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How Joe Garagiola achieved a World Series record

Posted in Broadcasters, Hitters, Records on October 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »

(Updated April 6, 2026)

Joe Garagiola of the Cardinals was the first rookie to produce four hits and three RBI in a World Series game.

Garagiola was 4-for-5 with three RBI in the Cardinals’ 12-3 Game 4 win against the Red Sox in the 1946 World Series.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, before Garagiola, the only other rookie with four hits and at least two RBI in a World Series game was third baseman Freddie Lindstrom of the Giants. Lindstrom was 4-for-5 with two RBI in Game 5 of the 1924 World Series against Walter Johnson of the Senators. Boxscore

Garagiola, best known as a broadcaster and humorist, was a 20-year-old rookie catcher for the Cardinals in 1946. He joined the Cardinals in May after completing service with the Army in the Philippines. He hit .237 in 74 regular-season games for a St. Louis team that won the National League pennant.

In Game 4 of the World Series at Boston, Garagiola had three singles and a double. Boxscore

His RBI-single to center in the third scored Stan Musial. He singled again in the fifth. In the seventh, Garagiola drove a double to left, scoring Enos Slaughter. In the ninth, Slaughter scored again on a Garagiola single to right.

The 1946 World Series, won by the Cardinals in seven games, was Garagiola’s only World Series appearance. He hit .316 (6-for-19) in five games, and did almost all of his damage at Fenway Park. Garagiola hit .417 at Boston in that Series (5-for-12) and .143 (1-for-7) at St. Louis.

In its recap of the 1946 World Series, The Sporting News wrote that St. Louis native Garagiola “was extremely popular with fellow players who frequently were his guests at spaghetti dinners cooked by Mom.”

The report concluded that “Joe is destined to become one of the game’s catching greats, in the opinion of (manager Eddie) Dyer and others.”

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Mike Shannon chats with Vin Scully

Posted in Broadcasters on June 9, 2010| 4 Comments »

(Updated Sept. 1, 2018)

On a Cardinals pregame radio show from Los Angeles June 9, 2010, Mike Shannon had Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully as his guest. When Shannon asked Scully about the long rivalry between the Dodgers and Cardinals, Scully launched into a story to illustrate the intensity that existed in the series.

According to Scully, Brooklyn’s Carl Furillo lined a shot that struck Cardinals pitcher Cloyd Boyer in the throat. Scully told how Boyer dropped to the ground and reached for his throat as if trying to pry an imaginary pair of hands that were strangling him.

As Furillo went up the line toward first base, he apparently was jawing at Boyer. Furillo supposedly was yelling, “Choke, you so-and-so. Choke!” Scully said.

The incident occurred on July 17, 1950, in Game 1 of a doubleheader at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. Boxscore

How impressive it was to hear Scully tell the tale 60 years after he witnessed it.

Boyer entered the game in the eighth inning in relief of starter Gerry Staley and the first batter he faced was Furillo, who hit a line drive toward the pitcher. The ball struck Boyer “hard on the right thumb, glanced off and slammed against his throat,” Dick Young of the New York Daily News reported.

Although Boyer retrieved the ball and threw to first base in time to get Furillo, “he almost fainted a moment later, gasping for breath,” the Daily News reported. “His mates had him lie on the hill for several minutes, regaining his wind.”

Once he was certain he could breathe freely, Boyer got to his feet and was able to walk off the field.

X-rays of the thumb disclosed no fracture, “but a ruptured blood vessel at the heel of his hand will keep him idle for perhaps a week,” the Daily News reported. “At that, he’s lucky he’s alive. Getting his hand in the way of Furillo’s comeback bullet just in time to prevent it from tearing into his neck probably saved the guy’s life, or at least his voice.”

Boyer “barely escaped worse injury when a Carl Furillo line drive glanced off his hands and struck him on the Adam’s apple,” Baseball Digest reported. “But the gallant hurler scrambled to his feet, threw out the batter and then collapsed.”

The Sporting News called Boyer a “hard-luck rookie right-hander” and reported Furillo’s liner “bruised his right hand at the base of the thumb and glanced against his windpipe, momentarily taking the kid’s wind.”

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