May 13, 1964

St. Louis Cardinals (16-11)

At

Philadelphia Phillies (14-9)

“My high-nothing pitch.” – Ernie Broglio

The game 28 lineup:

1. Curt Flood CF
2. Doug Clemens LF
3. Dick Groat SS
4. Bill White 1B
5. Ken Boyer 3B
6. Tim McCarver C
7. Johnny Lewis RF
8. Julian Javier 2B
9. Ernie Broglio

Thanks to a rain out the day before, the Cardinals got to face future Hall of Famer Jim Bunning on an extra day of rest.

So…let’s hope Ernie Broglio made this one a pitcher’s duel.

The umps attempted to make that a challenge, immediately. After the Cardinals went down in order in the top of the 1st, The Phillies very first batter, Tony Taylor, bunted to lead off the game. Tim McCarver pounded on it, and tagged him out in a very Mike Matheny play. Only the 3B umpire, Ken Burkhart, overruled the play, saying that the ball touched Tim McCarver’s glove first, before landing in fair territory, giving Tony Taylor a new life. This was ironic, because Burkhart is most famous for a bad call made in the 1970 World Series where he was screened from seeing the play, but made a call anyway.

Now, I guess I’m crazy? I thought if a fielder touched a ball in foul ground, missed it, and it landed in fair territory, that was a fair ball? Hadn’t I seen that before? Anyway, if this site was about my ignorance, i’d never stop writing.

At the very least this gives us another “Tim McCarver is angry” pic for our collection, which may be my favorite thing about this project:

No matter, Taylor ended up striking out. and low and behold, Broglio was able to match well with Jim Bunning, as the game was scoreless through four.

In the 5th inning, the Cardinals broke through. After Flood was hit by a pitch to bring up Doug Clemens. If you’ll recall from yesterday, Clemens was a Pennsylvania boy, and his parents got to see him hit a double and a triple as he was one of the main stars of the game.

Well, Clemens singled his first time up, and that was just a warm up for this time, when he hit his 2nd triple in as many days. He would come home when Bill White would hit a chopper that just got over the pitcher’s head, and he was able to beat out for a single. 2-0 Cardinals.

The Phillies tied the game in the bottom of the 6th, but not exactly because Ernie Broglio was getting hammered. Tony Taylor and Dick Allen singled. Johnny Callison grounded into a fielder’s choice to make it 1st and 3rd. Wes Covington grounded out to 1st, scoring a run, and advancing Callison to 2nd. Bill White misplayed a potential double play, and was forced to take the out. This gave the Phillies a 2nd life, and John Hernstein somehow hit an infield single to 2B that was able to score the runner. How? I don’t know. But Broglio didn’t deserve to give up the lead.

Now, in the 7th, Dick Allen hit a nice, smooth, high pitch with absolutely nothing on it over the wall to give the Phillies a 3-2 lead. “Maybe he was trying to help me out of my slump,” said Dick Allen. “I was trying to get the ball down,” said Broglio. He failed.

The Cardinals had their chance to come back. In the 9th inning, pinch runner Phil Gagliano was on 2nd. And who was at the plate?

Home boy, Doug Clemens.

Only this time, Doug took a 3-2 pitch for strike 3. It was a sinker that stayed just high enough.

The papers reported that his dad told him before the game to “go out and get a couple of hits.” Doug listened to his dad. Fans were left wondering why his dad didn’t ask for 3.

Dick Groat grounded out to end the game and hey, you win some, you lose some. The Cardinals had won the series against the Phillies, and they lost to a Hall of Famer. No shame in that.

The big, gigantic news is that this ended a 9 game road stand for the Cardinals.

Which means that they would be at home.

And home means it was time to pick…. Miss Fredbird.

Which young, attractive female who already had her address published in the paper would win? We would be so close to finding out. Voting will take place TOMORROW.

And if you happen to have gone to that game, you’d have seen a local band called the “Count Downs” play before the game, after the game, and “between innings.”

It’s really hard to imagine what that means. Go boys! You have 75 seconds! Make the girls scream!

Anyway, as this is a continuing education for me, I looked the Count Downs up, and they were a reasonably popular group in the St. Louis area. Not only are they still remembered today, you can still listen to them! And I have. Fully committed to this project, I am.

May 12, 1964

St. Louis Cardinals (15-11)

At

Philadelphia Phillies (14-8)

“Flood’s catches are like pretty girls. Everyone’s the prettiest you ever saw until the next one.” – Bob Gibson

The game 27 lineup:

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

And all of Philadelphia groaned.

