20 years later, Rolen recalls the one that got away

This story was excerpted from John Denton’s Cardinals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ST. LOUIS -- Not long after the final out of the 2004 World Series, when the Red Sox capped an improbable run that made them feel like a team of destiny, broken-hearted Cardinals star Scott Rolen called his wife and let her in on a conclusion he had come to.

“I called my wife and said, ‘Apparently, I’m never winning a World Series, because if that team wasn’t good enough to win it, I don’t think it’s ever going to be a possibility,’” Rolen recalled recently. “Now, lo and behold, we go into the playoffs in 2006 with the worst record [83-78] in the history of baseball and walk right through everybody and win it all. I guess that just shows I didn’t know what I was talking about.

“But that 2004 group was such a talented and close group. We had accountability on and off the field. I’ve often said, and I still believe it, that that’s the best team I ever played on.”

St. Louis, home to 11 World Series-winning teams, doesn’t usually reserve much fondness for runner-up squads. Flags from those championship teams fly forever high above Busch Stadium, but there’s no such landmark for the 2004 squad that was swept 4-0 in the World Series by the Red Sox.

Still, even 20 years later, that 2004 squad is one of the most revered teams in the rich history of the Cardinals because of its regular-season dominance and its star power at nearly every position. To Cardinals fans, players, coaches and executives of that team, the '04 World Series is still very much the one that got away.

“It’s been 20 years, but that’s just the way our fans in St. Louis are, because they celebrate a team that gave you their best shot every night,” Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa said at a recent Busch Stadium gathering to honor the 20-year anniversary of the ’04 Cardinals. “We didn’t get it done in the World Series, but the fans still respect and honor that team because of how good it was. We won 105 games, and we had a great series getting in [the World Series]. But the fans and the players and coaches still regret not getting it done in that World Series.”

How good was that 2004 team? Let’s count the ways. The Cardinals ranked first in the NL in runs scored, hits, batting average, slugging, OPS and sacrifice flies. Those Redbirds had five .300 hitters, seven players with double-digit home runs and six with at least 50 RBIs. On the pitching side, all five starters had double-digit wins and the bullpen led all of baseball with 57 saves -- spearheaded by Jason Isringhausen’s 47 saves.

That Cardinals squad won 53 times at home and 52 times on the road. The Redbirds breezed through the division by 13 games, were nine games better than any other NL squad and four games clear of the 101-win Yankees in the American League.

The most notable memory from that 2004 Cardinals squad was their famed “M-V-3” composed of Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds and Rolen. That season, Pujols hit .331 with 46 home runs and 123 RBIs, while Edmonds batted .301 with 42 home runs and 111 RBIs. As for Rolen, he hit .314, smashed 34 homers and drove in 124 runs to finish fourth in the voting for the NL MVP -- one spot behind Pujols and one spot ahead of Edmonds. (Barry Bonds and Adrián Beltré finished ahead of the Cards' trio in MVP voting).

“I think it’s the most talented team I’ve ever been around, and somehow we should have been even better in the World Series, but that’s just how it goes,” said Edmonds, whose 12th-inning home run in Game 6 of the NLCS set the stage for Rolen to homer off Roger Clemens in the Game 7 that got the Cards into the World Series. “There can only be one winner and that’s what makes winning so special.”

“Special” was a word used to describe what the Red Sox did in pulling off a rally from 3-0 down to topple the Yankees in the ALCS. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the Red Sox didn’t stop there, winning Game 1 (11-9) and 2 (6-2) in Boston when Woody Williams and new Cardinals Hall of Famer Matt Morris were hit hard. Any hopes of digging out of that hole were doused by Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe, who limited that historic Cards' lineup to just one run over the final two games.

“That one hurt, especially after losing four in a row,” La Russa admitted. “If you go six or seven games, you can understand that. But going down four straight, that made it a tough pill to swallow.”