The year 1982 marked the first of three 1980′s appearances in the World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals. It also marks the one and only time that the Milwaukee Brewers reached the World Series.

With the two teams, now in the same league, prepared to face off for the National League Pennant, i70baseball brings you a look back to that series in 1982. A monumental series that took all seven games to decide a winner. A series that would see would see both teams win a game by a double digit margin as well as each team winning a game by two or fewer runs.

You can read more about Game One by clicking here.
You can read more about Game Two by clicking here.

The series was on it’s way to Milwaukee’s County Stadium for the middle three games. Tied up 1-1, the Cardinals and the Brewers had played a first game blowout in favor of the Brewers and a close game settled by a bases loaded walk for the Cardinals. The third game of this Series was played on Friday, October 15…

Game Three: October 15, 1982
This time the Cardinals would send Joaquin Andujar to the mound to face the Brewers on their home surface. The 29-year old pitcher had arrived in St. Louis the year before after being traded by the Houston Astros. He was dominant in 1982, winning 15 games over 10 losses, posting a 2.47 earned run average (his career best), and throwing five shut outs. He would post a 1.080 WHIP and a 2.74 strikeout-to-walk ratio as well that season. He was almost an identical pitcher whether home or away that season.

Milwaukee would counter with 18 game winner Pete Vuckovich. Vuckovich would only lose six games in 1982 while posting a 3.34 earned run average, 1.502 WHIP and 1.03 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Home cooking was Vuckovich’s speciality as he pitched much better in the friendly confines than he would on the road that season.

The two teams would lock themselves in for a pitchers duel with each hurler carrying shut out baseball into the fifth inning. In fact, each team had exactly one hit when the fifth inning rolled around and it was Andujar who had seen the most trouble but worked out of it by that frame. All that changed quickly when the middle frame got started.

After Darrel Porter lead off with a strikeout, Lonnie Smith would drive a double to left-center field and the Cardinals would have their first base runner in scoring position. Dane Iorg would reach base on an error by Brewers first baseman Cecil Cooper, putting runners at the corners for the Cardinals young outfielder Willie McGee. McGee would drive the first pitch he saw over the fence in right field to put the Cardinals up 3-0.

The homerun to McGee would be one of the few mistakes by either starter through six innings as the pitchers duel continued. It was Lonnie Smith once again in the seventh inning with one out that would stroke a triple off of Vuckovich and subsequently score on the play as the Brewers secondbaseman Jim Gantner would throw the ball way at third. A Dane Iorg fly ball out would bring McGee back to the plate, this time with the bases empty, to face Vuckovich again. A 1-0 pitch would again be driven over the wall in right and McGee would have his second home run and fourth run batted in of the game, putting the Cardinals up 5-0 after six and a half innings.

The bottom of the seventh would see the Brewers threaten after catcher Ted Simmons would drive a ball back up the middle and off of Andujar’s knee. The Cardinal ace would leave the game and the Cardinals would use both Jim Kaat and Doug Blair before turning the game over to Sutter and escaping the inning with no damage after the Brewers loaded the bases with two outs.

The Brewers would get on the board in the eighth inning off of Sutter. After Robin Yount drew a walk, Cecil Cooper would follow with his own home run to right field, a two run shot that would make the score 5-2.

Walks would once again hurt the Brewers in the ninth, however. After George Hendrick had reached on a rare catcher’s interference call and Dane Iorg would hit a ground rule double, Vuckovich would intentionally walk McGee to load the bases and pitch to Ozzie Smith. Sometimes when you have a pitcher issue an intentional walk, however, he struggles to find placement again and Vuckovich walkEd Smith to force in the sixth run for the Cardinals.

As Sutter took the mound to be the finishing touches on the game for the Cardinals, he would work himself into some trouble of his own. Brewers left fielder Ben Oglivie would reach base on an error by Cardinal first baseman Keith Hernandez. Gordon Thomas attempted to pull his team a bit closer but his ball that would have left the park in centerfield was brought back by Willie McGee and turned into a loud and long first out. A strikeout and fly ball later and Sutter would have a save, the Cardinals a 6-2 win, and the comfort of Milwaukee hotels as they looked forward to Game 4.

The Cardinals now lead the series two games to one. Important to note that Sutter got a save in a 6-2 ballgame due to his work in the seventh inning to escape a bases-loaded jam.

Stay tuned as i70baseball brings you game recaps for all seven games of the 1982 World Series on game days of the 2011 National League Championship Series.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball as well as the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com.
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.com.
Follow him on Twitter here.

Matt Holliday hurt his finger while swinging a bat in the on-deck circle Tuesday night. Doctors found the tendon for the ring finger on his right hand inflamed when they examined him on Wednesday. Holliday will miss this weekend’s series with Philadelphia.

Hurting one’s finger while warming up has to qualify for weirdest injury ever, right? How unlucky can you be? Unfortunately, the Cardinals are no strangers to freak injuries. Here’s a short list of other odd injuries that have recently befallen the franchise.

Freese breaks toe, 2010. While rehabilitating from an earlier injury, part-time third baseman David Freese dropped a weight plate on his left foot, breaking his big toe. He missed the rest of the season.

Matheny cuts hand, 2000. Mike Matheny was a Gold Glove catcher for the Cardinals in 2000, and the team returned to the playoffs for the first time in 4 seasons. On the last Friday of that regular season Matheny received a hunting knife as a birthday present; since it was wrapped, he didn’t realize it was a knife until after he had opened it and almost sliced the ring finger off his right hand. Matheny missed the 2000 playoffs.

Osborne cuts hand, 1996. In Tony LaRussa‘s first year as manager, and a year after finishing 19 games under .500, the Cardinals were NL Central Champions, headed to the post-season for the first time since 1987. Dutifully, Cardinal management provided champagne for the players to enjoy the day they clinched the division title. At some point, one of the bottles was broken, and as (un)luck would have it, Cardinal lefty Donovan Osborne cut his pitching hand grabbing that bottle. 1996 was the best year of Osborne’s career, and based on ERA+ he was the ace of the staff. Osborne got shelled in two of his three post-season starts, including Game 7 of the NLCS against Atlanta.

Cox breaks ankle, 1986. Danny Cox was an 18-game winner for the NL Champs in 1985, combining with Joaquin Andujar and John Tudor to form a formidable rotation for the Cardinals. In a harbinger of the season to come, he jumped off a 3-foot seawall while fishing during spring training and chipped a bone in his right ankle. The surgery to remove the chip, and subsequent recovery, caused the righty to miss the first month of the 1986 season. St Louis staggered out of the gate, was 10 games under .500 on 31 May, and finished 79-82.

Coleman and the tarp, 1985. Quite possibly the most famous of all the Cardinal freak injuries. Vince Coleman, arguably the fastest man in baseball, the 1985 NL Rookie of the Year, owner of 110 stolen bases, was run down by the 1.5 MPH automatic tarp machine before Game 3 of the 1985 NLCS against the Dodgers. Without him as the catalyst for their attack, St Louis put up a puny .309 OBP and recorded only 8 successful steals (they were caught 8 times) during the rest of the post-season (13 games).

Matt should only be out 4 or 5 games. The bad news: that’s 38% of the Cardinals remaining games. Trying to make up 4 games on Atlanta with 13 left to play just got a lot harder.

Mike is a life-long Cardinals fan currently sitting in San Diego with his fingers crossed. He blogs about the San Diego Padres.

There is an old adage in baseball: it doesn’t take speed to steal a base, just the courage to run combined with the wisdom of when not to. Sometimes, it just takes a little bit of luck.

The 1982 season was somewhat of a mirror image of 1964. It was the Cardinals, under new manager and general manager, Whitey Herzog, that jumped out to an early lead, and the Phillies playing catch up. Catch up they did, and Herzog’s retooled Redbirds spent some time looking up at Philadelphia in the standings. Since the end of June, these two teams had played cat and mouse, with neither getting a substantial lead over the other.

That brings us to August 22, and the finale of a three game series with the San Francisco Giants. The teams had split the previous two. The Cardinals had gotten out to a big lead in the opener, but a huge 7 run inning by the Giants turned things around very quickly. Five different pitchers were used in the inning, and none of them were effective, including Bruce Sutter, who would eventually take the loss. The second game would be much like the first, with the Cardinals running out to another early lead, and hanging on by a thread in the late innings. This time Sutter was good, and the Cardinals squeaked out a win.

The finale would feature two of the best young pitchers in the game, Joaquin Andujar for the Cardinals and Atlee Hammaker for the Giants.

Joaquin Andujar in the Powder Blues

For the third time in the series, the Cardinals would jump out to an early lead. Back to back doubles by George Hendrick and Gene Tenace in the second inning lead to the first Cardinals run. Silent George would be part of the next scoring opportunity when he singled ahead of a Willie McGee 2 run homer.

Meanwhile Andujar was crusing, and heading into the sixth inning. On his way to the mound, he must have picked up the wrong ball, stepped on a base line or violated some other pitching taboo, because he was just shelled. It came out of nowhere, totally unexpected. For the third time in the series, Whitey Herzog had to make an early call to his bullpen. John Martin managed to get out of trouble, but the damage had been done. What was once a 3-0 lead had been turned into a 4-3 deficit. Not again.

Both Martin and Doug Bair were great in relief of Andujar, and kept the score at 4-3, hoping for a late inning comeback. Before we get to that, there was one play in the 8th inning that on any other night would have gone by without notice. Steve Braun, pinch hitting for Gene Tenace, delivers a 2 out single. Herzog decides to pinch run for Braun, and uses a backup catcher by the name of Glenn Brummer.

Yes, you know what’s coming, don’t you ? Patience. We’re not there yet.

Obie

Facing the Giants closer in the ninth inning and trailing by a run, Ozzie Smith starts things off by striking out. Greg Minton then hits David Green with a pitch. That would turn out to be a big mistake because Green was one of the fastest men on the Cardinals roster. Don’t let that giant frame fool you – Green could fly. And he did, stealing second base and putting the tying run in scoring position. Tommy Herr would fail to drive in Green.

