St. Louis Cardinals Simmons, Flaherty to be honored at baseball writers dinner
Ted Simmons finally gets his due from The Baseball Hall of Fame in July. But he and St. Louis baseball fans have a chance to celebrate that fact far in advance of those Cooperstown ceremonies.
The switch-hitting catcher – one of the greatest players in Cardinals history – will be honored at the 62nd Annual St. Louis Baseball Writers Dinner this Sunday at the Marriott Grand Hotel in downtown St. Louis.
“Simba” headlines a head table that includes St. Louis Baseball Man of the Year Jack Flaherty, along with National League Manager of the Year Mike Shildt and noted baseball analyst, historian and statistician Bill James.
Other Cardinals to be honored: Gold Glove second baseman Kolten Wong, Darryl Kile Award winner Paul Goldschmidt, Comeback Player Dexter Fowler, and rookies Tommy Edman, Dakota Hudson, and Giovanny Gallegos.
The Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues also will be honored, in the persons of owner Tom Stillman and franchise fixture Bob Plager.
The event will look back – honoring Will Clark for his key role for the Cardinals’ 2000 playoff team – and ahead – by honoring the Cardinals Minor League Players of the year, outfielder Dylan Carlson and pitcher Angel Rondon.
But the focus will be on Simmons, elected to Cooperstown by the veterans committee this winter after spending 25 years waiting for the chance to be in the Hall.
Dropped from the writers’ ballots by rule when he garnered less than 5 percent of the vote in 1994, his first year of eligibility, Simmons at the time held the major-league record for hits (2,472) and doubles (482) by a catcher, and the NL record for home runs (248) by a switch-hitter.
Those records were later broken as Simmons waited for his chance to make the Hall of Fame, a journey that ended with his election in December. He is already a member of the Cardinals Hall of Fame.
Flaherty, meanwhile, capped his 2019 season with a spectacular second-half run, posting a 0.91 ERA in 99 1/3 innings as he led the Cardinals to the National League Central title, a National League Division Series win over Atlanta, and a berth in the League Championship Series against eventual World Series champion Washington.
Shildt, who steered the Cardinals to a 91-71 mark in his first full season as manager, was named the National League Manager of the Year in a nationwide vote by baseball writers after the regular season ended. He is 132-99 in a year and a half as the St. Louis manager.
Tickets remain for the dinner; go to stlouisbbwaa.com or metrotix.com, or by calling 314-534-1111. Tickets are $250 or $150, with tables of 10 available for $2,500 or $1,500.
The dinner will begin at 6:15 p.m. at the Marriott, 800 Washington Ave. in St. Louis. A general reception will begin at 5 p.m. with ballroom doors opening at 6.
This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 3:12 PM.