RetroSimba

In September 1964, the folks at Webster Groves Christian Church in suburban St. Louis asked Cardinals first baseman Bill White to be the featured speaker at a youth banquet on Oct. 15.

White said yes. His calendar for mid-October was clear of any baseball obligations. The Phillies led the National League and seemed uncatchable. The Cardinals figured to be done when the season ended.

In his book “Uppity,” White said, “At the time, I never dreamed we’d be in the World Series and that we’d win the championship the same day as the banquet.”

The Phillies, though, had their title dreams turned into nightmares. They collapsed down the stretch and the Cardinals clinched the pennant in the season finale. The World Series against the Yankees went to a decisive Game 7. Played on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 15, at St. Louis, the Cardinals won, 7-5. White contributed two hits and scored a run, helping St. Louis to its first World Series title since 1946. Boxscore

Party time

Revelry ensued in the Cardinals’ champagne-soaked clubhouse. In his autobiography “Stranger to the Game,” pitcher Bob Gibson called the celebration “out of the ordinary.” Catcher Bob Uecker was “at center stage in the clubhouse, wearing an usher’s cap, dancing a polka, mimicking (club owner) Auggie Busch and grabbing Harry Caray’s microphone to interview himself,” Gibson recalled.

In his memoir “Oh, Baby, I Love It,” catcher Tim McCarver said, “I remember Bob Uecker, without a stitch of clothing on, dancing to the dumbest song I’d ever heard _ ‘Pass the Biscuits, Miranda.’ He was dancing all by himself, somehow putting modern moves to this idiotic song that, for some reason, had been the 1946 Cardinals’ rallying song. Uke could dance, too.”

The club arranged for a victory dinner that night at Stan Musial & Biggie’s restaurant on Oakland Ave.

Bill White would like to have joined fully in the fun, but he couldn’t. He had that youth banquet to attend.

White was ready to leave the clubhouse when someone said manager Johnny Keane was looking for him, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. White stopped by the manager’s office and found him talking with reporters.

“Did you want to see me, John?” White asked.

“Yes,” replied Keane. “I wanted to give you this.”

The manager walked over to White and hugged him. White returned the hug.

For the record

While his teammates headed to Musial’s restaurant, White drove to the church banquet. “A commitment is a commitment,” he said in his autobiography. “The banquet organizers were frankly surprised to see me, but happy to have me.”

After the event, White went to Musial & Biggie’s, where the party was going strong. “My teammates had a big head start on me with the champagne and other booze,” White recalled in his book. “I won’t say I was the only sober guy in the room, but I was one of the few. Maybe that’s why when Bob Howsam got up to give a little speech, I actually heard what he said _ and I didn’t like it one bit.”

Two months earlier, when the Cardinals were 62-55, nine behind the first-place Phillies, Gussie Busch fired general manager Bing Devine and replaced him with Howsam. From there, the Cardinals went 31-14, finishing in first at 93-69, one game ahead of both the Reds and Phillies.

Howsam “must have known something about baseball because later he led Cincinnati to success as the Big Red Machine, but hardly any of us liked the guy,” White said in his book. “As far as most of us on the Cardinals were concerned, it was Bing Devine, not Bob Howsam, who had made our World Series victory possible, not least of all by bringing in Lou Brock.”

In addition to Brock, Devine acquired White, Curt Flood, Dick Groat, Julian Javier and pitchers Roger Craig, Curt Simmons, Barney Schultz and Ron Taylor. With Devine in charge of baseball operations, the farm system developed Bob Gibson, Tim McCarver, Ray Sadecki, Mike Shannon and Ray Washburn.

“So when Howsam stood up that night in Stan & Biggie’s and told the crowd, ‘I just want to point out that this turnaround didn’t happen until I took over the team,’ I went into a slow burn,” White said in his book.

Team captain Ken Boyer rose next and said a few words. Then it was White’s turn. “We won this title for Bing Devine,” White told the room. “Bing put this all together. Bing is the reason we’re all here.”

As White recalled, “Howsam didn’t say anything. I knew he must have hated hearing that, but I didn’t care.”

Lifetime achievement

Bill White, 92, is the 2026 recipient of baseball’s Buck O’Neal Lifetime Achievement Award. O’Neal’s many accomplishments include being the scout who discovered Lou Brock for the Cubs and guiding him into the majors.

White is being honored for his work as an advocate for integration in baseball, and for his success as a player (Giants, Cardinals, Phillies), broadcaster (Yankees) and executive (National League president).

The attributes a recipient is required to possess were exemplified by White on the day the 1964 Cardinals became World Series champs: Character, integrity, dignity.