“The Winning Team in St. Louis”
As often as you hear about St. Louis, you often associate it with the St. Louis Cardinals. Some see the Cardinals as much as St. Louis as the arch and Anheuser-Busch.
And if you think about it, the Cardinals have existed for over 130 years in the National League, and in the 120 of those years that the World Series has existed, they have won 11 world championships.
But they’ve done more than that… they’ve won 11 championships in 100 years.
Do the math, the Cardinals average a World Series victory once every 10 years.
The biggest part of thanks is due to the brilliance of Branch Rickey, the executive who started the farm system and put St. Louis baseball on the map.
Before 1919, the Cardinals had averaged a last-placed finish every other year for the first 20 years or so of the 20th Century. Then here comes the farm system and once it starts to take full stride, Rickey’s brainchild begins to pay off.
One key piece to igniting the Cardinals was second baseman Rogers Hornsby. He ended up with the second-highest batting average of all time, and highest in the National League, with a lifetime .358 mark.
Hornsby never missed a pitch while he lived, ate, slept, and dreamt baseball. During the off season, he was known to be sitting upstairs inside his home just looking out the window waiting for spring and baseball season to return.
“Rogers Hornsby was a picture athlete, and he acted like one. Never smoking, drinking, or even reading fine print or attending a movie, for fear that it would dull his batting eye.” (Rogers)
Hornsby was perhaps the second-greatest hitter in baseball during the 1920s, the only one better and more popular was a pitcher turned outfielder named Babe Ruth.
Nobody could get him out.
“Rogers Hornsby was at bat, and Bill Klem, magisterial umpire, was behind the plate, there was a rookie pitcher on the mound, and he was reasonably petrified. He missed three pitches just off the edge of the plate, Klem said ‘ball one, ball two, ball three’ and the pitcher shouted at him that those pitches were strikes. Klem took his mask off looked out at the young pitcher and said, ‘young man, when you throw a strike, Mr. Hornsby will let you know’.” (Burns, 1994)
Hornsby led the National League in triples, total bases, and slugging percentage in 1917 as a shortstop, and after Branch Rickey moved him over to second base in 1920, he continued to improve his game, beginning the 1920 season with a 14-game hitting streak and hit .370 on the season. His hitting numbers only got better. He hit .397 in 1921, hit .401 the following year, and in 1924, hit .424, setting a major league record for highest batting average in a single season. Nobody has ever come anywhere near that record since. (Rogers)
In addition, Hornsby was the Cardinals manager. It was more common in those days for player-managers on major league teams.
Of course, the Cardinals are built as a team, not just by one player.
Some other key players were names like Jim Bottomley who was maybe the greatest first baseman in Cardinals history until, of course, Stan Musial and Albert Pujols came along. Outfielder Billy Southworth could always be depended on hitting .317 that year. (Rogers)
Then, of course, pitching.
Jesse Haines was considered the Cardinals' ace and throughout the 1920s and was just as responsible for the Cardinals' success as Hornsby and Rickey.
Through the first seven years of the farm system taking root, the Cardinals had turned their franchise around from a second division to a first-division team, with back-to-back third place finishes in 1921-22.
Then, comes 1926.
Little did the Cardinals and St. Louis know what glory lay ahead of them at the end of that season.
“He never complained, never alibied. He was never known to criticize a teammate or call an opposing ballplayer lucky. He accepted his great success modestly and the many vicissitudes of his life in silence. He was easy to like, and hard to know.” (Burns, 1994)
Grover Cleveland Alexander, nicknamed Ole’ Pete, was one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, posting a career total of 373 wins, but was now in the tail end of his career.
The previous season, Alexander pitched for the Chicago Cubs and stern manager Joe McCarthy. The Cubs had finished in last place in 1925, and if they were going to do it again, McCarthy would have rather it have been without Ole’ Pete.
Here’s where the story turns.
The Cubs put Alexander on waivers and the Cardinals claimed him.
Now, the hall of fame pitcher did have some weaknesses, as we all do. He was an alcoholic and subject to epileptic seizures after an on-field accident early in his career. One day, a lined shot hit him right between the eyes, and he was stricken with double vision.
One day, his vision suddenly and miraculously cleared, but he remained subject to seizures for the rest of his life.
In addition, he was a heavy drinker, but it never stopped him from going out and winning.
Regardless of Alexander’s flaws, Hornsby and Rickey agreeably claimed him and saw something special in Alexander, thinking that the 39-year-old still had something left in him. (DiFranza)
Here he comes, St. Louis, you got Grover Cleveland Alexander on your pennant-contending Cardinals. It would be similar to the Cardinals getting Justin Verlander of Max Scherzer last year for one last shot at glory.
After the Cardinals picked up Alexander in mid-season, they found their identity and took off.
The Cardinals won the National League pennant that year, making their first World Series in franchise history, where they faced the New York Yankees with the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig looming in front of them. Very few gave the Cardinals much of a chance.
Little did anyone know that it would be one of the greatest and most thrilling World Series in Cardinals history.
As expected, the Cardinals lost the first game in Yankee Stadium, but Alexander propelled them to a game 2 victory to tie the series at one, before the series headed to St. Louis.
