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He caught 1,223 games over eighteen seasons and batted .285 with 1,341 hits, 173 home runs and 812 runs batted in. His brother Mort was the best pitcher on the same team, and the two were the St. Louis battery from 1940 through 1945; Mort was the National League's Most Valuable Player in 1942.

Those Cardinals won the pennant in 1942, 1943 and 1944, and the World Series in 1942 and 1944. New York bought him after the war, and in 1947 he hit 35 home runs and drove in 122 in 140 games, fourth in the league behind Johnny Mize and Ralph Kiner, who hit 51 each, and Willard Marshall. A catcher was not supposed to be in that company.

After that he kept moving: Cincinnati, Boston, Milwaukee when the club went west, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and back to St. Louis at forty-one. Eight All-Star selections in all. The writers gave him ten ballots between 1968 and 1977 and the Veterans Committee three more, and he stayed outside.