As I wrote last week in this space, everything was rainbow and lollipops in Cardinal Nation after such a fast start out of the gate, beating up on division foes.  The St. Louis Cardinals were the first defending World Series champions to win their first six series of the season since the 1922 New York Giants. That, as you know by now, came after a season of incredible turnover and uncertainty heading into 2012.

Going into Opening Day, this was the talk, “Yes this team has talent, how will they respond without Pujols, Duncan, and LaRussa?”  “Can the team hold up through injuries with so many veterans?”

Then something happened. The team started winning in convincing fashion. And subtly, expectations became reset.

A tremendous start to the season. Heading into the Chicago series, the Cardinals led the NL in almost every offensive category and in run differential (second only in the league to Texas Murderer’s Row Rangers).

Then the first two games against the Cubs happened. Both 3-2 losses. Both 2-1 leads given up by the bullpens in the 9th inning. Now the team is 11-7 and only two games out in front of the Brewers. Now the team is dealing with the bats cooling off. Now they are dealing with fighting through blown calls by umpires and the bullpen giving up leads. They are dealing with multiple injuries that test not only their depth but their resolve. In a word, for the first time of the Mike Matheny era, they are dealing with significant adversity.

Making too much of a simple two game losing skid against Windy City Rivals? I am not so sure.

There are 9 more games in a row against the NL Central. As I have written many times before, these games are crucial. Even if they go 5-4, the fast start would ensure a 16-11 record, which is nothing to make light of. Personally, I think the team should be shooting for 17-10 or 18-9 through the NL Central start of the schedule. They still have the opportunity to run out to a good lead in the division, but it will depend on their ability to push through adversity, to push through a lack of run support for pitching over the last four games, the bullpen shaking off a couple of tough losses and blown saves.

This is the moment a lot of Cardinals fans have been waiting for. To seem what the team is truly made of. As my UCB co-host Dathan Brooks often says, every win in April is a win you don’t have to get in September. These April games really matter because they are all against the Central. And these next nine games will show us how the team handles its first bit of adversity on the young season.

It sure would be nice if they could give Wainwright a little bit of support as he is trying to get back to form. So far, he has had zero, that’s right zero, run support in his first four outings. That will change. His stuff still is not what it once was, but that is to be expected at least for a couple more months. He showed last night he will fight to make pitches and get outs with less than his best stuff. It is a move in the right direction. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Waino doesn’t go for another four games.

The first battle to get back on track and further the division lead is today at Wrigley Field at 1:20 Central Time. Can the Birds shake off a couple tough losses, and show the resolve and grit their new manager preaches? Or will they allow the sting of the last two nights to carry over and leave them in a division dogpile?….

It sure will be fun to watch and find out.

It has been 43 years since the St. Louis Cardinals appeared in consecutive World Series.  One has to go back before the advent of divisional play to find the last instance:  1967-68.  The Cardinals have won the National League in back-to-back years twice before, 1930-31, and 1942-44.  The Cardinals have never won the Fall Classic in consecutive years; the 1942 and 1944 titles are the closest they’ve ever come to accomplishing that.

Winning two straight titles is hard for teams not named the New York Yankees, and especially hard for National League franchises.  The first team to do so – the 1907-1908 Chicago Cubs – has not won a World Series since.  A historical oddity, sure, but let’s not miss a chance to tweak Cub fans. The list of NL franchises who have successfully defended their title is short and sweet.

• Chicago Cubs (successful defense in 1908)
• New York Giants (successful defense in 1922)
• Cincinnati Reds (successful defense in 1976)

That’s it.  A National League franchise has successfully defended its title once since the end of the Dead Ball Era.  St Louis will have to defy 9o years of history to join the Cincinnati Reds as the only NL team to accomplish the feat since Babe Ruth played.

That’s not the only challenge, of course – the Cardinals have to win the NL first to play for the World Title.  For the purposes of this discussion, we will assume St Louis qualifies for the playoffs either as a wild card or the NL Central champs.  As you might expect, it is considerably more difficult to win the National League today under the current post-season format.  During the 65 seasons when the league’s best record played in the World Series, a team won back-to-back NL titles 17 times.  Said another way, a defending champ had a 1 in 4 chance of a successful league title defense.  Since the playoff system was instituted, only 11% of World Series included an NL participant who was there the previous year (5 of 42).  The AL percentages are higher across the board, thanks to some team called the Yankees, but even in the AL there has been a drop in repeats since 1968.

Does this mean St Louis will not repeat?  No; each season is unique, just like each team is unique.  The loss of Albert Pujols weakened the middle of the order, but the acquisition of Carlos Beltran should replace most of that lost offense.  The return of Adam Wainwright makes the 2012 rotation far stronger than the 2011 version.  St Louis has as good a chance of repeating as World Champs as any recent team.  The hardest part won’t just be winning the Series; it will be getting there in the first place to defend their title.

Mike Metzger is a baseball writer based in San Diego. He also blogs about the Padres. Follow him on Twitter.

In the fifth inning of Sunday’s ball game against the Chicago Cubs, Albert Pujols drove a 1-1 pitch from Rodrigo Lopez into the left field seats, connecting for his 439th home run of his 11 year major league career.

The blast would move Pujols further into elite company and break a tie with Hall Of Famer Andre Dawson. Pujols now sits alone in 38th place on the all time home run list.

Dawson was most remembered for his years north of the border in Montreal as a member of the Expos. Secondary to that, however, was his career as a Chicago Cub. While Dawson hit 438 home runs in his career, he would post an impressive run against Cardinal pitching over his 21 year career. During that span of time, he would face the St. Louis Cardinals a total of 260 games, with 248 of them coming as a starter. Dawson would post a slash line of .298/.510/.851 while driving 41 home runs, 55 doubles, 17 triples, 153 runs batted in, and 32 stolen bases. In terms of power numbers, Dawson hit against the Cardinals better than every club except the Philadelphia Phillies in his career.

Pujols had fared well against the Chicago Cubs, for that matter. Over the course of his still young career, Pujols has faced the Cubs 170 times, 168 as a starter. His slash line against the north-siders is .302/.617/1.023 with 52 home runs, 34 doubles, and 134 runs batted in. He has indeed hit the Cubs better than any other team in his career.

While Pujols has moved into sole possession of 38th place on the all time list, he finds himself climbing another list that he will have to decide if he wishes to continue to climb. Pujols finds himself in 12th place for most home runs hit by a player for one single team in his career. The list is as follows:

Time will tell if Albert continues to climb that list.

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.

When the New York Giants (57-27) came into St. Louis on July 15, 1954, manager Eddie Stanky knew he had his hands full. The Giants were a very solid team and were playing exceptional baseball. Their pitching was very good, and if the opposition somehow got into the bullpen, they had to contend with the likes of Hoyt Willhem (12-4) and Marv Grissom (10-7), both with ERA’s hovering around 2 runs per game. If that wasn’t enough, manning center field was a young slugger named Willie Mays. Mays would go on to win the first of his two Most Valuable Player awards, the other coming in 1965.

The Cardinals would split the first two of this early summer three game series. They would be shut out in the opener, 4-0, but after nearly blowing a lead late, Ray Jablonski drove in Wally Moon with a 2 out walk off single in the ninth. That set up an exciting rubber game on Saturday.

Royce Lint would get the start for the Cardinals. The rookie left-hander would start the season in the bullpen, and had been shaky at times. He had also been able to work long relief, often 5 innings or more. Thanks to a doubleheader in Chicago on July 4, Lint would make his first major league start and it was a dandy – a complete game shutout at Wrigley Field. That would earn him another start, and he pitched well enough to win, but the Cardinals bats did not cooperate. This game would be his third start, and also the shortest of his brief career, lasting just 1/3 of an inning.

Cot Deal

Three of the first four Giants batters would reach base against Lint. With the score 2-0, Stanky goes to his bullpen for Cot Deal. Deal was a veteran who had been called up several times, but failed to stay with the big club for long. Entering the game in a difficult situation, he gets Willie Mays to hit into a double play, ending the inning without any further damage.

