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Meet Milt Stock, The Most Cardinals Player Ever

The storied Saint Louis Cardinals franchise reaches all the way back to 1882. Back then tomatoes were considered evil and the Irish had not been invented. But the baseball club pressed on, known as The Perfectos, the Browns, and the Brown Stockings before finally settling on the Cardinals.

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Since their establishment, Cardinals batters have taken 760,980 plate appearances. They've hit 133,445 singles, 29,999 doubles, 7,357 triples and 10,937 home runs. The franchise slash line currently sits at .266/.357/.381 for an OPS of .738.

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Milt Stock was an infielder for the Cardinals from 1919 to 1923. In 3,259 PAs for the Milt_stock_mediumRedbirds, he hit .305/.355/.382 for an OPS of .737. Not only does Stock come the closest of any player to replicate the slash line of the entire franchise while a member of the team, he was also 5'8" and led the league in sacrifice bunts in 1921, which is the most Cardinals thing ever.

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We are willing to bet he got a lot of standing ovations at Grand and Dodier that summer.

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Stock's playing career came to an end in 1926, after colliding into Lou Gehrig, who looked remarkably like a younger, mysterious Baldwin brother.

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