The Cardinals have had a history of great moments as a franchise. They could, and have, filled history books with great moments. They could, and have, packed their team Hall of Fame with mementos and keepsakes of great moments. Their Hall of Fame induction ceremonies have featured distinguished Cardinals who provided so many of the great moments.
The newest “Great Moment” in Cardinals history was an airborne feat, with Jordan Walker launching the event-winning rocket through the unfriendly skies of Philadelphia to defeat home-team favorite Kyle Schwarber in the 2026 Home Run Derby. Two days later, people are still buzzing about it, thinking about it, and watching replays to enjoy the great moment all over again.
This got me in the mood to make a list. So I came up with a list of “Great Moments” in Cardinals history during the Bill DeWitt Jr. Era, which began in 1996.
Two quick notes: (a) these are moments delivered by players, pitchers, teammates, individuals. Writing “Cardinals win the 2006 World Series” is a great moment … sure. But my focus is on Cardinal players who have done extraordinary things to help the franchise win those pennants and World Series for the team. And (b) I am not ranking them in order of importance. And I am not putting them into any chronological lineup.
If I overlooked anything or left anyone out, I apologize. I can always update the Greatest Moments list at a later time; I’ll keep the file open.
So please come roll along with me on my travels through so many wonderful moments I’ve had the privilege of watching or writing about, or talking about in excited tones. I specifically want these citations and mentions to be random in order to maintain even a small element of surprise. The box of chocolate Forrest Gump thing.
And I beg you to please pardon my typos.
1. Ozzie and Willie. On Sept. 2, 1996, the Cardinals opened a three-game home series against the first-place Astros at Busch Stadium. The division title was up for grabs, and the Cardinals decked the Astros with a three-game sweep that put them atop the division to stay. But in the first game the Cardinals were in early trouble, trailing by scores of 3-0 and 7-3. Two proud and aging veterans – legends of the 1980s – came to the rescue. In leading the comeback to an 8-7 victory in 10 innings, Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee combined for seven hits, six RBIs, four runs scored, and two walks. Ozzie had a double and a homer. And in the bottom of the 10th Oz stroked the single that brought home Willie with the winning run. Classic. It was such a beautiful afternoon at Busch Stadium II that I’ll never forget. The DeWitt Era had legs.
2. Waino’s 200th Win. On Sept. 18, 2023, Adam Wainwright turned back the clock one last time. He threw seven shutout innings and conceded just four hits in a 1-0 victory over the Brewers in the final start of his distinguished career. It was win No. 200 for the 41-year old Uncle Charlie.
3. Kid Kozma, baseball hero: The Cardinals made a frantic comeback from an ominous 6-0 deficit in the winner take all Game 5 of the 2012 NLDS at Washington. Many Cardinals came through on that Friday night, but shortstop Kozma capped the remarkable rally with a two-run, go-ahead single to right field in the top of the 9th. It was one of the best Cardinals games I ever saw.
4. Matt Holliday’s Last Hurrah: Coming off the injured list with a broken thumb late in the 2016 season, Holliday emerged from the dugout in the bottom of the 7th to pinch-hit. His appearances was a surprise, and a big crowd at Busch Stadium went wild. Holliday lived up to the grandeur of the moment by clubbing a home run into the right-field bullpen. It was his final home run as a Cardinal, and an emotional Holliday didn’t even try to stop his flow of tears.
5. Two shots from Rick Ankiel’s cannon. In a game at Coors Field in Denver, Ankiel flashed the incredible velocity from that power left arm to throw out two different Rockies (separately) who attempted to advance to tag up and scamper to third base on fly balls hit to the deepest part of center field. Ankiel nailed both of them with perfect, long-distance throws that defied belief. Stunning. And Ankiel did it twice.
6. Big Mac, No. 62. It was a nationally televised Tuesday night game at Busch Stadium on Sept. 8, 1998. In the bottom of the fourth, at precisely 9:18 p.m, Mark McGwire hit a low line drive on a pitch from Cubs starter Steve Trachsel – and it cleared the wall in the left-field corner at a distance of 341 feet. His shortest of the season! With that homer, McGwire moved past Roger Maris, who held the MLB record for most home runs (61) in a season. I remember three other things: (a) Sammy Sosa, who was racing McGwire for the record, rushed in from right field to embrace him during the celebration. (b) the family of Roger Maris was in attendance seated behind the Cardinals dugout. And (c) I had a few private moments with McGwire long after the game had concluded. He was seated on a chair at his locker, looked up at me with a somewhat sad expression, and said “I’m utterly exhausted. I’ve never been this tired in my entire life.” The intense pursuit of the HR record was over. The pressure had eased. Or did it?
