In a storybook season for the Cardinals, starter Bob Forsch changed the narrative.
The ability of closer Bruce Sutter to consistently seal wins for the Cardinals was a key to their becoming World Series champions in 1982. Sutter led the majors in saves that season, with 36. He saved eight of Forsch’s 15 wins.
It was a different story, though, in a game at Atlanta. Forsch got a save, his first in the majors, to preserve a win for Sutter and the Cardinals.
National League showdown
In May 1982, the two division leaders, Cardinals and Braves, opened a four-game series in Atlanta. It was a matchup of future Hall of Fame managers, Whitey Herzog and Joe Torre. Besides Torre, the Braves had a strong Cardinals connection, with coaches Bob Gibson and Dal Maxvill, and reliever Al Hrabosky.
Forsch started the opener and wasn’t effective (five runs in 3.2 innings) but the Cardinals won, with Sutter pitching 2.2 innings for the save. A Biff Pocoroba walkoff home run against Doug Bair lifted the Braves to victory in Game 2.
A throng of 48,433 turned out for Game 3 on a Saturday night at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. It was the largest baseball crowd in Atlanta since 50,595 packed the ballpark for a July 4, 1977, Tom Seaver versus Phil Niekro matchup.
Unhappy with the performance of starter John Martin, Herzog yanked him in the first inning. Herzog used six pitchers in seven innings.
With the Braves ahead, 3-2, Sutter was brought in to pitch the eighth and retired them in order.
In the ninth, the Cardinals tied the score with two outs when Keith Hernandez laced a Gene Garber pitch past diving first baseman Bob Watson for a double, driving in Lonnie Smith from third.
After Sutter retired the Braves in order again in their half of the ninth, the Cardinals scored four in the 10th and led, 7-3. The big blow was Lonnie Smith’s three-run home run against Rick Camp.
Emergency call
As Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted, “A four-run lead with Sutter pitching seemed safe enough, but Sutter, pitching his third inning for the second time in three days, had nothing in the 10th.”
Sutter told Hummel, “Even the first two innings, I didn’t have anything.”
Sutter struck out the first batter he faced in the 10th, Dale Murphy, but Bob Horner followed with a deep drive. Left fielder Lonnie Smith froze and the ball struck the top of the low fence for a double. “I just panicked instead of busting my butt,” Smith told the Post-Dispatch.
After Bob Watson’s single moved Horner to third, Chris Chambliss batted for Bruce Benedict. A left-handed batter, Chambliss had produced only a single in 10 previous at-bats versus Sutter. This time, though, he clouted a three-run homer, cutting the St. Louis lead to one at 7-6.
Herzog decided to replace the weary closer with the Cardinals’ eighth pitcher of the game. The only remaining ones were Joaquin Andujar, who’d started the night before and went seven innings; Steve Mura, who was scheduled to start the next day; and Bob Forsch, who hadn’t appeared in relief since 1979.
Forsch was “the only one I had left,” Herzog told the Atlanta Constitution.
Role reversal
Rafael Ramirez was due to be the first batter Forsch faced, but Joe Torre sent a pinch-hitter, Ken Smith. A week earlier, Smith drilled a pinch-hit single against Forsch. This time, he singled again.
Next up was Biff Pocoroba, who’d beaten the Cardinals with his walkoff homer the night before. Another homer here would lift the Braves to victory. Pocoroba was a career .400 hitter against Forsch. This time, he popped up to shortstop Ozzie Smith for the second out.
Forsch ended the drama by getting Claudell Washington to ground out to third baseman Ken Oberkfell.
In a reverse of the norm, Sutter was the winning pitcher and Forsch had his first career save.
“Say, I wonder how I stand in the Rolaids Relief Standings?” Forsch said to the Post-Dispatch’s Rick Hummel. Boxscore
Rest of the story
Forsch made 34 starts for the 1982 Cardinals and was 15-9. He had one more relief appearance that season, pitching 2.2 scoreless innings versus the Cubs on Oct. 2.
