1997 St. Louis Cardinals season

Major League Baseball season March 2026 November 2013 St. Louis Cardinals 1997 St Louis Cardinals Cap Insignia.svg National League Central Busch Memorial Stadium St. Louis, Missouri 73–89 (.451) 4th William DeWitt, Jr. Walt Jocketty Tony La Russa Fox Sports MidwestKPLR (Al Hrabosky, Bob Carpenter, Joe Buck, Bob Ramsey, Ozzie Smith, Rich Gould) KMOX (Jack Buck, Mike Shannon, Joe Buck) The 1997 St. Louis Cardinals season was the team's 116th season in St. Louis, Missouri and the 106th season in the National League. The Cardinals went 73–89 during the season and finished fourth in the National League Central division, 11 games behind the Houston Astros. Offseason December 4, 1996: Willie McGee was signed as a free agent by the Cardinals.Willie McGee at Baseball-Reference December 6, 1996: Tom Pagnozzi was signed as a free agent with the St. Louis Cardinals.https://www.baseball-reference.com/p/pagnoto01.shtml Tom Pagnozzi Stats Regular season Season standings St. Louis Cardinals Record vs. opponents STL Roster 1997 St. Louis Cardinals Roster Pitchers 38 Manny Aybar 44 Rich Batchelor 33 José Bautista 53 Rigo Beltrán 41 Alan Benes 40 Andy Benes 54 Mike Busby 43 Dennis Eckersley 48 Tony Fossas 50 John Frascatore 32 Rick Honeycutt 29 Danny Jackson 57 Curtis King 34 Sean Lowe 54 Eric Ludwick 33 T. J. Mathews 61 Tom McGraw 35 Matt Morris 31 Donovan Osborne 28 Lance Painter 46 Mark Petkovsek 64 Brady Raggio 30 Todd Stottlemyre 34 Fernando Valenzuela Catchers 37 Mike DiFelice 49 Tom Lampkin 26 Eli Marrero 19 Tom Pagnozzi Infielders 27 David Bell 56 Jeff Berblinger 11 Royce Clayton  7 Delino DeShields  8 Gary Gaetti 22 Mike Gallego 53 Mike Gulan 29 Scott Livingstone 25 Mark McGwire 67 Roberto Mejía 52 Luis Ordaz 38 Steve Scarsone 12 Danny Sheaffer 24 Dmitri Young Outfielders 68 Micah Franklin  5 Ron Gant 22 Scarborough Green  3 Brian Jordan 16 Ray Lankford 47 John Mabry 51 Willie McGee 23 Phil Plantier 23 Mark Sweeney Manager 10 Tony La Russa Coaches 18 Dave Duncan (Pitching) 34 Mark DeJohn (Bullpen) 25 George Hendrick (Hitting) 15 Rene Lachemann (Third Base)  4 Carney Lansford (Bench) 39 Dave McKay (First Base) Transactions June 3, 1997: 1997 Major League Baseball draft Rick Ankiel was drafted by the Cardinals in the 2nd round. Player signed August 28, 1997.Rick Ankiel at Baseball-Reference Xavier Nady was drafted by the Cardinals in the 4th round, but did not sign.Xavier Nady at Baseball-Reference José Rodríguez was drafted by the Cardinals in the 24th round. Player signed July 15, 1997.José Rodríguez at Baseball-Reference June 13, 1997: Danny Jackson, Mark Sweeney and Rich Batchelor were traded by the Cardinals to the San Diego Padres for Scott Livingstone, Phil Plantier, and Fernando Valenzuela.Mark Sweeney at Baseball-Reference July 29, 1997: Mike Gallego was released by the Cardinals.Mike Gallego at Baseball-Reference The Trade The beginning came on July 31, when the Cardinals acquired Mark McGwire from the Oakland Athletics in exchange for relief pitcher T.J. Mathews and minor league pitchers Eric Ludwick and Blake Stein. McGwire could have been a free agent at the end of the season. McGwire had 34 home runs and 81 RBIs with Oakland at the time of the trade, which reunited him with former Athletics manager Tony La Russa. The Cardinals were considered to have little chance of keeping him with the club beyond the final two months of the season. But general manager Walt Jocketty's deal figured to inject some excitement into a dull close to the season, since the Cardinals were far out of the race. They had begun their freefall in early July when left fielder Ron Gant had failed to make a routine catch which would have given the Cardinals a victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Not only did the Pirates rally for that victory, but they also ended up sweeping the four-game series, knocking the Cardinals out of first place, and sending them reeling. McGwire hadn't expected to stay with Oakland, but he also didn't think he would end up with the Cardinals. McGwire's Impact The team was in the throes of a slump when their new first baseman arrived. On August 10, the Cardinals had lost 11 of their last 14 games. They had scored a total of 58 runs scored in their 21 previous games at that point. McGwire struggled to hit anything at first but had four home runs with his new team in less than two weeks, including two in an August 13 game that featured a 455-foot dinger, one of the longest in Busch Stadium history. September Booms On September 3, the same day pitcher Alan Benes underwent rotate cuff surgery, McGwire hit the first Busch Stadium home run that was measured at more than 500 feet—504 feet, to be exact—hit on a pitch from Jaime Navarro of the Chicago White Sox. A week later, he hit his 16th homer since joining the Cardinals but his 50th overall for the season, making him