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 1st 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.
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.
