Larry Dierker & His Unsatisfying Stint With Cardinals

Larry Dierker was one of the most popular, personable and productive pitchers to play for the Astros. He was as smooth a fit for Houston as oil, aerospace and barbecue. Imagine then the shockwaves when he was traded to the Cardinals.

RetroSimba

How Cardinals Tried Making Ted Simmons A Third Baseman

Mercifully, an experiment by the Cardinals to play Ted Simmons at third base lasted just two games. Still, plenty of damage was done. Simmons made three errors that contributed to two defeats, got booed by Cardinals fans and then lashed out at them, saying they lacked perspective and that St. Louis didn’t deserve its reputation for being a good sports town.

RetroSimba

How Reggie Smith Played Mind Games With Cardinals

Mired in a slump, Reggie Smith got into the right frame of mind and snapped out of his funk, hitting three home runs, including the winning shot, for the Cardinals in a game against the Phillies.

RetroSimba

Stat Speak: Placido Polanco's Fast Starts Turning Historic

On Opening Day last season, the Phillies' Placido Polanco walked to the plate six times, collected three hits, added a sacrifice fly, and drove in a career-high six runs. Over the course of the next four games, he had another 10 hits, with at least two in every game. That's five games with two or more hits in five straight games.

Phillies Official Site

Yadier Molina's Five-RBI Feat

St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina did something that has only been accomplished 25 times in 90 years.

The Cardinal Nation Blog

The Path To Cooperstown: The Catchers Part Two

In Part 1 of this series looking at the best catchers of the post-1920 period, I focused on catchers whose prime years ran eight or more seasons. In this followup, I will look at the top catchers whose major league primes were shorter than that. The pickings, as you will see, get much thinner in a hurry.

The Hardball Times