The St. Louis Cardinals, a professional baseball franchise based in St. Louis, Missouri, compete in the National League (NL) of Major League Baseball (MLB). As the game of baseball garnered interest in the United States in the 19th century, professional baseball in St. Louis became rooted chiefly in one disestablished Major League club — named the Brown Stockings, the same as the Cardinals' earliest name — which is loosely connected but does not fall within the scope of today's Cardinals. The Brown Stockings became St. Louis' first fully professional baseball club when they gained accession in the National Association (NA) in 1875. However, the NA folded after that season. That winter, with five other former NA teams, St. Louis established a new, eight-team league called the National League (NL) and began play the next season. Despite early success, Brown Stockings players were found to be connected to game-fixing scandals, which forced bankruptcy and the club's expulsion from the NL. This scandal also abrogated their professional status but some members maintained play as a semi-professional team, primarily operated by outfielder Ned Cuthbert, until 1881.
With interest in reviving professional baseball in St. Louis steadily growing, grocery and brewery tycoon Chris von der Ahe observed with fascination that the team playing near his store and beer garden garnered large crowds. He purchased the club in 1881, and, together with other club owners (who also happened to be beer magnates) interested in creating professional league that could rival the National League, made it a charter member of the American Association in 1882, bringing professional baseball back to the Mound City. This Brown Stockings club became St. Louis' Major League mainstay, now competing as the Cardinals. During their time in the AA, the Cardinals established the first St. Louis professional sports dynasty, finishing with best overall record in the league each year from 1885 to 1888 and the best all-time record in that league's history. They also took their first interleague championship (a precursor to the World Series), finishing off their rivals, the Chicago White Stockings – now the Chicago Cubs – in the 1886 World Series.
With instability plaguing the American Association, the league folded after the 1891 season. With their name shortened to "Browns", St. Louis rejoined the National League, only to find a complete reversal of its AA success. From 1892 to 1920 – a span of 29 seasons – St. Louis managed just five winning seasons and finished in last or next-to-last place on 17 occasions. The club also rode out 31 managerial changes and two more name changes, the last being to "Cardinals" in 1900. However, following this extended era of futility, the Cardinals emerged into a renaissance in the 1920s that brought championship baseball back to St. Louis.
Origins of professional baseball in St. Louis
Timeline of naming and affiliations Franchise names 1875–1882: St. Louis Brown Stockings 1883–1898: St. Louis Browns 1899: St. Louis Perfectos 1900–present: St. Louis Cardinals
League affiliations 1875: National Association 1876–1877: National League 1878–1881: Independent – semi-professional 1882–1891: American Association 1892–present: National League
The original versus the modern game
The game of baseball as it is played today is significantly removed from the game that originated in the late 19th century in the northeastern United States. Noted baseball historian and statistician Bill James commented that the game and playing field resembled fastpitch softball more than contemporary baseball. The style of play diverged in many facets. Pitchers were prohibited from throwing overhand – they were only permitted to throw underhanded or sidearmed. They threw from a flat outlined box without a designated point of footing to release the ball instead of a mound with a pitching rubber until 1893. The pitcher's mound did not receive official recognition until 1903.Cash 2002: 2
Counts of balls and strikes were also modified: originally, a hitter did not receive a walk until the pitcher threw nine balls and the number required to draw a walk was eventually whittled down to four in the 1880s. Hit batsmen did not automatically get awarded first base at first (it was instead counted as a ball) and foul balls and pitches taken in the strike zone were not initially regarded as strikes. Both fair ball and foul ball rules varied, influencing the batter's ability to get on base.
Fielders played barehanded; gloves did not become prevalent until the 1880s and at that point they resembled work gloves.Cash 2002: 1 The infield contained three fielders with a large gap between second and third base. Three fielders were stationed in the outfield like the modern game with an extra fielder, analogous with the softball "rover". In 1856, Dickey Pearce (one of St. Louis' early professional players), originally assigned as a fourth outfielder, moved into infield gap between second and third and pioneered the modern shortstop position.Cash 2002: 13
A rivalry grows: Chicago versus St. Louis Baseball fever grew rapidly across the US before the American Civil War and swept into St. Louis in the 1860s, sprouting numerous amateur teams around the city. The sport especially drew the attention of gamblers, which took decades for Major League Baseball to root out and St. Louis baseball teams would prove to be no exception. However, it was economic expansion and civic pride that ultimately drew professional baseball to St. Louis, but not first without a catalyst of emulation.Cash 2002: 9
Over the years, a trade rivalry developed with the city of Chicago – a nearby "major" city – and baseball became yet another expression of this urban rivalry. While St. Louis developed as the major hub of the Mississippi River, Chicago developed as a major railway center, and by 1870, St. Louis was the fourth-largest city in the United States and Chicago a close fifth. Due to the rapid growth of the rail industry, Chicago's population passed that of St. Louis in the 1880 census.
