TOWER GROVE — After more than 8,500 votes, 173 comments, dozens of spin-off threads, a few lively exchanges over at the Facebook page, and the hours of one talented Post-Dispatch illustrator, it is time to unveil the monument that you helped chisel:

The St. Louis Cardinals Mount Rushmore.

Back during the limbo between playoff series, Bird Land asked the simple question: What four members from Cardinals’ history would you carve into a Mount Rushmore of the franchise? We called it The Rushmore Project. There were no rules, though some demanded that it be kept to players only. There were no guidelines as far as time served, though some insisted that Albert Pujols not yet being eligible for the Hall of Fame should mean he not yet be eligible for Mount Cardsmore as well.

From Stan Musial to George Kissell to Branch Rickey — there was only a list of 15 candidates and the invitation to write in more. Dizzy Dean and Mike Shannon, who should have been No. 16, gained the most write-in votes.

Tom Borgman, a designer and graphic illustrator at the P-D, took the results of the poll, and crafted a photo illustration of what the four winners would look like, blasted into the rock of Rushmore. As a Thanksgiving Weekend treat for Bird Land readers, here is the debut of Bird Land’s Cardsmore:

Fab Four: The St. Louis Cardinals Mount Rushmore (illustration by Tom Borgman)

A total of 8,552 people voted, at least check, on the Rushmore Project, and each of the four faces above received at least 40 percent of the vote. Three of the players featured above are Hall of Famers, and the third is well on his way after just winning the second MVP of his career. Musial, of course, led the way, with 8,274 votes, begging the question who were the 3 percent of voters who left him off? Bob Gibson received 7,728 votes (90 percent). In a show of strength from the current generation of Cards Nation, Pujols received 5,087 votes (59 percent), and Ozzie Smith received 3,523 votes (41 percent).

It can be argued that the Cardinals’ Rushmore above features the franchise’s best player, best pitcher, best hitter and best fielder — the four very definitions of the disciplines it takes to play baseball.

Hall of Famers Lou Brock (34 percent), Jack Buck (32 percent), Rogers Hornsby (21 percent) and Red Schoendienst (11 percent) completed the top eight.

The Real Rushmore (Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln)

With the exception of Mr. Buck, players did the best in the poll, as many voters wrestled with the definition of who belongs on a Rushmore. The most comment approach suggested that only Presidents appear on the real Mount Rushmore, so only players should appear on the Cardinals Rushmore. There’s no Ben Franklin carved into South Dakota, so why should there be a Branch Rickey carved into the Cardinals? Rickey, who helped build the Cardinals from approving the Redbird logo to establishing a farm system to even encouraging the growth of The Knothole Gang, received 164 votes. George Kissell who coached generations of Cardinal received 150 votes. Current manager Tony La Russa received 193 votes, and former owner August A. Busch Jr. received the most of any non-player save Mr. Buck.

The bios of the four members of Cardsmore (from Washington to Lincoln):

• Stan Musial
• Albert Pujols
• Ozzie Smith
• Bob Gibson

After the press conference to introduce Pujols as this year’s National League MVP, several of us — including Maurice Drummond of Fox 2 and P-D columnist Bryan Burwell — sat in the media room and talked about how Pujols has clearly become the face of the franchise. That spawned the question of who is “Mr. Cardinal”? There are really only a handful of candidates. For his play and his personality and his presence still in the public eye, Musial is the obvious answer. Schoendienst has a claim because he still wears the uniform before home games, is a annual visitor and attraction at spring training and was both a Hall of Fame player and one of the franchise’s winningest managers. Now, it’s Pujols. On TV. In video games. Featured in ads. On the field.

The vote above probably gives us the answer.

It certainly identified the cardinal Cardinals.

Let the debate resume once the turkey settles.

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