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(Updated Dec. 8, 2024)

Paul Molitor is linked with Willie McGee and Darrell Porter as central figures in two prominent plays in the 1982 World Series between the Brewers and Cardinals.

Molitor was the third baseman and leadoff batter for the American League champion Brewers in 1982. He was selected by the Cardinals in the 28th round of the 1974 amateur draft, but chose to attend the University of Minnesota instead. Three years later, the Brewers drafted him in the first round, launching him onto a 21-year career in the majors. Molitor produced 3,319 hits and was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

In 1982, Molitor, along with Robin Yount, Cecil Cooper and Ted Simmons, played a prominent role in the Brewers winning their lone pennant. He followed that with a World Series versus the 1982 Cardinals that was both sensational and strange.

Here’s a look:

Hits record

Molitor became the first player to get five hits in a World Series game. After grounding out in the first inning, Molitor had five singles in his next five at-bats in Game 1 at St. Louis.

No one else produced five hits in a World Series game until the Cardinals’ Albert Pujols did it in Game 3 of the 2011 World Series. Boxscore

Molitor got his five hits in Game 1 off three pitchers: Bob Forsch (in the second, fourth and sixth), Dave LaPoint (in the eighth) and Jeff Lahti (in the ninth). Boxscore

“He’s a heck of a ballplayer,” Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said to The Sporting News, “but he had only one line drive. He had three infield singles and a broken-bat bloop. Nothing you can do to stop things like that.”

In the book “Where Have You Gone ’82 Brewers?,” Molitor said, “Five singles. Ozzie (Smith) dove and knocked down three of them at short and almost threw me out on two of them. It was a heck of a way to have your first World Series game unfold.”

Molitor and Yount (four hits in Game 1) were the first teammates to get four hits apiece in a World Series game since the Cardinals’ Joe Garagiola, Whitey Kurowski and Enos Slaughter each had four hits against the Red Sox in Game 4 of the 1946 World Series. Boxscore

Bashing at Busch

Molitor batted .355 (11-for-31) in the seven-game World Series in 1982. He hit .526 (10-for-19) in the four games at St. Louis and .083 (1-for-12) in the three games at Milwaukee.

After his 5-for-6 performance in Game 1, Molitor hit .240 (6-for-25) for the remainder of the World Series. When he grounded out to lead off Game 2, he missed a chance to tie Goose Goslin (1924 Senators) and Thurman Munson (1976) for the World Series record of hits in six consecutive at-bats.

Molitor was devastating when batting with runners in scoring position, hitting .714 (5-for-7) against the Cardinals.

Porter power

After the Brewers won Game 1, 10-0, at St. Louis, the Cardinals felt pressure to win Game 2 before heading to Milwaukee. In the eighth, the Cardinals scored a run, breaking a 4-4 tie.

Molitor led off the ninth against closer Bruce Sutter. In a matchup of future Hall of Famers, Molitor bunted for a single, increasing the pressure on Sutter and his catcher, Darrell Porter.

The next batter was another future Hall of Famer, Robin Yount.

“I told Bruce to be sure to hold him (Molitor) close to the base because I figured they might either try a bunt or a steal,” Porter said to The Sporting News.

Brewers manager Harvey Kuenn called for a hit-and-run.

Said Porter: “I never thought they would try to hit and run.”

Sutter threw his signature pitch, the split-finger fastball. When thrown effectively, the ball dipped sharply into the dirt.

This time, Sutter made a mistake. The pitch stayed up, at shoulder level.

Yount, trying to hit the ball the opposite way to right field, swung and missed. Porter fired a strike to second base and nailed Molitor.

Sutter retired the next two batters and the Cardinals had their first World Series win since Game 4 of 1968. Boxscore

Robbed by McGee

In Game 3 at Milwaukee, Molitor led off the bottom of the first by smashing a Joaquin Andujar fastball into the teeth of a 16 mph wind in center field. Willie McGee, the rookie center fielder, raced to the wall, 402 feet from home plate, climbed the canvas and made the catch.

