Regular Birdhouse contributor Jerry Modene observed that on Monday, the new backup third baseman will officially become the first-ever St. Louis Cardinals player with that surname. I found that surprising, given the common nature of the name Washington and the scores and scores of Cardinals having worn the uniform over the years.

It seems quite amazing that the “Father of Our Country”, our very first president, has never had a namesake don the famous birds on the bat uniform at the major league level in the regular season. Yet, it is true.

Jerry had picked off many of the more well-known Cardinals players with presidential last names in this post on our Message Board. That initial group included 18 players plus Rico, but Jerry was stymied in trying to find a first baseman for his “All-Presidential Team”.

I decided to take the challenge. With the help of the Cardinals Media Guide and Lee Sinins invaluable “Complete Baseball Encyclopedia”, I initiated a one-man search party for additional past Cardinals “presidents” to complete the roster.

There is an amazingly large number of players to choose from.

In fact, with sixteen new players in 2007 and eight more so far in 2008 (Matt Clement, Kyle Lohse, Kyle McClellan, Jason LaRue, Troy Glaus, Cesar Izturis and Brian Barton, along with Washington), exactly 1,821 men have been Cardinals since 1892. Only 2.3% of them share their family name with a US president.

With that, we offer you the 41 members of the St. Louis Cardinals All-Time Presidential Team.

Position	Name	StL Years	Notes
P	Babe Adams	1906	1G w/StL, 18 yrs with PIT
P	Joe “Wagon Tongue” Adams	1902	Early Gene Simmons?
P	Guy Bush	1938	Longtime Cubs starter
P	Reggie Cleveland	1969-73	Starter for bad teams
P	Mudcat Grant	1969	2-time All-Star passed thru
P	Al Jackson	1966-67	Won 13 in '66
P	Danny Jackson	1995-97	Went 2-12 in '95
P	Larry Jackson	1955-62	13-16 wins 6 straight years
P	Mike Jackson	1971	One G thriller
P	Jerry Johnson	1970	Very brief (11.1 IP) stop
P	Ken “Hook” Johnson	1947-50	Late '40s swingman
P	Si Johnson	1936-38	Long career, won 12 in '37
P	Tyler Johnson	2005-07	Current lefty specialist
P	Mike Lincoln	2004	Elbow problems
P	Chuck Taylor	1969-71	Won 16, saved 11 in 3 yrs
P	Ed Taylor	1903	Career=1G, 3IP, 0ER
P/OF	“Brewery Jack” Taylor	1898	Great nickname!
P/3B	Jack Taylor	1904-06	90 starts, 90 CGs!
P	Ron Taylor	1963-65	Started a few G early on
P	Zeke Wilson	1899	1-1 in 5 G to close career
C	Ed Harding	1886	1-for-3 in only game for StL
C	Terry Kennedy	1978-80	Dad was front office exec
C	Darrell Johnson	1960	Later managed, ex-Brownie
C/1B/2B	Jimmie “Ace” Wilson	1928-33	2-time All-Star catcher
1B/3B/OF	Bob Johnson	1969	Well-traveled; only 29 StL AB
1B/2B/3B/OF	Craig Wilson	1989-92	All Craigs are utilitymen
2B	Adam Kennedy	1999, 07-08	Current 2B drafted by team
2B/SS	Jim Kennedy	1970	Junior Kennedy's brother
SS	Hod Ford	1932	2 ABs at end of 15 yr career
SS/3B	Sparky Adams	1933	39 G near career end
SS/3B	Charlie “Swamp Baby” Wilson	1932-33, 35	Short 186 AB career
3B	Bull Johnson	1952-53	64 RBI as 3B regular in '51
3B	Rico Washington	2008	Newest member of the club
OF	Buster Adams	1939, 43, 45-46	Starting OF in '45
OF	Curt Ford	1985-88	OF reserve for 2 NL champs
OF	Alex Johnson	1966-67	Later starred with CIN
OF	Lance Johnson	1987	Later starred with CWS
OF/1B/3B	Carl Taylor	1970	45 RBI in 245 ABs
OF	Joe Taylor	1958	Only 23 ABs with StL
OF	Chief Wilson	1914-16	144 RBIs in last 3 seasons
OF	Preston Wilson	2006-07	Bad knee ended good career

As noted above, it was a mighty struggle to find a first baseman and the outfield is surprisingly sparse. Your first baseman could be one of four players, yet in total, they amassed only 24 games at the position, led by outfielder Carl Taylor, who logged 15 games there in 1970.