Deal would retire the Giants in order in the second inning, but totally fell apart in the third. Deal would face seven men in that brutal inning, not retiring any of them. A pair of errors by Ray Jablonski, the late inning hero the day before, extended the inning and led to a barrage of subsequent hits and runs.

Ralph Beard would enter the game with runners on the corners and a 7-0 deficit. A pair of fly balls would give the Giants two more runs and a seemingly insurmountable 9-0 lead. Or that’s what the modest crowd at Sportman’s Park thought.

Beard would pitch three more scoreless innings, doing all that he could to give the Cardinals a chance for a comeback. That comeback would start in the sixth inning.

Giants starter, Johnny Antonelli, had been cruising until the Cardinals bats came to life in the sixth inning. And that inning reads like a Who’s Who in Cardinals history: Wally Moon, Stan Musial, Joe Cunningham and Red Schoendienst. The big blow in the inning was a two out double by Red, cutting the Giants lead to 9-5. The Cardinals also managed to chase Atonelli, with Hoyt Willhem taking over in relief.

The Cardinals would pull even closer in the seventh. With Ray Jablonski on first base with two outs, pinch hitter Solly Hemus draws a walk. Pinch hitter Joe Frazier would rip a triple, scoring Jablonski and Hemus. That would be the end of Wilhelm’s appearance, a rare short and ineffective outing. Frazier would not stay on third base for long. A Rip Repulski single brought the Cardinals to within a run at 9-8.

Meanwhile the Cardinals bullpen was just brilliant. The Giants had not been able to mount anything resembling a rally against Ralph Beard, Joe Presko, and the new Cardinals hurler, Al Brazle.

Harry "Peanuts" Lowrey

With the score still 9-8 in favor of the Giants, the Cardinals were about to accomplish the unthinkable. After chasing Hoyt Willhem, they were about to tie the game against the Giants All Star reliever, Marv Grissom. And it was just the kind of run you would expect in a game like this. With runners at first and second base with one out, Joe Cunningham grounded into what looked like an inning ending double play. But the 3-6-3 is one of the hardest to turn, and the Giants failed to do so. Dick Schofield, grandfather of the Washington Nationals right fielder Jayson Werth, scored from second base when a throw went wild, tying the game. Solly Hemus would extend the inning with a single, putting the go-ahead run on third base. Unfortunately, Peanuts Lowrey was unable to drive Cunningham home.

The game would go into the ninth inning tied at 9 runs apiece. Marv Grissom and Harvey Haddix were now the pitchers of record. They would still be on the mound when the Giants took the lead in the 11th inning, and it was a beautifully manufactured run, typical of how that Giants team won many of those 58 games. A lead-off single, sacrifice bunt and infield single would put the potential winning run on third base. That run would score on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Don Mueller. Haddix limited the damage to just one run, but that would prove to be enough as Windy McCall retires the now disappointed Cardinals in order in the bottom of the 11th.

Marv Grissom failed to earn the save, but a courageous long relief effort was enough to earn him the win. McCall would pick up the save. Harvey Haddix would take the loss for the Cardinals.

Following this series, the Giants would continue steamrolling over opponents in the National League. They would go on to win 97 games, capturing the NL Pennant by 5 games over their crosstown rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. In a workman like fashion, they would sweep the Cleveland Indians in the World Series.

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.

This story begins on May 1, 1954. A little over two weeks into the season, the National League was bunched up, with nobody making a strong early run. The New York Giants were in St. Louis for an early season double header. They were not prepared for what the Cardinals would unleash on them. Or, more specifically, a Cardinal.

May 1, 1954

The Cardinals would get out to a quick lead in the first game, helped by a Stan Musial solo home run in the third inning. The Giants would roar back, taking a 5-4 lead of their own on back to back home runs to start the fifth inning. The lead would not last long when Stan Musial answered with his second home run of the game – this time a 2 run shot. Later that inning, one of the best nicknames in baseball, Peanuts Lowrey, would pinch hit for Cardinals starter, Gerry Staley.

Stan the Giants Killer

Al Brazle would take over for Staley, but would also be unable to hold the lead. With the game tied at six, the outcome of the first game would be determined when Stan Musial steps up to the plate in the 8th inning with 2 on and nobody out. Musial hits a three run homer, to give the Cardinals a 9-6 lead. The Cardinals would tack on another run, but it was Musial’s blasts that made this game so special.

