WORLD SERIES : Cardinals Not Counted Out, Win by Decision : The Spirit of St. Louis Is Back for Cardinals in Vince Coleman

He is to these Cardinals what the arch and Blues are to St. Louis. They are not the same when he is absent from the synthetic landscape.

His teammates know it. Vince Coleman knows it.

He is the catalyst, the spark plug.

“I come to the park expecting to get on base three or four times, steal three or four bases and score four or five runs,” he was saying at his locker Tuesday night.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself. I know that when we don’t have our big shooter (Jack Clark) in there we have to steal and hit and run, but first we have to get on base. I know that if I do what I expect to do we can win.

“I think about that, I can’t lie. It’s what motivates me, what challenges me.

“Put me in a room with someone and I know I’ll come out on top.”

The Cardinals, who had been getting punched around by the Minnesota Twins, came out on top Tuesday night, 3-1, and are again breathing in this 84th World Series, trailing in games, 2 to 1.

They won just about the only way they can win with Clark sidelined.

--Six singles.

--Two opposite-field doubles.

--A key sacrifice.

--Two stolen bases.

They won with good pitching and that pinging attack led by the man who has to lead it, but who had been conspicuously quiet.

Vince Coleman was 1 for 11 in the Series and 8 for 37 in the postseason when he stood in against Juan Berenguer in the seventh inning. He went into a two-strike hole and then grounded a double down the left-field line, lifting the Cardinals from a 1-0 deficit to a 2-1 lead.

Coleman then stole third, his second steal of the game, and scored an insurance run when Ozzie Smith followed with a bloop single to right.

“That’s our type of baseball,” said relief pitcher Todd Worrell, who saved it for John Tudor. “In order for us to win, we have to get Vince on base. He’s our catalyst. When he gets on it creates a lot of havoc.”

Manager Whitey Herzog didn’t want to put it all on Coleman.

His first three hitters--Coleman, Smith and Tom Herr--had been 2 for 24 in the Series.

They reached base six times Tuesday night, collecting four hits.

“If our first three hitters get five or six hits among them, we can generally make something happen,” Herzog said. “If they don’t, we’re in trouble. This was one game. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. I still don’t know if we have enough offense to get it done.”

Coleman got it done in that seventh inning against the pitcher he had gotten his only previous Series hit against.

He said he was happy to see Minnesota starter Les Straker lifted for a pinch-hitter in the top of the seventh and replaced by Berenguer.

“He had pitched a good game and they had pinch-hit for him early,” Coleman said. “I was glad to see it. I know Berenguer from the National League. I’ve had some success against him.”

There were runners at second and third with one out. Coleman swung and missed a low fastball, then took the same pitch in the same location for a called strike.

“Their infield was playing back,” he said. “All I wanted to do was put the ball in play to score the one run.

“I dug myself a hole, but I was determined not to strike out. I was determined not to let myself or the team down.

“He put another pitch in the same spot and I was fortunate to fight it off and get it by (Gary) Gaetti and down the line.”

Putting it in play and going with the pitch to the opposite field is a mark of maturity in Coleman, whose first two seasons were plagued by strikeouts.

This year, while stealing 109 bases to become the first major leaguer ever to steal 100 or more in his first three seasons, he had career highs for batting average (.290), one-base percentage (.360), walks (70) and runs scored (121).

“Last year, when we fell out of the race by mid-season, Whitey told me to just concentrate on hitting the ball on the ground, hitting it to the shortstop,” he said.

“He felt that even if the shortstop backhanded it where he was, he couldn’t throw me out.

“I experimented with it the second half, worked hard over the winter to strengthen my hands and then saw in spring training how successful Willie McGee was, doing the same thing. I’m trying now just to make contact, to hit it to the left side of the infield.

“I come to the park every day expecting to be successful and feel defeated when I’m not.”

Coleman has never felt more defeated than he did in 1985 when he injured a leg during the playoff with the Dodgers and missed the World Series.

Coleman has since avoided Busch’s Stadium’s mechanical tarp and tried to put the memory behind him.

“The World Series is something you set your sights on in spring training, then to have it taken away, to have no input, is a tough pill to swallow. It’s like being confined to a wheelchair.

“Some players spend 15 years in the major leagues and never get a chance to play in a Series. I feel very grateful to get a second chance in just my third year. To be able to contribute with my team down 0-2 is something I’ll look back on and cherish.”

And it’s a second chance in another way, too.

“I think everyone knows what I can do, but with 150 million people watching it’s a chance to show some of those who don’t,” he said.

His teammates, of course, are not among them.