Before the Cardinals honor John Mozeliak, they must enshrine Bing Devine

There are currently three general managers in the Cardinals Hall of Fame: Branch Rickey, Whitey Herzog, and Walt Jocketty. Our very own Josh Jacobs has already started beating the drum for the enshrinement of John Mozeliak. 

Before that happens, Bing Devine should have his place in the hall. 

Devine lived in the St. Louis suburb of Overland, Missouri, and attended University City High School. He played baseball and basketball at Washington University in St. Louis and is a member of its Sports Hall of Fame for his basketball exploits. Upon graduation, he worked various jobs in the Cardinals' front office. He became GM Frankie Lane’s assistant by 1956, and they promoted him to general manager in 1957. His first act was to nix a deal that Lane had worked out to trade Cardinals Hall of Famer Ken Boyer just prior to his departure. Devine made his first trade in December 1957, when he dealt three pitchers—only one of whom, reliever Willard Schmidt, had major-league experience—to the Cincinnati Reds for outfielder Joe Taylor and infielder-outfielder Curt Flood. 

You can’t look at Cardinals history from 1939 until 2007 without seeing the impact he had on the St. Louis Cardinals.

Devine constructed the Cardinals World Series teams in the 1960s. Brock, Flood, Cepeda, Torre, Gibson, McCarver, Shannon and Bill White were all drafted or traded for by Devine. 

Devine drafted or signed some of the core members of the 1982 team, including Keith Hernandez, Bob Forsch, Ken Oberkfell, and Tom Herr. He also traded for Bob Sykes, who was the piece Whitey used to get Willie McGee. 

One of the most telling ways to measure his impact is to look at the Cardinals HOF. The inaugural class of 2014, along with the 2015 class, had 21 inductees. Bing Devine traded for or drafted six of those. If you take out those who were managers or front office people, then Devine was directly responsible for 35% of the HOF inductees in 2014 and 2015. 

After building championship teams here, he worked in the Mets front office. He improved their scouting processes and player evaluation, and he modernized the farm system. (Sound familiar?) His efforts there built the core of the Mets’ first championship. It was such an unexpected feat that his team was nicknamed the Miracle Mets.

He held the position of Cardinals GM until 1978. After that, the Giants, Expos, Phillies, and Astros sought him out for his scouting and organizational development work. 

After Walt Jocketty had the GM position for a few years, he reached out to Devine. He wanted to hire him as a Special Assignment Scout and Senior Advisor. Jocketty later noted that he valued Devine's "eye" for talent. In an era where scouting was clashing with early analytics, Jocketty wanted someone who could walk into a ballpark, watch three innings, and tell him if a player had the "makeup" to be a Cardinal. 

During the early 2000s, while Jocketty was managing the major league roster, Mozeliak was in charge of the draft. Devine acted as a mentor to the young executive. By mentoring Mozeliak, Devine provided a direct link to the very origins of "The Cardinal Way." Mozeliak has often noted that Devine taught him the importance of scouting "makeup" and character, which balanced the data-driven approach Mozeliak would later implement. When the front office fractured between Jocketty and Jeff Luhnow, Mozeliak used the "steady hand" approach he learned from Devine to navigate the transition into the lead GM role.

Bing Devine was part of the city of St. Louis for his entire life. He was with the Cardinals for over 50 years. He signed the first $100,000 contract in the history of MLB (Stan Musial). By the early 1960s, the Cardinals became one of the most racially integrated teams in baseball—a direct result of Devine's leadership. Devine built three championships, all when there were no free agents. He did it all with brilliant trades and an astute, uncanny ability to scout players. Devine pulled off one of the most famous trades in the history of baseball, trading Brock for Broglio. He mentored both Jocketty and Mozeliak. 

To span that much history and be such an important part of the St. Louis Cardinals from Musial to Mozeliak and not be in the Hall of Fame is indefensible.