That brought the pitcher’s spot up to the plate. Whitey Herzog goes to his bench for Ken Oberkfell, and Obie comes through big. He rips a line drive that splits the outfielders and the ball goes all the way to the wall. Green scores easily, and Oberkfell ends up at second base with a double. He was stranded there, but now his team had another chance.

Extra innings – free baseball.

Jim Kaat takes over in the tenth inning, and struggles. The huge crowd all exhale in unison when Kaat induces an inning ending double play, stranding a runner in scoring position. That was close! The veteran lefty looks better in the eleventh inning when he gets two quick outs, but a double by Milt May causes Herzog to go to his bullpen again, this time for the hard throwing Jeff Lahti. Lahti is shaky at first, but gets out of trouble, preventing May from scoring. That too was close. Too close.

Meanwhile the Cardinals are getting absolutely nowhere with the new Giants reliever, Gary Lavelle. Guys would get on base, steal their way into scoring position, but nobody was able to get that key hit.

All of this comes into play as the Cardinals head into the bottom of the 12th inning. It is a brutally hot August afternoon, and Jeff Lahti is now spent. Not only that, the Redbirds bullpen looks terribly empty. It is now or never.

The Man of the Hour

With one out, Glenn Brummer singles. Willie McGee follows that with a single. Brummer stops at second base on the play. Julio Gonzalez pops out for the second out of the inning. That brings Ozzie Smith to the plate. If this were 1987, we might expect a big hit from the Wizard, but this is still 1982 and Ozzie was not much of a threat. But that doesn’t mean he can’t be productive, and he is. He hits a slow roller and there is no play on the speeding Smith.

The bases are loaded, but there are two outs.

David Green is the next batter, but he’s not the focus of our story. Glenn Brummer, now standing on third base is. He notices something about Lavelle, something only a catcher might see. When working from the stretch, Lavelle has a very high leg kick, and that slows down his delivery to the plate. He’s also a left hander, which means a runner on third base can take a huge lead. Brummer tells Chuck Hiller, the Cardinals third base coach, of his plan. Those were the only two people on the planet that knew what was coming, and neither man tipped their hand.

Brummer waits until an 0-2 delivery. Being a catcher, he knew the pitch would would be something away, probably off-speed. A waste pitch. That increased his odds of success. A straight steal of home plate in that situation would be the last thing anybody would expect. With a giant lead, Brummer breaks when Lavelle goes into the stretch. Thanks to that high leg kick, and a ton of luck, Brummer beats the pitch and slides safely into home with the game winner. Brummer is lucky David Green caught him out of the corner of his eye because the big man stepped aside just as Brummer hit the batters box in his slide.

The huge crowd erupts, and shouting can be heard in houses throughout the Gateway City. The Cardinals win, 5-4 on a walk-off straight steal of home plate. Even now, 29 years later, we still look back at that Sunday afternoon game and smile as if we are listening to it on the radio for the first time.

But let’s not forget the importance of that game. Philadelphia had already won their game, and the Cardinals needed this win badly to stay two ahead of the Phillies. This was not a fluke, or one off entertaining win. Brummer knew that they needed to win, that his reliever was on fumes, and there was little help left in the bullpen. It was a heady play, and we would see many such plays throughout the tenure of Whitey Herzog. We would not see Brummer steal many more bases, and certainly none as exciting or as important as this one.

Bob Netherton covers Cardinals history for i70baseball.com and writes at On the Outside Corner. You may follow Bob on Twitter here or on Facebook here.

In Part 2 of this series on opening day pitchers, we will take a look at the hurlers that took the first baseball of the new season immediately following the retirement of Bob Gibson. As with the previous article, several interesting things can be seen when looking back, not all of them expected.

Free agency really started taking it’s toll on the Cardinals pitching staff, following the rise of John Denny. Failure to developed a genuine staff ace, and hold onto him for any appreciable amount of time, created somewhat of a revolving door of opening day starters. The two best pitchers during this era, Joaquin Andujar and John Tudor, only account for three games. One name that did keep popping up year after year was the trusty old warhorse, Bob Forsch. He would be involved in opening day festivities as late as 1988, but before then, there were a few memorable performances.

Lynn McGlothen (1975) 1-0

Lynn McGlothen

When the Cardinals acquired the former Red Sox prospect during the 1973 winter meetings, they thought they had found their next Bob Gibson, and at just the right time. With Gibby’s legs giving him more trouble, the end of his career was fast approaching, and perhaps a few years mentoring the young McGlothen might turn the right-hander into another star. When he jumped out to a 12-4 record at the 1974 All Star break, maybe the wait was over. The youngster would get an invitation to the mid-season classic, the only one he would received in his 11 year career. He would also lead the Cardinals starters in wins, shutouts and strikeouts, trailing only Bob Gibson in innings pitched. A little bit more of this and McGlothen would be the ace of the pitching staff.

Sadly, there wasn’t much more like that first half of 1974.

McGlothen would take the mound on opening day in 1976, to begin the post-Bob Gibson era, and he was brilliant. His opponent was Ray Burris of the Chicago Cubs. Burris was a tall right hander whose career mimicked that of McGlothen – sometimes could be dominating but for the most part, frustratingly average.

In this first game of the 1976 season, McGlothen was as dominant as any time in his career. Unfortunately, some of the Cardinals defense hadn’t made it’s way to St. Louis from spring training, and routine errors threatened to unravel McGlothen throughout the game, but the big right-hander never flinched. He would throw a complete game shutout, and earn the win in his only opening day start.

Following the season, McGlothen would be traded to the San Francisco Giants for former Cardinal, Ken Reitz. Reitz should never have left St. Louis, and it was good to have “The Zamboni” back at the hot corner. Things would not work out so well for McGlothen as he would developed arm troubles the following season and see just limited action for the Giants. The 2-9 record he posted would be the only black mark on an otherwise fine career.

Following one season in the Bay Area, plus a few games into 1978, he would be sent to the Chicago Cubs and begin a second career as a reliever. He became quite effective, but a shortage of Cubs starters in 1979 opened the door for McGlothen and he moved back into the rotation and turned in two fine seasons, much like the ones he had in St. Louis.

Sadly, the Lynn McGlothen story would have a tragic ending. Two years after calling it quits from baseball, the former Cardinals pitcher would die in a mobile home fire, along with the woman who had tried to rescue him. McGlothen was only 34 years old.

John Denny (1977, 1979) 2-0

John Denny (1974)

As Lynn McGlothen was ending his Cardinals career, a quirky young right-hander named John Denny was just beginning his. And an interesting one it would be.

Looking back at Denny’s career, we probably missed the fact that he was the right handed John Tudor, without the icy exterior. He was a control pitcher that didn’t strike out a lot of batters. As a consequence, some of his pitching stats don’t indicate how good he really was – a control pitcher with a K/BB ratio of 1 and a wildly oscillating ERA ? Pitch to contact and getting the hitters to get the small part of the bat on the baseball was Denny’s game, and when he was on, there was nobody better. But, if he started putting the ball over the heart of the plate, that 84 mile-per-hour fastball wasn’t fooling anybody and he could be hit hard. And I mean HARD.

Denny would get the opening day starts in 1977 and 1979, plus the home opener in 1978. He would pitch brilliantly in two, and just good enough to win the other, compiling a 3-0 record.

In the 1977 opener, he would face an old friend, Jerry Reuss of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Reuss had quietly been establishing himself as a top of the rotation pitcher in Pittsburgh, and this was an opportunity to show the Cardinals what the had given away a few years earlier. Unfortunately for Reuss, he would be undone in the first inning as the Cardinals sent 8 men to the plate, scoring four of them. Typical of a Reuss loss, nothing would be hit hard, only one ball would making it out of the infield. But relentless speed at the top of the batting order (Lou Brock, Garry Templeton, Bake McBride) forced error after error, and the game was soon out of reach.

Denny would be on cruise control until two outs in the sixth inning. Al Hrabosky would come in to relieve Denny and turn in 2 1/3 innings of solid relief. John Sutton would be touched up for a couple of runs in ninth in one of his few (31) major league appearances. The Cardinals would win the game 12-6.

On the strength of his only 20 win season, Bob Forsch would get the opening start in 1978. As a consolation prize, Denny would get the home opener, also against the Pirates. This time he would face Jim Rooker, who didn’t even make it out of the first inning. Unlike Reuss in the previous opener, the Cardinals hit Rooker hard and often. The final blow was a three run homer from eighth place hitter Mike Tyson. The 6-0 lead that blast gave the Cardinals was enough as Denny went the distance and the Cards won big, 11-2.

Denny saved his best for last as he took the ball on opening day for the last time as a Cardinal on April 6, 1979. He was facing a former Cardinal, and one of the best in the game – Steve Carlton. It was a pitchers duel through the first three innings with each hurler giving up a solo home run. That’s when Carlton ran into trouble. He would surrender three runs in the fourth and another one in the sixth. The final blow in the game would come in the seventh inning, when Carlton would load the bases. Reliever Doug Bird got George Hendrick to pop up to the shortstop (infield fly rule), but he could not get past Tony Scott. Scott tripled to clear the bases and the Cardinals increased their lead to 7-1. Scott would score the final run of the game on a double by Ken Reitz. The final score was 8-1 as Denny again went the distance.

Following the 1979 season, Denny would be traded to the Cleveland Indians. Although he had pitched well, leading the league in ERA in 1976 and posting another sub-3 in 1978, he never won more than 14 games and was around a .500 pitcher for his five seasons in St. Louis. His fortunes might have been much different if he had managed to hang on until Whitey Herzog arrived.

After a few frustrating seasons in Cleveland, Denny would return to the National League late in 1982, this time with the Philadelphia Phillies. He would lead the league in wins in 1983 with 19 and post a career low ERA of 2.37. That would be good enough to earn him the Cy Young Award for 1983.

