St. Louis Browns: Difference between revisions

| foldedrelocated = 1953 (moved to [[Baltimore|Baltimore, Maryland]] and; became the [[Baltimore Orioles]])

| cap_logo = St. Louis Browns logoCap 1911Logo (1950 to 19151951).pngsvg

The '''St. Louis Browns''' werewas a [[Major League Baseball]] team that originated in [[Milwaukee|Milwaukee, Wisconsin]], as the [[Milwaukee Brewers (19011894–1901)|Milwaukee Brewers]]. A charter member of the [[American League]] (AL), the Brewers moved to [[St. Louis|St. Louis, Missouri]], after the [[1901 Milwaukee Brewers season|1901 season]], where they played for 52 years as the St. Louis Browns.

After the [[1953 St. Louis Browns season|1953 season]], the team moved to [[Baltimore|Baltimore, Maryland]], where it became the [[Baltimore Orioles]]. {{As of|2024|510}}, there are only three living former St. Louis Browns players: [[Billy Hunter (baseball)|Billy Hunter]], [[Ed Mickelson]], and [[Frank Saucier]].

In their first season in St. Louis, the Browns finished second under [[manager (baseball)|manager]] [[Jimmy McAleer]], five games behind Philadelphia. This was mainly because Hedges and McAleer persuaded six Cardinals to jump to the Browns. They looked to become even more powerful in 1903 when Hedges signed [[SanNew FranciscoYork Giants (baseball)|New York Giants]] ace [[Christy Mathewson]] to a deal that would have paid him almost four times what he was earning in New York. However, as part of the settlement that ended the war with the National League, Hedges and Mathewson tore up the contract. Years later, Hedges said that while he knew he was likely giving up a pennant by relinquishing Mathewson to the Giants, it was more important to bring peace to the game.<ref name=SABR/>

[[File:St. Louis Browns Baseball Team, 1902 - DPLA - b87b3ebb66af4ebbfe92903fd1519429.jpg|thumb|St. Louis Browns Baseball Team, 1902. Michael T. "Nuf Ced" McGreevy Collection, Boston Public Library|left]]

During this time, the Browns were best known for their role in the race for the [[1910 Major League Baseball season{{mlby|1910]]}} [[1910 Chalmers Award|American League batting title]]. [[Ty Cobb]] took off the last game of the season, believing that his slight lead over [[Nap Lajoie]], of the [[Cleveland IndiansGuardians|Cleveland Naps]], would hold up unless Lajoie had a near-perfect day at the plate. However, the Browns players decided to help Lajoie win the title over the unpopular Cobb. Browns' manager [[Jack O'Connor (catcher)|Jack O'Connor]] went along with the plan, since the game would have no bearing on the pennant race.<ref name=Hedges>[http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/b91246d7 Bio of Robert Hedges] at [[Society for American Baseball Research]]</ref> O'Connor ordered rookie third baseman [[Red Corriden]] to play on the outfield grass. This all but conceded a hit for any ball Lajoie bunted. Lajoie bunted five straight times down the third base line and made it to first easily. On his last at-bat, Lajoie reached base on an error&nbsp;– officially giving him a hitless at-bat. O'Connor and [[coach (baseball)|coach]] [[Harry Howell (baseball)|Harry Howell]] tried to bribe the official scorer, a woman, to change the call to a hit&nbsp;– even offering to buy her a new wardrobe.

In [[1916 Major League Baseball season{{mlby|1916]]}}, as part of the settlement that ended the war with the [[Federal League]], Hedges sold the Browns to refrigeration magnate [[Phil Ball (baseball)|Philip DeCatesby Ball]], who had owned the defunct league's [[St. Louis Terriers]]. Concluding that Rickey's talents were better suited to the front office, he named [[Fielder Jones]] as manager, while Rickey remained de facto general manager.<ref name=SABR/> Under Ball's early tenure, the club had its first sustained period of success on the field; they were a contender for most of the early 1920s.

