Those working for and around the St. Louis Cardinals today reach back to the 1940’s.
Nothing particularly profound coming in this post. I was just thinking about the recent departure of the longest-tenured St. Louis Cardinals player, Rick Ankiel. He just missed having been a three-decade Cardinal, and was the last link to the 1990’s as an active player. The newest member of the Kansas City Royals made his major league debut with St. Louis in 1999.
As one player from the 1990’s departed, another returned as a coach as Mark McGwire restored his tie to a pair of earlier decades of Cardinals history. To that end, I jotted down a list of people with and around the organization as part of their job today, in and out of uniform, and their first decade of major league Cardinals service.
Albert Pujols, who joined the team on opening day 2001, has become the dean of the current players in terms of service with St. Louis, but of course Red Schoendienst has been around the longest. Red, a special assistant to the general manager, made his St. Louis debut in 1945. As such, he has now been with the organization at the major league level in parts of eight different decades.
The first decade of appearance in the Cardinals major league uniform is noted below. There has been at least one arrival during each ten-year period since the 1940’s.
1940’s: Red Schoendienst
1950’s: Bob Gibson
1960’s: Mike Shannon, Lou Brock
1970’s: Al Hrabosky
1980’s: Jose Oquendo, Rick Horton, Mike Jorgensen, Jack Clark
1990’s: Andy Benes, Alan Benes, Mark McGwire, Tony La Russa, Dave McKay, Dave Duncan
2000’s: Too many to count
Did I miss anyone who once wore the major league uniform and is employed in some capacity around the team today? Sound off below.
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