Photograph courtesy of the AP
For this Cardinals story, the editor wants drama. Not the greatest games. Not necessarily the moments you’d find in the record books. No, for this Cardinals story, the boss wants drama, spine-tingling, hair-raising moments that either came out of nowhere or had us riveted to our seats wondering why we were getting chills in the middle of a hot St. Louis summer. Those moments that made us feel higher than the windows on top of the Arch or as low as a trip to Calvary on a rainy Monday morning. Those moments our dad and grandpa talked about around the dinner table on Sunday afternoons while the smooth voice of Jack Buck provided the background music. Those moments when we knew that no matter what happened in any given season, we’d be Cardinals fans forever.
1. Old Pete Saves the Day
October 10, 1926
Yankee Stadium, New York
Thirty-nine may not seem old in this day of personal trainers, clubhouse weight rooms and chemically enhanced fortysomething pitchers. But in 1926 it was damn old for a baseball player—even if he was a legend. So with the Cardinals in a precarious position in Game 7 of their first-ever World Series—clinging to a 3-2, seventh-inning lead with the bases loaded by the vaunted New York Yankees—somebody had to save the day. That somebody was Grover Cleveland Alexander, a pitcher in the twilight of a Hall of Fame career. Alexander, or “Old Pete,” had pitched a complete game the day before, and legend has it he was hungover, asleep in the bullpen when the call came from player-manager Rogers Hornsby for Alexander to relieve Jesse Haines. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Old Pete sauntered onto the field, took three warm-up tosses, then proceeded to strike out Yankee Tony Lazzeri on four pitches. Two shutout innings by Alexander later, the Cardinals had their first World Series title.
2. Enos Slaughter’s Mad Dash
October 15, 1946
Sportsman’s Park
In 1946 the World Series was tied at three games apiece with the heavily favored Red Sox, those of the Ted Williams variety. And so with the score tied at 3 in the eighth inning of Game 7, Enos “Country” Slaughter hit a single and stood on first with a decisive mind. Harry “the Hat” Walker was up, and Cardinal manager Eddie Dyer gave the hit-and-run sign, a risky call with so much at stake. With the pitch, Slaughter took off running—and just kept running. Walker hit a line drive over the head of Red Sox shortstop Johnny Pesky and caught the Red Sox napping. With Slaughter sprinting around the bases, Pesky took the cutoff throw and paused for what was an agonizing second for Sox fans. By the time he put himself into position to make the throw, Slaughter was already rounding third. Pesky’s throw was way off, and Slaughter slid home without trouble, scoring what would become the Series-winning run from first base on a single.
3. Stan Musial’s 3,000th Hit
May 13, 1958
Wrigley Field, Chicago
Of all the Stan Musial moments in Cardinal history, why this one? Because it shows why that tall piece of granite outside Busch Stadium calls Musial “baseball’s perfect warrior” and “baseball’s perfect knight.” Musial got his 3,000th hit not in front of the adoring fans of St. Louis, but in front of a sparse Wrigley Field crowd of about 6,000. Musial had started the 1958 season on a tear, racking up 36 hits in the first 17 games of the season. After collecting his 2,999th on May 12 during the first of a two-game stint in Chicago, Musial remarked that he hoped he walked the next day so he could get his 3,000th at home. Manager Fred Hutchinson heard about the remark and sat him down that day, but the team was trailing 3-1 in the sixth, and Musial was called to pinch-hit. His double scored a run, and the Cardinals went on to win the game 5-3. In typical Musial fashion, he put his team before himself.
4. “The Cardinals Win the Pennant!”
October 4, 1964
Sportsman’s Park
Harry Caray’s words resonate still: “THE CARDINALS WIN THE PENNANT! THE CARDINALS WIN THE PENNANT! THE CARDINALS WIN THE PENNANT! HOLY COW!” At the moment the Cardinals beat the Mets, 11-5, on the last day of the 1964 season, those words spewed forth from Cardinals broadcaster Harry Caray, and the team was on its way to the World Series for the first time in 18 years. It was fitting that Caray’s voice announced the seminal moment; all month long he had been singing in the booth, “The Cardinals are coming, tra-la, tra-la. The Cardinals are coming, tra-la, tra-la.” In late summer 1964, the Cardinals got hot and began to creep up on the suddenly ice-cold Phillies. With 12 games remaining in the season, the Cards were tied with the Reds for second place, 6½ games behind first place Philadelphia. The Phillies proceeded to lose 10 straight while the Cardinals went on a 9-3 run. The Cards did their part, but they were also the beneficiaries of the biggest choke in Major League history.
