First in Shoes, First in Booze and Last in the American League

 I believe I attended my first Major League baseball game in 1954, a White Sox game at Comiskey Park against a long-forgotten opponent. One of them was not the St. Louis Browns, who had moved to Baltimore to become the Orioles during the previous offseason. Despite not seeing them play, my interest in the Browns was initiated by a 1952 Topps trading card for Les Moss (one of the few if only from that season).

Les Moss, Topps Collection 1952

Mainly a backup catcher, Moss broke in with Browns in 1946 and ended his career with the White Sox in 1957. With both teams, he was the backup to Sherman Lollar. Moss served as the Sox’s interim manager in 1968 when headman Al Lopez was out after an appendectomy. I wondered: what was this card and what was this team?

The Browns were undoubtedly the most inept franchises in MLB history, thus the title of this post. Founded as the Milwaukee Brewers as a charter member of the American League in 1901, the team moved to St. Louis the following season to become the Browns, after the Brown Stockings, the St. Louis Cardinals’ name from the 1880s to 1900. In its 50+ years of existence, the Browns won one pennant and no World Series, most often finishing at or near the bottom of the American League standings. Their one World Series was the last one played at only one ballpark (not counting 2020) – Sportsman’s Park– in 1944, losing to the Cardinals in six games. I was fortunate to attend a Cardinals game in the stadium in 1965, shortly before the team moved to the new Busch Stadium and the ballpark was demolished.

Sportsman's Park

Of the 11 Hall of Fame members who played for the Browns, only two logged significant years with the team: shortstop Bobby Wallace (1902 – 1916) and 1^st baseman George Sisler (1915 – 1927). My uncle, Dr. Adolph Nachman, was among approximately 15,000 fans who witnessed the Browns greatest pitching feat. On September 6, 1924, Urban Schocker, who had led the American League with 27 wins three seasons before, started and completed both games of a doubleheader vs. the White Sox in Comiskey Park, winning both by 6-2 scores over Red Faber and Hollis Thurston. He would win one more game before being traded back to the Yankees for the 1925 season; he tragically died just short of age 38 of pneumonia at the end of the 1928 season. The feat of winning two complete doubleheader games was accomplished only once after Schocker triumphs.

Urban Schocker

The team is mainly known for two players with rather significant handicaps: Pete Gray and Gaedel.

With so many players off to World War II, the Browns brought up Gray in 1945, an outfielder who had lost his right arm in a machinery accident. He had played the previous two seasons with the Memphis Chicks of the Southern Association. In his only MLB season, Gray hit .218 with no home runs and 13 RBI. Ironically, 1945 was the last season the Browns had a winning record until moving to Baltimore.

Pete Gray, 1945

Eddie Gaedel, despite playing in only one inning of one game, is the most famous Brownie. Bill Veeck, who had purchased the Browns in 1951 after owning the Cleveland Indians, vowed to revive the franchise and run the Cardinals out of town. The Browns had the lowest of attendance in the American League every season since 1946. As part of perhaps his greatest stunt, the 3’7” Gaedel was announced as the pinch-hitter for Frank Saucier (who at age 97 is the oldest living former Brownie) leading off the second game of an August 19, 1951, doubleheader. Despite umpire protests, Browns manager Zack Wheat produced a legal contract for the player wearing number 1/8. He easily walked on four pitches and was taken out for a pinch runner. Gaedel’s contract was voided the following day.

Eddie Gaedel after walking in his one plate appearance, August 19, 1951

The diminutive Gaedel continued to serve Veeck after the owner purchased his hometown Chicago White Sox in 1959. In one pregame stunt, he was one of four spacemen who invaded Comiskey Park and sought to deliver ray guns to infielders Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio. Later, Veeck hired several then-called midgets as beer vendors, promoting the idea that they wouldn’t block fans’ views. Unfortunately, Gaedel and his cohorts lasted only one game, due to the rigors of hauling heavy beer cases. After being assaulted on the South Side in 1961, Gaedel died of a heart attack a few days later at age 36.

