The Cardinals started the season off slow thanks to poor hitting and horrible fielding, but they never gave up and clawed their way back from 11 1/2 down to first place by July. On August 7th the Redbirds were 5 games up on the field and had complete control of the NL East with a 61-52 record, but the "great fade of '73" was about to begin. Already in the midst of a modest 2 game losing streak the Cardinals dropped 6 more in a row before winning a game in Houston on August 14th. They proceeded to drop 3 more as their lead eroded to 2 games. After winning 3 out of 4 in early September and going back up by 3 the ship looked like it was "righted", but a 7 game losing streak would turn a 3 game lead to a 2 game deficit and the Cards were all but dead as the Mets seemed to be winning every night. After losing 5 of 6 the Cards were out by 4 games with 5 left to play, but they battled back by winning the final 5 and giving up just 2 runs over that stretch to finish an even 81-81, which was good enough for 2nd place a game behind the hotter than hot Mets. During the season they were 8-10 against the Mets, which in the end provided the difference in who took the division.
While I was writing this I was listening to a recording of the September 23rd game between the Cardinals and Mets @ Shea Stadium with the Mets pulling out a comeback win in front of almost 52,000 fans on a Sunday afternoon. The Mets went down early 2-0 when their former star Tommie Agee hit a 2 run shot in the first off of George Stone. The first inning of this game alone was managed by both Red Schoendienst and Yogi Berra as if it was game 7 of the World Series.
Only 3 players hit double digits in homers in the newly configured Busch Stadium (gap walls came in 10 feet). Ted Simmons caught 161 games and hit .310 with 13 HR's and 91 RBI's to pace the offense. Joe Torre hit .287 and had 13 long balls himself. 34 year old veteran Lou Brock hit .297 and showed no signs of slowing down by swiping 70 bags. The Cardinals had the 2nd best staff (ERA) in the league, but the offense didn't supply enough runs for them to be big winners. Bob Gibson at the age of 37 was 12-10, 2.77, but missed 10 starts due to various injuries. Rick Wise, who was much maligned since he was the "other guy" in the Steve Carlton trade had a better year than lefty (16-12, 3.37). Reggie Cleveland and Alan Foster had rock solid years with "low 3's" ERA's. Diego Segui (7-6, 2.78, 17sv) was the closer in a top tier pen that featured and elderly (39) Orlando Pena and a youthful (23) Al Hrabosky.
29 new cards were created to complete the team set for the '73 Redbirds.
At the end of Spring Training the Cards purchased Foster's contract from the Angels and he responded with his best season ever (13-9, 3.14, 203+ IP). Foster gave the Cards everything he had in '73 starting 29 games and relieving 6 others. After faltering in '74 he was moved over to San Diego, where he pitched two more season before his career was over.
24 year old rookie Bake McBride hit .302 in just 63 AB's for the Cards in '73. He hit .309 the following year and won the NL ROY Award. Imagine if he had been given extensive playing time in '73?...the Cards might have won the division. McBride was a hitting machine and a base stealing threat in his 4 1/2 years in STL, before being dealt to Philly where he helped the Phils to 3 division titles and a world championship in 1980. He finished his 11 year career with a .299 lifetime average.
This was the 2nd of Stein's 14 major league seasons as a utility-man / pinch hitter. After hitting just .218 in 32 games for St. Louis he moved on th the Chisox, Seattle and Texas before moving into coaching. During spring training in 1973, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune labeled Stein as the Cardinals candidate for pinch hitting off the bench. He made the Cardinals Opening Day roster that year. He made his season debut on April 6 as a pinch hitter, going hitless in one at-bat against the Pittsburgh Pirates. His first hit of the season came on April 17, against the Pirates. In August, Stein was sent down to the minor leagues and was replaced on the Cardinals major league roster by outfielder Héctor Cruz. In the minors, he played with the Triple-A Tulsa Oilers, where he batted .289 with 23 hits, two doubles, and one triple in 21 games played. While in the majors that season, Stein compiled a .218 batting average with four runs scored, 12 hits, two doubles, and two RBIs in 32 games played.
