My grandfather played for the St Louis Browns! He only played a season or two. He slid into third and snapped his ankle. He was a catcher. He got his nickname “Dutch” form the guys. Not sure he ever got over not being able to play longer. He joined the AirForce and was a heavy drinker but he was my Hero! He passed my JR year of HS. 1995. RIP Grandpa ❤️
My great-grandfather played for the Browns in 1926 after graduating from Auburn. He was a pitcher until he ended up with what would become the injury that would end his career. He spent half a season in A level before playing B and C ball for the rest of his career.
@@matthewstic2 Thanks for sharing that Matt. In conversation whenever it comes up I mention that my grandfather played professional baseball. When I mention the St Louis Browns people look at me like I’m crazy. But then again I get it because I wouldn’t know of them if my grandpa didn’t play there. How far technology has come. Medically*
If I had a nickel for every time a team named the Browns moved to Baltimore, I would have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
How can you not romanticize the game of baseball after watching such a well-produced documentary? The St. Louis Browns are the kind of team I would root for if I didn’t already have a favorite team. They were constantly the underdogs, had to get creative to attract more fans, didn’t find success often but were always fun to witness. You never knew what they would do next to generate some sort of intrigue. They had to go play a women’s baseball team just to make enough money to travel to a game in Cleveland. They won their only pennant in 1944 and played the World Series against their fellow St. Louis team in the National League. The Browns are a magical team with so many fun oddities. I would have wanted to rally around them. This documentary is exceptional and one of the best I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching.
The Grandstand Manager holding up the sign at the left of the photo at 44:52 is my father, a lifelong Brownie fan. To him, George Sisler was "the Man." Born in St Louis in 1913, he lived within blocks of Sportsman's Park until he was drafted in late, 1943 and He was heartbroken to have missed the Streetcar Series while stationed on Guam with the Army-Air Corp I was born in March, 1951. He spoke about the Browns often.
This is one of the finest sports/baseball documentaries I have ever seen in my 66 years on this earth. Bravo!!! Well Done. Powerful!! Thank you for your fine work.
"Boys, I can't fight, and so there is no courage about me. Courage belongs on the battlefield, not on the baseball diamond."--R.I.P. Pete Gray 1915-2002
I had never heard about him, so I looked him up on the net. He had a movie made about him and a book as well. He was the first 1 arm player in MLB history, playing one season. His story is inspiring but a bit sad. I'm not sure if that was why he was left out of this video, but considering the team's story, he fits in perfectly, IMHO. For others, who were like me, check out his story on Wikipedia. He also had a mention in Ken Burn's Baseball documentry. Cheers from Canada
My grandpa told me that his dad was a Browns fan. He told me that one time he called the Browns front office and told them: “That damned shortstop is so god awful, y’all ought to trade him for a horse and then shoot the horse!” 🤣🤣
My father tried out for the St. Louis Browns when he graduated from the Missouri Military Academy in 1947. They offered him a small contract to play somewhere, but he decided to play ball on a scholarship to St. Benedict's College in Atchison, Kansas. When he was a college Junior, the Browns told him they were still interested, but then the Korean War came along, and that was the end of his baseball career. (COL Dennis H. Williams, d. 1991.)
@@Jacobthekid28 They also had a Baltimore Orioles team before that in the National League, who won 3 NL Pennants in the 1890s and one of their players was John McGraw. That franchise folded in 1899.
I was reading some letters that my grandfather had written in 1944 while fighting in the Pacific, and he mentions the world series saying " I recon St Louis will win". Out of curiosity, I looked it up just to see if he was right, when I realized his joke.
Another thing: That was the only pennant the St. Louis Browns would win; they'd not win another till 1966, when they swept the Dodgers in the World Series (by then they were the Baltimore Orioles). The Orioles would win 5 more AL pennants, namely 1969-71, '79, and '83, winning the World Series in '70 and '83.
