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The Redbirds have featured some all time great baseball names at the keystone position that include Hornsby, Frisch and Schoendienst. Those guys were all before my time as a Cardinal fan and I cut my teeth with the bespectacled, “Hoolie” manning up at that all important middle IF position. And while Javier was certainly not only an exceptional, but also, a primary component of those legendary Redbird teams of the 60’s, my favorite Cardinal 2B’man of my lifetime is Tommy Herr. I don’t think he gets near enough mention in Redbirdland. His mitt at 2B was as good as anyone at any other position on those great Cardinal defensive teams of the 80’s, and if it weren’t for a guy who spelled his name Sandburg, Tommy would have had a monopoly on th GG award at 2B in the NL for several consecutive seasons. And I challenge anyone to show me a better 6-4-3 than Smith to Herr to Hernandez. In my view, it’s the all time best. In any case, Tommy Herr is my favorite Redbird 2B’man for many reasons. And one of many is that whenever I look at the flip side of his card, I see 110 RBI’s next to only 8 taters…Haha!
Herr was an ideal 2B even apart from the GG quality defense. the large majority of his career PAs were top of the order. Batting 1,2 or 3. Mostly 2. A second baseman who is a down in the order hitter needs to be replaced. Solid up the middle D and up in the order offensive contribution is the ideal and Herr was ideal.
Of all the great players the Cards had in the late 70’s and early to mid 80’s (O. Smith, L. Smith, McGee, Sutter, Tudor, Andujar, Hernandez, Simmons, Hendrick, etc…) my two favorites were Tommy Herr and Jack Clark.
Herr was always at the top of my list of favorites and I remember feeling plenty of discontent when he was traded to the Twins. I liked Clark too, but my feelings for him took a drastic turn for the worse when he accused Pujols of being amped up on PED’s. I always liked Hendrick not only because he was a solid all around baseball player, but also because I admired him for being smart enough not to talk to the media. And Andujar was my favorite on that ’82 team simply because he was a genuine lunatic…Haha!
You can’t go wrong building a team with Tommy Herr in his prime as your second sacker. Ozzie was my favorite ‘80s Cardinal as I have always been primarily a shortstop in my baseball and softball days. But I liked Herr a lot – I liked how he dug in that back foot when hitting from the left side.
My dad was a big Javier fan. I remember as kid trading for a ‘62 Topps Javier as he was a Cardinal, but I did not know who he was and could not pronounce his name. I ran home with the card and showed it to my dad, and he was almost as excited as me to see the card and said, “That’s Hool-I-Han Havier!!”
Of course the best line back in the day was Javier’s Cardinal teammates teasing him by asking how well he could hit the Reds “Hoey Hay”. 😀
The Hoey Hay gag reminds me of Steve Kline telling the story of Renteria singing a well know Dean Martin Christmas song during a blistering hot July day game that contained the lyrics, “Let it no, let it no, let it no”…Haha!
Yea tommy was def one of my favorites. Wasnt a fan of the trade. But i also liked oberkfell as well. I wish i could look through the eyes of a young person at the baseball team again. Its just different at my age.
My 3 all time favorite Cardinals are Tommy Herr, George Hendrick and John Tudor. There’s another 3 Cardinals that I know would have made my top 6 list if only we had acquired their services earlier in their careers……Eric Davis, Bob Horner and Ron Gant.
Not Ozzie Smith, Adam Wainwright, Albert Puhols, or Yadi?
Tudor wasn’t with us all that long but wow what an impact he made!
Whitey Herzog had a great story about Bob Horner. It was the first game of the season and Horner was in the clubhouse sitting there and Whitey asked him how he was doing. Horner replied “I’m tired.”
Whitey said in a book where I read that, “Here we are having not even played a game yet and this guy is already tired!”
Well his bat sure had all the look of being “tired” in a Cards uni. You have a never ending stream of great baseball tidbits and stories…….keep them coming, BicycleMike.
Yeah, even though Ozzie, Adam and Albert were 3 of our all great Cardinals, none even came close to making my personal Top 5 Cardinals favorite list. Don’t know why, ZTR? When JD Drew came up, I thought for sure he was going to Crack my favorites list, but it was not to be. Loved Jack Clark……he’s #4 on my list. Bob Forsch would be #5 and Gibby, though his prime was before my time, checks in at #6.
Haha!…”I’m tired”…Sounds just like one of Madeline Kahn’s lines in a song she performed in “Blazing Saddles.” She was really good as “Lili Van Schtupp” in that film. As for Horner, he’s right at the top of the list of all time Redbird washouts.
We all have made fun a bit of James Robert (Bob) Horner, but to be fair, he had some monster seasons with Atlanta. I especially liked his ’79 campaign when Bob hit for a .314 BA, stroked 33 round trippers with 98 RBI and a most impressive. 407 rOBA. Being a fellow ASU alum and residing in the same off campus apartments (Cinnamon Tree)…..Bob nearly a decade earlier than myself, he holds a special place in my heart.
Pugsley your top 3 are also high on my list. I find doing all time list hard to do. Condensing it down is hard. A few others i would mention. Now we are talking players i saw play, not guys before. Bob forsch is my favorite pitcher, after that tudor. Waino, matt morris and chris carpenter. Some players besides hendricks and herr, would be ken oberkfell, willie magee, ted simmons, dane iorg, bo hart, harrison bader, lonnie smith. Of course i like the big ones like ozzie, molina, and pujols. But i think favorite is different than best.
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