A Pennant-Winning Pennant

We’ve been cleaning out our basement, and in the process have uncovered some items that I’ve had tucked away. One of them is this fun pennant that I remembered I had, but hadn’t been able to locate for over a decade! As you can probably see, it had something spill/drip on it (that happened long ago when we still lived in St. Louis), but I still think it’s a fun item.

1985 was the summer between 7th and 8th grade, and I think it was one of the first summers that my friend Craig and I went to games by ourselves and tried to get players’ autographs before and/or after the games. It was a magical season as the Cardinals won 101 games on their way to the National League Pennant. Perhaps it was the style of ball they played (stealing over 300 bases) and perhaps it was the age I was at the time, but even though they fell one game short of winning the World Series, all these years later, the '85 Birds are still my favorite team ever! In fact, I even administer a Twitter account that recaps their season day-by-day!

Anyway, the pennant above was one that I got signed by a many of the players on that team (in addition to a couple Cardinals legends). While many of the signers played multiple seasons with the Cardinals, two of them (Ivan DeJesus and Bill Campbell) played for the team only in 1985. And one of the signers (Todd Worrell) only joined the club for the last six weeks of the season, so I must have gotten at least some (if not all) of the autographs relatively late in the season.

Two Hall of Famers signed my pennant back in 1985: 

• Lou Brock (who was inducted to the Hall of Fame in '85, and is my all-time favorite)
• Red Schoendienst (who was a coach for the ‘85 Cardinals)
  

And here are the ten players from the 1985 Redbirds signed it:

• Terry Pendleton
• Willie McGee
• Jack Clark
• Andy Van Slyke
• Vince Coleman
• John Tudor
• Todd Worrell
• Ivan DeJesus
• Bill Campbell
• Tom Herr

I have no idea how much something like this is "worth." Probably not a whole lot, given the condition. But for the memories it evokes of a 13-year old kid getting those autographs, it is absolutely priceless to me! And 35 years later, it makes me want to track down Ozzie Smith and Tom Nieto to sign it so I could have a whole starting lineup's worth! 

Grandma's Autograph Book

My grandmother's autograph book

The roots of my existence as a Cardinals fan date back (at least) to my grandmother. She grew up in St. Louis and tells stories of her memories as a member of the Knothole Gang in the late 1930s. In this program, students were allowed to attend summer weekday games for free. My great-grandmother would give her a quarter on occasion, and she would spend ten cents to ride the streetcar to the game and ten cents to ride it home. That would leave her with a nickel that she would alternately spend on either a snow cone or a scorecard. And on at least some of those occasions, she would seek out autographs from her baseball heroes, collecting their signatures in her autograph book.

My grandmother on the Cardinals Cruise

In January of 2004 my grandmother went on the trip of a lifetime: the annual Cardinals Cruise. And sixty-five years after her days in the Knothole Gang, she took her old autograph book with her, added to it signatures of the Cardinals who were on the cruise. Recently she gave me that old autograph book, knowing what a big fan (and collector of autographs) I was.





The following autographs were in it from the Cruise:

Bo Hart was a rookie second baseman with the Cardinals in 2003. He burst onto the scene, batting .489 in his first nine games, ultimately finishing the season with a very respectable .277 average. The following season though, he only came to the plate 14 times before being sent back to the minors at the end of April, never to return to the bigs.

A St. Louis native, Kerry Robinson played for five teams in his seven-year MLB career.The only stop that lasted more than one season was with the Cardinals, for whom he played outfield from 2001 to 2003. He is perhaps most remembered for a game-winning home run against the Cubs that was chronicled in Buzz Bissinger's book, Three Nights in August.

Before he was the Cardinals' manager, Mike Matheny was a four-time gold-glove award winning catcher, including three times with the Cardinals. Even as he has faced mounting criticism from many Cardinal fans, my grandmother still is a steadfast supporter, in no small part due to her time spent with him on the cruise some 13+ years ago!

Tom Herr came up with the Cardinals in 1979 and was a mainstay at second base for the better part of a decade. His best season was unquestionably 1985, when he had 110 RBIs despite hitting only eight home runs. He batted .302 and stole 31 bases while only being caught three times, finishing fifth in the MVP voting.





Bob Gebhard pitched 31 innings in the early 1970s, but he was on the Cardinals Cruise because he served as an assistant to Cardinals GM Walt Jocketty from 2000-2004. Before that, he was the original GM for the Rockies, serving there from 1992-1999 and being responsible for building that team from the ground up.








Another person who came to St. Louis from the Rockies was Wayne Hagin. Hagin had the unenviable task of replacing a legend. Jack Buck manned the mic for nearly half a century. After he passed away in 2002, Hagin had served as a radio play-by-play man in Colorado since their inception in 1993, but he only lasted four years in the Cardinals' booth. That notwithstanding, my grandmother has very fond memories of his kindness.





Remember though, that the autographs my grandmother got on the Cruise were not the only autographs she gave me. She also had gotten the following 65 years earlier:

Buzzy Wares played for the old St. Louis Browns in 1912 & 1913. Two days after he made his MLB debut though, a new manager took over for the Browns. His name: Branch Rickey. Rickey must have been impressed with the baseball acumen of Wares, even if his playing ability was unspectacular, because when he was the Cardinals' GM in 1930, he hired Wares as a coach. Over the next 17 years, the Cardinals would win seven NL pennants and five World Series. Wares would coach a total of 23 seasons in all for the Cardinals, remaining on their staff through the 1952 season.

