Playing upon that knowledge – and Isringhausen’s respect for the stars who came before him – St. Louis manager Tony La Russa made it a point to mention that if Isringhausen signed with the Cardinals, he would have regular access to former greats such as Stan Musial, Red Schoendienst, Lou Brock, and Bob Gibson.

“I told him routinely at Busch Stadium in the office, Stan and Red and Lou and Bob are sitting there,” La Russa said, “and he says, ‘You’re talking about Gibson and Brock and Musial, they’re sitting in the clubhouse? And I’m sitting there too?’ I said, ‘Only if you’re not a visiting player,’ and he said, ‘I’ll sign.’”[1]

On December 10, 2001, Isringhausen signed a four-year, $27 million contract that included a team option for a fifth year.[2]

“We had a very exciting ballclub last year and there’s a couple things we wanted to do this offseason to improve,” Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty said. “This is the first step in doing so. This certainly upgrades our starting rotation with Jason pitching at the end of the game, and I think it upgrades our entire pitching staff.”[3]

The Cardinals’ roster seemed to agree, as Andy Benes, Alan Benes, Mike Matheny, and Jim Edmonds each appeared at Isringhausen’s introductory press conference to welcome the newest Redbird.

“You have a family off the field and you have a family on the field,” Alan Benes said. “We wanted to show up and show support for Jason and his wife, for Mr. Jocketty and Mr. DeWitt. All the guys are the team are going to be grateful for what they do to make us a better ballclub.”[4]

Isringhausen chose St. Louis over a four-year, $30 million offer from the Texas Rangers.

“I felt like this was the most comfortable fit, the right place to be,” Isringhausen said. “I felt like this was where I had the chance to make the most impact.”[5]

The decision also pleased Isringhausen’s family. His parents and his grandmother lived in the Brighton-Godfrey area and his wife was an Elsah native.

“My grandmother always wanted me to play for the Cardinals, so I thought I’d (grant) her wish,” Isringhausen said. “There’s a lot of tradition here. You grew up watching the Ozzie Smith home run and the way they played the game, Vince Coleman getting run over by the tarp …”[6]

Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said, “In the last couple of years, we have made an effort to sign targeted free agents and it seems that we have come up a little bit short, mainly because the player in question took the highest bid. Jason made it clear that while there was a certain threshold of compensation that was important to him, it was dependent on a lot of other factors.”[7]

Coming out of Lewis & Clark Community College in Godfrey, Illinois, Isringhausen was a 44^th-round draft pick of the Mets in 1991, and as a draft-and-follow prospect, he didn’t sign until May 1992. After playing the outfield at Lewis & Clark, the Mets put him on the mound, where he enjoyed rapid success. In 1994, he was promoted to Double-A Binghamton, where he posted a 3.02 ERA over 92 1/3 innings. Alongside fellow Mets prospects Bill Pulsipher and Paul Wilson, he was dubbed a part of “Generation K,” and the excitement only built when he went 9-2 with a 2.81 ERA in 14 starts during his rookie campaign in 1995.

After finishing fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting, however, Isringhausen struggled in 1996, going 6-14 with a 4.77 ERA over 171 2/3 innings.

“As a 22-year-old rookie in New York City, you kind of think this game is easy,” Isringhausen said. “It didn’t quite work out that way. I got my rear end handed to me the next year. You live and learn. You don’t take it for granted anymore.”[8]

If anything, matters only grew worse for Isringhausen, as he appeared in just six major league games over the next two seasons. In September 1996, he had arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow and shoulder. Following a disappointing minor-league rehab start in 1997, he broke his right hand punching a trash can. A month later, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and at the end of the season, he underwent his second elbow surgery. This time, the surgery would keep him out the entire 1998 season.

“It seemed like I had a pretty black cloud over my head,” Isringhausen said. “There were times when I thought about quitting. It seemed like everything was happening at once and those two or three years were kind of blurred. But my daddy never raised a quitter. He wouldn’t have been too proud of me if I’d have just given up and come home.”[9]

After years of disappointments, Isringhausen’s elbow surgery proved to be even more successful than he had hoped.

“I throw harder than I did before the surgery,” Isringhausen said. “I topped out at 92, 93 then, and last year I hit 100.”[10]

At the 1999 trade deadline, the Mets traded Isringhausen and relief pitcher Greg McMichael to the A’s for reliever Billy Taylor. In Oakland, Isringhausen was converted to a full-time reliever, where he saved eight games for the A’s down the stretch. The following season, he made the all-star team on his way to 33 saves.