Eddie Gaedel bobblehead and selected Browns publications

A much less known but highly deserving of honor was Hank Thompson. Futile on the field and playing before empty houses, the Browns signed two Black players in July 1947, Thompson – the third African American to play Major League baseball – and Willard Brown (more on Brown later). Thompson eventually added the first of his many “firsts” to his long-forgotten third. When Brown started his first game two days later, they were the first two Blacks in one game. Less than a month later, facing the Cleveland Indians, Thompson and Doby were the first Blacks playing on opposing teams. The Browns gave up on Thompson and Brown in less than two months, releasing them in late September. A second baseman, Thompson played in 27 games, with no home runs, 5 RBI and a .256 batting average. The first player to integrate a team in each league, as a New York Giant facing Brooklyn Dodgers Don Newcombe in 1949, it was the first time a Black pitcher threw to a Black batter. Thompson become part of the first all African-American outfield, with Willie Mays and Monty Irvin, in the 1951 World Series, and also played for the 1954 World Series champion Giants.

Hank Thompson, 1947

Some thirty years ago, I stopped in a sporting-apparel store at 2234 N. Clark Street. One item immediately caught my attention: a Mitchell & Ness replica St. Louis Browns jersey the team wore from 1946 to 1951, the only M&N jersey in the store. After returning home with my purchase, I found it was marketed as a number 15 Roy Sievers jersey, the Browns’ 1949 American Rookie of the Year who was traded to the Washington Senators after the team’s final season in St. Louis. Subsequent research revealed a Hall of Fame outfielder also wore number 15. The others that wore 15 before the Browns changed uniform designs in 1952 were mostly fringe players.

Mitchell & Ness St. Louis Browns, 1946 - 1950 jersey

As noted above, Willard Brown was the fourth African American to play in the Major Leagues. He debuted professionally with the Monroe Monarchs in the minor Negro Southern League at age 19 in 1934 and moved up to the legendary Kansas City Monarchs in 1937. Brown was the first Black to hit a home run in the American League, an inside-the-park blast vs. Hall of Fame Detroit Tigers pitcher Hal Newhouser. He had borrowed the bat from Jeff Heath, who proceeded to splinter it after Brown returned to the dugout. It turns out Heath was superstitious and believed there were no more home runs left in the bat; Brown noted Heath was one of the more cordial teammates. Like Thompson, his stay in St. Louis was brief: 21 games, batting average .179 and 6 RBI to go with his 1 home run. Returning to the Monarchs that season, Brown ironically led the Negro National League in batting average (.377) and RBI (64) in 48 games. He would play in Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico (won the 1947 – 1948 Winter League Triple Crown with a .432 batting average, 27 home runs and 86 RBI and repeated the feat two seasons later), Dominican Republic and Venezuela before retiring in 1958. Willard Brown passed away in 1996, missing his 2006 election into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Willard Brown, 1947

American League owners were all too happy to rid themselves of Bill Veeck and the inept Browns franchise. After Anheuser-Busch acquired the Cardinals in 1952, it became obvious to all the Browns would have to move. An effort to return to Milwaukee was thwarted by the Boston Braves, who moved there in 1953. Veeck’s earlier negotiations with Baltimore Mayor Tommy D’Alesandro (Nancy Pelosi’s father) initially were nixed by fellow club owners, but the sale of the team was finally approved for the 1954 season, without Veeck retaining an ownership stake. The Orioles registered its winning season in 1960 and won the American League pennant in 1966. With a subsidiary envelope company in Baltimore, my father (the CFO) and his friend and partner (the president) figured early October would be a good time to check out its operations . . . and attend Games 3 and 4 (both 1-0 victories) of the O’s World Series sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers from behind the Orioles’ dugout. The company’s previous owner was among the investors who brought the team to Baltimore, and the company retained his tickets.

Baltimore Orioles 1966 World Series program

I’m still fascinated with the Browns since those early years, to the point where I’ve been a member of the St. Louis Browns Historical Society and Fan Club for several years. This very active organization has multiple programs and publications; the website is The Official Site of the St. Louis Browns Historical Society and Fan Club (thestlbrowns.com). Someday I may make it down to the city for its St. Louis Browns Annual Reunion Luncheon.