1969 St. Louis Cardinals season

This article is about the Major League Baseball team. For the National Football League team, see 1969 St. Louis Cardinals (NFL) season.

1969 St. Louis Cardinals
LeagueNational League
DivisionEast
BallparkBusch Memorial Stadium
CitySt. Louis, Missouri
Record87–75 (.537)
Divisional place4th
OwnersAugust "Gussie" Busch
General managersBing Devine
ManagersRed Schoendienst
TelevisionKSD-TV
RadioKMOX
(Harry Caray, Jack Buck)
← 1968 Seasons 1970 →

The 1969 St. Louis Cardinals season was the team's 88th season in St. Louis, Missouri and its 78th season in the National League. The Cardinals went 87–75 during the season and finished fourth in the newly established National League East, 13 games behind the eventual NL pennant and World Series champion New York Mets.

The resurgent Chicago Cubs, featuring players such as Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, and Billy Williams and helmed by fiery manager Leo Durocher, led the newly formed NL East for much of the summer before faltering. The Cardinals put on a mid-season surge, as their famous announcer Harry Caray (in what would prove to be his final season of 25 doing Cardinals broadcasts) began singing, "The Cardinals are coming, tra-la, tra-la". However, to the surprise of both Chicago and St. Louis, the Miracle Mets would ultimately win the division, as well as the league championship and the World Series.

Offseason

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Regular season

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Pitcher Bob Gibson and outfielder Curt Flood won Gold Gloves this year.

1969 also marked the final season for the Busch Stadium grass before the installation of AstroTurf, which would be their home surface for the next 26 seasons.

After the season, long-time broadcaster Harry Caray's contract was not renewed. At a news conference shortly afterward, Caray pointedly and conspicuously drank from a can of Schlitz beer, at the time the main competitor to the brands of Anheuser-Busch (A–B), who owned the Cardinals. He said he did not know why he had been let go, but doubted the team's claim that the decision was made because he was hurting beer sales. Instead, he suspected that people believed rampant rumors that he had been having an affair with Susan Busch, daughter-in-law of team president and A–B CEO Gussie Busch.[8][a]

Caray would be a broadcaster for the Oakland Athletics in 1970, before spending 27 seasons in Chicago with the White Sox (1971–1981) and the Cubs from 1982 until his death prior to the 1998 season.

Season standings

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NL East
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Mets 100 62 .617 — 52‍–‍30 48‍–‍32
Chicago Cubs 92 70 .568 8 49‍–‍32 43‍–‍38
Pittsburgh Pirates 88 74 .543 12 47‍–‍34 41‍–‍40
St. Louis Cardinals 87 75 .537 13 42‍–‍38 45‍–‍37
Philadelphia Phillies 63 99 .389 37 30‍–‍51 33‍–‍48
Montreal Expos 52 110 .321 48 24‍–‍57 28‍–‍53

Record vs. opponents

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1969 National League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Team ATL CHC CIN HOU LAD MON NYM PHI PIT SD SF STL
Atlanta — 3–9 12–6 15–3 9–9 8–4 4–8 6–6 8–4 13–5 9–9 6–6
Chicago 9–3 — 6–6–1 8–4 6–6 10–8 8–10 12–6 7–11 11–1 6–6 9–9
Cincinnati 6–12 6–6–1 — 9–9 10–8 8–4 6–6 10–2 5–7 11–7 10–8 8–4
Houston 3–15 4–8 9–9 — 6–12 11–1 10–2 8–4 3–9 10–8 10–8 7–5
Los Angeles 9–9 6–6 8–10 12–6 — 10–2 4–8 8–4 8–4 12–6 5–13 3–9
Montreal 4–8 8–10 4–8 1–11 2–10 — 5–13 11–7 5–13 4–8 1–11 7–11
New York 8–4 10–8 6–6 2–10 8–4 13–5 — 12–6 10–8 11–1 8–4 12–6
Philadelphia 6-6 6–12 2–10 4–8 4–8 7–11 6–12 — 10–8 8–4 3–9 7–11
Pittsburgh 4–8 11–7 7–5 9–3 4–8 13–5 8–10 8–10 — 10–2 5–7 9–9
San Diego 5–13 1–11 7–11 8–10 6–12 8–4 1–11 4–8 2–10 — 6–12 4–8
San Francisco 9–9 6–6 8–10 8–10 13–5 11–1 4–8 9–3 7–5 12–6 — 3–9
St. Louis 6–6 9–9 4–8 5–7 9–3 11–7 6–12 11–7 9–9 8–4 9–3 —


