RetroSimba

Thirty years ago, on a wet Memorial Day evening in St. Louis, the Cardinals received a special performance from a player who was starting to show he, too, was special.

In his 16th game for the Cardinals since his promotion from Class AAA Louisville, rookie center fielder Willie McGee had his first four-hit game in the big leagues and sparked a 10-run fourth inning, leading St. Louis to an 11-6 victory over the Giants on May 31, 1982. Boxscore

McGee, batting sixth in the order, stroked two of his four singles in the fourth inning. The 10 runs were the most the Cardinals had scored in an inning in two years and the most in the National League at that point of the 1982 season.

The performance lifted McGee’s batting average to .378 and his on-base percentage to .410. McGee had transformed from a fill-in to a regular who would be integral to the Cardinals’ successful run to their first World Series title in 15 years.

“Willie has been very impressive,” Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said to the Associated Press after the game. “In spring training, I knew he was going to come up here and hit big-league pitching the way he has.”

Seven months earlier, Oct. 21, 1981, the Cardinals had acquired McGee from the Yankees in a trade for pitcher Bob Sykes. McGee had spent five seasons in the Yankees’ minor-league system without reaching the majors.

“After my second or third year, I started telling myself the Yankees weren’t the only team,” McGee said to the Associated Press. “I know I can hit. “

Still, McGee didn’t make the ’82 Cardinals’ season-opening roster. Sent to Louisville, he hit .291 in 13 games. When St. Louis outfielder David Green suffered a hamstring injury on May 7, the Cardinals called up McGee, who made his big-league debut three days later.

McGee, 23, started in the outfield in just one of his first nine big-league games. The Memorial Day performance helped solidify him as St. Louis’ everyday center fielder.

An all-day rain in St. Louis had left the Busch Stadium field wet. Both teams skipped fielding and batting practice. Attendance for the Memorial Day evening game was a paltry 11,313, even though the Cardinals were in first place in the National League East.

The Giants led 3-1 before the Cardinals battered them for 10 runs in the fourth. The Cardinals had 15 batters in the inning and 12 reached base on nine hits, two walks and an error against three pitchers, starter Renie Martin, Dan Schatzeder and Fred Breining.

Eight of St. Louis’ nine hits in the inning were singles (shortstop Ozzie Smith doubled.) McGee and pinch-hitter Tito Landrum each singled twice in the inning. Smith, McGee and Landrum also drove in two runs apiece in the fourth.

Orlando Sanchez, a catcher who entered the game 2-for-30 for the season, singled in the first run of the fourth, knocking out Martin. Schatzeder yielded six runs and six hits.

“It’s the momentum,” said McGee. “It’s like when you play basketball. One team gets the momentum and just keeps going. I felt my adrenaline pumping.”

Herzog said McGee’s second single in the fourth inning was the key hit. Batting right-handed against the left-hander Schatzeder, McGee delivered a bases-loaded two-run single to right.

“He had two strikes and he reached out and hit a breaking ball,” Herzog said.

Said McGee: “I’m starting to relax and just let things happen.”

The win was the Cardinals’ sixth in seven games and boosted their record to 31-18, giving them a 3.5-game lead over the second-place Mets.

McGee would go on to bat .296 for the season, with 24 stolen bases and 56 RBI.

In his book “White Rat: A Life in Baseball” (1987, Harper & Row), Herzog wrote:

Willie McGee … became the biggest story in baseball that summer … Once Willie McGee hit town and the kid pitchers started coming through, I began to feel that 1982 might be the Cardinals’ year.

Previously: Five fabulous facts about Willie McGee

It’s fitting Cardinals first baseman Matt Adams made his major-league debut at Dodger Stadium.

It was a Dodger, Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale, who was the best baseball player to wear uniform number 53. The Dodgers retired his number on July 1, 1984.

Adams is the 13th Cardinals player to be issued uniform number 53, according to the Web site BirdBats.

The best-known Cardinals to wear number 53 were pitchers: Greg Mathews, a starter for the 1987 National League champions; Juan Acevedo, closer for the 1998 Cardinals; and Arthur Rhodes, a reliever for the 2011 World Series champions.

