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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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How Mike Matheny mentored Matt Cain with Giants

Posted in Games, Opponents, Pitchers on October 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »

(Updated Sept.30, 2017)

As a 20-year-old rookie, Matt Cain was put in the care of a 35-year-old veteran catcher, Mike Matheny.

With Matheny catching six of the right-hander’s seven starts for the 2005 Giants, Cain enjoyed a successful beginning to his major-league career.

Promoted to the Giants after posting a 10-5 record for Class AAA Fresno, Cain made his big-league debut on Aug. 29, 2005, against the Rockies at San Francisco.

With Matheny behind the plate, Cain, the youngest pitcher to start a game for the Giants since 20-year-old Mark Grant in 1984, limited the Rockies to two runs in five innings, but took the loss in a 2-1 Colorado victory. Matt Holliday, the Rockies’ cleanup batter, got two of the three Colorado hits against Cain _ a solo home run and a single. Boxscore

After the game, reporters approached Matheny for his assessment of the rookie.

“He has electric stuff, the kind of stuff you don’t see very often as far as velocity and late life,” Matheny said to the San Jose Mercury News. “His fluid motion makes him very deceptive.”

Matheny told the San Francisco Chronicle: “It’s just a shame we have such trouble scoring runs for these guys, especially after a first start like that, and he has to walk away with a loss. It’s a shame we couldn’t pull out a win for him.”

Working well with Matheny, Cain quickly achieved two milestones. He earned his first big-league win in his second start and recorded his first big-league complete game in his third start.

Cain held the Diamondbacks to a run on three hits through seven innings and got the win in the Giants’ 3-2 victory at Phoenix on Sept. 4. Boxscore

Five days later, Cain went the distance in earning the win in the Giants’ 2-1 victory over the Cubs at San Francisco. He gave up two hits and struck out eight. Boxscore

Cain earned 104 regular-season wins in 13 years (2005-17) with the Giants.

Against the Cardinals in his career, Cain was 2-7 with a 6.42 ERA in the regular season and 1-1 with a 2.19 ERA in the postseason. Both postseason appearances against the Cardinals occurred in 2012 when Matheny was in his first year as St. Louis manager.

Cain made his final big-league appearance on Sept. 30, 2017.

Previously: Pitcher for 1964 Cardinals was mentor to Mike Matheny

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Why Mike Matheny ended his playing career as a Giant

Posted in Games, Opponents on October 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »

(Updated Aug. 19, 2025)

The Giants made Mike Matheny a financial offer he couldn’t refuse.

Though Matheny had said he wanted to remain with the Cardinals, he accepted a free-agent deal from San Francisco in December 2004.

Matheny was the Cardinals’ catcher from 2000 through 2004. He won three Gold Glove awards as a Cardinal and played a major-league record 252 consecutive errorless games over a period from 2003-04. The Cardinals qualified for the postseason in four of the five years Matheny was their catcher.

With Matheny’s three-year $8 million contract ending after the season, the Cardinals approached him during spring training of 2004 and offered a one-year $2 million extension through 2005. Matheny rejected it, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Yadier Molina was a Cardinals rookie in 2004 and management wanted Matheny to mentor Molina through the 2005 season. Matheny would turn 36 in 2006 and the Cardinals planned for Molina to be the everyday catcher by then.

Matheny had other ideas. He played well in 2004. He contributed 50 RBI (his single-season best as a Cardinal) and made one error in 122 games, helping St. Louis win its first National League pennant in 17 years.

In December 2004, Matheny told the Post-Dispatch, “I don’t think I’ve made any secret that I’d prefer to remain with the Cardinals, but there has to be interest on their part as well.”

A few days later, the Cardinals offered Matheny a two-year contract worth about $4 million, the Post-Dispatch reported. The Dodgers, Phillies and Pirates also showed interest in signing Matheny, but it was the Giants who lured him.

