(Updated July 4, 2019)
Once a tradition as reliable as fireworks and ice cream, the big-league baseball doubleheader was a staple of Independence Day in the United States.
The Cardinals played a doubleheader on July 4 every year from 1927 through 1950.
Since 1900, the Cardinals have played 59 Independence Day doubleheaders _ but none since 1984.
Played at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park on a Wednesday afternoon, the last Cardinals doubleheader on July 4 featured the major-league debut of one of their starting pitchers, the first career save for one of their relievers and a timely hitting display by a first baseman who would be traded to the Giants after the season.
Riding a six-game winning streak entering the doubleheader, the Giants were stopped in Game 1 by the pitching of Cardinals rookie left-hander Ricky Horton.
Horton allowed the Giants’ leadoff batter to reach base in four of seven innings pitched, but limited San Francisco to two runs.
“I didn’t exactly have good stuff,” Horton said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “The whole day I was behind a lot of hitters.”
Paced by first baseman David Green’s two-run home run, the Cardinals led, 4-2, when manager Whitey Herzog turned to closer Bruce Sutter in the eighth.
Sutter loaded the bases with one out before striking out pinch-hitters Chili Davis and Scot Thompson.
In the ninth, Sutter gave up three hits and a run, but with runners on first and second, one out, he retired Dusty Baker and Joel Youngblood on forceouts, preserving the 4-3 win for Horton and St. Louis. Boxscore
For Game 2, Herzog started Kurt Kepshire, a right-hander who was making his major-league debut.
Called up from Class AAA Louisville, where he was 7-5 with a 4.60 ERA in 16 starts, Kepshire limited the Giants to a run through eight innings.
In the ninth, with one out, Kepshire walked Thompson and Youngblood. Jeff Lahti relieved and retired Bob Brenly on a flyout and Al Oliver on a groundout, earning his first big-league save. Boxscore
“I had butterflies, but I wasn’t petrified,” Kepshire said to the Associated Press. “The wind made my breaking ball hang early in the game, so I started using the fastball more.”
Said Herzog: “He challenges those guys. He’s got some guts. I love it.”
The Giants stranded a total of 19 baserunners in the doubleheader. Referring to the Cardinals’ two rookie starting pitchers, Giants shortstop Johnnie LeMaster told the San Francisco Examiner, “We let two guys get away with some awful bad stuff.”
Green drove in the go-ahead run in Game 2. Seven months later, he was traded by the Cardinals to the Giants as a key part of the deal for slugger Jack Clark.
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