Toward the end of his Hall of Fame career, Fred McGriff gave the Cardinals something to remember him by.
A left-handed power hitter, McGriff slugged 22 regular-season home runs against the Cardinals and two more in the playoffs. The very last two came on June 21, 2002, in a Cardinals-Cubs classic at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
The Friday afternoon game matched right-handers Woody Williams, 35, of the Cardinals and Jon Lieber, 32, of the Cubs. Both pitched with precision and smarts.
J.D. Drew, the second batter of the game, slammed a home run, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead in the first, before Lieber settled into a groove.
Williams retired the first 12 Cubs batters.
McGriff, who struck out his first time at the plate against Williams, led off the bottom of the fifth.
Traded by the Rays to the Cubs the year before (he made his Cubs debut against the Cardinals), McGriff, a first baseman, had led both the American League and National League in home runs (1989 with the Blue Jays and 1992 with the Padres), and had helped the Braves win two pennants and a World Series title. Video
At 38, he still was a force. (McGriff would produce 30 home runs and 103 RBI for the 2002 Cubs, giving him 10 seasons with 30 homers and eight seasons with 100 RBI.)
After McGriff worked the count to 3-and-1 in his at-bat in the fifth, Williams challenged him with a fastball. McGriff drove it out of the park for a home run, tying the score at 1-1.
When he came to bat again in the seventh, Williams jammed him with a fastball, but McGriff got around on it and belted another home run, which turned out to be the game-winner.
The Cubs won, 2-1. Williams pitched seven innings, walked none and allowed three hits _ the two McGriff home runs and a single by Lieber.
Lieber pitched a three-hit complete game and also walked none.
The game was played in a snappy one hour, 49 minutes _ the fastest involving the Cardinals since a May 1981 game against Steve Carlton and the Phillies that was completed in one hour, 45 minutes, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Boxscore
“Several times, Williams and Lieber used more pitches while warming between innings than in securing their next three outs,” Joe Strauss of the Post-Dispatch observed.
Williams told the newspaper, “It’s the way the game is supposed to be played … The way baseball is today, it’s set up for a three-hour game, which is a crock.”
Asked about his decision to throw a fastball to McGriff with the score tied in the seventh, Williams told Strauss, “I threw exactly the type of pitch that I wanted to throw when it was a 1-1 game. I got beat.”
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa wanted Williams to work around McGriff and take his chances with other batters. Referring to the fastballs McGriff hit for home runs, La Russa told the Post-Dispatch, “We made a couple of pitching mistakes.”
Williams saw it differently: “I go right at him … I’m not pitching around him.” Boxscore
McGriff hit .389 versus Williams in his career. Four of his seven hits against him were home runs.
RetroSimba 
A less than two hour game and the starter goes nine! May never happen again.
Thanks, Ken. Sadly, I thought it was telling that Woody Williams said the game now is “set up” to take 3 hours. It’s all about more time for selling TV advertising, hawking ballpark concessions, extending the party atmosphere to encourage spending, and hammering customers with marketing and promotional gimmicks, even if they are chasing away chunks of audience with the tedious pace of the game on the field.
How the game has changed since Fred Mcgriff last played. 1994 probably would have been a career year for him if not for the baseball strike. In reading this piece I like the way that even though TLR and Woody Williams saw things differently they were able to express themselves without any controversy. In today’s post game interviews all the answers seem to be already pre-written. One final thing. I find it pretty funny that Fred Mcgriff never watched any of those Tom Emansky videos.
Thanks for the astute observations, Phillip. I, too, found it refreshing that Williams and La Russa could disagree publicly on pitch selection and not get punished for it. In today’s marketing-dominated baseball environment, it’s all about conformity and displaying a Disneyesque facade.
And when it gets to the postseason, it’s more like four than three. I found myself not bothering to tune in until the fifth or sixth inning.
How can we mention McGriff without citing what the Padres got for him?
On July 18, 1993, the Padres made a really crappy trade, sending Fred McGriff to the Braves for Melvin Nieves, Donnie Elliott and Vince Moore.
Which reminds me that, just like McGriff’s first game with the Cubs was against the Cardinals, his first game with the Braves also was against the Cardinals. It was a fiery night in Atlanta: https://retrosimba.com/2018/07/16/holy-smokes-how-cardinals-got-singed-in-atlanta/
I wonder if the speed of a game impacts defense? I’m glad you added that it was such a quick game. It adds so much to the story. It’s something I love about your writing Mark. Yes, you provide some play-by-play but you integrate quotes and anecdotes and so much more which kinda gives the game a mood and games are so different – so many moods like us humans I guess. It’s great when an announcer or journalist recognizes the mood and offers it to us as viewer or reader. It gives each game a different story feel.
Maybe fielders get less bored when pitchers throw strikes and as a result, they make fewer errors because they’re anticipating a strike and the ball being put into play. Maybe there are stats that correlate speed of game to team defense?
Thanks, Steve. A study of the correlation between length of games and quality of defense would be an intriguing research project.
Certainly one problem with the longer length of games today is that defenses aren’t getting as many chances to make plays because of all the strikeouts.
Fred McGriff truly deserves his spot in the HOF. I enjoyed watching him play and prove pitchers wrong (see above post!). Boy, did this post make me wish for a game under two hours. I always liked the “no clock aspect” to the sport before they re-designed it to be three hours at minimum. More commercials…more money. Sigh. Question for you Mark – do you play fantasy baseball? Just curious.
I agree with you Bruce on Fred McGriff deserving his Hall of Fame election. He sure was a terror against the Phillies _ .323 career batting average, .402 career on-base percentage and .563 career slugging percentage against them.
I don’t play fantasy baseball. I tried it for a season or two almost 25 years ago. I have nothing against it. It just wasn’t for me.