Whitey Herzog, 92, leaves legacy of savvy, fun baseball that 'forever changed' Cardinals

When he stepped to the microphone that stands at the peak of a career spent in baseball, Whitey Herzog first mentioned how “everybody said I was going to cry,” and he almost made it all the way through, too, without so much as a crack in his voice. Almost.

On that eventually sunny day in July 2010, a long way from where he grew up in New Athens but a short walk from where he’ll reside forever at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Herzog had a keen feel for the crowd. He always did. He sensed fans were restless after some lengthy speeches and edited his down on the fly. The Cardinals great told a tale that involved beer and getting four hits, praised the play of a rival, chided an umpire and, as if the tears were opponents, remained two steps ahead. He always was.

He didn’t waver as, from the podium, he spoke to his wife, Mary Lou Herzog, and highlighted their family seated all around her. It was only then, at the end of his speech, that he started to describe what it felt like to be inducted, to be a Hall of Famer, and the emotions started to seep between the words.

“Being elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York,” Herzog said, “is like going to heaven before you die.”

An innovative and charismatic manager who had a style of baseball, “Whiteyball,” named for him, Herzog was as deft with a story as he was with a pitching change and as quick-witted as his signature teams were quick-footed.

Herzog spent this past weekend embraced by family during the final moments of an illness. He died Monday in the St. Louis area less than two weeks after he attended the Cardinals’ home opener at Busch Stadium.

He was 92.

“Whitey spent his last few days surrounded by his family,” the Herzog family said in a statement released by the club. “We have appreciated all of the prayers and support from friends who knew he was very ill. Although it is hard for us to say goodbye, his peaceful passing was a blessing for him.”

Heralded throughout his life by his peers as one of the all-time great baseball strategists, Herzog created a legacy in St. Louis that went beyond the 1982 World Series championship and three National League pennants to shape the way the Cardinals are expected to play even today. It was a style so fast, so fun to watch and so successful that the club and its fans are always chasing it. The team’s Hall of Fame is chocked with players from his teams, the club’s defensive identity and grip on earning the league’s most Gold Glove Awards began with him, and those 3 million fans expected each season — yeah, that local kid did good as Herzog helped sell all those seats and throughout the 1980s got fans leaping from them.

The style’s architect and namesake, Herzog became the crew-cut, crack-up and sometimes combative face of the franchise whose eagerness to discuss baseball strategy — sometimes with a can of Budweiser in front of him — became the model expected by Cardinals Nation of the managers who followed. His personality and availability set the table for how baseball is discussed in St. Louis to this day.

Herzog arrived here in June 1980, after a lost decade for the organization, and as longtime Post-Dispatch baseball writer Rick Hummel once said, “Cardinals baseball was changed forever.”

“I look back at Whitey Herzog as the guy who revived baseball in St. Louis,” said major league player, longtime league executive and St. Louis native Lee Thomas in 1990. “To appreciate that, you have to look back at how bad things were before he came in. He made new life in St. Louis to the tune of 3 million (fans) a year. Whitey probably had more to do with that anybody.”

“To be somewhat, if not underrated, then undercelebrated outside of Missouri,” broadcaster Bob Costas said Tuesday on MLB Network, “I think Whitey Herzog fits that description.”

Dorrel Norman Elvert Herzog was born in New Athens on Nov. 9, 1931. He joked during his Hall of Fame induction speech that if not for baseball he would have stayed in his working-class hometown, about 45 minutes from Busch Stadium, “digging ditches” or something. He starred in basketball and baseball and out of high school signed a contract with the New York Yankees. In 1949, he debuted with the Yankees’ Class D affiliate in McAlester, Oklahoma, where he picked up the nickname “Whitey.” He hit .279 that summer with a .361 on-base percentage and 15 stolen bases to launch a career that would include six seasons in the minors and nearly nine in the majors.

During his minor league career, Herzog would compete for attention within the Yankees organization against a young outfielder named Mickey Mantle, and in the late 1950s, Herzog would call Satchel Paige a teammate.

