In honor of Metaforian's houseguests from St. Louis this Thanksgiving, let's look at the Cardinals with the most career home runs (regular season) at Shea Stadium (courtesy of the Day-By-Day Database at Baseball Musings):
George Hendrick 10
Keith Hernandez 8
Mark McGwire, Albert Pujols and Ray Lankford 7
Lou Brock, Darrell Porter, Ted Simmons and Ken Reitz 6
Willie McGee, Mike Shannon and Brian Jordan 5
George Hendrick is only seventh in total Cardinals homers since 1964 (when Shea opened), but he did seem to enjoy hitting against the Mets: of his 122 Cardinals homers, 17 came against the Mets, the most against any single opponent during his career with St. Louis.
Hendrick's career offers a lesson in keeping an open mind about people. He had a distinct reputation during his playing days, in the 1970s and 1980s, for not hustling, for not playing hard. He absolutely refused to talk to reporters for most of his playing career and was famous for his sullenness (apparently at one point as teammates Gaylord Perry and George Hendrick refused to play when the other was in the lineup) . Yet the guy was a very fine player for many years, was in the majors for 18 seasons and, perhaps most amazing of all, has served for a decade and a half now as a major league coach and minor league instructor and manager -- he's been continuously employed on the management/coaching side of baseball since 1993. Probably not what the guys who managed him when he played would have expected.
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