It’s been four decades since “Whiteyball” first gripped St. Louis, then all of baseball.
Whitey Herzog transformed the Cardinals from sometimes stagnant, also-rans of the 1970s into energetic dynamos in the ‘80s that surged into three World Series, winning in 1982 and going to Game 7s two other times before losing. That special era in St. Louis sports is the subject of a documentary on MLB Network, “Birds of a Different Game: The ‘80s Cardinals.” It’s debut is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Those teams melded speed, defense and pitching into prosperity, a vast difference from today’s swing-for-the-fences, analytics-driven approach.