St. Louis Post-Dispatch - September 14, 1980
Schoendienst Sees Red After 2-1 Loss
By a Special Correspondent Of the Post-Dispatch
PHILADELPHIA – Red Schoendienst, though only an interim manager, has seen enough of the Cardinals this season to make a rather meaningful commentary on them.
After Saturday night's 2-1 loss to Steve Carlton and the Philadelphia Phillies – the fifth straight time that Carlton had beaten the Cardinals this year – Schoendienst snapped, "They're horsefeathers."
"I don't know where their heads are, but they're not in the game. They're somewhere else. It's been that way all year."
Schoendienst was most upset because Keith Hernandez, whose mental wanderings have cropped up too often this season, didn't score from third base on George Hendrick's high chopper in the fourth inning. Hernandez waited a little too long and wound up on the second half of a third-to-first-to-home double play which took the Cardinals right out of an inning when they had runners at second and third with one out.
"If we were playing indoors," Schoendienst said, "like in the Astrodome, that ball would 'have bounced so high it would have hit the roof."
The Cardinals also missed another opportunity in the sixth, when they had the bases loaded and out.
"I don't want to talk about it – we're just horsefeathers," blurted Schoendienst.
"Not only in this game, but in 30 more like it during the year that we should have won. I just don't know where their minds are any more. They're not on baseball.
"When you come to the ball park, you put on the uniform and it's a workshop. It's all business, but not with these guys."
The victim Saturday, as he so often has been this season, was Bob Forsch. But Forsch hardly was blameless as he hit two batters in succession to contribute to the Phillies' runs in the sixth inning.
Bob Boone opened the sixth with a double to left and Carlton, after fouling off two bunt tries, singled through the middle, sending Boone to third.
Pete Rose then was hit by a pitch on the left foot and Bake McBride was hit on the lower left leg, forcing in a run. Mike Schmidt's sacrifice fly scored Carlton and gave the Phillies all the runs they needed as they moved within one game of first-place Montreal in the National League Eastern Division race.
The Cardinals scored their run in the second. Hendrick laced a one-out single, advanced on Carlton's wild pitch, took third on catcher Boone's throwing error and scored on Tito Landrum's single to left.
Carlton scattered eight hits as he won his 22nd game and increased his career record against the Cardinals to a stunning 28-8.