Tired of coronavirus and missing baseball? Watch these 5 St. Louis Cardinals games

Like a lot of St. Louis Cardinals fans, I’ve been delving into the archives in search of old games to watch. If you ask me, these are the five greatest games in Cardinals history to re-live:

5. It’s the game that everyone of a certain age seems to talk about as their best Cardinals memory — at least prior to 2011. The day Ozzie Smith hit his first left-handed homer at the most opportune of time, saving St. Louis from being on the brink of elimination. A lot of people CLAIM they were at that game. I have the ticket stub to prove it, and my recollection was that the Cardinals had about a million chances to score but ended up fumbling away a narrow lead late in the game and stood one out away from extra innings with the tying run at first base. It seemed Ozzie would have to hit the ball as far as he could, pick it up and hit it again to give the runner a chance to score from first. But, instead, the crowd rose as one as they watch his drive sail toward the right field stands, barely clearing the then blue wall at Busch Stadium. I can still hear Jack Buck yell “go crazy, folks” from the dozens and dozens of times I’ve listened to the highlights over the years and manager Whitey Herzog saying at every chicken dinner he’s attended over the last 35 years that he had a hunch Ozzie was “due” to hit a homer from the left side.

4. This is probably where people are going to disagree with me. I could say Game Seven of the 1964 World Series, a Dizzy Dean game in there somewhere or the incredible deciding Game Five of the 2011 National League Division Series between the Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies in which Chris Carpenter out-dueled former teammate Roy Halladay for a 1-0 victory. But the game I am going to pick is Game Seven of the 2004 National League Championship between the Cardinals and Houston Astros. The Cardinals were facing Roger Clemens who seemed almost unbeatable at the time — as if he had some sort of chemical edge that gave him superhuman abilities. The home team trailed 2-1 in the sixth inning when suddenly it had Clemens on the ropes. Roger Cedeno got on base and scored on a double by Albert Pujols that whipped the Busch Stadium crowd into a frenzy. Then third baseman Scott Rolen came to the plate with a chance to drive home the go-ahead run with a single. He hit a line drive down the left field line that was hit so hard it didn’t have a chance to curve foul for what instead became a pennant-winning home run. It was the Go Crazy, Folks home run with a bit more gravitas since it was the clinching blow. All of that would be plenty to make this a game for the ages. But on top of it all it featured the best outfield play I’ve ever witnessed. With the Astros already ahead by a run they had two men on in the second when Brad Ausmus hit a line drive into the left-center field gap. Jim Edmonds got an incredible jump and laid out like Ozzie Smith at shortstop to snag the ball just before it hit the turf, forcing both base runners to retreat. If he missed the ball, it would have been AT LEAST a two-run triple and the game might have been over.

3. Slaughter’s mad dash. That really says it all about Game Seven of the 1946 World Series between St. Louis and the Boston Red Sox. The Cardinals outfielder broke a tie nearly single-handedly, getting on base with a lead-off hit and then taking matters into his own hands when the two batters who followed him popped out. Running on contact when Harry Walker hit an innocent single into centerfield, the hard-nosed Enos Slaughter wouldn’t be denied. He ran through the stop sign at third base to the amazement of Red Sox infielder Johnny Pesky allegedly delayed his relay throw to the plate out of shock and Slaughter scored the winning tally all the way from first base. While the closing game of the 1946 series was a classic, it was the end of an era for both St. Louis and Boston. It marked the last time legendary Stan Musial would play in a World Series, with the Cardinals failing to return to the Fall Classic again until 1964. It was the last time Red Sox Hall of Fame slugger Ted Williams would play in the World Series.

2. The second-greatest game in St. Louis history is one you can’t find a DVD of someplace. But it’s a legendary game filled with legendary players. As much as I would have loved to see Stan Musial play in person, if I could choose one game I could jump into a time machine to go back to see, it would be Game Seven of the 1926 World Series between the Cardinals and the New York Yankees. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Rogers Hornsby and Grover Cleveland Alexander all in the same game. Incredible. It’s also a legendary game for St. Louis fans because the arch-rival Chicago Cubs figure into it. Alexander, who was a Hall of Fame hurler at the tale end of a spectacular career, was released by the Cubs late in the season because he couldn’t keep his drinking under control and just wasn’t the same performer he used to be. The winner of 373 games as a starter, Alexander appeared in Game Seven in relief -- nursing a hangover and un-rested after pitching the previous day. He struck out Lazzeri with the bases loaded and two outs to preserve a 3-2 lead and salted away the first of 11 St. Louis World Series championships.

1. Game 6 of the 2011 World Series. It’s always hard not to pick the most recent item as the all-time great because it’s freshest in your memory. That being said, I think this game is legitimately the winner for several reasons. First, the stakes couldn’t have been any higher when the Cardinals were repeatedly down to their last strike in the World Series only to get back up off the floor and fight back. That makes this game stand out over all of the regular season comeback. Second, while there have been a lot of games in St. Louis history that include post-season dramatics, the Ozzie Smith “Go Crazy, Folks” home run game over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1985 NLCS for example, they didn’t directly lead to a championship win. That 1985 game would have held up a lot better over the years if umpire Don Denkinger hadn’t become involved in stealing a World Series trophy from St. Louis just a few days later. The Cardinals looked dead in the water midway through Game Six and it took a contribution from almost every player in the lineup to pull that game out of the fire and eventually win it. Third baseman David Freese would get a lot of the credit for his game-tying triple in the ninth and his game-winning homer in extra innings. But Lance Berkman got a key, two-strike hit to tie the game in between. Lesser batsmen Jon Jay and Daniel Descalso got on base to make the tying rally possible. Albert Pujols figured heavily in that game, but the single reason over all the rest that makes Game Six stand out as the greatest game of all-time in the fact that when I watch it, no matter how many times I see it, emotionally I feel as if the Birds are going to lose. The story is so implausible that it seems that there must have been some mistake the first time around and it’s going to turn out that St. Louis lost. It’s just that unbelievable.

Scott Wuerz

Belleville News-Democrat

Scott Wuerz has written “Cheap Seats,” a St. Louis Cardinals fan blog for the Belleville News-Democrat, since 2007. He is a former BND reporter who covered breaking news and education.