The Nine Old Men

When the St. Louis Cardinals were wallowing around in seventh place early this season, experts had no trouble suggesting why. For one thing, Outfielder Stan ("The Man") Musial, who led the league with .376 last year, was bogged down around .250; for another, the Cardinal pitching staff seemed to have come apart,. Finally, by tabbing up the ages of everybody on the squad, it was possible to show that the Cards were really a bunch of tired old men (average age: 29).* By last week, most of these weighty considerations were being gently consigned to ash cans.

Trailing the league-leading Dodgers by 2 1/2 games, the Cards moved into Brooklyn for a four-game series. In the first inning of the first game, Brooklyn Pitcher Elwin ("Preacher") Roe tempted Outfielder Stan Musial with a slow, change-of-pace curve; Musial eyed it carefully and whaled the ball over the right-field fence. In his box, the Dodgers' Branch Rickey generously remarked: "That Musial is a great hitter." The wallop was just a foretaste of what was going to happen to Brooklyn. The Cards won that game, 3-1, won the second game, 5-4.

On the third day, the roof fell in. Brooklyn's starting pitcher, Negro Don Newcombe, was shelled off the mound before he could get a single man out. Stan the Man made it an informal Musial Day by hitting for the cycle--a single, double, triple and home run--with a base on balls for good measure. Final score, with help from other old Cards like Outfielder Enos

Slaughter (three out of six) and Pitcher Howie Pollet (who muffled the Dodger bats): Cards 14, Dodgers 1. In the fourth game, the Dodgers recovered their aplomb sufficiently to tie the Cards, 4-4, in a contest cut short to let both teams catch trains for the West. League leaders (by half a game): the St. Louis Cardinals.

Tired old (28) Stan Musial was still having trouble getting his batting average up to Musial standards (.304 as of this week). But against the Dodgers he was hitting an old-fashioned .453.

* Youngest team, as figured by statistics-minded Brooklyn Boss Branch Rickey: his own Dodgers, with an average age of

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.