Cardinal History

[bluesky5]

From 1926 until now the Cardinals never finished in the bottom 50% of the NL, old NL East or current NL Central more than two years in a row.

Line of Succession
Rogers Hornsby, 2B and player/manager: '15 - '26, '33 | Jesse Haines, P: '20 - 37 | Jim Bottomley, 1B: '22 - 32 | Pepper Martin, OF/3B: '28, '30 - 40, '44 | Billy Southworth, player/manager: '26, '27, '29; manager: '40 - 45

to Frankie Frisch, IF and player/manager: '27 – 37; manager: '38 | Joe Medwick, OF: '32 – 40, '47, '48 | Johnny Mize 1B: '36 – 41

to Enos Slaughter, OF: '38 – 53 | Stan Musial, OF: '41 – 63; front office: '64 - 67 | Harry Walker, OF: '40 - 47, '51, '52; player/manager: '55 | Red Schoendienst, manager: '65 – 76, '80, '90; 2B: '45 – 56, '61 – 63; front office: '79 - present

to Bob Gibson, P: '59 – 75 | Ken Boyer, 3B: '55 – 65; manager: '78 - 80 | to Lou Brock, LF: '64 – 79

to Keith Hernandez, 1B: '74 – 83 | Ted Simmons, C: '68 - 80 | Tom Herr, 2B: '79 - 88 | Bob Forsch, P: '74 - 88

to Ozzie Smith, SS: '82 – 96 | Whitey Herzog, manager: '81 – 90 | Willie McGee, OF: '82 – 90, '96 – 99 | John Mabry, OF/1B: '94 - 98, '01, '03, '04; coach: '12 - present | Tom Pagnozzi, C: '87 - 98

to Tony LaRussa, manager: '96 – 11 | Ray Lankford, CF: '90 – 01, '04 | Jim Edmonds, CF: '00 – 07 | Albert Pujols, 1B: '01 – 11 | Chris Carpenter, SP: '04 – present | Mike Matheny, C: '00 - 04; manager '12 - present | Yadier Molina, C: '04 - present

Championships, Pennants, Titles
11 World Series Championships
18 World Series appearances
9 NLCS appearances, 6 – 3
24 Playoff appearances [including above]
12 Division titles - 9 NL Central, 3 NL East

HoF
Ozzie Smith, Bruce Sutter, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter, Joe Medwick, Johnny Mize, Frankie Frisch, Dizzy Dean, Jesse Haines, Jim Bottomley, Chick Hafey

Managers – Whitey Herzog, Red Schoendienst

19 MVP’s

[bluesky5]

Visual On Overlapping Tenure's

Each column = one year

Cardinals.png

[JessePopHaines16]

I think they are 2nd to the Yankees in terms of mlb teams with the best and proudest history. Tops in the NL.

[domeboys]

I had this saved in MS word. Posted it in a dynasty thread. In which a dynasty was defined as a clear lineage, succession of players.

Red Schoendienst is still a special assistant with the team. He was an assistant under Herzog too. Has he remained with the club in some capacity every year since '65?

No. Red was a coach with the Oakland A's in 1977-78.

[Herr28]

No. Red was a coach with the Oakland A's in 1977-78.

Say it ain't so, Red! Say it ain't so!

[bluesky5]

No. Red was a coach with the Oakland A's in 1977-78.

Thanks!...

[bluesky5]

Just updated John Mabry who I found out is a hitting coach with St. Louis now.

[Herr28]

Just updated John Mabry who I found out is a hitting coach with St. Louis now.

Isn't Yadi's big brother Bengie Mabry's assistant hitting coach? What a duo! Mabry can improve our pinch hitters and Bengie can improve possible HR potential! Kidding. I liked both guys as players and I hope they are doing alright. Hard to tell with such a talented group of hitters there. Except that, as BA has pointed out, we are NOT hitting HRs! Start throwing that weight around Bengie! You have plenty to spare...

[Herr28]

I am thinking about starting a thread in the History forum about the 1940-1949 Dodgers and Cardinals, and how those two teams dominated the NL. They went to 7 World Series combined in that decade, and were bitter rivals. Stan Musial even admitted to losing his cool against the Dodgers in that time, saying that it was the Dodgers and NOT the Cubs who were our most hated rivals of the decade. I want to gather up some more info first, and try and plan what I want to focus on. Anyone here who has stories, stats, facts, or anything to add would be great.

