Neither of my voted players got in this year, Keith Hernandez and John Tudor. However, I can’t argue with Rolen, Izzy nor Cooper. Rolen is the second greatest third baseman in Cardinal history, and has a ring with the club. Izzy is the all-time saves leader, albeit “saves” is a stat that is derived from the way pitching staffs are utilized today. Cooper was the mainstay on the pitching staffs of the most successful run of clubs in Cardinal history. And his 1942 season is one of the greatest pitching seasons ever in team history, for the team widely considered the greatest Cardinal team ever.
As for non-playing personnel, I am baffled as to why Harry Caray has not been enshrined yet. He represented midwest baseball to fans all over the south, midwest and west for 25 years.
On the trade front and looking back, Wise was actually better than Carlton in ’73, so that season we likely would still have been a .500 club at best. But man, you look at those teams in the late ’70s and Carlton may have carried them over the hump, or at least kept them competitive with those good Pirate ball clubs.
The Cubs had real bad timing in getting Broglio. He had 6 and 7 WAR seasons as a Cardinal, and was one of the league’s better pitchers coming in to 1964. My thought is that had he come along later, he would have had Tommy John surgery and possibly been able to come back and be very good again. Devine had given the Cubs the choice of five pitchers in that deal. I regret not asking Bing at a SABR get-together one year, who the other four were. We sent Bobby Shantz in that deal, but I don’t think he was one of the five. My guess is they were Curt Simmons, Ray Washburn, maybe Ray Sadecki and perhaps Ron Taylor or Mike Cuellar.