Earl Francis, a right-handed pitcher who appeared in two games for St. Louis in 1965, was the first Cardinal to wear uniform number 53.

Adams debuted for the Cardinals on May 20, getting two hits in four at-bats in the Dodgers’ 6-5 victory at Dodger Stadium. Boxscore

At big-league spring training camp with the Dodgers in 1955, Drysdale was issued number 53. In his book “Once a Bum, Always a Dodger” (1990, St. Martin’s), Drysdale wrote about how he got the number:

It’s not only general managers and managers who determine which players will stay with the big club after spring training. The clubhouse man has a voice, too, because he’s in charge of the uniforms, and the higher the number he gives you, the less chance he figures you’ve got of sticking with the major league roster. I had the highest number of the group. Herbie Olson, a catcher, came in with number 55 a year later, but I was high man in 1955 with number 53 _ a number, by the way, I wound up keeping throughout my career.

Because of Drysdale, number 53 received a place in pop culture for its role in the 1968 Disney movie “The Love Bug.” The film starred Dean Jones and Buddy Hackett, but the center of attention was “Herbie The Love Bug,” a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle painted pearl white, converted into a race car and adorned with the number 53. The number was chosen by the lead screenwriter, a Dodgers fan whose favorite player was Don Drysdale.

Though not a popular number with major leaguers, 53 did have an important historical role in big-league history. The 53rd World Series was played in 1956 and included the only no-hitter in World Series history, Don Larsen’s perfect game for the Yankees against the Dodgers.

In an article for Yahoo and Rivals.com about why college basketball players shied away from wearing uniform number 53, writer Jeff Eisenberg quoted San Francisco numerologist Sally Faubion as saying 53 is a “very powerful number.”

The “5″ in 53, she explained, represents speed and the “3″ indicates good luck. The sum of those two numbers equals 8, which, said Faubion, “is the number of money, power and fame. But you must walk the straight and narrow path to get the high side of it. If you don’t, it will take you down.”

Previously: Ankiel to Urbani: No. 24 belongs to Whitey

Linked by two of the greatest single-game hitting performances in the history of big-league baseball, Mark Whiten of the 1993 Cardinals and Josh Hamilton of the 2012 Rangers were very different ballplayers at those stages of their careers.

Whiten, Hamilton and Gil Hodges of the 1950 Dodgers are the only major leaguers to hit four home runs in a game and have at least one runner on base for each of the four, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

On May 8 at Baltimore, Hamilton went 5-for-5 with four home runs, a double and eight RBI in the Rangers’ 10-3 victory over the Orioles. Each of Hamilton’s home runs was a two-run shot _ and each time shortstop Elvis Andrus was the runner on base. Boxscore

On Sept. 7, 1993, at Cincinnati, in the second game of a doubleheader, Whiten went 4-for-5 with four home runs and 12 RBI in the Cardinals’ 15-2 victory over the Reds. Whiten hit a grand slam, two three-run homers and a two-run shot. Boxscore

Whiten and Hamilton each played center field in those games. Each hit all four of his four homers left-handed. But that’s where the similarities end.

Hamilton, who turns 31 today (May 21), is in his sixth major-league season and is a four-time all-star who has played in two World Series. He appears to have a legitimate chance to become the first player since Carl Yastrzemski of the 1967 Red Sox to achieve the Triple Crown (leading his league in batting average, home runs and RBI.)

Whiten was 26 and in his fourth major-league season when he had his four-homer game. He hadn’t been an all-star and hadn’t played in a World Series. He didn’t begin playing baseball seriously until his senior year in high school. Considered a raw talent, Whiten would attend the Florida Instructional League in St. Petersburg, Fla., after the ’93 season.

“The main thing Mark has to understand is to have a game plan when he goes up to bat,” Cardinals hitting coach Chris Chambliss told The Sporting News. “Sometimes you go up there and you’re not really watching what the pitcher is doing to you, or what to look for. But he may be catching on.”

Said Whiten: “The mental part of the game I’ve got to work on. The physical part is all here. I think I have the swing. But if you don’t have the mental approach to this game, you’re lost.”

