Evolution THE Classic - MLB

THEEvolutionClassicOF ANearly 125 years aftertheir introduction,scorecards continueto connect with fansfor their engagingsimplicity and affordablecollectibilityBy TOM SCHOTTIn our technology-saturated21st-century über-culture– when a fan in Londoncan follow a Cardinalsgame as easily as one inLadue, not to mentionone in attendance at Busch Stadium – afolded piece of cardstock has stood thetest of time.The official scorecard, hawked byvendors at ballparks across the country,is one of the genuine staples of theAmerican pastime, and no iPad or Droidcan replicate its hands-on, tangiblebeauty. Today’s scorecard is your father’sscorecard, and his father’s – even hisgrandfather’s. They are simple yetunique, providing spectators a means ofboth identifying players and immersingthemselves in the time-honored ritual ofputting pencil to premium-weight paperto document the events of a game.While sportswriter Henry Chadwick,a member of the National BaseballHall of Fame, introduced in the 1860sthe system by which most fans keepscore, Harry M. Stevens is credited withdeveloping the “modern” scorecardC A R D I N A L S42M A G A Z IN Ein 1887. A baseball aficionado fromEngland, Stevens was frustrated byhis inability to identify players on thefield using the bare-bones scoresheetsavailable to fans of his era. When hecreated a scorecard imprinted withplayer names, a business enterprise wasborn – and so was the enduring salescry of vendors, coined by Stevens, thatpersevered into the next century andbeyond: “You can’t tell the players withouta scorecard!”The first known official Cardinalsscorecard appeared in 1911, althoughthere are local examples that date backto the 1880s, when the franchise’sforerunners, the St. Louis Browns,played in the American Association.Additionally, there are a variety of“scorebooks” that have survived fromthe 19th century – 5- by 7-inch bookletsof 20 or more pages of content builtaround a scoresheet displayed in thecenterspread.Besides providing a service to fans,Stevens also theorized that scorecardscould serve as a vehicle to sell advertisingthat generated additional revenue. He

nWhen Jesse Haines pitched the first no-hitterin Cardinals history in 1924, the detailsof the landmark moment occupied anot-so-prominent share of the game’sscorecard, which – like all cards of theera – was dominated by advertisements.cC A R D I N A L S43M A G A Z IN E

proved to be a visionary in thatregard, too, as scorecards becamesponsor-driven for virtually theirentire existence. Advertisementshave been a fixture on Cardinalsscorecards since their inception,peaking in the period betweenthe 1920s and 1949, when 30 to40 advertisements monopolizedthe scorecard layout.The importance theCardinals attached to thescorecard was underscoredin 1962, when the club announced itwould become the first National Leagueteam to display players’ names on thebacks of their jerseys. Stevens’ timelesssales pitch no longer was true – now youcould, in fact, tell the players without ascorecard. But, as general manager BingDevine pointed out at the time, theclub decided on the switch only afterconsulting with the Chicago White Sox,who’d made the same move two yearsearlier and confirmed that scorecard saleshadn’t suffered.In 1895, when the “Cardinals” were still called the Browns, spectators could followthe action with a pocket-size “scorebook,” a forerunner to the modern scorecardthat combined 20 or more pages of content with a scoresheet in the centerspread.C A R D I N A L S44M A G A Z IN E

The Cardinals collectionThe history of the Cardinals scorecardis mostly defined by four distinct eras,beginning in the 1920s. Prior to that,the history is difficult to pin down,given the scarcity of scorecards that havesurvived from the era. Other than the1911 scorecard pictured below (fromthe collection of Jerry Vickery, formercurator of both the Cardinals andMissouri Sports halls of fame), the oldestscorecard in the Cardinals Hall of FameMuseum dates from 1924, from a July17 game in which Jesse Haines pitchedthe first no-hitter in club history.The two-color, “advertising” era: Fromthe 1920s through 1947, advertisementsdominated the Cardinals’ officialscorecard. Hawking everything from hotdogs to hotels and cigarettes to funeralservices, sponsorship ads were whatcaught a fan’s eye. The entire front coverwas dedicated to advertising, sometimeswith as many as six ads on the page.Counting ads placed on the insidetwo pages and outside back cover, ascorecard might comprise nearly 40 ads.(The scorecard for the Cardinals’ 1928pennant-winning season featured 36advertisements.) The space alloted tothe actual scoring “grids” was minimal– perhaps one-fourth of the actual pagelayout.Full-color production was still afuturistic vision. Given the economiesof using two-color printing, Cardinalsscorecards were printed in red and black,or red and blue inks. The cost savingswere critical. For much of the first halfof the 1900s, team-produced scorecardscompeted with “unofficial” scorecardsproduced by bootleg vendors and soldoutside the ballpark, often under thebanner of “Everybody’s Scorecard.” Likethe official club-produced product, thebootleg versions subsisted mainly with thesupport of advertising, in effect providingcompetition not only for game day salesof scorecards to fans on the street but alsofor the all-important advertising dollar.The illustration era: Front-coveradvertising took a sabbatical from theCardinals scorecard beginning in 1949,when the club switched from a two-colorprinting process to full-color capabilitiesunder owner Fred Saigh. The switchled to what many consider the “goldenage” of Cardinals scorecards, with vividpaintings and hand-drawn illustrationsfeatured on the cover through 1964.Contracting with local illustrators,the club capitalized on the image ofthe Cardinal bird, as the cover becamea canvas portraying iconic visuals stillreproduced today. The depiction of amenacing Cardinal peering over hisleft shoulder, prepared to deliver apitch, carried the cover for back-toback seasons, in 1955-56. For fourExactly 100 years ago, Cardinals fans whoinvested a nickel were scoring games on whatis believed to be the earliest example of theteam’s official scorecard.C A R D I N A L S45M A G A Z IN E

