I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 24 - Todd Worrell

I was a little surprised by the fact that Todd Worrell only pitched one season with the Cardinals during the 1990s.  He was definitely injury prone during his last few years with in St. Louis, but I didn't remember him missing two whole seasons.  I guess that's why we got Lee Smith for awhile.

Personally, I think of Worrell as more of a 1980s Cardinals player.  The team had Bruce Sutter as their closer at the beginning of the Whitey Herzog era.  He left for the Braves at the end of the 1984 season and was initially replaced in 1985 by a combination of Jeff Lahti and Ken Dayley.  Worrell was called up in August of that season just ahead of the Postseason roster deadline.

The Cardinals were in a tight pennant race that fall against the Mets.  Worrell appeared in 16 regular season games during September of 1985 picking up 5 saves.  He also appeared in 7 Postseason games that fall against the Dodgers and Royals.

Worrell was the pitcher who had his foot on first base ahead of Jorge Orta in Game 6.  Somehow Don Denkinger didn't see a 6'5 guy with red shoes standing on a white base during this play.  Pretty sure that Royals gave him a World Series ring and retired his umpire uniform number.  Some idiot at Topps gave him a baseball card and called him a good umpire.  

Since Worrell did not get called up until the very end of the 1985 season he did not appear in any 1985 products.  He did not make the Topps base set in 1986 either, but did make the Fleer and Donruss sets.  My favorite is the Donruss......

mainly because of the Rated Rookie stamp.  Worrell went on to appear in the Topps Traded set put out in the fall of 1986.  Considering Worrell led the National League in saves, and won the Rookie of The Year, that season his first Topps card was a pretty popular one.  

at least it was in St. Louis County.  So, just to fast forward through the rest of the 1980s for Todd Worrell, he saved a ton of games for the Cardinals before one his elbow ligaments tore at the end of the 1989 season.  Since Worrell was out for awhile, even though the 1990 Cardinals were a complete dumpster fire, they ended up trading for Lee Smith.  Worrell did pitch for the Louisville Redbirds in 1991.  He pitched 3 games and tore the rotator cuff in his shoulder.  Those were the only 3 games he pitched in during the first two years of the 1990s. 

In 1992, Worrell returned to the Cardinals, but since Lee Smith was on the team he was used as a set-up man.  Kind of a shame since that season was the beginning of Lee Smith's painful slide from throwing 95 and striking out batters, to throwing 95 and watching the outfielders chase down extra base hits.  Meanwhile, Worrell pitched in 67 games, had an ERA just above 2.00, and struck out a batter per inning.  

We also got baseball cards of Worrell.  Not just a boring Topps base card either, although that's out there if you want it.  

I have always kind of liked his 1992 Studio card from that season.  It looks a little odd at first, I will admit, but I like the jacket and hat on the card.  The 1992 season was actually the 100th Anniversary of the Cardinals and the team decided to leave the 1980s behind two years into the 1990s.  In 1991 the team wore.....

polyester pull overs.  In 1992 the team switched back to the button up jerseys and brought back the blue hats, which they had not worn since the late 1960s, as a part of their road uniforms.  They were pretty sharp looking jerseys.  

The Cardinals also wore blue batting practice jerseys and dugout jackets on the road.  The blue hats were really popular when they first came back out.  I am pretty sure that I got my parents to buy me one of those hats at West County Mall.  Probably either Champs or JC Penny.  

Back to Worrell.  You know the other great thing about Studio cards from the early 1990s was reading the backs of the cards.  Mark McGwire likes Whitney Houston?  Who'd of thought?  So, Todd Worrell.... 

1. What in the world is Biola University?  It actually stands for the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and it was founded by an oil baron.  Duke was founded by a tobacco baron, so there's that.   Reading a page with student writing on it, B.I.O.L.A. seems like a pretty literal place, since I believe in dinosaurs I am going to stop there.  

2. Josh Worrell was drafted by the Royals, never made it out of the lower Minors, but did play for the Burlington Royals for a brief time.  Local is good.  

3. Howard Johnson was 5 for 9 against Todd Worrell, but most of those hits were made using HoJo's "special" bats.  Think those popped up a lot against the Cardinals.  

I am smarter for having read the back of that card.

Last one.  

Amongst the last of his Cardinals cards from the 1993 Topps set.  I believe that the only two Worrell cards from 1993, with him pictured as a member of the Cardinals, were his Topps and Fleer cards.  Everything else was a Dodgers card.  I always liked these Topps Gold cards, since it's the end of the post I am going fancy.  The base card is nice too, don't get me wrong.  You get to see the blue Cardinals road hat and the team also wore a patch in 1992 to celebrate the team's 100th Anniversary.  The close up of the patch....

Worrell went on to pitch 5 years for the Dodgers.  He led the National League in saves during the 1996 season and helped the team get into the playoffs twice in 1995 and 1996.  He never appeared in a playoff game in 1995 against the Reds, but he recorded the final out in the clincher.....

The Dodgers did not win a playoff game either season.  1997 was a rough year for Worrell and he ended up retiring at the end of the season, but not before he crossed over 250 career saves.