Ted Simmons syndrome
 

I am a Cards & Chiefs fan and really view the trade of TG with the same glasses that I view the 1981 Cardinals.

Ted Simmons was my favorite player. He was a great hitter for a C (most don't hit) but just an avg behind the plate guy. I hated Whitey Herzog for trading him and then picking up Darrell Porter. I thought we would never see another series...

Then Whitey went out and did the heretical - he traded a good fielding, switch hitting SS who got 100 hits from both sides for a career .235 hitter at short.

I thought the Cards were doomed for the 80's.

The rest of the story, however, is that while Simmons was a "good guy" he would not do what was best for the team (move out from behind the plate). He knew his individual value was higher at C than at any other position.

Gary Templeton was a jerk. The "if I ain't startin, I ain't departin" great hitting SS was a cancer in the clubhouse. Moody, flippant, and more into individual stats than anything else, Templeton was sent out to laid back San Diego.

Again, it was gloom and doom for the redbirds.

But something funny happened in the 82, 85, and 87 seasons. Whitey Herzog, it seems, knew what he was doing. My guess is Scott Pioli does as well.

I hope I get to hear "Go Crazy, Folks," when the Chiefs go to a SB, the way I did when Ozzie went deep against the Dodgers.

Great post. Hope we can have that same kind of success.

this is a great post. those were the glory years of redbird baseball (sans the royals beating the dogpiss out of us)

Except for the fact that the Cards replaced Simmons with a cokehead piece of shit, Darrell Porter, who although he played well in the '82 playoffs, put up vastly inferior numbers to Simmons in '82 and '83, and then when the '85 Series came around, was too whacked out of his skull on ****ing Luudes to catch a goddamned foul pop up.

Sad but true, I still hear it from royals fans to THIS DAY. What a beating we took in that 1985 world series. I guess I still have my dave matthews, sandles, and white polo, while those guys have their WIN lol

Yeah, I guess we just have to drown our sorrows into our popped collars over the 3 pennants we've won since then, the 8 division titles and the World Series victory while those other guys try to make it back to the playoffs within a quarter century of their last appearance.

Hell yes! I am going to listen to dave matthews and drink some keystone ice to celebrate!

Can you pick me up some Ted Drewes before you come over?

must be a st louis joke. I am sure it funny

Still, if Pioli can bring 1 SB victory and 3 appearances in the big dance over the next 8 years - I'm happy.

If you're gonna hit out with jokes on St. Louis hipsters, you've got to widen your knowledge base. Either that, or hit out with a mad Paint sketch.

As would I. But don't conflate the Simmons move with the Templeton move. The Simmons-Porter exchange was pretty much lateral move. Then again, I ****ing hate Darrell Porter.