August 19, 1951: The Eddie Gaedel Game

August 19, 1951, 75 years ago: Eddie Gaedel makes his major league debut. He reaches base in his 1st plate appearance. He never makes a 2nd.

Born on February 9, 1914 in Chicago, William Louis Veeck Jr. was the son of a Chicago Cubs executive, and, in 1937, was responsible for putting the ivy on the brick outfield wall at Wrigley Field, and supervised the building of the hand-operated scoreboard atop the bleachers. He later bought the minor-league version of the Milwaukee Brewers, who won 3 American Association Pennants. After serving in World War II, he bought the Cleveland Indians, and built the team that won the 1948 World Series.

He got divorced the next year, and, needing cash, he sold the Indians. In 1951, he bought the St. Louis Browns, the most embarrassing team in the American League. Although they owned Sportsman's Park, leasing it to the National League's St. Louis Cardinals, they were pathetic, and had hardly any attendance at all. Veeck thought he could save the Browns, and drive the Cardinals, despite their 4 Pennants and 2 other near-misses in the 1940s, out of town.

Veeck held all kinds of promotions, including races between players and track stars, cow-milking contests, things like that. He once said, "There is nothing in the world more beautiful than a baseball stadium full of people having fun." But, despite a seating capacity of just 30,804, Sportsman's Park wouldn't fill, even for these promotions, leading Veeck to say, "You can draw more people with a losing team plus bread and circuses than with a losing team and a long, still silence."

In 1951, the American League celebrated its 50th Anniversary. All 8 teams wore anniversary sleeve patches. Veeck decided to celebrate the anniversary on August 19, with a large cake, which had wheeled onto the field between games of a Sunday doubleheader, against the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers won the 1st game, 5-2.

Out of the cake popped Eddie Gaedel, a 3-foot-7-inch, 65-pound dwarf. The term "dwarf" comes from German folklore, and referred to supernatural beings with a human appearance. Scientifically speaking, a "dwarf," or a "person with dwarfism," is defined as an adult with a height of less than 4 feet, 10 inches. The average adult height among people with dwarfism is about 4 feet even.

The term "midget" comes from "midge," a tiny biting insect, and has historically been used for any person considered short; but, unlike "dwarf," it does not have a scientific definition. Various other small things have had the tag applied: Small cars are used in "midget racing," a kids' hockey team is sometimes called "midget hockey," and so on." But people with dwarfism consider "midget" to be a slur, and it is not used as often anymore. On TV nostalgia networks' rebroadcasts of old shows, when the word "midget" was originally used, it is sometimes bleeped out.

While Eddie Gaedel was, medically speaking, a dwarf, he has gone down in history as "the midget who played baseball." Born on June 8, 1925, and also a Chicagoan, he had worked as a riveter during World War II, as he was small enough to climb into spaces fully-grown men couldn't. After the war, he became a professional entertainer, and was the model for the "Mercury Man" logo of Mercury Records.

Gaedel popped out of the cake wearing a Browns uniform with the Number 1/8 (one-eighth) on it. The uniform belonged to Bill DeWitt Jr., the Browns' batboy, and the son of Bill DeWitt Sr., the Browns' general manager. The fans got a kick out of it.

Bill DeWitt Jr. wearing the unusual number

But that wasn't the end of it. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Gaedel walked to the plate, to pinch-hit for the alleged leadoff hitter, right fielder Frank Saucier. He was announced by the public-address announcer. The fans went wild -- although there were just 18,369 of them, so the stunt didn't get a big crowd.

The home plate umpire, Ed Hurley, wasn't having it. He called time-out, and looked over to Browns manager Zack Taylor. But Taylor was ready: He walked out, and took a rolled-up piece of paper from his pocket. It was Gaedel's contract, signed not only by him and by Veeck, but by the President of the American League, Will Harridge. Clearly, Harridge signed it with no idea that the player involved was 3-foot-7. The subject of signing a midget to a contract had never come up before. So the contract was real and official. Hurley had no choice: He had to allow the at-bat.

Note the height of the ball in the mitt, compared to Gaedel's.

Note also Gaedel's crouching stance.

With his height, and a crouching batting stance, Gaedel had the smallest strike zone in baseball history, not much larger than the ball itself. The idea was that the pitcher, Bob Cain, wouldn't come close to a strike, and that Gaedel would walk on 4 straight pitches.

Veeck told Gaedel that there was a sniper on the roof of Sportsman's Park, ready to shoot him if he swung at any pitch. Veeck never said whether there actually was a sniper. If there really was one, he never came forward and admitted it. And whether Gaedel took this threat seriously, only he knew.

What everyone else knew is that catcher Bob Swift got onto his knees, and told Cain, "Keep it low." Cain threw 4 pitches. The 1st 2 were serious attempts at strikes, and did get over the plate, but were too high. Realizing it was hopeless, Cain threw the last 2 at half-speed, still getting them over the plate, but at about the level of Gaedel's head.

After ball 4, Hurley told Gaedel, "Take your base," and Gaedel trotted to 1st base. Jim Delsing then ran out to pinch-run for him. Like a real major-league ballplayer, which he now was, Gaedel slapped Delsing on the rear and, and trotted off the field -- to a standing ovation.

Delsing remained in the game, played center field as former Yankee Cliff Mapes moved from center to right, and went 1-for-3. It was no use: The Tigers got a fine pitching performance from Cain, a home run from Jerry Priddy, and 3 hits each from George Kell and Pat Mullin, and completed the sweep, 6-2.

The next day, AL President Harridge publicly said that Veeck was making a mockery of the game, and voided Gaedel's contract. In response, Veeck, who always hated the New York Yankees, told the Chicago press that he was going to request an official ruling on whether Phil Rizzuto, the Yankees' shortstop and the previous season's AL Most Valuable Player, was "a short ballplayer or a tall dwarf." 

Rizzuto was listed at 5-foot-6, and that may have been generous by an inch. Nevertheless, he was also the best shortstop in baseball at that point, and had batted .324 the season before, getting 200 hits. And, while his 92 walks that season were a career high, that was hardly an extraordinary total, probably was not much aided by his lack of height. Rizzuto's reaction to Veeck's request is unrecorded, but it would probably have been something like, "Veeck, you huckleberry. Holy cow."

Nevertheless, Gaedel got paid for his appearance: $100, his standard fee at the time. (In 2026 money, it works out to about $1,290.) Some time later, he was a guest on the radio show of Chicago-based talk show host Louis "Studs" Terkel. He complained that "Mr. Veeck" wouldn't let him swing the bat, and that he wanted to do that, just once. Terkel, then 39 years old and not looking much like a man who had ever been any kind of athlete, consoled him by saying, "You are exactly what I wish I was: An ex-big-league ballplayer!"

(Terkel would later play Chicago sportswriter Hugh Fullerton in Eight Men Out, the film about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, and be interviewed by Ken Burns, including on the subject of Gaedel, for his miniseries Baseball.)

Veeck had hoped to run the financially troubled Cardinals out of St. Louis. But, early in 1953, they were bought by Anheuser-Busch chairman Gussie Busch. With Busch's beer fortune behind them, Veeck knew the Browns could not afford to compete for St. Louis' baseball fans.

He didn't particularly care about St. Louis: He just wanted to eliminate the competition and be Number 1 in whatever city he was in, as he had been in Milwaukee and Cleveland. With that option no longer available in St. Louis, he tried to get the Browns moved to Baltimore. The other AL owners, seeing a chance to get rid of him, voted to approve the move, on the condition that Veeck sell the team. He did. But in 1959, he bought the Chicago White Sox.

On May 26, 1959, as Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates was pitching his perfect-but-then-not game, 90 miles to the north in Milwaukee, Eddie Gaedel worked for Bill Veeck again. A helicopter carrying Gaedel and 3 other dwarves dressed in spacesuits landed on the infield at Comiskey Park. They came bearing gifts: Ray guns. They gave these to White Sox stars Luis Aparicio (who was 5-foot-9) and Nellie Fox (5-foot-10). In a parody of the alien visitors' trope, "Take me to your leader," Gaedel told them, "I don't want to be taken to your leader. I've already met him." The White Sox won the Pennant that season.

On June 18, 1961, Gaedel was found dead in his bed by his mother, with bruises all over his body. He was just 36 years old. His killer has never been identified.

By this point, Veeck had sold the White Sox, to pay for his medical expenses, as he had been told he was dying. This turned out to be a misdiagnosis, as he recovered, and he later owned the White Sox again, from 1975 to 1980. He lived until 1986.

