September 9, 1924: Chick Hafey Makes His Presence Known

     On September 9, 1924, the Cardinals were playing the part of spoiler, as they took two games from the Pirates at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The first game gave Cardinals fans a glimpse of things to come with a kid by the name of Chick Hafey who had been called up at the end of August. Hafey led the club to a 7-4 victory in the first game, as he drove in six runs with a triple, a home run, and a sacrifice hit. The triple came with the bases loaded in the first, and moments later Hafey scored the fourth run of the inning, as he and his peers were off and running. The future Hall of Famer belted a two run homer in the third. Then picked up his sixth ribbie of the day with a sac fly in the seventh. With the help of some Pirates errors the Cardinals won the second game by the score of 6-4. Hafey capped off the day's production by picking up an RBI in that contest, that had dealt a severe blow to the Pirates hope of a National League pennant.

     The Pittsburgh Press said that Hafey had not been in the major league for a fortnight when he stepped to the dish that September day and dealt the hefty blow to their hopes of October baseball. However, they were not giving up on the season just yet, as they were on the heals of league leading New York Giants. Ultimately they would not catch the Giants. They ended up 3 games back at season's end.  Meanwhile, the 1924 season for the Cardinals was not a great one for the club, as they finished sixth in the standings. However, there were great moments, and personal accomplishments to be celebrated as Rogers Hornsby hit a career high .424 during the campaign. The National League club from St. Louis was laying groundwork for a Championship foundation. Hafey himself would become an integral part of that groundwork, as he had showed very early on that he had what it took to play with the big boys.

Check out the box scores here
Game1: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN192409091.shtml
Game 2: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN192409092.shtml

Check this great video about Hafey out: http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/26196506/v20032941/chick-hafey-played-with-cardinals-from-1924-to-1931