On May 17th, 1960, the Phillies gave up and released Curt Simmons. 3 days later the Cardinals signed him. Since that time, he was 12-2 against the Phillies, including a win earlier in the year.

But Simmons wouldn’t exactly be on his A-game for this one. After the game someone would ask him why he decided to throw so many changeups on the night. “Changeups? Some of those were fastballs,” he said.

So the contest would be if what Simmons are could give him could be boosted enough by the hex he had over Philadelphia to bring home another victory.

Of course, Art Mahaffey, Philadelphia’s starter, would have his input on the game too – and he would be crazy wild. In the 2nd inning he started out with a K over Bill White – but proceeded to walk to bases loaded, even mixing in a wild pitch, to bring up Julian Javier.

Javier had been the 1st receiver of the bean ball wars that happened the week before against Philadelphia, and he said it woke him up at the plate. That – and a tip from Stan Musial to move closer to the plate.

Javier thus stood at bat with the bases loaded, having gone 5 for his last 5 with 2 walks in his previous 7 at bats – and singled into right field to bring home the 1st Cardinals run.

In the top of the 3rd, Doug Clemens tripled into right – if you’re wondering why the heck Doug Clemens was suddenly appearing in a Cardinals box score batting 2nd, it’s because he came from Pennsylvania, and his family was in attendance. His triple was the 1st time in 2 years they got to see him actually get a hit in a game.

Dick Groat followed him with a double to make the score 2-0. He advanced to 3rd on yet another wild pitch, and came home on a Ken Boyer single to make it 3-0, which prematurely ended Art’s day on the mound.

But…trouble was a brewin’

In the bottom of the 3rd, the Phillies had runners at 1st and 2nd with one out and Dick Allen at the plate. Luckily, a comebacker to Simmons allowed them to get the force at 2nd to make it 1st and 3rd with 2 away.

But they still had Roy Sievers to deal with. I feel like he’s a name that isn’t as known anymore, but Sievers was a major star who won rookie of the year with the Browns. He was almost out of baseball after that thanks to ineffectiveness and major injuries. He was able to turn his career around by switching his bat to one of Red Schoendienst‘, and now with over 300 career home runs, he was about to crush a ball against Red’s Cardinals.

Sievers crushed a ball to left center field, Flood chased it as far as he could go, leaped and made a backhanded catch while crashing against the fence. And I do mean crashing. These aren’t one of those nice padded walls like we have today. The fence was made of plywood. There were now 3 outs, and little tweety-birds circling the head of Curt Flood.

This sort of catch was Curt Flood‘s calling card. A picture doesn’t exist of this one – but search his name, and you’ll see several like it – and not many by other players even in the age of capturing every moment on film.

Everyone was talking about the catch:
“That’s the greatest catch I’ve ever seen” – Leo Ward
“Nobody could believe it” – Gene Maugh, Phillies Manager
“I’ve always felt that catches made going into a fence are the greatest because the timing is tougher.” said Ken Boyer who apparently never said an interesting quote in his life.

“I was lucky,” Said Curt Simmons, “Flood made that great catch. That was a game saver.”

After the game, Simmons told him, “Sit down, I’ll get you a beer.”

Julian Javier led off the top of the 4th with a double – that would make him 7 for his last 7, and reaching base 9 times in a row. This is where the streak would end, but Javier ended the 24th game of the season with a .411 OPS, and he ended the 27th game of the season with a .626 OPS. 2 games later, it would be .690.

Javier would be out on a fielders choice on a bad Simmons bunt – but Simmons would be driven home on a double by Clemens. His parents must have been pretty happy. As for his good day, Clemens knew just where it came from: “Home cooking did it. Mom made barbequed chicken.”

As an aside, I NEVER have barbequed chicken, it’s just not really my thing. But I had it last night, it was delicious, and frankly I had a great run after this, so there’s probably something to this, and Wade Boggs would agree.

The double made it a 4-0 score, which was great, but the Cardinals would not score again.

The Phillies would score twice. Both on hits by Gus Triandos. The 1st off of Simmons, and the 2nd off of Roger Craig, who came in for the save in the 8th.

The Phillies went 1-2-3 in the 9th, with Craig striking out Dick Allen to end the game. He was asked afterwards if he felt like he had to strike out Allen before Sievers got another bat – after Sievers had homered to win games off of Craig twice the year before. Craig did not respond. He just frowned and stared at the guy.

It was another key Cardinals victory, their 7th in a row over the Phillies, the team that everyone would be chasing all summer long.

Which is great, but all I can think about is this strange detail thrown in about Curt Simmons, that doesn’t appear to have anything to do with anything at all:

“Curt Simmons played safe. He had someone mow the lawn at his suburban Philadelphia home yesterday. A few years ago, Simmons lost part of a toe to a mower.”