But as a result of his 1961 illness, he was unable to attend Eddie Gaedel's funeral. Indeed, only one person with any connection with baseball did: Bob Cain, the pitcher who faced him. They had never even formally met.

Catcher Bob Swift died in 1966. Umpire Ed Hurley lived until 1969. Will Harridge served as AL President from 1931 to 1959, and died in 1971. Browns manager Zack Taylor lived until 1974. Bob Cain lived until 1997. Pinch-runner Jim Delsing lived until 2006. Frank Saucier, for whom Gaedel pinch-hit, was 1 of the last 3 surviving former St. Louis Browns, along with Ed Mickelson and Billy Hunter. All 3 of those men died in 2025, Hunter turning out to be the last survivor of them.

Bill DeWitt Jr. donated his uniform, Gaedel's uniform, to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He later became the principal owner of the St. Louis Cardinals, and got the uniform back, where it is on display at the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum, across Clark Avenue from the current Busch Stadium, which also features artifacts from the Browns and St. Louis-area natives who played for other teams, such as Yogi Berra. 

Officially, the shortest players in MLB history have been Edmund "Stubby" Magner, who played 13 games for the New York Highlanders (forerunners of the Yankees) in 1911; and Pompeyo "Yo-Yo" Davalillo, who played 19 games for the Washington Senators in 1953. Both were listed at 5-foot-3.

In 1978, in his 2nd go-round as White Sox owner, Veeck promoted Harry Chappas to the majors, telling the media that he was, after Gaedel, the shortest player in MLB history, at 5-foot-3. This was a lie, but, fittingly, a small one: He was really 5-foot-5, the same height as the man then considered the shortest in the majors, Freddie Patek of the Kansas City Royals. Magner, Davalillo, Chappas and Patek were all, by a quirk of fate, shortstops.

Jon Rauch appeared in the major leagues from 2002 to 2013, including for the Montreal Expos when they moved to become the Washington Nationals in 2004-05, and for the Minnesota Twins in 2009 and 2010, enabling him to appear in postseason play. Sean Hjelle made his big-league debut with the San Francisco Giants in 2022. Both are 6-foot-11, and thus the tallest players in MLB history. Loek van Mil, a 7-foot-1 native of the Netherlands, appeared in professional baseball from 2006 to 2018, but only got as high, if you'll pardon the choice of words, as Class AAA. All 3 of these men are relief pitchers.

September 30, 1945: Lieutenant Hank Greenberg Clinches the Pennant

Swinging two bats in the on-deck circle

was a common sight before the Yankees' Elston Howard

invented the "bat donut" in the 1960s.

Hank Greenberg was one of the few players

who was strong enough to swing three bats.

September 30, 1945, 80 years ago: Hank Greenberg, recently discharged from the U.S. Army, hits a grand slam off Nelson Potter in the top of the 9th inning, and gives the Detroit Tigers a 6-3 win over the St. Louis Browns at Sportsman's Park, clinching the American League Pennant, which the Browns had won the previous season, for the only time in their history. The Tigers go on to win the World Series over the Chicago Cubs in 7 games.

The 1st player to go into the service was Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Hugh Mulcahy, drafted on March 8, 1941, and he served for the duration of The War. As my grandmother taught me, she and everyone else who lived through it, even if they never left "the home front," always called it "The War," Capital T, Capital W. 

Greenberg had been the 1st major baseball star to volunteer for the U.S. armed forces in preparation for World War II, inducted into the Army on May 7, 1941. So it was only natural that he was the 1st player to return, discharged on June 14, 1945, with Nazi Germany having surrendered, but not, as yet, Imperial Japan. He had scouted bombing targets for B-29 bombers in the China/India/Burma Theater of Operations, and was discharged with the rank of 1st Lieutenant.

Already known as Hammerin' Hank before Henry Aaron was even born, he had lost his seasons of age 31, 32 and 33, and the 1st half of his age 34 season. He finished his career with a lifetime batting average of .313 and 331 home runs. He should have had at least 150 more home runs. He never regretted it, saying, "My country comes first."

Nor did Chief Petty Officer Bob Feller, U.S. Navy, who lost his seasons of ages 23, 24, 25 and most of 26. He won 266 games and struck out 2,581 batters, all for the Cleveland Indians. Based on his 1941 and 1946 performances, he should have had at least another 90 wins and 1,000 strikeouts, which could have made him the all-time strikeout leader, and, with another 98 wins, the pitcher with the most in the post-1920 Lively Ball Era.

He knew The War was more important. He also knew that people like Ty Cobb and Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes, who compared sports to war, were blowhards, saying, "Anybody who says sports is war has never been in a war."

Warren Spahn had appeared in 4 games before going into the service, and was the winning pitcher in exactly none of them. By the time he rejoined the Boston Braves, 1st Lieutenant Warren Spahn, U.S. Army, had missed his age 22, 23 and 24 seasons, and had gotten frostbite in the Battle of the Bulge and been wounded at the Remagen Bridge.

But his wartime experience may have matured him. From age 25 to 44, he did become the Lively Ball Era's winningest pitcher, and the winningest lefthanded pitcher regardless of era, with 363. So maybe his stats didn't suffer.

The stats of Sergeant Joe DiMaggio, U.S. Army Air Force, did suffer, as he lost his age 28, 29 and 30 seasons. He finished with a .325 batting average, and 2,214 hits including 361 home runs. He should have had at least another 550 hits and another 75 home runs.

And then there was Ted Williams, who served as a flight instructor in World War II and a fighter pilot in the Korean War. By the time he left the service for the last time in 1953, Captain Theodore S. Williams, U.S. Marine Corps, had damaged hearing, and had lost his seasons of age 24, 25 and 26, and most of those of age 33 and 34.

He batted .344 for his career, with 2,654 hits and 521 home runs. It shouldn't surprise people who know a little about baseball history that Ted reached 500 homers, only the 4th to do so after Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx and Mel Ott. But it is surprising that the man often called "The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived" didn't even get close to 3,000 hits. (He also never got 200 hits in a season.) By missing 4 1/2 prime seasons, he may have missed out on as many as 600 hits and 200 home runs, which would have put him past the 714 of Ruth, the record before Aaron reached 755.

In contrast, Ruth only missed 1 month due to World War I, September 1918, and that was because everybody missed at least that much, since the season was cut short. And Aaron was never drafted. Mickey Mantle was classified 4-F, medically unfit for service.

Willie Mays did serve in the Korean War, missing most of his age 21 season and all of his 22, probably costing him around 350 hits on top of his 3,293, and at least 50 homers on top of his 660, meaning he might have gotten to 715 before Aaron did. Yankee pitcher Whitey Ford (1951 and '52) and Brooklyn Dodger pitcher Don Newcome (1952 and '53) also missed 2 seasons serving in Korea.)

Seaman 1st Class Stan Musial, U.S. Navy, the best hitter in the National League while Ted was the best in the American League, only missed 1945, his age 24 season, due to World War II. He had 3,630 hits and 475 home runs, so he may have missed 200 hits and maybe the 25 homers that would have put him over 500.

One man was a veteran of both D-Day and Major League Baseball. In his case, he was just 19 when he was in a U.S. Navy ship off the coast of Normandy, and his service probably didn't delay his entry into the major leagues by much. He may have been the calmest man in the battle, later saying that the exploding shells looked like fireworks. He was Seaman 2nd Class Lawrence Peter Berra. Yogi.

Yankee shortstop and Seaman 1st Class Phil Rizzuto missed his age 25, 26 and 27 seasons due to those huckleberries Hitler and Tojo. His Dodger counterpart, Chief Petty Officer Harold "Pee Wee" Reese, missed his age 24, 25 and 26 seasons. And Army 1st Lieutenant Jack Roosevelt Robinson missed his age 24, 25 and 26 seasons in the Army. Of course, at that point, he had no idea that he would ever play professional baseball in any capacity, much less the one that would make him the most important player of all time.

Bobby Shantz, who just turned 100, is the last remaining veteran of both World War II and Major League Baseball. 

April 17, 1945: Pete Gray Makes His Major League Debut

April 17, 1945, 80 years ago: Pete Gray makes his major league debut. This would be a big deal for any player. But it was an especially big deal for Gray, since he only had one arm.