Herzog reached the majors in 1956 and played parts of three seasons for the Washington Senators before moving to the Kansas City Athletics, Baltimore and Detroit. He played 634 games in the majors and hit .257 with a .354 on-base percentage.

“Baseball has been good to me since I quit trying to play it,” Herzog once said.

While he never made the majors with the Yankees, he did meet his mentor there: Casey Stengel. An all-time great manager, Stengel remained an influence in Herzog’s career. He has scouted, coached and served as director of player development for the New York Mets. He was part of the group that built World Series teams in Queens for 1969 and 1973. Herzog got his first manager position in the majors with Texas in 1973. He managed the Angels in 1974 before moving to his run, from 1975 to 1979, with Kansas City. It was there, on the Royals’ home turf, that the seeds of Whiteyball began.

In 1980, the Cardinals hired Herzog as general manager and manager — the first in decades to hold both positions. He inherited a club that had not finished higher than third in the division since 1974, hadn’t finished first since 1968. He later told Hummel, a Hall of Famer himself who was a favorite chronicler and trusted confidant for Herzog, that the team “had a lot of holes, and we had a high payroll.” In December 1980, Herzog dramatically changed that.

On the eve of the winter meetings, Herzog greeted Hummel at the event’s hotel in Dallas and said: “Hey, where you been? I’ve got trades to make.”

In a flurry of 23 players on the move, 14 went out, nine came in.

A year later, Herzog made his defining trade — sending a shortstop with whom he had feuded, Garry Templeton, to San Diego for the best defensive player arguably ever at the position, Ozzie Smith.

Whiteyball was full speed ahead.

The Cardinals had the best overall record in 1981, but the split-season meant no playoffs. They won the World Series in 1982 and would return there as NL champions in 1985 and 1987. In 1985, Herzog’s Cardinals, paced by Vince Coleman, stole a St. Louis-fitting 314 bases. He said he “changed the whole concept of the way to play baseball because we couldn’t hit a home run and we could neutralize the power of the other team in our ballpark.” While the steals seize the attention, Herzog’s teams ran multiple blitzes — a heavy emphasis on athletic defense, strong pitching and matchup bullpens that underscored run prevention before run prevention was cool.

Forget turf, he once told Post-Dispatch baseball writer Neal Russo that the style of play “could even win on the moon.”

In his 11 seasons with the Cardinals, Herzog’s teams won 822 games and won seven games in each of three postseason appearances. A famously missed call at first base during the 1985 World Series helped keep the Whiteyball Cardinals from a second World Series title.

“Whitey and his teams played a big part in changing the direction of the Cardinals franchise in the early 1980s with an exciting style of play,” Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said in a statement.

“Whitey Herzog was one of the most accomplished managers of his generation and a consistent winner with both (Interstate 70) franchises,” commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “He made a significant impact on the St. Louis Cardinals as both a manager and general manager, with the Kansas City Royals as a manager. Whitey’s Cardinals teams reached the World Series ... by leaning on an identity of speed and defense that resonated with baseball fans across the world.”

In July 1990, Herzog abruptly resigned after a win against the Padres.

He would not return to a dugout as manager.

“You don’t replace somebody like that,” said longtime baseball executive Dave Dombrowski the day Herzog resigned. “He had a background in everything — the perfect baseball resume.”

As a manager, Herzog had two 100-win seasons, won the 1982 Major League Manager of the Year award and the 1985 NL Manager of the Year award, and ranks 39th all-time with 1,281 wins. His Hall of Fame plaque reads that he “maximized player contributions with a stern yet good-natured style, emphasizing speed, pitching and defense.”

After his career as a manager and executive, Herzog remained a presence around the Cardinals. He would annually visit spring training. He particularly liked to review the young players and offer opinions on prospects. In recent years, after a couple of falls, he had a cane handy — one made from a baseball bat engraved with his other nickname: “The White Rat.” With his fellow red jacket Cardinals Hall of Famers, he had an infectious laugh, often because he had told the story that started the laughing to begin with. During the Cardinals’ home opener earlier this month, he appeared to great ovation on the scoreboard and, during the game, talked with friends about Stan Musial.

