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How the Cardinals’ deal for Ozzie Smith almost fell apart

February 12, 2012 by retrosimba

(Updated Sept. 12, 2025)

Ozzie Smith agreed to be traded to the Cardinals in what one writer called “one of the most bizarre transactions in recent baseball history.”

The deal propelled the Cardinals to three National League pennants and a World Series title and launched Smith toward a Hall of Fame career.

The trade, however, almost never happened.

On Dec. 10, 1981, at the baseball winter meetings in Hollywood, Fla., the Cardinals announced a trade of outfielder Sixto Lezcano to the Padres for pitcher Steve Mura.

Whitey Herzog, the Cardinals’ general manager and manager, acknowledged the deal also involved players to be named, but contract issues prevented him from revealing the identity of those players. Published reports made it clear the players were shortstop Garry Templeton and pitcher Luis DeLeon of the Cardinals and shortstop Ozzie Smith and pitcher Al Olmsted of the Padres.

The snag was Smith, 27, had a no-trade clause in his Padres contract. He wouldn’t agree to a trade to St. Louis unless the Cardinals either allowed him to keep the no-trade clause or compensated him for dropping it.

Tough talk

Herzog went to San Diego to meet with Smith and his agent, Ed Gottlieb. In January 1982, in a story headlined, “Ozzie’s Pay Demand May Cancel Trade,” The Sporting News reported the trade of Templeton for Smith “apparently is about to fall through.”

Herzog was quoted as saying Smith wanted more than twice the $300,000 salary he was paid in 1981.

“Ozzie would like to play for me, but it looks as if we’ll have to cancel the trade,” Herzog said. “Ozzie is a great fielder and baserunner. I’d like to have him, but if he doesn’t want to come to St. Louis, I don’t want him. No .220 hitter is worth what he’s asking.”

On Jan. 26, 1982, Smith said there would be no trade unless the Cardinals paid him $750,000 that year. The Sporting News reported the Cardinals offered a base salary of between $425,000 and $450,000, with incentives that could take the total package to $500,000.

Smith and his wife also wanted to visit St. Louis before making a decision. They arrived on a winter day.

“The chill index is 17 below,” Herzog recalled to Cardinals Magazine. “I’m sitting in the office and get a call: ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith are here.’ So I went to the receptionist’s desk to get them and, holy moly, they were wearing long-length fur, I mean all the way down to their ankles. They had Daniel Boone hats on. I said there’s no way he’s going to come to St. Louis from San Diego where it’s 72.”

Working it out

Finally, on Feb. 11, 1982 _ two months after a Cardinals-Padres deal first was announced _ Smith agreed to the trade. His salary would be determined in arbitration before the season began and his Cardinals contract would not contain a no-trade clause, said Lou Susman, attorney for club owner Gussie Busch.

In his lead paragraph for The Sporting News, St. Louis reporter Rick Hummel wrote, “After 62 days, it was over. Ozzie Smith had become a St. Louis Cardinal in one of the most bizarre transactions in recent baseball history.”

Smith told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “I’m coming into this with a positive attitude. The Cardinals want my services. We won’t have any problems.”

In four seasons with the Padres, Smith twice won the Gold Glove Award, but he batted .231 with one home run and his on-base percentage was a paltry .295.

Herzog said he believed Smith’s offense would improve by playing home games on the AstroTurf in St. Louis rather than on natural grass in San Diego, but only if Smith focused on hitting balls on the ground.

When Smith came to Cardinals spring training camp at St. Petersburg, Fla., Herzog assigned coaches Chuck Hiller and Dave Ricketts to help him develop “a downward type of swing,” Hummel reported.

“Guys like Ozzie have to keep the ball out of the air,” Herzog said. “If he could hit .240 or .250, we’d be very happy because we know he’s the best defensive shortstop in the league and maybe baseball.”

Herzog later told Cardinals Magazine, “Ozzie was learning an awful lot about hitting. He worked on a daily basis with Chuck Hiller, trying to keep the ball out of the air. He went along with the program.”