only the second man in baseball history-Babe Ruth did it twice-to reach the 50-homer mark in successive seasons McGwire's biggest blasts might have come on September 17. That afternoon, the Cardinals announced they had signed him to a three-year, $28.5 million contract with an option for a fourth season at $11 million. He announced at the news conference that part of the deal included the formation of a charitable foundation to fight sexual and physical abuse of children, a fight strengthened by his donation of $1 million a year. McGwire choked up and wiped away tears as he talked of that cause, something close to his heart because of a close friend who had suffered such abuse. He had decided to stay in St. Louis, McGwire said, because of the overwhelming affection shown him by Cardinals fans. Never did he feel it so much as when he stepped to the plate for his first at bat after signing his contract that day. With Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Ramón Hernández on the mound at Busch, the crowd of 27,157 fans stood for a standing ovation at the announcement of McGwire's name. No one stopped cheering as Martinez threw ball one, then ball two, strike one and ball three. They all remained on their feet and screaming as Martinez fired the fifth pitch of the at bat, which McGwire hit 517 feet for the then-longest home run in stadium history, an upper-deck shot over the left-field scoreboard. it was McGwire's fifth homer of more than 500 feet that season and his 18th home run since joining the Cardinals 48 days earlier. With two homers on the second-to-last day of the season and one more in the season finale. McGwire ended with 24 homers in the Cardinals uniform and 58 overall for the season. That was a single-season for a right-handed batter and fueled a winter of speculation that he might be the chosen one to break Roger Maris's hallowed record. 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 Mike Difelice 93 260 62 .238 4 30 1B Dmitri Young 110 333 86 .258 5 34 2B Delino DeShields 150 572 169 .295 11 58 SS Royce Clayton 154 576 153 .266 9 61 3B Gary Gaetti 148 502 126 .251 17 69 LF Ron Gant 139 502 115 .229 17 62 CF Ray Lankford 133 465 137 .295 31 98 RF John Mabry 116 388 110 .284 5 36 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 Willie McGee 122 300 90 .300 3 38 Tom Lampkin 108 229 56 .245 7 22 Mark McGwire 51 174 44 .253 24 42 Brian Jordan 47 145 34 .234 0 10 David Bell 66 142 30 .211 1 12 Danny Sheaffer 76 132 33 .250 0 11 Phil Plantier 42 113 29 .257 5 18 Mark Sweeney 44 61 13 .213 0 4 Tom Pagnozzi 25 50 11 .220 1 8 Eli Marrero 17 45 11 .244 2 7 Mike Gallego 27 43 7 .163 0 1 Scott Livingstone 42 41 7 .171 0 3 Micah Franklin 17 34 11 .324 2 2 Scarborough Green 20 31 3 .097 0 1 Luis Ordaz 12 22 6 .273 0 1 Roberto Mejía 7 14 1 .071 0 2 Steve Scarsone 5 10 1 .100 0 0 Mike Gulan 5 9 0 .000 0 1 Jeff Berblinger 7 5 0 .000 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 Matt Morris 33 217.0 12 9 3.19 149 Todd Stottlemyre 28 181.0 12 9 3.88 160 Andy Benes 26 177.0 10 7 3.10 175 Alan Benes 23 161.2 9 9 2.89 160 Donovan Osborne 14 80.1 3 7 4.93 51 Manny Aybar 12 68.0 2 4 4.24 41 Fernando Valenzuela 5 22.2 0 4 5.56 10 Danny Jackson 4 18.2 1 2 7.71 13 Mike Busby 3 14.1 0 2 8.79 6 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 Brady Raggio 15 31.1 1 2 6.89 21 Sean Lowe 6 17.1 0 2 9.35 8 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 Dennis Eckersley 57 1 5 36 3.91 45 Tony Fossas 71 2 7 0 3.83 41 John Frascatore 59 5 2 0 2.48 58 Mark Petkovsek 55 4 7 2 5.06 51 T.J. Mathews 40 4 4 0 2.15 46 Rigo Beltrán 35 1 2 1 3.48 50 Curtis King 30 4 2 0 2.76 13 Lance Painter 14 1 1 0 4.76 11 José Bautista 11 0 0 0 6.57 4 Rich Batchelor 10 1 1 0 4.50 8 Eric Ludwick 5 0 1 0 9.45 7 Rick Honeycutt 2 0 0 0 13.50 2 Tom McGraw 2 0 0 0 0.00 0 Gary Gaetti 1 0 0 0 0.00 0 Awards and honors St. Louis Baseball Man of the Year: Ray Lankford Mark McGwire, Major League record, 1st player to lead the Major Leagues in Home Runs but not lead the American League or National League in home runsGreat Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p.372, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, A Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York, 978-0-451-22363-0 Farm system Minor League Baseball AAA Louisville Redbirds American Association Gaylen Pitts AA Arkansas Travelers Texas League Rick Mahler A Prince William Cannons Carolina League Roy Silver A Peoria Chiefs Midwest League Joe Cunningham, Jr. A-Short Season New Jersey Cardinals New York–Penn League Jeff Shireman Rookie Johnson City Cardinals Appalachian League Steve TurcoJohnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007 External links 1997 St. Louis Cardinals at Baseball Reference 1997 St. Louis Cardinals team page at www.baseball-almanac.com References Category:St. Louis Cardinals seasons Saint Louis Cardinals St Lou