As good as he pitched in 1983, he was even a bit better in 1984, but injuries limited his number of starts, so his mediocre 7-7 record doesn’t accurately reflect the quality of his work. He would become a workhorse in 1984, but that pinpoint control was starting to diminish, and as a result he would post a rather lackluster record.

Denny would finish his career with the Cincinnati Reds, in 1985.

Bob Forsch (1978, 1981-1983) 2-2

Bob Forsch

After an unbelievable 20-7 record in 1977, there was no question who would take the ball on opening day in 1978. He would face the Philadelphia Phillies, and that meant Lefty. And again, Lefty was not sharp. To get some idea of how this game would go, look no farther than Steve Carlton’s fourth inning.

Ken Reitz, not a power hitter by any measure, leads off with a solo home run. Tony Scott grounds out for the first out of the inning. Carlton stikes out Mike Tyson, but the slider was one of those 59ft varieties and got past former Cardinal backstop, Tim McCarver, allowing Tyson to reach base. A sacrifice bunt by Forsch and single off the bat of Lou Brock scored Tyson, who should never have been on base.

Carlton would not make it out of the fifth inning.

On the other side of the diamond, Forsch was cruising until tiring in the 8th. Pete Vukovich would take over and and finish things, retiring former Cardinal Ted Sizemore for the last out in the game. Forsch would earn the win with Carlton taking the loss.

Forsch would get the opening day start in 1981, again facing the Philadelphia Phillies. This time it would be against a tough right-hander, Dick Ruthven.

Forsch worked himself into a corner early in this game. The first two men would reach base. With one out, Mike Schmidt stepped up to the plate and did what you expected him to do – hit a three run homer. That, and a later solo shot by Bob Boone would be all the Phillies needed as Ruthven would cruise to a complete game win, defeating Forsch and the Cardinals 5-2.

Perhaps we should also give Bob Forsch credit for another opening day start when he took the mound on August 10, after the 60 day lockout. It was more of a spring training type game as none of the pitchers were conditioned to go for very long in the game. As he had done in the opener, he drew the Philadelphia Phillies with Larry Christenson getting the start. In five innings of work, Forsch was as sharp as we’d ever seen him be. He would allow just one hit, a two out double by Mike Schmidt in the first.

Christenson would take a hard luck loss in this one as he would give up three runs in his five innings. Sparky Lyle would give up a pair of runs in relief, but the high point in the game came in the top of the ninth inning. Sexto Lezcano and Gene Tenace would hit back to back home runs of Mike Proly, putting the game out of reach. Forsch would earn the win and Bruce Sutter would earn a save in 1 2/3 innings of relief.

Pete Vuckovich (1980) 1-0

Pete Vuckovich

Pete Vuckovich was certainly one of those pitchers that got away, and we knew it the moment that it happened. He was an unfortunate victim of the Whitey Herzog clubhouse cleansing in 1981. Although the particular deal he was in did not work out well for the Cardinals, it set things in motion that put two teams into the 1982 World Series, with Herzog and the Redbirds standing as winners when the last pitch was thrown.

Simply put, Vuckovich was a horse. From the moment he arrived from Toronto in 1977, everything about the big right hander was done to the extreme. He logged a huge number of innings and could be as intimidating as anybody in the game. He also led the Cardinals staff in wins in 1979 with 15 (tying the fragile but exciting Silvio Martinez). That earned him the opening day start in 1980, and he did not disappoint.

How about a complete game 3 hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates and future Hall of Famer, Burt Blyleven? That’s what the scruffy Vuckovich did on April 10, 1980. The difference in the game was a leadoff walk Blyleven gave to Bobby Bonds to start the second inning. George Hendrick would rip a double and Bonds easily scored for the only run in the game. Vuckovich would go the distance in the 1-0 shutout, striking out 9 Pirates on the day.

Sadly, 1980 would be the last time we would see Vuckovich in the Cardinals uniform, but not his last time at Busch Stadium. After being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers following the 1980 season, Vuckovich would have two brilliant seasons, leading the league in wins in 1981 with 14 and posting an 18-6 record in 1982. Just as Joaquin Andujar had taken over the Cardinals staff, Vuckovich transformed the Brewers rotation into a powerhouse and took them to two post-season births, going all the way to the World Series in 1982. For his efforts, he would win the Cy Young Award in 1982.

His success would not last long however. Some time in the pennant stretch of 1982, he injured his rotator cuff. Displaying a level of toughness normally reserved for the hockey rink, the big right-hander pitched through the extreme discomfort. Ultimately it would cost him not only the 1983 and 1984 seasons on injured reserve, but his career as he would never pitch as effectively again.

Dave LaPoint (1984) 1 no decision

Dave LaPoint 1982

Thanks to some curious scheduling with the Cardinals opening on a West Coast road trip, lefty Dave LaPoint would take the mound for both the season and home openers, almost two weeks apart.

In the season opener at Los Angeles, LaPoint would face another crafty left-hander, Fernando Valenzuela. Neither pitcher was sharp, and both would be gone by the end of the third inning. Danny Cox would take over and pitch 4 shutout innings, allowing just two hits. He kept the Dodgers at bay long enough for the Cardinals bats to take revenge on Valenzuela and reliever, Pat Zachary. Cox was on cruise control until being lifted for a pinch hitter in the seventh inning. Fortunately for Cox and the Cardinals, they managed to extend their lead in the inning to 9-3. With Neil Allen coming in to pitch the bottom of the inning, they would need nearly every one of those runs.

Allen would not get a single out in the inning, and when he left the game the Dodgers had pulled to within two runs. Bruce Sutter would be called on to get a long save. Early on, it didn’t look good as Sutter was wild. He hit one batter and walked the next, putting the tying runs on base. If you are feeling a Jason Isringhausen moment while reading this, you are not alone. Sutter righted himself after the walk and got an infield ground out and double play to end the rally. He would only face six more batters in two innings of work for an excepti0nally long save, preserving the win for Danny Cox.

Things would go much better for LaPoint in the home opener against John Candeleria and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Although “The Candy Man” put on a clinic, striking out 11 Cardinals in seven innings of work, a three run homer off the bat of Ozzie Smith was the difference in the game as the Cardinals won 4-1. Bruce Sutter pitched two solid innings of relief for his second save of the season.

Joaquin Andujar (1985) 1 no decision

Joaquin Andujar 1982

A few weeks ago, we took a look at the Cardinals career of Joaquin Andujar in a two part series. One of the most surprising facts about his time in St. Louis is that he only got one opening day start. That would happen in 1985 against the team that would chase them all the way to finish line, the New York Mets. And in nearly 50 years of watching Cardinals baseball, this was one of the most disappointing games I can remember.

The game would feature two of the best right handers, the veteran Andujar against the young phenom, Dwight Gooden. They, along with John Tudor, would fight for the NL Cy Young Award with Andujar and Tudor splitting some of the vote, leaving Gooden as the winner. And it is hard to blame the voters as Gooden’s 1985 ranks right along some of the best since Gibson’s 1968.

In this 1985 opener, neither pitcher brought their A game. Andujar didn’t even bring his B game, it seemed, as the Mets jumped out to a quick 2-0, and then 5-2 lead. Late in the game the Cardinals started getting to Gooden and when manager Davey Johnson went to his bullpen, the Cardinals tied the game – on a bases loaded walk to Jack Clark. That is until Gary Carter came up to the plate to face Cardinals pitcher Neil Allen in the bottom of the 10th inning. Carter sent all the Mets fans home happy as he took Allen deep for a walk-off home run.

What a terrible way to start the season. And we would see more of that out of Allen until he was shipped off to the Yankees in early summer. Almost immediately after the deal, the fortunes of the Cardinals improved, and they sprinted their way to the World Series. None of that seemed possible after watching this agonizing opening day loss to the Mets.

Bob Forsch would get the home opener a week later against the Montreal Expos. Earlier that day, the Cardinals announced a long term contract extension for Ozzie Smith, and the buzz associated with that good news make Busch Stadium electric by game time. And the Wizard did not disappoint, going 2-3 with a home run. In fact, the entire lower part of the batting order did damage as Forsch cruised to an easy complete game 6-1 win. Perhaps a bit of sting was taken away from the horrific opening day loss to the Mets. At least for a day.

John Tudor (1986-1987) 2-0

John Tudor

With the “in the dead of night” deal that sent Joaquin Andujar to the Oakland Athletics following the end of the 1985 season in Kansas City, there was little doubt who would get the next few opening day starts, John Tudor. There may have been better pitchers in St. Louis, but have been none that displayed the degree of cool that Tudor did on the mound. It didn’t matter if he was facing an 8th place hitter that was afraid of his own shadow, or the heart of the New York Mets lineup with a 1 run lead, Tudor was just one cool customer.

He would get two opening day starts, both against the Chicago Cubs. He would win both, but the 1986 opener was one for the ages.

Tudor would face Rick Sutcliffe in this first game in 1986. The big right-hander did everything he could do to win the game for his team. If his team had tried as hard, perhaps they would have emerged victorious instead of the Cardinals.

The turning point in the game happened in the top of the 4th inning. With both hurlers putting up quick zeroes, Sutcliffe hit a bit of a bump facing the heart of the Cardinals order. Tommy Herr would lead off the inning with a walk. Somewhere, Harry Caray was telling a fan that lead-off walks always come back to haunt the pitcher, and this one certainly would. Jack Clark followed with a screaming single to center field that Bob Dernier could not play cleanly. On the miscue, Herr would take third and Clark would take second. That would turn out to be significant as Andy van Slyke followed that with a single, scoring both runners.

Those were the only two hits Sutcliffe would give up in the game, and he was behind 2-0. The Cubs would get one of those runs back, but that’s all Tudor would allow as he goes the distance in a brilliant 2-1 win.

For Sutcliffe, it was a heartbreaking loss. 8 innings, 2 hits and 7 strikeouts. But one of the 4 walks on the day was the difference in the game.

