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Cardinals

The team was formed as part of the American Association in 1882 where they enjoyed a four-year dynasty under flamboyant owner Chris von der Ahe. Initially they were known as the "Brown Stockings", named for a previous professional team in the city, whose name was one of several "Stockings" teams inspired by the success of the Cincinnati Red Stockings. This new team's nickname was quickly shortened to "Browns". The Browns squared off against the National League's Chicago White Stockings twice in the early version of the World Series. The Series of 1885 ended in dispute and with no resolution. St. Louis won the 1886 Series outright, the only Series of that era that was won by the AA against the NL. The vigorous St. Louis-Chicago rivalry continues to this day.

During the mid-1880s, the National League also had a St. Louis entry, the Maroons, which had come in from the Union Association. The Maroons had the misfortune of arriving at the time when the Browns were in their glory, and they soon folded.

The Browns joined the National League in 1892 following the bankruptcy of the American Association. They were briefly called the Perfectos in 1899 before settling on their present name, a name reportedly inspired by switching their uniform colors from brown to red. Also in 1899, the Cardinals' owner transferred much of the talent from the other team he owned, the Cleveland Spiders, to the St. Louis franchise. This led to the demise of the Spiders but allowed Hall of Famer Cy Young to briefly don a Cardinals' uniform.

The Cardinals generally languished for some forty years after their mid-1880s triumphs, while their crosstown rivals, the American League's version of the Browns, were competitive, though not victorious. The Cardinals became the Browns' tenants in 1920. By the mid-1920s, the Cardinals began to turn their fortunes around, and soon they would become the city's favorite team once again.

Browns

The modern Orioles can trace their franchise link back to the Milwaukee Brewers of the Western League, who in 1902 became the St. Louis Browns of the fledgling American League. Half a century of sub-par baseball and the existence of two major league teams in St. Louis - the AL Browns and the NL Cardinals - eventually forced Browns majority owner Bill Veeck to consider moving his franchise. Just before World War II, the Browns came close to moving to Los Angeles, nearly two decades before big league baseball eventually arrived in California.

During the war, the Browns won their only St. Louis based American League pennant in 1944, but they faced their local rivals, the more successful Cardinals, and lost the 1944 World Series, 4-2. They were one of only three teams at the time (the others being the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies) to have never won a World Series.

The St. Louis Browns clinched the American League pennant on the final day of the season (over the Detroit Tigers) and it would be the first time that all the games of the Series would be played in the same park since 1922 when the Yankee and Giants played at the Polo Grounds (Yankee Stadium wasn't finished until 1923).

In spite of having a much stronger tradition of success, the Browns were favored by the St. Louis fans because of their status as 'underdogs'. "The funny thing about that World Series," said Stan Musial, "the fans were rooting for the Browns, and it kind of surprised me because we drew more fans than the Browns during the season. The fans were rooting for the underdog, and I was surprised about that, but after you analyze the situation in St. Louis, the Browns in the old days had good clubs. They had great players like George Sisler and Kenny Williams, and the fans who were there were older fans, older men, old-time Brownie fans. But it was a tough series."

The Series turned out to be a pitcher’s delight, as the Cardinals batted just .240, while the Browns hit an anemic .183. If the Browns’ fielding had kept pace with their hitting, the outcome might have been different. The Browns made 10 errors to the Cardinals’ one. The Series also saw a new record for strikeouts by two teams in a six-game Series. The Browns fanned 49 times and the Cardinals had 43 go down on strikes. For the Browns, Gene Moore, Mark Christman, and Chet Laabs each fanned six times in the six games. Hopp led the Redbirds with eight Ks.

Following the 1953 season, Veeck sold his controlling interest to Clarence Miles, and the American League owners approved the relocation of the team to Baltimore. The team immediately took on the nickname "Orioles", a name with a long and storied history in the city.

Ballparks

Robison Field is the best-known of several names given to a former major league baseball park in St. Louis, Missouri. It was the home of the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League from 1893 until mid-season 1920. The ballpark was originally called New Sportsman's Park. It was located at the corner of Natural Bridge Avenue and Vandeventer Avenue, just a few blocks to the northwest of the "Old" Sportsman's Park at Grand and Dodier, which would ultimately outlive the "New" version by several decades.