Signed by the Blue Jays after being selected in the fifth round of the 1986 draft, Whiten was traded by Toronto to the Indians in June 1991 and then dealt by Cleveland to the Cardinals on March 31, 1993, for pitcher Mark Clark and minor-league shortstop Juan Andujar.

In the fall of 1992, Whiten was taught how to hit home runs by Charlie Manuel, then a Cleveland minor-league instructor and now manager of the Phillies.

Whiten had 18 homers for the ’93 Cardinals entering the Sept. 7 doubleheader at Cincinnati, but he hadn’t hit one in nearly a month (Aug. 11 against Blas Minor of the Pirates) and he hadn’t had any multi-homer games for St. Louis.

In the opener of the Tuesday night doubleheader against the Reds, Whiten had been part of a disheartening defeat. Though he had a walk and a RBI, Whiten was hitless in four at-bats and misplayed a ninth-inning single by Reggie Sanders into a triple that enabled the Reds to rally for a 14-13 victory. The Reds and Cardinals combined to use a major-league record 15 pitchers Boxscore

(My wife and I attended the game. Disgusted by the Cardinals’ failure to protect a 13-9 eighth-inning lead, I decided, against my wife’s advice, to forgo any further agony and skip the second game. I still regret missing the chance to witness the only four-homer game in Cardinals history.)

Whiten’s first home run of the second game was the grand slam off Larry Luebbers in the first inning. In the fourth, Whiten popped out to third baseman Chris Sabo.

Mike Anderson, making his major-league debut, relieved Luebbers in the sixth. After the first two batters walked, Whiten connected for his second homer of the game. In the seventh, Whiten smacked another three-run homer off Anderson.

St. Louis led 13-2 in the ninth, with one out and a runner on first, when Whiten faced the original Nasty Boy, Rob Dibble. “I didn’t think about it (a fourth home run),” Whiten later told the Associated Press. “Well, I thought about it when I was in the field, but not once I stepped into the box and put the bat on my shoulder.”

Dibble’s first two pitches to Whiten missed the strike zone. “I thought he was going to pitch around me,” Whiten said.

Said Dibble: “I was going to go right after him. I knew it was history.”

The next was a fastball down the middle. Whiten swung and launched a 441-foot home run to center field. “I was impressed by that one,” Whiten said to the Associated Press. “It was the best of the four, I think. It was straightaway.”

Whiten took only five swings to hit his four home runs. The homers totaled 1,634 feet. Whiten tied the major-league single-game RBI mark of 12 set by Cardinals first baseman Jim Bottomley in 1924. He also tied the big-league doubleheader RBI record of 13 set by Padres first baseman Nate Colbert in 1972.

After the game, Whiten walked into the clubhouse, clutching his four home run balls in a plastic bag as his teammates held their bats aloft in a salute, the New York Times reported.

“You can’t even do what he did in batting practice,” third baseman Todd Zeile said to Sports Illustrated.

Said shortstop Ozzie Smith: “I’ve been around the game 16 years. I’ve seen some guys do some unbelievable things, but nothing like tonight.”

Previously: Red Schoendienst made Cardinals home run history

Stan Musial and Derek Jeter, two of the classiest players in big-league history, share at least one other trait: Each was able to hit at an unprecedented level at an age when most are winding down their baseball careers.

This year, Jeter, the Yankees’ shortstop, joined Musial as the oldest major-league players since 1900 to collect 50 hits through his first 30 games of a season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. At age 37, Musial had 51 hits in his first 30 games for the 1958 Cardinals. Jeter, 37, had 50 hits in his first 30 games this season for the Yankees. (Jeter turns 38 on June 26).

As impressive as Jeter performed this year, Musial was better in 1958, producing more hits in fewer at-bats. Here is a comparison of what Musial and Jeter achieved through 30 games:

 

MUSIAL, 1958                                           JETER, 2012

At-Bats: 111                                                    At-Bats: 129

Hits: 51                                                            Hits: 50

Doubles: 12                                                   Doubles: 9

Home runs: 8                                              Home runs: 5

RBI: 24                                                           RBI: 15

Batting average: .459                              Batting average: .388

On-base percentage: .530                     On-base percentage: .429

Slugging percentage: .784                    Slugging percentage: .574

Musial hit safely in his first 17 games of 1958. He produced hits in 26 of the first 30 games he played.