7. Big Mac’s Final Round of Fireworks. The persistent Sosa actually pulled ahead of McGwire on the final weekend of the 1998 regular season. On Friday night Sosa smashed a home run at Houston for No. 66, one more than Big Mac. A couple of innings later, at Busch Stadium, McGwire responded by walloping No. 66 against the Expos. The race was deadlocked – but not for long. A weary McGwire wouldn’t give into his exhaustion. He ripped two home runs on Saturday, clouted two more homers on Sunday, and finished the season with a total of 70 bombs. The Montreal infielders shook his hand as McGwire trotted around the bases for the final time in ‘98. I asked McGwire: Are you going to Disneyland? He smiled. “No, I’m going home to SoCal. And then I’m going to the beach, hopefully where no one can find me.”
8. Just Say No-No. Jose Jimenez Outduels the Big Unit: June 25, 1999. This no-hitter at Arizona was interesting (and strange) for a few reasons. Even after no-hitting the Diamondbacks, the Jimenez ERA for the season stood at 6.02. And after hurling his career masterpiece, Jimenez was smacked around for a 5.65 ERA in his final 16 starts of the ‘99 seasons. And yet: for one night Jose Jimenez dueled Randy Johnson, one of the greatest left-handed starters in MLB history. And the Cardinals won it by a wisp-thin 1-0 margin. Johnson was tremendous in this game, giving up one run and five hits and striking out 14. The score was 0--0 going into the top of the 9th. The Cardinals squeaked out a run on an RBI single that scored Darren Bragg. If that wasn’t weird enough, Mark McGwire was thrown out to end the inning when trying to advance to third base on the play. Bud Smith pitched a no-hitter for the Cardinals in 2001, but he threw 134 pitches, walked four, and didn’t beat The Big Unit … so Bud Smith gets an honorable mention.
9. Michael Wacha’s Amazing 2013 Postseason Run: I’m cheating here a little because it wasn’t just about one Great Moment. Wacha, the fabulous rookie, had many Great Moments during his first four starts of the ‘13 postseason. So I’m bundling them in one package. Game 4 of the NLDS at Pittsburgh with the Cards facing elimination. NLCS Game 2 against the Dodgers. NLCS Game 6 vs. the Dodgers. Then World Series Game 2 at Boston. Add it all up and Wacha turned in 27 innings and yielded only three runs for a 1.00 ERA. Wacha outpitched four good or great starting pitchers to win those four games: A.J. Burnett, Clayton Kershaw (twice) and John Lackey.
10. Matt Adams & The Curve: Since I was in the neighborhood (a year after the 2013 postseason) this is an excellent time to relive the massive home run stroked on a curveball thrown by Clayton Kershaw in the bottom of the 7th of NLDS Game 4 at Busch Stadium. Kershaw took a 2-0 lead and a one-hitter as he cruised into the seventh. Matt Holliday and Jhonny Peralta opened the bottom of the 7th with consecutive singles. Next up was Adams, the left-handed hitting first baseman who had three homers vs. lefty pitchers all season. And only one of those three homers were smacked on a curveball. And remember this: up to that point, in his career, Kershaw had never been beaten for a home run on a curve thrown to a LH batter. Adams cracked that Kershaw history with a 3-run homer to right field – hopping up and down as he made his way to first. Big City’s great-moment home run clinched the NLDS for the Cardinals.
11. Nolan Arenado Goes Cycling: It had been a while since the last time a Cardinal hit for the cycle. To be specific, it was Mark Grudzielanek on April 27, 2005, against the Brewers at the previous Busch Stadium. On July 1 of 2022, at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Arenado opened with a triple in the 1st, a home run in the 3rd, a double in the 6th, and a single on a blistering line drive single in the 8th that was too hot for Philly’s third baseman to handle. It was correctly ruled a single.