I've been baseball fan 60 years I live here in Baltimore my late father told me stories about the Browns how we got them and I was born in 54 the year the Orioles come to town I love baseball I love the history of it I enjoyed watching this story about the Browns and I hope to never forgotten at at least Baseball fans
I believe the Browns were the only MLB team to move from a city and then tried to move back to the city they left. Like the Raiders in Oakland. 1901 the Browns were the original Milwaukee Brewers moved for 1902 to St Louis and when they moved to Baltimore they actually tried to move back to Milwaukee. But what most people don’t know is in 1952 three teams wanted to move to Milwaukee. The Braves of course, Browns and it seems ridiculous today but the third team was the Cardinals. And another strange thing is that the Brewers moved after one year in Milwaukee to St. Louis the only other teams to spend only one year in a city and move was the Seattle Pilots who moved to Milwaukee. Odd symmetry of the game.
Anheuser Busch stepped in to buy the Cardinals in 1953 when it appeared that an ownership from Milwaukee might purchase the franchise. That prompted Bill Veeck, then the owner of the St. Louis Browns, to look to move his team elsewhere. Veeck knew he couldn't compete with the financial might of Anheuser Busch, but the other owners saw a golden opportunity to rid themselves of the maverick owner. They gave Veeck permission to move the club to Baltimore, but with one condition--that he sell the team. Veeck ultimately sold his majority interest in the team to a group of investors headed by Baltimore attorney Clarence Miles, and the Browns became the Orioles in 1954.
@@camoss3724 And the other thing to note about that is Clarence Miles and the rest of the Baltimore group were flush with cash to buy the Browns in large part because they had such tremendous attendance for the minor league Orioles they already owned. And that was in large part because those Orioles were forced to move into Memorial Stadium after their old wooden ballpark burned down. In fact, the minor league Orioles had better attendance than many major league teams at the time. Considering how moribund the Browns were, it was less the Browns being sold and moved, and more the cash-flush Orioles buying the Browns' spot in the AL. Even the 1954 Orioles uniforms were the same as the 1953 minor league team's.
Also, to say the original Brewers spent only one year in Milwaukee is not the whole picture. They spent only one major league season there. But the American League was founded as a reorganization of the Western League, a minor league with teams in the emerging cities of the upper Midwest, like Minneapolis, St Paul, Kansas City, Indianapolis, and Detroit. By the time the AL declared itself a major league in 1901, most of those teams had been moved to larger cities that either already had NL teams or had just been dropped by the NL after the 1899 Cleveland Spiders scandal. That the original Milwaukee Brewers, who had been around since 1892, were still in the AL in 1901 was just a matter of not having moved them already before the season. The same thing nearly happened to Detroit, as AL President Ban Johnson supposedly wanted to move the team to Pittsburgh but it didn't happen before peace with the NL was made and so the Detroit Tigers are the sole former Western League team still in their original city with their original name. (It's also the justification given that the Tigers and Pirates are "designated interleague rivals" for scheduling purposes.)
Here's one for you: ONE OF THE ORIGINAL NICKNAMES FOR THE CARDINALS WAS...BROWN STOCKINGS named after an earlier independent major pro team and then a non-affiliated NATIONAL ASSOCIATION league club and right after the latter, an NL club in year one of the NL= 1876, twas a squad called the Brown Stockings, and shortly afterward...THE BROWNS, while the 1890's BROWNS did not start in the NL. Rather, they began in the then Major League, the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION..BEFORE MOVING TO THE NL where shortly afterward they moved to a new name to become the CARDINALS. In 1901, CAME THE FIRST MILWAUKEE BREWERS, and the minor league WESTERN LEAGUE changed its name to the AMERICAN LEAGUE and sought and got MLB STATUS. IN 1902 in the A.L., HERE CAME THE BROWNS..UNTIL '54, WHEN THE PLAYERS WERE MOVED TO BALTIMORE, the latter was the first MLB labeled baseball club in that town since the ORIOLES of the BRAND NEW A.L. IN 1901.. The next season that team became the NY HIGHLANDERS, AND A DECADE LATER, it became the NY.. YANKEES..
My Great grandfather Frank Crossin played from 1912-14 then got shipped to war. He holds/held a record of unassisted double plays as a catcher until Jorge Posada tied it in 2001. He still holds it however just with Jorge now.
