March 31 in Cardinals History

Trades, Transactions, Free Agents and More

  • Buster Mills sent from the Brooklyn Dodgers to the Cardinals in an unknown transaction in 1936.
  • The Cardinals, in 1970, released Ramon Hernandez.
  • The Giants purchased Ken Rudolph, in 1977, from the Cardinals
  • In 1980, the Cardinals released Will McEnaney.
  • The Cardinals traded Kelly Paris in 1983 to the Reds for Jim Strichek.
  • The Cardinals returned Mark Ross to the Astros as part of a conditional deal in 1986.
  • In 1986, the Cardinals traded Tom Nieto to the Montreal Expos for Fred Manrique.
  • The Cardinals signed Gary Buckels in 1993 as a free agent.
  •  The  Cardinals traded Juan Andujar (minors) and Mark Clark to the Cleveland Indians for Mark Whiten in 1993. 
  • Bill White, the first black to serve as a league president, resigns from his National League post in 1993. The former Cardinal first baseman will remain at the job until March of 1994.
  • Mark McGwire hits the first of his historic 70 home runs when he goes deep. He becomes the first player in franchise history to hit a grand slam on Opening Day in 1998.
  •  In the MLB’s inaugural Civil Rights game (2007), the Cardinals beat the Indians at AutoZone Park in Memphis, 5-1. The exhibition game, planned to be an annual event, is designed to celebrate and honor baseball’s historical role in the nation’s civil rights movement.
  • It is opening day in St. Louis in 2008 and Albert Pujols of the Cardinals hit a 385-foot solo shot to left center in the second off of the Rockies’ Jeff Francis to give his team a 5-1 lead. In the bottom of the third with the same score, the rains came washing the game out and postponing the opener until the following evening.
  • In 2017, Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina became the first player to be issued an intentional walk with no pitches thrown. A new rule was implemented in the offseason that says pitchers don’t have to throw to the batter, all they do is tell the umpire to “put him on”.
  • The Cardinals sign Greg Holland as a free agent in 2018.
  • Cardinals traded Josh Lucas to the Oakland Athletics for Casey Meisner (minors) in 2018.

 

Tommy John Surgery

Danny Cox in 1989 became the 2nd Cardinals player to ever had the surgery

Birthdays

Jim Brown  (March 31, 1897 – October 22, 1944) played parts of two seasons in Major League Baseball, 1915 for the St. Louis Cardinals and 1916 for the Philadelphia Athletics, primarily as an outfielder. In his brief career, he hit .250 with one home run and five runs batted in.

 

 

 Marv Grissom played in the major leagues for 14 seasons with the last (1959) with the Cardinals. He debuted on September 10, 1946 with the Yankees. His last game came with the Cardinals on June 11, 1959.

 

 

Josh Kinney was called to the major leagues on July 2, 2006. His very first pitch was hit for a home run by Ryan Langerhans of the Braves.

JUPITER, FL - MARCH 10: Peter Bourjos #8 of the St. Louis Cardinals runs to first base in the fifth inning of a game against the Detroit Tigers at Roger Dean Stadium on March 10, 2014 in Jupiter, Florida. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

   Peter Bourjos- The Angels traded him and Randal Grichuk to the Cardinals for David Freese and Fernando Salas.

Debuts

Braden-Looper

1998- Braden Looper in his debut faced three batters. He struck out Todd Zeile swinging, Raul Mondesi was called out on strikes and Paul Konerko fanned swinging.  Boxscore

 

 

Deaths

Grover Lowdermilk 1958

Roland Howell 1973

Ruben Amaro 2017