Giving you guys a heads up, just to see if you have anything to add to the discussion. I am also wanting to take a look at the immense roster overhauls these teams had to go through due to war service, and the guys who were injured during the war (due to fighting or otherwise). There is a lot to talk about in a decade, so if anyone has any suggestions as to how to put it together, that would be great too! Otherwise, I will just start posting in the thread, and see where it goes from there. Hopefully, we can get a lot of participation from the Dodger fans as well, to help fill in what they know of their team in that decade!

[Herr28]

A little more on Cardinal history, from Cardinals Journal, by John Snyder:

When Does Time Begin?

The present-day St. Louis Cardinals have been a part of the National League since 1892 but have their roots in the American Association, where the club played from 1882-1891. The official beginning of the franchise dates from November 2, 1881, with the creation of the American Association in a meeting held at the Gibson Hotel in Cincinnati. The six founding clubs represented St. Louis, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Louisville, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia.

The foundations of the franchise that would become the Cardinals extend a few years earlier, however. The 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings were baseball's first professional club. The Red Stockings toured the country and made two visits to St. Louis, playing local amateur teams. In September 1869, the Red Stockings defeated the Unions 70-9 and the Empires 31-9. The Empires were managed by Jeremiah Fruin, a young man from Brooklyn who was posted in St. Louis while serving in the Union Army's Quartermaster Corps. At the time, Brooklyn was a hotbed of baseball, and Fruin learned the game in the city as a youngster. He is recognized as the "father of baseball in St. Louis" because he helped teach the sport to the citizens of the city.

Baseball's first organized league was the National Association, formed in 1871. Two St. Louis clubs joined the NA in 1875. The St. Louis Red Stockings played at Compton and Gratiot. the Brown Stockings used the site at Grand and Dodier, which acquired the name Sportsman's Park.

At the end of 1875, both the Red Stockings and the National Association folded. The Brown Stockings became part of the National League, established in February 1876. The first club had a 45-19 and finished second to Chicago, now the Cubs. But after the 1877 season, St. Louis dropped out of the NL after finishing fourth, leaving the city without a major league ball club.

Al Spink, later the founder of The Sporting News, was among those who decided to try to do something about the problem. He formed the Sportsman's Park and Club Association. Its first task was to put the Grand Avenue park back into playing shape. Once the ballpark was in order, Spink and his compatriots assembled a team and began to book exhibition games against the best opposition available.

The primary investor in the Sportsman's Park and Club Association was German immigrant Chris von der Ahe, and ambitious entrepreneur who owned a saloon and boarding house near the site. Von der Ahe knew next to nothing about baseball, but the fact that business at his saloon increased every time a baseball game took place at Grand and Dodier did not escape his notice. Von der Ahe steered the club into the American Association and adopted the nickname Brown Stockings, later shortened to Browns, and the brown-trimmed uniforms used by previous clubs at Grand and Dodier. The franchise's story begins here with that first American Association season of 1882.

[Herr28]

The Origin of the Cardinal nickname

Again, from Cardinals Journal, by John Snyder:

What is a Cardinal?

For purposes of simplicity and consistency, St. Louis's National League baseball team is called the "Cardinals" throughout this book. A fan of the club prior to 1900 would have been confused by the name "Cardinals," however, because it wasn't until that year that the nickname was coined. Prior to 1900, the Cardinals were known as the Browns or Perfectos. The franchise was called the Browns from the time it joined the American Association in 1882 until the end of the 1898 season.

Frank and Stanley Robison, a pair of brothers from Cleveland, bought the club from controversial owner Chris von der Ahe just prior to the 1899 season. Looking for a fresh start, the Robisons changed the predominant color on the club's uniforms from brown to vivid red. Local sportswriters in 1899 began referring to the club as the Perfectos.

According to legend, Willie McHale, a reporter for the St. Louis Republic, overheard a female fan remark, "What a lovely shade of cardinal" after gathering a look at the club's red uniforms just after the start of the 1900 season. McHale began using the nickname "Cardinals" to describe the ball club. Other newspapermen in St. Louis followed suit.

That the nickname originated in a newspaper was typical of the period. Many of the most famous nicknames in baseball, such as Cubs, Reds, Yankees, Phillies, Dodgers, Giants, Braves, Pirates, Indians, Tigers and Orioles, were created not by the clubs themselves but by enterprising sportswriters. The editors and authors of many baseball histories have attempted retroactively to attach a single nickname to clubs from the 19th and early 20th centuries, when in fact many of these nicknames were seldom used. Clubs of the period often were called by the name of the city instead of a nickname, for instance, the "Chicagos", the "New Yorks", the "Bostons", or the "Pittsburghs".

