It gets lost in the shuffle sometimes just how important of a Cardinal Scott Rolen was. And with his career perhaps coming to a close this week, it’s a ripe time to take a look at why. Perhaps it’s because it ended on such a dismissive note that what he represented in St. Louis at such a high point in the franchise’s history.

How will he be remembered? Overall, he’ll stand up tall with the people that watch his era. Not to the statuesque level of Chipper Jones, but really, there’s not many, if any, that played the hot corner in the last 15 years that were any better than him. A seven-time All-Star, 1997 Rookie of the Year and owner of eight Gold Gloves. But it’s the glove that truly stands out, because with the exception of Brooks Robinson’s escapades on the hot corner, nobody has ever done it better. There are some that would say he ever surpassed Hoover in the glove game, a claim that could amount to blasphemy by some, but has some credence with many. But the ground that Rolen could cover while standing at 6’4″, and combined with one of the best infield arms ever, makes it valid.

But what is it about Rolen that makes him not be more revered as a Cardinal? Was it the silent, perhaps even standoffish way he went about his business? Dig a little deeper, because he has some legit claim to be in the discussion for greatest Cardinal third baseman ever. That’s a not too shabby group that includes Ken Boyer, Mike Shannon and Whitey Kurowski. After being acquired as at the trade deadline in 2002, he embarked on a remarkable six year run with the club. Among all third baseman in franchise history, he is second in second in home runs (111) and doubles (173) and fourth in RBI with 453 despite hitting behind Albert Pujols and Jim Edmonds the majority of his time with the club and missing much of the 2005 season.

He returned in time to help the club rebound from that disappointing 2005 season. He played huge, and slightly forgotten, role in taking the club to its second World Series in 2006; one where he built up eight hits in 19 at-bats, including a home run and three triples. This was his crowning moment as a Cardinal, but soon shoulder injuries would keep him off the field for much of the rest of his time with the club. While he has gone on to have strong campaigns with the Toronto Blue Jays and Cincinnati Reds, his career truly peaked as a Cardinal, and reached a point where he showcased just how great he truly could be.

So what is it that keeps Rolen from being a more embraced member of the franchise’s history? He doesn’t really get an exceptional reception from fans when he returns, especially considering what he contributed to a very recent era. Perhaps it’s the way he faded away at the end, or that there was nothing of great lasting return received for him. Maybe it’s the feud with Tony LaRussa that kept him from relishing many returns with the club. Perhaps it’s his affiliation with the club’s fiercest rival the last few seasons in Cincinnati, that hasn’t allowed for many moments of reflection.

Whatever it may be, if his decision to decline coming to Spring Training with the Reds, a team he recently said is the only one he’d consider returning to this year, it’s time to embrace the man more in St. Louis. He’s a virtual baseball nomad by a career sense; he could never go back to Philadelphia to a warm reception, and he spent the shortest tenures of his career in Toronto and Cincinnati. St. Louis is where he deserves to come back to eventually, for the recognition an outstanding player of his level deserves. Maybe, with some time and reflection, both sides will learn how to properly place each other.

Thursday morning the BBWAA official Twitter feed announced which Hall of Fame candidates the Veterans Committee will consider. The complete list: Buzzie Bavasi, Ken Boyer, Charlie Finley, Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Minnie Minoso, Tony Oliva, Allie Reynolds, Ron Santo, and Luis Tiant.

Of the men on the list, two stand out to me: Ken Boyer and Jim Kaat. Kaat played for the Cardinals, but it was the last 3 years of his career. He was a member of the 1982 World Champs, but played the majority of his career in Minnesota.

Ken Boyer, on the other hand, played the majority of his career in St Louis, and was one of the key members of the 1964 World Champs. He happens to be the only Cardinal with a retired number who is not in the Hall of Fame. Boyer should be in the Hall, not solely to clear that historical footnote, but because he was really good.

How good was Ken Boyer? He finished in the MVP top 20 every year from 1958 through 1964. Four of those years (1959-1961, 1964) he finished in the top ten, and won the MVP in 1964. Boyer’s 119 OPS+ from 1955 to 1965 is seventh best among me with at least 5500 at bats during those years, and the men ahead of him on that list are all in the Hall of Fame. A third baseman, he won five Gold Gloves while with the Cardinals.

That 1964 season was definitely his best. His MVP award was the first one one by a NL third baseman in almost 50 years. After leading the Cardinals to an improbable NL pennant, he won Game 4 of the Series with a Grand Slam, and contributed 3 hits to the Cardinals Game 7 triumph, the last Fall Classic ever played at Sportsman’s Park.

Like Ted Simmons, another Cardinal who didn’t get much HOF consideration five years after he retired, Boyer’s HOF case may have been hurt by hanging around too long. He won that MVP at age 33 with a 130 OPS+. In the years that followed, plagued by back problems, he never again cracked 110. Boyer played one more season with St Louis, then bounced around the majors for several seasons, playing for the Mets, White Sox, and Dodgers.

He retired following the 1969 season. At the time of his retirement, only Eddie Mathews had hit more HR as a third baseman.