To help Smith focus on hitting the ball on the ground, Herzog made a bet with him. “Every time I hit a fly ball, I had to give him a dollar,” Smith said to Cardinals Magazine. “Every time I hit a ground ball _ which enabled me to use my speed to get on base _ he gave me a dollar. It didn’t take long for him to realize that I got it. He decided, ‘OK, it’s time to call this bet off.’ ”

Just before the Cardinals opened the 1982 season at Houston, arbitrator Tom Roberts ruled for the Cardinals, awarding Smith a $450,000 salary rather than the $750,000 he requested.

Play like a champion

In the opener at the Astrodome, Smith went 2-for-5 with two RBI, including a single and RBI against Nolan Ryan, in the Cardinals’ 14-3 victory. Boxscore

It was a successful start to a magical season for the Cardinals, who went on to win their first World Series title in 15 years. Smith was a key contributor, winning a third Gold Glove Award and batting .248 with 24 doubles, 25 stolen bases and a .339 on-base percentage.

Teammate Keith Hernandez, in the book “Pure Baseball,” said Smith was “the best No. 8 hitter you ever saw in 1982 and 1983. Two outs, Ozzie needed to get on base to bring up the pitcher. He could do it … The No. 8 man in the National League will see some hittable pitches if he’s patient. Ozzie came through in this situation with regularity.”

In his book “White Rat: A Life In Baseball,” Herzog said, “Watching him every day, I’ve found out just how good he is. Of all the shortstops I’ve seen, and I’ve seen some good ones _ guys like Marty Marion, Mark Belanger and Luis Aparicio _ Ozzie is the best. I’ve never seen anyone do the things on a baseball field that he can do.”

Marion, shortstop on four Cardinals pennant winners in the 1940s, told Cardinals Yearbook in 1993, “I always admired Ozzie because he’s the first defensive player in my memory to make a lot of money. In our days, people didn’t appreciate a good fielder. You had to be a hitter to make money.”

Marion was manager of the White Sox when Aparicio joined the club in 1956. “Up until Ozzie, Luis was as good as anybody,” Marion said to Cardinals Yearbook. “The one thing that stands out about Ozzie is I never saw a shortstop dive for a ball and throw the man out until Ozzie came along.”

In the book “Few and Chosen,” broadcaster and former catcher Tim McCarver said, “A lot of infielders dive for a ball with no chance whatsoever of making the play. Ozzie dived and not only came up with the ball, but also got to his feet so quickly from a prone position that he usually got his man. His range was unbelievable. His speed and quickness were electric.”

Posted in Trades | 5 Comments »

How Stan Musial turned in a great comeback year at 41

February 10, 2012 by retrosimba

(Updated June 10, 2023)

In 1962, at age 41, Stan Musial, thought by some to be finished, produced like a star player in his prime. He placed second in the National League in on-base percentage (.416) and third in batting average (.330).

It remains one of the great performances by a player 40 or older.

After hitting .310 or better in each of his first 17 big-league seasons, Musial failed to reach .300 in three consecutive years (1959-61). Many assumed the 1962 season would be his last and that he might be relegated to part-time status.

Musial worked out diligently after the 1961 season and reported to spring training in top shape in 1962. “I came into camp this year weighing 184, four pounds lighter than a year ago,” Musial told The Sporting News. “And believe me, those four pounds make a difference.”

From the start of spring training, Musial hit well _ “The Man had one of the best springs of his career,” The Sporting News reported _ and Cardinals manager Johnny Keane developed a plan to rest Musial as required during the 162-game season schedule.

Keane elected to open the season with an outfield of Musial, 41, in right, Minnie Minoso, 36, in left, and Curt Flood, 24, in center.

At a community luncheon before the season opener, Musial said he told Minoso, “We’re going to keep Flood in good condition. I’ll catch whatever comes to me and you catch whatever comes to you. Curt can have everything else.”

Musial established a blistering pace to open the season. Here is what he did in his first three games:

_ April 11, vs. Mets, at St. Louis: Musial was 3-for-3 with a double, a walk and two RBI in the Cardinals’ 11-4 victory. Boxscore

_ April 13, vs. Cubs, at Chicago: Musial was 2-for-4 in the Cardinals’ 8-5 victory. Boxscore

_ April 14, vs. Cubs, at Chicago: Musial had a home run, two RBI and a stolen base in the Cardinals’ 7-4 victory. The steal was Musial’s first in two years. Surprised Cubs catcher Cuno Barragan, unprepared for Musial’s theft attempt, threw wildly into center field, enabling Stan to scamper to third. Boxscore

“The Cubs, feeling that old guy won’t be going any place, patently ignored him and he was off and running,” reported The Sporting News.