Peter James Wyshner was born on March 6, 1915 in Nanticoke, in the coal country of northeastern Pennsylvania. His brother became a boxer under the name Whitey Gray. Pete would take the name Gray as well.

The story of how Pete lost his right arm has varied over the years, even his age, 7 or 8. Supposedly, it was in a wagon accident. But he still wanted to play baseball, and he learned to bat and field one-handed, catching the ball in his glove and then quickly removing his glove and transferring the ball to his hand in one motion.

By the age of 19, he was playing semi-pro baseball. In 1942, he signed with Three Rivers of the Canadian-American League. His play there caught the attention of the Memphis Chicks of the Southern Association. In 1944, he batted .333, and led the SA with 68 stolen bases. He was awarded the league's Most Valuable Player award.

That season, for the only time in their history, the St. Louis Browns won the American League Pennant. It was largely "credited" to the manpower drain of World War II taking away the other teams' best players. But even the Browns were losing players to the military draft, and they signed Pete Gray for $20,000.

He made his major league debut on April 17, 1945, at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, the Browns' season opener, against the Detroit Tigers. He was put in left field on this day, wearing Number 14, and batting 2nd. The opposing pitcher was Hal Newhouser, the previous year's AL MVP. Gray grounded to shortstop in the 1st inning, struck out in the 3rd, flew out to center in the 5th, and beat out an infield single to 2nd in the 7th. The Browns won the game, 7-1, as Sig Jakucki outpitched Newhouser.

Gray said his dream was to play at Yankee Stadium. It came true on May 20, with a doubleheader that the Browns swept, 10-1 and 5-1. He got 5 hits and had 2 RBIs. But, as it turned out, he couldn't hit breaking pitches, and with only one hand, he couldn't check his swing. He appeared in 77 games, batting just .218.

He was not appreciated by his teammates, either. They thought he was only on the team to sell tickets due to his disability. They thought he was holding them back from repeating as Pennant winners. It wasn't true: Their winning percentage in games he played was .600, and in games he didn't, .425. They finished 3rd. He was released after the season, with the veterans coming back, and, without him, the Browns fell back to 7th. They didn't have another winning season until 1960 -- their 7th as the Baltimore Orioles.

Gray played in the minor leagues over the next 4 years, but never returned to the majors. He returned to semi-pro ball, and played into the early 1950s. He developed addictions to alcohol and gambling, and resisted interview requests. In 1986, Keith Carradine starred in the ABC movie A Winner Never Quits: The Pete Gray Story. It renewed interest in him, and he became more receptive to publicity. He died on June 30, 2002 in Nanticoke, at age 87.

September 30, 1964: The Phillie Phlop Is Completed

Unused game program from the 1964 World Series,

which was to be sold at Connie Mack Stadium,

with the other flag blank, since the opponent was yet to be determined.

September 30, 1964, 60 years ago: The Philadelphia Phillies complete what remains the most stunning regular-season collapse in Major League Baseball history, losing their 10th straight game, 8-5 to the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. 

Going into the games of September 21, the Phillies led the National League by 6 1/2 games. There were 12 games left. Their Magic Number to clinch the Pennant was 6: All they had to do was win half of their remaining games, 6 out of 12, and it wouldn't have mattered what any other team did. The Phils would have won the Pennant.

Unused 1964 World Series press pin for the Phillies

Instead, the following happened:

* 1. September 21, at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia: Cincinnati Reds 1, Phillies 0. The only run came in the top of the 6th inning, when Hiraldo "Chico" Ruiz stole home plate, while Frank Robinson, the greatest power hitter the Reds franchise has ever had, was at the plate. It would have been an incredibly dumb move had it failed. But it worked. "The Chico Ruiz Game" has haunted Phillies fans ever since.

* 2. September 22, at Connie Mack Stadium: Reds 9, Phillies 2. This time, Robinson did hit a home run, and Chris Short, 17-7 going into the game, didn't get out of the 5th inning.

* 3. September 23, at Connie Mack Stadium: Reds 6, Phillies 4. This time, it was Ruiz hitting a home run, and Vada Pinson 2 of them.

* 4. September 24, at Connie Mack Stadium: Milwaukee Braves 5, Phillies 3. Jim Bunning came into the game 18-5, but lost.

* 5. September 25, at Connie Mack Stadium: Braves 7, Phillies 5. Manager Gene Mauch seemed to have pushed the right buttons all season long, until now. In this game, he started Short on just 2 days' rest, and he pitched 6 shutout innings, but allowed 2 runs in the 7th and 1 in the 8th. Johnny Callison homered for the Phils in the bottom of the 8th, momentarily saving them.

Both teams scored 2 runs in the 10th, the Braves on a home run by Joe Torre, the Phils on an inside-the-park home run by eventual NL Rookie of the Year Richie Allen (who hadn't yet begun to insist upon being called "Dick Allen"). But a bad throw by catcher Clay Dalrymple on a stolen base by Gene Oliver allowed the Braves to win it the 12th.

* 6. September 26, at Connie Mack Stadium: Braves 6, Phillies 4. The Phils led 4-0 after 2 innings, and 4-3 going into the 9th, with Art Mahaffey putting in a good start on full rest. But Bobby Shantz, the former Philadelphia Athletics ace back in his hometown, couldn't hold the lead, due in part to an error by 2nd baseman Tony Taylor, and Rico Carty hit a bases-loaded triple. It was Shantz's 39th birthday, and he made only 1 more big-league appearance, 3 days later. Hank Aaron went 2-for-5. Joe Torre went 3-for-4.

* 7. September 27, at Connie Mack Stadium: Braves 14, Phillies 8. Callison hit 3 home runs, helping to cement his case as the NL Most Valuable Player, should the Phils win the Pennant. But Bunning, sent out by Mauch on 2 days' rest, didn't get out of the 4th inning. He and his replacement 7 allowed straight hits, and allowed runs to score on 6 straight plays. Torre hit a home run (although not in the 4th).

There was a small omen for the Phillies: The pitcher who relieved Bunning would go on to become one of the most important figures in team history. He was a 20-year-old righthander from nearby Newport, Delaware. His name was Dallas Green.

* 8. September 28, at Busch Stadium in St. Louis: Cardinals 5, Phillies 1. Again, Mauch sent Short out on 2 days' rest, against Bob Gibson. Future Yankee broadcaster and NL President Bill White went 3-for-4 with an RBI. Future Cardinal broadcaster Mike Shannon went 1-for-3 with 3 RBIs.

* 9. September 29, at Busch Stadium: Cardinals 4, Phillies 2. Dennis Bennett was fully-rested, but didn't get out of the 2nd inning. For the Cards, Ray Sadecki got his 20th win of the season.

* 10. September 30, at Busch Stadium: Cardinals 8, Phillies 5. Tim McCarver hits a home run for the Cards, while Alex Johnson hits one for the Phils. Ironically, the winning pitcher for the Cards is Curt Simmons, whose drafting into the Korean War in 1950 cost him the chance to pitch for the Phils in their last World Series to this point, in 1950. Simmons also turned out to be the last surviving player from those 1950 Phillies "Whiz Kids."

None of it would have mattered if the Reds hadn't won 9 straight from September 20 to 27 (3 of them over the Phillies); and the Cardinals hadn't won 8 straight from September 24 to 30 (the last 3 over the Phillies). The Cards' Ken Boyer ended up winning the MVP.

Now, despite a Rookie of the Year season from Allen, a near-MVP season from Callison, and a near-Cy Young Award season from Bunning, they are 2 1/2 behind the Cardinals, while the Cincinnati Reds are 1 game back. The Phils have 2 games left, the Cards 3, the Reds 4. The Phils could still win the Pennant if they win their last 2 games, although a 3-way tie for the Pennant is still possible.

It was not to be. And, for those people in the Delaware Valley old enough to remember the Phillie Phlop of '64, not even the World Series wins of 1980 and 2008 could erase the scar on their hearts with "1964" branded onto it.

*

September 30, 1964 was a Wednesday. These other baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees swept a doubleheader from the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium. This was crucial, because the American League race was also coming down to the wire with multiple teams still in it. The Yankees would end up winning the Pennant by just 1 game over Chicago and 2 over Baltimore.

The Yankees won the opener, 7-6. Mickey Mantle and Joe Pepitone hit home runs for the Yankees, Al Kaline for the Tigers. Ralph Terry was the winning pitcher, in relief of Al Downing. The Yankees won the nightcap, 11-8. Kaline homered for the Tigers again, and Bill Roman also hit one. But Tom Tresh hit one for the Pinstripes. Jim Bouton, later the author of Ball Four, started and won.