Tudor and Sutcliffe would hook up again in the 1987 opener, in Chicago. Tudor was shaky early, giving the Cubs three quick runs. Things would turn around in the Cardinals third inning when Sutcliffe would fall apart, giving up 5 runs before turning things over to the bullpen. Taking over for Sutcliffe was a young right hander making only his seventh appearance in the major leagues. He would not figure in the outcome of this one, but Greg Maddux would haunt the National League for the next couple of decades. Another youngster that would see action later in his game was a lefty named Jamie Moyer.

Tudor would toughen and not allow another run. Newcomer, Bill Dawley would take over in the sixth inning and throw 4 scoreless innings, allowing just a single hit. For the second time in two years, Tudor would get the opening day win and Sutcliffe would suffer the loss. Bill Dawley would get the save, one of only two he would earn on the season.

Greg Mathews would get the home opener in 1987 against the Montreal Expos. It was a cold and wet night, and that was just the beginning of the troubles for the young Cardinals lefty. After striking out the first two batters, the wheels would fall off. A single, three consecutive walks and then a bases clearing double gave the Expos a 4-0 lead. Another walk and single to start the second inning would send Mathews to the showers early. The Cardinals were never in the game and the big home town crowd would go home disappointed. There would be lots of disappointment early in the season, but somehow this plucky group managed to find ways to win, until the seventh game of the World Series.

Joe Magrane (1988-1990) 0-1 2 no decisions

Joe Magrane

Thanks to a microscopic and league leading ERA of 2.18 in 1987, Joe Magrane would get the next few opening day starts for the Redbirds.

His first start in 1988 would be against Mario Soto and the Cincinnati Reds. Magrane would struggle through 6 innings, but what we remember of that game was his bat. In his second plate appearance of the season, he would hit a three run homer to put the Cardinals out in front, 4-1. Unfortunately, he would give all of those runs back before leaving the game in the seventh inning. As shaky as Magrane was, the bullpen was incredible. Scott Terry, Ken Dayley, Todd Worrell, Steve Peters and Bob Forsch managed to get the game into the 12th inning without allowing a single run. Of course, on the other side of the diamond, the Reds relievers were just as good.

A leadoff walk in the 12th inning given to the Reds by Bob Forsch would be the difference in the game. That runner would come around to score when Larry McWilliams gave up a walk off single to Kal Daniels. Forsch would take the hard luck loss, and former Cardinals reliever, Pat Perry would earn the win.

Danny Cox would get the home opener in 1987 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. It would be a back and forth game, with the Pirates winning 4-3.

In 1989, Magrane would get both the season and home openers, both against the Mets. He would get shelled in both of them, losing both. Don’t feel bad for Magrane though as he would only lose seven more games all season, to go with 18 wins. The 24 year old had put together a rather impressive season. Unfortunately, elbow trouble was about to derail him, but that’s a story for another day.

Joe Magrane would get one more opening day start. That would be on April 9, 1990 against current Springfield Cardinals pitching coach, Dennis Martinez. Magrane was sharp, allowing just one run before leaving the game in the sixth inning. Martinez had been shaky, but limited the damage to just three runs.

When the bullpens got involved, things turned ugly. Ken Hill would allow three runs before getting the final out in the sixth inning. Frank DiPino followed suit in the seventh, allowing a run of his own. Fortunately, Cris (no-H) Carpenter, Howard Hilton and Ken Dayley righted the ship and managed to get the game into the 11th inning. That’s when another lead-off walk, this time to the Cardinals Milt Thompson, would prove to be the game winner when Uncle Milty came home on a Willie McGee walk-off single two batters later.

Bryn Smith (1991) 1 no decision

Bryn Smith

The Joe Torre era would start in earnest in 1991 with a game against the Chicago Cubs. The new Cardinals manager gave the opening day start to Bryn Smith, who had been a horse for the Montreal Expos over the last 8 season, winning as many as 18 games in 1985.

Smith pitched a gem of a game allowing just a single run in seven innings of work. On the other side of the diamond, Danny Jackson was the unfortunate victim of the the last remnants of Whitey Ball as the still speedy Cardinals legged out infield hits and beat throws on fielders choices, inning after inning.

The turning point in the game would come in the top of the 8th. The score was tied at one when Jose Oquendo stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded. He would hit a weak grounder and beat the throw to first base, allowing Felix Jose to score the game winning run. Craig Wilson would follow with a well placed dribbler between the pitcher and first baseman that would score another run. Rex Hudler would ground out, scoring Tom Pagnozzi for final run of the inning, and the game. The Cubs pitchers had just beaten up by a bunch of moths, or so it must have seemed. Former Cub, Lee Smith, earned the first of his NL leading 47 saves in the game, just to add a bit of insult.

Bob Tewksbury would pitch seven strong innings in the home opener against the Philadelphia Phillies. Terry Mulholland would pitch well for the Phils, but not well enough as Tewks picks up the win. Lee Smith would earn his fifth save on the young season in relief.

Jose DeLeon (1992) 1 no decision

Jose DeLeon

Jose DeLeon would get the opening day call to start the 1992 season. His opponent would be David Cone and the New York Mets. Both starters were effective with DeLeon allowing just one run in 7 innings and Cone, 2 runs in 8 innings. The story of the game was relief pitching. The Mets had some and the Cardinals didn’t. In a rare blow-up, Lee Smith allowed the tying run to score in the top of the ninth inning, and lost it when Bobby Bonilla hit a 2 run homer in the 10th. On the other side, the Mets bullpen was sharp, putting up two innings of zeroes.

Bob Tewksbury (1993-1994) 1-1

Of all the pitchers to come through the Cardinals system in the last 50 years, Bob Tewksbury might have been the best actual pitcher. To be able to stand on the mound knowing your fastball topped out at 81 miles per hour (with a tail wind) and face hitters like Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, Ryne Sandberg and Freg McGriff, and have the courage to throw the ball anywhere near the plate took a special cunning, and lack of fear. He had nothing intimidating, couldn’t throw inside and his out pitch was something you were likely to see in a co-ed softball game. In six years in St. Louis, he put up a 67-46 record with an ERA of 3.48. And this is in the beginning of the steroids era.

Bob Tewsbury

Tewksbury would take a hard luck loss in the season opener in 1993 against the San Francisco Giants. The most unsettling thing about this game was seeing Willie McGee hitting lead-off for the pumpkins – it just did not look right at all.

A Matt Williams RBI double in the 4th and a Barry Bonds sacrifice fly in the seventh were the only runs allowed by Tewksbury, but that would be enough as John Burkett went six strong innings, allowing just a single run. The Giants bullpen was brilliant, allowing just a single hit in three innings of combined relief.

Tewks would fare a bit better in the 1994 opener against the Cincinnati Reds. He would struggle in six innings of work, but Reds starter Jose Rijo was knocked around rather rudely by Cardinals bats. Rijo did not have an easy inning during the game and he would surrender 6 runs before turning the game over to his bullpen. Tewksbury would earn the win and Mike Perez would pitch a 1-2-3 ninth for the save.

Ken Hill (1995) 1 no decision

Ken Hill

This would be the second time for Ken Hill to wear the Birds on the Bat. The first time was as a prospect, acquired from Detroit in 1986, while pitching in his first professional season. He came up through the Cardinals system but stalled a bit at Arkansas (AA). After being promoted to Louisville (AAA), he was quickly called up to the majors when injuries with the big club created an opening. He pitched well enough to stay, at least for the remainder of the year. He would lead the league in walks and losses, but not all of that was his fault as evidenced by a 3.80 ERA that was good for a rookie. Not great, but not too bad either. A shaky defense behind him turned him into a tentative pitcher that didn’t aggressively go after hitters.

He started out the 1990 season with the Cardinals, but after being hit hard in his first three relief appearances, he would be sent back to Louisville where he would light up the American Association to a tune of a 6-1 record with an ERA well under 2 runs per game. That prompted another callup in late July. Hill would start off well, but fade again in September, ending with a 5-6 record with the big club. One more season with the Cardinals in 1990 that mirrored his rookie campaign, except that this time he did get a little bit of run support, and then it was off to Montreal.

That’s when the real Ken Hill showed National League teams what he could do. In three seasons in Montreal, he would post a 41-21 record with an ERA just over 3. Some injuries limited his starts in 1994, but he still managed to win 16 games in that season, to go with only 5 losses.

That prompted an off-season trade with the Cardinals to bring Hill back for another look, and we got exactly what we had in the late 1980s. The tall right hander would not last the entire season before being traded to Cleveland before the non-waiver trade deadline, where he would help the Indians make the playoffs. Hill would pitch brilliantly in the ALDS and ALCS, earning one win in each. He didn’t fare as well against the Braves in the World Series, but his stock had risen significantly.

That would pay off with a free agency deal with the Texas Rangers, where he would find his old form. He would help pitch the Rangers into the playoffs, winning 16 games for the third time in his career. After that, he would be a pennant run pickup by the California Angels where he would have a couple of good seasons before injuries ended his career.

All that success, and we missed every bit of it in St. Louis.

Ken Hill did get the opening day call for the Cardinals in 1995. With a rotation of Mark Petkovsek, Allen Watson, Donovan Osborne and both Danny Jackson and Mike Morgan at the end of their careers, you know it is going to be a long season. And you now understand why it was Hill that got the opening day call.

He would face a young hard throwing right hander from the Philadelphia Phillies named Curt Shilling. Shilling was still a few years away from putting it all together, and a decade from the famed bloody sock heroics in post-season. It would be a fair fight between two struggling right-handers, and neither would be around to get a decision.

Hill would get hit hard in the third inning when the Phillies sent 9 men to the plate, scoring 5 times. The Redbirds would get three of those runs back in their half of the third as they sent 8 men to the plate against Schilling.

A Brian Jordan two run homer off Toby Borland in the sixth pulled the Cardinals to within a run at 6-5. It would stay that way until the Cardinals came to bat in the bottom of the ninth. Former Reds closer, Norm Charlton could not manage to find the strike zone as he tried to close the game out. Bernard Gilkey would start things off with a seeing-eye single through the left side of the infield. Two walks would load the bases for Scott Cooper, and he delivered with a sharp single though a pulled-in infield, scoring Gilkey with the tying run and Ozzie Smith with the game winner. Rene Arocha would pick up the win with one sharp inning of relief.