Fenwick was acquired on Nov 28th along with Ray Busse in exchange for Skip Jutze and Milt Ramirez, who went to Houston. Fenwick was a rule 5 selection by the Astros the previous season and hit just .180 in 36 games for them. In 5 games he went 1-6 for the Cardinals and spent most of the seaon in on 3 different AAA teams (Tulsa-Denver-Wichita), where he hit .286. 1974 would be his last year in professional ball hitting just .249 for the Hawaiian Islander.
This card was an update of the original airbrush job done by Topps. I added a legit Cardinal hat and modified his uniform to look like it was a Cardinal road jersey.
Soupy started out the season in St. Louis and didn't get a hit in 21 AB's before being sent to Houston on August 18th in exchange for Tommie Agee. Afer a disappointing 1974 season in houston (.087) he was out of baseball for 2 years before getting 4 AB's in Amarillo (AA) in '77.
Sprague's stay in St. Louis lasted all of 8 games during the 1973 season. After playing the first 28 in Cincy he moved over to STL on July 27th. On September 4th his contract was sold to Milwaukee where he played 3 more seasons.
In the mid 60's Fisher was a premier closer for the Chisox. By 1973 he was a 36 year old veteran winding down an above average career as a reliever. On August 29th the floundering Chisox sold his contract to the Cards where he appeared in 6 games, all in relief. Fisher was 2-1, 1.29 in 7 innings of work. He retired at the end of the season.
20 year old Hector Cruz was able to play 11 games with his older brother Jose' on the '73 Cards. In 11 AB's he went hitless before being returned to the minors. Over the course of 9 seasons he spent most of the time as a 4th/5th outfielder. In '76 the Cardinals used him as their starting thirdbaseman where he hit .228 with 13 homers and finished 3rd in the ROY balloting.
With all the pitching the Mets had in the 60's and 70's he was completely buried in their system. Spending 2 years on active duty with the US Army in Vietnam didn't helphis progression either. He also lost a full year (1970) due to spinal fusion surgery for his back. In AAA (Tidewater) he was 15-6 (1971) then was dealt to STL as part of a huge 8 player trade. After spending all of '72 in AAA Tulsa (13-9, 3.09) he made his major league debut (age 27) and went 1-3, 3.35 for the Cards. The following season (1973) he pitched in just 6 games before being dealt to the Rangers on June 6th. The following season he barely missed being a 20 game winner (19-19, 4.74). Midway through the '75 season he was on the move again, this time to major league baseball's outpost Cleveland. After 3 solid seasons on some poor Indian teams he signed as a free agent with the Pirates and things really jelled for him. As a 5th starter / long reliever in 1979 he went 12-4, 3.32 and helped lead the Bucs to a World Championship. The following season he again narrowly missed wining 20 games (19-6, 3.32), but did lead the league in winning $. After getting injured during the 1981 strike season he sat out all of 1982. He attempted a comeback the following two seasons, but injuries and father time were too much to overcome.
Dwyer was a well traveled (7 teams in 18 years) baseball lifer, who debuted in 1973 (11 for 57) with the Cardinals. After not getting much playing time in St. Louis' crowed OF he was traded to the Expos on July 25th 1975 for Larry Lintz. After bouncing from Montreal to New York, back to St. Louis and onto San Fran he finally found his niche in the AL when he arrived in Boston in 1979. As a 29 year old he had two great seasons in Fenway as a DH/platoon OF'er. Then it was on to Baltimore where he was a key cog in the Orioles platoon system in that same role. In 18 major league seasons Dwyer would hit .260 with 77 homers. H won a championship ring with the '83 O's. He retired at the age of 40 after the 1990 season.
Left hander John Andrews only season in the majors was with the Cards in 1973 where he posted a 1-1, 4.,42 record in 16 games worth of work after going 9-2, 3.21 in AA Arkansas and 2-0, 2.45 in AAA Tulsa. 1974 saw him perform poorly in AA El Paso (CAL) due to injuries that forced him to sit out the full 1975 season. '76 and '77 saw him pitch for both Jackson (AA) and Tidewater (AAA) in the Mets chain before being given his release.
22 year old 2nd year man Ken Reitz solidified the Cardinal infield with gold glove caliber play at third. He would win the award 2 years later then unceremoniously he was shipped off to San Fran for one season before being reacquired in 1977. Reitz would be a NL All-Star in 1980 and once again changed locale's. This time he moved to the hated Cubs for one miserable season. A brief 7 games in Pittsburgh the following season would be his final shot in the majors. Reitz will always be remembered in St. Louis as being a great glove man with occasional pop during his 8 seasons in the Gateway city.
