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Vina Could Well Bring A Traditional Strength Back To The Cardinals
Bob Broeg
April 2, 2000
With the Cubs in town for the start of the anticipated millennium baseball season, it's an apt time to bring up what hopefully will be one of the signs of the Cardinals' improvement -- the double play.
Of all the good things general manager Walt Jocketty and a generous management did in the winter, the acquisition of Fernando Vina from Milwaukee might be the most significant.
It is hoped that the new-look starting pitching will be better -- and the outfield, too, as a result of the eleventh-hour move that brought in Jim Edmonds. But the most significant move might be the arrival of Vina to play second base.
For years, the key man at the keystone meant a difference for the Cardinals, from Rogers Hornsby and Frankie Frisch to Red Schoendienst, Julian Javier and Tommy Herr.
But in recent times, failure to "get two" has hurt Tony La Russa's Redbirds even more than tissue-paper pitching arms, a leaky defense and a top-heavy batting order.
After all, the double play is, as Mike Shannon puts it, "the pitcher's best friend." Barring injury, Vina will provide the quick pivot necessary to short-circuit or at least shorten critical circumstances.
That's the way it was when Chicago's Cubs came to town when Teddy Roosevelt sat in the White House and the past century was as bright as St. Louis' historic World's Fair.
One of the reasons the Cubbies were the National League's best in the first decade of the 1900s was that a good pitching staff was backed by a second-base combination of Joe Tinker and Johnny Evers.
Tinker and Evers spoke to each other only when necessary -- like "you cover" or "I will." Why? Perhaps because Evers, a feisty fella at second base, drove off in a cab one day and left Tinker steaming in the rain. But though they spoke rarely, they were poetic in play.
They were, in fact, so devastating that a young New York sports writer put together baseball's most famous jingle. Franklin P. Adams' "Tinker To Evers To Chance" has lingered like the fictional failures of Mudville's "Casey At The Bat."
Manager-first baseman Frank Chance's middle infielders were so good that the Cubs even won the world championship in 1908. Ninety-two years later, the gallant Windy City is still awaiting an encore.
In St. Louis, meanwhile, Hornsby was a double-play whiz on the pivot, with an across-the-chest flip. The Rajah wasn't so good on pop flies because, as the Post-Dispatch's J. Roy Stockton noted, he hit so few himself.
Frisch was spectacular afield, a clutch hitter and a flash on the bases. He still holds the record for chances accepted by an infielder, one of the oldest standards still on the books (1927).
Schoendienst, even when playing with strength-sapping tuberculosis, was a sure-handed natural. Javier, even better than Schoendienst and Frisch on pop flies, was a virtual phantom on the double play. And Herr was a well-balanced performer at-bat and in the field, as well as a leader in the clubhouse.
From what I've heard, seen and read, Vina is a leader and a communicator, too. And he's a hustler who'll help as a leadoff man at-bat -- a base-reaching player with speed.
From afar, Vina has admired the birds-on-the-bat uniform and the local fans' enthusiasm. Chances are, Edmonds also will find the warmth contagious, as Big Man Mark McGwire did.
Edmonds' talented glove and powerful bat will be most welcome, but probably not any more so than Vina, who will team with shortstop Edgar Renteria to make sure the other side doesn't get four outs.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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