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 our second installment in the Cardinals greatest teams saga, we take a look back at another personal favorite of ours, the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals. 1985 was a great year for the Cardinals, in fact they were so close to getting their tenth World Series championship that year, thus an infamous blown call from Don Denkinger and a complete collapse in Game 7 of the World Series showed us that it was not in the stars that year, but all went well in the future as the Cardinals are now eleven time champions and have a great chance to make it twelve come next season. The 1985 Cardinals featured two Hall of Famers and two of STL Cardinal Baseball’s Cardinal legends and was without a doubt one of the most exciting teams in the history of the Cardinals.  Now let’s take an inside look and  focus on one of the greatest teams in Cardinals history, the speedy and efficient 1985 Cardinals:

Record: 101-61 (NL Champions)

Roster: 

Manager: Whitey Herzog (HOF)

Rotation: John Tudor(21-8, 1.93 ERA, 169 K’s), Joaquin Andujar(21-12, 3.40 ERA, 112 K’s), Danny Cox (18-9, 2.88 ERA, 131 K’s), Kurt Kepshire (10-9, 4.75 ERA, 67 K’s), Bob Forsch (9-6, 3.90 ERA, 48 K’s).

Bullpen: Ricky Horton (3-2, 2.91 ERA, 59 K’s), Ken Dayley (4-4, 2.76 ERA, 11 S,62 K’s, Bill Campell (5-3, 3.50 ERA, 41 K’s), Jeff Lahti(5-2, 1.84 ERA, 19 S, 41 K’s), Todd Worrell (3-0, 2.91 ERA, 17 K’s).

Catchers: Darrell Porter(.221 AVG, 10 HR, 36 RBI), Tom Nieto (.225 AVG, 0 HR, 34 RBI).

Infielders: Jack Clark (.281 AVG, 22 HR, 87 RBI), Tommy Herr (.302, 8 HR, 110 RBI, 31 SB), Ozzie Smith (HOF, .276 AVG, 6 HR, 54 RBI, 31 SB), Terry Pendleton (.240 AVG, 5 HR, 69 RBI, 17 SB).

Outfielders: Willie McGee(.353 AVG, 10 HR, 82 RBI, 56 SB), Vince Coleman (.267 AVG, 1 HR, 40 RBI, 110 SB), Andy Van Slyke (.259 AVG, 13 HR, 55 RBI,34 SB), Tito Landrum (.280 AVG, 4 HR, 21 RBI, 1 SB).

Awards won: 

MVP: Willie McGee

Rookie of the year: Vince Coleman

Manager of the Year: Whitey Herzog

Gold Gloves: Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee

Silver Slugger: Willie McGee, Jack Clark

Player Highlights: 

• Vince Coleman’s 110 stolen bases set a rookie record, that still stands today.
• John Tudor finished second in the NL Cy Young voting behind Dwight “Doc” Gooden.
• Two of the Cardinals on this team are in the Hall of Fame: Whitey Herzog and Ozzie Smith.
• Two of the Cardinals on this team are STL Cardinal Baseball Cardinal Legends here are the links to explore more on their great careers: Willie McGee and Bob Forsch.