The MLB lockout continues with regular season games already canceled. The Cardinals have announced their Hall of Fame candidates for 2022 as minor league spring camp opens. Our history feature highlights the 1944 World Champions.
MLB lockout updates
The Major League Baseball lockout has continued into March with no sign of an end in sight. The parties spent a week at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter trying to negotiate a deal. An arbitrary deadline implemented by MLB for February 28 was extended one more day to March 1, but no deal was reached, and the parties left Jupiter with tensions no better than when they started.
One notable result was the cancellation of the first two series of the regular season, both of which were to be on the road for the Cardinals. Pending further action, the season will now begin with the home opener on April 7. Spring training camps remain closed for major leaguers.
There was an extensive amount of reporting on the day-to-day negotiations with a sizable contingent of the baseball media essentially camped outside the gates of Roger Dean Stadium for the duration. There were occasionally reports of some movement, mostly by the union, and a lot of posturing to the media on both sides.
The talks went past the February 28 deadline and extended into the early hours of March 1. The new deadline of 5 pm on March 1 ended with the league supposedly giving the union their “best and final offer” which the union rejected. The parties gave press conferences to the media on March 1 and then left Jupiter. The league press conference was a speech by Rob Manfred outside Roger Dean Stadium and a question and answer session after. The MLBPA met with the media later that day in an inside panel presentation by MLBPA president Tony Clark, negotiator Bruce Meyer, and player executive committee members Max Scherzer and Andrew Miller.
One player, Ross Stripling of the Toronto Blue Jays, disclosed in an interview with the media following the end of the Jupiter talks, that the league attempted to “sneak” new proposals past the union in the early hours of March 1. Stripling said there were items they had never seen before in the “fine print” and that the league apparently thought they were “dumb baseball players.”
After the exit from Jupiter, an informal meeting between league and union negotiators took place on Thursday, March 3 in New York. The meeting lasted 90 minutes and was reported to be about planning the next steps in the negotiations.
The sides met again on Sunday afternoon, March 6 in New York. The union presented the league with a proposal that included a reduction in their pre-arbitration bonus pool offer from $85 million to $80 million. The union also proposed to grant MLB the right to implement three rule changes with 45 day notice. In addition, the union proposed if the draft pick compensation went away they would consent to other CBT non-monetary penalties. The union did not alter their position on CBT minimums.
The league’s response was that they saw the proposal as the union “going backwards” from their prior proposal. No specific details were provided on how they went backwards other than they believed the union made different “verbal” assurances in Jupiter. The league declared they were “deadlocked.”
The union denied the league’s assertions that their proposal went backwards. It was reported that the union requested to meet again Monday, but as of this writing no additional meeting is scheduled.
For further updates check back to this report every Monday.
Cardinals announce Hall of Fame nominees
On Thursday, March 3, the Cardinals announced the names of five nominees for the one Modern Era player to join 2022 class of the Cardinals Hall of Fame.
The nominees are Steve Carlton, George Hendrick, Matt Holliday, Matt Morris and Edgar Renteria. Two of the five, Holliday and Hendrick, are first time nominees. As in 2021, only one Modern Era nominee will be selected and inducted.
Fan voting on the nominees began on March 5 and will conclude on April 15. The induction ceremony will take place on August 27. Fans can vote for one nominee at cardinals.com/HOF.
In addition to the Modern Era player, a Veterans Era player (retired more than 40 years ago) will be inducted in 2022 as well as a non-player from team history as selected by ownership.
More details on the nominees and the process can be found here:
Minor League camp opens
On Monday, March 7, 153 minor leaguers (which excludes all 40-man roster players who are locked out) take the back fields at Roger Dean Stadium for their 2022 spring training camp.
The workouts will be open to the public.
For additional details on the invitees as well as others who were expected to be but aren’t included, check out this members-only article:
Trade and Acquisition Rumors
There are no trade or acquisition rumors to report.
Transactions
There are no transactions to report.
Injury Report
There are no new injuries to report.
Looking Ahead
On December 1, the MLB/MLBPA Collective Bargaining Agreement expired. No new agreement was reached and the Commissioner’s Office announced that the owners of all 30 teams voted unanimously to institute a lockout of MLB players effective immediately.
As a result of the lockout, all major league transactions are halted indefinitely. Players and team personnel are prohibited from communicating with each other and players are not permitted to use team facilities. The parties may continue to negotiate to reach an agreement that would end the lockout.
The deadline for teams and arbitration eligible players to submit salary figures was originally on January 14. This deadline has been extended to a date after the lockout ends.