12. A Battery, and a Brotherhood, For All Time: At Busch Stadium on Sept. 14, 2022 Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina walked from the dugout to the field for their 325th start as a pitcher-catcher tandem to break the MLB record by a battery, previously held by Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan (Tigers.) The record of the Lolich-Freehan combo had been in place since 1975. Yadi and Waino should own this record for decades. An adoring crowd gave them a loving standing ovation as they took their respective places on the field. Wainwright pitched five innings, picking up the 4-1 victory, and the Cardinals topped it off with a celebratory post-game toast where the duo was doused in Cherry Coke and Sprite. The Wainwright-Molina battery finished their careers with exactly 213 team wins across their record 328 regular-season starts together. The previous record of 202, was held for decades by Warren Spahn and Del Crandall of the Boston/Milwaukee Braves (1949–1963).
13. Two Grand Slams? In the Same Inning? What? Yes, it is true. And I was there to see it, watching from a perch in the Dodger Stadium press box. I don’t believe I’ll ever see anything like it again – simply because I don’t believe it will ever happen again in a major-league ballgame. The date was April 23, 1999. It was a Friday night. I was seated next to a dear friend, the late great Post-Dispatch baseball writer Rick Hummel. Top of the 3rd, Cards trailing 2-0. Before that inning expired the Cards had sent 14 hitters to the plate for an 11-run explosion set in history by two grand slams by Fernando Tatis Sr. A bases-loaded fastball on a 2-0 count. Gone. Later in the inning the bases were filled again, and Tatis worked the count to 3-2. He got a fat slider and sent it flying over the left-center field pavilion. Chan Ho Park served up both slams. Dodgers manager Davey Johnson apparently didn’t contemplate a pitching change. That was bizarre. And considering that BOTH home runs were grand slams … What in the world were the odds of that? And Tatis drove both grand slams with a bat he borrowed from teammate Eric Davis. The two grand slams by one man in the same inning had never occurred in a major-league game. Furthermore, Tatis Sr. also set an MLB record for most RBIs in an inning (eight.) The double grand-slam will never be broken. We talked to Tatis after the game, and he seemed to be in shock. Still processing it. Smiling but not saying much.
We returned hours before Saturday’s game, and Tatis sat down with the two Post-Dispatch writers for at least 30, 40 minutes. And by then the impact had been fully realized. “God was watching over me,” Tatis said. “That’s how I would explain it.”
Said the legendary Dodgers announcer Vin Scully: "When [Tatis] came up the second time, I said, 'I’m not even going to look in the record book because I can’t believe anybody could have ever hit two slams in an inning,' and then damned if he didn’t do it. What would it be comparable to? I don’t know how you could compare it to anything. Two in one inning is so preposterous."
14. Dmitri Does It: This wasn’t one of the more famous “Great Moments” but it was immense at the time. Game 4 of the 1996 NLCS vs. Atlanta. Busch Stadium II was the setting. The Cardinals were down 3-0 in the 7th. Dmitri Young, a 22-year-old rookie, came off the bench to roil the sea of red with a two-run triple to key a comeback. Royce Clayton singled in Young for a 3-3 tie, and Brian Jordan won it with a solo homer. That HR was big, but the rookie’s triple was an outrageous moment. The Cardinals seemed doomed before Dmitri struck. The triple was what I remember most. I also remember Braves GM John Schuerholz boiling with anger in the press box; he was ticked off by Dennis Eckersley’s fist-pumping and dancing after finishing off the Braves. The Cardinals led the NLCS 3-1 and I was convinced the Cardinals were headed to the World Series to meet the Yankees and manager Joe Torre – who had been fired by the Cards during the 1995 season. Wasn’t meant to be. The Braves broke the Cardinals with three straight wins – and outscored STL by a ridiculous margin of 32-1 in the three victories.
15. Jim Edmonds, Walkoff Jimmy: Game 6 of the 2004 NLCS at Busch Stadium II. The Cardinals were on the verge of being eliminated by the Astros. The game was locked 4-4 as the drama spilled into the 12th inning. Heading into the bottom of the 12th inning, reliever Dan Miceli, who was tough on the Cardinals, created an opening by walking Albert Pujols to start the inning. Scott Rolen popped out. Here comes Edmonds … 0-1 count … high fastball … a picturesque swing … that ball in flight looked like something out of The Natural. Edmonds’ 405-foot homer landed in the right-center bullpen for a 6-4 walkoff win. The Cardinals had hope.
16. Jim Edmonds, Encore Jimmy, Gold Glove Jimmy: The next night, in a Game 7 showdown, Edmonds saved the season with the Jimmy Dive. In the top of the second inning, the Astros already held a 1-0 lead, had two runners on base and were threatening to break the game wide open. Brad Ausmus ripped a Jeff Suppan pitch deep into the left-center field gap. The catch probability … don’t ask … no way! But Edmonds had a perfect read off the bat, tracked the ball at full sprint, left his feet, and laid out in a full-extension dive with his back almost entirely to the infield. He came up with the impossible catch. He denied Ausmus a bases-learning double that would have put Houston up 3-0 with Roger Clemens on the mound.