Said Musial: “My boy, Dick, came over from Notre Dame for that game and he said he got a much bigger kick out of watching me steal the base than he did in seeing me hit a home run.”

Musial batted .396 (19-for-48) for April. His batting average dipped below .300 only once (.298 on May 24) all season. In July, undeterred by the steamy St. Louis summer, Musial hit .397 (27-for-68).

On Aug. 9, Musial led the league in batting at .354, nine points better than Tommy Davis of the Dodgers.

All season, Musial continued to defy the odds with sensational performances. Among the most notable:

_ May 19, vs. Dodgers, at Los Angeles: Musial broke an 0-for-9 slump with a ninth-inning single off a Ron Perranoski curveball. The hit was No. 3,431 for Musial, breaking the NL record of Honus Wagner.

“When I finally got to first base after breaking the record, I felt so relaxed I could have fallen over,” Musial told the Associated Press. “That’s when I realized the pressure had been on.” Boxscore

_ July 8, vs. Mets, at New York: Musial hit 3 home runs in the Cardinals’ 15-1 victory. He remains the oldest player to achieve the feat. Boxscore

In his 1998 book, “Baseball for Brain Surgeons and Other Fans,” Musial’s former Cardinals teammate, Tim McCarver, said, “If a batter keeps his shoulder locked in, he can be fooled on a pitch and start forward too early with his body yet still be able to keep his hands back and generate power. Stan Musial was the quintessential guy in this regard. You could fool Musial and his body would commit, but … he had his hands back and, boom, he could still deliver his power.”

_ July 25, vs. Dodgers, at St. Louis: Musial hit a two-run homer off Don Drysdale, giving Stan a NL-record 1,861 RBI, breaking the mark held by Mel Ott. Boxscore

_ Sept. 27, vs. Giants, at San Francisco: Musial went 5-for-5 with 2 runs scored in the Cardinals’ 7-4 victory. Boxscore

After the season, Musial was named the NL comeback player of the year in a poll of national baseball writers conducted by the Associated Press.

In his book “Stan Musial: The Man’s Own Story,” Musial said, “What gave me my greatest thrill in 1962 was the year I had at bat … I walked out there, day after day, certain I would play, confident I would hit. It was like old times.”

Posted in Games, Hitters | 11 Comments »

A peek behind the scenes at Cardinals Legends Camp

February 3, 2012 by retrosimba

A bonus to being able to interview Cardinals broadcaster and ex-pitcher Rick Horton at Cardinals Legends Camp Jan. 27 was the chance to watch a few innings of a game between former players and the campers at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Fla.

Because the public isn’t allowed to attend the games, there were only about five people in the stands — likely friends or relatives of the players. So the event took on a “Field of Dreams” aura as Hall of Fame players such as Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith and Bruce Sutter stepped onto the field in crisp, white Cardinals uniforms to play inside a ballpark so empty it might as well have been an Iowa cornfield.

Sitting along the right-field line in the warm sunshine, I regrettably had only about 20 minutes to watch the action before having to return to my day job.

Pitching for the Cardinals was Dave LaPoint, the left-hander nicknamed “Snacks” who was a member of the 1982 World Series champions’ starting rotation.

Brian Jordan and Tom Lawless and Tom Pagnozzi were among those in the field. Sutter coached first base. And playing shortstop, wearing the familiar No. 1 and still looking to be in big-league shape, was The Wizard, Ozzie Smith.

In the home half of the first inning, Smith, batting second, stepped into the left side of the batter’s box against a right-handed camper. The first couple of pitches missed the strike zone. Smith, giving the camper his money’s worth, swung at several subsequent pitches out of the strike zone, fouling off one offering after another until he got one to his liking.

When the right pitch came, Smith uncoiled and launched a high fly ball into medium right field, near where I was sitting. The camper stationed in right looked into the sun and staggered, trying to follow the ball’s flight and gauge where it might land.