The St. Louis Browns won the World Series in my old timers strat o matic game . It included teams like the ‘27 & 61 Yankees among the 16 AL Old time teams AL teams I had. The Browns won my AL pennant & defeated the ‘53 Dodgers, who were also in a 16 team NL league, 4 games to 1. My Browns were the 1922 team.
Loved this, loved George Sisler... the greatest of the Browns without any measure of comparison 👍 St Louis :4th largest city in 1902, 600,000.Today 19th with ~300,000, amazing. “ it was a rivalry of the heart..” excellent insight Phil Ball vs Brach Rickey changed the course of legacy of possible success. BTW, died in 1933 of Sepsiis at only 59 in 1933. Interestingly the Cardinals were tenants to the Browns ! Chuck Stevens passed in 2018 at 99 ! Thoroughly enjoyed the documentary but was rather surprised that Pete Gray was never mentioned, or did I miss that?
The Browns left St. Louis before I was born. But I have always been fan enough to be curious about this team's history. I enjoyed this program a great deal.
"Gorgeous" George Sisler was the greatest first baseman of all time until 1923. That year he suffered a severe sinus infection that greatly affected his vision and a young slugger named Lou Gehrig emerged onto the scene. The rest is history.
Nice documentary about the Brownies (though a little too much about the Cardinals, I think). There's no sports history like baseball history. -Orioles Fan
The Browns are "Our American Cousin" ....... in 2003, the Orioles dressed in BROWNS uniforms for a turn-back-the-clock game against the Cardinals. 2.bp.blogspot.com/_kl-4VYh7R3Y/SP0vKlaAvyI/AAAAAAAAA4k/kc1bI1X1yic/s1600/04MORAUD.JPG
A very good documentary. Though I am an Oriole fan I am also a baseball history fanatic and knew of the Browns. They had some good players through the years, besides George Sisler and others they mentioned there was Harlond Clift, Marty McManus, Red Kress, Del Pratt and Urban Shocker.
This was an absolutely awesome baseball documentary with a perfect narrator in Jon Hamm. I’m in Canada and have been a fan of baseball and it’s history for almost forty years. I knew very little about the Browns and didn’t really much on their impact in St. Louis. My favourite stories were the one about the Cards and Browns sharing the same apartment during the 1944 season and how it got complicated once both teams met in the World Series. The other was how the batboys May have received a larger World Series share than a few players. Unbelievable! Thanks for posting from John in Calgary Alberta.
*I agree. Major League Baseball should force the Baltimore Orioles to acknowledge and incorporate the history of the St. Louis Browns into their history. It's the same team and franchise.*
Three teams forgotten : St Louis Browns , Philadelphia Athletics and the Washington Senators. The Browns inner city rival was so successful while they were not, made them not remembered..unlike Philadelphia Athletics who were the opposite of the Phillies than . They were on top their 1st 35 yrs, but owner got old and couldn't be replaced.
I was disappointed they didn't go back to the 1880's. The documentary cut the cord from the original Browns, the St. Louis Brown Stockings (which became the Cardinals) as cleanly as did Baltimore, which it lamented. I can reluctantly understand as the American Association is not now considered a major league, but in it's time the line distinguishing a major league was very much blurred. The National League calling itself the major league was more publicity driven to drive profits than level of talent driven. After all, many potential major league Hall of Famers playing in the Pacific Coast League refused to sign "Major League" contracts because they were already making more money than they were offered. Same thing with the American Association in the 1880's and the Western League in the 1890's, which is recognized as a major league as all who played in it and then played in the AL and NL kept their WL stats as part of their lifetime major league record (except for Sam Crawford for some reason, who would breech the 3,000 hit mark if they were for him). Funny thing, Buster Keaton, the silent film genius in the 1920's, was offered a major league contract after his film company baseball team beat several major league teams in spring exhibition games. They offered him the unheard of rookie salary of $10,000 a year. He turned it down. He was making $20,000 a WEEK in the movie industry. As a side note: The guy in the middle at 58:41 is Johnny Barardino; Dr. what's his name on the soap opera General Hospital for two decades.
I know Bill James made a case for disregarding the Union Association as a Major League but I didn't know the American Association was similarly challenged.
