1990s: A New Era and Big Mac
After August Busch, Jr. died in 1989, the Cardinals would finish in last place in 1990 with Whitey Herzog resigning. He was replaced by Red Schoendienst and eventually Joe Torre. During Torre's tenure in St. Louis, the Cardinals' highest finish was 87 wins (3rd place in 1993). One of the few highlights of this era came on September 7, 1993, when Mark Whiten, playing in the second game of a doubleheader against Cincinnati, hit four home runs and drove in twelve runs, both tying all-time MLB single-game records.
In the winter of 1995–96, Anheuser Busch, Inc. sold the Cardinal team and Busch Stadium to a new ownership group headed by Southwest Bank's Drew Baur, Fred Hanser and William DeWitt, Jr., for a price substantially undervalued in order to keep the team in St. Louis. Additionally, Civic Center Redevelopment, earlier acquired by AB, sold the parking garages and other surrounding property owned by this quasi-civic organization to the new ownership group.
The new ownership group almost immediately sold off the parking garages next to the stadium to an investment group. With the proceeds of sale from the garages, the cost basis in the team was in the $100 million range, a real steal considering that Forbes Magazine values the Cardinals franchise on the high side of $300 million.
The year before the sale of the team, Anheuser Busch had hired baseball executive Walt Jocketty as their new general manager. With a new ownership group in place and their commitment to return a winning team to St. Louis, Jocketty's expertise in locating baseball talent soon was tested in one of baseball's most successful franchises.
Long-time Oakland Athletics manager Tony La Russa joined the Cardinals for the 1996 season, reconnecting him with Jocketty who had also been with Oakland before coming to St. Louis. The Cardinals won the NL Central (created in 1994) and reached the playoffs for the first time since 1987. However the Atlanta Braves defeated them for the National League pennant after the Cardinals blew a 3-1 series lead in the 1996 NLCS.
Read more about this topic: History Of The St. Louis Cardinals
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