Cardinals news and notes: Willie McGee and the Brewers

The Cardinals kicked off a three game series with Milwaukee yesterday, winning in appropriate 6-0 shutout fashion. Growing up the Brewers had a home in the American League, of course, which is how the 1982 "Suds Series" was able to happen. This would be the only World Series won during Whitey Herzog's legendary run as manager.

I've been asked by friends, non-Cardinals fans, why it is that most of us love Willie McGee so much. It seems a silly thing to have to defend, he won two batting titles while a Cardinal and was the 1985 MVP, but on the other hand he didn't have an elite career. He wasn't Ozzie Smith. FanGraphs has him worth 27.6 career wins while Baseball-Reference has his WAR at a bit more generous 34.0. I wasn't aware to know it was happening at the time but my guess the love stems from his Game 3 performance in the Suds Series. Besides hitting two home runs (he hit four for the entire 1982 season) and driving in four of the Cardinals' six runs, he made a couple of spectacular defensive plays, including a robbing catch in the 9th inning to help seal the game for the Cardinals. He might have taken back a home run - might not - but either way it was a fantastic catch.

Here's what you may have missed yesterday at VEB:

Cardinals vs. Brewers

The Brewers, now of the National League, have been a bit better in 2016 than expected, but still, the Cardinals should destroy the Brewers and yesterday they did just that behind eight strong shutout innings from Carlos Martinez and a 466-foot bomb from Matt Holliday. Here's the game thread and the recap.

Hope everyone enjoyed their day off yesterday and return to work today. Go Cardinals.