The [[1922 St. Louis Browns season|1922 Browns]] excited their owner by almost beating the [[1922 New York Yankees season|Yankees]] to a pennant. The club was boasting the best players in franchise history, including future Hall of Famer [[George Sisler]] and an outfield trio of [[Ken Williams (baseball)|Ken Williams]], [[Baby Doll Jacobson]], and [[Jack Tobin]], who batted .300 or better from 1919 to 1923 and in 1925. In 1922, Williams became the first player in Major League history to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in a season, something that would not be done again in the Majors until [[1956 Major League Baseball season{{mlby|1956]]}}.

Ball confidently predicted that there would be a World Series in Sportsman's Park by [[1926 Major League Baseball season{{mlby|1926]]}}. In anticipation, he increased the capacity of his ballpark from 18,000 to 30,000. There ''was'' a World Series in Sportsman's Park in [[1926 Major League Baseball season{{mlby|1926]]}}&nbsp;– but it was the [[1926 St. Louis Cardinals season|Cardinals]] who took part, upsetting the [[1926 New York Yankees season|Yankees]]. Meanwhile, the Browns slumped to seventh in the American League. More importantly, the Cardinals outdrew the Browns by more than 400,000. St. Louis had been considered a "Browns town" until then; as late as 1925, the Browns outdrew the Cardinals by more than 50,000.<ref name=SABR/> After their [[1926 World Series|1926 Series]] victory, however, the Cardinals dominated St. Louis baseball, while still technically tenants of the Browns. Meanwhile, the Browns rapidly fell into the cellar. They had only two winning records from 1927 to 1943, including a 43–111 mark in [[1939 Major League Baseball season{{mlby|1939]]}} that is still the worst in franchise history. As a measure of how rapidly St. Louisians shifted to the Cardinals, the Browns set a franchise record for attendance in 1922, attracting over 712,000 people. This figure would never be approached again for the rest of the franchise's tenure in St. Louis, and would remain the franchise record until 1954, the team's first year in Baltimore.

Ball had previously spent lavishly on the Browns, but gradually cut that spending to the bare minimum. He died in 1933, and his estate ran the team for three years, with Ball's former right-hand man Louis Von Weise as team president. The Ball estate mostly left the baseball side to player-manager and former Cardinals great [[Rogers Hornsby]], whom Ball had hired in one of his last acts before his death. However, the Ball estate withheld badly needed capital that could have been used to get better players. Attendance sagged to the point that the other American League teams could not meet their travel expenses. In 1936, Rickey helped broker a sale to investment banker [[Donald Lee Barnes]]. HisCardinals son-in-law,treasurer [[Bill DeWitt]], wasBarnes' son-in-law, bought a minority stake in the Browns and became the team's general manager. To help finance the purchase, Barnes sold 20,000 shares of stock to the public at $5 a share, an unusual practice for a sports franchise. Soon afterward, he fired Hornsby after learning he was placing bets on horse races during games.<ref name=SABR/>

The deal was disrupted by the Japanese [[attack on Pearl Harbor]], which took place on December 7. Sources differ on how the deal fell apart. According to the ''[[Los Angeles Daily News]]'' and ''[[Los Angeles Times]],'' the American League owners unanimously rejected the proposal after league officials expressed concerns that travel restrictions would be too stringent for a prospective Los Angeles-based team to be viable.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/HISTORY+OF+A+DIFFERENT+HUE+BEFORE+PEARL+HARBOR%2c+ST.+LOUIS+BROWNS+WERE...-a080647959|title=History of a different hue: before Pearl Harbor, St. Louis Browns were L. A. bound|last=Modesti|first=Kevin|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Daily News]]|date=2001-12-07}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=httphttps://articleswww.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-06-20/sports/-sp-8357_1_browns8357-story.html|title=Outbreak of World War II Kept the Browns from Moving to L. A.|last=Christine|first=Bill|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=1987-06-20}}</ref> However, according to the [[Society for American Baseball Research]], Barnes himself pulled the proposal off the table when he realized that a potential Japanese attack on the West Coast–a concern in the time immediately after Pearl Harbor–would make large-scale events on the West Coast too great of a risk.<ref name=SABR/>