In 2001, Isringhausen was even better, posting a 2.65 ERA over 71 1/3 innings. He finished the year with 34 saves even though he learned late in the season that he had been tipping his pitches.

“Getting my grip in my glove, I was coming down just a split second longer on different pitches,” Isringhausen said. “We found out some teams had known it for the last two years. You kick yourself to death trying to figure out, ‘Why is everyone doing this to me?’ … It was something so simple and it took me forever to figure it out. I was able to get them out when they knew what was coming, and when they didn’t know what was coming, it was even better.”[11]

After making the adjustment, Isringhausen converted his final nine save opportunities.

“Jason Isringhausen was the No. 1 guy on our list,” Jocketty said.[12]

“He has a real dynamic arm, dynamic stuff,” La Russa said. “He’s at the right age, with the right arm, the right experience, the right attitude. I had a conversation with Jason Giambi about him. He was very high on Izzy.”[13]

For a Cardinals team that had won 93 games the previous season and finished second in the National League Central, Isringhausen’s signing was greeted positively. Dave Veres led the Cardinals with 15 saves in 2001, while Steve Kline was second on the team with nine.

“Isringhausen, 29, is entering his third year in late relief, a year in which he can be expected to blossom into elite status,” Dan O’Neill wrote in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “In St. Louis, Matt Morris, Darryl Kile, Woody Williams, Bud Smith, and, perhaps, Rick Ankiel will help him get there. In St. Louis, save opportunities promise to pile up like toys for tots. In St. Louis, he can do more than help. He can make the difference.”[14]

In The Sporting News, Ken Rosenthal was equally positive.

“By signing Jason Isringhausen, the Cardinals took a major step toward becoming the team to beat in the National League,” he wrote. “Four years and $27 million are excessive for Isringhausen, who tied for the major league lead last season with nine blown saves. But the Cardinals’ entire bullpen will improve now that the ninth inning belongs to Izzy.”[15]

However, Rosenthal’s article did quote a National League general manager who said, “He’s no sure thing. I’m not quaking in terror. It’s an upgrade, but it’s probably going from a C+ to a B.”[16]

In seven seasons with the Cardinals, Isringhausen proved to be better than that. In 2004, he helped St. Louis win the National League pennant as he went 4-2 with a 2.87 ERA and led the league with 47 saves.

In each of his first six seasons with the Cardinals, he saved at least 22 games and in five of those seasons he saved at least 32. When he signed as a free agent with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2009, he left as the franchise’s career saves leader with 217, easily surpassing Lee Smith (160), Todd Worrell (129), and Bruce Sutter (127). In his seven seasons in St. Louis, Isringhausen posted a 2.98 ERA.

In 2011, Isringhausen earned the 300^th and final save of his career as a member of the Mets. He played his final season with the Angels in 2012 and was inducted into the Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2019.

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[1] Joe Ostermeier, “Isringhausen signs 4-year deal,” Belleville News-Democrat, December 11, 2001.

[2] Rick Hummel, “Isringhausen pleases family by joining Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 11, 2001.

[3] Joe Ostermeier, “Isringhausen signs 4-year deal,” Belleville News-Democrat, December 11, 2001.

[4] Dan O’Neill, “Isringhausen could make more dreams come true on Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 12, 2001.

[5] Dan O’Neill, “Isringhausen could make more dreams come true on Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 12, 2001.

[6] Rick Hummel, “Isringhausen pleases family by joining Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 11, 2001.

[7] Rick Hummel, “Isringhausen pleases family by joining Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 11, 2001.

[8] Rick Hummel, “Isringhausen pleases family by joining Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 11, 2001.

[9] Rick Hummel, “Isringhausen pleases family by joining Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 11, 2001.

[10] Joe Ostermeier, “Isringhausen signs 4-year deal,” Belleville News-Democrat, December 11, 2001.

[11] Joe Ostermeier, “Isringhausen signs 4-year deal,” Belleville News-Democrat, December 11, 2001.

[12] Rick Hummel, “Isringhausen pleases family by joining Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 11, 2001.

[13] Ken Rosenthal (The Sporting News), “Isringhausen improves Cards’ bullpen, but by how much?” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 13, 2001.