The Browns, the name the Cardinals originally used, gained new life in 1902 when the American League moved the Milwaukee franchise to St. Louis and called it the Browns. Befitting the name, players wore uniforms trimmed in brown. Orange was added about a decade later. The St. Louis Browns existed until 1953, when the team moved to Baltimore and was renamed the Orioles.

[Herr28]

Oh my! WOW! This is hilarious! Look at these early 80s fashions! It is the 1983 Superteams Obstacle Course, the 1982 World Champion Cardinals vs the Washington Redskins! Darrell Porter is the Redbird team captain, and introduces Bob Forsch, George Hendrick, Tom Herr, Willie McGee, Dane Iorg, Mike Ramsey, Ken Oberkfell ("Grizzly Adams" as Porter calls him), John Stuper, and Jim Kaat that I remember. Tom Herr beats Joe Theisman in his heat! Joe got penalized for knocking down the high bar, and falls off the monkey bars, but beat Herr before the penalties. Fun stuff!

[Herr28]

Last part of the Obstacle Course.

[Herr28]

After Dane Iorg beats Moseley the 'Skins K, they do an update and it says that Jim Kelly signs with the Buffalo Bills! Classic! I love Kelly and those Bills teams!

[Herr28]

Here's a neat Q & A with Ozzie Smith I came across in the SI Vault, from 10 November, 2011.

The Wizard's Wisdom
ST. LOUIS'S FINEST SHORTSTOP RECALLS GREAT TEAMS, PEERLESS FANS AND THOSE MAGICAL BACKFLIPS
as told to Rebecca Sun

A FIRST-BALLOT HALL OF FAMER, OZZIE SMITH SPENT 15 SEASONS IN ST. LOUIS, WINNING 11 Gold Gloves (in acrobatic fashion) and stealing 433 bases. A key member of the Cards' 1982 champs and '85 pennant winners, he's still a fan who goes to games at Busch Stadium.

SI: You came to St. Louis from the Padres before the 1982 season and won the Series that year. What was the team like?

OS: I was young [27] and learning, and it was great to be on a team with veterans and winners: Gene Tenace, Jim Kaat, Bob Forsch, George Hendrick. After we won the league, guys stood up and said, "This is only one leg of this journey. Enjoy tonight, but when you wake up tomorrow it's time to prepare for the next leg." Having guys who can pass on that wisdom is priceless.

SI: What about Whitey Herzog?

OS: A great manager who only had two rules: Be on time and give 100 percent. If I can't give 100 percent for four, five hours a night, I shouldn't be playing. When you have people willing to sacrifice everything, then you have a chance at winning.

SI: How about this year's Cards?

OS: They possess the best talent in the league but hadn't played to their potential until a couple months ago, so they went into the postseason as underdogs. It was a great spot to be in because it appeared they were doing something extraordinary when in actuality what they were doing was finally playing to their potential. It's been wonderful for the city because there's nothing more exciting than postseason baseball. There's a chill in the air. And they've certainly given us a lot to cheer about these last couple months.

SI: What's special about Cardinals fans?

OS: St. Louis is weaned on baseball. Season tickets are passed down from generation to generation. It becomes part of the fabric of this city. For players, St. Louis doesn't have the scrutiny of a big city like New York. People here, who come from the land, understand hard work and realize we can't win every year. They let you know when they're not happy, but if you put forth effort every day, run the ball out, play till the fat lady sings, then it's a great place to play. A lot of guys stay here after their careers.

SI: Like you. This is where you raised your family.

OS: Yes, we're part of the community. The city embraced me as a player and us as a family.

SI: What did it mean to have your number 1 retired by the team?

OS: The greatest honor. The guys who have their numbers retired have done their job and done it extremely well and very consistently. So to be a part of that group ... I can't put into words how great that makes me feel, as a player who loves what he did, who tried to make sure that when people came to the park they were entertained and saw somebody who gave his all every day.

SI: So how'd you learn to backflip?

OS: I grew up near a wood factory. Me and my brothers would go there with inner tubes and use them as springboards to tumble. Tumbling into the sawdust, we didn't get hurt. When I got to the majors, in San Diego, Gene Tenace had daughters who were into gymnastics, and he wanted me to show them I could do that. So on Fan Appreciation Day, the last day of the [1978] season, he and the p.r. guy thought I should do a backflip on my way out to my position. People liked it so much they asked me to do it Opening Day. It became my trademark.

SI: When was the last time you did one?

OS: In 2002 [at age 46], and it wasn't pretty. A magazine wanted a photo of me flipping in front of the Hall of Fame. My first pass, I pulled a calf muscle and scraped my knee. It was ugly. [Laughs.] At that point I realized it was over.