Next time, we will look at the opening day starters in the Tony La Russa era.

Bob Netherton covers Cardinals history for i70baseball.com and writes at On the Outside Corner. You may follow Bob on Twitter here or on Facebook here.

During the offseason we have been taking a look at the past, giving readers a timeline of St. Louis baseball throughout history. Last time we learned about how Whitey Herzog came in and rebuilt the organization into a lean mean running machine. Whiteyball led to a World Series title in 1982, but felt a little less than potent in the two years following. Could the team rise to the top?

When people talk about the Cardinals’ 1985 team, it all seems to boil down to the Series. More specifically, it points to the Call. The team here at I-70 Baseball even did a week-long tribute to the 1985 Series between the Cardinals and Kansas City Royals (You can find the archive here). It is unfortunate that a 101-61 record that witnessed players winning the MVP, Rookie of the Year, and Gold Glove awards has boiled down to one call, but it happened.

Whitey and owner Gussie Busch were disappointed with how the team had performed in both 1983 and 1984. Because of that, most of the championship team from 1982 was long gone before the beginning of 1985. The real holdovers included Ozzie Smith and Tommy Herr in the infield, Willie McGee in the outfield, and Bob Forsch and Joaquin Andujar in the rotation. Joining those names were slugging first baseman Jack Clark, outfielders Vince Coleman and Andy van Slyke, and starting pitcher Danny Cox.

The Cardinals did not exactly run away with the division, as their biggest lead of four games out in front would indicate. They battled with the New York Mets tooth and nail all the way through the season. The “Pond Scum” Mets featured former Cardinal Keith Hernandez and young pitching phenom Dwight Gooden, who at age 20 picked up 24 wins in 1985.

What pushed the Cardinals to the top? Speed. The Mets and Cardinals basically had the best two lineups and pitching rotations in the National League, going toe to toe in many of the top counting categories, with the exception of a few. Where the Mets relied on power, in the form of home runs from their sluggers and strikeouts from their pitchers, the Cardinals looked to speed around the bases and scoring runs in bunches.

The Cardinals pushed through the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers despite facing such pitchers as Fernando Valenzuela, Orel Hershiser and Tom Niedenfuer. The real loss of that series occurred in Game 4, when Rookie of the Year winner Vince Coleman was trapped by a rolling tarp and suffered a broken leg. Losing his speed on the basepaths for the rest of the playoffs was a tough blow, but the team was far from finished.

The big question: if the Call does not happen, do the Cardinals win the Series? It is certainly possible. However, one bad call does not produce seven games’ worth of outcomes. There was still one whole game after it happened. The Cardinals still could have won… but they rolled over in game seven. They let it slip away.

1986 was a down year across the board. For Willie McGee it meant dropping from an MVP winning season in which he batted .353/.384/.503 to a disappointing .256/.306/.370 line. He was not the only sharp fall. The team was dead last in hits, runs, doubles, home runs, batting average, slugging and on base percentages. That is correct… dead last in the National League. The funny thing is they still managed to lead the league in stolen bases, despite having the fewest opportunities to do so.

The pitchers did not have quite a drop, but consider this: in 1985, Tudor and Andujar both won 21 games and Cox won 18. The pitching staff was in the top 3 in every category except strikeouts. The next year Andujar had found his ticket out of town and Tudor/Cox/Bob Forsch all put up rather similar lines of 12-14 wins and a roughly 3.00 ERA. Not bad, but who was the shutdown ace? That was a rotation of number two or three starters.

Speaking of not having an ace, the 1987 team might fit that bill even better. Have you ever heard of a team that went to the World Series without a pitcher winning more than eleven games? It happened. Eight different pitchers won at least eight games, but no pitcher on the team won more than eleven. Whitey pulled wins out of that team every way he could, because on paper, this team was not the top.

Jack Clark

All in all, the lineup was solid. The starters all seemed to hit around .285, and for the first time in what felt like decades, the Cardinals had a genuine slugger in Jack Clark, who thumped 35 home runs and racked up a ridiculous 136 walks. The whole team was patient at the plate, leading the league in walks and, as a result, in on base percentage, but Clark blew them all away. Wonder of wonders, the highest batting average on the season belonged to “light hitting” shortstop Ozzie Smith, who smacked out a .303 batting average (despite 138 of them being singles).

Finishing at 95-67 put the Cardinals three up on the Mets in the National League and pushed them into the NLCS against the San Francisco Giants, led by Will “the Thrill” Clark. Despite pushing the series to seven games, the Cardinals snuck out of it and on to the World Series to face the big bats being wielded by the Minnesota Twins’ Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek and Garry Gaetti. The Cardinals’ wiry runners looked like batboys next to the big guys hanging out in the Twins’ dugout!

The World Series turned out to be one of those affairs where the home team wins every game, but some people have made somewhat of a stink about that. The Twins played in the Metrodome, and in at least one player account of the Series, when the Twins’ players were up to bat the crowd noise was such that the team would turn on fans somewhere in the stadium that caused balls to blow into the stands, helping those sluggers just a little bit more. Who knew there would be wind in a dome? This was never confirmed of course, but considering the very lopsided scores in those four games in Minnesota (10-1, 8-4, 11-5, and 4-2), I suppose anything is possible.

Coming out of the World Series that year felt like a letdown, but for kids like Joe Magrane, who finished third in the Rookie of the Year voting in ’87, getting to the postseason was a, “Ho-hum, we will be back next year,” kind of feeling. Little did any of them know that this would be the last time the team sniffed the postseason for ten long, lean years.

Joe Magrane

1988 was awful for the Cardinals. Jack Clark and general manager Dal Maxvill were not the best of friends, and when the two could not come to terms on a new contract, the free agent basically threw his hands in the air and walked away to join the Yankees. It was a sucker punch to the rest of the team, who relied on the big slugger to push across all the runners they were getting on base for him. Without a guy to bring in the runners, tallies on the scoreboard were scarce. Vince Coleman and Willie McGee were still tearing up the basepaths, but they were left stranded more often than not. Joe Magrane knew that better than anyone, winning the ERA title in ’88 with a puny 2.18, but finishing with a 5-9 record. He would go up against David Cone and the Mets’ fearsome lineup, but his team could only ever scratch out a run at a time for him. With that kind of support, the team finished an abysmal 76-86, a very distant fifth place in the NL East.

1989 had promise. Slugger Pedro Guerrero came through in a big way, finishing third for the NL MVP, being branded with a “clutch” label and bringing around all those baserunners to score, racking up what felt like a monstrous 117 RBI after a year in which no one could seem to push a runner across. The pitching staff felt less of a burden to allow one run or less in every start, and as a result Joe Magrane had a nice year, going 18-9 and finishing third in the CY Young race.

Unfortunately, things were getting messy off the field. Gussie Busch’s health was failing. He turned the team over to his son, August Busch III, who had little interest in the team, and forced Whitey to go through a board of directors to get any baseball decisions done. On September 29, Gussie died, but the Cardinals had already started to fade out of the pennant race, finishing a close third. The pitchers’ arms tired and the bats could not keep up with the Cubs.

The end was nearing for the Cardinals. Gussie was gone, and Whitey was going to be next. The only question was when.

Angela Weinhold covers the Cardinals for i70baseball.com and writes at Cardinal Diamond Diaries. You may follow her on Twitter here or follow Cardinal Diamond Diaries here.

Last week, we took a look at the Rise of Joaquin Andujar. After the talented and often temperamental hurler wore out his welcome in Houston, he became something of an overnight sensation in St. Louis. He almost pitched the Cardinals into postseason in the strike shortened 1981 season, and did that and more the following year, including a gutsy performance in Game Seven of the World Series.

As did many of the Cardinals, Andujar struggled through the all of the transitions in 1983, but emerged as a stronger and more capable pitcher in 1984. Surrounded by a bunch of kids, just getting started in their major league careers, Andujar was totally dominating in 1984. He went deep into games, completing 12, including 5 shutouts. His command seemed to be much better as well, not that he was getting any more strikeouts, but he just wasn’t walking batters. The result was the first 20 win season of his career. If Andujar could keep this up, and the kids could mature a little, 1985 might be a very good year.

Blitzkrieg

Joaquin Andujar

There is really no other way to describe the start to Andujar’s 1985 season. After a shaky start to the season, the ace of the staff would win his remaining 4 starts in April, allowing just 7 runs in those 4 games. He would lose his first start in May, but then win the next five, running his record to an amazing 9-1 as the calendar turned over into June. He would win his next three starts before losing a pair of heart breakers to the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 and 3-1. It’s sort of hard to win when your team is scoring half a run in your starts. Unphased, he would win his next three allowing just three runs in 27 dominating innings.

As the Cardinals were preparing for the All Star break, Andujar’s 15-3 record started whispers of a possible 30 game winner across the national sports media. His record was being compared to that of Denny McLain, the last pitcher to win 30 games in the Major Leagues. And that brings us to the first four events that converge like a perfect storm to destroy the career of one of the best pitchers in baseball.

July 12 and the All Star Fiasco

The 1985 All Star Game would be held on July 16, in the Metrodome in Minneapolis. The manager of the National League, Dick Williams of the San Diego Padres, was about to announce his pitching selections, including his choice as a starter. Without question, everybody expected Andujar to get the start in the mid-season classic – well, everybody but Andujar. As it turned out, the second best pitcher in the National League was LaMarr Hoyt, who happened to pitch for the San Diego Padres. He had just come over from the American League, pitching for Tony La Russa’s Chicago White Sox. His 11-4 record was impressive, to be sure, but it was well short of Andujar’s 15-4, and Andujar’s ERA was a half a run better.

But this is Joaquin Andujar, and crazy things seemed to follow the Cardinals hurler.