On Dec. 15, 2004, Matheny accepted the Giants’ three-year $10 million deal. According to the Post-Dispatch, the pact included a $3 million signing bonus to be paid in annual installments of $500,000, $1 million and $1.5 million over three years. Matheny would be paid a base salary of $1 million in 2005, $2.25 million in 2006 and $2.25 million in 2007. In addition, the Giants held a $4 million option for 2008 that could be bought out for $2 million.

“As soon as the Giants hit the scene, it really opened the eyes of my wife and myself,” Matheny said. “We realized this could be a very special opportunity.”

On July 8, 2005, at San Francisco, the Cardinals faced the Giants for the first time since Matheny departed. During batting practice, Matheny embraced former teammates. At home plate before the game, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, pitching coach Dave Duncan, players and support staff gathered to present Matheny with his 2004 Gold Glove Award.

Matheny had two hits in the game (a double off Mark Mulder and a single off Jason Isringhausen) and nailed David Eckstein attempting to swipe second. The Cardinals won, 3-1. Boxscore

“Those are some of the best friends I’ve ever had in the game,” Matheny said of the Cardinals. “… You don’t come across that all the time in this game. There are tight bonds. It comes with the winning, but it also goes beyond baseball. There are families involved. I see my son over there with them. The guys are excited to see him. It’s a pretty neat thing. It doesn’t happen everywhere that you have those kinds of relationships. They are very, very special to me.”

A month later, Aug. 19, 2005, Matheny played his first game at St. Louis as a Giant. The Cardinals presented him with a National League championship ring before the game.

When Matheny batted for the first time in the game, the crowd of 46,200 gave a prolonged ovation. Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter stepped off the mound to allow the applause to continue.

The Cardinals won, 5-4. Matheny went hitless in three at-bats against Carpenter and drew an intentional walk from Julian Tavarez. Boxscore

Matheny enjoyed a stellar first season with the Giants. He produced 13 home runs and 59 RBI, both career highs. He also won another Gold Glove Award while leading NL catchers in assists (77) and runners caught attempting to steal (39). He posted a .999 fielding percentage (one error in 132 games caught).

In late May 2006, Matheny was struck by several foul balls during a three-game series against the Marlins. On May 31, in the series finale, Matheny was removed from the game in the third inning after getting conked by a foul tip. He was diagnosed with a concussion and never played in another game.

Matheny became manager of the Cardinals when Tony La Russa left after winning the 2011 World Series championship. Matheny managed the Cardinals to a pennant in 2013 and postseason appearances in each of his first four seasons, but was fired in July 2018 as the club headed to a third consecutive year without a postseason bid.

He managed the Royals from 2020 to 2022.

In January 2024, Matheny suffered a life-threatening subarachnoid hemorrhage while doing a routine workout at a gym near his home in Florida. Rushed to a hospital, it was discovered a blood vessel in Matheny’s brain had burst. According to Cardinals Magazine, “Matheny’s life remained in a precarious state for days, a situation so scary that when family members and friends visited, they didn’t know if they were saying their final goodbyes.”

Doctors informed Matheny there was no evidence his history of concussions triggered the hemorrhage.

“It’s hard to disassociate the two, right?” Matheny said to Stan McNeal of Cardinals Magazine. “My career ended (in 2006) because of trauma to the brain, and (now) I get this brain thing that almost kills me.”

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Cards fans cheered when 1954 game forfeited to Phillies

Posted in Games, Managers, Opponents on October 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The actions of manager Eddie Stanky caused the Cardinals to forfeit a home game to the Phillies. When the Busch Stadium public address announcer declared the umpires had awarded the Phillies a victory, Cardinals fans cheered to show their displeasure with Stanky.

On July 18, 1954, the Cardinals forfeited a brawl-marred game to the Phillies because umpires ruled the combative Stanky, nicknamed “The Brat,” intentionally used stalling tactics in an attempt to avoid a loss.

After being suspended by National League president Warren Giles, Stanky issued an emotional public apology.