Inspired, McGee went on to have one of the all-time best games in World Series lore, hitting two home runs, driving in four runs and making another leaping grab in the ninth to deprive Gorman Thomas of a two-run home run. Boxscore

Recalling the catch of Thomas’ drive, McGee said to Cardinals Yearbook in 2016, “The key to making that catch is timing … You condition yourself during batting practice to chase fly balls like that one, and to working on timing your jump.”

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(Updated Dec. 8, 2024)

Teetering on the brink of another letdown in their bid to end a pennant drought, the Cardinals got the matchup they sought against the Astros in Game 6 of the 2004 National League Championship Series.

Jim Edmonds provided the desired result.

On Oct. 20, 2004, Edmonds launched a two-run, walkoff home run in the 12th inning, carrying the Cardinals to a 6-4 victory at St. Louis.

Kept alive by Edmonds’ home run, the Cardinals won Game 7 _ helped, in part, by a diving catch by Edmonds that prevented two runs from scoring in the second inning _  and earned their first National League pennant in 17 years.

Under manager Tony La Russa, the Cardinals had gotten to the National League Championship Series three previous times (1996, 2000 and 2002) but couldn’t clinch a pennant.

It appeared during Game 6 in 2004 that the Cardinals would fall short again.

Sense of dread

After scoring four runs in the first 2.1 innings off starter Peter Munro, the Cardinals were held scoreless by four Astros relievers _ Chad Harville, Chad Qualls, Dan Wheeler and Brad Lidge _ over the next 8.2 innings.

Lidge, the Astros’ closer, had been especially dominating. St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz described him as “bulletproof.”

Lidge, who entered in the ninth, retired all nine batters he faced. He struck out five, including Edmonds. Only one batter, pinch-hitter Marlon Anderson, who flied to left in the 11th, hit a ball out of the infield against Lidge.

Miklasz wrote that “a growing sense of dread spread through Busch Stadium” as Lidge mowed down the Cardinals.

Lidge, though, had been stretched to the limit with his three innings of relief. He had appeared in 80 games during the regular season and never had worked more than a two-inning stint.

In the 12th, manager Phil Garner lifted Lidge _ along with the Cardinals’ hopes.

High pitch, high drive

Dan Miceli, a right-hander pitching for his 10th big-league team, replaced Lidge.

After Miceli walked leadoff batter Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen popped out.

Edmonds batted next, giving La Russa the matchup he wanted. In the 2004 regular season, left-handed batters hit .307 versus Miceli, with seven home runs. Edmonds hit 37 of his 42 home runs against right-handers in 2004. More than half of Edmonds’ hits (83 of 150) that season were for extra bases.

“I was yelling at him, ‘Hit a line drive. Let’s get first and third.’ That’s all I wanted,” La Russa said to the Associated Press.

On an 0-and-1 pitch, Edmonds got a high, tight fastball, and sent it on a majestic arch over the right-field fence. Check out the You Tube video.

“I got the pitch up again and they hit it out again,” said Miceli, who yielded home runs to Pujols and Rolen in the eighth inning of Game 2.

Said Edmonds: “I wasn’t trying to go deep. I was just trying to hit the ball hard.”

La Russa, delighted Edmonds hadn’t settled for the single he’d been urging him to hit, said, “I didn’t feel too smart. Just happy. Happy and stupid.” Boxscore

Ten years later, in 2014, La Russa told Cardinals Magazine, “He was such a terrific big-game player I wasn’t surprised that he delivered. You’re talking about an individual who is very strong mentally. He was going to keep grinding.”

Big catch

Ahead 1-0 in the second inning of Game 7, the Astros had two on when Brad Ausmus drilled a Jeff Suppan pitch to left-center. An extra-base hit would give the Astros and their ace, Roger Clemens, a 3-0 lead, but Edmonds, with his back to the infield, dived, stretched and snared the ball for the out. The Cardinals went on to win, 5-2. Boxscore

Recalling the catch in an interview for the 2016 Cardinals Yearbook, Edmonds said when he saw where Suppan’s pitch was headed, he adjusted his fielding position, taking a step back.

“Ausmus hit it right where I thought he was going to hit it,” Edmonds said. “I got a really good jump, and when I get a jump like that, I expect to make the catch.” Video

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