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.
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*
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.
"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 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.)
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.
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.
@@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.
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!” 🤣🤣
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
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.
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.
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
"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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
*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.*
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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 :)
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.
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
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.
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.
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)
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!
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.
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.
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.
In the early 1900's, multiple cities besides St Louis supported two teams. It was actually quite common as the two leagues were separate entities and were not terribly cooperative, except for the WS and All-Star game. Boston (Red Stockings and Braves); Philadelphia (Athletics and Phillies), Chicago (White Sox and Cubs) and New York (Highlanders/Yankees, Giants and sort-of-Dodgers).
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.
And they said "F*ck it" to the Browns name.
Yes, but the difference is that the old Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore and have been one of the better teams in the NFL since moving there.
Now THAT’S funny! I never thought of that. Great documentary, huh?
@@KTF0 Exactly what I was going to say. The Orioles certainly had their time. Earl Weaver is probably my favorite manager of all time.
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*
Sweet memory. He haunts the game along with the other ghosts.
Woah
That’s awesome
That one World Series home run for the Browns is still one more than the Mariners.
"The Seattle Mariners are not competitors. They are protagonists." Jon Bois
@@wvu05 they’re everyone’s 2nd fav team but they’re my current fav and as a baseball .. ahem .. they’re gonna go on a great run lets put it that way
😊😅😂😁😆
One day soon…. GOM’s!!
That sounds more like a joke than baseball history
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.
Excellent story -- thanks for sharing!
@villageelliott: What rotten luck to have missed that 1944 World Series . . .
Awesome!!
What great memories!
Great story. And you describe the true horrors of war so well. MISSING THE STREETCAR SERIES!!!!!!! No further comment needed.
"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
He should've been mentioned, or did I just blink and miss that?
I waited and waited for the 'Pete Gray' part of this documentary. What happened ?
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 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.)
Your Dad and mine both served in the Korean War. God Bless and rest them both.
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.
Yes. Last year (2020) was the 1st time since 1944 that every World Series game was played in the same venue. Interestingly both Series ran six games.
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.
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.
I couldn’t agree more.
I couldn't disagree more ! Where was Pete Gray ?! An outrage !
Shout out to Bob Cain for being the only MLB player to attend Eddie Gaedel’s funeral. “I never even met him, but felt obligated to go.”
That kooky Bill Veeck.
That was a fine thing for Mr. Cain to do.
Great documentary! And kudos to the narration by Jon Hamm.
A cardinal fan
I live in Baltimore and everyone here should remember the Browns. It is part of franchise history!
Didn't your city once had another Orioles team before the Browns?
@@catholiccrusader5328 I'm not from Baltimore but I know that they did. That team eventually turned into the New York Yankees.
O's played Cardinals last time in Busch II. O's had throwback browns jersey's on and won the game i was at.
@@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.
@@Jacobthekid28 You Just had to remind us. My most favorite hated team the Yanks. From an O's fan. Yep and the Bambino was from Baltimore. We know.
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!” 🤣🤣
That's rude.
37:55 Bill Veeck, worth his weight in adjectives.
That's a boisterous, unconventional, brilliant and uncompromising sentence. I love it.
Boy, was this piece great!! A wonderful retrospective of the Brownies. And to have Don Draper narrate. What's not to like? Thanks so much for posting!
The Yankees need a new logo
What a great story. You gotta love baseball...and you gotta remember the history.
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
Narrated by St Louis native Jon Hamm (Don Draper of Mad Men)
@@dgm2485 whoa! Yeah there’s a baritone quality it sounds like him.
Thank you!!! I was getting ready to Google this info when I saw your comment
I have 6 seasons of Mad Men; and I have to say it does not sound like him.
They should have included Ichiro, visited Sisler's grave when he was in St. Louis for the 2009 All Star Game!
Now that is a great story! Game respecting game! Generational divides are so overrated.
Don’t you name a team the Browns..Baltimore will take them.
Amazing, after all these years I never thought of that!
You need to let it go brother :-)
@MANCHESTER UNITED Good for it. I prefer to keep the best game to myself and my fellow fans.
@MANCHESTER UNITED Baseball >>> Mancs
The Browns were the Milwaukee Brewers. So you dont name them the Browns.
This is a great story. Very enjoyable for fans of baseball history.
Excellent. Well done from start to finish. Head & shoulders above most documentaries.
Some of these stories are priceless.
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.
Great Story. Always wanted to know about St Louis Browns
Sharing a stadium is a bad fate , especially when the other team is often winning
Pete Gray is mentioned in the part 2
documentary. A Baseball Legacy....
I love baseball
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..
