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is insistence hedges fired o connor and howell both men were informally banned from baseball for life 6 after several pedestrian seasons hedges hired former browns catcher branch rickey as business manager de facto general manager midway through the 1913 season and made him manager as well in september although rickey had been a mediocre player at best he had a keen eye for spotting talent his greatest find was george sisler who had played for rickey at michigan 3 they fell back to sixth in 1915 but won 79 games in 1916 their first winning record in eight years in 1916 as part of the settlement that ended the war with the federal league hedges sold the browns to refrigeration magnate 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 3 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 however analysts think ball made a series of blunders that would ultimately doom the franchise shortly after buying the team he allowed rickey to accept the presidency of the cardinals when johnson got wind of this he told ball in no uncertain terms that rickey could not be allowed to go to the national league however since rickey had a signed contract ball was only able to keep rickey on his payroll for another 24 hours rickey was replaced by bob quinn four years later ball allowed the cardinals to move out of dilapidated robison field and share sportsman s park with the browns rickey and owner sam breadon used the proceeds from the robison field sale to build baseball s first modern farm system this effort eventually produced several star players who brought the cardinals more drawing power than the browns 3 1922 1940 edit george sisler the 1922 browns excited their owner by almost beating the 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 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 the following year they crumbled to fifth partly because sisler missed the entire season due to sinus problems at the same time ball already a very hands on owner became even more so after quinn left to buy the boston red sox 3 st louis browns primary logo 1916 1935 ball confidently predicted that there would be a world series in sportsman s park by 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 but it was the cardinals who took part upsetting the 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 3 after their 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 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 cardinals treasurer bill dewitt barnes 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 3 war era edit by 1941 barnes was convinced he could never make money in st louis after interests in los angeles approached him about buying a stake in the team he asked al owners for permission to move there for the 1942 season los angeles was already the fifth largest city in the united states and was larger than any major league city except new york chicago philadelphia and detroit the browns got tentative approval from the league which went as far as to draw up a schedule accounting for transcontinental train trips though the browns suggested that teams could travel by plane a new concept at the time under the deal the browns would buy the chicago cubs top affiliate the los angeles angels in those days whoever owned a minor league team owned the major league rights to that city the deal was slated to receive final approval at a league meeting on december 8 3 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 7 8 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 3 during world war ii in 1944 the browns won their only american league pennant in st louis due to the draft decimating the minor leagues barnes and the browns pursued a strategy of pursuing players who couldn t serve in the military as a result many of the browns best players were classified 4 f unfit for military service years of having to live a hand to mouth existence actually served the browns well during the war years they were better prepared to adjust to the effects of the draft while wealthier teams like the cardinals were caught off guard when their best players were drafted 3 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 had lost 4 1 to the washington senators giving the browns the pennant by a single game 9 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 each won at least three pennants in the 1944 world series the browns were decided underdogs against their tenants the cardinals it would be the last world series played entirely in one stadium until the 2020 world series played in arlington texas while the browns lost in six games they won two of the first three games and the final three games were very close despite losing the series barnes took heart in outdrawing the cardinals by almost 40 000 fans it would be the only time after 1925 that the browns would outdraw the cardinals 3 the 1945 browns muddled through much of the early part of the season however in august barnes abruptly sold his stake in the team to minority owner and refrigeration magnate richard muckerman who retained dewitt as general manager while the browns had the best record in the league from the time muckerman closed on his purchase the hole from earlier in the season was too much to overcome and they finished in third place with an 81 70 record despite fielding less than top level talent they were only six games behind the tigers for first 3 the 1945 season may be best remembered for the browns signing of utility outfielder pete gray the only one armed major league position player in history however the players felt that gray was dragging down the team after muckerman bought the team he signed manager luke sewell to a two year contract and sewell significantly cut back gray s playing time gray was sent to the minors after the season and never played in the major leagues again 3 although it was not apparent at the time the browns had crested they would never have another winning season in st louis indeed 1944 and 1945 were two of only six winning seasons they enjoyed in the 31 years after nearly winning the pennant in 1922 they were also two of only seven seasons finishing fourth or better matters were not much better at the gate 1944 and 1945 were also the only two seasons after 1922 in which the browns did not have the worst attendance in the american league 3 indeed after 1945 the browns would struggle to attract more than 300 000 in a season 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 stars willard brown and hank thompson they only lasted a month when it became clear they neither improved attendance nor the team s on field performance only three years after winning the pennant the browns posted the worst record in the majors at 59 95 3 after the season muckerman was forced to sell vern stephens jack kramer and ellis kinder three stars from the 1944 pennant season to the red sox years later dewitt revealed that between cost overruns from renovations to sportsman s park cost overruns for building the new mission stadium in san antonio and a marked drop in attendance the browns were on the brink of insolvency 3 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 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 3 after another abysmal season in 1948 in which the browns struggled to attract crowds over 3 000 muckerman sold the team to dewitt and his brother charley the team s traveling secretary mainly because they were the only credible buyers willing to keep the team in st louis however they financed the purchase with notes totaling 1 million that were due in 1954 and the team s attendance over the next two years was nowhere near enough to service the debt under the circumstances dewitt was unable to reverse the slide and was forced to sell any good prospects to the red sox or tigers in order to pay the bills 3 veeck era edit this section needs more citations please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources unsourced material may be challenged and removed find sources st louis browns news newspapers books scholar jstor january 2026 learn how and when to remove this message in 1951 bill veeck the former owner of the 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 his most notorious stunt in st louis was held on august 19 1951 when he ordered manager zack taylor to send eddie gaedel a 3 foot 7 inch 65 pound dwarf to bat as a pinch hitter when gaedel stepped to the plate he was wearing a browns child s uniform with the number 1 8 knowing that gaedel had no strike zone to speak of veeck ordered gaedel to keep his bat on his shoulder and gaedel walked on four straight pitches the stunt infuriated american league president will harridge who voided gaedel s contract the next day gaedel was by far the shortest person ever to appear in a major league game veeck also promoted another publicity stunt in which the browns handed out placards reading take swing bunt etc to fans and allowed them to make managerial decisions for a day taylor dutifully surveyed the fans advice and relayed the sign accordingly 10 the browns won the game against the philadelphia athletics whose venerable owner connie mack took part in the grandstand managers voting against his own team after the 1951 season veeck made ned garver the highest paid member of the browns garver went on to win 20 games while the team lost 100 games he was the second pitcher in history to accomplish the feat veeck also brought satchel paige back to major league baseball to pitch for the browns veeck had previously signed the former negro leagues great at age 42 to a contract in cleveland in 1948 amid much criticism paige was 45 when he returned to the mound in a browns uniform veeck was criticized among baseball s owners but paige finished the season with a respectable 3 4 record and a 4 79 era veeck believed that st louis could no longer support two franchises and planned to drive the cardinals out of town he signed many of the cardinals most popular ex players and as a result attracted many cards fans to see the browns notably veeck inked former cardinals great dizzy dean to a broadcasting contract and tapped rogers hornsby for a second stint as manager he also re acquired former browns fan favorite vern stephens and signed former cardinals pitcher harry brecheen both of whom had starred in the all st louis world series in 1944 veeck stripped sportsman s park of all cardinals material and dressed it exclusively in browns memorabilia even moving his family to an apartment under the stands the browns didn t field a winning te...