Stan would go a perfect 4-4 with a walk, three home runs and 6 RBIs.

Oh wait, there is still another game to be played.

That one would not be so kind to the Cardinals. Joe Presko and two relievers gave up 8 runs in the top of the 4th inning, and the Giants would win the game easily. The 9 Giants runs are not the story here, it is the 7 runs the Cardinals would put up.

Trailing 8-3 in the fifth inning, Red Schoendienst would lead off the inning with a triple. Stan Musial would follow that with a 2 run homer, his fourth on the day. His RBI total is now 8. He is not done. Leading off the seventh inning, Musial would hit his second home run of the day off Hoyt Wilhelm, establishing a new major league record of five home runs on the day.

Sitting somewhere in Sportsman’s Park that day was an 8 year old with a dream to play in the major leagues. That little slugger was Nate Colbert. Little did he, or anybody else in attendance know, 18 years later, Colbert would match one of those records and shatter the other.

Off to Houston via Rule 5

Nate Cobert

That youngster watching Stan Musial put his name in the record book grew up to be a big strong first baseman/outfielder. He would be drafted by his hometown team, the Cardinals, in 1964 where he would start his professional career playing in the Rookie League in Sarasota, alongside future MLBers Gaylen Pitts and Sal Campisi. Colbert would spend 1965 in Cedar Rapids where he would hit a respectable .274 with 7 doubles, 2 triples and 9 home runs.

Following Colbert’s solid season in A-ball, his career would take an unexpected turn when he was selected by the Houston Astros in the Rule 5 draft. The Rule 5 draft was first introduced in 1959 and was intended to replace parts of the “bonus baby” rules that came into play when a team signed a prospect to a large initial contract.

The Rule 5 draft takes place in December, and it allows teams to select a player from another team’s farm system that is not protected by being on the 40 man roster. The drafting team must pay the original team a fee, now at $50,000. There is a catch, and it comes from the “bonus baby” legacy: the drafting team must keep the player on the major league active roster for the entire following season. After that, the new team controls the player’s contract and can option them back to the minors. If the drafting team does not keep the player on the active 25 man roster, the player must be offered back to the original team for half of the Rule 5 fee.

As it so often happens, that just took place in St. Louis.

Brian Broderick

Last December, the Washington Nationals drafted right handed pitcher, Brian Broderick (11-2, 2.77 ERA, 2 complete games, 1 shutout) from Springfield(AA). After a few appearances out of their bullpen in 2011, the Nationals decided not to keep Broderick on their active roster. Since they could not option him to AAA, they had to offer him back to the Cardinals, and the team gladly paid the $25,000 to get him back.

The situation was much different in 1965 when Houston drafted Nate Colbert. Teams carried fewer pitchers, and as a result, they could hold on to an infrequently used bench player longer than teams do today. Add in that Houston was still in building mode after entering the National League in 1962 as an expansion team and you have all of the ingredients to a successful Rule 5 pickup.

The 20 year old Nate Colbert would join the Houston Astros for the 1966 season. As expected, he was used infrequently – mostly as a pinch runner. Following the 1966 season, he would be optioned to AA to play with the Amarillo Sonics, where he would light up the Texas League with a .289 batting average, 28 home runs, 67 RBIs and 26 stolen bases. That prompted a late season promotion to Oklahoma City (AAA) where he would spend most of 1968.

Drafted Again ?

After a short injury call-up in July 1968, and a longer look in September, the Houston Astros lost their Rule 5 draftee when the San Diego Padres selected Colbert in the 1969 Expansion Draft.

It was in San Diego that Colbert would experience his best years in major leagues. In those 6 years, he would hit .253 with 163 home runs and 481 RBIs. A bunch of those would come on August 1, 1972.

August 1, 1972

The 6th place Padres would face the 4th place Atlanta Braves for a double header to start the month of August. Although the Braves had managed to stay close to .500, neither team had any hopes of catching the Cincinnati Reds on their first of five NL West titles over the next 8 seasons. That didn’t mean that they couldn’t still play some meaningful baseball.

