We look back at former Post-Dispatch sportswriter Dan O'Neill's ranking of the top moments in St. Louis pro sports history.
— This list was originally published in July 2012.
Former Post-Dispatch sportswriter Dan O'Neill came up with this ranking shortly after the David Freese home run in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series.
First, the rules of engagement: With apologies to Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Pete Woods, these rankings are limited to professional sports. Moreover, the focus is on sustained performance, not a singular moment; sorry Glenn Brummer. Also, this is about a game or event, not a season or a career.
As might be expected from level heads, merit may be swayed by a variety of factors. In the theater of the dramatic, external implications and context can elevate the action itself.
See how his list holds up today.
Kurt Warner was supposed to hold the clipboard for Trent Green in 1999. When an injured Green went down in preseason play, Warner became folklore. He passed for 4,353 yards, 41 touchdowns and led the Rams to a 13-3 regular season. In the playoffs, he found Ricky Proehl (of all people) in the corner of the end zone to beat stubborn Tampa Bay and send the St. Louis Rams to their first championship opportunity.
But if the Super Bowl is the biggest game of all, Warner’s Super Bowl MVP performance has to stand alone. He passed for a record 414 yards, 277 in the first half. With 1:54 to play, he connected with Isaac Bruce on a 73-yard scoring play that spelled the difference in a thrilling 23-16 victory.
The whole thing brought tears to Dick Vermeil’s eyes ... but then again, so does junk mail.
CHRIS LEE
The day after pitching a complete-game victory over the Yankees, extending the 1926 World Series, a 39-year-old Grover "Pete" Alexander entered Game 7 in the seventh inning. The bases were loaded (and contrary to legend, Alexander was not), with Hall of Fame slugger Tony Lazzeri at the plate and the Cardinals clinging to a precarious 3-2 lead.
Alexander fanned Lazzeri on four pitches, then hurled two more scoreless innings of nail-biting relief to clinch a world championship. With two out in the ninth, Alexander walked Babe Ruth on a 3-2 pitch. But catcher Bob O’Farrell threw out Ruth trying to steal second to end the game.
Toss in the fact Ronald Reagan played Alexander in the movie version, The Winning Team, and it becomes a Top 10 layup.
STAFF
You could make this list exclusively Gibson highlights and do just fine. But his championship-clinching performance at Boston in ’67 was especially sublime. The Cardinals lost 3-1 in Game 5 and then 8-4 in Game 6, with the Red Sox pounding four homers at Fenway.
The next day, Gibson turned that horse around. He limited Boston to three hits and struck out 10 while out-dueling a spent Jim Lonborg. In the fifth inning, "Gibby" embellished the heroics by smashing a home run to the deepest part of the yard. The Cardinals won 7-2 and Gibson was the series MVP with three complete-game victories, 26 strikeouts in 27 innings and a 1.00 ERA.
Orlando "Cha Cha" Cepeda shouted at Gibson as he entered the postgame clubhouse: "You can do it all . . . you can do it all!"
UPI Telephoto
It was just a regular season game, no NHL playoffs or championship ramifications involved. But the big picture was much more. The Blues were the new game in town, still sinking roots early into a second season in 1968.
Gordon "Red" Berenson was emerging as a genuine star of the Expansion Era and the "Red Baron" lifted the franchise on a spectacular Nov. 7 night in Philadelphia. At one point, Berenson scored four goals in a nine-minute span, becoming the first – and still only – visiting player to get six goals in a game. Four of the goals came in breakaway fashion, as Berenson blew past defenseman Ed Van Impe.
The six goals matched a modern record and has been equaled only once – Darryl Sittler, 1976.
"I remember as I came off the ice afterward, Glenn Hall (the backup goalie that night) told me, ‘Good game, at least you were plus tonight,’ " Berenson said, with a laugh. "Guys were a little tough on you back then."
