St. Louis Cardinals All-Time Team

This post is inspired by a conversation I had with some friends at Chilis following our softball game last Monday night. We were discussing who you would put on the all-time St. Louis Cardinals team. There was a little bit of discussion before the conversation died out, but I kept thinking about it. On this list, there was really only one close call, maybe two, but anyway, here's what I came up with. So without further adieu, here is the Seth Maberry version of the all-time St. Louis Cardinals.

LF- Lou Brock
2B- Rogers Hornsby
RF- Stan Musial
1B- Albert Pujols
CF- Jim Edmonds
3B- Ken Boyer
C- Ted Simmons
SS- Ozzie Smith
SP- Bob Gibson

Closer: Jason Isringhausen
Manager: Tony LaRussa

Feel free to Tweet at me your disagreements, or players you think I omitted, and what not. The closest call for me, was between Jim Edmonds and Curt Flood in center. Flood was in St. Louis a little longer, and had a higher batting average in the 12 years he played for the Cards. However, Edmonds' On-Base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS put him over the top. He also out-homered Flood 241-84. They both were good defenders, but Edmonds never slipped and fell during a world series game, and he's won more gold gloves, so at the end of the day, Edmonds was who I felt should be in Center field for the Cards, on the all-time team.

Now, the other close call was at third base, with Ken Boyer finally getting the nod. When you look at the stats between Boyer and Scott Rolen, Rolen has the better numbers in a lot of cases, and all things considered was a better defender (though Boyer won five gold gloves). But, Boyer spent 11 years in St. Louis and to my knowledge never got into a dispute with the manager. I'm sure there's some sabermeticians out there that will tell me that Rolen should be the guy, but Boyer, a Missourian, I felt like deserved the nod out of loyalty, fan popularity, and at the end of the day, Ken Boyer only helps your baseball team.

It was a tough call between LaRussa and Whitey Herzog for manager, and I dunno if it was the fact the LaRussa has been manager the vast majority of my fanhood or what, but the success of Tony's teams is hard to argue with. Sure, you woulda liked a few more of those post-season runs to end with pennants or titles, but, still, it's hard to win it all in baseball, and LaRussa has been very good and given the club everything he's got. He's way to often criticized and I think when he finally hangs up his jersey, he'll be viewed as the best manager in club history.

The rest of the team I felt like were pretty obvious selections. Hornsby, Musial and Pujols are probably the three best position players in the history of the Franchise, and Gibson the best pitcher. If somebody forced me to pick another starter, Dizzy Dean would be next on my list, but Gibby was definitely the better pitcher. I feel like Jack Buck and Mike Shannon deserve some recognition as the guys I would want calling the games of this all-time team, and both guys were/are tremendous talents behind the mic and I have a ton of respect for both. When you come up with an all-time team, people will always be upset of certain players not listed, maybe a guy from they're childhood that isn't quite as good as the guy listed, but a guy they always really liked. These are guys like Tim McCarver, Tommy Herr, Bob Forsch, Ken Reitz, Julian Javier, Joaquin Andujar, Terry Pendleton, Fernando Vina, Jessie Haines, Mort Cooper, etc. All those guys brought a lot to the table and contributed to the franchise in great ways, but didn't make the cut.

So anyway, with apologies to a few players here and there, this is my all time St. Louis Cardinals team. But again, fill free to give me feedback as to who should or shouldn't be on the list and such. As Cardinals fans, we have been blessed through the decades to watch a lot of great players, and a lot of great teams, so there are gonna be good guys that get left of this list. This one, however, is the one that I think comes the closest.