Fun Fact: did you know that Roger Maris and Bob Dylan have the same hometown, Hibbing, Minn.? Home runs and harmonicas are Hibbing's trademark.
Collapse was the theme of the Cardinal's 1964 pennant chase. Internally, the management team was melting down. Anger and in-fighting over the controversial reports from consultant Branch Rickey had all the bosses at each other's throats. Rickey even went so far as to declare the Cards out of the race early in '64, and when the team "struggled" in late summer, Gussie Busch fired the man who built the juggernaut, Bing Devine. An outraged field boss, Johnny Keane, threatened to quit.
And then it happened: The Phillies collapsed. Despite the management chaos surrounding them, the Cards' players just kept putting one run in front of another, and snatched the pennant at the end of a bitter five-team fight. After knocking off the Yankees in the WS, Keane followed through on his threat to quit. To underscore his loathing for Busch, he took the managerial job in New York. Now, Busch had to find a g.m. and a manager.
He found two good ones: Bob Howsam replaced Devine, and Red Schoendienst came on as field boss. Together, they would finish the work Devine and Keane had begun, and build a true pennant winner. It took a couple of bad seasons to reveal the hidden holes in the Cards' lineup. The pitching basically collapsed in 1965, Boyer lost another two steps, as did Groat. But young-uns like Maxvill, Briles, Joe Hoerner and Carlton were ready to step in. And ol' Red finally let 'em.
Meantime, Howsam was wheeling and dealing. In a monumentally bad trade, he shipped Bill White and Groat to Philly after the '65 season for basically nothing. But it did clear the way for a new crowd to take over, and of course Mauch couldn't find a way to utilize the remaining good years that White and Groat enjoyed at Philly, so there was no fallout. Howsam sent the aging Boyer to the Mets for Charlie Smith, a third sacker, and lefty Al Jackson. The brilliance of this trade would only be revealed prior to the 1967 season, when Howsam would put the finishing touches on the pennant club by swapping Smith to the Yankees for the disgruntled Roger Maris. More on this later...
Then in May of '66, Howsam swapped Ray Sadecki, on the downside of his career as a starter, to the Giants for Cepeda. (Why did the Giants keep sending great first basemen to St. Louis?) All the pieces were falling into place. Briles, Hoerner and Carlton were about to join Gibson and a resurgent Ray Washburn on the pitching staff. Javier and Maxvill were solid in in the middle of the infield. Flood and Brock formed two-thirds of a great outfield. But that third OF spot was held by Mike Shannon, who couldn't quite cut it. And third base remained a puzzle. That's when Howsam pulled off the Maris-for-Smith trade. Maris had always been a terrific fielder and smooth hitter. St. Louis was perfect for him. He'd never have to play in Yankee stadium again, and he didn't have to be the big star of the team. His acquisition allowed ol' Red to move Shannon to 3B, a much better fit for him, and the team was set.
The trade, made in December of 1966, was Howsam's last hurrah. He resigned six weeks later, but the table was lavishly set. The 1967 and 1968 pennant races weren't even close. The Cards won by 10 games in '67 and by 9 in '68, each time pursued at a distance by an increasingly shaky Giants squad. Bing Devine was lured back as g.m. just in time to enjoy the 1968 campaign; he would remain at the helm for another decade. When Maris retired at the end of the 1968 WS (which saw the Cards blow a 3-1 edge to the Tigers), Gussie Busch was so grateful he bestowed a Busch beer distributorship on Maris. The reigning single season home run king probably made more money from Gussie's beer than he ever made hitting baseballs.
St. Louis was so much better than anyone else at the time that many scribes foresaw a Yankees-type dominance ahead for the Cards. Although the team, reinvigorated by such trades as Cepeda-for-Joe Torre in 1969, finished second three times in the next six years, St. L fans would have to wait for The White Rat to come to town in 1981 to celebrate another pennant. But that's another tale. The point is, Devine and Howsam recognized young talent, were patient with it, and were not patient with aging stars. They made astute trades for the most part, but they avoided trading away young talent. Their field bosses didn't panic and were also patient with the kids. And the big boss, Gussie Busch, liked winning. When you have a Steinbrenner or a Busch screaming for a pennant, it just sort of gives you that extra incentive to get up a little earlier and stay a little later at the office to put that winning team together.
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