Pressure mounts

Booed with increasing regularity by Cardinals fans because his team was mired in sixth place in the eight-team league, Stanky was dealing with a series of setbacks and strains.

On July 17, a Saturday afternoon when the temperature reached 100 degrees, the first-place Giants built a 9-0 lead after three innings against the Cardinals at St. Louis. The Cardinals fought back impressively, scoring five runs in the sixth, three in the seventh and one in the eighth, tying the score, but the Giants won, 10-9, with a run in the 11th, dropping the Cardinals 17 games out of first with a 41-44 record. Boxscore

The next day, Sunday, July 18, the Phillies were in St. Louis for a doubleheader with the Cardinals.

Amid growing speculation about Stanky’s job security, club owner Gussie Busch issued a vote of confidence, saying, “I know there are many loyal Cardinal fans all over the country who are impatient and unhappy with the present standing … but I think it is altogether too simple and too easy to blame the manager every time something goes wrong or doesn’t work out exactly as it should.”

Adding to the drama was the matchup between Stanky and his Phillies counterpart. Three days earlier, the Phillies fired manager Steve O’Neill and replaced him with Terry Moore, the ex-Cardinals outfielder. When Stanky became Cardinals manager in 1952, Moore was on his coaching staff. Stanky fired him after the season. Moore reacted by ripping Stanky, telling reporters, “When he loses a ballgame, he acts more like a 9-year-old boy than a manager. The job is too big for him. Stanky is temperamentally unsuited for the job of manager.”

It was under this backdrop _ the booing by Cardinals fans, the speculation about his job status and the sight of Moore managing against him _ that Stanky approached the first game of the July 18 doubleheader.

Snap, crackle, pop

It didn’t unfold as Stanky hoped. The game was delayed 1 hour and 18 minutes by rain in the seventh. The Cardinals led 8-7 after eight. The Phillies scored three in the ninth for a 10-8 lead. The Cardinals rallied, tying the score in the bottom half of the inning on a two-out, two-run single by Solly Hemus, but the Phillies scored in the 10th, the Cardinals stranded Wally Moon on third with one out in the bottom half of the inning, and Philadelphia won, 11-10. Boxscore

In consecutive games, the Cardinals had scored 19 total runs _ and lost each by a run in extra innings.

Because of the rain delay and extra inning in the opener, the second game of the doubleheader didn’t begin until after 6 p.m. The Cardinals and umpires mistakenly thought a league rule prohibited ballpark lights from being turned on for a Sunday game beginning after 6. (The rule had been erased before the 1954 season.)

When the Phillies took an 8-1 lead, Stanky began making a series of deliberate pitching changes in an effort to prevent the game from being completed in the mandatory five innings before darkness arrived.

Each Cardinals reliever appeared to work slowly and issue pitches outside the strike zone. Tensions built as the game inched into the top of the fifth and darkness approached.

At that point, Cardinals catcher Sal Yvars and Phillies first baseman Earl Torgeson, who had a long-running feud, began fighting one another on the field. Moore raced toward the pair and grabbed Yvars. Stanky bolted toward the combatants and tackled Moore. The benches emptied and fighting continued until police broke up the melee.

When Stanky went to the mound to make another pitching change, umpire Babe Pinelli declared a forfeit in favor of the Phillies.

Wakeup call

Giles backed his umpires, saying, “The tactics employed in the game were palpably designed to delay the game.”

Stanky disagreed, telling the Associated Press: “My pitchers have been wild and ineffective all season, not only during this game.”

The next day, Giles suspended Stanky for five days and fined him $100. Yvars was suspended for three days and Torgeson for two.

Humbled, Stanky apologized for his actions and read a statement. Some excerpts:

“I called this press conference because of the impression I received Sunday when I heard the St. Louis people applaud Pinelli’s decision, forfeiting the game to the Phillies. I know in my heart indirectly that I have embarrassed and hurt the St. Louis people, baseball nationally, my reputation as a baseball man … and Gussie Busch and the Cardinals’ front office.

