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Cardinals beat Pascual Perez on way to 1982 pennant

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers on November 8, 2012| 2 Comments »

Pascual Perez played a significant role in the 1982 Cardinals’ bid to win the National League pennant and reach the World Series.

Perez was the losing pitcher for the Braves against the Cardinals in Game 1 of the 1982 NL Championship Series and he pitched in long relief during Game 3 when St. Louis completed a sweep of the best-of-five playoff.

At the time, Perez, 25, was regarded as one of the most promising talents in the major leagues.

Perez was supposed to start Game 2 of the 1982 NL Championship Series. Braves knuckleball specialist Phil Niekro was matched against Joaquin Andujar in Game 1.

Niekro was protecting a 1-0 lead entering the bottom of the fifth inning during a light rain at St. Louis. After Niekro retired the leadoff batter and closed within two outs of completing the five innings needed to declare an official game, plate umpire Billy Williams halted play. More than two hours later, the game was postponed. Though most agreed the fifth inning likely could have been completed before the rain worsened, Braves manager Joe Torre supported the umpires’ decision, telling The Sporting News, “I don’t think a team should play 162 games and then lose a playoff game in five innings … We don’t want to come in here and steal a game.”

Niekro offered to pitch again in the rescheduled Game 1 on Oct. 7, but Torre instead chose Perez.

Traded by the Pirates to the Braves on June 30, 1982, Perez posted a 4-4 record in helping Atlanta win the NL West Division championship. He made unwanted headlines when he got lost on I-285 while driving to the Atlanta ballpark and missed a start.

Asked by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch how he could make certain Perez found his way to Busch Memorial Stadium for his postseason start against the Cardinals, Torre said, “We gave him a room at the hotel that faces the ballpark.”

For five innings in rescheduled Game 1, it appeared Torre had made the correct choice. Perez pitched effectively, but his counterpart, Bob Forsch, was better. The Cardinals led 1-0 entering the bottom of the sixth. Lonnie Smith started the inning by hitting a grounder to first baseman Chris Chambliss. Perez hustled off the mound to take the toss from Chambliss, but he fumbled the ball and Smith streaked across the bag, credited with an infield single.

“The ball was tailing away from me,” Perez said to the Atlanta Constitution. “I tried to catch it and tag Smith with the ball in the glove. He is a fast man.”

Singles by Keith Hernandez (on a good sinker) and George Hendrick (on a hanging slider) followed, the latter scoring Smith and knocking Perez from the game. The Cardinals scored five times in the inning and went on to a 7-0 victory behind Forsch’s three-hitter. During the regular season, Forsch had yielded 19 hits and 10 runs in 10.2 innings pitched against the Braves. Video

“We misplayed Smith’s groundball and they got a broken-bat hit (by Hendrick) and I think that just kind of set them off,” Braves catcher Bruce Benedict said to the Associated Press. Boxscore

The Cardinals rallied to win Game 2 in St. Louis (Niekro started, but closer Gene Garber took the loss) and headed to Atlanta for Game 3. The Cardinals struck for four runs off starter Rick Camp. Perez relieved in the second, pitched 3.2 innings (yielding a run and three hits) but couldn’t stop St. Louis from sweeping into the World Series with a 6-2 victory. Boxscore

In an 11-year big-league career, including stints with the Pirates, Braves and Expos, Perez posted a 7-6 record and 2.33 ERA in 16 regular-season starts versus St. Louis.

Previously: September hot streak carried 1982 Cardinals to title

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George Hendrick influenced hitting style of John Mabry

Posted in Games, Hitters on November 5, 2012| Leave a Comment »

In 1997, during a 20-game hitting streak for the Cardinals in which he batted .418, John Mabry applied lessons taught to him by St. Louis hitting coach George Hendrick.

Mabry improved his batting average from .240 to .309 during the 20-game streak from May 19 through June 9 in 1997. The left-handed batter had 10 multi-hit games during that stretch. It was the longest hitting streak by a Cardinal since Willie McGee hit safely in 22 consecutive games in 1990.

Hendrick, cleanup batter for the 1982 World Series champion Cardinals, urged Mabry to be aggressive with first-pitch fastballs.

“I’ve tried to do that all the time,” Mabry said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in explaining the streak. “That’s the whole deal, to hit that fastball when they try to get ahead of you. That’s usually the best fastball to hit.”

Told of Mabry’s praise, Hendrick responded, “Credit his success to his understanding of work ethic. It’s got nothing to do with me.”

