Located at Cardinals Nation in Ballpark Village, the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame (1) should be a stop for every Cardinals fan. With this being the inaugural year, they have opened some of the voting to the fans. The Cardinals selected a ‘Red Ribbon’ committee of Cardinals baseball experts and through a secret ballot process they came up with the listed nominees. You can vote for two of them here (2) or include the Twitter hashtags for them until April 22nd:

Jim Edmonds (#EdmondsHOF) .285 AVG, 241 HR, 713 RBIs Jim Edmonds joined the Cardinals in 2000 and played eight seasons, making the postseason in six of them and playing in two World Series, winning in 2006. The three-time All-Star won six consecutive Gold Gloves from 2000-05. He ranks 4th on the Cardinals all-time home run list with 241 and hit the game-ending home run in the 11th inning of the Game 6 of the 2004 NLCS.
Bob Forsch (#ForschHOF) 163-127, 3.67 ERA, 1079 K’s Bob Forsch played 15 seasons with the Cardinals, making 401 starts, ranking 2nd all-time to franchise history. He threw two no-hitters, coming in 1978 and again in 1983, becoming the only pitcher in Cardinals history to throw two. He played in three World Series, winning in 1982, a year in which he threw a three-hit shutout in the Cardinals first ever NLCS game. The two-time Silver Slugger Award winner won 163 games for the Cardinals, ranking third in franchise history.
Keith Hernandez (#HernandezHOF) .299 AVG, 265 2B, 662 R Keith Hernandez played 10 seasons with the Cardinals, winning six straight Gold Gloves from 1978-1983. He was a co-MVP in 1979, batting a league leading .344 with 11 HR and 105 RBI. The two-time All-Star was a member of the 1982 World Championship team.
Willie McGee (#McGeeHOF) .294 AVG, 301 SB, 255 2B Willie McGee played in 13 seasons with the Cardinals, playing in 1661 games, 9th all-time in franchise history. He was a four-time All-Star, won three Gold Gloves and was the 1985 National League MVP with league leading marks of a .353 batting average, 18 triples and 216 hits, while stealing 56 bases. McGee played in three World Series, winning as a rookie in 1982 when he finished third in the Rookie of the Year voting. Is one of six players to steal over 300 bases with the Cardinals, swiping 301.
Mark McGwire (#McGwireHOF) 220 HR, 473 RBIs, 1.111 OPS Mark McGwire finished his career playing five seasons with the Cardinals. In 1998, he broke the Major League Baseball single-season home run record of 61 set by Roger Maris with 70. He blasted 220 career home runs with the Cardinals ranking 6th in franchise history, leading the National League in 1998 and 1999, the top two season totals in Cardinals history. He set the Cardinals single season walk mark with 162 in 1998. Had back-to-back seasons of 147 RBI, ranking tied for 3rd in Cardinals history. He was a three-time All-Star and won the Silver Slugger in 1998.
Matt Morris (#MorrisHOF) 101-62, 3.61 ERA, 986 K’s Matt Morris pitched for the Cardinals from 1997-2005, finishing 3rd in the Rookie of the Year award in 1997 and was a two-time All-Star in 2001 and 2002. He played in five postseasons and one World Series, in 2004. He led the National League with 22 wins in 2001 and won 101 games over his career with the Cardinals.
Ted Simmons (#SimmonsHOF) .298 AVG, 172 HR, 929 RBIs Ted Simmons played 13 seasons with the Cardinals, making his Major League debut at 18-years old in 1968. He was a six-time All-Star and won the Silver Slugger in 1980. In 1975, Simmons set the National League record for hits by a catcher with 188. He posted six seasons of 20 or more home runs and 10 consecutive seasons from 1971-80 with 75 or more RBI. His 172 HR rank 9th and 929 RBI are 7th all-time in Cardinals franchise history.
Joe Torre (#TorreHOF) .308 AVG, 558 RBIs, 161 2B Joe Torre played six seasons with the Cardinals at catcher, first base and third base from 1969-74. He was a four-time All-Star and was named National League MVP in 1971, leading the league with a .363 batting average with 137 RBI and 230 hits, while hitting 24 home runs. His 230 hits were the most since Stan Musial had 230 in 1948, the most by a Cardinal since World War II. He posted a career batting average of .308, ranking 10th in Cardinals franchise history.

How can you choose? I don’t know how you are going to choose but I will give you my two choices. I think all but one of these are Cardinals Hall of Famers. Keith Hernandez hasn’t been around Cardinal Nation a bunch and for that I do not think he belongs. He’s kind of shunned us.

My choices are personal. They were kind of tough for me. One of them was easy and that choice is Bob Forsch. Bob was literally one of my heroes as a kid. I wanted to be a consistent and nice Cardinals pitcher as a kid. Bob Forsch was that. I remember meeting him when he came to my Cub Scout event in like 1981. Professionally, he has made the second most starts in Cardinals history with the third most wins. He was a hitting pitcher which also made him a better pitcher.

My second choice is for a totally different reason. No one person did more for baseball’s resurgence in the 1990’s than Mark McGwire. Off the field look at how many people bought Cardinals gear just in the year 1998 alone. That is because Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa captivated the world with their homerun race. 70 homeruns. 162 walks. 147 RBIs. Just wow what numbers. He also came back as a hitting coach. Never mind what you think of him as a person, he did not break any rules that were in effect during his playing time.

Yeah my nominees are for two very different reasons. Like I said, this is my opinion and you can vote for yourself if your opinion differs. That’s what makes us all proud to be members of Cardinals Nation!