Not surprisingly, almost all of the players, 38 to be exact, played after their initial namesake was in office. Two Cardinals preceded their presidents, Ed Harding in 1886 and Zeke Wilson in 1899. Only one, the appropriately-named Chief Wilson in 1914-16, played during his Chief Executive’s term. (Alex Johnson in 1966-67 suited up during Lyndon Johnson’s time in office, but Andrew Johnson trumped them both by 100 years.)

The breakdown by position:

Pitchers	20
Catchers	4
Infielders	9
Outfielders	8
Total	41

In the Cardinals presidential leaderboard, we find current Cardinal Tyler Johnson and his namesakes in the lead with nine, followed by the Taylors with seven former Cardinals players.

President	Cardinals
Johnson (2)	9
Taylor	7
Wilson	6
Adams (2)	4
Jackson	4
Kennedy	3
Ford	2
Washington	1
Lincoln	1
Cleveland	1
Grant	1
Harding	1
Bush (2)	1

With 41 presidential Cardinals, they are just one short of the number of actual presidents in US history – until this coming fall, that is. Of the 42 Chief Executives, George Washington has now joined 15 other presidents who share their last name with a Cardinal. Therefore, 26 other Commanders in Chief have missed out - so far. (Grover Cleveland served twice, non-consecutively.)

Here is the complete list:

	Presidents of the United States	Years	Cardinals
1	George Washington	1789-1797	1
2	John Adams	1797-1801	4
3	Thomas Jefferson	1801-1809	0
4	James Madison	1809-1817	0
5	James Monroe	1817-1825	0
6	John Quincy Adams	1825-1829	4
7	Andrew Jackson	1829-1837	4
8	Martin Van Buren	1837-1841	0
9	William Henry Harrison	1841	0
10	John Tyler	1841-1845	0
11	James Knox Polk	1845-1849	0
12	Zachary Taylor	1849-1850	7
13	Millard Fillmore	1850-1853	0
14	Franklin Pierce	1853-1857	0
15	James Buchanan	1857-1861	0
16	Abraham Lincoln	1861-1865	1
17	Andrew Johnson	1865-1869	9
18	Ulysses Simpson Grant	1869-1877	1
19	Rutherford Birchard Hayes	1877-1881	0
20	James Abram Garfield	1881	0
21	Chester Alan Arthur	1881-1885	0
22	Grover Cleveland	1885-1889	1
23	Benjamin Harrison	1889-1893	0
24	Grover Cleveland	1893-1897	0
25	William McKinley	1897-1901	0
26	Theodore Roosevelt	1901-1909	0
27	William Howard Taft	1909-1913	0
28	Woodrow Wilson	1913-1921	6
29	Warren Gamaliel Harding	1921-1923	1
30	Calvin Coolidge	1923-1929	0
31	Herbert Clark Hoover	1929-1933	0
32	Franklin Delano Roosevelt	1933-1945	0
33	Harry S. Truman	1945-1953	0
34	Dwight David Eisenhower	1953-1961	0
35	John Fitzgerald Kennedy	1961-1963	3
36	Lyndon Baines Johnson	1963-1969	9
37	Richard Milhous Nixon	1969-1974	0
38	Gerald Rudolph Ford	1974-1977	2
39	James Earl Carter Jr	1977-1981	0
40	Ronald Wilson Reagan	1981-1989	0
41	George Herbert Walker Bush	1989-1993	1
42	William Jefferson Clinton	1993-2001	0
43	George Walker Bush	2001-pres	1

By the way, before you ask, no, the team has never featured an Obama, Clinton (already noted) or a McCain. There’s always time, though!

On the other side of the coin, having been born in the Dominican Republic precludes Albert Pujols from trying to be the first man to make both lists, but who knows what could happen down the road? Perhaps he will become Missouri’s answer to Arnold Schwarzenegger one day!



Jerry Modene inspired and directly contributed to this article.

Brian Walton can be reached via email at brwalton@earthlink.net.