1978 St. Louis Cardinals season explained

St. Louis Cardinals
Season:	1978
League:	National League
Division:	East
Ballpark:	Busch Memorial Stadium
City:	St. Louis, Missouri
Record:	69–93 (.426)
Divisional Place:	5th
Owners:	August "Gussie" Busch
General Managers:	Bing Devine
Managers:	Vern Rapp, Jack Krol, Ken Boyer
Television:	KSD-TV (Jack Buck, Mike Shannon, Jay Randolph, Bob Starr)
Radio:	KMOX (Jack Buck, Mike Shannon, Bob Starr)

The 1978 St. Louis Cardinals season was the team's 97th season in St. Louis, Missouri and its 87th season in the National League. The Cardinals went 69–93 during the season and finished fifth in the National League East, 21 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies.

Offseason

October 25, 1977: The Cardinals traded a player to be named later to the San Francisco Giants for Frank Riccelli. The Cardinals completed the deal by sending Jim Dwyer to the Giants on June 15, 1978.^[1]
December 8, 1977: Dave Rader and Héctor Cruz were traded by the Cardinals to the Chicago Cubs for Jerry Morales, Steve Swisher, and cash.^[2]
February 2, 1978: Ken Rudolph was signed as a free agent by the Cardinals.^[3]
March 15, 1978: Rick Bosetti was traded by the Cardinals to the Toronto Blue Jays for Tom Bruno and cash.^[4]

Regular season

In late April, the Cardinals fired manager Vern Rapp, who had started at 7-11. He was briefly replaced by coach Jack Krol for two games (1-1) before giving the job on a permanent basis to their former MVP third-baseman Ken Boyer, who went 61-81 the rest of the way.

On June 16, Tom Seaver of the Cincinnati Reds made history by pitching a no-hitter against the Cardinals. It would be the only no-hitter of his career.

First baseman Keith Hernandez won a Gold Glove.

This remains to date the only 162-game season in which the Cardinals failed to win at least 70 games.

Opening Day starters

Notable transactions

May 26, 1978: Eric Rasmussen was traded by the Cardinals to the San Diego Padres for George Hendrick.^[6]
June 8, 1978: Frank Riccelli was traded by the Cardinals to the Houston Astros for Bob Coluccio.^[1]
July 18, 1978: John Tamargo was traded by the Cardinals to the San Francisco Giants for a player to be named later. The Giants completed the deal by sending Rob Dressler to the Cardinals on July 24.^[7]

Roster

1978 St. Louis Cardinals
Roster
Pitchers		CatchersInfielders		Outfielders		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	152	516	148	.287	22	80
1B	159	542	138	.255	11	64
2B	125	377	88	.233	3	26
SS	155	647	181	.280	2	47
3B	150	540	133	.246	10	75
LF	92	298	66	.221	0	12
CF	102	382	110	.288	17	67
RF	130	457	109	.239	4	46

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
125	367	96	.262	2	37
96	219	50	.228	1	14
76	164	44	.268	1	28
45	115	32	.278	1	10
52	92	22	.239	2	20
35	85	23	.271	0	4
34	65	14	.215	1	4
33	63	21	.333	1	10
24	50	6	.120	0	0
10	29	5	.172	0	2
8	11	2	.182	0	1
10	6	1	.167	0	0
6	6	0	.000	0	0
12	5	1	.200	0	0
5	3	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
33	234.0	14	11	2.96	103
34	233.2	11	17	3.70	114
22	138.1	9	8	3.64	45
19	75.0	2	7	5.76	28
10	60.1	2	5	4.18	32

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
45	198.1	12	12	2.54	149
27	98.2	4	9	5.38	61
25	65.0	4	2	4.29	46
18	49.2	4	3	1.99	33
7	18.0	0	2	4.50	12
3	13.0	0	1	2.08	4

Relief pitchers

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

G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
72	4	8	11	2.79	130
62	2	4	6	3.80	70
16	1	1	3	3.81	16
14	0	3	0	4.09	8
13	0	0	0	6.43	8

Awards and records

League leaders

Garry Templeton, National League leader, Triples

Farm system

External links

Notes and References

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r/riccefr01.shtml Frank Riccelli page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/r/raderda01.shtml Dave Rader page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/r/rudolke01.shtml Ken Rudolph page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/bosetri01.shtml Rick Bosetti page at Baseball Reference
Web site: 1978 St. Louis Cardinals Roster by Baseball Almanac.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/r/rasmuer01.shtml Eric Rasmussen page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/t/tamarjo01.shtml John Tamargo 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