St. Louis Brown Stockings

After the conclusion of the 1877 season, a game-fixing scandal involving two players the Brown Stockings had acquired led the team to resign its membership in the NL.

In 1881, when German immigrant Chris von der Ahe—owner of a grocery store and saloon who was initially ignorant about baseball—saw the popularity of the club, he bought them out and soon became interested in having the team compete in a professional league.

Together with beer magnates in five other cities, the American Association was formed in late 1881, and professional baseball flourished in St. Louis—this time, with the resurrected Brown Stockings the next year.

Outfielder Lip Pike, the previous three-time home run champion in the NA (1871, 1872, 1873), was again a top hitter, leading the league with a league-adjusted OPS of 203.

1869), the self-proclaimed "original" professional baseball team, who garnered much public interest due to an undefeated streak during a barnstorming tour in 1869 and 1870.

George Bradley pitched the first no-hitter in Major League history on July 15, 1876, when the Brown Stockings defeated the Hartford Dark Blues, 2–0.

[13] For months, it was Cuthbert talking about baseball with Von der Ahe, who understood very little about the actual game, that he began to realize its significance because of its profitability.

[14] Spink, who himself had not stopped lobbying for more interest in baseball during the sport's relative dormancy in St. Louis, became the secretary and business manager.

NL-imposed restrictions upon Sunday play and alcohol consumption at their parks was prohibitive to the very means these owners made their fortune.

Ultimately, owners of the expansion teams announced the establishment of a new all-professional league called the American Association from the Hotel Gibson in Cincinnati on November 2, 1881.

[16] With that act, the St. Louis newspapers lauded Von der Ahe for resurrecting a "corpse" and transforming it "into the liveliest being imaginable.