The Browns spent the season in a vigorous three-way race with the Tigers and Yankees for the pennant. On the final day of the season, before a sellout crowd of 35,518–their first sellout since 1924–they defeated the Yankees 5–2. Minutes earlier, the Tigers lost 4–1 to the [[History of the Washington Senators (1901–1960)|Washington Senators]], giving the Browns the pennant by a single game.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/october-1-1944-finally-the-browns-st-louis-captures-first-american-league-pennant/|title=October 1, 1944: Finally, the Browns! St. Louis captures first American League pennant|author1=Mike Whiteman|publisher=[[Society for American Baseball Research]]|date=2017}}</ref> They thus became the last of the 16 teams that made up the major leagues from 1903 to 1960 to play in a World Series. By comparison, the other seven American League teams had won at least three pennants.

With the return of peace in 1946, the Browns found themselves in over their heads competing against teams augmented by stars returning from the war, and tumbled to seventh place. In response, Muckerman budgeted $300,000 to renovate Sportsman's Park. However, the bill swelled to $700,000 when it became apparent that the original plans would not be enough to bring the park up to code. He also built a new stadium for their top farm team, the [[San Antonio Missions]] of the [[Texas League]]. After a slow start to 1947, he hurriedly signed two [[Negro league baseball|Negro league]] stars, [[Willard Brown]] and [[Hank Thompson (baseball)|Hank Thompson]]. They only lasted a month when it became clear they neither improved attendance or the team's on-field record. Only three years after winning the pennant, the Browns posted the worst record in the majors, at 59–95.<ref name=SABR/>

At the same time, prospective buyers began circling the Browns. During the season, Chicago businessman Emory Perry considered buying the Browns and moving them to Los Angeles, but the effort foundered when Perry learned that any major league team moving to California would have to compensate every team in the PCL for invading their territory. After the season, Bob Rodenberg, owner of the [[National Football League]]'s [[Baltimore Colts (AAFC1947–1950)|Baltimore Colts]], considered buying the Browns and moving them to Baltimore. However, this hinged on the Cardinals buying Sportsman's Park, and Rodenberg withdrew his offer when the Cardinals expressed little interest.<ref name=SABR/>

In [[1951 Major League Baseball season|1951]], [[Bill Veeck]], the colorful former owner of the [[Cleveland Guardians|Cleveland Indians]], purchased the Browns from DeWitt, who stayed on as team vice president. In St. Louis, he extended the type of promotions and wild antics that had made him famous and loved by many and loathed by many others.

Veeck's all-out assault on the Cardinals came during a downturn in the Cardinals' fortunes after Rickey left them for the [[Brooklyn Dodgers]] in [[1942 Major League Baseball season{{mlby|1942]]}}. It initially appeared Veeck had won the war when Cardinals' owner [[Fred Saigh]] was charged with massive [[tax evasion]] late in 1952. He pleaded no contest, and put the Cardinals up for sale rather than face certain lifetime banishment from baseball. For a time, it looked almost certain that the Cardinals were leaving town, as most of the credible bids came from non-St. Louis interests. The most promising offer came from a group based in [[Houston|Houston, Texas]], where the Cardinals operated a [[Triple-A (baseball)|Triple-A]] farm team. Under the rules of the time, the Cardinals also owned the major league rights to Houston.

