A CUP of JOE in the SHOW Report...RETRO Act #2...BUSCH...REDBIRDS...the LOU...E.T., the WIZARD of OZ, Tommy, George, Vince, Captain Keith, Darrell...meet & greet WHITEY BALL #REDBIRDSnation

In the 80s in MLB there was one team that was dominant in the Senior Circuit from the Midwest. They played baseball with a plan based on Pitching, Speed, and good solid Defense. They would use that Speed at the Top with the likes of Vince Coleman and Willie "E.T." McGhee and put Power Hitters behind them like George Hendricks, Keith Hernandez, and Jack Clark.

Then behind the Power Hitters would be guys that could handle the bat and spray it all over the field coupled with more speed at the bottom of the line-up. Players like Terry Pendleton, Tommy Herr, and the Wizard of Oz...Ozzie Smith.

That kind of baseball was used to get the St. Louis Cardinals an '82 Fall Classic Chip, and NL Pennants in '85 and '87 (Herzog and the Boys beat a game Brewers Team aka the Brew Crew led by Paul Molitor, Robin Yount, and Gorman Thomas). That was Redbirds Baseball and it was known as "Whitey Ball" from their Skipper Whitey Herzog.

Herzog had wonderful teams back then and he used Whitey Ball because of their home stadium....Busch Stadium. AstroTurf and during the summer months a robust 120 degrees plus and they played a lot of night game and it still didn't cool the game down.

The Redbirds would play fast on that turf as a Turf Single was a Science and Cards Lead-Off Hitter Vince Coleman would get one it seemed every game at least once. Like a Swinging Bunt except you hit it off the AstroTurf and it would create a Bounce o high the fielder had no shot at getting the hitter.

The Gaps at Busch were exceptionally fast so Speed was of the essence and the Redbirds when they had it going would go Left to Center to Right....Dane Iorg, Lonnie Smith, George Hendrick with a Depth Chart of "E.T." Willie McGhee and Tito Landrum. Teams had to have speed in order to compete as a lot of the Ballparks back then had the AstroTurf.

The Redbirds had so much leadership back then as well with "Captain" Keith Hernandez, Ozzie Smith, Tommy Herr, and Darrell Porter.

They also had a nice Starting Rotation led by RHP Joaquin Andujar and a closer by the name of Bruce Sutter and the infamous Split-Finger Pitch...the first to have such a pitch.

Since the run with Whitey Ball the Redbirds of late have had tremendous success under the recently retired Tony LaRussa with Chips from the Fall Classic in 2006 and 2011. But make no mistake about it Whitey Ball was the ticket and Redbirds Nation will never forget.