1959 St. Louis Cardinals season

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1959 St. Louis Cardinals
Major League affiliations
  • National League (since 1892)
Location
Results
Record71–83 (.461)
League place7th
Other information
Owner(s)August "Gussie" Busch
General manager(s)Bing Devine
Manager(s)Solly Hemus
Local televisionKPLR
Local radioKMOX
(Harry Caray, Jack Buck, Joe Garagiola)
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The 1959 St. Louis Cardinals season was the team's 78th season in St. Louis, Missouri and its 68th season in the National League. The Cardinals went 71–83 during the season and finished seventh in the National League, 16 games behind the NL pennant winner and World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. They attracted 929,953 paying fans to Busch Stadium, fifth in the eight-team league.[1]

Offseason[]

  • September 29, 1958: One day after the end of the 1958 National League regular season, Gene Freese was traded by the Cardinals to the Philadelphia Phillies for Solly Hemus. The 35-year-old Hemus, a ten-year MLB veteran, had begun his career as a Cardinal, playing in 684 games between 1949 and 1956. He had appeared in 85 games as a second baseman for the 1958 Phillies, but was immediately named the Redbirds' player-manager for 1959, succeeding interim skipper Stan Hack.
  • October 8, 1958: Hobie Landrith, Billy Muffett and Benny Valenzuela were traded by the Cardinals to the San Francisco Giants for Marv Grissom and Ernie Broglio.[2]
  • October 15, 1958: Marshall Bridges was purchased by the Cardinals from the Sacramento Solons.[3]
  • December 1, 1958: Johnny O'Brien was drafted from the Cardinals by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1958 rule 5 draft.[4]
  • December 3, 1958: Rubén Amaro was traded by the Cardinals to the Philadelphia Phillies for Chuck Essegian.[5]
  • December 4, 1958: Wally Moon and Phil Paine were traded by the Cardinals to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Gino Cimoli.[6]
  • March 25, 1959: Sam Jones and Don Choate were traded by the Cardinals to the San Francisco Giants for Ray Jablonski and Bill White.[7]
  • Prior to 1959 season (exact date unknown)

Regular season[]

Season summary[]

The Cardinals played the league's best baseball from early May into late July, during which time they went 40–30. In the end, pitching failed the Redbirds. Their 4.34 ERA was ranked worst in the National League.

There were some bright spots to the season. Larry Jackson and Lindy McDaniel, who found success and saved 15 games after an early-season move to the bullpen, each won a team-high 14 games. Also, third baseman Ken Boyer won a Gold Glove this year.

Right fielder Joe Cunningham led the National League in on-base percentage at .453 and batted .345 to finish second to Hank Aaron for the National League batting title.

Season standings[]

  • v
  • t
National League 		W L Pct. GB Home Road
Los Angeles Dodgers 88 68 0.564 — 46–32 42–36
Milwaukee Braves 86 70 0.551 2 49–29 37–41
San Francisco Giants 83 71 0.539 4 42–35 41–36
Pittsburgh Pirates 78 76 0.506 9 47–30 31–46
Chicago Cubs 74 80 0.481 13 38–39 36–41
Cincinnati Reds 74 80 0.481 13 43–34 31–46
St. Louis Cardinals 71 83 0.461 16 42–35 29–48
Philadelphia Phillies 64 90 0.416 23 37–40 27–50

Record vs. opponents[]

1959 National League Records
  • v
  • t

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Team CHC CIN LA MIL PHI PIT SF STL
Chicago — 9–13 11–11 10–12 10–12–1 12–10 12–10 10–12
Cincinnati 13–9 — 13–9 11–11 9–13 9–13 8–14 11–11
Los Angeles 11–11 9–13 — 14–10 17–5 11–11 14–8 12–10
Milwaukee 12–10 11–11 10–14 — 13–9 15–7–1 12–10 13–9
Philadelphia 12–10–1 13–9 5–17 9–13 — 9–13 9–13 7–15
Pittsburgh 10–12 13–9 11–11 7–15–1 13–9 — 10–12 14–8
San Francisco 10–12 14–8 8–14 10–12 13–9 12–10 — 16–6
St. Louis 12–10 11–11 10–12 9–13 15–7 8–14 6–16 —


Opening Day lineup[]

Notable transactions[]

  • June 8, 1959: Jim Brosnan was traded by the Cardinals to the Cincinnati Reds for Hal Jeffcoat.[9]
  • June 19, 1959: Solly Hemus was released by the Cardinals as an active player; he remained the team's manager.[10]
  • July 25, 1959: Jay Porter was selected off waivers by the Cardinals from the Washington Senators.[11]
  • August 4, 1959: Ray Katt was released by the Cardinals.[12]
  • August 20, 1959: Ray Jablonski was selected off waivers from the Cardinals by the Kansas City Athletics.[7]
  • September 6, 1959: Phil Gagliano was signed as an amateur free agent by the Cardinals.[13]

