April 13, 1926: Opening Day win over defending champion Pirates sets stage for Cardinals’ first National League pennant

In 1926 the St. Louis Cardinals began their 35th season as a member of the National League. The franchise, known as the Browns from 1892 to ’98 and as the Perfectos in 1899, had not finished better than third place in the league standings.

Second baseman-manager Rogers Hornsby, who had recorded his second career Triple Crown and earned NL Most Valuable Player honors in 1925,1 was confident about his team’s prospects leading up to Opening Day against the defending World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates on April 13 at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis.

“If we get the pitching we have reason to expect, the St. Louis Cards ought to be in the race all the way, with a good chance to win the pennant,” said Hornsby, who assumed his dual role on May 31, 1925, replacing Branch Rickey as manager and piloting the Cardinals to fourth place in the NL with a 77-76 overall record.2 “We have an infield as good as any in the league, and there is no particular weakness in the outfield. We have plenty of hitting power.”3

The Tuesday-afternoon pregame festivities included the soon-to-be 30-year-old Hornsby4 receiving a most popular player trophy,5 a ceremonial first pitch by St. Louis Mayor Victor Miller, and a band. The Cardinals donned new uniforms, which did not feature the now-traditional cardinal birds on the chest but instead had “St. L.” on the left sleeve.6 The game was the first in the major leagues for third-base umpire Beans Reardon, who went on to work 24 seasons, including five World Series and three All-Star games.

Drawing the pitching assignments – on a day described as “fair weather, although just a bit chilly”7 – were a pair of right-handers: 32-year-old Vic Aldridge for Pittsburgh and 25-year-old Flint Rhem for St. Louis. In the Pirates’ come-from-behind seven-game win over the Washington Nationals in the 1925 World Series, Aldridge authored a pair of complete-game victories8 after going 15-7 with a 3.63 ERA during the regular season.9 Rhem went 8-13 with a 4.92 ERA the previous year, his first full season in the majors.

The Pirates, under fifth-year manager Bill McKechnie, were without star center fielder and team captain Max Carey, who was ill. Kiki Cuyler – Hornsby’s runner-up for the 1925 NL MVP Award – moved from his customary right-field spot to center, with Clyde Barnhart going from left to right, and reserve Carson Bigbee starting in left. “When we have all of our strength available for duty, we will be stronger than last year,” McKechnie said. “We will have more confidence and greater reserve strength.”10

The Cardinals struck in the bottom of the first inning. Ray Blades led off with a single, was sacrificed to second by Heinie Mueller, and scored on a single by Hornsby. It remained 1-0 until the fourth, when the Cardinals added a pair of runs. Hornsby doubled leading off and came home on a single by Jim Bottomley. Chick Hafey was hit by a pitch, and Tommy Thevenow drove in Bottomley with a two-out single.

St. Louis broke it open in the fifth. Mueller and Hornsby singled with one out. Bottomley, who a season earlier had led the NL with 227 hits and tied for the National and American League lead with 44 doubles,11 belted a three-run home run to right-center field to widen the Cardinals’ lead to 6-0. Bottomley had four RBIs in the game and went on to lead the NL with 120 for the season.

Through five scoreless innings Rhem allowed just two hits and two walks, but the Pirates got to him in the sixth. Aldridge singled leading off and Eddie Moore reached on an error by third baseman Les Bell. Bigbee’s bouncer hit off Bottomley’s glove when the first baseman cut in front of Hornsby to field it, and Aldridge came home on the infield single. Moore scored on a wild pitch, but Rhem kept it 6-2 by retiring the next three batters.

The Pirates continued to chip away. In the seventh Bell committed his second error in two innings on Barnhart’s grounder, and George Grantham doubled to right-center when Hafey and Mueller “got their signals crossed,”12 setting up Earl Smith with runners on second and third and no outs. Smith’s sacrifice fly brought in Barnhart, and pinch-hitter Paul Waner, making his major-league debut three days from his 23rd birthday, drew a walk.

On a full-count pitch to Moore, the runners took off and he hit a sharp grounder toward the bag at third. Bell, moving over to cover the steal attempt, grabbed the ball, stepped on third, and threw to first to complete what the Pittsburgh Gazette Times called “a dramatic double play.13

An inning later Bigbee homered to right to make it 6-4. In the Cardinals’ half of the eighth, Hafey led off with a triple to the center-field flagpole against reliever Tom Sheehan and Bell followed with a sacrifice fly for a 7-4 advantage.

The Pirates had one last rally, putting four successive hitters on base with one out in the ninth. Grantham singled when Bell waved off Thevenow on a routine popup, allowing it to drop; Smith singled; Johnny Gooch drew a pinch-hit walk to load the bases; and Moore delivered a two-run double that scored Grantham and pinch-runner Emil Yde. It was a one-run game.

Rhem got Bigbee to pop out to first base and walked Cuyler to reload the bases. Glenn Wright hit a line drive to center that Mueller initially sprinted back on before racing in to make the catch and secure a 7-6 Cardinals victory.14 The game was played in front of 17,000 fans and took 2 hours and 10 minutes to complete.

In his complete-game effort, Rhem allowed four earned runs on nine hits with five walks and two strikeouts. He induced two double-play groundouts, and the Pirates had a runner thrown out trying to steal second base. According to Herman Wecke of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “The Cardinals defense was not up to snuff. There were two errors of commission and at least three of omission. These slips, the mental ones, were the ones that made it appear that Rhem was weakening and that he was lucky to pull through.”15

Aldridge worked six innings, giving up six runs (all earned) on eight hits with one walk and five strikeouts.

