As a youth in small-town Texas, Bobby Joe Conrad would go to a vacant lot near his house and practice kicking a football. He taught himself to boot the ball high and far and straight. After a while, he was kicking footballs over the arching branches of a cluster of hackberry trees. “I guess a lot of it came naturally,” he recalled to the Bryan-College Station Eagle. Conrad … [Read more...] about Bobby Joe Conrad made an art of adapting to gridiron roles
Dizzy Dean was a Gashouse Gang slugger, too
Pitching in relief just two days after making a start, Dizzy Dean got the win and a walkoff home run for the surging Cardinals. Dean delivered four innings of hitless, scoreless relief and slugged a three-run homer in the bottom of the 10th inning, carrying the Cardinals to a 6-3 triumph over the Reds at St. Louis on Aug. 6, 1935. The win was the Cardinals’ fifth in a row … [Read more...] about Dizzy Dean was a Gashouse Gang slugger, too
Abe Woodson: An innovator in Cardinals secondary
Coveted by the NFL St. Louis Cardinals for his uncanny ability to return kickoffs and punts for good gains, as well as for his skills as a cornerback covering the game’s top receivers, Abe Woodson provided a bonus. At a time when cornerbacks gave receivers lots of room at the line of scrimmage in the hope of not getting outmaneuvered, Woodson used a different technique _ the … [Read more...] about Abe Woodson: An innovator in Cardinals secondary
Hard knocks: Joe Coleman and his Cardinals connections
At Tigers spring training in 1971, Joe Coleman had the look of a pitcher whose career was on the upswing. Traded by the Senators, Coleman was with a contender for the first time. At 24, the right-hander with a potent fastball and forkball seemed on the cusp of becoming an ace. Then, a Ted Simmons line drive nearly shattered Coleman’s outlook. Simmons’ scorcher struck Coleman … [Read more...] about Hard knocks: Joe Coleman and his Cardinals connections
How Bill Triplett breathed life into Cardinals’ ground game
On an evening in March 1964, St. Louis Cardinals running back Bill Triplett was having dinner at home when he felt a dull ache in his chest. “My wife said I probably ate too fast,” Triplett recalled to Newsday. When the chest pain returned at dinner the next night, Triplett and his wife grew more concerned. At a visit to a doctor the following day, X-rays showed a dark spot on … [Read more...] about How Bill Triplett breathed life into Cardinals’ ground game