(Updated Feb. 26, 2022)
In 1973, the Cardinals had such a dreadful start that general manager Bing Devine was being asked almost daily about whether he’d fire manager Red Schoendienst.
“I’m tired of hearing that question,” Devine said to The Sporting News. “I’ll be gone before Red.”
The 1973 Cardinals lost their first five games and 12 of their first 13. Their 1-12 record ranked among the worst in big-league history, recalling the 0-13 start of the 1920 Tigers, the 1-12 record of the 1962 expansion Mets and the 1-15 mark of the 1969 Indians.
Nerves were raw; tension was high. After Cardinals starter Reggie Cleveland gave up a key two-run, two-out double to Bill Robinson in an April 22 loss to the Phillies, Schoendienst groused, “That’s why he’s a .500 pitcher.” Boxscore
The Cardinals’ skid extended into May. After the Giants beat the Cardinals, 9-7, on May 8 (Bob Gibson yielded four home runs, two to Bobby Bonds and one each to Willie McCovey and Dave Kingman), St. Louis had a 5-20 record, the worst in the major leagues, and was in last place in the National League East. Boxscore
The Cardinals were 1-7 in one-run decisions and 0-4 in extra-inning games.
After shoring up the bullpen by calling up left-handers Al Hrabosky and Rich Folkers from the minors and acquiring veteran junkball specialist Orlando Pena from the Orioles, as well as replacing Ray Busse at shortstop with Mike Tyson, the Cardinals began to stabilize, then thrive.
Regarding the replacement of Busse with Tyson, teammate Joe Torre told the New York Daily News, “Before Mike stepped in at shortstop, we were losing a lot of games early because of our infield. Routine ground balls were going straight into the outfield. We needed someone to hold the defense together.”
Years later, in an interview with Cardinals Magazine, Tyson credited Schoendienst and coach George Kissell.
“Red always put me in a good position,” Tyson said. “I didn’t have a particularly strong arm, but my range was good and I got rid of the ball quickly.”
As for Kissell, Tyson said, “George always had my back. Every day after practice in spring training, he’d get a bucket of balls and he’d hit me grounder after grounder.”
From the low point of the 5-20 record, the Cardinals won 56 of their next 81 games, boosting their record to 61-50 by Aug. 5 and securing first place in the division, five games ahead of the second-place Cubs.
From there, the streaky Cardinals reverted to their early-season form.
Gibson injured his knee running the bases against the Mets and was sidelined from Aug. 4 to Sept. 29. From Aug. 6 to Aug. 18, St. Louis lost eight in a row and 11 of 12, falling to 62-61.
Overall, the Cardinals lost 31 of their last 51 games and finished in second place at 81-81, 1.5 games behind the Mets.
RetroSimba 
This is just my humble opinion. It’s also been my opinion since the end of that crazy 1973 season. If not for the knee injury to Bob Gibson I really think we would have gone to the World Series. We held our own against the Reds during the regular season splitting the 12 games. Please feel free to disagree. I do want to say though that for some reason, I really lived and died with that team. Maybe it was the slow start and then the way we battled back. One of the few times I’ve cried is when we were officially eliminated.
Thanks, Phillip. In retrospect, it may have been one of the Cardinals’ most impressive seasons. To overcome a 5-20 start, and losing Bob Gibson late in the season for a significant stretch, and still finish 81-81 is pretty darn good. Lots of teams just would have tanked. From my perspective, what the 1973 Cardinals did is more impressive than some of the recent teams that finished with the 4th- or 5th-best record in the league but celebrated qualifying for a watered-down playoff system.