The success of baseball clubs such as the self-proclaimed "original" professional baseball club, the Cincinnati Red Stockings – winners of 57 consecutive "official" contests from coast to coast between 1869 and 1870 – and the first dynasty in organized baseball established by the Brooklyn Atlantics - motivated Chicago city leaders to organize and recruit a club composed solely of professional players, which became the Chicago White Stockings in 1870.Cash 2002: 10 The White Stockings trained by playing amateur teams in nearby major cities such as St. Louis – who proved nearly unbeatable, resulting in consistently lopsided victories for Chicago – before becoming a charter member of the first all-professional league, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, or National Association (NA), in 1871.
Until 1874, St. Louis carried only amateur teams – two of the most prominent being the Empires and Unions – as its top level of competition. Long after other cities had established all-professional clubs, the results were almost always identical month after month, year after year: the highly skilled, professional clubs such as the White Stockings continuously walloped those of St. Louis. The scoreboard embarrassment finally convinced locals that an all-professional team was in order. City leaders raised $20,000 to make this happen – the Brown Stockings – and city development pioneer and planner John Baptiste Charles Lucas II became the team president. The club secured admission into the National Association and began play in 1875.Cash 2002: 11
The ascent and decline of St. Louis professional baseball (1875–1881)
First advent (1875–1877) The same season St. Louis chartered the Brown Stockings, another all-professional startup in St. Louis, the Red Stockings began play in the NA as well. However, the Red Stockings were short-lived as they performed poorly. The Brown Stockings acquired four-time home run champion Lip Pike, a national celebrity for his long home runs, and one of the Brown Stockings' first stars. Pud Galvin's 1.16 ERA led NA in 1875. After the Brown Stockings' initial season, which saw them finish 39–29–2 among six teams, the NA folded after its fifth year due to instability.
The winter following the disestablishment of the NA, six teams from that league – the Brown Stockings, the White Stockings, the Philadelphia Athletics, the Boston Red Stockings, the Hartford Dark Blues, and Mutual of New York – and two expansion franchises, the Cincinnati Red Stockings and the Louisville Grays all agreed to form a new all-professional baseball league, the National League (NL). St. Louis improved on its first and only year in the NA, going 45–19 that year for a third-place finish. George Bradley, who pitched every game and all but four innings for the Brown Stockings that year, hurled the first no-hitter in Major League history against the Dark Blues. He led the NL that year with a 1.23 earned run average (ERA) and 16 shutouts in 573 innings pitched.
Decline and renascent (1877–1881) However, St. Louis was expelled from the NL after the 1877 season due to a game-fixing scandal that involved two players whom they had acquired from the Louisville Grays.Cash 2002: 48 The team went bankrupt. Despite bankruptcy and expulsion, they continued play as a semi-professional barnstorming team for four years behind the efforts of outfielder Ned Cuthbert – one of the NL Brown Stockings' players – to keep them playing games against anyone who would play.Suehsdorf, A. D. (1978). The Great American Baseball Scrapbook, p. 8. Random House.
From the moment of the Brown Stockings' resignation from the NL, St. Louis Republic sportswriter Al Spink, who before had reported on underhanded agreements to fix games prior to the expulsion, lobbied to get professional baseball back in St. Louis. The team's play did not disappoint, helping to draw local fans from their antipathy toward the sport and back into Grand Avenue Grounds. As excitement grew, Cuthbert cultivated the interest of the otherwise baseball-ignorant German immigrant Chris von der Ahe, a saloon and grocery store owner, in the team, . Before the 1882 season, Von der Ahe purchased the troubled but promising remnant of the Brown Stockings. He made Spink the team's secretary and business manager, and Spink helped generate even greater revenues.Cash 2002: 60 Together with beer magnates in five other cities, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Louisville, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, Von der Ahe established St. Louis in a new all-professional baseball league, the American Association, as a rival to the National League.Cash 2002: 64
American Association era (1882–1891) St. Louis found their first taste of consistent, competitive major league baseball starting in 1882, their first year in the now-defunct American Association (AA), with a fifth-place finish at 37–43. In 1883, the team's name was officially shortened to the Browns (the uniform socks and trim were now red, so "Brown Stockings" made little sense Achorn, Edward, The Summer of Beer and Whiskey. New York: PublicAffairs 2013), and they broke through to the league's elite with Tony Mullane and Jumbo McGinnis tag-teaming as a formidable two-man starting rotation. The Browns improved to 65–33 (.663 winning percentage) and second place. Greater success lay ahead still. Guided mainly by manager Charlie Comiskey, the club went on to establish themselves as the dominant team in the league, winning four pennants in a row in from 1885 to 1888.
Pennant run (1885–1888)