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Joe Cunningham had powerful start to Cardinals career

Posted in Games, Hitters, Records on August 31, 2014| 3 Comments »

(Updated June 29, 2019)

Joe Cunningham hit for average, not for power, so the three home runs he slugged in his first two big-league games with the 1954 Cardinals were surprising.

joe_cunninghamA left-handed batter and first baseman, Cunningham, 22, began the 1954 season at Class AAA Rochester. On June 28, 1954, the Cardinals came to Rochester to play an exhibition game versus the Red Wings. Cardinals manager Eddie Stanky said the prospect he was most interested in seeing was Cunningham.

Cunningham had two singles and walked twice in four plate appearances against the Cardinals.

Impressed, the Cardinals decided to promote Cunningham. On June 29, 1954, before the Red Wings played a doubleheader against Havana at Rochester, Cunningham was told he would be joining the Cardinals in Cincinnati the next day.

Cunningham was replacing rookie first baseman Tom Alston. In 66 games, Alston, the Cardinals’ first black player, hit .246 with four home runs and 34 RBI, but he slumped in June (.181 batting average for the month).

Whirlwind journey

Cunningham planned to catch an overnight train from Rochester to Cincinnati after playing both games of the doubleheader against Havana, but because of the length of the games, he missed the train.

A member of the Rochester publicity staff agreed to drive Cunningham from Rochester to the Buffalo airport the next morning. Cunningham took a flight from Buffalo to Cincinnati, arrived in the afternoon and went to the ballpark.

Cunningham barely had time “to bolt down a meal, sign a contract and learn the club’s signs,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Stanky put Cunningham in the starting lineup, batting him fifth against the Reds that night.

St. Louis slugger

In his debut game on June 30, 1954, Cunningham produced five RBI.

In the fifth inning, facing Art Fowler, a 32-year-old rookie, Cunningham hit a three-run home run for his first big-league hit, “a towering drive that landed well up into the right-field bleachers,” according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Cunningham followed with a two-run single off Harry Perkowski in the seventh, helping the Cardinals to an 11-3 victory. Boxscore

Immediately afterward, the Cardinals traveled to Milwaukee for a game the next day, July 1, 1954, against the Braves and their ace, Warren Spahn.

Cunningham hit two home runs off Spahn. The first was a 390-foot solo shot to right in the second inning. In the fifth, he connected for a three-run home run that landed just inside the right-field foul pole. The Cardinals won, 9-2. Boxscore

Dream come true

“This is just like a dream,” Cunningham said to the Associated Press. “I always wanted to be a big leaguer, but I had no idea it would come so soon.

“I left the minors in such a hurry I only brought along one pair of trousers,” Cunningham said. “I guess I’m still in a sort of shock. I had all my stuff at the cleaners and the only pants I’ve got are the ones I’ve been wearing.”

The next day, July 2, 1954, playing in his third game in his third city in three days, Cunningham was 1-for-3 with a single and a walk against the Cubs at Chicago. Boxscore

Cunningham finished the 1954 season with a .284 batting average, 11 home runs and 50 RBI in 85 games for the Cardinals.

In 12 big-league seasons, seven with the Cardinals, Cunningham hit .291 with 64 home runs. His single-season high in home runs was 12 for the 1958 Cardinals.

 

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How Joe McEwing endeared himself to Tony La Russa

Posted in Games, Hitters, Records on August 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »

(Updated Oct. 23, 2017)

An overachiever with a team-oriented attitude, Joe McEwing was Tony La Russa’s kind of Cardinals player.

joe_mcewingMcEwing played for the Cardinals in 1998 and 1999 when La Russa was their manager. Called up from the minors in September 1998, McEwing, 25, made his big-league debut with the Cardinals and played in 10 games that month.

Ticketed for a utility role with the 1999 Cardinals, McEwing earned the second base job over Placido Polanco.