Oh. Yeesh.

May 10, 1964

St. Louis Cardinals (14-11)

At

Philadelphia Phillies (14-7)

“That’s what I’m here for” – Roy McMillan

The game 26 lineup:

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

Ray Sadecki’s previous outing may have given his manager, Johnny Keane, a lot of confidence in him – but it may not have been the thing that made Ray a permanent part of the rotation. Instead, the previous start being fantastic AND the fact that the Phillies were loaded with lefties seems to have sealed the deal of giving Ray another shot.

“You’d be silly to start a righthander against those men if you had a rested lefthander.” said Johnny Keane.

Which is well and good and all, except at this point in the year, the Phillies were 8-7 against righties and 6-0 against lefties. No matter! It got Ray another start, and that’s what was needed, right?

Well…

Cookie Rojas led off the Phils half of the 1st with a walk, and Dick Allen doubled him home. 1-0 Phils. In the bottom of the 2nd, a single, walk, balk, and groundout would add another run. Now it was a 2 run deficit against one of the best teams in baseball.

“I was a little wild at first, but I wasn’t missing by much,” said Sadecki, which was probably true. He settled down after that, but on the other side of things, Ray Culp wasn’t giving up anything to the Cardinals.

The 6th inning was the 1st inning the Cardinals were able to get more than one runner on, when an error allowed Dick Groat to reach, pushing Julian Javier to 2nd, who had singled. They still wouldn’t score.

But the Javier single – following an earlier walk – means that Javier was the only Cardinal to reach safely more than one all game. You know though, sometimes it takes just one.

In the 7th inning, Johnny Lewis and Charlie James each singled bringing up Javier, Who got a high inside slider, a “mistake” it was called, and hit it into the Left Field upper deck at Connie Mack stadium. 3-2 Cardinals on a prodigious blast by a player not known for his power.

It was Javier’s 2nd homer of the season. If you recall, after the 1st one Johnny Keane explained that Javier was more powerful because he didn’t play Winter ball.

After this home run, we got another reason:

“When Hoolie was back home in the Dominican Republic last Winter, Dr. Edmundo Javier loaded his baseball playing brother with vitamins as part payment for financial help in medical school.”

You can almost, ALMOST, picture Javier in front of Congress telling them he was not there to talk about the past.

Sadecki completed what he started – finishing the game on 99 pitches, “a low total,” as it was described. It was hit first victory of the season, and the 1st victory for a lefty over Phildelphia.

And it was all by the design of Manager Keane.

Another article that day talked about the Cardinals struggles, with Bing Devine saying the team was lucky to be where they were at. They couldn’t hit. Their baserunning had been bad. Their relief pitching was terrible.

“I don’t think we can keep playing this way and stay in contention,” said Bing, “but I think – and hope – we’ll get better.”

It almost sounds like a Mo quote from the last 2 years. Only Mo would keep his job while his hopes wouldn’t come true. Bing was proven right – but he was unemployed at the time.

As for that terrible bullpen, there as a suggestion that this was the end of the line for elderly Bobby Shantz – “may have had it” is how Bob Broeg put it – which meant the Cardinals would need a new lefty arm. But Keane’s play for the bullpen was simple. Roger Craig had the ability to both start and come out of the pen, and Keane wanted him to have that flexibility. To have that flexibility – he needed Ray Sadecki to “stay in stride.”

And that’s exactly what would play out.

May 9, 1964

Game 1

St. Louis Cardinals (13-10)

At

New York Mets (5-17)

“Ron Hunt doubled on a ‘cripple’ pitch” – Post Dispatch

The game 24 lineup:

1. Curt Flood CF
2. Dick Groat SS
3. Bill White 1B
4. Ken Boyer 3B
5. Charlie James LF
6. Carl Warwick RF
7. Tim McCarver C
8. Julian Javier 2B
9. Roger Craig P

The 1st scheduled double-header of the season – and believe me they had a lot. Roger Craig playing against the team that made him into a laughingstock. The team that made him the face of losing. Roger Craig probably wanted to win this game.

But for some reason the two worst teams in the league, the Mets and the Colt 45’s, gave the Cardinals trouble. Winning should have been a cinch. These were great teams to stack up wins against. But too frequently they couldn’t get the job done.

Craig was perhaps a little too amped to show up his former team – the 1st 3 batters all reached to load the bases – a double, a hit by pitch, and then a bunt hit that Craig couldn’t handle. Pretty clear he was a little amped. But a strikeout of George Altman and a Frank Thomas double play got him out of the inning without being scored upon.