S.DIEGO CHARGERS back to L.A IN 2016 ADDED TO THAT.
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.
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
"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.
As a UK baseball nut I really enjoyed this excellent documentary about the sport’s (almost) forgotten team.
Isn’t it pretty rare for a person from the UK 🇬🇧 to be a baseball fan?
Daryl Dixon - there are a more of us than you might think! Games are on very late over here though..
Some of these guys were marketing geniuses; they put today's so called creatives to shame. What a great story...
19:10 second from right is Dizzy Dean,last thirty game winner in the National League (1934)
Bravo! What an excellent documentary!
Because of this fine documentary, I am now a ST. LOUIS BROWNS fan!
Very well done. One piece of Browns history I have read was that they were planning to move to LA in the 1940-41 but that WWII disrupted those plans.
Very interesting! Thanks for all the work putting this together.
I wish I was alive when the game was still a game of and for the people.
Before the strike?
@@johnjacobs1625 Which strike?
@@dalethelander3781 94-95
@@johnjacobs1625 K. I didn't think it was '72, but had to make sure.
@@dalethelander3781 I was on The Field @ the VET ON Pete Rose Day ion July 6 1986 with my Orioles Stuff on!! :) JJ Pete went down hill from there!
Good story glad someone thought to remember them poor Brownies
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.
A big overlook by ignoring the almost-move to LA in December 1941.
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?
Very good documentary many forget about the St louis Browns
I really enjoyed this! Thank you!
Pete Grey wasn't mentioned. There's a good book about baseball in the war years, "Even the Browns" by William B. Mead.
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.
Became a storied franchise my hometown Baltimore Orioles
Thank you for sharing this.
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.
Bradley Ferrell ken Williams too I guess
Fantastic documentary! Learned a lot.
Great documentary. Really enjoyed it.
I love the Browns, and I wish the Orioles would at least acknowledge their existence.
@MetalCrow448 you are a mean person. You probably have a tiny wiener.
There was at least one throwback game in which the O's wore Browns unis. Probably interleague vs Cards.
*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.*
I am 65 and have known about the St. L. Browns. Being a Dodgers fan since 1963, George Sisler is on the top of my list of top MLB players.
Born in Providence, I love non sequiturs.
Great production. Well done! A++
As much as I loved baseball in the 50's, I must admit I had forgotten the Browns. So Thank You for this wonderful video.
Fantastic video!
Thanks so much for posting this!
Geez, I'm old. I remember the move. I was eleven. Lovely documentary.
Grew up in StL - love the shots of the old city!
my fathers favorite team.
It's a shame they didn't save Sportsmans Park. My dad always said it was the best place ever in St Louis to see a game.
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.
Great piece!
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.
Hey Jason , that 50 Bowman Jackie is a looker for sure. Congratulations !
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?
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.
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.
Veeck was certainly one of a kind. Owned 3 MLB teams--Indians, Browns and White Sox
Wonderful! Thank you!
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 :)
I've only heard the name Sr. Louis Browns, didn't know anything about them. This was wonderful, what a great story.
In a cardnal fan but from st louis love the history
I knew the Browns existed, but not much else. This was fascinating.
Thanks 4 posting this
They didn’t mention the guy with one arm who played for browns during ww2 , there is a movie about him abc did called a winner never quits
Pete Gray's deletion from this doc. must have a reason.........
Loved this story, but how did they tell it without mentioning Pete Gray??
I agree; outrageous !!
THANK YOU! I JUST POSTED A COMMENT REFERRING TO THAT...
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.
Long live the 1922 St Louis Browns!! The GREATEST Browns team EVER!!
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
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.
I can't understand how a small city like St' Louis had 2 MLB at all. NY Chicago Boston..even Philly I can understand but not St. Louis..
@@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.
I love all of this!
Very well done and informative
Great documentary
Very nice video. Thank you.
I love this doc but, as some other posters have pointed out, why was Pete Gray left out?
I am still in disbelief !
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.
Fantastic.
Great film history. Enjoy it.
thanks for that video.I liked it.from venezuela
Wonderful video
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)
How does that Monty Python song go?
"Always look on the Brown side of life"
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!
Pete's deletion must have a background story here. I still can't believe it !
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.
A lot of the players had a hardship during WW2. Yeah it was playing 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.
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.
Great video.
Thank you. Made my day.
In the early 1900's, multiple cities besides St Louis supported two teams.
It was actually quite common as the two leagues were separate entities and were not terribly cooperative, except for the WS and All-Star game.
Boston (Red Stockings and Braves); Philadelphia (Athletics and Phillies), Chicago (White Sox and Cubs) and New York (Highlanders/Yankees, Giants and sort-of-Dodgers).