His Cardinals hadn’t won a World Series since he was in preschool. And there was Jim Mielke, wedged into the front row of the Busch Stadium bleachers, his right leg dangling over the right-field wall. He watched Bruce Sutter fire the final strike from upon the glorious green stage. And right then, Mielke broke the fourth wall by jumping over the outfield wall.
“I remember the drop down being farther that I thought it would be,” said Mielke, 60, who was 20 in 1982. “It was chaos, people running in every direction. And I’ve always been a souvenir guy.