* The New York Mets lost to the Milwaukee Braves, 6-5 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Denis Menke won the game with a home run off Willard Hunter in the bottom of the 12th inning. Hank Fischer started, Warren Spahn pitched the 9th and 10th innings in relief, and Clay Carroll, later a bullpen mainstay of the Cincinnati Big Red Machine, was the winning pitcher. Hank Aaron went 0-for-4, but he did draw 2 walks. Joe Torre went 1-for-6 with an RBI. Jim Hickman went 5-for-6 with an RBI for the Mets, and Charley Smith went 3-for-6 with 2 RBIs, but it wasn't enough.

* The Cleveland Indians shut the Boston Red Sox out for the entirety of a doubleheader at Fenway Park, 5-0 and 3-0. A young Luis Tiant, later to pitch so well for the Red Sox, allowed them just 4 hits in the 1st game, 2 of them by Félix Mantilla.

Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4 in the 1st game, and didn't play in the 2nd; while Tony Conigliaro, just 19 years old, didn't play in the 1st game, and went 2-for-4 in the 2nd. But the rest of the Red Sox only got 5 hits off Sam McDowell in that 2nd game.

* A doubleheader was split at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, but the 2 teams then in the Chesapeake region. The Baltimore Orioles won the 1st game, 8-4, with Jerry Adair hitting 2 homers. The Washington Senators won the 2nd game, 6-3. Brooks Robinson went 2-for-4 in each game, and had an RBI in the 1st one.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 1-0 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Jerry May singled home future Met World Series hero Donn Clendenon with the winning run -- in the top of the 16th inning. Roberto Clemente did not play. Nor did Willie Stargell. Jerry May got 3 hits, the entire rest of the Pirates only 2 -- in 16 innings. Chico Ruiz went 4-for-8, but the rest of the Reds lineup got only 5 hits. Pete Rose went 0-for-7. Frank Robinson went 1-for-4, and drew 3 walks.

The Reds' Jim Maloney, who would go on to take 2 no-hitters into the 10th inning the next season, keeping 1 but losing the other game in the 11th inning, here went 11 innings allowing no runs on 3 hits. The Pirates' Bob Veale went 12 1/3rd, allowing no runs on 7 hits. Veale struck out 16 batters, Maloney 13. The winning pitcher was Al McBean, the losing pitcher Lou Tsitouris.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Athletics, 6-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-4, but Jimmie Hall and Don Mincher homered for the Twins.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. A 2-hit shutout was pitched by -- no, not Sandy Koufax, and not Don Drysdale, but John Purdin. It was his 1st major league win. There would be only 5 more. Both Cub hits were by catcher Dick Bertell.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Colt .45s, 2-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Houston 3rd baseman Bob Aspromonte made an error on Jim Davenport's grounder in the bottom of the 11th, allowing Tom Haller, who had homered earlier, to score the winning run. Willie Mays went 0-for-4, but did draw a walk. The next season, the Colt .45s would rename themselves the Houston Astros.

* And the Chicago White Sox and the Los Angeles Angels were not scheduled for this day. The White Sox won their last 9 to finish within 1 of the Yankees, but it wasn't enough.

And in one of the best things that could have happened on any day, Italian actress Monica Bellucci was born.

May 4, 1944: The St. Louis Browns Desegregate Sportsman's Park

May 4, 1944, 80 years ago: The St. Louis Browns baseball team has its finest hour. And it has nothing to do with their winning their only Pennant that season.

The St. Louis Browns, playing in a racially segregated city, announce that they are dropping their policy restricting black fans to the bleachers at Sportsman's Park, which they own. The St. Louis Cardinals, tenants despite their great success since 1926 and the Browns' long failure, have no choice but to comply.

In their game that day, the Browns beat the Detroit Tigers, 2-0. Nelson "Nels" Potter pitched a 5-hit shutout. George McQuinn drove in a run with a looper in the 3rd inning, and another with a double in the 5th.

This season, the Browns go on to win their 1st Pennant. It is poetic justice. But the Browns do not desegregate their playing roster. And the Cardinals, who also don't, defeat them in the only All-St. Louis World Series ever. Only partial poetic justice.

On July 17, 1947, 3 months after Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers broke the color barrier, and 12 days after Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians did so in the American League, the Browns became the 3rd team to add a black player, Kansas City Monarchs 3rd baseman Hank Thompson. Two days later, they added Monarchs outfielder Willard Brown. On July 8, 1949, Thompson and Monte Irvin each made their debut with the New York Giants, becoming that team's 1st black players.

Hank Thompson (left) and Willard Brown

The Cardinals did not field a black player until April 13, 1954, 1st baseman Tom Alston. By that point, the Browns had moved, becoming the Baltimore Orioles. The Cardinals now owned Sportsman's Park. Their refusal to integrate their roster allowed the Dodgers, and then other National League teams, to surpass them in talent, and in the NL standings.

Tom Alston

By 1964, they had integrated, with black players like Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Curt Flood and Bill White, and won their 1st Pennant, and their 1st World Series, since 1946. Except for 1950, with the Philadelphia Phillies, every National League Pennant winner in between had been integrated.

April 11, 1962: The New York Mets Debut

April 11, 1962, 60 years ago: The New York Mets play their 1st regular season game. They debut on the road, against the St. Louis Cardinals, at Sportsman's Park -- or, as Cards owner and beer baron Gussie Busch had renamed it in 1953, Busch Stadium, the 1st of what are now 3 stadiums to bear the name.

Here's the initial starting lineup:

1 CF Richie Ashburn

18 SS Félix Mantilla

4 2B Charlie Neal

25 LF Frank Thomas

3 RF Gus Bell

14 1B Gil Hodges

17 3B Don Zimmer

5 C Hobie Landrith

38 P Roger Craig

If you know your New York baseball history, you know that Hodges, Zimmer and Craig were all members of the 1955 World Champion Brooklyn Dodgers. All were also members of the Dodgers' 1st title team in Los Angeles, in 1959, as was Neal.

To boost attendance, the Mets played on memories of the Dodgers, the New York Giants who were now in San Francisco, and the New York Yankees by acquiring as many players from those teams as they could, including former Yankee manager Casey Stengel. This strategy did not work.

(It also didn't work when the original 1982-83 New Jersey Devils tried to acquire as many New York Islander Stanley Cup winners as they could. As George Santayana put it, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.")

Ashburn, the Philadelphia Phillies' former All-Star, began the Mets' history by batting against the Cardinals' Larry Jackson, and flying out to Curt Flood in center field. The Cards scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 1st, including an RBI single by Stan Musial.

The Mets scored their 1st runs in the top of the 3rd. With 1 out, Ashburn singled, Mantilla drew a walk, and Neal singled Ashburn home, and Neal over to 3rd base. Thomas then hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Mantilla. That tied the game at 2-2.

The Cards struck back in the bottom of the inning, taking a 4-2 lead. Hodges hit the Mets' 1st home run in the 4th, and Neal hit one in the 5th, to close to within 5-4. But the Cards made it 6-4 in the bottom of the 5th, and 10-4 in the bottom of the 6th. They tacked on another in the 8th, to make the final score 11-4.

The Mets would get a ticker-tape parade in New York the next day, just for existing. The Yankees were the defending World Champions, and hadn't gotten one the preceding October. So they objected, and Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. gave them one on April 9.

The day after the parade -- a Friday the 13th -- the Mets had their home opener, at the Polo Grounds, and lost 4-3 to the Pittsburgh Pirates. They ended up losing their 1st 9 games, at which point they were 9 1/2 games out of 1st place. That was possible because the Dodgers were 10-0. They finally won for the 1st time on April 21, beating the Pirates 8-4 at Forbes Field.

They finished 40-120, the most losses of any MLB team since 1899. It led Stengel to say, "Come and see my amazing Mets! I been in this game 100 years, but they've shown me ways to lose I never knew existed before."

So the Mets became known as "The Amazin's." It was said that they had accomplished as much ineptitude in one year as the St. Louis Browns had in 50 years.

Finally, in 1969, "the Amazin' Mets" name stopped being a joke, and became reality.

On April 10, the Yankees opened at home, beating the Baltimore Orioles 7-6, with Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Moose Skowron homering in support of Ralph Terry.