McEwing achieved a 25-game hitting streak from June 8-July 4. He broke the Cardinals rookie record held by Johnny Mize (22-game streak in 1936). McEwing’s streak was the longest by a Cardinals player since Lou Brock (26 consecutive games) in 1971.

“I appreciate Cardinal history,” McEwing said to columnist Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch during the streak. “I’m a big fan of the game and to be mentioned in the same sentence with Johnny Mize, Lou Brock, Hall of Famers. You couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Asked whether he thought of the streak when he awoke each morning, McEwing replied to Miklasz, “When I get up, I worry about getting my coffee and doughnuts.”

Super streak

The streak began with a pair of singles against Royals starter Chris Fussell on June 8 at Kansas City. Boxscore

It reached 25 games in a row on July 4 with a home run off Diamondbacks starter Andy Benes, a former Cardinal. Boxscore

“He plays each game like it’s the seventh game of the World Series,” La Russa said of McEwing during the streak. “He is never different.”

Willie McGee, who had a 22-game streak for the 1990 Cardinals, said McEwing “deserves it. He works hard … He’s an outstanding person and an outstanding player.”

Beaten by the best

McEwing’s streak was snapped by Diamondbacks left-hander Randy Johnson on July 5. McEwing was 0-for-4 against Johnson, who won the National League ERA title and the second of his five Cy Young awards in 1999. In his last at-bat, McEwing lined out to left in the seventh with the bases loaded and two outs. Boxscore

“I told him he just got beat by a Hall of Famer,” La Russa said.

Added McEwing: “It was a good run and I enjoyed it.”

McEwing hit .318 during the streak, with 13 runs scored.

McEwing finished the 1999 season with a .275 batting average and 141 hits, including 28 doubles, in 152 games. He paced the Cardinals with 16 infield hits. McEwing made 85 starts at second base, 18 in center field, 16 in left and eight in right.

After the season, the Cardinals acquired second baseman Fernando Vina from the Brewers. During spring training in March 2000, the Cardinals traded McEwing to the Mets for reliever Jesse Orosco. McEwing helped the Mets win their first pennant in 14 years, eliminating the Cardinals in the National League Championship Series.

In eight big-league seasons with the Cardinals, Mets, Royals and Astros, McEwing batted .251 with 443 hits.

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Leaving the Cardinals was twice as hard for Tim McCarver

Posted in Hitters, Trades on August 27, 2014| 1 Comment »

(Updated Sept. 10, 2025)

Being discarded by the Cardinals was tough on Tim McCarver the first time it happened. The second time was worse.

tim_mccarver4On Sept. 1, 1974, the Cardinals sold the contract of McCarver to the Red Sox.

At the time of the transaction, the Cardinals were in second place in the National League East, 2.5 games behind the Pirates.

It hurt McCarver that the Cardinals saw him as a liability rather than an asset in their late-season bid for a division championship.

McCarver, 32, was in his second stint with the Cardinals in 1974. He debuted with them as a teen catcher in 1959. A two-time all-star who finished runner-up to teammate Orlando Cepeda in voting for the 1967 Most Valuable Player Award, McCarver was an integral part of a Cardinals club that won three National League pennants and two World Series titles in the 1960s. His leadership skills and special bond with pitching ace Bob Gibson also were important.

Feeling the hurt

In October 1969, the Cardinals dealt McCarver, Curt Flood, Joe Hoerner and Byron Browne to the Phillies for Dick Allen, Cookie Rojas and Jerry Johnson. In his book “Oh, Baby, I Love It,” McCarver said, “When general manager Bing Devine broke the news to me about my going to Philly, he said it hurt him to do it. That’s like a father dangling a razor strap in front of his 4-year-old son and saying, ‘This is going to hurt me more than it’ll hurt you.’ Bull. Since St. Louis had been my baseball home since my rookie year, it had to hurt me more than a little, too.”

Reacquired by St. Louis in a November 1972 trade with the Expos for Jorge Roque, McCarver hit .266 with 49 RBI as a utility player for the 1973 Cardinals.

