RetroSimba

(Updated April 6, 2026)

Curt Flood, the most consistent hitter on the 1968 Cardinals, helped the team and himself with a perfect performance at the plate in the pennant clincher.

On Sept. 15, 1968, Flood produced five hits in five at-bats, sparking the Cardinals to a 7-4 victory over the Astros at Houston. The win combined with the Giants’ loss to the Reds assured the Cardinals their second consecutive National League pennant and their third in five years.

Flood’s 5-for-5 game also elevated his batting average for the year to .302 and positioned him to become one of the few players to finish the 1968 season with a mark of .300 or better.

Key player

The 1968 Cardinals were a club with four future Hall of Fame players _ Lou Brock, Steve Carlton, Orlando Cepeda and Bob Gibson _ and the reigning single-season home run record holder, Roger Maris, but Flood was an essential part of the team’s success.

Flood in 1968 led all National League center fielders in putouts (384) and assists (11) and he won the sixth of his seven Gold Glove awards. Flood also led the 1968 Cardinals in hits (186), batting average (.301) and on-base percentage (.339) and he ranked No. 1 in the league in singles (160).

Flood was one of six major-league players to achieve a batting mark of .300 or better in 1968. Pete Rose (.335), Matty Alou (.332), Felipe Alou (.317), Alex Johnson (.312) and Flood (.301) did it in the National League and Carl Yastrzemski (.301) was the lone achiever in the American League.

Manager Red Schoendienst usually batted Flood second in the order behind Lou Brock because Flood was able to hit consistently well even though he often took strikes to enable Brock to attempt steals of second base.

In the book “Redbirds Revisited,” Flood said, “Brock made me a better hitter. His ability to rattle the opposition gave me the opportunity to wait on good pitches … I became a more patient hitter up there. I’d take one strike, I’d take two strikes, as I gained confidence at the plate.”

Run generator

Flood went into the three-game series with the Astros determined to cut down on his stride at the plate and the strategy worked. Flood had nine hits in 13 at-bats for the series.

In the Sunday finale, Flood was the ignitor of the Cardinals’ offense.

Flood singled against Don Wilson in the first inning and Brock scored from second on the play. In the third, Flood singled and scored on Maris’ two-run home run, the last of his career, giving the Cardinals a 3-2 lead.

Flood singled and scored on Cepeda’s two-run hit in the fifth, singled and drove in Dal Maxvill from third in the sixth and capped his performance with a fifth single in the eighth.

Brock had three hits, a walk, two runs and a steal, Maris produced three RBI, and Cepeda contributed two hits and two RBI. Carlton struck out nine, went the distance and got the win, though he yielded 11 hits and four walks. Boxscore

Waiting game

With the win, the Cardinals were guaranteed of finishing the regular season in at least a tie for first place atop the 10-team league. The second-place Giants were playing the Reds in San Francisco that afternoon and needed a win to keep their pennant hopes alive.

After beating the Astros, the Cardinals gathered in the visiting team clubhouse, ate fried chicken and baked beans, played cards and monitored radio reports from the Reds-Giants game.

An hour later, when the final out was made in the Reds’ 4-0 triumph over the Giants, the Cardinals were outright champions, holding a 12.5-game lead over the Giants, who had 12 games remaining.

As the Cardinals celebrated with champagne, Cepeda got on top of a table and led the cheers.

“The Cardinals players baptized their newest teammate, 19-year-old catcher Ted Simmons, with champagne and beer after tearing off his undershirt,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Simmons, who joined the Cardinals for weekend games in September while attending college classes at Michigan on weekdays, “shook his head and said, ‘I’ve got to catch a plane to Michigan at 7 o’clock,’ ” the Post-Dispatch reported.

Winning combination

The 1968 pennant was the Cardinals’ 12th. The Sept. 15 date was the earliest they’d clinched a National League championship. “This is the game you wait for from March 1st on,” Flood said to the Associated Press.

Flood credited Gibson, who won 15 consecutive decisions, as the biggest factor in the Cardinals’ successful run to the 1968 pennant. “Gibson having that fantastic streak of his is the most important thing that happened to us this year,” Flood said. “He was winning consistently and pitching complete games, which helped our bullpen.”

The Cardinals finished the season at 97-65, nine wins better than the runner-up Giants at 88-74.

“They’re not selfish as a ballclub,” Schoendienst said. “They’ll give themselves up at bat, move up the runner, or do whatever it takes. It’s just like Flood. He’ll take a strike and give Lou a chance to steal a base. Anytime you get Brock on base, he’s got a chance to score. He’s tough _ and you got Flood hitting behind him.”

Nearly 50 years later, in a 2015 interview with Fox Sports Midwest, Flood’s 1960s Cardinals teammate, catcher Tim McCarver, said Flood was “as good a teammate as any of us had … He was about as conscientious a guy as I ever played with.”

