Bad Baseball
The 1906 season brought a lot of low points to the organization. The worst team in baseball, the Boston Beaneaters, snapped a 19 game losing streak (June 9) by beating the Cardinals. Player-manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Fred Clarke, stole home in a 10-1 rout.
Cardinals trade Taylor back to Cubs
Cardinals pitcher Jack Taylor was traded July 1 back to the Cubs and saw his string of consecutive complete games of 187 come to an end on August 13th. He also had 15 relief appearances to go along with that streak. The streak began in 1901.
No offense- Team leader has 44 RBI’s
The Cardinals finished 63 games out of first place with a 52-98 record and just 2.5 games above last place in the National League. The team hit only 10 home runs for the season and no pitcher won more than nine games on the year. Beckley led the team with 44 RBI’s on the season. “Honest John” McCloskey takes over as the manager. The team was 28-48 at home and 24-50 on the road. Their best month of the season was May when they went 14-15 and the worst month was 7-20 in September.
Trades, Transactions and More in 1906
August 24, 1906: The St. Louis Cardinals purchased John Kelly from Baltimore (Eastern).
July 30, 1906: Kansas City (American Association) traded Bill Phyle to the St. Louis Cardinals for Wish Egan and George McBride. (Date given is approximate. Exact date is uncertain.)
July 25, 1906: The St. Louis Cardinals traded Homer Smoot to the Cincinnati Reds for Shad Barry.
July 13, 1906: The St. Louis Cardinals traded Spike Shannon to the New York Giants for Doc Marshall and Sam Mertes.
July 1, 1906: The Chicago Cubs traded Fred Beebe, Pete Noonan and cash to the St. Louis Cardinals for Jack Taylor.
June 3, 1906: The Pittsburgh Pirates traded Ed Karger to the St. Louis Cardinals for Chappie McFarland.
May 7, 1906: The St. Louis Cardinals traded Oscar Stanage to the Cincinnati Reds for Carl Druhot.
May, 1906: Louisville (American Association) purchased Babe Adams from the St. Louis Cardinals. (Date given is approximate. Exact date is uncertain.)
April, 1906: The St. Louis Cardinals purchased Ambrose Puttmann from the New York Highlanders.
February 28, 1906: Kansas City (American Association) purchased Jimmy Burke from the St. Louis Cardinals.
Before 1906 Season: The St. Louis Cardinals purchased Babe Adams from Parsons (Missouri Valley).
There was talk the the Cardinals had been really bad in their history so far and people were beginning to look at ways to get baseball out of St. Louis. The Browns were the preferred team in the city at this team but they would leave.
ROSTER
Pitchers
Babe Adams
Fred Beebe
Buster Brown
Carl Druhot
Wish Egan
Art Fromme
Irv Higginbotham
Ed Karger
Chappie McFarland
Stoney McGlynn
Ambrose Puttmann
Charlie Rhodes
Jack Taylor
Jake Thielman
Gus Thompson
Catchers
Mike Grady
Ducky Holmes
Doc Marshall
Joe McCarthy
Pete Noonan
Tommy Raub
Jack Slattery
Infielders
Harry Arndt
Jake Beckley
Pug Bennett
Forrest Crawford
Art Hoelskoetter
Ed Holly
George McBride
Bill Phyle
Eddie Zimmerman
Outfielders
Shad Barry
Al Burch
Rube DeGroff
Jack Himes
Joe Marshall
Sam Mertes
Red Murray
Tom O’Hara
Spike Shannon
Homer Smoot
Manager
John McCloskey