The Cardinals roster included Terry Moore in center field, flanked by Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter. Marty Marion at short, Mort Cooper, the N.L. MVP pitcher, and his brother Walker Cooper behind the plate. Overall, 8 players finished in the top 20 of the National League MVP voting. The team was fundamentally sound and loaded top to bottom with a strong bench. The team was not so much known for power as they were for their speed even though it wasn’t represented in stolen base statistics.After besting the Yankees in the World Series 4 games to 1, the team was crowned World Champions.
the statsOur fourth decade, the 1930s and we add another 19 Negro League stars who make big impact on the game.
highlights the series
The 1942 incarnation of the Kansas City Monarchs may have been the greatest Monarchs team of them all, and should be in the discussion for not just the best Negro Leagues teams but best teams in all of baseball. World War I was raging and beginning to rob the majors of players, but the Monarchs roster managed to stay largely untouched until 1943. The ’42 pitching staff was historically great, featuring Hall of Famers Satchel Paige and Hilton Smith, plus Booker McDaniels, Connie Johnson, Lefty LaMarque and Jack Matchett. Behind the plate was Joe Greene, probably the second best catcher in the Negro Leagues at the time after Josh Gibson. Infielders included Newt Allen, Herb Souell, Jesse Williams, Bonny Serrell and Buck O’Neil. In the outfield roamed Willie Simms and power hitters Ted Strong and Willard Brown. Managing the squad was backup catcher Frank Duncan, a Kansas City native and Monarchs mainstay. The Monarchs had won the previous three Negro American League pennants, but only got better in 1942.
St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis Cardinals
Washington Senators.
Brooklyn Robins
Booklyn Robins
Brooklyn Dodgers
Brooklyn Dodgers
Stars of the decade included Honus Wagner (top left), Nap Lajoie (second top) dominated the leaderboards from the plate while Ed Walsh (third on top), Cy Young (top right) and Rube Waddell (bottom right) were tops from the mound. John Henry Lloyd (second on bottom) was 4th in batting with a .333 average and 3rd in slugging with a .462 pct. Grant Johnson (third on bottom) was 4th in slugging behind Lloyd. Jose Mendez (bottom right) was second in era with 1.57 behind Ed Walsh.
1901- Boston defeates Pittsburgh in first series. Buck Freeman doubled in Collins for the winning run in the 12 inning of the seventh game. Frank Grant batted .343 for Milwaukee.
1902- Boston defeats Pittsburgh again in series. Three contests go into extra innings. Rube Foster goes 8-8 with a 1.79era, 5th lowest in league in his rookie season.
1905- Rube Waddell of the Philadelphia Athletics wins pitching triple crown, tops in wins, era and strikeouts, 29, 1.06 and 283. 1907- St. Louis behind Rube Waddell sweep Boston in series. First series with former Negro League players on both clubs. John Henry Lloyd and Jose Mendez on Boston and Frank Grant on St. Louis. At the end of the season Frank Grant retires after 7 seasons in the league. He played in 562 games and batted .291.
1908- Grant Johnson bats .363 second to Wagner's .366 and is now on slugging pct leaderboard 3rd behind Wagner and Lajoie.
1909- John Henry Lloyd in his 4th season bats .348 third behind Lajoie and Cobb. Athletics win first three of World Series only to see New York take the next four and the series. Luis Druke wins series on mound and at bat knocking in the winning run and holding the A's to two runs in game seven.
Highlight team is World Series Winner, (#-#) win-loss
* Batting triple crown winner, tops in average, home runs and RBI. Or a pitching triple crown winner, tops in wins, era and strikeouts.
Bold Red indicates Negro League player.
