(Updated Jan. 12, 2022)
The 1963 Cardinals infield established an all-star standard that went unmatched for 53 years.
For the first time in major-league history, the National League’s All-Star Game starting infield was composed of players from the same team. They were the Cardinals unit of first baseman Bill White, second baseman Julian Javier, shortstop Dick Groat and third baseman Ken Boyer.
The Giants’ Al Dark, who managed the 1963 National League all-star team, told The Sporting News, “When you’ve got an infield that starts with Bill White at first base and runs through Julian Javier, Dick Groat and Ken Boyer, you’ve got power and class.”
In 2016, fans selected an all-Cubs starting NL all-star infield of first baseman Anthony Rizzo, second baseman Ben Zobrist, shortstop Addison Russell and third baseman Kris Bryant.
Fans have voted for the all-star starters each year since 1970. In 1963, the starters were selected in voting by players, managers and coaches in each league.
White, Groat, Boyer and Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski were voted the starters for the 1963 NL team, but Mazeroski withdrew after he pulled a muscle in his right leg.
Cubs second baseman Ken Hubbs had finished second to Mazeroski in the voting, but Dark picked Javier to replace Mazeroski as the starting second baseman.
United Press International wrote, “Usually, all-star managers in picking reserves for their squad stick mighty close to the way the players themselves voted earlier in choosing the starting lineup.”
Said Dark to the Associated Press: “I feel this is the strongest squad we have.”
Javier “doesn’t have any shortcomings,” Groat told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He runs well, has good range, fine hands and pivots well.”
Here were the top two vote-getters for each NL infield position:
First base: Bill White, 220 votes; Orlando Cepeda, Giants, 38 votes.
Second base: Bill Mazeroski, 227 votes; Ken Hubbs, 14 votes.
Shortstop: Dick Groat, 238 votes; Maury Wills, Dodgers, 25 votes.
Third base: Ken Boyer, 186 votes; Ron Santo, Cubs, 52 votes.
The other starting position players for the 1963 NL all-stars were Giants catcher Ed Bailey and outfielders Hank Aaron of the Braves, Willie Mays of the Giants and Tommy Davis of the Dodgers.
The Cardinals’ Stan Musial, 42, was chosen by Dark as an outfield reserve. It would be a record 24th and final All-Star Game for Musial, who retired after the season.
Best Cardinals infield
In his book “Stan Musial: The Man’s Own Story,” Musial said, “That infield was the strength of the 1963 Cardinals, all right … Marty Marion said the Cardinals’ 1946 infield was a bit better. I’m not so sure, though we did have a good one in ’46. I played first base then, Red Schoendienst second, Marion short and George Kurowski third. That far back, Red hadn’t yet come into his own as a hitter.”
In a 2011 interview, I asked White if the 1963 Cardinals infield was the best he’d seen.White’s response:
“It was a good infield. It probably was not the best. Ken Boyermight have beenthe best third baseman I’d seen or played with. Groat had mobility problems. He understood how to play the hitters, but he had very little range and he didn’t have that real good arm. Javier was a pretty good second baseman. He made a great double play and he could go way out to center field for pop-ups because Curt Flood played a deep center field.
“It was a good infield, the best infield that I was on, but I’m not sure it was the best ever. It might have been the best Cardinals infield.”
Branch Rickey said the 1963 Cardinals infield was comparable to the 1952 Dodgers infield of first baseman Gil Hodges, second baseman Jackie Robinson, shortstop Pee Wee Reese and third baseman Billy Cox. “I’d still give that Brooklyn infield the edge defensively,” Rickey told The Sporting News in June 1963, “but this Cardinals infield has more offensively and might even get to be better.”
White, Groataid NL win
White and Groat contributed significantly to the NL’s 5-3 victory over the American League on July 9, 1963, at Cleveland. They and Javier played the entire game. Santo replaced Boyer in the sixth.
In the second, Groat’s single off starter Ken McBride of the Angels drove in Mays from second, giving the NL a 1-0 lead.
With the NL ahead 4-3in the eighth, White led off against imposing Red Sox reliever Dick Radatz, nicknamed “The Monster,” and singled to center.
Taking his lead off first base, White watched Radatz pitch to Mays and detected a flaw in the pitcher’s motion, he told The Sporting News. As Mays struck out, White swiped second. White ran on his own, Dark said.
Radatz “came set and started his left leg forward a couple of pitches in a way that showed just when he definitely was going to the plate, not to first base,” White told the Post-Dispatch.
Santo singled to center, scoring White and boosting the NL’s advantage to 5-3.
With Dodgers ace Don Drysdale pitching the ninth, the Orioles’ Brooks Robinson singled with one out. The next batter, Bobby Richardson of the Yankees, hit a grounder to White. The Cardinals’ first baseman threw to Groat covering second and Groat’s return throw to White nipped Richardson for a game-ending first-to-short-to-first double play. Boxscore
The NL turned three double plays. White took part in all three and Groat helped turn two. White and Groat each went 1-for-4; Javier and Boyer each was hitless.
(Musial, pinch-hitting for Bailey in the fifth, faced Jim Bunning and lined out to Al Kaline in right field. “I got out in front of the pitch just a fraction or I’d have hit it out of there,” Musial said.)
Groat and Boyer both were elected starters again in 1964, but White and Javier were replaced by Cepeda and the Mets’ Ron Hunt.
