World Series Notes : Cardinals Could Stand to Lighten Up in an Area Other Than Hitting

So John Tudor, whose personality seems to link his ancestry to the Ice Age, calls a writer a shmo , and Danny Cox doesn’t show for a press conference he said he would attend. And the St. Louis Cardinals, who should be having the time of their life, generally seem to act as if this is the World Serious instead of the World Series, as if being interviewed is an invasion of privacy.

So what’s it all about, Terry Pendleton? And thank you for attending the press conference that Danny Cox wouldn’t.

“I think we enjoy the game very much,” the St. Louis third baseman said Friday, “but we don’t enjoy hearing the same question 20 times.

“I mean, some of the guys don’t understand why they can’t take the questions all at once, and they react by going into the trainers room (which is off limits to the media) or turning away and not answering.

“Basically, though, we’re loose, relaxed and having fun.”

Sure could have fooled us, Terry. From reporters’ viewpoints, it looks as if this Series has become the good guys against the bad guys, and you don’t need masks to tell which are the bad guys.

“Well,” Pendleton said, “a lot of the guys are still upset and disappointed over things that have been written this year. People have said we’ll fold, that we shouldn’t be here. A lot of times, even in the St. Louis papers, there’d be big headlines about the Mets, then down in a corner there’d be a little story about our game.

“We clipped some of those articles and put ‘em up in the clubhouse to remind us of how some writers felt, but we’ve taken most of them down now because the things that were written didn’t prove to be true.

“But I think most of the guys don’t care about being called a good guy or bad guy. They just care about doing their job.”

Of his team’s anemic hitting attack, St. Louis Manager Whitey Herzog reflected on the beer wagon’s pregame appearances at Busch Stadium and said: “The Clydesdales have been on second more often than my baserunners.”

The last team to bat below .200 in a World Series was Philadelphia (.195) in 1983. The last team to win a World Series with a batting average below .200 was the New York Yankees (.199) in 1962.

The Cardinals are hitting .196. Credit Kansas City pitching, second baseman Tommy Herr said:

“I can’t think of a National League pitching staff that’s better,” Herr said. “It’s not bad scouting or bad hitting. It’s just a case of good pitching.”

The Cardinals, who stole 314 bases during the regular season, 110 by the now injured Vince Coleman, have stolen just two bases in five games. They’ve had a runner picked off first by left-handers Danny Jackson and Bud Black, and they’ve been caught stealing once.