This Month in St. Louis History

World Series, Gateway Arch anniversaries

This October is the 20th anniversary of the last St. Louis Cardinal win in the World Series. Will this year's baseball team be able to match that?

It's also the anniversary of the completion of the distinctive Gateway Arch in downtown St. Louis. Begun in 1963, the Arch was completed on Oct. 28, 1965. Total cost was $15 million.

The 1982 World Series was between the Cardinals and the Milwaukee Brewers, then in the American League. (These two teams' records in regular season play this year provide a sharp contrast. The Cardinals finished first and the Brewers dead last in the National League's Central Division.)

In 1982, manager Whitey Herzog gave up the general manager's position to concentrate on being the on-field manager. Previously, he had held both titles. In the World Series, the Cardinals prevailed, 4 games to 3.

That team was much different than the current Cardinals. The 1982 version was built on speed. For instance, that year, seven Cardinals finished with more than 10 stolen bases. Lonnie Smith led with 68.

On the other hand, the whole team combined to hit only 67 home runs in 1982. Remember 1999, Mark McGwire alone had more than that when he hit 70.

Relief pitcher Bruce Sutter had a hand in nearly half of the Cardinal victories in 1982.

The full name for the Gateway Arch grounds is the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The National Park Service site includes not only the Arch but the Museum of Westward Expansion and St. Louis' Old Courthouse.

The architect for the Arch is world-famous Eero Saarinen.

There are two neat websites where you can get more information about both the Arch and Cardinal baseball history. The arch website is www.nps.gov/jeff. Major League Baseball's website, which includes a full Cardinal file, is www.mlb.com.

The Arch website has links to an Events Calendar as well as to a Lewis and Clark section.

The MBL website is a big one. Once you get to the homepage, you need to click a number of layers to find the Cardinal information. First, click on History at the top of the home page.

Then click on Team Histories on the left side of the next page. That will show the logos of all major league teams. The Cardinals logo is at the bottom of the right hand column.

Then, click on Year to Year Results. Again, click on History and you get Cardinal information all the way back to 1876. The 1982 year is included in the 1975-2000 summary.