1979 St. Louis Cardinals: The Year The Arrow Turned Up
The great baseball town of St. Louis was on a dry spell coming into the 1979 season. Since their run of 1967-68, when the Cardinals won consecutive National League pennants and a World Series, the franchise had struggled—only four winning seasons over the ensuing decade. The 1979 edition of the St. Louis Cardinals had a lot of good young players, a proud veteran on his last run, and they got the trajectory moving back in the right direction.
A LINEUP BUILT ON BALANCE, CONTACT AND SPEED
Keith Hernandez led the way at first base. A fantastic all-around year was headlined by a stat line of .417 on-base percentage/.513 slugging percentage. He won the batting title with a .344 average, drove in 105 runs and his 48 doubles led the league. Hernandez shared the 1979 NL MVP award with Pittsburgh Pirates’ veteran Willie Stargell and Hernandez should have won it outright.
Ted Simmons, a future Hall of Famer, was behind the plate. Simmons posted a .369/.507 stat line and hit 26 home runs. Garry Templeton was an emerging star at shortstop. His 211 hits led the league and were supplemented by 26 stolen bases.
RIghtfielder George Hendrick’s line was .359/.456 and he batted .300. So did second baseman Ken Oberkfell. Jerry Mumphrey provided quality depth in the outfield and hit .295.
And then there was the great Lou Brock. The 40-year-old leftfielder, one of the great base-stealers in baseball history and bound for Cooperstown, was playing his last season and he was still productive. Brock finished with a .342 OBP and his 21 steals gave him 938 for his career. It was a career record at the time and still ranks second on the all-time list.
This well-balanced attack didn’t have a lot of home run power, but the ability to hit consistently, run, and drive the ball in the gaps, the Cardinals finished fourth in the National League for runs scored.
JUST ENOUGH PITCHING
The pitching staff didn’t have a clear ace, but there was overall balance. Pete Vuckovich, Bob Forsch, and Silvio Martinez all consistently took their turn, logged their innings, and finished with ERAs in the 3s. John Denny’s 4.35 ERA marked him a reasonably reliable fourth starter. John Fulgham pitched well in a mix of relief and spot starts, posting a 2.53 ERA. In the bullpen Mark Littell and Will McEnany each had ERAs in the 2s.
St. Louis pitching was middle of the pack, at sixth in the 12-team National League for composite ERA. But it was good enough to compete.
A CROWDED NL EAST & A DIFFERENT BASEBALL WORLD
The Cardinals played mediocre baseball for much of the early season. They lost three of four to the eventual World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates. St. Louis dropped four of six games against the Cincinnati Reds, who made the NLCS. But the Cards ticked up in May, winning four of six against the Houston Astros and three of five over the Montreal Expos (today’s Washington Nationals), each of whom would contend to the final weekend of the season.
By Memorial Day, St. Louis was above water at 22-19. They were in third place, four games off the pace in the old NL East.
The division configuration and playoff structure was different in the world of 1979. There was no Central Division—each league had just an East and a West, and only the first-place teams qualified for the postseason, moving directly into the League Championship Series.
St. Louis was situated in the East. They, the Pirates, and the Chicago Cubs joined the Expos, New York Mets, and Philadelphia Phillies in this division. The placement of St. Louis and Chicago in the East, while Cincinnati and the Atlanta Braves were in the West was a head-scratcher, with internal league politics trumping the ability to read a map. But it was the alignment that held sway until 1994.
BUILDING MOMENTUM & TASTING 1ST PLACE
The Cardinals opened the month of June with a weekend home series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had won two straight National League pennants, but were struggling to find their footing in ’79.
In Friday night’s opener, Hernandez and Simmons combined for five hits, including two home runs and four RBIs. It was tied 6-6 going into extra innings. The Dodgers got a run in the top of the 11th. In the bottom of the inning, St. Louis responded with four singles, capped by a base hit from reserve outfielder Dane Iorg to win it 8-7.
That offensive momentum rolled into Saturday night. The Cardinals dropped five runs in the first, keyed by a bases-loaded double from third baseman Ken Reitz. Hendricks had four hits and four RBIs. St. Louis rolled to a 12-5 win.
Templeton led the way in the Sunday finale, with a four-hit afternoon and he stole two bases. A 6-4 win completed the sweep and pulled St. Louis within two games of first place. The Cards continued to play well on their homestand against West Coast teams, cleaning up on the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres, pushing their record to 32-22 and spending a couple of days in a tie for the NL East lead.
LOSING GROUND
But the return trip west ushered in more challenging times. St. Louis lost seven of nine on the trip and fell five games off the pace. They continued to muddle along thereafter, going 10-12 into the All-Star break. The Cards were 44-42, in fifth place and 6 ½ games back. They weren’t out of it, but they needed to make a move.
That move didn’t happen after the break. St. Louis lost five of their first eight games in the second half. On July 27, they went to Philadelphia in a 7 ½ game hole and needing to right the ship quickly.
REVIVAL IN PHILADELPHIA
The Phils had won the NL East the previous three seasons and were one of four teams packed within four games of each other. They needed to make a move almost as much as the Cardinals did.
Forsch took the ball on Friday night and was brilliant, tossing a three-hitter and winning 5-0. On Saturday, the top of the order came through. Templeton, Brock and Hernandez, the 1-2-3 hitters, combined for seven hits. That included Brock’s RBI single in the top of the ninth that broke a 4-4 tie and gave St. Louis the win.
Hernandez kept hitting on Sunday with a three-hit game, leading a 6-5 win that gave the Cardinals a badly needed sweep. There were signs of life.
THE ROLLER COASTER CONTINUES
An up-and-down season continued with a missed opportunity against Pittsburgh and Montreal, who were starting the process of separating themselves from the pack. St. Louis lost five of eight. But they responded by sweeping the lowly New York Mets and then building on that by winning 13 of their next 21.
By Labor Day, the Cardinals were a solid 72-61 and had risen to third place. With the Pirates and Expos both surging, St. Louis was still eight games out, but they were playing better baseball. And there were head-to-head opportunities ahead in September.
WHERE THEY LANDED
The Cardinals just weren’t as good as the NL East frontrunners—they dropped seven of 11 games against Pittsburgh and Montreal to end any hopes of winning the division. But St. Louis played well against everyone else, winning eight of twelve, and ultimately finishing the season at 86-76.
That record was good for third place, ahead of the Phillies and fifth overall in the National League. It was the 10th-best record in all of baseball. In other words, by the standards of our modern day, St. Louis would have snuck into the postseason and been playing pretty well going on.
THE SEEDS OF SUCCESS
The promise of this young team was fulfilled in the next decade, although there was a brief step back, as the Cards slipped under .500 in 1980. A managerial change was made, and Whitey Herzog came in.
The new manager used some of this core talent, notably Templeton and Simmons, to make big trades that strengthened the overall roster. Others, such as Hernandez and Hendricks, continued to be part of the core. By 1981, St. Louis was a contender, and in 1982, they won it all. The seeds of that success were planted in 1979.