And District of Columbia Stadium in Washington hosted its 1st baseball game on April 9, after opening in time for the previous year's football season. The Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers 4-1. President John F. Kennedy threw out the ceremonial first ball. He was assassinated in 1963. His brother and Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, ran for President in 1968, and he was assassinated, too. In 1969, D.C. Stadium was renamed for him. 

Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Blame the Chicago Cardinals for Moving to St. Louis

March 13, 1960: Violet Bidwill moves the National Football League's Chicago Cardinals to St. Louis. The widow of former team owner Charles Bidwill, she had married Walter Wolfner, and St. Louis was his hometown.

The Cardinals were a charter franchise in the NFL in 1920, along with another Chicago team -- the Chicago Tigers, who folded after that one season. Before that, they had been the Racine Normals, and before that, the Morgan Athletic Club. They began playing in 1898, playing at Normal Field on Racine Avenue on the South Side.

In 1901, they bought used uniforms from the University of Chicago, which called its teams the Maroons. But the reason UC had been willing to sell the uniforms is that they had faded. Chris O'Brien, the original owner, looked at the uniforms, and said, "That's not maroon, it's cardinal red." So the team became the Racine Cardinals. In 1922, they moved to Comiskey Park, sharing it with the White Sox.

Comiskey Park, set up for football,

before the installation of the famous "exploding scoreboard."

A move to Soldier Field in 1959 didn't work out, so they moved to St. Louis, in spite of that city already having a baseball team named the St. Louis Cardinals. To differentiate themselves, the baseball team tended to call itself the Redbirds, and the football called itself the Big Red.

I suppose the football team could have named themselves after Walter: The St. Louis Wolves. After all, no team in major league sports then had "wolves" as part of their name. But the name "St. Louis Wolves" had already been used as the name of the baseball team in Abbot & Costello's "Who's On First?" routine.

They shared Sportsman's Park until moving into the new Busch Memorial Stadium in 1966. By that point, Violet's sons Charles Jr. and William had inherited the team, and forced their stepfather out. Billy bought Charles out in 1972.

The move to St. Louis didn't work out, and after the 1987 season, Violet's son, Billy Bidwill, moved he team to the Phoenix area, becoming the Phoenix Cardinals in 1988, and changing the name to the Arizona Cardinals in 1994.

In 1998, the team celebrated its 100th Anniversary, claiming to be the oldest active professional football franchise.  Even if you don't count the Canadian Football League -- the Hamilton Tiger-Cats can trace their history back to 1869, and the Toronto Argonauts theirs to 1873 -- the claim is dubious. The Racine Cardinals had suspended operations after the 1906 season. They started up again in 1913, but stopped again in 1918, due to World War I and the Spanish Flu epidemic, starting again in 1919.

They won the NFL Championship in 1925 (the story of how they were crowned is a doozy, and it's still disputed), beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1947 NFL Championship Game, and lost a rematch to the Eagles in 1948. Then things went sour, as several seasons were disastrous: 3'9 in 1951, 1-10-1 in 1953, 2-10 in 1954, 3-9 in 1957, 2-9-1 in 1958, and 2-9 in 1959. And so, for 1960, they moved.

Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Blame the Chicago Cardinals for Moving to St. Louis

5. The Death of Charley Bidwill. Charles Bidwill Sr. had been a minority owner of the Bears, and wanted to buy them from George Halas. But "Papa Bear" wouldn't sell, because he loved being the dictator of that team. So, following a handshake agreement with Dr. David Jones, owner of the Cardinals, Bidwill sold his Bears stock, which he had to do first, and then bought the Cardinals for $50,000 -- a shade over $1 million in today's money. Sounds like a steal.

Charley Bidwill

Things got rough: They merged with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1944, due to the manpower shortage of World War II. There were listed in the standings as "Card-Pitt," but were so bad, they were nicknamed the Carpets, because everyone walked over them. They went 0-10. But things got better after The War, and they won the 1947 title.

It was too late for Charley: On April 19, 1947, he died of pneumonia at the age of just 51. His widow, Violet, became the 1st female majority owner in pro football history. But she knew nothing about running the team. Nor did her next husband, Walter Wolfner. The quality on the field plummeted, and so did attendance, to the point where the Bidwills were barely afloat.

Violet Bidwill Wolfner

Had Charley lived, he could have kept the team winning in the 1950s, or perhaps rebuilt into a contender, and maybe they wouldn't have had to move.

4. The AFL. The Bidwills were almost broke in the late 1950s, and wanted to move. But the NFL -- with Bert Bell as Commissioner, and his good friend George Halas helping to call the shots -- demanded a large relocation fee.

So the Bidwills looked to out-of-town investors. The problem was, while the family was willing to move, they would only sell a minority stake, as they still wanted control of the franchise. That turned out to be unacceptable to the would-be investors.

Those would-be investors included:

* Lamar Hunt of Dallas, who had already tried to get an expansion team for his city, and was turned down. So he founded the American Football League, and placed his team, the Dallas Texans, in his city. The NFL struck back, by placing the Dallas Cowboys there. After 3 seasons that were successful on the field but not at the box office, he moved them, and they became the Kansas City Chiefs.

* Bud Adams of Houston. He hooked up with Hunt, and became the founding owner of the Houston Oilers, winning the 1st 2 AFL titles in 1960 and '61, and losing the '62 title game to Hunt's Texans.

* Max Winter of Minneapolis. In 1961, after failing to buy the Cardinals and move them to the Twin Cities, he succeeded in getting an NFL expansion team, the Minnesota Vikings.

* Bob Howsam of Denver. He was the owner of minor-league baseball's Denver Bears, and was trying to get a major league team for his city. He, Hunt, Adams and Winter were among the backers of the Continental League, which got outflanked when the American League and the National League chose to expand for the 1961 and '62 seasons.

Howsam became the original owner of the AFL's Denver Broncos, but quickly had to sell to Gerald Phipps. He also sold the Denver Bears, but became the general manager of the Cincinnati Reds, building the Big Red Machine. He was not a part of the Colorado Rockies' ownership group when they began play in 1993, but he lived just long enough to see them win their 1st Pennant in 2007.

The AFL's logo

With the AFL's founding, the NFL's owners, led by new Commissioner Pete Rozelle -- Bell had died during the 1959 season -- were concerned that the AFL would plant stakes in cities without NFL teams, and succeed there.

They were right: While New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco (through Oakland) got challengers, Boston, Buffalo, Dallas, Houston and Denver did not (yet) have NFL teams. Since expansion was a possibility (and the AFL did put teams in then-NFL-less Miami and Cincinnati), St. Louis would have been a target. So the NFL decided to make it easier for the Bidwills to move there.

3. St. Louis. Baseball's Cardinals had succeeded there. Thus far, so had basketball's Hawks. Two previous NFL teams had failed there, but the 2nd was back in 1934, during the Great Depression. It seemed like time for the city to try again.

Downtown St. Louis, circa 1960

At the time, the City of St. Louis had a population of about 750,000, while the surrounding County of St. Louis had another 700,000. It was a big city, and it didn't have an NFL team, nor was the AFL trying to get in.

What these facts obscured was the fact that the City had already lost about 100,000 people in the 1950s, but the suburbs had almost doubled in size. It was still a big market, but a new stadium would be needed to replace the North Side's Sportsman's Park, which seated only 31,000 people, although the addition of temporary bleachers in right field raised capacity to about 40,000. The new Busch Stadium, downtown, was big enough and accessible enough. So if the team had to move, St. Louis seemed like a good place to go.

Sportsman's Park, set up for football

 

2. The Chicago Bears. The Monsters of the Midway dominated the NFL from 1940 to 1946. But the Cardinals won the title in 1947 and reached the title game again in 1948. After that, through 1959, only once did either team reach the title game, the Bears in 1956, and they got slaughtered by the New York Giants.

But the Bears' early Forties success meant that they were the more popular team in the Chicago media market, and would stay that way. The Bears did a better job of promoting their players, as Halas played well with the media, both local and national. And the other NFL team owners liked Halas, and treated Mrs. Bidwill (later, Mrs. Wolfner) as if she was a woman who knew nothing about football. Which may have been accurate, but it certainly wasn't fair.

George Halas. If any man can be called "Mr. NFL," it is he.

Her sons William and Charles knew they couldn't compete with Papa Bear and his team. Sure enough, the Bears won the title in 1963, and with such legends as Mike Ditka, Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus, remained popular even when they weren't winning. At least in St. Louis, the Cardinals didn't have to compete with anyone else for the local media.

