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Fighting demons and split-fingered sinkers, Ray Lankford experienced the extremes of baseball’s highs and lows, all in one memorable game.

On Aug. 8, 1998, Lankford was humiliated when he struck out five times in five at-bats against the Cubs at St. Louis.

In a stunning reversal, he redeemed himself in his final two at-bats of the game, clubbing a two-run home run that tied the score in the 11th and, two innings later, producing a walkoff game-winning single.

Sammy Sosa hit a two-run home run off Cardinals reliever Rich Croushore in the top of the ninth, tying the score at 5-5. In the bottom half of the inning, reliever Terry Mulholland struck out Lankford. It was Lankford’s fifth strikeout of the game, tying the Cardinals’ single-game record established by Richie Allen against the Phillies on May 24, 1970. Boxscore

Lankford also struck out three times against starter Mark Clark, the former Cardinal, and once against Felix Heredia. With each strikeout, the boos increased.

“It was the worst,” Lankford told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about the experience. “The first couple of at-bats I was swinging like I was clueless.”

In the 11th, pinch-hitter Tyler Houston hit a two-run home run off Curtis King, giving the Cubs a 7-5 lead.

In the bottom half of the inning, Lankford batted against Rod Beck with two outs and Brian Jordan on first base. Longtime rivals, Lankford knew Beck would deliver his best pitch, the split-fingered sinker. “There are not a lot of secrets with Lankford and me,” Beck said to the Arlington Heights Daily Herald. “We’ve faced each other a lot.”

Lankford, a left-handed batter, swung at a splitter away and lifted the ball toward the opposite field. “I thought I had him off-balance,” Beck said.

The ball carried over the left-field wall for a two-run home run, tying the score at 7-7.

Each team scored a run in the 12th. After the Cubs were held scoreless in the 13th by Bobby Witt, the Cardinals loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom half of the inning against Dave Stevens.

It was Lankford’s turn to bat again.

Cubs manager Jim Riggleman, looking to keep a ground ball in the infield, moved center fielder Lance Johnson directly in front of the second base bag as a fifth infielder.

Stevens got ahead on the count, 1-and-2, against Lankford, who tried to fight off thoughts of a sixth strikeout. ‘With two strikes, I said, ‘Ray, come on now. Put the ball in play,’ ” Lankford told St. Louis writer Rick Hummel.

Lankford swung at the next pitch and hit a hard grounder to the right side of the infield. Johnson dived to his left and second baseman Mickey Morandini dived to his right. The ball eluded both.

Lankford’s walkoff RBI-single gave the Cardinals a 9-8 victory. Boxscore

Said a joyful Lankford: “I was able to go out there and fight all of those demons off.”

Previously: Ray Lankford did what Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle could not

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(Updated April 5, 2026)

Bill White and Curt Flood each approached his final at-bat of the 1963 season needing a hit to reach 200 for the year. Each delivered, enabling the Cardinals to have three players get 200 hits in a season for the first time in franchise history.

White and Flood joined Dick Groat as Cardinals who reached 200 hits in 1963. Groat, who finished with 201, got his 200th hit in the penultimate game of the season.

According to the book “The Curt Flood Story: The Man Behind the Myth,” Flood approached Groat in 1963 after Groat was acquired by the Cardinals from the Pirates and said to him, “I got to learn to hit to the opposite field. You show me.”

“Groat and I would go out to the ballpark for long periods of time and he would help me to learn how to hit to right field,” Flood said. “That Groat, he could hit .300 with a strand of barbed wire.”

On Sept. 28, 1963, Groat entered the next-to-last game of the season with 199 hits. He tripled against the Reds’ Joe Nuxhall in the first inning for hit No. 200 and got his final hit of the season, a double off Nuxhall, in the sixth. Groat became the first Cardinals player to achieve 200 hits in a season since Stan Musial (with 200) in 1953. Boxscore

(In the 2005 book “Cardinals Where Have You Gone?” Groat was asked by writer Rob Rains to explain his hitting success in 1963. “I was hitting in front of Stan Musial all year,” Groat replied.)

White and Flood each had 198 hits entering the season finale, Sept. 29, 1963, against the Reds at St. Louis, but the spotlight was focused on Musial, who was playing the final game of his illustrious career.

In the sixth, Flood doubled against Jim Maloney and scored on Musial’s single, the 3,630th and final hit of Stan’s career. White also singled in the inning. So Flood and White each had 199 hits.

When Flood grounded out in the seventh and White grounded out in the eighth, it appeared both would fall short of achieving 200, but the Reds scored twice in the ninth, tying the score, 2-2, and the game went to extra innings.

In the 13th, White singled against Joey Jay for hit No. 200. In the 14th, Flood singled off Jay, becoming the third Cardinal that year with 200 hits. The single moved baserunner Ernie Broglio from first to second. Dal Maxvill followed Flood with a double, driving in Broglio with the game-winning run. Boxscore

The 1963 season was the only time Groat and White reached 200 hits in a season. Flood did it one more time, getting 211 hits for the 1964 Cardinals.

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(Updated Jan. 12, 2022)

The 1963 Cardinals infield established an all-star standard that went unmatched for 53 years.