In a stroke of luck, the two pitchers would face each other, just 4 days from the All Star Game. It was perfect – let the two men give it their best, and let the winner start the All Star Game.

But Andujar couldn’t just let that happen. No, he had to do something unexpected. Prior to the game, he announced that he would not be playing in the All Star Game. He took the decision right out of Dick Williams hands.

It didn’t lessen the drama from the game on July 12. In fact, it magnified it significantly. In the game, Andujar was good. The Padres had their chances, but Andujar limited the damage. They managed just two runs, both after a little bit of small ball, and key singles. Unfortunately for Andujar, Hoyt was brilliant. In 7 innings of work, Hoyt would allow just 2 Cardinal hits. Goose Gossage was just as stingy in his 2 innings of relief. The Padres would win 2-0, and Andujar would take the tough loss.

There is still much more to this part of the story. LaMarr Hoyt would indeed start the 1985 All Star Game. Hoyt, Nolan Ryan, Fernando Valenzuela, Jeff Reardon and Goose Gossage would totally dominate the American League batters, and the NL won 6-1. Hoyt would pitch three innings, earn the win and was chosen as the Most Valuable Player for the game.

The Rise of John Tudor

A large part of Andujar’s success in St. Louis was undisputed role as ace of the pitching staff. He took over the day he arrived in St. Louis, and hadn’t been questioned since. Until early June when a left hander named John Tudor started turning heads.

John Tudor

Tudor had been acquired during the 1984 Winter Meetings in an effort to improve the pitching staff. With all of the young arms on the roster, it was thought that a veteran like Tudor, especially since he was a lefty, could turn the staff into something special. The coaches had noticed that Tudor was an effective pitch-to-contact hurler that could benefit from playing in front of an All Star caliber infield. Through May, that hadn’t happened, and Tudor was struggling badly.

Things turned around for Tudor on June 3 when he combined with Ken Dayley for just his second win on the season, to go with seven losses. It wasn’t a particularly good pitching performance, it was largely his team beating up on Houston starter Nolan Ryan. Tudor pitched just well enough to win. But his next start on June 8 was a real eye-popper. A 3 hit shutout against the New York Mets, in New York. The game was won on a solo home run by Tommy Herr in the ninth inning, but what everybody noticed was the cool domination of the Cardinals left hander. Including Joaquin Andujar.

As June went on, Tudor become the talk around town, and by the All Star Break, the national sports media had caught wind of his amazing turnaround.

For the first time since J. R. Richard and Nolan Ryan, there was a challenger to Andujar’s spot as ace of the staff.

As July turned to August, Tudor continued to collect win after win. 2 shutouts in June, 3 in July, 1 in August and an amazing 4 in September, including three in a row to start the month. While the talk in July was comparing Andujar to Denny McLain, now the comparisons were John Tudor to Gibson’s shutout record in 1968. From June 3 to the end of the season, Tudor would turn in an unbelievable 19-1 record, finishing the season 21-8.

For Andujar, the second half of the season wouldn’t be nearly as kind. With 15 wins at the All Star break, 20 wins was a given. The question was whether he would win 25, or maybe as many as 30. As it turned out, Andujar would win only 6 games in the second half. One of those games was the 3rd event that conspired too bring down the big right hander.

July 26, 1985 – St. Louis at San Diego

This would be Joaquin Andujar’s revenge game, to make up for the disappointing loss to LaMarr Hoyt just before the All Star break. Instead of facing Hoyt, Andujar drew Dave Dravecky, a left hander that would just give the Cardinals fits. Dravecky was just as good as Hoyt was two weeks earlier, so if Andujar was to get his revenge, he’d have to pitch one of the best games of his career. And he did. This was about the most determined we’d seen Andujar since postseason in 1982.

A little bit of small ball would give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Some small ball, including a double off the bat of former Cardinal Garry Templeton, tied the game in the fifth inning. While both sides battled, neither were able to get the key hit to take a lead. Dravecky turned the game over to the bullpen after 9 regulation innings, but Andujar continued to pitch until his team could rally. Which they would do in the 12th inning, giving him a 2-1 lead. Ken Dayley would come in and totally overpower the Padres to earn the save. Andujar got his revenge, but those 11 innings he pitched would end up costing him dearly.

Andujar would leave that game with a record of 17-4 and an ERA of 2.31. In his remaining 15 starts, he would win 4, lose 8 and his ERA over the period would skyrocket to 5.46. This was not a single bad game, something was seriously wrong with the Cardinals ace. His velocity was down, his control was inconsistent (a 1:1 k/bb ratio), 4 hit batsman and 9 home runs – this was not the work of an ace. Andujar should have gone on the disabled list and rested his ailing shoulder. But he didn’t, and things did not get better.

The Pittsburgh Drug Trials

The final blow for Andujar would come in September, 1985. A Grand Jury would be assembled in Pittsburgh to look into illegal narcotics use that was running wild in baseball. One of the players being investigated was Joaquin Andujar. He would join former Cardinals Lonnie Smith and Keith Hernandez, as they testified in front of the Grand Jury. In exchange for their testimony, all of the players were granted immunity from prosecution, but not from the wrath of commissioner Peter Ueberroth, who had been very vocal about his disapproval of drugs in baseball. Lengthy suspensions were expected, but the players would not learn of their fate until the next spring.

All of this proved to be too much for the Cardinals star, and his on the field performance continued slipping. Whether it was pitching while hurt to take his mind off the upcoming verdict, or just trying to out-duel Tudor to maintain his position as the ace of the staff, things fell apart for Andujar in September. His sole win in the month would be more the result of an offensive explosion from the Cardinals bats than good pitching. Ironic, as that’s how the Tudor turnaround started. He would lose his last three starts and pitch ineffectively in 2 starts against the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.

Andujar would make two more appearances as a Cardinal in the World Series. He didn’t pitch poorly, but would take the loss in Game Three. His final Cardinal appearance would be in relief in Game Seven, as the Cardinals unraveled in front of the huge Kansas City crowd. The volatile right hander would get into a shouting match with Don Denkinger, eventually being ejected from the game.

For a pitcher that had been dominating for most of five seasons, the end came so quickly, we didn’t really have time to take it all in.

Epilogue

As rumors of a year long suspension started floating around the Major League, the Cardinals acted quickly and traded Andujar to the Oakland Athletics for a backup catcher. Before the start of the 1986 season, Commissioner Ueberroth ruled on the punishment for the players involved in the drug scandal. All would be suspended for one year, but in a surprise act of compassion, the commissioner gave each of the players a choice of serving the suspension or donating ten percent of their salary to a drug prevention program. All of the players chose the donation, and all of them continued their careers.

For Andujar that meant starting over in Oakland. He never managed to get back on track, but would post a respectible 12-7 record in 1986. But the strangeness that was Andujar would continue. Even though the Athletics play in the American League where the designated hitter is used, Andujar insisted on taking batting practice. And he would be injured doing so.

A trip back to Houston in 1988 would end things right where they started. Somehow, that seems an appropriate end to his major league career.

Looking back at those four events in the summer of 1985, if any one of them didn’t happen, maybe the Andujar story ends differently. A lot happened to the tough right-hander, and in a very short time. Even considering how things ended, Andujar still gave Cardinals fans five of the best years we’d seen out of a pitcher since Bob Gibson. It would take a decade and couple of guys named Kile and Morris to rival them, but that’s a story for another day.

A Struggling Astro

Joaquin Andujar made his major league debut on April 8, 1976. The 23 year old right hander made the club out of spring training, and was penciled in as a starter in a very young and intriguing rotation. In a few early season relief appearances, he would struggle with his control and the walks he issued would come back to haunt him. The wildness would continue through his first few starts, until being shut down with an injury before the first month of the season was over. Things were definitely not going to Andujar’s plan.

Joaquin Andujar

When he came back in June, a completely different and much more confident Joaquin Andujar took the mound. In his first start, he would throw a nifty 2 hit complete game against the Cincinnati Reds for his first major league win. As an encore, he would throw another 2 hitter in his next start against the Chicago Cubs, recording his first shutout. He would also throw another 2 hitter in September, this time against the Los Angeles Dodgers. His control was not much better, but he’d started finding ways to retire batters before they could hurt him.

After a rough 0-2 start to the season, with an ERA over 6, Andujar would go 9-8 with a respectable 3.20 ERA after his return, including 9 complete games and 4 shutouts. On any other team, this would would have been a sensational performance and Andujar would have been getting the lion’s share of praise for his efforts. But this was also the breakout season of J. R. Richard.

After spending several seasons bouncing between Houston, Oklahoma City (AAA) and Denver (AAA), the big, and I mean BIG right hander established himself as one of the best pitchers in the National League. At 6ft 8in, he was a towering sight on the mound, but it was the electric stuff that came out of his hand that made you stare open mouthed when you watched him pitch. He would soon break the National League record for strikeouts in a season, twice posting over 300 ks. Richard was the most exciting young arm to appear in the National League since Tom Seaver in 1967, and that played a huge part in Andujar’s early troubles. It was Richard and not Andujar that would become the ace of the Astros rotation, taking the reigns from Larry Dierker.

For a while, the Astros continued with the youth movement in the rotation. Floyd Bannister

JR Richard

and Mark Lemongello (one of the best baseball names ever) joined Richard and Andujar as the young guns in Houston. At the same time, veteran junk-baller Joe Niekro started turning back the hands of time, and kicked off a very promising second career. By 1978, he would take Andujar’s spot in the rotation, banishing the youngster to the bullpen – a veritable exile. But you could not argue with manager Bill Virdon’s success. Niekro would have back to back 20 win seasons and prove to be the perfect complement to J. R. Richards overpowering arsenal of pitches.

The anti-youth move would continue as veteran Ken Forsch, older brother of Cardinals pitcher Bob Forsch, would work his way back into the rotation. Nolan Ryan and Don Sutton also joined the rotation, pitching like young men again. As the Astros record improved, Andujar fell deeper and deeper into Bill Virdon’s dog house, and his role diminished significantly – now a spot starter and mop-up arm in the bullpen.

