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The Ivan Herrera Game?
April 11
On April
19, 1900, the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Pittsburgh
Pirates; the score was 3-0. The game was the first played by the
St. Louis franchise as ‘The Cardinals’. Between April 19, 1900
and April 1, 2025, the Cardinals completed 19,373 regular-season
games (winning 10,108).
On April 2, 2025 (the Cardinals’ 19,374th game), the Cardinals
defeated the Los Angeles Angels; the score was 12-5. The game
was notable because Cardinals catcher Ivan Herrera slugged three
home runs. Prior to Herrera‘s feat on this day, no Cardinals
catcher—not Hall of Famer Ted Simmons, not All Star and World
Series-winning catchers Walker Cooper, Tim McCarver and Darrell
Porter, not All Star and World Series participant Tom Pagnozzi,
and not [All Star and World Series-winning] future Hall of Famer
Yadier Molina…no Cards catcher had homered three (or more) times
in a single game.
Ivan Herrera’s
accomplishments on April 2 stand alone, and he will always be
recognized as the first Cards catcher to homer thrice in the same
game.
Glenn Brummer is another Cardinals catcher who stands alone in
Redbird history. On August 12,1982, Brummer stole home in the
bottom of the twelfth inning of a tie game vs the San Francisco
Giants. Brummer’s ‘walk-off’ theft of home occurred with two
strikes and two outs, and supplied the winning margin in an
important victory for the Cardinals, a victory that proved
essential in their rise to first place in the National League East
and eventual World Series championship.
For a variety of reasons (including the uniqueness of the steal,
his status as a seldom-used backup catcher, as well as occasional
reminders of the event from broadcaster Mike Shannon and baseball
writer Rick Hummel), the game in which Brummer’s theft of home
occurred is now known as “The Glenn Brummer Game”.
But there would be no such thing as “The Glenn Brummer Game” if
the Cardinals had not gone on to win the 1982 World Series;
winning matters.
So Ivan Herrera hit three home runs in a single game. Other
Cardinals, including Stan Musial, Mark Whiten and
Fernando Tatis, have made home run history.
On May 2, 1954, in a Cardinals-Giants doubleheader in New York
City, Stan Musial hit five home runs (three in Game One, two in
Game Two), and thus became the first player in major league
history to hit five homers on the same day.
On September 7, 1993, in a Cardinals-Reds game in Cincinnati, St.
Louis outfielder Mark Whiten hit four home runs and drove in
twelve (both team records), while on April 23, 1999, in a
Cardinals-Dodgers game in Los Angeles, third baseman Fernando
Tatis slugged two grand slam home runs. Remarkably, both Tatis
home runs occurred in the game’s third inning…and Dodgers hurler
Chan Ho Park was the pitcher for both.
While the 1954 Cardinals finished the regular season in sixth
place (72-82 W/L) in the eight team National League, the 1993 and
1999 Cardinals completed their regular seasons in third (87-75
W/L) and fourth (75-86 W/L) place in their respective National
League divisions, and, like the ‘54 Cardinals, did not qualify for
post-season play. While Musial’s five homer day supplied further
evidence for his nickname ‘Stan the Man’, the Whiten and Tatis
achievements--singular achievements--never received Glenn
Brummer-like recognition.
If the 2025 Cardinals finish the regular season as also-rans,
their April 2, 2025 victory over the Los Angeles Angels will be
remembered as the game in which Cardinals catcher Ivan Herrera
homered three times.
But if the 2025 Cardinals qualify for the World Series, and
Herrera recovers from his recent injury (a deep bone bruise to his
left knee) and makes significant contributions to a pennant-winner
in St. Louis…who knows?
The April 2, 2025 Cards-Angels game may then become known as “The
Ivan Herrera Game”.
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