He extended both arms, the glove on his left hand turned up, and prepared for the ball to fall. It landed halfway up one arm, near the edge of his shirtsleeve. With arms still stretched outward, he brought them together as the ball rolled toward his hands as if on a conveyor belt.

For a moment, it appeared the ball might travel down his arms and into the glove. But then it slipped off his wrist and off his glove and toward the outfield grass. The fielder lurched forward, reached out with his bare right hand and snagged the ball, just as it was about to hit the ground.

“Out!” was the umpire’s correct call.

Ozzie Smith, who had circled first base and was headed to second, flashed a smile and headed back to the Cardinals’ third-base dugout, taking a good-natured razzing along the way from campers and Cardinals teammates.

Witnessing that gave me a sense for the special vibes that come from Cardinals Legend Camp. The retired players clearly enjoy being together again and being on the ballfield.

“That’s the neat thing about this camp _ the access to the players,” said camper Joe Pfeiffer, a Cardinals account executive. “These players want to be here. It’s genuine _ which makes it better for the campers.”

The camp, which was launched with significant help from broadcaster and former pitcher Al Hrabosky, is in its 12th year. Rick Horton has participated in 10 of the camps.

“It’s just been a blast every time I come down here,” Horton told me. “The fun we have here is unprecedented. Anything else I do the entire year _ nothing is as fun as this camp.”

Proceeds from the weeklong camp benefit Hire Heroes USA, a non-profit group that helps military veterans and their spouses find jobs after the completion of their service time.

“They do phenomenal work with job placement and counseling for people who are trying to get back into the workplace after their military service,” Horton said. “They really try to encourage businesses to hire heroes, people who have given an awful lot to our country, and kind of give them a head start into assimilating into a nice job opportunity.”

Asked about pitching in a camp game the day before, Horton described the feeling of being reconnected with former Cardinals teammates and the special bond they maintain.

“Sometimes we wonder, ‘Whose fantasy is this, really?’ ” said Horton. “I fielded a ground ball back to me yesterday. I turn around and throw the ball to Ozzie Smith. He jumps straight up in the air, avoids the slide and throws on to first base for a double play. I got to tell you, it was a rush for me. 

“I know I’m getting out a dentist or a doctor or a lawyer, but just to be on the field with Ozzie again _ I really want to be a part of that. Playing is what gets us back to the relationships we were in 25 years ago. So that’s part of the magic of this.

“The campers see us transform into players again. They see us get into that persona again. It’s a thing that’s very special, very meaningful. It’s a part of our lives that will never really go away and this gives us a chance to celebrate it.”

Previously: Rick Horton discusses the 2012 Cardinals

Previously: Rick Horton pays tribute to Bob Forsch

Posted in Bloggers, Pitchers | Leave a Comment »

Rick Horton: Bob Forsch was heart, soul of Cardinals staff

February 1, 2012 by retrosimba

(Updated Nov. 3, 2019)

Pitchers Bob Forsch and Ricky Horton were Cardinals teammates for four seasons (1984-87). During that time, the Cardinals won two National League pennants.

Horton turned 25 in 1984, the year he made his major-league debut with the Cardinals. Forsch was 34 that season.

In 15 years with the Cardinals, 1974-88, Forsch pitched two no-hitters and helped St. Louis win the 1982 World Series title.

Forsch died Nov. 3, 2011, at age 61. In retirement, he had been a fixture at the yearly Cardinals Legend Camp at Jupiter, Fla. When I interviewed Horton, now a Cardinals broadcaster, at that camp Jan. 27, 2012, it was evident Forsch’s presence was missed. In honor of his teammate, I asked Horton to share his favorite Bob Forsch story.

Here is how Rick Horton responded:

After a game in Chicago, he and I got on the L train to get back to our hotel after a Cardinal win. We had a bunch of Cardinals fans, who had had a few too many Budweiser products, on the train with us and they were loving Bob, saying, “Bob you’re my favorite player” and they were just going bananas over the fact that they were on the L train with Bob Forsch.

At one point, a guy says to Bob, “We always wondered if your son played baseball.” And Bob said, “I have two daughters. I don’t have a son.” And the guy pointed at me and said, “Isn’t he your son?”

I’ll never forget that. I laughed so hard. Bob laughed so hard.

