improve as an offensive player even after establishing himself as one of the most dynamic defensive players in the game.

“When he came here in ’82, his lifetime batting average was .230-something, he couldn’t drive in a runner from second, he didn’t have any strength,” said Whitey Herzog, who pulled off the trade for Smith ahead of the 1982 season and managed him to three National League pennants and the 1982 World Series championship. “He made himself stronger, he made himself better, he learned how to pull the ball, all the things we suggested he try, he put his heart and soul into it.”[7]

Upon Smith’s arrival in St. Louis, Herzog demanded that Smith take advantage of his speed and Busch Stadium’s AstroTurf by hitting the ball on the ground. To motivate him, Herzog offered Smith $2 for every ground ball he hit as long as Smith gave him $1 for every fly ball.

“I was $302 down by July, and I said, ‘That’s enough. Gussie (Busch) doesn’t pay me enough money to do this,’” Herzog recalled.[8]

“There’s one guy who I hope one day has the opportunity to stand before you and also say that he’s a Hall of Famer, and that’s Whitey Herzog,” said Smith (Herzog was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2010). “He came to San Diego one day and said to me, ‘If you come to play for the St. Louis Cardinals, we’re going to win the World Series.’ That man can tell the future.”[9]

Smith retired with 2,460 hits, including 1,944 with the Cardinals, and a .262 career batting average. Though he hit just 28 regular-season homers in 19 seasons, that didn’t include the lone postseason home run of his career – a game-winning shot in Game 5 of the 1985 NLCS against Tom Niedenfeur and the Dodgers.

“That was a defining moment,” Smith said. “Of all the great plays that I made, that was the one thing that made people stand up and take notice that I was much more than just a defensive player. I didn’t like the moniker of being a one-dimensional player. There was no reason for me, being as good a defensive player as I was, not to be a better offensive player.”[10]

Of course, Smith’s Hall of Fame election was fueled primarily by the strength of his defense. In addition to his incredible range and flair for jaw-dropping plays, Smith was a steady presence on the left side of the infield. He led the National League in fielding percentage eight times and retired with a .978 fielding percentage.

“Ozzie’s great plays stand out in your mind, but what really stands out to me is that he didn’t mess up the routine plays,” said second baseman Tom Herr, Smith’s double-play partner from 1982 until 1988. “He made all of those. His attention to detail, his pregame preparation, the focus he always had on the field. He never took for granted his skills as a defensive player. I don’t think there will be another one like him. The Hall of Fame is for special players, and he fits into that category.”[11]

Jack Clark, who won two National League pennants in the three seasons he played with Smith, said that he had no doubt that Smith deserved to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

“I say every player should have the opportunity to be Ozzie Smith’s teammate,” Clark said. “Then you’d really find out how great this game can be – and more.”[12]

“You never saw the same thing twice,” he added. “Every day, on ground balls or pop-ups or whatever, you had to pay attention because you could be looking at something you’d never see again. And to be on the same team, on the same field, wearing the same uniform, going for the same goal as him – that was really special.”[13]

The Cardinals won the 1982 World Series in Smith’s first season in St. Louis, then reached the World Series in 1985 and 1987. The 1987 season was Smith’s best offensive campaign, as he hit .303 with 104 runs scored, 75 RBIs, and 43 stolen bases. That season, he finished second in the National League MVP voting and won a Silver Slugger Award to go along with his Gold Glove.

“That was a very impressive team Whitey put together and Ozzie was the anchor,” Clark said. “No one is bigger than the game, but Ozzie was about as close as you could get on those teams.”[14]

For Willie McGee, Smith’s on-field performance was only surpassed by all he did off it. When McGee was called up to the majors in 1982, Smith invited the 23-year-old outfielder to live with him in St. Louis.