[14] Dan O’Neill, “Isringhausen could make more dreams come true on Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 12, 2001.

[15] Ken Rosenthal (The Sporting News), “Isringhausen improves Cards’ bullpen, but by how much?” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 13, 2001.

[16] Ken Rosenthal (The Sporting News), “Isringhausen improves Cards’ bullpen, but by how much?” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 13, 2001.

The post Why Jason Isringhausen turned down more money to sign with the Cardinals first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

With a new ownership group following Anheuser-Busch’s sale of the team, the Cardinals had retooled following a disappointing 62-81 season in 1995. Joe Torre had been replaced by Tony La Russa, Andy Benes and Ron Gant signed with the Cardinals as free agents, and Walt Jocketty made trades to obtain Royce Clayton, Todd Stottlemyre, and Dennis Eckersley.

In the second game of the season, the Cardinals’ saw their new additions pay off as Stottlemyre earned his first win as a Cardinal, Eckersley captured his first save, and La Russa earned his first win as Cardinals manager.

After seven seasons with the Blue Jays, Stottlemyre was coming off a 14-7 campaign with the Athletics, where he posted a 4.55 ERA and ranked second in the American League with 205 strikeouts. Recognizing that Stottlemyre was due for a raise in arbitration after earning $1.8 million in 1995, the Athletics dealt him to the Cardinals for outfielder Allen Battle and pitchers Jay Witasick, Carl Dale, and Bret Wagner.

Facing off against Jason Isringhausen and the Mets, Stottlemyre looked sharp in his Cardinals debut. He retired the first 10 batters he faced and struck out the side in the third inning.

Gant gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead with a third-inning home run to left field. Ray Lankford led off the inning with a single, then distracted Isringhausen by breaking for second base.

“When I saw him take off, I flinched,” Isringhausen said. “Once you take your eyes off the plate, you’re in trouble. I see Gant has hit a few home runs. He’ll probably hit a few more.”[1]

In the sixth, Lankford led off the inning with a triple into the right-field corner and Gant scored him on a sacrifice fly to center.

Bernard Gilkey, who had been traded to the Mets during the offseason following the Cardinals’ signing of Gant, tied the game in the bottom half of the sixth with a three-run homer to left-center to make it a 3-3 ballgame. It was Gilkey’s second home run in as many days and his fifth RBI.

In the top of the seventh, the Cardinals mustered a two-out rally to re-take the lead. Stottlemyre started the rally with a single.

“I never hit a ball out of the infield all spring,” said Stottlemyre, who was playing in his first National League game. “I was just as surprised as anybody else when the ball hit the outfield grass.”[2]

Jose Vizcaino misplayed a ground ball off the bat of Willie McGee to keep the inning alive, and Clayton followed with an RBI single that scored Stottlemyre.

“After I scored, I was gassed,” Stottlemyre said.[3]

With two outs in the eighth, catcher Danny Schaeffer added an RBI single off Jerry Dipoto to give the Cardinals a 5-3 lead.

“That’s what we talk about, staying ahead of hitters,” Mets manager Dallas Green said. “You want to bury guys, especially a guy like Schaeffer. We had a chance to stay in the game right there, but we didn’t get it done.”[4]

From there, it was up to Stottlemyre and Eckersley to hold the lead. With four outs remaining in the game, La Russa called upon Eckersley to close out the game. Butch Huskey greeted the 41-year-old by blasting a fastball that appeared headed for the outfield seats, but Lankford leaped to rob him of the home run.

“After my heart started back up, I think I was more excited than (Lankford) was,” Gant said. “It’s awesome to get a front-row seat on a play like that.”[5]

Gilkey said he knew Lankford would make the play, even as Eckersley, expecting an easy out, began to walk toward the dugout.

“I’ve been playing with Ray a long time and I know the ability he has in center field,” Gilkey said. “I was just hoping the ball was a little higher. I’ve seen this so many times, but this was the only time I was a little disappointed he made the catch.”[6]

The home run would have been Huskey’s first after he hit nine for the Mets during spring training.

“I thought it had a chance to go,” he said. “It would have if (Lankford) wouldn’t have stuck his glove up.

“I went in (the clubhouse) and lifted some weights so he won’t have a chance next time.”[7]

Eckersley worked around two singles in the ninth to earn his first save as a Cardinal. He struck out Edgardo Alfonzo to close the game.

