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''This sports historic article is about the Major League Baseball franchise St. Louis Cardinals. For the National Football League franchise while it played in St. Louis, see History of the St. Louis Cardinals (NFL).'' The St. Louis Cardinals, a professional baseball franchise based in St. Louis, Missouri, compete in the National League (NL) of Major League Baseball (MLB). In 1953, the Anheuser-Busch (AB) brewery bought the Cardinals, and August "Gussie" Busch became team president. Busch's influence is still seen today as three of the Cardinals' home stadia are or were named some form of Busch Stadium. Three World Series titles in the 1960s and 1980s, contrasted with missing the playoffs for the entirety of the 1950s and 1970s checkered the team's success distinctly by decades. However, the team still remained generally competitive in each of those decades - they did not see a last place finish until 1990, which had been the first since 1918. With Busch's tenure as owner, the Cardinals also won six NL pennants. ==Stan Musial's latter career; Beginning of the Anheuser-Busch era (1953–63)== Soon after AB purchased the team, Busch bought Sportsman's Park from St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck, renovated it, and renamed it Busch Stadium.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=History )〕 The Browns, who had not been as successful or popular as the Cardinals in three decades, realized they could not compete with the deep pockets of the brewery. After the 1953 season the Browns left St. Louis to become the Baltimore Orioles (but kept the same colors), leaving the Cardinals as the only major league team in town. With the breaking of the color barrier that had started in 1947, in 1954, the Cardinals débuted the first African-American player on the Major League club. Conversely, as the Cardinals had just begun to bring on non-white players to play for them. Others such as Bob Gibson, Lou Brock and Curt Flood led the competitive Cardinals clubs of the 1960s. The Cardinals' dissolution of the color barrier actualized a new phase when they became the first Major League organization to integrate spring training housing, albeit reluctantly.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Swain Apartments )〕 Between 1954 and 1959, the Cardinals finished below the .500 mark in four of five seasons. In 1954, Wally Moon replaced the popular Enos Slaughter in center field and won the first Rookie of the Year (ROY) award in franchise history with a .304 batting average, twelve home runs and 193 hits. Replacing Moon in center––who shifted to right field––Bill Virdon was voted ROY the next season.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Bill Virdon statistics and history )〕 In 1957, the Cardinals finished in second place, leading the league in batting average (.274) and finishing third in earned run average (3.78).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1957 St. Louis Cardinals statistics )〕 Meanwhile, a National Football League (NFL) Cardinals franchise relocated from Chicago to St. Louis in 1960. Chicago was distinctly becoming the Bears' town and the Cardinals could not match their success. The 12 NFL owners unanimously voted to allow the Chicago Cardinals franchise to move. Ironically, Chicago forms the other half of the MLB's Cardinals' baseball rivalry with the Cubs. The football Cardinals called St. Louis and Busch Stadium home through the 1987 season, after which the Cardinals migrated to Phoenix to become the Arizona Cardinals.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=St. Louis Cardinals on Football Almanac )〕 Local sports fans and media coverage referred to the two teams as the "baseball Cardinals" and "football Cardinals." For decades before the NFL Cardinals moved into St. Louis, the baseball team was also known as the "Redbirds," while the football team was the "Gridbirds" or "Big Red." Stan Musial remained St. Louis' most consistent player, winning seven batting titles and gaining election to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game every year from 1946 until his retirement in 1963, which ironically was the last year before the Cardinals' next World Series appearance and win.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Stan Musial statistics and history )〕 In 1958, Musial became the eighth player in Major League Baseball history to accumulate 3,000 hits. In 1968, the Cardinals erected a statue of Musial outside of Busch Memorial Stadium〔Lansche 1994: 199–200〕 that was moved to the new Busch Stadium in 2006〔O'Neill 2005: 222〕 and is inscribed with this quote: ''"Here stands baseball's perfect warrior. Here stands baseball's perfect knight."''〔 President Barack Obama bestowed Musial with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the St. Louis Cardinals (1953–89)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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