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1945 St. Louis Cardinals season

Major League Baseball season

Field	Value
name	St. Louis Cardinals
season	1945
league	National League
ballpark	Sportsman's Park
city	St. Louis, Missouri
record	95–59 (.617)
league_place	2nd
owners	Sam Breadon
managers	Billy Southworth
radio	WIL
(Harry Caray, Gabby Street)
WEW/WTMV
(France Laux, Johnny O'Hara)
espntn	stl
brtn	stl

(Harry Caray, Gabby Street) WEW/WTMV (France Laux, Johnny O'Hara)

The 1945 St. Louis Cardinals season was the team's 64th season in St. Louis, Missouri and the 54th season in the National League. The Cardinals went 95–59 during the season and finished second in the National League. The Cardinals set a Major League record which still stands, for the fewest double plays grounded into during a season, with only 75.

Offseason

Prior to 1945 season: Steve Bilko was signed by the Cardinals as an amateur free agent.

Regular season

An almost incredible place in baseball history was at stake. Billy Southworth and his Cardinals had a chance to become only the second ball club after the 1921-24 Giants to win four consecutive NL pennants.

However, the war finally drained the Redbirds of the talent needed to win a championship.

Stan Musial, Walker Cooper, Max Lanier and pitcher Mort Cooper, who experienced elbow problems later in the season, got into a contract squabble with Harry Breadon during the spring. They signed contracts for $12,000 apiece, then balked at reporting for opening day after learning Marion had been upped to $15,000.

On May 23, the Cards sent Mort Cooper to the Boston Braves for pitcher Red Barrett, who compiled a league-high total of 23 wins, and $60,000. However, the Redbirds did not have enough pitching depth to keep up with the faster pace of a Chicago Cubs team filled with veteran pitchers such as Paul Derringer.

The Cardinals actually won 16 of their 22 meetings with The Cubs.

Only Whitey Kurowski batted over .300 among the regulars. He was one of the few Cardinals were able to keep their jobs once the boys marched home from Europe and the Pacific.

Red Schoendienst stole 26 bases but batted just .278 and drove in only 47 runs.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Notable transactions

May 8, 1945: Glenn Crawford and John Antonelli were traded by the Cardinals to the Philadelphia Phillies for Buster Adams.

Roster

1945 St. Louis Cardinals
Roster
Pitchers

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	100	307	78	.254	4	43
1B	143	537	148	.276	8	78
2B	155	597	166	.278	0	72
SS	123	430	119	.277	1	59
3B	133	511	165	.323	21	102
OF	140	578	169	.292	20	101
OF	124	446	129	.289	3	44
OF	137	565	157	.278	1	47

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
94	304	96	.316	3	44
83	253	66	.261	1	28
74	146	49	.336	0	18
26	72	25	.347	0	5
19	57	13	.228	1	6
24	55	13	.236	0	7
24	47	12	.255	0	1
27	47	7	.149	1	4
13	43	10	.233	0	5
4	18	7	.389	0	1
6	12	1	.083	0	1
4	3	0	.000	0	0
2	3	0	.000	0	0
1	1	0	.000	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

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

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
36	246.2	21	9	2.74	63
31	166.1	8	10	3.52	76
24	157.1	15	4	2.52	63
18	98.1	4	7	2.93	28
4	26.0	2	2	1.73	16
4	23.2	2	0	1.52	14

Other pitchers

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

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
42	217.1	18	8	2.90	67
31	126.1	8	6	3.21	33
33	95.0	4	5	4.74	39
26	87.0	5	4	4.14	34
27	71.2	3	3	5.15	42
17	54.2	3	1	3.29	20
8	13.1	0	0	6.08	6
4	11.2	1	0	1.54	5

Relief pitchers

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

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
	6	1	0	0	3.38	4

Farm system

Notes

References

"Single Season Grounding Into Double Play Records". Baseball-Almanac.com.
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bilkost01.shtml Steve Bilko page at Baseball-Reference]
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/c/crawfgl01.shtml Glenn Crawford page at Baseball Reference]
Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., ''The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball,'' 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, N.C.: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007

Info: Wikipedia Source

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