In playing the Braves this weekend, the Cardinals return to the city where their top minor-league team once made an incredible stretch drive to win the International League championship and the Junior World Series title.
The Atlanta Crackers were the Cardinals’ Class AAA affiliate in 1962 and 1963.
Managed by Joe Schultz, the 1962 Crackers had a lineup that included Cardinals prospects such as catcher Tim McCarver, outfielder Mike Shannon, second baseman Phil Gagliano, shortstop Jerry Buchek and pitcher Ray Sadecki.
After a slow start, the Crackers were stuck in sixth place on Aug. 19.
“Most of the season, the Crackers were a sixth-place outfit characterized by faint bullpen hearts and limp offense in crises,” Atlanta columnist Furman Bisher wrote in The Sporting News.
Though the Crackers rallied and finished the regular season in third place at 83-71, qualifying them for the four-team International League playoffs, several publications reported the Cardinals had decided to fire Schultz after the postseason and replace him with Harry Walker.
To the surprise of most, the Crackers eliminated Toronto in six games in the first round of the best-of-seven playoffs. They advanced to face Jacksonsville, splitting the first six games of the International League final.
That put the spotlight squarely on Ray Sadecki, a talented but erratic left-hander who had developed a tag as a “problem child.”
Sadecki, 21, had opened the season with the Cardinals. But he had missed most of spring training in a contract dispute and never got untracked.
On June 5, in a relief stint in St. Louis against the Reds, Sadecki faced five batters, allowed five runs, committed two errors and was booed off the field. After the game, he was fined $250 by manager Johnny Keane, who called Sadecki’s performance “the worst display of effort I’ve ever seen on a big-league diamond.”
Sadecki demanded a trade. Though Keane and Sadecki eventually settled their differences, Sadecki continued to struggle. On July 31, with a 6-8 record and 5.54 ERA, Sadecki was demoted to the Crackers.
The wake-up call worked. Sadecki was 7-1 with a 2.55 ERA in nine appearances during the regular season for Atlanta.
Needing an ace to start the deciding Game 7 against Jacksonville, Schultz chose Sadecki.
Sadecki dominated, limiting Jacksonville to three hits and holding a 3-0 lead with two out in the eighth. Then he got a scare.
According to The Sporting News, Sadecki “was hit on the face by a liner off the bat of Jacksonville’s Tony Martinez … Fortunately, the ball struck Sadecki a glancing blow on the wrist first, slowing it considerably.”
After filling the bases on two singles and a walk in the ninth, Sadecki was relieved by Ed Bauta, who retired the side, clinching a 3-1 Crackers win and moving Atlanta into the Junior World Series against the American Association champions, the Louisville Colonels.
With Sadecki accounting for two of the Crackers’ four wins, Atlanta clinched the seven-game Junior World Series. With a 5-1 postseason mark, Sadecki finished with a 12-2 record in his two months with Atlanta.
Two years later, he was a 20-game winner, helping the Cardinals earn the 1964 National League pennant and World Series title.
Harry Walker did become the Crackers’ manager in 1963, but Joe Schultz was rewarded for Atlanta’s successful 1962 finish by being named to the coaching staff of Cardinals manager Johnny Keane.
“I’ve managed about 20 clubs in 13 years, counting winter leagues, and I’ve never had a team make such a terrific comeback,” Schultz told The Sporting News.
This is trivia, but . . . . I grew up with the Cardinals, certified as an avid fan in 1960. In 1967 I went away to college at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Had heard about the Crackers, and I ventured over to see their field.
Ooops. The field was gone and replaced by the first K-Mart I ever saw, across the street from the neatest old Sears building that ever was. I made a lot of trips to that Sears and K-Mart, and always asked about the old Crackers team and stadium from the locals. They had a real fondness for the Crackers years in that neighborhood.
Also, during my years in Atlanta, I could always get the KMOX broadcast of the Cardinals on my car radio is I parked on top of the hill at Georgia Tech.
Ron:
I enjoyed reading those anecdotes. Thank you for sharing. I didn’t know what had become of the Crackers’ field. Glad to learn folks in the neighborhood maintained a fondness for the club. As a teen in Ohio trying to find the KMOX signal at night, I can relate to your experience atop the hill at Georgia Tech.
Mark
I heard a story of a 3rd baseman for the Crackers that committed so many errors, the coach pulled him. His replacement then began committing errors. Coach asked him what was his problem and he replied to the effect that ___ (original 3rd baseman) had “messed up” 3rd base so bad nobody could clean it up! Anyone know the details to this anecdote?
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