1. It Worked. At first. In their 1st season in St. Louis, they went 6-5-1. By 1963, they were 9-5. In 1964, they went 9-3-2, finishing 2nd to the Cleveland Browns in the NFL Eastern Division. They managed and 8-5-1 season in 1966, a 9-4-1 season in 1968, and another 8-5-1 season in 1970. After 3 down seasons, they went 10-4 to win the NFC Eastern Division in 1974, 11-3 to win the Division in 1975, and 10-4 (but failed to win the Division) in 1976.

Yes, things would go south again, as they only made the Playoffs once more, in the strike-shortened season of 1982. And it took them until 1998 to make the Playoffs again in Arizona, and until 2008 to make them again, reaching Super Bowl XLIII. And, after moving there in 1995, except for a blip from 1999 to 2004, the Rams didn't succeed in St. Louis, either, and moved back to Los Angeles after the 2015 season.

But from 1960 to 1976, it sure looked like St. Louis was a football town. Why the Cardinals finally failed in St. Louis is a discussion for another time.

VERDICT: Not Guilty. Staying in Chicago would have done the NFL's Cardinals no good.

Living Former St. Louis Browns

September 27, 1953: The St. Louis Browns play their final game, at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. They lose to the Chicago White Sox, 2-1.

April 13, 1954: The Browns play their 1st game as the Baltimore Orioles. They play the Detroit Tigers at Briggs Stadium (which was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961). The Tigers win, 3-0. The losing pitcher for the Orioles: Don Larsen, who would go 3-21 that season. The Orioles got their 1st win the next day, 3-2, then came home to a parade and a sellout, 2 things they rarely had in St. Louis.

April 15, 1954: The Orioles play their 1st game in Baltimore. Again playing the White Sox, they win, 3-1 at Memorial Stadium. Bob Turley, future Yankee Cy Young Award winner and World Series hero (both in 1958), outpitched Virgil Trucks. In 1991, for the Orioles' last Opening Day at Memorial Stadium before moving into Camden Yards, they again played the White Sox, and Turley and Trucks, wearing replicas of their 1954 jerseys, threw out the ceremonial first balls. (This time, the White Sox won.)

There are 20 living St. Louis Browns, the youngest of whom is 83 years old:

* Tom Jordan, 96, from Lawton, Oklahoma. A catcher, he played 39 major league games, all in the 1940s, the last of them being his only appearance for the Browns, in 1948.

* Chuck Stevens, 97, born in Van Houten, New Mexico, and grew up outside Los Angeles in Long Beach, California. A 1st baseman, he debuted with the Browns as a September callup in 1941, then enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force, and was in combat at Tinian, Guam and Okinawa.

He returned to the majors in 1946, and was the Browns' starting 1st baseman. On July 9, 1948, in a game against the Indians in Cleveland, he became the 1st player to get a major league hit off the legendary Negro League star Satchel Paige. That was Stevens' last season in the majors, but he helped the Hollywood Stars win 3 Pacific Coast League Pennants.

* Al Naples, 89, from Staten Island. A shortstop, played for the Browns on June 25 and 26, 1949, getting a double in 7 trips to the plate, and that was his entire major league career.

NOTE: Whatever list I got these names from, Naples was not originally on it. A reader alerted me to him.

* George Elder, 95, from Lebanon, Kentucky. A left fielder, the extent of his major league experience was 41 games for the 1949 Browns.

* Johnny Hetki, 93, from Leavenworth, Kansas. A pitcher, he made 3 appearances for them in 1950. In 1954, pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates, he led the National League in games finished, but that was the end of his big-league career.

* Billy DeMars, 90, from Brooklyn. A shortstop, appeared in 61 games for the Browns in 1950 and 1 in 1951. He is also a surviving member of the Philadelphia Athletics, playing 18 games for them in 1948. He remained in the Browns/Orioles organization after 1951. He won the 1964 Midwest League Pennant, managing the Fox Cities Foxes. He was a coach on the 1980 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.

* Dick Starr, 95, from Kittanning, Pennsylvania. A pitcher, he debuted with the Yankees in 1947, making 4 appearances and not getting a ring, and 1 more in 1948. He pitched for the Browns in 1949, '50 and '51, before closing his career in '51 with another team that no longer exists, the Washington Senators.

* Frank Saucier (Saw-SHAY), about to turn 90, from the St. Louis suburb of Leslie, Missouri. An outfielder, he served in both World War II and the Korean War, in which he was in the U.S. Navy and rose to the rank of Lieutenant. He was named The Sporting News' Minor League Player of the Year in 1950, with the San Antonio Missions, winning the Texas League batting title.

But his entire big-league career was 1 hit and 3 walks in 17 plate appearances for the '51 Browns. He's best known for a plate appearance he didn't make: On August 19, 1951, he was penciled in as the Browns' leadoff hitter in a game against the Tigers at Sportsman's Park, but he was immediately replaced by a pinch-hitter: Eddie Gaedel, team owner Bill Veeck's 3-foot-7 midget.

He graduated from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, the school where Winston Churchill delivered his "Iron Curtain Speech" in 1946. He was probably in attendance. His degree is in physics, so he was no "dumb jock." Their baseball facility is named Frank Saucier Field. But his real name is Francis Field Saucier.

* Hal Hudson, about to turn 89, from the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. A pitcher, he made 3 appearances for the Browns in 1952, then 2 for the White Sox that year and 1 for them the next.

* Tom Wright, 92, from Shelby, North Carolina. An outfielder, he was a member of the ill-fated Boston Red Sox of 1948 and '49, played 29 games with the 1952 Browns, and wrapped up his career with the Senators.

If it seems like a lot of players were good enough for the Browns and the Senators, and nobody else, well, there were a few who also played for the Browns and the Philadelphia Athletics, or for the Senators and the A's, so make whatever you want out of that.

* Manuel Joseph "Jim" Rivera, 94, from Manhattan. Nicknamed "Jungle Jim" after the comic strip character, and capable of playing all 3 outfield positions, he debuted in the major leagues with the 1952 Browns, but was traded to the White Sox in midseason, remaining with them until 1961, when he closed his career with the A's. He was the starting right fielder on the 1959 AL Champion "Go-Go White Sox."

* Jay Porter, 83, from Shawnee, Oklahoma. A catcher, he played for both St. Louis teams, one at each end of his career: The Browns in 1952 and the Cardinals in 1959. He is also a living former "original Washington Senator."

* Joe DeMaestri, 87, from San Francisco. A shortstop, and like DeMars a surviving former Philadelphia Athletic, "Froggy" played 81 games for the Browns in 1952, before playing for the A's from 1953 through 1959, including the move to Kansas City in 1954-55. He was an All-Star in 1957.

He was a throw-in in the trade that brought Roger Maris to the Yankees. He was sent in to replace Tony Kubek after his injury in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, and his last major league appearance was on the next year's Series, winning a 1961 World Series ring.

* Ned Garver, 90, from the Toledo area. A pitcher, he debuted with the Browns in 1948, and remained with them through 1952. In 1951, he went 20-12 despite the Browns losing over 100 games, and was the starting pitcher for the American League in the All-Star Game. He even batted .305 and hit a home run that season.

He remained in the majors until 1961, becoming an original Los Angeles Angel, and finished with a career record of 129-157. That record could have been reversed, or even better, had he pitched for mainly good teams.

* Neil Berry, 94, from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Not the best shortstop to grow up in that town (that would be Derek Jeter), but he did play 7 seasons in the majors, including 57 games with the Browns in 1953. Claimed off waivers by the Chicago White Sox toward the end of that season, they traded him back in the off-season, allowing him to become an original 1954 Oriole.

* Johnny Groth, 89, from Chicago. A center fielder, he was with the Browns only in their last season, 1953, although he was their starter that year. He later played for 2 other teams that no longer exist in their form from that time, the Washington Senators and the Kansas City Athletics.

* Ed Mickelson, 89, from Ottawa, Illinois, and grew up in the St. Louis suburb of University City. A 1st baseman, he played briefly for both St. Louis teams: 5 games for the Cardinals in 1950, and 7 for the Browns in the final season. He drove in the last run in Browns history on September 27, 1953, singling home Groth against Billy Pierce of the White Sox. It was his last major league hit: He didn't return to the majors until an 0-for-12 stint with the 1957 Cubs.