Herzog was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the veterans committee in December 2009 and inducted that next July. Two days before he delivered that speech, before he avoided crying, he was brought to tears when, in Cooperstown, DeWitt told him of the honor that awaited him back in St. Louis.

The Cardinals would retire his No. 24.

“The fans loved it,” Herzog once told Hummel about the Cardinals’ play. “I still have fans every day that want to shake my hand for giving them exciting baseball for 10 years.”

Herzog is survived by his wife, Mary Lou, of 71 years; their three children, Debra, David and Jim and their spouses; nine grandchildren; and 10 great grandchildren.

The Herzog family intends to hold a private celebration of life at a later time.

The family asks any donations made as a memorial in Whitey Herzog’s name go to Shriners Hospitals for Children.

The Cardinals are planning tributes for Herzog with more details to come.

“He had a very distinctive style,” fellow Hall of Famer and Cardinals manager Tony La Russa once told Hummel. “He was involved in the game with the way he handled the bullpen and the way his offense played. Whitey’s club, both in St. Louis and Kansas City, always had those guys trying to go for doubles and triples, and that put a lot of pressure on the defense. Those guys who played for him all raved about him.

“What more do you want?”

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Remembered in photos: Whitey Herzog, legendary St. Louis Cardinals manager

Our national pastime has seen many great field managers, but very few of them transformed franchises into something much greater.

One very special exception was Whitey Herzog, who died Monday, April 15, 2024, at the age of 92. To appreciate the “Whiteyball” effect on the Cardinals, travel back to 1978.

Back then, this Mizzou student from Motown could come watch the Cardinals play one weekend with friends from the STL, then go see the Royals play the next weekend with his Kansas City buddies.

The contrast was jarring.

Kansas City offered a dynamic baseball scene while St. Louis had grown apathetic. Royals Stadium was abuzz with big, lively crowds, while Busch Stadium sat nearly empty on some game days.

The 1978 Royals made their third straight trip to the American League Championship Series under Herzog. They hit balls into the gaps and down the lines on their ultra-fast artificial surface. They bunted and they hit and ran, and they ran, ran and ran some more. Eight of their players reached double figures in stolen bases that year.

That team won 92 games during the regular season and drew 2.25 million fans — which was a big number in those days, third-highest in the AL. The Royals drew fans from a multistate region into their built-for-baseball park with its iconic water fountains.

The 1978 Cardinals won 69 games with the unfortunate Vern Rapp starting the season as manager. They attracted just 1.278 million fans into their multipurpose stadium, drawing many late-season weeknight crowds smaller than 8,000.

They were a shell of their 1960s selves after falling from contention with a thud amid myriad internal issues. The phrase “Baseball Heaven” wasn’t uttered much in these parts that year.

Then the Royals fired Herzog after the 1979 season and did St. Louis a favor too huge to ever repay. Cardinals owner August Busch Jr. hired Whitey as manager and later made him general manager, too, so he could replicate the success he had in Kansas City.

Just as Willie Wilson, Frank White, Amos Otis and U.L. Washington wrought havoc for the Royals, Ozzie Smith, Vince Coleman, Tommy Herr and Willie McGee ran wild for the Cardinals.

These teams pitched and fielded well too. They had Hall of Fame-bound leaders setting the pace, and they had savvy ballplayers following that direction — or else.

To build championship-caliber teams in St. Louis, Herzog needed the freedom to add the right type of players and subtract the wrong sort. Gussie Busch gave him that authority.

Whitey had a great feel for his players, learning who he could count on in difficult spots and which players needed to watch from the dugout or bullpen. He knew when to challenge players and when to give them a boost.

He won with players from various backgrounds and ethnicities. Some were great natural athletes, while others were merely great ballplayers. The “White Rat” knew what to do with each.

Managing games was an art form back then, and Herzog was a master practitioner. He relied on his gut in addition to his hours of preparation. He read the opponents and sensed when to exploit weakness. He seized moments with his decision-making.

