RetroSimba

“You’re going to like us” was the slogan used for many years by Trans World Airlines (TWA), but the upbeat pitch didn’t fly with a trio of Cardinals miscreants.

On April 11, 1979, Cardinals players Keith Hernandez, Ken Reitz and Silvio Martinez, frustrated by a lengthy flight delay, tore up a TWA hospitality room at Lambert Field in St. Louis.

The incident embarrassed Cardinals management and created a public relations headache for the club.

Storms brewing

After an April 11 afternoon game against the Cubs at St. Louis was rained out, the Cardinals boarded a bus at Busch Stadium and went to the airport for a scheduled 4:50 p.m. commercial flight to Pittsburgh.

The TWA flight, originating in San Francisco, was delayed when the plane was rerouted to Kansas City because of severe thunderstorms in St. Louis. Eventually, all flights in and out of Lambert Field were suspended for two hours because of the weather, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

TWA arranged for the Cardinals to wait out the delay in a hospitality room. The flight didn’t take off until 1:30 a.m., about nine hours later than scheduled.

At some point during the long wait, Hernandez, Reitz and Martinez went on “a destructive rumpus” and left the room “a shambles,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

Grow up, guys

Initially, details about the incident were slow to emerge.

The story took a turn when an eyewitness told the Post-Dispatch, “They put them in this VIP room and they just completely demolished it. One guy threw a chair, then threw a cabinet and tore down some signs. They just wrecked it. If it had been some college kids going to Fort Lauderdale, they’d been in the newsreels and in jail in Clayton. It was just terrible.”

TWA spokesman Larry Hillard confirmed the Cardinals “damaged folding doors, tore lettering off the walls and ripped out telephones. They also broke up some chairs and other types of wooden doors.”

While the Cardinals were in Pittsburgh, where they lost three of four games against the Pirates, public outrage in St. Louis about the airport incident was rising and club management was feeling pressure to respond. General manager John Claiborne met the team at its next stop in Chicago, fined the players involved and told them they would have to pay for the damages they caused.

“Those responsible realize they were wrong and have apologized to TWA and any other offended body, including Anheuser-Busch,” Claiborne said, referring to the Cardinals’ parent company.

Post-Dispatch columnist Dick Kaegel said the vandalism done by the players “was inexcusable” and a “childish act by grown men who should know better.”

“Sure, a nine-hour wait in an airport is frustrating,” Kaegel wrote. “It was an inconvenience. But that same night in the St. Louis area hundreds of persons were leaving their flood-devastated homes. Some were wiped out. A High Ridge mother lost her 11-year-old son to the raging torrent. A St. Charles man drowned. Compared to that, the Cardinals’ inconvenience is inconsequential.”

My fault

Days later, after the team returned home, Reitz said he was responsible for doing most of the damage at the airport and may have had too much to drink. “Keith and Silvio didn’t do all that much,” he said. Hernandez and Martinez declined comment.

“You do some things sometimes you’re sorry for later,” Reitz said. “At that point in time, I didn’t think it was that big a deal.”

Reitz said he began to realize the consequences of his behavior when Claiborne “told us what the damages were and how many people were offended.”

“I screwed up,” Reitz concluded. “Let’s put it plain and simple.”

A month later, in May 1979, the Cardinals signed Reitz, a third baseman, to a five-year contract extension totaling between $1.25 million and $1.3 million.

In October 1979, Stan Isle of The Sporting News reported Ozark Air Lines, which provided charter flights for the Cardinals and other teams, “may be having second thoughts about future service for some baseball clubs,” according to a company official, because of bad behavior by players.

According to The Sporting News, “On one of the Cardinals’ charter flights, from Pittsburgh to Chicago, witnesses said right-hander Pete Vuckovich had to be restrained after an altercation with manager Ken Boyer. The incident alarmed flight attendants and the pilot threatened to land in Indianapolis before order was restored.”