1953 St. Louis Cardinals season
Major League Baseball season
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 1953 St. Louis Cardinals season was the team's 72nd season in St. Louis, Missouri and the 62nd season in the National League. The Cardinals went 83–71 during the season and finished in a tie for third place with the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League.
| 1953 St. Louis Cardinals | |
|---|---|
| League | National League |
| Ballpark | Busch Stadium I |
| City | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Record | 83–71 (.539) |
| League place | 3rd |
| Owners | August "Gussie" Busch |
| Managers | Eddie Stanky |
| Radio | WIL (Harry Caray, Gus Mancuso, Stretch Miller) |
| Stats | ESPN.com Baseball Reference |
Prior to the start of the season, August A. Busch, Jr. of Anheuser-Busch bought the team from Fred Saigh. That started a reign that would last until March 1996, when William DeWitt, Jr., Drew Baur and Fred Hanser bought the club. Realizing the Cardinals now had more resources than he could possibly match, Bill Veeck, owner of the St. Louis Browns decided to search for another city to which to move the Browns. As a first step, he sold Sportsman's Park to the Cardinals. He would have probably had to sell the park in any case; the park had fallen into disrepair over the years, and the city had threatened to have it condemned. With the Browns' declining revenues – despite collecting rent from the Cardinals – Veeck could not afford to bring it up to code. Busch heavily renovated the 44-year-old park and renamed it Busch Stadium. Within a year, Veeck also sold the Browns to Jerold Hoffberger and Clarence Miles, and the new owners moved them to Baltimore as the Orioles.
Offseason
- December 3, 1952: Grant Dunlap was purchased by the Cardinals from the Shreveport Sports.[1]
Regular season
Season standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brooklyn Dodgers | 105 | 49 | .682 | — | 60–17 | 45–32 |
| Milwaukee Braves | 92 | 62 | .597 | 13 | 45–31 | 47–31 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 83 | 71 | .539 | 22 | 48–29 | 35–42 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 83 | 71 | .539 | 22 | 48–30 | 35–41 |
| New York Giants | 70 | 84 | .455 | 35 | 38–39 | 32–45 |
| Cincinnati Redlegs | 68 | 86 | .442 | 37 | 38–39 | 30–47 |
| Chicago Cubs | 65 | 89 | .422 | 40 | 43–34 | 22–55 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 50 | 104 | .325 | 55 | 26–51 | 24–53 |
Record vs. opponents
Sources: | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | BRO | CHC | CIN | MIL | NYG | PHI | PIT | STL | |||||
| Brooklyn | — | 13–9–1 | 15–7 | 13–9 | 15–7 | 14–8 | 20–2 | 15–7 | |||||
| Chicago | 9–13–1 | — | 12–10 | 8–14 | 9–13 | 5–17 | 11–11 | 11–11 | |||||
| Cincinnati | 7–15 | 10–12 | — | 8–14 | 9–13 | 12–10 | 15–7 | 7–15–1 | |||||
| Milwaukee | 9–13 | 14–8 | 14–8 | — | 14–8–1 | 13–9–1 | 15–7 | 13–9–1 | |||||
| New York | 7–15 | 13–9 | 13–9 | 8–14–1 | — | 9–13 | 11–11 | 9–13 | |||||
| Philadelphia | 8–14 | 17–5 | 10–12 | 9–13–1 | 13–9 | — | 15–7 | 11–11–1 | |||||
| Pittsburgh | 2–20 | 11–11 | 7–15 | 7–15 | 11–11 | 7–15 | — | 5–17 | |||||
| St. Louis | 7–15 | 11–11 | 15–7–1 | 9–13–1 | 13–9 | 11–11–1 | 17–5 | — | |||||
Notable transactions