“Ozzie is such an outstanding ballplayer, but he’s as great a person as he was a ballplayer, in my eyes,” Willie McGee said. “Oz loves people and loves helping people. He wears his heart on his shoulder. It really shows. When I lived with him, I’d see him get up in the morning to go promote the game of baseball and the Cardinals. People didn’t know how much he did that. That’s what separates him from everyone else. He’s a class act.”[15]

Just as Smith was key to the Cardinals’ championship teams in the 1980s, his Hall of Fame induction played a vital role in helping St. Louis heal after a difficult summer. Approximately six weeks before Smith’s induction ceremony, Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck and pitcher Darryl Kile each passed away in the same week.

“This Ozzie-Fest 2002 is exactly what Cardinals Nation needed,” Miklasz wrote. “It was a day of joy and happiness. It was love. It was a baseball Woodstock, with thousands of red-wearing Cardinals fans sitting in the grass, savoring an exceptional day in baseball’s spiritual garden.”[16]

At the ceremony, Smith was joined on stage by Gibson, Brock, and Red Schoendienst. At one point, Musial pulled out his harmonica and played “Take Me Out To The Ballgame,” then drew a roar from the crowd when he posed in his famous batting stance.

Herzog, McGee, Vince Coleman, Bernard Gilkey, and Tom Lawless were also in attendance.[17]

“The Cardinals are very well-represented in this Hall of Fame, and I’m just honored and very humbled to be one of those guys,” Smith said. “I’m the person up on the stage, but I was accepting on behalf of all the great St. Louis fans that have been part of the success we’ve had over the years. It’s a great feeling.”[18]

Before Smith stepped to the lectern to give his induction speech, his 15-year-old son Dustin read Smith’s Hall of Fame plaque. In his remarks, Smith held a baseball in one hand and a copy of Frank L. Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” in the other. He described his career and his drive to succeed in metaphors, comparing them to the components of a baseball and the quests of the tin man, the scarecrow, and the lion in the book.

“This little cork pill weighs less than an ounce, but when you look at its role in the history of baseball, this is where it all began,” Smith said. “Likewise, it also represents the core of my quest. A dream of what one might do. A vision of what one might become. A specter of potential greatness and achievement in one’s mind. Ironically, that’s exactly what the scarecrow wanted most from the Wizard of Oz – a mind so that he could think and dream.”[19]

As Smith concluded his speech, the sound system played the song “Over the Rainbow.”

“You knew his presentation would be polished,” Miklasz wrote. “You knew it would be theatrical. You knew it would be memorable. And you knew it would make you cry. And Ozzie came through. This time his trademark backflip was replaced by poetry, music, literature, props. It was a one-man show, a veritable Broadway production, as smooth as his elegance in the field. By the time he was finished speaking, Cardinals fans were ready to do backflips for him.”[20]

When Smith concluded his speech, his son Dustin presented him with his plaque.

“I never played this game to make it to the Hall of Fame,” Smith said. “I played it because I loved it, and because it was a thing I was put here to do.”[21]

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[1] Rick Hummel, “In A League Of His Own,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 9, 2002.

[2] Rick Hummel, “In A League Of His Own,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 9, 2002.

[3] Rick Hummel, “In A League Of His Own,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 9, 2002.

[4] Joe Ostermeier, “Ozzie Smith joins baseball’s most elite club,” Bellville News-Democrat, January 9, 2002.

[5] Joe Ostermeier, “Ozzie Smith joins baseball’s most elite club,” Bellville News-Democrat, January 9, 2002.

[6] Bernie Miklasz, “In defying skeptics, No. 1 showed he was one of a kind,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 9, 2002.

[7] Joe Ostermeier, “Ozzie Smith joins baseball’s most elite club,” Bellville News-Democrat, January 9, 2002.

[8] Joe Ostermeier, “Ozzie Smith joins baseball’s most elite club,” Bellville News-Democrat, January 9, 2002.

[9] Rick Hummel, “In A League Of His Own,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 9, 2002.

[10] Rick Hummel, “In A League Of His Own,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 9, 2002.

[11] Mike Eisenbath, “Smith’s ex-teammates share his happiness,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 9, 2002.

[12] Mike Eisenbath, “Smith’s ex-teammates share his happiness,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 9, 2002.