Herzog was also a engaging face of the franchise. He stayed true to his New Athens roots, winning over fans here with his authentic everyman personality, just as he did in Kansas City. He was a down-to-earth guy who kept his feet on the ground despite his success.

He was a genius when it came to orchestrating games, but he didn’t come off as a know-it-all. He explained the game, and himself, in ways fans could relate to easily. His public relations instincts were as keen as his tactical instincts.

You know how this all played out in the 1980s.

A moribund franchise sprang back life. By 1987, when the Cardinals won their third National League pennant under Whitey, attendance topped 3 million.

Alas, Gussie’s influence faded, Herzog lost control of baseball operations and his epic run wound down to a disappointing end. By then, Whitey was losing patience with modern players and their meddlesome agents.

That aggravation would intensify during his brief time in the California Angels front office. The business changed, and it would keep changing. Player salaries kept soaring. The influence of agents kept growing.

Whitey had his fill of it and went fishin’.

The industry moved away from the sort of magic Whitey worked. Franchises hired Wall Street types to build analytics teams, and number-crunchers seized control of baseball operations. Teams eschewed small ball and embraced “three true outcomes” baseball and swinging for the fences.

Still, the transformation of the Cardinals held. The prosperity of the Bill DeWitt Jr. Era — great attendance, Busch Stadium III, the bustling Ballpark Village, soaring franchise value — was built on the study foundation Herzog set.

Whitey stayed close to the game he loved, despite its changes. He remained connected to the fan base he rebuilt and the players he led. He endured as a civic treasure.

Now he’s gone, but his legacy lives on with this franchise’s uncommon success.

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Remembered in photos: Whitey Herzog, legendary St. Louis Cardinals manager

I like to think of Whitey Herzog personified and preserved in perpetuity on his 1989 Topps baseball card.

The photo of the iconic Cardinals manager, who died Monday, April 15, 2024, at age 92, shows him standing and leaning on his right shoulder, just so, upon Forest Green padding at a road stadium. He’s wearing the road gray pants with the stripe shooting up the side. He’s sporting his famous red satin Starter jacket, with the batting Redbird patch upon the left breast. He’s got his left hand in his front pocket. It makes him resemble the complicated James Dean (also born in 1931) in his red jacket during “Rebel Without a Cause.”

Over his trademark white hair, “The White Rat” is wearing the classic Cardinals red hat. And he’s staring out onto the field with a stoic look — while squinting just so.

Knowing Whitey — the personification of a great baseball thinker and a heck of a personality, too — he’s either thinking: “Perhaps I should bunt in this situation and take advantage of the infield playing back and the speed of my runner on first,” or, “Just when in the hell is my guy here going to actually get a hit?”

Whitey is gone. Miss him already. Miss all the versions of him. The cocky wheelin’-and-dealin’ baseball boss who built and managed the Cardinals into a champion; the strategic innovator who revolutionized 1980s baseball; the deliverer of zingers in your morning Post-Dispatch; the man forever hopelessly screaming in the face of Don Denkinger; the pitchman in those Busch beer commercials with Jack Buck; the Hall of Fame honoree; the aging local legend, returning to Busch Stadium with a baseball bat cane, a smile and a story to tell.

He went from red jacket to red jacket. He’s in the Cardinals Hall of Fame and, of course, Cooperstown.

He was the epitome of a manager. With “Whiteyball,” he famously dictated the way the game was played with speed — a chessmaster on a chessboard of Astroturf. He directed baseball games with the precision that Werner Herzog directed cinema.

And he brought out the best of your favorite players, from Ozzie Smith to Willie McGee to Bob Forsch to Joaquin Andujar (even if there was the occasional butting of heads).

In the decades after Whitey’s reign (which featured a title in 1982 and pennants in 1985 and 1987), his old players would share anecdotes of wizardry — which had nothing to do with the shortstop. These were little moments in which Herzog told them the absolute right thing at the absolute right time to improve their play.