The problem guys like Boyer face is the dwindling number of people who were alive to see him play. Those of us at this end of the timeline are reliant on what we read, what we see World Series highlight DVDs, and whatever we can cull from his statistical record. Boyer has never had a lot of support amongst the BBWAA vote – he peaked with 25.5% of the vote in 1986 – but the peers he played with clearly perceived him to be one of the elite players in baseball.

There are several men on this year’s list who have good cases for election. Ken Boyer is one of those men.

Mike Metzger is an I-70 contributor. He maintains a blog about the San Diego Padres. Follow him on Twitter.

When looking back at a short series, it is often easy to spot the turning point, when one team takes control and becomes the winner. It might be a game, an individual performance, or perhaps even a single play. In 1964, Ken Boyer’s Grand Slam in Game Four of the World Series, with the spectacular relief efforts from Roger Craig and Ron Taylor to make it hold up is one such example. Who can forget the now famous “go crazy folks” call from Jack Buck in the 1985 NLCS ? Mr. Buck recognized it as such long before the baseball had a chance to leave the field of play.

Oh, they can be quite the other thing too. Cardinals fans still lament Don Denkinger’s call near the end of Game Six of the 1985 World Series. After nearly a decade of flawless defense in center field, a Curt Flood miscue in Game Seven of the 1968 World Series gave the title to the Tigers instead of the heavily favored Cardinals. Still fresh in our memories is a fly ball at the end of Game Two of the 2009 National League Divisional Series that if caught would have given the Cardinals a win and some much needed momentum as the series moved to St. Louis. That fly ball was not caught and the Cardinals did not win, and the Redbirds would be soon be swept by the Dodgers.

Trying to apply this to a full 162 game season, the longest in any professional sport, is a nearly p0intless task. There are just two many ebbs and flows as team momentum can switch as quickly as the winds in Oklahoma. Add in injuries that often seem to come in clusters big enough to overflow the trainers office and turning points can be nearly impossible to spot, if they exist at all. When I-70 Baseball founder, Bill Ivie, suggested a few weeks ago in a Blog Talk Radio segment that historians often spend a great deal of [too much] time trying to find these moments that really aren’t there, he’s largely correct. But, and there’s always a but, reading Angela Weinhold’s latest installment in her Cardinals Through Time series brought back memories of three plays that did exactly that for the 1967 Cardinals: they defined the character of a future champion. Not the loss of Bob Gibson or Ray Washburn, it was three plays that ended three games that tell you all you need to know about that special team.

Not so Great Expectations

The April 1967 edition of Baseball Digest previews all twenty teams in both leagues and they don’t give the Cardinals much of a chance in the upcoming season. They criticize the lack of pitching depth, total absence of power and suggest that there will have to be one or two surprises if they are to contend for the National League Pennant. A ninth place (out of ten teams) finish seemed to be the consensus estimate. As we know from Angela’s article, those surprises did in fact happen in the arms of Dick Hughes (they never saw him coming, nor did we), Nelson Briles and Joe Hoerner. They also missed the effervescence and exceptional play of National League MVP, Orlando Cepeda.

May 30 – Imperfection

The schedule makers must has known something as they put together their matchups for the 1967 season. The Cardinals would come into Cincinnati on Memorial Day and play a three game series against the Reds in just two days. Yes, one was a scheduled doubleheader, something that is rarely done today.

In spite of a rather tepid prediction by the staff at Baseball Digest, the Reds were off to a quick start in the season and were currently sitting alone atop the National League. The only team challenging them seriously were the Cardinals. Much would be learned in this short three game, two day series as fans in both cities would be treated to some of the best baseball of first half.

Over 30,000 fans turned out on Memorial Day to see the Cards and Reds split their doubleheader. Bob Gibson won the opener with a heroic 11 inning performance, allowing just 6 hits and striking out 13. Mel Queen, an outfielder turned pitcher, dueled Gibson for the first nine of those innings but the Reds bullpen could not keep the Cardinals from scoring as Tim McCarver and Julian Javier would each double in the top of the 11th inning to give Gibson the 2-1 victory.

The second game would go to the Reds as they got to Cards starter Al Jackson early. The Cardinals would come back, as they would do all throughout the 1967 season, eventually tying it on a 2 run homer by Curt Flood in the seventh inning. In the bottom of the ninth, Cincinnati slugger Tony Perez would lead off with a triple. After walking the bases loaded, future Cardinal Dick Simpson would hit a fly ball to center, allowing pinch runner Chico Ruiz to score the winning run.

Two great games but the standings didn’t change one bit. The Cardinals were still 1 1/2 games behind the Reds.

Dick Hughes (1967)

This brings us to May 30, and the rubber game of the series. Rookie pitcher Dick Hughes (2-1) would face veteran Jim Maloney (3-1) in one of the most exciting games of 1967. Maloney was nearing the end of a fantastic run with the Reds. In the previous four seasons he had gone 23-7, 15-10, 20-9 and 16-8 with an ERA consistently under 3 runs per game. He was still one of the game’s best strikeout men, averaging almost a strikeout per inning. He would be facing a Cardinals pitcher that was two years his senior, but was in his rookie season. Before the end of this game, nobody called Hughes a rookie again – the greatness of Dick Hughes was about to be unleashed on the National League.

