1945 St. Louis Cardinals season

The 1945 St. Louis Cardinals season was the team's 64th season in St. Louis, Missouri and the 54th season in the National League. The Cardinals went 95–59 during the season and finished second in the National League. The Cardinals set a Major League record which still stands, for the fewest double plays grounded into during a season, with only 75.[1]

1945 St. Louis Cardinals
LeagueNational League
BallparkSportsman's Park
CitySt. Louis, Missouri
Record95–59 (.617)
League place2nd
OwnersSam Breadon
ManagersBilly Southworth
RadioWIL
(Harry Caray, Gabby Street)
WEW/WTMV
(France Laux, Johnny O'Hara)
StatsESPN.com
Baseball Reference
← 1944 Seasons 1946 →

Offseason

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  • Prior to 1945 season: Steve Bilko was signed by the Cardinals as an amateur free agent.[2]

Regular season

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An almost incredible place in baseball history was at stake. Billy Southworth and his Cardinals had a chance to become only the second ball club after the 1921-24 Giants to win four consecutive NL pennants.

However, the war finally drained the Redbirds of the talent needed to win a championship.

Stan Musial, Walker Cooper, Max Lanier and pitcher Mort Cooper, who experienced elbow problems later in the season, got into a contract squabble with Harry Breadon during the spring. They signed contracts for $12,000 apiece, then balked at reporting for opening day after learning Marion had been upped to $15,000.

On May 23, the Cards sent Mort Cooper to the Boston Braves for pitcher Red Barrett, who compiled a league-high total of 23 wins, and $60,000. However, the Redbirds did not have enough pitching depth to keep up with the faster pace of a Chicago Cubs team filled with veteran pitchers such as Paul Derringer.

The Cardinals actually won 16 of their 22 meetings with The Cubs.

Only Whitey Kurowski batted over .300 among the regulars. He was one of the few Cardinals were able to keep their jobs once the boys marched home from Europe and the Pacific.

Red Schoendienst stole 26 bases but batted just .278 and drove in only 47 runs.

Season standings

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National League
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Chicago Cubs 98 56 .636 49‍–‍26 49‍–‍30
St. Louis Cardinals 95 59 .617 3 48‍–‍29 47‍–‍30
Brooklyn Dodgers 87 67 .565 11 48‍–‍30 39‍–‍37
Pittsburgh Pirates 82 72 .532 16 45‍–‍34 37‍–‍38
New York Giants 78 74 .513 19 47‍–‍30 31‍–‍44
Boston Braves 67 85 .441 30 36‍–‍38 31‍–‍47
Cincinnati Reds 61 93 .396 37 36‍–‍41 25‍–‍52
Philadelphia Phillies 46 108 .299 52 22‍–‍55 24‍–‍53

Record vs. opponents

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Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Team BOS BR CHC CIN NYG PHI PIT STL
Boston 9–13–1 7–15 10–12 10–10–2 14–8 7–15 10–12
Brooklyn 13–9–1 8–14–1 11–11 15–7 19–3 12–10 9–13
Chicago 15–7 14–8–1 21–1 11–11 17–5 14–8 6–16
Cincinnati 12–10 11–11 1–21 6–16 12–10 10–12 9–13
New York 10–10–2 7–15 11–11 16–6 17–5 11–11 6–16
Philadelphia 8–14 3–19 5–17 10–12 5–17 6–16 9–13
Pittsburgh 15–7 10–12 8–14 12–10 11–11 16–6 10–12–1
St. Louis 12–10 13–9 16–6 13–9 16–6 13–9 12–10–1


Notable transactions

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Roster

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1945 St. Louis Cardinals
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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Batting

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Starters by position

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Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Ken O'Dea 100 307 78 .254 4 43
1B Ray Sanders 143 537 148 .276 8 78
2B Emil Verban 155 597 166 .278 0 72
SS Marty Marion 123 430 119 .277 1 59
3B Whitey Kurowski 133 511 165 .323 21 102
OF Buster Adams 140 578 169 .292 20 101
OF Johnny Hopp 124 446 129 .289 3 44
OF Red Schoendienst 137 565 157 .278 1 47

Other batters

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Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Augie Bergamo 94 304 96 .316 3 44
Del Rice 83 253 66 .261 1 28
Debs Garms 74 146 49 .336 0 18
Art Rebel 26 72 25 .347 0 5
Lou Klein 19 57 13 .228 1 6
George Fallon 24 55 13 .236 0 7
Dave Bartosch 24 47 12 .255 0 1
Pep Young 27 47 7 .149 1 4
Jim Mallory 13 43 10 .233 0 5
Walker Cooper 4 18 7 .389 0 1
Gene Crumling 6 12 1 .083 0 1
Glenn Crawford 4 3 0 .000 0 0
John Antonelli 2 3 0 .000 0 0
Bob Keely 1 1 0 .000 0 0

Pitching

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Starting pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Red Barrett 36 246.2 21 9 2.74 63
Blix Donnelly 31 166.1 8 10 3.52 76
Harry Brecheen 24 157.1 15 4 2.52 63
Ted Wilks 18 98.1 4 7 2.93 28
Max Lanier 4 26.0 2 2 1.73 16
Mort Cooper 4 23.2 2 0 1.52 14

Other pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Ken Burkhart 42 217.1 18 8 2.90 67
George Dockins 31 126.1 8 6 3.21 33
Bud Byerly 33 95.0 4 5 4.74 39
Jack Creel 26 87.0 5 4 4.14 34
Al Jurisich 27 71.2 3 3 5.15 42
Glenn Gardner 17 54.2 3 1 3.29 20
Stan Partenheimer 8 13.1 0 0 6.08 6
Art Lopatka 4 11.2 1 0 1.54 5

Relief pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Bill Crouch 6 1 0 0 3.38 4

Farm system

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Level Team League Manager
AA Columbus Red Birds American Association Charlie Root
AA Rochester Red Wings International League Burleigh Grimes
B Allentown Cardinals Interstate League Ollie Vanek
B Lynchburg Cardinals Piedmont League George Ferrell and Zip Payne
C Winston-Salem Cardinals Carolina League George Smith and George Ferrell
D Johnson City Cardinals Appalachian League Fred Hawn and Runt Marr
D Marion Cardinals Ohio State League Grover Hartley and Wally Schang

[4]

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Notes

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  1. ^ "Single Season Grounding Into Double Play Records". Baseball-Almanac.com. Retrieved May 14, 2012.
  2. ^ Steve Bilko page at Baseball-Reference
  3. ^ Glenn Crawford page at Baseball Reference
  4. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, N.C.: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007

References

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  NODES
Association 1
INTERN 1
Note 8