For McGee, it was swinging aggressively, even if he was in the leadoff spot. For Andy Van Slyke, it was telling him he had freedom to play his game. For bench player John Morris, it was sharing confidence that Morris could maximize a lone at-bat better than most starters could.

Whitey scouted scrupulously. Hurler Joe Magrane once shared that the next-day’s starter would sit behind home plate and chart pitches and pitch paths. The skipper would use the information accordingly.

“Every time we played,” Magrane said, “it was like we had a 10th man on the field.”

And Herzog knew how to relax young, nervous players.

“I would be a little uptight — I was trying to make some money, make a name,” Rex “Hurricane” Hudler once told me. “And he could tell. He’d say, ‘Hey, kid, come here! Did I ever tell you about the time me and Red (Schoendienst) went fishing? Red! Red, get over here! We’re in a boat, Red stands up, and the whole boat flips over!’ And I’m getting wrapped up in his story, and about that time, he goes, ‘It’s time to play, kid. Get out there.’ He knew how to take that pressure off. This was 10 minutes before the game. I’d have my game face on, and he relaxed me and he made me feel special, like I was somebody. I love ‘The White Rat.’”

OK, but for all the strategy and statistics and gut feelings and gutsiness, Whitey was bigger than just his job. He was this grand character who loved being St. Louis’ guy — and oh, did St. Louis love him.

He was simultaneously down to earth and larger than life — he could be Dorrel Norman Elvert Herzog from tiny New Athens, or he could be the great Whitey, respected by baseball’s most famous names. He had this aura, didn’t he?

He was a one-named baseball star in a baseball town during an era in which televised games and evening newscasts gave St. Louisans a more intimate look than ever before at their favorite Cardinals.

To this day, so many people have an “I saw Whitey” story or an “I met Whitey” story. Parents and children both. Heck, grandparents and parents and children both. Whitey was omnipresent — or for a more down-home description, Whitey was just always around. At a restaurant. At Winter Warm-up. At the Braggin’ Rights Game between Mizzou and Illinois. At Busch.

He loved baseball and St. Louis.

And St. Louis loved him.

Loves him. In perpetuity.

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The Cardinals, 3-1 winners Monday, continue their road series against the Athletics in Oakland on Tuesday. First pitch is set for 8:40 p.m. St. Louis time.

Right-hander Lance Lynn (0-0, 2.63) will take the mound for the Cardinals. Lynn has pitched between four and five innings in each of his three starts. He permitted zero earned runs in two of them.

His fastball, one of baseball's worst last season, is one of the best this year. Batters are hitting .118 off the fastball this season, down from .255 last year.

The A's will send out left-hander JP Sears (1-1, 5.17).

Sears attended The Citadel, a university that hasn't produced many big leaguers. One of that school's most productive MLB alums is Tim Jones, a utility infielder who played his entire six-year MLB career with the Cardinals from 1988 to 1993.

The game matches Sears, the pitcher who hit the most batters last season (16) with this season's co-leader in being hit by pitches, Cardinals leadoff man Brendan Donovan (five).

Monday night's series opener was played before an announced crowd of 5,508, the smallest crowd the Cardinals have played in front of since 2017, not including games played under pandemic crowd restrictions.

Oakland, in its last season in the Bay Area, will play  next year in a Triple-A park in Sacramento for several seasons before moving to Las Vegas.

Nolan Arenado, who bats fourth Tuesday, is celebrating his 33rd birthday. He's 8-for-29 (.276) on games on April 16 with a home run at San Diego in 2019.

The Cardinals are 8-9, last in the NL Central and three games out of first. St. Louis has lost two straight series.

The A's are 7-10, third in the AL West. Oakland has won its last three series entering this one.