[13] Mike Eisenbath, “Smith’s ex-teammates share his happiness,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 9, 2002.

[14] Mike Eisenbath, “Smith’s ex-teammates share his happiness,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 9, 2002.

[15] Mike Eisenbath, “Smith’s ex-teammates share his happiness,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 9, 2002.

[16] Bernie Miklasz, “Wizard delivers perfect performance in Cooperstown,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 29, 2002.

[17] Bernie Miklasz, “Wizard delivers perfect performance in Cooperstown,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 29, 2002.

[18] Dan O’Neill, “Smith uses baseball, ‘Oz’ theme to illustrate his journey,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 29, 2002.

[19] “Ozzie Smith delivers Hall of Fame induction speech,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxIuovnpUXg.

[20] Bernie Miklasz, “Wizard delivers perfect performance in Cooperstown,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 29, 2002.

[21] Joe Ostermeier, “Ozzie Smith joins baseball’s most elite club,” Bellville News-Democrat, January 9, 2002.

The post Ozzie Smith is elected to the Hall of Fame: January 8, 2002 first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

McGee’s penchant for avoiding the spotlight never wavered, even after he was voted the National League MVP on November 18, 1985.

“I’m not going to look at it as making me a better person or another person,” said McGee, whose father Hurdice spent four decades as a machinist at the Oakland Naval Yard and worked additional jobs to make ends meet, including stints as a janitor.^[2] “I’m going to come out next year and just try to do better. Hopefully, I’m not going to let it affect my life.”^[3]

McGee’s .353 batting average that season won the National League batting title, easily eclipsing the .320 average shared by the Dodgers’ Pedro Guerrero and the Expos’ Tim Raines. He also posted league highs in hits (216) and triples (18) while adding 10 homers, 82 RBIs, and 56 stolen bases. Along the way, McGee went on two 11-game hit streaks and combined with Vince Coleman to set a record for the most stolen bases in a season by two teammates (166).

His breakout season – and 17 game-winning RBIs – were a big reason why the Cardinals won the National League pennant that season.

McGee’s batting average was the highest by a switch hitter in National League history, beating the .348 averages posted by Frankie Frisch with the Giants in 1923 and Pete Rose with the Reds in 1969. He became the fourth switch hitter to win the NL MVP, joining Rose, Maury Wills, and Frisch. ^[4]

“I don’t know what I’m capable of doing, but this gives me an idea,” McGee said. “If someone asked me at the start of the year if this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have thought I was at that stage yet.”^[5]

McGee’s accolade marked the 17^th time a Cardinal had won the MVP Award. Previous award winners included Rogers Hornsby, 1925; Bob O’Farrell, 1926; Jim Bottomley, 1928; Frisch, 1931; Dizzy Dean, 1934; Joe Medwick, 1937; Mort Cooper, 1942; Stan Musial in 1946, 1946, and 1948; Marty Marion, 1948; Ken Boyer, 1964; Orlando Cepeda, 1967; Bob Gibson, 1968; Joe Torre, 1971; and Keith Hernandez, 1979.

“The award shows that I put everything together,” McGee said. “Everything I did worked.”^[6]

McGee received 14 of 24 first-place votes to finish with 280 points. The Reds’ Dave Parker placed second with six first-place votes and 220 points. The Cardinals’ Tom Herr placed fifth, John Tudor finished ninth, Jack Clark was 10^th, and Vince Coleman was 11^th. Ozzie Smith also received five points in the voting.

“It would be interesting to me, if the St. Louis Cardinals took a 25-man vote, who they would pick as their most valuable player – Vince Coleman, Willie McGee, Tommy Herr, or Jack Clark,” said Rose, Parker’s manager in Cincinnati. “Not to take anything away from Willie McGee because he had a great year, but I think the Cardinals still would have done well without him in the lineup. But we could not have done the job we did if Dave Parker would have been out for any length of time.”

Parker finished the year with a .312 batting average, 34 homers, and 125 RBIs. Guerrero, who placed third in the voting, hit .320 with 33 homers and 87 RBIs and Dwight Gooden placed fourth after going 24-4 with a 1.53 ERA and 268 strikeouts over 276 2/3 innings.

