Appreciating a Legend

The passing of Walt Jocketty requires a revisiting of the past

Here in Arkansas, we have a state high school quiz bowl competition. It’s broken up into classifications (like football, basketball, etc.) culminating in regional and then state tournaments. The finals of each classification are put on the state PBS channel. It’s a remarkable thing to watch, though don’t do it if you can’t handle realizing how little you know.

My daughter has been in the quiz bowl program since she was in the fifth grade, working her way up until she became captain of the team in this her senior season. Today, she and her team won the state title. Which is a remarkable achievement, something that is only slightly tempered by one fact: it wasn’t their first time.

The Russellville team first went to the finals in 2015, when my daughter was a month short of eight, not even in the system yet. They lost that game, but they went back in 2016 and won. They returned in 2017 and won again. Then 2018. And 2019. Covid cancelled 2020 (which actually was one of their best teams) but they won again in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and today. Nine straight titles.

The reason for those titles is, in large part, due to one man. Dr. Gray figured out a process to train these kids. He set up the system that started them in fifth grade, one of the earliest starts in the state, and gave them tricks and techniques that helped them learn and process and react and everything else they needed to become a juggernaut at the highest level. While he retired a couple of years ago, the track had been laid and the train just kept running.

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All of this is not to brag on my daughter, at least not entirely. It’s because right after they won their title, I scrolled Facebook and saw the news that Walt Jocketty had passed away.

I wouldn’t say that I came to fandom under Jocketty—I still have recollections of the Dal Maxvil era—but the deep dive into what the Cardinals are and mean that led to this whole blogging/podcasting era of my life was his doing. Because his time in St. Louis ended abruptly and he was on the wrong side of history, as it were, it is easy to forget that his tenure was the biggest reason that we look at the last 25-plus years (save maybe the last two or three) as the greatest era in Cardinal history.

I remember hearing Jocketty’s name when he was with the Athletics. Of course, that’s not surprising given that the team went to three straight World Series and had some of the biggest names in baseball playing for it. When you are the GM that puts that sort of team together, you are going to get some recognition. When he came over to St. Louis, it brought an excitement that was sorely needed after the blahs of the first half of the ‘90s, the last gasp of the Brewery ownership.

I often forget that Jocketty wasn’t hired in the winter of 1995 but in the midst of the 1994 strike, coming on board about the time the World Series should have been played. His first winter wasn’t dramatic—players being on strike will do that—but he still signed Tom Henke, who was one of the best one-and-done players ever in St. Louis. He started getting things cleared out and ready for his first big foray, which was to bring the Oakland A’s east. He started with the manager.

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It’s possible you could make a case for Walt Jocketty being a Cardinals Hall of Famer—an honor that he was notified he would be receiving this summer—if all he had done was to bring Tony LaRussa under the Arch. TLR set a tone and culture that led to nine playoff appearances and two World Series titles. He’s the winningest manager in Cardinal history and leaves a shadow that the three successive managers haven’t completely been able to step out of. It’s fair to wonder if any manager ever will, especially given how the managerial role has changed over the last few years.

Jocketty didn’t stop there, of course. The 1996 team had Dennis Eckersley, Mike Gallego, Rick Huneycutt, T.J. Mathews, and Todd Stottlemyre that had either come directly from the green and white or had been there during Jocketty’s tenure. (Well, and Willie McGee, but that’s a different scenario altogether.) That influx of veteran leadership, people that knew TLR and wanted to play for him, helped bring the club to within one game of the World Series before suddenly Atlanta woke up.

The next year, at the trade deadline, we got our first glimpse of what was going to become a Jocketty staple—getting a star for a handful of magic beans. This trade, though, completely altered the trajectory of the franchise.

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I have made the case before that a lot of the success of the 2000s rests in a deal made on July 31, 1997. On that day, Jocketty since Eric Ludwick (whose brother would make his own impact on the Cardinals), Mathews, and Blake Stein to his old team for a red-headed power hitting first baseman. Mark McGwire hit 24 home runs in the two months he was in St. Louis and before the end of the season signed an extension that kept him in Cardinal red.

We all know what happened the next year, when he and Sammy Sosa made headlines and put every eyeball on St. Louis and Chicago. He thrust the organization onto the national stage and made it a destination for top talent. Before McGwire, the Cardinals were never rumored to be a target for any player. After him, the whole market seemed to open up.

Of course, Jocketty didn’t tend to go for the big free agent. He signed players here and there—perhaps his biggest signing was Jason Isringhausen, at least of ones that worked (the less said about Tino Martinez, the better)—but his true talent was making those deals we talked about above. Those sort of deals built the best team that many of us have seen in our lifetimes, the 2004 Cardinals.

It started in 1998 when he sent Armondo Almanza, Braden Looper (who eventually returned), and Pablo Ozuna to the Marlins for Edgar Renteria. In March of 2000, he pulled off what was probably his biggest steal, sending Kent Bottenfield (coming off of a career year that would never be duplicated) and Adam Kennedy (who also eventually returned) for Jim Edmonds. At the deadline in 2002, Philadelphia received Placido Polanco, Bud Smith, and Mike Timlin for Scott Rolen. He strengthened the 2004 team by getting Larry Walker from Colorado after the deadline for Luis Martinez, Chris Narveson, and Jason Birch.

Oh, and in the middle of this, in June of 1999, assisted by a scouting director named John Mozeliak, they selected a junior college player in the 13th round. Albert Pujols turned out to be decent. The next year, the duo combined to grab a young catcher in the 4th round, a guy called Yadier Molina.

There were other deals, of course. With the Rockies for Darryl Kile, who likely would have made that ‘04 team even stronger had it not been for his untimely death. With the Brewers for Fernando Vina, who stabilized second base in the early 2000s. The 2000 trade deadline deal for Will Clark, who filled in for an injured McGwire and torched the NL in his swan song. Making a 2001 waiver deal with San Diego to get Woody Williams, giving up local legend Ray Lankford in the process.

The trade market was very, very good to Jocketty. Until it wasn’t.

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You can read the details about the upheaval in the front office in Howard Megdal’s great book The Cardinals Way. The addition of Jeff Luhnow into the mix pushed the front office in a development direction. That forced Jocketty out the door.

He moved on to Cincinnati and tried to work the same magic—even playing the hits of bringing in Rolen and Edmonds—but it never quite clicked the same way. Baseball changed and it became much harder to throw a bunch of question marks at a team and get back a superstar in return. It still happens, though with the information that is out there people know more about the prospects they are getting. (The Bottenfield trade, though, that would never would happen now.)

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 18 years since Jocketty was let go. In fact, it was probably the first big Cardinals story that I blogged about. (It is just as remarkable that there have only been two guys in charge for 30 years.) We focus a lot on John Mozeliak’s term, good or bad, but he’s built on the foundation that Jocketty left. He’s doing things differently, of course, but the level was raised with Walt.

It was hard to hear that Jocketty had passed away. I didn’t know he’d been dealing with health issues and 74 is still fairly young this day and age. I’m glad that he got the notification that he was going into the Cards Hall, because I hope that meant he realized that people appreciated what he did for this organization and how well he will be remembered. The Jocketty era deserves to be looked back on as a true high point of a franchise that has a deep and wonderful history.

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The Kyle Reis guest appearance went basically how you’d expect. It’s always fun to talk with Kyle, even if you feel like you are holding on to an out-of-control stagecoach.