You couldn’t write a better script, because the next day, honest, was Father’s Day. So I went to the hotel gift shop and bought him a Father’s Day card and had it up in his locker the next day. And I did that for a number of years to follow, treating Bob as my Dad.

In some ways, more aptly, Bob was like an older brother for me, in terms of showing me the way, showing me the right things, keeping me away from the wrong things, encouraging what professionalism is all about. Anybody who played with him knew Bob as a professional.

As well-known as he is, I’d still say he’s the most underrated Cardinals pitcher in the last 75 years. When you look at the Cardinals record books, his name is all over that. He spanned two decades.

The two no-hitters almost condenses him too much, almost makes him to be that guy instead of a guy who was so much more than that. He won a World Series game, pitched in three World Series for the Cardinals and really was the heart and soul of the pitching staff, at least when I was there.

When we lost Bob as a teammate, we lost an awful lot of leadership. And when we lost him this past year, we lost a lot more than that.

 

Posted in Broadcasters, Pitchers | 1 Comment »

An interview with Cardinals broadcaster Rick Horton

January 30, 2012 by retrosimba

Rick Horton, Cardinals broadcaster and former pitcher, says manager Mike Matheny is an outstanding leader and Adam Wainwright could win 20 for St. Louis this year.

Horton, entering his ninth season as a Cardinals broadcaster after pitching for St. Louis from 1984-87 and 1989-90, granted me an interview while taking a break from participating in the Cardinals Legends Camp at Jupiter, Fla. The tape-recorded interview was conducted Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, at Roger Dean Stadium. Horton, smart and personable, was generous with his time and thoughtful with his answers.

Q: Let’s go back to August of last season. Things looked bleak for the Cardinals. What do you think turned it around for them?

Rick Horton: A couple of things happened. One thing you can’t overlook is the trade of Colby Rasmus and getting the bullpen shored up by getting Marc Rzepczynski. Around the same time, the Cardinals got Rafael Furcal to play shortstop. So the defense for the Cardinals improved tremendously.

Defense matters. It’s an absolute fact that if you can’t catch the ball better than the rest, you’re going to lose games you shouldn’t lose. I don’t care how well you hit and how well you pitch. If you can’t catch the ball consistently and make some plays better than the other guy, especially up the middle, it’s really tough to win, and that’s been true in baseball forever.

The Cardinals became better up the middle when they had Furcal at shortstop and Jon Jay in center field, so I think that’s a big piece. And I think the bullpen all came together at the same time. They all kind of got into a flow and got onto a roll.

So the makeup of the team changed. That team always knew they were better than they were showing. When they started to show it, it just raised the bar for them in terms of their own expectations of how they could play.

Q: From a pitcher’s perspective, Game 5 of the Division Series, Chris Carpenter vs. Roy Halladay, a 1-0 victory for the Cardinals over the Phillies. How good was that?

Rick Horton: That’s the game I want to watch. People like offense. I like offense. But the game is more fun to me _ it’s more pure _ when it’s a 2-1 game or a 3-2 game, when every run matters and every decision that a manager makes is critical and every executed little thing matters more.

You get the bunt down in a 17-2 game in the third inning and nobody remembers and nobody cares. So the beauty of the bunt, the beauty of the hit-and-run or the stolen base or taking the extra base or hitting the cutoff man, all those little things about baseball become infinitely more important in a game when you have Carpenter and Halladay pitching.

Q: Game 6 turned out to be the greatest Cardinals comeback in a World Series, culminating with the walkoff home run by David Freese. Where were you for that game?

Rick Horton: For most of the game I was in the ballpark, going from place to place and preparing for the postgame show, which I was doing.

So about the seventh inning, I went to the outside part of the ballpark on the north side where they had set up where we were going to do our postgame set, right next to the ESPN set. I went to the set with Al Hrabosky and was prepared to do the postgame analysis of the Cardinals losing Game 6 of the World Series. We had monitors out there and were watching the last couple of innings. We were writing scripts and preparing conversation about how it was a good season but just didn’t finish well.

A minute before we’re about to go on and do the postgame wrapup of the Cardinals season, things got changed, our scripts got rewritten and baseball changed in a heartbeat for a lot of players, and lives changed in a heartbeat, including David Freese’s. The number of moments that happened from that seventh inning on, so many things critical to the Cardinals winning that game. Phenomenal.