I also was waiting for mention to be made of Pete Grey. The fact that he was able to make the Majors despite his disability is an incredible ability in itself.
I'm 75 yrs old and a devout STL Cards fan. I only remember the Browns through reading baseball history. I got a Browns hat in Cooperstown a few yrs ago; the sports shop there had every hat imaginable ( also got a Seattle Pilots hat "Short Flight Into History"). Wore my Browns hat to a game in DC last yr with Orioles hoping someone would notice; no luck. Going to see Orioles twice this season so I'll wear my Browns hat again.
So many dreams, so much failure. Every sport, every league, had people who wanted to go beyond their own abilities. Me included. Born in Broome County NY 1953, very bad heart valve, 2015 before I got a valve transplant. I wanted to be an NFL punter, professional rodeo barrel racing, bowler or golfer. Couldn't do anything. Always sick, meningitis when I lost my hearing, bronchitis every spring and fall. Played violin, Viola and classical Church organ, couldn't practice more than 15 minutes. Selfish world, no real money, I thought I knew all these teams. Someone's pipe dream is another one's disaster. Thank you for following your team and keeping its history a live.
This whole thing including the streetcar series is absolutely great hisyory and a fantastic story that i had never heard of.cant beleive they never mafe a movie out of this
Obviously, the team did not disappear. They simply moved to Baltimore where they still play as the Orioles. Lots of teams have changed cities. What a strange thing to miss. And why would the Orioles not celebrate their greatest player from their time in St Louis?
It's a bit different when the team doesn't just change cities but also it's nickname, unlike the other four teams that moved in the 50s (Braves, Athletics, Dodgers, and Giants), which all kept the same nicknames and therefore indicated a claimed continuity of history. Those teams also still had the same owners after they moved (at least initially), while the former Browns were under new ownership. It's especially different when the new name and uniforms adopted were the exact same as the minor league team that had played in the new city for decades. And that the new owners had been the owners of that minor league team. Although technically the Browns moved, in many meaningful ways it was more like the Orioles bought the Browns' spot in the AL. Although not exactly the same, as they were an expansion team, the San Diego Padres are somewhat analogous, being that the not only did the NL team take the name of the minor league team that was playing in the city right up to the year before, but the original owner of the major league team was the same owner of that minor league team.
I'd say I wish the browns would have won the 1944 world series, but even if they had won, I cant imagine they would still be in st. Louis today. They still would have left at some point.
@@JohnSmith-kz8yo st. Louis is huge. 2.8 million people live there its considered the 8th largest in the country. It could still support 2 teams their fan base would overlap. It would work, to make st. Louis people like casual fans in mid mo who support the cardinals and royals only make them fans of st. Louis baseball where the cardinals are your Nl team browns are you r al team. Like if support the NFL tampa bay buccs and xfl tampa vipers
@@JohnSmith-kz8yo Both St. Louis City and the region were much more populated back then than now. Populated enough to support two teams until towards the end of the Browns’ run here.
A wonderful documentry that would impress Ken Burns. I'm not sure if you made it or just uploaded but regardless, thanks for sharing. It's a fun, funny, heartwarming, heartbreaking and melancholy piece of history. There is nothing worse for a sports fan, than losing your team. I should know. Cheers from Montreal, forever home of The Expos :)
The Browns almost moved to LA in 1942!They were given permission to, in '41, by the AL. Im surprised this vid didn't mention it. Pearl Harbor took care of the move, they didn't want a MLB, near a potential Japanese air attack. So that World Series of 1966 could have been the LA Browns against the still Brooklyn Dodgers? Or both teams in LA for a inter city WS?
That 1904 World's Fair was responsible for the ice cream waffle cone. It was so hot that the ice cream seller ran out of bowls. Meanwhile BECAUSE it was hot, the waffle guy wasn't selling anything. So the ice cream guy cut a deal and served the ice cream on the waffles. People found it easier to roll the waffle into a cone and balance the ice cream while they ate it. The coffee/tea guy ALSO wasn't selling anything. One patron didn't want to stand in the long line for cold drinks so he asked the tea guy to pour it over ice. Iced tea was later perfected here in the South.
