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Why Bob Gibson finished the 1964 World Series

Posted in Games, Managers, Pitchers on November 4, 2015| 6 Comments »

Johnny Keane made a commitment to the heart of Bob Gibson and the outcome was successful for the Cardinals.

On Oct. 15, 1964, the Yankees and Cardinals played the decisive Game 7 of the World Series at St. Louis. The Cardinals started their ace, Gibson, and led, 7-3, entering the ninth inning.

Gibson, 28, had pitched eight innings in Game 2 and 10 innings in Game 5. He also had pitched eight innings in his final start of the regular season on Oct. 2 and four innings of relief in the pennant-clinching season finale on Oct. 4.

Keane, the Cardinals’ manager, never wavered in sending out Gibson to pitch the ninth inning of Game 7.

In his book, “Stranger to the Game,” Gibson said, “By this time, I was simply throwing as hard as I could on every pitch, grunting up my best frazzled-arm fastballs. Keane had sent me out there with the advice to throw nothing but fastballs, remarking that he didn’t think the Yankees could hit four home runs in one inning.”

Author David Halberstam, in his book “October 1964,” wrote, “Rarely had Bob Gibson wanted anything so badly as to finish this game. Johnny Keane, who knew (Gibson) was tired and knew he was wearing down, came over to Gibson and told him he was going to stay with him.”

Said Keane to Gibson: “Bob, I’m going with you in the ninth. Just throw it over the plate. Don’t be cute. Don’t go for the corners. Just get it over.”

Strikeouts and homers

The first batter, Tom Tresh, struck out. The next, No. 8 batter Clete Boyer, “jumped on the fastball he knew was coming,” Gibson said, and hit a home run over the left-field wall, making the score, 7-4.

Gibson struck out Johnny Blanchard, who was batting for pitcher Pete Mikkelsen.

With one more out, the Cardinals would be World Series champions.

Phil Linz, a shortstop who had hit five home runs during the regular season, batted next and hit a home run over the left-field wall.

The score was 7-5. Up next was Bobby Richardson, who had produced 13 hits in the Series. If Richardson reached base, Roger Maris would follow, then Mickey Mantle.

“I looked over to the dugout at Keane,” Gibson said, “wondering if perhaps he had overestimated my speed and underestimated the Yankees’ power.”

Lots of heart

Ray Sadecki, a left-hander who had started Games 1 and 4, was loosening in the bullpen. Keane decided he would bring in Sadecki to face the left-handed Maris if Richardson got on base.

After Gibson worked the count to 1-and-1 on Richardson, Keane went to the mound to talk with his pitcher. Catcher Tim McCarver “did not go all the way out because he knew Gibson hated it when the catcher came out _ and, besides, there was nothing to say,” Halberstam wrote.

The next pitch from Gibson was a fastball. Richardson swung and hit a pop-up to second baseman Dal Maxvill, who made the catch. Video

The Cardinals were World Series champions for the first time in 18 years.

Asked why he stayed with a tiring Gibson in the ninth, Keane replied, “He didn’t pitch only with his arm. He pitched with his heart. He’s got lots of heart … I went all the way with him because I was committed to this fellow’s heart.” Boxscore

Privately, a proud Keane said to Gibson after the game, “You’re on your way.”

In the New York Daily News, Phil Pepe wrote, “The story of the Cardinals’ world championship is the story of Johnny Keane and yesterday it was the story of Bob Gibson. It is the story of faith … of John Keane’s faith in Bob Gibson and of Bob Gibson’s faith in himself.”

Previously: 4 Series aces for Cards: Gibson, Porter, Eckstein, Freese

Previously: Johnny Keane to Gussie Busch: Take this job and shove it

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Phil Regan talks Roger Maris, Lou Brock, Al Hrabosky

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers on November 1, 2015| Leave a Comment »

(Updated July 10, 2026)

Phil Regan was the premier relief pitcher in the National League with the Dodgers and Cubs in the late 1960s. He twice led the league in saves, with 21 in 1966 and 25 in 1968.

Regan’s best season was 1966, his first in the National League after the Dodgers acquired him from the Tigers. Closing games in support of starters such as Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Don Sutton and Claude Osteen, Regan posted a 14-1 record and 1.62 ERA for the pennant winners.

