The 1964 St. Louis Cardinals

1964 World Champion Cardinals

“The 1964 Cardinals never won a game that they could afford to lose; and never lost a game that they had to win.”  Bob Broeg, the late Post-Dispatch sportswriter.

Broeg’s quote serves as fitting epitaph for the 1964 world championship team that started that season as probable contenders, and ended the season as an improbable pennant winner.  The St. Louis ballclub rallied from 6.5 games behind the first place Philadelphia Phillies with only 12 games left in the season to claim the flag, then went on to defeat the New York Yankees in the World Series.

The 1964 team proved an evolution in team building. That club’s nucleus would help win three National League crowns in five seasons.  In the years prior, the Cardinals endured an 18-year drought without a championship looking more like the Cubs of Chicago rather than a proud franchise that had won nine pennants in 21 seasons between 1926 and 1946.

St. Louis had fallen behind their competitors because it was one of the last teams to recruit African American talent.   The Brooklyn Dodgers started the process in 1947 with the historic signing of Jackie Robinson, then added Catcher Roy Campanella—who would win three league MVPs—and stellar starting pitcher Don Newcombe.  Their cross-town rival Giants followed suit when they signed Monte Irvin and Willie Mays.  Not coincidentally, the Giants and Dodgers won 11 of 17 pennants from 1947 and 1963.  The Braves won 3 pennants of their own in that span—two with Henry Aaron leading the way. 

The Cardinals’ Stan Musial continued as a bona fide superstar during that time, but his bat alone could not carry the team when competitors were adding extraordinary black talent to their rosters.  That changed after August Busch, Jr. purchased the club.  When he learned of the lack of black ballplayers on his newly acquired team, he quipped:  “They drink beer, too.”  The Cardinals soon got on board for racial equity and a competitive track.

Bing Devine’s Club.

Bing Devine worked his way up from office boy to General Manager after over 25 years with the St. Louis ballclub in various capacities.  He acquired several players via astute trades that garnered a talented cast of characters who also had character. 

The team’s core included team captain Ken Boyer whose leadership qualities later led to a job as the team’s field manager before his untimely death.   Boyer played solid defense at third base and swung a consistent bat over a ten year run averaging nearly .300,  typically hitting about 25 home runs and 90+ RBIs per season.    In addition, a promising 22 year-old now in his second full season named Tim McCarver would prove to be an all-star catcher and fiery field leader who would later become a hall of fame broadcaster.

Devine added two key black players via trades to shore up his team’s fortunes.  First baseman Bill White came from the Giants—a team overloaded at that position with both Orlando Cepeda and Willie McCovey.  White bookended the infield corners with Boyer and produced similar, consistent numbers.   White would later become a broadcaster for the New York Yankees, and the first African American president of the American League.  A strong influence in the clubhouse, White was no ‘yes man’ as evidenced in his autobiography entitled Uppity.

Curt Flood arrived via Cincinnati.  A seven-time gold glove recipient, Flood patrolled centerfield and anchored the team’s outfield defense for a decade.  A consistent hitter, often hitting over .300 with 200 hits, Flood’s value exceeded his numbers.  He played fundamentally sound baseball, ran the bases with flair, and would bunt or hit to the right side to advance a runner.   A man of integrity and grit, Flood would later challenge the Lords of Baseball in his antitrust lawsuit that he filed after he was unceremoniously traded after the 1969 season at a time when no one else dared challenge the powers that be.

Two other trades solidified the middle of the diamond.  Shortstop Dick Groat—a former batting crown champ and league MVP—arrived from Pittsburg in 1963.  A dependable if not spectacular defender, Groat was growing long in the tooth but still provided spank in the lineup hitting .319 in 1963, and .293 in 1964.  In a separate trade with the Pirates, Devine acquired second baseman Julian Javier, a fair hitter who ran well and demonstrated defensive range and a deft double play pivot, which earned him the nickname the Phantom. 