And so it went scoreless into the 6th inning. “We just weren’t hitting,” said Ken Boyer. Yes Ken, we’re 24 games into this by now. We’ve gotten the picture.

In the bottom of the 6th, Curt Flood decided to dive after a Roy McMillan line drive, and wound up playing into a triple, later to be singled home be George Altman. The paper’s credit Altman with a double – he advanced on the throw – my guess is this scoring was changed later.

Or maybe baseball reference just doesn’t know what it’s talking about? The next set of plays are out of sequence – the detail in the paper tells me it’s the one that’s is correct.

Bill White walked, and Ken Boyer singled. White advanced to 3rd, and Boyer remained on 1st.

Charlie James struck out, to bring up Warwick, who was giving the hit and run sign. But…he missed the pitch. And as Boyer broke for 2nd, the Mets happened to notice that Bill white was standing halfway down the 3B line. God knows why.

A rundown ensued, and thus the Cardinals got their 2nd out. Warwick ended up walking, and Tim McCarver singled home White salvaging the inning by tying the game, but the team – who had been a slop fest ever since they arrived in New York – blew another big chance.

And it would cost them. In the 8 Ron Kanehl homered off of Craig. Ron Hunt doubled on a high slider – the previously mentioned ‘cripple’ pitch, whatever that means. Jim Hickman singled him home ending Craig’s outing. Lew Berdette came in, and had the honor of giving up a homer to Frank Thomas. 4-1 Mets.

That’s how game 1 ended. Sadly. The Cardinals lost to the worst team in baseball, again. No, let me rephrase that. The early 60s Mets were HISTORICALLY bad – but just too tough for the Cardinals.

Game 2 below the box score.

Game 2

St. Louis Cardinals (13-11)

At

New York Mets (6-17)

“I couldn’t work up a good sweat” – Ray Washburn

The game 25 lineup:

1. Curt Flood CF
2. Dick Groat SS
3. Bill White 1B
4. Ken Boyer 3B
5. Charlie James LF
6. Carl Warwick RF
7. Julian Javier 2B
8. Bob Uecker C
9. Ray Washburn P

Now look at that lineup. You know what sucks about double headers today? They are essentially spring training split squad games. Almost no one plays both. You’re watching compromised games. They just want to split.

But here? Only the catcher and pitcher are different. You have to admit, it’s just a more appealing game when you’re looking at world class athletes and all of the conversation isn’t about how often they need to rest. PLAY BOYS! PLAY! I DIDN’T FORK OUT 75 CENTS FOR THIS TICKET TO WATCH YOU SIT!

The game was scoreless until the top of the 3rd when the Cardinals decided it was time to destroy Jerry Hinsley the starting pitcher. They’d gone once through the order, and they learned everything they needed to know.

“Hinsley threw well for a while, but he threw everything at the same speed, and after the first time around, he wasn’t hard to hit.” – Bob Milliken

Right now you’re asking yourself WHO IS BOB MILLIKEN. Well, he was a former Dodger a decade earlier, but now he was the Cardinals batting practice pitcher. Who in the world went to the batting practice pitcher for a quote?

Anyway, the Cardinals rally started as all Cardinals rallies seemed to do. With two outs, pitcher Ray Washburn hit a single.

Then:
Curt Flood single.
Dick Groat double.
Bill White double.
Ken Boyer double.

That was probably fun. 4-0 Cardinals.

The Mets got one back on a Larry Elliot homer, but pish posh. The Cardinals saw to it that didn’t make any difference.

In the top of the 6th, Carl Warwick singled, Tim McCarver doubled, Julian Javier tripled them in, and to cap off the natural cycle, Bob Uecker grounded out. Which you have to admit, was natural for him.

Ray Washburn picked him up by squeezing Javier home. 7-1 Cardinals.

The Cardinals would tack on 3 more in the game – Jerry Buchek – who was an extremely limited time player that couldn’t hit, but whenever he did, it was a triple – hit an RBI triple. Carl Warwick later drove him home.

Those were the 9th and 10th runs, because I’m saving #8 for last.

With Julian Javier on 2nd. Bob Uecker hit an RBI single. 2 hits in the game! UUUUUUUUUUECK!

Now what I love is that Ray Washburn was pulled after 6.2 innings. And that there are 3 full paragraphs about this fact.

“There was a scare for St. Louis rooters…when Keane removed Washburn in the 7th inning.”

He was “pushing” the ball, according to his manager. The Cardinals trainer said he was out of his regular rotation. Washburn said, “The wind was blowing off and on and I couldn’t work up a good sweat.”