“With the type of year he had, Willie should have been a unanimous choice for MVP,” Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said. “He keeps working at it. He’s never satisfied. He’s a very humble young man and he wants to do better.”^[7]

With Coleman batting leadoff and stealing 110 bases, McGee batting second, Herr batting third and driving in 110 runs, and Clark batting cleanup and hitting 22 home runs, the Cardinals’ first four hitters each finished in the top 11 in the MVP voting.

“He was definitely a plus,” McGee said of batting behind Coleman. “Just like Vince helped me, I helped Tommy Herr and Tommy helped Jack Clark. But also I helped Vince Coleman a lot too. I think I put myself in the hole a lot by taking a lot of first pitches.”^[8]

McGee also gave credit to Smith, who welcomed McGee into his home when McGee first came up to the big leagues.

“He led me right,” McGee said of Smith. “He made my transition to the big leagues a lot easier. I wasn’t going into anything blind. Ozzie definitely was the biggest contributor in my career.”^[9]

“I told you in spring training that he was ready to blossom,” Smith said. “I knew the only thing that would hold him back were injuries.”^[10]

McGee’s 1985 season proved to be the best of his career, as he posted highs in batting average, hits, runs, triples, and stolen bases. In 1990, he won a second batting title, hitting .335 with the Cardinals before he was traded to the Athletics.

“Willie should hit for a high average most of his life,” Herzog said after McGee was named MVP. “I would say that for the next five, six, seven years that he should hit .330 all the time. If you put him in another ballpark, he’d probably hit 15 home runs, but I’d rather have him hit 10 home runs and 20 triples.”^[11]

“I’d rather be known as an all-around player who can help a team win in several different ways, not just a one-dimensional player like a home run hitter,” McGee said.^[12]

As McGee played through his age-40 season, he remained a multi-dimensional player. Through 18 seasons, he compiled 2,254 hits, a .295 batting average, and 352 stolen bases. Along the way, he was selected for four all-star games and won three Gold Glove Awards.

“He could do everything,” Bob Forsch said, “and he never said anything boastful. It was like he was surprised he was that good.”[13]

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[1] Gregorian, Vahe. “The Humble Hero.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 16 Aug. 1998.

[2] Gregorian, Vahe. “The Humble Hero.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 16 Aug. 1998.

[3] Rick Hummel, “McGee is 17^th MVP For Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 19, 1985.

[4] Rick Hummel, “McGee is 17^th MVP For Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 19, 1985.

[5] Ross McKeon, “McGee takes it in stride,” San Francisco Examiner, November 19, 1985.

[6] Rick Hummel, “McGee is 17^th MVP For Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 19, 1985.

[7] Rick Hummel, “McGee is 17^th MVP For Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 19, 1985.

[8] Rick Hummel, “McGee is 17^th MVP For Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 19, 1985.

[9] Rick Hummel, “McGee is 17^th MVP For Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 19, 1985.

[10] Rick Hummel, “McGee is 17^th MVP For Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 19, 1985.

[11] Rick Hummel, “McGee is 17^th MVP For Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 19, 1985.

[12] Ross McKeon, “McGee takes it in stride,” San Francisco Examiner, November 19, 1985.

[13] Rob Rains and Alvin A. Reid (2002), Whitey’s Boys: A Celebration of the ’82 Cards World Championship, Chicago; Triumph Books, 76.

The post How Willie McGee was named 1985 National League MVP first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

After finishing third in the National League East in 1984, Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog made clear that his top priority was to find a starting pitcher who could add stability to the rotation. The Cardinals already had Joaquin Andujar to serve as the ace of the staff, but at age 34, Bob Forsch had thrown just 52 1/3 innings in an injury-plagued 1984 campaign and could no longer be counted upon to be a top-of-the-rotation starter.

