When people think about the St Louis Cardinals they many times remember the World Series champions of 2006 or 2011 or any of the past years. Most of the time, it is a brief moment or a game that burns in their memory and it is called an iconic moment.

The United Cardinal Bloggers will be using February 1^st as the date for each individual blog to recognize what they feel are the Top Five Iconic Moments in Cardinals History. There are more than five but I have narrowed them down to these events.

This moment in history took place on October 14, 1985. The television network had just flashed on the screen for the world to see that Ozzie Smith has never hit a left-handed home run as a major leaguer.  It was Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. Ozzie proceeded to hit a liner into the right field seats off Tom Niedenfuer of the Los Angeles Dodgers for a game winner and one step closer to the World Series. This iconic moment is shared by Ozzie Smith and legendary announcer Jack Buck. I still remember the call, “Smith corks one into right, down the line, it may go….Go crazy folks, go crazy! It’s a home run, and the Cardinals have won the game by the score of 3 to 2 on a home run by the Wizard…Go crazy!”

Another iconic moment took place on October 15, 1946 and it is was Game 7 of the World Series. Enos Slaughter leads off the inning with a single in the bottom of the eighth inning. Two outs later he still stands there as Harry ‘The Hat” Walker strolls to the plate.  Walker hits a shot over the head of the shortstop Johnny Pesky and Slaughter takes off. Leon Culbertson, the centerfielder, gets to the ball and makes the throw into Pesky. Slaughter never slows down and continues towards the plate. Pesky hesitates not thinking Slaughter will take them all and makes his throw to the catcher too late. The Cardinals win the game and become World Champions on the “Mad Dash” of Enos Slaughter.

This moment in Cardinals history had a season long build up as Mark McGwire continued on his quest to break a 37 year record of Roger Maris. The record had no serious challengers since the 1961 record was set. Now the world was watching two players go for it. Besides McGwire, Sammy Sosa was charging towards the record at an equal pace for most of the season. With two out and the bases empty, in the fourth inning on September 8, 1998, McGwire homers of Steve Trachsel of the Cubs to become the single season home run champion and the world celebrated the feat. The home run was the shortest home run by distance the McGwire hit the entire season as it traveled 341feet.

The World Series will bring out the best in some players. Bob Gibson was already known as a tough competitor as the 1968 World Series began. The season was already an outstanding one for Gibby as he saw his wins and ERA reach frighteningly good numbers. Now he faced the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of the World Series on October 2, 1968. He dominated. He took it to the ninth inning and struck out future Hall of Fame Al Kaline for the third time in the game to notch his 15^th strikeout to tie a World Series record set by Sandy Koufax in 1963. In stepped one of their sluggers, Norm Cash, and Gibson fanned him for the third time on the game, also. He finished strong by tossing a called third strike past Willie Horton to finish the game with 17 strikeouts in a World Series game.

Stan Musial became the greatest player to ever wear a Cardinal uniform. He did it for St Louis for many years. Stan almost quit baseball in 1940 when he finished the season after posting a 2.62 ERA and a 18-5 record as a left-handed pitcher for Class D Daytona Beach where he was a farm hand. Stan injured his elbow and wasn’t going to get to pitch anymore. He is asked by manager Billy Southworth to stick around a play the outfield. On September 17, 1941, Stan collects his first major league hit and follows that with his first home run on September 23. To finish the season, he collects five hits, throws out two runners and steals a base on the final game of the year. As we fast forward through the career of Stan Musial, we come to May 13, 1958. The Cardinals are at Wrigley Field and manager holds Stan out of the game as he has 2999 hits and he wants to save it for the home crowd in St. Louis. The game action dictates that in the sixth inning, manager Fred Hutchinson, needs a pinch hitter to face Moe Drabowsky of the Cubs. Calmly, Stan strolls to the plate and smacks a double to collect his 3,000^th career hit. This is another iconic moment in St Louis Cardinal History.

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Some others that were left off my list by probably equally as iconic:

• Jack Clark’s homer in Game 6 of the 1985 NLCS
• Rookie Whitey Kurowski  home runs wins 1942 World Series
• Ken Boyer hits a grand slam off the Yankees in 1964 to send the Cardinals a World Series Championship
• Lou Brock breaks Maury Wills’ stolen base record
• Mark Whiten hits two Grand Slams in the same inning of the same game against the Dodgers

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Mort and Walker Cooper

The 1943 World Series matched the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals against the New York Yankees, in a rematch of the 1942 Series. The Yankees won the Series in five games for their 10th championship in 21 seasons. It was Yankees’ manager Joe McCarthy’s final Series win. In Game 2, October 6, 1943, the father of Mort and Walker Cooper died suddenly but the brothers honored their father and formed the battery for the game and Mort was the winning pitcher 4-3 for the Cardinals.

The brothers formed a battery for the St Louis Cardinals in the 1940’s. Mort Cooper was a right-handed pitcher that became the National League MVP in 1942 with an ERA of 1.78 and a 22-7 record. He contributed with 10 shutouts during the season. In his three year career Mort Cooper was 65-22 for the Cardinals. After a contract holdout, he was traded at the start of the 1945 season to the Braves. He retired with a record of 128-75, a 2.97 ERA, 913 strikeouts, and 33 shutouts in 1840⅔ innings. He was selected to the NL All-Star team four times (1942, 1943, 1945, 1946).

