September 16, 1963: Stan Musial hits his final home run

As the 1963 season approached mid-September, St. Louis Cardinals fans were growing cautiously optimistic over the possibility that their team might finally reach the postseason for the first time since 1946. But if the team was going to win the National League pennant, it was going to have to overtake the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers, who as of September 16 were one game ahead of the Cardinals. Naturally, the Cardinals faithful hoped to see a world championship brought back to St. Louis, but they especially hoped to see their hero Stan Musial play in the World Series one last time. Television commentator and former teammate Joe Garagiola expressed the feelings of the city: “If there’s such a thing as justice … he’s got to wind up in the World Series, and it goes seven games and Stan wins the last one with – with a five-run homer!”1

During the Cardinals’ team summer picnic on August 12, Musial made the official announcement that the current season would be his last as a player and that he would take a role in the St. Louis front office.2 Musial had considered retiring after 1962, but after batting .330 with 19 home runs and finishing 10th in the league MVP voting, he decided to come back for another year. The Cardinals welcomed Musial back in 1963 for his 22nd season,3 but at the age of 42, he was not nearly as productive. At the time of the announcement, his batting average was .260 and he had only 9 home runs.

Musial’s decision could be given at least some credit for the Cardinals’ surge that followed. The team went on a tear starting on August 30 and won 19 of 20 games. On September 15 the Cardinals swept a doubleheader from the Milwaukee Braves,4 their 9th and 10th wins in a row, and moved to within one game of first place. The Dodgers’ supporters could understandably be getting nervous. They had been up by seven games as late as August 30, and concerns were arising that the team would repeat its epic collapse of the previous year. In 1962 the Dodgers were in first place from July 8 until September 30, when on the last day of the season their rivals, the San Francisco Giants, caught up to them. The Dodgers lost a best-of-three tiebreaker and had to watch the World Series from home. Now they had to travel to St. Louis for a three-game series that could either help cement their lead for the National League pennant or drop them to second place.

The Dodgers had held a tribute night for Musial on August 22 when the Cardinals were in town for their last appearance of the season. Over 48,000 fans gave Musial a standing ovation, while the Dodgers greeted him with handshakes and presented him with a plaque of appreciation.5 But it was all business when the two teams met again on Monday, September 16, at St. Louis’s Busch Stadium for a night game to start the three-game set. The Cardinals aimed to win at least two games of the series and come out in first place, with a chance to send “Stan the Man” out with one more World Series appearance and ideally a championship. But there were questions about how much Musial himself might be able to contribute. Heading into that weekend, Musial had hit only three home runs since the beginning of June. Fans had to be quietly wondering if he might ever hit another round-tripper or if 474 would be his final career total.6

St. Louis’s largest home crowd of the year, 34,442, packed into Busch Stadium for the first game of the series. Dodgers fans back in Los Angeles would be glued to their television sets at 8 P.M. CST to watch the game on KTTV, the first time that season that the station televised any games outside of a handful of matchups with the rival Giants in San Francisco.7 The Dodgers looked to southpaw Johnny Podres to get them off to a good start in the series opener. He would oppose Cardinals righty Ernie Broglio.

Before the game started, Dodgers manager Walter Alston, along with coach Leo Durocher and pitcher Don Drysdale, approached the umpires protesting that the grounds crew had the pitcher’s mound built up higher than the regulation 15 inches. They presumed such an alteration was ordered by Cardinals manager Johnny Keane to aid Broglio, who pitched with an overhead delivery. The umpires measured the height of the mound and found that it met league specifications, and the game could begin.

The Dodgers started the offense in the second inning when catcher Johnny Roseboro drove a shot off the right-field screen that he legged out for a two-out triple, or so he thought. Broglio was ready to go into his windup for the next batter when he noticed his teammates in the dugout frantically waving their arms to get his attention. They saw that Roseboro had missed second base on his way to third and were yelling for the pitcher to appeal the play. Broglio tossed the ball over to shortstop Dick Groat, who was standing ready at second. Umpire Ed Sudol had also witnessed the miscue, and he called Roseboro out on the appeal to end the inning.

