After Gibby, who’s the greatest living St. Louis Cardinals player?

The greatest living St. Louis Cardinals player is 84 years old and afflicted with pancreatic cancer. Who will be the best breathing Redbird when the peerless Bob Gibson leaves us?

It’s a quirk of baseball that we ponder such a thing. Does anybody try to identify the world’s greatest actuary? Or Florida’s finest living taxidermist? But baseball fans, especially tradition-savvy St. Louis Cardinals fans, never lose affection for past superstars. Opening Day festivities always include Clydesdales and a troop of Hall of Famers — Gibson, Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith, etc. — in red blazers. In St. Louis, former greats are rarely out of sight and never out of mind.

Selecting the greatest living post-Gibson Cardinal should be an easy task. Look up the still-living players with the highest career WARs during their St. Louis days and you have, after Gibson: 1. Albert Pujols; 2. Ozzie Smith; 3. Ted Simmons; 4. Lou Brock; and 5. Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina.

There are several issues with naming Pujols the greatest living Cardinal, starting with the fact that he’s not a Cardinal — he’s an Angel. Also, he’s an active player. An unwritten rule says your greatest-living whatever should be retired — preferably long-retired.

This tradition dates to 1969 when sportswriters and broadcasters voted Joe DiMaggio baseball’s greatest living player over then-active players Willie Mays and Hank Aaron and the just-retired Mickey Mantle. Mays was clearly the better player but DiMaggio was a venerable institution. So Joltin’ Joe got the title.

Stan Musial was the Cardinals’ greatest living player until his death in January of 2013. Then it was Gibson. But after Gibby? With Pujols, Wainwright and Molina eliminated, it comes down to these three players, in descending order:

3. Ted Simmons. Cardinals 1968-80

It’s hard to push Simba as the greatest living Cardinal. Unlike Brock and Ozzie, he’s not a baseball Hall of Famer (although he should be). Unlike Brock and Ozzie, he never won a World Series with the Redbirds. In fact, he never reached the postseason until joining the Brewers in 1981.

While that’s not his fault, Simmons suffers from the Don Mattingly malady. Mattingly was a splendid Yankee during the no-rings Yankee years of 1982 to 1995. Like Simmons, he played for a storied franchise yet never took a team to a World Series. Fair or not (it’s not), Simmons lacks the sparkle of Brock and Ozzie, who combined for three World Series Championships.

2. Ozzie Smith. Cardinals 1982-96

Lots of folks will say that Smith was a better player than Brock, and they’re probably right. Ozzie’s 65.9 Cardinals WAR is well ahead of Brock’s 41.8, and the Wizard is more of a national baseball icon. His backflips and spectacular glove made him unforgettable, even if all you’ve ever seen are TV highlights.

1. Lou Brock. Cardinals 1964-79

Brock’s biggest edge over Smith is his age. As NBC Sports columnist Joe Posnanski wrote in a story headlined “The Greatest Living Yankee,” “the instinct in baseball is ALWAYS to go older.” Brock is 80 and not in the best of health. He had his left leg amputated in 2015 and he’s had a heart condition and suffered a stroke. But this would be no pity choice.

Modern metrics devalue the ex-outfielder’s career performance, and Brock’s 75.3 percent steal percentage is well behind that of Rickey Henderson (80.8 percent) and Tim Raines (84.7 percent), but this is a player who, among other things, hit .391 with a 1.079 OPS in 21 World Series games. Without Brock, the Redbirds don’t win the 1964 and 1967 World Series Championships. Brock had 3,023 career hits and his 938 steals was the career record before Henderson broke it in 1991.

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Cast your vote for Ozzie if you like, but if Lou Brock outlives Gibson, he would be an equally fine choice as the Cardinals’ greatest living player.

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