Former St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Marty Marion, who played on three World Series championship teams (1942, ’44 and ’46), died Tuesday night of an apparent heart attack. Read the St. Louis Post-Dispatch story here.

Marty Marion (No. 4) joined the celebration after the St. Louis Cardinals won the 1946 World Series. Others who turned around their jerseys to mark the occasion were Whitey Kurowski (1), Enos Slaughter (9) and Stan Musial (6). (Post-Dispatch photo)

I grew up in St. Louis, but most people my age wouldn’t have known his name. I’m fortunate that I got to know him as a person, as he was my neighbor. It wasn’t until I got older and started researching that I realized how legendary he was.

He had been known as the Cardinals’ greatest shortstop until Ozzie Smith played for the team in the 1980s. He was one of the best players on the team from the ’40s, an era when the Cardinals won the National League pennant four times and the World Series three times. He was a teammate and friend of Stan Musial, considered the greatest Cardinal to ever play and a larger-than-life hero in St. Louis.

According to the Post-Dispatch story, Marion indirectly influenced another great shortstop: Cal Ripken. According to Tony LaRussa:

“I heard that [former Baltimore Orioles manager] Earl Weaver said the reason he thought about moving Cal Ripken to shortstop is that [Weaver] grew up in St. Louis watching Marty Marion. That’s a helluva compliment.”

Marion’s Baseball-Reference.com statistics are interesting, specifically during the World War II years when some of the players were, ya know, fighting in the war. Marion’s stats look odd with modern stats in mind, but the game was different then. (For starters, no andro.)

To see a Post-Dispatch/STLtoday.com gallery of Marty Marion photos, go here. Here’s how the Post-Dispatch played the story on A1 on Thursday:

And how it played on the front of sports: