Expressing the passion felt for the Cardinals using all 26 letters of the alphabet accompanied by rhymes, colorful illustrations, and informative text, this tribute to the St. Louis baseball team explores the sports obsession in a fresh and humorous way. Readers will enjoy fun facts and amusing illustrations of some of the most famous—and infamous—characters in St. Louis history, including Grover Cleveland Alexander, Lou Brock, Dizzy Dean, Bob Gibson, Rogers Hornsby, Stan Musial, Ozzie Smith, and Cy Young. Baseball has endured as one of our most cherished American institutions for nearly a century and a half. It is a shared treasure that continues to bond one generation to the next, and its rhythms and vocabulary are embedded in our consciousness at an early age. And St. Louis, with its rich history and eternally passionate fans, has long been considered the quintessential baseball town. The members of Cardinal Nation wear their colors with pride and unwavering loyalty, and the storied history of baseball's greatest franchise is passed along with the same kind of zeal. For the Love of the Cardinals presents a unique opportunity to celebrate that legacy and to recapture its magic. Longtime Wall Street Journal columnist Frederick C. Klein and renowned artist Mark Anderson have collaborated to create the perfect vehicle to introduce young fans to the Cardinals immortals. Each letter of the alphabet is assigned to one or more St. Louis baseball icons, which are characterized by brilliant illustrations, witty poems, and brief summaries of their places in Cardinals history. Names like Musial, Gibson, Brock, and Pujols are brought to life on these colorful pages, which provide a loving, educational way to initiate the next generation of Cards fans. Frederick C. Klein is a longtime writer and editor for the Wall Street Journal , where he originated the "On Sports" column. He is a freelance writer and the author of many books, including several other entries in the For the Love of . . . series. He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mark Anderson is an illustrator whose work has appeared on the back cover of National Geographic , the New Yorker , and Time and inside the Atlantic Monthly , BusinessWeek , Harvard Business Review , Outside , and many other periodicals. He is the illustrator and designer of Triumph Books' popular For the Love of . . . series. He lives in Chicago. Ozzie Smith is a former shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals, a recipient of the National League Gold Glove 13 consecutive seasons, a 15-time All-Star, and a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. For the Love of the Cardinals An A-Z Primer for Cardinal Fans of All Ages By Frederick C. Klein, Mark Anderson Triumph Books Copyright © 2007 Frederick C. Klein All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-60078-019-6 CHAPTER 1 A is for Alexander , Whose bag of mound tricks Stopped the mighty Yankees In nineteen twenty-six. Grover Cleveland Alexander was one of baseball's greatest pitchers, a right-hander whose 373 victories over 20 major league seasons rank third on the all-time list. Most of those wins were with the Philadelphia Phillies or Chicago Cubs, but some of his finest moments came with the Cardinals, whom he joined in 1926 at the advanced baseball age of 39. With his help the Cards won their first National League pennant that year and faced the Babe Ruth–led New York Yankees in the World Series. Alexander won Games 2 and 6 of the Series with complete-game performances, and despite having pitched the day before, he entered Game 7 in New York in the seventh inning with the Cards ahead, 3–2. With the bases loaded and two out, he struck out Tony Lazzeri to end that threat, then set down the Yanks in the final two innings to preserve the victory and secure the title for his team. B is for Brock , Larceny was his game. Stolen-base prowess Was his ticket to fame. Lou Brock came to the Cardinals from the Cubs in a 1964 trade for Ernie Broglio, a starting pitcher whose career soon went into decline. The transaction turned out so well for St. Louis that "Brock-for-Broglio" became baseball shorthand for a one-sided deal. The speedy Brock became a 16-season starter in left field for the Cards, collecting 3,023 career hits and 938 stolen bases, the latter figure a major league record at the time of his retirement in 1979. Many of his steals came on the headfirst slides that were his trademark. C is for Carlton and Carpenter , One lefty, one right. With them on the hill Cards' prospects were bright. Steve Carlton was a left-handed pitcher who spent the first seven of his 24 big-league seasons with the Cards. His great fastball and wicked slider enabled him to post 329 career victories, the second most ever for a lefty, and his 4,136 strikeouts rank fourth all-time. Chris Carpenter, who throws right-handed, has been the Cards' pitching ace for the last four seasons. The 6'5" native of New Hampshire won th