consecutive years, 1958-61, a perkyCardinal sped around the basepaths. Forthe two years after that, a Cardinal birdsoared skyward to make a game-savingcatch. Each bird caricature – along withother illustrations from the era – hasbeen recreated in artwork and ballparksignage still in use by the club in 2011.The photography era: After theCardinals captured the 1964 WorldSeries title, the momentum ofcontemporary color photography tookover the scorecard under the ownershipof Anheuser-Busch. Color photographsdominated the team’s scorecard coversinto the early 2000s, save for a briefrenaissance of illustration during the1970s. In addition, advertising returnedto the cover. Except for the 2010 season,ads appeared on every scorecard coverbeginning with the club’s May 12, 1966,move into Busch Memorial Stadium.Notable from the era is the coverphotograph of Cardinals shortstopDick Groat, taking a hearty cut duringthe 1964 World Series. The image wasfeatured not only on the 1965 scorecardcover, but also on scorecards for thefirst 10 home games in 1966, until theteam moved out of old Sportsman’s Park(Busch I). At that point, a new scorecardwas introduced featuring an aerialview of the new downtown ballparkand Gateway Arch, with the return ofadvertising to the front cover.The illustration renaissance: As the1990s gave way to the new millennium,Cardinals scorecards mixed a variety ofDuring what many consider the “golden age” of Cardinals scorecards, vivid illustrationsflew to the fore and advertising took a rear seat after the club switched from a two-colorprinting process to full-color capabilities.C A R D I N A L S46M A G A Z IN E

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Color photography came to the cover just as a torch was about to be passed in the 1960s. A shotof Dick Groat from the team’s 1964 World Series win over the New York Yankees carried the coverthroughout 1965 – then remained through the first 10 home games of ’66, until a new scorecardmarked the team’s move downtown into Busch Memorial Stadium.images – an illustration by noted sportscartoonist Amadee Wohlschlaeger thatsaluted the beginning of interleague playin 1997, several photo-driven layouts,and a computer-generated graphic in2002. But beginning in 2003, inspiredby the creative vision of St. Louis artistMike Right, retro-styled illustrationshave ruled the roost. Right’s classicCardinal-bird caricatures have beenforced out of the lineup just once, in2007, when the scorecard parroteda move also made in 1983, featuringa photo of the World Series trophycaptured the previous season.‘Get your lineups!’Many fans are old enough to rememberthe anticipation they experienced as theypurchased a scorecard at the ballpark,eager to inspect the starting lineups thatwere revealed inside.It’s a feeling that exists only inmemories, however. As baseball strategyevolved, with managers poring overmatchups and tweaking their startinglineups almost daily, teams abandonedthe tradition of producing scorecardswith pre-printed game lineups.Given the potential for last-minutemaneuvering, starting lineups oftenbecame outdated between the time ascorecard went to press and the point theumpire shouted “play ball.”Starting lineups appeared in Cardinalsscorecards through the 1982 season,facilitated by the luxury of having aprinting press on-site at both BuschStadium and Sportsman’s Park. The drillfor getting lineup information from themanager’s office onto the scorecard was,literally, an overnight mission.Shortly after the end of a game, amember of the Cardinals’ PR staff visitedC A R D I N A L S48M A G A Z IN Ethe home and visitors clubhouses toretrieve each manager’s probable startinglineup for the next day’s game. Theinformation was whisked off to the pressroom – located behind the right-fieldcorner at Busch and under the first-basestands at Sportsman’s – and deliveredto a two-man team of union printersthat had just clocked in at the ballpark.Setting type by hand, the pressmencranked up the old press and ranscorecards past dawn, typically 10,000 to15,000 per game.Kip Ingle, a member of the club’smedia relations staff through the 1980s,remembers the drill in its twilight years.“Whitey (Herzog) was great, he alwayshad his lineup ready,” Ingle recalled.“The visitors clubhouse could be anotherstory. One manager, in particular,always seemed to be more occupied withvisitors, and you’d be trying to pull thelineup out of his back pocket while hewas entertaining guests.“I’m not a historian or an expert onpresses, but I remember that being anactual Gutenberg press,” Ingle continued,noting the German inventor credited withdeveloping the modern, movable-typeprinting press in the 1400s. “There weretwo old pressmen who ran it, and they setmetal type by hand, letter by letter.”Even after starting lineups werediscontinued, allowing scorecards to beprinted without an overnight press run, itcould still be a challenge gathering rosterinformation for opponents.“That was long before the days ofemail, so it was a matter of getting on thephone and writing down the roster fromeach opponent a few days before theycame to town,” recalled Brian Bartow,the club’s current media relations directorwho joined the staff full time in 1987.“The typesetters were big fans and took alot of pride in being accurate, and I don’tremember any gaffes along the way. Theyfollowed the transactions as closely as wedid, and if something slipped by us, Iremember they’d spot it before it ever madeit to print.”