James...A Cardinal Fan

I love baseball. I was raised in Washington, Illinois a St. Louis Cardinal fan by my Dad. That’s who he liked so that’s who we listened to. At the time my Dad grew up, in southern Illinois, the Cardinals were the most western major league team playing in the United States. The radio station that broadcast the Cardinals was KMOX out of St. Louis. They had a huge following. At the time I was growing up the announcers were Harry Caray and Jack Buck. Younger Cub fans may be surprised to hear that Harry Caray was with the St. Louis Cardinals for 25 years, his longest tenure with any sports team, the Cubs included.


I was born in 1959 and I remember the Cardinals playing in the World Series in 1964 against the New York Yankees. Some of the players I remember were, Bob Gibson, Julián Javier and Lou Brock, who the Cardinals had just traded for that season. Lou Brock came from the Chicago Cubs in a trade for Ernie Broglio that is still considered one of the most lopsided of all time. At the time of the trade, the Cardinals were 28–31, in eighth place in the National League, trailing even the Cubs, who were 27–27 and in sixth place. Four months to the day later, the Cardinals would win the 1964 World Series in seven games over the favored New York Yankees, who were appearing in their fourteenth World Series in sixteen years (and their last until a dozen years later), helped in part by Brock's rejuvenated bat. Meanwhile, Broglio won only seven games for the Chicago Cubs before retiring from baseball after the 1966 season.

Long story short, in my life the Cardinals have made many trips to the World Series. They went to the World Series in 1964, 1967, 1968, 1982, 2004 and 2006, winning four times. I’ll take that and hope for more.