Mabry had several outstanding games during the hitting streak. The best was on June 3, 1997, when he had three hits and six RBI in the Cardinals’ 15-4 victory over the Rockies at St. Louis. Mabry cracked a three-run home run off Jeff McCurry in the fifth inning. Boxscore

After the game, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said Mabry is “seeing that ball like it’s huge.” Said Mabry: “It doesn’t look huge. It still looks like a mouse running across the floor at times.”

Mabry spent three stints as a Cardinals player: 1994-98, 2001 and 2004-05. He and Matheny were teammates in 2001 and 2004.

Mabry hit .281 overall with the Cardinals. That’s 18 points better than his career average in 14 big-league seasons with eight clubs.

As the everyday first baseman for the 1996 Cardinals, Mabry hit .297 with 161 hits in 151 games. He had 30 doubles, 13 home runs, 74 RBI and a .342 on-base percentage.

Mabry hit for the cycle on May 18, 1996, against the Rockies at Denver. He singled to center in the second, doubled to right in the fourth, tripled off the center-field wall in the fifth and homered 400 feet to right in the seventh.

Mabry became the first Cardinal to hit for the cycle since Ray Lankford in 1991.

Some of the joy from the accomplishment was diminshed by the game’s outcome. Handed an 8-4 lead to protect in the bottom of the ninth, Cardinals closer Dennis Eckerlsey surrendered five runs and Colorado won, 9-8. Boxscore

“This is a really strange feeling,” Mabry said. “You’ve got to win the game. That’s all I know.”

Two months later, July 6, 1996, Mabry was 5-for-5 in a 9-5 Cardinals victory over the Pirates at Pittsburgh. Boxscore

Asked to compare Mabry with other batters, La Russa said, “Guys who hit well into the threes (.300) take every at-bat like it’s their last. (Paul) Molitor, (Wade) Boggs, (Frank) Thomas. They use the whole field, they handle a bunch of different pitches and, most importantly, they don’t throw at-bats away. I don’t think I’ve seen (Mabry) throw one away since spring training.”

The 5-for-5 performace at Pittsburgh was one of 11 times Mabry had four hits in a game for St. Louis during his career.

Mabry hit one grand slam and it occurred for the Cardinals against the Royals’ Zack Greinke on May 20, 2005, at Kansas City. Boxscore

Previously: Braves fans’ behavior recalls Dodgers’ forfeit to Cardinals

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Big-game losses haunted Mort Cooper of Cardinals

Posted in Games, Pitchers on October 28, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Mort Cooper, usually outstanding for the 1942 Cardinals, uncharacteristically experienced double disappointments in two of his most high-profile starts that year.

Cooper earned 22 wins and pitched 10 shutouts for the Cardinals in 1942, but he also started and lost both the All-Star Game and Game 1 of the World Series.

Cooper, 29, a right-hander, was 22-7 with a 1.78 ERA and 22 complete games for the 1942 Cardinals. During one stretch, he won nine consecutive decisions, including five by shutouts. Dodgers manager Leo Durocher chose Cooper to start the All-Star Game for the National League on July 6, 1942, at the Polo Grounds in New York.

Cooper and his brother, Cardinals catcher Walker Cooper, formed the first brother battery to start an All-Star Game.

The game was scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. but was delayed more than 30 minutes because of storms. Mort Cooper, who had completed his warmups, told the United Press wire service the delay hurt him and he didn’t find his command until the third inning.

Lou Boudreau, the Indians shortstop and American League leadoff batter, drove Cooper’s second pitch of the game 260 feet into the upper deck in left for a home run. Boudreau said the home run provided “one of the biggest thrills I ever had in baseball.”

The next batter, Yankees right fielder Tommy Henrich, lined a 3-and-2 pitch. The ball landed in a pool of water in the outfield, enabling Henrich to stretch a single into a double.

After Cooper retired the American League’s two marquee players, left fielder Ted Williams of the Red Sox and center fielder Joe DiMaggio of the Yankees, Tigers first baseman Rudy York delivered a key blow. A right-handed batter, York swung late at a high fastball and “the result,” The Sporting News reported, “was something like a slice in golf.”

The ball carried toward the short right-field stands and stayed in fair territory as it landed over the fence for a two-run home run and a 3-0 American League lead. “On most any other big-league field,” The Sporting News reported, “the homer would have sliced foul.”

York swung so late at the 1-and-1 pitch “I thought I already had that one in my glove,” Walker Cooper said.

“I walloped it,” York said. “I thought at first it was going foul, but what a kick I got out of it when I saw the ball plump into the lower-right stands, well inside the foul line.”

