BEST CARDINALS TEAMS Vol. 2
Here are some of the things I found. Not too many surprises.

For indicators of the best Cardinals teams, I looked at:

1. Numbers of hall of fame players on a given team.

2. Offensive records set for a single season.

3. M.V.P selections.

4. Places in standings.

5. World Series winners.

Most Cardinal fans will already know where to look for the best Cardinal teams. Hornsby's teams of the 20's, the Gas House Gang teams of the 30's, Musial/Slaughter teams of the 40's, Gibson/Brock teams of the 60's, Herzog teams of the 80's, and Larussa teams of the 2000's.

When it comes to the teams with the most number of hall of fame players, the 30's take the lead. The 1933, '34 & '36 Cards had a high of seven HOF players per year. Just look at the lineup for 1934...
Leo "the lip" Durocher
Franky Frisch "the Fordham Flash"
Joe "Ducky Wucky" Medwick
Jerome "Dizzy" Dean
Burleigh Grimes
Jesse Haines
Arthur "Dazzy" Vance... Plus non hall of famers "Daffy" Dean and Pepper Martin
By any standard, how can that not be one of the Cardinals Greatest teams.

When it comes to offensive record being held by a single team, the 1930 Cardinals hold many single season records. They include highest batting average, most RBIs, most long hits (didn't even know that was a stat), highest slugging percentage, most total bases, most hits, and most # of .300 hitters. With that lineup, they took the N.L. Pennant but lost the Series 4-2 to Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics.

M.V.P. Awards just confirm what we already knew... 20's, 30's, 40's, and 60's.

The indicator that sets one series of teams apart are the standings and World Series. From 1942 - 1946, the Cards took four pennants and 3 World Series. The '42 cards won a club record 106 games with a .688 winning percentage (also a club record). '43 and '44 followed with 105 wins and .682 winning percentage each year! When Bill James, with his bevy of stats, rates the best three year run in baseball, the '42 - '44 Cards tie with the '29 - '31 A's and the '36 - '38 (or '37 - '39) Yanks. We are talking about one of the great elite teams of the modern era of baseball! The biggest surprise to me was the fact that the number of hall of fame players is smaller in the '40s than I thought. I should have probably taken into consideration the low number of players from the 40's who made the hall of fame due to years lost in the war.

Now let's look at the past two years. 2004 brought us 105 wins and a .648 average. That is tied for second for the club's number of wins and 5th for the winning percentage. This year we already have 95 wins with a .625 average. We've had 3-5 gold glove winners the past several years, and the same for all-star selections. We have a reasonable chance to have the M.V.P. And Cy Young winners this years. What this team will go down in history as will be determined by winning the World Series or not. We have a team that is extraordinary in regular season but will they run out of gas again or was last year a fluke?

So, I really haven't said anything new since the last post, I just have better stats to back up my opinions.

Soooo.....

GO CARDS!!!!!