Brock Pemberton played in one of the most bizarre games involving the Cardinals. He also played for one of the most bizarre Cardinals affiliates. Yet Pemberton never played for the Cardinals.
Pemberton, a switch-hitting first baseman, got his first big-league hit against the Cardinals while pinch-hitting for the Mets in the bottom of the 25th inning in a 1974 game that started on the evening of Sept. 11 and ended on the morning of Sept. 12 at Shea Stadium in New York.
Two years later, Pemberton was traded by the Mets to the Cardinals and was assigned to their Class AAA affiliate, which had relocated from Tulsa to New Orleans.
As the everyday first baseman for the New Orleans Pelicans, Pemberton and teammates such as future big-league managers Tony La Russa and Jim Riggleman played for the worst team in the American Association before sparse gatherings in the cavernous Superdome.
That 1977 season with New Orleans represented Pemberton’s only year in the Cardinals’ organization.
Pemberton died Feb. 17, 2016, at 62. His Cardinals connections are recalled here in tribute.
Mets prospect
After Pemberton graduated from Marina High School in Huntington Beach, Calif., he signed with the Mets, who had selected him in the sixth round of the 1972 amateur draft.
Pemberton established himself as a premier prospect. He had 31 doubles for Class A Pompano Beach in 1973 and 37 doubles for Class AA Victoria in 1974.
In September 1974, the Mets called up Pemberton, 20, to the big leagues. On Sept. 10, in his first big-league at-bat, he struck out while pinch-hitting against Expos reliever Dale Murray.
Early morning magic
The next night, the Cardinals faced the Mets and staged an epic endurance test.
With two outs in the top of the ninth inning, the Cardinals’ Ken Reitz hit a two-run home run off Jerry Koosman, tying the score at 3-3. Neither team scored again until the 25th when the Cardinals’ Bake McBride scampered home from first after an errant pickoff throw from pitcher Hank Webb.
Sonny Siebert retired the first two Mets batters in the bottom half of the 25th before Pemberton, pinch-hitting for Webb, singled for his first big-league hit.
When the ball was removed from the game so that Pemberton would have a keepsake, Mets pitcher Tom Seaver quipped from the dugout, “Don’t give it to him. It’s the last ball we’ve got left.”
Siebert ended the drama by striking out John Milner. Boxscore
Time for change
After the 1974 season, the Mets acquired Joe Torre from the Cardinals and projected him to be their first baseman.
“Now we don’t have to rush the kids,” Mets manager Yogi Berra said.
Wrote The Sporting News: “One of the kids Berra had in mind is Brock Pemberton … Pemberton is regarded as one of the finest hitting prospects in the New York organization.”
Pemberton batted .297 for Class AAA Tidewater in 1975 and got another September promotion to the Mets. In 1976, Pemberton batted .290 for Tidewater.
The Mets, though, appeared set at first base with Milner.
On Dec. 9, 1976, the Mets sent Pemberton, 23, and minor-league outfielder Leon Brown to the Cardinals for minor-league first baseman Ed Kurpiel.
All that jazz
A. Ray Smith, owner of the Cardinals’ Class AAA affiliate at Tulsa, had moved the franchise to New Orleans after the 1976 season. Smith expected a big-league franchise would relocate to New Orleans and he wanted to be in a position to get in on that action.
New Orleans had been without a minor-league franchise since the 1958 Pelicans were the Class AA affiliate of the Yankees.
Smith leased the Superdome, which seated 53,000 for baseball, for $1,000 a game and tried to market New Orleans as a baseball town.
On April 30, 1977, the day of the Pelicans’ first home game, “horse-drawn carriages, jazz bands and baseball old-timers paraded through downtown New Orleans to the Louisiana Superdome,” The Sporting News reported.
Among the former players on hand to sign autographs and take part in the parade were Stan Musial, Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell and Paul Dean.
La Russa (an infielder in his final season as a player), Ken Oberkfell and Pat Scanlon hit home runs for New Orleans in the home opener, but Omaha beat the Pelicans, 13-8.
Manager prep
In June, Pelicans manager Lance Nichols took a leave of absence to receive treatment for lymphoma. La Russa was named interim manager and led the Pelicans to three wins in five games.
In the book “Tony La Russa: Man on a Mission,” Oberkfell said of La Russa’s first attempt at managing: “He was totally prepared. He managed those games as if he were the fulltime manager and it was his team.”
The 1977 Pelicans’ claim to fame is grooming two big-league managers.
Riggleman, who played third base and hit 17 home runs for New Orleans, became a Cardinals coach (1989-90) for Whitey Herzog and manager of the Padres, Cubs, Mariners and Nationals.
La Russa became a Hall of Fame manager of the White Sox, Athletics and Cardinals. He ranks third all-time in wins.
One and done
Pemberton hit .241 with 41 RBI in 113 games for the 1977 Pelicans. He hit the same number of home runs as La Russa: three.
The Pelicans finished with the worst record in the American Association at 57-79. Their total home attendance was 208,908.
With the Cardinals pressuring to have their Class AAA club closer to St. Louis, Smith relocated the franchise from New Orleans to Springfield, Ill., after the 1977 season.
Smith also joined a group of investors who sought to entice the Athletics of the American League to move from Oakland to New Orleans. The effort, however, failed and New Orleans was without a baseball team in 1978.
The Cardinals, committed to Keith Hernandez as their first baseman, cut their ties with Pemberton and went with Dane Iorg as their Class AAA first baseman at Springfield in 1978.
Previously: How Bake McBride and his mad dash led to a 25-inning win
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