Cooper pitched three innings, yielding four hits and three runs. The American League won, 3-1. Boxscore

Behind the pitching of Cooper and rookie Johnny Beazley (a 21-game winner), the 1942 Cardinals won 106 games and finished two ahead of the second-place Dodgers. Cooper was selected by manager Billy Southworth to start Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees on Sept. 30 at St. Louis.

Cooper gave up five runs, 10 hits and three walks in 7.2 innings and took the loss in a 7-4 Yankees victory.

Batting fourth, DiMaggio singled and scored in the fourth, drove in a run in the fifth and singled and scored in the eighth, igniting a three-run inning versus Cooper. Boxscore

“I hadn’t pitched in a week and my control was off,” Cooper said to the Associated Press. “Pitched too high. They didn’t hit my fastball at all. It was my curve.”

Cooper started Game 4 at Yankee Stadium and surrendered five runs in 5.1 innings. Max Lanier got the win in relief in a 9-6 Cardinals triumph. Boxscore

Sporting News columnist Dan Daniel called Cooper an “emphatic flop,” who was “too tired to show at his best.”

It ended well, though, for Cooper and the Cardinals. St. Louis won the championship in five games. Cooper won the 1942 National League Most Valuable Player Award winner and he again topped 20 wins in both 1943 and 1944, helping the Cardinals to two more pennants.

Previously: How Mort Cooper pitched two straight 1-hitters for Cardinals

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2nd career as Cardinal was long, fruitful for Ted Savage

Posted in Executives, Games, Hitters on October 25, 2012| 2 Comments »

Before the 1967 season, Ted Savage competed with Mike Shannon for the role of starting third baseman of the Cardinals. Neither could have imagined then that both would have long careers with the Cardinals after their playing days.

Shannon, who would win the third base job, played until 1970. After a year as the franchise’s assistant director of promotions and sales, Shannon became a Cardinals broadcaster in 1972 and remained in the job through the 2021 season.

Savage spent three (1965-67) of his nine years in the majors as a Cardinals reserve. He joined their front office in September 1987 as assistant director of community relations and minor-league instructor. The 2012 season was his 25th and last in the Cardinals’ front office. At 75, he retired as director of target marketing in the Cardinals Care and community relations department.

A native of the St. Louis-area town of Venice, Ill., Savage signed with the Phillies as an amateur free agent in 1960 and quickly made a favorable impression. In 1961, Savage was named most valuable player of the Class AAA International League after hitting .325 with 24 home runs, 31 stolen bases and 111 runs scored for Buffalo.

Savage became the Phillies’ left fielder as a rookie in 1962 and hit .266 with 16 stolen bases. He was traded to the Pirates after the season, beginning a journey that would land Savage with eight big-league teams between 1962 and 1971.

In December 1964, the Pirates traded Savage and pitcher Earl Francis to the Cardinals for second baseman Jack Damaska and outfielder Ron Cox.

A substitute school teacher in St. Louis during the off-season (he was graduated from Lincoln University, with a bachelor’s degree in education), Savage reported to spring training in 1965 with the Cardinals’ minor-league players. He began the regular season with Class AAA Jacksonville, stole 34 bases in 87 games and was called up to St. Louis on July 23 after reserve outfielder Carl Warwick was dealt to the Orioles.

Savage didn’t get a hit until his 19th at-bat as a Cardinal. The slump-busting double on Aug. 2 sparked a winning rally against the Dodgers. Boxscore

Two weeks later, Savage hit his first and only Cardinals home run, a two-run shot off Joe Nuxhall of the Reds. Boxscore

The highlights were too few. Savage hit .159 (10-for-63) in 30 games for the 1965 Cardinals. He opened the 1966 season with Class AAA Tulsa.

“Ted is really something,” Tulsa manager Charlie Metro told The Sporting News. “He can do everything _ and well. I consider him a better center fielder than eight of those now up in the big leagues.”

Savage, hitting .317 with 34 doubles, 18 homers and 43 steals for Tulsa, was called up to the Cardinals in August 1966. He was instrumental in helping St. Louis to a 5-1 victory over the Pirates on Aug. 27. Savage doubled and scored against starter Steve Blass and rapped a two-run double off reliever Pete Mikkelsen. Boxscore

Just as in 1965, though, Savage mostly struggled, batting .172 (5-for-29) in 16 games for the 1966 Cardinals.

After the season, Savage was sent by the Cardinals to the Florida Instructional League with the intent of being converted to a third baseman. He also received instruction on playing second base. Savage responded well to the challenges.

Wrote The Sporting News: “Besides playing a slick hot corner, Savage also won three straight games for the Cards. In one, he stole home with the winning run. In another, he drove in the deciding run with a single. And, in the third, he hit a game-winning 415-foot homer.”