Imagine panicking over a pitcher going 6.2 innings and giving up 1 run. We’d throw them a parade these days.

Oh, and to get in the photo, and it’s a good one, in the 8th inning…oh wait, the 9th inning – as this time it appears the paper is wrong – a comebacker to the mound ended up catching Ron Hunt off of 2nd base, as he does some sort of pathetic, slow superman dive to get back in. He did not.

But wait! there’s more!

There’s a great note about Dal Maxville, who had been sent to AAA – but hadn’t yet reported. Maxville was weighing his options and considering quitting baseball to be an engineer, where they speculated he’d make $10K more a year.

Personally, I’d go for it!

And if he had, boy would Cardinals history be a lot different. And maybe not for the worse.

But most importantly, remember Miss Fredbird? Where they lured a bunch of teens into a game, and then promoted their beauty contest to them?

WE HAVE OUR FINALISTS.

Yes, the paper listed the full names of all of the finalists.

And it listed their addresses. Wow.

It’s like a predator menu.

May 7, 1964

St. Louis Cardinals (12-9)

At

New York Mets (4-16)

“That’s how I play the game.” – Johnny Keane

The game 22 lineup:

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

Woo, ain’t nothing like getting to play the Mets. Free wins everybody!

No way you can lose to the Mets, right? right?

Well the Cardinals day started with their bus showing up 15 minutes late. Not quite the airplane window cracking from the last week, but…it was going to be one of those days.

The only question was, can a team as good as the Cardinals have one of those days against the New York Mets…and yet still win?

The first play of the game was a Curt Flood groundout…that was apparently a bad call. 1B coach Joe Schultz Jr. got himself tossed out of the game.

(Note, I don’t know how BRef is doing things, however this links, Joe Shultz Jr. was a coach for the Cardinals…but never played for them. His father, Joe Shultz Sr. WAS a Cardinal in the early 1920s. Jr. Is most famous for being the manager of the Seattle Pilots, maybe the most screwed up franchise in modern baseball, up until the current Cardinals team.)

So, we’re one play in, and the Cardinals have had a call go against them, and lost a coach. Things are going well.

It’s too bad too, because Dick Groat, and Bill White followed with singles. Of course, on Bill White’s single, Groat was out advancing to 3rd on a messy play that took Mets 3B Charley Smith out of the game, and out of the lineup for good for the next week.

But these are the Mets. You always have another chance. White had gone to 2nd on the play at 3rd, and he advanced to 3rd on a wild pitch.

But Ken Boyer struck out looking.

In the bottom of the 1st, Broglio was apparently not over his previous bad start. 2 singles and a triple by Jesse Gonder – which is not a name I know – and I know everyone – gave the Mets a 2-0 lead.

And now I’ve researched Jesse Gonder and can tell you he was a pretty good hitter, especially for a backup catcher, and this was his 1st career triple. Oh, and he wound up starting half the games in 1964, and had a league leading number of passed balls.

21.

HE HAD 21 PASSED BALLS.

That’s pretty impressive.

And now the Cardinals had to come back from a 2 run deficit.

Which is difficult when you’re having one of those days. James doubled in the 2nd with only one out, but never moved. In the 3rd, 2 walks gave Boyer another chance, and he hit the 2nd deep fly out that inning.

In the 5th, the Cardinals staged a rally. Broglio and Groat singled, and White reached on error. Bases loaded, 2 outs, and Boyer with another chance.

And this time he popped out to 2nd.

Today was going to take someone besides Ken Boyer.

And in the top of the 6th, the Cardinals had their answer. Following a Charlie James single, Johnny Lewis hit a liner into the left field corner for an RBI triple. Except, he didn’t stop. Lewis kept running, never seeing his 3B coach giving him the stop sign, and was easily thrown out during his attempt at an inside-the-park-homerun.

I found a not terrible picture of this:

Hey, there’s Jesse Gonder not letting the ball get passed!

That’s a pretty good photo. But most newspapers used this one:

Remember, papers basically used one baseball photo a day, and for whatever reason, they were all like “yes, the worlds biggest photo bomb that completely obscures the play. Let’s use THAT one!”

But at least the Cardinals scored a run, right?

Well, in the 7th, Ron Taylor of the hopeless Cardinals bullpen brigade was in the ballgame for his 2nd inning of work, and gave up a single to – that’s right – Jesse Gonder, of whom I am an expert on the career of now. Gonder was pinch run for by Dick Smith, basically ruining the rest of this post, who was then doubled home by George Altman. Altman later scored on a Jack Fischer single. 4-1 Mets.

