1902 St. Louis Browns

[RUKen]

Prior to the 1902 season, businessman Robert Hedges bought the last-place (1901) Milwaukee Brewers of the American League and moved the franchise to St. Louis. He called the team the Browns, the name that had been abandoned by the St. Louis National League team just a couple of years earlier, and provided uniforms with brown trim for the players. (The St. Louis Nationals had adopted a color described as "a lovely shade of cardinal".) He acquired Jimmy McAleer to manage the club; McAleer had been an outfielder with the National League Browns and in 1901 had managed the American League Cleveland Blues. Only six players from the 1901 Brewers remained on the 1902 Browns--pitcher Bill Reidy, first baseman John Anderson, backup catchers Jiggs Donahue and Billy Maloney (converted to outfielder in 1902), backup outfielder Davy Jones, and utility player Bill Friel. Hedges convinced seven of the 1901 Cardinals to jump to the Browns--pitchers Jack Powell, Jack Harper, and Willie Sudhoff, infielders Dick Padden and Bobby Wallace, and outfielders Emmet Heidrick and Jesse Burkett. This decimated a Cardinal team that had competed for the NL pennant and made the Browns instant contenders. The Cardinals went to court to try to keep Harper, Heidrick, and Wallace, but the judge ruled in the Browns' favor (and against the reserve clause). As a result, Bobby Wallace became the highest-paid player in baseball at $6500 per season for the next five years.

The team contended for first place for most of the season, and were briefly in first after winning on August 13th, but the Philadelphia Athletics overtook them for the pennant and the Browns finished in second place, five games behind. They dropped to sixth in 1903 and did not finish second again until 1922, and won their only American League pennant (while in St. Louis) in 1944.

Most of the on-field photographs of the players in this thread are from 1903 or later; very few on-field photos from before then still exist.

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1902 St. Louis Browns; 78-58, .574, 2nd place, 5 games behind the Philadelphia Athletics

Carl Horner composite team photo

1902 Carl Horner composite.jpg

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Sportsman's Park, home field of the 1902 St. Louis Browns

ZZ Sportsman's Park.jpg

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Manager Jimmy McAleer (had 2 hits in 3 at-bats as an outfielder in 1902)

Manager McAleer 2.jpgmanager McAleer 3.jpg

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Pitchers Jack Powell (22-17)-----Red Donahue (22-11)-------------Jack Harper (15-11)---

Pitcher Jack Powell 2.jpgPitcher Donahue.jpgPitcher Jack Harper 2.jpg

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Pitchers Willie Sudhoff (12-12)-----------Bill Reidy (3-5)--------------Charlie Shields (3-0)--Harry Kane (0-1)--

Pitcher Willie Sudhoff.jpgPitcher Bill Reidy.jpg Pitcher Charlie Shields.jpg Pitcher Harry Kane.jpg

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Catcher Joe Sugden (.250)

C Joe Sugden.jpgC Joe Sugden 2.jpg

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Catcher Mike Kahoe (.244)

C Mike Kahoe.jpgC Mike Kahoe 2.jpg

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Catcher Jiggs Donahue (.236)

C Jiggs Donahue.jpgdonahue.jpg

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First Baseman John Anderson (.284)

Anderson led the team with 85 RBI

1B John Anderson.jpg1B John Anderson 2.jpg

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Second Baseman Dick Padden (.264)

2B Dick Padden.jpg2B Dick Padden 2.jpg

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Shortstop Bobby Wallace (.285)

SS Bobby Wallace.jpgSS Bobby Wallace 2.jpg

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Third Baseman Barry McCormick (.246)

3B Barry McCormick.jpg3B Barry McCormick 2.jpg

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Outfielder Jesse Burkett (.306)

Burkett led the team with 97 runs scored.

OF Jesse Burkett.jpgOF Jesse Burkett 2.jpg

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Outfielders Emmet Heidrick (.289)---Charlie Hemphill (.317)---

OF Emmet Heidrick.jpg OF Charlie Hemphill.jpg

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Reserve outfielders Billy Maloney (.205)---------------------Davy Jones (.224)-----------

OF Billy Maloney.jpgOF Davy Jones.jpg

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Utility player Bill Friel (.240)

In 1902, Friel played outfield, all 4 infield positions, and one game each at catcher and pitcher.

UT Bill Friel.jpgUT Bill Friel 2.jpg

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Owner Robert Hedges

YY Owner Robert Hedges.jpg

[Brownieand45sfan]

we are seriously indebted to you. These pictures are outstanding. I don't believe I've ever seen a picture of Robert hedges before.

I would be curious as to what evidence of a "backlash" there was. (Although I think the backlash would be quite natural.) It appears that the Browns bested the Cardinals in attendance quite significantly in 1902. Plus, the Browns did substantially better than the Brewers franchise had done with respect to the turnstiles, while diminishing the Cardinals gate from 1901 severely.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/te...L/attend.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/te...L/attend.shtml


On the lighter side,… They sure had some elaborate warm-up jackets in those days, didn't they?

