TOWER GROVE — The St. Louis Cardinals are 15 wins away from becoming the
fourth franchise in baseball history to win 10,000 games and only the second
to do so without changing their address. Unless, that is, you asked the
Cardinals.
Entering this season, the Cardinals and their opponent tonight, the Los
Angeles Dodgers, were in a race to reach 10,000. The Dodgers, with a 29-win
head start, got their more than a month ago and take 10,022 franchise wins
into tonight’s series finale at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals, after a
15-inning win Wednesday, at 15 shy, sitting at 9,985 victory in their
history. Or not.
The 10,000-Win Club has been a topic discussed in here before — check back
to the “Race for 10,000 Wins” entry from this past winter — and with the
number approaching for the Cardinals it’s worth bringing up again. The
9,985-victory total comes from Baseball-Reference.com, which relies on other
historical sources for its totals. The number is based on the Cardinals’
wins since 1882, when on May 2 owner Chris Von der Ahe’s Browns played in
front of 2,000 fans at Sportsman’s Park. Charles Comiskey was the Browns’
star, and the American Association was their league. They finished 37-43.
In Mike Eisenbath’s The Cardinals Encyclopedia, the 1882 season is presented
as the first season in Cardinals history. Their evolution certainly traces
back to that team, as the Browns/Browns Stockings became the Perfectos
(briefly) and then became the Cardinals at Robison Field. Others see 1899 as
the birth of the modern Cardinals because of a complete franchise transplant
that moved the Cleveland Spiders into St. Louis, dressed them up in cardinal
red and called them the Perfectos for one season. The Cardinals, however, peg
1892 as the franchise’s first year. That was when, still as the Browns, they
joined the National League, and that is where the numbers like the record
against the Dodgers (see today’s 10@10) is based.
The Cardinals record, according to the team’s take and its media guide is:
9,204-8,887.
That accepted history puts the Cardinals a decade or so away from 10,000
wins, and it plants them behind the Braves franchise, the New York Yankees
franchise … etc., etc., when it comes to pledging the 10,000-Win Club. Here
is the franchise record rankings, per Baseball-Reference.com:
TEAM … … … EST. … … WINS-LOSSES … … WinPct
SF/NY Giants … 1883 … 10,311-8,860 … … .538
Chi Cubs … 1876 … 10,135-9,569 … … .514
LA/BK Dodgers … 1884 … 10,022-9,089 … … .524
Cardinals … 1882 … 9,985-9,319 … … .517
B/M/A Braves … 1876 … 9,819-9,857 … … .499
Cin Reds … 1882 … 9,791-9,519 … … .507
Pit Pirates … 1882 … 9,734-9,538 … … .505
NY Yankees … 1901 … 9,534-7,274 … … .567
Phi Phillies … 1883 … 9,003-10,139 … .470
It’s all a matter of perspective and history. There is research that
supports this year being the 150th anniversary of professional baseball in
St. Louis. Some researchers wonder if the site known as Sportsman’s Park
hosted baseball longer than any other site in the country. We know this is
the 65th anniversary of the Streetcar Series — the first World Series played
entirely west of the Mississippi River and the last played entirely at one
ballpark — and we’ve seen a summerlong celebration of Cardinals history, as
inspired by the 80th All-Star Game.
Winning that 10,000th game (possibly) only adds to the confluence of
milestones, whether the franchise sees it as win No. 10,000 or … just win
No. 9,219.
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