In the first World Series game to be played at Sportsman’s Park, Cardinals starter Jesse Haines threw a complete-game shutout as the Cardinals blanked the Yankees 4-0 to go ahead in the series two games to one.
But in game four, the Yankees clobbered the Cardinals 10-5 to even the series at two, with Babe Ruth hammering three home runs, one of them shattering a bakery window across the street! Then in game five, the Yankees squeezed out an extra-inning win to regain the momentum and the series lead heading back to New York. (Baseball Reference)
St. Louis had to win back-to-back games in Yankee Stadium against Babe Ruth’s Yankees to capture their first world championship.
In Game 6, Alexander pulled himself together for another complete-game win in game six as the Cardinals won 10-2 to deadlock the series at three games all, setting up a one game showdown in the House that Ruth Built.
Alexander had been the hero of the series thus far, winning two games for the Cardinals and after throwing a complete-game victory on Saturday afternoon, he celebrated that night thinking he would watch his Cardinals from the bullpen bench Sunday afternoon for Game 7.
During the seventh game he sat quietly in the Cardinals' bullpen nursing his hangover.
In the seventh game, the Cardinals had built a 3-2 lead going into the bottom of the seventh, but the Yankees rallied, loading the bases with two outs, and that chased starter Jesse Haines from the game.
Rogers Hornsby called to the bullpen for Alexander to get the final seven outs. Yankees slugger and future Hall of Famer Tony Lazzeri was at the plate.
Alexander was ready.
Hornsby came out to the mound to talk to Alexander on how to pitch Lazzeri. Alexander said he intended to throw him a curveball away, fastball inside, and curveball away 1-2-3.
No! Hornsby said you can’t do that, he’s a fastball hitter.
Alexander was unconcerned saying that Tony will hit it foul if he hits it at all, then Hornsby backed off saying ‘who the hell am I to tell you how to pitch’.
So here we go, bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh, Cardinals leading 3-2, two outs, and a sophomore hitter at the plate just 22 years old.
Alexander’s first pitch was a called strike, a beautiful curveball.
Strike one.
Then he threw a fastball on the inside corner of the plate, the pitch Hornsby feared, and Lazzeri swung, and it looked sure to go for a grand slam…
But went foul just as Alexander had predicted.
Strike two.
Then, with two strikes, Alexander threw a perfect curveball and Lazzeri swung and missed.
Strike three, he’s out!
Alexander had snuffed out the Yankees rally.
For once, age triumphed over youth in the Fall Classic.
In the bottom of the ninth with the Cardinals still leading 3-2, Alexander retired the first two Yankees, but the third batter was Babe Ruth who walked, and then what is considered the only mistake he made on a baseball diamond, tried to steal second and was thrown out. (Baseball Reference)
Hornsby made the tag at second, and the series was over. Yankee fans were stunned, and St. Louis went wild.
What else is so unique about the 1926 St. Louis Cardinals?
Well, how often do you have a hungover 39-year-old pitcher take down the Yankees in New York for the final seven outs of a pressure-packed World Series Game 7?
Alexander, by the way, was a member of the first class in Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame.
In 2009, the Major League Baseball Network came out with a series called ‘Prime 9’ featuring the nine greatest of various categories in baseball history.
In 2011, they came out with the nine greatest postseason strikeouts, voted on by MLB Network writers, baseball writers, and baseball hall of fame associates, as was the case with each ‘Prime 9’ episode.
Yes. Alexander’s strikeout of Lazzeri was on the list, but where did it rank?
Number 1!!!
Grover Cleveland Alexander’s strikeout of Tony Lazzeri is considered to be the greatest strikeout in baseball history.
Just go to YouTube and search MLB Prime 9, then go through the series and find the greatest postseason strikeouts. There you’ll have it.
Cardinals fans should remember or recognize that, understanding that the first world championship for their beloved team came after they acquired a star pitcher from the Chicago Cubs, then beat the Yankees with the greatest strikeout in the World Series.
THEY MADE A MOVIE ABOUT IT!
Of course, the first Super Bowl championship won in St. Louis by the Rams in January 2000 had a movie made about it, though it was primarily focused on quarterback Kurt Warner.
American Underdog.
The Pride of St. Louis extends to a movie being made about their quarterback who won the cities first championship in professional football.
But 70 years before that movie came out, a 1952 American biographical film starring Ronald Reagan and Doris Day was produced by Warner Bros. Studios.
For you, younger readers, Ronald Reagan eventually became president.
The movie was called ‘The Winning Team.’ Like Kurt Warner, the movie centered around the main hero of the first St. Louis championship in baseball, Grover Cleveland Alexander.
Ole’ Pete had an autobiography that could fill an encyclopedia.
And thanks to him, St. Louis won the World Series in 1926, and that spearheaded them to winning nine pennants and six world championships over the next 20 years.
Now, of course, the Cardinals have 19 pennants and 11 crowns.
But think about that, especially if you are a St. Louis sports fan.
Hollywood, in essence, made a movie about two of your team’s first major sports championships, baseball and football.
Who knows, maybe they’ll make a movie about the 2019 St. Louis Blues and their historic run to winning the first Stanley Cup in St. Louis.
Either way you look at it, if you are a Cardinals fan, sure we’d like to start seeing a change in fortune for the team’s current play but know that you’ve got these bragging rights and can always look at the winning team in St. Louis.
