Oct. 13, 1964 - The Cardinals returned to Busch Stadium in triumph today with a 3-2 lead over the Yankees and with Curt Simmons (left with Bob Gibson) ready to pitch the sixth game of the World Series tomorrow afternoon.
“We’re the favorites at last, and it feels good to be home with a one-game edge with only two to go,” manager Johnny Keane said as the Redbirds took their final workout the decisive game — or games — of the Series. The Yankees must win to avoid losing a World Series for the second year in a row, something that has not happened to them since 1921 and 1922.
A roaring civic reception, brass bands, an airport throng of 10,000 persons, and a monumental traffic tieup awaited the Cardinals when they flew home with the championship one victory away.
They also were greeted with word that Yogi Berra switched his pitching assignment from Whitey Ford to Jim Bouton.
Berra made it clear he would have preferred to have Ford pitch, with the right-handed Bouton in reserve for the seventh game. But Ford, who reinjured his heel while sliding into home in the second inning of the first game, remains unprepared to work.
“It hurts him when he comes down on the heel,” Berra said, “and that throws his motion out of whack. Tomorrow, Whitey will try to do some throwing, and if the heel feels all right, maybe he can sharpen up his control enough for the seventh game.”
“I don’t care who they pitch,” Keane commented today. “I’m not changing the lineup.”
Bob Gibson, who pitched 12 innings against the Mets the weekend before last and then pitched 18 innings against the Yankees in two Series games, said: “I feel as though I’d just come out of a 10-round bout.”
Nevertheless, he said he would be ready Thursday if the Series went seven games.
Berra, with his characteristic simplicity and perpetual optimism, summed up the Yankee mission before he left for St. Louis: “Why can’t we win two games in St. Louis?” he said.
For some reason, no one asked him why the Yankees didn’t win two games in New York.
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