35 years ago this week, the Cardinals got hosed

Whitey Herzog and his running Redbirds of 1982 delivered St. Louis from a 15-year World Series drought and from those frustrating seasons of the 1970s.

But the Cardinals' revival might have happened a season sooner if not for a bizarre decision by then-Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn.

This week marks the 35th anniversary of the end of a protracted players' strike that forced the cancellation of 713 big league games — or about 40 percent of the schedule — right in the middle of the season. The owners got what they wanted out of the negotiation, which was compensation for so-called "premium" players their teams might lose in free agency.

But before the teams returned to the field on August 16 of that year, Kuhn decided that the season would be viewed as two halves. For post-season's sake, that meant the first-place finishers from each half of each division would face off in a best-of-five series with advancement to the league championship series at stake.

The Philadelphia Phillies won the first half of the season in the National League East Division. The Expos won the second half to earn their only trip the playoffs in 36 seasons in Montreal.

The Expos won the play-in series, then were bounced by eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, who had knocked off the Houston Astros in the NL West series.

But here's the rub: Had Kuhn just picked up the season where it left off, instead of creating first-half and second-half winners, none of those aforementioned teams would have qualified for the playoffs.

The Cardinals, at 59-43, had the best overall record in the division in 1981, but was in second place at the end of each half and therefore didn't get to participate in the post-season. The Cincinnati Reds got hosed, too. At 66-42, they had the best record in all of baseball, but failed to win either half of the season.

By contrast, over the American League, the Kansas City Royals were the second half winner of their division, but had an overall losing record that was just fourth best in the AL West.

Herzog, who served as both manager and general manager in those days, wasn't finished building the team that eventually won it all the following season. But the Cardinals were good in 1981.

The lineup was young and deep with the likes of Keith Hernandez, Ken Oberkfell, George Hendrick, and shortstop Gary Templeton, who, if not for his unfortunate ladies day salute, might have become one of the greatest Redbirds of all time.

Bob Forsch led the pitching rotation with 10 wins and a 3.18 ERA. Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter, newly aquired in a trade with the Cubs, pitched 82.1 innings in relief and had a league-high 25 saves.

A few more moves in the off-season — trades for Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee and Joaquin Andjuar — might have made the 1982 Redbirds strike proof. They went on to a seven-game World Series win over the Brewers. But we’ll never know the post-season potential of Herzog’s ’81 edition.

Cardinals' brass was famously, justifiably and publicly irate at Kuhn and the owners for their baffling split-season decision: "It's the most unjust, irrational concept every perpetrated in baseball," Joe McDonald, Herzog's assistant general manager, told the Associated Press.

That it was.

And because of it, St. Louis fans and Whitey Ball had to wait it out another year.

This story was originally published August 18, 2016 at 12:00 PM with the headline "35 years ago this week, the Cardinals got hosed."