Lineups

CARDINALS

1. Brendan Donovan, 2B

2. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B

3. Willson Contreras, C

4. Nolan Arenado, 3B

5. Iván Herrera, DH

6. Lars Nootbaar, LF

7. Masyn Winn, SS

8. Jordan Walker, RF

9. Michael Siani, CF

P: Lance Lynn, RHP

ATHLETICS

1. Abraham Toro, 3B

2. Zack Gelof, 2B

3. JJ Bleday, CF

4. Seth Brown, LF

5. Tyler Nevin, DH

6. Lawrence Butler, RF

7. Kyle McCann, C

8. Darell Hernaiz, SS

9. Ryan Noda, 1B

P: JP Sears, LHP

Injury report

Masyn Winn (lower back stiffness): Rookie shortstop has been dealing with back soreness similar to what he had in spring training. That prompted him to miss about a week of workouts. This time, he's played through the soreness. He has been getting scheduled days off, especially day games after night games like Sunday's game in Arizona, to rest the back. He said he's "feeling better," and his manager said he's "on the other side of it." Updated April 15

Tommy Edman (wrist surgery): On the 10-day IL, Edman will begin hitting off a tee back in St. Louis on Tuesday as part of his swing progression. Updated April 15

Matt Carpenter (oblique strain): Placed on the 10-day injured list, backdated to April 2 after feeling discomfort in his torso after he went through his pregame routine in the batting cage. On Monday, he hit soft toss and tee and the veteran hopes to advance to batting practice by the end of the series in Oakland. He will take a rehab assignment to get bulk at-bats. Updated April 15

Riley O'Brien (flexor tendon): Placed on the 15-day injured list on March 31 retroactive to March 29, O'Brien's right arm tightened up after his opening day appearance. The initial diagnosis is strain of the flexor tendon; scans showed no structural damage. He will play catch with three days. Updated April 15 

Dylan Carlson (sprained shoulder): On 10-day IL, Carlson hit off a tee for the first time Monday back in St. Louis as he advances on a hitting program. Updated April 15

Keynan Middleton (forearm strain): On the 15-day IL, Middleton received a PRP injection to facilitate healing. He continued playing catch Monday and will slowly progress through a throwing program that could put him several weeks away from returning to the mound for any workouts that would be similar to a bullpen session. Updated April 15

Drew Rom (biceps tendinitis): On the 15-day IL, Rom experienced the soreness in his left arm shortly before the end of spring training. He’ll be on a throwing program to rebuild arm strength and ready for a likely assignment to Class AAA Memphis’ rotation. Updated April 8

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OAKLAND, Calif. — There are many reasons Sonny Gray enjoys returning to the place he first called home in the majors, and not all of them are from the past, such as the photos of his oldest son with Stomper, the Oakland Athletics’ pachydermatous mascot. Some have come as a visitor to embattled, sometimes soggy Oakland Coliseum.

“Dude, I love it,” Gray recalled saying to teammates. “They’re like, ‘What?’”

He shook his head a bit.

“You just don’t know it like I know it,” he said.

Few do.

Gray added a fitting bookend to his relationship with this concrete ballpark by the Bay before its ballclub moves elsewhere: In his first appearance at the Coliseum back in 2013, he got his first career win, and in what is likely his final appearance at the Coliseum, he earned win No. 100.

The right-hander pitched six shutout innings to lead the Cardinals to a 3-1 victory late Monday night against the host Athletics. His debut with his new team delayed by a hamstring injury, Gray (2-0) has begun his Cardinals career with 11 consecutive shutout innings and two starts that have merited mementos — he’ll have a baseball inscribed from his first win as a Cardinal and now his 100th win as a major leaguer. He’s also the active leader in wins at the Coliseum with 27.

“Knew it going into this week, OK, I’m throwing the first game in Oakland,” said Gray, who was drafted by the A’s and a top prospect for Oakland when he made his first of 63 career starts at the Coliseum. “It’s probably going to be my last start here, and I’ve had so many starts here. Knowing the whole week this is probably the last one that you’ll have, probably the last time we’ll play here. It was pretty special. Pretty special. It had a lot more meaning than just a game in the middle of whatever month it is.”

It’s April, and there is still part of Gray going through March.

