(so far!)
The 1995 season is not one that stands out as remarkable for the St. Louis Cardinals. If anything, it actually looks more like the opposite; the Cardinals struggled throughout the 1995 season, finishing with a 62-81 record and landing in fourth place in the National League Central. While postseason hopes quickly faded, players like Ray Lankford and Brian Jordan were lone bright spots and mid-season, the team underwent a managerial change, with Joe Torre stepping aside and Mike Jorgensen taking the reins. It was a year to forget.
That is until August 10, when the Cardinals found themselves in the midst of one of the rarest and most bizarre occurrences in modern baseball — so rare, it has only happened 5 times since 1954 and hasn’t happened since. On August 10, 1995 the St. Louis Cardinals won against the Los Angeles Dodgers via forfeit.
Forfeits were more common in the early days of Major League Baseball. Stadiums had fewer security measures in place, making it harder to control unruly fan behavior, which allowed games to be disrupted by fans throwing things onto the field or even going far as storming onto it. Game 7 of the 1934 World Series was at risk of being forfeited for this after fans of the Detroit Tigers began throwing things onto the field after Cardinals left fielder Joe Medwick slid hard into Tigers third baseman Marv Owen. The Cardinals were leading the game 9-0 at the time and the forfeit was avoided by taking both players out the game.
The Cardinals were involved in another forfeited game, this time being the forfeiting team. On July 28, 1954 the Cardinals were losing 8-1 to the Philidelphia Phillies and manager Eddie Stanky brought in three pitchers in the top of the fifth inning of the doubleheader to try to stall the game until dark. The lack of stadium lights at the time would mean the game would be called before it was unofficial. The umpire, Babe Pinelli, of course saw through this tactic and forfeited the game to the Phillies. citing an unnecessary delay of the game on the part of the Cardinals.
Field conditions, a lack of standardized rules, the logistics of team travel, and player strikes and walkouts are other factors that contributed to the high rate of forfeits. Over time, MLB introduced stricter rules, improved stadium management, and better game-day logistics, drastically reducing the number of forfeits. By the mid-20th century, forfeits had become an anomaly in the sport.
Which brings us back to August 10, 1995.
Dodger Stadium was packed with over 53,000 fans on August 10 during a promotional event: souvenir baseballs were handed out as giveaways to 15,000 fans celebrating the club’s previous Rookie of the Year winners. The Cardinals quickly took a 2-1 lead in the game, with Brian Jordan and Mark Sweeney each hitting a solo home run. There are few renditions on what happened next, but at the end of the day, when you give 15,000 people free baseballs before a game, it seems pretty obvious they will be used for orneriness. As Sam Miller of ESPN put it: Baseballs want to be thrown.
The first wave of baseballs came down in the seventh inning and caused a minor delay of around six minutes. What looked to be the end of minor deviousness turned out to only be the beginning, though. As the bottom of the ninth began, a few more baseballs rained down on the field toward Cardinals right fielder John Mabry. Here is how Mabry described it, per Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com:
“Somebody threw a ball into the outfield at the start of the inning. I picked it up and acted like I was going to throw it into the crowd, but I deked them and threw it into the bullpen. They got mad and threw another one in. Then they threw another one at [center fielder] Brian Jordan. He looked at me and shrugged his shoulders.”
It was a premonition of what was yet to come.
Cardinals closer Tom Henke was in to try to get the final three outs of the game with Dodgers right fielder, All Star, and the 1994 Rookie of the Year Raúl Mondesí up to bat. Mondesí worked a 3-0 count and took what he thought was ball four. He tried to sell it, but starting to make his way to first base, but home plate umpire Jim Quick called him back, calling the pitch strike one. It was close, if you ask me. Cardinals catcher Scott Hemond did not do a very good job of framing it, but it wasn’t so egregious of a call as some people might claim. The next pitch, though… that pitch not so much. Quick called it strike two despite it being the left-handed hitters batter’s box and Mondesí was rightfully pretty heated. His manager Tommy Lasorda was heated. The 14,000 or so fans that still possessed their free souvenir projectiles were heated.
With a 3-2 count, down by one run, and a wide strike zone, Mondesí really had no choice but to offer at the following pitch out of the zone and stuck out swinging. Justifably feeling cheated, Mondesí let the home plate umpire know his frustrations, which led to his swift ejection from the game. This of course brought Tommy Lasorda into the discussion, shortly followed by his ejection as well.
And then came the shower of baseballs.
The scene per Mabry:
“They came raining down from the upper deck. And the next thing to come was the bottle of Jack [Daniels] that hit me.”
I am certain they didn’t sell that at Dodger Stadium.
Blame was levied all around. Some thought the game was forfeited too soon. Some blamed Tommy Lasorda for riling up the crowd. I think both are incorrect, though. I suppose they could have just waited out the baseballs —eventually the crowd would have run out, theoretically, but player safety comes first and foremost. It would be hard to focus on the baseball in front of you while the threat of being pelted by baseballs behind you loomed dangerously in the shadows. I also don’t think Tommy Lasorda did anything to rile up the crowd. They were already a crowd of lil stinkers; lil stinkers that had apparently been drinking Jack Daniels for two and half hours, were angry, and were given free improvised ranged weapons.
So Umpire Bob Davidson finally made the decision to forfeit the game to the Cardinals, citing safety concerns as baseballs continued to rain down onto the field. MLB rules dictate that such disruptions can lead to a forfeit when the game cannot safely proceed. The final score was recorded as 9-0 in favor of the Cardinals, marking a rare moment in baseball history.
A hat tip to Knuckleballer33 who perhaps a bit cheekily asked in our podcast mailbag “Will the Cardinals forfeit their games with the Dodgers?” and thus inspired this post!
Happy Sunday!
References:
Sam Miller. (2020, August 10). 25 years ago tonight, MLB had its last forfeit: Los Angeles Dodgers-St. Louis Cardinals game. ESPN. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29614065/25-years-ago-tonight-mlb-had-last-forfeit-los-angeles-dodgers-st-louis-cardinals-game
Anthony Castrovince (2019, August). Dodgers-Cardinals last MLB forfeit: 1995. MLB Advanced Media. https://www.mlb.com/news/featured/dodgers-cardinals-last-mlb-forfeit-1995