5. Bob Gibson’s 17 World Series Strikeouts
October 2, 1968
Busch Stadium
Bob Gibson got the W in Game 1 of the 1968 World Series by shutting out the Detroit Tigers on five hits and one walk. Oh yeah, and he struck out 17 en route to a 4-0 win, setting a World Series record that still stands. And you know how he handled it? Like it was any other game, business as usual. The fans cheered wildly; the infielders rushed in to congratulate him, and his catcher, Tim McCarver, went nuts. But Gibby? He was calm, nonchalant and, some would say, arrogant as he walked off the field, having given arguably the most dominating pitching performance ever on baseball’s biggest stage.
6. “Go Crazy, Folks!”
October 14, 1985
Busch Stadium
With the score tied at 2 in the bottom of the ninth of Game 5 of the 1985 NLCS against the Dodgers, nobody was expecting Ozzie Smith to be the hero. Make contact? Sure. Get on base? Yes. But win it with one swing of the bat? Unlikely. So with a 1-2 count against Los Angeles Dodgers closer Tom Niedenfuer, Smith put every ounce of his 5-foot-10 frame into the pitch and “corked one into right, down the line,” as Jack Buck began to describe it. Suddenly, Buck’s voice lifted along with the line drive: “It may go-o-o …” What followed was pandemonium, at the stadium, in the broadcast booth and subsequently all over St. Louis. “GO CRAZY, FOLKS, GO CRAZY!” Buck continued as Smith circled the bases with one arm triumphantly in the air. “IT’S A HOME RUN, AND THE CARDINALS HAVE WON THE GAME BY THE SCORE OF 3-2 ON A HOME RUN BY THE WIZARRRRD! GO CRAZY!” And we did.
7. The Call
October 26, 1985
Royals Stadium, Kansas City, Mo.
To this day the video remains painful to look at, because we remember being thisclose to another World Championship. There it was, a ground ball to first—an easy out. A play practiced a thousand times from spring training on. A play an umpire gets right 999 times out of a thousand. Not this time. Don Denkinger blew it, then the Cardinals proceeded to blow the game, and eventually the Series. Would the second have happened without the first? Perhaps. But the moment still stings.
8. Mark McGwire’s 62nd Home Run
September 8, 1998
Busch Stadium
Forget about the lens through which we view Mark McGwire in 2008. Remember 1998, when fireworks and a thousand points of camera flash illuminated Busch Stadium in front of a national TV audience as Big Mac circled the bases in a scene straight out of The Natural. His 62nd home run that season, a chase he shared with the Cubs’ Sammy Sosa, captured the imagination of the entire country. So if you can put aside the doubts about steroids, perhaps you can remember that he almost forgot to touch first base; that every Cubs infielder shook his hand; that he pointed to the sky before touching home plate; that he swept up his 10-year-old son Matt in his arms; that he was mobbed by his teammates, then proceeded to sprint up into the stands to share the moment with the family of the man whose record he just shattered. It was pure magic. Too bad it feels tainted now.
9. Giving Voice to Grieving
September 17, 2001
Busch Stadium
The words were his own, read at home plate from wrinkled pieces of paper: “We will not start, but we will end the fight. If we are involved, we shall be resolved to protect what we know is right.” Six days after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, those words—delivered by the man who so many Cardinals fans had welcomed into their homes and their families for years—comforted and helped the city grieve. The moment was already charged with emotion, but if we knew then what we know now—it would be Jack Buck’s last public appearance—we might have understood just how dramatic it really was.
10. Adam Wainwright Strikes Out Carlos Beltran
October 19, 2006
Shea Stadium, New York
10 Carlos Beltran was Mighty Casey—at least as far as the Cardinals were concerned. Time and time again, beginning with the 2004 playoffs, Carlos Beltran would come up in clutch situations and kill the Cardinals with his bat—or even his glove. Many moments stand out about the 2006 season, but without this there would be no World Series, no confetti showers, no Market Street parade. So in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 of the NLCS with the bases loaded and the game—and the pennant—on the line, with 56,357 fans screaming their heads off in Shea Stadium, Adam Wainwright calmly, coolly took control. He struck out Mighty Carlos on three pitches, freezing him with a curveball for strike three. There was no joy in Metsville that night, but sweet Jesus, we were back in the World Series.
