Story on the 1982 Cardinals...Happier Times

[mizzoupacers]

HOF sports editor Rick Hummel wrote this for today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

link

The 1985 team was a little bit better, and the 2004 team had much better everyday hitters, but the 1982 team was the best-put-together Cardinals team I've ever watched--it was the prototype Whitey Ball team, built on defense, speed, and more speed.

This article reminds me of just how good Bruce Sutter was back then--at his best, he was far and away the toughest closer the Cardinals have ever had, which is saying something considering some of the other guys we've had in the last 25 years. Also, the story reminds me of how good the defense was...only 44 errors for the season by the entire infield. Which is amazing when you think about how many balls Ozzie Smith got to...he was at his peak as a fielder, and it seemed like he took away at least three hits per game--no one got ground-ball hits on us to the left side of the infield, unless it was an absolute rocket right in the hole. Still the most incredible thing I've ever seen done on a baseball field by a Cardinal...maybe by anyone.

What a fun season. I was a college student in St. Louis in 1982, and the Cardinals had not won even a division championship in ages, not since I was too young to remember. My friends and I cut classes and spent two nights in sleeping bags on an oily driveway of a downtown truck depot, waiting in line for bleachers tickets for the NL playoffs. My history prof asked me why I missed his class, and I fessed up, and he said, "Wow, I wish I could have gone with you." After the Cards swept the Braves, we camped out again for World Series tickets. When I think back on my college days, camping out in the ticket line around the stadium is always one of the first things I think about. Youth had its perks.