After winning his seventh National League batting championship in 1957, Musial entered the ’58 season with confidence. At a Chamber of Commerce banquet in St. Louis on the eve of the season opener, Musial told the audience he believed in his ability “to keep on hitting,” The Sporting News reported.

A few days later, Musial told St. Louis writer Bob Broeg, “I feel great. You know, if I hadn’t missed that one season in service (1945) I might have been able to hang around long enough to have gone for 4,000 hits. In those days, I was good for 215 to 225 a season. Anyway, that’s how good I feel now.”

Here is a look at the top five performances by Musial in those 30 games.

_ April 17, 1958, Cubs 4, Cardinals 3, at St. Louis: After he had struck out looking against Chicago’s Jim Brosnan in his first two at-bats of the season and went 1-for-5 in the April 15 season opener, Musial came back in the next game with a 2-for-4 performance, including a home run against Cubs rookie Glen Hobbie. Musial broke Mel Ott’s National League record of 5,041 total bases, reaching 5,046 for his career in this game. Boxscore

_ April 20, 1958, Cardinals 9, Cubs 4, at Chicago: After losing their first four games, the Cardinals earned their first win behind a pair of two-run home runs by Musial. He launched one off Brosnan in the first inning and another off Taylor Phillips in the fifth. (A month later, the Cubs traded Brosnan to St. Louis.)

It was the 31st time Musial had hit two or more home runs in a game. At the time, only Ted Williams, with 33, had totaled more among active major leaguers. The home runs gave Musial a career total of 385, sixth on the all-time big-league list then. Boxscore

“I could have another five good years if I played in Chicago all the time,” Musial said to the Associated Press. “You play in the afternoon, go home to a good dinner and then relax. The next day you’re ready to tear the ball apart.”

_ April 22, 1958, Cardinals 7, Giants 5, at San Francisco: In the Cardinals’ first regular-season game played at San Francisco, Musial went 3-for-5 and scored twice before a near capacity crowd of 22,786 on a Tuesday night at Seals Stadium. Boxscore

Musial received a thunderous ovation his first time at-bat. Among those in attendance was Ty Cobb, the major-league career leader in hits. Musial and Cobb met in the dugout before the game. Cobb stayed to watch Musial play.

“He showed me that at 37 his legs are still good. And that’s the life of a ballplayer _ his legs,” Cobb said to The Sporting News. “I’ve always contended Joe DiMaggio could have lasted five years longer had he used his legs more in the winter.

“Musial’s speed impressed me. Too many long-ball hitters today think they’re paid only to hit homers. Musial always hits his share of them. But he also fields and runs the bases. Stan is of the stripe who played in my time. There are too few of them today.”

_ April 25, 1958, Dodgers 5, Cardinals 3, at Los Angeles: On a Friday, before a Coliseum crowd of 60,636, a National League record for a night game, Musial went 4-for-4 in the Cardinals’ first regular-season game at Los Angeles. Boxscore

Musial would finish with a .636 batting average (14-for-22) on the six-game road trip to San Francisco and Los Angeles.

“He was out there to live up to his reputation, to put on a show and he really did,” Cardinals manager Fred Hutchinson said to The Sporting News. “He gave a tremendous display of determination and concentration.”

_ May 13, 1958, Cardinals 5, Cubs 3, at Chicago: Pinch-hitting for pitcher Sam Jones in the sixth inning, Musial delivered his 3,000th career hit, a RBI-double to left-center on a 2-and-2 curve by Moe Drabowsky. Boxscore

Musial became the eighth major leaguer to reach 3,000 hits, joining Cobb, Tris Speaker, Honus Wagner, Eddie Collins, Nap Lajoie, Paul Waner and Cap Anson.

“It isn’t every day a man gets his 3,000th hit,” the Associated Press reported Musial saying. ‘I knew it was in there and I’m sure glad it was a good, clean shot.”

Previously: Stan Musial still oldest to belt 3 home runs in a game