Sept. 4, 1964 - The Chicago Cubs wish Ken Boyer (pictured) had made that local call instead of going for long distance.
“I had dysentery all afternoon and was set to call the ball park and tell them I couldn’t make it,” Boyer said. “I thought I was getting the same thing that knocked out Stan [Musial]. But I figured that if I did suddenly feel worse, I’d be better off at the park than at home.”
Trainer Bob Bauman, who gave the Cardinal third baseman some pills, said: “I’m the only one Ken complained to. He didn’t beg off the way some players do, and you saw what he did in the ninth inning.”
Boyer hit a three-run homer, his 19th of the season, that beat the Cubs, 8-5, tonight at Busch Stadium and enabled him to become the first National Leaguer with 100 runs batted in.
“Before the season, I said getting 100 RBI’s in our league would be tough with all the good pitching,” said Boyer. “But I’ve had a lot of good horses on base ahead of me, and I’ve been getting a lot of RBI mileage out of my extra-base hits.”
The victory, which featured Mike Shannon’s spectacular steal of home and three hits by Lou Brock that put his average against the Cubs, his former team, at .452, was the Redbirds’ ninth in their last 11 games. Broke also stole his 38th base. The Cardinals recaptured third place from the San Francisco Giants and remained 7½ games out of first place.
The Cardinals’ starter, Curt Simmons, had early troubles, giving up two runs in the first inning, then settling down until the seventh, when the Cubs scored twice with two out.
“I made a lot of bad pitches, and I might have been out of there in the first if Ernie Banks didn’t go after a bad pitch and hit into a double play,” Simmons said.
Mike Cuellar is to pitch against the Cubs’ Larry Jackson, a 17-game winner, in a Ladies’ Day game tomorrow afternoon.
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