Don Padgett came up with the Cardinals in 1937 and hit .288 with them over five seasons (including a 1939 season when he hit .399 in 233 at bats). He served in the military from 1942 to 1945 and then finished his career with a couple seasons in which he played for the Dodgers, Braves and Phillies.

I'm frankly not sure who this autograph belongs to. My grandmother thinks it must have been from either the 1938 or 1939 season, and when I inspected those rosters, my best guess was that it was Micky Owen. I'm reasonably certain it's not his autograph though because...

...THIS is Micky Owen's autograph. Owen came up with the Cardinals in 1937 and played the first four seasons of his 13 year career in St. Louis. After being traded to the Dodgers, he put up four consecutive All Star seasons, but he is most famous for dropping a third strike with two out in the ninth inning of game four of the 1941 World Series. Tommy Heinrich reached base safely and the Yankees would go on to win both the game and the Series.

Hall of Famer Enos Slaughter played for the Cardinals from 1938-1953 (excepting the three seasons he served in the military during World War II). He is best known for his "mad dash" from first base to score the winning run in game seven of the 2946 World Series. He would also play parts of six seasons with the Yankees as well as spending time with the Braves and the A's, but his greatest success was in St. Louis where he was an All Star in all 10 seasons he played between 1941 and 1953.

Hall of Famer Johnny Mize played the first six seasons of his career, and held the franchise record for home runs in a season (43 in 1940) until a fellow named Mark McGwire donned the Birds on the Bat. Mize hit .329 with 19 HR and 93 RBIs his rookie year of 1936. He followed this up with five straight season in which he finished in the top twelve of the NL MVP voting.

Despite having averaged 26 HR, 109 RBIs and a .336 batting average, he was traded to the Giants after the 1941 season. This move seems like a terrible one, considering the minimal return the Cardinals received. It turns out though, that this trade opened up a spot in the lineup that would be filled in 1942 by a rookie from Donora, Pennsylvania named Stanley Frank Musial.

Grandma and Fredbird

Seat Cushion Night

If you are unaware of what the above pictures are, it's a pretty safe bet you weren't a Cardinal fan in the 1980s.  From 1985-1988, the Cardinals and the Mets each won the NL East twice. It was an incredibly heated rivalry as the two teams battled for divisional supremacy.

On April 18, 1987, the two teams did battle in St. Louis. The Cardinals fell behind 5-0, only to score five in the fourth inning, capped off by a bases loaded walk to Tom Herr. Fans rejoiced at the Cardinal comeback by littering the field frisbee-style with the seat cushions given out as promotional souvenirs. There were so many thrown on the field that there was actually an announcement made that the Cardinals would have to forfeit the game if it continued.

After the field was cleaned up, the Cardinals took the lead in the sixth on an RBI double by Herr, only to see the Mets score two in the top of the ninth to take an 7-6 lead. The Cardinals tied it in the bottom of the ninth in typical Whiteyball fashion as Ozzie Smith walked, went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Herr, stole third and scored on the wild throw by the catcher.

In the tenth, the Mets took the lead once more, only to see the Cardinals tie the game on a Tom Pagnozzi single, load the bases, and, well, that's when this happened.

A little trivia here...Question: How many home runs did Herr hit in his career? Answer: 28 (which also was Herr's uniform number). I'm not sure how many of those I saw in person, but I know I saw at least one of them. And unlike just about everyone else who was there, I still have the seat cushion to prove it!

Autographed 1986 Pocket Schedule

Here is a pocket schedule from the 1986 season.  Note that season's theme of "Catch Us If You Can."  The Cardinals were coming of a 1985 season in which they had won the National League Pennant, largely by running, running and running.  They stole an amazing 314 bases (132 more than any other team in baseball that season).  Jack Clark was the team's one "big bat," hitting 22 home runs.  That figure accounted for more than 25% of the team's total.

The autographs on the schedule are from the following players:

• Clint Hurdle - 1986 was his only year with the Cardinals.  He would later manage the 2007 Colorado Rockies to an improbable National League pennant.
• Bob Forsch - One of my favorites as a kid, he is the only Cardinal pitcher to throw two no-hitters.  He was an all-around nice guy, seemingly never willing to say "no" to young autograph seekers. 
• Andy Van Slyke - Just before the 1987 season, Van Slyke would be traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Tony Pena.  He would help lead them to NL East crowns in 1991-1993, which were also their last three winning seasons.  On a personal note, after he retired, Van Slyke and I actually attended the same church for a while.
• Tom Herr - Another Christian (note the "John 3:16" beneath his autograph), Herr accomplished the amazing feat of getting 110 RBIs in 1985 despite hitting only 8 home runs.

I get especially nostalgic when I look at the ticket prices on the schedule.  Bleachers were $3, General Admission was $4, Reserved Seats were $7 and Box Seats $9.50.  Every seat in the park was less than $10.  Those were the days!