The St. Louis Cardinals, a professional baseball franchise based in St. Louis, Missouri, compete in the National League (NL) of Major League Baseball (MLB). Before joining the NL in 1892, they were also a charter member of the American Association (AA) from 1882 to 1891. Although St. Louis has been the Cardinals' home city for the franchise's entire existence, they were also known as the Brown Stockings, Browns, and Perfectos.
In 134 seasons, the franchise has won more than 10,000 regular season games and appeared in 27 postseasons while claiming 12 interleague championships and 23 league pennants. Eleven of the interleague championships are World Series titles won under the modern format since 1903; 19 of the league pennants are NL pennants, and the other four are AA pennants. [1] Their 11 World Series titles represent the most in the NL and are second in MLB only to the New York Yankees' 27.
The first major award MLB presented for team performance occurred with the World Series champions in 1903, and for individual performance, in 1911 in the American League with the Chalmers Award. The first major award that the National League presented for individual performance was the League Award in 1924, the predecessor of the modern Most Valuable Player Award (MVP). Rogers Hornsby earned the League Award in 1925 making him the first winner of an MVP or its equivalent in franchise history. The following season, the Cardinals won their first modern World Series. They won the first World Series Trophy, [2] following their 1967 World Series title, [3] which, before that year, the World Series champion had never received any kind of official trophy. [4]
Major League Baseball (MLB), with voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA), first presented the modern MVP award to one player each in the American and National League in 1931. Voting is accomplished with two writers from each city containing an MLB club, of whom each fills in a ballot with the names of ten players, ranking each from first to tenth. [5] The BBWAA began polling three writers in each league city in 1938 and reduced that number to two per league city in 1961. One of the MVP award's predecessors was the League Award, which the National League awarded via of voting process in a similar fashion to that of the BBWAA from 1924 to 1929. [6]
17 different Cardinals players have won the award a total of 21 times. Stan Musial and Albert Pujols are the only players to have won multiple times, each having won three times. Pujols is the only Cardinals player to have won in consecutive seasons, in 2008 and 2009. The most consecutive seasons a Cardinals player has won the award is three, which occurred from 1942 to 1944 between Mort Cooper, Musial, and Marty Marion. Typically awarded to position players, Cardinals pitchers who have won an MVP award are Cooper, Dizzy Dean, and Bob Gibson.
The Platinum Glove is a fan-voted award conferred annually to single out the top-fielding player from all Gold Glove winners in each league. [7]
Voted by MLB fans as the most outstanding player in the history of the franchise, based on on-field performance, leadership quality, and character value.
Cardinals award winners include those who played the highest number of games in their career with the Cardinals. [8]
Note: Normally awarded to one athlete across all sports.
In 1992, the Comeback Player of the Year was the first and only Players' Choice honor; others followed in subsequent years.
Names in bold received the award based on their work as Cardinals broadcasters.
* Played and broadcast for the Cardinals