On December 12, in one of his final acquisitions before he resigned on January 3, 1985, Cardinals general manager Joe McDonald got Herzog the arm he wanted, trading outfielder George Hendrick and prospect Steve Barnard to the Pirates for left-hander John Tudor and catcher Brian Harper.

Trading Hendrick left the Cardinals in need of a middle-of-the-order bat. Hendrick hit at least 16 home runs each season between 1973 and 1983, but in 1984 his numbers dipped to nine homers and 69 RBIs in 120 games.

“George did a good job until the last two years,” Herzog said. “Last year, we’d put a guy on first, but he’d never drive in the guy with a ball in the gap.”[1]

To replace Hendrick, the Cardinals set their sights on San Francisco, where Jack Clark and the Giants had endured a tumultuous relationship. On February 1, 1985, the Cardinals and Giants finalized a deal that would send David Green, Dave LaPoint, Gary Rajsich, and Jose Uribe to the Giants in exchange for Clark.

“I think Jack Clark puts us in the situation of definite contenders again,” Herzog said. “Here’s a guy who can win a ballgame with one swing of the bat. He’s the only player in the league besides (Mike) Schmidt who could hit 20 homers a year playing in our park.”^[2]

A 13^th-round pick in 1973 out of Gladstone High School in Covina, California, Clark made his major-league debut as a 19-year-old September call-up in 1975. In 1978, he enjoyed his breakout season, batting .306 with 25 homers and 98 RBIs. He placed fifth in the MVP voting and was selected for the All-Star Game that season.

Between 1978 and 1983, Clark hit at least 20 runs in five of six seasons. In 1984, a right knee injury limited him to 57 games. He was batting .320 with 11 homers and 44 RBIs in June when he required season-ending arthroscopic surgery.

Clark, who had appeared in more Giants games than any other active player, with 1,044 appearances over nine seasons, had a complicated history with the club. Even though he could be counted on for 20+ homers per year, he had feuded with former manager Frank Robinson and hated playing in Candlestick Park, where the swirling winds made right field a daily adventure.

“There never was a day where it was really, really nice there,” Clark said. “You didn’t mind playing in the cold, but it was the wind. You’d see players on teams, even your team, go after fly balls like they had never played before. But I feel like I became a pretty good outfielder because I had to really improve my concentration.”[3]

In his 1988 autobiography, Wizard, Cardinals shortstop Ozzie Smith wrote that he knew Clark would benefit from a change of scenery.

“I told Lou (Susman) I thought there was a way we could obtain the power hitter everybody agreed we needed,” Smith wrote. “I had met Jack Clark several years back, and I knew that all the reports about him being a troublemaker with the Giants weren’t true. I had come from an organization – the Padres – that was similar to the Giants, and it seemed to me to be a situation where the organization was more to blame than the player. … I pointed that out to Lou and told him I thought Jack would fit into our organization and could give us 25 to 30 home runs a year. The key was to put Jack in a situation where he thought he had a chance to be on a winning team.”[4]

That knee injury was the first sticking point in the trade, as the Cardinals first requested that Clark undergo an examination of his injured knee. Once that was completed, a new wrinkle developed: Clark’s contract had provisions to pay him $250,000 if he were traded, provide a low-interest loan of $250,000, and give him another $250,000 payment if he signed with another team after the 1986 season. After some additional haggling, Cardinals attorney Lou Susman and Giants general manager Tom Haller agreed to split the final $250,000 payment, with the Cardinals paying the greater share. As a result of those negotiations, the Giants removed left-handed pitching prospect Colin Ward from the deal.

“I would have liked to have had the prospect,” Herzog said.[5]

The deal was finalized eight days after it was leaked to the press and four days after Clark completed his knee examination.

“This is the world’s longest trade,” said LaPoint, who had gone 33-22 for the Cardinals the previous three seasons. “It’s basically sixth-page headlines now. When they make it last an extra three days over $250,000, something’s wrong.”[6]

LaPoint’s frustration had less to do with the trade’s treatment in the papers than with a lack of communication about his family’s future. When the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reached out to him several hours after the trade had been announced, LaPoint said neither team had informed him of the trade.

