April 19, 1964

St. Louis Cardinals 3-2

At

Houston Colt 45’s 2-2

“When Bob needed a little extra, he always reached back and got it.” – Tim McCarver

The game 6 lineup:

1. Curt Flood CF
2. Dick Groat SS
3. Bill White 1B
4. Charlie James LF
5. Ken Boyer 3B
6. Johnny Lewis RF
7. Tim McCarver C
8. Julian Javier 2B
9. Bob Gibson P

Maybe there’s someone out there that doesn’t know the Houston Colt 45’s later became the Houston Astros. Just in case, now you know.

Oh my lord.

I just realized that maybe there’s someone out there that doesn’t know the Astros used to be a National League team.

What are you doing reading a blog about the 1964 Cardinals?

Anyway, back in the day, the Houston Astros were a National League team named the Colt 45’s, and their logo was awesome, and on this particular day – the still young franchise had to face Bob Gibson. So there shouldn’t be much mystery as to how this one went.

Well, maybe a little mystery, since the answer is “not great at first.”

Specifically, after going down 1-2-3 in the top of the 1st, Gibson gave up a double to Eddie Kasko over the third base bag, that wound up bouncing off the bullpen pitching mound in the left field foul grounds…and then wound up bouncing off of the glove of left fielder Charlie James for a little league home run. 1-0 Colts.

The worst part is, later in the inning Gibby (NOT KYLE) gave up a triple, and while Bob was able to strand the runner – it meant the run was earned.

Here’s what I want you to take from that play. Look above…does Tim McCarver have a sort of modern beard? Yes, I know it’s a grainy newspaper picture, but Tim McCarver with a beard – that’s crazy. I’ve seen pictures of Tim McCarver from 70 years of his life, and I don’t ever recall facial hair in one of them. In fact I spent a good long time looking at pictures of him from 1964 after seeing this and – nope – no beard. No stubble. Nothing. I’m fascinated, and I’m craving more photos of him.

Oh yes, the game, the Cardinals were now losing.

But, let’s face it, Houston was not a good team. And perhaps the city was getting frustrated by it. Carl Warwick was a backup outfielder for the Cardinals – but the previous 2 years, he had played for Houston. In 1963 he put up some pretty respectable numbers, hitting 16 homers and batting .264. Colt’s Stadium was definitely a pitcher’s park, and the fans probably held in high esteem.

But Warwick was mad at his batting average, and decided swinging for the fences is what caused the decline. So in 1963 his power disappeared, as he only hit 7 homers. The batting average? Well it dropped to .254

So with Warwick returning to Houston before this game, a Houston radio station decided to introduce him to the “President of the Carl Warwick Fan Club.” Her name was Zsa Zsa, and she was a chimpanzee.

Anyway, when one of your best hitters ends up being a backup corner outfielder – on a team with terrible corner outfielders, well, Bob Gibson should be able to beat you.

In the top of the 2nd – Charlie James partially made up for his boot with a double. With one out, Johnny Lewis walked, then Tim McCarver stepped up. And, there was solid reason to believe this was a bad thing.

Tim McCarver hit .038 – 1 for 26 – in Houston in 1963.
Following him was Julian Javier, who hit .189 in Houston. 5X better than McCarver, but not exactly awesome.

McCarver was aware of his slump, and it was stressing him out:

“My slump here was in the back of my mind. My roomie, Ray Sadecki reminded me how long it had been since I’d had a hit here.”

Aww Gee, thanks Ray! That’s SUPER helpful!

Tim got over it, and singled to center to score the first run, leaving the bases 1st and 3rd.

With 1 out, you might think Julian Javier would be swinging away, but perhaps he was thinking about his own .189 average in Houston the year before, and ended up laying down a successful suicide squeeze to give the Cardinals the lead.

Do you know how much I wish I saw this? A Suicide SQUEEZE baby! Ahh, exciting baseball, how I miss thee.

OK, so let’s talk about Julian Javier for a minute.

The newspapers had a big story about him that day – that he had named his new son after Stan Musial, which, I think is awesome. If you weren’t aware of this – you’ve probably heard of Stanley Javier:

Actually, maybe you haven’t because every day I realize just how old I’m getting now, but if you’re not a snot-nosed little asshole, you probably know Javier from being a solid player on those A’s juggernauts, among other teams. Pretty cool.

But here’s the thing, let’s take a gander at the back of little Stanley Javier’s baseball card:

Stan was born in January. We’re in mid-April. So did the writers just now find out about his name? Or did he go without a name for the 1st 3 months of his life? Was that a common thing? Were their fights about what to name him, that ended with “screw it, just name him after Stan!” I do not know, but I promise you I’m going to spend a good chunk of the next decade wondering about it.

If you’ve been following these 1964 writeups, then you know what the Cardinals usually needed to score – they needed the opponents to make an error – or the pitcher to get a hit.

Well, in the top of the 5th, Gibson singled to center. WATCH OUT!

Flood followed with an RBI double, and Dick Groat drove him in with a single to center, TO GET HIS BATTING AVERAGE ABOVE .100! Of course, Groat’s luck wasn’t exactly changing, as he managed to have a robbed home run against him in this game.

Now it was 4-1 Cardinals, but they weren’t done.

Those guys that struggle in Houston? Tim “Grizzly Adams” McCarver hit a single, and Julian “New Papa” Javier cranked a home run to make it a 6-1 game. His manager, Johnny Keane said “For the first time, Hoolie played hardly any Winter Ball, as a result, we’ve seen a much stronger Javier this Spring.”

Hear that kids? Playing baseball in winter makes you into a weakling. Just sit and stare out the window, like Rogers Hornsby says.

Let’s discuss Bob Gibson in this game.

Jim Wynn led off the 2nd inning with a single. The Colts would manage only one more hit the rest of the game.

But it’s not like it was his greatest game.

Besides walking Rusty Staub in the 1st, he walked Nellie Fox in the 3rd, he walked Bob Aspromonte in the 4th, he walked Pete Runnels in the 5th, Jim Wynn in the 6th, Jim Beauchamp in the 7th, and came back to walk Mr. Wynn once more in the 9th.

4 hits, 7 total walks given up, 8 strikeouts, and yeah, a complete game. That’s a lot of pitches. Enough that they added them up even back in 1964: 147 total pitches on 3 days rest. Johnny Keane admitted that yeah, Bob Gibson might actually need 4 days rest next time around.

Hoot was OK with it however, saying “I don’t care if I make 200 pitches, so long as I win.”

How can anyone not love Bob Gibson?