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Hi there! 🙂 My name’s Sean! 🙂 I’m 34 years old, and I’ve got autism. I live in St. Clair, Missouri with my mom, and even though I wasn’t born until 1991, but since I like the nostalgia of the 1980’s and 1990’s, and since 1982 is my favorite earliest year, and since Friday, January 1, 1982 is my
favorite earliest date, and since some of my favorite Cardinals teams are the 1982 Cardinals, the 1985 Cardinals, and the 1987 Cardinals, with manager Whitey Herzog, and players like Ozzie Smith (hence my username Osmith1985), Willie McGee, Bruce Sutter, Darrell Porter, Joaquin Andujar, Tom Herr, Vince Coleman, Terry Pendleton, and Jack Clark, etc., what memories do you have from the 1982 World Series against the Brewers (besides Willie McGee’s epic Game 3)? 🙂 #ThatsAWinner #JackBuck #MikeShannonThanks!
Sean 🙂Sean, hopefully you will experience glory years like the 1980’s yourself at some point in the future.
There’s no question that the ’82 Redbirds are right at the top of my list of favorite Cardinal teams. They were also really good and epitomized the concept of fundamental winning baseball consisting of outstanding speed and defense, advancing baserunners, timely hitting and an ample rotation augmented by a slam the door shut BP. And oh, did I mention they were led by a HOF manager? That team was fun to watch and was probably the best defensive Redbird team that I’ve ever witnessed. Absolutely airtight all over the playing surface with the exception of the “Skates” out in LF. And they had a SP’er who was without a doubt a,”Power Heater”…When he took a rip at a pitch, there were gail force winds in Busch Memorial Stadium…Haha! In any case, you picked a good team to name as your favorite, Osmith!
No doubt my favorite team. I was 25 with a poor paying job and a young family. I could barely afford a bleacher seat to a regular season game. No way could I afford a ws ticket. A friend called a couple hours before game 6 and had a free ticket for me. Highlite of my baseball fandom. “Silent” George Hendrick wasn’t the best player on that team, but he was my favorite. Welcome Sean. Lots of cool characters here on TCN.
Hendrick led that ’82 team in both RBI’s and HR’s and was probably the most important offensive force besides Lonnie Smith who I feel was the overall season long catalyst that allowed the Redbirds to take the first step by winning the old NLE over the Phillies. Silent George also tied Dane Iorg for most Cardinal hits with 9 in that ’82 WS. He also had what may be the most important RBI hit in the 6th inning of game 7 which put the Redbirds ahead to stay by a score of 4-3. The Cardinals later went on to extend that lead to 6-3, but Hendrick’s hit pushed across what I thought was the pivotal RBI. George’s bat was without a doubt the one that generated the most offensive production throughout that great 1982 season. He was also a first rate defensive RF’er all season long and gunned down Yount attempting to go first to third on a Cecil Cooper single in the 4th inning of game 7. I’ll take Silent George on my roster all season long!
The 1980’s has been my favorite Cardinal decade thus far. I still maintain that the 1985 Cardinals were the best Cardinal team of my lifetime, followed closely by the 2004 Cardinals. Ironically neither won the World Series although the 1985 team was obviously robbed.
As for 1982 it was a magical team no doubt. I distinctly remember listening to the radio for the opening day game against the Astros. Lonnie Smith was all over the bases as the Cards shelled Nolan Ryan and won 14-3. That game set the tone for the rest of the season.
The 1982 World Series was glorious. Harvey’s wallbangers had one of the most feared lineups of all time which they displayed in Game 1. Molitor, Yount, Cooper, Thomas, Ogilvie, Simmons, Gantner, and Hisle was not a bad group. It was a classic NL/AL contrast of speed vs power. Fortunately the speed team got the victory.
“Skates” was most definitely the primary offensive catalyst for that ’82 team and placed a pretty close second to Dale Murphy in the ’82 NL MVP voting.
Yeah, gscottar, that entire MIL lineup was incredibly intimidating with the 2 future HOF’ers Molitor and Yount followed by another future HOF’er in the preson of Simmons, followed by the extremely dangerous sluggers, Cooper, Ogilve and Thomas. Redbird pitchers got zero bargains up and down that lineup. And I thought we were in serious trouble after game 1 at Busch Memorial. But baseball is played all over the field and not just in the batter’s box and our Whitey led Redbirds proved that there’s more than one way to slay a ferocious lion.
Welcome Osmith1985! Yeah, not only was the ’82 team all that posters have said, they were the bunch that broke the spell. Those of us that lived through the 1970s endured not only a lot of bad Cardinal teams, but there was a cloud of “what if?” hanging over us. There were so many good former Cardinals on other teams, All-Stars and guys that were playing in a lot of post season games, that you just felt almost cursed being a Cardinal fan.
Then Whitey Herzog came along and rebuilt the team to take advantage of the home part, using great defense, speed, and pitching, particularly strong relief pitching. In 1981 we had the best overall record in the NL East, but due to the strike and split season, we got gyped out of the playoffs.
Then 1982 brought it all together, and we got our first pennant in 14 years and first ring in 15 years. There is a great documentary on the 1982 Brewers that if anyone gets a chance, be sure to watch it. It’s the Brewers, but it is really good and of course covers the ’82 Series. And they do not sugar coat it from their perspective. Ted Simmons is in it lot. I saw it a few months ago as it came up as a recommendation on Roku, but I am not exactly sure what service it was streaming on. A quick search should find it though.
Again, great memories and thanks for bringing this up Osmith1985. I have met Ozzie a couple of times at sports collectors conventions. He is a great guy and very personable.
I listened to every game i could in 82 even at school sometimes. Prob my favorite sports moment all time. My memory is not good now so i dont recall a lot of the series like i wish i could. Silent george was my favorite though i eventually became a bigger magee fan. Loved dane iorg as well, ironic just in three years he would get a very big hit to down the cardinals in the world series.
I remember the amazing team speed and defense. The amazing relief work of Bruce. And I love the unsung hero’s like Dane Iorg. The steadiness of Forsch contrasted with the zaniness of Andujar. A great team and a great brand of baseball!
He sure did, Willie. That walk-off 2 RBI single in game 6 at Kauffman was the only hit he had for the Royals in that fateful ’85 WS. And a good trivia stumper is that Iorg led all Cardinals in the ’82 WS with a .529 BA and was tied with none other than Silent George for the lead in hits with 9 of them despite appearing in only 5 games in that ’82 WS.
Iorg was a real good pinch hitter for us, and part time outfielder. One thing I liked about him too was he was at least a small payback from the Phillies for Steve Carlton. Nowhere near made up for Carlton, not to mention Bake McBride, but at least getting him gave us some value. Lonnie Smith also.
I liked his name too, “Dane Iorg”. Plus his brother Garth Iorg was with Toronto at that time. Another great name.
I enjoy reading these memories. It reminds me of my uncles talking about watching those Cardinals teams and how fun they were. I was born in 1982, after the Cards won that World Series, so obviously I didn’t watch them. I was blessed to witness the other golden years of the early 2000s. Hopefully another one will come along in my lifetime.
A couple memories of this series – it was referred to as the “Suds Series”, due to both cities having prominent breweries – Schlitz and Miller in Milwaukee, and Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis. One of the best signs I saw while watching a game on television was a Milwaukee fan holding up a sign during a game while it was raining that read, “Don’t let the rain get in your beer. It will taste like that stuff from St. Louis” 😂
There is a record album that has season and World Series highlights. I bought one when it came out, and they are available on eBay fairly cheap. Here is a link to one:
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