1976 St. Louis Cardinals season

The 1976 St. Louis Cardinals season was the team's 95th season in St. Louis, Missouri and the 85th season in the National League. The Cardinals went 72–90 during the season and finished fifth in the National League East, 29 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies.

Offseason

October 28, 1975: Mike Garman and a player to be named later were traded by the Cardinals to the Chicago Cubs for Don Kessinger. The Cardinals sent completed the deal by sending Bobby Hrapmann to the Cubs on April 5, 1976.
December 12, 1975: Buddy Bradford and Greg Terlecky were traded by the Cardinals to the Chicago White Sox for Lee Richard.
December 22, 1975, Mick Kelleher was traded by the Cardinals to the Chicago Cubs for Vic Harris.
January 7, 1976: John Butcher was drafted by the Cardinals in the 2nd round of the 1976 Major League Baseball draft, but did not sign.
February 3, 1976: Tom Walker was purchased by the Cardinals from the Detroit Tigers.
March 2, 1976: Ted Sizemore was traded by the Cardinals to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Willie Crawford.

Regular season

This was the twelfth and final season for Red Schoendienst as the Cardinals' full-time manager, although he would manage the club in parts of two later seasons.
The Cardinals went to the Columbia blue road uniforms for the first time in '76. They would continue to wear those uniforms through the 1984 season.

Notable transactions

April 9, 1976: Wayne Nordhagen was purchased from the Cardinals by the Philadelphia Phillies.
May 19, 1976: Luis Meléndez was traded by the Cardinals to the San Diego Padres for Bill Greif.
June 8, 1976: John Littlefield was drafted by the Cardinals in the 30th round of the 1976 Major League Baseball draft.

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Ted Simmons	150	546	159	.291	5	75
1B	Keith Hernandez	129	374	108	.289	7	46
2B	Mike Tyson	76	245	70	.286	3	28
3B		151	526	120	.228	13	71
SS		145	502	120	.239	1	40
LF	Lou Brock	133	498	150	.301	4	67
CF	Jerry Mumphrey	112	384	99	.258	1	26
RF		120	392	119	.304	9	50

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Bake McBride	72	272	91	.335	3	24
	97	259	59	.228	1	19
Garry Templeton	53	213	62	.291	1	17
	86	199	58	.291	1	12
	71	189	38	.201	4	21
Reggie Smith	47	170	37	.218	8	23
Ron Fairly	73	110	29	.264	0	21
	66	91	16	.176	0	5
Ken Rudolph	27	50	8	.160	0	5
Luis Alvarado	16	42	12	.286	0	3
	20	24	3	.125	0	0
	18	21	3	.143	0	0
Mike Potter	9	16	0	.000	0	0
Charlie Chant	15	14	2	.143	0	0
	10	10	3	.300	0	1
Doug Clarey	9	4	1	.250	1	2

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	32	212.0	12	16	3.23	138
	30	207.0	11	9	2.52	74
	33	205.0	13	15	3.91	106
	33	194.0	8	10	3.94	76

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	43	150.1	6	12	3.53	76
	37	134.0	6	11	4.50	52
Lerrin LaGrow	8	24.1	0	1	1.48	10

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Al Hrabosky	68	8	6	13	3.30	73
Mike Wallace	49	3	2	2	4.07	40
	47	1	5	6	4.12	32
Eddie Solomon	26	1	1	0	4.86	19
Danny Frisella	18	0	0	1	3.97	11
Mike Proly	14	1	0	0	3.71	4
	10	1	2	3	4.12	11
	7	1	0	0	5.40	5
Steve Waterbury	5	0	0	0	6.00	4

Farm system

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Johnson City