I remember when it was over and we were trying to ad-lib new scripts now that the Cardinals had won it. The thing we kept talking about was you can’t condense Game 6 into a soundbite. I think our postgame show went about two hours and we probably had about two more hours we could have talked about.

Q:  Were you surprised by manager Tony La Russa’s decision to retire or did you have an inkling?

Rick Horton: I did not have an inkling. At the time, it was a shock. But in retrospect I looked back at some things he’d said and some things I’d seen in him and I was less surprised. It seemed like he was a little more relaxed in the second half of the season. Of course, winning had something to do with that. But, even beyond that, I think there was a resignation to stop and smell the roses more. I could see evidence of that in the rearview mirror.

Q: Did Albert Pujols’ decision to leave the Cardinals surprise you?

Rick Horton: Yes, it did. But by a hair. I kind of had it 50-50 the whole time and I was going back and forth 60-40 both ways when I was asked about it all year long. When Tony decided to leave, that started swaying me 60-40 that Albert would go. But as the negotiations were going on I wasn’t sure another team was going to jump up and go to the level that would convince him to go elsewhere. I think had it (the money) been close he would have stayed in St. Louis. He loves St. Louis and St. Louis loves Albert.

If I’m in his shoes and somebody offers me a quarter of a billion dollars, we could all say, ‘I wouldn’t have taken it, I’d stay.’ Well, wait until that happens before you’re sure that you would say no. I hope history sees it as a guy who did what’s best for his career because five years from now he may be a DH anyway, so his value is much higher as an American League commodity than as a National League commodity.

And the way contracts work I think it was just the best business deal for him. It would not have been a good business deal for the Cardinals to pay him a quarter of a billion dollars for 10 years. Nothing against him, it just wouldn’t. Some would say it isn’t a good business deal for the Angels. Time will tell.

Q: Realistically, what can be expected this year from Adam Wainwright on his comeback from Tommy John surgery?

Rick Horton: He’s already throwing. He’s down here working out. He’s thrown some bullpens already. The doctors have said his elbow is more sound than it would be normally. So I don’t think there’s a real concern about reoccurrence.

Adam knows his mechanics well enough and he knows who he is as a pitcher well enough that I think he’s going to get back up on the bicycle and ride it. Some pitchers get hurt and they’re always feeling for their mechanics. He’s so consistent that I don’t think he’ll have any problem getting back to where he was.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins 20 games. I just wouldn’t.

Q: Jaime Garcia this year could become just the fourth Cardinals left-hander in the last 50 years to have three consecutive double-digit win seasons. As someone who has the perspective of a left-handed pitcher, where do you see Garcia’s career going?

Rick Horton: I see Garcia at a fork in the road. I don’t mean to imply that I think he’s got anything wrong with him. But I could see him going in two different directions.

I could see him escalating, because he’s got really good stuff. And I could see him getting something that clicks in that makes him go from good to great.

I could see him in that other part of that fork, becoming just an average-to-good left-hander who is productive. I don’t see him going south. But he could stay the same or he could go much better.

Inconsistencies in his pitching mechanics make him feel for the game a little bit, and there are times when it’s really easy for him and times when it’s hard. And there are times when he loses it, he loses it quickly and he doesn’t know how to get it back. So the negative things about him are things that he could fix and figure out and he may never go back there again. That’s possible and that’s what you hope for.

So I would say he has potential to be three notches higher than he is as a pitcher _ and he’s already good _ or he has the potential to be just a good big-league pitcher the rest of his career, which isn’t so bad.

Q: What is your take on Mike Matheny as Cardinals manager?

Rick Horton: Mike Matheny is an outstanding leader of men. I know him very well. He knows baseball. The style he is going to have as a manager and how he handles the things he’s going to have to handle is an unknown to everybody, including him. Because you don’t know until you’re in those shoes.

Every indication would be that he has the intellect, the baseball feel, the leadership ability to be able to handle the position and be good at what he does. I have a lot of confidence in him because I know him as a man. People like him, people will follow him.

Last year in spring training, Tony La Russa brought him in to this clubhouse and Mike Matheny gave a talk to the entire Cardinals team that Tony asked him to give and it was a 20-minute talk about what it means to be a professional player.

