Attn: Cardinal collectors and historians..the 2000th Cardinal

[cardinalcollector]

I know there are many St. Louis Cardinal collectors and historians on this board who may find this interesting. On Wednesday July 18 in Milwaukee Trevor Rosenthal made his debut with the St. Louis Cardinals and became the 2000th Cardinal player if you start the franchise with the 1882 St. Louis Brown Stockings as many sources do. This makes the Cardinals the first franchise to reach 2000 players even though other teams have been around as much as 6 years longer.

I have done extensive research into the Cardinals All-Time Roster since 1998, and have notified the team of many errors, omissions, and corrections in their ATR since then. I notified Brian Bartow, public relations manager for the Cardinals, at the end of the 2011 (World Championship!) season that this milestone was approaching, and the Cardinals were 10 players away. He passed this info on to Derrick Goold, the beat writer for the Cardinals, and he wrote this very interesting story about it: http://buzztap.com/link.jsp?id=11967661&cid=117

At the risk of shameless self-promotion, I felt like I had uncovered a Baseball Milestone that nobody knew about (or cared about, possibly). I just wanted to share that story with the Cardinal fans on this board.

[Uppboys]

I read the story on MLB At Bat last week about Rosenthal. I thought that was quite a unique stat. What really made the story more personal was meeting Rosenthal earlier this month at a Springfield Cardinals game and finding out he was from my home town of Lee's Summit, MO and played high school ball for a friend of mine. Anyway, great work!

[David W]

Thanks, interesting read.

Go Cards, I'm ashamed to say I fell asleep somewhere in the 11th inning last night, and missed the 12th inning win, but hey, 6:00 A.M. comes early

[Collectorsince62]

Randy - great research. Since you came up with it, you are the official keeper of the list, and there are a few of those 2,000 players whose Cardinal careers were so ugly they should be forever removed from any and all association with such an esteemed franchise. So please, immediately delete the likes of Neil Allen, Kip Wells, Esteban Yan, Dave Veres, Sidney Ponson, Vern Rapp, Tino Martinez, Larry Bigbie, Khalil Greene, Garry Templeton, and Bee Bee Richard. I'm sure there are other flops and disappointments I've blocked from memory who should never have been allowed to wear the birds on the bat, but just remembering that group has made me ill and I need to stop.

[triwak]

Fantastic research, Randy! I'm one of those Cards fans (live in Springfield, MO) who totally believes in recognizing the AA Brown Stockings as the same franchise. In fact, it's my understanding that the franchise actually began in 1875, in the final year of the National Association, and then played in the first two NL seasons (1876-77), after which they barnstormed until joining the AA. Who gives a white rat's ass if they changed leagues? Do the Brewer's fans discount their AL years?? St. Louis should honor those 4 pennants from the 1880s on the Busch Stadium walls, and take pride in them! Never have understood the organization's stance on this. Something to do with Commiskey and Chicago, maybe?

[z28jd]

Great research. I'm always looking for hidden Pirates milestones to write about. I informed the team a couple years back about coming close to their 10,000 home run. I was using numbers from Elias, they went to Elias to double check and came back with the wrong amount, so the team actually missed the milestone by one. Funny part is that they had to give a fan in Cincinnati some memorabilia in exchange for the wrong ball. The actual 10,000th homer and the wrongly labeled one were both hit by Garrett Jones, so at least they got the player right.

I also notified them about George Gibson's games caught record being wrong. They were planning a celebration for Jason Kendall, for when he broke the record but they were about two months off, trying to give it to Kendall early. I caught it a couple days in advance. Kept the pre-war guy in the news longer!

[cardinalcollector]

Thanks for the nice comments.

Collector since 62: Don't forget about Mike Heath!
I actually did have someone removed from the ATR. John Ambrose was called up to the Cardinals (don't have the exact date here, 1999-2001 era), was on the roster a couple days, sent back down, and never played. The next year his name was on the sacred ATR in the media guide without ever playing a game. The Cardinals took him out the following year after I informed them.

Ken: I agree with your opinion on adding 4 more Championships from the 1880s, I think Comiskey could have a place on the outfield wall too.

[the-illini]

Originally Posted by cardinalcollector

Thanks for the nice comments.

Collector since 62: Don't forget about Mike Heath!
I actually did have someone removed from the ATR. John Ambrose was called up to the Cardinals (don't have the exact date here, 1999-2001 era), was on the roster a couple days, sent back down, and never played. The next year his name was on the sacred ATR in the media guide without ever playing a game. The Cardinals took him out the following year after I informed them.

Ken: I agree with your opinion on adding 4 more Championships from the 1880s, I think Comiskey could have a place on the outfield wall too.

Any list of Cardinals to be removed should also include Bob Horner and Scott Cooper!

[cardswin53]

I have never understood why the St. Louis Cardinals have not embraced the American Association Browns with all their success. I suspect it resulted when the upstart American League transferred a team from Miwaukee in 1901 and signed a number of the Cardinal players and used the Browns name for thier team. Anyhow ...
Congrats Randy on having your remarkable research acknowledged in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and picked up by other media outlets,
Randy also won the side bet we had on the timing of the 2000th Cardinal. I did not bellieve it would happen until the September call-ups. The Cardinals had to go deep within their 40 man roster to pull it off in July. Ed

[z28jd]

Here's a Cardinal they need to get out of the record book. Tom Reilly, .182 average, 2 walks and 20 strikeouts, a no-hit no-glove shortstop. What did they expect from a guy who hit .193 and .211 in class D ball the years before they signed him! Why is he is the t204 set and Wagner isn't! Can't wait till I have all of his t204 cards so I can destroy them and make it a 120 card set like it was supposed to be.

[triwak]

Brown Stocking