Photograph by Scott Rovak
For Cardinals fans, it’s hard to forget even a minute of the Redbirds’ improbable World Series run last fall. It didn’t matter who you were or where you were—the tension was palpable and the anticipation was almost unbearable as the Cardinals faced off against the Detroit Tigers. Cards third baseman Scott Rolen may have said it best: “All you’re thinking about is throwing your arms up in the air.” Yeah, Scotty, we know the feeling.
We know every moment, from Anthony Reyes’ breakthrough performance in Game 1 to the clinching strikeout hurled by Adam Wainwright. (It was an ending eerily reminiscent of Bruce Sutter’s punch-out of the Milwaukee Brewers’ Gorman Thomas to clinch the 1982 Series. The similarities—right down to the pitchers’ appearances—didn’t escape Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty: “Wainwright even had the beard, too.”) Here we take a look back at four unforgettable snapshots of the 2006 World Series.
An Unlikely Hero
The Cards tapped a rookie pitcher to start the most important game of the season. Reyes was just 5-8, with a 5.06 ERA, during the regular season, and those five wins were the fewest ever for a Game 1 starter in World Series history. No experience? No worries. Reyes pitched a gem, allowing just four hits in eight innings as the Birds took the opener 7-2.
Reyes: The preparation and everything else was the same. I tried to approach it as a regular game and not worry what was at stake. I just went out there and tried to stay with my game plan.
Rick Hummel (Nicknamed “the Commish” for his baseball expertise, Hummel has covered the Cardinals for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch since the early 1970s. On July 29 he will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown, N.Y.): As inconsistent as Reyes had been, you almost assumed he’d pitch a good game because he’d pitched so poorly against Milwaukee at the end of the regular season. I was surprised. I didn’t think he’d go eight innings; he hadn’t gone eight innings against anybody besides the White Sox in that one-hit game in June. [Reyes had a no-hitter going into the seventh inning against Chicago on June 22, until Jim Thome hit a solo home run that ended up being the game-decider.]
Jocketty: In [Game 1], he looked like he did against the White Sox. It was important that he did, because Carp [2005 Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter] wasn’t available, and neither was Sup [National League Championship Series hero Jeff Suppan], and it was important for us to get that first win, and he provided it for us.
Todd Worrell (Third on the Cards career-saves list with 129, Worrell still lives in St. Louis and is active in various local organizations, including Fellowship of Christian Athletes): To me, it was going to come down to the other three starters, not Carpenter or Suppan, and the other support-role guys, setup guys and innings guys they had in the bull-pen. … Those guys did exactly what they had to do—they went out there and had good, solid outings on the mound—and that’s why they won.
Hummel: The Tigers probably hadn’t spent a whole lot of time with Reyes, as far as a [scouting] report; they didn’t know whether he was going to pitch or not. He seemed to handcuff their right-handed hitters.
Tyler Johnson (Another rookie Cardinals pitcher, Johnson was manager Tony La Russa’s go-to left-handed reliever in the playoffs): I can tell when things are going good for Reyes, and his fastball looked live; he was releasing everything in the same spot. His change-up is just awesome, and his curveball and slider have come a long way.
Reyes: The first couple pitches, I felt pretty good because I was throwing strikes and wasn’t really having a problem locating the ball—and after I got those pitches out of the way, I was able to calm down and settle in.
Johnson: Reyes is pretty good with that. I think his best qualities are his head, his composure and the way he doesn’t get rattled. He’s got that bulldog mentality when it’s going well.
Hummel: With what had happened with the Cardinals already at that point, nothing would have surprised me anymore. Everybody was pitching as well as they could have. The more it went, the more you figured, “Hey, they’ve got a chance to win this game.”
Braden Looper (Signed to a three-year, $13.5 million contract before the season, Looper was 9-3, with a 3.56 ERA, in 69 games as a reliever for the Cards in 2006): Going into that, did anyone imagine that would happen? I don’t think so, but he really stepped up in a spot where we really needed him, and that set the tone for the whole series. He just kept going out there every inning and did a wonderful job. You don’t get a much bigger stage than that.