It was the combination of consistency and pride that derailed Andujar in Houston. When he got into trouble, bad things would happen. Some times, his emotions would get the better of him, and he would start throwing at opposing batters. Other times, he would just throw instead of pitch, and that got him into worse trouble. Andujar was a proud and competitive athlete, if only a coach or a manager could find a way of focusing that on something positive.

June 7, 1981

Andujar as a Redbird

June 7, 1981 is the day that Joaquin Andujar’s career took a turn for thebetter – but we had to wait almost 60 days to find that 0ut. Five days later, before the new Cardinal could make his debut, a work stoppage caused Major League Baseball to suspend all games until August 10.

The Astros had come within a single game of going to the World Series in 1980, and were contending again in 1981. Their perennial Gold Glove winning center fielder, Cesar Cedeno, was beginning to show signs of wear and tear from playing so long on the hard artificial turf, so a move to first base would be able to keep his potent bat in the lineup. The Cardinals had somewhat of a surplus of outfielders, and a deal was struck, sending Tony Scott to Houston for Joaquin Andujar. This deal worked out well for both clubs, as Scott turned in a productive year and helped Astros reach the playoffs again.

As for Andujar, the 1981 Cardinals couldn’t have been a better spot for the temperamental hurler to land. There were no stars in the Cardinals rotation, except perhaps for local fan favorite, Bob Forsch. This was an opportunity for Andujar to start over again, and if he could duplicate some of his past success, he might finally become the ace of the staff.

When play resumed in August, Andujar made his Cardinals debut in a short relief appearance. It was rather underwhelming, but there was somewhat of a spring training atmosphere in the first week of the new season. When he finally made his first start, on August 14 in Montreal, he made quite an impression. It was a short outing, but he earned the win, and perhaps the respect of the players around him. He would win over the fans in the following two months, finishing with a 6-1 record as a Redbird, including winning his last 4 starts. Yes, the Cardinals had something special in Andujar, and maybe Whitey Herzog was just the manager to get the best out of him.

Pennant stretch

Andujar got off to a great start in the 1982 season, but thanks to a general lack of run support, his record didn’t reflect how well he actually pitched. Entering a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 12, he had a losing record of 8-10, but an era of 2.81. Those two numbers just didn’t go together, and Andujar was about to put the universe in balance. It is also important to note that the Cardinals were just a half game out of first place when Andujar threw his first pitch.

Andujar would throw a gem of a game. Jim Kaat and Bruce Sutter would close it out and make a hard luck loser our of Ross Baumgarten. In doing so, they would also take over sole possession of first place, a spot they would hold on to for all but two days of the remaining season. A big reason for the Cardinals success during August and September ? Joaquin Andujar would make 10 more starts for the Cardinals in 1982, and the Redbirds would win all but one of them. From half a game out on August 12, the Cardinals would go 10-1 in Andujar’s remaining starts and win the NL East by 3 games.

Joaquin was now the ace of the Cardinals pitching staff.

A Bad Break

Andujar would get one start against the Atlanta Braves in the 1982 NLCS. It went by so quickly, hardly anybody noticed. If they did, events in the World Series would make them forget all about his nifty win.

The quick dispatching of the Atlanta Braves set up a rather unusual pitching rotation for Whitey Herzog in the World Series. Andujar would not see action until Game Three. After splitting the first two games at home, Herzog gave Andujar the ball for the first game in Milwaukee, and he delivered. And then some. Andujar was on fire, retiring Brewers batters as soon as they stepped in the batters box. He had a 3 hit shutout working with one out in the seventh inning when tragedy struck. Former Cardinal, Ted Simmons, hit a line drive off Andujar’s leg that sent the big hurler to the ground in a ball. After several minutes, he was was carried off the field, and assumed to be done for the series. Jim Kaat, Doug Bair and Bruce Sutter scrambled to preserve the win, but the momentum in the series just turned in the direction of the Brewers.

The Brewers would take the two remaining home games, forcing the Cardinals to win both Games Six and Seven. John Stuper turned in a masterful performance on a cold and rainy night in Game Six, and the Cards routed the Brew Crew 13-1.

Much to everybody’s surprise, Joaquin Andujar took the mound for Game Seven. He didn’t look right from the first pitch. It looked like it hurt when he shifted his weight in his delivery and he threw wildly across his body. But he pitched like a champion and kept the Cardinals in the game until a late rally against a spent Brewers bullpen made a winner out of the Redbirds. And a legend out of Andujar.

A major milestone

1983 was not a good year for the Cardinals, and Andujar was not immune to the general funk in the clubhouse. Keith Hernandez was sent to New York in the dead of night, leaving many questions unanswered. We would learn much more in September of 1985, but for now, things were just unsettled. Throw in a big injury to Tommy Herr, and the Cardinals just had a bad season. Andujar would lose a career high 16 games, winning only 6. His ERA ballooned to over 4 runs per game, but there was nothing obviously wrong with him – just a funky year.

The wounds from 1983 would start healing for the Cardinals in 1984. Andujar would rebound quickly and turned in the best season of his career so far, winning a league leading 20 games, led the league in innings pitched (261 1/3). He would also throw 12 complete games, including a league leading 4 shutouts. There was suddenly reason to be optimistic about post-season baseball returning to the Gateway City, and the ace of the staff was big part of the turnaround. Throw in an interesting right handed pitching prospect by the name of Danny Cox, a young and talented outfielder named van Slyke, and the Cardinals might be one trade away from returning to the fall classic.

The most amazing thing about the Andujar story, we haven’t seen the best of him yet. To be continued ….

Last week, Michael Metzger took us back to Game 7 of the 1987 World Series with his article, The Other Game 7. It was truly an amazing game that had more plot twists than a Dan Brown novel. With the 25th anniversary coverage of the 1985 World Series last month, that leaves just one more Game 7 for the Cardinals in the Whitey Herzog era. That would be October 20, 1982: The Other Other Game 7.

Getting There

Even though they had the best record in the National League East in the strike shortened 1981 season, not everybody was convinced that the St. Louis Cardinals had the pieces in place to win the division in 1982. Cardinals fans were still upset over the sequence of events that brought Darrell Porter to St. Louis and sent long time favorite Ted Simmons to Milwaukee. There were also questions about where the production lost in the Garry Templeton for Ozzie Smith trade was going to come from. We did have Bruce Sutter, Bob Forsch and Joaquin Andujar, but Steve Mura, John Stuper and Dave LaPoint didn’t seem like the back end of a championship rotation. To make things more interesting, nobody on the Cardinals roster had career years, although Bruce Sutter, George Hendrick and Keith Hernandez were certainly very productive.

If there was a surprise, it was Lonnie Smith. He was just what manager Whitey Herzog needed at the top of the order – a good hitter with speed. A catalyst – the archetype of a Whitey Ball player. He would not be enough though, as the final piece fell into place when David Green, recently obtained in a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers, went down with an injury. A young speedster named Willie McGee was called up to fill in for Green. As Brock had done in June 1964, McGee turbocharged this lineup and transformation to Herzog’s “running rabbits” was complete.

A huge winning streak at the start of the season gave the Cardinals some separation from their chief competition, the Philadelphia Phillies. The two teams would battle all summer for the NL East championship. Another well timed winning streak in September proved to be too much for the Phils, and the Cardinals cruised to their first division title since the league adopted the format in 1969. Step one complete.

There was another roadblock to the date with Game 7 – the Atlanta Braves. The Braves, behind NL MVP Dale Murphy, won the NL West division on the last game of the season. This would be their second trip to the playoffs and were the slight underdog to Herzog’s Cardinals. But in a short series, anything can happen. And it did.

The original Game 1 was interrupted by rain at a most fortunate time for the Cardinals. Trailing 1-0, the game was just a few outs from being an official game before umpires called it. A do-over. In the second Game 1, Bob Forsch cruised to an easy win, throwing a complete game 3 hit shutout in the 7-0 victory. Game 2 was a nail biter and would go down to the wire. Newcomer Darrell Porter proved to be the hero with an important RBI double in the middle of the game, followed by scoring the tying run a few innings later. Ken Oberkfell would send the huge St. Louis crowd home delirious with a walk off single after some well executed small-ball. The series would briefly move to Atlanta as the Cardinals jumped out to an early lead in the clincher and never looked back. A sweep of the NL West Champs sent the Cardinals to the World Series.

Meet the Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers were the exact opposite of the St. Louis Cardinals. Where the Cardinals were like a military band marching in precision, the Brewers looked like they just rolled out of a bar at closing time. The Cardinals ran, the Brewers slugged. The Cardinals played excellent defense all around the field. The Brewers slugged. What the two teams had in common were their closers – Rollie Fingers and Bruce Sutter, but Fingers would not be available for the World Series due to an injury. It was hoped that he would be able to return some time in the series, but that never happened, and the Brewers played with one less pitcher on their roster.

Herzog’s Cardinals were just supposed to be a speed bump on the Brewers path to immortality. When the Brewers opened the series with a 17 hit 10 run attack, it looked like that might be the way the series would go. Mike Caldwell did to the Cardinals what Bob Forsch had just done to the Braves – a demoralizing 3 hit shutout.

The Brewers jumped out to a quick lead in Game 2, but the intrepid Cardinals kept clawing their way back. An 8th inning run proved to be the difference in the game as the Cards tied the series.

Now, off to Milwaukee.

Thanks Ted

Game 3 was the coming out party for Willie McGee. He was a one man assault on the Brew Crew. Not only did he hit 2 home runs on the day, but he robbed Gorman Thomas of one with a Jim Edmonds like catch well above the center field fence. If that wasn’t enough, he made one of the most amazing diving catches, saving another run and preventing a possible rally. As good as McGee was, Andujar was better. He was throwing darts at the Brewers bats, and other than a couple of McGee gems, they weren’t hitting him. Until ex-Cardinal Ted Simmons comes to the plate in the 7th inning and lines the ball off Andujar’s right leg. Andujar had to be helped off the field and by all reports, was done for the series. The Cardinals held on for the win, but the heart and soul of the team just died. Or so we thought.

