The skipper of the St. Louis Cardinals spent 15 of his 19 major league seasons as an active player in Busch Stadium. Red's fabulous career, though primarily filled with greatness, also was sprinkled with troubles. Suffering an eye injury while very young, Red found he was having difficulty batting righthanded against righty pitchers. The young man crossed over to the other side of the plate to compensate for the difficulty and developed into one of the best majors' top switch-hitters. The Cardinal second sacker turned in his peak year in 1952 when he batted .342 and finished 2nd in the NL batting sweepstakes. In 1958 it was discovered that Red was suffering from tuberculosis. Doctors told the ballplayer that his playing days had ended. But the spirited young man fooled the medics as he went on to play big league ball until 1963.