Aug. 7, 1963 - The power of positive action swept over the Mets today in such a fashion that they played a brand of baseball not in keeping with their last-place status. The 20,649 fans were overjoyed as Casey Stengel’s forces slugged their way to a 7-3 victory over the Cardinals at the Polo Grounds. The Met performance included a player hitting for the cycle, a fine complete-game pitching performance, and clutch hitting. Jim Hickman and Tracy Stallard were the big heroes. Hickman became the first Met to hit a single, double, triple, and home run in one game. He did it in that order, too. He got his first three hits off Ernie Broglio and his homer off Barney Schultz. Stallard hurled the victory for the Mets and finished stronger than he started. In the seventh, he did a fine job when he allowed the Cards to fill the bases with none out and then got out of trouble without a run. Hickman’s homer in the sixth was the final tally of the game. He was given one of the biggest ovations a Met has ever received. Meanwhile, Mets right-hander Roger Craig, baseball’s losingest pitcher, will try to change his luck in his next starting assignment Friday night by switching his uniform number to 13. Craig, with a 2-20 record and 18 consecutive defeats, decided today to abandon his regular No. 38 uniform and try No. 13 on the theory “What do I have to lose?” The hard-luck Craig is due to start against Chicago Friday night in New York. Another defeat would tie him for the major league record of 19 in a row set in 1916 by John Nabors of the Philadelphia Athletics. In other news, Ernie Banks will rejoin the Cubs in New York after being discharged from Chicago’s Wesley Memorial hospital. Ernie got a clean bill of health except for a minor virus infection in his bloodstream.
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