Both hurlers got off to a good start, although Maloney had a hard time finding the strike zone early. The Cardinals would get their first run on a solo home run by Bobby Tolan. Tolan was emerging as one of the most exciting young players on the Cardinals roster and would be a big part of both pennant winning seasons. In an odd piece of irony, he would soon be traded to Cincinnati and help the Big Red Machine become one of the most dominant teams in National League history.

On the other side of the diamond, Hughes was a machine, setting down Reds batters as soon as they came up to the plate. This was not your garden variety sixth starter/long reliever, not with a mid to upper 90 mile per hour fastball and a slider that might even be better than Bob Gibson’s. Hughes had retired the first 21 Red hitters, striking out 12 and allowing only 3 balls to reach the outfield. He also endured a rather long rain delay, which makes his performance even more unbelievable.

In the bottom of the eighth, Hughes would lose the perfect game and shutout as he gave up just three hits: yet another lead off triple from the bat of Tony Perez, a double by future Cardinal Vada Pinson and single to Leo Cardinas. This gave the Reds a slim 2-1 lead, with one inning to play.

This brings us to the ninth inning, and first of our three defining plays.

Orlando Cepeda would lead off the Cardinals ninth with a single to center. Tim McCarver would follow that up with a single to right, which allowed Cepeda to move to third. Cincinnati Manager, Dave Bristol, would go to his bullpen and bring in veteran Don Nottebart to face the light hitting Phil Gagliano. Like Dal Maxvill, Gagliano could barely hit his weight, but somehow seemed to come through in situations like these. The Cards’ third baseman hits the ball to Leo Cardinas at shortstop and the Reds concede the tying run to prevent a big inning as they choose to go 6-4-3 for the double play. Cepeda forgot the first rule of baseball, the home team always plays for the tie and not the win. When Tommy Helms pivots to make the throw to first base, it seemed like an eternity passes before Cepeda decides to break for the plate. A quick throw from first baseman Deron Johnson beats Cepeda to the plate and he is tagged out completing the game ending triple play. What moments earlier had looked like a pr0mising rally, perhaps to pull the Cardinals within a half game of the Reds had just turned into a devastating loss. The Cardinals were now 2 1/2 games out, and the Reds were the ones with the much needed momentum.

A lesser team might have folded at this point, but not the 1967 Cardinals. They did struggle for the next few games, falling as far back as 4 1/2 games after an embarrassing 17-1 blowout at the hands of the Houston Astros. As he would do so many times in his career, Bob Gibson played the role of stopper with a pitching performance that put the Redbirds back on the winning path.

Do It Yourself

Mike Cuellar

After the embarrassment against the Astros, the Cardinals would play some inspired baseball. A four game sweep at home against the Dodgers was just what the Cardinals needed as they embarked on a brutal roadtrip that would take them to Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Houston and finally Los Angeles. The Cardinals took 2 of 3 from both the both Pirates and Giants to start the trip. That would bring us to June 19, and the second of our three plays.

The series opener in Houston would feature two teammates, one already firmly established as star, and one working very hard at becoming one. Bob Gibson would take the ball for the Cardinals against former Redbird, Mike Cuellar. Both hurlers brought their A games, so we knew this was going to be a good one.

The Astros struck first in the home half of the third inning when Mike Cuellar practically came out of his shoes, swinging at a Gibson pitch. It would bang around the right field corner long enough for Cuellar to make it all the way to third. Former Cardinal Julio Gotay would drive in the Houston pitcher with a triple of his own, this time in the left field corner. That’s all Gibson would allow, but against Cuellar, that might be enough.

It wasn’t though as the Cardinals would take the lead in the sixth inning. The big blow was a 2 RBI single from Orlando Cepeda, scoring Dal Maxvill and Curt Flood, who had both reached base with singles.

The heart of the Astros order would get those two runs back very quickly. Jimmy “the Toy Cannon” Wynn would lead off the home half of the inning with a double. Rusty “le Grande Orange” Staub would follow that up with a 2 run homer. The Astros were back on top by the score of 3-2.

Cuellar would begin to tire in the eighth inning, and that’s when the Cardinals would retake the lead. Phil Gagliano, victimized in the earlier triple play, would pinch hit for Bob Gibson. He would coax a walk out of Cuellar. Lou Brock would follow that up with a double, easily scoring Gagliano with the tying run. Julian Javier would sacrifice Brock to third, and Curt Flood would drive Brock in with a single. The Cardinals had a 4-3 lead, if the bullpen could just hold it.

They almost did. Joe Hoerner worked a quick eighth inning, but got into trouble in the bottom of the ninth. Bob Aspromonte, who always seemed to kill the Cardinals in these situations, leads off with a double. The light hitting Bob Lillis sacrifices Aspromonte to third. Red goes to his bullpen for the hard throwing right hander, Nelson Briles. Briles strikes out Joe Morgan, but Julio Gotay drives in the tying run with a single.

Off to extra innings we go. Barry Latman was now the pitcher for the Astros. Both he and Briles had starting experience, so they were probably going to be in there for a while.

It didn’t feel like much of a rally, but in the span of about 2 minutes in the 11th inning, the Cardinals took the lead. It was just a single off the bat of Tim McCarver and a double from Roger Maris, but it was just enough to give the Cardinals a chance for a much needed win.

And now we are to the second of our key plays in 1967, and a most unusual one it was.