Mike Shannon (A Cardinals radio broadcaster for more than 30 years, Shannon played in three World Series for the Redbirds): He’d pitched some big games for us. The first one that he ever pitched when they called him up from Triple-A was against Milwaukee, and he pitched well there. [Reyes gave up only two hits in a 5-2 victory against the Brewers on August 9, 2005.] He did it a couple other times, so I think it was a perfect slot for the Cardinal manager to utilize him.
Jocketty: I was happy for Anthony because he’s shown some signs of brilliance, and he’s had some times where he didn’t pitch as well. For him to step up and pitch Game 1 of the World Series like he did was phenomenal.
The Spiezio Phenomenon
In February 2006, the Cardinals signed Scott Spiezio to a minor-league contract with an invitation to spring training. By the end of the NLCS, “Spiezer,” the utility player with the funny facial hair, was a local hero, thanks to a pair of two-run triples that lifted the Cards past the Mets. By the time the World Series rolled into St. Louis for Game 3, Spiezio-mania had consumed the town, as evidenced by the makeshift bright-red soul-patch goatees adorning the chins of nearly half the fans at Busch Stadium.
Jocketty: It was a unique thing. The first day he came to spring training, he had that thing dyed red, and he kept it that way. He said he used a Magic Marker the first time, but I don’t know whether that’s true or not. It’s typical of our fans, though. It was a unique idea, and it took off. Somebody probably made a lot of money off that.
Reyes: I saw some people selling those around the stadium. It was pretty funny.
Hummel: He’s kind of an interesting guy anyway, whether he has or doesn’t have the facial-hair thing. Of course, it was a better deal when he started knocking in runs; if he had been hitting .220 and had the facial-hair thing, people would have thought he was trying to show off or whatever—but he became a cult hero because he can play a little bit.
Shannon: People love an underdog. Spiezio had had a couple injuries that had really hurt him the year before. He had one last shot at it. This guy’s a heck of a ballplayer, and he was now healthy, and it all came front and center for him. It worked out great, not only for him but for the Cardinals and especially for the fans. They had that underdog to root for, and he came through for them.
Johnson: That looked like a lot of fun. I was even thinking about getting a soul patch and rocking there with Spiezio. The fans are great out here. The people are wonderful; they’re so nice. They know baseball, they know when to cheer and they know when to clap for someone—even if it’s the opposing team. When I was in New York and [Jim] Edmonds and Preston Wilson collided [the two ran into each other in the outfield while chasing a fly ball off the bat of the Mets’ Paul Lo Duca in Game 7 of the NLCS], I was in the bullpen listening to some of the people out there in New York, clapping and shouting, “I hope you’re hurt.” That stuff, to me, is not baseball. I’ve been spoiled because the people here have enlightened me as far as how fans should be. It’s the greatest place in the world.
A Gift—or Five—From the Tigers
Baseball is all about momentum. Ride the wave when it’s on your side, as the Cardinals did throughout the playoffs, or watch it destroy you when it’s sweeping the wrong way. That’s what happened to the Tigers’ pitchers, who committed one error in each of the five World Series games—a Series record. Even now, months later, it’s hard to comprehend the extent of their fielding woes.
Worrell: That was a nightmare.
Hummel: It kind of snowballed; every pitcher that had to field a bunt was scared he was going to throw it away, and he did. I think, after a while, every time the Cardinals bunted and the pitcher fielded the ball, he was pressing and not making the normal delivery to whatever base he was supposed to throw to; he tried to guide the ball, and every ball ended up in the outfield.
Johnson: You hear that saying, that baseball’s 80 percent mental, and it is. That right there goes to show you that this game is very mental. Granted, you do need physical ability, but to be able to utilize your mental ability to stay sharp and sound and calm during that time is big.
Looper: I just know that throughout my career I’ve been taught a lot of things about that. I just try to place my feet and make a good throw—that’s all I know.
Johnson: It’s pretty tough. I actually had an error this year, fielding a ground ball and throwing it to first, and I threw it away. But that stuff happens, you know? When situations like that occur, you’ve just got to shake it off and get back out there on the mound, chase after that hitter and try to get the next guy out.
