Mainer became Cardinals fan in ’44 Brewer man expects grief from Sox supporters

It seemed like an easy enough assignment: Find a few St. Louis Cardinals fans in the area and talk to them about being fans of “the bad guys” as the World Series progresses this week.

Turns out it’s more difficult to find Cardinals fans around here than it is to keep Boston’s Curt Schilling off the mound in a must-win game.

Sure, there’s one guy at the office – a fellow sportswriter who works one desk over on the left, no less – whose Redbird loyalty can be traced back to the 1967 World Series and a youthful desire to rebel against his Red Sox-loving father, but you don’t interview fellow journalists.

For six hours Monday, calls were made, people were polled, sources were contacted, and avenues were pursued… All to no avail. Things looked bleak, until a reliable source came through in our quest for someone with the Spirit of St. Louis.

Ironically, this Mainer with a St. Louis susceptibility turned out to be the father of another fellow sportswriter. Maybe it’s part of a radical Redbird plot to take over the sports desk.

If it is, it’s long-term one. Sportswriter Ernie Clark has been a Cards fan for 37 years and Vaughn Holyoke of Brewer has been a Cardinals devotee for 60 of his 70 years.

“I’ve been a Cardinals fan since 1944,” said Holyoke, father of NEWS outdoors columnist John Holyoke. “I wasn’t too old in 1944 and it was an all-St. Louis series, and to me, the Cardinals sounded a lot better than the Browns. I’ve followed them ever since.”

Holyoke fondly rattles off a list of favorite players like Terry Moore and Marty Marion, and Baseball Hall of Famers Stan “The Man” Musial, Enos “Country” Slaughter, and Red Schoendienst.

“I think the ’46 team was my favorite,” he said. “Musial was at first, Schoendienst at second, Marion at shortstop, Whitey Kurowski at third, Moore in center, and Slaughter in left. The best pitchers were Howie Pollet and Harry ‘the Cat’ Brecheen.”

In 1957, Holyoke got to see the game in which Musial was removed due to an injury that sidelined him for three days and snapped a streak of games played at 895 – the seventh-longest in Major League Baseball history.

Third baseman Scott Rolen, widely regarded as the best defensive third baseman in the majors right now, is Holyoke’s favorite player on the current squad.

“Like Musial, he’s very low key and humble, which is unique among today’s athletes,” he said.

Holyoke, who spent 38 years as part of the UMaine faculty, used to attend Cards-Phillies games in Philadelphia when he was a student at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

“It was an easy trip for me to make,” he said. “It was those Musial-Slaughter teams in the ’50s I liked best. I was in my early 20s and I still remember those teams.”

The retired director of UMaine’s cooperative extension and former college of agriculture professor has been teased over the years for his Cardinals ties, but he has been able to take it all in stride.

“In 1967, I probably took some guff from some people, but nothing I really recall now,” Holyoke said with a laugh. “It’s easy to take the heat when your team wins, so it was easier for me in 1946 and 1967.”

The Red Sox lost both of those Series in seven games to the Cardinals.

That’s not to say Holyoke isn’t a Red Sox fan as well, but he still has his priorities when it comes to the two teams.

“I’m a sports fan of whatever’s in season and I follow the Red Sox, so I look at this as a win-win situation, even though if I had my pick, I’d want the Cardinals to win,” he said. “But any team that’s been around as long as the Red Sox and not won it, it would be a plus for them to finally win and have everyone feel a lot better. It would finally get Bill Buckner off the hook.”

Holyoke used to take his family to Boston and attend Red Sox games at Fenway.

“When our kids were small, we’d take one week every summer and get tickets and go down to a weekend series and go to two or three games,” said Holyoke.

Now he finds his Redbirds in a tough spot against the Red Sox, down two games to none in the best-of-seven series.

“They’ve sort of dug the same hole they did in the playoffs against the Astros, so it’s not surprising. I’m still optimistic,” he said. “I don’t think they can come back to Boston and win both, so they’d better win all three in St. Louis.”

So, are Sox fans giving him grief?

“Not yet, but I’m expecting some soon,” he said with a chuckle.