Jim Landis would lead off the inning with a single. Playing for the tie, Bob Aspromonte lays down a perfect bunt, moving Landis to second base with just one out. Bob Lillis follows that with what first looked like a game tying RBI single to center. There was no way that Curt Flood was going to get to the looping liner, so Landis took off running for the plate. But the ball hung up just long enough for Flood to make a remarkable shoestring catch, and without breaking stride, he ran all the way to second base to complete the game ending unassisted double play.

The Houston crowd was silenced and the Cardinals all ran to congratulate Flood on the most remarkable play. That win put the Cardinals in a first place tie with the Reds, but only for a few hours as the Giants would defeat Cincinnati, leaving the Cardinals alone atop the leader board.

Some Bad Breaks

Then tragedy would strike, first in Los Angeles, just two days later. With Ray Washburn in cruise control against Don Drysdale and the Los Angeles Dodgers, a line drive off the bat of Johnny Roseboro would hit Washburn’s pitching hand, breaking his little finger. It would require surgery to repair and he would miss the next month. Just as Washburn returns from the disabled list, Bob Gibson goes down with a badly broken leg, suffered in a game on July 15 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Gibson would be out for the next two months.

Any one of these would have derailed a lesser team, but not the plucky 1967 El Birdos. Youngsters stepped up, veterans provided leadership, and an emergency deal bringing Jack Lamabe over from the Mets stabilized a bullpen that might have become a liability. Instead it became one of the Cardinals greatest assets.

A Savage Play

That brings us to the third, and last of “the plays”.

The date is July 25 and this would be the middle of a three game home series against the Cubs. It is not yet August, but the fate of the National League will be settled in this series, and this game would prove to be pivotal. The Cubs had won the opener the day before, and were now tied with the Cardinals for first place. The lead that the Cardinals had taken with the Flood miracle catch in Houston was now gone.

In this game, the Cardinals would get out to a quick lead, scoring 3 runs before Chicago starter Rob Gardner could record the second out. The Cardinals would add another run later, for a 4-0 lead. The Cubs would get two of those back in the sixth inning, but Cards starter Ray Washburn would limit the damage.

Ted Savage

Before describing the final play, some background on one of the player is required. Ted Savage had been in the Cardinals farm system for several years, but had been unable to stay with the big club for any length of time. He was the Joe Mather of his era, lots of tools, but never managed to put them together. He made the team out of spring training, but would be a casualty when rosters were trimmed to their final 25 players in May. Savage refused his reassignment to Tulsa (AAA) and asked that the Cardinals trade him to a team where he might have a chance of playing. The Cubs would buy out his minor league contract and he was soon wearing blue pinstripes on the north side of Chicago.

Now, back to our game, and “the play”. In the top of the ninth, Ernie Banks would lead off with a single. Red Schoendienst would go to his bullpen and bring in the left hander, Hal Woodeshick. Woodeshick hits Ted Savage, not intentionally by any means, but it did put the tying run on base.

Red would again go to his bullpen and call for his go-to right hander, the hard throwing side armer, Ron Willis. Willis would get the first two men as Randy Hundley flied out to left and Adolfo Phillips popped out to short. Al Spangler would step to the plate. On a 3-2 count with two outs, the Cubs start their runners and Al Spangler hits a single to center. Savage was flying around the bases and was being waved home on the play. A perfect throw from Bobby Tolan to the cutoff man, Julian Javier and then a perfect relay to Tim McCarver got the speedy Savage and the Cardinals had a 4-3 win, and a one game lead in National League. One that they would not surrender for the rest of the year. A heads up play by the Reds in May put some doubt in minds of Cardinals fans. A defensive miracle in Houston gave us hope. Now, a spectacular defensive play in July put any remaining concerns aside.

The Cardinals would go on to win the third game and widen their lead en route to a 101-60 finish, 41 games over .500. Many consider this the finest team in franchise history, and I tend to agree. This was a team that did not have adversity in their vocabulary. What they had instead were World Series rings.

But Wait, There’s More

After taking two of three against the Cubs in July, and retaking the lead in the National League, the Cardinals would soon travel to Chicago and take 3 of 4, the only loss being a heart-breaker against Fergie Jenkins on August 1. By the next time the Cubs came into St. Louis, the Cardinals had managed to extend their lead to 8 1/2 games and were firmly in control of the National League. That would be the first of a three game series on August 14. Al Jackson pitched his heart out in three innings of relief, but was trailing 5-3 as the Cardinals came to bat in the ninth inning.

At this point in the season, the Redbirds were playing with so much confidence, a 2 run deficit in their last at bat didn’t seem to be much of a problem. And it wouldn’t be in this game, but not before one more exciting play involving Ted Savage. Bobby Tolan would lead off with a walk. Alex Johnson would ground out, moving Tolan to second. Lou Brock would follow that with single, scoring Tolan to make the score 5-4. One run at a time, no sense of urgency – no mistakes. Curt Flood would follow that with a single, putting the tying run on third with one out.

That brings Roger Maris to the plate, and he was exactly the person you would want batting in this situation. Maris delivers, as he did so many times in 1967. Roger smacks a single to right field. Ted Savage, who was called out on that bang-bang play to end the the game on July 25, bobbles the ball and allows Flood to score the winning run all the way from first base. The Cardinals would go on the sweep the series, building their lead to a staggering 10 1/2 games.