“No matter how much experience you have, you’re a little uptight when you come into the game,” Eckersley said. “I felt very uncomfortable, like I’d never been in a game before.”[8]

Stottlemyre’s day ended with his first win as a Cardinal after allowing three runs in 7 2/3 innings. Lankford, Gant, and Stottlemyre each finished with two hits.

Isringhausen, who grew up in Brighton, Illinois, took the loss. He had gone 9-2 as a rookie in 1995 and was making his first appearance of the season.

“I had more butterflies because I was pitching against the Cardinals for the first time,” he said.[9]

With their new-look roster, the Cardinals won 88 games to win the National League Central in 1996, sweeping the Padres in the Division Series to advance to the NLCS.

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[1] Rick Hummel, “Stottlemyre And Gant Look Like A Million,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 4, 1996: Page D1.

[2] Rick Hummel, “Stottlemyre And Gant Look Like A Million,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 4, 1996: Page D5.

[3] Rick Hummel, “Stottlemyre And Gant Look Like A Million,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 4, 1996: Page D5.

[4] Thomas Hill, “Mets, Huskey fall short,” New York Daily News, April 4, 1996: Page 98.

[5] Rick Hummel, “Stottlemyre And Gant Look Like A Million,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 4, 1996: Page D1.

[6] Rick Hummel, “Gilkey Greets Ex-Team With 5 RBIs in 2 Games,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 4, 1996: Page D5.

[7] Thomas Hill, “Mets, Huskey fall short,” New York Daily News, April 4, 1996: Page 98.

[8] Rick Hummel, “Stottlemyre And Gant Look Like A Million,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 4, 1996: Page D5.

[9] Rick Hummel, “Gilkey Greets Ex-Team With 5 RBIs in 2 Games,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 4, 1996: Page D5

The post Todd Stottlemyre, Dennis Eckersley earn Cardinals firsts in win vs. Mets: April 3, 1996 first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

The previous night, the fireworks started when Jim Edmonds hit a two-run home run off Chicago’s Carlos Zambrano. The fiery Cubs right-hander felt that Edmonds spent too long admiring the ball as it flew over the right-field wall and shouted at the Cardinals center fielder as he rounded the bases. Tempers flared and the benches cleared before order was restored.

Four innings later, Cardinals third baseman Scott Rolen hit what proved to be the game-winning blast, a two-run home run that broke a 3-3 tie. Zambrano responded by hitting Edmonds with a pitch for the second time that game, earning ejections for Zambrano and Cubs manager Dusty Baker.

With those events fresh on everyone’s mind, it didn’t take long for matters to escalate.

Led by a pitching staff that included Greg Maddux, Kerry Wood, and Mark Prior, and a lineup that included Aramis Ramirez, Moises Alou, and Sammy Sosa, the Cubs had entered the season as the National League Central favorites. However, they entered the day trailing the Cardinals by nine games, just half a game ahead of the third-place Cincinnati Reds. Since the calendar turned to July, St. Louis had won 12 of its previous 14 games, including an eight-game win streak to open the month.

The Cardinals took a brief first-inning lead. Womack drew a leadoff walk, and Edgar Renteria laid down a sacrifice bunt to move him to second base. Pujols, who came into the game batting .311, pulled a 3-and-2 curveball over Alou’s head in left field to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead.

Rolen, batting next, was hit on the arm by a 1-and-2 breaking ball. Though the circumstances made it unlikely that Rusch was throwing at the Cardinals’ third baseman, there seemed little doubt that a response was headed the Cubs’ way. In the bottom half of the inning, Cardinals right-hander Matt Morris delivered that reply by throwing a fastball that sailed behind Cubs center fielder Corey Patterson’s hips.

“I felt it was the right thing to do, to stick up for my teammates,” Morris said. “No one got hurt. In fact, it might have fired them up.”[1]

Indeed, while Morris retired the side in order in the first, he would not be so fortunate the next inning. He led off the inning by walking Alou, and fell behind Derrek Lee 2-and-0 before Lee homered to center field. Ramirez followed with a double, and Michael Barrett launched a line-drive home run over the right-field wall to make it 4-0.

Patterson added a two-run double over Edmonds’ head, and with two outs Alou hit an RBI single up the middle to give the Cubs a 7-1 lead and chase Morris from the game.