Enjoyed this video very much. It was apparent the Browns couldn’t compete with the Cardinals forever. Including this move by the Browns to Baltimore, St. Louis has lost 4 sports franchises to other cities.
It's interesting, there are some teams that moved or folded since the Browns and people just don't care. KC A's, Seattle Pilots, if/when Tampa Bay moves to Portland, nobody will care. NBA-Vancouver Grizzlies, Buffalo Braves, San Diego Clippers- yes I know the Braves moved to SD and became the Clippers. NHL-Atlanta Flames, Colorado Rockies, KC Scouts, Oakland Seals, Atlanta Thrashers. NFL- Chicago Cardinals, St. Louis Cardinals, Dallas Texans,
I agree with a previous comment, how do you leave Pete Gray off of this documentary, one armed players were as rare as a Browns victory, I know I'm from Cleveland!
I've been a lifetime Tigers fan. We lost the '44 pennant by one game to the Browns. I wasn't alive then, but if I were, I would've rooted for the Browns..
My dad signed with the Browns after HS in 1947 as a pitcher. Injuries to his shoulder (shotgun hunting/farming accident) were too much. He played his first season for Miami in the Arizona/Texas League but had to end his very brief career before the regular season even started. I still have his contract with the club. He died a million years ago in 1967 of a heart attack. I had just turned 18. He was only 40.
I grew up as an Orioles fan in the DC area and had to look back at where it all began. (Cool to see that they have the orange and black as part of the uniform look back THEN too)
While collecting baseball cards in 1980 or 1981, I would also buy these team logo stickers. Each of those cards came with a WS caricature from the Fall Classic. I remember something about a record-setting collective strikeout total for the '44 series. The caricature was of shattered bats 😊
What an incredibly well done documentary! I am just a little too young to recall much about the history (at age 76 now). My first baseball game was was a double header between the Phillies and the Cardinals at Sportsman’s Park. My older brothers (who, since 10 years older than I am, actually knew that the Browns had first played in Sportsman’s Park. I am guessing my first game was between 1956 and 1958 (I figured it out once by looking up the scheduled double headers during the era, but I am too lazy to look it up). One of my brothers drove us (my father and his 3 sons) to the double-header. Until decades later when I first visited San Francisco, it would be the only time I ever saw street cars operating. We made our way through the intersection of streets and tracks and through the neighborhoods until I got my first glimpse of a baseball park. A man held a sign out into the street offering parking in his garage. My brother turned into the alley, and we parked in someone’s garage and walked to the park. We had box seats, one of which was largely behind a steel post that was part of the structural support holding up the upper deck. I saw Walker Cooper, Stan Musial (the only time I saw Stan play in person, although in 1977 when I worked at One Memorial Drive for CPA firm, I went early to game and watched Stan Musial, Chen in his 50s) take his suit coat off, loosen his tie, pick up a bat and promptly hit line drives all over the field). Like many boys growing up in the greater St. Louis area, I gave all I had to try to get to my goal: playing baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals. It took me several years beyond high school to realize I just was not physically gifted enough, but that dream did drive me to become a far better athlete than I could otherwise have become. After a brief period practicing law in the greater St. Louis area, we moved to Southern California, but my passion for the St. Louis Cardinals, with all those boyhood memories, continue. When we travel back to the area to see family, I catch a game there (I did make it back to oSt. Louis for Mark Maguire’s 70 home runs year, and we finally made it back for a trip to Busch Stadium (for me, # 3, as I think Sportsman Park was briefly named in honor of its new owner, Mr. Busch, some time after his purchase). THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES AND THE EDUCATION OF MUCH I DID NOT KNOW!
It was sad that the Browns died and faded into baseball history. St. Louis was only big enough to support one team, so it's demise was inevitable. Great documentary!
story of Browns owner Bill Veeck signing midget Eddie Gaedell to a contract is hilarious. I heard pitcher was laughing so hard he couldn't come close to throwing a strike. Gaedell, after walking on 4 pitches and being removed for pinch runner, bowed to cheering crowd. Veeck won a championship as owner of Cleveland in 1948, so if Cardinals did not dominate the City maybe he could have won one with Browns.
