
Back in the same division as the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals have 10,928 wins.
The Cardinals have been one of the most consistent of all franchises. Only once since 2000 has the team finished worse than third in the NL Central, winning 10 division titles, four pennants and two World Series since then. Only one of those seasons resulted in a sub-.500 record.
You can extend that level of consistency back virtually a century. Since the 1920s, the Cardinals have averaged 844.1 victories per decade – that’s 84.4 per season – never dropping below 78.3. So even when the Cards haven’t been as good, they haven’t really been what you’d consider bad. In fact over the course of the past century, a Cardinal team has finished last in its league or division only once, that in 1990.
Only the Yankees have more World Series wins than the Cardinals’ 11.
There was a franchise low period, but you have to reach far into the past to find it. Between 1892 – when the former American Association team affiliated with the National League – and 1919, Cardinals teams finished last seven times hit the first division just four times and enjoyed only five plus-.500 seasons.
In short, the Cardinals have for some time been picking up and maintaining the pace. It took the franchise 35 seasons to get to 2,000 wins. They only needed 21 to reach 4,000 in 1938, and have marked off the successive 2,000 win milestones at intervals of between 23 and 24 seasons, reaching 10,000 in 2006.