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St. Louis Cardinal MVP winners
Date: 11/23/2009 Album ID: 895003
Photos by Post-Dispatch archives, edited by Andrell Bower
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Here are the St. Louis Cardinals' 16 MVP award winners between 1931 and 2008 and what Hall of Fame baseball writer Rick Hummel has to say about each.
1931 winner Frankie Frisch.<b>Stats:</b> .311, four homers, 82 RBI. <b>Hummel's take:</b> Frisch stole a league-high 28 bases to lead the Cardinals to their first 100-victory season and their second World Series title — the first they had clinched at home — in a seven-game win over the Philadelphia Athletics.
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1935 winner Dizzy Dean.<b>Stats:</b> 30-7, 2.66 ERA, seven saves. <b>Hummel's take:</b> Dean became the only Cardinals pitcher to win 30 games in a season and is the last National Leaguer to do so. Dean threw a six-hit shutout to win the decisive World Series Game 7 over the Detroit Tigers, 11-0.
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1937 winner Joe Medwick.<b>Stats:</b> .374, 31 homers, 154 RBI. <b>Hummel's take:</b> Seventy-two years later, Medwick’s Triple Crown season stands as the last in the National League. Medwick’s 56 doubles also led the National League as he totaled 97 extra-base hits.
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1942 winner Mort Cooper.<b>Stats:</b> 22-7, 1.77 ERA, 22 complete games.<b>Hummel's take:</b> Cooper’s ERA led the league as the Cardinals, in their heyday, scored the first of their three consecutive 100-plus victory seasons. Cooper also posted two of the Cardinals’ four wins in a surprisingly swift 4-1 World Series triumph over the perennial champion New York Yankees.
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1943 winner Stan Musial.<b>Stats:</b> .357, 13 homers, 81 RBI. <b>Hummel's take:</b> The Donora Greyhound won the first of his seven batting titles, racking up league-leading totals of 48 doubles and 20 triples. Musial fanned only 18 times that season in 617 official at-bats.
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1944 winner Marty Marion.<b>Stats:</b> .267, six homers, 63 RBI <b>Hummel's take:</b> This was more of a leadership and fielding award as Slats Marion was considered the glue of the great Cardinals teams in the ’40s. Marion sparked a Cardinals defense that made just one error in a six-game Streetcar Series victory over the Browns, who committed 10 errors.
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1946 winner Stan Musial (center).<b>Stats:</b> .365, 16 homers, 103 RBI. <b>Hummel's take:</b> Musial, winning another batting title, also had a second 20-triple season and his second of three 50-double seasons. The seven-game World Series win over the Boston Red Sox would be Musial’s last, even though he was just 26 years old.
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1948 winner Stan Musial.<b>Stats:</b> .376, 39 homers, 131 RBI. <b>Hummel's take:</b> Musial finished one homer shy of a Triple Crown in his signature season with the Cardinals. He amassed a whopping 103 extra-base hits, including 46 doubles and 18 triples, and had an on-base percentage of .450 with a slugging mark of .702.
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1964 winner Ken Boyer.<b>Stats:</b> .295, 24 homers, 119 RBI. <b>Hummel's take:</b> The Captain of the Cardinals, Boyer led the league in RBI and hit for the cycle, making him the only Cardinals player to do that twice in his career. He also slugged a grand slam in Game 4 of the World Series, preventing the Yankees from taking a 3-1 lead in games. The Cardinals would win in seven.
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1967 winner Orlando Cepeda.<b>Stats:</b> .325, 25 homers, 111 RBI. <b>Hummel's take:</b> In his first full season with the Cardinals, Cepeda was not only one of the spiritual leaders of El Birdos, but also their offensive leader, topping the circuit in RBI and stealing 11 bases on creaky legs. The Cardinals’ World Series triumph over Boston would be their last for 15 years.
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1968 winner Bob Gibson.<b>Stats:</b> 22-9, 1.12 ERA, 13 shutouts. <b>Hummel's take:</b> A watershed year in baseball history, 1968 was the last year the height of the pitcher’s mound was 15 inches. After Gibson’s eyepopping season (opponents hit just .184 against him) and strong years by other pitchers, Major League Baseball ordained the mound be lowered five inches to aid the helpless hitters.
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1971 winner Joe Torre.<b>Stats:</b> .363, 24 homers, 137 RBI. <b>Hummel's take:</b> With almost no speed, the former catcher won the batting title by 20 points and topped the circuit in RBI. Surprisingly, Torre also had eight triples, one more than Lou Brock.
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1979 winner Keith Hernandez.<b>Stats:</b> .344, 11 homers, 105 RBI. <b>Hummel's take:</b> Part of the only shared MVP (Pittsburgh’s Willie Stargell), Hernandez had 11 triples to go with 48 doubles as he slugged .513. Eleven was the working number as Hernandez also stole that many bases.
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1985 winner Willie McGee.<b>Stats:</b> .353, 10 homers, 82 RBI, 18 triples. <b>Hummel's take:</b> McGee won the first of his two batting titles as a Cardinal and also stole 56 bases. His 216 hits topped the league.
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2005 winner Albert Pujols.<b>Stats:</b> .330, 41 homers, 117 RBI <b>Hummel's take:</b> No Triple Crown jewels but Pujols had 81 extra-base hits with 16 steals. Hit a momentous game-winning homer off Houston’s Brad Lidge to keep the Cardinals alive another day in the league championship series.
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2008 winner Albert Pujols.<b>Stats:</b> .357, 37 homers, 116 RBI. <b>Hummel's take:</b> Pujols led the league in slugging percentage at .653 and among his less noticeable accomplishments was his first 100-walk season. His pacesetting 34 intentional walks were only a prelude to the 2009 season.
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