The St. Louis Browns were unique among 1950s baseball teams in that they moved eastward, not westward, and changed their name to make a deliberate break with their history. (Other teams that moved kept their nicknames: [[History of the Brooklyn Dodgers|Brooklyn]]/[[Los Angeles Dodgers]], [[History of the New York Giants (NLbaseball)|New York]]/[[San Francisco Giants]], [[AtlantaBoston Braves|Boston]]/[[Milwaukee Braves|Milwaukee]]/[[Atlanta Braves]], and [[OaklandPhiladelphia Athletics|Philadelphia]]/[[Kansas City Athletics|Kansas City]]/[[Oakland Athletics|Oakland Athletics]].)

In December 1954, General Manager [[Paul Richards (baseball)|Paul Richards]] traded 17 players to the [[New York Yankees]], including most former Browns of note still on the Baltimore roster, dramatically changing the team.<ref name="A Fond Farewell To A Baseball Man Who Wasn't Afraid To Take Chances">{{cite magazine |last=Hecht |first=Henry |url=https://www.si.com/vault/1986/08/25/113848/a-fond-farewell-to-a-baseball-man-who-wasnt-afraid-to-take-chances |title=A Fond Farewell To A Baseball Man Who Wasn't Afraid To Take Chances |magazine=[[Sports Illustrated]] |date=August 25, 1986 |access-date=January 24, 2016}}</ref> This remains the biggest trade in baseball history.<ref name="A Fond Farewell To A Baseball Man Who Wasn't Afraid To Take Chances"/> Though the deal did little to improve the short-term competitiveness of the club, it helped establish a fresh identity for the Orioles franchise. The Orioles make almost no mention of their past as the Browns. However, in 2003, when they returned to St Louis for the first time since they moved, they wore throwback Browns uniforms.<ref>{{Cite web |last=By |date=2003-06-08 |title=Ponson's complete-game victory suits Orioles |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/2003/06/08/ponsons-complete-game-victory-suits-orioles/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240722140123/https://www.baltimoresun.com/2003/06/08/ponsons-complete-game-victory-suits-orioles/ |archive-date=July 22, 2024 |access-date=2024-07-22 |website=Baltimore Sun |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-01-31 |title=Some Long-Overdue Attention for the St. Louis Browns |url=https://uni-watch.com/2019/01/31/some-long-overdue-attention-for-the-st-louis-browns/ |access-date=2024-07-22 |website=Uni Watch |language=en-US}}</ref>

In August 1979, new owner [[Edward Bennett Williams]] bought back the shares Barnes had sold to the public in 1936, returning the franchise to private control and removing one of the last remaining links to the Browns era. The buyout price was not published. However, given the Orioles' prosperity over their then-25 years in Baltimore, the owners likely made a handsomeconsiderably large return on their investment.

The Browns, like the [[History of the Washington Senators (1901–1960)|Washington Senators]], were associated mostly with losing. The Senators became the butt of a well-known [[vaudeville]] joke, "First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League" (a twist on the famous [[Henry Lee III|"Light Horse Harry" Lee]] eulogy for [[George Washington]]: "First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen"). A spin-off joke was coined for the Browns: "First in [[Brown Shoe Company|shoes]], first in [[Anheuser-Busch|booze]], and last in the American League." (On October 2, 1944, cartoonist [[Amadee Wohlschlaeger|Amadee]] drew the St. Louis [[Weatherbird]] in a Browns uniform, standing on its head, with the legend "And first in the American League!")

*In the 1944 movie ''[[Going My Way]]'', [[Bing Crosby]] wears a sweatshirt labeled "St. Louis Browns" and takes the "boys" to see them play. That year the Browns won the American League pennant but lost the [[1944 World Series|World Series]] to the St. Louis Cardinals.<ref>{{cite news |first=Bill |last=Christine |date=October 11, 1989 |url=httphttps://articleswww.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-10-11/sports/-sp-138_1_cardinal138-homestory.html |title=The No-Place-but-Home Series: In 1944, Baseball's Spirit Stayed in St. Louis with Cardinals and Browns |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=October 6, 2017}}</ref>

* Jack's grandfather on Threes companyCompany wanted Jack's dad to play for the St Louis Browns.