The St. Louis Cardinals have a long and storied history of success in finding that "team first" guy. The glue that holds the team together. The emergency stopgap anywhere on the diamond. The "do anything" type of guy to be on the big club. The selflessness that endeared itself to 35,000 red-cladded Cardinal fans on a random Tuesday night in July. Ah, yes, the beloved utility guy.
Cardinals history of the utility player
It started for me with the legendary Tom Lawless bat flip home run in the '87 World Series. It was reinforced the following season when the Secret Weapon, Jose Oquendo, administered a little corrective reasoning, with the aid of HOFer Ozzie Smith, towards the hard-slidin' Will Clark of the Giants.