In 1974, McCarver’s role was to be the Cardinals’ top pinch-hitter, although he also filled in at catcher and at first base. He struggled, hitting .179 (7-for-39) as a pinch-hitter and .217 (23-for-106) overall. He produced one extra-base hit.

Bound for Beantown

On Aug. 29, as the Cardinals left San Diego to open a series in San Francisco, Bob Kennedy, Cardinals player personnel director, informed McCarver he likely would be dealt to the Athletics, who were atop the American League West and headed to their third consecutive World Series championship. The Athletics were seeking a veteran backup to catcher Ray Fosse.

“I thought I was being traded to Oakland,” McCarver said in his book. “When the Cards took a flight to San Francisco, I went with them, fully expecting to transfer across the bay.”

After arriving at San Francisco, McCarver called his wife, Anne, at their home in Memphis and said, “I need you.”

Said McCarver: “I was pretty depressed about leaving the Cards, who had a shot at the pennant that year. Anne flew from Memphis to San Francisco and we had dinner that night. The next morning, I got word that I was heading to (Boston).”

The Red Sox, who led the American League East, were seeking help for catcher Bob Montgomery, who was filling in for an injured Carlton Fisk.

“When the Red Sox picked me up, I hadn’t the slightest notion they had any interest in me,” McCarver said.

Trust issues

The transaction caught many by surprise. In The Sporting News, Peter Gammons reported this exchange with Red Sox manager Darrell Johnson: “On Aug. 30, Johnson was asked if the Sox were interested in Tim McCarver. ‘No,’ he answered, but McCarver was bought the next day.”

Wrote St. Louis reporter Neal Russo: “It’s usually the custom to add a few veterans for a club’s final push, but the Cardinals dropped one.”

With McCarver gone, the Cardinals called up prospects Marc Hill to back up catcher Ted Simmons and Keith Hernandez to back up first baseman Joe Torre.

In the end, neither the Cardinals nor the Red Sox qualified for the postseason. The Cardinals finished in second place, 1.5 games behind the Pirates, and Boston placed third, seven behind the first-place Orioles.

The Red Sox released McCarver in June 1975, but he signed with the Phillies. From 1975-79, one of his roles with the Phillies was being the personal catcher for Steve Carlton.

In the 2003 book “Few and Chosen,” Carlton said McCarver “was always thinking.”

“Tim’s a great bridge player,” Carlton noted, “and that’s a game where you have to remember what cards have been played. Tim brought that ability to the field as a catcher. He remembered the sequences of pitches we used to get a hitter out. He had great instincts. There was a synchronicity between us. He was uncanny. He has such a good mind, and he was a great strategist … I always thought Tim would have made a good manager.”

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Cardinals debut was dream come true for Keith Hernandez

Posted in Games, Hitters on August 25, 2014| 1 Comment »

(Updated Sept. 10, 2025)

Three years after being drafted by the Cardinals as almost an afterthought, Keith Hernandez made his major-league debut for them in his hometown.

keith_hernandez4On Aug. 30, 1974, Hernandez, 20, played his first big-league game for the Cardinals against the Giants at San Francisco. Batting seventh and starting at first base, Hernandez had a single, two walks and a RBI in four plate appearances against left-handed starter Mike Caldwell.

Promoted from Class AAA Tulsa, Hernandez was filling in for perennial all-star Joe Torre, who was sidelined because of a sprained thumb. Torre, 34, would return to the lineup four days later, but he was traded to the Mets soon after the season in order to clear a path for Hernandez to become the first baseman.

Scaring the scouts

A San Francisco native, Hernandez was chosen by the Cardinals in the 42nd round of the big-league draft in 1971. “I would have been someone’s first-round draft choice if I hadn’t quit the (high school) team my senior year,” Hernandez told the San Mateo County Times in 2009. “A lot of scouts were scared off.”

The Cardinals were one of only five teams still selecting players in the 42nd round. The final round was the 48th. Hernandez would be the only player taken after the 36th round of the 1971 draft to reach the major leagues.

