1942 St. Louis Cardinals

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1942 St. Louis Cardinals / Franchise: St. Louis Cardinals / BR Team Page

Record: 106-48-2, Finished 1st in National League (1942 NL)

Clinched Pennant: September 27, 1942, vs. Cincinnati Reds

World Series Champs

Managed by Billy Southworth

Coaches: Mike Gonzalez and Buzzy Wares

Ballpark: Sportsman's Park IV

History, Comments, Contributions

Team photo

The 1942 St. Louis Cardinals had a tremendous season, winning 106 games in a 154-game schedule to capture the National League pennant, but it was no cakewalk. The Cards finished only two games in front of the second-place Brooklyn Dodgers and in fact did not reach first place for the first time until September 12th. What allowed them to get over the hump was an astonishing winning streak to finish the season. On the morning of August 9th, their record was a very good 63-40, but they were 9 games back of the Dodgers, having been as many as 10 games back a couple of days earlier. They swept a doubleheader from the Pittsburgh Pirates that day, and would only lose 8 more times the rest of the season, while piling up 43 wins, allowing them to catch and pass the Dodgers. They were in fact the second team since 1900 to win 42 games out of 50, the New York Yankees having accomplished the feat the previous season when they ran away with the American League pennant in mid-season on the back of Joe DiMaggio's historic 56-game hitting streak. The next team to win 42 games over a 50-game stretch would be the 2013 Los Angeles Dodgers.

Awards and Honors

• All-Stars: Jimmy Brown, Mort Cooper, Walker Cooper, Terry Moore and Enos Slaughter
• NL MVP: Mort Cooper
• Manager of the Year Award: Billy Southworth

World Series

Game	Score	Date	Location	Attendance
1	Yankees – 7, Cardinals – 4	September 30	Sportsman's Park	34,769
2	Yankees – 3, Cardinals – 4	October 1	Sportsman's Park	34,255
3	Cardinals – 2, Yankees – 0	October 3	Yankee Stadium	69,123
4	Cardinals – 9, Yankees – 6	October 4	Yankee Stadium	69,902
5	Cardinals – 4, Yankees – 2	October 5	Yankee Stadium	69,052

Further Reading

• Mel R. Freese: The St. Louis Cardinals in the 1940s, McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2007.
• Jerome M. Mileur: High-Flying Birds: The 1942 St. Louis Cardinals, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO, 2009.
• Washington Post: "Cards win Pennant by beating Cubs", historic-newspapers.com, September 28, 1942

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