Deep into his tainted pursuit of a home run record, Mark McGwire refused to heed an umpire’s repeated warnings to cease arguing a call and got ejected, prompting a dangerous outburst from some of the St. Louis spectators.

On Aug. 29, 1998, fans at Busch Memorial Stadium threw baseballs, bottles and helmets onto the field when umpire Sam Holbrook tossed McGwire for arguing a called third strike in the first inning of a game between the Braves and Cardinals.

McGwire, well aware he was the reason many had paid to attend the game, could have avoided ejection and protected the umpires from fan backlash if he had acted on any of Holbrook’s three warnings to return to the dugout and stop arguing.

When McGwire continued to rage while standing at home plate, Holbrook, a rookie umpire, banished him from the game.

Crossing a line

A crowd of 47,627 packed into Busch Stadium and thousands more tuned in to a national telecast to watch McGwire, who was in a neck-and-neck race with the Cubs’ Sammy Sosa in a bid to be first to break Roger Maris’ single-season home run mark of 61.

McGwire entered the game with a season total of 54 home runs. He eventually was the first to break Maris’ mark and finished with 70 home runs in what was trumpeted as a feel-good story that brought baseball back from the ill will of the 1994 players’ strike. Years later, McGwire admitted he cheated in pursuit of the record by using banned performance-enhancing drugs to boost his performance.

In retrospect, it’s natural to wonder whether steroids fueled McGwire’s relentless ranting at Holbrook in the game against the Braves.

McGwire, batting third in the Cardinals’ order, came to the plate with two outs in the first inning, worked the count to 3-and-2 and struck out looking against Tom Glavine.

McGwire protested vehemently to Holbrook and used his bat to make a mark in the batter’s box to indicate the pitch was out of the zone. Manager Tony La Russa ran from the dugout to the plate to protect his player. Holbrook warned La Russa to back off, but La Russa ignored him and was ejected. Holbrook asked McGwire to return to the dugout, but McGwire wouldn’t leave.

“The first ejection was La Russa,” Holbrook said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “That could have ended it right there if (McGwire) had walked away.”

Holbrook said to La Russa, “Please get (McGwire) out of here. If you don’t, I’m going to have to eject him.”

La Russa tried but McGwire kept arguing.

“I warned him again,” said Holbrook, who gave McGwire a total of three warnings. “When he continued after that, that’s when I ejected him.”

Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan was yelling at Holbrook from the dugout and Holbrook ejected him, too.

“The furthest thing from my mind was to eject Mark McGwire,” Holbrook said. “I bent over backwards not to. I did everything I could to keep him in the game, but at some point I had to draw the line. I tried to walk away a couple of times and he still came back around and continued arguing.”

Said McGwire: “Did I cross the line? Yeah, I probably did. I probably deserved what I got.”

Justice for all

On the national telecast, broadcaster Josh Lewin said, “Do you throw Batman out of Gotham City? That’s what Sam Holbrook just did.”

Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz wrote, “The fact that McGwire has a chance to break a home run record is irrelevant. Umpires aren’t supposed to hold players to different standards. They can’t go out of their way to protect McGwire. There should be no special treatment.”

Umpire crew chief Harry Wendelstedt said Holbrook “worked an excellent game” and McGwire “was given ample time to argue.”

“The rules have to stay the same for everybody,” Wendelstedt said.

La Russa, who disagreed with the strike call but not the ejections, said, “I’ve seen umpires get upset, but I watched Sam and he was in control.”

Dumb and dumber

Some of the fans, though, lost control and threw objects onto the field. “It was ugly there for a while,” said Braves outfielder Ryan Klesko.

In the second inning, as the barrage continued, Wendelstedt stopped the game, players scurried into the dugouts and announcements were made over the public-address system and on the scoreboard, informing fans to stop throwing objects onto the field or else a forfeit could be declared.

“For long minutes, the threat of forfeit hung heavy over Busch,” Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Constitution wrote.

Said Wendelstedt: “A forfeit is a very last resort for an umpire … but we don’t want someone to get hurt.”

The St. Louis Police Department called in 15 to 20 extra officers to keep order, the Post-Dispatch reported, and stadium security director Joe Walsh said several fans were ejected.

In addition, about 2,000 spectators departed in the second inning because McGwire no longer was in the game, according to the Atlanta Constitution.

After a 10-minute delay, fans quieted, the game resumed and the Braves went on to win, 4-3. Boxscore

“A national TV audience had to be watching and wondering whether St. Louis really is the best baseball town in America,” the Post-Dispatch opined.

Miklasz described the fan actions as “disgraceful” and added, “If you can’t control yourself, please stay away from Busch Stadium in the future because the rest of us don’t want to be injured as a result of your temporary insanity, your acts of cowardice.”

McGwire said of the fans who threw objects, “That’s wrong … We don’t need that in baseball.”

Miklasz wondered, “Is McGwire Mania officially out of control? … Have we created a monster? Or are we now the monster?”