As people left that clubhouse _ media was not allowed in there _ one guy after another were coming up and going, “Holy cow. You would not believe how awesome that was.”

These are guys who have heard from five-star generals. They’ve heard from people before. They’re not naive about that. The coaches were saying the same thing. I remember Joe Pettini coming out and saying, “I’ve never heard anything like that.”

For people at spring training to be wowed at 9 o’clock in the morning is pretty impressive. But that’s the kind of guy Mike is. I wouldn’t call him overly dynamic, but he’s a man’s man, a leader and people respond to him.

Q: The Cardinals have a great tradition of ballplayers turning into top-notch broadcasters. Joe Garagiola. Bill White. Bob Uecker. Tim McCarver. Mike Shannon. I see you as the next in carrying on that legacy. Where do you see your career going?

Rick Horton: I appreciate you seeing me in that list of people. I don’t see myself that way. I see myself as a guy who gets the opportunity to talk about the team. I see myself as being more of a conduit to Cardinals fans. That’s where my equity is. That’s where my connection is.

I don’t really think bigger than that. I don’t really have a vision beyond that. I want to be good at what I’m doing. I want to keep getting better at what I’m doing.

The reason I’m doing it in the first place is the right people told me I should try it. And the right person was Jack Buck. He said, “You might want to get into this business.” When Jack Buck says it, you’ve got to try it.

I take it seriously but I don’t try to be serious in the way I do it. It’s a viewership responsibility for me to be a voice for the fans. It’s a pleasure to do it. Every day I get a chance to be a Cardinals broadcaster, it’s an honor.

Posted in Broadcasters, Pitchers | 2 Comments »

Stan Musial and the Cardinals’ most iconic moment

January 27, 2012 by retrosimba

(Updated Sept. 10, 2022)

My choices for the top 5 iconic moments in Cardinals history:

1: STAN MUSIAL’S FINAL AT-BAT

What happened: In a fitting ending to an illustrious career, Stan Musial went out like he came in. Playing in his final big-league game on Sept. 29, 1963, against the Reds at St. Louis, Musial broke a scoreless tie in the sixth by smacking a single past second baseman Pete Rose, scoring Curt Flood. Lifted for a pinch-runner, Musial left to a thunderous ovation. He finished his final game with two hits and a RBI. Boxscore Ever consistent, Musial began his career in similar fashion, getting two hits and two RBI in his big-league debut on Sept. 17, 1941, against the Braves at St. Louis. Boxscore The Cardinals won both games by the same score: 3-2. Musial had 3,630 career hits (1,815 at home and 1,815 on the road).

Why it qualifies: The final at-bat brought to a close the career of the greatest Cardinal. No Cardinal has been more outstanding.

Fun fact: After being lifted from the game, Jim Maloney, the Reds pitcher who gave up the two hits to Musial, went to the St. Louis clubhouse to seek out the retiring Cardinal and tell him, “It was a pleasure watching you play ball.”

Top quote: “It was a great day and I’m grateful that I was able to do something well in my last game.” _ Stan Musial to the Associated Press.

2: THE STRIKEOUT OF TONY LAZZERI

What happened: On Oct. 10, in Game 7 of the 1926 World Series at New York, the Cardinals led 3-2. In the seventh, the Yankees loaded the bases with two outs against starter Jesse Haines, who split a finger on his pitching hand. Cardinals manager Rogers Hornsby called on Grover Cleveland Alexander to relieve. Alexander had pitched a complete game the day before in the Cardinals’ Game 6 victory. Boxscore In the book “The Glory of Their Times,” Cardinals catcher Bob O’Farrell said Alexander was “tight asleep in the bullpen, sleeping off the night before,” when Hornsby called him into Game 7.

Facing rookie Tony Lazzeri, who had 18 home runs and 114 RBI that season, Alexander struck him out. Alexander shut down the Yankees with 2.1 hitless innings, earning a save to go with two World Series wins and preserving the 3-2 St. Louis victory. Boxscore

Why it qualifies: By defeating the Yankees and winning their first World Series championship, the Cardinals transformed from a perennial also-ran into an elite franchise in the National League.