“I thought he hit a wall,” La Russa said. “He went out to the mound, and it was like all of a sudden somebody punched him in the gut. He was having trouble breathing.”[2]

Pujols and Ramirez traded solo home runs in the third inning to make it 8-2 before St. Louis began its comeback. After Pujols and Rolen each singled to lead off the sixth inning, Edmonds singled to right field to score Pujols. Baker replaced Rusch with Francis Beltran, who immediately walked Sanders and Mike Matheny to score Rolen. So Taguchi reached on an infield single that scored Edmonds, and Ray Lankford hit a sacrifice fly that cut the Cubs’ lead to 8-6.

Pujols made it 8-7 in the top of the seventh when he hit Kyle Farnsworth’s first-pitch fastball over the left-field wall.

Farnsworth was still holding onto a one-run lead in the eighth inning when he fell behind Taguchi 3-and-1 and threw a fastball down the middle of the plate. The diminutive Taguchi turned on the pitch and hit it into Waveland Avenue beyond the left-field wall. Afterward, Pujols pointed to Taguchi’s home run as the biggest blow of the game.[3]

The teams were still deadlocked 8-8 when the Cubs turned to LaTroy Hawkins for the ninth inning. Renteria led off with an infield single to bring Pujols, already 4-for-4 with two home runs, to the plate. Both of Pujols’ blasts had come on the first pitch, so Hawkins was cautious with his first offering, a low fastball. He was less cautious with his second pitch, a fastball out over the plate that Pujols hit the other way over the right-field wall.

Pujols’ three-homer game marked the first time a Cardinal had accomplished the feat since Mark McGwire on May 18, 2000.[4]

“As soon as I hit it, I knew it was out of the park,” Pujols said.[5]

With two outs, Reggie Sanders added a home run to center field to make it 11-8. After striking out Yadier Molina to end the top of the ninth, Hawkins got into an argument with home-plate umpire Tim Tschida and had to be restrained by Baker and four of his fellow coaches.[6]

“Do I regret it? No,” Hawkins said. “I talked to him like a man at first, and it didn’t work.”[7]

In the ninth, Cardinals closer Jason Isringhausen worked around two walks and a single to earn the save. It marked the Cardinals’ largest comeback since July 28, 2002, when they rallied from a 6-0, third-inning deficit to beat the Cubs.[8]

It was a strong showing for the Cardinals bullpen, which allowed just one run in 7 1/3 innings, including three innings from Eldred and two shutout innings from Kiko Calero. Ray King earned the win after retiring the side in order in the eighth.

“It just shows the character of this team,” Isringhausen said. “After our big win Monday, we could have been content to leave town with a split … but we kept plugging away, plugging away. That’s how we do it. This is just a great win for us.”

With the win, the division-leading Cardinals moved 10 games ahead of the Cubs, who were leapfrogged by Cincinnati and fell into third place.

“This is the happiest I’ve ever been after giving up seven runs in 1 2/3 innings,” said Morris, who optimistically noted that the Cardinals’ comeback would not have been possible if he hadn’t allowed seven runs in the second inning.[9] “It’s unbelievable. To win that game against that team, with the position we’re in, it’s just a snowball effect. It keeps getting bigger.”[10]

In the next day’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, columnist Bernie Miklasz compared Pujols’ performance to another classic Cardinals-Cubs showdown: the “Ryne Sandberg game” of June 23, 1984, in which Sandberg went 5-for-6 with two home runs and seven RBIs, helping to spur the Cubs to the 1984 division championship.

“Citizens of Cardinals Nation: We have a reverse Ryno,” Miklasz wrote. “Two decades later, the St. Louis-Chicago rivalry has crowned a new comeback king – His Majesty Albert Pujols.”[11]

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[1] Dave van Dyke, “Rallying the best revenge,” Chicago Tribune, July 21, 2004: Page 4-1.

[2] Joe Strauss, “Cubs gum it up; Birds stick it to ’em,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 21, 2004: D1.

[3] Strauss.

[4] Strauss.

[5] Strauss.

[6] Paul Sullivan, “Losing it … again,” Chicago Tribune, July 21, 2004: 4-1.

[7] Sullivan.

[8] Strauss.

[9] van Dyke.

[10] Strauss.

[11] Bernie Miklasz, “In Sandberg’s yard, Pujols shows he’s second to none,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 21, 2004: D1.

The post Albert Pujols goes 5-for-5 with three homers in comeback win: July 20, 2004 first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.