Walker Cooper was a catcher for the Cardinals and in 1943 he hit .318 for the team and followed that with a .317 average in 1944. Walker was traded in 1945 after he and his brother had a contract holdout. He played for 18 seasons and 1473 games and accumulated 1341 hits and a career .285 batting average. He led National League catchers in several categories during his playing time. He also batted .300 over three World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1942-44 as the team won two championships. After his playing career, he managed the Indianapolis Indians (1958–59) and Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers (1961) of the Triple-A American Association and was a coach for the 1960 Kansas City Athletics, before leaving the game.

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Underwhelming Performances

The baseball season of 1896 saw the St. Louis Browns finish 50.5 games out of first place and only 2.5 from the cellar with a 40-90 record. The team had 3 pitchers that season that each lost over 24 games for the Browns. Ted Breitenstein lost 26 games, Bill Hart was the loser of 29 games and Red Donahue end the year with 24 losses.

Ted Breitenstein- Known as a relief pitcher early in his career, Breitenstein was given a start on the final game of the season in 1891 against the Louisville Colonels. He pitched a no-hitter and faced 27 batters with one walk erased in a double play. He is the only player to pitch a no-hitter in his first major league start. He was the last player to do so in the American Association league as it disbanded upon the completion of that season. His 30 losses in 1895 stand as the 3rd on the all-time list for losses in a season by a pitcher. He was traded by the Browns after the 1996 season to the Reds. He died in St. Louis, Missouri at the age of 65, and is interred in Saint Peter’s Cemetery in Normandy, Missouri.

Bill Hart- Hart played for seven seasons with two of them coming with the Browns in 1896 and 1897. He finished his career with 66 wins and 120 losses.

Red Donahue- Francis Rostell “Red” Donahue (January 23, 1873 – August 25, 1913) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher from Waterbury, Connecticut, who played for 13 seasons both in the National League and the American League from 1893 through 1906. Red broke into the Majors with the New York Giants in 1893, while still attending Villanova University. After finishing college in 1895, he made an appearance with the St. Louis Browns near the end of the season. On July 8, 1898, he pitched a no-hitter against the Boston Beaneaters. He lost 35 games during the 1897 season, still an MLB record.

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 Outstanding Cardinal Performances- Volume 1

The casual fan has probably never heard of him. The strong Cardinal fans probably do not know about his 1966 incredible performance. But it was outstanding,

In the 1966 season the Cardinals placed rookie Larry Jaster on their roster. He had a decent ride to the big leagues so nothing unexpected was likely. He went 11-5 that season as the Los Angeles Dodgers became the National League champions. But what he did to those Dodgers is just stunning. He started five games against them that season and shut them out ALL FIVE games! He never allowed an extra-base hit to them as they managed 24 singles in 45 innings of work. This was against a very powerful Dodgers team. When faces other teams he went 6-5 with no shutouts. Larry Jaster pitched four seasons for the Cardinals and accumulated a 32-25 lifetime record and his seven year career record ended at 35-33.

This was truly an Outstanding Cardinal Performance!

Baseball Reference Link to Larry Jaster

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ESPN will broadcast the Opening of baseball season in the USA on April 4 with the Cardinals traveling to Miami to take on the Marlins. The Cardinals do not play at home until April 13th with a weekend series against their rival the Chicago Cubs. Only one other time have the Cardinals had a later home opener.

The Marlins with a new stadium and new manager and a host of new players have history on their side as teams with new stadiums have won five of the last six that have taken place.

April 5, 2012 will find six teams with opening day on the docket which includes the Padres hosting the Dodgers (Vin Scully is back for his 63rd season), the Pirates hist the Phillies, Cleveland has Toronto coming to town, Braves play the Mets and the Nationals will travel to Chicago for the Cubs home opener.

Friday, April 6, 2012  find the Orioles bringing in the Twins and the Reds opening with the Marlins in a tradition in Cincinnati. Having attended an opening day in Cincinnati two years ago, I can say they don’t come near to the excitement St Louis does for theirs.

Looking at some interleague rivalries (courtesy of MLB.co) we find:

The 16th season of Interleague Play will feature many reprisals of past World Series, including Reds-Yankees and Pirates-Tigers (starting May 18); Mets-Yankees, Phillies-Orioles, Astros-White Sox, Blue Jays-Braves, Tigers-Reds and Rangers-Giants (starting June 8); Yankees-Braves, Pirates-Orioles, Tigers-Cubs (starting June 11-12); Phillies-Blue Jays, Red Sox-Cubs, Royals-Cardinals and White Sox-Dodgers (starting June 15); Cubs-White Sox, Giants-Angels, Braves-Yankees, Orioles-Mets and Dodgers-Athletics (June 18-19); and Cardinals-Royals, Giants-Athletics, Yankees-Mets, Rays-Phillies and Tigers-Pirates (starting June 22).

The primary Interleague rotation will match up divisions in each league: East vs. East, Central vs. Central and West vs. West.

Some other activities this season finds this is the 20th year since the opening game at Camden Yards in Baltimore. The Red Sox host the Yankees on the 100 year anniversary of the first game at Fenway Park on April 20, 2012. The Dodgers will play the Pirates on April 10th to mark the 50th anniversary of the first game played at Dodger Stadium. The Astros and Mets mark their 50th season in existence this year.

One schedule oddity is that the Tampa Bay Rays will not play on Sunday, August 26th due to the Republican National Convention being held in town. Looks like hard ball is being played in politics that day. Jackie Robinson Day on April 15th will find the Dodgers entertaining the Padres for that important date. The 83rd All Star Game will be held on July 10, 2012 in Kansas City this season.

The season concludes on October 3, 2012.

(Much of this article was gleaned from MLB.com)

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