Warning: if you really do not like the color red, please, please, do not attend St. Louis Cardinals home baseball games.  These games are a veritable celebration of rouge.  Red and white – the Cards sharp team colors – let visiting teams know that their not in Kansas anymore.  Otherwise, it is a great, lively time – and it is always exciting to watch the new World Champion St. Louis Cardinals!

And don’t try to make Mark McGuire about the past.  He lives for the now, and the ten minutes from now, and the ten minutes from them.  There is no looking back.

2010 St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals finished the 2010 season second in the NL Central to the Pennant-winning Reds. The Cards posted a team batting average of .263 while hitting 150 HR. From the mound, the Cards ended with an impressive team ERA of 3.57. Albert Pujols continued his Hall of Fame career in 2010, posting a .312 batting average and slugging 42 HR. Pujols also lead the NL with 118 RBI. Matt Holiday also had a productive season, finishing fifth in NL batting with an average of .312. Meanwhile, Adam Wainwright posted an impressive 20-win season, second in the NL to Roy Halladay’s 21. The Cardinals are poised for a playoff run in 2011.

Busch Stadium has been home to the St. Louis Cardinals since 2006.  Busch Stadium is a 100% privately funded ballpark constructed at a cost of almost $350 million.  Busch Stadium seats 43,975 red-wearing Cardinals fans.

The Cardinals played ball in several stadiums prior to moving to the modern, shiny Busch Stadium.  From 1893 to 1920 the Cardinals played at Robinson Field (New Sportsman's Park).  After that, from 1920 to 1966, the Cardinals played home games at Sportsman's Park, as did the St. Louis Cardinals NFL team from 1960 to 1965.  The Cardinals played in "old" Busch Stadium from 1966 to 2005.

The Cardinals hope to add to their ten World Series championships in the new Busch Stadium.

World Champion St. Louis Cardinals: 2006 World Series at a Glance
 
The Cardinals entered the World Series as underdogs to the heavily favored Detroit Tigers. (In 2005 who could have guessed we’d be writing that!)

The Cardinals had been underdogs to San Diego in the NLDS and the New York Mets in the NLCS, so not being expected to win in the World Series was nothing new. One reporter said "It's not a question if the Cardinals can win the World Series, it's a question of whether or not the Cardinals can even win a game." The Cardinals won the first game of the World Series in Detroit 7-2. The winning pitcher was Anthony Reyes, outdueling Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander. This was the first time in Major League history that two rookie pitchers faced each other in Game 1 of the World Series. Reyes retired 17 straight batters and went 8+ innings, whereas Verlander was pulled in the sixth. The game was also characterized by homeruns from Cardinals Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen.

In Game 2, the Cardinals lost 3-1, as Detroit's veteran pitcher Kenny Rogers out-pitched St. Louis's Jeff Weaver, allowing only two hits through eight innings. There was controversy concerning the appearance of dirt or possibly pine tar (an illegal substance in baseball for pitchers) on Rogers's hand; however, after the substance was washed off of Rogers' pitching hand before the second inning, nothing else was done. An ESPN.com online poll showed the majority of ESPN online voters believe Kenny Rogers was cheating. 

In baseball, there is such a fine line between cheating and gamesmanship.  If the player is on your team, it is gamesmanship.  If he is on another team, it is cheating.

The Cardinals took Game 3, 5-0. Former Cy Young award winner for St. Louis, Chris Carpenter, went 8 innings on 3 hits. Two runs were scored on a Jim Edmonds double, and another two on an error by Detroit pitcher Joel Zumaya.

Game 4 was originally rained out. And although rain threatened the second attempt, it was played the next day and the Cardinals won 5-4 to move within one victory of the World Series title. David Eckstein – the manchild – was the player of the game, hitting an RBI double off Craig Monroe's glove that put the Cardinals on top in the 8th. He also had 3 more doubles and 2 more RBIs. An error by the pitcher allowed a run and brought the Tigers up to 6 total errors in the series, 4 being from the pitching staff (more than any other team in World Series History).

On October 27, the Cardinals won game 5, 4-2. The winning pitcher was Jeff Weaver (yes Yankee fans – that Jeff Weaver!!) who went 8 innings, allowing 2 runs with one earned run on 4 hits while striking out 9. Adam Wainwright got the save, striking out Brandon Inge for the final out.

This was the first World Series win for the Cardinals since 1982. David Eckstein was presented the 2006 World Series MVP Award, along with a Chevrolet Corvette Z06, for his performance.

The number of championships won matches the uniform number of manager Tony LaRussa (10), who had asked to wear the number because he wanted to help the Cards win their tenth world championship. LaRussa also joined Sparky Anderson as the only two managers to win the World Series while managing in both leagues.

