While a spring snowstorm blasted the Midwest and East Coast, the St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros opened the 1982 season in the comfortable confines of the 17-year-old Astrodome in front of 33,521 spectators. The starting pitching matchup was one of contrasts; the visitors sent pitch-to-contact righty Bob Forsch to the mound in opposition of strikeout king Nolan Ryan, who was coming off an abbreviated 1981 season in which he posted a league-best 1.69 ERA. To that point in his career, Forsch had averaged 3.8 strikeouts per nine innings; Ryan’s K rate was 9.5.

Cards Come Out Swinging

To start the game, Ryan grazed the jersey of leadoff man Lonnie Smith, shrewdly acquired by Herzog in a three-team offseason trade. Smith summarily stole second and advanced to third on an Alan Ashby throwing error. After Ryan fanned Tom Herr, the next five batters went:

• Keith Hernandez: walk
• Darrell Porter: three-run homer
• George Hendrick: single
• Dane Iorg: double
• Steve Braun: single

By the end of the inning, the Cardinals had batted around and derailed the Ryan Express with five runs. Forsch swiftly retired the ‘Stros three-up, three-down in the bottom of the first, sending Nolan back to the mound without much of a breather. Lonnie Smith and Herr singled and doubled to start the second frame, pushing across a sixth run. Ryan hit the showers after the third, trailing 6-1.

Houston manager Bill Virdon sent mop-up man Gordie Pladson to the mound in the fourth, and the Cards continued to circle the bases. The Redbirds proceeded to go:

• Hernandez: walk
• Porter: double
• Hendrick: single
• Iorg: double
• Braun: groundout
• Ozzie Smith: single
• Forsch: single

By the end of the fourth, the Cardinals had mounted an comfortable 10-1 lead on 13 hits. The bludgeoning of Pladson would ostensibly mark the end of his big-league career. He would pitch in one more game two weeks later before being jettisoned to the minors with a 54.00 ERA.

The Cards added four more tallies off Astros relievers Mike LaCoss and Dave Smith in support of Forsch, who pitched eight innings of three-run ball before yielding to Jim Kaat in the ninth.

Porter’s Plight

Perhaps no one enjoyed the shellacking more than Porter, who had battled drug and alcohol addiction in recent years and struggled during his first season as a Cardinal. In ’81, the first of a five-year pact, he produced a slash line of .224/.364/.408 with six home runs in 174 at-bats and was the frequent recipient of jeers from the Busch Stadium faithful.

In a postgame interview with Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Porter called his first-inning homer off the future Hall of Famer, “one of the biggest thrills in my career.” Unbeknownst to Porter, he would have many more thrills before the end of the year.