During a Sunday doubleheader in May 1954, the lefthanded-swinging Musial made major league history at the old ballpark at Grand and Dodier. After walking in the first inning of the opener, he slammed a third-inning home run off Giants lefty John Antonelli, and in the fifth he added a two-run shot.
Musial singled off righthander Jim Hearn in the sixth, then came to the plate with two runners aboard in the eighth, the score tied 6-6. He leaned into another Hearn offering for a three-run homer and the Cardinals went on to a 10-6 win.
In the nightcap, Musial again walked in the first against lefty Don Liddle, then batted in the third. Musial drove a drive deep to center that Willie Mays caught more than 400 feet away. In the fifth, with the Cards trailing 8-3, Musial blasted a two-run homer off Hoyt Wilhelm. With the Cardinals still behind 8-6 in the seventh, Musial pulled a tape-measure homer over the pavilion roof, his fifth jack of the day.
In the ninth, Musial popped out and breathing a collective sigh of relief, the Giants held on for a 9-7 victory. In 10 plate appearances, "The Man" reached eight times, with five home runs, 21 total bases, nine runs batted in and six scored. Four of Musial’s homers came with his team tied or trailing.
According to his book, "The Man Stan Musial ... Then and Now,"Musial returned home that evening and was greeted by his 13-year-old son for a Leave It To Beaver moment. "Gee dad," Dick Musial said, "they sure must have been throwing you fat pitches today."
Jack Buck was not a professional athlete. But aside from Stan Musial, he might be the most beloved sports figure in the history of this town. On Sept. 17, 2001, the night Major League Baseball resumed play after the attacks of Sept. 11, a diminished Buck made one of his final public appearances. Weakened by cancer, ravaged by Parkinson’s disease and diabetes, an emotional Buck stepped to a microphone in pregame ceremonies and read his reaffirming, patriotic poem.
Under different circumstances, the presentation might have been ostentatious. But Buck served in World War II and was wounded in combat while crossing the Remagen Bridge into Germany. He had all the credibility to write and read that poem. It was a time, a moment and a man many of us will never forget.
TOM GANNAM
During the same summer, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, body bags returned from Vietnam and Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised gloved fists in Mexico City. In the midst of it all, Denny McClain won 31 games to lead Detroit to its first pennant in 23 years. The flamboyant McLain, who flew a private plane and played the organ at Las Vegas night spots, was baseball’s headliner.
The intensely competitive Bob Gibson struck a much different public profile, often soured by the racially charged hate mail he received. Prominent among a myriad of buttons and signs adorning Gibson’s locker was one that read, "I’m not prejudiced, I hate everybody." He also struck out everybody, or so it seemed. He finished the season with 22 wins, 13 shutouts, 268 strikeouts and a 1.12 earned-run average.
When the World Series began, it was McLain against Gibson in Game 1 at Busch Stadium. And it was no contest, as Gibson struck out a record 17 Tigers in a 4-0 shutout. The complete game World Series win was the sixth in succession for Gibson, also a record.
Asked for some thoughts afterward, Detroit manager Mayo Smith told reporters, "It’s like the old story about asking Mrs. Lincoln how she liked the play."
File
On a local-kid-makes-good level, Freese’s night on Oct. 28, 2011 is the bomb. The Lafayette High product batted in the ninth inning of Game 6, as the Cardinals trailed the Rangers 7-5 on the scoreboard, 3-2 in the series. The tying runs were aboard, but two were out and with a 1-2 count, champagne was popping unsolicited in the visiting Busch Stadium clubhouse.
Freese sent a drive to right that got over Nelson Cruz’ glove. The tying runs dashed home and Freese slid into third with a hand-clapping, game-tying triple. An inning later, Lance Berkman replicated the dramatics, stroking another game-tying blow with two outs and two strikes.
Finally, in the 11th, the unflappable Freese completed his Norman Rockwell painting, pounding a walk-off homer to center field for a 10-9 win that extended the Series to Game 7.
"You had to be here to believe it," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said afterward.
