1959 St. Louis Cardinals season explained

St. Louis Cardinals
Season:	1959
League:	National League
Ballpark:	Busch Stadium I
City:	St. Louis, Missouri
Record:	71–83 (.461)
League Place:	7th
Owners:	August "Gussie" Busch
General Managers:	Bing Devine
Managers:	Solly Hemus
Television:	KPLR
Radio:	KMOX (Harry Caray, Jack Buck, Joe Garagiola)

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)
- Lee Gregory was signed as an amateur free agent by the Cardinals.^[8]

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.

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		CatchersInfielders		OutfieldersOther batters		ManagerCoaches

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	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	142	452	122	.270	13	50
1B	115	341	87	.255	14	44
2B	150	615	178	.289	1	24
SS	131	368	99	.269	3	30
3B	149	563	174	.309	28	94
LF	138	517	156	.302	12	72
CF	143	519	145	.279	8	72
RF	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

G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
121	208	53	.255	7	26
68	172	42	.244	6	28
77	103	31	.301	8	29
47	95	27	.284	0	5
60	87	22	.253	3	14
30	74	14	.189	1	3
43	60	13	.217	1	7
36	51	16	.314	1	6
41	50	7	.140	1	4
17	39	7	.179	0	5
23	33	7	.212	1	2
8	24	4	.167	0	0
15	24	7	.292	0	2
10	23	3	.130	0	3
24	17	4	.235	0	1
8	8	1	.125	0	0
5	7	3	.429	0	1
6	5	0	.000	0	0
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

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
40	256.0	14	13	3.30	145
31	201.1	13	10	4.20	108
35	181.1	7	12	4.72	133
13	75.2	3	5	3.33	48
11	70.2	4	3	3.31	43
2	4.0	0	2	15.75	2

Other pitchers

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

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
26	100.0	4	5	5.13	61
12	55.2	1	6	5.82	25
12	37.0	2	1	3.16	19
11	11.2	0	1	6.94	8
3	9.0	0	1	4.00	3

Relief pitchers

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

G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
62	14	12	16	3.82	86
27	6	3	1	4.26	76
20	1	3	2	4.91	18
18	0	1	1	4.20	17
16	2	2	0	7.59	20
11	0	1	1	2.78	14
11	0	1	0	9.17	7
8	0	0	0	9.28	4
7	0	1	0	12.86	5
6	0	0	1	1.08	4
3	0	0	0	22.50	0

Farm system

External links

Notes and References

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL/1959-misc.shtml 1959 National League attendance
https://www.baseball-reference.com/l/landrho01.shtml Hobie Landrith page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bridgma01.shtml Marshall Bridges page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/o/o'brijo03.shtml Johnny O'Brien page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/a/amaroru01.shtml Ruben Amaro page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/p/paineph01.shtml Phil Paine page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/j/jablora01.shtml Ray Jablonski page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gregole01.shtml Lee Gregory page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/j/jeffcha01.shtml Hall Jeffcoat page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hemusso01.shtml Solly Hemus page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/porteja01.shtml Jay Porter page at Baseball-Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/k/kattra01.shtml Ray Katt page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/g/gagliph01.shtml Phil Gagliano page at Baseball Reference
Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007