For starting pitching, Devine pulled lefthander Curt Simmons from the bone pile. A one-time stalwart for the Philadelphia Phillies, Simmons suffered arm trouble, and seemed on the way out of baseball. But he redefined his savvy approach to pitching, and would win 18 games for the ’64 club.

Home grown Redbirds included Ray Sadecki, a left-handed bonus baby who would pitch for 18 years in the big leagues and would have one of his better seasons early in his career winning 20 games in 1964.  The incomparable Bob Gibson came up around the same time but with less ballyhoo but ultimately with more verve.

Building on Success

The St. Louis Cardinals of the early 1960s enjoyed a slow but steady rise in the team’s fortunes.  By 1963, the club established itself as a contender.  In September of that season which would be Musial’s last, the team went on a tear winning 19 of 20 games to pull within a game of the first place Los Angeles Dodgers who arrived in town for a crucial three game, mid-September series.  Back then there were no wild card teams or division playoff series.  The team that finished first in the league standings went on to the World Series, so September pennant races provided the season’s sizzle followed intently by not only the locals but by the nation’s sports world.  

The Dodgers dominant pitching paved the way for pennants after a near miss in 1962, capturing flags for three of the next four years.  Johnny Podres handcuffed the Cardinals with a 3 hitter as the Dodgers scored 2 runs in the 9^th to win it 3 to 1. Sandy Koufax shutout St. Louis with a four-hitter the following day. In the finale, the Dodgers rallied late from a 5 to 1 deficit to close out the sweep.  Los Angeles went on to sweep the New Yankees in the 1963 World Series.  But the 1963 Cardinal team provided hope for ‘64.

Slow Start, Big Trade, Trouble Brewing.

The Los Angeles Dodgers slumped in 1964 due in part to Koufax’s arm trouble that limited him to 223 innings while winning ‘only’ 19 games. Yet, the Cardinals seemed incapable of filling the void.  Musial’s retirement left a hole in the outfield.   In fact, there were holes in both outfield corner positions leaving journeymen to fill the gaps. Worse still, reliable Bill White was mired in a long slump that extended to the all-star break, while Bob Gibson who won 18 games in 1963 struggled with a near .500 won-loss record.

Likewise, the ballclub treaded water.   At the All-Star break, the team’s record stood at 39-40, in sixth place in a ten-team national league, a full ten games behind the surprising league-leading Philadelphia Phillies. 

Around this time, Mike Shannon was recalled from the minor leagues to bring his defense and strong arm to rightfield.  He would finish the season with a respectable .261 batting average adding occasional pop off his righthanded bat.  But the big addition to the club proved to be a lightning-fast left fielder from the Chicago Cubs named Louis Clark Brock acquired by GM Devine at the then June 15 trade deadline.  The trade basically involved an exchange with the Cubs obtaining Redbird hurler Ernie Broglio who won 21 games in 1960, and 18 games in 1963.  Most on the team were initially mystified by the deal.

Brock was a raw talent called to the big leagues by Chicago perhaps before ready.  Impatient Cub fans rode him because of his defensive miscues labeling him Brock as in Rock.  The 24 year-old arrived in St. Louis with a mediocre .253 batting average that matched his new team’s middling record.  St. Louis manager Johnny Keane told his struggling new addition that he was his everyday leftfielder, and gave the young  greyhound the green light to run the base paths.   Buoyed by the show of confidence, Brock hit .348 the rest of the season and stole 33 bases igniting the Cardinals though it took time for the team’s smoldering record to catch fire. 

Meanwhile, team turmoil evolved into clubhouse tension involving Groat and the Cardinal Manager.  The air was cleared but the team’s owner seethed about hearing of it second hand, which combined with the team’s play led to the dismissal of General Manager Devine, and a behind the scenes interview with Leo Durocher for next year’s managerial job.

Improbable Run.

The dog days of August found the Cardinals finally playing better though still far behind the league leader.   White was again a robust hitter, Sadecki was winning consistently, and Gibson had found his groove.  Since the All-Star break the club won 32 of its past 51 games, a solid .627 winning percentage.  Yet, the month ended with the Redbirds in fourth place, 7½  games behind the Phillies.