Opening Day starters

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Notable transactions

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Roster

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1969 St. Louis Cardinals
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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Batting

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Starters by position

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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 Tim McCarver 138 515 134 .260 7 51
1B Joe Torre 159 602 174 .289 18 101
2B Julián Javier 143 493 139 .282 10 42
SS Dal Maxvill 132 372 65 .175 2 32
3B Mike Shannon 150 551 140 .254 12 55
LF Lou Brock 157 655 195 .298 12 47
CF Curt Flood 153 606 173 .285 4 57
RF Vada Pinson 132 495 126 .255 10 70

Other batters

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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
Steve Huntz 71 139 27 .194 3 13
Phil Gagliano 62 128 29 .227 1 10
Joe Hague 40 100 17 .170 2 8
Vic Davalillo 63 98 26 .265 2 10
Bill White 49 57 12 .211 0 4
Byron Browne 22 53 12 .226 1 7
Dave Ricketts 30 44 12 .273 0 5
Jim Hicks 19 44 8 .182 1 3
Jerry DaVanon 16 40 12 .300 1 7
Bob Johnson 19 29 6 .207 1 2
Leron Lee 7 23 5 .217 0 0
Chip Coulter 6 19 6 .316 0 4
Ted Simmons 5 14 3 .214 0 3
Boots Day 11 6 0 .000 0 0
Joe Nossek 9 5 1 .200 0 0

Pitching

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Starting pitchers

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

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Bob Gibson 35 314.0 20 13 2.18 269
Steve Carlton 31 236.1 17 11 2.17 210
Nelson Briles 36 227.2 15 13 3.52 126
Santiago Guzmán 1 7.1 0 1 4.91 7
Jerry Reuss 1 7.0 1 0 0.00 3
Reggie Cleveland 1 4.0 0 0 9.00 3

Other pitchers

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

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Ray Washburn 28 132.1 3 8 3.06 80
Chuck Taylor 27 126.2 7 5 2.56 62
Mike Torrez 24 107.2 10 4 3.59 61
Dave Giusti 22 99.2 3 7 3.61 62
Jim Ellis 2 5.1 0 0 1.69 0

Relief pitchers

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

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Joe Hoerner 45 2 3 15 2.87 35
Mudcat Grant 30 7 5 7 4.12 35
Ron Willis 26 1 2 0 4.18 23
Gary Waslewski 12 0 2 1 3.92 16
Mel Nelson 8 0 1 0 11.81 3
Sal Campisi 7 1 0 0 0.93 7
Tom Hilgendorf 6 0 0 2 1.42 2
Dennis Ribant 1 0 0 0 13.50 0
Vic Davalillo 1 0 0 0 inf 0

Farm system

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See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Tulsa Oilers American Association Warren Spahn
AA Arkansas Travelers Texas League Ray Hathaway
A Modesto Reds California League Joe Cunningham
A St. Petersburg Cardinals Florida State League Jack Krol
A Cedar Rapids Cardinals Midwest League Roy Majtyka
A-Short Season Lewis-Clark Broncs Northwest League Bobby Dews
Rookie GCL Cardinals Gulf Coast League Tom Burgess

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Notes

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  1. ^ Susan Busch denied this on the single occasion she has addressed it on the record. Caray also denied it whenever the subject came up, but less consistently, in one interview suggesting the affair had happened while in another quickly changing the subject to say he was flattered that anyone thought she would be attracted to him.[9]

References

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  1. ^ Coco Laboy page at Baseball Reference
  2. ^ Pedro Borbón page at Baseball Reference
  3. ^ a b Bo Belinsky page at Baseball Reference
  4. ^ Byron Browne page at Baseball Reference
  5. ^ Orlando Cepeda page at Baseball Reference
  6. ^ a b Dennis Ribant page at Baseball Reference
  7. ^ Tommy Cruz page at Baseball-Reference
  8. ^ Knoedelseder, William (2012). Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser–Busch and America's Kings of Beer. HarperCollins. pp. 111–112. ISBN 9780062009272. No, I gotta believe the real reason I was let go was the someone believed the rumor that I was involved with young Busch's wife
  9. ^ Knoedelseder, 106–107
  10. ^ 1969 St. Louis Cardinals Roster by Baseball Almanac
  11. ^ Sonny Ruberto page at Baseball Reference
  12. ^ Bill Madlock page at Baseball Reference
  13. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007
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