RetroSimba

(Updated April 24, 2022)

The Cardinals played a significant role in the birth of the Mets as a National League franchise.

In 1962, the Cardinals were the opponent when the expansion Mets played their first spring training exhibition game and their first regular-season game. The Cardinals won both.

The Cardinals and Mets had their spring training camps in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1962. Two former Cardinals player-managers, Rogers Hornsby and Solly Hemus, were on Mets manager Casey Stengel’s coaching staff. Former Cardinals on the 1962 Mets roster included catchers Hobie Landrith and Chris Cannizzaro, outfielder Bobby Gene Smith and pitchers Bob Miller, Craig Anderson and Herb Moford.

First game

On March 10, 1962, before an Al Lang Field crowd of 6,872, including baseball commissioner Ford Frick, the Cardinals beat the Mets, 8-0, in their spring training opener, the first game played by the expansion team.

Minnie Minoso and Gene Oliver each hit home runs for the Cardinals, who collected 12 hits. Mets starter Jay Hook allowed five runs in four innings. Curt Flood was the first batter to face the Mets. Stan Musial contributed a sacrifice fly for the Cardinals.

Three Cardinals pitchers, Lindy McDaniel, Ray Washburn and Curt Simmons, combined to limit the Mets to four hits, including a triple by Don Zimmer.

First win

The Mets earned their first victory the next afternoon, March 11, 1962, beating the Cardinals, 4-3, before 2,574 at St. Petersburg.

Larry Jackson and Paul Toth held the Mets scoreless on one hit through seven innings and the Cardinals built a 3-0 lead.

In the eighth, the Mets broke their streak of 16 consecutive scoreless innings when Choo Choo Coleman hit a two-run home run to right against Johnny Kucks. Elio Chacon, Rod Kanehl and Gus Bell followed with consecutive singles, tying the score.

The Mets won in the ninth against Ed Bauta when, with two outs and none on, Richie Ashburn doubled and Chacon followed with a RBI-single.

Bob Botz, a right-hander who pitched a scoreless top of the ninth, earned the first win in Mets history. Botz never appeared in a regular-season game for the Mets. On April 2, 1962, he was traded to the Braves. The Cardinals acquired him from the Angels in April 1963 and assigned him to the minor leagues.

Playing for keeps

The Mets went to St. Louis to open the regular season. At the hotel, several players got trapped in an elevator for 20 minutes. “It wasn’t like it was just a few guys,” pitcher Jay Hook told author Janet Paskin. “We were packed in there like sardines.”

Then, the April 10 opener was postponed because of rain. It was the first time a Cardinals home opener had been scratched in more than 25 years.

They played for real on April 11. According to the book “Tales from the 1962 Mets,” Sherman Jones was supposed to be the Mets’ starting pitcher, but he got sidelined when, while lighting a cigarette, the head of the match flew off and struck him in the eye, blinding him temporarily. Roger Craig got the start instead.

Musial, 41, was 3-for-3 with two RBI, a walk and a run, Bill White drove in three runs and Julian Javier contributed four hits and scored three runs as the Cardinals beat the Mets, 11-4, before 16,147 at St. Louis. Boxscore

Stengel, the Mets’ 71-year-old manager, managed the Braves when Musial made his big-league debut against them 21 years earlier in 1941.

“He’s the only player left from my last time in the National League,” Stengel said to the Associated Press. “No wonder they keep him around.”

Ashburn, the first batter in Mets regular-season history, flied out to center. Bell got the first Mets hit, a single to center in the second. Gil Hodges hit the first Mets home run, with none on in the fourth.

Larry Jackson pitched a complete game for the Cardinals. Craig lasted three innings and took the loss, his first of 24 in 1962.

Cardinals dominate

A week later, April 18, 1962, the Cardinals played their first game against the Mets at New York and it was another romp. Ken Boyer hit two home runs and scored four times, and Musial was 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run in a 15-5 Cardinals triumph before 4,725 on a Wednesday afternoon at the Polo Grounds. Boxscore

The win improved St. Louis’ record to 5-0. The Mets dropped to 0-6 on their way to a 40-120 season.

The Cardinals won 13 of 18 against the 1962 Mets. Musial hit .468 with four home runs, 15 RBI and 11 walks in 17 games against them. Other Cardinals who excelled against the Mets in 1962: White (.360 batting average, 19 RBI), Boyer (.329, 23 RBI), Flood (.392, 13 RBI), Washburn (4-0 record), Jackson (3-0) and McDaniel (1-0, four saves).

The 1962 Cardinals batted .311 against the Mets, with 30 home runs.

Previously: An interview with former Cardinals pitcher Al Jackson