A bunch of Random Thoughts by someone who should know better than to share them.

The Roger Freed Game

The what?

Before we get to the what, we have to understand what St. Louis sports was like on May 1st, 1979.

First, baseball. The team that went to two World Series at the end of the '60s was gone. Lou Brock was still there, Ted Simmons was playing great and that's about it. They spent the decade either a little above .500 or a little (sometimes more than little) below .500. Or, in 1973, exactly .500. I won't say these teams were a waste of Jack Buck's talents. More like they needed his talents to keep listeners tuned in.

Football? The Don Coryell years were over, they'd just finished 6-10 and were about to start a 3 year run of 5-11. Note that this was the St. Louis Cardinals football team. The Rams were 15 years away. The mid-70's were good (and would have been much better under current wild-card rules). The early 2000's were awesome. Other than that there was a lot of bad football in St. Louis. Don't ever think St. Louis won't support a football team. We supported some absolutely awful football teams.

How about hockey? The Blues had just finished an 18-50-12 season and hadn't had a winning season in five years. They were just a few years from having someone attempt to move them to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

What I'm getting at here is that for St. Louis sports fans there wasn't a whole lot to get excited about.

Okay, so Roger Freed?

I think Roger Freed could best be described as a Quadruple-A player. He raked in the minors (twice being named Minor League Player of the Year) but could never quite make it in the big leagues. He was a semi-regular in 1972 for the Phillies but only hit .221 without much power. The lack of power was a bit of a surprise as that was his calling card in the minors. After that he'd bounce up and down. He'd never get 200 plate appearances again. By 1977 he'd managed to carve out a bit of a role as a pinch hitter for the Cardinals and did okay. Not great. Okay. By the end of 1979 he'd be out of the league for good.

But now we come to May 1st, 1979. A meaningless game in a mediocre year that still gets mentioned with fondness by St. Louis fans of a certain age (my age and older) and shows up in biographical sketches of Joe Sambito.

Oh, yes. I was there. Sort of.

May 1st, 1979. Cardinals v. Astros

The Houston Astros came to town early in what would be an 89-73 season. They'd finish second in the NL West (remember?) and would have been a wild-card team if such a thing existed then. Their top player was a prime Jose Cruz, with a pitching staff anchored by J.R. Richard, Ken Forsch and Joe Niekro. They also had a couple of players that would mean things to later Cardinal fans: Joaquin Andujar and Jeffery Leonard. And, important for this particular memory they had NL All-Star Reliver Joe Sambito.

Houston scored a single run in the second and the Cardinals matched it. Then the home team added one in the sixth and another in the seventh for a two run lead. But, as would often happen with the Cardinals the Astros scored two runs in the top of the eigth to tie it up.

And we (my parents and my 15-year old self) decided to leave. I guess a lack of faith and it being a weeknight made us decide it was time to go. So did a lot of other folks. As we slowly exited the parking garage we occassionally picked up the radio signal (KMOX has a massive signal but concrete is an effective block) and listened to the ninth go by. And the tenth.

The top of the elventh seemed to justify our leaving early as Houston scored three runs. With their ace fireman in the game it was over, right?

But. Oh, but. Never leave a game early. A single. An out. Two walks. A strikeout. Bases loaded, bottom of the eleventh. Two out. Pinch hitting: Roger Freed.

Freed worked a full count (of course he did! How else would this end?) And then there was a fastball that caught just a little too much of the plate. Freed's bat caught all of the baseball. A grand slam and 7-6 victory.

So there you are. The baseball highlight of late 70's Cardinals baseball. Gibson was a memory and Whiteyball was a few years away. This was it, and I was there.

Kinda.

One Athlete to keep healthy...