- May 18, 1953: Billy Johnson was released by the Cardinals.[2]
- May 23, 1953: Jackie Collum was traded by the Cardinals to the Cincinnati Reds for Eddie Erautt.[3]
- June 14, 1953: Hal Rice was traded by the Cardinals to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Pete Castiglione.[4]
Roster
| 1953 St. Louis Cardinals | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roster | |||||||||
Pitchers
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Catchers
Infielders
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Outfielders
Other batters
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Manager
Coaches
| ||||||
Player stats
Batting
Starters by position
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 | Del Rice | 135 | 419 | 99 | .236 | 6 | 37 |
| 1B | Steve Bilko | 154 | 570 | 143 | .251 | 21 | 84 |
| 2B | Red Schoendienst | 146 | 564 | 193 | .342 | 15 | 79 |
| SS | Solly Hemus | 154 | 585 | 163 | .279 | 14 | 61 |
| 3B | Ray Jablonski | 157 | 604 | 162 | .268 | 21 | 112 |
| OF | Stan Musial | 157 | 593 | 200 | .337 | 30 | 113 |
| OF | Enos Slaughter | 143 | 492 | 143 | .291 | 6 | 89 |
| OF | Rip Repulski | 153 | 567 | 156 | .275 | 15 | 66 |
Other batters
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peanuts Lowrey | 104 | 182 | 49 | .269 | 5 | 27 |
| Harry Elliott | 24 | 59 | 15 | .254 | 1 | 6 |
| Sal Yvars | 30 | 57 | 14 | .246 | 1 | 6 |
| Pete Castiglione | 67 | 52 | 9 | .173 | 0 | 3 |
| Dick Sisler | 32 | 43 | 11 | .256 | 0 | 4 |
| Ducky Schofield | 33 | 39 | 7 | .179 | 2 | 4 |
| Ferrell Anderson | 18 | 35 | 10 | .286 | 0 | 1 |
| Dick Rand | 9 | 31 | 9 | .290 | 0 | 1 |
| Eddie Stanky | 17 | 30 | 8 | .267 | 0 | 1 |
| Grant Dunlap | 16 | 17 | 6 | .353 | 1 | 3 |
| Les Fusselman | 11 | 8 | 2 | .250 | 0 | 0 |
| Hal Rice | 8 | 8 | 2 | .250 | 0 | 0 |
| Billy Johnson | 11 | 5 | 1 | .200 | 0 | 1 |
| Vern Benson | 13 | 4 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 |
| Eddie Phillips | 9 | 0 | 0 | ---- | 0 | 0 |
| Fred Marolewski | 1 | 0 | 0 | ---- | 0 | 0 |
Pitching
Starting pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvey Haddix | 36 | 253.0 | 20 | 9 | 3.06 | 163 |
| Gerry Staley | 40 | 230.0 | 18 | 9 | 3.99 | 88 |
| Vinegar Bend Mizell | 33 | 224.1 | 13 | 11 | 3.49 | 173 |
| Joe Presko | 34 | 161.2 | 6 | 13 | 5.01 | 56 |
| John Romonosky | 2 | 7.2 | 0 | 0 | 4.70 | 3 |
Other pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stu Miller | 40 | 137.2 | 7 | 8 | 5.56 | 79 |
| Cliff Chambers | 32 | 79.2 | 3 | 6 | 4.86 | 26 |
| Willard Schmidt | 6 | 17.2 | 0 | 2 | 9.17 | 11 |
| Jack Faszholz | 4 | 11.2 | 0 | 0 | 6.94 | 7 |
Relief pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Al Brazle | 60 | 6 | 7 | 18 | 4.21 | 57 |
| Hal White | 49 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 2.99 | 32 |
| Mike Clark | 23 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.79 | 17 |
| Eddie Erautt | 20 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6.31 | 15 |
| Jackie Collum | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.35 | 5 |
| Dick Bokelmann | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.00 | 0 |
| Eddie Yuhas | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18.00 | 0 |
Farm system
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Dothan, Hazlehurst-Baxley, Paducah