Birds On A Bat - The St. Louis Cardinals 1954-1964 / 1954 Season / Season Recap

Sort order
Sort order
✔ Default
✔ Photo title, A → Z
✔ Photo title, Z → A
✔ Date created, new → old
✔ Date created, old → new
✔ Date posted, new → old
✔ Date posted, old → new
✔ Rating score, high → low
✔ Rating score, low → high
✔ Visits, high → low
✔ Visits, low → high
Photo sizes
Photo sizes
✔ Square
✔ Thumbnail
✔ XXS - tiny
✔ XS - extra small
✔ S - small
✔ M - medium
✔ L - large
slideshow
Calendar
Calendar

Home / Birds On A Bat - The St. Louis Cardinals 1954-1964 / 1954 Season / Season Recap 1

In 1952, Eddie Stanky's first year as player/ manager, the Cardinals ran up a 88-66 record finishing third in the National league. This was seven more games than the team had won in 1951 under Marty Marion, and earned Stanky Baseball's Manager of the Year Award. In 1953 his second year at the helm, the Cards went 83-71, again finishing third in the National League This would be Stanky's last year as player/manager devoting full time to managing in 1954. 1953 was also the year Fred Saigh sold the Cardinals to August "Gussie" Busch.

In 1954 the Cardinals faltered terribly finishing with a 72-82 record, 6th in the National League. Pitching was the main culprit as the team finished with a 4.50 era, only the Pirates and Cubs were worse.

Stanky tried to manage the same way he played, uncompromisingly and smartly. He tolerated no laziness and had fines for players not in the dugout for the first and last pitch of the game, not advancing runners, and similar infractions. He feuded with players who resented his strict style of play, with umpires whose calls he disagreed with, and with the media, who, for the first time it seemed, weren’t on his side. The fans, never real happy with Stanky replacing the popular Marion, grew increasingly impatient. The new owner Busch, in his second season as owner, and never known for his patience, seemed to lose confidence in his manager. In addition, Stanky's time as manager coincided with the slow overall decline of the team and its farm system from its glory days in the 1940s. However, Stanky would return to start the 1955 season.

Season Highlights:

On May 2, Stan Musial homered five times in one day during a doubleheader against the Giants in St. Louis.

Stan Musial, Red Schoendienst, Harvey Haddix and Ray Jablonski were named to the NL All-Star team.

Wally Moon homered in his first at bat on April 13 and was named NL Rookie of the Year batting .304, with 12 home runs and 76 RBIs, beating out Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks.

Tom Alston became the first black player for the Cardinals.

Ken Boyer hit .319 with 21 home runs and 116 RBI's with the Houston Buffaloes, the Cardinals AA Minor League affiliate.