With one swing of the bat against Astros closer Brad Lidge, Albert Pujols won the game and extended the Cardinals’ season (and the life of Busch Stadium III) by a game. He may even have broken Lidge in the process. On October 17, 2005, Pujols’ ninth-inning home run off the Astros’ dominant closer gave the …
Did Albert Pujols break Brad Lidge in the 2005 NLCS? Read More »
After placing second in 2002 and 2003 and finishing third in the balloting in 2004, Albert Pujols finally won the first MVP Award of his career on November 15, 2005. Though in previous years Pujols had dismissed the importance of individual recognition in a team game, he admitted that on the eve of the Baseball …
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On November 3, 1970, the Baseball Writers Association of America named Bob Gibson the National League Cy Young Award winner for the second time in three years. With the recognition, Gibson became just the third pitcher to win multiple Cy Young Awards, joining Sandy Koufax and Denny McLain. Gibson previously had won the award in …
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Bobby Bonilla may have twice finished in the top three of the National League MVP voting, but to many Cardinals fans, his greatest legacy may lie in the six games he missed at the beginning of the 2001 season. On January 5, 2001, Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty signed Bonilla Bonilla to a one-year, $900,000 …
When star pitcher Mort Cooper walked into the office of Cardinals president Sam Breadon on May 23, 1945, he believed he was there to negotiate a new contract. Instead, Breadon informed the 1942 National League MVP that he had been traded to the Boston Braves. Cooper had reached double-digit victories in each of the previous …
After a dominant season in which he led all of baseball with 22 wins – including 10 shutouts – and paced the National League with a 1.78 ERA, Cardinals right-hander Mort Cooper was named the National League MVP. On a Cardinals team that won the World Series with contributions from most of its roster, Cooper …
In the right-field bleachers, Cardinals fans hung a bedsheet declaring that evening’s starting pitcher, Joaquin Andujar, “one tough Dominican” in honor of the right-hander’s favorite self-description. On October 21, 1982, Andujar proved to be exactly that, pitching seven innings to lead the Cardinals to a 6-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 7 of …
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When the 1990 season ended, Willie McGee was the National League batting champion for the second time in his career – never mind that he had spent the past month as a member of the American League’s Oakland Athletics. On August 29, 1990, the St. Louis Cardinals traded the former National League MVP and four-time …
When the St. Louis Cardinals named John Mozeliak the 12th general manager in franchise history on October 31, 2007, the 38-year-old made two things clear: first, that everything he did would be about helping the Cardinals win. Secondly, that he planned to be aggressive in free agency and the trade market to make that happen. …
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When August A. Busch fired general manager Bing Devine in August 1964, it seemed all but certain that Cardinals manager Johnny Keane would soon join his former boss among the unemployed. When Keane and the Cardinals surprised everyone by surging to their first World Series championship in 18 years, Busch decided to keep his manager …
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