After his 13-year career as a big-league pitcher ended in 1972 with the White Sox, Regan built a commendable reputation as an instructor. He was a pitching coach with the Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs. In 1995, he managed the Baltimore Orioles. During the 2019 season, when he was 82, Regan became pitching coach of the New York Mets.

In 2015, Regan, 78, was pitching coach of the Class A minor-league St. Lucie Mets. On Oct. 28, 2015, I interviewed Regan near the Mets’ training complex in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Richard Stone, who organized a sports card show in Sebastian, Fla., helped arrange the interview.

Here is a segment of that interview:

Q.: From 1963 through 1968, the Dodgers and Cardinals were the only clubs to win NL pennants. The Dodgers won in 1963, 1965 and 1966. The Cardinals won in 1964, 1967 and 1968. What was that rivalry like from your perspective with the Dodgers?

Regan: “It was like two organizations that were almost the same. Both of them were speed, pitching, good defense and playing the fundamentals very well.”

Q.: How did the Dodgers try to beat the Cardinals?

Regan: “We always felt that if we could get to Bob Gibson early _ get him in the first inning, because we didn’t get any runs off him after that _ we could hold on and win with our pitching.”

Q.: The 1967 and 1968 champion Cardinals had Lou Brock. Was he the batter in that lineup that pitchers needed to focus on?

Regan: “He was one of them … When I was with the Cubs, he would bunt on (first baseman) Ernie Banks. Ernie wasn’t very fast. Ernie couldn’t field the bunts. Brock would beat it out every time.”

Q.: Who else in that Cardinals lineup?

Regan: “Another guy who helped them was Roger Maris.”

Q.: Maris batted .077 (2-for-26) with no home runs against you in his career. How did you do it?

Regan: “When I was with Detroit, I roomed with (pitcher) Frank Lary. And Lary would tell me, ‘Maris has his swing grooved. Anything inside, he’ll hit.’ So, I threw him nothing but sinkers down and away and let him try to pull the ball. And I got him out. I threw him one slider inside in Detroit and he hit it foul, a bullet, and I said I’m going to stay with sinkers away. He was geared to pull everything. He geared his swing to hit home runs, but it took away the outer part of the plate, which is where I pitched him.”

Q.: What else do you recall about those 1967 and 1968 Cardinals?

Regan: “I came in to pitch at St. Louis (on Aug. 9, 1967) and loaded the bases with no outs. Wes Parker was playing first base and Jimmy Campanis was catching. I’m thinking, ‘How can I get out of this situation?’ The next hitter (Eddie Bressoud) pops up to first base, to Wes Parker, a great fielder, near the bag. (Mike Shannon) is on third base and he fakes like he’s going home after the catch. Wes Parker takes the ball and lobs it toward home plate. I’m backing up the play, near the fence. The ball hits in front of Campanis and scoots under his leg and goes halfway between the catcher and me _ and (Shannon) scores the winning run.”

(Here is the boxscore from that game. Shannon told the Associated Press, “I hesitated when I saw the ball roll away. I couldn’t tell how far it was going … but it just kept rolling, so I went.”)

Q.: As a successful instructor, you’re like the Mets’ version of the Cardinals’ George Kissell. Did you have any interaction with Kissell?

Regan: “I got a lot of his notes. He’s got a little book out, a handbook for managers on all phases of the game. Throughout it are his sayings. He told pitchers they should try to strike out 13 hitters a game. Now, that’s a lot. He’d say, ‘You strike out the first hitter of every inning _ that’s nine times _ and the pitcher four times.’ Really, what he was saying was that the most important man in the inning to get out is that first hitter. Be ready to pitch to him. If you get him out, it stops everything. I use it all the time. If you get the first hitter out, you can load the bases and get out of the inning with one pitch. If you don’t get the first hitter out, he’ll score 80 percent of the time. I follow a lot of his stuff.”

Q.: A George Kissell disciple who came up through the Cardinals system was Jim Riggleman. In 1997 and 1998, Riggleman managed the Cubs and you were their pitching coach. How was that?

