RetroSimba

Lance Berkman this year had the most hits by a Cardinals player in a World Series in 43 years.

Berkman, a switch-hitter, had 11 hits in 26 at-bats (.423 batting average) for St. Louis in the seven-game 2011 World Series against the Rangers.

Only two other Cardinals, Lou Brock and Pepper Martin, have had more hits in a World Series.

Brock had a franchise-record 13 hits in 28 at-bats (.464) in the seven-game 1968 World Series against the Tigers. Brock also had 12 hits in 29 at-bats (.414) in the seven-game 1967 World Series against the Red Sox.

Pepper Martin, in the seven-game 1931 World Series against the Athletics, was the first Cardinals player with 12 hits. Martin hit .500 (12-for-24).

A rookie center fielder, Martin tied the World Series record at the time for most hits. He joined Buck Herzog (1912 Giants), “Shoeless” Joe Jackson (1919 White Sox) and Sam Rice (1925 Senators).

Martin also swiped five bases and scored five runs in the ’31 Series. In the Oct. 15, 1931, edition of The Sporting News, Martin said in an interview:

“Folks say I’m a speedy runner on the bases and I guess maybe I am faster than a lot of big-footed guys and I’ll tell you why. (In grammar school), we spent most of our time playing hare and hounds. The hare would tear up bits of paper and scatter them for a track across the school yard, down side streets and into the nearby woods, and the hounds would take after him. I sure learned to run, and if I was the hare, I was seldom caught. And when I was one of the pack of hounds, I usually caught the hare.”

Like Martin, Brock was a speedster. He had a World Series-record seven steals and eight runs scored in the 1967 World Series, and seven steals and six runs scored in the 1968 World Series.

Bob Gibson, with three wins, was named winner of the 1967 World Series Most Valuable Player Award and received a car from Sport magazine. Radio station KMOX in St. Louis rewarded Brock with a matching car.

In his book, “Stranger to the Game” (1994, Viking), Gibson wrote, “Brock also drove the Red Sox crazy in the World Series … It was a performance worthy of the Series MVP Award, which I frankly thought he should have won.”

With his 13 hits in 1968, Brock tied the World Series record established by Bobby Richardson of the Yankees against the Cardinals in the 1964 World Series. The 25 hits by Brock in consecutive World Series established a record.

Here are the Cardinals who have 10 or more hits in a World Series:

PLAYER……………………….HITS…………………YEAR

Billy Southworth……………10……………………..1926

Tommy Thevenow…………10……………………..1926

Jim Bottomley………………10……………………..1926

Pepper Martin……………….12……………………..1931

Joe Medwick…………………11………………………1934

Pepper Martin……………….11………………………1934

Rip Collins…………………….11………………………1934

Tim McCarver……………….11……………………….1964

Roger Maris………………….10……………………….1967

Lou Brock…………………….12……………………….1967

Lou Brock…………………….13……………………….1968

Willie McGee…………………10……………………….1987

Lance Berkman……………..11………………………..2011