St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals (also referred to as "the Cards" or "the Redbirds") are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball. more...

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World Series

The Cardinals have won 10 World Series, the most of any National League team, and second only to the New York Yankees in Major League Baseball, who have 26.

The Cardinals were founded in the American Association in 1882 as the St. Louis Brown Stockings, taking the name from an earlier National League team. They joined the National League in 1892 and have been known as the Cardinals since 1900. The Cardinals began play in the current Busch Stadium in 2006, becoming the first team since 1923 to win the World Series in their first season in a new ballpark. The Cardinals have a strong rivalry with the Chicago Cubs that began in 1885.

Franchise history

Early years: American Association dynasty and move to the NL

The team was formed as part of the American Association in 1882 where they enjoyed great success under flamboyant owner Chris von der Ahe. Initially they were known as the "Brown Stockings", named for a previous professional team in the city, whose name was one of several "Stockings" teams inspired by the success of the Cincinnati Red Stockings. This new team's nickname was quickly shortened to "Browns". The Browns won four American Association pennants in a row, 1885-88, and played in an early version of the World Series four times, twice against the National League's Chicago White Stockings (now the Cubs). The Series of 1885 ended in dispute and with no resolution. St. Louis won the 1886 Series outright, the only Series of that era that was won by the AA against the NL. The vigorous St. Louis-Chicago rivalry continues to this day.

The Browns joined the National League in 1892 following the bankruptcy of the American Association. They were briefly called the Perfectos in 1899 before settling on their present name, a name reportedly inspired by switching their uniform colors from brown to red. There was already a "Reds" team at Cincinnati, so the St. Louis team became "Cardinals" (reportedly because a woman spectator exclaimed that the uniform was "a wonderful shade of Cardinal.")

Also in 1899, the Cardinals' owner, dissatisfied with his club's 1898 performance (twelfth place, 39 wins and 111 losses) transferred much of the talent from the other team he owned, the Cleveland Spiders, to the St. Louis franchise. This led to the spectacular demise of the Spiders, who fell to 20-134 (.130), along with significant improvement of the St. Louis club, which jumped from last (twelfth) place to fifth place. In effect, Cleveland and St. Louis switched places in the standings. The St. Louis-Cleveland chicanery also influenced contraction of the National League, which opened the door to the establishment of the American League as a rival to the National.

Read more at Wikipedia.org