St. Louis Cardinals announce candidates for club’s Hall of Fame. Who will get your vote?
With one Cardinals legend set to enter the National Baseball Hall of Fame this summer, the celebrations of the club’s past are already guaranteed to extend the duration of the season.
The candidates for induction in the club’s own Hall of Fame, though, are an eclectic mix of what could have been, what shockingly was, and for the first time, perhaps the best one word summation in the game’s history — “youneverknow.”
Pitcher Matt Morris and shortstop Edgar Rentería — stars of the Cardinals in the early 2000s — are each on the ballot for the eighth time. Steve Carlton, shipped off to the Phillies in one of the most unfortunate deals in team history, appears on the ballot for the fifth time.
Joaquin Andújar, the wild ace who personified pitching in the Whiteyball era, is on his first ballot, and so too is David Freese, the hometown kid who turned the 2011 World Series into his own, personal fairy tale.
Fan voting opens Saturday, Feb. 25, and concludes Friday, April 21. The player with the most votes will be inducted Sunday, Aug. 20, alongside a veteran player selected by a Red Ribbon committee and another pick made by the leadership of the Cardinals organization.
Comparing the achievements of outstanding players from different eras is a difficult task, and the challenges that Morris and Rentería have faced in generating traction for induction despite their own stellar records is proof positive of that.
Still, even in such an illustrious group, it’s hard to imagine laurels resting on anyone but Freese, who won the NLCS and World Series MVP awards in 2011 while authoring seemingly countless dramatic moments in the midst of a march to a championship.
In dealing Carlton to the Phillies in exchange for Rick Wise in February of 1972 — 51 years ago this Saturday — the Cardinals allowed a petty financial dispute to get in the way of benefiting from the best years of one of the game’s all-time greatest lefties. As the Cardinals struggled through the 1970s, Carlton won his first Cy Young award in his first year in Philadelphia.
He would go on to win three more, and received 95.6% of the vote from the members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in his first year of Hall of Fame eligibility in 1994.
Andújar made two All-Star games as a Cardinal and in the years he did, 1984 and 1985, also won 20 games. His meltdown in Game 7 of the 1985 World Series — following Don Denkinger’s blown call in Game 6 — set the stage for a blowout loss that would be long remembered as the inevitable aftermath to one of baseball’s most notorious calls.
He was also the ace of the 1982 World Champion team, arriving the prior year in a trade from Houston. Andújar died in 2015 at age 62 due to complications from diabetes.
More about Cardinals HOF
Third baseman Scott Rolen was selected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the members of the BBWAA earlier this winter, and it was announced last week that he’ll enter the Gallery of Plaques with a Cardinals logo emblazoned in bronze on his cap.
An announcement of further celebrations of and honors for Rolen from the Cardinals is pending.
The voting for the fan selection will be conducted entirely online at cardinals.com/HOF. The museum itself, located in Ballpark Village, opened in 2014.
This year’s inductees will join more than 50 of the most notable people in franchise history in enshrinement, and will be presented with the highly coveted red jacket that honored players wear to the ballpark on special occasions such as Opening Day and the postseason.