Hernandez began the 1974 season playing for manager Ken Boyer’s Tulsa team in the American Association. The Sporting News described Hernandez and teammate Marc Hill as the “best major-league prospects to grace the Association in 1974.”

Hernandez was batting .351 when Boyer informed him at the team hotel during a trip to Oklahoma City that he had been promoted to the Cardinals.

“I must have spent $50 on the telephone calling my parents, relatives and friends when I found out I was going up,” Hernandez told The Sporting News.

Hernandez determined he needed a wardrobe upgrade before joining the Cardinals. “All that was open in Oklahoma City … in fact, all they had, was western-wear stuff,” Hernandez told Josh Lewin for the book “You Never Forget Your First Time.” “I needed travel clothes, so that’s what I did. I looked like the polyester Roy Rogers heading off to the big leagues.”

No place like home

With the Giants 15 wins below .500 and 25 games behind the first-place Dodgers in the National League West, only 3,111 spectators witnessed Hernandez’s debut on a cold Friday night at Candlestick Park. “My family sat right behind home plate, near our dugout,” Hernandez said.

In his first plate appearance, he drew a third-inning walk. Caldwell threw him nothing but sliders, Hernandez said.

Hernandez struck out in the fifth and walked again in the seventh.

With the Giants ahead, 8-1, in the ninth, Hernandez got his first big-league hit, a single to right, scoring Bake McBride from second. Boxscore

“It was a dream come true breaking into the major leagues in your hometown,” Hernandez told The Sporting News.

In his memoir, “I’m Keith Hernandez,” he recalled, “It was like I was a sapling next to mighty oaks.”

Hernandez started at first base in all three games of the weekend series at San Francisco and produced three hits in 10 at-bats.

Learning the ropes

“Joe (Torre) and Lou Brock took me aside and made me feel welcome when I got there,” Hernandez told Lewin for his book. “… I was 20 on a team of nothing but 33-year-old veterans, but the guys were nice enough to try and make me feel part of what they were doing.”

In 14 games for the 1974 Cardinals, Hernandez hit .294 with seven walks.

Hernandez opened the 1975 season as the Cardinals’ first baseman, but struggled to hit. With his batting average at .203 on June 3, Hernandez was demoted to Tulsa. Reunited with Boyer, Hernandez batted .330 with 107 hits in 85 games for Tulsa. The Cardinals brought him back in September.

In the book, “Pure Baseball,” Hernandez said Lou Brock advised him to move closer to the plate against left-handers and dare them to throw inside. Boyer had him move off the plate against right-handers because he was having trouble with sliders inside.

“In effect, I had to learn two different strike zones because my distance from the plate varied by a foot, at least,” Hernandez said. “It’s not as hard as it sounds.”

Four years later, with Boyer managing the Cardinals, Hernandez won the National League batting title (at .344) and was named co-winner of the NL Most Valuable Player Award with the Pirates’ Willie Stargell.

In 10 seasons with St. Louis, Hernandez produced 1,217 hits in 1,165 games, batting .299 with an on-base percentage of .385. He twice was named an all-star while with the Cardinals and won five of his 11 consecutive Gold Glove awards.

In his book, “Baseball for Brain Surgeons and Other Fans,” ex-Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver said, “Keith Hernandez showed that if a first baseman has both baseball intelligence and fielding skills he can turn first into a pivotal position, the anchor of the infield. Hernandez played defense in such an aggressive, offensive manner that he caused batters to rethink what they wanted to do.”

McCarver said what set Hernandez apart from other slick-fielding first basemen was the way he covered bunts. In the 2003 book “Few and Chosen,” McCarver said, “It’s remarkable to me that a guy who couldn’t run was so quick and agile. He had marvelous instincts and reflexes, and, despite his lack of speed, his first step was lightning fast.”

