RetroSimba

(updated April 10, 2026)

A closer for a rotation that often completed what it started, Joe Hoerner still served a valuable role for the 1968 National League champion Cardinals and supported the staff with a stellar season.

On June 1, 1968, Hoerner struck out six Mets in a row, tying the National League record for consecutive strikeouts by a reliever.

Hoerner went on to post an 8-2 record with 17 saves and a 1.47 ERA for the 1968 Cardinals. The left-hander ranked second in the National League in saves to the 25 by Phil Regan of the Cubs and his ERA was second on the club to the 1.12 achieved by Bob Gibson.

Led by Gibson’s 28, Cardinals starters pitched 63 complete games in 1968. Needed only for 49 innings, Hoerner usually was effective, allowing no earned runs in 40 of 47 appearances.

“Joe is almost as much of a machine out there as Bob Gibson,” Cardinals reliever Wayne Granger said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He just goes out there and does the job time after time.”

Overcoming adversity

Hoerner, son of an Iowa farmer, made his professional baseball debut in the White Sox minor-league system in 1957. A year later, Hoerner was diagnosed with muscle weakness near his heart. Because any strain on the muscle impaired Hoerner’s circulation, Hoerner was advised to change his pitching delivery from overhand to sidearm.

“I took four pills a day for a long time to strengthen the muscle, but I haven’t been bothered since then,” Hoerner told the Post-Dispatch in 1968.

Hoerner, 26, made his major-league debut in September 1963 with the Houston Colt .45s. The Cardinals acquired him in November 1965 and he pitched for them in 1966 (5-1 record, 13 saves,1.54 ERA) and 1967 (4-4, 14 saves, 2.59 ERA).

Hoerner’s team-high 14 saves for the 1967 league champion Cardinals included four against their closest pursuer, the Giants. He got an uncredited “save” that season for driving the team in a bus from the ballpark to the hotel after a game in Atlanta. Hoerner recalled the stunt in the book “Redbirds Revisited:”

“We were all walking through this tunnel toward where the team bus was parked, but there was no driver … I said, ‘I’ll drive this damn thing.’ The keys were there. I sat down and turned on the ignition. Some of the guys were laughing … They thought I was just horsing around … I knew nothing about driving a bus. Everybody was hollering, ‘Let’s go,’ and I put it in gear and off we went.

“A few of the guys decided they wanted off, but I thought, ‘What the hell. I’m this far. We’re going back to the hotel.’ So out the tunnel we go … We’re out on the street and we head back to the hotel … I had kind of forgotten how long the bus is when turning corners, and I turned a little too sharply coming into the Marriott parking lot … I was about to cream a big neon sign with the back end of the bus … A lot of glass fell (from the sign) and it was kind of noisy for a few seconds. I got the bus stopped and opened the door, and everybody just sort of disappeared like ants … I just left the bus parked out there.”

After the Cardinals won Game 7 of the 1967 World Series against the Red Sox, Hoerner was celebrating with his teammates in the locker room at Boston’s Fenway Park when a champagne bottle he was holding exploded, severing a tendon in the middle finger of his pitching hand.

“If we win many more pennants, my fingers won’t stand it,” Hoerner said.

Tough to hit

In “Redbirds Revisited,” Hoerner said, “From the middle of October (1967) until about Thanksgiving, I really didn’t know if I’d ever be able to bend that finger again … I was very, very worried that my baseball career was over.”

Hoerner recovered from the injury and yielded no runs in his first nine appearances in 1968.

“I was mainly a fastball, slider pitcher. Mostly fastball,” Hoerner told authors David Craft and Tom Owens. “I might pitch an inning or more and never throw anything but a fastball. I had excellent control and great velocity. I felt I could throw the ball pretty much where I wanted to.”

On June 1, the Cardinals played the Mets at Shea Stadium in New York. The Mets led, 4-1, before the Cardinals rallied for three runs in the seventh against Nolan Ryan, tying the score at 4-4.

Hoerner, the third Cardinals pitcher of the game, was brought in to pitch the seventh and retired the Mets in order. The Cardinals took the lead, 5-4, with a run in the eighth, but the Mets tied the score on Ed Charles’ pinch-hit home run in the bottom half of the inning.

In the ninth, Hoerner struck out Al Weis, Ron Swoboda and Don Bosch. After Mike Shannon hit a home run against Cal Koonce in the 10th, putting the Cardinals ahead, 6-5, Hoerner struck out Greg Goossen, Jerry Buchek and Jerry Grote, sealing the win. Boxscore

Hoerner’s six consecutive strikeouts came against right-handed batters.

Hoerner was effectively consistent during the 1968 season. He was 4-1 with a 1.05 ERA in home games and 4-1 with a 1.93 ERA in away games. Left-handed batters hit .189 against him and right-handed batters hit .194.

In the 1968 World Series against the Tigers, Hoerner earned a save in Game 3 with 3.2 scoreless innings in relief of Ray Washburn boxscore and was the losing pitcher in Game 5 when he faced four batters, retired none and was charged with two runs. Boxscore

Hoerner and Cardinals teammate Dal Maxvill owned a successful travel agency in St. Louis for several years.