Meanwhile, Shannon also was working toward a conversion from outfield to third base. In December 1966, the Cardinals traded their starting third baseman, Charlie Smith, to the Yankees for right fielder Roger Maris.

Though Shannon was regarded the frontrunner to replace Smith, Savage was considered a good bet to win a spot with the 1967 Cardinals. St. Louis ace Bob Gibson told The Sporting News, “Ted’s really improved. He’s got lots of guts and he could help some team right now.”

His confidence bolstered, Savage had a spectacular spring training, hitting .364 in exhibition games. Cardinals hitting instructor Joe Medwick said, “Savage became a good hitter again by going with the pitch.”

Savage made the 1967 Opening Day roster as a reserve infielder-outfielder. (Shannon was the starting third baseman and Lou Brock, Curt Flood and Maris were the outfielders).

However, Savage hardly played _ and when he did, he wasn’t effective. With his batting average at .125 (1-for-8), Savage was in the visitors’ clubhouse at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh when manager Red Schoendienst informed him he was being optioned to Tulsa. Angered, Savage grabbed a ukelele he had purchased and smashed it against his locker, The Sporting News reported.

The Cardinals switched gears. They sent Savage to the Cubs rather than return him to the minor-league system. Savage made an immediate impression in Chicago. He twice scored on steals of home. On June 2, his first time facing the Cardinals since his departure, Savage hit a home run against Steve Carlton, one of two he would hit against the St. Louis left-hander that season. Boxscore

Savage told The Sporting News he was sorry he had smashed the ukelele and explained, “I figured I had done everything they (the Cardinals) had asked me to. I just wasn’t going to go back to the minors.”

Savage also would play for the Dodgers, Reds, Brewers and Royals. His best season was 1970 when he hit .279 with 12 homers and 50 RBI for the Brewers.

After his playing career, Dr. Ted Savage earned a Ph.D. degree in urban studies from St. Louis University and spent nine years as athletic director at Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis before joining the Cardinals’ front office.

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Bob Forsch, Cards are part of the Champ Summers lore

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents on October 19, 2012| Leave a Comment »

In 11 big-league seasons, Champ Summers hit only one home run against the Cardinals. Like many of the events involving Champ Summers, it was bigger than life.

The last home run of Summers’ major-league career was a pinch-hit grand slam off the Cardinals’ Bob Forsch, lifting the Padres to a 7-3 victory on April 10, 1984, at San Diego.

It was fitting that Summers’ final home run was struck as a pinch-hitter with the bases loaded. His first big-league homer _ hit for the Cubs against the Astros’ Jim York on Aug. 23, 1975, at Chicago _ also was a pinch-hit grand slam. Boxscore

From his colorful nickname to his unusual path to the major leagues, Summers was one of the game’s endearing characters.

In 1984, Summers, 38, was in his last big-league season, primarily employed as a left-handed pinch-hitter for San Diego. In their sixth game of a three-city West Coast trip to open the season, the Cardinals were leading the Padres, 3-1, in the fifth inning when Summers batted for pitcher Andy Hawkins with the bases loaded. He lined Forsch’s second pitch into the right-field seats. Boxscore

Summers rounded the bases so slowly his home run trot “made a wedding march look like a 40-yard dash,” wrote Bud Shaw of the San Diego Evening Tribune.

“I did take some time to watch that one,” Summers said with a smile. “I felt like I won the lottery.”

Summers told Phil Collier of the San Diego Union, “Hitting is like dancing. If you can’t hear the music, you can’t dance. I feel like I could dance all night.”

Under the headline “Performance of Padres’ Champ Worth an Oscar,” Shaw wrote, “For just one day, it would be nice to live the charmed life of Champ Summers. Preferably on a day when the rent is overdue, the unemployment check is lost in transit and your mother-in-law isn’t.”

Asked about his at-bat against Forsch, Summers said, “I don’t know what the pitch was and I don’t know where it was. I never know.”

John Junior Summers was born June 15, 1946, in Bremerton, Wash. He was nicknamed “Champ” at birth.

“My father was a prizefighter in the Navy,” Summers told the Belleville (Ill.) newspaper. “He said when I was born I looked like I went 10 rounds with Joe Louis. It’s a sad story, but true.”

Champ Summers moved with his family to the St. Louis metropolitan area. He was a natural athlete. At 17, while attending Madison (Ill.) High School, Summers was challenged to a tennis match by a local 13-year-old looking to test himself against worthy competition. The phenom was Jimmy Connors.

Summers entered the Army, became a paratrooper and served in Vietnam. When he came back to the U.S., he enrolled at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and played basketball and baseball. He was playing in a men’s softball league when a scout for the Oakland Athletics discovered him and signed him to a free-agent contract in 1971.