Regan: “I love Jim Riggleman. He was one of the best young managers. In 1997, we weren’t a very good club (68-94 and last place in the NL Central). In 1998, the general manager called us in and said, ‘I’m going to have to hold you guys responsible if you don’t turn it around.’ We went on to win a one-game playoff with the Giants and got into the postseason (with a 90-73 record).”

Q.: In 1994, when you were pitching coach for Cleveland, one of the pitchers on your staff was Derek Lilliquist. He later became the Cardinals’ pitching coach. Did you see then his potential to become an instructor?

Regan: “I didn’t know he would become the pitching coach that he is today. He loved the game. He was quite a jokester. A lot of times, I’d back up the pitcher when we were taking batting practice. One day, in Toronto, we noticed none of the balls were coming in from the outfield. He was the ringleader of this. I said, ‘Where are the balls?’ All of a sudden, they threw about 100 balls at me at the same time. He had fun playing the game. That’s one of the things that makes you a good coach. You can laugh and have a good time and yet they know when you’re serious, too.”

Q.: Any other Cardinals recollection to share?

Regan: “(In 1982), I got a call from an agent (Jack Childers) in Chicago, who said, ‘Phil, I remember when you played here with the Cubs. You had a good sinker. I have a player who has lost his fastball. I represent him. I need him to learn a sinker. Would you be willing to work with him?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I will. Who is it?’ He said, ‘Al Hrabosky, the Mad Hungarian.’ (Atlanta had released Hrabosky.)

“I said, ‘We’re in our fall program at Grand Valley State (where Regan was head baseball coach). If he wants to come up here, I’ll work with him.’ So he came up and spent four days with us and worked on a sinker. He had lost his fastball. When he left, he said, ‘I’m going to Venezuela (winter league) to work on this sinker. Would you mind calling some people (in the big leagues) and telling them where I am and what I’m working on?’ I called Jim Campbell with the Tigers and Roland Hemond with the White Sox. Then I read an article that said Seattle was looking for a left-handed reliever. I didn’t know anybody there. So, I called and got hold of the general manager, Dan O’Brien.”

Editor’s note: O’Brien gave Regan a job as Mariners advance scout, returning him to the big leagues for the first time since his pitching career ended. Hemond invited Hrabosky to White Sox spring training for a tryout.

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How good guy Dane Iorg did bad thing to Cardinals

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents on October 26, 2015| 2 Comments »

In a painfully fitting ending to the most miserable inning experienced by the Cardinals, a player who helped them win a World Series title delivered a hit that prevented them from earning another championship.

On Oct. 26, 1985, in Game 6 of the World Series at Kansas City, Dane Iorg looped a two-run single against Todd Worrell in the bottom of the ninth inning, lifting the Royals from a one-run deficit to a 2-1 victory that evened the series. The Royals won Game 7 the next night, clinching their first World Series crown.

Three years earlier, Iorg had served as a designated hitter for the Cardinals in the 1982 World Series. He batted .529 (9-for-17) with four doubles, a triple and four runs scored, helping the Cardinals defeat the Brewers in seven games.

In eight seasons (1977-84) with St. Louis, Iorg batted .294, including .303 in 105 games in 1980 and .294 in 102 games in 1982. The Cardinals sold his contract to the Royals in May 1984.

Damn Denkinger

Iorg was in a position to beat the Cardinals in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series because of an infamous ninth-inning blown call by first-base umpire Don Denkinger, who ruled leadoff batter Jorge Orta safe at first base, even though Worrell, fielding a throw from first baseman Jack Clark, clearly had tagged the bag with his foot before Orta did.

With Orta on first, the Cardinals dug a deeper hole when Clark failed to catch a pop-up by Steve Balboni in foul territory _ Balboni, given a reprieve, singled _ and when Darrell Porter let a slider elude him for a passed ball, allowing runners on first and second to advance to second and third.

After Hal McRae was walked intentionally, loading the bases with one out, Royals manager Dick Howser chose Iorg to bat for reliever Dan Quisenberry.

Mix and match

In his only other at-bat of the 1985 World Series, Iorg faced Worrell in the opener and flied out to right, ending a game the Cardinals won, 3-1, but Clark had a bad feeling as Iorg batted in the ninth inning of Game 6.

“When Dane came up there, the Royals had the matchup they wanted,” Clark told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Iorg has always been tough in those situations because he puts the ball in play.’

Though a left-hander, Ricky Horton, was loosening in the Cardinals bullpen, manager Whitey Herzog chose to stick with Worrell, a right-handed rookie.

The 1985 Cardinals hadn’t lost a lead in the ninth inning all year.

“If I thought about everything that was going on around me, I would have never made it to the plate,” Iorg told the Sacramento Bee. “I would have had a heart attack before I got there.”

The showdown

Worrell’s first pitch to Iorg was taken for a ball.

“I wasn’t looking for a pitch in a specific location,” Iorg said to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “I was just looking for something I could get my bat on.”

The next pitch was belt high.

“He jammed me with a fastball,” Iorg told the Columbus Dispatch.

Said Worrell to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “I got it in on his hands.”

Iorg swung and lifted a soft liner into right field.

“It broke my bat, but I had a good enough stroke to get it to the outfield,” Iorg said. “I knew it was a hit. I was just hoping it would score two runs.”

Said Clark: “A nice piece of hitting.”

The throw

Right fielder Andy Van Slyke, who had been shaded toward right-center, said, “That ball just died on the (artificial) grass when it should have taken a good bounce up to me.”

Van Slyke retrieved the ball and unleashed a low, accurate throw toward the plate.

Pinch-runner Onix Concepcion scored easily from third with the tying run. Catcher Jim Sundberg, who had been on second base, was steaming toward the plate, representing the winning run.

“I couldn’t get the throw off I wanted to make,” said Van Slyke. “And the ball, it hung there in slow motion.”

Said Worrell: “If he (Iorg) hit it harder, we might have had a chance to get (Sundberg).”

Van Slyke’s peg was caught on the fly in front of the plate by Porter, who turned to try a sweep tag on Sundberg, diving head-first safely across the plate. Video

Special feeling

“Those are the kinds of situations that you dream about as a child when you’re in Little League or playing Babe Ruth ball,” Iorg said to the Akron Beacon-Journal. “To fulfill such a dream is very special.” Boxscore

Asked whether he had mixed emotions about beating his former team (Herzog had called Iorg “one of my favorite people.”), Iorg replied, “I didn’t think about that at all. That was a new pitcher (Worrell) that I basically never played with and a new team. The situation was important enough without thinking about the past and who it was against.”

(In the 2002 book “Whitey’s Boys,” Iorg admitted, “I had better friends on the Cardinals than on the Royals.”)

Regarding the historical impact of the hit, Iorg told the Sacramento Bee, “When I’m fishing with my brother for steelhead on the Mad River in northern California, it’ll probably hit me then. Right now, I’d like to think I did this for my father (in the lumber business). He sacrificed a lot for me to play baseball. This, in some way, is paying him back.”

Hero and villain

In his column for the Post-Dispatch, Kevin Horrigan best summarized the feelings of Cardinals fans.

“Dane Iorg got to be a hero,” Horrigan wrote. “That was the only good thing about the inning from an eastern Missouri point of view. Dane Iorg, a former Cardinal and one of the nicest men ever to wear the birds on the bat, got to be a hero by driving in the two runs with a single to right.

“In 1982, he was a World Series hero for the Cardinals. In 1985, he killed them. This was his job. Don Denkinger also killed them. This was not his job.”

Horrigan concluded, “Jesse James used to rob trains for a living. He’d ride up with his gang, pull a gun and heist the loot. Don Denkinger ought to be able to relate to that. He robbed the Cardinals blind last night.”

Previously: Dane Iorg excelled as World Series DH for Cardinals

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Why Jack Clark got chance to put Cards in World Series

Posted in Games, Hitters, Managers, Opponents, Pitchers on October 17, 2015| 2 Comments »

If Tommy Lasorda had ordered Tom Niedenfuer to intentionally walk Jack Clark in the ninth inning of Game 6 in the National League Championship Series, Brian Harper likely would have been facing Jerry Reuss with the outcome on the line.