The Cardinals right-hander, five weeks removed from a tear in his right hamstring, remains on a pitch limit, one steadily increasing with each outing. He used 72 pitches to get 18 outs Monday, and this weekend, against Milwaukee, he’ll aim for around 85 pitches. Through two starts with the Cardinals, the only thing that’s been able to slow their prized free-agent signing is that pitch count, not opponents like the A’s.

“You sign him for a reason, and then he goes out there and does exactly that,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “He gives everyone around him confidence, even the hitters on the offensive side. They know what kind of game they’re going into. They know if they can score a couple here, the game is over. Give Sonny a couple of more weeks and he’s probably finishing that game himself.”

Staked to a 1-0 lead by Nolan Arenado’s RBI single before he even threw a pitch, Gray spent most of his six innings with that run being the only run on the scoreboard.

Willson Contreras caught a runner stealing in the first inning to allow Gray to face the minimum through 3⅓ innings. He needed only 21 pitches to get the first six outs and had 15 outs on 58 pitches. When the Athletics had back-to-back meek singles in the fourth inning, Gray swept a slider past Seth Brown to strike him out on a 2-2 pitch.

Gray had six pitches at his fingertips for the second consecutive game. He got a swing and miss on five of them. Only the curveball didn’t draw a whiff from a hitter. Gray got a called strike on five of his six pitches. The change-up was the only one that didn’t freeze a hitter.

Pool all of his fastballs — cutter, four-seam and sinker — into the same group, and Gray threw each of them at least 11 times and none of them more than 16. Of the 43 fastballs he threw in any of those three variations, 35 were strikes.

Only 10 were put into play.

“That’s why there are a lot of zeroes on the scoreboard, (and) when he’s got everything going, it’s a really tough at-bat,” Marmol said. That variety of pitches is a reason the team was willing to let him build arm strength on the job, in the majors, because if one of his pitches misbehaved, he had others to remain efficient.

“There is a decent chance if things go even average to above average, he’s still efficient enough to not tax the ’pen,” Marmol continued. “(It’s) the effectiveness of what he does with those pitches. Pretty efficient about how he goes about his business, and if one is not working, he has several others to turn to.”

As the Cardinals’ current road trip neared and Gray readied for that second game back from the injury list, he realized what was possible.

A 100th win at the place he got his first win.

A return as the ace of a staff where he arrived as a prospect.

During Gray’s warmups, Contreras sensed Gray was rushing. The catcher helped him slow down and in doing so saw something familiar. Contreras saw in Gray what he felt at Wrigley Field when he first returned there almost a year ago. Contreras said the right-hander clearly “had a lot of emotions. This was his house for many years, and he still has a love for this park.”

“It’s a special place for me,” he said. “We lived here from 2013 to 2017, came to the ballpark here every day. I got to see the best sides of it, I guess. I got to see the sellouts and the winning the divisions and the going to the playoffs and playing in the playoffs here. Obviously, I see a different side. I got to see the best sides of it. So maybe I’m biased in that way. It does hold a special part of me. This is the team that drafted me. This is the team that gave me a shot. This is the team that believed in me. These are the fans who helped shape my career.”

The lack of those fans Monday caught his eye.

What the few fans there had to say caught his ear.

At one point, midway through the game, a few dozen of the 5,508 present started a familiar chat echoing of the ballpark’s Mount Davis: “Sell the team. Sell the team.” The chant fizzled out just like the team’s time in Oakland appears to be doing. Major League Baseball has approved the Athletics’ move to Las Vegas, though the A’s don’t know when they’ll move, don’t know where they’ll move and don’t really know if that Vegas move will happen. About all A’s ownership knows is that after years and years of will-they-won’t-they drama with Oakland, the club is no longer welcome at the Coliseum after 2024. The lease is up.

The Athletics plan to drop the Oakland from their name and jerseys and pick up a sub-lease in Sacramento.

“I do hate — like I was out there pitching and even when I was out there, I could hear, ‘Sell, sell,’ and all this,” Gray said. “It makes me feel uncomfortable to be honest with you. I was like, man, I don’t like that.”

