Jan 24, 2022
After hiding in plain sight for
the better part of five years, we finally take an initial swing at
the deeply fascinating story of baseball's original "lovable
losers" - the St. Louis Browns.
St. Louis native and keeper of
the flame Ed Wheatley ("St.
Louis Browns: The Story of a Beloved Team" &
"Baseball
in St. Louis: From Little Leagues to Major Leagues") knows
a thing or two about this most forlorn, but curiously beloved
American League franchise of yore (1902-53); as the President of
the St. Louis Browns Historical Society, it is his passion and duty
to burnish the memory and celebrate the contributions of the
Brownies - despite its half-century of mostly forgettable on-field
performance.
Before organized
baseball forced then-owner Bill Veeck to sell the club to a
Baltimore syndicate in 1953 to ultimately become today's similarly
lamentable Orioles, the Browns battled the cross-town Cardinals for
St. Louis' baseball attention - often at the city's venerable
Sportsman's Park, which they both claimed as home for the better
part of 30 years, including an all-St. Louis World Series in 1944
(won, of course, by the Redbirds).
Despite only one playoff
appearance in 52 seasons ("First in shoes, first in
booze, and last in the American League"), the Browns still
had their share of fans, as well as some of baseball's most
memorable characters - like Branch Rickey (as a player, manager and
even GM), Hall of Famers "Gorgeous George" Sisler and Rogers
Hornsby, one-armed utility outfielder Pete Gray, and, of course,
the one-at-bat wonder of 3-foot, 7-inch Eddie Gaedel.