17. Great Moments In Game 7. I’m still talking about the same game; it was that memorable. Suppan deserves a big-time mention by out-pitching Clemens. Suppan gave up one earned run in six innings. The Cardinals fought back against Clemens and put up four runs – the most important being a two-run HR by Scott Rolen that snapped a 2-2 tie in the 6th. The Cardinals won 5-2 for their first NL pennant since 1987.
18. Yadi to the Rescue: The scene was Game 4 of the 2019 NLDS against the Braves. The Cards were trailing 2-1 in the series and a loss on this overcast day would have bounced them from the postseason. The situation turned into an emergency with Atlanta winning 4-3 as the Cardinals went to bat in the eighth. Molina came through with two small but immensely important plays. With two outs in the 8th, Molina fought off a tough pitch to bloop a single just over the reach of ATL first baseman Freddie Freeman. The fateful landing of that soft but vital hit brought in Paul Goldschmidt from third for a 4-4 tie. Yadi kept the Cardinals breathing. In the 10th Kolten Wong doubled and advanced to third base. Molina stepped up to win the game with an intelligent piece of situational hitting – lofting a perfectly executed fly ball to deep left field that gave Wong the freedom to tag up and score the winning run. Molina’s two money plays produced a 5-4 victory and the Cardinals advanced to Game 5 in Atlanta. The Redbirds went crazy during a 10-run first inning and won the series. They haven’t won a postseason series since then.
19. Young Yadi Magic, 2006: Molina, in his first full MLB season, batted .216 during the regular season. His offense was a work in progress. It was Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, Cardinals at Mets. It was a BIG, big spot. With two out in the top of the ninth, the score knotted at 1-1, and a runner on, Molina jumped on an 0-1 changeup for a towering two-run homer that stunned the crowd at Shea Stadium – and all but booked the Cardinals flight to Detroit for Game 1 of the World Series.
20. The Greatest Curveball Ever Thrown. Talk about a classic moment, a memorable moment, a great-great-moment … so great that I don’t have to describe it because Cardinals fans of a certain age have it memorized, stored in their hearts, and think of it and smile. I also wanted to mention that Jeff Suppan dug in for a tough, determined, and unshakable quality start in the 2006 NLCS Game 7. The Cardinals don’t win it without Suppan repeatedly holding off the Mets.
Now it was the bottom of the 9th of Game 7, the Cardinals gripping a 3-1 lead opened by the Molina home run. Tony La Russa handed the ball to 25-year-old rookie Adam Wainwright, who became the emergency closer after Jason Isringhausen's season-ending hip injury. Down by two, the Mets refused to budge. Two singles. A strikeout. A line-out to center field. A two-Out walk. BASES LOADED. I was on site at Shea Stadium, covering this theatrical masterpiece for the Post-Dispatch. Shea was shaking. The noise was deafening. I don’t think I’ve been in a sports venue that was as loud as that moment. Which became a Great Moment. Carlos Beltran, who had 41 homers during the season, had been hammering St. Louis pitching for the entire series. Danger, for the rookie. How would Waino cope? This was where Molina and Wainwright created art. Molina boldly called a first-pitch changeup – which was Waino’s fourth-best pitch! – and Beltran took it for a called strike one. After getting ahead 0-2, Wainwright turned to his signature pitch, calling on "Uncle Charlie.” The sharp curveball looped high, then dropped perfectly over the outside corner. Beltran, expecting a fastball, wasn’t prepared for a breaking ball. He froze and watched the Mets’ season end. Called strike three. Wainwright and Molina were embracing on the mound – World Series, here they come – and Beltran was still in disbelief. I remember one line that I wrote in the game column: “Adam Wainwright threw a curveball that traveled above and through the roar of the crowd, gently settled in Yadier Molina’s mitt … and just like that .., the sound of silence. In an instant, Shea Stadium went from being the loudest place in the world, to the quietest.”
