The St. Louis Cardinals have had a bevy of Hall of Famers play for them since their inception into the National League in 1882. Among them are standouts such as Dizzy Dean, Enos Slaughter, Jim Bottomley, Lou Brock, and of course, Stan Musial. These five Cardinals’ Hall of Famers had incredible careers, but there are things about this handful of wonderful baseball stars that the average fan doesn’t know. Here are some things about these St. Louis Cardinals’ Hall of Famers that many fans do not realize.
1. Jim Bottomley had 6 consecutive years of at least 100 runs batted in!
“Sunny Jim” is one of the most overlooked players in the Hall of Fame and that’s too bad because he was a great hitter. Bottomley played for the Cardinals from 1922 until 1932, batting over .300 during 9 of those 11 seasons and knocking in at least 111 runs from 1924 through 1929. He was the National League MVP in 1928 with 136 RBI as the Cardinals won the pennant. Bottomley played for the Reds and Browns before he retired with a .310 lifetime average and over 1,400 runs batted in just 16 years.
2. Dizzy Dean “only” won 150 games!
Much like Sandy Koufax, Dean had a shortened career due to injury but was still deemed worthy of entry into Cooperstown. He was 150-83 and actually won 102 of those contests during a 4 year span. He was a 30 game winner in 1934 and followed that up with 28 in ’35. But a line drive off of his toe in the All-Star Game in 1937 caused him such problems that he changed his pitching motion. The result was arm trouble that prematurely ended his greatness, although he continued to get by on sheer guts and guile until 1941. Dean came back in 1947 on a dare to pitch 4 scoreless innings for the Browns; he was still only 37 at the time.
This statistically anomaly happened over a 6 year span to make it even stranger. Slaughter tallied 100 runs for the World Champion St. Louis team in 1942 and then went into the military for World War II. He returned in 1946 and once again scored exactly 100 runs before repeating the feat in 1947. Enos hit an even .300 for his 2,380 games in baseball; thought of today as a swift runner, in reality he stole only 71 bases over 19 campaigns.
4. Stan Musial hit over .300 for 17 straight years!
Musial’s name isn’t immediately brought up when discussing the greatest player ever, but few men can make this claim to have batted over .300 for that many seasons in a row. Stan started the streak in 1941 at the age of 20, appearing in 47 games for St. Louis. He hit no lower than .310 until 1959, when he slumped to .255 in 115 ballgames. Musial threw in 10 seasons of at least 102 runs batted in during this stretch on his way to a .331 lifetime standard and the Hall of Fame.
5. Lou Brock never hit higher than .315 in a season!
Brock hit over .300 8 times but never higher than the .315 average he posted in 1964 while with the Cubs and the Cards. He literally ran his way into the Hall of Fame as a leadoff man with exceptional speed, scoring over 1,600 runs and stealing 938 bases. Lou hit .293 for his 19 seasons and retired in 1979 with 3,023 base hits.
