Of all the eras of St. Louis baseball, perhaps the most interesting collection of Cardinals was the Gashouse Gang ... yet perhaps the most interesting member was a player you might not know.
“His story goes from Buster Keaton to Branch Rickey to the Gashouse Gang!” exclaimed Ed Wheatley, a St. Louis sports historian and author, by phone on Saturday.
Orsatti played for the Cardinals from 1927 to 1935, retiring with a .306 batting average. Yet he wasn’t a consistent starter. The Cards were stacked in the outfield, so the deck was stacked against Orsatti. But in the famed 1934 season, he started the majority of the season’s games in center.