“[The Pirates] showed many championship qualities as they came from behind in a manner that was more than a slight reminder of the same boys on a big occasion of last October,” wrote Charles J. Doyle of the Pittsburgh Gazette Times. “The score … doesn’t tell the half of it from the standpoint of the Pittsburgh battle spirit.”16

After a 10-9 loss to the Chicago Cubs on June 1, the Cardinals were 23-25 and in sixth place in the eight-team NL. But a streak of 12 wins in 13 games ignited their season, and St. Louis climbed to the top of the standings in mid-August. Pittsburgh was in sole possession of first place on August 29 with a 70-49 record but went just 14-20 the rest of the way. The Cardinals subsequently were nip and tuck with the Cincinnati Reds before finally clinching their first NL pennant with a 6-4 victory over the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds on September 24.17

The Cardinals wound up with an 89-65 record – two games better than the Reds (87-67) and 4½ better than the Pirates (84-69) – to claim the franchise’s first championship since its fourth consecutive American Association crown in 1888.

Rhem emerged as the ace of the St. Louis pitching staff, going 20-7 with a 3.21 ERA. He shared the NL lead in wins18 and ranked tied for second with 34 games started, tied for fourth with 20 complete games, and sixth with 258 innings. It would prove to be the best season of his 12-year career, which was plagued by alcohol abuse.19

Hornsby, who was 3-for-3 on Opening Day, battled through an injury-riddled season while also preoccupied with his gravely ill mother.20 He batted .317 with 34 doubles, 5 triples, 11 homers, and 93 RBIs in 134 games.

Bob O’Farrell, the Cardinals’ durable catcher, was voted the NL Most Valuable Player after batting .293 with 30 doubles, 9 triples, 7 home runs and 68 RBIs. Three other Cardinals finished in the top 10 of MVP balloting: Thevenow (fourth), Bell (sixth), and Rhem (eighth).21

St. Louis went on to defeat the New York Yankees – managed by former Cardinals second baseman and manager Miller Huggins – in the World Series, four games to three.22

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources 

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent material and the box scores.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN192604130.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1926/B04130SLN1926.htm

Notes

1 Hornsby batted .403 with 39 home runs and 143 RBIs. He previously won the NL Triple Crown in 1922.

2 The Cardinals were 64-51 under Hornsby.

3 “What Sisler and Hornsby Think of Teams’ Chances,” St. Louis Star, April 13, 1926: 16.

4 Hornsby was born on April 27, 1896.

5 Herman Wecke, “Carey, Pirates’ Spark Plug, Will Not Face Cardinals Today,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 13, 1926: 28. According to the article, “A news-gathering agency in Cleveland held a nationwide contest and Hornsby was honored [in the NL]. A 9-year-old Scranton, Pa., boy, whose essay won first prize, will present the trophy.” Washington Nationals pitcher Walter Johnson won in the American League.

6 Wecke, “Carey, Pirates’ Spark Plug, Will Not Face Cardinals Today.” The article noted, “The ‘birds’ were thrown off because no hard, fast colors could be obtained.”

7 Wecke, “Carey, Pirates’ Spark Plug, Will Not Face Cardinals Today.”

8 Aldridge won Game Two, 3-2, and Game Five, 6-3 – beating future Hall of Famer Stan Coveleski both times. He also pitched one-third of an inning in relief in the decisive Game Seven. The Nationals led three games to one before the Pirates won three in a row to become the first team in a best-of-seven World Series to come back from a 3–1 deficit to win.

9 Aldridge was acquired from the Chicago Cubs on October 27, 1924.

10 Wecke, “Carey, Pirates’ Spark Plug, Will Not Face Cardinals Today.”

11 In the AL Marty McManus of the St. Louis Browns also had 44 doubles.

12 James M. Gould, “Hornsby Hits for 1.000 as Cards Stave Off Pirate Rally and Win Opener Here,” St. Louis Star, April 14, 1926: 18.

13 Charles J. Doyle, “Bucs’ Valiant Rally in Late Innings Falls One Run Short, 7 to 6,” Pittsburgh Gazette Times, April 14, 1926: 13.

14 The Cardinals went 19-23 in one-run games, while the Pirates were 22-18. St. Louis won the season series against Pittsburgh, 13-9, for the first time since 1922.

15 Herman Wecke, “Cards Show Tremendous Punch in Beating World Champions,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 14, 1926: 30.

16 Charles J. Doyle, “Pirates Lose Opener, 7 to 6,” Pittsburgh Gazette Times, April 14, 1926: 1.

17 In that game Billy Southworth, who was acquired from the Giants on June 14, hit a two-run game-deciding home run. The Cardinals sent Heinie Mueller, their Opening Day center fielder, to the Giants in the trade.

18 The Pirates’ Ray Kremer and Lee Meadows also won 20 games apiece, as did Pete Donohue of the Cincinnati Reds.

19 Nancy Snell Griffith, “Flint Rhem,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/flint-rhem/, accessed March 4, 2026.

20 Mary Hornsby died on September 29, 1926, in Austin, Texas, as the Cardinals were preparing for the World Series. Hornsby heeded her wishes and the funeral was delayed until after the World Series.

21 Pittsburgh pitcher Ray Kremer was third.

22 On December 20, 1926, the Cardinals traded Hornsby – embroiled in a contract dispute with owner Sam Breadon – to the Giants for second baseman Frankie Frisch and pitcher Jimmy Ring. O’Farrell was named player-manager for the 1927 season.