Jose Cardenal, looking for the right fit for a baseball home after being exiled from his native Cuba, embraced an opportunity to be center fielder for the Cardinals.
On Nov. 21, 1969, the Cardinals dealt right fielder Vada Pinson to the Indians for Cardenal, who was expected to replace Curt Flood. A month earlier, Flood was traded to the Phillies.
“Cardenal won’t hit or field as did Curt Flood, but he’ll run even more rapidly and throw better,” Bob Broeg noted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Formative years
Cardenal was born and raised in Cuba as the youngest of five children. His father was a carpenter. Cardenal’s brother, Pedro, was an outfielder in the Cardinals’ farm system from 1955-58 but didn’t reach the majors. Cardenal’s cousin, Bert Campaneris, was a big-league shortstop.
As a youth, Cardenal played baseball on fields covered with stones and broken glass. “Some day, I will show you the scar from a cut on my right foot from stepping on a broken bottle,” he told the Post-Dispatch. “I was 9 years old and we played barefoot then.”
The Giants recognized Cardenal’s talent, signed him for $250 and brought him to the United States to begin his career in their farm system. He started out playing second and third before being shifted to the outfield.
In 1961, when Cardenal was 17, he hit .355 with 35 home runs and 108 RBI for El Paso. After the season, he wanted to visit family in Cuba but couldn’t. Cuba and the United States had severed relations and there were no assurances Cardenal would be permitted to leave Cuba if he went there. “Those were lonely, confusing months” for Cardenal, the Post-Dispatch reported.
“When I came to this country from Cuba to play baseball, I couldn’t speak much English,” Cardenal said, “so I ordered ham and eggs or hamburgers all the time. I couldn’t say anything else to eat in English.”
While playing for El Paso in 1963, Cardenal, 19, met a college coed in Tulsa, where the Cardinals had a farm club, and she became his wife.
Multiple skills
When Cardenal made his major-league debut with the Giants in 1963, manager Al Dark thought the rookie bore a facial resemblance to slugger Orlando Cepeda and called him “Junior.” The nickname stuck, but Cardenal didn’t. The Giants traded him to the Angels. After the 1967 season, the Indians, who hired Dark to be their manager, obtained Cardenal.
In 1969, Cardenal produced 143 hits and 36 stolen bases for the Indians. After the Cardinals traded Flood, they considered moving Pinson, 31, from right to center, “but there was a question about whether he could handle the position adequately in a big park such as Busch Stadium,” the Post-Dispatch reported.
The Cardinals preferred Cardenal, 26, who had “a throwing arm that could really skip a ball as fast as he’ll run on the new synthetic surface,” Broeg observed.
At Cardinals spring training in 1970, Cardenal impressed with his baserunning and hitting. After watching Cardenal steal bases in Grapefruit League exhibition games, teammate Lou Brock said, “Jose has good form, good speed and he gets a very good jump.”
Hitting coach Dick Sisler said Cardenal “has good bat control.”
Cardenal’s hitting improved when he choked up on the bat. “That way, I get more wood on the ball,” he said. “I choke up a little more when I have two strikes on me.”
Said Sisler: “By choking extra, he protects the plate all the more. He’s attacking the ball and he’s hitting to all fields.”
Big year
The Cardinals issued uniform No. 1 to Cardenal. Before him, others to wear the number for the Cardinals included Pepper Martin and Whitey Kurowski. The Cardinals retired the number after Ozzie Smith wore it from 1982-96.
Cardenal had a torrid start to his first Cardinals season. In the home opener against the Mets, he had three hits, a RBI and a run scored. In 16 April games, Cardenal batted .353 with 24 hits and 15 runs scored.
He finished the 1970 season with a .293 batting average, 74 RBI and 26 stolen bases and led the club in doubles (32). Cardenal was especially good from the No. 2 spot in the order, batting .350 with a .412 on-base percentage in 44 games.
It was a different story the following year. Cardenal was moved from center to right, hit .243 for the 1971 Cardinals and was traded to the Brewers in July. He returned to the Cardinals in 1994 as a coach on the staff of manager Joe Torre.
RetroSimba 
Traded from the Cardinals in a deal which was essentially Cardenal for Ted Kubiak. Something lost, nothing gained; a decade-long, front office slump.
Yes, Jose Cardenal played nine more seasons in the majors after departing the Cardinals, finished with 1,913 career hits and appeared in the postseason with the Phillies and Royals. Ted Kubiak played in 32 games for the Cardinals, hit .250 and was dealt to the Rangers for Joe Grzenda.
Jose has the distinction of being traded in the middle of a double-header to the very team he was playing against. He liked playing at Busch Stadium. He hit .295 there and only at Wrigley did he have more hits, doubles, triples, walks and rbi’s. It was nice to see him end his career with 2 hits in game 6 of the ’80 WS.
Yes, Jose Cardenal was sent from the Phillies to the Mets on Aug. 2, 1979, on the night those teams played a doubleheader at Shea Stadium.
I met Jose at my church back in 2016. A very nice man. The first thing I said was Jose, where is your afro. He laughed. I said, didn’t the Cards trade Vada Pinson for you. He said, I know my baseball. He was about my height. 5’7″. I said no way if you could be 5’10” as a player Jokingly, he said that was with the afro. I asked if I could take a picture with him. Sure. He then took off his world series ring and said, perhaps, I should wear this. I said, I don’t recall you winning a world series. He said not as a player but as a coach with the Yankees. Great guy. Vey easy to talk to.
Thanks, John, for sharing the story of your visit with Jose Cardenal. You told it well. I’m so glad you had such a wonderful experience.