#133 World Series Game 2 - Stottlemyre Wins

The 1964 World Series opened in St. Louis on October 7th and it ended 8 days later back in St. Louis with the Cardinals winning the decisive Game 7.

It was the fifth time these two teams had faced each other in the World Series, with the Yankees winning in 1928 and 1943 and the Cardinals prevailing in 1926 and 1942.  This also marked the end of an era for the Yankees, as the club had appeared in 14 of 16 fall classics since 1949 and they wouldn't appear again until 1976.  Former Yankee catcher Yogi Berra (#470) was in his first year as the team's manager, and he'd be unceremoniously fired following the series loss and replaced with (ironically enough) the Cardinals' manager, Johnny Keane (#131).  Keane would only last with the Yankees until 20 games into the 1966 season.

World Series cards were a key subset in Topps offerings throughout the 1960s and 1970s, with a card highlighting each game along with a series capping "Celebration" card.

Building the Set
May 13, 2021 from N. Topsail Beach, NC - Card #276
After adding a number of star cards in April, I decided I should focus on a group of commons for our set in May.  I set out specifically to add reasonably priced cards from the set's second series and I found a few eBay sellers running specials on recent set breaks.  In total, I added 23 cards over three-day period with this World Series card coming from Let's Play Ball located in N. Topsail Beach, North Carolina for $10.85.  This was one of two cards to arrive from Let's Play Ball, as I found a reasonably priced Norm Cash (#153) card from them too.  This is the final card we needed to complete the 8-card World Series subset.

The Card / Cardinals Team Set / Yankees Team Set

This game was a lot closer than the final score indicates, as the Yankees won 8-3 to tie the series up at 1-1.  With the first two games in the books, both teams headed to St. Louis for Game 3 after an off-day.

The pitching match-up for this game was rookie Mel Stottlemyre (#550), who had made his big league debut just a few months earlier on August 16th.  Stottlemyre went 9-3 with a 2.06 ERA over 12 impressive starts for the Yankees, pitching five complete games and two shutouts. 19-game winner Bob Gibson (#320) was on the mound for the Cardinals.  The Cardinals scored first in the third inning but the Yankees quickly tied the score in the fourth.  The Yankees took the lead for good in the sixth when Gibson gave up a costly walk to Mickey Mantle (#350) to begin the inning.  Mantle would move to second when Joe Pepitone (#245) was hit by a pitch, and he'd come around to score on a Tom Tresh (#440) single to center.  The Yankees would score four times against Gibson with the Cardinals' ace departing after eight innings.  The Cardinals scored a pair of meaningless late-inning runs, but the Yankees put the game out of reach with four more runs in the ninth off relievers Barney Schultz (#28) and Gordie Richardson.

Stottlemyre gets the card here for his complete game win.  He allowed three runs on seven hits, while striking out four.  As the back of this card mentions, Phil Linz (#369) was the offensive star for the Yankees, collecting three hits, including a ninth inning solo home run off Schultz.

Sources:
Baseball Reference

Prior Card:  #132 World Series Game 1

Next Card:  #134 World Series Game 3