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 the Cardinals steady climb back to the top of the National League thanks to players like the strong arm of Bob Gibson; the swift feet of Lou Brock; and the big bats of Ken Boyer, Curt Flood, and Bill White. They put it all together and won the World Series in 1964. Would the good times roll for a while?

People often talk about “going out on top,” but rarely do people walk away from a championship team so they escape getting fired. That is exactly what Cardinals’ manager Johnny Keane did at the end of 1964. Gussie Busch had been keeping him wringing his hands constantly over the past few months, so Keane decided that win or lose, he was leaving the Cardinals after the ’64 Series. When he won, what was surprising is that he went on to the Yankees – the same team that the Cardinals had just finished beating not days before!

When Keane left, Busch was dismayed. He had finally realized that Keane was good, and losing him stung the franchise. He made two brilliant moves, installing Stan Musial as the vice president of the team and turning to an old friend to run the team in Red Schoendienst. Red came in and ran things for the next twelve years, plus a few more random appearances as interim manager later on. This makes him the second longest tenured manager in Cardinal history, after current manager Tony LaRussa.

1965 was a black eye for the team that had finally risen back to the top the previous year. Injuries abounded, resentment at general manager Bob Howsam ran rampant, and things just never clicked. Lou Brock had his shoulder broken from a pitch by Sandy Koufax after bunting for a hit, swiping a base and scoring in his previous at bat. Bill White got hurt. Runs batted in for the sluggers fell across the board. Players were irritated at how Howsam was trying to cut salaries the year after winning the Series.

Throw all those issues out on to the field and it is no surprise that the team free-falled in the standings, tumbling all the way down to seventh and turning in a measly 80-81 record. If fans were upset at the team’s play in ’65, they were about turn their resentment from the play on the field to the moves of the front office. In a series of offseason salary dump moves, Howsam sent not only back-up catcher Bob Uecker and aging shortstop Dick Groat away in trades, but also dumped All-Stars and fan-favorites Bill White and Ken Boyer.

To make matters worse, Howsam made the mistake of not speaking kindly about the players being traded away. To White he was especially cruel, stating that he was very obviously old and probably older than his listed age. This cut the highly respected veteran deep, to the point where he acted very out of character and called the GM a liar publicly. The fans were outraged, and rightfully so.

There was a move made in 1966 that had nothing to do with payroll, players, or the product on the field. It did have to do with the field though, as the team moved out of steamy, creaky, and leaky Sportsman’s park into the nice new Busch Memorial Stadium. It was quite a switch for the players and fans. People were farther from the field and felt more disconnected, and players loved the amenities but kind of missed the intimacy with the fans. It was a stadium, while Sportsman’s Park actually felt like a ballpark.

Too bad the team had no way to really put the cavernous new field to good use. The trades of Boyer and White had left the team with no real powerhouses, and it was one low-scoring game loss after another all season long. The pitching was not really the problem. Seven different pitchers put up ERA’s of better than 3.75 with 70+ innings pitched. Nelson Briles went a rather forlorn 4-15, but had a 3.21 ERA over 154 innings. Ray Washburn and Larry Jaster both tossed out 11 wins, but the only big winner on the team was Bob Gibson at 21-12. Gibby had 21 starts where he allowed two runs or less, and needed every single one of them, or the team’s 83-79 record would have been much worse.

Time for some bright spots, and although these were few and far between in 1966, they were there. Howsam did know that he had swapped out his power, but he had a glut of pitchers. He made a move in May, sending pitcher Ray Sadecki to San Francisco Giants in exchange for recovering slugger Orlando Cepeda. “Cha-Cha” had been battling bad knees throughout most of ’65, but the Cardinals took a gamble, and it paid off in a big way. The other main bright spot was the emergence of Steve Carlton for nine starts towards the end of the season. The twenty-one year old lefty logged 52 innings and showed the beginning of what would become a Hall of Fame career.

Gussie was incensed by the fall his briefly mighty club had taken. He kicked Howsam out the door and decided to insert Musial into the GM’s position. People were unsure he had the qualities of a general manager, but the legend showed his moxie early but trading for Roger Maris in December of 1966. Maris was obviously on the decline, and the Yankees had been treating him like crap for years, lying to him about x-rays revealing he had broken his hand so they could keep him on the field, and trading him away when he fully intended to retire.

Maris brought experience, a still strong arm, and a relative amount of speed to a team that had now assembled a rather memorable outfield in Cardinals’ history. Maris was the last piece of the puzzle, joining Flood and Brock. The team had a spark according to pitcher Nelson Briles, attacking teams on the field like junkyard dogs and staying loose in the clubhouse with jokes, singing, and holding clubhouse meetings every night to award that day’s ‘hero of the game.’

Leading the clubhouse charge was fun-loving “Cha-Cha” Cepeda, nicknaming the team ‘El Birdos’ and hitting a monstrous .325/.399/.524, including a team-leading 25 HR and 111 RBI. Curt Flood also had a career year, hitting .338/.378/.414. The real stories of the season had to include the pitching staff. Ray Washburn was lost for a month after taking a line drive off of his pitching hand and severely breaking a finger. Before Washburn even made it back, Bob Gibson took an even worse smash, as his leg was broken by a screaming line drive off the bat of Roberto Clemente. Gibson was so tough he got up and pitched to another batter before crumpling to the ground and being carried from the field!