Worrell: I look at that, and it’s a classic example, to me, of going back to spring training. If you ever watch at spring training, it’s what we call PFP—pitchers’ fielding practice. That’s where that’s taken care of. … It’s a lack of preparation. Maybe mentally they weren’t in the game like they needed to be in terms of the simple stuff that [pitchers] all talk about, but you don’t really hear anyone else mention it.
The Smell of Victory
The Cardinals were ahead three games to one in the World Series, leading 3-2 in Game 5, and starting pitcher Jeff Weaver was as close to untouchable as Jeff Weaver ever will be. Across Cardinal Nation, the countdown was on. Twelve more outs … nine more … six. … Could this really happen? When Adam Wainwright took the mound to start the ninth inning, the Cardinals’ 10th title seemed within their grasp.
Wainwright: That’s right where you want to be—the last guy on the mound right at the end. It’s every kid’s dream.
Looper: We knew the Tigers had a good team, and just me personally, I just kept saying, “Take it a day at a time,” and then, “Take it an out at a time.”
Rolen: I guess it hit me after the third out of the seventh inning, when Weaver [got] the guy for the third out in the seventh. I think the crowd felt it a bit, and on the field we felt it, too.
Johnson: I didn’t want to get too excited. I was sitting on the bench, and I was thinking, “Something’s gonna happen, something’s gonna happen … be ready, you could get up if anything happens … be ready.” That was my mentality until that last strike was thrown.
Wainwright: For whatever reason, when my adrenaline is really, really pumping, my breath shortens and I have to take really deep breaths—but some of that was calming myself down, too. I didn’t mean for it to be that out there in the open that I was having that kind of trouble breathing. It was a good slowing-down process for me. I could step off the mound, and I wasn’t worried about anyone being mad at me for going slow. I was trying to go my pace because I was closing things down. I was in charge out there, so I wanted to be the man who was in charge of the pace.
With two on and two out in the ninth, Detroit third baseman Brandon Inge stepped to the plate, representing the go-ahead run. Wainwright needed just three pitches to strike out Inge and seal the win—and the World Championship.
Worrell: I think in that situation, at the end of the World Series, there wasn’t a person in the ballpark who didn’t want to see a strikeout. It’s kind of an exclamation point on the last out of the championship.
Jocketty: To see him get that last strikeout was great. The strikeout against [Carlos] Beltran [to end the NLCS] was incredible, and the strikeout to win the World Series …
Johnson: I went leaping over the fence. I didn’t even go through the bullpen gate; I just jumped over the whole fence and just ran out there and dogpiled. I just had my dream come true right before my eyes.
Wainwright: It was surreal. It doesn’t make any sense to me, how that was possible. I was in front of the TV watching baseball every night as a kid with my brother and my mom, and I never thought I’d be there in a World Series.
Shannon: It’s kind of nice when it ends like that, because everything is centered on the pitcher and the catcher. That’s where everybody is centered anyway, and when it happens right there and everybody is concentrating right there, it’s kind of like the epitome.
Hummel: Yeah, that’s probably the best way to end a Series, jumping in the catcher’s arms. When the Red Sox won the World Series [in 2004, in St. Louis], it was on a ground out; the first baseman caught the throw from the pitcher. This one’s different; this one had more of a climactic feel to it, with the pitcher actually striking out that guy.
Looper: I guess Game 7 could have been a little more dramatic, but that’s about it. It was a big win.
Jocketty: Again, we were asking a lot of a young guy, putting him in a role he’s never had before, and what he accomplished in the postseason, in the NLCS and the World Series, was definitely incredible. It was something we definitely needed, and we wouldn’t have won the World Series without him.
Shannon: I’ve been there as a player and as a broadcaster, but the great thing about it was the enthusiasm of the people. I can’t ever remember the fans ever being so excited about a World Championship.
Rolen: The experience on the field, what I saw first-hand is what will stick in my mind. I’ve watched highlights on TV and it seems almost Hollywood-ish.
Hollywood-ish? Maybe. Vintage St. Louis? Definitely.