Haney appeared in just 2 games with the Cards in 1973 looked to be at the end of the line until the A's resigned him to be their backup catcher for the next 3 years. He was able to play another full season in Milwaukee before retiring after 4 games in 1978. In total he played 12 major league seasons and hit .215 with 12 homers as a career backup catcher.
Krausse had some hard luck years with the A's, Brewers and Red Sox before being farmed out after the 1972 season. The cardinals picked him up after he was 6-4, 2.49 in AAA Tucson, but just gave him 2 innings of action (1 game). The pitching starved Braves signed him in '74 and after he went 4-3, 4.19 he was released. The A's gave him another shot and signed him to a AAA contract, but he never made it back to the biggs.
Mark Hill spent 14 seasons in the big leagues as a back up catcher mostly for the Giants (1975-1980) and the White Sox (1981-1986). As a 21 year old in 1973 he managed to get just 3 AB's in 1 game. In '74 he hit .238 (5-21) before moving to San Fran in '75.
After hitting .296 in 123 games for the mediocre NY Yankees Alou's contract was purchased by the Cardinals on September 4th. Having played 3 years (1970-72) win St. Louis Cardinal management knew what type of player he was and hoped he'd spark them down the stretch. In 11 games with STL he went 3-11 and hit .273 and had his contract sold to the Padres at the end of the season. Alou, who won the 1966 NL Batting title while in Pittsburgh (.342) would play just one more season and hit .198 for the Padres before retiring with a .307 lifetime average.
With all the troubles the '73 Cards had at shortstop the team was willing to give lightly regarded Kelleher a shot. In 43 games he hit just .184 and was moved to Houston the following season. He made a brief return in '75 (7 games) and then wouldn up spending the next 5 seasons in Wrigley as a utility man. His final 2 seasons were split between Detoit and Anaheim. In 11 big league seasons Kelleher hit .213.
Nagy burst onto the scene as a 21 year old rookie for the Red Sox going 12-2, 3.11 in almost 200 innings worth of work. Arm problems would plague him the rest of his career, which saw him play less and less each year until he was through at the age of 26. For the '73 Cards he appeared in 9 games (7 starts) and went 0-2, 4.20. I created this card courtesy of a poor airbrush job off the 1972 Topps card that hat him as a Red Sox pitcher.
On March 31, 1973, Thompson was sent to the Cardinals as the player to be named later in a deal that originally occurred on February 1 of that year. The trade involved the Rangers receiving Charlie Hudson and a player to be named later (who would end up being Mike Nagy) in return for a player to be named later (Thompson). Thompson spent most of 1973 in the minors, with the Tulsa Oilers. With them, he went 7-7 with a 2.82 ERA in 20 games. However, he did make two starts in the big leagues, going 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA in four innings of work. Once of Thompson's starts was on 9/23/1973 where after allowing 2 baserunners he was lifted in favor of Rich Folkers.
After Ray Busse mangled the shortstop position and the team got off to it's worst start in years 23 year old Tyson was given the job and told not to do too much. Tyson wasn't the second coming of Marty Marion, but when compared to Busse he was a gift from above. In 144 games he hit .243 and made 33 errors. Tyson remained with the club through the 1979 season, then moved on to Chicago to play 2 more seasons with the Cubs. In a 10 year career he hit .241.
39 year old Pena was more than just reliable in 42 games out of the pen posting a 4-4, 2.18, 6sv record. Pena, who arrived on the scene as a 24 year old rookie in Cincy way back in 1958 had bounced between the biggs and AAA over the years. Back in his days as a starer for the KC A's he led the league in two negative categories: losses in 1973 (12-20) and HR's against (40) in 1964.
Busse neither hit (.143), nor fielded (11 E's in 22 games) and was a key reason the team started out 5-17. By June the Cards sent him back to Houston for Stan Papi. Back with Houston, the team that drafted him he finished up '73 hitting .059. After hitting .206 in '74 he was farmed out for good playing two AAA seasons before being released.