Nate Colbert

The first game of this doubleheader was a curious one. Clay Kirby of the Padres would pitch a gem, where Ron Schueler of the Braves didn’t even make it out of the third inning. The scoring would be one sided, and the runs would come in bunches. And always when Nate Colbert came up to bat.

With one out in the top of the first, back to back walks to Dave Roberts and Larry Stahl led to the first of Colbert’s blasts. This one was a three run homer, and it gave the Padres all the runs they would need to win this game. But Colbert was far from done.

Roberts and Stahl would get on base again to start the third inning. This time it was some small ball from the bat of Nate Colbert, as the slugging first baseman hits a single, scoring Roberts. That’s four RBIs.

Colbert would hit a solo home run off Mike McQueen in the seventh inning, giving him 2 on the day to go along with five RBIs.

All in all, a good day for Colbert. Then came Game Two.

Like the first one, game two was a total slugfest, and also pretty one-sided. A late inning rally by the Braves makes this game look a lot closer than it was. It was all Padres, and pretty much all Nate Colbert.

With the Padres leading 2-0, Colbert would come up to bat in the second inning with the bases loaded. Pat Jarvis, from Carlyle Illinois, would make a mistake to the the Padres cleanup hitter, and cleanup is exactly what Colbert did. A grand slam homer, his third on the day, and RBIs six, seven, eight and nine. That blast broke the game open for San Diego, but more importantly, those RBIs tied Stan Musial from 18 years ago.

After a ground out in the fifth inning, Colbert came up to bat with one man on in the seventh. He would hit his fourth home run on the day, extending his single day RBI total to 11.

With two men out in the ninth inning, Nate Colbert comes up to the plate with Larry Stahl on first base again. He takes Cecil Upshaw for another 2 run homer, his fifth on the day. That would tie Stan Musial’s record from 1954. It would also give him 13 RBIs in the doubleheader, establishing a major league record that still stands today.

There are still two more St. Louis tie-ins to this Nate Colbert story, but it will require looking ahead 21 years, to September 7, 1993.

September 7, 1993

The Cardinals would visit Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati for a late season showdown between two teams that were well out of contention. The small crowd that witnessed this Tuesday night doubleheader saw one of the most entertaining games of the season, if not the decade.

The first game was a wild one, with a capital W. The Cardinals would use 21 players and the Reds would counter with 20 of their own. 41 of the 50 eligible players would see action in this game, and surprisingly, it would finish in regulation. The Reds would win the game, 14-13, thanks to a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth on a Reggie Sanders triple that center fielder Mark Whitten misplayed. Perhaps driven by that poor defensive play, Mark Whitten would go on to have a legendary second game, but before we look at that one, there is one plate appearance in game one that needs some attention.

Mark Whitten

That at-bat would take place in the top of the 8th inning. Trailing 9-6, the Cardinals had roared back against Reds reliever, Scott Service. Rob Dibble had come into the game and gave up the tying run on a single by Gregg Jefferies. He would then walk the bases loaded, before turning the game over to Scott Ruskin. The first batter he would face is Mark Whitten. Ruskin walks Whitten, forcing in the go-ahead run. Even though Whitten would be hit-less in the game, that RBI would soon be very significant. Not to the outcome of the game, but to writer of the major league record books.

While Whitten went 0-4 in the first game, he would demolish the Reds in the second. Cincinnati starter, Larry Luebbers, would be Whitten’s first victim, and it would come in the first inning. With bases loaded and two out, Whitten hits a grand slam to give the Cardinals a 4-0 lead. As with Nate Colbert in 1972, that would be enough runs to win the game, but Whitten was only getting started.

In the third inning, Luebbers would do what no other Reds pitcher could do in game two, retire the Cardinals slugger. He would get Whitten to pop out to third base.

Mark Whitten would face Cincinnati reliever, Mark Anderson in both the sixth and seventh innings. Both times, Todd Zeile and Gerald Perry would be on base. And both times, Whitten would hit a home run. That would give Whitten three homers on the day, and 11 RBIs. With any luck, he would have one more chance to tie, or perhaps even break the single day record for RBIs.

