The Cardinals and Brewers were a study in contrast. Playing their home games in the spacious Busch Stadium, St. Louis relied on speed and hit few home runs, while Milwaukee's powerful squad was nicknamed "Harvey's Wallbangers" after manager Harvey Kuenn. Unfortunately for the Brewers, they would enter the World Series without their relief ace, Rollie Fingers, who suffered a torn arm muscle in September.

The Brewers did plenty of banging in Game 1, rocking St. Louis pitchers for 17 hits and 10 runs, while Mike Caldwell tossed a three-hit shutout. The Cards evened the Series with a taut 5-4 victory in Game 2, the decisive run scoring when pinch-hitter Steve Braun walked with the bases loaded in the eighth inning.

Cardinals center fielder Willie McGee hit only four home runs all season, but in Game 3 he blasted a three-run homer in the fifth inning, and then a solo shot in the seventh, propelling the Redbirds to a 6-2 win. St. Louis was sitting pretty in Game 4, too, until a six-run Brewer seventh turned a 5-1 deficit into a 7-5 lead. That's how it ended, thus squaring the Series at two games apiece. Game 5, usually considered pivotal (though not in this case, as it turned out), was a tight affair, with a flurry of late scoring leaving the Brewers on top, 6-4.

Back in St. Louis for Game 6, the vaunted Brewer offense could do nothing with unheralded John Stuper, who allowed just four hits and one run while going the distance. Meanwhile, in a Game 1 reversal the Cardinals pounded Milwaukee pitchers, totaling a dozen hits and 13 runs. First baseman Keith Hernandez knocked in four runs, and DH Dane Iorg scored three.

In Game 7, the Cardinals trailed, 3-1, when they came up in the bottom of the sixth. But after a single, a double, a pitching change and a walk, Hernandez's two-run single tied the game, and George Hendrick followed with another single to put St. Louis ahead, 4-3. The Cards added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth, and Bruce Sutter finished off Milwaukee with two perfect relief innings as St. Louis clinched their ninth World Series.

Path to the World Series
ALCS: Milwaukee over California (3 games to 2)
NLCS: St. Louis over Atlanta (3 games to 0)

Managers: Whitey Herzog, STL; Harvey Kuenn, MIL

MVP: Darrell Porter, STL: .286, 2 2B, 1 HR, 5 RBI