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 Seriestitles 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.
Note: In 2012 and 2013, the award was given to a player on each MLB team; one awardee was then named the Overall Defensive Player of the Year for the American League and another for the National League. From 2014 to 2019, the award was given to one player at each position for all of MLB; one of the nine awardees was then named the Overall Defensive Player of the Year for all of Major League Baseball.
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.
Note: The Cardinals were originally known as the St. Louis Brown Stockings (1882), St. Louis Browns (1883–1898), and St. Louis Perfectos (1899), before becoming the Cardinals in 1900.
^The World Series Trophy was first awarded in 1970. In 1985, it was renamed the Commissioner's Trophy. From 1970 to 1984, the "Commissioner's Trophy" was the name of the award that was given to the All-Star Game MVP.
^Gillette, Gary; Palmer, Pete (2007). The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia (Fourth ed.). New York City: Sterling Publishing Co. p. 1763.
ISBN978-1-4027-4771-7.
^
abThe
World Series Trophy was first awarded in 1967. In 1985, it was renamed the Commissioner's Trophy. From 1970 to 1984, the "Commissioner's Trophy" was the name of the award given to the
All-Star Game MVP.
^Two awards are presented each year, one to a St. Louis Cardinal and one to a
Houston Astro, each of whom exemplifies Kile's virtues of being "a good teammate, a great friend, a fine father and a humble man." The winners are selected, respectively, by the St. Louis and Houston chapters of the
Baseball Writers' Association of America.
Darryl Kile Award. Baseball Almanac. Retrieved July 2, 2010.