Losing the two veterans of a pitching staff is never good, but the youngsters took over. Despite an average age of 24.2 years old, the combination of Carlton, Briles, Larry Jaster, Dick Hughes, and Jim Cosman would turn a good team into a great one. All had ERA’s right around 2.50 to 3.10. Briles especially had to work his tail off, since he was the one filling in for Gibby. Briles, Carlton, and Hughes were a combined 19-6 while waiting for the big righty to mend. By the time their ace returned in September, the team was ten games up on the Mets for the lead in the National League. Maybe they did not need him after all.

Jokes, people. Jokes.

The team finished with a resounding 101 wins in 1967, and good ol’ Cha-Cha won the NL MVP unanimously, the first time this had ever happened in the history of the National League. El Birdos danced their way into the Fall Classic, where the “Impossible Dream” Boston Red Sox were waiting with big bats.

Gibson won the first game, giving up one run and scattering six hits, while striking out ten. The Sox struck back in the second, winning 5-0 but starter Jim Lonborg knocked down or plunked three or four Cardinals in the process. When Dick Hughes did not respond, the players turned to game three starter Nelson Briles to send a message. Briles was shaking like a leaf, but he delivered the message, plunking superstar slugger Carl Yastrzemski in the first inning. This enraged Boston fans, who sent Briles hundreds of telegrams and messages warning him not to come back to Boston and threatening his life.

Of course, Bob Gibson probably did not help matters when he blanked the Sox in game four and gave the Cards a 3-1 Series lead.

Boston was not going down without a fight, and tied the Series at three games apiece, despite a solid start by Carlton in game five and the Cardinals managing to scrape out four runs in game six. It all came down to the deciding seventh, and who better to have on the mound than Bob Gibson. The tall righty came in and bore down, pitching a two run complete game, and even contributing to his cause but hitting a home run in the fifth. Gibson was the Series MVP, and the Cardinals were back on top.

An old friend came back in 1968. Gussie Busch finally admitted he had made a mistake, and rehired Bing Devine to be the general manager of the team, after Stan Musial admitted that he did not want the job anymore.

The ’68 team could not score runs to save their lives. The pitchers pleaded with them – score some runs. Multiple runs would be nice. One run… just one! Something! No one on the team had 80 RBI, the leader in HR was Cepeda with 16, and only one player even made it to a .300 BA (Flood), with the next closest checking in at .279 (Brock).

The Cardinals simply could not have survived without their pitchers. Four of their five starters had an ERA under 3.00. They combined to throw 63 complete games and 27 shutouts. The real story here is Gibson. He turned into a freak of nature, compiling the following totals: 28 complete games, 13 shutouts, 304.2 innings pitched, a 22-9 record, a 0.853 WHIP, and a 1.12 ERA. That is not a typo. He really was that good. He was the runaway winner of both the Cy Young and the MVP award.

The strong arms of Gibson and company led the Cardinals to a 97-65 and second consecutive NL crown. They marched on to face the Detroit Tigers in the World Series, and the country was buzzing about the matchup of Gibson and 31 game winner Denny McLain. McLain did not stand a chance in game one, as Gibson not only went the distance, but struck out a Series record 17 Tigers in the process. Gibson had another incredible Series, pitching 27 innings, giving up a mere 2 runs, and yet still finding himself on the losing end of a 1-0 deciding game seven. Frustrating to be sure, but Gibson knew that storyline well. The Cardinals jumped out to a 3-1 Series lead, and looked to be dominating, but the bats just up and died. Detroit won the next three in a row and took the title home. The Cardinals went home with their tails between their legs.

Gussie Busch was not making friends with the players, especially after his team brought home consecutive pennants. They wanted to be paid, and when Busch called a press conference to basically demoralize the players, all the air went out of the room. The team was proud of themselves and their skills on the field, but when their owner called them selfish and questioned their integrity and how he could not believe they had the nerve to hold out, the players were struck dumb. They no longer believed they worked for the best organization in baseball. They knew the truth: they were livestock. They could be replaced. They better watch their backs.

Changes were coming in baseball as a whole. After a ‘year of the pitcher,’ where batting averages and ERA’s hit all-time lows, the mound was lowered to give hitters a better chance. Pitchers everywhere suffered, and many lost their edge. The Cardinals never had an edge. Veterans came out in the papers, saying they were frustrated that the front office had ordered manager Red Schoendienst to play younger players and sit the veterans. The front office shot back that they were just afraid of losing their jobs. You complained, you got traded. That was the way it was.

Curt Flood was the most vocal, and sure enough, he was traded, but those of you that know baseball history already know of the now infamous situation. He refused the trade, declared himself a free agent, and eventually history was changed in baseball. Flood became a pioneer, but the rest of his team was left floundering. The club struggled to a 87-75 record, and started in on what has almost become a lost time in Cardinals’ history.

Special thanks this week go to i70 historian Bob Netherton, who loaned me information from all over the place. Find more on these topics by heading here, here, here, or here.

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.