Gray made his major league debut with the A’s in July 2013 at Pittsburgh. He made two relief appearances on the road, joined the rotation for a start at Toronto in August 2013, and then made his home debut Aug. 15. He pitched eight shutout innings and struck out nine against Houston for his first career win. He started consecutive opening days with the A’s in 2014 and 2015, and in 2015 against Texas, he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. A third of his six playoff starts came at the Coliseum.

More than a fourth of his career wins have come at the Coliseum.

He was an Athletic when he became a father, and his oldest son’s first three years were spent going to the Coliseum.

And after Ryan Helsley finished the game with a lickety-split ninth inning for his sixth save, the Cardinals gathered in the visitors clubhouse at the Coliseum — the one that shares a walkway with fans leaving the seats behind home plate, the one with a sometimes soupy floor, the one with the Jason Isringhausen photo hanging outside and a list of Hall of Famers who played at the Coliseum that includes Eddie Mathews but hasn’t been updated to include Scott Rolen.

In that clubhouse, deep within a once-grand place that has become a cinder block of a ballpark, Gray collected one more Coliseum memory: His new teammates applauded after he became the 13th active pitcher with 100 wins.

“I would say, as crappy as the situation is for the fans, maybe try to enjoy it,” Gray said. “It’s going to be it, right? Maybe just trying to soak it in and enjoy it. Just enjoy all the last moments and the last games and everything to get to see from it.”

For Oakland, games like these feel closer to an ending.

For the Cardinals, games like Gray’s feel like he’s only getting started.

St. Louis Cardinals

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Photos: Gray leads Cardinals past A's 3-1 in his return to Oakland

MONDAY’S LATE BOX SCORE

Cardinals 3, Athletics 1

St. Louis AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

Donovan dh 4 0 0 0 0 2 .254

Goldschmidt 1b 3 1 0 0 1 1 .183

Nootbaar lf 3 1 1 0 0 0 .250

Arenado 3b 4 0 2 1 0 0 .286

Contreras c 4 1 2 1 0 0 .286

Gorman 2b 4 0 0 0 0 2 .203

Winn ss 3 0 2 0 1 0 .370

Walker rf 3 0 1 1 0 1 .188

Siani rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 .100

Scott cf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .091

Totals 32 3 8 3 2 7

Oakland AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

Toro 3b 4 0 1 0 0 2 .273

Gelof 2b 4 0 2 0 0 1 .212

Bleday cf 4 0 1 0 0 2 .262

Nevin dh 3 0 0 0 1 1 .240

Brown lf-1b 3 0 0 0 0 3 .196

Langeliers c 3 0 0 0 0 0 .188

Butler rf 2 0 0 0 0 0 .208

Ruiz ph-lf 1 1 1 1 0 0 .500

Hernaiz ss 3 0 0 0 0 0 .083

Noda 1b 2 0 0 0 0 1 .156

Schuemann ph-rf 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000

Totals 30 1 5 1 1 10

St. Louis 100 002 000 — 3 8 0

Oakland 000 000 010 — 1 5 0

LOB: St. Louis 7, Oakland 3. 2B: Contreras 2 (4), Winn (2), Arenado (5), Nootbaar (1), Toro (2). HR: Ruiz (1), off Romero. RBIs: Arenado (9), Contreras (5), Walker (3), Ruiz (2). CS: Gelof (1). S: Nootbaar, Siani. DP: St. Louis 1; Oakland 1.

St. Louis IP H R ER BB SO ERA Gray, W, 2-0 6 4 0 0 0 6 0.00

Kittredge 1 0 0 0 1 1 1.29

Romero 1 1 1 1 0 1 2.08

Helsley 1 0 0 0 0 2 3.00

Oakland IP H R ER BB SO ERA Stripling, L, 0-4 52/3 6 3 3 2 4 5.32

Kelly 21/3 1 0 0 0 1 2.53

Adams 1 1 0 0 0 2 0.00

Inherited runners-scored: Kelly 2-1. HBP: Kelly (Donovan). PB: Langeliers (2). T: 2:19. Att.: 5,508.