| Best Season |
| 1946 - The Cardinals and Dodgers finished in a
dead heat. In a 3-game playoff, the Cardinals won the first two
games to advance to the World Series. The Fall Classic went down
to the late innings of Game 7 before Enos Slaughter's "mad
dash" home secured the championship for St. Louis |
| |
| Worst Season |
| 1897 - The club went 29-102, finished 23.5 games
behind the next-worst club in the National League, and didn't win a
single series all year. The team went through FOUR managers before
owner Chris von der Ahe took the reins. Contemporary publications
rated their performance "the worst in history." |
| |
| Best Player |
| Stan Musial - Rogers Hornsby might have been
better at his peak, but Musial was productive for a much longer period
and he didn't get himself traded out of town. |
| |
| Best Pitcher |
| Bob Gibson - All he did is throw 13 shutouts in
1968 on his way to a 1.12 Earned Run Average and 22 victories in 34
games. He is the Cardinals leader in most pitching categories,
including wins (251), losses (174), games started (482), complete games
(255), and shutouts (56). He threw his only no-hitter on August
14, 1971 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. |
| |
| Best Reliever |
| Bruce Sutter - He saved 102 games in a
three-season span, including 36 during the 1982 Championship
Season. He is third on the all-time saves list with 127 and 20th
on the all-time games appeared list with 249. |
| |
| Best Defensive Player |
| Ozzie Smith - He set the standard with his
artistry at shortstop, including 11-straight Gold Glove awards from 1982
to 1992.. Other St. Louis defensive greats include
Terry Moore, Ken Boyer, Bill White, Bob Gibson, Curt Flood, Keith
Hernandez and Terry Pendleton. |
| |
| Best Trades |
| Curt Flood, Lou Brock, Willie McGee, Joaquin Andujar,
John Tudor and George Hendrick - Flood was acquired from the Reds in
the winter of '57 in a five-player deal that cost the Cardinals little
more than reliever Willard Schmidt. Seven years later, Brock was
added to the outfield via a six-player deal that sent over-the-hill
hurler Ernie Broglio to the Cubs. In 1981, the Cardinals stole
minor league outfielder Willie McGee from the Yankees for washed-up
southpaw Bob Sykes, and nabbed Andujar in a midsummer deal that sent
outfield Tony Scott to Houston. In 1985, the Cardinals captured
the NL pennant on the strength of the arms of Andujar and Tudor.
The latter came over from Pittsburgh in a 1984 trade for outfielder
Hendrick. Hendrick had given the Cardinals seven good years after
the Padres traded him to St. Louis for pitcher Eric Rasmussen in 1978. |
| |
| Worst Trades |
| Three Fingers Brown, Paul Derringer, and Steve Carlton
- few teams have given away three finer arms. After going 9-13 as
a rookie in 1903, Brown was dealt to the Cubs in a disastrous
four-player swap. Derringer was lost to the Reds in a 1933 deal
that netted shortstop Leo Durocher and little else. Finally,
Carlton was traded straight-up for Rick Wise in 1972. In their
post-Cardinals careers, Brown, Derringer, and Carlton won 230, 194 and
252 games, respectively. By comparison, the only two pitchers
who've won more than 163 games for the Cardinals are Bob Gibson (251)
and Jesse Haines (210). |
| |
| Best Looking Players |
| Allen Sothoron, Joe Magrane, Bob Gibson, Bill White |
| |
| Ugliest Players |
| Branch Rickey, Slim Sallee, Fred Beebe, Willie McGee |
| |
| Best Nicknames |
| Harry "The Cat" Brecheen; Harvey
"Kitten" Haddix; "The Big Cat" Johnny Mize; Jim
"Kitty" Kaat; "Bad News" Galloway; "Pink"
Hawley; John "Soldier Boy" Murphy; "Dots" Miller;
"Dizzy" Dean; "Peanuts" Lowrey; "Vinegar
Bend" Mizell; "Rebel" Oates; "Cotton" Pippen;
"Creepy" Crespi; Joe "Ducky" Medwick |
| |
| Most Unappreciated
Player |
| First baseman Ed Konetchy was one of the Senior
Circuit's premier run producers for five years before being dealt to
Pittsburgh following the 1913 season. Center fielder Terry
Moore was well-respected in his day, but has been largely forgotten. |
| |
| Most Overrated Player |
| Vince Coleman - Great base-stealer, awful
ballplayer |
| |
| Most Admirable Stars |
| Stan Musial, Ozzie Smith |
| |
| Least Admirable Stars |
| Rogers Hornsby, Garry Templeton |
| |
| Best Season - Hitter |
| Rogers Hornsby 1922 - Hornsby won the Triple Crown
by the widest margin in history. He batted .401; 47 points higher
than anyone in the NL. He hit 42 homeruns; nobody else in the NL
hit more than 26. He drove in 154 runs, 20 more than the closest
competitor. |
| |
| Best Season - Pitcher |
| Bob Gibson - 1968 - Even in "the year of the
pitcher," Gibson's 1.12 ERA was 63 percent lower than the league
ERA. Since the advent of the lively ball, no other pitcher has
bested the league's ERA by more than 57 percent. Although his
won-loss record was "only" 22-9, three of those losses were by
the score of 1-0. By the same token, he won four 1-0 games that
year. When the Cardinals scored three runs or more for him, he
went 13-1. When they gave him one or two runs, he went 8-5.
From June 6 through July 30, he made 11 starts and went 11-0, with an
ERA of 0.27. |
| |
| Most
Impressive Individual Record |
| Bob Gibson's NL-record seven World Series Victories
- In nine World Series starts, he went 7-1 with a 1.89 ERA and won Game
7 in both the 1964 and 1967 World Series. He might have won Game 7
in 1968 if Curt Flood hadn't misjudged a fly ball. |
| |
| Fan Favorites |
| Dizzy Dean, Stan Musial, Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee |
