This wild stat shows how elite Cardinals' first baseman have been since 1998

The St. Louis Cardinals are one of the most storied franchises in the history of Major League Baseball. While the 21st century has been filled with its ups and downs, it is impossible to ignore how many great players have worn the Birds on the Bat over the last two decades.

I was scrolling on X (formerly known as Twitter) the other day and came across this insane stat from Codify that just goes to show how incredible of a run of talent the Cardinals have had a specific position - first base.

Since 1998, the Cardinals have had 934 home runs from the first base position, 104 home runs more home runs than the second place team, the Philadelphia Phillies.

That stat, for how jarring it is on paper, makes a ton of sense when you just take a moment to reflect on some of the incredible first basemen that they have had during that stretch of time:

1. Albert Pujols (469 HR)
2. Mark McGwire (220 HR)
3. Matt Carpenter (155 HR)
4. Paul Goldschmidt (131)

Pujols, McGwire, Goldschmidt, and Carpenter are quite the list of names, with three of those being Hall of Fame talents and Carpenter surely being in the Cardinals' Hall of Fame at some point. They've also had bats like Matt Adams, Allen Craig, Jose Martinez, and Brandon Moss, among others play the position.

Arguably even more wild to me is how the Cardinals had some overlapping seasons with some of these guys. Pujols played with all three of Goldschmidt, Carpenter, and McGwire during various seasons, albeit all at different stages in their career. The middle of the 2010s were the odd years during this run when it came to first base, as St. Louis relied on a lot of different names to fill that first base void before trading for Goldschmidt before the 2019 season.

Along with those names, the Cardinals have a great history of other first basemen such as Stan Musial, Keith Hernandez, Jim Bottomley, Johnny Mize, Jack Clark, Orlando Cepeda, Bill White, and Ripper Collins. It's truly been a position of strength for the Cardinals in their rich history, and one of the many reasons they've been so successful in their history.