BUT YOU CAN’T POSSIBLY LOSE TO THE METS, CAN YOU?

In the bottom of the inning, the Cardinals staged their comeback. Charley James singled. Johnny Lewis singled. And now with Carl Warwick pinch hitting, the Cardinals had the tying run at the plate. Warwick, who had homered in his previous game, sent a drive into the left field bleachers for his 3rd homer of the season. Game tied 4-4.

This became growing evidence of Carl Warwick being one answer to the Cardinals outfield question marks. Warwick was hot, and getting hotter, and growing in confidence. Right up until a personal tragedy would basically destroy the rest of his season, less than 2 weeks from now. Life, man, life.

But hey, enough about life! The Cardinals were tied 4-4, and it was time to put away those Mets. Yeah, it had been a bad, and unlucky day, but never mind that. This was still the Mets.

In the top of the 9th, Bill White drew a one out walk, and it was time for Ken Boyer to avenge his terrible day. But he didn’t. He grounded into a double play. His -.348 WPA wound up being the 2nd worst of the year for him. And it came against the freaking METS.

In the bottom of the 9th, the Cardinals went with their 3rd reliever, Bobby Shantz.

George Altman led off the inning with an easy comebacker to Bobby Shantz. Now, the Gold Glove awards started in 1957, and Bobby Shantz won that year. And he won in 1958. And 1959. And again in 1960. He won another in 1961, followed it up with a win in 1962. Now 1963 was different, in that it was very much the same and Shantz would win the Gold Glove once more.

Spoiler alert, in this very season, 1964, Bobby Shantz would pitch only 60 innings, and he would still win the Gold Glove. Must have been pretty good.

And today, George Altman hit a soft 2 bouncer. Once bounce on the ground, and one bounce off of Shantz’s glove. He was credited with a single, but Shantz said, “I should have put that ball in my pocket.”

Now, I’m not an expert fielder – so I’ll leave that to Shantz, but I don’t think putting the ball in his pocket would have necessarily helped anyway.

A sacrifice and an intentional walk later, Joe Christopher hit a ground ball to the left side, just fast enough to get through the infield, and just slow enough to score George Altman. The Cardinals had lost to the Mets, 5-4.

And for the 2nd time in 3 days, the Cardinals had been walked off. And for the 2nd time in 3 days, it happened in part because a pitcher misplayed a ball. Some days be like that.

Johnny Keane had to answer for his decisions after the game. Why 3 relievers? Why pinch hit for Broglio?

Well, Keane had this crazy methodology to managing. He believed in pinch hitting for pitchers with his team trailing, and he believed that fresh pitchers should replace tired pitchers.

“That’s how I play the game, and it’s the right way,” Keane stubbornly replied.

What novel concepts. Keane, the innovator, putting in fresh pitchers, and wanting actual hitters to hit. Imagine having to stand up and defend such strange, strange behavior.

Amazing that Keane must have been on the forefront of pitcher substitution in his day. 60 years later, I imagine he’d be aghast at what it evolved into.

May 7, 1964

St. Louis Cardinals (11-9)

At

Pittsburgh Pirates (11-8)

“I was all messed up” – Curt Simmons

The game 21 lineup:

1. Julian Javier 2B
2. Curt Flood CF
3. Dick Groat SS
4. Ken Boyer 3B
5. Charlie James LF
6. Bill White 1B
7. Jeoff Long RF
8. Bob Uecker C
9. Curt Simmons P

It won’t shock you to see that the Cardinals were facing a lefty – Bob Veale – a pitcher they just beat up a few days before. Veale would prove to be a poor man’s Nolan Ryan. He was incredibly wild, and also incredibly unhittable. He would lead the league in walks and strikeouts in 1964. He’d lead the league in walks several times in his career – but also would lead the league in lowest HR/9 rate.

He was a shut down relief guy in 1963. 1964 was his intro into the rotation, and he probably should have gotten a share of the Cardinals World Series winnings. At the beginning of the year, he was bad, just plain bad. And save for one outing, the Cardinals mostly had their way whenever he started.

But he developed quickly, and by the end of the year, well, on September 30th, with the Reds and Cardinals tied for 1st, he would strike out 16 Reds over 12.1 shutout innings. You read that right. The Pirates would go on to win in 16 innings. And at the end of the game, the Cardinals would be in 1st.

Realistically, a true 1964 recap would probably involve me writing about every single game from every single team. Because this season was insane. Just insane.