Chris Lee
Gap-toothed Leon Spinks, a 24-year-old from the projects in St. Louis, was making only his eighth professional boxing start on Feb. 15, 1978 – and it was a title fight against the iconic Muhammad Ali. In Apollo Creed fashion, the 36-year-old Ali expected a layup when he gave Spinks the fight, planning to milk one more rope-a-dope payday from his fading skills.
But Ali’s possum strategy didn’t work against the unrelenting Spinks, who just kept coming. In trouble, Ali tried to rally in the waning moments, but Spinks answered in kind. One hallucinating judge scored the decision for Ali, but two others gave Spinks the stunning upset he deserved.
Gonna fly now, flying high now ...
St. Louis lost its NBA franchise in the late 1960s. Unfortunately, it also lost connection with one of its greatest sports figures, "Big Blue." Bob Pettit is on the short list of greatest players in NBA history. The gentlemanly Pettit would be beloved here in a Stan Musial way if pro basketball still had a pulse.
The St. Louis Hawks lost Game 7 of the 1957 NBA Finals to the dynastic Boston Celtics. But a year later, Pettit single-handedly made sure it didn’t happen again. With St. Louis leading 3-2 in the series, and Game 7 slated for Boston Garden, Game 6 at Kiel Auditorium became a virtual do-or-die situation for the Hawks.
Pettit scored a then-record 50 points, including 19 of his team’s final 21, as the Hawks won and clinched their first and still-only NBA title. Oh, by the way, Pettit also had 19 rebounds in the game, and his tip-in with 15 seconds remaining provided the decisive margin in the 110-109 outcome.
Staff
Hale Irwin jumps for joy after sinking a birdie putt on the 19th playoff hole Monday, June 18, 1990 with Mike Donald during the U.S. Open at Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Il. (AP Photo/Bill Waugh)
BILL WAUGHTen others that could have made the list and why they missed:
1. Two days after pitching 10 innings in Game 5 at Yankee Stadium, Bob Gibson goes the distance to win Game 7 of the 1964 World Series at Busch Stadium.
* Trumped by other Gibson performances.
2. Hale Irwin fires 31 on the back nine and drains a 45-foot putt on the 72nd hole, goes on to win 1990 U.S. Open in a playoff.
* Points deducted because it was a Monday playoff.
3. Albert Pujols hits three home runs and goes 5 for 6 in Game 3 of 2011 World Series.
* Happened in a 16-7 rout.
4. Center fielder Willie McGee has two homers, two leaping catches in Game 3 of the ’82 World Series.
* Game 3, not Game 7.
5. Chris Carpenter beats Roy Halladay 1-0 at Philadelphia in Game 5 of NLDS to keep Cards alive on their way to winning the 2011 World Series.
* Didn’t have nerve to rank it higher (see Gibson, above).
6. On final day of the 1934 season, Dizzy Dean blanks Reds for his 30th win, clinches a pennant for the "Gas House Gang."
* Score was anti-climactic 9-0.
7. Ray Washburn answers Gaylord Perry’s no-hitter with a no-hitter, beating the Giants 2-0 at Candlestick Park on Sept. 18, 1968. It is the first no-hitter by a Cardinal since 1941, the first time two no-hitters are pitched consecutively in a series.
* Regular-season game.
8. McGee hits for the cycle with six RBIs in NBC Game of the Week on June 23, 1984 in Chicago.
* Ryne Sandberg hits two game-tying homers off Bruce Sutter, Cubs win 12-11.
9. Mark Whiten has four home runs in second game of a doubleheader on Sept. 7, 1993 at Cincinnati.
* Meaningless game, meaningless season, underachieving player.
10. One of the greatest NFL debuts in history, Ottis Anderson gains 193 yards on 21 carries, including a 76-yard scoring run, against the Dallas Cowboys.
* Big Red lose 22-21, finish 5-11.
This list was originally published in 2018.
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