* Billy Hunter, 88, born in Groundhog town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Jimmy Stewart's nearby hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania. The Browns' starting shortstop in their last season, it made him an All-Star as a rookie, their last All-Star. He made the move to Baltimore, and then was part of the 18-player Yanks/O's trade after the 1954 season. He played on the 1955 Pennant winners and the 1956 World Champions, although he didn't get a World Series ring.

He returned to the Oriole organization, and is best remembered as the longtime 3rd base coach for the great Oriole teams of the 1960s and early '70s. He managed the Texas Rangers in 1977 and '78.

* Roy Sievers, 89, the only man on this list actually born and raised in St. Louis -- and the man in the photo at the top of the page. A 1st baseman, he debuted with the Browns in 1949, and was the American League's Rookie of the Year. He remained with them until the end in 1953, but was traded to the Washington Senators.

He appeared in 5 All-Star Games, and led the AL in home runs and RBIs in 1957, despite playing his home games in Griffith Stadium, which had a small capacity but faraway fences. His 42 home runs in that season and his 180 homers overall were Senators records.

He was a member of the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies, but was traded before their September collapse. Hmmmm, maybe trading him was a bad idea.) He played in the majors until 1965, and had a lifetime batting average of .267 with 318 home runs. He probably would have had a lot more if he weren't a righthanded hitter in Sportsman's Park (much friendlier to lefthanded hitters) or hitting in Griffith Stadium.

He had the distinction of playing for 3 teams that no longer exist in their current form: The Browns (Orioles), the original Washington Senators who moved after 1960 (the Minnesota Twins), and the replacement Senators who moved after 1971 (the Texas Rangers). He was 1 of 9 players to play for the Old Senators and the new Senators. The others were Don Mincher, Camilo Pascual, Pedro Ramos, Johnny Schaive, Zoilo Versalles, Hal Woodeshick, Rudy Hernandez and Hector Maestri. Sievers, Pascual, Ramos and Hernandez are still alive.

Roy Sievers still lives in St. Louis, and still attends the annual St. Louis Browns Alumni dinner.

* Don Larsen, 86, from the Chicago suburb of Michigan City, Indiana. A pitcher, he debuted with the Browns in their final season, made the move, and started and lost the Orioles' 1st regular-season game. Part of the 18-player Yanks/O's trade after the 1954 season.

Just 2 years after going 3-21 with the '54 Orioles, he put on the greatest pitching performance in baseball history, throwing a perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series. With the death last year of Yogi Berra, Larsen is now the last survivor among the players from that game, on either side.

Larsen with the man who caught his perfect game,

the late Yogi Berra. Because he was from St. Louis,

the Browns gave Yogi a day in his rookie year, 1947.

He told the crowd at Sportsman's Park,

"I want to thank everybody for making this day necessary."

He won Pennants with the Yankees in 1955, '56, '57 and '58, and World Series rings in '56 and '58. He started and lost Game 7 of the '57 Series. The Yankees included him in the trade that brought Roger Maris from the Kansas City Athletics in the 1959-60 off-season. He pitched against the Yankees for the San Francisco Giants in the 1962 World Series, his 5th Pennant.

He was with the Houston Colt .45's when they became the Astros and moved into the Astrodome in 1965, returned to the Orioles in '65 but was no longer with the big club when they won the Series in '66, and closed his career with the Chicago Cubs in 1967.

Despite his World Series heroics, he was just 81-91 for his career -- but 78-70 without that 1 awful season. He turned out to be the last active player who had played for the St. Louis Browns, and still returns to Yankee Stadium for Old-Timers' Day.

*

UPDATE: In 2016, Hal Hudson died on July 8, Neil Berry on August 24, and Joe DeMaestri on August 26.

In 2017, Dick Starr died on January 18, Ned Garver on February 26, Roy Sievers on April 3, Tom Wright on September 5, and Jim Rivera on November 13.

In 2018, Chuck Stevens died on May 28.

In 2019, Johnny Hetki died on January 10, and Tom Jordan on August 26, having been until then the oldest living former MLB player, just 10 days short of his 100th birthday.

In 2020, Don Larsen died on January 1,  Jay Porter on October 11, and Billy DeMars on December 10.

In 2021, Al Naples died on February 26, Johnny Groth on August 7.

In 2022, George Elder died on July 7.

And in 2025, Frank Saucier died on March 3, Ed Mickelson died on June 27, and Billy Hunter, the last living former St. Louis Brown, died on July 3, 2025. On the St. Louis Browns, a team that existed from 1902 to 1953, we have closed the books.

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame the St. Louis Browns for Moving to Baltimore

The St. Louis Browns were bad. Historically bad. They existed for 52 seasons, 1902 to 1953. They won 1 American League Pennant, in 1944. They finished 2nd in 1902 (5 games behind the Philadelphia Athletics), 2nd again in 1922 (1 game behind the Yankees), 4th in 1908 (but just 6 1/2 behind the Detroit Tigers), 3rd in 1945 (6 behind the Tigers)... and that was pretty much it for their good seasons.

They won 93 games in '22, and 89 in their '44 Pennant season. Only 12 of their 52 seasons were winning seasons, including just 3 of their last 22 and none of their last 8. In 8 seasons, they lost at least 100; 4 times, they lost at least 107; and in 1939, they bottomed out at 111 losses, an AL record 64 1/2 games behind the Yankees.

They didn't even get the benefit of a sports-underdog movie, like the Washington Senators got with Damn Yankees. It was said, "Washington: First in war first in peace, and last in the American League." Because of its brewing and leather industries, the Mississippi River town was "St. Louis: First in shoes, first in booze, and last in the American League."

They had Hall-of-Famers George Sisler and Bobby Wallace, but what they're most known for is 3 things: All their losing; played a one-armed man, Pete Gray, in 1945 due to World War II's manpower shortage; and team owner Bill Veeck trying anything to get fans to come out to Sportsman's Park, including sending Eddie Gaedel, a 3-foot-7 midget, up to pinch-hit in a 1951 game, drawing a 4-pitch walk and being immediately removed for a pinch-runner.

Still, they shouldn't have just up and left their loyal fans, should they? They shouldn't have just moved -- and east, no less, rather than west! Right?

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame the St. Louis Browns for Moving to Baltimore

5. Demographics. The end of World War II should have meant that the troops would come back and resume their habit of going to games. But it also meant that they were taking advantage of the G.I. Bill, and buying houses in the suburbs.

St. Louis circa 1960, with an empty space along the river,

where Interstate 44 and the Gateway Arch would be built.

And cars. This meant that it would be harder for fans to drive in to the city for the games. And while Sportsman's Park was on a trolley line, highway access wasn't very good: What's now Interstates 44 and 70 were the closest highways, and they weren't close.

Check out these per-game attendance figures for the St. Louis teams for the last 8 years of their coexistence, between the 1st postwar season and the last season that they were in St. Louis together:

Year Browns Cardinals
1946 6,749 13,613
1947 4,162 16,207
1948 4,330 14,434
1949 3,496 18,580
1950 3,209 14,294
1951 3,815 13,161
1952 6,694 11,859
1953 3,860 11,452

No, you're not reading that wrong: The Browns averaged three thousand, eight hundred sixty fans per home game in 1953. In 6 of their last 8 seasons, they didn't draw 5,000 a game. In none of them did they draw 7,000. In that '53 seasons, the 2 St. Louis teams combined couldn't draw 16,000 a game, enough to half-fill the ballpark they shared.

And the economy was good at the time. And while the Korean War did take quite a few ballplayers (including the Yankees' Whitey Ford and Jerry Coleman, the Giants' Willie Mays and the Dodgers' Don Newcombe), it didn't take anywhere near as many men as did World War II, so that's not a viable excuse. And the Cards outdrew the Browns in every one of those seasons.

What makes it even weirder is that, until 1953, the Browns owned Sportsman's Park, which they built in 1909, while the Cardinals had been their tenants since 1920. The key year was 1917, when the Browns fired Branch Rickey as general manager and the Cards hired him. By 1926, the Browns were no longer the top team in town, and the Cards began a run of 21 seasons with 9 Pennants.

The Cards' average attendance went up in 1954, the 1st year they had the city to themselves, to 13,503, but stayed in the 11,000 to 15,000 range until the new Busch Memorial Stadium opened in 1966.

The population of St. Louis City was 857,000 in 1950, its all-time peak. Adjoining, but separate, St. Louis County had 406,000. But just 10 years later, The City was down to 750,000, while the County was up to 703,000. Today, the City's population is a little over 300,000, while the County's population is around 1 million. The combined metropolitan area has about 2.9 million. Contrast that with the 2-team markets of today: New York has over 23 million, Los Angeles over 18 million, Chicago just under 10 million, and San Francisco over 8 million.