Instead, Lasorda, the Dodgers’ manager, made the fateful decision to allow Niedenfuer to pitch to Clark with Willie McGee on third, Ozzie Smith on second, first base open and two out.

On Oct. 16, 1985, Clark cracked a first-pitch fastball from Niedenfuer for a three-run home run, erasing a 5-4 Dodgers lead and carrying the Cardinals into the World Series with a 7-5 pennant-clinching victory at Los Angeles.

“After he hits the home run, even my wife knows I should have walked him,” Lasorda told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Calif.

Match game

Jay Johnstone, a Dodgers reserve outfielder, wrote in his postseason column for the Daily News of Los Angeles that “Tommy, in fact, was going to walk him. Then he changed his mind.”

Andy Van Slyke, a left-handed batter, was on deck when Clark stepped to the plate against Niedenfuer.

“I was looking into the Dodgers dugout, waiting for Tommy to put up four fingers,” Van Slyke told reporters.

“If you were Tommy Lasorda, wouldn’t you rather pitch to me than to Jack Clark?”

Not, it turns out, if the pitcher is a right-hander, such as Niedenfuer.

If Clark had been walked intentionally, Lasorda intended to have a left-hander face Van Slyke. The left-hander the Dodgers had warming in the bullpen was Reuss, a former Cardinal.

In his book “White Rat: A Life in Baseball,” Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said, “If Tommy walks Clark and brings in a lefty to pitch to Andy, I would have countered with Brian Harper, the only right-handed pinch-hitter I had left.”

Harper, a utility player, had batted .250 with no home runs in 43 games for the 1985 Cardinals.

In a rebuke of Lasorda, Herzog said, “I would rather let Brian Harper try to beat me than Jack Clark.”

Watching from the dugout, Harper was preparing for the chance to bat with the bases loaded. “Even when they pitched to Jack, I figured they would pitch around him,” Harper told the Daily Breeze.

Clark agreed, saying, “When they decided to pitch to me … I didn’t expect to get a pitch to hit.”

Cat and mouse

Niedenfuer was thinking the same. In the seventh inning, with the score tied 4-4 and Cardinals runners on first and third, Niedenfuer struck out Clark on sliders.

So, when Clark came to bat in the ninth, “I figured he wouldn’t be looking for a fastball,” Niedenfuer said.

Niedenfuer’s assumption had merit. In his book “You’re Missin’ a Great Game,” Herzog called Clark “the greatest fastball hitter of his era,” but said the slugger “took more heaters for strikes than any player I’ve ever seen.”

Said Herzog: “Jack Clark might have been the worst guesser I ever saw. He terrified people as a fastball hitter, but he took the wrong message from that. He believed nobody _ nobody _ would ever throw him a fastball. So he never sat on his best pitch. Jack would stand there waiting for the curve and … those pitchers would sneak heaters right by him.”

Knowing this, Niedenfuer said he intended to start Clark with a fastball on the outside part of the strike zone and try to get Clark to chase subsequent pitches outside the zone.

There were, however, two problems with this approach:

_ “I was looking for a fastball,” Clark said to the Daily News.

_ The fastball Niedenfuer delivered wasn’t on the outside corner. Instead, it was in the middle of the plate, about belt high.

Clark swung at the pitch and lifted a drive deep into the left-field bleachers.

“The only hope was that it would hit the Goodyear blimp and fall straight down,” Niedenfuer told Knight-Ridder Newspapers.

Said Clark: “It was the biggest, furthest, most important hit of my career.” Video

It also was the only home run Clark would hit in 47 career postseason at-bats. Boxscore

Previously: Trade for Jack Clark shook Cardinals from slumber

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Ozzie Smith, Tom Niedenfuer and the prelude to 1985

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Pitchers on October 14, 2015| 2 Comments »

Ozzie Smith and Tom Niedenfuer, forever linked by a home run, were involved in a couple of other notable encounters before their infamous 1985 postseason showdown.

On Oct. 14, 1985, Smith sealed his spot in Cardinals lore by hitting a walkoff home run against Niedenfuer in the pivotal Game 5 of the National League Championship Series against the Dodgers at St. Louis. Boxscore

Though the home run was the most important swing of Smith’s Hall of Fame career, it wasn’t the first time he delivered a key hit against Niedenfuer.