That chance came in the ninth inning. With Gerald Perry on base, Whitten hit a Rob Dibble pitch deep into the dark Cincinnati sky. It cleared the outfield wall by inches, but by doing so, it game Whitten 13 RBIs on the day, tying the major league record, set by St. Louisan, Nate Colbert, back in 1972. The four home runs in a single game also tied a major league record, held by many players.

No Thanks to Gilkey

There is one more St. Louis aspect to this game, and it requires a second look at the seventh inning of Game Two to find it. It turns out that some exceptional hustle on the part of Bernard Gilkey, also a native of St. Louis, cost Mark Whitten the single day RBI record.

With two outs in the seventh, Bernard Gilkey starts the Cardinals rally with a single. Todd Zeile follows that with a single, but Zeile pulls the ball into left field so Gilkey could not advance to third base. It is the Gerald Perry infield single that alters baseball history. The play was very close at first base, and the Reds were not paying attention to Gilkey who they thought had only advanced to third on the play. When he rounded third base, he never stopped running, and scored when the Reds hesitated. Gilkey’s hustle was the right play, but it also cost Whitten a 14th RBI when moments later, he hit a second home run of Mark Anderson.

Nate Colbert and Stan Musial’s record of five home runs in a double header still stand today. Colbert and Mark Whitten’s 13 runs batted in for a double header also stands as a major league record. Whitten’s 12 RBIs in a single game also ties him for the major league record, shared with yet another Cardinal: Jim Bottomley on September 16, 1924.

If you think African Americans were the only group to face an uphill battle toward acceptance on the baseball field, you’re sorely mistaken.

Peter Miller’s new documentary, “Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story,” shows us how difficult it was for Jewish Americans in America’s Game.

An early star for the New York Giants, Andy Cohen was often called “Christ killer” by fans, even in his home ballpark. Hank Greenberg, the first Jewish baseball superstar, was also a victim of racism; people threw pork chops at him on the field. After Arnold Rothstein was accused of fixing the 1919 World Series, Henry Ford – yes, that Henry Ford – wrote that the biggest problem with baseball was “too much Jew.” Hotel owners in the South even threatened to ban Jewish players from their establishments.

In addition to countless acts of racism, Jews also fell victim to a stereotype that they were simply no good at sports, a stereotype that persists to this day. In fact, the opening scene of “Jews and Baseball” is a clip from the popular comedy “Airplane,” where a passenger request some “light” reading material from a flight attendant. The attendant produces a pamphlet titled “Famous Jewish Sports Heroes.”

But if anything, “Jews and Baseball” – narrated perfectly by Dustin Hoffman – lets us know those stereotypes are wrong. In fact, many of the best baseball players in history have been Jewish.

At the very top of the list is the aforementioned Greenberg, a Hall of Famer who chased Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1938. And just like Hank Aaron, who chased Ruth’s career home run record decades later, Greenberg faced a huge outcry from the public – How could a Jew beat the Bambino?

Miller’s documentary also features extensive interviews with two of the other most famous Jewish ballplayers, pitcher Sandy Koufax, arguably the most dominating pitcher of his era, and Al “Flip” Rosen, an All-Star slugger for the Cleveland Indians.

Marvin Miller

“Jews and Baseball” also discusses Mo Berg, the Jewish catcher who served as a spy for the U.S. Government , as well as two people who influenced baseball outside the diamond. Albert Von Tilzer wrote the music for “Take Me Out To The Ballgame,” which is not only a baseball tradition, but is the third-most played song in the country, behind “Happy Birthday” and “The Star Spangled Banner.” And Marvin Miller, formerly the president of the MLB Players Association, fought alongside Curt Flood to establish free agency in baseball. Commissioner Bud Selig (also a Jew) says Miller should be in the Hall of Fame, and broadcaster Red Barber said the three most important people in baseball history were Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson and Marvin Miller.