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 Gussie Busch and the beginning of Bing Devine’s work with the Cardinal’s front office. Unfortunately the product on the field was not good at all, and the Cardinals were finding themselves at the bottom of the National League food chain. Things had to go up. Who would become the answer?

The Cardinals’ players just did not like Solly Hemus. Players knew he was not using his best lineup simply because he was not utilizing players like Curt Flood, Bill White, and Bob Gibson – all African American players – the way he should have. In 1960, he pushed All-Star and Gold Glove winning first baseman White out in the outfield, flipping him back and forth between leftfield, centerfield, and first base. Hemus also pushed Stan Musial around the diamond, never leaving him in one place for any length of time and seeing him find time in left, right, and first. Musial had his second “down” year in a row, hitting .275/.354/.486 and seeing the fewest number of at-bats in the season (378) than any other in his twenty-two year career. Of course, it is quite difficult to perform at the top of your game when you are constantly shifting your role and sliding up and down the lineup, but I digress…

Ken Boyer

Third baseman Ken Boyer won his third consecutive Gold Glove in 1960, and led the team in basically every major offensive category. On the pitching rubber Larry Jackson had arguably his best season wearing the birds on the bat, going 18-13 and leading the team with fourteen complete games on the year. Ernie Broglio rounded out a 21-9 record and 2.74 ERA by pitching twenty-eight games in relief to go with twenty-four starts. All of that combined to bring the Cardinals back up to a respectable 86-68 record, good enough for third place in the National League behind the upstart Pittsburgh Pirates, led by Bill Mazeroski, Roberto Clemente, and Dick Groat.

Things changed in 1961. Despite the assumption that Hemus was a “player’s manager,” the fact that he and Stan the Man obviously did not see eye to eye (not to mention any of the African American players) did not go unnoticed by the front office. Bing Devine had to make a change, and by the time he went to Gussie Busch and requested that the change be made Gussie was irritated by the Cardinals’ then 33-41 record. He told Bing that whatever he wanted to do was fine, so Bing made the switch, firing Hemus and bringing in coach Johnny Keane. Keane had been a minor league manager for the Cardinals’ farm system for many years and had worked his way up to an assistant coach for the big league squad when he took over the reins.

Keane knew what it would take to turn around several of the players on the team. He went to Stan Musial and told him that he was still a valued and productive member of the team. The 40-year-old Musial stepped it up and had something of a return to form. Keane went to Curt Flood and installed him as the permanent centerfielder, went to Bill White and made him the full-time first baseman, and went to Bob Gibson and changed his career.

Johnny Keane

Up until 1961 Bob Gibson had been on the outside looking in on the Cardinals’ pitching staff. He pitched, sure, but not particularly well, and was largely unknown by most. He had been bounced in and out of the rotation and bullpen, and was 2-6 on the season before Johnny Keane came in. The new manager was swift in righting Gibson’s career, handing him the ball for the first game in his control and informing the big pitcher that he trusted him to take care of business. That night Gibson threw a complete game and won 9-1 on the road against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The rest of the way he went 11-6 under Keane and finished with a respectable 13-12 record and 3.24 ERA. The Cardinals all dusted themselves off after a rough first half and went 47-33 with their new skipper. They wound up 80-74, good enough for only fifth place in the National League.

By now Gussie had owned the team for nearly a decade and had never even come within smelling distance of a pennant, much less a World Series win. He was impatient, and when Mr. Busch was impatient he was apt to fly by the seat of his pants. 1962 did nothing to improve his mood. The team finished 84-78. This record was only good enough for sixth place in the newly expanded ten team National League. Gibson and Jackson led the pitching staff, but the real story in 1962 was the resurgence of Stan Musial. “The Man” played in 135 games (the most for him since 1958) and hit a much more Musial-like .330/.416/.508.

Gussie’s impatience led to a big change after 1962. At the suggestion of one of his friends he decided Bing Devine was not getting the job done, so he brought in an old friend to be a “senior consultant” for the team. Who was that man? Why, none other than Branch Rickey. Suddenly Devine found himself having to get approval from a man who had left the team in the dust over 15 years prior. If he wanted to make a move, he had to go to Rickey, and if Rickey approved he would go to Busch and inform him what was going to happen under “his acceptance.”

Devine and Rickey, while having a mutual respect for each other, did not necessarily see eye to eye, and had to find creative ways to work around the other. The first real road block came before the 1963 season, when Devine wanted to make a trade with Pittsburgh, swapping shortstop Julio Gotay and pitcher Don Cardwell for Diomenes Olivo and Dick Groat. Rickey did not like the deal, stating that when he made deals, he got the younger players, not the older ones. Gotay was “up and coming” in his mind, while the 31-year-old Groat’s best years could be behind him.

Eventually Devine rounded up a crew of “baseball minds” and went to Rickey again to convince him to make the trade. When Rickey realized he was outnumbered and surrounded by a team that was firmly convinced that he should go through with the trade, he acquiesced. Groat became a Cardinal, and the team was starting to take shape. The infield especially was a fearsome thing to look at for an opposing batter. The entire starting infield of Ken Boyer (1B), Dick Groat (SS), Julian Javier (2B), and Bill White (1B) started in the 1963 All-Star game, the first time this had ever happened in the history of the game.