Cardinals Fact Sheet

In case you’ve spent the last six decades in the Ukraine, the Cardinals uniform colors are Cardinal red, White, and Navy blue.

The team motto is less humble then accurate: “Welcome to Baseball Heaven.”  The Cards mascot is named Fredbird, an anthropomorphized Northern Cardinal, presumably because of his love for 1970’s southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd and their hit single Free Bird.  Just Kidding. 

Other nicknames: Often called Redbirds, a synonym for the Cardinal bird. That’s not extremely creative.  They’re also sometimes called Cards.

The Cards Theme Song -- "The Budweiser Clydesdale Jingle (Here Comes the King)" -- is associated with the team from its time as an asset of Anheuser-Busch. The song was often played by organist Ernie Hays during the Seventh-inning stretch while the Budweiser Clydesdales made a circuit of Busch Stadium. Currently, it is played in the middle of the 8th inning, with the Clydesdales still occasionally making appearances.  Sometimes the horses crap on the field, but that’s okay because the Washington Nationals do that every night.

Other songs that have been associated with the Cardinals:

"The Heat Is On" by Glenn Frey, played after Cardinals victories during the glory years of the 1980s and still a beloved song among Cardinals fans who lived in that era.

"Bad Day" by Daniel Powter, currently played after losses and after every American Idol ejection.  

Pre-bat songs include:

"Number One Spot" by Ludacris, for David Eckstein
"Ridin" by Chamillionaire, for Juan Encarnación
"Rollin'" by Limp Bizkit, for Scott Rolen
"Temperature" by Sean Paul, for Ronnie Belliard
"Swing" by Trace Adkins, for Chris Duncan
"Bat Country" by Avenged Sevenfold, for Anthony Reyes
"Back in Black" by AC/DC, for Aaron Miles

Cardinals Hall of Famers

Elected at least partly based on performance with Cardinals

Grover Cleveland "Pete" Alexander (1926-1929)
"Sunny Jim" Bottomley (1922-1932)
Lou Brock (1964-1979)
"Three Finger" Brown (1903)
Jesse Burkett (1899-1901)
Steve Carlton - "Lefty" (1965-1971)
Orlando Cepeda - "The Baby Bull" (1966-1968)
Charlie Comiskey (1882-1889, 1891)
Dizzy Dean (1930, 1932-1937)
"Leo The Lip" Durocher (1933-1937)
Frankie Frisch - "The Fordham Flash" (1927-1938)
Bob Gibson (1959-1975)
Burleigh Grimes (1930-1931, 1933-1934)
Chick Hafey (1924-1931)
Jesse Haines (1920-1937)
Rogers Hornsby - "The Rajah" (1915-1926, 1933)
Miller Huggins (1910-1916)
Joe "Ducky" Medwick (1932-1940, 1947-1948)
Johnny Mize - "The Big Cat" (1936-1941)
Stan "The Man" Musial (1941-1944, 1946-1963)
Albert "Red" Schoendienst (1945-1956, 1961-1963, 1965-1976, 1980, 1990)
Enos "Country" Slaughter (1938-1942, 1946-1953)
Ozzie Smith - "The Wizard of Oz" (1982-1996)
Bruce Sutter (1981-1984)

Other Hall-of-Famers associated with Cardinals

Walter Alston (1936)
Jake Beckley (1904-1907)
Roger Bresnahan (1909-1912)
Roger Connor (1894-1897)
Dennis Eckersley (1996-1997)
Pud Galvin (1892)
Rabbit Maranville (1927-1928)
Bill McKechnie (1928-1929)
John McGraw (1900)
Kid Nichols (1904-1905)
Wilbert "Uncle Robbie" Robinson (1900)
Dazzy Vance (1933-1934)
Bobby Wallace (1899-1901, 1917-1918)
Hoyt Wilhelm (1957)
Vic Willis (1910)
Cy Young (1899-1900)

Hall of Fame pitcher Rollie Fingers was with the Cardinals from December 8, 1980 to December 12, 1980, but he never played for the team.

Local radio: KTRS

Local Television: FSN Midwest, KPLR (CW 11)

Broadcasters: John Rooney and Mike Shannon on radio, Dan McLaughlin, Al Hrabosky and Joe Buck on FSN, Wayne Hagin and Rick Horton on KPLR.

Spring Training Facility: Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter, FL

Rivals: Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals

Famous fans: Chingy, J-Kwon, Nelly, Kristin Cavallari, John Grisham, Billy Bob Thornton, Gretchen Wilson, John Goodman, Bill Clinton

2008 St. Louis Cardinals
2010 St. Louis Cardinals