History of the St. Louis Cardinals (1875–1919)
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.
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.
[4] 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.
George Bradley, who pitched every game and all but four innings for the Brown Stockings that year,[14] hurled the first no-hitter in Major League history against the Dark Blues.
As excitement grew, Cuthbert cultivated the interest of the otherwise baseball-ignorant German immigrant Chris von der Ahe in the team, a saloon and grocery store owner.
In the formative years of the major leagues, where record statistical achievement transpired that is perceived as rare in today's game, a group of talented stars including Caruthers and O'Neill led St. Louis' way.
[24] Dave Foutz emerged as another two-way threat, winning the American Association ERA title at 2.11 and 41 games won in 504 innings pitched, and batted .280 with 18 doubles, 9 triples, three home runs, 59 RBIs, and 17 stolen bases.
[31][33] Racial segregation started to become a custom in baseball about the time that eight Browns members withdrew from playing an exhibition game in September 1887 against the New York Cubans, a prominent 'colored' team.
[34][full citation needed] The Browns were in Philadelphia with plans to travel to New York City to play the Cuban Giants in a lucrative exhibition game.
However, the night before departure to New York, eight Browns players signed and delivered a letter to Von der Ahe stating their disagreement to "play against negroes to-morrow", because they thought they were "only doing what is right.
Ironically, it would be by an act 60 years later by then-former Cardinals executive in Branch Rickey that broke the color barrier in MLB when he debuted Jackie Robinson in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
On the last day of the 1891 season, pitcher Ted Breitenstein, making his first Major League start (though not his début), threw a no-hitter against the Louisville Colonels, an 8–0 defeat.
Despite the new park and league, the struggles the club encountered to rediscover the form of success that hallmarked their dominance in the American Association endured.
[21] After nearly a decade of lackluster performance on the field and declining profits off it, a calamitous fire at New Sportsman's Park in 1898 destroyed the stadium and forced the team into bankruptcy.
[38] In the spring of 1899, the NL board of directors met and expelled the old Sportsman's club and St. Louis Base Ball Association for failure to pay league dues and player transaction fees.
A new franchise, the American Base ball and Athletic Exhibition Company of St. Louis, was admitted to the league as a full member in good standing after paying those outstanding debts.
[39][40][37] Hoping to reverse St. Louis' fortunes coming off a 39–111 season, Robison adopted new uniforms with a cardinal red trim and sock striping prior to 1899.
Agitated by dismal fan attendance in Cleveland, Robison in turn infused the Perfectos roster with much of the Spiders' marquée talent just weeks before the season opener.
[21] In 1902, an American League team moved from Milwaukee into St. Louis and claimed the old moniker of Browns, striking an instant rivalry that lasted five decades.
Also from Cleveland, she owned the Cardinals until selling off all her holdings in 1917 to a group of investors, including her attorney James C. Jones and a local automobile dealer named Sam Breadon.
[21] Hornsby, entering his prime, led the NL in slugging percentage (.484) and OPS (.869) and rated his best defensive season at 3.5 wins above average.
[21] Breadon, a St. Louis Pierce-Arrow auto dealer who still owned a minority share, decided that he enjoyed his interaction with sports stars after meeting Hornsby at a baseball dinner in 1917.
[62] In part inquesting his own financial relief, Rickey took a commission in the Army from August to November 1918 in World War I in France serving in the Chemical Warfare Service.
[61] Doak became credited for the modern design of the baseball glove after suggesting to Rawlings in 1919 that a web be laced between the thumb and forefinger to create a pocket that extended the surface by which the fielder could catch the ball.
[65] Also that year, the league moved to ban pitching with the spitball due in part to it giving the pitcher an unfair advantage over the hitter.
[66] Due to possessing an apparent genius for player development, Jones initially attempted to persuade Rickey to surrender his in-game managerial duties to concentrate fully on the front office.
Unlike many owners who seemed content to dabble in front office affairs, Breadon was comfortable deferring the player management and development decisions to Rickey.
In the years ensuing, Rickey stumbled upon a relatively untapped player development model that he established ahead of its time and helped actuate the Cardinals' second golden era later in the 1920s.