There has been some talk from several MLB teams of cancelling the Rule 5 draft that was delayed due to the lockout. No final word has been issued on the matter.
There will be no major league activity to report for the foreseeable future as long as the lockout continues.
Blast from the Past
In our continuing series on the best St. Louis Cardinals teams of all time, we take a look at another World War II era Cardinals team, the 1944 edition. It shared similarities with the 1942 team profiled earlier, but was also different in that by 1944, a number of players from the 1942 team had left to serve in the war, including top hitter Enos Slaughter.
By 1944, World War II was in full swing in Europe and the Pacific. Three of the primary starting position players from the 1942 team, Slaughter, Jimmy Brown, and Terry Moore, were serving in the military overseas. Stan Musial remained with the 1944 team but entered the military a year later and missed the 1945 season. Three of the five starting pitchers from the 1942 team left for the war – Johnny Beazley, Ernie White, and Lon Warnecke. Mort Cooper and Max Lanier remained from that team.
The 1944 Cardinals were led by Billy Southworth, also the manager of the 1942 team. The team finished in first place in the National League with a record of 105 wins, 49 losses, and three ties. Sportsman’s Park III remained the team’s home base.
In addition to Musial, starting position players remaining from the 1942 season were catcher Walker Cooper, shortstop Marty Marion, third baseman Whitey Kurowski, and Johnny Hopp, who moved from first base to the outfield. Ray Sanders, also a member of the 1942 team, was the new starter at first. Taking over at second for Brown was Emil Verban, who spent 1942 in the Cardinals minor league system. The third outfielder was Danny Litwhiler, who was acquired in a 1943 trade with the Phillies.
In addition to Cooper and Lanier, the Cardinals added three starting pitchers – Ted Wilks, Harry Breechen, and Red Munger. All three had spent the 1942 season in the Cardinals minor league system.
The Cardinals finished the 1944 season 14.5 games ahead of the second-place team in the NL, the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Cardinals were in first place for 161 days, and never fell below .500.
St. Louis’ longest winning streak was nine games, done twice, from July 23 to July 29 and August 13 to August 20. Their longest losing streak was five games, from September 12 to September 15.
The team’s most runs scored was 18 on June 10 in a shutout over the Reds. Their most runs allowed was 14 in the first game of a doubleheader on August 27, a 14-6 loss to the Pirates.
Musial was the top offensive performer for the 1944 team, after slashing .347/.440/.549. His on-base and slugging percentages led the NL. He also topped the NL in hits with 197 and led all of baseball in doubles with 51. Musial was selected to his second All-Star Game and finished fourth in the MVP voting.
The Cardinals’ top starting pitcher was Cooper, posted a record of 22-7 with an ERA of 2.46 in 33 starts. New pitcher Munger posted an ERA of 1.34 in 21 games, of which 12 were starts.
The 1944 Cardinals won the pennant and advanced to the World Series against sister team the St. Louis Browns, the winner of the AL.
Game 1 of the World Series was held on October 4. The entire series was played at Sportsman’s Park as the home park for both teams. The Browns won Game 1 by the score of 2-1. Cooper started for the Cardinals and was the losing pitcher.
In Game 2, the Cardinals beat the Browns 3-2 in 11 innings. Lanier pitched seven innings and gave up both Browns’ runs. Reliever Blix Donnelly pitched the final two innings and took the win. The Cardinals scored the first two runs and took a 2-0 lead before the Browns tied it in the seventh. Pinch hitter Ken O’Dea drove in the winning run in the 11th.
The Browns took Game 3 by the score of 6-2. The Cardinals scored in the first inning and the seventh inning on RBI singles by Walker Cooper and Marty Marion. Wilks started for the Cardinals and gave up four runs in five innings pitched. Three relief pitchers finished the game and surrendered the final two runs.
The Cardinals beat the Browns 5-1 in Game 4 to tie the series 2-2. Harry Breechen pitched all nine innings for the Cardinals. Musial hit a two-run home run in the first inning. Two more Cardinal runs scored in the third on a Browns error and single by Walker Cooper. Marty Marion added an RBI double in the sixth to score the fifth and final run.
The Cardinals won Games 5 and 6 to take the Series four games to two. Mort Cooper pitched a complete game shutout in Game 5. Ray Sanders and Danny Litwhiler both hit solo home runs. Game 6 was a 3-1 win over the Browns. Lanier started and won, with Wilks pitching in relief. The three Cardinals runs scored in the fourth inning on a fielder’s choice by Whitey Kurowski and RBI singles by Emil Verban and Lanier.
Next week we will stay in the World War II era with a 105-win team that absorbed a loss in the World Series.
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