(Updated Dec. 8, 2024)
Tom Niedenfuer yielded two of the most famous home runs in Cardinals history.
As the closer for the Dodgers in 1985, Niedenfuer gave up the game-winning home run to Ozzie Smith in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the National League Championship Series, leading to broadcaster Jack Buck’s memorable call of “Go crazy, folks. Go crazy.”
With the score tied at 2-2, Niedenfuer relieved starter Fernando Valenzuela in the bottom of the ninth. He retired Willie McGee on a pop-up, but then threw a pitch down and in that Smith golfed over the fence in right for a 3-2 Cardinals win. Boxscore
In a 2010 interview with Jerry Crowe of the Los Angeles Times, Niedenfuer said the pitch was supposed to be up and in. He said the homer by Smith was a fluke because it was the shortstop’s first in the big leagues while batting left-handed. Story
(Recalling the homer in a 2016 interview with Cardinals Yearbook, Smith said, “When I walked to the plate, my intention was not to hit the ball out of the ballpark because that’s not what I do. My job was to get myself in scoring position and let the big guys drive me in. {Niedenfuer} supplied the power and I supplied the technique.”)
Two days after the Smith homer, the Dodgers led 5-4 after eight innings of Game 6 at Los Angeles. Though Niedenfuer already had pitched 1.2 innings in relief of Orel Hershiser, manager Tommy Lasorda sent Niedenfuer to pitch the ninth.
After Cesar Cedeno struck out, McGee singled and swiped second. Smith walked. When Tom Herr grounded out to first, McGee and Smith each advanced a base. With first base open and the Dodgers an out away from squaring the series, Jack Clark, the Cardinals’ top power hitter, strode to the plate.
Niedenfuer told the Times he and Lasorda never considered issuing an intentional walk to Clark because a left-handed batter, Andy Van Slyke, was on deck, and because Niedenfuer had struck out Clark in the seventh on a fastball off the plate. Niedenfuer wanted to start off Clark with the same pitch.
This time, Clark ripped it 450 feet to left for a three-run homer that gave St. Louis a 7-5 lead. When Ken Dayley retired the Dodgers in order in the bottom of the inning, the Cardinals were National League champions and Niedenfuer was the goat. Boxscore
Afterward, describing Clark’s homer to The Sporting News, Niedenfuer said, “The only way that thing would have stayed in the park was if it had hit the Goodyear blimp and dropped straight down.”
Two days later, a resilient Niedenfuer played golf with Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax, “and then I started working out for next year.”
Niedenfuer, though, never was the same. The Dodgers dealt him to the Orioles in May 1987. He signed with the Mariners as a free agent for 1989. When Seattle released him in April 1990, the Cardinals signed him.
In 52 appearances, Niedenfuer was 0-6 with two saves and a 3.46 ERA for a St. Louis team that finished in last place in the East Division.
It would be Niedenfuer’s final season in the major leagues.
McBride, a left-handed batter, went 4-for-5 with four RBI and two runs scored that night. Against Twitchell, who started and lasted five innings, McBride was 3-for-3. He singled in the first, homered in the third and singled again in the fifth.
In the spring 2010 edition of Memories And Dreams, the official magazine of the Hall of Fame, the museum’s director of communications, Craig Muder, wrote a profile of Harvey.
Musial’s first walkoff home run was a two-run shot in the 11th inning off Dick Errickson of the Braves, lifting the Cardinals to a 7-5 win on July 14, 1942, at St. Louis. 
Musial was 38 when he slugged No. 400 _ and he did it in dramatic fashion.
Ludwick represented himself and the team with class. He was supposed to be just a fill-in outfielder and pinch hitter when he joined the Cardinals in 2007. Instead, he developed into a blue-collar all-star who played aggressively and enthusiastically. He will be missed.
