in baseball history was made. Brock hit .348 for the remainder of the season, and led the Cardinals to their three pennants and two world titles over the next five years. He played the rest of his career with St. Louis (retiring in 1979), and would steal 938 bases (breaking Ty Cobb's record, and currently second all-time to Rickey Henderson), exceed the 3,000 hit mark (with 3,023), bat .424 with 34 hits and 14 stolen bases in 21 World Series games, and become a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Ironically, Brock's impact on the Cardinals' won-lost mark or position in the standings was not felt immediately. The team continued to trail the Phillies by a large margin and it looked to all as though the club's pennant drought would extend to 18 years; by August 17, the Redbirds were mired in fifth place, nine games behind the Phillies. Owner Busch was bitterly disappointed, and decided to clean out his front office. On the advice of his special assistant, legendary Branch Rickey, Busch fired Devine and business manager Art Routzong, and accepted the resignation of assistant general manager Eddie Stanky. Manager Johnny Keane was temporarily spared, but Dodgers' coach Leo Durocher was secretly negotiating with Busch to take over for 1965. Meanwhile, Devine's old job went to Rickey protégé Bob Howsam. As events unfolded, Busch had acted in haste. The Cardinals began to win, while the Phillies suffered an epic September collapse, losing a -game lead with a dozen games to play, sparking a wild, four-team, 11th hour scramble for the pennant. On the final day of the season, after sweeping the Phillies to take first place, the Cardinals prevailed, clinching the NL championship for the first time since 1946 by beating the lowly Mets after losing the first two games of the series. Led by Gibson, the undisputed ace of the staff since Broglio's trade, and McCarver, the Cardinals then defeated the New York Yankees in a seven-game World Series. Even though he had been on the sidelines since August 17, Devine again was cited as the top executive in baseball by The Sporting News. Meanwhile, Keane resigned after the World Series triumph (and became skipper of the Yankees). Instead of Durocher, Cardinal coach Red Schoendienst was named as manager for 1965. Building the Miracle Mets Devine's departure was a cause-celebre in St. Louis, but the damage had