For fans in I-70 Baseball territory, there’s plenty here for you as well. Some of the most prominent Jewish baseball people have connections to St. Louis and Kansas City. Barney Pelty, a pitching star for the St. Louis Browns in the early 1900s, was the first Jew to be featured on a baseball card. Ruben Ewing was a star for the Cardinals in the same era; Ewing, like many other Jewish ballplayers back then, changed his last name from “Cohen” to be more readily accepted by fans. Art Shamsky, who grew up in St. Louis, played for the World Champion 1969 Mets, and pitcher Kenny Holtzman also grew up in St. Louis. The record for most career wins by a Jewish pitcher belongs not to Koufax, but to Holtzman.

Fewer connections can be easily made to Jews and Kansas City baseball, but the most prominent one is extremely important: the late Ewing and Muriel Kauffman, the father and mother of the Kansas City Royals, were Jewish.

The statue of Ewing and Muriel Kauffman outside Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

Miller’s documentary also points to some more modern-day Jewish ballplayers, many of whom have achieved All-Star status, including Kevin Youkilis, Shawn Green, Ryan Braun, Ian Kinsler, Brad Ausmus, Jason Marquis and others.

Perhaps the most poignant portion of the documentary is the story of Adam Greenberg, a Chicago Cubs prospect who in 2005 was hit in the head by a pitch in his first (and, so far, only) Major League at-bat.

“Jews and Baseball” is informative and entertaining, and should be considered one of the finest baseball documentaries ever made. Not only is it a comprehensive history of Jews in the sport, it also highlights the struggles faced by Jewish athletes in America.

The film also sheds light on the surprisingly parallel paths of Jews and African Americans in the game.

Elliott Maddox, an outfielder for the Yankees, Rangers and Tigers in the 1970s, summed it up perfectly: as an African American who converted to Judaism, Maddox said he was a good two-strike hitter.

The two strikes were that he was black and a Jew.

“Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story” now playing at the Screenland Crown Center, Kansas City, MO. Visit www.screenland.com for showtimes.

Matt Kelsey is a Royals writer and the content editor for I-70 Baseball. He can be reached at mattkelsey14@yahoo.com.

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 the Browns once tried to throw a batting title and how Rube Waddell drank himself out of baseball.

Hall of Famer Roger Bresnahan does not need Bill James’ approval of his Hall of Fame credentials (he does not have it – in case you were wondering). Catchers everywhere are thankful for one of his greatest contributions to the game of baseball – catcher’s gear. Prior to Bresnahan there were some precautions that catchers had taken in order to protect themselves behind the plate. Masks date back to the 1870’s, and gloves were always expected. The wife of Detroit catcher Charles Bennett devised the first chest protector to keep her hubby from coming home black and blue every day back in the 1880’s. It was Bresnahan that put it all together into the garb that Cardinal fans see Yadier Molina jogging out of the dugout with during the past few seasons.

Roger Bresnahan

By the 1911 Cardinals’ season, Roger had already created the shin guards that protect the catchers’ lower legs by restructuring a set of leg guards worn by cricket players. When he first trotted out onto a field with them while playing for the New York Giants he was received with quite a bit of flak, and the boos from the fans at Polo Grounds were well noted. He also refashioned the mask in an effort to create more peripheral vision for the players wearing them. These masks were eventually referred to as “open vision” or “wide sight” masks. It would be another ten years before anyone would be able to improve upon what Bresnahan had created to keep himself safe while out on the diamond.

Catching was actually not Bresnahan’s first position (or even his favorite). He actually began as a pitcher, throwing a six-hit shutout in his first career start. He eventually moved to catcher, but he logged innings at every position on the diamond. He was such an athlete that both John McGraw and Branch Rickey labeled him as one of the best at his position (whatever position that may be) of all time. To top it off Bresnahan was also the player-manager from 1909 through 1912 for the Cardinals. Talk about a “jack of all trades” type!

Besides his brilliance with creating protective garb, as a manager Bresnahan made an incredibly lucky call on July 11, 1911; a call that happened after the game that day was well over. The Cardinals were traveling to Boston by train after a day game. Since it was a late train and the team would be traveling through the night, the manager pitched a fit that his team’s Pullman car was so close to the loud engine and requested that the car be moved to the back of the line. The railroad complied, and the train pulled out.

