Freese Continues Cardinals’ Keystone Corner Tradition
From SABR member Mark Simon at ESPN.com on October 19, 2011:
When people think of the St. Louis Cardinals, their first thoughts tend to go to Stan Musial and Albert Pujols, and Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson.
But the Cardinals have a history of third basemen who have come up huge in their long and storied postseason history. Let’s run through a few of them.
Whitey Kurowski, 1942. Kurowski, a rookie, had five RBIs in the Cardinals’ five-game World Series win over the Yankees, none bigger than a two-run home run against future Hall of Famer Red Ruffing in the ninth inning of the clinching Game 5. Kurowski would be the third baseman on three Cardinals World Series-winning teams. Kurowski played at an All-Star level even after players returned from World War II service, but his career was eventually derailed by the end of the decade due to an arm injury.
Ken Boyer, 1964. Boyer hit .222 in the 1964 World Series, but hit a very noteworthy home run. In Game 4, with the Cardinals trailing in the series 2-1, and down 3-0 in the sixth inning, Boyer hit a grand slam to give the Cardinals all the scoring they would need in a 4-3 win. The Cardinals would win the series in seven games, with Boyer homering in the seventh game as well.
Read the full article here: http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/17766/freese-continues-keystone-corner-tradition
Originally published: October 21, 2011. Last Updated: October 21, 2011.