The Cardinals’ Side of the Story
St. Louis won the 1967 World Series over the Boston Red Sox in seven games, four wins to three. Much of the public memory of that Series sits with Boston’s Impossible Dream, but the Cardinals were a strong and well-balanced team, and the Series was decided by a handful of individual performances on their side. This article looks at those players and the manager who led them.
Bob Gibson’s Series
Bob Gibson was the dominant figure. The right-hander started three games and won all three, completing each one. His wins came in Game 1, Game 4 and the deciding Game 7. Across the three starts he struck out 26 Boston hitters, a very high total, and he was named the Series Most Valuable Player.
Gibson’s path to the Series had been unusual. In July he was hit on the leg by a line drive off the bat of Roberto Clemente and suffered a fractured bone, but he kept pitching for a short time before the injury was recognised. He was out until September. When the Series began, he had been back for only a few weeks, and he arrived at the top of his form.
His approach was famously intense. Gibson was known for his competitiveness on the mound, a fastball with heavy movement and a slider that hitters rarely saw clearly. In the 1967 Series he did not rely on defence to bail him out, since he completed each game himself. He also hit a home run in Game 7, which helped his own cause. The following year he took things even further, with a 1.12 earned run average in the 1968 regular season, but his 1967 Series is the one that first fixed his reputation as a big-game pitcher. He later became a Hall of Famer.
Lou Brock and the Running Game
Lou Brock, the Cardinals’ left fielder and leadoff hitter, was a key figure in the lineup. Acquired in a 1964 trade with the Chicago Cubs, he became known as one of the best base stealers of his time. In the 1967 Series he hit around .414 and stole seven bases, a Series total that was exceptional for its day. Boston’s catchers and pitchers struggled to hold him, and his speed often put him in scoring position before the heart of the order came up.
Brock’s value was in how he changed the pressure on the opponent. A runner who is likely to steal forces pitchers to alter their timing, and it opens gaps for hitters behind him. It is hard to prove how many runs that created, but his presence in the lineup is generally credited as a significant part of the Cardinals’ offence.
Roger Maris Among the Cardinals
Roger Maris is best known for hitting 61 home runs for the New York Yankees in 1961. By 1967 he was at the other end of his career, having been traded to St. Louis in December 1966. His regular season in 1967 was modest by his earlier standards, with fewer home runs and a lower average than at his peak.
In the Series, though, he hit very well, finishing with a batting average around .385 and driving in several runs. He gave the Cardinals a dependable veteran bat in the middle of the order, and it was fitting that a player who had been through the pressure of 1961 handled October calmly. The Series was one of the last high points of his playing career. He retired after the 1968 season.
Orlando Cepeda and the Rest of the Lineup
Other hitters had quieter Series. Orlando Cepeda, the league’s unanimous Most Valuable Player, did not match his regular-season production against Boston’s pitchers. Tim McCarver, the catcher, and Curt Flood, in centre field, provided steady play, and Julian Javier at second base contributed offensively as well. The Cardinals’ strength lay in having several players who could contribute rather than relying on one star. That depth helped when the Red Sox forced the Series to its limit.
Red Schoendienst
The manager was Red Schoendienst, who had been a star second baseman for the Cardinals and had returned as their manager in 1965. He was calm and practical, and the clubhouse reportedly respected him. His handling of the pitching staff in the Series was straightforward, since he trusted Gibson to go the distance, and his decisions are generally seen as sound.
Schoendienst’s 1967 title was the first of his managerial career, and he would lead the Cardinals to another pennant in 1968, when they lost the Series to the Detroit Tigers. He remained with the Cardinals in various roles for decades, and was elected to the Hall of Fame as a player.
The Boston Opposition
It is worth remembering that the Cardinals were beating a good team. Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski was in the middle of a Triple Crown season, and Jim Lonborg had won the Cy Young Award. The Red Sox pitched well enough in Games 2 and 5 to extend the Series, and their hitters caused real problems for St. Louis in Game 6. So the Cardinals’ win was not an easy one, and the individual feats described above were needed to get it done.
What the Series Meant for St. Louis
The Cardinals had won the World Series in 1964 and would reach it again in 1968, but the 1967 title is often regarded as the high point of that run. It rested on pitching, speed and balance, and it gave the franchise another championship at a time when the American and National Leagues still met only in October.