The stadium sat 14,500 in 1898, 15,200 in 1899 and 21,000 in 1909. An amusement park once stood at the edge of left field, as had been the case at the "Old" park. In mid-season 1920 the Cardinals abandoned this ballpark and moved back to Sportsman's Park, which by then was owned by the American League version of the Browns.

The ballpark became simply League Park under new club owners Frank and Emmet Stanley Robison in 1899, a name it bore through 1910. During its last 2 or 3 seasons, after the Robison family was no longer associated with the team, the park was often called simply Cardinal Field. Beaumont High School was built on the site, opening in 1926, which coincidentally was the year of the Cardinals first modern league and World Series championship.

Sportsman's Park was the name of a former Major League Baseball park in St. Louis, Missouri. For 33 years, 1920-1953, it was the home field of both the St. Louis Browns of the American League and the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League. St. Louis is by far the smallest market ever to support two major-league teams in the same sport for a protracted period. The park was originally named the Grand Avenue Ball Grounds and was built in 1871 by August Solari, and in its early years, in 1876 it was re-named, Sportsman's Park. The park was owned by the then-major American Association entry.

Sportsman's Park was initially owned by the newly-formed Browns of the American League, who began play in St. Louis in 1902 after moving from Milwaukee. Within the decade they had rebuilt the old facility in steel and concrete. The Cardinals came on board as tenant in mid-1920 after abandoning the outdated, mostly-wooden Robison Field.

Although the Browns had been the stronger team in the city for the first quarter of the century, they had never been quite good enough to win a pennant. After the previously weak Cardinals moved in, the two teams' situations started to reverse, both on and off the field. Eventually, so did the ownership of the ballpark. The 1944 World Series between the Cardinals and the Browns, won by the Cardinals 4 games to 2, was perhaps a good metaphor for the two clubs' respective situations.

The 1964 Series was particularly memorable, and was also the park's last Series. The Series featured brother against brother, Ken Boyer of the Cardinals versus Clete Boyer of the Yankees. The Cardinals' triumph in seven games led to Yankees management replacing Yogi Berra with the Cardinals' ex-manager Johnny Keane (he had resigned after winning the Series), an arrangement which lasted only to early 1966. The Sportsman's Park site was remade into the Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club, with the stands removed and the diamond still intact at that time.

I thought He was supposed to stay nuetral?

When it opened it was known as Civic Center Busch Memorial Stadium. The stadium's name comes from the Busch family of Anheuser-Busch, who owned the baseball team until March 1996 and championed the stadium's construction. The stadium was designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone. Its arched design echoes the nearby Gateway Arch, which was completed the year before Busch Stadium opened. The grounds are home to bronze statues of Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter, Red Schoendienst, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson and most recently, Jack Buck. The stadium's playing surface, originally natural grass, was re-covered in Astroturf in 1970; grass returned in 1996.

Busch Stadium hosted World Series games in six different seasons: 1967, 1968, 1982, 1985, 1987, and 2004. The dimensions in center and the power alleys have been altered from time to time over the years. Initially the park was very conducive to the Bob Gibson and Lou Brock style of play, lots of room for pitchers to make mistakes, and for extra-base hits and not so many home runs. Later changes attempted to make the outfield better balanced between pitching and power hitting. By the early 1990s, the stadium appeared to be falling into disrepair. However, remodeling in 1995 improved the park's sense of intimacy.

The new brick-and-steel "retro" stadium will open next year and become the third graced with the name of Busch. The late Gussie Busch renamed old Sportsman's Park, at Grand Boulevard and Dodier Avenue on the North Side, shortly after he bought the Cardinals in 1953 (he got the old park for an extra $1.1 million). The second Busch, built for $26 million opened on May 12, 1966, when the Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves 4-3 in 12 innings. The estimated sticker on the latest is $398 million. Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. paid an undisclosed sum to preserve the name (more than $1.1 million, presumably).

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