Former Cardinals player punched at Fenton gas station after racial slur

Former Cardinals outfielder Curt Ford said Thursday he was punched in an allegedly unprovoked, race-related attack at a gas station in Fenton, and now is considering moving away from the St. Louis area.

St. Louis County police arrested James Street, a 37-year-old white man who allegedly hit Ford, 54, after shouting racial slurs at him and telling him to “go back to Ferguson,” according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The incident, which occurred Wednesday at a Petro Mart, was caught on surveillance video. Street was charged with one count of assault motivated by discrimination in the third degree, a class D felony, the Post-Dispatch reports.

Ford was drafted by the Cardinals in 1981, began playing for the team in 1985 and left the majors in 1990.  

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