ST. LOUIS • Newspapers called the postgame celebration “subdued” after the Cardinals won the National League pennant at Sportsman’s Park on a chilly Sept. 27, 1942. It was Sunday, so the taverns were closed. And there was a war on.

Revelers were sparse along North Grand Boulevard outside the park. Police had time to raid Louis “Murph” Calcaterra’s bar one block south, where a small group in a side room toasted the clincher over the Chicago Cubs.

That afternoon, more people were at Art Hill, where an estimated 12,000 attended a Civil Defense demonstration. A flight of obsolete bi-planes “bombed” a canvas-and-wood building, which went up in flames on cue so auxiliary firefighters could show off their skills. Only nine months into World War II, the impossible notion of an air attack upon S

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