Roster[]

1959 St. Louis Cardinals
Roster
Pitchers Catchers
  •  9 Ray Katt
  • 51 Tim McCarver
  • 44 J. W. Porter
  •  2 Hal Smith

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

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 Hal R. Smith 142 452 122 .270 13 50
1B Stan Musial 115 341 87 .255 14 44
2B Don Blasingame 150 615 178 .289 1 24
SS Alex Grammas 131 368 99 .269 3 30
3B Ken Boyer 149 563 174 .309 28 94
LF Bill White 138 517 156 .302 12 72
CF Gino Cimoli 143 519 145 .279 8 72
RF Joe Cunningham 144 458 158 .345 7 60

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
Curt Flood 121 208 53 .255 7 26
Gene Oliver 68 172 42 .244 6 28
George Crowe 77 103 31 .301 8 29
Wally Shannon 47 95 27 .284 0 5
Ray Jablonski 60 87 22 .253 3 14
Gene Green 30 74 14 .189 1 3
Bobby Smith 43 60 13 .217 1 7
Dick Gray 36 51 16 .314 1 6
Lee Tate 41 50 7 .140 1 4
Chuck Essegian 17 39 7 .179 0 5
Jay Porter 23 33 7 .212 1 2
Tim McCarver 8 24 4 .167 0 0
Ray Katt 15 24 7 .292 0 2
Duke Carmel 10 23 3 .130 0 3
Solly Hemus 24 17 4 .235 0 1
Irv Noren 8 8 1 .125 0 0
Chick King 5 7 3 .429 0 1
Joe Durham 6 5 0 .000 0 0
Charlie O'Rourke 2 2 0 .000 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
Larry Jackson 40 256 14 13 3.30 145
Vinegar Bend Mizell 31 201.1 13 10 4.20 108
Ernie Broglio 35 181.1 7 12 4.72 133
Bob Gibson 13 75.2 3 5 3.33 48
Bob Miller 11 70.2 4 3 3.31 43
Tom Hughes 2 4 0 2 15.75 2

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
Gary Blaylock 26 100 4 5 5.13
Dick Ricketts 12 55.2 1 6 5.82 25
Alex Kellner 12 37 2 1 3.16 19
Tom Cheney 11 11.2 0 1 6.94 8
Bob Blaylock 3 9 0 1 4.00 3

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
Lindy McDaniel 62 14 12 16 3.82 86
Marshall Bridges 27 6 3 1 4.26 76
Jim Brosnan 20 1 3 2 4.91 18
Dean Stone 18 0 1 1 4.20 17
Howie Nunn 16 2 2 0 7.59 20
Bob Duliba 11 0 1 1 2.78 14
Hal Jeffcoat 11 0 1 0 9.17 7
Jack Urban 8 0 0 0 9.28 4
Phil Clark 7 0 1 0 12.86 5
Bill Smith 6 0 0 1 1.08 4
Marv Grissom 3 0 0 0 22.50 0

Farm system[]

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Omaha Cardinals American Association Joe Schultz
AAA Rochester Red Wings International League Cot Deal and Clyde King
AA Tulsa Oilers Texas League Vern Benson
A York White Roses Eastern League Mike Ryba and Ed Lyons
B Winston-Salem Red Birds Carolina League Al Unser
C Winnipeg Goldeyes Northern League Chase Riddle
C Billings Mustangs Pioneer League Whitey Kurowski
D Dothan Cardinals Alabama–Florida League
D Wytheville Cardinals Appalachian League
D Daytona Beach Islanders Florida State League
D Keokuk Cardinals Midwest League
D Hobbs Cardinals Sophomore League Thurman Tucker

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Winnipeg, Billings[14]

References[]

  1. ^ 1959 National League attendance at Baseball America
  2. ^ Hobie Landrith page at Baseball Reference
  3. ^ Marshall Bridges page at Baseball Reference
  4. ^ Johnny O'Brien page at Baseball Reference
  5. ^ Ruben Amaro page at Baseball Reference
  6. ^ Phil Paine page at Baseball Reference
  7. ^ a b Ray Jablonski page at Baseball Reference
  8. ^ Lee Gregory page at Baseball Reference
  9. ^ Hall Jeffcoat page at Baseball Reference
  10. ^ Solly Hemus page at Baseball Reference
  11. ^ Jay Porter page at Baseball-Reference
  12. ^ Ray Katt page at Baseball Reference
  13. ^ Phil Gagliano page at Baseball Reference
  14. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007

External links[]

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