The 1960 St. Louis Cardinals posted a 86–68 record, a fifteen-game improvement over the previous season, and finished third in the National League, nine games behind the World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates. The club made a dramatic turnaround even though Solly Hemus's lineup juggling and turmoil continued.

After a disastrous seventh place in ’59, a 15-game win improvement was enthusiastically embraced by their fans It was no longer just Stan Musial. Newcomer Julian Javier, a maturing Bill White and Curt Flood, and the continuing production from Ken Boyer (.304, 32 hrs, 97 RBIs) supplied the offense. Add to this was a big step up from pitcher Ernie Broglio with 21 wins with solid seasons from Larry Jackson 18 wins, and Lindy McDaniel 12 wins and 27 saves. The 27 saves was the most in baseball, the second straight year had posted the most saves in the Major Leagues.

The Cardinals started slowly losing 16 of their first 26 games and were a half-game out of last place after play on May 15. Hemus experimented with various lineups in an effort to jolt the Cardinals. After the disastrous 1959 season, Hemus panicked and the lineup juggling and turmoil reached a fever pitch. Why he wasn't fired at this point, only Gussie Busch knows. Amazingly the Cardinals got hot in the second half after young right-hander Ernie Broglio was moved into the starting rotation. His 148 adjusted ERA was the league’s best as he finished 21-9. Nineteen-year-old rookie Ray Sadecki was placed in the starting rotation and posted a 9-9 record while veteran Curt Simmons went 7-4 after being signed as a free agent from the Philadelphia Phillies in May. All the while Lindy McDaniel led a strong bullpen. The Cardinals spent most of August and September in second place, although they never seriously challenged the Pirates for the pennant.

Success, however, didn’t improve Hemus’s relations with black players. Bob Gibson was again demoted to the minors for a month and chalked up a 5.61 ERA. “Hemus had convinced me that I wasn’t any damn good and, consequently, I wasn’t,” he said in his memoir, "Stranger To The Game." Curt Flood, so demoralized he couldn’t sleep, got more playing time but hit only .237.

Bob Gibson finally returned to the Cardinals for good in June 1960. Gibson offered a sarcastic summary of the situation years later: “My best hope lay in the fact that Hemus, as much as he seemed to dislike me, might not really know me. He kept calling me Bridges, confusing me with Marshall Bridges, who was several years older than me, skinnier, and pitched left-handed. But he was black. Solly got that much right.”

Gibson was not alone in his assessment of Hemus’s dislike for black players. Curt Flood later said of his former manager: “Hemus did not share the rather widely held belief that I played center field approximately as well as Willie Mays. … He acted as if I smelled bad. … My roommate, Bob Gibson, was just as badly off. He could throw as hard as any man alive. … Hemus never used him if someone else was available.” “Hemus told me, like he told Bob Gibson, that I would never make it in the majors.”

Stan Musial had accepted a pay cut in 1960 from his previous $100,000 salary to $80,000 after batting .255 in 1959, the first season he hadn't topped .300. He was eager to prove that his mediocre performance was the result of improper physical conditioning, and he enlisted the help of Walter Eberhardt, Saint Louis University's director of physical education. Musial faithfully followed a physical fitness and diet program during the winter and reported to 1960 spring training camp in perhaps the best condition of his career.

Among Musial’s greatest assets always had been his eyesight. But Musial was losing his ability to wait until the last instant to recognize and react to a pitch. He told his friend, author James Michener, “The ball looked so much smaller than it used to. First base seemed to be actually further away.” At one point, Musial had his eyes checked, only to be told there was nothing wrong ... nothing, other than the natural aging process.

The eyes growing weak, the reflexes receding, the legs feeling the wear of 18 big-league seasons, Musial realized his time was short. Still, Musial could compensate for diminishing skills with his baseball intelligence.

The Cardinals opened the 1960 season with Musial at first and with an outfield of Leon Wagner in left, Bill White in center and Joe Cunningham in right. Musial hit .300 in 13 games in April but slumped in May. As Musial’s batting average dipped, Hemus utilized him sporadically and erratically. “I know he had lost confidence in me,” Musial said in his autobiography.

Early in the season Solly Hemus took Musial out of the starting lineup and relegated him to a pinch-hitting role. Hemus made the move, with the approval of the front office, because Musial wasn’t hitting for average and Hemus perceived Musial’s fielding as more a liability than an asset.

Stan Musial finding himself consigned to the bench was disheartened. “Apparently Hemus was convinced I was through,” he said. A seven-time National League batting champion, Musial, 39, was stunned and saddened by the Cardinals’ determination he was washed up.

On May 22, 1960, Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Bob Burnes of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat came out with columns criticizing the Cardinals for unfair treatment of Musial.

Broeg wrote, “If they’re trying to embarrass a man who never embarrassed them, either by word or deed, the Cardinals are succeeding.”

Burnes wrote, “What concerns us is the way an extraordinary performer and complete team man is being pushed around. Certainly, his years of service to the Cardinals entitle him to more than that. What we are wondering is whether the Cardinals are trying to embarrass Musial into retiring.”

A few days later, Musial’s batting average for the season was at .250 when he was called to a meeting at the home of Cardinals owner Gussie Busch. Joining them were club executive Dick Meyer, general manager Bing Devine and Hemus. They informed Musial he was being benched because Hemus wanted a younger lineup.

Musial told them he would do what the club wanted. In his book, Musial said he was “hurt and disappointed” by the decision.

