This is part of an ongoing series chronicling the greatest teams in Cardinal history. If you’d like to see the others featured, please browse them all by CLICKING HERE.

In the third installment of the Cardinals greatest teams series, we take a look back at one of the greatest teams in baseball history the 1942 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals.  This team featured some of the greatest Cardinals to ever play the game including the Man himself, Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter, and Mort Cooper Three of the Cardinals were inducted into the Hall of Fame: Musial, Slaughter, and manager Billy Southworth. The team also featured one of STL Cardinal Baseball’s Cardinal Legends, Marty Marion, which you can read what we have to say about “Mr. Shortstop” here.  The 1942 Cardinals are truly one of the greatest teams in the history of the great franchise, here is an inside look at the ’42 Redbirds: 

Record: 106-48, World Series Champions

Roster:

Manager: Billy Southworth (HOF)

Rotation: Mort Cooper (22-7, 1.78 ERA, 152 K’s), Johnny Beazely (21-6, 2.13 ERA, 91 K’s), Max Lanier (13-8, 2.96 ERA, 93 K’s), Ernie White (7-5, 2.52 ERA, 67 K’s).

Bullpen: Howie Krist (13-3, 2.51 ERA, 47 K’s), Murry Dickson (6-3, 2.91 ERA, 66 K’s), Howie Pollet (7-5, 2.88 ERA, 42 K’s), Lon Warenke (6-4, 3.29 ERA, 31 K’s), Harry Gumbert (9-5, 3.26 ERA, 52 K’s, 5 Saves).

Catchers: Walker Cooper(.281 AVG, 7 HR, 65 RBI), Ken O’Dea (.234 AVG, 5 HR, 32 RBI).

Infielders: Johnny Hopp(.258 AVG, 3 HR, 37 RBI), Creepy Crespi (.243 AVG, 0 HR, 34 RBI), Marty Marion (.276 AVG,  0 HR, 54 RBI), Whitey Kurowski (.254 AVG, 9 HR, 42 RBI),  Jimmy Brown (.256 AVG, 1 HR, 71 RBI), Ray Sanders (.252 AVG, 5 HR, 39 RBI).

Outfielders: Stan Musial (HOF,.315 AVG, 10 HR, 72 RBI), Enos Slaughter (HOF,.318 AVG, 13 HR, 98 RBI), Terry Moore (.288 AVG, 6 HR, 49 RBI), Harry Walker (.314 AVG, 0 HR, 16 RBI).

Awards won:

NL MVP- Mort Cooper

Player Highlights:

• MVP Mort Cooper led the NL in wins(22), ERA (1.78), and shut outs(10).
• Enos Slaughter finished second in NL MVP voting with 200 vote points.
• The first time a brother duo at catcher and pitcher played for the same team with Mort and Walker Cooper for the Cardinals, and both were All Stars in 1942.

Season Highlights: 

• Cardinals had an NL best 106 wins just ahead of the Brooklyn Dodgers 104 wins.
• Mort Cooper became the fourth Cardinal to win the MVP in it’s first eleven years of existence.
• The Cardinals defeated the Yankees in 5 games to win their fourth World Championship.