St. Louis Cardinals: 125 tournament round two, part one

The St. Louis Cardinals are a massive piece of baseball lore. 2017 marks the 125th year of the Cardinals existence and contain a treasure trove of great moments.

125 years of St. Louis Cardinals baseball is a wonderful thing. To celebrate, Redbird Rants is thrilled to join our brothers and sisters through the United Cardinals Bloggers and specifically with Cards Conclave (C70 At The Bat specifically) to bring you a special, multi-site tournament recognizing the top 125 greatest Cardinals moments.

For more on this tournament, jump over to my earlier article here.

Today, we at Redbird Rants continue the tournament on our grounds and dive right into round two. But first, let’s review the results from our first voting round and set the stage for what is to come in round two.

For those who don’t remember, round one had some great St. Louis Cardinals moments going head-to-head. First up, the Ozzie Smith “Go Crazy Folks” home run squared-off against the unlikely hero in Adron Chambers scoring on a wild pitch to defeat the Cubs in 2011. In this match-up, “Go Crazy Folks” advanced.

Before we get to the competition facing Ozzie’s amazing home run, let’s jump down the bracket a little. We will come back to what’s at stake this week in a short bit.

Bob Gibson is one of the best-known pitchers in St. Louis Cardinals lore and his 3,000th strikeout was pitted head-to-head against Tom Herr‘s grand slam that closed the night on the raucus seat cushion night. Gibson advanced.

Where Gibson might be the most famous Cardinal to climb the mound, Albert Pujols is one of the most prolific St. Louis Cardinals hitters to swing the pine over the plate. His epic, three-home-run game in the 2011 World Series faced-off against the 1942 home run by Whitey Kurowski. Like the St. Louis Cardinals teams with which he played, Pujols won the battle.

Right around the time that Lance Berkman became a name of many discussions in and around St. Louis thanks to the Christian Day controversy, Berkman was taking on power arm Rick Ankiel. The head-to-head was between Berkman’s single that extended the famous game six of 2011 against Ankiel’s cannon arm that accounted for two outfield assists from the outfield.

Despite the controversy, Berkman took the vote and advanced.

Related Story: Berkman controversy

Next in the cannon, Mark McGwire‘s 70th home run went up against the home-run-rubbing Willie McGee catch in the World Series to save a loss. Big Mac is still very much a fan-favorite and won this competition.

The famous final out of the 2006 World Series involving Adam Wainwright advanced to round two thanks to his beating esteemed Lou Brock‘s 3,000th hit. This was a surprise to me, honestly.

More from Redbird Rants

• Cardinals Rumors: 3 pros and cons of signing Carlos Rodon
• What’s next for the St. Louis Cardinals after Contreras signing?
• Report: Cardinals Emerge As Mystery Team for Carlos Rodon
• Cardinals: Trade targets after signing Willson Contreras
• Reflecting on the 2013 Cardinals’ top 30 prospects

The rally squirrel of World Series fame was bested by Stan-the-Man’s 3,000th hit. And who would ever have guess it, right?

So now the second round of the Walt Jocketty division is set. For the month of August, Redbird Rants will host round two of this recognition of the greatest St. Louis Cardinals moments. Make sure that you follow our Twitter to be able to vote.

The “Go Crazy Folks” home run is up against the winner of the head-to-head battle that saw Chris Carpenter dive for first base during his great World Series versus Pete Kozma‘s surprising single in the NLDS of 2012. I’m glad to know that Kozma couldn’t bring down this St. Louis Cardinals contest as Carpenter advanced.

So, there it is: Ozzie Smith’s “Go Crazy Folks” home run is now going head-to-head against Carpenter’s iconic dive to first base to prevent a base runner. These are the videos for your review:

Please be sure to go vote. If you fail to vote, your favorite might not make it through to the next round of our tournament.

Stay tuned to all the sites in the group hosting this tournament and make sure that you vote! Thanks for reading and Go Cardinals!