In the middle of the night disaster struck. The train derailed and slid down an eighteen foot embankment. The Cardinal players were uninjured and immediately went to work, diving into the wreckage for fifteen solid hours and rescuing as many people as they could. Despite their efforts and the efforts of the other passengers at the end of the train, fourteen passengers did not survive the accident. Had Bresnahan not pushed for his team to be in a quieter area of the train some of the deceased would have most assuredly included some of his own players.

Unfortunately, the gratitude of the rest of the passengers and the railroad company (who rewarded each of the players with $25 for their efforts) could not help the Cardinals overcome the tragedy of the accident. The team had started out strongly, and entered that fateful day playing ten games over .500, just three small games back of the division leading Chicago Cubs. After that day they did not find the fire, and while the Cardinals still finished over .500 for the first time in ten years, they were still well off the mark, finishing 23.5 games back.

The next few years did not go any better for the team, and while they had the firepower of new manager Miller Huggins, they only finished higher than fifth in the division once in the years of 1910-1915. The lone solid year for the Cards came in 1914, when first baseman Dots Miller and second baseman/manager Miller Huggins led the team on offense while Slim Sallee and Bill Doak held up a solid rotation that led the team to an 81-71 finish. To make things more interesting, the team was owned and run by a woman from 1911-1916! Helene Britton inherited the team from her uncle (Stanley Robinson) at his passing, and while she ran the team admirably, they obviously did not have the right composition to be a competitive team in the rough and tumble National League.

How about those crosstown Browns? The most remarkable thing they did in this little five year stretch was hire a man by the name of Branch Rickey. Rickey, a catcher, had actually been a Brown back in 1907, but after coming down with a sore arm and then tuberculosis decided to leave the team in order to focus on law school. His one notable playing contribution occurred on June 28, 1907, when he was in so much pain that he was unable to throw the ball farther than the pitcher’s mound. A record thirteen batters stole a base off of him on that day, a record that has stood for 113 seasons now and probably will continue to do so for many more years.

Branch Rickey

After leaving baseball and getting his law degree from the University of Michigan, Rickey started up the baseball team on campus and was responsible for bringing up a youngster by the name of George Sisler (Rickey signed Sisler to the Browns shortly after joining the team). After the 1912 season Robert Hedges (owner of the Browns) brought in Rickey to be his manager and general manager. Hedges shared a secret with Rickey – he was planning on finding a way to purchase a minor league team in Kansas City under the table as a way to stockpile some minor leaguers for the Browns. It was then that Branch realized what a gold mine he had stumbled into. His gold mine was something we like to call the farm system.

At the time it was illegal for major league teams to own minor league franchises (it was only made illegal after Rickey and Hedges tried it). The only way a team could farm out a player was to sell the kid to a minor league team with a handshake agreement that when the big league club needed him back they could purchase him again. Most of those handshakes were just that, and good players were often just sold to the highest bidder shortly after arriving from the big league club. Rickey had the good fortune of having cultivated a strong relationship with many minor league owners through his involvement at Michigan, but even his excellent contacts could not overcome the fact that other teams were willing to pay his friends more than he could for good minor league players.

While Rickey was stuck for a time trying to figure out how to create a better handle on the minors, he made one tremendous change with the big league club. He decided that he would take the entire Browns team down to St. Petersburg, Florida, for spring training before the 1914 season started. Miller Huggins, who was managing the crosstown Cardinals, openly criticized the move, saying that Rickey was wasting money and resources for something that seemed rather frivolous and circus-like. Taking a major league team and running around in Florida for a month having practice? Seemed like a waste to the hard-nosed Cardinal manager.

That practice time did the Browns a favor, and the team rose in the standings in both 1914 and 1915. George Sisler, Rickey’s young protégé from his coaching days at Michigan, graduated from college and joined the team before the 1915 season. The Browns front office quickly saw what Rickey had in Ann Arbor – a player who pitched as well as he hit. It was a tough decision, but eventually everyone realized that Sisler’s real value would be with his bat.

Next week: Learn more about Sisler, Rickey switches sides and creates something called ‘the Knothole Gang’.

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.