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| St. Louis Cardinals | |||||
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 2024 St. Louis Cardinals season | |||||
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| Major league affiliations | |||||
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| Current uniform | |||||
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| Colors | |||||
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| Major league titles | |||||
| World Series titles (11) | |||||
| NL Pennants (19) | |||||
| AA Pennants (4) | |||||
| Central Division titles (12) | |||||
| East Division titles (3)[d] | |||||
| Pre-modern World Series (1) | |||||
| Wild card berths (5)[e] | |||||
| Front office | |||||
| Principal owner(s) | Bill DeWitt Jr.[4] | ||||
| President | Bill DeWitt III | ||||
| President of baseball operations | John Mozeliak | ||||
| General manager | Mike Girsch | ||||
| Manager | Oliver Marmol | ||||
| Mascot(s) | Fredbird, Rally Squirrel | ||||
| Website | mlb.com/cardinals | ||||
The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central Division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals have played their home games at Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis. One of the nation's oldest and most successful professional baseball clubs, the Cardinals have won 11 World Series championships, the most of any NL team and second in MLB only to the New York Yankees.[5][6] The team has won 19 National League pennants, third-most of any team behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. St. Louis has also won 15 division titles in the East and Central divisions.
In 1881, entrepreneur Chris von der Ahe purchased the Brown Stockings barnstorming club, renamed it the St. Louis Browns, and made it a charter member of the American Association baseball league. The team won four league championships, qualifying them to play in the era's professional baseball championship series, a forerunner of the modern World Series.[7] In two of these championships, the Browns met the Chicago White Stockings, now the Chicago Cubs, launching the enduring Cardinals–Cubs rivalry.
In 1892, the Browns – also called the Perfectos – joined the National League. In 1900, the team was renamed the Cardinals. (Two years later, an unrelated St. Louis Browns team joined the American League.)
Notable Cardinals achievements include manager/owner Branch Rickey's invention of the farm system, Rogers Hornsby's two batting Triple Crowns, Dizzy Dean's 30-win season in 1934, Stan Musial's 17 MLB and 29 NL records, Bob Gibson's 1.12 earned run average (ERA) in 1968, Whitey Herzog's Whiteyball, Mark McGwire's single-season home run record in 1998, the 2011 championship team's unprecedented comebacks,[8] and Albert Pujols’ 700th home run. The Cardinals have won 105 or more games in four seasons and won 100 or more nine times. Cardinals players have won 21 league MVPs, four batting Triple Crowns, and three Cy Young Awards. Baseball Hall of Fame inductees include Lou Brock, Dizzy Dean, Bob Gibson, Whitey Herzog, Rogers Hornsby, Tony LaRussa, Joe Medwick, Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter, Branch Rickey, Red Schoendienst, Ozzie Smith, Ted Simmons, Bruce Sutter, and Scott Rolen.
In 2018, Forbes valued the Cardinals at $1.9 billion, the 7th-highest among MLB clubs and far more than the $147 million paid in 1995 by owner William DeWitt Jr.'s investment group. In 2017, the team took in revenue of $319 million on an operating income of $40.0 million.[9][10][11] John Mozeliak is the President of Baseball Operations, Mike Girsch is the general manager, and Oliver Marmol is the manager.[12][13] The Cardinals are renowned for their strong fan support: despite being in one of the sport's mid-level markets, they routinely see attendances among the league's highest, and are consistently among the top three in MLB in local television ratings.[14][15]
Through 2023, the Cardinals' all-time win-loss record is 11,202–10,323–152 (.520).[16]
History[edit]
Before the Cardinals (1875–1881)[edit]
Professional baseball began in St. Louis with the inception of the Brown Stockings in the National Association (NA) in 1875. The NA folded following that season, and the next season, St. Louis joined the National League as a charter member, finishing in third place at 45–19. George Bradley hurled the first no-hitter in Major League history. The NL expelled St. Louis from the league after 1877 due to a game-fixing scandal and the team went bankrupt.[17] Without a league, they continued play as a semi-professional barnstorming team through 1881.