On September 9, the Cardinal visited Shibe Park in Philadelphia for a crucial two games series needing a sweep to move within four of first. They won the first game but limped home when Chris Short beat Sadecki 5 to 1.   The outlook appeared near hopeless viewed from fourth place, six games behind with but 22 games left in the season.

The following ten days saw no improvement in the standings.  On the 20^th of that month, with only 12 games to go, the Phillies stood in first with a 90-60 record, 6½  games in front of both St. Louis and Cincinnati.  The Phillies announced the sale of world series tickets for a wonderous season that they called the year of the blue snow. 

But then the snow turned yellow.  The Philadelphia nightmare began in an incongruous fashion in a game with the Reds in which Chico Ruiz stole home with two outs in the sixth inning with mega star Frank Robinson at the plate scoring the only run of a 1 to 0 game.  Phillie skipper Gene Mauch ranted afterwards, calling it an idiotic play.  Little did he know that such a wild play would start a ten-game losing streak.

Meanwhile, both the Cardinals and Reds started streaks of their own.  The Phillies were swept by the Reds and Braves, while the Cardinals kept winning setting up a high stake, three game set at Busch Stadium against the fading Phillies with its seemingly insurmountable lead stunningly evaporated with Cincinnati in first by a game over Philadelphia, and 1½ games ahead of the onrushing Redbirds.

In the first game of that series, Gibson’s pitches could be heard cracking into the catcher’s mitt as fans murmured that McCarver’s hand would be like hamburger after this game.  Mauch’s habit of riding one of the leagues’ foremost competitors who was affectionately called Hoot by his teammates proved the wrong man to rile.  St. Louis won it, 5 to 1.  The next two games were won by Sadecki—his 20^th—4 to 2; and by old man Simmons, 8 to 5.  Meanwhile the Pirates won 2 of 3 against the Reds. 

Amazingly, the eve of the year’s final weekend series saw a seemingly illusory league standings that read like this:

                      N.L. Standings W        L          GB

                        St. Louis          92        67        ….

                        Cincinnati       92        68        ½

                        Philadelphia   90        70        2½

Then the 1964 season became even more bizarre.  The last place Mets behind Al Jackson beat Gibson and the Cardinals 1 to 0, and the following day bombed St. Louis 15 to 5 thereby underscoring Bob Broeg’s aphorism noted at the top of this article about never winning a game that they could ‘afford’ to lose.  

Meanwhile, the Phillies came out of their trance and beat the Reds on Friday.  Those two clubs had an odd day off on Saturday placing Cincinnati into a tie for first place with St. Louis, leaving Philadelphia one game back and praying for a triple tie for first place at season’s end—a first ever in major league history.  The Phillies just needed to win their final game, and hope that the Mets—a team that would finish 53 and 109 for the season—would pull off an amazing sweep against St. Louis. But following through on the second half of Mr. Broeg’s aphorism: The Cardinals won the game that they had to win.  

The Phillies did their part beating the Reds 10 to 0 behind rookie of the year Richie Allen who rocketed two-home runs out of the park.  As was their ’64 wont, the Cardinals took a more tortuous path.  Falling behind in the 5^th inning, the Cardinals brought in Gibson with one day’s rest after he had just pitched 8 innings on Friday.  He kept the Mets in check for 4 innings, while his team rallied big. 

Gibson yielded the 9^th inning to Barney Schultz, a 38 year-old journeyman whose knuckleball danced that September, a Cinderella month for him personally as well as for his team.  Mr. Busch was in his box hoarsely screaming with the rest of the fans as McCarver caught a foul popup for the final out in an 11 to 5 victory, and the improbable pennant for the St. Louis Cardinals.

World Series Winner

The Cardinals opponent in the 1964 World Series would be the New York Yankees, a seasoned team that also fought through a tough pennant race.  But the Baltimore Orioles faltered in the closing days of the season ceding the pennant to the dynastic Bronx Bombers, their fifth straight and 14^th in just 16 seasons.  Few realized it, but the Yankees were an old team rotting from within and would not win another pennant for 12 long years.

Underscoring that point, the Yankees wheeled out Whitey Ford for Game 1 of the Series.  Ford still holds the record for most consecutive scoreless innings pitched in World Series play (29.2 innings) and most career Series wins with ten.   But Whitey’s arm was shot at that point in the season.  Shannon cracked a mammoth home run off the Yankee lefthander as the Cardinals romped to a 9 to 5 win.  Ford did not pitch again in the Series.

Due to pitching three games in one week before the Series, Gibson was held back to pitch Game 2.  He went up against New York rookie Mel Stottlemyre who was called up from the minors in midseason and won 9 games during the season’s stretch run with an ERA of 2.06. Gibson pitched well but was jinxed by poor defense and a disputed play, and in the end bested by Stottlemyre.

Game 3 in Yankee Stadium matched 18 game winners, Simmons and Jim Bouton with both pitching well.  Schultz replaced Simmons in the bottom of the 9^th, and Mickey Mantle hit what Schultz called a ‘non-knuckling’ knuckleball into the upper deck for a 2 to 1 New York victory.  It was Mantle’s record-breaking 16^th  home run in world series play, breaking a tie with Babe Ruth.

The Yankees pounced for three runs in the first inning ushering Sadecki to an early Game 4 shower.  The score stayed that way until the fifth inning when the Yanks botched a double play ball leaving the bases loaded for Boyer whose 119 RBIs in the regular season was recognized with the league’s MVP award.  He added four more RBIs when Al Downing threw an ill-advised changeup that stayed up in the strike zone that Boyer launched down the left line for a grand slam.  Clutch relief pitching from Ron Taylor and Roger Craig preserved a 4 to 3 win.

Stottlemyre and Gibson hooked up again in Game 5.   Gibson carried a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the 9^th, but with a runner aboard Gibson made a miraculous defensive gem when a liner up the middle hit him and ricocheted towards the third base line.  Reacting cat-like, he corralled the ball and as he did, instinctively hopped upwards and threw sidearm across his body with bulls-eye bullet to first to beat the runner by an eye-lash for the out.  That play saved the game, and likely the Series because the next batter Tom Tresh hit a two-run homer that knotted the score.  In the 10^th, McCarver hit a 3-run homer, and Gibson finished the job striking out 13 Yanks along the way.

The Series returned to St Louis, but the New Yorkers pounded Redbird pitching with home runs by Mantle, Roger Maris and Joe Pepitone.  Once again, the Cardinals lost a game that they could afford to lose, and would now play the decisive Game 7 that they had to win.

It came down again to Stottlemyre versus Gibson, this time each with only two days rest.  The Cardinals pounded Yankee pitching that day jumping to a 7 to 0 lead with Boyer and Brock both launching home runs. 

In the seventh, Mantle hit a 3-run homer to cut the lead to 7 to 3.  Incredibly, the St. Louis manager left Gibson in for the 9^th inning who was pitching on fumes having pitched in 20 innings in three games in the season’s final week, plus 27 more in the world series—a total of 47 hardball innings in just 16 days.  Gibson surrendered two ninth-inning home runs but remained on the hill to secure the Series’ final out.    

When asked why he left his starting pitcher in the game, the Red Bird skipper simply stated:  “I had a commitment to his heart.” In a final note of implausibility, Manager Keane still seething over Devine’s firing and the Durocher rumors, resigned a few days after the Series and took the managing job with the same New York Yankees, but not before telling Gibson:  “Hoot, you are on your way.” 

Indeed, so were the St. Louis Cardinals, a team that would win two more pennants in 1967 and 1968 led by their core of Gibson, Brock, McCarver and Flood along with Shannon and Javier, then astutely adding the necessary pieces along the way to put the team back atop the National League.