Tim McCarver

Another new face on the field in 1963 was 21-year-old Tim McCarver. McCarver was a hotshot rookie who had offers from sixteen different teams before finally taking the Cardinals’ $75,000 offer to sign at age seventeen. Behind the plate he was the captain of the team, even at such a young age. He called the game like a seasoned veteran, and had enough spitfire in him to set the clubhouse ablaze. Having him there working with Gibson, Broglio and Curt Simmons pushed the team to the brink of the pennant. A late push probably saved Bing Devine’s job from the ever increasingly antsy Gussie Busch, but when Gibson broke his leg taking batting practice in mid-September, it became too much. They finished 93-69, six games back of the Dodgers.

To begin explaining what happened in 1964, I turned to i70 Baseball’s historian Bob Netherton for help. He made my job easy by dropping some tidbits about this very team in a recent post on his own site. Here is what he said:

Of all the come-from-behind teams, the 1964 Cardinals may have been the best. Not only did they win many of their games in the late innings, it was an unbelievable surge in August and September that propelled them to the World Series. This was not the first time they had rallied late in the season either. Johnny Keane’s Cardinals almost pulled off a similar upset in 1963, falling just a few games short of the Dodgers in the end. If Branch Rickey had not played the role of puppet master in the summer of 1964, there might be more pennants blowing in the wind in St. Louis. ’64 was no fluke, and Johnny Keane is a very underrated (and unappreciated) manager.

The key to the ’64 Cardinals success? Mischief at the top of the batting order and then the big names coming up big. Curt Flood and newcomer Lou Brock terrorized National League pitchers with their hitting and base running. It would not be the only time they did this, but in 1964, the middle of the order was brutally consistent in the second half of the season. Ken Boyer and Bill White challenged each other down the stretch, with Boyer winning the NL MVP in the end. The few runners that this duo left on base were quickly driven in by Dick Groat, Tim McCarver or a new local kid named Shannon. There were some great role players on the team as well. Dal Maxvill, Carl Warwick and Bob Skinner all made big contributions, especially in the World Series, but it was the everyday players that brought the pennant to St. Louis in 1964.

Lou Brock

How about that newcomer in Brock? Devine knew around the trading deadline that something needed to happen – that spark to push the team over the top. He called Chicago. Yes, the Cubs. He had spoken with Cubs’ GM John Holland in the offseason about a kid named Lou Brock. The kid looked like he had talent, but had no clue what to do with it. The two sides agreed – Brock for Ernie Broglio.

The rest of the Cardinals were actually perplexed by the trade. Broglio had been an eighteen game winner in 1963 and Brock was a green knucklehead that tried to pull every ball out of the ballpark and ran the bases like a gazelle. It made no sense. There was no way for them to see what Brock would become. However, under Keane and the rest of the Cardinals’ management, their little speed demon would hit .348 the rest of the year and swipe thirty-three bases.

Gussie Busch was not satisfied with what Devine had been doing. Despite all his friends begging him not to do so (even Branch Rickey – who had realized that Devine actually knew what he was doing), Busch fired his GM and brought in Bob Howsam from Denver. Johnny Keane almost got the ax as well, but Busch had to back down. The season rode out dramatically, as the Phillies had to have one of the most grand collapses in the history of the game in order for the Cardinals to catch up, pass, and then capture the pennant away from them.

The World Series almost felt like an afterthought after the race to the finish of the regular season.

Almost.

The mighty New York Yankees were once again the foes awaiting the Cardinals in the World Series. By now the two teams had faced each other five times in the Fall Classic, but the last time had been 1943, and the Yanks had run away with that one 4-1. By the ninth inning of the third game, the score was 1-1, both in games won and in runs on the scoreboard. Barney Schultz, the knuckleballer that Bing Devine had brought in midway through the year, came in to hold down the score for the Cardinals. The first man he faced was the fearsome Mickey Mantle. Schultz threw his bread and butter knuckler to Mantle, but the pitch did not knuckle, and Mickey had a nice meatball to smash into the third deck of Yankee Stadium, giving the Yankees the win and the Series lead, both by a score of 2-1.

It felt back and forth the whole Series. In the fourth game the Yankees jumped out to a three run lead, but a grand slam blast by Ken Boyer in the sixth inning was all the firepower needed, and reliever Roger Craig helped finish out the win for the Cards. The score was tied again in game five and it led to extra innings. Bob Gibson pitched his heart out and ended up winning in ten innings thanks to a three run blast from battery mate Tim McCarver in the top of the inning. The tide had shifted and now the Cardinals were up 3-2.

The Yankees were not going away quietly, and tied the Series at three apiece with the deciding game seven left. Yanks manager Yogi Berra turned to Mel Stottlemyre, who lasted only three batters into the fifth before being pulled for a string of pitchers that paraded out from the Busch Stadium bullpen. Keane went with his ace, and Bob Gibson went out and pitched a complete game victory. The team staked their big right hander out to a 6-0 lead before Gibby gave up a three run home run to Mantle, but it was too little, too late. The Cardinals eventually won the game 7-5 and the Series 4-3.

Gussie Busch had his World Series ring, and the Cardinals were back on top, thanks to the strong arms of Gibson, Simmons and Ray Sadecki, the fleet feet of Brock, and the mighty bats of Boyer, White, and Flood. It was good to be a Cardinal again.

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.