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Next in a continuing series of Historic KTEs is the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals. (There was none last year because I could not bring myself to so honor the team that won the World Series in 1963.) This team brings a tear to the eye because they beat the MFYs for the title. Here’s a link to the story of that World Series:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/yr1964ws.shtml
The team was managed by Johnny Keane, and finished 93-69.
I don’t recall why, but GM Bing Devine resigned on August 17th and was replaced by Bob Howsam.
The team played home games in Sportsmans Park until 1966. Like many of the baseball parks of its era, it had a limited capacity (under 35,000), and was not equidistant to right (shorter) and left (deeper) fields.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportsman%27s_Park
Here were your 1964 St. Louis Cardinals:
c Tim McCarver We all know Tim as an announcer, but he was an excellent offensive and defensive catcher. Lefty hitter, oblique thinker. Almost as good as he thought he was.
1b Bill White He had been forced to move to left field by some of the best hitting first basemen in the game (McCovey, Cepeda and Musial). But he finally was playing his best position and had an excellent career. He later became a Pioneer as a broadcaster and then American League President. Trivia - he became the first African-American to broadcast a hockey game (Philadelphia) and to do baseball play-by-play (MFYs).
2b Julian Javier When strength up the middle meant good defense, the double play combinations were key. And Javier gave his teams both good defense and decent (pre -steroid era) offense.
3b Ken Boyer The best of the baseball-playing Boyer clan to reach the majors. Almost as good a fielder as his brother Clete, he hit for both power and average.
ss Dick Groat The ex-Duke basketball All American guard had the pleasure of beating the MFYs while playing for two different teams, four years apart. The best part of his game was at bat. In the field, he was starting to show his age and his limited range became more obvious. But he was smart, played position well, and handled most of what he could reach. Think almost as slow as Jeter.
lf Lou Brock The Cards traded pitcher Ernie Broglio to the Cubs at the June 15th trading deadline for outfielder Lou Brock. A lefty hitter, he was known for his baserunning, but was one of three players to hit a home run into the centerfield bleachers at the Polo Grounds.
cf Curt Flood One of the best fielding center fielders in the game. Later started the landmark lawsuit against major league baseball that challenged the reserve clause and ultimately led to free agency. A good hitter, he may be what Juan Lagares can one day become.
rf Mike Shannon He was nicknamed “The Cannon” because of his strong arm. Always seemed to get a back breaking hit against the Mets. He had excellent power. Later in his career, he moved to third base, which pissed me off even more because of how long it took the Mets franchise to finally find a competent third baseman.
of Reserve outfielders of note were Bob Skinner, who had been a teammate of Groat on the 1960 World series winning team and Johnny Lewis, who later played for the Mets. Skinner was a pinch hitter supreme and Lewis was the first widower we knew of to play major league baseball. Lewis was a good defender.
inf Reserve infielders of note were Phil Gaglano, who later became a semi-regular second baseman, Dal Maxvill, who later became a good field no hit regular shortstop, Ed Spezio who became a good hit, bad field, corner infielder, and even Joe Morgan for a few games.
The Cardinals had a well rounded and balanced pitching staff.
SP Bob Gibson The Hall of Fame righty threw hard and pitched with a mean streak. He treated opposing batters like they were a wild animal attacking his kids.
He didn’t like to be taken out of games. According to Joe Garagiola, Bob was in trouble late in a game. McCarver started walking to the mound. Gibson looked at him and said,”The only thing you know about pitching is that you can’t hit it. Now get back behind the plate.” He struck out the next batter to get out of the inning.
One of the few about whom it is said, “If I had to win one game, I’d want him pitching for me”.
Curt Simmons Started out his career as a hard throwing lefty. Developed into more of a pitcher as he matured. Solid #2 starter who could have been #1 for many other teams.
Ray Sadecki Yeah, him. Ray Sadrecki. Later a Met. The UMDB can fill in the blanks.
Ernie Broglio Curve ball throwing righty pitcher. As mentioned before, Broglio was traded to the Cubs for Lou Brock.
MP When Broglio was traded, several pitchers took up the slack, including original Met righty Roger Craig, lefty screw-ball pitcher Mike Cuellar (later a 20 game winner with the Orioles), 19 year old first year righty Nelson Briles and Ron Taylor (later a reliever on the Mets in the late 60s and after that a Medical Doctor in his native Canada).
RP The relief staff was very ecclectic.
It was led by knuckleballer Barney Schultz. Let me repeat that. The closer threw a knuckleball. Hoyt Wilhelm had been used in that role with good success only a few years earlier in Baltimore. It was a tribute to the defensive skills of Tim McCarver that he was entrusted to catch the unpredictable pitch without using one of the oversized mitts that had been developed by Paul Richards for catching Wilhelm.
The lefty in the pen was Gordon (Gordie) Richardson. He was later traded to the Mets, along with Johnny Lewis for infielder Elio Chacon and righty pitcher Tracy Stallard.
Sharing bullpen chores were righty Ray Washburn, who would later go on to become a good starter and Bobby Shantz, at the end of his career as a good lefty starter.
Trivia: The Cards had three first year players. In those days, you could only keep two first year players. One had to stay with the major league team and one could be optioned to the minors. I mentioned Briles. Who were the other two? The one they optioned was Steve Carlton. Who else did they chose to keep? The immortal, pitcher, Dave Bakenhaster. When it comes to pitching ability, this may be the only way Dave will be mentioned in the same breath as the other two. I think it was the last time the Cardinals made a mistake about a player.
Here are the statistics:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/STL/1964.shtml
Later
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