The magnitudes of the reorganizations, following the 1877 and 1881 seasons, are such that the 1875–1877 and 1878–1881 Brown Stockings teams are not generally considered to share continuity as a franchise with the current St. Louis Cardinals.[18][19]
American Association and early National League eras (1882–1919)[edit]
For the 1882 season, Chris von der Ahe purchased the team, reorganized it, and made it a founding member of the American Association (AA), a league to rival the NL.[20] 1882 is generally considered to be the first year of existence for the franchise which would later become known as the St. Louis Cardinals.[18][19][21][f]
The next season, St. Louis shortened their name to the Browns. Soon thereafter they became the dominant team in the AA, as manager Charlie Comiskey guided St. Louis to four pennants in a row from 1885 to 1888.[7][24] Pitcher and outfielder Bob Caruthers led the league in ERA (2.07) and wins (40) in 1885 and finished in the top six in both in each of the following two seasons. He also led the AA in OBP (.448) and OPS (.974) in 1886 and finished fourth in batting average in 1886 (.334) and fifth in 1887 (.357).[25] Outfielder Tip O'Neill won the first batting triple crown in franchise history in 1887 and the only one in AA history.[26][27][28] By winning the pennant, the Browns played the NL pennant winner in a predecessor of the World Series. The Browns twice met the Chicago White Stockings—the predecessor to the Chicago Cubs—tying one in a heated dispute and winning the other, thus spurring the vigorous St. Louis-Chicago rivalry that ensues to this day.[29] During the franchise's ten seasons in the AA, they compiled an all-time league-high of 780 wins and .639 winning percentage. They lost just 432 contests while tying 21 others.[7]
The AA went bankrupt after the 1891 season and the Browns transferred to the National League. This time, the club entered an era of stark futility. Between 1892 and 1919, St. Louis managed just five winning seasons, finished in last or next-to-last place sixteen times, and ended four seasons with 100 losses or more. The nadir was the 1897 season: a 29–102 record for a franchise-worst .221 winning percentage.[7] St. Louis' 84–67 finish as the Perfectos in 1899 would be the team's best finish between the AA era and Sam Breadon's purchase of the team.[22][30] As the "Perfectos", the team wore their jersey with a cardinal red trim and sock striping.[22] Later that season, St. Louis Republic sportswriter Willie McHale included an account in a column of a female fan he heard remarking about the uniforms, "What a lovely shade of cardinal." Fans liked the moniker "Cardinals" and, the next year in 1900, popularity for the nickname induced an official change to Cardinals.[22][30][31][32]
In 1902, an American League team moved from Milwaukee into St. Louis, renamed themselves the St. Louis Browns and built a new park on the site of the Cardinals' old stadium, striking a rivalry that lasted five decades.[33] Breadon bought a minority interest in the Cardinals in 1917 and in 1919 Browns manager Branch Rickey joined the Cardinals.[34][35] The Cardinals' first 28 seasons in the NL were a complete reversal of their stay in the AA – with a .406 winning percentage, they compiled 1,632 wins, 2,425 losses and 74 ties.[7]
Breadon era (1920–1952)[edit]
St. Louis baseball commenced a renaissance: since 1926 the Cardinals have won eleven World Series and nineteen NL pennants.[7] Breadon spurred this revival when he bought out the majority stake in 1920 and appointed Rickey as business manager, who expanded scouting, player development, and pioneered the minor league farm system, filling the role of today's general manager.[36] With Rogers Hornsby at second base, he claimed Triple Crowns in 1922 and 1925, and the Cardinals won the 1926 World Series, their first.[28][37] St. Louis then won the league in 1928, 1930, and 1931 and the 1931 World Series.[22]
The Gashouse Gang edition claimed the 1934 World Series[22] and the Cardinals amassed new thresholds of popularity far outside St. Louis via radio, which led to the coining of the term "Cardinal Nation".[38]