St. Louis Cardinals News: Team makes history with 50 wins

After picking up their 50th win of the season on Saturday, this year’s St. Louis Cardinals team is racking up victories at a staggering pace, while demonstrating what happens when guys leave it all on the field.

What motivates them to sacrifice so much to play our National Pastime?

That much-desired trip to the World Series; the same one St. Louis has seen multiple times over the years and are well on their way to seeing again in 2015.

The last team to hit the 50-win mark this quickly was the Chicago White Sox back in 2005. If you’ll recall, that team went on to top the Houston Astros in the Fall Classic that season.

Oddly enough, St. Louis will open a series against Chicago this week.

Over the course of the past half-century, only 18 teams, including this year’s Cardinals, have won 50 games before hitting the 25-loss mark.

Four of those teams won the World Series – the 1984 Detroit Tigers, the 1986 New York Mets, the 1998 New York Yankees and the 2005 White Sox.

According to MLB.com, 13 of the last 17 clubs to reach 50 games by this point in the year, finished the season with at least 100 victories.

No team in the majors has been more impressive, done more without key players and have had guys step in to fill roles without missing much of a beat, quite like the St. Louis Cardinals.

They don’t have sluggers, 30 home-run guys, players that steal a lot of bases or overly dominant strikeout pitchers, but they do have something more special than that.

What the Cardinals have is heart, grit, toughness, character and leadership from top to bottom.

That attitude starts in the front office with general manager Jon Mozeliak, trickling down to Mike Matheny and his coaching staff, before reaching his players, including Yadi Molina, Adam Wainwright, Matt Holliday, Matt Carpenter, Jhonny Peralta and so many others.

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They all put their egos aside and go to battle for and with each other for 162 games every year. So far in 2014, it is paying off with St. Louis entering play Sunday at 50-24 with a staggering 28-7 mark at Busch Stadium.

Even more impressive though is the fact that the ball club does not let their success go to their heads and keep going to work each day finding ways to get better and staying consistent in their approach collectively.

Saturday’s closer Carlos Villanueva expressed a similar sentiment after the team’s blowout win over the Cubs on Saturday.

“I keep hearing from other guys I talk to on other teams, and they say, ‘Gosh, you guys just keep winning. You look at it on paper, it’s expected and it’s the way that we mix together. The message that [manager] Mike [Matheny] gives is you have to pick the guy up next to you.”

It has only been 74 games and the team has a long way to go, but the 2015 St. Louis Cardinals are here to stay.

There appears to be no getting in the way of this team, one that plays together, has no egos and gets contributions from every man on the 25-man roster.

That is what being a championship team is all about and the Cards have the makings of becoming just that.

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