For the first time in major-league history, the National League’s All-Star Game starting infield was composed of players from the same team. They were the Cardinals unit of first baseman Bill White, second baseman Julian Javier, shortstop Dick Groat and third baseman Ken Boyer.

The Giants’ Alvin Dark, who managed the 1963 National League all-star team, told The Sporting News, “When you’ve got an infield that starts with Bill White at first base and runs through Julian Javier, Dick Groat and Ken Boyer, you’ve got power and class.”

In 2016, fans selected an all-Cubs starting NL all-star infield of first baseman Anthony Rizzo, second baseman Ben Zobrist, shortstop Addison Russell and third baseman Kris Bryant.

Fans have voted for the all-star starters each year since 1970. In 1963, the starters were selected in voting by players, managers and coaches in each league.

White, Groat, Boyer and Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski were voted the starters for the 1963 NL team, but Mazeroski withdrew after he pulled a muscle in his right leg.

Cubs second baseman Ken Hubbs had finished second to Mazeroski in the voting, but Dark picked Javier to replace Mazeroski as the starting second baseman.

United Press International wrote, “Usually, all-star managers in picking reserves for their squad stick mighty close to the way the players themselves voted earlier in choosing the starting lineup.”

Said Dark to the Associated Press: “I feel this is the strongest squad we have.”

Javier “doesn’t have any shortcomings,” Groat told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He runs well, has good range, fine hands and pivots well.”

Here were the top two vote-getters for each NL infield position:

First base: Bill White, 220 votes; Orlando Cepeda, Giants, 38 votes.

Second base: Bill Mazeroski, 227 votes; Ken Hubbs, 14 votes.

Shortstop: Dick Groat, 238 votes; Maury Wills, Dodgers, 25 votes.

Third base: Ken Boyer, 186 votes; Ron Santo, Cubs, 52 votes.

The other starting position players for the 1963 NL all-stars were Giants catcher Ed Bailey and outfielders Hank Aaron of the Braves, Willie Mays of the Giants and Tommy Davis of the Dodgers.

The Cardinals’ Stan Musial, 42, was chosen by Dark as an outfield reserve. It would be a record 24th and final All-Star Game for Musial, who retired after the season.

Best Cardinals infield

In his book “Stan Musial: The Man’s Own Story,” Musial said, “That infield was the strength of the 1963 Cardinals, all right … Marty Marion said the Cardinals’ 1946 infield was a bit better. I’m not so sure, though we did have a good one in ’46. I played first base then, Red Schoendienst second, Marion short and George Kurowski third. That far back, Red hadn’t yet come into his own as a hitter.”

In a 2011 interview, I asked White if the 1963 Cardinals infield was the best he’d seen. White’s response:

“It was a good infield. It probably was not the best. Ken Boyer might have been the best third baseman I’d seen or played with. Groat had mobility problems. He understood how to play the hitters, but he had very little range and he didn’t have that real good arm. Javier was a pretty good second baseman. He made a great double play and he could go way out to center field for pop-ups because Curt Flood played a deep center field.

“It was a good infield, the best infield that I was on, but I’m not sure it was the best ever. It might have been the best Cardinals infield.”

Branch Rickey said the 1963 Cardinals infield was comparable to the 1952 Dodgers infield of first baseman Gil Hodges, second baseman Jackie Robinson, shortstop Pee Wee Reese and third baseman Billy Cox. “I’d still give that Brooklyn infield the edge defensively,” Rickey told The Sporting News in June 1963, “but this Cardinals infield has more offensively and might even get to be better.”

White, Groat aid NL win

White and Groat contributed significantly to the NL’s 5-3 victory over the American League on July 9, 1963, at Cleveland. They and Javier played the entire game. Santo replaced Boyer in the sixth.

In the second, Groat’s single off starter Ken McBride of the Angels drove in Mays from second, giving the NL a 1-0 lead.

With the NL ahead 4-3 in the eighth, White led off against imposing Red Sox reliever Dick Radatz, nicknamed “The Monster,” and singled to center.

Taking his lead off first base, White watched Radatz pitch to Mays and detected a flaw in the pitcher’s motion, he told The Sporting News. As Mays struck out, White swiped second. White ran on his own, Dark said.

Radatz “came set and started his left leg forward a couple of pitches in a way that showed just when he definitely was going to the plate, not to first base,” White told the Post-Dispatch.

Santo singled to center, scoring White and boosting the NL’s advantage to 5-3.

With Dodgers ace Don Drysdale pitching the ninth, the Orioles’ Brooks Robinson singled with one out. The next batter, Bobby Richardson of the Yankees, hit a grounder to White. The Cardinals’ first baseman threw to Groat covering second and Groat’s return throw to White nipped Richardson for a game-ending first-to-short-to-first double play. Boxscore

The NL turned three double plays. White took part in all three and Groat helped turn two. White and Groat each went 1-for-4; Javier and Boyer each was hitless.

(Musial, pinch-hitting for Bailey in the fifth, faced Jim Bunning and lined out to Al Kaline in right field. “I got out in front of the pitch just a fraction or I’d have hit it out of there,” Musial said.)

Groat and Boyer both were elected starters again in 1964, but White and Javier were replaced by Cepeda and the Mets’ Ron Hunt.

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