On May 27, 1960, Hemus started Curt Flood in center field in place of Bill White and moved White to first base in place of Musial.

Musial “has been benched indefinitely,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

“Solly and I agreed that Solly ought to play his best lineup,” Devine said. “We talked it over with Musial and he went along with the plan.”

Musial, who hit .204 in May, told the Associated Press, “We haven’t been winning and they want to try that new lineup for a while. Anything they want to do is OK with me. We’ll see what happens. I think I’ll be back in the lineup soon.”

Hemus had other ideas.

Musial was out of the starting lineup from May 27 through June 23. He appeared as a pinch-hitter nine times in that stretch and had one hit, a double versus Warren Spahn, and his batting average sank to .238.

In his autobiography, Musial said he was planning to quit during the all-star break in July if he wasn’t back in the starting lineup by then.

When the Pittsburgh Pirates came to St. Louis for a series in June, their manager, Danny Murtaugh, asked Broeg what was wrong with Musial. Broeg told him all Musial needed was a chance to play and to “go out with a winner.” Murtaugh asked whether Musial would accept a trade to the Pirates. Broeg approached Musial, who responded, “Yes.” Broeg relayed the answer to Murtaugh, who said he would urge general manager Joe Brown to make a deal.

“Musial could mean the difference for us in the race,’ Murtaugh told Broeg.

In a June 14, 1960, column in the Post-Dispatch, Broeg wrote Musial had been “surprised and even a bit stunned” by the Cardinals’ decision to bench him and suggested Musial would be a good fit for the Pirates.

“Although he has been uncomplaining, it’s apparent he was hurt,” Broeg told readers. “Hurt enough, you ask, to go to Pittsburgh if he had a chance to play rather than sit on the bench, a chance perhaps to achieve the thrill of one more World Series? Yes.” Stan Musial was willing to accept a trade to the Pirates.

If the Cardinals couldn’t use him, the first-place Pirates were willing to take him and play him at first base. Asked whether he’d agree to a trade to the Pirates and a chance to finish his playing career near his hometown of Donora, Pa., Musial replied, “Yes.”

In his autobiography, “Stan Musial: The Man’s Own Story,” Musial said, “Few realize how close I came to finishing my career with Pittsburgh.”

The Pirates wanted Musial, but couldn’t afford to offer much, Brown said to Broeg. Another option would be for Musial to ask the Cardinals for his release, leaving him free to sign with the Pirates. Either way, Brown said, it would put Bing Devine in a bind, and he didn’t want to do that to his colleague.

“As much as we’d like to have Musial,” Brown told Broeg, “I just can’t do it to Bing Devine. Sure, if Musial were released, we would grab him in a minute … and to offer too little would be taking advantage of the public sentiment, which is sure to be strongly behind Musial, not the ball club. Devine would be on a spot where I don’t care to put him.”

When Bob Nieman got injured and newly acquired Walt Moryn struggled to hit, Hemus put Musial back into the lineup as the left fielder on June 24, 1960.

Musial was 1-for-8 in his first two games back and his batting average fell to .229, but then he went on a tear. Musial produced 11 hits in 19 at-bats over his next five games, raising his batting mark to .281. He continued his blistering pace and got his batting average to .300 at the all-star break.

“He’s been amazing,” Cardinals third baseman Ken Boyer told the Globe-Democrat. “He’s delivering the big hits.”

Said Hemus: “Stan is popping the ball again.”

National League all-star manager Walter Alston of the Dodgers chose Musial as an all-star reserve. Musial singled as a pinch-hitter in the first of the two Mid-Summer Classics that year in Kansas City. Two days later in the second game, he returned to Yankee Stadium for the first time since the 1943 World Series. Pinch-hitting again, he lifted his record-setting sixth All-Star Game home run into the third deck in right field.

Musial hit .352 with 21 RBI in 21 games for the Cardinals in July. He hit .253 in August and .226 in September, finishing the season at .275 with 17 home runs and 63 RBI. He hit .338 with runners in scoring position and was 5-for-8 with the bases loaded.

“I look back on 1960 as a season of frustration and vindication, of sadness and success,” Musial said in his book. “It was the most emotional season I ever experienced.”

The Pirates went on to win the National League pennant, their first since 1927, and prevailed against the Yankees in the World Series.

“I missed a chance to play in another World Series,” Musial said, “but I’m glad now I didn’t ask for my release.”

Stan Musial would end his career in 1963, one year short of the opportunity to play in his 5th World Series.

Since 1953 Gussie Busch had gone through five field managers, Eddie Stanky, Harry Walker, Fred Hutchinson, Stan Hack and Solly Hemus. Hemus was hired because we wrote Busch a "love letter" after he had been traded form the Cardinals in 1956. Of the group, only Fred Hutchinson had previous major league managerial experience. Harry Walker had four years of managerial experience in the Cardinals farm system. During the same period Busch employed three general managers: Dick Meyer, Frank Lane, and Bing Devine. The changes had made little difference in team performance. After the 1953 third-place finish, the team finished in the second division four times through 1959. Bing Devine had assembled a group of young talented players only to have them mismanaged. The 1960 season started out in the same fashion, but the team did turn it around in the second half of the season. Still there was a feeling, with all the team turmoil, Hemus was on a short leash and one bad start away from being fired.

Stan Musial, Ken Boyer, Lindy McDaniel, Larry Jackson and Bill White were National League All-Stars.

Ken Boyer and Bill White were Gold Glove recipients.