The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals were one of the most colorful crews ever to play the National Pastime. Sportswriters delighted in assigning nicknames to the players, based on their real or imagined qualities. What a cast of characters it was! None was more picturesque than Pepper Martin, the “Wild Horse of the Osage,” who ran the bases with reckless abandon, led his team­mates in off­ the­field hi­jinks, and organized a hillbilly band called the Mississippi Mudcats. He was quite a baseball player, the star of the 1931 World Series and a significant contributor to the 1934 championship. The harmonica player for the Mudcats was the irrepressible Dizzy Dean. Full of braggadocio, Dean delivered on his boasts by winning 30 games in 1934, the last National League hurler to achieve that feat. Dizzy and his brother Paul accounted for all of the Cardinal victories in the 1934 World Series. Some writers tried to pin the moniker Daffy on Paul, but that name didn’t fit the younger and much quieter brother. The club’s hitters were led by the New Jersey strong boy, Joe “Ducky” Medwick, who hated the nickname, preferring to be called “Muscles.” Presiding over this aggregation was the “Fordham Flash,” Frankie Frisch. Rounding out the club were worthies bearing such nicknames as Ripper, “Leo the Lip,” Spud, Kiddo, Pop, Dazzy, Ol’ Stubblebeard, Wild Bill, Buster, Chick, Red, and Tex. Some of these were aging stars, past their prime, and others were youngsters, on their way up. Together they comprised a championship ball club. “The Gas House Gang was the greatest baseball club I ever saw. They thought they could beat any ballclub and they just about could too. When they got on that ballfield, they played baseball, and they played it to the hilt too. When they slid, they slid hard. There was no good fellowship between them and the opposition. They were just good, tough ballplayers.” — Cardinals infielder Burgess Whitehead on "When It Was A Game," HBO Sports, 1991

Led by the colorful pitcher Dizzy Dean, the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals personified Depression-era America. The players were underpaid, wore uniforms that were almost always torn and dirty, and had wandered into professional baseball from small towns in the Midwest where other jobs were scarce. Despite their lack of resources, however, and despite coming off two mediocre seasons, the Cardinals emerged triumphant in '34, winning the pennant by two games over the Giants and the World Series in seven games over the Tigers. The book chronicles that championship team which came to be known in baseball lore as the famous "Gas House Gang." This work brings to life the legendary exploits of player manager Frankie Frisch and the Dean brothers--Dizzy and Paul--who combined for 49 wins that season. The era, the team, the season, and the Series are all fully covered.

"Mileur provides a game-by-game account of the 1942 St. Louis Cardinals, world champions and the winningest team in franchise history. He recounts the team's close pennant race against the Brooklyn Dodgers and World Series victory over the New York Yankees, while conveying the physical and mental demands on the players within the context of wartime America"--Provided by publisher.

-- First published in 1944, Frederick G. Lieb's history of the St. louis Cardinals is one of the fifteen highly regarded team histories commissioned by G. P. Putnam's Sons in the 1940s and 1950s, most of which were written by Hall of Fame sportswriters. Of the fifteen team histories, only Lieb's Cardinals history was expanded for a later edition. Lieb, who covered more than eight thousand games and every World Series for a half century, devotes considerable space to the Gas House Gang and its antics, anecdotes, and humor. He covers the Cardinal pennants in 1926 and 1928 (vs. the Yankees), 1930 and 1931 (vs. the Athletics), 1934 (vs. the Tigers), 1942 and 1943 (vs. the Yankees), and the city series of 1944 (vs. the Browns). Legendary Cardinals and their illustrious opponents include Grover Cleveland Alexander, Adrian C. "Cap" Anson, Sunny Jim Bottomley, Harry "the Cat" Brecheen, Ty Cobb, Mickey Cochrane, Mort Cooper, Dizzy and Paul Dean, Bill Dickey, Joe DiMaggio, Leo Durocher, Jimmie Foxx, Frankie Frisch, Lou Gehrig, Lefty Grove, Rogers Hornsby, Miller Huggins, Napoleon Lajoie, Marty Marion, Pepper Martin, Ducky Medwick, Johnny Mize, Stan Musial, Babe Ruth, George Sisler, Enos Slaughter, Tris Speaker, Rube Waddell, and Cy Young. Chronicling the Cardinals from 1899 through the 1944 season, this book is illustrated with nineteen black-and-white photographs. The St. Louis Cardinals: The Story of a Great Baseball Club is the first of seven baseball histories Lieb wrote for the Putnam series. As Bob Broeg wrote in the foreword to this book, "If Fred Lieb wasn't the first to write a full-fledged history of the colorful Cardinals, he certainly was, as Dizzy Dean would say, 'amongst 'em'. .. . His credentials as one of the first two living writers elected to Cooperstown's writing wing in 1973 included many unusual accolades. He was the young man -- in 1920 -- who convinced baseball to count all runs on a game-winning homer, not just the one that created the game's difference. He also was the man who labeled Yankee Stadium exactly what it was -- 'The House that Ruth Built.'"

Explore over a century of Cardinals baseball in this illustrated tour of the players, teams, ballparks, and historic moments! With a legacy that goes back to the Brown Stockings of the old American Association, the St. Louis Cardinals have one of the longest and greatest traditions in the history of baseball. Winners of ten World Series titles (second only to the New York Yankees) and twenty-one pennants dating back to 1885, the Redbirds have established a dynasty across the decades—from Charlie Comiskey’s four-time AA champs, through the “Gashouse Gang” of the 1930s and the “Runnin’ Redbirds” in the 1980s, up to the 2006 World Champions. Front-office pioneers like Chris von der Ahe and Branch Rickey have put the Cardinals franchise at the forefront of innovation, while bringing in some of baseball’s greatest talent—pitchers Dizzy Dean to Bob Gibson, sluggers Johnny Mize to Mark McGwire, and all-around superstars like Rogers “Rajah” Hornsby, Stan “the Man” Musial, and Albert Pujols. Pairing historic black-and-white photos and contemporary images of the modern game, St. Louis Cardinals: Past & Present explores the ballparks and the fans, the players and the teams that have defined Cardinals baseball.

Focuses on key players and events in the history of the St. Louis Cardinals, a team which dates back to 1882.

Chronicles the history and tradition of the St. Louis Cardinals, from the era when they were managed by Branch Rickey in the years following World War I to the present day.