Uncle Charlie’s Signature Moment Enshrined Him in Baseball Lore

Since Adam Wainwright came to Major League Baseball in 2005, his career has been stirred with ups and downs while being filled primarily with winning seasons. Sure, the 2023 season isn’t looking like a winner, and of course it’s unfortunate to see the great Uncle Charlie finish his career with a season like this. Did you want better for him this year in his career finale? Of course! We all did, it just isn’t happening. We have to accept that.

We also have to accept the harsh luck that Waino faced at times in his career. Remember in 2009 when he was about to become the Major League’s only 20-game winner in baseball and had a lead late in a game when Tony La Russa took him out? The bullpen then proceeded to blow the lead, the Cardinals lost the game, and he was stuck with 19 wins that season.

That same year, he fell short in the Cy Young voting to Tim Lincecum of the Giants. What in the world was up with that tough luck?

And then in 2011 he had to undergo Tommy John surgery and missed the entire season. We all know what happened that season in St. Louis. While Wainwright did receive another world championship ring and celebrate with his teammates, he was not able to participate in that historic World Series run against Texas.

Then in the 2019 playoffs against his former team the Atlanta Braves, he held a 1–0 lead going into the ninth inning, and the bullpen couldn’t hold it as the Cardinals lost 3–1.

It doesn’t seem too fair does it? You probably don’t want to hear this, but life is not fair sometimes.

When it is all said and done though, that is not what defines Adam Wainwright’s Major League career on the field. We all know what he’s done off the field and that is second-to-none. His humanitarian acts of kindness and selflessness will always be remembered, and he deserves every bit of that.

Now, we also all have to accept (and for Cardinals fans embrace) this.

In 2003, Adam was in the Atlanta Braves’ organization after being drafted back in 2000, and was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals that winter. While Georgia was his home and the Braves were his team, this may not have seemed like the ideal situation for the 22-year old pitcher.

But the sayings we often hear in life such as ‘expect the unexpected’ and ‘while one door closes, another one opens’, were never more apparent for what was to come for the young Georgian. I’m sure he never knew what glorious moments lied ahead of him.

The history of the St. Louis Cardinals is one of the most treasured in all of sports (not just baseball). In 1926, the Cardinals acquired a Hall of Fame pitcher from the Chicago Cubs named Grover Cleveland Alexander (373 career wins) and he propelled the Redbirds to their first World Championship of the 20th Century against Babe Ruth’s Yankees.

In the seventh game of that World Series, at Yankee Stadium, the House that Ruth Built, Alexander came in with the bases loaded in the seventh with St. Louis leading 3–2. He faced future Hall of Famer Tony Lazzeri. Lazzeri was just 22 years old, and Alexander was 39. The Cardinals star struck out the Yankee shortstop on three pitches, and the Cardinals went on to win their first championship in the seventh game in New York.

Does it really get any better than that? Well, the Major League Baseball Network did a Prime 9 show years back with one of the topics being the top nine greatest strikeouts of all time. This strikeout by Alexander was voted as №1 by MLB Network.

Through the rest of the 20th Century, the Cardinals recorded 15 National League pennants, and nine World Series wins.

The Redbirds were on their way back up in the early 2000s when they returned to the postseason year in and year out under eccentric manager Tony La Russa. But they could never get over the top. After several NLCS losses, they finally won the pennant in 2004 (Adam’s first season in the Cardinals organization).

Although they lost the World Series that year, the Cardinals were so strong between the ears, there was no stopping them until they reached the top.

Adam Wainwright made his Major League debut at the end of the 2005 season, and St. Louis ended that season with another NLCS loss.

Then came 2006.

Nobody could’ve known, but the young Georgian right-hander was about to be right in the middle of one of the greatest moments in baseball history.

In addition, 2006 was the inaugural season in the new Busch Stadium, and the baseball Gods shined down on the Cardinals that year.

Adam was put into the closer’s role after Jason Isringhausen was sidelined the rest of the season late with an injury. By now, Wainwright was 25 years old but a rookie closer. The Redbirds barely made the playoffs after three miserable losing streaks during the season.

The Cardinals made it to the NLCS against one of their biggest rivals, the New York Mets. New York had home field advantage that series after dominating the National League all season. They also had a center fielder named Carlos Beltran who dominated Cardinal pitching in the 2004 NLCS when he was with the Houston Astros. Though the Cardinals won that series, you figured that Beltran was going to get another crack at them.

The Mets won 97 games that season compared to just 83 by the Cardinals. But St. Louis hung tough and battled the Mets to a final seventh game in New York, something that hadn’t been done for the Cardinals since the 1926 World Series.

It was there that Adam Wainwright forever enshrined himself in baseball lore.

Game 7 of the NLCS against the Mets in New York is a game that Cardinals fans will forever remember.

It’s also the game that Adam will forever be known for.

That game also witnessed the greatest postseason catch of all-time in the sixth inning (first in front of the Willie Mays catch in 1954) by Mets left fielder Endy Chavez. He robbed the Cardinals of a home run catching the ball that was hit three feet over the wall.

Then in the ninth inning of a 1–1 game, another Cardinal great stamped his name in baseball lore with a go-ahead two-run home run. His name is Yadier Molina and we all know the kind of career that he went on to have.

Come the bottom of the ninth, the Cardinals brought in the rookie closer who got himself into daunting circumstances. With the Cardinals leading 3–1 and just three outs away from the pennant, the Mets loaded the bases with two outs, and up to bat came Carlos Beltran.

He had hit seven home runs against St. Louis in NLCS play over the course of 14 games with a near-400 batting average.

Here we go everybody. But unlike an aged veteran on the mound for St. Louis and a rookie hitter for New York, it was a 10-year veteran batting for New York with two outs, the sacks jammed, and a rookie closer on the mound.

First pitch: changeup called strike one.

Second pitch: curveball fouled off strike two.

Third pitch: the nastiest curveball Adam Wainwright admits he ever threw. STRIKE THREE!

Incredible! The Cardinals won the pennant as their rookie closer struck out Beltran (looking nonetheless) on three pitches.

The Cardinals went on to make quick work of the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. Adam was again on the mound and again struck out the final batter on three pitches as the Cardinals weaved another championship into their tapestry of titles. Their first one of the 21st Century with eerily similar circumstances to their first championship of the 20th Century.

But don’t forget this Cardinal Nation. Despite any hard luck or seemingly unfair situations that Adam Wainwright faced throughout his career, he should always be (an I believe in the long run always will be) remembered for one at-bat. Striking out Carlos Beltran with the bases loaded as a rookie in Game 7 for the pennant on the road in New York City will forever link Adam Wainwright to baseball greatness.

Did that strikeout make it on MLB Network’s Prime 9 greatest strikeouts of all time? Absolutely! But where does it rank? №2 behind Grover Cleveland Alexander.

Adam Wainwright owns one of the top two biggest strikeouts in Major League Baseball’s illustrious history, a history that spans deep into the 19th Century. The top two greatest strikeouts in baseball history were by St. Louis Cardinals pitchers (one rookie and the other a veteran nearly 40) in a Game 7 bases-loaded situation on the road in New York, one for the pennant and the other for the World Series.

Incredible. Outstanding. And admirable.

Don’t ever forget this Cardinals and baseball fans in general (except maybe the Mets), Uncle Charlie is going to be best remembered for how he treated his teammates, opponents, his leadership and service off the field, and one of the greatest strikeouts in baseball history.

Striking out Carlos Beltran that night on October 19, 2006 in New York is the moment that Adam Wainwright is going to rightfully take with him to his grave.