One of the fun parts of this, is that you can see it in the early season – but you knew they couldn’t. At this point the Cardinals were 11-9, a fair record, but only tied for 5th – and yet just a few games out! And this would be how the entire season went. BECAUSE the Astros and Mets were just so bad (and Cubs and Dodgers not a lot better), all of the pretty good teams just kept having series where they stomped on the trash teams, which makes it really hard to pull away. YOU might have a good series against the Phillies, but your competitors are playing the Mets, and you aren’t going to gain any ground.

And thus what was maybe the closest pennant race in history, really started from day one of the season. In a few days you could jump or fall several spots in the standings. The last team standing wasn’t necessarily the best team, they’d be the team that was just lucky that happened to be the day the year ended.

The Cardinals have had their share of powerhouse teams. But to be frank, when it came to World Series winners, this is how it often went for them. How did THAT team make it. Even some of the more legendary teams were actually teams that just squeaked in at the end.

What am I doing? Why aren’t I writing about the game? What is wrong with me? Doesn’t this project take up enough time?

In this matchup, there was wild heat on the Pirates side, and precise junk on the Cardinals side. Only Simmons wasn’t quite feeling right, and so while the heat won the top of the 1st – Veale struck out 2 batter that inning, Simmons walked the leadoff man, and a better later gave up a homer to Roberto Clemente.

“This is my first game of the year I wasn’t in a groove at the start,” said Simmons, “the only walk I gave turned into a run.”

After the Cardinals lost a brutally unlucky game the day before, they were very lucky in this one. The next two batters for the Pirates each hit long fly balls to Center Field for Curt Flood putouts. Simmons was, indeed, a mess.

In the 2nd inning, the Pirates had runners at 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs and Gene Alley up, who struck out on an outside fastball. “Alley was the big man, if I don’t get him, I’m out of the game.”

While Simmons settled down after that, the Cardinals got to work tap, tap, tapping balls to offensive glory in the 4th.

Julian Javier grounded a single up the middle.
Curt Flood grounded a single into right.
Dick Groat – get this – grounded a single up the middle that was slow enough to score Javier and cut the lead to 1.

Groat, who had been very frustrated at his offense the day before (and all season) had somewhat of a victory here – the Forbes Field was known for it’s tall, ball slowing infield grass that had been offered as an excuse for why Groat couldn’t get one before the infield. But Groat wasn’t accepting it. “The way I’ve been hitting, if I were playing on an ice skating rink, I couldn’t drive a ball through the infield.”

What does this mean? Is this simply a reference to the fact that grass isn’t tall in an ice skating rink? Wouldn’t it be much much harder to actually make contact and hit a ball at all if you were on ice skates?

I feel like if I were transported back in time, I would hear these quotes and say, “follow up to that last statement. WTF is wrong with you? Is this normal for people in the mid-60s?”

Ken Boyer tried to replicate the single brigade, but failed, grounding out to 3rd, putting runners at 2nd and 3rd for Charlie James. James responded by lining one back to the pitcher that knocked Veale over “like timber” and wound up as another single, scoring a run.

Well, if that works, why not do it again? Bill White grounded one back to the pitcher that went off Veale’s glove, he recovered in time to get the out at home – but – he didn’t see it. His famously large glasses had slipped down, and he threw White out at 1st for an RBI groundout giving the Cardinals a 3-2 lead.

Geoff Long was up next, and he hit a hard ball down the 3rd base line that bounced off the shoulder of Gene Freese. The ball went rolling toward the Cardinals dugout. Freese grabbed the ball, and threw home too late to catch James at the plate.

Freese fell into the Cardinals dugout flat on his back, and remained sprawled there. Then said out loud, “Isn’t anybody going to help me up?”

The answer was no. No they were not. And that’s why baseball players used to be cooler.

Next to Freese was Cardinals trainer Bob Bauman, and if anyone is going to help you up, it’s the trainer. But instead he stood over Freese and started counting as a way of mocking how long he would remain there. Bauman got to 5, and earned my eternal respect.

And – purely because I wrote such a long preamble – that was basically it. The Cardinals threatened a few more times, but failed to add to their lead. The Pirates had a few hopeful innings, but nothing came from it. Most importantly: No good pictures or quotes we’d find interesting today.

In the bottom of the 9th Simmons showed his advancing age. After giving up a single to Freese, Simmons – who famously refused to be taken out of games – happily admitted he was tired and gave the ball up to Roger Craig for the save. “It was the right move to bring Craig in. I was tired.” It was the 2nd time Craig poached a save from Simmons. “I’m making a star out of you,” said Simmons.

Most interestingly, at a time when the Cardinals couldn’t trust their bullpen, this was the 2nd straight game they asked a starter to nail it down. It’s a creativity you’d never see today, for better or worse.