The next two games would reinforce that belief. The Brewers would get to Bob Forsch and Dave LaPoint in the next two games and take a 3-2 lead in the series.

Stuperman

Game 6 – the first elimination game. It was a cold and rainy night in St. Louis. The temperatures would quickly drop into the 30s – it was just a brutal night for baseball. Whitey Herzog gave the ball to rookie John Stuper, but all hands were on deck in case there was trouble. Through two long rain delays, Stuper was magnificent. He took a 1 hitter into the 9th inning while his teammates chewed up the Brewers bullpen to the tune of a 13-1 laugher. The young rookie right-hander may have just saved the World World Series.

The Other Other Game 7

To everybody’s surprise, Joaquin Andujar was announced as the Cardinals starting pitcher. Just a few days earlier, he had to be helped off the field. We’d last seen him standing on crutches with a huge bandage wrapping his knee. Now he’s standing in front of a sellout crowd at Busch Stadium in the biggest game of the season. His opponent would be former Cardinal, Pete Vukovich, who looked like he had slept in his uniform. Andujar was elegant, Vukovich unkempt. Andujar threw fastballs. Vukovich threw junk. The differences between these two couldn’t be greater.

Watching Andujar warm up, it was pretty obvious that he wasn’t right. He was landing gently, unable to put all of his weight on his right leg. He would throw across his body awkwardly. None of that seemed to matter though as Andujar, pitching on pure adrenaline, retired the first 9 men he faced. On the other side of the diamond, Vukovich was in trouble all night, throwing high pressure pitch after high pressure pitch. One of these two were about to crumble – we just didn’t know which one.

At first it looked to be Andujar. The second time through the order, the Brewers started a rally. Paul Molitor led off the fourth inning with a sharp single to right field. Robin Yount followed that with a slow ground ball to Ken Oberkfell at third base. Molitor was forced at second, but Yount easily beat the throw at first. Andujar was really struggling at this point in the inning. Cecil Cooper then dribbled a single to right field.

The Turning Point

What happens next will determine the winner of the 1982 World Series. On the Cooper single, the speedy Yount tried to take third base. George Hendrick, a vastly underrated defensive player, comes up firing and throws a strike to Ken Oberkfell. Oberkfell does his part by blocking off third base. The throw beats Yount and Oberfell makes the easy tag for the second out of the inning. If you know anything about Joaquin Andujar, you can guess what happens next. That is exactly the kind of play that can get Andujar back into the game, and it does just that. He throws two more pitches in the inning as Ted Simmons pops out. Brewers rally finished – momentum swing in the Cardinals direction.

As if scripted, the Cardinals would finally break through in the bottom of the fourth inning. Just moments after the run saving throw from Hendrick, the bottom of the order gets to Vukovich. A single by Lonnie Smith gives the Cardinals a 1-0 lead, and the hometown crowd is ecstatic. They fail to extend the inning though as Vukovich toughens.

Ben Oglivie would tie the game in the fifth inning with a long long long leadoff home run. Gorman Thomas nearly left the park with a long fly to the warning track that gave Lonnie Smith all sorts of trouble. Two ground balls end the inning without any further damage. Vukovich follows that with his best inning of the game so far, retiring the Cardinals with very little drama.

Andujar would get himself into a world of trouble in the sixth inning. A leadoff double sets up a disastrous sacrifice bunt that Andujar throws away. That allows Jim Gantner to score easily, plus put Paul Molitor into scoring position. A single and sacrifice fly would give the Brewers a 3-1 lead. It would also get the Cardinals bullpen busy. Andujar would close out the inning without any more trouble. There are now just 12 outs remaining and the Cards had a 2 run deficit.

Vukovich’s flirting with danger would finally get the best of him in the bottom of the inning. A one out single by Ozzie Smith followed by a double by Lonnie Smith set up the Cardinals best scoring opportunity of the game. Lefty Bob McClure replaces Vukovich and gets into trouble of his own. He walks pinch hitter Gene Tenace to load the bases. Mike Ramsey then runs for Tenace, putting good speed on the bases. On his 29th birthday, Keith Hernandez singles, scoring the 2 Smith’s. Silent George Hendrick follows that with a single, scoring Ramsey with what would turn out to be the game winning RBI.

With a slim 4-3 lead, Herzog stays with Andujar for the seventh inning, hoping he can get one more inning out of the right-hander. If so, he can turn the game over to Sutter – the best closer in baseball. Doug Bair and Jim Kaat are warming up, just in case. Andujar strikes out the dangerous Gorman Thomas, but the next batter silences the huge crowd. Roy Howell hits a towering shot to left field that totally fools Lonnie Smith. He breaks the wrong direction, turns the wrong way on the warning track, but somehow leaps at the very last second to catch the ball. Smith did absolutely everything wrong in the making that play, except he made the catch. 50,000+ fans in St. Louis exhaled in unison. A single by Charlie Moore sets up the Brewers last chance. Jim Gantner lines an Andujar pitch up the middle, but the “One Mean Dominican” snags it for a brilliant defensive play. He throws a 90 mile per hour strike to Keith Hernandez for the last out in the inning. Andujar knew he was done for the night, and being Andujar, wanted to go out with a flourish. Gantner takes exception to the showmanship and pleasantries were exchanged. Each of the players indicated that the other was #1 in their heart too, or something like that. Home plate umpire Lee Weyer quickly got in between the two players to prevent any unnecessary escalation.

That was the last we would hear out of the Brewers in the 1982 season. The Cards would tack on two insurance runs later in the 8th inning, but it was now Sutter’s game and he did not disappoint. The bearded one would face just six batters and retire them all with nothing leaving the infield. The only Brewer that put up a fight was Gorman Thomas, the last man Sutter would face. He worked the count full and then fouled off a number of pitches. That’s when Sutter would get the big man to swing at an outside fastball and miss.

The sight of Darrell Porter jumping up, throwing away his catchers mask and running out to hug Bruce Sutter is one of the greatest images in Cardinals history. Game 7 of the 1982 World Series was really one for the ages. An unexpected pitching performance from Joaquin Andujar, who was not even supposed to be available. George Hendrick’s run saving throw, and then a couple of innings later, driving in the winning run. And Bruce Sutter being Bruce Sutter.

1985 World Series

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Kansas City Royals

Game 7 – October 27, 1985

Location: Royals Stadium, Kansas City, Mo.

Attendance: 41,658

Recap: The Kansas City Royals came back from a 3-1 deficit in the 1985 World Series to win it all, culminating in a dominating 11-0 victory in Game 7. It was a battle of aces – Kansas City’s Bret Saberhagen against the Cardinals’ John Tudor. Both pitchers had been the driving forces of their teams earlier in the series, but in Game 7, only one reigned surpreme. Tudor was knocked out of the game early, giving up five runs in only 2.1 innings, including a second-inning home run to Darryl Motley that ended up being the winning hit. The Cardinals ended up using seven pitchers in the game, one more than the Royals used the entire series. One of those Cardinal pitchers, Joaquin Andujar, was ejected for arguing ball-and-strike calls with home plate umpire Don Denkinger, who made a controversial bad call in Game 6, and St. Louis manager Whitey Herzog also got the boot. Meanwhile, the Royals put up 14 hits on the Cardinals’ weakened pitching staff, including a four-hit game for George Brett. Saberhagen gave up only five hits and threw a complete-game shutout. With two outs in the top of the ninth, Andy Van Slyke smacked a fly ball to right field, and the ball settled in Darryl Motley’s glove, giving the Royals their first and only World Series title.

Line Score:

TEAM R H E

St. Louis 0 5 0

Kansas City 11 14 0

Winning pitcher: Bret Saberhagen

Losing pitcher: John Tudor

Notables: Besides Motley’s second inning home run, only one of the Royals’ hits was for extra bases, a double by Lonnie Smith; Kansas City first baseman Steve Balboni smacked two singles, scored two runs and drove in two RBIs; Motley was 3 for 4 with three RBIs; although Tudor gave up five runs in the first three innings, the real disaster struck for the Cardinals in the fifth, when a multitude of relief pitchers gave up six runs to the Royals; Willie Wilson had two hits, a run, an RBI and a stolen base for KC; no Cardinals batter recorded multiple hits or an extra-base hit; Ken Dayley pitched two scoreless innings to finish the game for St. Louis.

Matt Kelsey is a Royals writer and the content editor for I-70 Baseball. He can be reached at mattkelsey@i70baseball.com.

1985 World Series

Kansas City Royals vs. St. Louis Cardinals

Game 3 – October 22, 1985

Location: Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Mo.

Attendance: 56,634

Recap: The Cardinals went into Game 3 with a 2-0 advantage and the opportunity to play three straight in front of a home crowd, but Game 3 was all Kansas City. Bret Saberhagen was brilliant, throwing a complete-game six-hitter and giving up just one run. On the other side of the ball, Joaquin Andujar fell apart and was lifted after just four innings of work. The Cardinals’ bullpen was no help, either. Offensively, the Royals got a boost from cleanup hitter Frank White, who went two for four with three RBIs and the series’ first home run.

Line Score:

TEAM R H E

Kansas City 6 11 0

St. Louis 1 6 0

Winning pitcher: Bret Saberhagen

Losing pitcher: Joaquin Andujar

Notables: Saberhagen struck out 8 and allowed only one walk, while the Cardinals’ pitching staff struck out 8 and allowed 8 walks; no Cardinals batter had more than one hit; Jack Clark knocked in the Cards’ RBI; on the Kansas City side, White, Lonnie Smith, Willie Wilson, George Brett and Buddy Biancalana had two-hit games.

Tomorrow: A recap of Game 4.

Matt Kelsey is a Royals writer and the content editor for I-70 Baseball. He can be reached at mattkelsey@i70baseball.com.