Keith Hernandez - St. Louis Cardinals

St. Louis Cardinals

Hernandez's batting average hovered around .250 for most of his minor league career, until his promotion to the Tulsa Oilers in the second half of the 1973 season. With the Cardinals' triple-A affiliate, Hernandez batted .333 with five home runs and a .525 slugging percentage. The following season, Hernandez's average jumped to .351, earning him a promotion to the big league club. He made his major league debut at Candlestick Park on August 30, 1974 against the San Francisco Giants, going 1-2 with two walks, and earning his first major league RBI with a single in the ninth. Following the season, the Cards traded first baseman Joe Torre to the New York Mets for Tommy Moore and Ray Sadecki to make room for their budding young prospect.

Hernandez ended up splitting 1975 between Tulsa and the Cardinals. Though his fielding was spectacular (.996 fielding percentage with only two errors in 507 chances), Hernandez struggled with major league pitching, batting only .250 with three home runs and twenty RBIs.

Hernandez wore uniform number 18 for the first two years of his career. In 1976, he switched to number 37, insisting that his uniform number end with a "7" in honor of Mickey Mantle (with whom he shared a birthday). While Hernandez became more comfortable with his bat, he was always recognized as a fielder first, snatching his first Gold Glove Award away from perennial winner Steve Garvey in 1978 (the first of eleven consecutive seasons he would win the award, a record for first basemen). In 1979, however, Hernandez's bat exploded as he led the league with a .344 batting average, 48 doubles, and 116 runs scored, and went on to share the National League's Most Valuable Player Award with Willie Stargell.

From there, Hernandez became a perennial .300 hitter, and one of the top stars in the National League. His Cardinals won the 1982 World Series, defeating the Milwaukee Brewers in seven games. In Game 6, Hernandez and Cardinal catcher Darrell Porter hit home runs in a 13-1 St. Louis victory. Hernandez also contributed eight RBIs during the seven-game World Series.

After multiple disagreements with Cardinal management, most notably manager Whitey Herzog, Hernandez was traded to the Mets on June 15, 1983 for pitchers Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey. Herzog felt that Hernandez had become a cancer on his team and never regretted the trade. He soon replaced Hernandez at first base with fellow All-Star Jack Clark and won two more pennants in the next four years.