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How Alvin Dark lost in Russian roulette against Cardinals

Posted in Games, Hitters, Managers, Opponents on August 20, 2014| 2 Comments »

(Updated Dec. 30, 2020)

A risky decision by Giants manager Alvin Dark backfired and helped the 1964 Cardinals rally for a key victory, keeping alive their longshot pennant hopes. In retrospect, the Cardinals might not have won the National League pennant and advanced to a World Series title if Dark hadn’t made his controversial move.

alvin_darkOn Aug. 21, 1964, the Giants had a 5-3 lead against the Cardinals with two outs in the ninth when Dark ordered an intentional walk to Bill White, putting the potential tying run on base. The Cardinals took advantage, scoring three runs and winning, 6-5.

Contenders or pretenders?

As the Cardinals opened a three-game series at San Francisco, the Giants were 7.5 games behind the first-place Phillies and St. Louis was 10 back.

A win in the series opener was essential for the Cardinals to keep alive their slim pennant hopes.

The Giants, though, scored five runs in the first three innings against Curt Simmons and Bob Humphreys.

Jim Duffalo, with an ERA of 1.71, relieved starter Bob Hendley with one out in the sixth and held the Cardinals scoreless for 2.2 innings. He entered the ninth with the 5-3 lead.

Lou Brock led off with a single to left. Dick Groat grounded out, with Brock moving to second. Ken Boyer also grounded out, with Brock staying put.

Dark and White

White, a left-handed batter, was up next. He was hitless in the game, but he had hit a couple of foul balls over the right-field fence.

On four previous occasions that season, Dark had put the potential winning run on base intentionally. Each time, the Giants won.

Concerned about White’s power and preferring Duffalo face a right-handed batter, Dark ordered an intentional walk to White, putting runners on second and first.

In his book “When in Doubt, Fire the Manager,” Dark said, “You can do everything by the book day after day, but there’ll come a time when you feel a need to try something unorthodox, and if it fails you’re sure to be criticized … Never put the winning run on base? I’ve done it when I thought the batter was a greater threat to beat us than the man on deck.”

The next batter was light-hitting Dal Maxvill, making his seventh at-bat of the season. Cardinals manager Johnny Keane told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he let Maxvill go to the plate because “we didn’t have any more pinch-hitters.”

When the count on Maxvill got to 2-and-2, fans “turned toward the exits,” believing the game was about to end, according to the Post-Dispatch.

Maxvill hit a soft liner off the end of his bat to left for a single, scoring Brock and reducing the Giants lead to 5-4. White advanced to second.

Mike Shannon followed with a ground ball _ a scraggly dribbler, the San Francisco Examiner called it _ that rolled into short center. As second baseman Hal Lanier scooped up the ball, White rounded third and steamed toward home.

Lanier hurried an off-balance throw toward the plate, but the ball went up the third-base line and eluded catcher Tom Haller as White, unchallenged, scored the tying run.

Duffalo, backing up the play, couldn’t field the errant throw. As the ball bounced away from him and toward the wall, Maxvill, who never stopped running, scored, giving the Cardinals a 6-5 lead.

“I made a bad play,” Lanier said. “I threw before I was set.

“I should have planted myself and then thrown,” he told the Examiner.

The intentional walk had opened the door to a pair of singles and an error, resulting in three runs.

Dark lifted Duffalo for Billy Pierce, who got Jerry Buchek to fly out to center.

Save for Schultz

The Giants, though, still had a chance.

Keane brought in knuckleball specialist Barney Schultz to face a formidable trio of Harvey Kuenn, one-time American League batting champion, and future Hall of Famers Duke Snider and Willie Mays.

Schultz, 38, who had been called up from the minor leagues three weeks earlier, was up to the challenge. Kuenn and Snider grounded out; Mays popped out.

The Associated Press wrote, “Al Dark pulled the trigger once too often in his gambling game of Russian roulette.”

Undaunted, Dark, a former Cardinals shortstop, shrugged and said,  “You gotta lose some.” Boxscore

The Cardinals went on to win the pennant, finishing a game ahead of both the Reds and Phillies.