In 10.2 regular-season innings against the 1982 Braves, Forsch gave up 10 runs, but he tossed a three-hit shutout against them in the rescheduled Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. “My best game ever,” Forsch said in the book “Whitey’s Boys.” Boxscore
Forsch’s gem came after the first try at playing Game 1 (a matchup of Phil Niekro and Joaquin Andujar) was rained out with the Braves ahead, 1-0, in the fifth.
The Cardinals went on to sweep the Braves and then prevailed in a seven-game World Series versus the Brewers.
In 1985, when the Cardinals again won a National League pennant, Forsch got two more saves, one against the Cubs; the other versus the Dodgers. At 35, he was used as both a starter (19 appearances) and reliever (15 appearances) that season, contributing a 9-6 record.
Forsch finished with 168 wins and three saves in his 16 seasons in the majors.
RetroSimba 
One of Sacramento’s finest.
Sacramento produced players such as Larry Bowa, Derrek Lee and Fernando Vina, but a Sacramento baseball historian, Mark McDermott, told the Sacramento Bee in 2011 that Bob Forsch “is without a doubt the best pitcher to ever come out of Sacramento.”
In the book “Tales From the Cardinals Dugout,” Forsch said, “When I signed with the Cardinals out of Hiram Johnson High School, I was probably one of the best seniors in the Sacramento area. I was good for a high school player in a town of 250,000 people. I made all-city, but I wasn’t all-state or anything like that. I wasn’t even all-Northern California.”
Bob Forsch was always an individual with class. We lost him way too soon. Looking back maybe it was destiny that the Braves and Cardinals were to meet in the NLCS. Of their 12 regular season match-ups 6 were decided by a run with 2 of them going into extra innings. You can really understand Bob Forsch saying that the best game he ever pitched was that rescheduled game 1 against Atlanta. And there’s one particular thing about that game that I’ve never forgotten. At the start of the game the ABC announcers seemed to make a big deal of the fact that during the regular season Bob Forsch averaged only 2.7 strikeouts per game. We’ll, in that game he ended up striking out 6. And it’s funny. And just goes to prove how much the game has changed. That year there was only one starting pitcher with a lower strikeout percentage than Bob Forsch. None other than Mike Caldwell of the Milwaukee Brewers.
I enjoyed your comments, Phillip, and appreciate the info you provided on Bob Forsch and strikeouts. What a vivid illustration you provided of Bob Forsch (and Mike Caldwell) being a pitcher rather than a thrower. Indeed, he struck out just 69 batters in 233 regular-season innings for the 1982 Cardinals, yet tied for the team lead in wins.
Considering that Forsch pitched two no-hitters for St. Louis, it is telling that he considered the 1982 playoff gem against the Braves to be his career best.
Bob was a very good hitter as well. He hit 12 big league home runs and is only one of nine pitchers to win two silver slugger awards. Great story, Mark!
*multiple silver slugger awards
Thanks, Bob. Indeed, Bob Forsch began his pro career as a third baseman in the St. Louis system. When that didn’t work out, he became a pitcher: https://retrosimba.com/2011/11/09/the-story-of-how-bob-forsch-converted-to-pitching/
The line about Lonnie Smith freezing on a ball caught my eye. Isn’t he the outfielder they used to call “Skates?”
Spot-on, Ken. As Steve Jacobson of Newsday wrote, Lonnie Smith was called Skates “for the way he’d fall down as if the earth under his feet had suddenly turned to ice. He could steal a base, but sometimes he’d make a quick move from his lead off first base, spin his wheels and fall down. Sometimes he’d fall down in left field for no apparent reason. He didn’t like the nickname.”
i always enjoyed the sound of the name biff pocoroba, maybe like john bocabella? i was reading about biff on wikipedia and no cause of death was mentioned. when i think of Forsche i think of cars and brothers because i think Bob had a brother Ken who pitched in the big leagues too and if that’s true, that’s just amazing that something like that happens and i just looked it up and it says the Forsche brothers are the only ones to eaach throw a no hitter….that’s what AI says anyway. i don’t know what or who to believe anymore.
You are correct, Steve, about brothers Bob Forsch and Ken Forsch both pitching no-hitters in the majors. After Bob pitched the first of his two no-hitters, Ken pitched one against the Braves. Bob called his brother and said, “It’s about time you threw one.”