[Brownieand45sfan]

The 1902 season is one of what I would call three or four "should've would've couldves" of the Browns existence. If they had hung on from August 13, and won the pennant, they would've permanently shaken off the loser tag from the very first year of their existence. And they would've been in a position to take advantage of the Cardinals' pennant dearth for the next quarter century. Superior attendance, superior spending, etc. would've ensued. Quite likely, St. Louisans would be watching an American League team today rather than a National League one.

[RUKen]

we are seriously indebted to you. These pictures are outstanding. I don't believe I've ever seen a picture of Robert hedges before.

I would be curious as to what evidence of a "backlash" there was. (Although I think the backlash would be quite natural.) It appears that the Browns bested the Cardinals in attendance quite significantly in 1902. Plus, the Browns did substantially better than the Brewers franchise had done with respect to the turnstiles, while diminishing the Cardinals gate from 1901 severely.

On the lighter side,… They sure had some elaborate warm-up jackets in those days, didn't they?

Thanks for your comments, Brownieand45sfan. Regarding the fan support, I was paraphrasing the following paragraph from the SABR biography of Hedges (which in turn included quotes from a St. Louis newspaper of the early 1900's):

Hedges' raids on the Cardinals created a backlash of support for the National League team. "The faithful never forgave him [Hedges] for wrecking the best team the town ever had," wrote The Times (St. Louis) at the start of the 1908 season. In retrospect, said Hedges, he should have followed the strategy of the New York Americans. Rather than raiding the Giants, they signed stars from another city altogether, Pittsburgh (The Times, St. Louis, April 23, 1908).

The SABR biography also includes the following statement, however: They were in first place for most of the season, only to be caught in September by the Philadelphia Athletics. I did check this out, and found that, though the Browns contended for most of the season, they were only in first place for a few days total. I should have looked into the attendance records before I posted. I've now deleted that part of the sentence in my first post.

And, yes, I agree; the Browns had fabulous warm-up jackets. I wonder what one of them would cost now?

[Brownieand45sfan]

While I was driving back to St. Louis this week from a family vacation in western Virginia, and remarking about how far and grueling a trip that is, EVEN NOW, with 70 mile an hour speed limits and air-conditioning, I thought about the ballplayers in the early days of baseball. Granted they traveled by train, which has certain comforts, but still, I wonder if the reason St. Louis baseball teams performed so badly from roughly 1889* until 1926, was that they were so worn out from the travel? It would be a lot easier for example, to be a Giant, and have to travel to Brooklyn for games, or short hop to Boston or Philly. Even Chicago was a lot closer to the East Coast by rail.

I wonder if anybody has studied this? It would be a very complicated study, because you would have to take into account not just mileage, but average speeds, scheduling and other convenience factors.

* I would note also that the American Association's teams' median longitude was farther west than either the National League or American League pre-1953.

[EdTarbusz]

I've been reading about the 1942 Browns, who were a pretty good team, and I've seen several references to the 1902 team because the writers thought the Browns were good every 20 years (1902 1922 1942).

[RUKen]

While I was driving back to St. Louis this week from a family vacation in western Virginia, and remarking about how far and grueling a trip that is, EVEN NOW, with 70 mile an hour speed limits and air-conditioning, I thought about the ballplayers in the early days of baseball. Granted they traveled by train, which has certain comforts, but still, I wonder if the reason St. Louis baseball teams performed so badly from roughly 1889* until 1926, was that they were so worn out from the travel? It would be a lot easier for example, to be a Giant, and have to travel to Brooklyn for games, or short hop to Boston or Philly. Even Chicago was a lot closer to the East Coast by rail.

I wonder if anybody has studied this? It would be a very complicated study, because you would have to take into account not just mileage, but average speeds, scheduling and other convenience factors.

* I would note also that the American Association's teams' median longitude was farther west than either the National League or American League pre-1953.

I don't know if this has been studied and published, but I wouldn't expect a statistically significant correlation, unless you could account for the players' skills on the respective teams. Brooklyn was conveniently located, but after 1900 and before 1940 the Superbas/Robins/Dodgers were usually a poorly performing team. The same is true of the Beaneaters/Doves/Rustlers/Braves of Boston and also the Phillies. Conversely, the Cubs were one of the NL's two best teams during this period, despite being the second-most remote team in the league.

The AL had more of an East Coast bias regarding successful teams, but the Tigers had their share of success and so did the White Sox, until eight of their players were banned after 1920.

On the other hand, the 1911 Cardinals certainly weren't helped by being in a train wreck, but that happened between New York and Boston.

[westsidegrounds]

That Hedges photo was on ebay just recently. I had it on my Watch List, but he just looks so depressed - for a guy known to the fans as "good ol' Uncle Bob" - that I didn't make an offer.

Great series of pix, RUken!