“There’s more than ballplayers involved,” he said. “There are families involved. I think they should have at least let me know what was going on.”[7]

Herzog couldn’t disagree. “I wish it could have been handled more professionally,” he said. “Dave’s basically a really good kid, but he didn’t know what to do, and I didn’t know what to tell him.”[8]

Haller told the San Francisco Examiner that the Cardinals’ lack of a general manager following McDonald’s resignation complicated the trade, leaving Susman, an Anheuser-Busch attorney, to handle the details on the Cardinals’ behalf.

“It was ridiculous in a way,” Haller said. “It boils down to a guy who never dealt in that arena before. Right now, he has been handling a lot of their important decisions since they don’t have a GM.”[9]

In Green, LaPoint, Rajsich, and Uribe, the Giants had an opportunity to add two new starters to their infield and LaPoint to their starting rotation.

Green, a highly touted prospect who came to St. Louis alongside LaPoint in the deal that sent Rollie Fingers, Ted Simmons, and Pete Vuckovich to Milwaukee, had claimed the Cardinals’ starting right field job in 1983 and hit .284 with eight homers, 69 RBIs, and 34 stolen bases. In 1984, the Cardinals moved him to first base, where he hit .268 with a team-leading 15 homers, 65 RBIs, and 17 stolen bases. He missed three weeks of the season while rehabilitating from alcohol addiction.

“You’re really gambling on his potential,” Herzog said. “Of all the players I’ve had the opportunity to manage, David Green has more ability than anyone when you consider everything – hitting, hitting with power, speed, and arm. (Garry) Templeton and George Brett are in that category, but David has more power than either one, he runs better than either one, and he throws better than George.”[10]

LaPoint, a left-hander from Glens Falls, New York, was coming off a 12-10 season in which he posted a 3.96 ERA. As a rookie in 1982, he went 9-3 and received no decision in the Cardinals’ 7-5 Game 4 loss to the Brewers. LaPoint allowed one earned run in 6 2/3 innings in that start.

Uribe, a shortstop from the Dominican Republic, had hit .279 in Triple-A Louisville in 1984. Rajsich, whom the Cardinals had acquired from the Mets prior to the 1984 season, had appeared in just seven games for the Cardinals.

“It gives us quality players at three positions and help off the bench,” Haller said. “Green has sock in his bat, LaPoint strengthens our starting pitching, and Gonzalez (Uribe) has a good opportunity to be our starting shortstop.”[11]

Giants manager Jim Davenport said, “You hate to see a guy like Jack Clark get traded away, but any time you can pick up four players like that it’s bound to make you stronger. LaPoint will be one of our starters, Green will play first base, Gonzalez (Uribe) and (Johnnie) LeMaster will battle it out for the shortstop job, and Rajsich will give us strength off the bench.”[12]

Clark proved key to the Cardinals’ 1985 and 1987 National League championships. Before the 1985 season started, Herzog moved Clark to first base and Andy Van Slyke to right field.

That season, Clark earned All-Star recognition for the third time in his career, batting .281 with 22 homers and 87 RBIs. In the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers, he went 8-for-21 (.381), including a three-run home run off Tom Niedenfuer in the ninth inning of Game 6. In the World Series against the Royals, he went 6-for-25 (.240) with four RBIs.

Injuries limited him to just 65 games in 1986, but he returned in even better form in 1987, batting .286 with 35 homers and 106 RBIs, both career highs. He led the league in walks (136), on-base percentage (.459), slugging percentage (.597), and OPS+ (176).

“He’s the greatest fastball hitter I’ve ever managed, and he’s very good with runners on base. Our whole offensive game is geared to getting guys on base ahead of Clark, and everybody in the league knows it,”^[13] Herzog wrote in White Rat: A Life in Baseball.

Later in the book, Herzog added, “Jack Clark is one of the great power hitters and RBI men in baseball today, one of those guys you stick in the cleanup spot and then build your lineup around.”[14]

Clark injured his ankle on September 9 with three weeks remaining in the 1987 regular season when he tried to avoid a tag at first base. He took just one at-bat during the Cardinals’ NLCS win over the Giants and did not play in the World Series against the Twins. Despite missing the end of the regular season, he finished third in the MVP voting and earned a Silver Slugger.