When Summers reached the major leagues with Oakland in 1974, the year he turned 28, he was known as John Summers, the name he had used throughout his minor-league career as well.

One day, Summers said, as he was signing autographs before a game at Oakland during his rookie season, teammate Reggie Jackson watched him slowly sign “John J. Summers Jr.” on each item handed him. Reggie asked Summers whether he had a nickname. When Summers replied “Champ,” Jackson told him he’d be a fool not to use it.

When Summers was traded to the Cubs in 1975, he introduced himself as Champ Summers _ and it remained his big-league moniker.

Summers played in the majors, primarily as an outfielder, for six teams (Athletics, Cubs, Reds, Tigers, Giants and Padres) from 1974 through 1984.

A career .255 hitter, he batted .271 against the Cardinals. He was tough versus St. Louis with the Cubs in 1975 (.313) and with the Giants in 1982 (.364).

In 2001, Summers returned to the St. Louis region as the first manager of the Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League in Sauget, Ill.

Previously: Rick Horton: Bob Forsch was heart, soul of Cardinals’ staff

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Danny Cox vs. Mike Aldrete: Duel of 1987 Cards, Giants

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Pitchers on October 18, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Mike Aldrete threatened to derail the Cardinals’ pennant push with a knockout smash off the foot of Danny Cox.

Cox was a starting pitcher for the 1987 Cardinals and Aldrete was a lethal hitter for the 1987 Giants.

Aldrete hit .438 (14-for-32) against the Cardinals during the 1987 regular season. His most damaging swing, however, produced a groundout that broke a bone in Cox’s right foot and sidelined him for a month.

Cox got even in the 1987 National League Championship Series. In a Game 7 pennant-clinching triumph, Cox held Aldrete hitless and shut out the Giants.

Riding a seven-game winning streak, the first-place Cardinals opened a series against the Giants at St. Louis on July 9, 1987.

In the seventh inning, Aldrete smacked a low liner and it struck Cox in the right foot. The ball caromed back to catcher Tony Pena, who threw out Aldrete at first base.

Cox remained in the game and completed eight innings before being relieved by Todd Worrell with the score tied 3-3. The Cardinals won, 7-6, scoring four in the 10th after the Giants had scored three in the top of the inning. Boxscore

The next day, it was discovered during an examination by team physician Dr. Stan London that Aldrete’s shot broke a bone in Cox’s foot. Cox, who had an 8-3 record, went on the disabled list and his foot was placed in a cast.

“I was throwing the ball real well and the team was playing real well,” Cox said to the Associated Press. “If anything good came out of it, at least we got (Aldrete) out.”

Aldrete, a Carmel, Calif., native and former standout for Stanford University, was enjoying a productive year for the Giants. He replaced injured right fielder Candy Maldonado in late June and put together an 11-game hitting streak before the all-star break. In his first 21 outfield starts after replacing Maldonado, Aldrete hit .341 with 15 RBI.

“I’ve tried to be a patient, disciplined hitter,” Aldrete said to The Sporting News. “You swing at strikes and let the balls go _ that’s the key to hitting.”

Nick Peters, a Bay Area baseball reporter, wrote of Aldrete, “He has a classic swing and the ability to foul off pitches until he finds something he likes. When he does, it usually becomes a rope.”

Cox returned to the Cardinals’ rotation Aug. 8, 1987. He finished the regular season with 31 starts, 199.1 innings pitched, an 11-9 record and a 3.88 ERA.

Aldrete posted a .325 batting average and a .396 on-base percentage in 126 regular-season games. He hit .419 with runners in scoring position.

As division champions, the Cardinals and Giants advanced to the National League Championship Series. They split six games, setting up a deciding Game 7 at St. Louis.

For the winner-take-all finale, Cox was named the Cardinals’ starting pitcher by manager Whitey Herzog. Aldrete was placed first in the Giants’ batting order by manager Roger Craig.

Cox set the tone early, retiring Aldrete on a groundout to second to begin the game.

In the third, with the Cardinals ahead 4-0, the first two Giants batters of the inning singled, bringing Aldrete to the plate. Cox got him to ground into a double play.

From there, Cox and the Cardinals were in control. Aldrete flied out to left, leading off the sixth, and he ended the eighth with a groundout to third. Cox pitched a shutout and the Cardinals won, 6-0. Boxscore

“He’s a good pitcher, no matter what the score is,” Aldrete said of Cox. “When he gets a lead, it makes him that much tougher.”

Previously: On 25th anniversary, top 10 facts about 1987 Cardinals

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