“… My spirit and desire to win could never be broken. However, my human and public relations will be improved. This affair Sunday has opened my eyes.”

Said Cardinals general manager Dick Meyer: “It takes a tremendous amount of fortitude to make the type of statement Eddie made unsolicited.”

Some were skeptical. “He said the same thing in 1952 right after he got the job, but the reform didn’t last long,” Moore said.

Stanky survived the season, but was fired in May 1955 after the Cardinals got off to a 17-19 start. Moore returned to the Cardinals in 1956 as a coach for manager Fred Hutchinson.

 

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How Cardinals won by forfeit at Dodger Stadium

Posted in Games, Managers, Opponents on October 6, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Fired up by the antics of manager Tommy Lasorda, fans at Dodger Stadium threw a barrage of souvenir baseballs and other items onto the field, prompting umpires to forfeit the game to the Cardinals.

On Aug. 10, 1995, a crowd of 53,361 packed Dodger Stadium for a Ball Night promotion and to see popular rookie starting pitcher Hideo Nomo face the Cardinals.

Tension began to build in the eighth inning. With the Cardinals ahead 2-1, the Dodgers had two on with two outs and Eric Karros at the plate. Karros was called out on strikes, argued the call and was ejected by plate umpire Jim Quick. Fans threw baseballs onto the field in protest.

After the Cardinals were retired in their half of the ninth, Raul Mondesi led off the bottom half of the inning. Mondesi took a pitch from Tom Henke and headed toward first base, thinking it was ball four, but Quick ruled the pitch a strike.

Mondesi eventually struck out, argued with Quick and was ejected. Lasorda rushed onto the field, jawed with Quick and was ejected as well.

With that, a hailstorm of baseballs was unleashed from the stands. Quick stopped play and a forfeit was declared, giving the victory to the Cardinals. Video

“We felt … the situation was getting out of hand,” Quick said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Boxscore

(It was the first forfeit in the National League in 41 years. That game involved the Cardinals, too. On July 18, 1954, umpires forfeited to the Phillies the second game of a doubleheader at St. Louis because they believed Cardinals manager Eddie Stanky intentionally was using stall tactics.)

First-base umpire Bob Davidson called the decision to forfeit the Dodger Stadium game to the Cardinals “100 percent correct” and criticized Lasorda.

“This whole thing was Tom Lasorda’s fault,” Davidson said to the Associated Press. “He instigated the crowd, waving his arms. He has himself to blame, absolutely. He knows he’s to blame.”

Said Lasorda: “How did I instigate it? I was talking to Jim Quick. All I was asking was why he threw my players out. We didn’t throw the balls.”

Cardinals catcher Tom Pagnozzi told the Post-Dispatch, “Lasorda provoked the whole thing.”

Lasorda told the Los Angeles Times, “I’m disappointed in the ones who threw the balls, not the good fans.”

Cardinals players said they felt they were in danger because objects other than baseballs were thrown at them.

“I wasn’t too worried until a bottle of Southern Comfort flew out of the stands and hit me,” Cardinals right fielder John Mabry said to Bob Nightengale of The Sporting News. “I got hit by a rum bottle, too.”

Said St. Louis center fielder Brian Jordan: “I’m not going to stand out there and get busted in the head with a ball. The umpires made a good decision.”

Los Angeles Times columnist Mike Downey wrote, “Here, where fans are best known for leaving early, if this is the way people intend to behave, then please, leave early.”

Cardinals coach Bob Gibson said to Nightengale, “Dodgers fans used to be among the best in baseball. I’m afraid you can’t say that anymore.”

Said Quick: “I hope everybody has learned a lesson from this. I’ve been in the game 28 years and I’ve never been involved in a forfeit. This is very disappointing.”

Previously: Stayin’ alive: Baseball, drugs, rock n’ roll at Comiskey

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