21. Rick Ankiel’s Inspirational Return: After the heartbreaking and devastating loss of his pitching control – complete torment and agony – Ankiel gave up his career on the mound, went to the minors to become a full-time outfielder. He hadn’t pitched for three years. Ankiel could always hit, and hit for power, and now it was time to bring out that side of his exceptional talent. Ankiel had cracked 32 home runs at Memphis by the time he got the call to come to St. Louis. It was Aug. 9, 2007. Tony La Russa put Ankiel in the starting lineup, playing right field, in his return to the majors. A crowd of 42,484 fans gave Ankiel ovations all night, even as he popped out in his first at-bat and whiffed during his second time up. But in the bottom of the 7th Ankiel attacked a pitch from Padres reliever Doug Brocail, and sent a rocket into the muggy St. Louis night for a three-run homer. I won’t ever forget the scene at Busch. A delirious crowd that had witnessed something truly special – and the only proper response was to let it all go. All the love and emotion that had been reserved just for Ankiel. La Russa was at his usual spot in the dugout – but standing near the steps – laughing, giggling and applauding with total joy. The haunting memories of the 2002 postseason were cleared away – forever – with one swing of the bat.
22. Pujols. Brad Lidge. Hanging Slider. Boom. Bye-bye. That home run is a big part of the Pujols legend. You see replays all the time. The Cardinals were about to be ejected from the postseason, losing 4-2 in the ninth inning of NLCS Game 5 at Houston. The Astros had a 3-1 series lead, and here came Lidge … opening the 9th with two consecutive strikeouts. The Cards were done. There was a stirring. A single by David Eckstein. A walk by Edmonds. Pujols (uh-oh) standing and waiting in the box. He was a lion. There was meat: an 0-1 slider that Pujols swiftly obliterated for a game-winning three-run homer that soared over the train tracks above left field, crashing into the unbreakable glass. But Astros fans were the shattered ones. One personal memory. I had filed a “Cardinals lose, season over” column because I was on a tight deadline, and I had to get something in. And it sure as hell looked like a loss was coming. My friend and colleague Bryan Burwell did the same thing. Both of our columns went up in flames – gone. Do you know how we reacted? By laughing hysterically, side by side, in our press box seats. Laughing because Pujols was so outrageously great … with him no opposing-team lead, or no sportswriter’s column, is safe. So all you can do is throw your hands up and laugh. Burwell negotiated a 20-minute writing window with an editor – that’s a quick deadline – so we put our heads down and banged out columns as fast as we could. I loved Bryan Burwell and will always miss him.
23. Don’t Make Him Mad. Talking about Pujols. After the Cardinals lost Game 2 of the 2011 World Series at home, Pujols didn’t make himself available for post-game questions. That led to a lot of grumbling by national baseball writers, who seemed to take it personally. (Me? Pujols being Pujols. He HATES to lose.) But there was a lot of fake outrage in the press box, and I knew what was coming. A mad Pujols is the most dangerous Pujols. When we all got to Texas the day before Game 3, Pujols presented himself for questioning. He was in a foul mood. He was not going to play nice. He was ticked, man. Really ticked. I turned to a colleague and said: easy column for me. He wondered, “What’s the angle?” I told him: Series is tied 1-1, Pujols is furious, and he’s taking the media criticism personally, and that’s terrible news for the Texas Rangers. He’ll go off in Game 3. He’ll take out his frustration on those poor SOB Texas pitchers.” And I wrote something like that for the Game 3 advance.
It went like this:
– single in the 4th (getting loose).
– singled in the 5th. (Warming up)
– three-run HR in the 6th (here we go.)
– two-run HR in the 7th (get the message?)
– solo HR on the 9th (y’all made him mad.)
– Final score: Cardinals 16, Rangers, 7
– The line on Pujols: 5-for-6 with 3 home runs, 6 RBIs, and 4 runs scored. At the time, he became only the third player in Major League history to hit three home runs in a World Series game, joining Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson. He tied World Series records for most hits (5) and RBIs (6) in a single game. He set a new, outright World Series record with 14 total bases in a single game. Just an incredible hitter. Just an incredible competitor.
24. The Puma Pounces: It was a delight to have Lance Berkman play for the Cardinals. He was outstanding in 2011. And he saved the STL season with one of the most underrated hero hits in franchise history. After the Cardinals were knocked down on a two-run homer from the Rangers’ Josh Hamilton in the top of the 10th, the home team staged another comeback in the bottom half of the inning. With the Cardinals down by a run – their Win Expectancy was only 16 percent – the cool-headed Berkman delivered a two-strike, two-out single to score Jon Jay with the tying run. Earlier in that inning, Daniel Descalso had scored to get the Cardinals within a run of the Rangers. Isn’t it great to have them as Cardinals coaches? That RBI single by Berkman was the epitome of the word “clutch.” A Great Moment.
25. Dueling Aces. Clear the ring. Get out of the way: In short, it was the best pitching duel I’ve ever witnessed live. I was in the ballpark at Citizens Bank Park on that Friday night in Philadelphia when former teammates (and close friends) Chris Carpenter and Roy Halladay had a memorable throwdown. This was a classic big-game test. Game 5 of the 2011 NLDS, with the winner moving on to the NLCS. The highly favored Phillies felt extra pressure to win, but Halladay was guarding the fort with all the resistance he could summon from within? Carpenter? He might have been having an out of body experience. The Cardinals took a 1-0 lead staked by the game’s first two hitters: a triple by Rafael Furcal. A double by Skip Schumaker. After that – both pitchers built a brick wall. Carpenter was scratched for three hits (no walks) in a complete game shutout. I say this is a joke – at least I think it’s a joke – but the Phillies would have to literally kill Carpenter to win that game.
I saw him the next morning in Milwaukee, before a media session the day before Game 1 of the NLCS. We had a good relationship.
Me: “Were you insane last night? Possessed by evil spirits?
Carpenter: “I wasn’t going to lose that game.”
Me: Did you feel that before the game? Early in the game? No one from that Philly team would cross the plate? You knew that?
Carpenter: “Like I told you, I wasn’t going to lose that game.”
Carpenter smiled. And laughed. And I laughed with him. Ten postseason wins, the most by a Cardinals pitcher in franchise history.
26. David Freese, Game 6, 2011 World Series. Best baseball game I’ve ever seen. I’ve watched it 10 times since that night, and with every viewing I see something new, something I didn’t realize at the time, something I forgot about. Mostly I think about David Freese. And I will not forget anything about his performance. The game-tying triple. The game-winning homer. The hometown boy who dreamed of playing for the Cardinals one day – right in that ballpark where he’d enhance the Cards rich history, and lead the Cardinals to their 11th World Series. Backyard dreams, boyhood dreams. That home run landed in the greensward beyond the center field wall. I wonder if Dave ever imagined that very scene, with him being in the baseball-hero mode? All kids do that. I met Freese for the first time when he was a Class AA third baseman in the San Diego system. Great guy. I followed his progress through the minors.
“Maybe I’ll see you playing for the Cardinals at Busch Stadium some day,” I told Dave when I met him that first time. “I hope so,” Freese said, nodding. I detected a smile. He approved of that statement. Then one day John Mozeliak traded Jim Edmonds for Freese. History was waiting for him, back home in The Lou. Game 6 was out there somewhere, preparing for his arrival.
27. Oscar Tavares. One shining moment: It happened on Oct. 12, 2014, at Busch Stadium. NLCS Game 2. The Cardinals had lost Game 1 and were desperate for a win to avoid going down 0-2 at home. But it was a fragile time. The Cards were trailing the Giants 3-2 in the bottom of the 7th inning. Manager Mike Matheny called on the 22-year-old rookie, Taveras, to pinch-hit for pitcher Carlos Martinez. Facing Giants reliever Jean Machi, Taveras launched a game-tying solo home run deep down the right-field line. Busch Stadium was infused with instant energy. Matt Adams homered to give the Cardinals the lead. The Giants responded with a tying run. Kolten Wong got the Game 2 victory with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 9th inning. So maybe I’m shortchanging Kolten here. But the Tavares home run stood out because it was his biggest hit as a Cardinal, and it was an encouraging sign of things to come. Tavares was destined to become the Cardinals’ best hitter, a franchise player, and a talent to carry the Cardinals to sustained success in an evolving era. Twelve days after his hope-generating home run, Tavares died in a single-car accident in the Dominican Republic. The reckless driving – Tavares was intoxicated – also killed his girlfriend.
28. Jordan Walker’s Home-Run Derby. It was, well, a Home Run! The breakthrough to stardom. He created a buzz nationally. Cardinals fans fell in love with Walker and his beautiful family, who cheered him on from their close-range seats at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Even Phillies fans treated Walker’s family with affection, and were genuinely happy to see them feel such pride and happiness with Walker’s success. It was just a fantastic performance that made me feel better about the future of Cardinals baseball.
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach. Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Keith Tkachuk, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith and Aeneas Williams. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues, Saint Louis U, and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.