St. Louis Cardinals Book Review: If These Walls Could Talk

Stan McNeal’s 2015 book, If These Walls Could Talk: St. Louis Cardinals features a great collection of moments from the early part of the 2010s. Cardinals fans should definitely read all about it.

With the exception of 1942 through 1946, where the St. Louis Cardinals captured four National League pennants and three World Series rings, no stretch has been more dominant for the St. Louis Cardinals than 2011-2015.

In reverse chronological order, Fox Sports’ Midwest’s Stan McNeal shares inside stories from the 2014 season back to the Cardinals’ run to the 2011 World Series. Using one-on-one interviews, press conferences, and a wide variety of secondary sources, McNeal gives us more background information leading up to the critical moments that defined the early 2010s Cardinals.

Readers will experience a wide variety of emotions when reliving these moments. There are joyous moments such as the Cardinals’ wins over Clayton Kershaw in 2013 and 2014, Pete Kozma’s game-winning hit in Game 5 of the 2012 NLDS, and, of course, the 2011 postseason.

Yet there are moments where St. Louis was oh-so-close to victory, with post-season losses to San Francisco in 2012 and 2014, and even sadness, with the death of Oscar Taveras duly noted.

McNeal’s stories are well-researched, and he describes each situation with accurate detail. Even when he has to venture outside of 2011-2014 to incorporate older information, he ties it back into the context of the respective Cardinals’ season.

More from St Louis Cardinals History

• Reflecting on the 2013 Cardinals’ top 30 prospects
• Cardinals: The best Silver Slugger performances at each position.
• The St. Louis Cardinals are in rare company with this free agency stat
• What Happened to the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals? Matt Holliday Edition
• The St. Louis Cardinals avoided disaster with Jason Heyward

The only criticism I have with the book, and this is very nit-picky, is the absence of more information. For example, the Cardinals and Dodgers had a lot of animosity between each other. We should not forget the tension from the Cardinals pitching inside to Dodger hitters, at times hitting the batters. This spilled out in Game 1 when Adrian Gonzalez confronted Yadier Molina about it.

Back in 2013, the Cardinals objected to Dodgers’ celebrations in the NLCS in Game 3. After the Cardinals advanced to the World Series, then-Dodgers manager Don Mattingly accused the Cardinals of sign-stealing.

If These Walls Could Talk is a fun book Cardinals’ fans should take a look at. As we sit through the current pandemic, Stan McNeal gives us stories to remind us how fortunate we are as Cardinals fans to have this sustained success as a franchise.