One of those hits produced an unusual double play. Another helped cause a meltdown by the Dodgers bullpen, foreshadowing the drama that would unfold in the 1985 postseason.

Strange play

On Sept. 1, 1982, the Cardinals and Dodgers were in the 11th inning of a game at Los Angeles, with the score tied at 5-5. The Cardinals had Tommy Herr on second base and George Hendrick on first with one out when Smith stepped to the plate, facing Niedenfuer.

Smith looped a single to right field.

As Herr and Hendrick advanced, right fielder Pedro Guerrero made a strong throw to the plate. Herr, uncertain he could score, held at third. Hendrick, expecting Herr to head home, rounded second. When he saw Herr on third, Hendrick applied the brakes.

Guerrero’s throw to catcher Mike Scioscia was on target. Scioscia caught the ball and, seeing Hendrick take the wide turn around second, fired a throw to second baseman Steve Sax, who tagged out Hendrick as he tried getting back to the base.

When Herr saw Scioscia throw to second, he took off from third. Sax threw back to the catcher, who blocked the plate as Herr went into his slide. Scioscia caught the ball and tagged out Herr, ending the inning.

Instead of resulting in the go-ahead run, or at least loading the bases, Smith’s single off Niedenfuer resulted in a double play.

“Strange double play, all right,” Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said to the Associated Press, shaking his head.

In the 13th, Smith delivered another single, against Ricky Wright, and it produced a run, scoring Kelly Paris from second and giving the Cardinals a 6-5 lead. Jim Kaat, 43, got the last two outs in the bottom half of the inning, stranding Steve Garvey at third and earning the last save of his career. Boxscore

“I’ve managed about 2,000 of these games and I have never seen one like this,” Herzog said to the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Calif.

Discouraged Dodgers

Two years later, on July 8, 1984, Smith contributed to a Cardinals rally against Niedenfuer at Los Angeles.

The Dodgers entered the ninth inning with a 6-2 lead. With one out, Willie McGee and Darrell Porter both singled against Dodgers reliever Ken Howell.

Niedenfuer relieved and the first batter he faced, Andy Van Slyke, hit a three-run home run, cutting the Dodgers lead to 6-5.

“Even after he hit it out, I still thought Tom would shut them down,” said Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser.

Instead, Smith followed with a single, knocking Niedenfuer from the game and keeping alive the Cardinals’ comeback hopes.

Hershiser relieved and struck out Mike Jorgensen for the second out of the inning, but Lonnie Smith singled, advancing Ozzie Smith to second, and Herr also singled, driving in the tying run.

In the 12th, the Cardinals scored twice off Pat Zachry and won, 8-6.

“We blew it and I’m very discouraged,” Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda said to the Orange County Register. Boxscore

Wizardry from Oz

In 1985, Ozzie Smith was 0-for-4 for the year versus Niedenfuer before corking his Game 5-winning NL Championship Series home run _ his first batting from the left side. Video

In the decisive Game 6 of that series, Smith produced a RBI-triple and a walk versus Niedenfuer in two plate appearances. Boxscore

For his career, including regular season and postseason, Smith batted .353 (6-for-17) against Niedenfuer, with four singles, a triple, a home run, three walks, two RBI and no strikeouts.

In April 1990, Niedenfuer was released by the Mariners and signed with the Cardinals, becoming a teammate of Smith. “We’ve got to give him a job after all he’s done for us,” Herzog told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

When Niedenfuer entered the Cardinals’ clubhouse for the first time, first baseman Pedro Guerrero, his former Dodgers teammate, introduced him to Smith.

“I’d never really met him,” Ozzie said to columnist Bernie Miklasz. “I mean, what do you say _ thanks for that home run? But Niedenfuer took it well. I’m glad he’s here.”

In 52 games with the 1990 Cardinals, Niedenfuer was 0-6 with a 3.46 ERA.