The Cardinals had won 3 out of 4, and were in a healthy stretch where they would win – or come close to winning every single game they played. And then…it would all just slip away.

May 6, 1964

St. Louis Cardinals (11-8)

At

Pittsburgh Pirates (10-8)

“Oh no, here we go again” – Ray Sadecki

The game 20 lineup:

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

What we’ve seen in recent games – and I’ve only hinted at – was what was leading up to this game. The previous week would reshape the entire Cardinals season, eventually, with the pinnacle being this game.

It started off, well, terribly.

The Cardinals went down 1-2-3 in the first.

The Pirates didn’t. Gene Alley tripled, and Bill Virdon walked, prompting the above quote for pitcher Ray Sadecki, making his 2nd start of the year. His 1st start had similar results, an early exit, and caused Ray to all but disappear from making appearances for a while.

And next up was Roberto Clemente.

Somehow Sadecki pulled it together. He struck out Clemente, and got Donn Clendenon to ground into a double play.

The pitching showcase was on.

The Cardinals could only muster a Dick Groat walk in the 2nd against Bob Friend. Sadecki faced the minimum in the 2nd by getting around a single the same way he did in the 1st, with a strikeout and a double play.

The next drama didn’t take place until the top of the 4th. With 2 outs, Ken Boyer continued hit hot hitting with a double. Curt Flood followed with a single. But Boyer got a poor jump on the hit – no idea how, there were two outs in the inning – and he followed that up by slipping around 3rd, and Bill Virdon wound up nailing him at the plate.

In the top of the 6th, Julian Javier led off with an infield single to 3rd. Trying to small ball him around, Dick Groat went to sacrifice and wound up bunting it in the air to the 2B winding up in a double play.

In the 7th Ken Boyer continued to be unstoppable by rifling a triple, but no. Runner on 3rd and nobody out, and the Cardinals couldn’t bring him home.

Sadecki, in the meantime, was fantastic. Through 6 innings he’d struck out one batter in each inning, except for the 6th when he struck out two.

By the bottom of the 7th he was tiring, but competitive. Clemente hit an infield single to Javier, but Sadecki struck out Clendenon, then made a notable play bouncing off the mound to get Bob Bailey out on a dribbler, finally ending the inning on a Manny Mota fly out.

The 8th inning, the Cardinals threatened again. How? Ray Sadecki doubled to left. He said his manager told him to try to hit it to left field.

I’m sorry, but in the 60s we were telling pitchers what field to drive the ball towards?

Javier was up next, but bunted too hard to the 1B, who was able to catch Sadecki at 3rd. Scoreless again.

In the bottom of the inning, boy those managerial wheels were turning. Sadecki gave up a leadoff single to Bill Mazeroski, who was then sacrificed to 2nd. To bring of Friend. The pitcher. They bunted him to 2nd to get him into scoring position, and didn’t pinch hit for the pitcher.

He struck out. He’s a pitcher afterall.

Sadecki intentionally walked Alley to get a lefty lefty matchup against Virdon, and it worked, as he grounded out.

Now we’re into the 9th. 0-0 score.

With 1 out, Flood crushed a ball to left field, backing up Manny Mota to the wall, but to no avail. Curt Flood: “It didn’t have much of a chance to get out of this big nasty park. Maybe some other parks, but not this park.

In the 9th inning, Clemente led off with a double, ending Sadecki’s night. It was a magnificent performance. Only 2 batters had a 3 ball count all night long. 9 strikeouts. 0 runs. Unfortunately, that was for both sides.

In to replace him?

Bob Gibson.

His night started off with an intentional walk to Don Clendenon. Bob Bailey attempted to sacrifice the runners to 2nd and 3rd. But he did too well. The perfect bunt was a single, and Gibson desperately tried too hard to get him out and threw wild, scoring Clemente and giving the Pirates a walk off 1-0 win.

Hard to have had a more winnable game. And the Cardinals blew it.

Whatever supreme frustration they felt after this one, the die had been cast. It wasn’t important that they lost this game, it was important that Sadecki was dominant.

You see, this all started a few days earlier, when Bob Gibson was tossed after 4 innings in a 7-1 game. Needing a long reliever, they went to Roger Craig.

This was supposed to be Roger Craig’s game, but now to make up for his sudden outing, they had to give Sadecki another chance.

And Sadecki earned his stay. He finished today with a record of 0-3. He finished the season leading the Cardinals in wins.

And now the Cardinals had viable starters in Gibson, Sadecki, Simmons, Craig, Washburn, and….Broglio.

That’s one too many. And the team that needed outfield help, would soon address their pitching surplus.