The 1953 St. Louis Cardinals season was the team's 72nd season in St. Louis, Missouri and the 62nd season in the National League. The Cardinals went 83–71 during the season and finished in a tie for third place with the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League.
Prior to the start of the season, August A. Busch, Jr. of Anheuser-Busch bought the team from Fred Saigh. That started a reign that would last until March 1996, when William DeWitt, Jr., Drew Baur and Fred Hanser bought the club. Realizing the Cardinals now had more resources than he could possibly match, Bill Veeck, owner of the St. Louis Browns decided to search for another city to which to move the Browns. As a first step, he sold Sportsman's Park to the Cardinals. He would have probably had to sell the park in any case; the park had fallen into disrepair over the years, and the city had threatened to have it condemned. With the Browns' declining revenues – despite collecting rent from the Cardinals – Veeck could not afford to bring it up to code. Busch heavily renovated the 44-year-old park and renamed it Busch Stadium. Within a year, Veeck also sold the Browns to Jerold Hoffberger and Clarence Miles, and the new owners moved them to Baltimore as the Orioles.
Offseason December 3, 1952: Grant Dunlap was purchased by the Cardinals from the Shreveport Sports.Grant Dunlap page at Baseball Reference
Regular season
Season standings
Record vs. opponents
Notable transactions May 18, 1953: Billy Johnson was released by the Cardinals.Billy Johnson page at Baseball Reference May 23, 1953: Jackie Collum was traded by the Cardinals to the Cincinnati Reds for Eddie Erautt.Jackie Collum page at Baseball Reference June 14, 1953: Hal Rice was traded by the Cardinals to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Pete Castiglione.Hal Rice page at Baseball Reference
Roster 1953 St. Louis Cardinals Roster Pitchers Catchers
Infielders Outfielders
Other batters Manager
Coaches
Player stats
Batting
Starters by position Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI C Del Rice 135 419 99 .236 6 37 1B Steve Bilko 154 570 143 .251 21 84 2B Red Schoendienst 146 564 193 .342 15 79 SS Solly Hemus 154 585 163 .279 14 61 3B Ray Jablonski 157 604 162 .268 21 112 OF Stan Musial 157 593 200 .337 30 113 OF Enos Slaughter 143 492 143 .291 6 89 OF Rip Repulski 153 567 156 .275 15 66
Other batters Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI Peanuts Lowrey 104 182 49 .269 5 27 Harry Elliott 24 59 15 .254 1 6 Sal Yvars 30 57 14 .246 1 6 67 52 9 .173 0 3 Dick Sisler 32 43 11 .256 0 4 Ducky Schofield 33 39 7 .179 2 4 Ferrell Anderson 18 35 10 .286 0 1 9 31 9 .290 0 1 Eddie Stanky 17 30 8 .267 0 1 16 17 6 .353 1 3 Les Fusselman 11 8 2 .250 0 0 Hal Rice 8 8 2 .250 0 0 11 5 1 .200 0 1 Vern Benson 13 4 0 .000 0 0 9 0 0 ---- 0 0 Fred Marolewski 1 0 0 ---- 0 0
Pitching
Starting pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G IP W L ERA SO Harvey Haddix 36 253.0 20 9 3.06 163 Gerry Staley 40 230.0 18 9 3.99 88 Vinegar Bend Mizell 33 224.1 13 11 3.49 173 Joe Presko 34 161.2 6 13 5.01 56 John Romonosky 2 7.2 0 0 4.70 3
Other pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G IP W L ERA SO Stu Miller 40 137.2 7 8 5.56 79 Cliff Chambers 32 79.2 3 6 4.86 26 Willard Schmidt 6 17.2 0 2 9.17 11 Jack Faszholz 4 11.2 0 0 6.94 7
Relief pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G W L SV ERA SO 60 6 7 18 4.21 57 Hal White 49 6 5 7 2.99 32 Mike Clark 23 1 0 1 4.79 17 20 3 1 0 6.31 15 7 0 0 0 6.35 5 3 0 0 0 6.00 0 Eddie Yuhas 2 0 0 0 18.00 0
Farm system
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Dothan, Hazlehurst-Baxley, Paducah
References
External links 1953 St. Louis Cardinals at Baseball Reference 1953 St. Louis Cardinals team page at www.baseball-almanac.com