Red won over 1,000 games as the Cardinals manager in 3 different stints in the job. In his 3rd season (1967) he won 101 games and a World Championship. The following season he won 97 and lost the World Series in 7 games to the Tigers. Red has probably held every job in the Cardinal organization from HOF player, to coach, then manager, to front office advisor. At the age of 94 (in 2017) he still makes active appearances for the franchise.
The Chicago Cubs selected Hughes second overall in the 1967 Major League Baseball Draft. He appeared in two games with the Cubs in 1970, but was essentially a career minor leaguer when the St. Louis Cardinals purchased his contract before the 1973 season. He spent most of the season with the triple A Tulsa Oilers, however, appeared in eleven games with the Cards, in which he batted .214 with an RBI and a run scored. Following his only season in the Cardinals organization, he was traded with Reggie Cleveland and Diego Segui to the Boston Red Sox for Lynn McGlothen, John Curtis and Mike Garman. He appeared in 41 games for the Red Sox, mostly as a late inning replacement for Rico Petrocelli, and batted .203 with six runs batted in, including his only major league home run off the Cleveland Indians' Milt Wilcox. After spending all of 1975 with the triple A Pawtucket Red Sox, Hughes rejoined the Cardinals for the 1976 season, however spent the entire season with the triple A Tulsa Oilers.
Heintzelman was drafted by the Cardinals in the seventh round of the 1968 Major League Baseball Draft and made his major league debut during the 1973 season (9-29, .310BA). Following the 1974 baseball season, he was traded to the Giants for Jim Willoughby. Heintzelman's father, Ken Heintzelman, had a 13-season MLB career as a pitcher. Tom Heintzelman served during the Vietnam War making him one of fifty-four former Major League baseball players who are also veterans of the Vietnam War.
In Murph's one and only year with the Cardinals he was 3-7, 3.76 in 88 innings of work split between the rotation and pen. At the end of the season the Cards made a huge mistake by dealing him to Milwaukee for Bob Heise. During the next two seasons he saved 20 games each and led the league in games finished in '74. After his 2 1/2 years in Milwaukee he spent a season and a half in Boston and thanks to being drafted by the expansion Blue Jays he spent 3 more seasons in Toronto. On May 12th 1979 he was given his unconditional release by the Jays.
After starting the season in Houston, Agee the former 1969 Met World Series star, was dealt to the Cardinals on August 18. In 26 games with the Redbirds, the 30 year old with failing knees hit just .177 with 3 homers. He hit a 2 run homer off the Mets on 9/23, which gave the Cards a 2-0 lead that they could not hold. In the 7th inning with runners on 1st and 2nd and one out he had a chance to tie the game, but hit into an inning ending DP off of former teammate Tug McGraw.
The 3rd Cardinal Cruz brother, Tommy, played in just 3 games for the Redbirds in '73. He would spend the rest of the season split between AA Arkansas and AAA Tulsa. The following season he moved to AA Pittsfield (TEX) and played 2 more seasons in the Ranger chain having modest success in the minors. After hitting .299 for the White Sox AAA Iowa team in '77 he was called up and got into 4 games. 1978 and 1979 would see him play for the Yankees AAA affiliates in Tacoma and Columbus where he hit .319 and .297 respectively, but he was never called up to the majors. At the age of 29 Cruz took his talents to the Japanese League where he played 6 phenomenal season for Nippon. During that stretch he batted .310 and hit 120 homers and was named to two JPPL All-Star teams. After the 1985 season he retired
As a 24 year old rookie in 1968 Granger pitched 2 scoreless innings for the Cards in a losing effort vs the Tigers in the '68 series. After the season he and Bobby Tolan were sent to Cincy for Vada Pinson, who spent just one year in St. Louis. Granger immediately emerged as the ace of the Reds pen. leading the league with saves in 1970 with 35. After a season in Minnesota (1972), where he saved 19 he wound up back in St. Louis, but his arm was starting to give out. Going 2-4, 4.24 with just 5 saves Granger did not fit into the Cardinals plan down the stretch, so he was sent the Bronx for Matty Alou. He pitched in just 5 games for the Chisox in '74, then rebounded for a nice season in 1975 where he pitched in 55 games for the 'Stros. He was able to get 27 games in for the Expos in '76, but a career's worth of arm trouble caught up with him saw him sent to the minors to work it out. After resting his arm for all of '77 he made a failed comeback in 1979 splitting time with Independent league Miami and Montreal's AAA Denver.
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