Previously: Tom Niedenfuer revisits Cardinals’ historic home runs

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Todd Worrell, Mike Roarke and the “Go crazy” game

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Pitchers on October 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

In the game that produced one of the most important Cardinals home runs, an exchange between Todd Worrell and his coach, Mike Roarke, played a critical role in setting the stage for the dramatic finish.

On Oct. 14, 1985, Ozzie Smith hit a walkoff home run in the ninth inning against the Dodgers’ Tom Niedenfuer, lifting the Cardinals to a 3-2 victory in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series at St. Louis.

Smith’s blast became a beloved part of Cardinals lore, in part, because of broadcaster Jack Buck’s joyous, pitch-perfect call _ “Go crazy, folks! Go crazy!” _ and because of the shock value. Video

Smith, a switch hitter known more for his fielding than his hitting, had played eight seasons in the big leagues and hadn’t slugged a home run left-handed until doing so in the critical Game 5. The victorious shot gave the Cardinals their third win in a row after losing the first two games of the series and put them in position to clinch the pennant and a World Series berth in Game 6 at Los Angeles.

Circumstances might have been much different, though, if Roarke hadn’t connected with Worrell two innings earlier.

Rookie feels heat

In the seventh, with the score tied at 2-2, Ken Dayley was preparing to pitch his fourth inning in relief of Cardinals starter Bob Forsch. The first batter of the inning, Mike Scioscia, walked on four pitches. The next batter, Enos Cabell, hit the first pitch for a single, putting runners on second and first with none out.

Manager Whitey Herzog replaced Dayley with Worrell.

The hard-throwing rookie faced Steve Sax, who was instructed to bunt.

Worrell’s first two pitches were out of the strike zone and Sax took both for balls.

“The adrenaline was pumping and I was excited,” Worrell told Larry Harnly of The State Journal-Register of Springfield, Ill.

With the count 2-and-0, Sax got the take sign from third-base coach Joe Amalfitano.

Worrell threw another out of the strike zone, making the count 3-and-0.

Roarke to the rescue

From the top step of the dugout, Roarke, in his second season as pitching coach, shouted at Worrell and got his attention. Roarke had noticed Worrell’s pitches were being thrown from an angle that brought his arm up and over the top.

Roarke knew “Worrell’s accuracy improves when his delivery is from three-quarters rather than directly overhead,” the Daily News of Los Angeles reported.

Said Worrell: “Sometimes I try too hard and get myself mechanically screwed up.”

When Worrell threw from what appeared to the batter as an angle at 10 o’clock, he was effective. He lost command when his pitches were delivered from a 12 o’clock direction.

As Worrell peered into the dugout at his coach, Roarke held his arm at a 10 o’clock angle and moved it toward 12.

Worrell got the message.

Quick fix

Awaiting the 3-and-0 offering, Sax got another take sign. The pitch was a strike.

“After I got the first strike in there to Sax, I knew I would be all right,” Worrell said.

With the count 3-and-1, Sax got a third straight take sign. The pitch, another fastball, was a strike, making the count 3-and-2.

Said Worrell of Sax: “He’s aggressive _ he had doubled off me in another game _ so I knew if I got a fastball close, he would be hacking.”

Worrell threw a pitch that tailed away from the batter. Sax swung and missed, striking out.

Asked about being given three take signs, Sax told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Calif., “I just have to do what I’m told.”

Said Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda: “We were looking for a walk to Sax to load the bases.”

Out of danger

The next batter, pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, hit a groundball up the middle. Worrell knocked down the ball, recovered it behind the mound and made an accurate toss to first, retiring Valenzuela as the runners advanced to second and third.

“I let Fernando hit because I was happy with the way he was throwing the ball,” Lasorda said when asked why he didn’t use a pinch-hitter.

Mariano Duncan, the Dodgers’ slumping leadoff batter, followed by swinging at the first pitch and popping out to catcher Darrell Porter, ending the threat.

“First and second, nobody out and a 3-and-0 count,” said Dodgers outfielder Mike Marshall, lamenting the lost scoring opportunity. “You either have to say we blew it, or give them credit.”

The score remained tied until, with one out in the ninth, Smith worked his magic. Boxscore

Previously: How speedsters rattled Bob Welch in 1985 NLCS

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