In January 1988, Clark signed a two-year, $3 million free-agent deal with the Yankees, a move that prompted Herzog to say, “In all honesty, without Jack Clark for 162 games, we’ll be lucky to play .500. … We’re not a contender without Jack Clark.”[15]

Green played one season in San Francisco, batting .248 with five homers, 20 RBIs, and six stolen bases in 294 at-bats. In December 1985, the Giants traded him to the Brewers. The Brewers, in turn, sold him to the Kintetsu Buffaloes of the Japan Pacific League. In July 1987, Green returned to the Cardinals and appeared in 14 games. He played the remainder of his career in the minors and the Mexican League.

LaPoint went 7-17 despite a 3.57 ERA in 206 2/3 innings in 1985. That fall, the Giants traded him to the Tigers. LaPoint’s career took him to San Diego, Chicago (with the White Sox), Pittsburgh, New York (with the Yankees), and Philadelphia, with his final major-league appearance coming in 1991. LaPoint signed with the Cardinals for the 1987 season but was traded to the White Sox at the trade deadline.

Rajsich played one season in San Francisco, batting .165 with 10 RBIs in 91 at-bats. The Cardinals purchased him in July 1985 and sold him to the Chunichi Dragons of the Japan Central League that December. He played three seasons in Japan, hitting 76 home runs and driving in 189 runs.

Uribe proved the key to the deal for the Giants. He claimed the starting shortstop job upon his arrival in San Francisco and wound up playing eight seasons with San Francisco, batting .241 with a .969 fielding percentage for his career. He helped the Giants reach the NLCS in 1987 and the World Series in 1989.

Ward, who originally was included in the deal, appeared in six major-league games for the Giants, all in 1985. He spent the remainder of his career in the minors.

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[1] Rick Hummel, “It’s Official: Cardinals Get Clark In Deal With Giants,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 2, 1985: Page C1.

[2] Rick Hummel, “It’s Official: Cardinals Get Clark In Deal With Giants,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 2, 1985: Page C1.

[3] Rick Hummel, “It’s Official: Cardinals Get Clark In Deal With Giants,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 2, 1985: Page C4.

[4] Ozzie Smith and Rob Rains (1988), “Wizard,” Chicago; Contemporary Books, Inc., 100-101.

[5] Rick Hummel, “It’s Official: Cardinals Get Clark In Deal With Giants,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 2, 1985: Page C1.

[6] Rick Hummel, “It’s Official: Cardinals Get Clark In Deal With Giants,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 2, 1985: Page C1.

[7] Rick Hummel, “It’s Official: Cardinals Get Clark In Deal With Giants,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 2, 1985: Page C1.

[8] Rick Hummel, “It’s Official: Cardinals Get Clark In Deal With Giants,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 2, 1985: Page C1.

[9] Glenn Schwarz and John Hillyer, “It’s official: Clark for 4 Cards,” San Francisco Examiner, February 1, 1985: Page F1.

[10] Rick Hummel, “It’s Official: Cardinals Get Clark In Deal With Giants,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 2, 1985: Page C4.

[11] Glenn Schwarz and John Hillyer, “It’s official: Clark for 4 Cards,” San Francisco Examiner, February 1, 1985: Page F1.

[12] Glenn Schwarz and John Hillyer, “It’s official: Clark for 4 Cards,” San Francisco Examiner, February 1, 1985: Page F7.

[13] Whitey Herzog and Kevin Horrigan (1987), “White Rat: A Life in Baseball,” New York, N.Y.; Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 6-7.

[14] Whitey Herzog and Kevin Horrigan (1987), “White Rat: A Life in Baseball,” New York, N.Y.; Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 170.

[15] Rick Hummel, “Herzog: ‘We’ll Be Lucky To Play .500,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 7, 1988: Page D1.

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