No, St. Louis could never really support 2 Major League Baseball teams. Indeed, if the Cardinals hadn't become an iconic franchise through their radio network, long (but no longer) anchored by the powerful station KMOX, it's possible that the City might not even be able to support 1 MLB team.

After all, they lost an NFL team, the Gunners, in 1934; lost an NBA team, the Bombers, in 1950; gained a new NBA team, the Hawks, in 1955, but lost them in 1968; gained a new NFL team, the football Cardinals, in 1960, but lost them in 1987; and gained 1 more NFL team, the Rams, in 1995, and just lost them. If the arena now known as the Scottrade Center hadn't opened in 1994, they probably would've lost the NHL's Blues, too. (UPDATE: It was renamed the Enterprise Center in 2018.)

4. Rivalries. St. Louis vs. Chicago is a good rivalry in baseball's National League, Cardinals vs. Cubs. It's a good one in hockey, Blues vs. Blackhawks. It could have been one in football, but NFL Cardinals vs. Bears and Rams vs. Bears never worked out. In the American League, Browns vs. White Sox was never truly a rivalry.

And while Cardinals vs. Royals worked in the 1985 World Series, and has in Interleague play, by the time the Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City in 1955, the Browns were already gone. Then again, the Kansas City Chiefs never really had a rivalry with any St. Louis NFL team.

Ah, but Baltimore vs. Washington? That didn't last long, but, geographically, it made sense. Baltimore vs. Philadelphia? That only lasted 1 year. Baltimore vs. New York? Now, you're talking. The Orioles, not the Red Sox, are the Yankees' closest AL opponents by distance. Baltimore vs. Boston? They're not a whole lot further apart than St. Louis and Chicago, and they've had September showdowns in a few AL Eastern Division races.

3. Ballparks. There was a series of stadiums named Sportsman's Park, all of them made of wood and thus rickety firetraps, until a concrete-and-steel one was built in 1909. It seated 30,804 people, which wasn't enough. The access situation was bad. The parking situation was bad. And, by the 1950s, as white flight turned the North Side of St. Louis into a black neighborhood, white fans didn't feel safe going there. The Cardinals eventually lobbied for, and got, a downtown stadium. The Browns didn't have any pull with City Hall.

Probably the best-known photograph of Sportsman's Park,

renamed the 1st Busch Stadium in 1953

In contrast, Baltimore was converting its 70,000-seat football facility, Municipal Stadium, into a 49,000-seat (eventually 54,000-seat) baseball-and-football facility, Memorial Stadium. It would open in its multipurpose configuration in April 1954, and was one of the few stadiums designed to host both sports that did well by both sports. And it had lots of parking (by the standards of the time).

Memorial Stadium in 1966, the year of the 1st Oriole Pennant

Moving to Baltimore gave the Browns/Orioles a city all to themselves (Washington is close, but they and Baltimore are not a single market), ready to love a major league team. And it gave them an up-to-date ballpark that fans could drive to. Okay, again, the highway access wasn't good, but at least nobody was afraid to drive there and park there.

2. Baltimore. Charm City had been a National League powerhouse in the 1890s, and one of the most successful minor-league towns. In 1944, the year the Browns played the Cardinals in the World Series, the International League version of the Orioles attracted over 50,000 fans to Municipal Stadium (which wasn't even designed for baseball, but they had to use it because their ballpark burned down on the 4th of July that year) for the Junior World Series

Fifty thousand people paying to watch a minor-league baseball game. That was almost twice as many as the real World Series was getting.

Shortly before the Orioles arrived, the Colts did; shortly after, they became back-to-back NFL Champions. Baltimore athletes would also fill the ranks of the football and basketball teams of the University of Maryland, which won a National Championship in football in 1953; and of the basketball team at Washington's Georgetown University. Baltimore is a city that loves its sports.

Downtown Baltimore in the 1950s. As you can see, there's slums

where the Inner Harbor attractions would later be built.

If the Browns hadn't moved to Baltimore for 1954, some team would have moved there in the next few years. They had the stadium. They had the fan base. They were ready.

Of course, something like this could have happened to the Cardinals, right? After all, their attendance wasn't too hot, either. And their stadium and their parking situation were exactly the same. And they nearly did move: Owner Fred Saigh was imprisoned for tax evasion, and according to MLB's rules, he had to sell the team. He came very close to selling the Cards to a group that was going to move them to Milwaukee for 1953. And Bill Veeck thought he and the Browns would soon have St. Louis all to themselves.

Instead, a new owner was found:

1. Gussie Busch. August Anheuser Busch Jr., grandson of Adolphus Busch and great-grandson of Eberhard Anheuser, founders of the St. Louis-based brewing company that bears their names, didn't particularly like baseball. But he liked being a bigshot, which sports team owners are. And he wanted to sell lots and lots of beer, under the brand he'd been selling it under, Budweiser, named for the Budweis region of Austria, from which Adolphus had come.

Someone told him that the Cardinals were for sale, and that their radio network, which reached all over the Midwest and into the South, could be used to sell Budweiser. That was all Gussie needed to hear: He bought the Cardinals from Fred Saigh, and then bought Sportsman's Park from Bill Veeck.

From that day onward, the Browns were doomed, because Gussie was rich as hell, and, like Tom Yawkey of the Boston Red Sox, and later George Steinbrenner of the Yankees, he wasn't afraid to spend big if he thought it would get him big results.

He got them quickly. Not on the field. Not at the box office. In beer sales. In 1953, Budweiser was barely in the top 10 best-selling brands of beer in America. By the time the Cardinals won their next Pennant in 1964, Bud was Number 1, and several of those that had been in the top 10 had gone bust, or would in the coming years. Radio, TV and the Cardinals were what did it.

And, along the way, Gussie became a baseball fan. Eventually, on special occasions such as Opening Day or the postseason, he would ride around the field at Busch Memorial Stadium in the famous Clydesdale-driven beer wagon, waving his feathered Cardinal-red cowboy hat to the fans. He became that rare thing in sports: An owner who was beloved. (He had some nasty flaws, but most Cardinal fans didn't care.)

Dorrel Norman Elvert Herzog and August Anheuser Busch Jr.

-- Whitey and Gussie -- celebrate a Pennant.

Veeck? He knew the game was up. He applied to the AL to move the Browns to Baltimore for 1954. But the other owners hated his guts, and they voted to let the move happen, but only on the condition that Veeck sell the team to a Baltimore-based group. Ironically, it was a brewery that bought them: Gunther Brewing Company, led by Jerry Hoffberger. (In the 1950s, Baltimore was every bit a brewing town as St. Louis and Milwaukee.)

It took a few years, but the results worked out well for both cities. Between 1964 and 1987, the last time the Cards reached the postseason before Gussie died, a total of 24 seasons, St. Louis won 6 Pennants and 3 World Series, and Baltimore did the exact same. Since the move, the Cardinals have made the postseason 17 times, the Orioles 12.

The 2006 edition of Busch Stadium.

This was never going to be the home of the St. Louis Browns.

Today, both teams are strong on the field, financially secure, more popular than ever, and playing in exciting old-looking but relatively new downtown ballparks: The 3rd Busch Stadium, and Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Yes, the Browns/O's are better off.

Oddly, since the '44 "Trolley Series" (as opposed to a "Subway Series"), the Cardinals and the Browns/Orioles have never faced each other in the World Series again. The closest call was in 1996, when each lost their respective League Championship Series.

Veeck did get back into baseball, buying the Chicago White Sox in 1959, winning a Pennant. He had to sell them just 2 years later, thinking he was dying. But he was misdiagnosed, then properly diagnosed, and recovered. In 1975, he bought the ChiSox again, and brought fun back to the South Side, but not enough winning. As was the case when he owned the Browns, he just didn't have the money to compete, and sold the Pale Hose in 1980.

Both the Cards in St. Louis, and the O's in Baltimore, have had their ups and downs since 1953. But the move worked out well for both teams. And while there is, to this day, 62 years after the move, a St. Louis Browns Historical Society, it's hard to argue that the franchise, or the City of St. Louis, would have been better off if the Cards had moved instead, and the Browns had stayed -- or if Veeck had tried to make a go of it there anyway.

VERDICT: Not Guilty.