The Giants finished fourth, three behind the Cardinals. After the season, Dark was fired and replaced by Herman Franks.

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Wally Moon showed speed, power as Cardinals rookie

Posted in Games, Hitters, Records on August 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

(Updated Sept. 1, 2024)

In 1954, outfielder Wally Moon became the first Cardinals rookie to reach double figures in home runs (12) and stolen bases (18) in a season.

wally_moon2Moon’s style of play reminded many of outfielder Enos Slaughter, who in 13 seasons with the Cardinals had a .305 batting average, with 2,064 hits in 1,820 games, and an on-base percentage of .384.

The Cardinals, confident in Moon’s talent, traded Slaughter to the Yankees two days before the start of the 1954 season.

In a YouTube video interview, Moon recalled the trade of Slaughter “really shocked the whole team; it shocked the city of St. Louis.”

On the eve of the 1954 season, The Sporting News reported Moon “can run, throw, field and _ presumably _ hit with the kind of balanced ability and hungry attitude the Cardinals used to have, the kind of combination of skills that gave rise to an old expression: a Cardinals-type ballplayer.”

Moon fulfilled expectations, batting .304 with 193 hits, 106 runs and an on-base percentage of .371 as a rookie. He earned the National League Rookie of the Year Award, outdistancing candidates such as Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks.

In a 1999 interview with Cardinals Yearbook, Moon said, “I usually batted leadoff. I had Red Schoendienst and Stan Musial hitting behind me. They ran my little legs off. I credit Red and Stan with helping me a great deal, on and off the field. They helped (teach) me how to control my emotions, that it was a long season, and how to grind it out day after day.”

Moon’s rookie season was highlighted by a pair of noteworthy performances.

Moon shot

In his first major-league at-bat, in the first inning of the Cardinals’ opener against the Cubs at St. Louis on April 13, 1954, Moon got a rude welcome from fans who missed Slaughter.

“I’m coming to bat in the bottom half of the first,” Moon recalled, “and they announce my name and the crowd starts chanting, ‘We want Eno. We want Eno.’ They were unhappy and I certainly could hear that.”

The first two pitches to Moon from Paul Minner were balls. The next pitch was a fastball “down the heart of the plate,” Moon said.

“I hit it and I hit it hard and I hit it high and I hit it long,” Moon said. “I hit it out of the ballpark, over the pavilion roof and onto Grand Avenue. I think somewhere I got a shot of adrenaline, a great surge of power. It’s probably one of the longest home runs I ever hit.

“About the time I got to second base with my home run trot _ it was more than a trot; I was running those bases _ those boos and chants had changed to a great roar of applause. It lifted a burden off my shoulders. I thank the Lord for giving me the strength on that particular day. It was exhilarating.” Boxscore

Moon became the second Cardinals player to hit a home run in his first time at-bat in the big leagues. The other was Eddie Morgan in 1936. “I don’t think I hit any farther than that one that season,” Moon recalled to Cardinals Yearbook.

Running wild

About a month later, on May 25, again against the Cubs at St. Louis, Moon had four steals, one short of the National League single-game record established by Dan McGann of the 1904 Giants.

All four stolen bases came against catcher Walker Cooper, 39, the former Cardinal.

“Moon gave Walker Cooper one of the most miserable days of the veteran catcher’s 15 seasons in the majors,” The Sporting News reported.

Moon swiped second base in the first inning with Johnny Klippstein pitching and he stole second again in the fourth with Jim Brosnan pitching.

In the fifth, after Moon singled off Brosnan, the Cubs brought in Jim Willis to pitch to Alex Grammas.

Moon stole second.

Then he stole third.

Rattled, Willis threw a wild pitch and Moon scored.

Angry, Willis plunked Grammas with his next delivery.

A Cardinals publicist sent word to manager Eddie Stanky that Moon needed one more steal to tie the record, but Moon flied out to left in his last at-bat.

“I would have given Moon every chance to get that fifth steal,” Stanky said. “He’s a nervy youngster.” Boxscore

 

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