The 1964 St. Louis Cardinals | Year in Review

60 years ago ,the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals was in a state of transition as a franchise because of the presence and greatness of the one and only Stan Musial who was at the time the best hitter in franchise history who had 3,060 career hits retired after playing 22 years with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Now moving forward general manager Bing Devine consulted with manager Johnny Keane and both came to agreement that the Cardinals as a team needed more team speed. In comes Lou Brock who was an outfielder for the Chicago Cubs who at the time was scouted years.

During the month of June, the trading deadline was drawing near and the Cardinals was playing around .500 so General Manager Bing Devine decided to make the call to get a deal done with the Cubs for exchange for Brock so on June 15th the Cardinals traded star pitcher Ernie Broglio was 18-8 in 1963 and was pitching pretty good in 1964 was traded to Chicago as part of a six player deal for Lou Brock.

Brock was exceptional hitting .348 for the Cardinals who went on to break the all time record for stolen bases. As for the season is concerned the St Louis Cardinals had to rally to win the division because the Philadelphia Phillies on September 20 had a 90-60 record holding a 6/1/2 games with 12 games left in the regular season but the Philadelphia Phillies had a epic collapse for the ages as they would be known for the infamous Phillie Phold which began on September 21st as the Phillies got swept by the Cincinnati Reds and the Milwaukee Braves so the Phillies had a 7 game losing streak resulting in them dropping out of first place. But the Cardinals was able to face the Phillies in a 3 game series on September 28th overall the Cardinals swept the Phillies as they lost 10 consecutive games and the Cardinals had won 8 consecutive games. Overall the Cardinals won their first pennant since 1946 then the next step was facing the New York Yankees in the 1964 World Series.

The St Louis Cardinals finished with a record of 93-69 in first place. The New York Yankees were 99-63. This was the first World Series to feature a team with the players’ last names on the uniforms from the St. Louis Cardinals. This World Series was the last hurrah of the Yankee Dynasty of the foursome of Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra.

There was a paradigm shift on a permanent basis in the fielding of a championship team for example with an influx of the signing of Black and Latino players in the National League especially the 1964 Cardinals. The World Series of 1964 went 7 games as the Cardinals prevailed as Pitcher Bob Gibson won the MVP of the World Series.

Gibson had a 2-1 record with a 3.00 ERA including 31 strikeouts in 27 innings pitched. Catcher Tim McCarver hit .478 in the 1964 World Series as he had 11 hits including 5 RBIS and a home run scoring 4 runs. The championship for the Cardinals was miraculous due to the epic collapse of the Philadelphia Phillies but the Cardinals played well at the right time of the season which is microcosm of it is not how you start a MLB Regular Season but how you finish a season as the Cardinals exemplified that example.