January 13 in Cardinals History

  • The Yankees purchased Paul Toth from the Cardinals in 1965.
  • 2005- Hoping to sway the veterans’ committee, North Dakota’s House of Representatives approves a resolution proclaiming native son Roger Maris (Indians, A’s, Yankees, Cardinals) should be elected to the Hall of Fame. 

Birthdays

  • Charlie Wilson 1905 – lifetime .215 hitter who played his final game  on May 25, 1935 in Cardinals uniform.  Nicknamed “Swamp Baby”, he played parts of four seasons in Major League Baseball for the Boston Braves and St. Louis Cardinals, mostly as either a shortstop or third baseman.
  • Steve Mesner 1918 – played for Cardinals n 1941 as a third baseman. Completed with .252 batting average. 
  • Larry Jaster 1944 –Before Jaster was signed as an undrafted free agent by the St. Louis Cardinals on January 1, 1962, he attended Northwood University. Jaster made his major league debut on September 17, 1965 versus the Los Angeles Dodgers at the age of 21. He finished the year with a record of 3–0 and an ERA of 1.61. All three of Jaster’s starts were complete game victories.Jaster spent most of 1966 in the big leagues where he finished with a record of 11–5 with an ERA of 3.26 which earned him a tie for 4th in the Rookie of the Year balloting for that season. The main highlight of Jaster’s 1966 season, were his league leading five shutouts, all of which were against the NL pennant winning Los Angeles Dodgers.Because of his success against Los Angeles, some people nicknamed Jaster ‘The Dodger Killer’. Others gave him the nickname, ‘The Creeper’. Over Jaster’s seven-year MLB playing career, he batted .170. Of his twenty-nine career hits, only three were for extra bases, two of which were home runs. He pitched two more years for St. Louis but never won more than nine games in a season.
  • Mike Tyson 1950-Tyson was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 3rd round of the 1970 Major League Baseball Draft and made his MLB debut with St. Louis on September 5, 1972. He was a regular in the Cardinals’ lineup until the end of the 1979 season when he was traded to the Cubs for relief pitcher Donnie Moore. He has a .241 batting average and 27 career home runs. 
  • Bob Forsch 1950 -A twenty-game winner in 1977, he is fourth amongst all Cardinals pitcher in victories with 163. He is also the only player in team history to pitch more than one no-hitter, achieving it twice in 1978 and 1983. He and Ken Forsch are the only brothers to have each performed the feat in the majors.
  • Gene Roof 1958 – made his MLB debut on September 3, 1981 in a Cardinals uniform and played during three seasons at the Major League level for the St. Louis Cardinals and Montreal Expos.He was drafted by the Cardinals in the 12th round of the 1976 amateur draft. Roof played his first professional season with their Rookie league Gulf Coast Cardinals and Johnson City Cardinals in 1976, and his last with the Detroit Tigers’ Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens in 1987. He is the brother of Phil Roof and cousin of Eddie Haas. His brothers Adrian, Paul, and David Roof played in the minor leagues.

Deaths

  • Charlie Gelbert 1967
  • Pat Ankenman 1989
  • Luis Arroyo 2013