Under the Arch that signifies the Gateway to the American West, the St. Louis Cardinals have provided a Gateway to baseball excellence. From Rickey to La Russa, Hornsby to Musial, McGwire to Pujols, the Cardinals have forged a legacy of winning unmatched in the National League — seventeen pennants (most in the senior circuit), ten World Championships, nine Division Titles and thirty-seven Hall of Famers.
The Cardinals joined the National League in 1891 after a decade playing in the American Association as the Brown Stockings. They picked up the nickname of Cardinals after changing uniform colors from brown to a scarlet red in 1900. The color change didn't help. The Cards languished in the second division for twenty years. What did help was the arrival of Branch Rickey, first as manager (1919) and then in the front office (1925), where he laid the foundation for the team's success by establishing a deeply rooted farm system.
The first jewel of the system was Rogers Hornsby. Between 1920-25, this Hall of Famer hit over .400 three times (he hit .397 and .384 the other two years), and posted the 20th Century's highest batting mark — .424 in 1924. He won Triple Crowns in 1922 and 1925. He retired with the National League's highest career average (.358 — second in the Major Leagues to Ty Cobb) and seven batting titles (six in a row 1920-25).
Hornsby replaced Rickey as manager in 1925, and led the Redbirds to their first World Series Championship over the Yankees the next year. After the Series, Rickey surprised the baseball world by trading Hornsby to the Giants for Frankie Frisch, whose arrival signaled the beginning of a storied era in Cardinal history. The time of the "Gashouse Gang" was on its way. This collection of hard-nosed, slightly off-beat characters were known as much for their crazy antics as for their baseball talent. The group included Pepper Martin, Leo Durocher, Joe Medwick, and the Dean brothers, Dizzy and Daffy.
Dizzy Dean best season was 1934, when he won thirty games while his brother Daffy won nineteen. Dizzy Dean would win twenty-eight and twenty-four games in 1935-36 before a foot injury derailed his pitching career in 1937. Medwick would drive in over one-hundred runs for six straight seasons while always besting the .300 mark. His "crowning" season was 1937, when his .374 average, thirty-one home runs and one-hundred fifty-four runs batted it (not to mention two-hundred fifty-six hits and fifty-six doubles) earned him a Triple Crown.
The Gashouse Gang won pennants in 1930-31 and met the powerful Philadelphia Athletics in both World Series. They lost in 1930 but won the rematch with Martin hitting .500 and driving in five runs. Three years later, the Cards won a close pennant race against the Giants and beat the Detroit Tigers in seven wild games.
St. Louis Cardinals History