Podres did not allow a single baserunner through the first five innings. Broglio likewise had a shutout in place through the fifth, but the Dodgers finally got on the board in the sixth inning when Tommy Davis singled to center field and knocked in Maury Wills with the first run of the game. Podres had a perfect game going into the sixth inning, and now had a 1-0 lead to work with. After Groat was retired on a grounder back to Podres to start the seventh, it looked as if the Cardinals could have another scoreless inning ahead. Stan Musial was 0-for-2, but the fans still buzzed with anticipation, as they did every time he stepped to the plate. Podres tossed the first pitch of the at-bat low and outside for a ball. Musial crouched into his familiar batting stance and awaited the next pitch. Podres figured Musial would be looking for another outside pitch and instead threw a fastball high and inside.8 Musial sprang forward and turned into the pitch, sending a line drive over the fence and nearly onto the roof of the ballpark’s right-field pavilion. With one swing Musial tied the game, 1-1, and sent the home crowd into a frenzy. Joyful screaming and yelling from the stands resonated throughout the ballpark as Musial rounded the bases. Musial remembered the event well in a biography that was published a year later. “I hit my last major league home run, No. 475, a line shot to the pavilion roof, tying the score, and I thought the fans would tear down the park with joy.”9

The St. Louis fans knew that with Musial’s retirement on the horizon, this might be the last time they would see him take a home-run trot. The noise from the crowd was still deafening as Musial arrived back at home plate and shook hands with Ken Boyer, and it continued into Boyer’s at-bat. After Boyer popped out for the second out, Bill White reached first on an error by Wills. Center fielder Curt Flood then singled, and the Cards thought they might have their first rally of the game going. Alston made a visit to the mound that let Podres catch his breath and settle down, and the pitcher induced Charlie James to fly out, ending the threat.

Broglio left the game when fellow pitcher Bob Gibson pinch-hit for him in the eighth inning, and he was replaced on the mound by lefty Bobby Shantz. Shantz’s outing was a short one; he was pulled by Keane after the Dodgers took the lead with a run on two hits and a walk in a third of an inning. (He was also charged with the Dodgers’ third run.) The Cardinals didn’t score again after Musial’s solo shot, and Shantz took the loss. Podres struck out six and allowed one run on only three hits over eight innings to earn the win. If Keane had instructed the grounds crew to alter the mound before the game, it wound up working in Podres’ favor. The home run given up to Musial was the only mistake the pitcher made during the game. “I’ve always had trouble getting him out so, much as I admire him, I’ll be glad when he retires,” Podres said.10

The Cardinals’ 10-game win streak was over, as was their 16-game win streak at Busch Stadium. St. Louis still hoped to win the next two games and come out of the series tied for first, but the season took a downturn. They were swept by Los Angeles and lost eight of their final 10 games. They still finished in second place, but ultimately fell six games back from the pennant-winning Dodgers. Musial had seven hits over eight games after his round-tripper on September 16. But that home run, number 475 for the future Hall of Famer, would be his last. St. Louis fans did get to see the Cardinals win another World Series in 1964, but sadly it was done without the beloved Stan Musial on the field.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com, and YouTube.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN196309160.shtml

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwHsZyF_3ow

Notes

1 Red Smith, “Garagiola: It Just Has to Be,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 17, 1963: 15.

2 Neal Russo, “‘I’ve Had My Share of Baseball,’ Says Musial,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 13, 1963: 24.

3 The 22 years do not count the 1945 season, which Musial spent in the US Navy during World War II.

4 The sweep of the Braves was hardly the most important event to occur the day before Musial’s last home-run game. On the morning of September 15, a bomb exploded at a predominantly Black church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls and injuring many others. The devastating event helped draw national attention to the growing civil rights movement.

5 Bob Speck, “L.A. Stops The Man, but Not His Cards,” Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, August 23, 1963: 20.

6 When he retired, Musial ranked behind only Mel Ott’s 511 home runs for the all-time National League career lead.

7 “Drysdale Raps ‘Choke’ Charge,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 17, 1963: 14.

8 “L.A. Confident After Taking Series Opener at St. Louis,” Pomona (California) Progress-Bulletin, September 17, 1963: 16.

9 Bob Broeg, Stan Musial: The Man’s Own Story (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1964), 239-240.

10 L.A. Confident After Taking Series Opener at St. Louis.”