I thoroughly enjoyed you linking catchers Biff Pocoroba with John Boccabella. I only wish we could hear Harry Caray call their names. Biff Pocoroba spelled backwards, by the way, is Ffib Aborocop.
In his biography of John Boccabella, Rory Costello of the Society for American Baseball Research had this great opening:
“Jooohhnnn Bocc! — a — beelllllaaaaaaaa.”
If you were a National League fan from 1969 to 1973, one of the memorable things about Montreal Expos home games was this call. Claude Mouton, the distinctive public-address announcer at old Jarry Park, loved to roll the r’s in names like Herrera and Hermoso, but he always took special delight in this catcher’s musical Italian name.
i’ve heard from mets fans at the time who recalled the Bacc-a bellllaaaaa announcer and it endeared them to him and Jarry Park…
Bob Forsch was a solid pitcher for several years, and he dominated the second version of Game 1 of the 1982 NLCS. As a Braves fan, that series remains a source of disappointment to me. The rainout in Game 1 seemed to doom the Braves. Niekro was in control, and the Braves were up 1-0 with one out in the bottom of the 5th when plate umpire Billy Williams halted the game before the rain began. Under rules at the time, the Braves needed only two more outs to secure the win. Niekro came back and pitched well in Game 2, but the usually reliable Gene Garber, asked to cover the final three innings, couldn’t hold the lead.
Torre was not the Hall of Fame manager he eventually became when he was in Atlanta. I always felt he needlessly moved players around to different positions, and it bit him in Game 2. In the eighth inning, Torre brought Jerry Royster in from left field to replace Bob Horner at third base. Torre’s mistake in this move, however, was shifting Dale Murphy from center field to left and putting Brett Butler in center. I always have felt that had Murphy, a 6′ 4″ Gold Glover, been in center field, he would have caught the ball Ken Oberkfell hit that drove in the winning run. Butler, at 5′ 10″, initially froze, broke late, and had the ball tip off his glove. I also wondered at the time why Torre did not pinch-hit for Garber in the Braves’ half of the ninth. The Cardinals may have eventually won this game anyway, but Torre’s moves did not help matters.
I believe the Cardinals were the better team, but the rainout in Game 1 and the blown save in Game 2 did not help the Braves’ chances.
Thanks for all the smart insights. I enjoyed them.
I attended Game 2 and my seat near first base gave me a clear view of the entire game-winning play _ from Ken Oberkfell’s swing to Brett Butler’s approach to the ball _ and your description is completely accurate. I never considered Dale Murphy having been shifted. Your point is an excellent one. Thanks for sharing. I think you are correct; there’s a strong chance Murphy catches that drive.
I always forget your name, Mr. Ret (like Rhett Butler). The year of 1982 was my fave year in sports loving, besides 1964, my first pennant. I was the Features Copy Desk Chief at age 29 with The Globe-Democrat. At the time of the STL wins in October, I was busier than a one-armed paper hanger. I had two young girl editors working for me, and thank God they were good. Loved em both. Bob Burnes offered to arrange for tix for us Globe staffers but it was a pain for Bob, who was older than dirt at the time. And one of my best friends at the paper. I gave him quizzes all the time and we chatted often. I edited the chief feature for one of the Saturday papers, written by Bob. Oh my God he needed editing. But I loved doing it and loved Bob.
At the first 1982 playoff match, my first wife, who barely tolerates baseball, was all agog about her hero Jane Fonda being in the front row down below us, with her legendarily philandering husband Ted Turner. I told her that Ted f8cked everything that moved and she was not pleased. So what, right? I was praying for a gully washer in the fourth inning because it was clear that the Cardinals were not going to get a loud foul off this master pitcher. He was more than a knuckler. He picked spots magnificently and knew lineups. I got my wish when ol’ Williams called it and Chub said ok.
After that narrow escape, I was relieved and felt the Cardinals would with the whole thing, maybe sweep. Niekro was the only pitcher who scared me. When Lonnie caught the final out of G3, I was one happy fan.
Bill Townsend
Thanks for the entertaining anecdotes, Bill.
Copy desk chiefs and their copy editing staffs sure made a lot of old-timer columnists read better in print than the prose they submitted to the desk on deadline…..