Fun fact: Alexander retired the first six batters he faced in Game 7. None of them hit a fair ball out of the infield. The seventh, Babe Ruth, walked with two outs in the ninth and was thrown out attempting to steal.

Catcher Bob O’Farrell, who fired the ball to Hornsby at second to nab Ruth, told author Lawrence Ritter, “I wondered why Ruth tried to steal second there. A year or two later, I went on a barnstorming trip with the Babe and I asked him. Ruth said he thought Alexander had forgotten he was there. Also, that the way Alexander was pitching they’d never get two hits in a row off him, so he better get in position to score if they got one. Maybe that was good thinking and maybe not. In any case, I had him out a mile at second.”

Top quote: “I knew he was all rattled and nervous and would go after anything, so I gave him a low curve a foot and a half from the plate and he swung and missed.” _ Grover Cleveland Alexander to The Sporting News, describing the pitch on which he struck out Tony Lazzeri.

3: DAVID FREESE’S HOME RUN

What happened: On Oct. 27, in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series at St. Louis, third baseman David Freese, whose two-out, two-run triple in the ninth tied the score, delivered a game-winning home run to lead off the 11th. The Cardinals rallied from deficits of 1-0, 3-2, 4-3, 7-4 and 9-7 against the Rangers to win 10-9 in 11 innings. St. Louis became the first team to score in the eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th innings of a World Series game. The Cardinals were within one strike of elimination in the ninth and 10th innings, and survived. Boxscore

Why it qualifies: The home run capped the most dramatic World Series comeback victory in Cardinals history. It advanced the Cardinals to Game 7 and they clinched their 11th World Series title.

Fun fact: Freese became the fourth Cardinal to receive the World Series Most Valuable Player Award, joining pitcher Bob Gibson (1964 and 1967), catcher Darrell Porter (1982) and shortstop David Eckstein (2006).

Top quote: “Your Game 6 performance, David, will turn out to be one for the ages.” _ Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, in presenting the World Series MVP Award to David Freese.

4: ENOS SLAUGHTER’S DASH TO HOME PLATE

What happened: On Oct. 15, in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the 1946 World Series at St. Louis, the Cardinals’ Enos Slaughter was on first base with two outs and the score tied, 3-3. Harry Walker hit a line drive that fell into left-center, where Leon Culberson (who had replaced an injured Dom DiMaggio) retrieved the ball and threw to the cutoff man, shortstop Johnny Pesky. Slaughter rounded third and slid home safely, beating Pesky’s throw. The daring baserunning gave the Cardinals a 4-3 victory and the championship. Boxscore

Why it qualifies: Slaughter’s hustle symbolized the smart and sound Cardinals teams that dominated the National League in the 1940s. The Cardinals won four pennants and three World Series championships in the decade and finished second five times.

Fun fact: Slaughter credited third-base coach Mike Gonzalez for waving him to home plate as soon as he reached third. It was redemption for Gonzalez, who was criticized after Game 4 when two Cardinals baserunners he waved home were thrown out at the plate.

Top quote: “They say if Pesky hadn’t held the throw I would have been out by a country mile. I don’t know about that. I know the throw to the plate was a little wide, up the third-base line. I also know I had to score.” _ Enos Slaughter to International News Service.

5: OZZIE SMITH’S HOME RUN

What happened: In Game 5 of the best-of-seven National League Championship Series on Oct. 14, 1985, at St. Louis, Ozzie Smith snapped a 2-2 tie with a home run in the ninth against Dodgers reliever Tom Niedenfuer, giving St. Louis a 3-2 victory. Boxscore It was the first home run Smith hit left-handed in eight years as a big-leaguer.

Why it qualifies: The blast (along with broadcaster Jack Buck’s memorable call of “Go crazy, folks! Go crazy!”) symbolized the spirit of manager Whitey Herzog’s 1980s Cardinals clubs and helped clinch Smith’s reputation as a Hall of Famer.

Fun fact: Niedenfuer said the pitch was supposed to be up and in to Smith, but instead was down and in. That mistake enabled Smith to drop the head of the bat on the ball and golf it over the right-field wall.

Top quote: “All I was trying to do was get the ball down the line, into the corner. Fortunately, I got enough to put it out. It was exciting.” _ Ozzie Smith to the Associated Press.

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